“Maybe the door,” Shiner said. She squeezed Jeremy’s arm, then rushed across the hallway.
“Wait!” he yelled.
She yanked the door open and lurched back fast.
She whirled around, gasping, as the troll sprang out. A gawky gray-faced man with a wild black beard. He grabbed the back of Shiner’s blouse and yanked her off her feet. Jeremy leapt to save her. She was falling backward, eyes bulging, hands reaching out for him. A cleaver, apparently thrown by Liz, flipped end over end and flashed past the man’s head, just missing him, and vanished into the dark room at his back. Jeremy’s fingers grazed Shiner’s fingers. They flew away from him. He cried out, “No!” as she was hurled into the room. The door struck his upper arm, knocking him sideways, and slammed shut.
An instant before he threw himself against the door, Jeremy heard the clack of a sliding bolt. He clutched the knob, twisted it, tugged at it, crying “No! Let her out! Let her out, you bastard!”
He pounded the door, smashed at it with his shoulder, kicked at it.
The door stayed shut.
He sank to his knees, weeping.
Forty-two
Seconds after hearing the faint sound of the whistle, Robin saw a kid run out onto the boardwalk. He was the one, she guessed, who’d been left behind by the others to stand watch for the cops.
That’s what the whistle meant.
The cops are coming.
I just have to last, she thought. They’ll get me down.
If they know I’m here.
The kid was so far away.
He stopped in the middle of the boardwalk. There he turned around in circles, probably wondering where his friends had gone. He looked like a little kid lost in a supermarket, trying to find his mom.
If he was calling, Robin couldn’t hear him.
His head swung around as he glanced over his shoulder toward the Funland entrance. Then he ran straight ahead. Robin saw him start down the beach stairs. After that, her left arm blocked her view.
She looked down again.
No sign of the three trolls. But she knew where they had to be. Behind her. Probably on the Ferris wheel’s platform. Probably trying to start the thing going.
She wished she could see what was happening back there.
A handcuff suddenly slipped up her left hand, scraping over the knuckle of her thumb. Her stomach seemed to drop out from under her. Gasping, she willed her fist to clench.
Her fingers tingled with the effort.
The cuff slipped up her hand.
Christ!
Her fingers hooked the curved rim of the bracelet, and she held on, heart suddenly thundering, feet kicking.
Now! her mind shouted. Now or never! Christ!
Right hand balled in a tight fist, left hand clinging to the cuff, she bent her arms at the elbows and drew herself upward. Higher, higher. The edge of the footrest rubbed against her rump, then against the backs of her thighs. Her muscles ached. The cuffs felt like knife blades pressing into her fingers and fist. She whimpered and groaned, pumped her legs as if trying to climb the rungs of a ladder that wasn’t there. The gondola rocked, its footrest nudging her forward and easing away, swinging her.
Slowly she rose until her bleeding left wrist was in front of her eyes. Then she came to her fingers squeezed tight over the curved steel of the bracelet, her other hand pinched inside the right cuff. She forced herself higher. Her eyes were inches from the connecting chain. Higher. Up to the safety bar. Higher, until the bar was even with her chin.
Now what? she wondered.
Her arm muscles burned. She gritted her teeth. Sweat stung her eyes. Sweat or blood trickled down her sides and was turned cold by the ocean breeze.
Go for it!
Robin gripped the safety bar with her right hand, released the cuff, and grabbed hold with her left hand. She thrust her head forward, catching the bar under her chin.
Her sudden motions set the gondola rocking. Its footrest shoved at the backs of her knees.
Swinging by the bar, she jerked her legs up. When the footrest swept forward again, it brushed the bottoms of her feet. She flung herself away from the bar, thrusting her body backward, and tumbled onto the seat. The gondola pitched madly, as if it wanted to toss her out. She spread-eagled herself, jamming her heels against the metal lip