Johnny Gruesome (44 page)

Johnny gathered the chain, and Eric rolled onto his back for a defensive view. Johnny whipped the chain again, and this time Eric rolled to his right. The chain missed again, striking the ice where he’d just been. Johnny pulled the chain back faster, coiling it, and Eric returned to his back.

Johnny whipped the chain, and Eric rolled left, but not fast enough: the chain struck his broken leg and his agonized scream echoed around him. Johnny pulled the chain back and Eric clawed at the links with a desperate cry.

Got to get that chain!
His fingers closed around the freezing metal, but Johnny jerked it from his grasp.

Johnny’s wicked cackling filled the night. He swung the chain in a high arc, but Eric rolled to his left and the chain chopped ice. As Johnny pulled the chain back yet again, Eric scanned the ice for anything he could use to help him.

There!
He spied the tip of a sharp rock protruding from the ice. Twisting his body, he brought his left knee to his chest and braced his foot against the abutment. Just as Johnny whipped the chain at him, he kicked the rock with all his remaining strength, propelling himself across the ice and beyond the chain’s reach. Gasping for breath, he heard the chain strike ice again. He struggled to get up on his elbows, cold air hurting his lungs, his body depleted of energy. Lying there, helpless, he prayed for his plan to succeed.

Gathering the chain, Johnny advanced on him. “Stop crawling, Eric. It’s pathetic. Go out with a little dignity.” He crossed the ice where Eric had rolled back and forth—the same spot where the Death Mobile had crashed.

Come on, Eric thought. Just a little closer …

Johnny’s weight triggered a sudden splintering. Looking down, he saw jagged fissures radiate across the ice like a giant spiderweb, with his boots at the epicenter. Casting a startled look at Eric with his eyes threatening to pop out of their sockets, he sprang forward. A loud cracking split the night, and his powerful stride sent him plunging through ice and water.

Eric’s heart pounded as he waited for Johnny to emerge from the churning current. Instead, the chain rattled across the ice, following Johnny into the black water. Then, nothing.

Eric’s chest convulsed, and before he knew it laughter rumbled from inside him. He had done it; he had outwitted Johnny. His laughter took on an unnatural sound, then gave way to great sobs as he gazed at the hole in the ice with disbelief.
I won!
he thought, resting his head on the ice. His eyelashes captured snowflakes as he stared up at the black sky.

There’s no way I can make it back on this leg, and it will be hours before anyone discovers me out here
.

I’m finished.

Closing his eyes, he thought of Rhonda and accepted his fate.

O
ver there!” Carol pointed at the Lexus parked before the bridge, barely visible through the onslaught of falling snow. Matt slowed down and pulled over. He hopped out of the Pathfinder and ran to the empty vehicle. Trying the door handle, he raised his eyebrows as the door opened and the dome light came on, illuminating the keys that dangled from the ignition. Carol ran past him, onto the bridge, where she stared at the Death Mobile.

Seeing the damaged vehicle, Matt said, “What the hell?”

Carol rushed to the railing behind the black car, and Matt hurried to the opposite railing. Gazing down, his heart jumped. Eric lay on the ice below, his eyes closed. Ten feet away, he saw foaming water through a gaping hole in the ice.

What the hell had happened? “Over here, Carol!”

Carol joined him, out of breath from running through the snow, and peered over the railing. Her heart beat faster.
Not Eric, too!
She called his name, but he didn’t respond.

Matt sprinted back to his police unit. Opening its hatch with his remote control, he reached inside and pulled out an emergency rope, which he threw over his shoulder. One end of the rope was tied in a figure-of-eight coil.

“Hurry!” Carol said, still at the railing.

He took out a heavy-duty flashlight, slammed the hatch, and ran back across the bridge. “Come on!”

Dashing between the sawhorses and the Death Mobile, he jumped over the guardrail at the end of the bridge and helped her over it. He switched on his flashlight and they staggered into the woods together.

“Eric!”

He heard someone shouting his name.

No, it’s just the wind.

The ice beneath him chilled his entire body, and his teeth chattered.

Just look one time …

His eyelids refused to open.

No. Too tired. Stay still.

Forcing his eyes open, he shifted his view to the bridge’s railing. No one was there. He closed his eyes again.

Sleep …

Matt and Carol burst through the brush and skittered down the shale embankment. Matt aimed the flashlight at the still figure on the ice. “Eric!”

Eyes blinking, Eric rolled his head from side to side.

“Over here!”

He recognized that voice. But who—

“Eric!”

A second voice now, belonging to—Mrs. Crane?

Summoning all his energy, he raised his head and saw Matt and Carol standing on the embankment, waving to him.

“He’s alive!” Carol said.

Groaning, he raised himself on his elbows.

Matt handed the flashlight to Carol and slid the rope from his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Eric shook his head. “I broke my leg.”

“What about Johnny?” Carol said.

Matt shot her an exasperated look, even though he had seen the resurrected Death Mobile himself.

“He’s gone,” Eric said, sitting the rest of the way up. Wincing at his pain, he gestured at the hole in the ice. “Down there.”

Matt and Carol stared at the dark water, their eyes searching for anything that might verify Eric’s story.

“I’m throwing this to you,” Matt said. The end of the rope formed a true lariat, which he twirled through the air. He extended his arm and the rope sailed to Eric, a clean throw. “Wrap it around your chest, under your arms.”

Eric managed to do as Matt instructed, pulling the lariat over his head. Using his hands for support, he tried to stand on his good leg, but the pain proved too intense.

“Don’t get up,” Matt said. “The ice might break. Stay still and I’ll pull you over.” Matt faced Carol. “Keep him talking. He’s probably in shock.”

Carol nodded.

And then she screamed.

Johnny’s hands burst through the ice, one on either side of Eric, who flinched, his hands sliding on the ice. Before he knew it, he lay on his back again, with Johnny’s wet, skeletal fingers clutching his throat and forehead. He heard Carol scream, and then icy black water engulfed him, filling his nostrils and freezing his throat, and the creek’s deafening roar blocked out everything else.

Following Carol’s line of sight, Matt saw Eric disappear, large chunks of broken ice bobbing on the surface of the turbulent water in his wake.

Damn it, the ice broke underneath him!

He sprinted to the woods, clutching the rope.

The current hurled Eric toward the rocky creek bottom. His body turned numb from the intense cold, and his widened eyes scoped the black water, useless. Holding his breath, he tumbled, buffeted, uncertain which way was up. Then he saw the ice above him glowing a dull blue beneath the streetlight. He stuck his left leg out, jamming it into a crop of rocks.