upended his rucksack on the bed and messed through his clothes until he found the one-liter bottle of Stolichnaya vodka he’d brought at a Piggly Wiggly in Columbia that morning. He twisted off the cap, took a drink, and set the bottle next to the television set. Next he unzipped a toiletry bag and withdrew a matte black M9 Beretta and a fifteen-round magazine, which he set next to the booze.
Tonight, he decided in a vague, almost blasé way, not wanting to acknowledge what he was thinking. If he did, if he contemplated, reflected, felt, he would become too emotional, and he wouldn’t do it. And it had to be done. Sooner or later, it had to be done.
Tonight.
Shrugging out of his fatigue shirt—WALKER written above the right breast pocket, US ARMY above the left—Beetle went to the bathroom and drew water for a hot shower.
CHAPTER 10
“We don’t need a stretcher in there. We need a mop!”
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
“I just let go,” Noah said monotonously, almost to himself. “I didn’t push him. He was trying to take the hockey stick from me. I just let it go.”
He and Steve were standing a few feet from the dead boy. Both had turned their backs to the body.
“That radiator shouldn’t have been leaning there against the wall like that,” Steve told him. “It was a hazard.”
“Fuck!” Noah ran his hands up and down his face. “Fuck! I’m in deep shit, aren’t I?”
“It was an accident.”
“Yeah, an accident…an accident.” He shook his head. “What the hell was he doing, Steve? Attacking us like that? We knocked on the door, didn’t we? We called out, said we needed to use the phone. Robbers don’t do that, do they? So what the fuck was his problem?” He shook his head again. “This is fucked. This is so totally fucked.”
“Listen,” Steve said, “I’m going to go give one last look upstairs for that phone. There were a couple rooms I didn’t get to. If I can’t find it, though, we need to get moving. We can explain what happened here to the cops after we get help for Jeff and Jenny.”
Noah stiffened, his disposition instantly flipping from tempestuous to calculated. “Whoa, hold up a sec, Steve. Slow down. We haven’t discussed this yet. I mean, what are we going to tell them?”
“The cops?” Steve said. “What do you mean? We’re going to tell them the truth—the kid attacked you. He fell and knocked the radiator on his head.”
Noah snorted. “You think they’ll believe that?”
“That’s what happened, man. What do you want to tell them?”
“I don’t know. Maybe, I don’t know…but why do we even need to mention the kid?”
Steve stared at him. “Because he’s dead, Noah.”
“I know that! But, look, nobody knows we’ve been here, right? Nobody knows we stopped. We can hide the body in the woods or something.”
“Hide the body?” Steve said.
“He’s already dead.”
“Are you kidding me? Jesus Christ, Noah! We’re not hiding his body in the woods. This wasn’t your fault.”
“No one’s going to believe—”
“It was an accident—”
“His teeth marks are in my fucking hand! Look!” Noah thrust his hand out so Steve could see the bloody wound. Several deep teeth punctures formed a half moon in his flesh. “How’s that going to look, huh?”
“He attacked you. You were restraining him. It was self-defense.”
“We broke into his house!”
“We were getting help for Jeff and Jenny. It was an emergency. The cops will understand that—”
“Dude!” Noah exclaimed. “We’re a bunch of boozed-up out-of-towners. Jeff smashes his car while he’s half soused and jumping from coke. Yeah, he was, did a couple lines when you and Jenny were under the bridge. You think the cops are going to have much sympathy for him? Much sympathy for us getting him help? Then another boozed-up out-of-towner—this one testing positive for pot—breaks into a house and kills a kid who’s trying to protect his home from what he believes are burglars. Shit, Steve, the cops aren’t going to be on our side in this. They’re going to be gunning for us. What I did might not be premeditated murder, but it sure as hell is manslaughter. I’ll go to prison.”
Steve frowned. He hadn’t thought about the full ramifications of their collective actions. But Noah was right, wasn’t he? They’d been drinking. Not only that but Jeff was high on coke and Noah thoroughly stoned. “Fuck, Noah…” He cleared his throat. “Okay, let’s say you’re right. Okay? Maybe you’re right. But hiding his body… It won’t