Read Online Testament by David Morrell - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: David Morrell
Tags: thriller
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was gagging him but he had to hear for certain anyway, and then the principal was telling him how she had been assaulted and the logical thing that the armed policeman had used to do it and he thought he was going to be sick.
“No,” he said. “No,” he kept repeating.
21
He drove her home between Claire and himself on the front seat. The bleeding was finally stopped—the doctors at the hospital had stared at him when he explained. They disinfected the area. They cushioned her with pads that would need to be changed, and they gave her pills to help with the pain. He thought of poison again. They wanted to keep her there for observation, but he said, “No way. The next time it might be a doctor instead of a policeman. She’s coming home with me.” So now Sarah huddled between them, clutching a blanket, holding herself, and her face was the gray of cement.
“Why, Daddy? Why did he want to hurt me there?”
He had to think it through before he could explain. “Sweetheart, when your mother was getting big with Ethan, do you remember you asked how she got him?” The image of Ethan made him pause, the body stiff and senseless in his coffin in his grave. He realized he had started speeding and eased his foot off the gas pedal. “Do you remember you thought that a baby started to grow inside a woman as soon as she reached a certain age, or else as soon as she got married, and you wanted to know if that was true?”
She held herself closer.
“So I told you no,” he said.
“Stop it,” Claire said.
“She asked me a question and I’m going to answer it.” Then to Sarah: “And I told you how your mother and I had gotten together, and what we had done to make Ethan. Well, that was a good thing to do. Your mother wanted me to do it, and I wanted to do it, and it made us feel very happy together. It’s something special that you do only with someone you love, and if everything goes properly and you do have a baby, well that can be even more special.”
“But why did he want to hurt me there?”
He rounded a corner and couldn’t keep from saying it. “Sarah, not everybody will always be as kind to you as we have. There are some people in the world, bad people, who enjoy taking something special and abusing it. We don’t know why they want to enjoy hurting us, but they like to do it anyhow, and we need to keep watching for them.”
“Stop this,” Claire told him sharply.
“I’m going to answer her question,” he said. “Sarah, that’s why we told you never to take anything like candy from a stranger, never to go for a ride with somebody you don’t know. That’s why I’m telling you now to be careful of every person you meet. They might be good, but they might be one of the bad ones, and there are a lot of bad ones around, not just the people who are after us, but a lot of others too. They like to hurt you, tell you lies, cheat and steal from you and ruin your reputation out of jealousy. They—”
He rounded the corner into their street, and when he saw what was happening, his first impulse was to slam on the brakes, his second to rush the car down to the fire trucks. There were sirens coming. There were thick black hoses stretched out from the fire hydrant on the corner. He raced the car thumping over them, past people standing watching, toward the firemen in slick black rubber raincoats struggling with the pressure in the hoses, spewing water loudly onto the house, onto the garage.
Flames licked through the top of the garage, bright orange in the black smoke rolling skyward. He braked so hard that he and Claire and Sarah jerked forward, and just in time he thrust out his right hand to keep Sarah from hitting the dashboard, and then he was out of the car, hearing the shouts and the truck motors and more sirens coming, feeling the black sticky soot drifting down on him, the air a fine cool mist from the backspray of the hoses. And there was Webster in his gray suit leaning somberly,
“No,” he said. “No,” he kept repeating.
21
He drove her home between Claire and himself on the front seat. The bleeding was finally stopped—the doctors at the hospital had stared at him when he explained. They disinfected the area. They cushioned her with pads that would need to be changed, and they gave her pills to help with the pain. He thought of poison again. They wanted to keep her there for observation, but he said, “No way. The next time it might be a doctor instead of a policeman. She’s coming home with me.” So now Sarah huddled between them, clutching a blanket, holding herself, and her face was the gray of cement.
“Why, Daddy? Why did he want to hurt me there?”
He had to think it through before he could explain. “Sweetheart, when your mother was getting big with Ethan, do you remember you asked how she got him?” The image of Ethan made him pause, the body stiff and senseless in his coffin in his grave. He realized he had started speeding and eased his foot off the gas pedal. “Do you remember you thought that a baby started to grow inside a woman as soon as she reached a certain age, or else as soon as she got married, and you wanted to know if that was true?”
She held herself closer.
“So I told you no,” he said.
“Stop it,” Claire said.
“She asked me a question and I’m going to answer it.” Then to Sarah: “And I told you how your mother and I had gotten together, and what we had done to make Ethan. Well, that was a good thing to do. Your mother wanted me to do it, and I wanted to do it, and it made us feel very happy together. It’s something special that you do only with someone you love, and if everything goes properly and you do have a baby, well that can be even more special.”
“But why did he want to hurt me there?”
He rounded a corner and couldn’t keep from saying it. “Sarah, not everybody will always be as kind to you as we have. There are some people in the world, bad people, who enjoy taking something special and abusing it. We don’t know why they want to enjoy hurting us, but they like to do it anyhow, and we need to keep watching for them.”
“Stop this,” Claire told him sharply.
“I’m going to answer her question,” he said. “Sarah, that’s why we told you never to take anything like candy from a stranger, never to go for a ride with somebody you don’t know. That’s why I’m telling you now to be careful of every person you meet. They might be good, but they might be one of the bad ones, and there are a lot of bad ones around, not just the people who are after us, but a lot of others too. They like to hurt you, tell you lies, cheat and steal from you and ruin your reputation out of jealousy. They—”
He rounded the corner into their street, and when he saw what was happening, his first impulse was to slam on the brakes, his second to rush the car down to the fire trucks. There were sirens coming. There were thick black hoses stretched out from the fire hydrant on the corner. He raced the car thumping over them, past people standing watching, toward the firemen in slick black rubber raincoats struggling with the pressure in the hoses, spewing water loudly onto the house, onto the garage.
Flames licked through the top of the garage, bright orange in the black smoke rolling skyward. He braked so hard that he and Claire and Sarah jerked forward, and just in time he thrust out his right hand to keep Sarah from hitting the dashboard, and then he was out of the car, hearing the shouts and the truck motors and more sirens coming, feeling the black sticky soot drifting down on him, the air a fine cool mist from the backspray of the hoses. And there was Webster in his gray suit leaning somberly,
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