Red Dragon - Thomas Harris [136]
Dolarhyde leaped high to land on Graham's stomach with both feet and he had the knife out now and never looked up at the thin screaming from the water's edge. He pinned Graham with his knees, raised the knife high and grunted as he brought it down. The blade missed Graham's eye and crunched deep into his cheek.
Dolarhyde rocked forward and put his weight on the handle of the knife to shove it through Graham's head.
The rod whistled as Molly swung it hard at Dolarhyde's face. The big Rapala's hooks sank solidly in his cheek and the reel screamed, paying out line as she drew back to strike again.
He growled, grabbed at his face as she hit him, and the treble hooks jammed into his hand as well. One hand free, one hand hooked to his face, he tugged the knife out and started after her.
Graham rolled over, got to his knees, then his feet, eyes wild and choking blood he ran, ran from Dolarhyde, ran until he collapsed.
Molly ran for the dunes, Willy ahead of her. Dolarhyde was coming, dragging tile rod. It caught on a bush and pulled him howling to a stop before he thought to cut the line.
“Run baby, run baby, run baby! Don't look back,” she gasped. Her legs were long and she shoved the boy ahead of her, the crashing ever closer in the brush behind them.
They had one hundred yards on him when they left the dunes, seventy yards when they reached the house. Scrambling up the stairs. Clawing in Will's closet.
To Willy, “Stay here.”
Down again to meet him. Down to the kitchen, not ready, fumbling with the speedloader.
She forgot the stance and she forgot the front sight but she got a good twohanded grip on the pistol and as the door exploded inward she blew a rat hole through his thigh - “Muhner!” - and she shot him in the face as he slid down the door facing and she shot him in the face as he sat on the floor and she ran to him and shot him twice in the face as he sprawled against the wall, scalp down to his chin and his hair on fire.
# # #
Willy tore up a sheet and went to look for Will. His legs were shaking and he fell several times crossing the yard.
The sheriff's deputies and ambulances came before Molly ever thought to call them. She was taking a shower when they came in the house behind their pistols. She was scrubbing hard at the flecks of blood and bone on her face and hair and she couldn't answer when a deputy tried to talk to her through the shower curtain.
One of the deputies finally picked up the dangling telephone receiver and talked to Crawford in Washington, who had heard the shots and summoned them.
“I don't know, they're bringing him in now,” the deputy said. He looked out the window as the litter passed. “It don't look good to me,” he said.
? HYPERLINK “” \l “CONTENTS” ??
Red Dragon
CHAPTER 54
On the wall at the foot of the bed there was a clock with numbers large enough to read through the drugs and the pain.
When Will Graham could open his right eye, he saw the clock and knew where he was - an intensivecare unit. He knew to watch the clock. Its movement assured him that this was passing, would pass.
That's what it was there for.
It said four o'clock. He had no idea which four o'clock and he didn't care, as long as the hands were moving. He drifted away.
The clock said eight when he opened his eye again.
Someone was to the side of him. Cautiously he turned his eye. It was Molly, looking out the window. She was thin. He tried to speak, but a great ache filled the left side of his head when he moved his jaw. His head and his chest did not throb together. It was more of a syncopation. He made a noise as she left the room.
The window was light when they pulled and tugged at him and did things that made the cords in his neck stand out.
Yellow light when he saw Crawford's face over him.
Graham managed to wink. When Crawford grinned, Graham could see a piece of spinach between his teeth.
Odd. Crawford eschewed most vegetables.
Graham made writing motions