Steve Hamilton - A Cold Day in Paradise

I kept looking at her eyes, her hair, her mouth. I could feel the warmth of her body. Goddamn it all, I wanted her more than ever.

She just stood there. I couldn’t imagine what she was thinking. Her eyes gave nothing away.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I finally said. “It’s not safe.”

“What do you mean, it’s not safe? You’ve got a policeman outside keeping watch.”

“No,” I said.

“Yes, you do,” she said. “In the unmarked car, hiding in the woods.”

“No, Sylvia. He’s not there anymore.”

“Yes, he is,” she said. “I saw him.”

“What are you talking about? When did you see him?”

“Tonight,” she said. “Just now, I mean. When I pulled in. He’s out there right now.”

The fear came to me. There was no way to stop it. I could feel it unfolding in my stomach, cold and alive. “Sylvia, please,” I said. “Tell me exactly what you saw. Did you see anyone inside the car?”

“No,” she said. “I just saw the car. I don’t know what kind. Just a plain car. He’s not doing a very good job of hiding, either. I could see half his car sticking out of the trees.”

“Where? Exactly where is the car?”

“It’s right out there,” she said. She started toward the window.

“No!” I grabbed her. “Stay away from the window.”

“What’s the matter with you?”

“That’s not a cop, Sylvia.” I held her in front of me and looked her in the eyes. “That’s not a cop out there.”

Something changed inside her. I could feel the anger leaving her body. “Who is it?” she asked.

“It might be Rose,” I said.

“He’s the man who shot you?”

“Yes.”

“He’s the man who…” She didn’t finish it.

“I think so,” I said.

“Why is he here?”

“I don’t know.”

She looked toward the window. “What are you going todo?”

“I’ll call the police,” I said. “Here, get down on the floor.”

“Why do I have to get down?” she said. The fear was starting to overtake her. I could hear it in her voice.

I pulled her down behind the couch. “Just sit right here.”

“Alex, this is getting a little scary.”

“I’m calling the police right now,” I said. I picked up the phone.

Nothing. It was dead. I just stood there looking at it. “I can’t believe this.”

“What’s wrong?”

“He cut the phone line. He actually cut the fucking phone line.”

“Alex, this is getting a lot scary now.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Alex…”

I picked the gun up from the table and turned off the light in the kitchen. There was a flashlight hanging on the wall. I took that and then I turned off the lamp by the bed. The cabin was dark except for the dim glow coming through the front window from the outside light above the door.

“Alex, what are we going to do?”

I got down on my knees. “We’re going to wait a few minutes, let our eyes get adjusted to the dark.”

She folded her arms around her knees.

“All right,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?” She grabbed my arm.

“I’m just going to look out the window.”

I crawled over to the front window and peered over the sill. The outdoor light lit up the clearing in front of the cabin, and the first row of pine trees. On the right side of the clearing, just off the road, I could see the front of his car. Sylvia was right. It wasn’t even hidden at all. Anyone could see it. Although I couldn’t tell if anyone was in the car. On the left side of the clearing I saw the woodpile, my truck, and Sylvia’s black Jaguar.

Both hoods were up.

I crawled back to Sylvia. “When you drove in, was the hood up on my truck?”

“I don’t remember,” she said. “I don’t think so.”

“You didn’t lock your car, did you?”

“No, I didn’t. Alex, what are you talking about?”

“He’s got both hoods up,” I said. “He must have taken out the distributor caps or something. He obviously doesn’t want us to go anywhere.”

“So now what?”

I thought about it. He was out there somewhere. He knew that Sylvia was here in the cabin with me. No phone. No vehicles. My other cabins were a quarter mile up the logging road. But there were no phones in those, anyway. Nearest phone was in Vinnie’s cabin. That was a good half mile away in the other direction, down by the main road. If I snuck out the back I might be able to make my way down there, but I didn’t want to leave Sylvia alone. And I didn’t want to take her out there, either. “I think we should just sit tight for a while,” I said. “See what he does.”

“What if he tries to come in?”

“Then I’ll shoot him,” I said.

“I don’t like this,” she said.

“I’m not too crazy about it, either.”

She leaned her head back against the rough wall. A long minute passed, and then another, and then I lost track of the time altogether. It was just the two of us sitting on the floor behind my couch, listening to the silence.

Finally, a sound. A car starting, a roar and a rattle. The car needed a new muffler. And then the sound of the car on the logging road. The noise grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared.

“I think he’s gone,” I said. “He just drove away.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Who knows? The guy is nuts.”

“But why would he just leave?”

“Sylvia, he’s absolutely fucking crazy. There’s no reason for anything he does.”

“Are you sure it was him?”

“Had to be,” I said. “Who else would it be?”

“So what do we do now?”

“Stay here,” I said. I went to the window again and looked outside. Nothing. His car was gone. I turned off the outside light. We were in total darkness now.

“Alex, why did you do that?”

“I want to go see what he did to our cars. But I don’t want that light on. I’ll use the flashlight”

“Don’t go out there!”

“Sylvia, if I can get one of the cars started, I’ll pull up next to the door. As soon as I’m close, come out and get in. We’ll get out of here.”

I opened the door a crack and looked outside. The cold air rushed into the cabin. I stepped outside and then made my way to the vehicles, the gun in one hand and the flashlight in the other. I didn’t want to turn the flashlight on unless I had to. There was just enough moonlight to see where I was going.

When I got to the truck, I took a quick look inside the cab. The cellular phone was gone. I looked under the hood, snapping the flashlight on just long enough to see the engine. He hadn’t taken out the distributor cap after all, but all the spark plug wires were loose. I put the gun and the flashlight down and tried to reconnect them in the dark. Just relax, I told myself. Relax and think. How do these things go on? One through four on this side. One here, two, three, wait a minute. Is that right? Goddamn it. If I could just see what I was doing… I turned the flashlight on for a second, looked it over, turned it off, and tried to keep the image burned in my mind. The fourth one was right here. I could feel a thin line of sweat running down the side of my face. Where’s that fucking wire? All right, five is where? Where the fuck is five? I turned the light back on for a second.

A sound! I threw myself to the ground, fumbling with the flashlight. When I finally got it turned off, I just lay there on the ground, listening. My heart was pounding in my ears.

It was just a bat, whistling by in the air above me. A motherfucking bat.

I got up and tried to find my place among the spark plug wires. My hands were shaking.

All right, five goes here. Six, seven. Is this right? Am I doing this right, goddamn it all to hell? Is this fucking truck going to start now? Eight is next. One more wire. Where is it? Where is eight? Where the fuck is eight? I turned the light back on for a moment. There it is. Connect it here. I’m all done. I hope.