Страница 56 из 61
“I would have waited,” he said.
“I was perfectly alright to drive,” she replied with more hostility than she could account for.
Twisting around, she checked on Emma and Gracie. They had curled up on the wide backseat, like yin and yang, foreheads touching, knees drawn up, little feet twined together.
“The poor little things are worn out,” Polly said.
“Both asleep?”
“Dead to the world,” Polly replied, then wished she’d used a different phrase. This was not a night one should tempt the gods.
“That’s for the best,” Da
Polly thought about that for what seemed an excessively long time. In truth, she had nothing she wanted him to answer. She needed answers, but she would ask them of Marshall. Da
Lights shone from the third-floor bedroom. The downstairs unit was dark. “He must have fallen asleep with the lights on,” Da
“You take Emma,” he said. “I’ll take Gracie. She’s getting a little heavy even for me.”
“They are not babies,” Polly said more sharply than she intended. “They are too old to be carried around like sleepy toddlers.” Why she wished to make her daughters seem more mature and independent, she didn’t know.
“Never too old to be carried,” Da
She would be taller than Gracie.
The incredible sweetness of her child, nestled into the crook of her neck, struck Polly through the numbness that had overtaken her. There was an edge to this child-love that was so sensual, right and good, a true co
She should have left them with Martha, away from whatever was coming.
She had them with Martha; Da
“Wait,” she cried as he started for the door into the cellar. Suddenly, she could not bear to have him carry Gracie into the black beneath the duplex. Terror that she would never see her daughter again gripped her and she yelled, “Wait, goddamn you!”
Da
“Thank you,” she said as politely as she could. She didn’t answer his question. It was absurd.
Why on earth would anyone expect her to be okay?
37
Light came sudden and hard into Marshall ’s eyes. Lost in the past, he hadn’t heard anyone coming.
“Marsh!” His brother’s voice was harsh with the shock of seeing him there. “You’re supposed to be asleep.”
Old memories and hard light cleared from Marshall ’s eyes, and he saw Da
Marshall ’s fingers closed over the remnants of his childhood still held in his palm.
“Get down, Gracie,” he said in a neutral tone. “Uncle Da
Polly, Emma clutched to her side, stood at Da
“Polly, take the girls upstairs and put them to bed,” Marshall said. It was not a command; it was a plea.
“Don’t do it, Polly,” Da
He sounded so certain, so sure of himself, for a moment Marshall was Dylan again, and Dylan believed himself capable of any horror.
Gracie struggled. Da
“Dylan Raines,” Marshall said to his wife. “I’m Dylan Francis Raines of Rochester, Mi
“Tell her how you murdered our parents and our little sister.” Da
When Da
The clear, mossy green of his wife’s eyes was icing over.
Polly believed Da
Remembrance of who he’d been as a boy, how things were, was slipping away.
Marshall opened his hand and held it out. His brother looked at the pieces from their mother’s jewelry box without recognition, and Butcher Boy slid up close beside Marshall ’s spine, a sword into its scabbard.
Da
Rich saw the tiny gold crosses, the wedding ring and the hockey pin and, for a heartbeat, a smug, sly smile flicked across his lips like the tongue of a snake. In that instant, he looked into Marshall ’s eyes and gloated.
“What are those?” Polly asked, breaking the moment.
“They are trophies,” Marshall answered evenly. He couldn’t take his eyes off of his brother, and he could not block the thoughts that flowed like lava, hot and inexorable, through his mind. Half a century of thoughts.
“They are trophies,” Da
Marshall started to stand up. The fear on his wife’s face stopped him. She could not see the pride in Da
“Don’t believe him, Polly,” Marshall said, but he had little hope. If Da
“Polly, please take the girls upstairs. Let Da
“Stay,” Da
Da
Marshall watched his elder daughter’s face close against him. Talk of old murders had not affected her. That was too much like the movies. Killing a little animal was within her child’s grasp of consummate evil.