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She could hear his harsh breathing, the high-pitched sound that was between sob and giggle. She tried to grab his foot as she climbed after him, but he kicked savagely when he felt her hand. The thick sole of his shoe caught the edge of her forehead, and she slipped down the ladder. Ignoring the warm, gushing blood that streamed down her face, not feeling the force of the blow, she started up again, crying, 'Carl, give her to me. Carl, stop!'
But he was at the top of the ladder, pushing up the door that led on to the roof. Thick sleet pelted down as the door creaked upward. 'Carl, you can't get away,' she pleaded. 'Carl, I'll help you. You're sick. I'll tell them you're sick.'
The wind caught the door, pulled it open till it thudded against the side of the house. Missy was crying now – a loud, frightened wail: 'Mommmmmmmy!'
Carl thrust his body on to the balcony. Nancy scrambled after him, bracing against the door frame. It was so narrow. There was barely space for one person between the railing and the chimney.
Frantically she clawed at his clothes – trying to get a grip on him, to pull him back from the low railing. If he fell or dropped Missy… 'Carl, stop. Stop!'
Sleet beat against him. He turned and tried to kick her again, but stumbled backward, grasping Missy against him. He lurched against the railing and regained his balance. His giggle was now a persistent, hiccuping sound.
The walk was covered with a layer of ice. He sat Missy on the railing, holding her with one hand. 'Don't come any nearer, little girl,' he said to Nancy. 'I'll drop her if you do. Tell them they must let me go away. Tell them they must not touch me.'
'Carl. I'll help you. Give her to me.'
'You won't help. You'll want them to hurt me.' He swung one foot over the rail.
'Carl. No. Don't do it. Carl, you hate water. You don't want water to cover your face. You know that. That's why I should have known you didn't commit suicide. You couldn't drown yourself. You know that, Carl.' She made her voice calm, deliberate, soothing. She took one step towards the railing. Missy was reaching her arms out, pleading.
Then she heard it… a cracking, breaking sound. The railing was breaking! As she watched, the wooden posts gave way under Carl's weight. His head went backward; he swung his arms forward.
As he released his hold on Missy, Nancy darted forward and grabbed her baby. Her hands caught in Missy's long hair – caught and twisted and held. She was teetering on the edge of the walk; the rail was crumbling. She felt Carl grab her leg as he fell, screaming.
Then, as she was being dragged forward, firm arms came around her waist from behind – arms that held and supported her. A strong hand pulled Missy's head against her neck, pulled them both back, and she collapsed against Ray even as, with a last despairing scream, Carl slid off the balcony, across the icy, sloping roof and into the angry, rock-filled surf far below.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The fire licked hungrily at the thick logs. The warm hearth smell permeated the room and mingled with the scent of freshly-made coffee. The Wigginses had opened the store and brought up cold cuts for sandwiches, and they and Dorothy had prepared a spread while Nancy and Ray were at the hospital with the children.
When they got home, Nancy insisted that the television crews and reporters be fed too, and Jonathan had thrown his home open to them. They had taken films of the homecoming of Nancy and Ray, carrying their children in from the car, and had been promised an interview the next day.
'In the meantime,' Ray said into the microphones, 'we want to thank everyone whose prayers through this day kept our children from harm.'
The Keeneys had come back to the house too, wanting to be part of the gladness; frightened that they had waited to come forward with their information; sure that only prayer had made the rescue possible. We are all so human, so foolish, Ellen thought. She shuddered, thinking that her Neil had talked to that insane man. Suppose he had asked Neil to get into his car that day…?
Nancy sat on the couch, tightly holding a peacefully sleeping Missy. Missy, smelling of Vick and soothed with warm milk and aspirin, the ragged blanket she called her 'bee' held securely to her face as she nestled against her mother.
Michael was talking to a gently questioning Lendon -telling all about it, thinking it out. His voice, at first excitable and rapid, was calmer now, even a little boastful: '… and I didn't want to go away from that house without Missy when the nice man started fighting with the other man and yelled at me to get help. So 1 ran back up to Missy and called Mommy on the phone. But then the phone stopped working. And I tried to carry Missy down the stairs, but the bad man came…'
Ray's arms were around him. 'Good boy. You're quite a guy, Mike.' Ray couldn't keep his eyes off Nancy and Missy. Nancy 's face was discoloured and bruised, but so serenely beautiful that he had trouble swallowing over the lump in his throat.
Chief Coffin put down his coffee cup and reviewed the statement that he would make to the press: Professor Carl Harmon, alias Courtney Parrish, was pulled out of the water still alive. Before he died, he was able to make a statement, confessing his sole guilt in the murder of his children, Lisa and Peter, seven years ago. He also admitted that he was responsible for the death of Nancy Eldredge's mother. Realizing that she would have prevented his marriage to Nancy, he jammed the steering mechanism of her car while she was in the restaurant with Nancy. Mr John Kragopoulos, whom Professor Harmon assaulted today, is on the serious list in Cape Cod Hospital with a concussion, but is expected to recover. The Eldredge children have been examined and were not sexually molested, although the boy, Michael, suffered a bruise on the side of the face from a violent slap.'
The Chief felt fatigue settling into the very marrow of his bones. He'd give the statement and get home himself. Delia would be waiting for him, wanting to know every-thing about what had happened. This, he reflected, was the kind of day that made police work worthwhile. There was so much grief in this job. There were the times when you had to tell parents that their child was dead. Moments like the one in The Lookout when they knew they had found both kids safe were to be cherished.
Tomorrow. Jed reflected that tomorrow he would have to judge his own culpability. This morning he had prejudged Nancy because of pique that he hadn't recognized her. By prejudging her, he hadn't let his mind stay open; had ignored what Jonathan and Ray and the doctor and Nancy herself were telling him.
But at least he had driven the car that got Ray to the balcony on the roof of The Lookout in that split second of time. No one else could have got up that hill on that ice so fast. When they'd seen Nancy 's car crashed into the tree at the bend of the road, Ray had wanted to stop. But Jed had kept going. Some instinct made him feel that Nancy had got out of the car and was in the house. His hunch had been right. For that he could defend himself.
Dorothy quietly refilled Lendon's cup at his affirmative nod. Michael would be all right, Lendon thought. He'd come down and see them again soon. He'd talk to the children and to Nancy – try to help her to completely see the past for what it was and then turn her back on it. Nancy wouldn't need too much help. It was a miracle that she'd had the toughness to survive the horror of everything that had happened to her. But she was a strong person and would emerge from this last ordeal, able to look forward to a normal life.
There was peace in Lendon. He had compensated at last for his neglect. If he had gone to Nancy when Priscilla died, so much could have been avoided. He would have realized there was something Wrong with Carl Harmon and somehow got her away from him. But then she wouldn't be here now with this young man who was her husband. These children would not be in her arms.