Pete drove through the night. They passed truck stops and towns. Pete kept an eye out for State Troopers and local police patrols. He guessed that at some point during the night the authorities would receive calls from his neighbours about the disturbance at his house. Tying the incident in with the death of Julie Zabel may have taken a bit longer but he had no doubt that by the time the sun rose that details of his car would have been circulated. Night gave them some sort of cover. Daylight would expose them. Pete already knew what he was going to do. Explaining it all to Jane might take some time but he knew she would understand. Pete pulled in at a rest stop just after seven a.m. He sat and stared almost blank-eyed at the diner. He needed coffee and breakfast, but first he needed to make a call.
‘Where are we?’ Jane’s tired voice came from the back seat.
Pete twisted to look at them. Jane cradled Emily across her lap. The girl still slept. Pete wondered if that was more to do with the stress of the night before and her body going into some kind of shock induced shut-down. ‘If you don’t mind, I’m not going to tell you.’
Jane seemed to sit up straighter. ‘What?’
‘Well, it’s like this. There is some kind of beast, call it a malevolent presence, that is trying to find Emily and harm her. It has been able to find her and last night it almost killed her. So on the drive up I’ve been trying to figure how it can find her and I think it may be to do with her psychic abilities. Let’s say she knows her own location. Yesterday it was Westchester. Subconsciously her psychic ability sends out messages ‘here I am, in Westchester’ and the entity tracking her just zeroes in. If you, and Emily, don’t know where you are then the thing can’t find you.’
‘You think so?’
Pete smiled. ‘No. But it’s the only way I can think of to keep you safe.’
Jane reached forward and stroked his cheek. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.
‘What for?’
‘For bringing all this on you.’
‘Jane, if you’d told me about Emily then I may have been able to help.’
‘I know.’ Her face fell.
Now Pete felt bad. He stretched as best he could and kissed her forehead. ‘I need to make a call. Then we’ll go inside and get some food inside us.’
Jane smiled as Pete slipped out of the car. She watched as he put his hands in the small of his back and arched to ease his stiff muscles. He might be a lot older than her but Pete had a way about him that left men her own age wanting. She glanced down at Emily and hoped that the next few days would be more settled. If Pete had guessed right, then she and Emily and Pete might be able to live like a proper family. She could see Pete in the diner as he asked a waitress a question before walking over to a payphone.
Movement caught her eye and she looked left as a car pulled in alongside them. Jane felt her face freeze. A State Trooper got out of his Ford Crown Victoria. He looked Pete’s car over before he noticed Jane and Emily in the back seat. He smiled at her, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes as he turned towards the diner.
Pete saw the State Patrol car pull up next to his as he finished his call. He stayed in place, receiver to his ear, as the trooper got out. Options clicked through Pete’s head like sand running through fingers. So fast that he had no grasp on them. He felt a hollow space open up in his chest. It seemed like an age as the trooper looked his car over. He waited as his heart raced and watched the trooper walk towards the diner. Pete turned back to the telephone. He had the receiver up again and to his ear as the trooper came in. Pete heard one of the waitresses greet the state cop by name as he held a one-sided conversation with nobody. Pete hung up and tried to be casual as he headed for the door. He got close enough to feel the draught of cold air blowing in before the trooper stepped into his path. Pete tried to smile. ‘Help you?’ he asked.
‘That your Chrysler out there?’
Pete glanced through the window. He could see Jane and Emily getting out. ‘Uh, sure, yeah,’ he said.
‘Are you getting the fuel consumption advertised?’ the trooper asked.
‘I...’ Pete frowned, of all the questions he’d been expecting that wasn’t one of them.
The trooper turned to look outside. ‘I’ve been hunting for a nice sedan with good fuel economy. That model came up on a government website.’
‘Well it’s pretty good on the open road,’ Pete said. ‘Urban traffic it goes down some.’
‘Not much call for that around here.’ The trooper smiled.
‘Guess not,’ Pete said. Jane and Emily had come up to the diner and were at the door. Pete and the trooper stepped back to let them in.
‘Emily needs the restroom,’ Jane said.
Pete nodded. They went past him and he said to the trooper, ‘What are you driving at the moment?’
‘An ex-patrol car, another Ford like the one I’m in today. Got it cheap but it’s showing its age now.’
‘Bit like me,’ Pete said.
The state cop laughed. ‘Gets us all in the end,’ he said. ‘Have a safe journey.’
‘Thanks.’ Pete stepped outside, taking a deep breath of fresh air. He found a railing to lean on as he waited for Jane and Emily to return.
When they did, Jane said, ‘What did the trooper want?’
‘He wanted to know the fuel economy on my Chrysler.’
‘He didn’t ask about us?’
‘No.’ Pete gave her arm an encouraging squeeze. ‘Want some breakfast?’
‘Is it safe?’ Jane asked.
Pete looked into the diner. The trooper sat in a booth as one of the waitresses served him coffee. ‘It’s fine,’ he said. ‘If there was an alert out about us he’d have been all business.’
***
Emily thought that pancakes with maple syrup and ice-cream seemed to be just about the perfect breakfast. The warmth of the pancakes mixed with the delicious flavour of the syrup before the ice-cream kicked in with its chill touch on her palate. She had made it halfway through her second helping when she saw Pete holding her Mom’s hand across the table. That almost brought tears to her eyes. She’d never had a man she could call Daddy. That didn’t mean she didn’t love her Mom or appreciate the way Jane cared for her. It was just that having a dad to come and watch her in the school play or take her to soccer practise was an ideal she sometimes prayed for.
Looking at those hands made her hope that this time her Mom and Pete might stay together longer than a few days. Maybe forever. She had loved the times that Pete came to stay, or her Mom and Emily travelled to Chicago. They’d felt like a real family then. Doing things that parents and children did together. But those days always came to an end, and a few months ago Jane announced that they couldn’t see Pete anymore. Emily cried herself to sleep that night, and she knew that Jane did the same. The days that followed had been pretty miserable. Jane had even started smoking again until Emily forced her to stop by ripping the cigarettes up and washing them down the waste disposal. That was about the time they travelled to Kenyon and joined the strange band of psychics and soldiers working at the secret base.
Emily reached out and put her hand onto Pete and Jane’s. The adults looked at her in surprise. Pete smiled at Emily. He slipped his hand from Jane’s and put it on top of Emily’s so he covered both of their hands with his. Emily returned Pete’s smile. It was easy to do. She’d got plenty of practice recently. It had become second nature to ignore the shadow that followed her everywhere she went. Jane would be too scared by the revelation and Emily still didn’t know for sure how Pete would react.
Emily stole a quick glance over her shoulder. The shadow filled the diner. A huge form that almost reached the ceiling. She could just about see through it. As Emily looked a customer rose from his table and walked right through the form without noticing the trails of darkness that rippled out like the patterns made by oil on water. Emily turned back. The thing had been with her for days now. Sometimes close like now and sometimes further away but always it stalked her like a wolf stalk
s its prey.
Pete released her hand and her Mom put an arm around Emily’s shoulder and gave her a hug. ‘Things are going to be different now,’ her Mom said.
Will they? Emily didn’t want to disagree. She wanted to say something about the shadow and the way it breathed on her neck. Sometimes she thought she could hear words, faint phrases that chilled her skin and came in a language she didn’t know. The shadow worshipped her. Almost as if she had some kind of blessing that it wanted to taste. To eat.
To consume.
She saw Pete check his watch. ‘Time to move on,’ he said.
Emily stood. The shadow drifted closer. She felt its touch. A death-cold stroke of hooked claws that ran down her spine. She hurried ahead of Pete and Jane as they stopped to pay the bill. Emily pushed through the doors to get out of the diner and into the daylight.
A man stood in her way. He wore a crumpled suit. He smelt like an old furniture shop, all damp and decay. Emily let the door go and heard it thunk as it closed. The man smiled. She saw tobacco stained teeth and a face pock-marked by acne scars. His eyes seemed to hypnotise Emily. They drew her in. She could imagine his voice as it whispered to her and encouraged her to come forth. He would promise her ice-cream or cookies. He would say he had some puppies or kittens she could play with because she’d been such a good girl.
A hand came out as fast as a rattlesnake and snatched round her neck. It pulled Emily forward with a whiplash speed. Her feet left the floor as he lifted her into his arms. Emily saw the glint of a knife. As he turned she saw the shadow again, pressed up against the glass of the diner door. It smiled.
A calloused hand covered her mouth to stifle Emily’s scream. Her body bounced up and down in his arms as he ran. She got a view of a dark coloured car, the lid of the trunk rising as her kidnapper reached it. When he pushed her down into the dark interior his hand came from her mouth and she screamed. She lashed at his face with her fingernails. He ducked back, called her a bitch, and then Emily scrambled over the lip of the trunk and fell to the asphalt car park.
The man released her. There were more voices. Male and female. She heard her Mom scream and the man grabbed her again. He caught a handful of hair and pulled her to her feet. Emily saw Pete next to a man who could have been a trucker. Then she saw the state trooper with his gun drawn and pointing towards her.
‘Emily!’
‘Let her go!’
‘Drop the knife!’
The man drew her close. He filled the air with his dead smell. She felt his breath on her cheek. The knife rose and filled her vision.
The sound of thunder filled the air as hot liquid splashed on her face and she fell. The man sprawled next to her, his pale eyes round with shock and pain. Emily clawed at the asphalt to escape and ran into her Mom’s arms as Jane pulled her clear. Pete was there too. He dragged Emily away from the kidnapper as the trooper came between them and kicked the knife away. There were so many people milling around. So many voices. The trucker swore. The waitress wept. Her Mom asked if she was ok. Pete and Jane carried Emily to the diner, through the restaurant to the staff changing rooms. Cooks and cleaners cleared stuff away so Jane could lie Emily down on a bench and check for injuries.
And all the time the shadow was there. No longer smiling. Just waiting.
***
Pete tried to make sense of all the noise around him. The changing room had filled up with waitresses, cooks and customers. They all talked at the same time.
‘I can’t believe he snatched her like that...’
‘He was going to cut her throat...’
‘Damn good thing Barry shot the son-of-a-bitch...’
‘Yeah, and now he’s outside giving him first aid...’
Jane had wipes given to her by one of the staff and cleaned blood from Emily’s face. Emily stared past her mother towards the ceiling. She focussed on something Pete couldn’t see. He found he was holding his breath as he tried to ward off the press of bodies around him. Finally, in his old cop voice, he said, ‘Okay people, we need to give Emily some room. Let’s get everyone out now so she can have some quiet.’
The hubbub died down for a moment, the people around him disappointed they would not get to see more of the drama. They began to retreat from the room but it didn’t take long for Pete to hear their voices rise again as they relived the attack. Pete stepped out of the changing room.
One of the waitresses hovered nearby. ‘If there’s anything you need just ask,’ she said.
Pete nodded. Along the narrow corridor he saw a door that had been wedged open. ‘Is that the back way out?’
‘Yeah. We’re not supposed to have it open but we go out there for a smoke break from time to time.’
‘I might take Emily to get some fresh air.’
‘Sure, I’ll let people know not to disturb you.’
‘Thanks.’
She nodded and hovered a little longer until she realised Pete wanted her to go. Pete waited for the woman to go before he opened the door to the changing room. Jane had Emily sitting up. They had both been crying. Pete knelt before them. ‘Let’s go get some fresh air,’ he said.
Jane didn’t look convinced about his idea but Pete led them outside. They were at the rear of the diner. Two air-con units gave off a dull drone and industrial size trash bins blocked their view. The air wasn’t as fresh as Pete expected so he took Jane and Emily alongside the building, past the frosted windows of the kitchens, to the front corner that overlooked the car park. Pete made sure Emily didn’t look too far around the corner. He could see the trooper and a couple of diner customers still working on the kidnapper. Traffic swept by on the highway, and somewhere out there would be paramedics and back-up units from state and county police. Pete didn’t want those units to arrive too soon. They had got away from Westchester the night before. Once his identity was fed into the computers up here the questions would start up about how a man, a woman and a child could be involved in different killings and kidnappings within the space of twelve hours.
Pete checked his watch and looked out onto the highway again. He turned to look at Emily. She seemed to be standing a little straighter now as she leant against her mother but at least some colour had come back into her cheeks.
‘How did it find us?’ Jane asked. If anything she looked worse than her daughter.
‘You think this is connected to everything that’s happened?’
‘Of course.’ She looked at him in shock. ‘You mean you don’t?’
‘I can’t say I understand any of this.’
‘It’s too much of a coincidence,’ Jane said.
‘Maybe.’ Pete winced at the look she gave him. He held up his hands. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘If it is,’ Jane said. ‘Then nowhere will be safe for us.’
‘There’s always somewhere we can go.’
‘Is there?’ her voice edged towards tears.
‘The call I made was to a friend. He should be on his way to pick us up. I planned on leaving my car here, but now I think it needs to move so the police don’t identify us too quickly.’
‘You mean we leave without telling them?’
‘Yeah.’ Pete saw a battered pick-up bounce off the highway and into the car park. He stepped out from behind the building, gave a half wave and saw the truck swing towards him. The driver, an old man with white, shoulder length hair, looked long and hard at the wounded man on the ground and the crowd around him. He pulled the pick-up to a halt next to Pete and leant out of the open window.
‘Is that you’re doing?’ he gestured across the car park.
‘The trooper did the shooting,’ Pete said.
Pete got a gap-toothed grin. ‘No doubt the fella deserved it?’
Pete leant in close as he dropped his voice he said. ‘He’d snatched Emily and was going to cut her throat.’
‘Holy shit.’ The driver looked at Emily. ‘You okay, honey?’
Emily gave the faintest of nods. The driver returned his attention to
Pete. ‘Edwin and Joshua are about ten minutes back. You need them here?’
‘Yeah,’ Pete said in relief. ‘We need to get up to the cabin. I’ve got bags in the back of my car so they need transferring over and then the car to disappear.’
‘Should be easy,’ the old man said.
‘Problem is the trooper over there knows it’s my car. We need to distract him so we can do the switch.’
‘Hell, that’ll be easy. Barry never was the sharpest tool in the box. Just wait ‘til the boys get here.’
The boys got there a few minutes later. The conversation between them and the old man took thirty seconds before Edwin pulled out his smartphone and made a call. He said something Pete didn’t quite catch, repeated it like it was urgent then sat back and said, ‘Here we go.’
The door to the diner opened and the same waitress Pete had spoken to appeared. ‘Barry? There’s a call for you. Says it’s urgent.’
‘Can’t you see I’m busy,’ Barry shouted.
‘Well I ain’t no answering service so you tell them,’ the waitress snapped back.
Pete saw Barry take a big breath of annoyance and head towards the diner. As soon as he stepped through the door Edwin said, ‘Go.’
Jane and Emily got into the pick-up with the old man. He swung it round and drove over to Pete’s car. As Pete ran he popped the locks with his remote. He had the bags out and flung them into the flat-bed of the pick-up in seconds. He slammed the lid of the trunk, threw the keys to Joshua and jumped in alongside Jane. The truck barely stopped moving. Joshua had the Chrysler out of its parking bay and on the road. Edwin followed as he stammered his way through a hands-free conversation with Barry.
Pete looked back at the diner through the rear window of the cab. Joshua and Edwin had crossed over the highway and headed in the opposite direction. The few onlookers in the car park still concentrated on the wounded man and Barry remained inside the diner.
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