Hide & Seek - James Patterson [95]
“The Knicks suck,” the young brick seated next to him passed along the sum total of his acquired wisdom.
“Burgers here suck too,” Will said, and the other man laughed.
Soul brothers, are we? Will wanted to continue the conversation in earnest. Think so? Want to come with me to my ex-wife’s house? I’m going to kill the bitch and her two kids. You in? You with me on this?
“Patrick Ewing really sucks,” the other man contributed another choice nugget.
Will nodded sympathetically, and figured it was time to get out of the bar. Truth be known, he didn’t know the Knicks from the Yankees from the New York Jets.
It was dark outside. He could see that through the bar’s front window.
“Well, time to head on home to the missus,” he told his new mate, then stood up at the bar.
Sure you don’t want to tag along, pal? This is going to be a big night in Bedford. I can promise you that.
CHAPTER 118
IT WASN’T MUCH of a problem for him to get onto the estate grounds undetected. Will parked in one of the Lake Club lots, then crossed over through pine woods and a narrow meadow.
No sweat so far. Just the way he’d figured it.
Walking in the field of high grass made him remember something. He’d ridden on horseback there with Allie, when he was only a baby. He’d done it to impress Maggie. He knew it would touch her down below her belt. He knew a woman’s soft spots, knew the buttons to hit. He had carefully pushed all of Maggie’s, every single one, one by one.
He had been inside the house on a trial run the week before, so he’d already figured how this would go. The cellar door under the original wing was open, as it always was.
He didn’t use his flashlight until he was safely inside. The cellar was a creepy place. The house had been built on bare ground, and the original boulders were still down there. There was a wooden stairway up from where the freezer was to the kitchen.
Will used the stairs and was in the house by a little past 11:40. It was a school night and everyone had gone to bed. JAM! Jennie, Allie, and Maggie … Notice, no Will.
Maggie was still a country girl at heart—early to bed, early to rise. The quiet house reminded him of a damn morgue, which seemed appropriate enough.
In a way, Maggie had given him the idea for tonight. Probably for good reasons, she noticed every news story about a husband who ran amok and killed one or more family members.
That was pretty much what Will planned to do tonight. Kill all of them, right there in the house. Then disappear for good. The murders would never be solved, and that struck him as just the right touch.
He had a Smith and Wesson, sixteen shots, plus a nasty hunting knife. That was more than enough firepower. If need be, he could do the job with his bare hands. There was merit to that approach too, the personal touch.
“Families really suck,” Will mumbled as he walked up the thickly, carpeted stairs to the second floor.
There wasn’t a sound to be heard up there. Maybe this is a trap, he thought, but he knew it couldn’t be.
This train was leaving the station. There was no way to stop it now. No way on heaven or earth to stop this from happening.
He was breathing real quietly, every breath even, and exactly the same.
He was feeling confident, real good about this. No guilt. No feelings at all.
It was the right thing to do.
Ever so slowly, he opened the bedroom door.
He could see everything in soft, yellow moonlight streaming from the window.
No surprises here. No surprises anywhere tonight.
“Hello, little buddy,” Will said to Allie.
CHAPTER 119
WHAT THE HELL was that? What was that? We had all gone to bed early, and I’d fallen asleep almost immediately.
I had been dreaming about singing at a huge outdoor concert—and then completely losing it onstage. No need to call Dr. Freud in to explain that one.
I awoke and I thought I heard a noise upstairs.
Was Jennie just going to bed?
I sat up, looked at the