Home Invasion - J. A. Johnstone [9]
Alex turned her head and looked at the way the line of bullet holes marched across the wall in a ragged but relatively straight line. Pete’s bullet had hit the man in the chest and knocked him back into the cabinet, making his arms fly out at the sides just as he pulled the trigger. That theory fit the evidence. There were no other bullet holes, so the wounded man must not have gotten off even a single shot. A similar automatic weapon lay on the carpet next to the bloodstains where the second burglar had fallen.
Forensics would determine the truth of all this, but Alex was confident that she had things right for the most part. She looked into the face of the dead man, which was hard and ugly in death as it had been in life, and wanted to ask him why he and his companion had come here tonight to ruin the lives of two good people.
But there were no answers there and never would be. Evil had invaded the McNamara home, just as evil always invaded paradise sooner or later. The psychologists and the social engineers wanted people to believe that evil didn’t really exist, that it was actually just a series of poor choices forced on individuals by a society that was indifferent at best and hostile at worst.
Alex had been a cop long enough to know what a crock that was. Evil existed, all right.
She was looking at it, right here, right now.
And as always, it couldn’t explain why it did the terrible things it did. It was just… evil.
The nature of the beast.
Alex sighed and came to her feet. It was just about the last thing in the world she wanted to do right now, but she had to go talk to Pete McNamara.
CHAPTER 6
It was four in the morning before Alex got home. Between the lack of sleep and the emotional turmoil of dealing with what had happened, she was exhausted. She took off her gun, badge, and wind-breaker and kicked off her shoes, but other than that she was still fully dressed when she fell into her bed and went right to sleep on top of the covers.
She slept like she’d been drugged, but that didn’t last. Sometime before dawn, she woke up and realized that she should have checked on Jack when she came in. After the brief argument earlier, she didn’t think he would have snuck out again, but although she hated to admit it to herself, she wasn’t sure about that.
Jack had changed. Maybe she had, too.
She dragged herself out of bed and went down the hall to his room. No light came under the door, and she didn’t hear anything when she leaned closer to it. A lot of times he left the TV or the radio on all night. They had argued about that very thing. Alex didn’t see the point of burning the electricity if he was asleep. The fact that Jack’s bedroom was dark and quiet actually increased her worry a little.
She turned the knob quietly and eased the door open just enough to stick her head in. Her eyes were adjusted to the darkness well enough for her to be able to make out the shape sprawled on the bed. She heard his deep, regular breathing as well.
That was a relief, she thought as she closed the door as quietly as she’d opened it. She knew now that he was here, and safe, and she could go back to sleep.
If only it had been that easy.
Instead she was restless, dozing off and then waking up with a start, over and over, and when she did sleep long enough to dream, they were nightmares haunted by blood and death. It was almost a relief when the phone rang at eight o’clock, forcing her to get up.
“Hello,” she slurred into it.
“I didn’t wake you, did I, Alex?”
She recognized Ed Ruiz’s voice. Ed owned the local hardware store, which was able to survive because it was such a long drive to the county seat and one of the big box discount stores. He was also the mayor of Home.
“No, I’m fine. What’s up, Ed?”
“I heard about what happened to the McNamaras. Terrible, just terrible.”
“Yeah.” She could hear the sincerity in Ruiz’s voice and knew he really felt