by Ike Hamill
“Gwen!” he yelled, running towards the car.
It was the dog. Barney sat in the passenger’s seat.
“Damn it, Barney,” Wes said. He slammed the car door behind himself and threw it into reverse. He backed up over the lawn to turn around and raced back down the driveway towards the road. Barney struggled to stay upright as Wes whipped the vehicle onto the short stretch of road and then down the Umber’s drive. He came to a halt in front of their garage—their car was gone.
Wes shut off the vehicle. He reached past Barney and opened the dog’s door before he got out of his own.
“Let’s go inside Barney. They can watch you while I look for Gwen,” Wes said.
Barney was already in the driveway and running for the front door as Wes trotted to catch up. The screen door was hanging to the side. Its spring was disconnected. The front door was also open and the dog pushed past it and disappeared inside.
Wes paused at the threshold—“Seth? Marianne?” he called.
No answer. There was a light from the top of the stairs to the right and some light seeping into the lower hallway.
Downstairs, Barney began to bark. Wes pushed through and trotted down the stairs.
“Barney?” he called.
The dog was standing in the hall, barking at Kyle’s empty room. A light was on in there. Barney seemed to be barking at a stack of boxes.
“Hello?” Wes asked.
Between hoarse barks from the dog, Wes heard a raspy gurgling from inside the room. His mind raced to place the sound. He couldn’t put an image to what he heard, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. Wes forced himself to put his head through the doorway.
There was blood everywhere. It had soaked into the front of Seth’s shirt and he’d smeared it on the wall next to himself. A fly landed on the edge of one of the maroon stains and then buzzed and switched to a new spot. Wes saw the source of the gurgling noise—it bubbled through a hole in Seth’s throat.
“Oh god, Seth, what happened?” Wes asked as he moved towards the man.
Seth dropped his hand from his own throat where the dark, clotted blood pulsed and threatened to flow again.
“Jesus, keep pressure on that. I’ll get help.”
Wes ran from the room. Across the hall, in the bathroom, he grabbed a hand towel and washcloth. He dropped those in Seth’s lap and yelled, “Keep pressure,” as he ran up the stairs. His phone was in the car, but they must have hard line here somewhere, he thought. Barney kept barking, adding an extra edge to the panic. He ran up to the kitchen and saw what he needed immediately. The phone hung from a charger on the wall.
He stumbled on the address, but the operator filled in the house number and Wes confirmed.
“Is the front door open?” the emergency operator asked.
“Yes.”
“Are there pets? Do I hear a dog? Can you make sure that any pets are shut behind a closed door?”
“Yes, yes. I can do that.”
“Where’s your neighbor now? Is he right there with you?” the emergency operator asked.
“No, he’s downstairs.”
“I need you to go to him now so we can assess his condition, okay?”
“Okay, yes,” Wes said.
He turned towards the stairs. The phone fell from his hand. When the handset hit the floor, the battery flew out from the compartment—the cover to hold it on was missing—and the phone and battery went different directions. Wes stared at the shape on the floor. Gwen’s body lay there next to an overturned chair.
“Gwen!” Wes called. He ran to her side and put his hands on her shoulders. “Shit, Gwen, what do I do?”
He put his ear down next to her face and felt and heard her breathing. It was slow and deep. His fingers found her pulse—at least a second between beats.
“Emergency is on its way, babe. Just hold on for me, okay?”
He felt around the back of her head and neck, looking for an injury that would mean she shouldn’t be moved. Wes realized he didn’t really know what he was looking for.
“Come on, Gwen, I need you. What did he do to you?”
Her eyelids fluttered and then her eyes opened and squinted against the hanging light.
“Wes?” she asked.
His eyes were shut, squeezing back tears, when she spoke. They flew open and a smile lit his face.
“Gwen!”
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I’m just here looking for you. No, no, lie still. The emergency people will be here soon. You stay still in case you’re injured. Don’s sick. I need to get you to the hospital. Are you okay?”
“Wait, where am I?” she asked. “I thought I was at the hospital.”
He was about to answer when another sound caught his attention. It was a car horn blaring from somewhere through the woods.
“Shit, that might be the emergency people. Maybe they got the wrong house,” Wes said. “Don’t move. I’m going to go flag them down.”
Despite his words, Wes hesitated as he rose. He didn’t want to leave his wife. She looked so small and fragile on the tile floor. His fear increased when he saw a smear of blood on the table. The horn sounded again and Wes pulled away. He ran down the stairs and realized that Barney had stopped barking at some point. He stepped over the threshold, past the broken screen door, and stood on the porch. The horn was still honking, but it sounded even more distant.
“How long ago did I call?” he asked the night. He realized two things—it hadn’t been long enough since his call for the emergency vehicles to arrive, and that honking wasn’t the sound they would make. Surely they would call back or use a siren if they couldn’t find the right address, wouldn’t they? He turned on his heel, wondering if he should check on Gwen or Seth. He didn’t get the chance to decide. In his SUV, his phone began to ring. Wes turned again and ran for his phone.
“Hello? Yes?”
“Dad, did you find her?” Chelsea asked.
“Yes, but there’s a problem.”
“At the Umber’s?”
“Yes, how did you know?” he asked. He held the phone to his ear as he walked back towards the house.
“I tracked your phone too. You’ve been there for several minutes.”
“Oh. There’s something wrong with Seth,” he said. Vague, but true, he decided. No need to worry his daughter. “And your mom is here. I have to wait for the… whoever… nine-one-one to come.” He didn’t want to say ambulance.
“Dad, what’s going on there? Is Mom okay? What’s happening?”
The panic in her voice immediately changed his tone.
“Honey, it’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay. Let me just take care of things here and I’ll be back with Mom as soon as I can. Call me if you get any more news, okay?”
“Okay, Dad. Love you.”
“You too.” He disconnected and realized he was just standing on the landing, undecided if he should go up or down. Seth was bleeding. Wes decided to check on him first.
When he walked through the door to Kyle’s room, his first thought was that it was too late. Seth was hunched over in the recliner with his head pointed towards the floor.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
David
MELANIE LOCKED THE DOORS on her car as she turned in the drive to Roland’s camper. The road into his little clearing was long and overgrown with weeds. In spots, she wondered if her car would clear the hump between the two dirt wheel-paths, but she figured that must just be her nerves talking. After all, she’d just been here a few weeks before.
David leaned forward when they saw the lights through the woods. The trees streaked weird shadows across the road. Melanie pulled to a stop at the corner of the trailer and they all looked.
Someone had mounted incredibly strong lights to a pole and pointed them into the woods. Rather, they pointed into a hole in the woods—a place where trees had been hastily taken down to leave a straight path between the other trees. From where their car was parked, David�
��s family could see several jagged trunks and the wilted leaves of branches that had been cut and left to rot.
“What the hell?” Melanie asked.
“Honk your horn, Mom,” David said. “You said you would.”
“Yeah, fine.”
Melanie pressed the horn and gave it one long blast.
“Do it some more, please?” David asked.
“Please, Mom? In case they didn’t hear,” Susan said.
Melanie checked the locks again and then honked the horn several times in a row. She left a gap, and then started honking again.
When she stopped, David put his window down several inches.
“Mr. Roland?” he called.
The horn still seemed to reverberate in the air around the clearing.
They waited to see if anyone would respond.
“I think I hear something,” David said. “Could you turn off the engine?”
“No!” Melanie exclaimed.
“This place is still creepy,” Susan said.
“Have the police already been here and left? Maybe they haven’t come yet?” Melanie asked as she looked through the car windows at the yard.
“I think they’d still be here,” Susan said. “They’d be looking for someone to talk to, just like we are. Can we wait for the police to show up?”
“We’ll give it five minutes. And nobody gets out of the car,” Melanie said. She began sounding the horn again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Wes
WES STOOD, LOOKING AT the hunched form of his neighbor, and wondered what to do. What was the protocol—did he leave the body untouched so they would know how he died? Was this now a crime scene? Another fly joined the first investigating the blood smear on the wall. Wes watched them for a second while he deliberated.
He decided—the body should look well-attended.
Wes move to Seth and hovered his hand near the lifeless shoulder. Where was Marianne, and how would she go on after losing her son and husband in the same summer? Wes didn’t want to touch the corpse. His fingers felt numb as they landed on Seth’s shirt. He pushed Seth gently back into the recliner.
Seth gasped.
Wes tripped backwards and nearly crashed over a tower of boxes. He was back at Seth’s side in an instant.
“Seth? Oh my god, I thought you were dead.”
Seth pointed at his throat and gagged.
“You can’t breathe? Is it because you’re upright? Let me help you lean over again.”
Seth’s breathing evened out and came more easily once his head was pointed at the floor again. Wes wondered why he hadn’t heard the breathing before—it was obvious once you were listening for it.
He heard a voice call out from elsewhere in the house.
“Hello? Is someone home?” the voice asked. Wes heard a heavy knock on the door.
“Yes? I’m down here,” Wes called. It was still too early for the emergency response. “I’ll be right back,” he said to Seth and patted him on the shoulder before he bolted for the door.
There was hardly any light in the foyer, but the officer was illuminated by the light coming down from the kitchen. Wes appeared from the lower steps out of the dark. He paused when he saw her hand hovering near her holster. The strap holding her gun was already unsnapped and tucked to the side.
“Officer, thank you for coming. Are the paramedics here?” Wes asked.
“Not yet,” she said. “I was in the neighborhood. Why don’t you fill me in on what’s going on here.”
He couldn’t take his eyes off her hand, which still hovered near her gun’s handle.
“My wife is upstairs, she seems dazed but maybe okay. I’m not sure. My neighbor, Seth, is downstairs. He’s having trouble breathing. I think he was stabbed.”
“Where?”
“In the kitchen, I think. There’s blood up there, too. But I’m not…”
“Where on his body was he stabbed.”
“Oh. In the throat. He can’t talk.”
“Is there anyone else at home today?”
“No, I don’t think so. Um, I don’t know where Marianne is. That’s Seth’s wife. But her car is gone. Look, officer, now that you’re here, I really need to get my wife to the hospital. My son is in serious condition and they’re not sure what’s wrong with him. We need to be with him.”
“One thing at a time, sir. I need to assess what’s going on here first. Do you live here?”
“No, no. I live next door. I came to bring over the dog and see if my wife was here so we could go back to the hospital. She is here. I don’t know why.”
“Wes?” Gwen called. She came into view at the top of the steps and the officer took a half step back and then angled her body towards the stairs, to position herself between Gwen and Wes. “Where’s Seth?” Gwen asked.
“He’s downstairs,” Wes said to Gwen. He addressed the officer. “Perhaps we should all go and see him? My wife’s a doctor.”
“Are you okay, ma’am?”
“Yes, I think I’m fine,” Gwen said. She put a hand up to the back of her head and held it there as she descended the steps slowly. The officer backed up to let Gwen reach the landing.
“Can you tell me what happened here this evening, ma’am?”
“I’m not sure,” Gwen said. “My husband woke me up in the kitchen and I’m having trouble remembering what happened before. My name is Gwen.” She held out her hand.
“Officer Presby,” the officer said. She nodded and Gwen withdrew her hand.
“Can we go look at Seth now?” Wes asked.
“Certainly,” Officer Presby said. “Lead the way.”
The tension abated slightly as Wes led them downstairs. Gwen followed and Officer Presby brought up the rear. Wes shoved some boxes aside as the women followed him into Kyle’s room. He crouched in front of Seth until Gwen nudged him aside. Her hands assessed his condition as she asked questions.
“Seth? Can you hear me? Don’t try to talk. Raise your fingers if you understand.”
When he looked up, Seth recoiled from Gwen and dragged in several ragged breaths before his breathing settled down. With one hand he clamped a washcloth to his neck. She rubbed his other hand and checked his pulse.
“Lower your head a little. It will help you breathe.”
Seth tilted his head down, but kept his eyes up. They darted between Gwen and Officer Presby. Gwen’s gentle fingers conducted a quick examination of Seth and his wounds. He allowed her to pull back the washcloth from his neck. She quickly pressed his hand back into place.
“Is he okay?” Presby asked.
“He’s lost some blood and his larynx has been punctured, but yes, he’s going to be fine,” Gwen said. She gave a tight smile to Officer Presby. “Just keep that pressure on your neck, Seth.”
“Should we get him moving towards the driveway?” Wes asked.
“No,” Gwen said. “We wait for the paramedics.”
Officer Presby nodded. “Mr. Umber? Do you remember me? My name is Officer Presby. I was here about your son several weeks ago?” Officer Presby asked. She raised her voice and enunciated carefully. “Just give me a thumb up or down.”
Seth raised his thumb and then changed to a seesaw gesture.
“You remember me a bit?” she asked.
He raised his thumb.
“Did you have an accident?”
Thumb down.
“Were you attacked?”
Thumb up.
“Who attacked you, sir? Did you know the person?” Officer Presby asked.
Seth pointed his finger like a dagger at Gwen. He thrust his finger forward again and again.
Gwen’s hand went to her mouth to cover it as her jaw fell open.
“Could you take a step back, ma’am?” Officer Presby asked Gwen. She was already moving. Gwen settled on the edge of the bare bed and Wes settled next to her. He put his arm around his wife.
“Where’s your wife, sir? Do you know?”
Thumb down. S
eth shrugged.
“Was she here earlier?”
Thumb up.
“So she left?”
Thumb down. Shrug.
“Okay, hang tight, sir,” Officer Presby said. She turned back to Gwen and Wes. “And your name again, ma’am? Do you have any identification?”
“Dr. Gwenith Stott-Covington,” Gwen said. “I don’t have my ID.”
“I’ve got my license,” Wes said. He pulled out his wallet and handed it to Officer Presby. She had her notebook in her hand and was writing down the names.
“Officer, I don’t remember what happened, but I would never hurt Seth. He’s been our friend and neighbor for twenty years,” Gwen said.
“When the ambulance arrives for Mr. Umber we’ll go to the station and get your full statement. I’m sure we can straighten this out,” Officer Presby said.
From the driveway, they heard a blast from the siren of the approaching ambulance. Officer Presby’s radio beeped and the dispatcher announced the arrival as well.
# # # #
“We’ll leave a note for Marianne,” Wes said as the paramedics closed the doors. “Christ, what a night for ambulances.”
Officer Presby ended a conversation over her police radio and she approached Gwen and Wes.
“I’d like to take you to the station and we can collect your statements,” she said. “One of my colleagues will talk to Mr. Umber at the hospital.”
“Look, I should have left ten minutes ago. I have to get back to my son. Like I said, he’s in serious condition over at CMG,” Wes said.
“Based on Mr. Umber’s statement, I need to bring you in,” Officer Presby said to Gwen.
The officer guided them towards the rear door of her car.
“No, you can’t. Look, my wife is a respected surgeon. I’m sure Seth was just confused. My wife doesn’t remember anything. For all we know, he attacked her. They’re waiting with my son’s test results and it’s a matter of life and death for him.”
“Which hospital?”
“CMG—near the coast,” Wes said.
“Get in back. I’ll take you there,” Officer Presby said.