Full Dark, No Stars

would muffle another shot, not with a hole in it; she’d have to count on the isolation of the little hil top house. It was okay that she’d left the knife in Ramona’s bel y; if she were reduced to trying to take out Big Driver with a butcher knife, she’d be in serious trouble.

And there are only four shots left in the gun, you better not forget that and just start spraying him. Why didn’t you bring any more bullets, Tessa Jean? You thought you were planning, but I don’t

think you did a very good job.

“Shut up,” she whispered. “Tom or Fritzy or whoever you are, just shut up.”

The scolding voice ceased, and when it did, Tess realized the real world had also gone silent. The dog had ceased its mad barking when the pole light went off. Now the only sound was the wind and

the only light was the moon.

- 38 -

With that terrible glare gone, the long-box provided excel ent cover, but she couldn’t stay there. Not if she meant to do what she had come here to do. Tess scurried around the back of the house,

terrified of tripping another motion light, but feeling she had no choice. There was no light to trip, but the moon went behind a cloud and she stumbled over the cel ar bulkhead, almost hitting her head on a wheelbarrow when she went to her knees. For a moment as she lay there, she wondered again what she had turned into. She was a member of the Authors Guild who had shot a woman in the head not

long ago. After stabbing her in the stomach. I’ve gone entirely off the reservation. Then she thought of him cal ing her a bitch, a whiny whore bitch, and quit caring about whether she was on or off the reservation. It was a stupid saying, anyway. And racist in the bargain.

Strehlke did have a garden behind his house, but it was smal and apparently not worth protecting from the depredations of the deer with a motion light. There was nothing left in it anyway except for a few pumpkins, most now rotting on the vine. She stepped over the rows, rounded the far corner of the house, and there was the cab-over. The moon had come out again and turned its chrome to the liquid

silver of sword blades in fantasy novels.

Tess came up behind it, walked along the left side, and knelt by the chin-high (to her, at least) front wheel. She took the Lemon Squeezer out of her pocket. He couldn’t drive into his garage because

the cab-over was in the way. Even if it hadn’t been, the garage was probably ful of bachelor rickrack: tools, fishing gear, camping gear, truck parts, cases of discount soda.

That’s just guessing. It’s dangerous to guess. Doreen would scold you for it.

Of course she would, no one knew the Knitting Society ladies better than Tess did, but those dessert-loving babies rarely took chances. When you did take them, you were forced to make a certain

number of guesses.

Tess looked at her watch and was astounded to see it was only twenty-five to ten. It seemed that she had fed Fritzy double rations and left the house four years ago. Maybe five. She thought she heard

an approaching engine, then decided she didn’t. She wished the wind wasn’t blowing so hard, but wish in one hand and shit in the other, see which one fil s up first. It was a saying no Knitting Society lady had ever voiced—Doreen Marquis and her friends were more into things like soonest begun, soonest done —but it was a true saying, just the same.

Maybe he real y was going on a trip, Sunday night or not. Maybe she was stil going to be here when the sun came up, chil ed to her already aching bones by the constant wind combing this lonely hil top where she was crazy to be.

No, he’s the crazy one. Remember how he danced? His shadow dancing on the wall behind him? Remember how he sang? His squalling voice? You wait for him, Tessa Jean. You wait until hell

freezes over. You’ve come too far to turn back.

She was afraid of that, actual y.

It can’t be a decorous drawing-room murder. You understand that, don’t you?

She did. This particular kil ing—if she was able to bring it off—would be more Death Wish than The Willow Grove Knitting Society Goes Backstage. He would pul in, hopeful y right up to the cab-over she was hiding behind. He would douse the lights of the pickup, and before his eyes could adjust—