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The sound of hysterical crying burst into the night air as Zach yanked the front door. Molly brushed past him and flew into Dana’s arms, nearly knocking her off her feet.
“Mom! They’re gone,” she cried, burying her face against Dana’s shoulder. “And Ben—he’s bad, really bad.” Sobs shook through Molly as she held on tight, her cheeks wet with tears. “What if he dies, Mom? And what if that guy k-kills Alex and Katie?”
Horror avalanched through Dana. She pulled away and grabbed Molly’s shoulders. “What are you talking about? What guy? Who is gone?”
“Y-you weren’t here, Mom. Why weren’t you here?” The heartbroken accusation came on great, gulping sobs. “He came right through the window. There was glass everywhere, and h-he went after Ben, and Katie was screaming, and he said aw-awful things. Alex and Katie are gone!”
Her heart lodged in her throat, Dana grabbed Molly’s hand and started to run, dragging her along. “Come on, Molly. Hurry!”
At the porch steps, Molly balked. “Th-there’s blood. It’s everywhere. Oh, Mom! I got so scared—I heard arguing through the floor vent in my room. A-and gunshots—”
Dana kept moving, pulling Molly along despite her resistance. “Where’s Grandma?”
“She’s with Ben, an’ she’s scared, too. She got here just before you.”
Wrapping an arm tightly around her daughter’s shoulders, Dana strode up the steps. “I don’t want you out here alone, sweetheart.”
“But—”
A siren wailed in the distance.
“Did you call 911?”
“The c-call didn’t go through. I’ve been hoping and hoping you’d come back.”
So that siren would only be the deputy. Her mind racing, Dana grabbed the cell phone from her shirt pocket and rapidly dialed for an ambulance as she crossed the porch and hurried inside the kitchen.
Molly hadn’t been far wrong.
Zach had dropped to one knee by Ben’s head to take his pulse. The old man lay in a pool of blood, one arm outstretched and his face ashen. Smears of blood covered the counter, the front of the cabinets.
Her hands bathed in his blood and her face streaked with tears, Vivian knelt next to him holding a crimson-stained kitchen towel at his wounded side.
Zach rose. “His pulse is weak but fairly steady. All of you stay here. I’m going to search the house.”
“Thank goodness you’re here,” Vivian whispered as Zach disappeared into the living room. “Is help on the way?”
Nodding, Dana dropped to her knees, waves of cold fear turning her blood to ice water as images of Alex and Katie rushed through her. “Has he talked to you? Do you know what happened? What about the kids?”
Vivian’s lower lip trembled, and fresh tears welled in her eyes. “I—I don’t know. I got here a couple minutes ago. I—I should have been here sooner, but the library meeting ran longer than I thought, and I had to get gasoline, and—”
“Mom, that doesn’t matter. What about Alex and Katie?”
Zach strode into the room, his face grim. “The kids aren’t here, anywhere. There are signs of struggle in the living room, and some blood on the floor.”
Blood? Could Alex have struggled with the intruder? Was he hurt? A thousand images crashed through Dana’s thoughts—of her son’s terror, of the pain he could be in right now. Or worse.
“Don’t touch anything in here,” Zach ordered. “The investigators need to search for latent prints.”
A vehicle skidded to a halt on the gravel outside. A car door slammed.
Zach went to Molly and took her face gently in his hands. “You’ve been a brave girl, honey. Now you need to tell us everything—everything you saw or heard. The other kids are depending on you, sweetheart.”
“I—I heard men shouting. Ben and someone else. I couldn’t hear all they said, except the other guy said h-he—”
The front door burst open, and Carl Robinson strode inside, his face mottled with fury and his gun drawn. “Step away from that girl, Forrester. Make one wrong move and you’re a dead man. And that’s a promise.”
Molly screamed in terror and threw her arms around Zach’s waist.
