Gecko (17 page)

“
Where’s your shoes?” he asked, looking down at her bleeding foot.

“
I only went to get cigarettes from the car. I should have listened to my father and stayed in the room.”

“
Washington is your father?”

“
Yes,” she said. “My name’s Glenna.”

“
And he brought you along after a killer?”

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He doesn’t think you’re a killer. He wants to prove you’re not.”

“
I am,” he said, knuckles white on the wheel.

“
No, my dad wouldn’t try to clear you if you were guilty.” She was running her hands through her hair now, pulling it back. Then she wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.

“
I didn’t say I was guilty. I killed two of the ones in the police station. Not the cop.” He relaxed his fingers, now holding the wheel like it was a thing to be caressed.

“
And the ones at the inn?” she asked.

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What are you talking about?” He white-knuckled the wheel again as a chill whipped up his spine, lightning-quick, but glacier-cold.

“
My Dad went to Edna Lambert’s room to find you. He said the walls were covered in blood.”

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And the Lamberts?”

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There were no bodies,” she said with a lost little girl voice. She was still very frightened.

“
That thing killed Roma.”

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Who?”

“
My wife’s sister, her twin.”

“
I’m sorry.”

He nodded and they rode the next ten miles without speaking.

“
You know,” she said, breaking the silence, “you still stink. Don’t look very pretty either.”

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I’m in a hurry.”

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For what?”

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To get to Tampico.”

“
You’re convinced Kohler is behind the attempts on your life?”

“
You know a lot.”

“
Dad and I talk.”

“
Yes, I believe Kohler’s trying to kill me.”

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Why?”

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That’s the question, isn’t it? He already has my wife. She’ll get half my money. So why? It doesn’t make sense. But it’s him. I believe it and if you’d been through what I have, you’d believe it too.”

“
I didn’t say I didn’t believe you.”

“
What about your father?”

“
He’s trying to prove you’re innocent.” She sat back in the seat, sighed. She sounded more like a woman now, her voice soft and sure. She didn’t seem afraid anymore.

“
I wish I could believe that,” Monday said, again relaxing his hands on the wheel. Earlier he was afraid she’d go ballistic on him. Scream, rage, maybe go into shock. She was past that now. She’d adjusted quickly. She was stronger than she looked.

“
It’s true,” she said.

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Then I wish him luck.”

“
So you’re on your way to Tampico to confront Kohler and fight to the death?”

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No, yes, I don’t know, something like that, maybe.”

“
How far do you think you’ll get smelling like that?”

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Far enough.”

“
And when is the last time you had some sleep? You look dead behind the wheel. You’ll never make it another three hundred miles without rest.”

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I’ll make it.”

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And what about me? What are you going to do with me?”

“
I’ll let you go at the next city.”

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You can’t.”

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Why not?”

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I could talk. I know where you’re going.”

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You said your father is trying to clear me.”

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But what if he isn’t? You acted like you didn’t believe me.”

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I don’t have any choice. I’m not a kidnapper.”

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You didn’t kidnap me, you saved my life. And you do have a choice. You can take me with you.”

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No.”

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I want to go. Look at it this way, I can tell the police how you saved my life. I’ll be a great character witness. And I can be useful.”

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How?”

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You can’t rent a motel looking like you do. And you’re going to need one, or you’ll collapse on the road. You will. You’ll fall asleep at the wheel, but if you don’t want to stop to rest, you could sleep while I drive.”

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Why?”

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My dad is working to prove you’re innocent. I want to help. I love him, but I want to show him that I’m not a little girl anymore.”

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Okay, you can stay. I need all the help I can get.”

“
What was that thing back there?” she asked without thanking him.

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I don’t know, some kind of weird animal. It killed Roma,” he repeated.

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And you’re running away from it? That doesn’t sound like you.”

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It’ll be back.”

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How do you know?”

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You wouldn’t believe me.”

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Try me.”

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It’s too fantastic, impossible to believe. You’d think I was crazy.”

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That giant gecko was impossible, but I believe in it. I’ll believe you. Tell me.”

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I’ll have to start from the beginning.”

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That’s always the best place to start.”

He looked ahead, keeping his eyes glued between the semi’s taillights, forcing his mind back to yesterday morning. God, was that all the time that had passed? One day and it seemed like forever. The story was hard to tell, but he told her. Everything, starting from when the voice in his head told him to jump back, till he saw the shark-like teeth drag Roma among the cattle.

That was the hardest part to relive. He tried to get to her. He slid back under the fence, swallowing dirt and cow shit. He screamed. Something struck him on the head. He was nauseous. He fought to stay conscious, but he must have blacked out. He woke about an hour later, according to his watch, and vomited. Then he cried.

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Stop it. You have to move. It’ll come back. It’s after me.” Donna had thought.

In his grief, he tried to ignore her.

“
Don’t shut me out. Talk to me.”

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She’s dead,” Jim had thought. His grief weighed him down, like he was covered in lead.

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And I’m sorry, but you’re alive, and I’m kind of alive, and if we don’t move out of here we won’t be.”

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I’m not sure I want to live.”

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Well I do, so move it!” She forced her will on him. Made him get up. Made him walk back to the car.

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I don’t know what to do now,” he’d thought.

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You go on with your life till we figure how to get me back.”

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Back where?”

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Back where I belong and out of your head.”

He started for his room.

“
No! Don’t go back up there,” she’d thought.

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Why not?”

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Let’s not get any other friends killed.”

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I don’t understand?” He’d thought.

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That thing is after me. I know it. It will do anything to keep me from getting back, kill anyone that will assist me. It killed Roma. It will kill the Lamberts if we let it. And it will kill you. It wants you most of all, because you have me.”

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Then why didn’t it kill me back there?”

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It has to feed on its kill before it can go after another.”

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Oh God, Roma.”

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Don’t go up there, get out of here.”

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I need rest. So tired.”

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Then get in the car. Rest a few minutes, then we go, we have to,” she’d thought.

Listening to himself tell it made him realize just how insane it sounded.

“
That’s when I saw you,” he said, finishing the story. “You know the rest.”

Glenna had been silent for the twenty miles it took him to tell the story and now he sat back, eyes ahead, still on the semi’s taillights, waiting for her to denounce him as crazy.

“
You slept with your wife’s twin sister? How could you?”

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It wasn’t like that.”

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Don’t you have any control?”

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I loved her.”

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Look out.”

He tightened his grip, brought the car back under control.

“
You almost drove us off the road,” she said.

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I’ll be okay.”

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I’m sorry. I’m not one to judge. I’ve never had a lover.”

“
You mean—”

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No, I’m not a virgin. I was raped when I was sixteen. My one sexual experience.” She told him about the rape and what her father had done. “I’ve learned to live with it. I’m not afraid of sex or anything like that, I’m just waiting for Mr. Right to come along.”

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Why tell me?”

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You told me something that must have been hard to tell. A deep secret. I thought I’d tell you one. Fair is fair. Besides, I needed to tell someone.”

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Why hasn’t she asked about me?”

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Why haven’t you asked about Donna, the voice in my head?”

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Do you want to know, or is that her asking?”

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It’s her asking, but I’d like to know too.”

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Because I believe you. You don’t seem crazy. There’s plenty of things out there I don’t understand—that lizard thing back there, God, Satan, war, famine, why we can’t all get along, what makes an airplane stay up. Donna in your head is just one more.”

“
Then I should send you back to your father, before that thing comes back.” He glanced over at her. She was too young to be caught up in something like this. She belonged on a quiet college campus somewhere, enjoying life as only college kids know how, not here, with him, running from who-knows-what in the middle of the night. She didn’t need this and he shouldn’t involve her.

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I won’t go. I’m staying with you. My dad would never respect me if I walked away.”

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But?”

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Ask her if we can kill it.”

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Burn it,” Donna thought.

“
She says to burn it.”

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Then that’s what we’ll do.” Glenna crossed her arms. “You’re almost out of gas.”

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Five miles to the next town.” He checked the gauge. “We’ll get gas there. You’ll have to do it. I can’t be seen like this.” He was having trouble keeping his eyes open. He thought about his wife and Kohler. Whoever said life was fair? His thoughts pierced his heart.

“
There it is, slow down,” she said.

He tapped the brakes, slowed the car as he took the off ramp on the right. He was sorry to lose the steadying comfort of the big truck that had been leading him through the night. He turned right at the top of the ramp and drove by an all night gas station. It was one of those places where you went inside, paid, then pumped your gas. Nobody trusted anybody anymore.

There was one car at the pumps, a brand new looking yellow Porsche Boxter, and a young teenager pumping gas into it. He saw a girl in the car. Must be bringing her back from a date. She probably had to be in by midnight. Christ, where did a boy take a girl out here? Necking somewhere, probably.

He pulled over and parked in the dark, a little past the station.

“
I’ll pull in when they leave. You’ll have to go in and pay, then pump the gas. I’ll stay in the car.” He handed her two twenties.

Jim watched while the boy finished filling the tank. That car looks like it can fly, he thought. Boy probably has rich parents. It was the kind of car every teenage kid wanted. The boy replaced the pump when he finished, got back in the Boxter, started it and Jim heard the unmistakable rumble of a car that was more at home at a hundred on the highway than thirty in the city.

He envied the kid. Then he saw the red lights in the rear view mirror. He shut the engine off.

“
Now what?” she asked.

He reached into the side pocket of Turnbull’s filthy jacket and withdrew the eye patch. Which eye, he thought, the left or the right? Have to take a chance. He slipped it on and covered the left eye.

“
Right eye,” Donna thought, and he moved the patch over.

“
Step out of the car please.” An amplified voice said from the police car.

Glenna opened her door, stepped out and was caught in the spotlight. Her long curly hair caught the light rays giving her an angelic appearance. He blinked and his heart fluttered. She was stunning. He opened his door, without taking his eyes off of her, and hesitated. He had to think of something to say. Would Eddie’s license work? Would it fool a pair of small town cops? How to explain his appearance? He was in the shit now, both figuratively and factually. He spent another five seconds drinking in her face, smiled, then slid out of the car.

He felt the spot moving from her to where he stood. In another instant the light that made her glow would rake over him and his filthy appearance and it would be all over. He had no story to explain away how he looked. He might as well just call it quits. He was too old to be running around like a TV private investigator bent on revenge. Better to give up, get a warm bed in a quiet jail, and sleep. Let the authorities handle it.