Code 61 - Donald Harstad [153]
Sally seemed to devote most of her time to looking toward our right.
Then lights started going off in the house. The parlor and dining room lights went first, then most of the lights in the kitchen. I could see Kevin at one point, very clearly, in the glazed main door. He just stood and stared out the door for a while, then disappeared from view.
“Sally?”
“What?”
“Use the night scope, and check the whole area for a minute. Especially to the right. Make sure we aren't missing anything.”
“Oooh. Okay.”
After about a minute, she said, “Nothing.”
We waited some more. Finally, she said, “Do you really think he might come here?” “I don't want to take the chance that he will,” I said. Twenty minutes later, Sally spoke. “I thought I saw something.”
“Where?”
“Over there.”
That did me a lot of good. I could hear her fumbling for the night scope. “Just a sec … ”
“Where?”
“Look toward the back door, then keep going to the right. About halfway to the tree line, I thought I saw something move…. ”
I looked. I saw nothing. Then I heard the click of the night scope being turned on.
“Jesus Christ!” I'd never heard somebody yell in a whisper before.
“What?”
“There's somebody out there!”
“Give me the scope.”
“Just a minute … ”
“Just give me the goddamned scope!” I hissed.
“Jeeez,” she said, but handed it over, reluctantly. I was about to ask her where this somebody was, when I saw him. He was keeping low, and moving around the house from the back to the front, staying under the first floor windows, and apparently going to the front door.
“He looks like he's headed to the front door,” I said.
I watched for a moment. The rain had let up a bit, but he was still difficult to make out. There was something about the way he walked that struck me as familiar.
“Call Borman,” I whispered, “and alert him.” Coming from the direction of the rear of the house, our intruder would have come up from the east, or bluff side.
Not from Borman's direction. I wanted Borman to be aware that he might have to move in a hurry.
Sally keyed the mike on her walkie-talkie, and said, “Eight? Eight?”
Either she'd had her receiver volume turned up earlier, or she'd bumped the dial when she took it out of the case. Either way, there was a loud scratching sound from her radio, and Borman clearly said “Eight … ” in what I thought was a booming voice. I must have jumped a foot.
Sally was quick. Very. She had the volume back down before he finished with “ … go ahead.”
The man I was watching turned, and cocked his head. He might have heard the radio, but probably not clearly. He listened for a few seconds, and then turned back toward the house. But in that few seconds, I hit the zoom button, and I made him.
“Son of a bitch,” I said.
“What, what?” said Sally. Over in her direction, I could hear Borman's voice, barely audible now, calling us.
“Answer him, tell him to stand by, we have movement.”
She did.
“I made our man out there,” I said.
“Peale?”
“William Chester.”
THIRTY-ONE
Wednesday, October 11, 2000
23:30
“The vampire hunter?” asked Sally.
“Yep.” He was holding very still, as I looked. There was no doubt. I could see bulges on his back and down one side, that looked like that pack he'd had earlier, and something else I couldn't quite make out. But it was him, all right. I watched him move toward the porch, creep up the steps, and then crouch down using a pillar as cover, and peer into the house through the glazed doors. He froze there. After a minute, I handed the night scope to Sally.
“Look at the front porch, behind the right-hand pillar.”
Without the benefit of the scope, the night was suddenly much darker.
“Oh, yeah. I see him.” After a second, she said, “Carl, ya think, I mean, since he hunts vampires, you know … ”
“That he's got one now?”
“Yeah. Like that.”
“Naw. I think he's still looking.” I tried