“It’s the house next door,” Jeff explained. “It’s up for sale, been empty for months.” Beaming at Pete, he said, “Brilliant work, dude. We’ll fuckin’ ambush his ass!”
Sherry slumped back in her chair. Looking exhausted, she said, “We’d better call the cops right now.”
“No cops,” Jeff said. “No way. We’ll take care of him. Me and Pete.”
“Or he’ll take care of you,” Sherry muttered. “And after he gets done with you guys, he’ll take care of me.”
“That isn’t gonna happen,” Pete said.
“You just hope not.”
“Just in case, you shouldn’t be around. I’ll give you the car keys, and…”
She let out a soft, tired laugh.
“Are you okay to drive?”
“I’m not going to drive. God! How could you give him that address?”
“It’s next door,” Jeff reminded her.
“I know it’s next door, but Toby isn’t stupid. If you think he’ll walk into some kind of trap…”
“I had to tell him something.” Pete said.
“No you didn’t.”
“He didn’t just call here by accident, you know.”
Sherry stared at him. “I know that.”
“How do you think he found out you’re still alive? How did he know where to call?”
“Oh, God,” Sherry murmured. “He’s at my parents’ house. He heard me on their answering machine…and they’ve got some kinda call return thing on their phone.”
“Star sixty-nine?” Jeff asked.
“Yeah, that’s it. That’s how he called here.”
“Oh, man.”
“We’ve gotta get over there,” Sherry said.
“He’ll be on his way here,” Jeff said.
“But my mom and dad…Brenda…”
“Maybe they’re okay,” Pete said. “Maybe they weren’t home.”
“I’ve gotta find out.”
“One of us could drive over and look around,” Pete suggested.
“Not me,” Jeff said. “I’m not gonna go off ’n leave you guys here. He’s gonna show up. Anyhow, I’m a little tanked. I’d problee get pulled over by the cops.”
“I guess we could all go,” Pete said.
“Who drives?” Jeff asked. “We all been boozin’ it up.”
“I’m okay to drive,” Sherry said.
“You’re hardly okay to stand,” Pete told her.
“My head’s pretty clear. I can manage.”
“We’ll miss our chance at Toby,” he said.
“How long’ll it take to get there?” Jeff asked.
Turning her head, Sherry stared up at the bluff beyond the back wall. “That’s Mulholland?”
“Yeah,” Pete said. “About a mile from Coldwater.”
“Guess it’d take twenty minutes, half an hour. To get there.”
“Then the whole thing’ll take like an hour,” Jeff said. “We’re gonna miss him.”
“We’d better do it,” Pete said, meeting Sherry’s eyes. “Make sure your family’s okay. We can worry about Toby later.”
“Thanks.” She handed her half-finished Bloody Mary to Jeff.
“Done?” he asked.
She nodded. “Had enough for now.”
He set her glass on the table.
Sherry grabbed the arms of her chair, leaned forward and started to push herself up.
Pete lurched out of his chair and hurried to her side. He gently took hold of her left upper arm.
“Thanks,” she said as he helped her up. On her feet, she said, “Let me see if I can get along on my own. I’d better, huh?”
“Okay.” He let go of her arm, then watched her. She swayed slightly, but stayed up.
“Might be a good idea to put away all this stuff,” she said. “Toby might come snooping while we’re gone.”
“Snoopin’ at the house next door,” Jeff pointed out.
“For five minutes, maybe,” Sherry said. “Then he’ll notice it’s empty and figure out somebody pulled a fast one. Then maybe he’ll come looking over here.”
“Let’s get everything inside,” Pete said.
“I’ll go on in,” Sherry said, and started hobbling toward the glass door.
“Y’all right?” Jeff asked her.
“Peachy.”
She made it into the house.
It took two trips for Pete and Jeff to carry everything in from the table. Then Jeff picked up his clothes and brought them inside. While he stepped into his jeans, Pete shut and locked the sliding door.
“You going like that?” Jeff asked.
Pete closed the curtains. “Guess I’d better get dressed.”
“How about me?” Sherry asked from where she waited by the front door.
Pete hurried over to her.
“Maybe you can find me a shirt to wear.”
“You wanta come along and pick something?”
“I’d better wait here. Just grab me anything. We’ve gotta hurry.”
“Yeah.” He gave his trunks a pull, then started down the hallway toward his bedroom.
“Do you have any guns in the house?” Sherry called.
“Yeah.”
“We’d better take something with us, ’cause I know Toby’s armed.”
Chapter Fifty
Standing in the kitchen to put on his shoes, Toby noticed a pink sheet of paper fixed by an Eeyore magnet to the refrigerator door. In both top corners were cartoonish drawings of cars. The car on the left looked filthy, while the car on the right seemed to sparkle—lines like sunshine rays radiating off it.