Home Invasion - J. A. Johnstone [101]
“I can’t go in … there,” Jimmy said when Jack and Rowdy had levered the window open.
“Sure you can, “ Rowdy said. “Jack can go in first, and then he’ll help you while I give you a boost out here.”
“No, I mean … I can’t break into the school.”
“We’re not breaking in, Jimmy,” Jack said. “The window was unlocked. You saw how we got it open without any trouble.”
“It’s still … trespassing. We don’t have permission to … be here.”
Jack saw the exasperation on Rowdy’s face, so before his friend could say something hurtful, he went on quickly, “This is an emergency, Jimmy. You know all about emergencies. You’ve handled enough of ’em over the years.”
“Well… yeah, I… guess so.”
“Sometimes you have to bend the rules a little in an emergency, right?”
Jimmy shrugged. “The chief says … we go by the book.”
“I know. Believe me, I know. But I also know she’d want us to get somewhere safe and out of sight, so those bad guys can’t get us.”
“Yeah, that’s … true.” Jimmy sighed and nodded. “All right, but it’s … high. I don’t know if I can climb in.”
Rowdy slapped him on the shoulder. “Sure you can, buddy. Like I said, we’ll help you.”
It took a few minutes, but all three of them managed to get inside. Jack felt better right away because of the familiar surroundings, and because they weren’t out in the open where they could be spotted easily anymore.
“We’ll go to the library,” he said. “That’ll give us a good view of the front of the school. We’ll be able to see if anybody’s coming.”
Rowdy had brought the deer rifle from the pickup. “Yeah, maybe we can pick ’em off.”
“We don’t shoot unless we have to,” Jack said. “That’ll just draw attention to us.”
“Don’t you want to kill as many of those bastards as we can, Jack?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” And Jack was surprised to realize he was telling the truth. He had never considered himself a really violent person, but those guys had come into his town and shot it up and killed God knew how many people already. Yeah, given the chance, he could pull the trigger on any of them.
Hell, yeah.
With all the lights off, the hallways of the school were dim and shadowy and kind of spooky. Jack had never seen them this empty. Their footsteps echoed hollowly as they made their way through the wings of the sprawling building to the area where the administrative offices and the library were located. The library had several big windows that looked out over the front of the school.
The library doors might be locked, Jack thought, but they would force their way in if they had to.
When they reached the double doors that were half-glass, Jack grasped the handle of one and pulled. It opened easily. That was a relief. With everything that had gone wrong so far today, it was only fair that something go right for a change.
He went in and half-turned to motion for Rowdy and Jimmy to follow him. The door swung shut behind them as they came in.
Someone lunged out of the shadows between some sets of shelves, tackled Jack, and drove him to the floor, knocking the air out of his lungs and stunning him.
Eloise was still alive. That was something to be thankful for, anyway, Alex thought as she was prodded through the police station at gunpoint. Eloise had been tied into her chair at the dispatch station. Her face was pale and tear-streaked, and when she saw Alex, she exclaimed, “Oh, my God! Alex, they got you, too?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid so.”
“What about Clint? Have you see him? Do you know if he’s all right?”
Alex could only shake her head and say, “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him.”
Sounding amused, Garaldo asked, “Who is this Clint?”
“One of my officers,” Alex grated.
Garaldo shrugged. “Then he is probably dead. We have killed all of them we have found, except for you, of course. Four men and a woman.”
Eloise began to sob, and Alex felt her stomach clench in horror at the casual way Garaldo talked about murdering her officers.
But Garaldo had said four men and a woman. The woman was poor Betsy, of course,