Doppelgangster - Laura Resnick [129]
A moment later, the beam of a flashlight shone into Lucky’s face. He squinted, turned his head away, and then dived sideways into the darkness.
The person holding the flashlight called, “Max? Esther? I know you’re there. I don’t want to hurt you.”
It was Lucky’s voice.
I stopped breathing.
Oh, no, I thought. No.
The flashlight turned in our general direction. Since we were on the floor, the beam of light missed us and hit Nelli. From my prone position, I could see the snarling dog stiffen and freeze, evidently shocked by the sound of her friend’s voice coming from the creature she instinctively wanted to attack.
From the darkness about ten feet to our left, Lucky demanded, “Who’s there? Who’s got that light?”
“Who d’you think?” Lucky’s voice came from directly behind the flashlight, about fifteen feet in front of where Max and I lay in an awkward heap.
Nelli whined and backed away from the voice, unnerved by this turn of events. She stepped on my hair, immobilizing me. I could tell she was trembling.
“Who is that?” On our left, Lucky sounded confused and hostile.
“It’s me, you putz,” said the voice with the flashlight.
I started breathing again. In short little pants of panic. “Max,” I whispered. “What do we do?”
Max cleared his throat and called, “Lucky?”
Two men answered at once. “Yeah?”
“Oh, dear,” Max said.
“Shit,” said Lucky.
“Lucky,” Max said, “I want you to think about what token you may have lost recently.”
“What?” said the creature with the flashlight.
“Token?” said Lucky on our left.
“Think hard,” I said.
“Right! What the hell that did that pickpocket priest filch from me?” Lucky said to himself. “What am I missing?”
I tugged at Nelli’s leg, trying to get her to take her foot off my hair. She was making confused little whining noises and still shaking.
“Doc? Get Nelli to calm down,” said the flashlight voice. “Look, I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m gonna behead that thing.”
“Thing? Oh, you gotta be kidding me,” said Lucky, outraged. I could tell that he was on the move, changing his location.
The doppelgangster could tell, too. The beam of its flashlight was searching the church, using its target’s voice as a guide. While searching, it called to us, “Doc, I just want to give you and Esther a quick poke with my knife and make sure you are who I think you are.”
“Poke?” Lucky said. “I think . . . hang on . . . yeah! One of my knives is missing, Doc! It’s not in my pocket. That demented priest stole a knife from me!”
“Then you know what to do, Lucky!” Max called.
“I was here to talk about funerals,” Lucky said angrily. “And he stole from me! In church.”
“Focus, Lucky!” I shouted.
“It turns out that the two of you was here talkin’ to Father Gabriel the other day when I thought you was in Brooklyn with me,” the doppelgangster said. “So now we’re gonna have to figure out who’s real and who ain’t.”
“The priest is lying to you!” I shouted at the doppelgangster. “He’s the one who’s behind all of this! And, anyhow, you’re the one who’s not real!”
The doppelgangster’s footsteps started approaching us. “Oh? Fine. Convince me.”
Nelli’s shaking got worse, and a horrible sound came out of her throat. She shifted position, evidently intending to protect us, but obviously reluctant to attack something that sounded like just Lucky. Fortunately, the uncertain shuffling of her paws allowed me to free my hair and sit up.
“Hey, you!” Lucky shouted from another part of the dark church. “Over here, schmuck!”
“Hold still and face the music like a man!” the doppelgangster snapped at Lucky. The beam of the flashlight roved around in search of its quarry. “I promise you won’t feel a thing.”
While the doppelgangster’s attention was distracted, I nudged Max, and we started hauling ourselves off the floor and out of the pew as quietly as we could. I grabbed Nelli’s leash, which Max had dropped when he fell, and tugged. She resisted, still swamped with indecision about the doppelgangster.
“Doc, an evil wizard made this thing,” Lucky called out to Max in the dark. “So I’m thinking it ain’t such a good idea to let