Big Three-Thriller Bundle Box Collection

by Gordon Kessler

  *-*-*

  Sometime before darkness seeped into the crack under the closet door, the dogs quit scratching, and Tricia Carpenter fell into a deep dark hole in her mind that had been a very frightening place many times before. It had been a place of monsters and ghosts and of parents arguing. This time the deep, dark, sometimes-scary place was a comfort. This time, sleep was a much better and safer place to be than reality.

  Tricia woke to the darkness, unsure of where she was. Her back rested in a corner of some kind, but it was a poor clue. She touched her eyes to make sure they were open and then stretched out both arms, feeling for more clues. Her wrist complained, throbbing where Dawg had bitten it. She remembered he’d bitten her foot also, and the pain quickly followed the memory. She whimpered, still reaching. Her left hand struck something that sounded wooden, and the door rattled in its jamb.

  Shoes lay in front of her. The black pumps Grammy said she had bought and worn only once, to Tricia’s baptism many years ago, were easy to recognize, smooth and soft. Grandy’s old brown work boots, with rough leather and cracks and holes worn through, were evident. Her hand batted the clothes hanging over her head as she reached up. No doubt, it was Grammy and Grandy’s closet.

  She remembered everything now.

  Tricia felt the closet door for holes to see if somehow, as she slept, the dogs might have ripped a hole in it, too, like the hole they had scratched through in the bedroom door. Maybe the dogs were in the closet with her. Maybe she would reach out and one of the dogs would bite her hand. It would be much safer to feel the door and not to blindly search the closet for intruders with her hands.

  The door was fine. It was smooth and unblemished—from the inside. She put her ear up to the door to listen for sounds. It was quiet except for a hum she recognized as the old electric alarm clock Grammy kept on her side of the bed. She slipped her little fingers under the door and wriggled them, feeling the length of the crack. She didn’t know what she felt for or what she would do if she happened upon something. What if she felt a dog? What if a dog chomped off her fingers? The thought made her gasp and jerk her hand back.

  The dogs must have left. The hunger and thirst grew more intense, now, and her wrist and foot ached. She had to go for help. The only phone in the house was broken. She remembered the wire pulling out as she ran from Dawg. But the Lawrences had a phone. She could go there and call Tony Parker. He would come and help. He would save her and make all the bad dogs go away. She couldn’t remember the number. She would have to go back through the living room to get his card. That is what she would do.

  Tricia stood, but the pain in her right foot caused her to remember how deeply Dawg’s fangs had penetrated, and she took the weight off of it. She reached out and felt for the doorknob, finding it with a rattle. The mechanism clicked as she turned the knob carefully, and she pushed the door open.

  She leaned into the door too far and lost her balance, falling against it, and came down hands first. The door opened only two feet before striking something. Her hands landed on something large and furry.

  Dawg grunted.

  CHAPTER 40

  Dr. White Cloud saw the TV bulletin about the tragedy at the Epic Center. He saw Tony come out of the building, walking on his own two feet, and was thankful Tony would be all right. He had to chuckle and clap when Hill put the hurts on Haskins. He had sobbed when they announced the death of his friend, Jack Simpson. He turned the TV off and sat in the dark for a moment, thinking. Patsy always turned in early and had long since gone to bed, and it was quiet in his modern, Spanish stucco home.

  Something bothered him—something that happened earlier in the day back at the office. Patsy had told him she did not hear the outside phone bell ring before Truong came out with the news of the rabies tests.

  The old vet got up from his chair and walked out to the garage. He would ask Truong a few questions.

  All the clinic lights were out as he pulled up in the parking lot in his turquoise green Continental. Truong must have gone to bed. Doc sat in his car for a moment, wondering if he should bother him about something so silly that it was probably nothing. Most likely, the bell rang, and nobody noticed it. No one had paid any attention. Maybe there was a short in the line.

  He decided to get out and at least see if Truong might still be awake.

  A strange hoarse howl, no more than five hundred yards away, made Doc flinch.

  He stood with the car door open, considering it. “When a dog howls, a man will die,” he said aloud, remembering the old superstition.

  Something rustled in the bushes nearby.

  “Who’s there?” Doc called out, straining to see.

  Hearing the noise again, he asked, “Who’s there, I say?”

  The bushes rustled again. Something came out.

  He backed against the car door. “No, no, please. No!”

  *-*-*

  At eleven p.m. Sarah Hill pulled up to the MacGreggor house behind Tommy Chin’s van. She got out of her little green Geo Storm and walked to his open driver’s side window. The night air was thick and foggy. Droplets of moisture already formed and beaded up on the hood of the van.

  “So, what’s the plan, Chin?”

  “Hi, Sarah. Hey, I got us a wire from the guys in vice.”

  “A wire?”

  “Yeah, you know, a microphone.”

  “How cool. What we really need is a bazooka. So what’s the wire for?”

  “I thought one of us could go inside the house with it. That way, if she gets in, we’ll know it.”

  “Shit, are you crazy? Did you get this plan from Tony, or does insanity come from being in charge?”

  “Don’t worry, Sarah. I’ll go inside,” Chin said, seeming a little disappointed his plan wasn’t better received.

  Hill thought for a moment. She looked at the house and frowned.

  “No, I’ll do it. Give it to me,” she demanded.

  “Are you sure, Sarah? It could be dangerous.”

  “No shit, Sherlock. Tell me something I don’t know. Jezebel’s a female, a female with class like me. We have a lot in common. Besides, I’m the one with the zoology degree and countless hours of studying animal behavior. I’ve got to be the one.”

  Chin handed the small microphone and the earplug receiver to her.

  “It’s on. VOX, voice activated, so you don’t have to push any buttons or anything. Just put the microphone in your shirt pocket and the receiver in your ear. First thing, when either of us sees her, we’ll yell it out. And here, I brought an extra tranquilizer rifle,” Chin said, passing the rifle through the open window.

  “What’s the range on this gadget?” Hill asked, placing the receiver in her ear.

  “They said around two hundred yards, about a block and a half. But we’ll test it when you get inside.”

  “All right, I guess I’m ready. Make sure you keep talking to me, or I’m liable to fall asleep. I’d hate to miss anything. And make sure you keep your eyes open. I want to know when this monster shows up. I don’t want any surprises.”

  “You got it, Sarah. Here’s the key to the front door,” Chin said and tossed it to Hill’s open hand.

  Hill walked across the street and unlocked the door. She glanced back at Chin before she went in. Chin waved.

  “You hear me?” Hill asked, stepping cautiously over the threshold.

  “Loud and clear. Everything all right in there?” the receiver cracked in Hill’s ear.

  “Yeah, I’m going to check the place out before I settle down to my fox hole.”

  “I just had a scary thought, Sarah. What if she’s already in there?”

  “Uh-huh.” Hill’s eyes shifted around the room.

  “You want me to come in with you?”

  “No, that’s all right. You just keep watch out there and be ready to come running in when I cry wolf.”

  Hill turned on the lights to every room before she entered. They had put a light bulb in the basement and she checked there, t
oo. She was alone.

  The house hadn’t changed much since she saw it last, except the bodies were gone and most of the blood. The recliner and carpet still showed stains. The air hadn’t lost any of its dog odor. Now, with the house being shut up for several days and cooking in the vicious August heat, it mixed with a very pungent stench. A kind of dead-animal smell. They hadn’t done a very good job of cleaning up. It wasn’t a pleasant job, anyway. Hill couldn’t blame them.

  She opened the window next to the recliner and turned on the large box fan. It whirred to a high-pitched whine and then settled down to a normal drone. The dog-bone chew toy Haskins had picked up when they were there before lay on the seat of the chair. A wad of socks, knotted up into a ball that might have been used as a fetch toy, accompanied it. She hadn’t noticed it when she was there before. Maybe it had been under the chair or some of the other furniture. But she was sure it hadn’t been there and neither had the bone. Maybe one of the officers threw it there. Maybe Jezebel put it there, wishing her master would have life again and play with her.

  “It’s like an oven in here. I’m going to get some cross ventilation in this dump,” she said, walking to the other side of the room.

  “Oh, damn it!” she exclaimed, pounding and tugging on the large window on the opposite side.

  “What’s wrong? You all right?” Chin questioned.

  “Yeah, but this blasted window’s been painted shut. She hit the window frame one last time without results.

  She walked back through the house, turning off all the lights, and waited. The house was black. The moon hid behind thick clouds, and the nearest streetlight was burned out. The only light came from the clock on old man MacGreggor’s CD player. It flashed twelve o’clock as it probably had since he got it.

  Hill walked into the kitchen and stood, looking out the back door window just above the dog port.

  “Okay, Jezebel, dog from hell, I’m ready. Come on in,” she said, watching wide eyed out the window with her rifle clenched in both hands.

  “Nothing out here,” Chin said.

  “All right, stay alert. Don’t go to sleep on me.”

  Time crept slowly around the numbers on Hill’s watch. She told herself it must have stopped several times and tapped it. Eleven forty, and still nothing. The long hours and stress wore on Hill, and her eyelids bounced closed and head bobbed. She jerked her head up and shook off the sleep that was slowly taking control of her weary body. The rifle was getting heavy, so she laid it down, leaning it against a kitchen cabinet near the door.

  “Dispatcher to AC Two. Come in, Tommy,” came a squawk over the radio that startled Hill. She could hear Chin’s radio in the van clearly through her earpiece.

  “This is AC Two. Go ahead,” Chin replied.

  “Tommy, we have a Jezebel sighting at 934 Carnival Drive. Please respond.”

  “Can’t you get anyone else?”

  “All other units are tied up. Besides it is just six blocks from your location.”

  “All right, we’ll respond,” Chin said. “Ah—Sarah, you’ll have to come out. We’ve got a call to respond to six blocks away. Probably another black cat.”

  “I heard. Look, if it’s just six blocks away, go ahead. I’ll be okay.”

  “No, you’d better come out. It’s almost midnight. She’ll be here soon.”

  “What? You think this bitch can tell time? Go on, I’ll be all right. You won’t be gone all night, will you?”

  “If you’re sure. I’ll make it quick. You be careful.”

  “I’ll be okay. Just don’t forget me.”

  Hill went to the front door and watched Chin’s van make a U-turn at the corner and head down the street. The headlights flashed in Hill’s face, momentarily blinding her. She winced. The light burned her already blood-shot, weary eyes.

  A silent moment passed before a sound came from outside. The back yard. Scratching. Something was climbing over the fence.

  The rifle. It was still next to the back door. Hill moved quickly toward the kitchen. As she made it to the hall, the dog port began to open. Hill stepped to the side, out of sight, before seeing what was coming through.

  She trembled, backing up to the wall next to the large window that was painted shut. She could run for the door, but by the time she reached it, she’d be seen. No way out. Hide. Where? There was no place. Behind the sheer curtain, maybe. In the dark, she might not be seen if she was quiet and didn’t move.

  She pulled the curtain around her. She could see through it, but it made the already dim room even dimmer. The blowing fan was the only noise. Nothing moved except the oscillating shadows of the fan blades beating the stale air through the room. The green flash of the clock on the CD player caused an eerie, strobing light.

  A dark shape slowly emerged from the hallway and moved into the room. Large. Huge. Black.

  CHAPTER 41

  Chin pulled up to the address of the caller. A balding man, wearing two days-worth of whiskers and a torn up, soiled T-shirt, met him halfway up the walk.

  “I saw her. I saw Jezebel. Is there a reward?”

  “Where did you see her?” Chin asked skeptically.

  “Right here, in the street in front of the house.”

  “When was this, sir?”

  “Five or six minutes ago.”

  “What exactly did you see? How big was it?”

  “Biggest damned dog I’ve ever seen. Her head came up to here.” The man motioned with his hand to his Adam’s apple.

  Chin began to take the man more seriously. “Why are you so sure it was Jezebel?”

  “Shit, there ain’t another dog that damn big, is there? She was one of those Great Danes, all black. She had dog tags that sparkled in the streetlight. I’d just got off of second shift, and I was walking up to the door when she ran by.”

  “Ran by? Which way did she go?”

  “Right down the middle of the street going that way,” the man said, pointing up the street in the direction of the MacGreggor house.

  “Oh, God, Sarah!” Chin exclaimed and ran back to the van.

  “Hey, ain’t there some kind of a reward? What about my reward?”

  Chin turned the van around in the man’s driveway, leaving black tire marks going in and coming out.

  “Sarah, can you hear me?” he called into the microphone, knowing he was hopelessly out of range.

  *-*-*

  Hill froze to the wall with her arms down tight against her sides. The huge black shadow walked slowly into the room and over to the old recliner without noticing her. It whined and looked into the seat of the chair and sniffed at the toys.

  Hill’s jaw trembled. She clenched her teeth tight to keep them from chattering. The dusty curtain irritated her nose but she wasn’t about to sneeze. She swallowed hard to suppress it.

  The shadow stopped still. Something was wrong. It must have sensed Hill’s presence. She’d been discovered.

  The dark apparition’s head snapped in Hill’s direction. It sniffed the air, snout raised. There was no question. It looked directly to her, its dark eyes glistening in the nearly absent light. A sparkle of light flashed from its neck from the diamond in its dog tags.

  “Oh, God, no!” Hill whined low.

  A deep rumble came from the shadow in response.

  It moved toward Hill, slowly, guardedly.

  She shouldn’t make another sound. She shouldn’t breath any more than was absolutely necessary. Maybe if she stayed still, it wouldn’t see her as a threat and wouldn’t bother her. Stay still like Mr. MacGreggor did in his recliner. It bothered him. Killed him. Tore his throat open. Nearly severed his head, yet he was no threat. She could run, try to defend herself like the police officers probably did. They were killed. Didn’t have a chance. No escape.

  It moved to the other side of the window, eyes fixed on Hill. It was nearly as tall as she was. The shadows and the sheer curtain didn’t allow Hill to see it clearly. For all she knew, maybe this huge thing wasn’t a dog at
all but something supernatural. A real monster. Even as a dog, this thing was a real monster.

  It looked away from her for a moment, head cocked, apparently hearing or sensing something. It looked back at Hill and moved even closer, now with its muzzle inches from her face. Hill stiffened.

  It turned away and walked past her, brushing against Hill’s arm. “Sarah, can you hear me?” Chin cried in desperation over the

  radio, finally in range. “Chin, help! She’s here!” Hill pried the words from her throat. It growled a vicious reply. “Oh, God, Chin, she’s got me!” “Hang on, Sarah. I’m coming. Run for the door or a window!” “Can’t, I’m blocked!” Another ferocious growl. “Shoot her!” “Rifle’s in other room!” The monstrous apparition responded with a deafening growl,

  followed by three sharp barks. “Oh, shit, this is it. She’s saying grace. I’m a midnight snack!” Bright lights exploded through the windows of the living room,

  and the sound of Chin’s van jumping the curb came from outside. He’d brought the van right up to the porch.

  The giant ghost-like shadow ran to the other side of the room. It turned and ran toward Hill. She cowered down into a ball with her arms over her face.

  With a shattering crash, it smashed through the window beside

  her, and the shadow was gone. Chin came running through with his tranquilizer rifle at the ready. “Sarah! You all right?” he yelled and ran to her side. She still knelt

  in a ball. “I want out of this shit! I’ve had enough. I quit!”

  CHAPTER 42

  It was foggy in Tony Parker’s dreams again. And again, in the middle of the street, a giant, black Great Dane appeared. She marched down the street as if knowing where she was going.

  This time, something white and shiny like porcelain glowed in the fog behind her. It was like a mime’s face or perhaps an oriental bugaku mask. It was a terrible, pain-filled face with no eyes, only empty holes. It flashed in and out. The mask grew larger and larger. Its expression changed into a smile; clown like, with blood dripping down the corners of its large, grinning lips. It faded away when Jezebel reached the curb in front of Parker’s house.