The Great Escape (22 page)

wrists? What kind of an animal are you?'

'A crazed one,' a calm, deep voice intervened at last, like a breath of

sanity in the terrible confrontation. Everyone turned as one to look at

the man who had spoken. He was lounging against the wall near the

window, hands in pockets, looking lazy, his green, green eyes

surveying everything alertly. 'An outcast of humanity. A maverick. A

manifestation of evil, if you like. There are many, many descriptions

for things like her.' The words literally dripped his utter distaste and

contempt. He looked at Dee and slowly smiled into her eyes. 'And so

you figured it out, just like I'd known you would. I saw the very

instant when it all occurred to you. It happened quicker than I'd

thought it would, darling. You can come into the room now, Darrell.'

And at these strange words, a youngish, blond man who was

powerfully built walked into the room from the hall. He had come out

of the spare bedroom.

Howard and Judith were identical pictures of incredulity and shock.

Their eyes fairly popped out of their heads at this unexpected

development. Apparently they could handle blackmail and plotting a

death more easily than discovery.

Mike said to Dee, 'I'd like for you to meet a friend and colleague of

mine, Darrell Krause. We went to school together some time back. I

called him this morning before calling your guardians, and we set up

a few bugs while you were so peacefully slumbering.' He turned to

the astounded and dismayed Kimbles. 'We've been recording

everything that's been said today. We have your admissions of guilt

on tape. There's absolutely no way to extricate yourselves from this.'

Dee had nodded her head at his words, unsurprised, and she stood

rather aimlessly and rubbed tiredly at her forehead. Then she looked

around her with a blank expression and said quietly, 'This isn't

happening. Life isn't this bizarre, it really isn't. People wanting to kill

me, private investigators popping out of the woodwork—insanity,

that's what it is! I've gone mad.' The world seemed to be fuzzed over

in an unfocussed way, as if there was a layer of cotton wool between

her and everyone else. It was a rather nice insulation; shock, she

thought irrelevantly, can be quite soothing. Your system shuts down

until you have the strength to let everything sink in.

She heard footsteps come her way and Mike was asking her,

concerned, 'Dee, are you all right?'

She heard him, turned her head and would have answered, except that

just at that moment there was a blur of movement from her left and

she was looking on reflex to see what it was. Her eyes slewed that

way just in tun:*' to see Judith reach swiftly into the pocket of her

light suit jacket and pull out something remarkably wicked-looking,

for as small as it was. Dee's gaze went to it and finally her mind

grasped what it was. It was a gun. ..

That insulation of cotton wool was not entirely beneficial, she

thought dazedly, as she stared into the face of that small black death

and found she couldn't move. It was just like that mire of mud that she

always dreamt about, holding her in place, trapping her for ever, and

she was going to die any second now as Judith snarled out something

that she didn't quite catch. She could tell that it was full of her

unreasoning hate and rage, though, and then the gun was lifted to be

aimed right at her.

She had just enough time to think, I really am going to get it this time,

and then everything exploded around her. Something catapulted into

her right side and it knocked her all the way over to the wall, which

she hit with such a hard thud that she coughed in pain and protest. As

she was pushed roughly to the side, she heard a sharp report and felt

an angry buzzing sting at her cheek, as if a wasp had got her. Then she

saw the blond man named Darrell hurtle himself like a football player

right into the dumpy figure of Judith and they both went down like a

load of bricks, Judith underneath and howling in pain and anger.

Howard took off like a rabbit for the door but was stopped when Mike

gathered himself into a crouch at her feet and shot off like a guided

missile, cannoning into Howard's back much in the same way that

Darrell had smashed into Judith.

Howard staggered but didn't fall, and he turned to aim a wild blow at

Mike which Dee, sitting on the floor and watching the whole scene

like television, could have told him wouldn't do any good. Mike was

quicker than sight, ducking and simply no longer there by the time

Howard's relatively slow fist had reached the place where he'd been.

It was almost like watching someone in slow motion, that was how

much faster Mike was than he, and Howard was suddenly lying on the

carpet and holding a hand to his profusely bleeding nose and mouth.

Mike shook his hand as if it hurt him, and he turned to see what was

happening to Darrell and Judith. Dee's head, in imitation, swung to

the left like a pendulum and she saw Darrell get up from sprawling all

over her aunt, that black gun in his capable-looking hand. He rubbed

one cheek where he looked to be scratched. Judith was panting on the

floor, greying hair all askew, and eyes so full of a molten animalistic

fury and spitting hate that Dee was quite happy to be sitting where she

was on the floor, quite out of range.

Then there came such a stream of vile filth from Judith's mouth that

Mike turned to her wearily and said shortly, 'Shut up, before I shut

you up.' He didn't raise his voice, but her words were suddenly cut off

as if a door had been closed.

Dee just sat like a small child on the floor by the bookcase she'd been

shoved into, with fallen books all around her and fair hair tousled

from the unexpected way she had been thrown about. Her hand went

to her cheek in reflex as the stinging didn't go away, and when she felt

something sticky, she brought it away and looked at the red on her

fingers. The bullet sent her way must have winged her slightly.

Darrell asked, 'Is everyone all right?' and looked her way along with

Mike and, incidentally, Howard and Judith. She heard an exclamation

and Mike started for her, but what she mostly heard was Judith.

'Pity,' the other woman said maliciously, 'I hadn't meant to miss.'

Then Mike was right beside her, putting a gentle arm around her and

reaching into his pocket with the other free hand, extracting a white

handkerchief which he pressed carefully to her cheek, blotting the

blood-flow. He pulled back the handkerchief and inspected her

cheek.

'It isn't bad at all,' he told her, gently reassuring. 'It's only about an

inch long, and it should stop bleeding in a minute or two. Here, take

this and press it to the cut and I'll go and get the first aid kit.' Dee

obediently took the soiled handkerchief and kept it in place while he

disappeared. As Mike then applied stinging antiseptic to her sore

cheek and placed a band-aid against the small wound, Judith and

Howard picked themselves up, while Howard mopped up his face as

best he could. No one really seemed to notice him much, or care if he

bled all over himself like a pig. But then, Dee mused, Howard always

had been overlooked. It was the story of his life.

She found to her dismay that her cotton protection was beginning to

wither away, and reaction was setting in. She crept over to the

curtains and pulled them open the rest of the way. The others were

talking and Mike and Darrell seemed to be making plans, but she

wasn't paying attention. She was busy trying to understand just why

she was feeling so utterly lonely, so terribly shaken up, when the only

thing that had happened was what could have been expected. She

could handle it. She wasn't the type to have hysterics. Still, she

thought, her mouth shaking as she stared fixedly out the window, it

wasn't every day that one gets shot at and nearly killed, and I've

nearly died three times in as many days. It's enough to get anyone

upset.

But what she found herself trying to cope with, and failing miserably,

was how Mike had omitted to tell her of his plans. He had not only

placed her in a position of severe jeopardy, but he had manipulated

her with a fine arrogance, not even respecting her enough to tell her. It

made her so very angry she wasn't sure what she would do if he came

too close, too soon. She wasn't in control, she found, as she gripped

the heavy curtains, white-knuckled, at her side. Then she heard

footsteps come up behind her, and knew who it was going to be. She

knew quite well who those footsteps belonged to, and he was coming

too close, too soon, for she didn't have her anger leashed yet. It was

like a crouching animal, unfettered, ready to strike. Watch out, she

thought, don't touch me or I'll blow up right in your face. I'm too

furious, just too outraged at what you did to me . . .

. .. And his hand came down gently on to her shoulder, just as she'd

known it would, massaging the rigidity of her neck muscles, and the

white-hot fury in her exploded, just as she'd known it would. For the

second time in less than a week she swung around, hand tight in a fist,

and totally without remorse hit him as hard as she could in the jaw.

And as he staggered back that one step for balance, she was off and

running for the door and shooting out into the hall faster than she had

ever moved in her life.

DARRELL leaned casually against the couch and surveyed Judith and

Howard sitting in two chairs, the gun propped in one hand. He said

mildly, 'See? I told you she'd be sore.'

Mike looked at him, white and stern, and said harshly, 'Shut up, will

you?' He shot for the door, calling over his shoulder, completely

unaware of the contradiction in his commands, 'And get busy and call

the police, too!'

Dee was already outside and moving fast. She cut through a few

apartment buildings and angled back for the road. There were just too

many places for her to go in that building complex. She had the

advantage over Mike, as she pelted through the buildings and started

running down the street. She could lose him.

She did. In a short space of time she was quite a distance away,

jogging steadily, and the physical exertion eased away some of the

excess of emotion that had been bottled up inside of her. It was good

just to be on the move, to have that illusion of freedom and to pretend

that she was carefree. The clean air stirred her cheek and the sun beat

down on her head with a life- giving warmth. Eventually, walking

and running at intervals, she found herself outside the city zoo, and

realised she had gone several miles. She stood, breathing hard and

looking up at the sign that was near the gateway, seeing the free

admission for the day. Then moving more slowly as she caught her

breath, she went on through the gates.She walked around, feeling the

tightness around her chest and heart ease, and pretended to look at the

animals with everyone else. A small boy ran into her legs and she

grabbed him before he fell, sending him laughingly back to his

apologetic mother. Then, spying an empty bench along the well-kept

walkway, she went and sat down to bask in the sunshine.

She was just killing time and she knew it. If she really wanted to she

supposed she could run off right now and survive, even though she

had no money. But it wouldn't serve any purpose now. The great

escape had been a fine adventure and an excellent way to keep hold of

her sanity, but there were just some things she couldn't run from.

They had had quite a few shared experiences, she and Mike. Some of

it had been really rotten, and some of it very frightening, but a lot had

been good. They both had been thrown into abnormal circumstances,

though. She knew that she would love Mike probably for the rest of

her life, no matter what happened, but she was also reasonable

enough to acknowledge that they had some very steep obstacles

ahead of them, if they were both willing to work for a future in their

relationship. One of her fears was that she wasn't sure if he was even

willing to continue to see her.

There was the problem of their age difference. She personally didn't

have a problem with it, but she knew that he felt a bit strange being

involved with someone as young as she, and she couldn't guarantee

that problems wouldn't arise from her extreme youth. She still had

college to finish. How would he feel if she wanted to move to a

different city for scholastic reasons, when he had his ties here?