Again the Magic

by Lee Damon

  Cautiously, he put a sneakered foot on the first step and slowly shifted his weight up onto it, lifting his other foot to the next step. His hands were spread out to his sides, palms against the wall, as he inched his way up the stairs, holding his breath and praying that no cars would come up the road before he reached the deck.

  Fortunately for his peace of mind, he could not see Hero's head come up and turn toward the open bedroom door, his ears standing straight up as he strained to hear again the faint whisper of an alien sound. There it was. A barely audible growl only lasted for a few seconds as the tense dog rose to his feet and soundlessly dropped to the floor. Silently, pausing every few steps to listen, Hero ghosted down the hall and across the living room, stopping in a "point" position three feet from the deck door. The long drapes were closed across the window-wall, and he could only listen and try to identify the soft, brushing sound. Then the low growl came again as the dog heard a footstep on the deck and a faint metallic tick-tick against the door.

  Basenjis are incredibly strong and athletic, and can easily clear a five-foot hedge in one bound. It was no trouble for Hero to leap over the sofa on his mad dash to get Kitt. He was a dark blur going down the hall, and a hurtling projectile as he launched himself from inside the bedroom doorway in one tremendous leap that carried him ten feet across the room to land in the middle of the bed, jarring Kitt half-awake. She quickly came to full alertness as a growling Hero pushed his nose frantically against her face, licking her cheek and tugging at her hair with his teeth.

  "Okay, okay, Hero. I'm up. What is it? What's the matter, boy?" Her voice was low but urgent, and she wasted no time in swinging out of bed and scrambling into a robe. Instinctively, she didn't turn on a light; she could see well enough in the light from the street as she silently followed Hero down the hall. She saw him leap over the sofa and take a few more steps toward the door before he stopped and froze in position, growling softly as he stared at the door.

  Kitt hesitated at the end of the hall, watching Hero and listening intently. Then she heard it—the faint scratching of metal on metal at the door. She strained to see through the drapes, but it was too dark outside to see shadows through the heavy fabric. Whispering a breathy "Quiet, Hero," she took two slow steps into the living room and stopped to listen again. Now, she could faintly hear harsh breathing and a soft curse, as well as the scratching.

  Her hands came up to press tightly over her mouth, holding back a nearly uncontrollable scream as she felt the numbing ice of terror racing through her body. She staggered with the force of the terrified shriek of NOT AGAIN! NOT AGAIN! that tore through her mind, momentarily deafening her. Panicked, she turned from side to side looking for a way out.

  Not the stairs. They're too close to the door. He'll catch me.

  Oh, no, no, no, oh god oh god oh god. O'Mara, please, please, I need you. Helpmehelpmehelpme. Ez, where are you? EZ! O'MARA! O'MARA! DON'T LET HIM—

  Hero leaped into her arms with a pleading "Rowr rowr," and butted her chin with his nose. She blinked and realized that she was down on one knee and panting for breath. The heat of anger started driving out the chill of fear, and she gritted her teeth as she determinedly forced her mind into logical thought. It seemed like hours had passed, but she knew it was only a couple of minutes. Even so, if whoever was trying to open that door knew what he was doing, he'd have been inside long ago. O'Mara would have had it open in seconds!

  She put Hero down on the floor and slowly stood up. Her mind racing, she stared at the door, listening to the increasingly frenzied scratching and muttered curses.

  Steady, girl. It can't possibly be HIM. So it's someone else. A sneak thief who thinks the place is empty? Doesn't matter. He's an amateur at picking locks, that's for sure. Maybe a kid? Get rid of him first, and then call the cops. How? And what if he smashes the glass? A weapon. I need a weapon. I'm not taking on anyone barehanded again if I can help it.

  Shrugging out of the restricting robe, she took three long, quiet steps to the hall closet and eased the door open. Carefully, trying not to knock anything over, she felt along the left-hand wall until her hand touched leather and then slid her fingers up to the top of Ez's golf bag and closed them around the metal shaft of a club. She eased it up and out of the bag and backed away from the closet, catching the other end of the club in her free hand to keep it from hitting the wall.

  She swung around and, wrapping her right hand tightly around the taped grip of the club, moved quickly but quietly around the sofa and across the room to the switch for the outside lights. She was next to the door, so she kept her voice down to an urgent whisper as she commanded, "Hero, wake him!"

  As the first notes of the earsplitting banshee howl echoed off the walls, Kitt flipped the switch, flooding the deck, stairs and parking lot with several hundred watts of light. For a brief moment, she clearly saw the black form of a thin male figure outlined against the drapes. She heard a frightened cry, and then the figure dove for the stairs. Even over Hero's howling, she could hear the thudding feet, and then a cry and a series of bumps as he evidently fell down the last few steps.

  Letting out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding, she leaned the golf club against the wall next to the door and bent over to rub Hero behind the ears.

  "Quiet, dog. Good boy. That was one of your best efforts to date, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Now, you keep your ears cocked while I call the cops."

  As she reached for the phone, she heard an engine rev and then the sound of tires skidding on gravel, followed by the roar of an engine as a car accelerated rapidly down the road toward the ocean. Quickly, she dialed the police number and explained what had happened, adding what information she could about the direction the car was traveling although she knew that it could have turned off on any one of several side streets. With assurances that a cruiser would be there in a few minutes and a strong admonition to stay inside and not to open the door to anyone but a police officer, Kitt hung up the phone and dashed for her room to get dressed.

  She had just time to yank on jeans and a sweater before a cruiser pulled into the parking lot, and she was still barefoot when she opened the door for the two officers. Nervously, with flashes of old memories distracting her, she faced them in the middle of the living room and let out an "Oh!" of relief when she recognized Eddie Bancroft, one of Midge's brothers.

  "Hi, Kitt," he said, smiling easily, recognizing the signs of tension. He motioned to the other officer, continuing to speak in a casual, reassuring tone. "This is Joby Evens. Joby, I don't think you've met Kitt Tate, Ez's sister. The desk sergeant said someone tried to break in, Kitt. Scary experience. Why don't we sit down for a few minutes while you tell us what happened?"

  Gradually relaxing as she talked, Kitt quickly described the events of the last fifteen minutes. The two men were laughing over her method of scaring off the intruder when another officer tapped at the door and entered.

  Nodding to Kitt, he addressed Eddie and Joby. "We've checked the area. Looks like he parked down at the end of the Stevens' drive. The gravel's all chewed up where he shot back out of there, and there's some rubber on the street. Must have taken off like a bat. Found this near the bottom of the stairs." He held out a small plastic envelope containing a thin, flat strip of metal. "Could be a lockpick. He might have dropped it. You looked at the door, yet, Eddie?"

  "No. Waiting for you. Kitt says he must have been working at it for several minutes. Good chance we'll get some prints."

  The three officers stepped through the half-open door and turned to examine the lock.

  "Didn't know much about what he was doing," Eddie muttered. "Look at those scratches. Okay, Vince," he turned to the third officer, "do your thing. That metal doorframe looks nice and clean. Have you polished this lately, Kitt? Whose prints might be on here besides yours?"

  Kitt stood just inside the door, hands tucked in her pockets. "As a matter of fact, I had to clean the glass and wipe down the edge this weekend.
Midge and Ez got a bit carried away, and we ended up with marmalade all over the place. The only prints on there should be ours."

  "We'll need your prints for comparison. Okay? What about Ez? Is there anything around that you're sure he touched?"

  "Try his room. I haven't cleaned it since he left this morning. And you might find his prints in the bathroom, but they'd probably be mixed with mine."

  For the next half-hour, the men worked at taking fingerprints and making a careful search of the ground around the stairway and the house next door. After Vince took a set of fingerprints from Kitt, she fixed coffee for everyone, and then sat down with Eddie and Joby while they asked more questions.

  "You see, Kitt," Eddie explained, "it seems a bit strange for him to try the deck door. There was more chance of him being seen on those stairs or the deck than if he'd just whipped around back under the deck and gone for the back door to the shop. Besides that, if he were looking for money, you'd think he'd go for the shop and the cash register rather than for the apartment."

  "Lots of businesses have alarms hooked up to their doors. Maybe he thought he could get in upstairs and then come down from inside."

  "Maybe. But I've got a feeling that he was sure you were out and wouldn't be back. Why?"

  "Well, I've stayed overnight at the Rock a couple of times. Otherwise, I'm usually home before nine."

  "Somehow... I wonder... You haven't noticed anyone hanging around lately, have you? Or any particular car behind you when you're out?"

  "Nooo, not that I can remember," Kitt said slowly. "But there was—No, that's too farfetched."

  "What is it? Look, Kitt, if there's been anything unusual, tell us."

  "Well, it still seems silly, but two weeks ago, on the last night we went out before he left, O'Mara mentioned something about a red Toyota that seemed to have been following him for a couple a days. We decided that it was probably a tourist who just happened to be going in the same direction. He only saw the car a few times."

  "Have you seen it again since he left?"

  Kitt stared at the wall, her eyes unfocused, as she thought back over the past days. "I didn't pay much attention... Down beyond the Yacht Club, where the road widens, there's nothing much there for a ways... no houses or shops... a few times when I've been running with Hero in the evening, there's been a red car parked along the road... usually near the inlet... but I haven't noticed anyone around it."

  She looked apologetically at the two men and shrugged. "I really didn't look at it closely. It was just there. I'm not at all sure about the make."

  "Okay. It's a start. Anything else?"

  Kitt frowned, trying to capture a nagging memory. "There was something Ez said. Ha! Now, I remember. Last weekend —not this past one, the one before-—he came in late Saturday night and mentioned that my neighbors must be here—the ones you mentioned—Stevens?—because there was a car parked next to their front fence."

  Eddie and Joby exchanged glances, and Eddie said slowly, "They haven't come up yet. They're from Pennsylvania, and they don't come up until mid-June, after school's out. Think hard, Kitt. All you saw was a shadow against the drapes. About your height and thin. Have you seen a man like that hanging around?"

  Before she could answer, a familiar voice spoke from the doorway. "So nice of you to invite me to the party. Can I touch this door?"

  "Midge!" Kitt exclaimed. "Whatever are you doing here at this time of night?"

  "I called her while you were fixing coffee," Eddie said. "Figured everyone would be happier if you weren't alone here for the rest of the night. I don't want to tangle with Ez over our not taking care of you."

  He'd pushed the door open for Midge to come through, and she dumped her jacket and a bulging totebag on the sofa on her way to the kitchen. "Anybody else want more coffee? You look wrung out, Kitt. Are you all right? Do you know who it was, Eddie?"

  "Thin guy, about Kitt's height, probably driving a red Toyota. Seen anyone like that hanging around lately, Miss Beady Eyes?"

  Midge leaned across the breakfast bar, obviously thinking hard. "Doesn't ring any big bells. We've been really busy in the shop, and I haven't paid much attention to the browsers. There have been a lot of early tourists. Let's see, a red Toyota. Friday afternoon, when you came back from Portsmouth, I was rearranging one of the window displays, and I think a red car pulled into the other side of the lot just after you. Yes. It was red. I noticed it while we were unloading the wagon because the guy was just sitting there, smoking and staring... no, it was more like he was reading something he was holding down out of sight."

  "Did he get out of the car?" Joby asked. "What did he look like?"

  "He didn't get out. I think we were on our third trip out to the wagon when I noticed that he was gone."

  "So what did he look like?" asked Eddie, a bit impatiently.

  "Let me think a minute," muttered Midge, moving back into the kitchen. She came out into the living room with her coffee and sat on the edge of the sofa, closing her eyes in concentration. "I just saw his profile. Looked thin-faced, bony, kind of hollow cheeks, nothing-brown straight hair worn kind of long, gray sweatshirt."

  She opened her eyes and looked anxiously at her brother. "Does that help?"

  "Yeah, some. Of course, we don't know if this all ties together, but... possible, possible. Do either Of you remember seeing him any other time?"

  Kitt shook her head. Midge shrugged and said, "Not specifically. But that doesn't mean anything. He could have been in the shop half a dozen times, or on the street. There've been a lot of visitors wandering around with all this good weather. If we weren't looking for him and he was hanging back in a crowd, we wouldn't notice him."

  "Okay," said Eddie, standing up. "We can't do anything more here right now. What about Joanne, Midge? Do you think she might have noticed this guy?"

  "I don't know. She's pretty observant, and she's been waiting on more customers than we have this past week. We'll ask her tomorrow when she comes in."

  "What time is that?"

  "Around two, I think. Kitt?"

  "Tuesday? Yes, two."

  "I work the four to midnight tomorrow, so talk to her and I'll stop by right after four. Meantime, you two lock up tight tonight and keep your eyes open tomorrow. If you think you see this guy, call the station right away. Understand? No funny stuff, Midge. You let us handle it."

  The rest of the night was uneventful, except for Hero's perplexed visits to Ez's room as he tried to figure out why Midge was sleeping in the big bed. Kitt slept so deeply that she hardly moved until Midge woke her at nine, and she was quite unaware that the younger woman had been up since seven and had had a long talk with Ez about the events of the night.

  Midge didn't enlighten her. When she'd asked Kitt about calling Ez, Kitt had decided against it on the basis that there wasn't anything he could do except worry. But once she was in bed, Midge had second thoughts about that. There was a lot he could do—especially to her, if he arrived Friday afternoon and found out that she'd kept the news of a threat to Kitt from him for four days. She decided to call him first thing in the morning.

  Even though Kitt was still asleep, Midge didn't take any chances on being overheard. She called from downstairs and caught Ez just waking up. By the time Midge got halfway through her first sentence, he was wide awake and swearing, but he listened without any other interruption to her story.

  "Okay, I've got it. You were right to call, moptop, although I can't do much at the moment. I'm nailed down here with finals until Thursday noon, but I can get someone to cover for me on Friday so I can get up there by mid-afternoon on Thursday. I think Eddie's on the right track. It's not a random break-and-enter. Someone's watching Kitt and wanted to go through her things. He doesn't seem to want a confrontation, so she's probably safe enough, but I don't want her left alone. Do you know when O'Mara's due back?"

  "Sometime in the next two or three days. He wasn't sure just when."

  "If he gets there before I do
, make sure you tell him what's happened. That idiot sister of mine is just as apt to decide not to worry him, either. Call me if anything else happens, and you be careful, too. She'll probably insist on staying there at night to keep him from trying it again. Can you sleep over? Leave the outside lights on all night and keep the bedroom doors open so Hero can roam. Ask Eddie to show you how to block the sliding doors so they can't be opened. Don't forget the back door downstairs, and it might be a good idea to leave a light on in the shop. Eddie will make sure that the cruisers keep a close watch on you. Can you handle all that, honey-pot?"

  "Sure. Remember, Godzilla, that I've got all kinds of people I can call on for help if I need it. Kitt might be ready to take on a weirdo with a golf club, but I'd rather have half a dozen brawny cops behind me. And if they're not available, I can always stand on the deck and holler down the river. Those working boatmen are a tough bunch, and most of them know me. They'd come on the run. Don't worry. We'll be fine until you and O'Mara get here."

  Ez's chuckle vibrated through the receiver. "I don't doubt it for a minute. Take care, pet. And keep a rein on Kitt. You haven't seen it yet, but she's got a hell of a temper, which she just might lose if this guy tries anything else. If she's mad enough, she's just as apt to forget that violence terrifies her and try to take him on herself."

  Midge wandered back upstairs cherishing a vision of an angry Kitt brandishing a golf club and chasing a terrified young thug through Dock Square. By the time she woke Kitt at nine, Eddie and Joby had stopped on their way off-shift to take care of returning Ez's wagon, and Midge had recapped her conversation with Ez. As a result, and unknown to Kitt, by the middle of the morning the word had been passed along the river to the "native" fishermen and lobstermen, and an unobtrusive but constant watch was started on the bookshop.