“What—Cody said—”

“Call the cops,” I told her. “Someone is trying to break in.” I 210

JEFF LINDSAY

looked behind her at Cody. “Get your sister and all of you get into the bathroom. Lock the door.”

“But who would—we’re not—” Rita said.

“Go,” I told her, and pushed past her to the front door.

Once again I flipped on the outside light, and once again the sound stopped immediately.

Only to start up again down the hall, apparently on the kitchen window.

And naturally enough when I ran into the kitchen the sound had already stopped, even before I turned on the overhead light.

I slowly approached the window over the sink and carefully peeked out.

Nothing. Just the night and the hedge and the neighbor’s house and nothing else whatsoever.

I straightened up and stood there for a moment, waiting for the noise to start up again at some other corner of the house. It didn’t.

I realized I was holding my breath, and I let it out. Whatever it was, it had stopped. It was gone. I unclenched my fists and took a deep breath.

And then Rita screamed.

I turned around fast enough to twist my ankle, but still hobbled for the bathroom as quickly as I could. The door was locked, but from inside I could hear something scrabbling at the window. Rita shouted, “Go away!”

“Open the door,” I said, and a moment later Astor opened it wide.

“It’s at the window,” she said, rather calmly I thought.

Rita was standing in the middle of the bathroom with her clenched fists raised to her mouth. Cody stood in front of her pro-tectively holding the toilet plunger, and they were both staring at the window.

“Rita,” I said.

She turned to me with her eyes wide and filled with fear. “But what do they want?” she demanded, as if she thought I could tell her. And perhaps I could have, in the ordinary course of things—

“ordinary” being defined as the entire previous portion of my life, DEXTER IN THE DARK

211

when I had my Passenger to keep me company and whisper terrible secrets. But as it was, I only knew they wanted in and I did not know why.

I also did not know what they wanted, but it didn’t seem quite as important at the moment as the fact that they obviously wanted something and thought we had it. “Come on,” I said. “Everybody out of here.” Rita turned to look at me, but Cody stood his ground.

“Move,” I said, and Astor took Rita by the hand and hurried through the door. I put a hand on Cody’s shoulder and pushed him after his mother, gently prying the plunger from his hands, and then I turned to face the window.

The noise continued, a hard scratching that sounded like someone was trying to claw through the glass. Without any real conscious thought I stepped forward and whacked the window with the rubber head of the toilet plunger.

The sound stopped.

For a long moment there was no sound except for my breathing, which I realized was somewhat fast and ragged. And then, not too far away, I heard a police siren cutting through the silence. I backed out of the bathroom, watching the window.

Rita sat on the bed with Cody on one side of her and Astor on the other. The children seemed quite calm, but Rita was clearly on the edge of hysteria. “It’s all right,” I said. “The cops are almost here.”

“Will it be Sergeant Debbie?” Astor asked me, and she added hopefully, “Do you think she’ll shoot somebody?”

Tags: Jeff Lindsay Dexter Mystery
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