“Sounds good. Call you in a few.”
Alex hung up and dug into his backpack for the night vision scope. He raised the shade in his office a few inches and poked the scope through, aiming toward Charlie’s side of the block and scanning the area. He increased the magnification and started to comb the area for more detail, focusing on the houses that he could see from his office window: the Coopers’, Bradys’, McCarthys’ and part of Charlie’s. He could see the house occupied by the surgeon and his wife, but the angle was shallow, and only two side windows faced him.
Nothing unusual. Flickering lights in most of the houses. Candles.
He pulled the shade down and called Charlie. “Hey. I didn’t catch anything on the scope, but I don’t have much of a view from here. Did your dad say how close he thought it was?”
“He said it had to be across the street, but with my dad’s hearing loss, it could have been in the kids’ bathroom. Either way, it had to be pretty close for him to hear it. His room faces the street. Could have been from down your way, or up past the Bartons’. I don’t know, but I don’t plan to sit on my ass and wait for those criminals to bust into my house and shoot it up.”
“I don’t think anyone’s shooting up houses, Charlie.”
“You don’t sound very convinced, Alex.”
“Let’s sit tight and observe. In my experience, when there are more unknowns than certainties, it’s the best course of action.”
“Sometimes sitting around and doing nothing is the worst thing you can do. We need to take the offensive. Bring the fight to them, on our terms…”
“Charlie, come on. We can’t just storm their house commando-style and blast anything that moves,” Alex said.
“Maybe we can set up an ambush outside their back door. Catch ’em by surprise when they head out,” Charlie said and cleared his throat.
“Too many unknowns. We’d have to set up on their turf, on their timeline. It’s way too risky. These guys may be psychotic, but I don’t get the sense that they’re stupid. Too many things can go wrong.”
“We should at least start going door to door and checking on people. Make sure they’re all right.”
“And stand out in the open knocking on the door of a possible murder scene. That’s definitely not a good idea, Charlie. We need to step up our observation and gather more information,” Alex insisted.
“We’ll see. I’m not gonna sit around forever.”
“I agree, but we need more to go on here. Let me know if you see anything.”
“All right. Later.”
**
Alex disconnected the call and walked over to the bedroom with the backpack and rifle. He found Kate lying on the couch with Emily, a recorded movie playing on low volume. She made eye contact and raised her eyebrows.
“What’s up?” she asked and propped herself up a little more, shifting Emily.
“Not too much,” he said, signaling for her to follow him.
Kate apologized to Emily and got up from the couch, following Alex into the darkened hallway outside of their bedroom. He leaned the rifle against the wall and dropped the backpack.
“Charlie is pretty sure he heard some gunfire in the neighborhood…”
“Are you sure he didn’t just hear you guys playing Xbox?”
“Ha ha ha. Seriously, his dad heard it too. Two distinctly different guns. Probably a pistol, and Charlie thinks a shotgun.”
“Well, if anyone knows the difference, it’s probably Charlie. Did you guys take a look around?” Kate asked.
“With night vision. Neither of us saw anything.”
“Did you check all of our doors?”
“Yeah, and I set all of the noise makers. I’ll set up the one on the stairs, and then we should all head into the bedroom. I really hate that we have to live like this in our own house.”
“Really sad is what it is. I wish we had a real alarm, or a dog. I just can’t see us hearing anything asleep with the door shut,” she said.
“I’ll hear any noises downstairs. Don’t worry, hon,” Alex assured her, kissing her forehead.
“You haven’t heard yourself snore lately. You’re sleeping harder than I am now.”
“What are you guys whispering about out there?” Emily called.
“Nothing, sweetie,” he said back.
Alex put a hand on each of Kate’s cheeks and looked into her eyes. He didn’t see any fear. She could be pretty resilient in a crisis.
“We’ll be fine. I’ll grab Ryan, and you make something up so Emily’s not worried,” he said.
“Did you call the police?”
“No. Not yet.”
What’s the point?
“You need to call the police and sit on the phone for as long as it takes to get through. Even if they can’t respond right away, it might set the wheels in motion to get someone out here to take a look at the situation. Maybe they’ll get booted from the house, and out of our neighborhood.”
“I don’t know. I’ll call again, but even if I do get through, I don’t see the police taking any action. I’m sure rooting out squatters is pretty low on their priority list. I don’t even know how they’d get out here.”
“That’s not your problem to fix. Make the call, and start the process. If the situation deteriorates further, and the police can’t do their job, then you’ll have a clearer conscience to take action.”
“I guess it would also cover our asses with the cops if something happened,” he conceded.
“Exactly.”
“All right. I’ll call Ed and then 911. Don’t wait up for me.”
“I love you. Make sure you send Ryan down,” she said and kissed his lips.
“I love you more,” he said and walked back to the attic staircase.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Alex sat propped up in bed next to Kate while she read one of his vintage Stephen King novels. Emily was snuggled in between them. He had been watching Kate nod off for the past twenty minutes, nudging her a few times for the sheer sake of annoyance. He stared at her as the novel slipped off her knees, through her hands, and slid down her red and green flannel pants to its final resting place on her maroon Boston College sweatshirt. She didn’t stir when the book fell, and he knew that she was officially done for the evening, though he could have made that call long before the book fell.
He put his iPad on the nightstand and leaned over to straighten Kate’s legs. She stirred from the movement and scooted herself down the bed so her head rested on the pillow. He turned off the light on his nightstand and gently kissed her on the lips.
“I love you,” he whispered, and she mumbled something back to him.
He pulled the comforter up to his neck and was slowly drifting away when his mind was suddenly jarred back into focus. He heard a muted sound, like a single, very distant clap of thunder, and sat up immediately. He grabbed the night vision scope and USP pistol from the top drawer of his nightstand and walked toward the double window at the front of their bedroom.
His cell phone rang, and he doubled back to get it. Charlie. He headed back to the front window, glancing down at Ryan, who was buried under a thick down comforter on the couch.
“Hey,” he whispered into the phone.
“I heard it again. Closer this time, and it sounded like a shotgun,” Charlie said.
“I heard it, too. Very faint. Definitely gunfire. I’m checking it out right now. I’ll get back to you.”
“I’m headed upstairs with a scope,” Charlie said, and the phone went dead.
Alex raised the window shade a few inches and put the scope through the opening between the shade and the windowsill. The sky was mostly clear, and he could see thousands of stars now that all of the area’s lights were out.
He turned on the scope and scanned the neighborhood. The scope provided a clear green image of everything, despite a near complete lack of ambient light among the houses. He searched for any signs of activi
ty, moving the scope one by one over the seemingly lifeless structures in his neighborhood. A few times, he spotted light flickering from a house, which he figured to be candlelight or a fireplace, but saw nothing out of the ordinary in the immediate vicinity of his own home.
He shifted his focus to where Durham Road curved into the other side of the loop, passing over the Carters’ and McCarthys’, and again saw nothing unusual. He saw a faint wavering light inside the McCarthys’ house. Normal. He’d seen that before. He passed the scope slowly over the Coopers’ house and stopped. That’s not right.
He increased the magnification of the scope until he could only see the Coopers’ house and watched an erratic light show play out behind the Coopers’ curtains. He saw the lights first in the room above the garage, which he assumed was their bedroom. From the shaky movement of the lights, he assumed they were flashlights. Weird.
The lights soon moved to each of the other windows on the second floor, and Alex determined that someone was going room to room. One of the lights moved downstairs, and he caught a brilliant flash in the night vision scope, as one of the flashlights briefly shined out of a front door window toward him. He watched closely as two more flashlights came down the stairs and faded deeper into the first floor of the house.
Three people?
He could tell they were moving around the first floor, but could not pinpoint their location. He watched the light show deep inside the house for a few more minutes until the lights disappeared.
Okay, let’s see what we have here.
He reduced the magnification of the scope, giving him a wider view. Staring through the scope, the Coopers’ house sat in the middle of his view, and he could see both gaps on each side of the house. He watched the scene patiently. Behind him, he heard Kate breathing heavily.
Already deeply asleep. Amazing. There we go!
Three dark figures emerged from behind the Coopers’ house and moved swiftly across the gap toward the Hayes’ house. He zoomed in on the group.
Three of them. Way too far to make an ID.
Two of them were carrying some kind of a long gun. Rifles, shotguns? Can’t tell.
He also saw that they were each carrying large bags. Duffel bags? From this distance, he really couldn’t tell.
Charlie’s house completely blocked his view of the Hayes’ house, and he lost them on their way across the gap. He walked out of the bedroom and called Charlie.
“I saw them cross between the Hayes’ and Murrays’. It’s definitely the three scumbags crashed out at the Murrays,” Charlie said, before Alex could utter a word.
“Are you one hundred percent sure it was them? I saw flashlights in the Coopers’ house, upstairs and downstairs. Then I saw three figures moving between the houses, too. I’m pretty sure one of them was wearing a ball cap, but my scope isn’t powerful enough to get a close enough look.”
“I couldn’t see anything inside the Coopers’, but I tracked them in the open, before they disappeared behind the Murrays’ house. I’m one hundred and twenty percent sure it was them. No doubt. I’m using an 8X Trident night vision scope. Trust me, I got a good look.”
“I lost them behind your house,” Alex said.
“Alex, I have no doubt it was them. They were moving pretty slow with all of the loot they took from Paul and Nancy. Jesus. Do you think we should head over there right now?”
“No. Whatever happened there is over, I guarantee it. I’ll head over in the morning.”
“I’ll give you a hand.”
“No, I’ll need you to cover me. Plus, I can move unobserved around the back of the houses. I’ll call you in the morning when I’m ready, and you can cover me with that nice sniper rifle of yours. Maybe you’ll finally get a chance to put it to work.”
“I sure as shit hope so. You gonna call this one in?” Charlie asked.
“No. It took me over an hour to get through last night, and the best the dispatcher could do was promise a call from an officer. I’m still holding my breath.”
“Sounds like we’re on our own, Alex.”
“You were right, Charlie. We should have done something about them earlier. I should have trusted my gut.”
“Hey, don’t start second guessing yourself now. We’ll check out the houses, and come up with a plan from there,” Charlie said.
“Keep a good guard tonight, Charlie. It’s still early. I’ll call you in the morning before I head over.”
“Sounds good. Talk to you then, Alex.”
Alex sat down on the dark brown love seat next to the couch and leaned the shotgun against the outside of the cushioned armrest, glanced toward the bedroom door, and felt the urge to get up and check it. He knew that the bedroom door was locked, and that the house was rigged for the night, but his mind wouldn’t let it go.
Nancy and Paul are dead. Hayeses too, probably.
His eyes wandered back to the bedroom door, and he took a deep breath. The house was silent beyond the deep respiration of his slumbering family. He wished he could fall asleep, but he was not optimistic about his chances.
Chapter Forty
Friday, December 13, 2013
Alex pulled a black turtleneck sweater over a gray crew neck T-shirt and took a pair of thick wool socks out of the walk-in closet. He walked over to Kate’s side of the bed and sat down to put his socks on. A groggy voice addressed him.
“Any…uh, particular reason you’re sitting there…and not lying in bed?” she asked, focusing on the battery-powered clock.
“I’d say I have a pretty good reason. While you were in dream land last night, I’m pretty sure I witnessed a break-in and murder at the Coopers’,” he whispered.
I could have broken that to her better.
“What!”
“Sssshhhh…don’t wake up the kids.”
“What are you talking about?” she whispered forcefully.
He laid down next to her to whisper, “Right as I was falling asleep last night, I heard a faint thumping sound. Gunfire. Charlie called a few seconds after it stopped. He heard the same thing. Said it was just like the night before.”
“Jesus,” she breathed.
“I grabbed the night vision scope and looked around the neighborhood. When I got to the Coopers’ house, it looked like several people were going through the house, room by room, with flashlights. Then I saw them leave, three of them, and walk toward the Hayes’ house. One of them looked just like that piece of shit that keeps coming to our door. Long hair and ball cap. Charlie’s one hundred percent sure it was them. He watched them walk between the Hayes’s and the Murrays’, loaded down with stuff they took. I’d bet you anything they broke into the Coopers’ and killed them. I’m gonna check it out and confirm what happened. Charlie’s gonna cover me. We need to figure this out, and figure it out quick, so we can deal with these lunatics immediately.”
“Wait, so what are you doing again?” she asked, rubbing her eyes and sitting up.
“I’m heading over to Paul and Nancy’s. If I find them dead, then the neighborhood is going to have to deal with the Manson family fast. Who knows where they’re headed next? I might check the Hayes’ while I’m at it. Their house is between the Manson’s and the Coopers.”
“Do you have to do this right now? You just woke up,” she said, lying back down and pulling the covers back up to her chin.
“Actually, I’ve been awake for an hour, and most of the night. No. I need to do this now. Then we’ll have most of the day to come up with a plan for tonight,” he said.
“No one’s going anywhere tonight. We have a huge storm moving in.”
“Hopefully, this whole thing will be settled by the time the storm moves in. One way or the other.”
“Be careful, and bring me one of the radios. I’ll hang out at the window and keep watch…just as soon as I can make some coffee. Can you wait a few minutes?” she asked, sliding out of bed.
“I’ll head down and get the coffee going. Then I’m starting my reconnais
sance,” he said.
“You know what worries me about you?”
“I have no idea, my love.”
“Deep down inside, I think you enjoy this. Actually, it’s not deep down inside. You can barely suppress your excitement.”
“Trust me, I don’t want to make this trip any more than you do. I hope I don’t find anything.”
“Just be careful and stay out of sight. Leave a walkie on the island. I’ll be down in a few minutes. How are you gonna keep in touch with Charlie?” she asked and stopped in front of the walk-in closet.
“Cell phone.”
Alex stepped into the closet, reached up to the highest shelf, and pulled down a black nylon holster rig and two spare magazines from pouches attached to it. He tucked the magazines into his right front pocket.
“Don’t worry about me,” he said, looking at his wife, and checking the pistol already jammed into his jeans behind his back.
She leaned over and kissed him. “Hurry back, okay? And don’t forget to switch your phone to vibrate. If numbnuts over there is your early warning system, you don’t want him tipping off the entire neighborhood.”
“I got it…thank you. We’re professionals,” he said and winked.
“Just hurry up and get back. Nothing fancy. I love you,” she said and headed back to the master bathroom.
Alex pulled his cell phone out of his front left pocket and walk toward the stairs.
“Where’s the rifle?” she asked.
“In the closet. I don’t think it would be a good idea to sneak around the neighborhood with it. Someone might shoot me from one of the houses behind us,” he replied. “Plus, I want to travel light on this one. In and out. Fast,” he added.
“Whatever. I think you should take it.”
“I’ll be fine. Love you.”
“Love you more.”
**
Alex approached the corner of the Coopers’ house cautiously and peered into the backyard. He saw that the entire area near the back of the house was full of footprints and dog tracks, including the deck. Several piles of dog feces poked out of the trampled snow near the back door to the garage, competing for his attention with several yellow splotches in the same vicinity. None of this appeared out of the ordinary to Alex, since he’d seen Paul and Nancy play daily in the backyard with their dog, Max. He walked toward the door, gingerly stepping around the frozen brown obstacles, and visually examined the door for signs of forced entry.
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