Hostage

'We're safe.'

'Shut up!'

His father had told him that the door could stop anything.

The pounding stopped.

Mars cupped his hands to the door and shouted to make himself heard. His muffled voice came through the steel.

'You're bad. You're bad. You're bad. Now I'm going to punish you.'

Mars hit the door once more, then walked out of the room.

Thomas remembered the cell phone.

He clawed it out of his pocket, and turned it on.

The cell phone chimed as it came to life.

'Thomas! Look!'

Jennifer was watching Mars on the monitors. He was in the entry by the front door. He picked up the two containers of gasoline, then walked through the house splashing gasoline on the walls. He smiled as he worked.

Jennifer said, 'Ohmigod, he's going to burn us.'

The cell phone chimed again, and Thomas glanced at the display. The battery indicator flickered.

The cell phone was going dead.

CHAPTER 24

Saturday, 2:16 A.M.

MARS

Mars turned off the remaining lights as he passed them. The entry hall turned black. The office followed, then the den. Mars knew that the police would see the rooms fail like closing eyes, and wonder why the house was dying.

Mars went to the kitchen first. He found matches in a jar by the range, then blew out the pilot lights. He splashed gasoline over the range top and gas line, then moved back toward the master bedroom, carefully pouring an unbroken trail of gas along the walls. He loved moving through the house. Shadows gave him the power of invisibility; darkness was his friend. Mars regretted that he would never see his mother again, but only because he enjoyed torturing the rotten bitch. He heard her voice even now, alive in his head:

I hate to see a boy do bad things! I hate to see a bad boy, Marshall! Why do you make me punish you this way?

I don't know, Mama.

This will make you a better man.

She didn't like to see a boy do bad things, so now he made her watch all the bad things, and sometimes even made her participate. He regretted that she wasn't with him now; he would have enjoyed introducing her to Kevin and Dennis.

Mars emptied the first bucket of gasoline, then used the second, continuing the trail of gas into the bedroom. He splashed the bed and the walls and the security door. Then he took out the matches.

THOMAS

Thomas dialed Talley's number and pressed the button to send the call.

The phone died.

'Thomas!'

'The battery's low! You never charge it!'

Jennifer snatched the phone from him and pressed the power button. The phone chirped as it came to life, but once more failed.

Jennifer angrily shook the phone.

'Piece of shit!'

'Do you think he's really gonna do it?'

'I don't know!'

'Maybe we should run!'

'We would never get past him!'

Thomas watched as Jennifer pried off the cell phone's battery. She rubbed the copper contacts hard on her shirt sleeve, then licked them before snapping the battery back onto the phone.

'What are you doing?'

'Thomas, I live on this phone. I know every trick in the book for making it work.'

Mars grinned at the monitors, then lit a match. He held it up to make sure that they saw it. The tiny flame was a glob of flickering white on the monitor screen. He let the flame grow, then brought it close to the door.

Thomas grabbed Jennifer's arm.

'He's going to do it!'

Jennifer pushed the power button. The phone chirped again as it came to life, and this time it stayed on. She jammed the phone into his hands.

'Here! It's working!'

Thomas punched in Talley's number, then glanced up at the monitors. Mars was staring into the camera as if he saw directly into their eyes and hearts. Then Thomas saw his lips move.

'What's he saying?'

Jennifer grabbed Thomas and pulled him away from the door.

'He's saying good-bye.'

Mars tossed the match.

The room erupted in flame.

TALLEY

When Talley heard the first scream from the house, he took a position behind a Highway Patrol car. The CHiPs in the cul-de-sac shifted uncomfortably because they heard it, too. Talley couldn't tell if the voice was male or female, but there had only been the one scream. Now the house was still.

Talley moved to the nearest Highway Patrol officer.

'You on the command frequency?'

'Yes, sir. You heard that in the house? I think something's going on.'

'Give me your radio.'

Talley radioed Martin, who acknowledged his call without comment. Talley moved down the line of patrol cars, listening hard for something more from the house, but it was silent.

Then, room by room, the lights went off.

Talley saw Martin approaching, and moved out to meet her. The scream had scared him, but the silence now scared him more. Jones was too far away to have heard.

Martin huffed up, excited.

'What's going on? Why is the house so dark?'

Talley was starting to explain when they saw a dull orange glow move inside the house at the edges of the window shades. He thought it was a flashlight.

His phone rang.

'Talley.'

It was Thomas, incoherent from shouting and from a weak connection.

'I can't understand you! Slow down, Thomas; I can't understand you!'