|
|
"You startled me," Karin said. That was an understatement; her heart was pounding from the shock. "What's the matter, hon, can't you get to sleep?"
"I got something to give you," Brittany announced. She took another step into the room, and Karin saw what she was carrying. A wooden baseball bat.
"Brittany, I don't want your..."
"In case the bad guys try to get in," Brittany said firmly. "You can hit them on the head, like on cartoons."
Laughter might hurt her feelings, so Karin choked it back, turning it into a coughing fit. By the time she caught her breath, tears were streaming from her eyes. But, eyeing the bat, she realized it wasn't a bad idea.
"Thanks." Karin hefted the bat, swinging it through a half- circle. It came perilously close to the lamp on the end table, and she hastily lowered it and laid it on the floor alongside the end of the couch. "Now we'll be safe. You'd better get back to bed, now."
The next few hours passed quietly. Occasionally she got up to check the doors, and to peek in at Brittany, who was now sleeping peacefully. When the phone rang, she jumped half a foot, but it was just her mother, checking that everything was all right.
By eleven-thirty, Karin was half-asleep. The Thornleys should be home before much longer. She'd have to tell them about the ball bat. She was in the middle of a yawn when all the lights in the house went out.
Karin's mouth snapped shut on the yawn. All at once, she was wide awake, heart pounding. The sudden blackness left her almost blind, but she looked toward the sliding glass patio door. Through the thin drapes, she could see the glow of a street light on the next block, confirming her fears. This was how it had begun for Amy. At least here the doors were locked securely. Then she caught her breath with a gasp, as a shadow moved outside on the patio. The chain on the back door might not make any difference.
Even though no more than a few seconds had passed, she realized she couldn't just sit there, mesmerized like a rabbit, waiting to be attacked. Noiselessly, she slipped off the couch to the floor. There was barely room for her behind the coffee table, but at least it offered some concealment. A movement outside caught the corner of her eye, and she froze for a moment. Then she crawled rapidly down the length of the long sofa and around the end. Once safely out of sight, she squirmed around and peered over the arm of the couch. Silhouetted against the distant light, the shadow on the drapes waited motionless outside the glass door.
She crouched there for an unmeasurable time, holding her breath while nothing happened. Then the shadow moved abruptly, a flurry of motion ending with a sudden sharp crack of breaking glass. The light filtering through the fabric of the drapes changed subtly, becoming distorted. There was another sharp crack, and a glass waterfall spilled musically to the flagstones of the patio outside. At the same time, the drapes billowed out in the sudden breeze from the broken window.
For a moment, the drapes were pulled aside, and Karin caught a glimpse of light unobscured by fabric. Then someone moved in front of it, and a second later the curtains fell back into place, moving lazily in the draft. The killer was inside.
His eyes must have adjusted to the dark already, Karin thought, but the complete lack of light of the room might take away his advantage. Hopelessly, she longed for Brittany's ball bat, no longer a joke, out of reach at the other end of the couch. It had been instinctive, her rush to concealment, but the bat was on the floor by the end of the couch nearest the window. Maybe she could crawl behind the sofa and reach it...
She shifted position, then froze again. The rustle of fabric, upholstery and her own clothing, sounded incredibly loud in the room. The soft tick of the old-fashioned mantel clock echoed like a drum-beat. Far off, in Brittany's bathroom, Karin heard the drip of a leaking faucet. She hadn't noticed it before. The killer couldn't really hear her heartbeat, no matter how loud it sounded in her ears, but he might be able to hear her breathing. She could hear his, a soft unsteady thread of sound. She opened her mouth slightly and tried to breathe silently.
There was another slight sound, and she risked a peek over the arm of the couch again. Her eyes were adjusting to the dark, but she couldn't tell what he was doing. The killer was only a vague shape in the center of the room.
Sudden light blinded her, shining directly into her eyes. Past the dazzle, she saw the dark shape of the killer shift position, and there was a soft grunt of recognition. She had been spotted. She couldn't stay there, trapped between the couch and the wall! Karin surged to her feet and threw herself forward, just as the killer came at her in a rush.
Something brushed lightly against her as she ducked frantically. The movement brought her up against the coffee table, which she had forgotten, and she tripped over it. The dim shape lunged again, and she twisted as she fell, landing between the table and the couch, half on her side. The figure above her stabbed downward, and she squirmed desperately, snaking forward. She got her right knee under her and lunged forward again, reaching the end of the couch and free space just as a hard blow landed on her left shoulder.
Karin turned the fall into a clumsy somersault, landing in a ball. Pain stabbed her shoulder where she'd been hit. She reached back, feeling wildly along the floor. The bat was someplace around here. If she could get her hands on it...her fingers closed around the end of it just as the light found her again. Her grip tightened convulsively, and she readied herself for the next attack.
Before it could come, there was a noise from the opposite side of the room, and Brittany called out, "Karin? Karin, the lights won't work. Where are you, I'm scared..."
"Brittany!" Her breath caught. "Brittany, get back!" She surged to her feet in one movement and lashed out with the bat, swinging it downward as though chopping wood. Her attacker dodged to one side, and Karin felt a thin line of fire traced across the back of one hand. Ignoring the pain, she brought the bat up and swung as hard as she could, backhand. Brittany screamed, and the bat connected with a thud. There was a thin metallic twang, almost lost in the repeated screams now coming from the little girl, as the knife skittered across the tile floor. Karin struck again, almost losing her balance from the force of the blow. This time she hit nothing but air.
"Brittany, get in your room!" she screamed, stumbling after the fallen knife. The only answer from the child was another wail of terror, and the sound enraged Karin. She tightened her grip on the bat and took a determined step toward the killer.
There was a clatter of rapid footsteps across the tile floor, and the drapes in front of the shattered window billowed wildly. For one instant, the shadowy form of the killer was outlined against the light, then glass crunched as he ran out the patio door. Karin heard a few swift steps outside, then silence.