Creepers

"That's part of what they were designed for. To carry away storm water," Vi

"Empty the knapsacks," Tod ordered. "Load them with as many coins as they'll hold. Stuff your pockets."

"But what about them?" JD pointed toward their captives.. Tod raised the pistol.

"Wait," Balenger said. "Something's wrong." A chill sped along his nerves. Through the open door, he heard the shrieking wind. Thunder boomed through the broken skylight. The smell of rain gusted in. He heard water pelting the remaining glass in the skylight, heard it splashing on the balcony and the balustrade.

"Something's wrong for sure. The storm already started." Mack dumped the equipment out of his knapsack and hurried toward the vault.

"Not what I mean." Balenger stared toward the professor leaning back on the sofa.

The light from the professor's headlamp slowly shifted, sinking until it shone on his ample chest. Then it rolled onto his lap, shining up between his legs, as if his hard hat had come loose. But Balenger remembered that Conklin's hard hat had stayed firmly on his head, even when the stairs collapsed, a chin strap holding it in place.

Legs numb, he shuffled toward the professor, not sure if he had the strength to get there. Please, God, let me be wrong. But as he forced himself dizzily closer, the smell of rain gave way to the stench of copper. Blood.

The sofa was drenched in blood. So was the professor, and it was more than a hard hat that lay pointing upward in his lap. It was his head.

42

Acid gushed into Balenger's mouth. He clamped a hand to his lips, hoping it would stop him from throwing up. He swung toward Tod, gagging. "Get her away from the sofa."

"What?"

"The woman. Amanda. Get her to the other side of the room."

"What are you talking about?" Tod peered behind Balenger and saw what was on the sofa. "Oh, fuck." He swung as abruptly as Balenger had. "Mack, get a sheet from the bedroom!"

"Why?"

"Just do what you're told!"

"What's wrong?" JD asked. Then he saw the professor's blood-soaked, headless torso on the sofa and groaned.

"Ro

Vi

"Ro

"How?" Tod demanded.

"We were all in the passageway." Balenger fought his dizziness. His arms and legs were numb with mounting panic. Emotions from Iraq threatened to overwhelm him. No! he told himself. If you let it take charge, you die. Passive gets you killed. "We left the door open." Thunder roared. Rain pelted the balcony. "Somebody came in while we were distracted by opening the vault and finding Amanda."

"Ro

"He stood outside in the dark. He listened for a long time." Balenger's voice was unsteady.

"A long time?" Tod stared at the gloom beyond the open door. "How do you know?"

"Twenty minutes ago, I told you about Iraq, about the guy who threatened to cut off my head, and now we find the professor with his head-"

Mack rushed from the bedroom, hurried to the sofa, and threw a sheet over the professor's body. Blood soaked it. The headlamp between the professor's legs shone dully upward through the fabric. "It stinks," Mack said in disgust. "I never realized how much…"

"Yeah," Balenger said. "Blood stinks. Mutilated bodies stink."

"Ro

"He might still be here!" JD sca

"Shut the door," Tod ordered. "Lock it."

"Lock it how? The crowbar broke the door frame."

"Cram furniture against it."

JD dragged the bookcase toward the door. "Somebody give me a hand!"

Vi

"Nobody's coming through there." Mack grabbed the crowbar.

"But what if he's still in the room?" Again, JD sca

"Ro

"Check the bedroom, the bathroom, and the closet!" Tod shouted. He hurried toward the bedroom, then turned and aimed at Balenger. "Don't go anywhere."

"I'm not pla

He became aware of Cora and Vi

Cora wiped tears from her face. "Do I look like I can calm anybody?" Nonetheless, she went to Amanda.

Balenger watched Cora touch Amanda's arm and talk softly to her. Then he returned his attention to the black mouth of the spiral staircase. For all he knew, someone was down there, watching him.

"He's not in the closet, the bedroom, or the bathroom,'' Tod said, returning with Mack and JD.

Mack grabbed a water bottle from the floor and drank half of it.

"We might need to ration the rest of the bottles," Balenger said.

"We?" Tod asked.

"I need to…" Amanda said.

"What?"

"Relieve my…"

"So do I," Cora said.

"What's keeping you?"

"You took away the bottles we use for-"

"Go in the bathroom. You won't have water to flush it, but so what?"

"I don't want to be in there alone."

"I'll go with you." Mack gri

"J will," Vi

Cora put an arm around Amanda and led her toward the bedroom. Balenger noticed Mack staring toward the back of Amanda's nightgown. The two women and Vi

Watching them leave and then sca

"What now, hero?" Tod asked. "Any suggestions?"

"Use a cell phone to call the police."

"Don't you remember the local emergency number isn't working? And the regular police number has a long wait."

"Then phone the police in another city."

"Yeah, right. So instead of facing this Ro

"Not so far."

"Yeah, well, we weren't organized a little while ago. We didn't know what we were dealing with."

"You still don't."

"We will when the woman comes back and we get some information out of her."

JD took an empty knapsack into the vault. "Man, does it ever stink in here." He threw coins into the knapsack. They made a dull clinking sound.

"Here's another suggestion," Balenger said. Keep making them feel we're together, he thought. "Collectors won't pay seven hundred dollars for coins that are scratched. Those are perfect, and he's ruining them."

"Hey, asshole," Tod called. "Be careful with those. Don't scratch them. Use the trays. Put the coins in, trays and all. I was confused a minute ago," he told Balenger. "Needed to think. But now I've got everything covered. With our goggles, we'll see Ro

"Has it occurred to you that he might have goggles, too?"

Tod frowned, his furrowed brow twisting his tattoos. Footsteps made him turn toward Vi