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“Could be a long wait,” Melton said.
“I don’t think it’ll be long. He’ll figure out that I took the flash drives. He’ll have to come, and soon.”
—
Melton sat inthe Zen room, named, Cooper said, by the family who owned the house before them. With windows that bulged out from the back of the house, to catch both the rising and setting sun in the winter, she could see the backyards of all the adjacent houses. That, she thought, might well be where he’d come from.
The other option was up the hill from the street below the bluff, and Cooper should catch that. He’d come, they both thought, before they’d be expected to go to bed. The house was a fortress, and he’d either ring the bell, or knock, or slip a crowbar into a door and force it.
He knew the house. If they were upstairs, in bed, and he forced a door, anyone on the second floor would have time to lock one of the heavy bedroom doors, and get a gun, if one was available. He’d come when the lights were lit on the lower floor, when he could burst in and be right on top of them.
Much like he’d done with Alex and the boys.
Cooper sat in the darkened office, watching. Nothing happening on the street below. The occasional car, two old people walking their dog, as they did every night.
After a while, her mind shifted to a new gear, the mental video of the bodies on the Persian carpet, and finally her son’s single blue eye looking up at her. It was the nightmare, but she was awake, seeing the video out over the street...
Then Hess came and the nightmare blipped out, like a burning piece of film.
—
Hess came upthe heavily wooded hill, from the street below, at eight o’clock. He was dressed in black pants and a dark blue sweatshirt, and was nearly invisible in the dark. The hill was steep, but not long, and at the top he stopped to watch. The Sand house was to his left, with lights on the lower floor.
She was back.
The house on the corner, across from his spot, was dark except for a single light on the top floor, in back. A bedroom or bathroom. The house on the other side of the Sand house was lit both up and down. He’d have to be careful, there.
He watched for a while but could see no movement in the Sand house. The curtains had been pulled and wouldn’t show anything, anyway. He felt the lump in his pocket: he was carrying the gun he’d used on the Sands, retrieved from beneath the railroad tracks. If he were caught hiding here, lurking, he’d be in trouble.
He couldn’t decide if he should cross the street. That afternoon, and on the way over, he’d come up with several different plans; the only one that would give him everything he wanted, everything he had to have, would be if he were able to get inside the house without being seen or heard. He had to take Cooper, preferably alive, and then find the flash drives and the laptops.
With an actress and a kitchen knife held to her face, and the promise not to mutilate her if she gave up the drives and the laptops, he should be able to recover them. And, then, of course, he’d kill her.
If he could get inside. On this night, in the dark of the moon, he’dslip across the street, and circle the house, looking for a weakness. If a door were open, unlocked, he’d do it. If not, he’d think of something else, but he wasn’t sure what it would be.
—
Cooper called, “Ann!Ann! He’s here.”
Melton came quickly. Cooper was looking out a narrow space between a window blind and the frame. Melton could hear her breathing, excited, stressed: “He’s right at the corner. Look maybe fifteen feet to the left of the street lamp, by that round bush...”
After a moment, Melton said, “I got him. Yup. I got him. Oh: here he comes.”
“Which door?”
“He’s going to the hedge... I can’t see him anymore... he’s by the hedge...”
“Let me see, let me see...”
Melton stepped away, Cooper looked out. She could see no motion at first, but then, a sudden step and Hess was in the side yard, where the basketball net was.
“I don’t know, I can’t see him anymore, he’s too close to the house. He could be coming in the garage door, but he could come around to the front...”
Cooper considered, then said, “I’m going downstairs with the gun. You stay here. I should hear him if he comes in, and if he doesn’t, you should see him run away. His car must be around here somewhere, and he’ll go back down the hill to get to it.”
“That’s scary,” Melton said. “Are you sure...”
“I’m going. You watch.”
