Jack_ Secret Vengeance - F. Paul Wilson [50]
A part of Jack screamed that this was crazy, but he’d done crazier things, so he didn’t listen, and didn’t hesitate. They had to get in and get out ASAP. No telling how long they had.
Jack went through first, and took the mason jar of blood Levi handed through the window. He checked out the room as Levi clambered through.
“Look,” he whispered. “A mirror. Perfect.”
“For what?”
“For leaving a message.”
“Why’re you whispering?” Levi said, a nervous laugh nibbling at the edge of his voice. “Ain’t no one here but us chickens.”
“That’s true, but I’ll keep whispering, if you don’t mind.”
“Don’t mind ay-tall. Okay, how ’bout we write, ‘You got piney blood on your hands!!!’ That’ll spook him.”
Remembering the KISS rule, Jack shook his head.
“Nah. Let’s just make it ‘Blood on your hands’ and leave it at that. If he really does have blood on his hands, he’ll know what it means. If not, the rest won’t matter. But if you put ‘piney’ in there, he’ll start looking at the pineys in school.”
“Good thought. You want to write it?”
Dip his finger in clotted deer blood. Uh-uh.
Jack handed back the jar. “Um, no. You do it.”
“Hopin’ you’d say that.”
Levi unscrewed the top, stuck his finger in the jar, and went to work. When finished, he stepped back and surveyed his work.
“What y’think?”
Even in the dark room, the message of the glistening letters was clear.
BLOOD
ON
Your
HANDS
“Yeah, that’ll do. Let’s get out of here.”
They climbed out, lowered the window, fitted the screen back into place, and retreated to the orchard.
“What do we do now?” Levi said.
“We find ourselves a spot where we can see without being seen, and we watch what he does when he sees the message.”
Jack had told Eddie he was leaving early. Mr. Connell was supposed to pick them up after the game and Jack didn’t want anyone getting all worked up because they couldn’t find him.
It turned out to be a short wait before Carson and his folks pulled up in their respective cars. Jack could hear raised voices, arguing about something.
“Give me the binocs.”
Levi handed them over, saying, “Okay but don’t hog ’em.”
Jack raised them to his eyes. “We’ll see what he does, then move on. We don’t want to get caught when the cops show up.”
“Why’ll the cops come?”
“If you found a message written in blood on your bedroom mirror, wouldn’t you call the cops?”
“Nope. Pineys don’t call cops. Cops don’t pay us no nevermind anyhow.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“That’s not right.”
“That’s why we got piney justice.”
Jack saw the bedroom light up and focused through the window. He watched Toliver step into the room, freeze, and then half fall against the dresser before the mirror. It looked as if his knees had given out on him. With his hands braced on the dresser, he stared at the mirror, then straightened and ran from the room.
Jack lowered the glasses and handed them to Levi.
“He saw it, he’s spooked, he’s gone to tell his folks. Time for us to disappear.”
“Wait a second,” Levi said, raising the glasses. “We got time before we gotta skedaddle. I want to see what his folks do. Maybe they know about it. Maybe they’re in on it.”
Jack was about to say that they didn’t know for sure if there was anything to this “piney blood” thing in the first place, but decided not to bother. Levi seemed to have complete faith in Saree’s “talent.”
“Hey, he’s back!” Levi said. “But he’s alone. And guess what he’s doing.”
He handed Jack the binocs. Jack looked and saw Toliver spraying the mirror with what looked like Windex and wiping away the blood.
He felt a chill settle across his shoulders as he lowered the glasses.
“He didn’t tell his folks … he’s not calling the cops … that means…”
“Yeah,” Levi said. “He’s guilty. He does have blood on his hands.”
Jack couldn’t see any other conclusion.
“Yeah, but whose?”
SATURDAY
1
“Why so glum, chum?”
Jack looked up from his bowl of Cap’n Crunch and found his father staring down at him from the other side of the kitchen table. He was wearing his steel-rimmed reading glasses and had the morning