What was he doing, then? Was he going to destroy the car, not himself?
Far back in Gray’s mind, two memories flashed at once, simultaneous sparks of realization. And he spun in the street, ripped the police car door open and threw himself into the driver’s seat while the twin sparks of memory were still flashing in his mind. The motor was running. He groped for the unfamiliar controls, found them, released the brake. The car rolled forward, gathering speed.
Of the two memories, one was days old now. Gray himself had wondered, briefly, uneasily, thinking over the case: How safe is Joyce Quigley with her husband, if he should turn out to be the killer?
The other memory was only minutes old. It was the half-conscious memory of a sound Gray had heard without identifying it as the police car approached the Quigley house. A hollow, metallic thud of sound, like a metal door closing. The lid of a trunk compartment, slamming shut.
A woman’s purse, abandoned on the seat. Joyce’s purse?
And the faint, desperate, thumping noise which a moment ago had galvanized Quigley to this last furious, suicidal act.
A thumping from inside the trunk?
Gray felt the wharf’s planks boom hollow under his tires. Zucker’s voice shouted something furious behind him, drowned out in the thunder of tires on wood and the roar of competing motors. Gray could see nothing but the rocking convertible ahead, jolting forward over the planks on its limping flat motor racing as Quigley fought to flog speed out of his car. He was headed straight for the end of the wharf, where the water would be deepest.
This would be the second time, Gray thought, that Quigley had used a car as a murder weapon….
Was there going to be room to pass?
He shot ahead, jolting precariously over the loose planks. He was gaining on Quigley’s car…. He was level with it now.
Quigley flashed him a quick, impersonal look, blank-faced, his teeth set in a grin of single-minded determination. It seemed to Gray that by now all Quigley’s mind could hold was the need to drive the car off the wharf. Get rid of whatever was locked inside it. Beyond that he did not seem to think at all.
The end of the wharf was close—terrifyingly close. Fifty feet away the white pickets of a guard rail gleamed in the headlights. Beyond them the blackness of the water surged deep and strong with the incoming tide.
Gray set his teeth and sent the police car ahead in one desperate, all-or-nothing leap. In almost the same instant he whipped his foot from the accelerator to brake, stamped heavily on it, and with all his strength wrenched the car around to the left.
It swung violently, throwing Gray hard against the door. Wheels shrieked on the booming planks. He saw the headlights of Quigley’s car blazing toward him as Fenn must have seen headlights bearing down across the wet asphalt last night.
He thought, “Thank God for the flat tire—he hasn’t gained much speed.” And he thought of whomever it was—Joyce?—huddled in the dark of the trunk compartment, hearing the scream of brakes and tires, frantic with terror, understanding nothing. And oddly enough, he thought of Karen on the roof top in the snow, watching death falling away from her into infinite distances of vertigo and forgetfulness….
Then he felt the crash.
31
The case that had begun with a nightmare ended with a nightmare. Gray with his eyes closed struggled furiously in a swirling limbo. He had to—to—What was it he had to do? The darkness surged like the strong tide swirling through the Golden Gate. He had to open the trunk compartment. That must be it. Open it and let Karen out—no, let Joyce out—no, let out all the boxed-in secrets that would make truth itself clear at last.
He said, “The trunk—the trunk! Open it up. She’s back there locked in the trunk. She—”
A strange voice said, “Just relax. Everything’s all right. Try to—”
Zucker’s familiar deep bass rumbled, “Better let me talk to him, Doctor. I know what he’s worried about. Mike, you hear me?”
Gray opened his eyes and gazed at a white ceiling that swam dizzily and then righted itself overhead. His head felt oddly light and oddly heavy at the same time. When he moved his jaw to speak he felt the pull of adhesive, and everything smelled strongly of antiseptics.
Zucker’s big, grim face came into sight, strangely fore-shortened as it bent above the bed.
Gray said, “Harry, the trunk—”
“Everything’s under control,” Zucker told him. “We got her out of the trunk. Alive. Joyce Quigley—how the hell did you know she was there, Mike?”
Gray started to explain. Zucker said hastily, “No, never mind. Tell me later. I just want you to know if you hadn’t pulled that bonehead trick she’d never have had a chance. Quigley would have got away with his third kill, and right under our noses, too.”
Gray started to ask, “Then—he confessed?”
“Don’t talk. Yes, he confessed. They’re taking his statement now. You were right all along, Mike. I hate to admit it, but you were.” He shook his big head, grinning wryly. “If you ever pull a trick like this again, I’ll break your neck. You had us scared to death for a mighty long three minutes there. You don’t deserve to get off as easy as you did.”
Gray said, “What—happened to me?”
“Nothing you won’t get over. Cuts and bruises, maybe a mild concussion—”
“Captain Zucker,” the strange voice broke in angrily, “if you’ll be so kind!”
“Sorry, Doc.” Zucker moved back so Gray could see the young physician.
“You’ve got to rest, Mr. Gray,” the doctor said. “You’ve lost a good deal of blood and you’ve had quite a shock. Your head’s going to bother you for a few days, too. I want you to try to get some sleep. Nurse—”
Gray saw a hypodermic needle held out in a white-cuffed hand. He couldn’t turn his head, but he felt the cold swab of an antiseptic on his arm and then the sting of the needle.
Zucker said, “Before he passes out, can he see a couple of people for just half a minute?”
The doctor frowned. “Well, no longer than half a minute.”
“How about it, Mike?” Zucker asked. “The Champions have been waiting over an hour just to have a word with you.”
Gray smiled, feeling the adhesive pull across his cheek.
“Sure,” he said. “Bring them in.”
The clouds had begun to swirl before his eyes already, but he could still focus enough to recognize Dennis Champion’s smiling, leonine face bending over the bed. The new Dennis Champion, confident and sure. Karen was beside him, his arm around her shoulders. She was smiling too, though her eyes were anxious.
“You gave us all a scare,” she said. “You are all right now?”
Gray said hazily, “I’m fine.” He looked from Champion’s face to hers. “And you are too,” he said. “I’m glad.”
“We’ll never get done thanking you,” Champion said. “It’s like a miracle. If it hadn’t been for you—but I feel like a new man. I feel like a twenty-year-old. We’re going to start all over now, Karen and I. And Wes Turk and I are going to lick this partnership problem together. We—”
Karen, smiling, reached up to lay her fingertips across his mouth. “Hush, Dennis. We can tell him all about it later on. Let Mr. Gray sleep.”
Her voice seemed to come from a long way off. Gray, letting his eyelids drift shut, realized as his mind began to let go that even in this brief glimpse of Karen her new sureness showed. A new sense that she walked on solid ground now. The abyss would no longer threaten constantly to gape beneath her feet.
But he knew, as she did not, yet, that the real task had just begun. It would take time. And the true task would never really end for her—the task of facing life and living it.
The darkest part of the shadow had lifted. Her sleep would no longer be haunted by that pursuing beast. The unreal menace would give way only slowly. But the real menace was gone.
For Zucker, the job they had undertaken together was finished.
For Gray, only the first step had been taken.
But the nightmare was over.
More from Henry Kuttner
The Best of Henry Kuttner
From the renowned, Hugo-nominated titan of science fiction comes a collection of his best short stories.
In seventeen classic stories, Henry Kuttner creates a unique galaxy of vain, protective, and murderous robots; devilish angels; and warm and angry aliens. These stories include “Mimsy Were the Borogoves”—the inspiration for New Line Cinema’s major motion picture The Last Mimzy—as well as “Two-Handed Engine”, “The Proud Robot”, “The Misguided Halo”, “The Voice of the Lobster”, “Exit the Professor”, “The Twonky”, “A Gnome There Was”, “The Big Night”, “Nothing But Gingerbread Left”, “The Iron Standard”, “Cold War”, “Or Else”, “Endowment Policy”, “Housing Problem”, “What You Need”, and “Absalom”.
Earth’s Last Citadel
A mind-bending, time-traveling novel from an undisputed master of the genre.
During World War II, four humans are hurled a billion years forward in time by a being from an alien galaxy. They have been brought to a dying Earth—to Carcasilla, Earth’s last citadel—where the mutated remnants of humanity are making their final stand against the monstrous creations of a fading world.
Thrust in the middle of this desperate struggle for survival, the last humans search for a way to break the deadlock in the Armageddon at the end of time.
Robots Have No Tails
A complete collection of his Galloway Gallegher stories from the Hugo nominated master of science fiction.
In this complete collection, Kuttner is back with Galloway Gallegher, his most beloved character in the stories that helped make him famous. Gallegher is a binge-drinking scientist who’s a genius when drunk and totally clueless sober. Hounded by creditors and government officials, he wakes from each bender to discover a new invention designed to solve all his problems—if only he knew how it worked…
Add in a vain and uncooperative robot assistant, a heckling grandfather, and a host of uninvited guests—from rabbit-like aliens to time-traveling mafia lawyers to his own future corpse—and Gallegher has more on his hands than even he can handle. Time for a drink!
The Mask of Circe
From on high of Mount Olympus comes an adventure in mythology, penned by a Hugo-nominated master of the genre.
Jay Seward remembered a former life in a land of magic, gods, and goddesses—a time when he was Jason of Iolcus, sailing in the enchanted ship Argo to steal the Golden Fleece from the serpent-temples of Apollo. But one night the memories became startlingly real, as the Argo itself sailed out of the spectral mists and a hauntingly beautiful voice called: “Jason…come to me!” And suddenly he was on the deck of the Argo, sailing into danger and magic.
Ahead of Time
From one of the most respected of science fiction writers comes a collection of science fiction stories described as “just about as good as the modern magazine science-fantasy story can get.” —J. Francis McComas and Anthony Boucher
These ten science fiction stories include: Or Else, Home is the Hunter, By These Presents, De Profundis, Camouflage, Year Day, Ghost, Shock, Pile of Trouble, Deadlock.
Man Drowning
A torrid tale of violence and murder from an iconic author.
Nick Banning was a man drowning in a land of far horizons, a land that had all the vigor sucked out of it ages ago by the Arizona sun.
But it wasn’t the blasting heat of an Arizona desert that bothered Nick—it was the heat of his own emotions, his desire for Sherry, the woman who had told him no.
But Nick was winding up, faster and faster. He meant to have Sherry—or else.
The Book of Iod: Ten Cthulhu Stories
From one of the grand masters of science-fiction comes a collection inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.
Hugo-nominee and sci-fi luminary Henry Kuttner was part of the Lovecraft Circle, submitting plot ideas and draft manuscripts to H.P. Lovecraft himself, and Kuttner played an important role in developing the Cthulhu Mythos, one of the seminal works of the genre.
The Book of Iod is a short story collection containing ten Cthulhu Mythos stories. These stories include: The Secret of Kralitz, The Eater of Souls, The Salem Horror, The Just of Droom-avista, Spawn of Dagon, The Invaders, The Frog, Hydra, Bells of Horror, The Hunt
The Time Trap
1939 Retro-Hugo Awards Best Novella nominee
A titan of the genre, Henry Kuttner, weaves a spellbinding tale of a time-traveling archaeologist in one of the most fantastic adventures ever conceived.
Kent Mason is an archaeologist hopelessly lost in the desert. When he stumbles into the ruins of the ancient city of Al Bekr, he unknowingly steps into a time portal and finds himself flung into into the greatest adventure of his life.
Originally written for Marvel Science Stories, Henry Kuttner spins a rambunctious story filled with more monsters, mayhem, beautiful women, unimaginable threats, and bizarre plot twists than any reader could possibly imagine.
Elak of Atlantis
Swords and Sorcery clash with riveting results in these four classic stories!
When Robert E. Howard died in 1936, some of the greatest science-fiction and fantasy writers stepped into the void to pen amazing tales of swords and sorcery. Weird Tales published these four stories by iconic author Henry Kuttner, perfect for fans of Conan the Barbarian, and vital for every fantasy reader. Depicting a brutal world of swords and magic, with a hint of the Lovecraft mythos, Kuttner unleashes four tales as vital in today’s Game of Thrones world as they were when they first published.
These stories include: Thunder In the Dawn, The Spawn Of Dagon, Beyond The Phoenix, Dragon Moon
Prince Raynor
Swords and Sorcery clash with riveting results in these classic stories!
Stories include: Cursed be the City, The Citadel of Darkness
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Michael Gray Novels Page 72
