First Thrills - Lee Child [95]
The effort proved futile, and expended more energy than Howard could afford. He had no choice but to continue using only his hands.
Three minutes gained him little more than ten feet along the cable. His fingers quickly stiffened into inflexible claws around the bundled steel wires. His heart drummed behind his ribs. His lungs labored with every breath.
Four more minutes elapsed.
He thought that if he could just reach the next chair he could stop and rest, perhaps shake some feeling back into his hands. But beyond the faint green light of the glow stick, he saw only darkness.
His right hand slid forward another inch. Then his left. Right. Then . . .
His left hand slipped from the cable, leaving him hanging by the floundering grip of his right.
An instant before Howard fell, the corpse appeared before him again, taking hold of Howard’s jacket collar and jerking him upward with unfathomable strength. Howard reached out with grabbing hands until once again he had secured a firm grip on the cable.
The corpse hung only inches in front of Howard by a single rotting hand, showing no strain in his effort. His expression remained a sneering, cadaverous grin. No longer just a specter, the dead man had become something shockingly more tangible. The torn flesh of his scalp flapped in the wind. His stench was foul, nauseating.
The corpse reached inside his tattered suit coat. “Recognize this, Howard?”
Howard’s eyes fell to the nylon lanyard rolling out of Terry’s free hand. At each end of the six-foot cord was a copper rebar hook. It was identical to the safety strap worn by Terry on the day of his fatal fall. One end of it had been hooked onto itself, forming a loop. Howard’s eyes came back up.
“Now it’s my turn.” The corpse slipped the loop over Howard’s right foot, then pulled it up his leg to the top of the thigh.
“Terry, what the hell are you doing?”
The corpse answered with a hard upward tug, tightening the loop like a noose.
Howard cried out in pain. “Dammit, Terry, what are you doing to me?”
Terry proceeded to attach the remaining hook to the cable above, snapping it closed with a click. “It is time for your confession, Howard.”
“I told you I have nothing to conf—”
A fist of stripped bone struck Howard across the jaw. “Say it, Howard!”
Howard shook his head furiously, the coppery taste of blood filling his mouth. “I told you, I did nothing! The hook was faulty. The locking mechanism just snapped . . .”
Another punch struck Howard’s opposite cheek.
“These things don’t just snap, Howard! Or . . . do they?” The corpse yanked downward on the lanyard.
“No!” Howard screamed. “Don’t, please! Terry, what ever you think happened that day—”
“You gave me the harness, Howard. Fifteen years together, never once had you provided me my safety harness on a building site.”
“It wasn’t my fault!”
“Liar! You looked me in the eyes as I fell, and I saw it on your face. You took plea sure in my fall, didn’t you? Say it!”
“Terry, I didn’t—”
“Say it!” The corpse yanked again on the lanyard, harder this time. “Say it!”
It was guilt as much as terror that finally broke Howard. “Yes! I killed you! Is that what you wanted to hear?” Hot tears welled in his eyes.
“Is it the truth?”
“I swear on my life it’s the truth!” He lost another precious inch of his grip on the cable. He now clutched it with only the tips of his numb fingers. “I’ve confessed, Terry, now please! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!”
“Sorry isn’t good enough, Howard! Not for me, nor for my wife and son who have cried on your shoulder all these many months as I was forced to look on.”
Howard looked into Terry’s eyes, his mind racing. “Your son . . . yes . . . Kyle! Terry, I saved Kyle from—”
The corpse drove a fist into Howard’s stomach. “Don’t you ever mention my son’s name, Howard!”
Howard’s breath shot out of him. He fought to draw air back into his constricted lunges. “But