Last Light (12 page)
Doug wished he had an answer. “It looked like a robbery, sweetheart. Might not have had anything to do with them at all.”
“Then it could happen to us.” Logan’s face glistened with perspiration as he stared up at him. “They could break into our house tonight and kill us in our sleep.”
Doug swallowed and sat down on the hearth. “That’s not gonna happen. They probably struck them because they were older and weren’t likely to fight back. Or they thought they weren’t home, and got surprised.”
“Weird, huh?” Jeff muttered. “Yesterday we thought terrorists had attacked us. Now we find out we have more to fear from our own neighbors.”
Kay kissed the top of Beth’s head. Her eyes held a dark, haunted look, and Doug knew he couldn’t banish it. “This is sure bringing out the worst in people,” Kay whispered.
Deni scowled. “The worst in people? It’s turning them into
murderers
, Mom. I want to get out of here. I shouldn’t even
be
here. I should be in D.C. with Craig.”
“Well, thank heaven you’re not.” Kay let Beth go and leaned forward as she gaped at Deni. “I’d be worried sick about you if you weren’t here. We need to be thankful that we have our comfortable home and that our whole family is together. This is an inconvenience for us, nothing more. We’re not as vulnerable as a lot of people.”
“Mom, how can you say that?” Deni cried. “There are murderers in our own neighborhood. Maybe our own street. We don’t know who they are, and the sheriff can’t do anything about it.”
Doug knew he had to calm them all down before Deni’s mood caused a panic. “Deni, we’ll be all right. Jeff and I can protect us. Now everybody go chill for a little while before we go to the meeting.”
“We can’t chill.” Beth wiped her eyes. “Miss Amber still needs diapers.”
Kay sighed and looked at Doug. “We’ll find her some. You just go lie down, Beth. You need a nap before the meeting.”
Doug watched his traumatized young daughter go up to her room. A nap wasn’t going to help. The images she’d seen today would stay in her mind for a very long time.
Deni got up and crossed her arms. “I
really
have to get out of here. I’m serious.”
Doug shrugged. “Yeah, go for a walk or something if you want.”
“Not a
walk
! I have to go home to D.C.”
He shot her a disgusted look. “This is your home, Deni.”
“Not anymore. And if this outage is gonna last, then I need to get started now in order to be there to start my job on Monday.”
Was she crazy? “Deni, I won’t allow you to launch out on your own, so you can just stop ranting right now.”
“You can’t stop me, Dad. I’m over twenty-one. I can do whatever I want.” And with that, she turned and ran to her room.
Deni’s parents followed her up the stairs to her room, her brothers right behind them. “Honey, I know you’re upset about what happened,” Doug said. “We all are. But that’s no reason to be irrational and—”
Deni got to the top of the stairs and turned on her father. “Irrational? You think it’s more rational to stay here with murderers running around? I’ll be safer on the road.”
“Calm down.” Her father’s voice was maddeningly even, as if he’d already forgotten the dead people she’d found.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Kay asked.
She met her mother’s angry gaze. “Anywhere but here.”
“So you’re gonna do what? Just roll your suitcase behind you and clomp down I-20?”
“No,” Deni said. “I’m gonna take my bike. I’ll ride up the interstate until I find civilization. Then I’ll rent a car or something.”
“Honey, there
isn’t
any civilization!” Kay shouted. “Not nearby. If there were, someone would have seen cars going by today.”
Deni got her suitcase and threw it on the bed. “Fine. Then I’ll ride my bike all the way to D.C. But I’m not staying here where it’s hopeless. Craig wouldn’t want me to do that.”
At the thought of Craig, she started to cry. She unzipped her suitcase and flung it open, then realized that she’d never be able to carry it on a bike. Rage mushroomed inside her at her own stupidity. She sank down onto the bed.
Her mother leaned down and put her arm around her. “Honey, I know you’re upset. We all are.”
“No you’re not, Mom. Your life is just put on hold. This is no big deal to you. You have your family and everybody you love around you. You’re in your own home.”
“And so are you.”
“No, I’m not! Craig is my family now. I want to be there with him. I found two people dead today and I can’t even tell him.”
She knew as she ranted that she wasn’t making any sense, but the anger pulsing through her kept her mind from settling back on those bodies. She looked through her bedroom door, and saw Beth across the hall, lying on her own bed. Beth wasn’t ranting and raving. She was curled up in fetal position, staring off into space. Deni wished her sister would cry and break something, so there would at least be some sense of normalcy. She couldn’t stand the thought that this stupid power outage might traumatize her little sister forever.
She lowered her voice so Beth couldn’t hear. “Mom, I’m scared. What if someone tries to kill
us
?”
“They won’t.” Her dad’s voice was calm, confident.
Kay agreed. “There’s safety in numbers, and we have three men to defend us.”
Deni looked at her brothers standing in the doorway. Logan looked as vulnerable as Beth. And Jeff didn’t look like he could defend himself, let alone the whole family.
“But what has it come to that we have to be defended?” she asked. “That people in our own neighborhood are going around killing people? Breaking into cars, looting . . . and what if the killer is there tonight at the meeting, enjoying all the gossip about the murders, pretending to be just one of us, trying to get along?”
She saw Beth sit up on the edge of her bed. She’d let her voice rise, and now her sister had heard. She wished she could take it back.
Beth came to the doorway, her face red with her effort not to cry. “Daddy, I’m scared.” Her voice was cracked and wobbly. “I don’t want to go to the meeting.”
“Me either,” Logan said.
Her mother’s face tightened. “Deni, look what you’ve done.”
She grunted. “What
I’ve
done? Mom, they don’t need me pointing these things out. They’re not stupid.”
“Deni’s right, Dad,” Jeff said. “What if the killer is at the meeting?”
Deni saw the struggle on her dad’s face, as if he wondered whether to shelter his family with empty, meaningless assurances, or just play it straight.
Doug’s answer surprised her. “Maybe we need to assume he will be there.” He looked from one person to the other. “The truth is, every one of us will be looking over a shoulder, and rightfully so. We have to be strong, and be careful who we trust. Now, I want everyone to get hold of themselves and take a breath. God is going to protect us, even if He has to use Jeff and me to do it.”
It was meant to be funny, but no one laughed.
“So, Deni, I don’t want to hear any more talk about you taking off to who knows where. That’s not a rational response to this, and you know it. I know you want to be with Craig. And you will. But right now, you’re with us, and we have to stick together.”
“Write him a letter, honey,” her mom said. “It’ll do you good.”
Deni wiped her eyes. “Can’t even mail it.”
“That’s okay. Write it anyway.”
Deni had never written Craig a letter, other than short, matter-of-fact emails. She’d always had a cell phone, and he was usually accessible. But maybe her mother’s idea was a good one. At least she could feel like she was communicating with him, even if it was only one-sided.
Jeff’s cheeks were mottled with heat and worry. “Dad, you want me to keep the shotgun with me at the meeting tonight?”
“I think we’re okay as long as it’s still light out. We’ll be home before dark.” He went to the door, then turned back.
“You know, none of you has to come to the meeting. I could go without you.”
“No, I want to go,” Deni said. “I want to see what people are saying. Maybe someone has news about the outage.”
“Me, too,” Kay said. “And I don’t want to leave anyone here alone.”
Doug looked at his children. “It’s going to be all right, guys.”
Always before, when her dad said those words, Deni believed them. But today she knew it was completely out of his hands. As everyone left her room, she pulled a notebook off her bookshelf and opened it to a clean page. Slowly, she started to write.
Dear Craig
,
I miss you so much. You have no idea how much. I don’t think I’ve gone a day without talking to you in over a year. And now this.
As if you don’t know by now, our power is out, our cars don’t run, our food is short, people are looting and fighting. But worst of all, there was a murder last night in our neighborhood. Beth’s teacher. The two of us found her and her husband dead today.
I’ll never get over it. The sight of them lying there like that. A sweet couple who probably never hurt anyone. They have pictures of children and grandchildren on the walls of their house. And no one even knows how to get word to them.
The sheriff’s department came, but there’s not a lot they can do without computers and labs. I keep thinking of all those episodes I watched of
Little House on the Prairie
when I was growing up. They had murders, didn’t they? Didn’t they have marshals or police of some kind who could solve their crimes and lock up the bad guys? Maybe Michael Landon in all his wisdom was the one who always just knew who had done it. Or Laura would stumble on the criminal and almost get killed, herself.
But this isn’t television. It’s real life.
I love you so much. I hope you’re all right. You’re probably in the Senate Building as we speak, moving and shaking, and figuring out the solution to the problems we’re having here.
If you have power and transportation, won’t you come get me? I know you will. In fact, even though everyone says you put your job first, that nothing is more important, I just know that you won’t let much time pass before you come to get me. We have to be together.
Somehow, we will be, even if I have to walk to you myself. I love you, Craig. I hope I’ll see you soon.
,
Deni
The neighbors began arriving at the lake early that evening, bringing lawn chairs and blankets. Deni dragged a chair into the shade and marked her spot. Some of the neighborhood children splashed and played in the small lake, which had a no-wake, no-swimming rule. But no one seemed concerned, since nothing was normal today. Though she knew it seemed childish, Deni thought of going into the water herself.
The gathering seemed almost festive after the stress of the last twenty-four hours. Two teenagers brought guitars and sat strumming background music in a spontaneous jam session. Brian McMullen, one of Jeff’s friends, went home and got his harmonica, and began playing along with them. It seemed like a neighborhood picnic.
But Deni refused to get lulled into a false sense of security. There was a killer among them. He could be one of the dads watching his children splash in the water, or one of the guitar players, or one of the older men in their golf shorts and navy blue socks, who looked so benign and harmless.
She searched the faces for the kind of evil it would have taken to murder the Abernathys. What would that look like in a man’s eyes? Or could it be a woman?
“Deni, thank goodness you’re home!”
She turned and saw one of her best friends from high school, Chris, whom she’d carpooled with every day since they’d gotten their licenses. They’d been inseparable since seventh grade, then lost touch after parting ways for college.
Deni had simply outgrown Chris.
She got up and tried to look happy to see her. “You, too. I thought you were still at school.”
“Nope, graduated last week.” She pulled her own chair up next to Deni’s. “I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve been dying with nobody to talk to except my parents and my little brother. I wish I’d known you were home. I’m dying of boredom.”
