A Tap on the Window

by Linwood Barclay

  “I found your phone,” I told her as the two of them sat down and I put the cups in front of them.

  “Oh God, I was going crazy trying to find it,” she said, placing the notebook on the table.

  “But you couldn’t come back, could you? Once Hanna was in my car.”

  “You’ve kinda figured it all out, right?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “You almost found me,” she said. “I was in the last stall when you came into the bathroom looking for me. That was about when I realized I’d lost my phone, that it was still in your car. But I couldn’t exactly call Hanna and tell her to get it for me. It didn’t matter all that much, though, because once I took off, I wasn’t going to use it anyway.”

  I looked at Dennis, who’d also taken a seat. “And you were parked out back, waiting.”

  He nodded slowly, but I could tell he wasn’t yet ready to trust me, even though I’d heard Claire, in the bedroom, trying to assure him I was one of the good guys.

  “What’s that?” I asked, nodding at the notebook.

  “Damned if I know,” Dennis said, shaking his head. “Craziest diary ever, I’d say.”

  Before I could examine it, Claire said, “Have you talked to my parents?”

  “They’re worried sick,” I told her.

  Guilt washed over her face. “I thought since they hardly even talk to each other, if I told my dad I was going to see my mom, I could go days without either one of them knowing what was up.”

  “You shouldn’t be telling him this,” Dennis told her.

  “He knows, okay?” She looked back at me and rolled her eyes. “I guess Hanna must have told you everything. I mean, once I was gone, it didn’t really matter, since I didn’t tell her where I was going. And the whole thing worked, because here we are, and other than you nobody’s found us.”

  A chill ran the length of my spine.

  “Have you talked to anyone since you took off?” I asked her.

  Claire shook her head. “Nope.”

  I looked at Dennis. “You? You been in touch with your father?”

  “I’m not talking to you,” he said, but added, “He knows I’m okay. He just doesn’t know what all’s happened. I told him I needed some time to figure it out.”

  “So he didn’t have any news for you from Griffon,” I said.

  “No.”

  I could see concern clouding Claire’s face. “What’s happened? Has something happened to my dad?”

  “No,” I said. “Your dad’s okay.” I hadn’t wanted to be the one to break this news to the mayor’s daughter. I swallowed, and said, “Hanna’s dead, Claire.”

  Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.

  “She was murdered. Her body was found under a bridge. She was killed soon after you two pulled your stunt.”

  Claire had her hand over her mouth, but there still wasn’t a sound coming out of her.

  “I figured out what the two of you had done, the switch you’d pulled off to keep someone from following you, and I called her on it. She wanted out, tried to get out while my car was moving. She ran, wouldn’t let me take her home.” I paused. “I’m sorry.”

  The wailing began like a siren. Loud and piercing. “Oh God,” she cried, and burst into tears. “Oh God, oh God.”

  Dennis looked stunned, and tried to take Claire into his arms, but she shoved him away.

  “Leave me alone!” she screamed. “Leave me the fuck alone!”

  She slid the glass door open, went outside without closing it behind her, and ran toward the lake.

  Dennis kicked back his chair and started after her, but I caught up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “No, you’ve done enough,” I said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “We’ve all got baggage where Hanna’s concerned, but it’s starting to look like none of this would have happened if you hadn’t made it so damn important for Claire to sneak away to shack up with you here.”

  Even as I said it I regretted it. I knew there was more going on here than teenage lust. But I was so damned angry. Angry that I’d ever been dragged into this, angry at all the heartache and misery that stemmed from the stunt they’d pulled. Angry about Hanna.

  “You think that’s what this is all about?” Dennis shouted. “Really?”

  “Then maybe you should tell me. Why the hell did you leave Griffon? What the hell happened? Why are the cops looking for you?”

  He turned away. “Shit,” he said under his breath.

  “If you don’t want to trust me, then I don’t know who else you’re going to find,” I said. “I can help you. Is that why you’re hiding out here? Trying to figure out what to do next? How long you gonna stay? A week? A month? A year? What’s the plan, Dennis?”

  I glanced back toward the lake. Claire was standing at the end of the dock, staring out into the lake. It made me nervous, seeing her there, knowing how unsettled she had to be at this moment.

  “You stay here,” I said, and ran down to the lake.

  When I got to the dock, I slowed my pace. I didn’t want Claire to feel me stomping on the planks, charging at her like a bull. I walked out gently, but the dock still bounced slightly underfoot.

  “Claire.”

  Her shoulders were trembling. I stood a foot behind her, close enough that she could feel my presence, but I didn’t touch her.

  “It’s all my fault,” she said, sniffling.

  “I just told Dennis we’re all feeling some blame where Hanna’s concerned. I know I am.”

  “Have they got who did it?” she asked, twisting her neck and wiping her nose on the shoulder of her shirt.

  “They’ve arrested Sean.”

  Claire whirled around, her eyes red. But grief had turned to shock. “What? You’re kidding. That’s insane. There’s no way. He was trying to help us. He was helping me and Hanna. He was supposed to pick me up, but he got pulled over and that’s why I asked you for a ride and—”

  “I know,” I said. “I don’t think he did it, either. But the police, they found evidence in his truck. From Hanna.”

  “The police?” she shrieked. “The fucking Griffon police? Oh, well, I guess it’s all wrapped up, then, if the Griffon police arrested him. Fucking assholes, all of them.”

  I nodded. “You and Dennis need to come back with me. We have to get all this sorted out.”

  She shook her head violently. “There is no way he’s going to go back there. Not a chance.”

  “What happened, Claire? What happened? What was Dennis running from? Why do the police want him? Do you know who killed Hanna?”

  She sniffed. “I never should have asked her to help. Never, never, never.”

  Tears were still running down her cheeks and her nose was dripping over her top lip. I found some fresh tissues in my pocket and handed them to her.

  “We have to go back and sort this out,” I repeated. “For Hanna. And for Sean.”

  Claire started to go into short, rapid breaths, and I was fearful she was going to pass out. She leaned my way, and I held on to her. She wrapped her arms around me and rested the side of her face on my chest.

  “Everything is so awful,” she whispered. “It’s all so fucking awful.”

  I patted her back lightly. Such an empty, pitiful gesture.

  “We’ll go back,” I said. “Okay? We’ll go back. You and Dennis can explain everything to me on the way. And if he doesn’t want to come, so be it. But I’m not going back without you.”

  Her face went up and down on my chest.

  “Come on,” I said.

  I held on to her as we walked back to shore, but I had to watch my step, as the dock was barely wide enough for both of us. We walked slowly across the grass and up a slight hill back to the cottage. Stepped up onto the deck. The sliding glass doo
r was still open. I was expecting Dennis to be standing there, waiting for us, but he was not.

  “Dennis?” Claire called.

  There was no response.

  We had another three steps to reach the door when I gripped Claire’s shoulders, made her stop in her tracks.

  There was something on the floor of the cottage.

  Something wet and dark and sinuous snaking across it.

  Blood.

  FIFTY-SIX

  “You know,” I said, suddenly steering Claire hard left, away from the door, “I need to check one thing before we go anywhere.”

  “What are you—”

  I was pretty sure she hadn’t seen the blood. If she had, she’d have reacted. Rushed inside, screamed, something. But I could tell, judging by how her body had tensed, that she knew something was wrong.

  “Shh,” I said. Then, in a more normal voice that was just slightly louder than necessary, “I don’t know whether we should take both cars back or whether we should all go back in mine.”

  We were up against the cottage wall, between the glass doors and a set of windows. There was a second set of three steps here that led down from the deck. I had the Glock in my hand as I whispered to Claire, “Get under the deck.”

  She started to ask why, but I put my finger to my lips and gave her a stern, urgent look, then pointed. She slipped down the steps, got on her knees, and crawled into the roughly two feet of space below the deck.

  I went down the steps, too, but kept on walking along the edge of the cottage, maintaining a conversation. “We’re going to need you and Dennis to make a full statement, explain this whole thing from the beginning. I know it’s not going to be easy, having to talk about this, but there really isn’t any choice.”

  Whoever it was had a silencer on his gun. I hadn’t heard a shot when I was out on the dock with Claire. Not that so-called silenced guns don’t make a sound. But down by the water, it might not have made much more noise than a snapped twig. I hadn’t heard a car pull up, either. Our shooter had probably parked a ways down the road, then hiked in.

  I’d had my eyes on the rearview mirror the whole way here. There were long stretches on the interstate, and coming down from it to the Cayuga Lake area, when there had not been another car on the road at all.

  But someone knew I was here. Someone had followed me. There had to be a second GPS device in my car. Not just the one under the backseat. I should have checked the rocker panels, or looked inside that damn spare tire.

  As I crept along the edge of the cottage, I strained to hear anyone moving inside. A floorboard creak, a door opening or closing. Anything that would give me a sense of where he was. I looked forward, then back at the open sliding glass door, then forward again. The ground was layered with fallen leaves. If someone came out the back of the cottage and started walking around, there was a good chance I’d hear something.

  The cottage sat on a high foundation, so when I reached a regular window, as opposed to those floor-to-ceiling glass doors, I had to duck only a few inches not to be seen. I wasn’t keen on getting shot in the head.

  I glanced quickly at Claire Sanders, huddled under the deck, eyes wide with fear.

  I continued with my monologue. “I know you may not think much of Chief Perry, but he’s a good man, and we can trust him.” Just because I was saying these things didn’t mean I had to believe them. “And the first thing we’re going to want to do is let your father know you’re okay. And your mother. This has been a very difficult time for both of them.”

  I’d reached the corner of the cottage, my back glued to the wall. I peered around the edge, saw no one, slithered around to the other wall. From that vantage point, I could just barely see up to the road. Through the trees I could see a dark-colored pickup with tinted windows parked there.

  “And I’m not saying that about the chief because he’s my brother-in-law. If anything, that kind of leads me to think of him as a total asshole. Sometimes he is, and I know he and your dad have been having a running battle, but the fact is, when it comes to being a lawman, I think he more or less knows what he’s doing.”

  Sooner or later, someone was going to think it odd that Claire wasn’t contributing to this conversation.

  “My wife, Donna, she’ll defend him till the cows come home, but she grew up with him and she knows what he’s—”

  Leaves rustling. Around the next corner. Someone was creeping along the back wall of the cottage.

  “—like, so she’ll only defend him for so long, you know, and—”

  It happened fast.

  The barrel of the gun appeared first, and as I’d figured, there was a silencer screwed onto the end of it. A millisecond later, the whole gun, and the hand that was holding it. A glimpse of a jacket cuff.

  I fired.

  The shot rang out in the cool morning air. Birds in nearby trees broke into frightened flight.

  It was more reflex than anything. I should have waited another half second, for a body to appear. Would have given me a better chance of actually hitting something. But the truth was, I’d never fired my weapon in the line of duty before. Not as a cop, and not since I’d gone private.

  So it was no surprise I failed to hit that hand. It withdrew instantly at the sound of the shot. There was the sound of more leaves rustling. Faster this time. Running.

  And another noise, one I wished hadn’t been made. Claire shouting, “Mr. Weaver? What was that?”

  The man—I’d figured it was a man, and a glimpse of that hand proved it to me—was on the move, running around the cottage. I went the other way. I didn’t want the shooter coming upon where Claire was hiding before I got there. He’d have heard her and would have a good idea where to look.

  I moved back to the first corner I’d rounded, took a peek around it, then hugged the wall that faced the lake, which gave me a view of the deck. Claire was crawling out from under it.

  “Stay under there!” I screamed.

  “Dennis!” she shouted, ignoring me. “Dennis, someone’s shooting!”

  She grabbed the railing, started mounting the steps to the deck, heading for the sliding glass doors.

  “Goddamn it!” I yelled at her.

  The barrel of a gun appeared around the far corner of the cottage, then two outstretched arms.

  “Claire!”

  She glanced back at me.

  I heard a sound like someone lightly hammering a nail, once. He’d taken a shot. The wood railing by Claire’s hand splintered.

  Claire went down.

  The top half of her body landed on the deck, her legs splayed across the steps.

  “No!”

  The word came out of me as a primal scream of anguish.

  But then Claire stirred, pushed herself up. She hadn’t been hit. She’d tripped on the stairs.

  I raised my Glock and fired over her, putting a bullet into the corner of the cottage. Fired again. And again. Thinking maybe I could shoot the bastard through the building.

  I moved to the corner, hugging the wall, crouched down, so that when I peered around it, my head would be lower than he’d be expecting. I kept the Glock gripped in both hands, held my breath, hoping to hear something besides the pounding of my heart in my ears.

  More rustling.

  Distant running.

  I peeked around the corner.

  He was on the move.

  Almost to the end of the road that led in here. Running flat out. Dark pants, black Windbreaker with a hood up. I sprinted after him. I could see he was headed for the pickup.

  He stopped suddenly, turned, pointed his weapon my way. I threw myself to the ground like I was tackling an imaginary football player, heard a bullet slice the air over me.

  More running.

  By the time I was on my feet, he’d reached the truck and was getting in. I
t sped off, tires kicking up gravel. I wasn’t close enough to see a plate before the vehicle disappeared beyond a curve in the road.

  Back at the cottage, another scream.

  I ran back, coming around the front side. Claire stood at the sliding doors, looking inside, a hand floating over her mouth.

  She didn’t have to step inside to see what had happened to Dennis. He was sprawled on his side by the kitchen table, his back to us. The chair had tipped over with him when he’d gone down. The blood puddling its way toward the middle of the room was coming from a hole in the back of his head.

  “No no no no,” she whispered.

  “Stay here,” I said, sliding the door open and delicately entering the room, careful to avoid stepping in the blood. I knelt next to him, put two fingers to the side of his neck. A futile gesture, I knew, but I had to be sure. I looked through the door into the bedroom, at a tiny hole in the screen in the window on the far wall. The killer’d never stepped inside; he’d just aimed from outside and taken his shot. Didn’t have to shoot through glass, so we didn’t hear anything down by the water.

  I stood, saw that black notebook on the kitchen table, picked it up and slipped it into the pocket of my jacket.

  “Dennis,” Claire said, standing just inside the door. “Dennis?”

  “We have to get out of here,” I said. “That man may come back, or he may be waiting for us down the road.”

  Claire was trembling, both hands over her mouth. I was worried she might be going into shock.

  “Claire, listen to me. We have to get out of here.”

  I’d already decided I didn’t want to take my car. It still had a GPS device hidden in it somewhere. I could get the keys to the Volvo, but there was only one way out, down North Parker Road, and we could be driving into an ambush.