Home Invasion - J. A. Johnstone [103]
A surge of surprise went through Jack as he realized the man looked familiar. A second later, he placed the face from various newcasts. This was Clayton Cochrum, that scumbag lawyer who had represented Emilio Navarre.
And the blonde was a TV reporter. Jack remembered seeing her, too. He didn’t know who the other guy was, but obviously not one of the army of thugs that had invaded Home this morning.
“Rowdy,” Jack said. “Rowdy, take it easy. I think we’re all on the same side.”
Cochrum struggled to his feet. “There you go, kid. You’re thinking straight now.” He took hold of his chin and wiggled his jaw back and forth, wincing as he did so. “Damn, you pack a hell of a punch for a youngster.”
“You’re the one who jumped me, mister,” Jack said coldly.
“We thought you were some of those … those killers. The ones who blew our helicopter out of the sky.”
“I saw … that,” Jimmy said.
The reporter twisted and slapped at him. “Put me down, you big oaf! What the hell’s wrong with you? Are you retarded or something?”
“I have … Down Syndrome.” Carefully, Jimmy put the woman back on her feet. “I’m sorry.”
Jack said, “You don’t have anything to apologize for, Jimmy. She would’ve hit Rowdy with that chair if you hadn’t stopped her.”
“So who’s this guy I’m sittin’ on?” Rowdy asked from the floor. “Do I let him up?”
“He’s Wilma’s cameraman,” Cochrum explained.
“Yeah, let him up, Rowdy,” Jack said. “What are you people doing in here?”
“Trying to stay alive. What about you?”
Jack shrugged. “Same thing, I guess.”
Rowdy stood up. The cameraman climbed to his feet and glared at him.
Cochrum said, “After those guys shot down the helicopter, we figured they might come looking for us, so we ran around the school and broke a window. That let us into the kitchen. From there we came up here so we could keep an eye out through the windows. Nobody’s come poking around, though, until you kids.”
“They probably figured you were all on the helicopter,” Jack said. “And we’re not all kids. Jimmy there is a grown man. In fact, he’s one of the dispatchers for the police department.”
“Really?” Cochrum looked at Jimmy. “What are the cops doing to stop those crazy killers?”
“I don’t … know. We can’t find the … chief. She’s Jack’s mom.”
Cochrum turned his attention back to Jack. “You’re Chief Bonner’s son?”
“That’s right. We tried to get to the police station, but there were too many of them for us to get through. We retreated here.”
“You’ve got guns,” the reporter said. “Nobody in Home is supposed to have guns.”
Jack frowned. “Well, lady, you’d better hope that we’re not the only ones, because if we are, there’s a good chance none of us will live to see the sun go down today.”
He might have said more, but at that moment, voices sounded somewhere outside the library, echoing in the school’s deserted hallways. Jack held up a hand and whispered, “Somebody’s coming!”
CHAPTER 42
Since it seemed likely that whoever was responsible for the roadblocks would have all the routes into Home closed off, Ford, Parker, Earl, and Callahan abandoned the pickup and approached the town on foot. Ford, Parker, and Callahan were armed with pistols and rifles. Reluctantly, Ford had even given Earl a pistol, warning him, “If you shoot me, I’ll never forgive you.”
“I’ll try not to, but you’re an awfully big target,” Earl had said.
Callahan had done enough hunting in his life to know how to move across the landscape undetected. So had Ford and Parker, but they had been hunting men, not wild game.
“Just do what we do,” Parker told Earl.
“I’ll try.”
Ford recalled seeing a creek that ran close to Home on the map they had studied the day before. They had circled to the north, found where the road they were on crossed the creek, and pulled off to park the pickup under the bridge where it wouldn’t be noticed. Then