Latham's Landing (19 page)

Furnishings had appeared in the main house
about his fifth visit. A master bedroom suite, a living room with
overstuffed easy chair, an old-fashioned icebox complete with a
chunk of ice. Driftwood was also always ready in the fireplace for
a fire, with an extra pile on the porch outside. When he needed it,
the electric worked, and so did the water closet.

Yes, it was good to have friends.

Lease motored to a stop more than an hour
later before a small dock. A boat was there also tied up to the
dock, bobbing on the waves.

“
Throw me the rope.”

Lease strained to see in the darkness. There
was now a shape on the dock, almost like a child, but squatter.
“Mac?”

“
Throw it,” the hoarse voice said
again.

That wasn’t Mac, the figure was too small.
But there was something unsettling about it appearing there out of
nowhere. Lease’s flashlight was in his pocket, at his fingertips.
But he didn’t reach for it.

The figure shifted on the dock. There was a
soft clicking noise, like a dog’s claws on wood.

Lease sat there, considering his options, his
eyes flicking up to the house and then back again to the figure,
his hands at the motor’s controls. On the seventh glance, he saw
the figure was missing.

The sliding sound of nails on steel came from
the bow of his boat.

Lease panicked, yanking on the motor. It
roared to life and he gunned it, speeding away from shore without
looking back.

When he was fifty yards away—far enough away
to feel safe, he stopped and threw out an anchor. Then he tried to
get a hold of himself.

You’ve got two bodies in the boat, and it’s
starting to smell like it. You’ve got to get rid of them by
daybreak, clean out all the blood, and get the boat back to your
brother.

Lease was tempted to dump Drake and Bowman
over the side. But what if they floated to shore? Mac had told him
time and time again that bodies at Latham’s Landing disappeared
forever. He’d promised that, in fact. But what if the bodies didn’t
wash up there?

Lease worked the problem over in his mind for
close to an hour with no solution. Finally, he levered Bowman out
of the boat, the body landing in the water with a splash. It slowly
floated away, toward the island.

Lease then tried to haul Drake out of the
boat as well, but the man’s sudden groan scared him so much he
dropped him. Closer inspection showed his bullet had only grazed
Drake’s temple, not put him down for good, as Lease had
intended.

How the hell did I miss at such close
range?

Lease huddled on the boat seat, pulling his
coat around himself. The night had gotten chilly suddenly. There
was unexpectedly another loud peal in the night air.

He called Mac as a gonging faded away

“
You here yet?” Mac asked, tense. “I’m
at the main house. Follow the lights.”

“
It’s too risky tonight for me to dock,
Mac,” Lease replied, unwilling to admit he’d seen the dock demon.
Saying it would make the thing real
. “What the hell is that
noise?”

“
Just the bell. Come on and tie to the
dock already.”

“
Why is it ringing?”

“
It’s feeding time,” Mac said with a
laugh. “You’d better get here before you miss all the fun.” He hung
up.

Lease huddled on the boat seat, shivering.
But he made no move to start the motor.

Caroline, Barb, and Helter sat with their
backs against the wall, the fire burning brightly in front of them,
the dwindling pile of incense and herbs to Caroline’s right. Nearby
was Helter’s sled with the charges, and his snowmobile, pointed
towards the house, ready to move to higher ground if the lake water
encroached. Beyond that to Helter’s right was the tent and the
propane cooker.

After eating most of Barb’s food, they had
saved the potato chips and soda for a hasty breakfast. None of them
wanted to admit they might be here longer than that.

For the first hour of darkness, they did
nothing but sit in silence, every rustle bringing pointed guns and
held breath. But as the second hour also slowly passed with no
attack, Helter suggested that they move camp.

“
Why?” Barb asked, uneasy.

“
Because I’m fairly sure if an attack
does come, it’s going to come from the direction of the house, and
whomever is there,” Helter said. “We can’t see over this wall. So
we keep the water to the front and you face that, Barb, while
Caroline gets some sleep in the tent. I’ll move the snowmobile so
it's between us and the house, parked above us on that outcrop.
Then I’ll go up on top of the wall, face the house from behind it,
and keep watch.”

“
What if whatever came last night comes
back to the tent?” Caroline questioned. “The tent wall could be
torn in two before you could make a move, and I’d be there
helpless—”

“
We’re going to be taken easily if we
don’t get some sleep,” Helter said tiredly. “I’ve got to rest,
Caroline. I was up all night.”

“
Then you go first,” she said. “But do
it right here. Get between us, and let Barb take up your position.
I’ll wake you in a few hours.”

“
You’re sure?”

Caroline nodded, then sighed. “I’d try for
the shore with the boat if I was sure a storm wouldn’t appear. I
think the island is focused on whoever came in that chopper and
that boat. But the moment we go to leave I think we’ll be noticed
again.”

Helter nodded once, then lay down.

A few moments after he fell asleep, Barb
said, “You know, my sister told me not to come here.”

“
Why?” Caroline said.

“
I’m not sure.”

“
Didn’t you ask her?” Caroline said
with a trace of sarcasm.

“
She’s dead,” Barb said.

Caroline stared at her.

“
She’s what got me into the
paranormal,” Barb explained. “After she died in a car accident, I
started getting these post-it notes left in places. Nothing deep,
‘just have a nice day’, or ‘I’m thinking of you’ written on them.”
She paused. “But last week, for the first time, she sent me
warnings not to come here.”

“
Did she say what would happen if you
did?” Caroline asked.

Barb shook her head. “No. But I’m wishing now
I listened to her.”

Caroline stayed silent.

Barb threw another log on the fire. “Do you
guys want to tell me the truth about why you’re here? I don’t think
I believe that you were joyriding around on your snowmobiles
anymore, after everything you’ve both said.”

Caroline wavered, then told her a summary of
her story of Rob, his death, and her failed quest to burn the house
down with gasoline, as well as Helter’s own plan. “We both want to
destroy it. But Helter’s explosives are all we have left to
try.”

“
So you believe the house is
alive?”

“
I believe something evil exists here,”
Caroline said, after a moment. “And that it never
sleeps.”

There was a snuffling sound suddenly from the
darkness in back of them. Caroline pointed her gun in an instant,
then carefully shone a flashlight beam into the inky black above
them. Several unnaturally huge wolves looked back down at her from
a few feet away, their eyes reflecting reddish in the yellow
light.

Caroline fired at one. It howled in anger as
the bullet clipped its ear, then the pack loped away up the long
granite staircase, sounds of their passage fading.

Helter slept on, oblivious.

“
Do you think we’ll make it?” Barb
asked.

“
As long as our bullet and herb supply
does,” Caroline said wryly, igniting some more incense.

Mac sat at his bedroom window, watching with
interest as Chung Lai ran out the door of the main house into the
night. After a few moments, the other girl, Delilah, followed her
in a crouching walk, darting terrified looks all around her.

Mac had only ever let the women run around
the main house when he hunted them, because he usually only had a
day to enjoy the chase. With the weekend off, he had several days.
It was time to try new things. Letting the island soften them up
for him was the first.

He made sure the door to his room was locked,
then set his alarm for one a.m. Grinning, he lay down to get a few
hours of sleep.

Chung Lai tripped over a raised stone and
went sprawling, the rough stone abrading her legs. She cried out,
then bit her lip, cursing her noise.
Keep quiet.
Mac
finds you, he’ll kill you.

She stood, then tried to get her bearings.
The house was to her left
.
She was in some kind of weedy
lawn. There was a forest in front of her. Water must lie beyond
that, she could smell it, and hear some kind of faint water
sound.

She looked behind her. There was a huge
tower, some kind of building beyond that was being repaired, and a
set of stairs leading down the opposite side of the tower.
Which
way was safest?

Mac was crazy. She’d known when he took her
in the helicopter that she wasn’t coming back. Not that she wanted
to. Back in her hometown, she’d planned to go to America, to be a
model and have all the things she never would have gotten in China.
Instead, she’d become an American whore.

She had to get off this island and start
over somewhere new, find a new life. That asshole would kill her.
She would have to kill him instead. What she needed was a
weapon…

Something glinted at her feet. Chung Lai
reached down and dug at the earth, uncovering a rusty metal spike a
good six inches long. She reached to her waist, untying the strip
of leather that had been her hand constraints. Carefully, she
wrapped it around the steel, to give her a better grip.

There might be others waiting in the
buildings to hurt her. She was better off running as far and as
fast as possible.

Gripping her new weapon, she headed off into
the long brush.

Delilah sniffled, edging out the door, her
terrified eyes looking in all directions. God, where was she? This
must be that wacko’s private resort. He’d let them go, so no one
must be anywhere close by. She had to find a phone, call for
help.

She didn’t belong in a place like this. She
hadn’t belonged in the Asian brothel. But all they’d had to do was
find out she was an underage runaway, and they’d had all control.
She wasn’t going back to her bitch of a mom, who’d put her out on
the street at thirteen after discovering her boyfriend masturbating
with Delilah’s panties in his hand.

Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Get
going.

Delilah turned and headed into the building
under repair ahead of her, looking for a phone.

There was soft growl of warning. Chung Lai
stopped instantly, holding the spike ready to strike. She was
almost out of the waist high weeds. Just another thirty yards.

A furry head rose from the long grass in
front of her. Then two more joined it, staring at her. The lead
wolf gave another warning growl, then the three began to
advance.

Chung Lai attacked, her lunge and swipe with
the spike connecting the snout of the wolf. It let out a surprised
whine, then jumped back.

Chung Lai took the opening, sprinting fast
through the weeds. The wolf pack looked after her in confusion,
then let out a combined howl, racing after her.

The woman raced to a small ground floor
patio, climbed the ornate spiked fence to the second level, then
ran up to a large wooden door, cursing and yanking at the handle
that refused to open. The wolf pack attempted to get up the long
circular stairs to follow, but the rusted metal gave way beneath
the combined weight of the animals. They howled in frustration,
then began looking for a way to follow their prey.

Chung Lai pushed the spike into the soft wood
around the door lock, working it back and forth in the rotten
plank. She hit the door with her shoulder. It refused to budge.

The lead wolf found a viable staircase at the
far end of the raised patio, signaling his brethren with a howl.
The group bounded up, the lead wolf a few strides in front. It
launched itself at Chung Lai, lunging for her bare arm with its
teeth. Instead, it got the metal spike through its eye socket, its
triumphant cry becoming a gurgle of pain. The second wolf stopped,
but the third launched itself at her arm, the long teeth biting
deep. Chung Lai screamed, then jabbed at the attacking beast with
her bloody spike. Again, the spike slid deep, the beast’s sharp
human-sounding cry of pain eerie as it struggled to withdraw.

Chung Lai hit the door hard again in
desperation. It opened suddenly, her body falling through. Quickly
she pushed it closed with her legs, the wolf’s teeth shut out as
the slavering jaws snapped shut.

Chung Lai breathed deep rapid breaths,
shivering. She pushed up with difficulty and looked around. This
was some sort of cellar. Old rusted chains were at regular spots on
the wall. Something that looked like human bones lay in jumbles at
the base, under the chains. But they were too small for adults.
Were those the bones of children?

Something hit the door. Howling echoed, one
cry blending with another and another into a cacophony. Chung Lai
ripped her gaze away, then hurried to climb the stairs to her
left.

Chung Lai shut the door behind her, then
looked around. This was some sort of sun porch. Decayed remains of
plants were everywhere, skeletal greenery with dried brown curled
leaves and dead white moldering stalks. She hurried past it, then
entered another room through an open doorway. This was a library,
books reaching to the ceiling. She paused, scanning the shelves for
a better weapon. But there was nothing.