The backyard extended forty feet behind Kevin Verloc’s house before coming to an abrupt, five-foot ledge onto the steep riverbank, which plunged another sixty yards to the river. The bank was covered with weeds and bushes and scrub trees and a natural dugout about forty yards down the hill, where, pressed against a prickly bush, Rae-Lynn Pierce held her breath and waited to be killed. Thorns poked her skin, and her legs ached from crouching. Behind her, the water chirped and splashed like a running bath. Rae-Lynn knew that her only chance was to break for the river; even if she drowned, it would be better than letting the man in the maroon truck have her again.
From above, a flashlight beam drifted across the bush. Rae-Lynn covered her mouth. She could hear him on the trail above her, grunting as he struggled down the bank. His voice was eerily flat, as if there was nothing unusual about the situation they were in. “Hey, I know you’re down here,” he said. “Do you remember me?”
He wanted her to start crying, or to try to run away. But Rae-Lynn concentrated on remaining completely still. She watched the flashlight beam move farther down the bank, to the river, and then back across the bush she was hiding in.
“Girlie?” It was the old guy. Their voices seemed to be right on top of her, and Rae-Lynn felt tears roll down her cheeks. “Come on out now. He ain’t gonna hurt you.”
The guy from the truck laughed. “That ain’t gonna work this time, Dad. She knows better.” He raised his voice. “You know better. Don’t you?”
The old man spoke quietly. “Maybe you could let this one go, Kevin.”
“Why don’t you go on up to the house, Dad? I’ll be up in a minute.”
Rae-Lynn’s legs twitched from the pain of crouching inside the bush. She leaned forward, thinking she could break for the water now. But once again, the flashlight beam rolled across the bush. “I’ll bet you got bruises on your throat from my hands. Is that right? Can you still feel my fingers around your neck?” His breathing was labored. “I didn’t get what I paid for, you know. You owe me.” He grunted, and it sounded as if he fell. The flashlight beam veered off into the sky and Rae-Lynn heard a clunk.
The old man yelled. “Kevin!”
Rae-Lynn tried to run but her legs felt frozen in place. She opened her eyes and saw the backs of his legs through the bush. He was right in front of her. It had been a trick. He bent over and picked up the flashlight. In the other hand, he held a gun.
“I’m okay, Dad,” he said. “Hey, Rae-Lynn. That’s your name, isn’t it? Do you know how I know your name? Your friend told me. Risa. You remember Risa; I picked her up after you left. Do you want to know what I did to Risa? I’ll show you.”
Rae-Lynn had to cover her mouth to keep from crying out. She squeezed her eyes shut and imagined herself and Risa and Shelly sharing that bottle of wine on the make-believe mountain by the boat place, above the world instead of always being below it.
“Kevin?” The old man sounded worried. “I think there’s someone here.”
“Shit. You wait here, Rae-Lynn. I’ll be right back.” She heard Kevin puff back up the trail toward the house. Rae-Lynn shifted her weight and hugged her knees into her chest and looked up the hillside. Kevin was holding the flashlight with one hand and using the other to slide his handgun into the waistband in the back of his pants.
Forty yards above, on the bank at the edge of the yard, Rae-Lynn could hear a woman’s voice. She remembered phoning the policewoman. But was she alone? “Hey there,” the woman called down the hill. “Looking for something?”
“Yeah,” said Kevin as he pulled himself up the trail. “My dog got out of the house. My…my dad let him out.”
“Yes, I did,” said the old security guard. They all spoke too loudly, maybe because of the sound of the river behind them, but from Rae-Lynn’s hiding place on the riverbank, they were like mediocre actors on a stage above her. She peeked around the bush. Covered with weeds and scrub trees, the bank ran up toward the house and was crisscrossed by a couple of trails. She couldn’t see the house, only the glow of its lights, which lit up the ridge like a fire. Rae-Lynn crawled out from the bush and saw the lady cop’s silhouette and could just make out Kevin, still hobbling with his cane up the trail toward her. The old security guard stood right between them, looking perplexed.
The lady cop held up a badge and shined her own flashlight on it. “I’m a police officer. Just wanted to see what the noise and flashlights were about.”
“Oh, sure,” said Kevin.
“So what’s her name?” the lady cop asked.
Kevin and the security guard didn’t say anything.
“The dog?” the lady cop asked.
“Oh, his name,” Kevin said. “His name is Dutch. Dutch.”
The old security guard took a few careful steps down the trail and put his hand out to help his son, who ignored the hand and walked right past him, toward the lady cop. When he got to the steep ledge marking the end of the yard, Kevin Verloc put his cane up above him, then used his powerful arms to pull himself cleanly onto the ledge, which was almost as tall as he was. Leaning on the cane, Kevin got to his feet. He and the lady cop stood on either end of the ledge, twenty feet apart, staring at each other.
“Is there something else I can help you with, Officer?”
“Maybe,” the woman said. “Someone placed a call from here to my cell phone.”
“Oh?” Rae-Lynn could hear the edge in Kevin’s voice, and hoped the lady cop could too. She crept a few steps closer. “Who was it?” Kevin asked.
“Don’t know. They hung up before I could answer.”
Kevin scratched his head, then began nodding. “You know what? I’ll bet I know what happened. What’s your number?”
The lady cop gave a number, but it didn’t sound to Rae-Lynn like the same number she’d called earlier.
Kevin laughed. “Oh, that’s funny. That’s only two numbers off my girlfriend’s.” Rae-Lynn crept up the hill even farther and hid behind a tree, so that she could see them both, standing on the lip of the ridge, silhouetted by the lights from the house. “Yeah,” Kevin said. “I started to call her and then I hung up. I must’ve called you by accident.”
“That is funny,” the lady cop said. “Why’d you hang up?”
Rae-Lynn heard Kevin laugh again, a little more strained this time. “Well, see…Dutch is really her dog. I was gonna tell her that he was lost, but then I changed my mind. I got scared.”
“Whoa, she must have been mad at you,” said the lady cop.
“Yeah, she was pissed all right.”
“Oh,” said the lady cop, “then you did reach her?”
“Who?” Kevin asked. “Susan?”
“Susan,” the old security guard repeated flatly.
“Susan,” said the lady cop.
“Yeah,” Kevin said. “She ended up calling me and I told her. She was pissed.”
“Well, sure,” the lady cop said. “You lost Dutch.”
“Well,” Kevin said. “My dad did.”
They both laughed uncomfortably.
“Yeah, I figured it was something like that,” the lady cop said.
She shined her flashlight on Kevin and he flinched at the light. From below the ledge, Rae-Lynn saw the shape of the gun sticking out the back of his pants; Kevin’s body blocked the lady cop from seeing it.
Then the lady cop shined the light on the old man. “You’re a security guard,” she said as if something had just dawned on her.
“Yes,” he said.
“Where?”
He looked at Kevin before answering. “All-Safe Security, ma’am.”
“My company,” said the son.
“You work in a mall?”
“Yeah,” Kevin said. “He works at a mall.”
“I see,” said Caroline. “Well, good luck finding your dog.”
No one said anything else and the lady cop began walking away. Kevin turned his head halfway toward the bank below him. Twenty yards away, Rae-Lynn slumped behind her bush and put her head in her hands, willing herself to scream for help. But the lady cop just kept walking away and no sound came.