Linwood Barclay - Fear The Worst

Stenciled on the rear windows were the words Shaw Flowers .

As I came up around the driver’s side, I could see what appeared to be two people up front, leaning into each other over the console.

I tapped the driver’s window with the barrel of one of my acquired weapons. He jumped, and as he turned to see who it was, his blonde-haired companion slumped forward lifelessly onto the dashboard.

“Hey, Ian,” I said through the glass.

He powered the window down. “Oh my God, it’s you,” he said.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I can see that’s not my daughter with you.”

“My aunt made me tell,” he said quickly, defensively. “She made me tell who hit me. But I told the police it was all a mix-up.”

“I know,” I said. “I appreciate that. And I never told anyone about your friend.”

“Thanks,” he said quietly. “What do you want? What are you doing here?”

“Unlock the back door,” I said. “I need you and Mildred there to make a delivery.”

I got into the back. I set the guns on the floor and put Milt on the seat. Surprisingly, it was the stuffed moose that caught Ian’s attention.

“And you think I’m strange,” he said.

WE SPOTTED THREE CRUISERS wandering the neighborhood before we got back up to Route 1.

“They all looking for you?” Ian asked while I looked around in the back of the van, trying to stay below the window line.

“The less you know, the better,” I said. “You’ve got a wrapped-up bouquet sitting back here.”

“Yeah,” Ian said. “Been trying two days to deliver it. The people are away.”

I gave him directions to Bob’s house. “Drive down the street once, see if the place is being watched. Cop cars, or what look like unmarked cop cars. We do that a couple of times, and if it looks clear, pull into the driveway.”

“Okay.” He paused. “You know, I don’t normally deliver flowers this late. Won’t that look weird?”

“Let’s hope not,” I said.

It didn’t take long to get to Bob’s neighborhood. “Houses are really nice around here,” Ian said. “I’ve delivered up around here before.” He paused. “I don’t see anything that looks funny.”

“Let’s do it,” I said. “I want you and Mildred to hang in for a minute.”

“Her name’s Juanita,” Ian said.

He pulled into Bob’s very wide driveway, right next to the Hummer. I grabbed the wrapped bouquet, slipped out the side of the van, walked up to the front door.

Susanne looked shocked when she opened it. At first I thought she was reacting to the late-night floral delivery, then realized she was looking right at me.

“My God, what happened to you?” she asked, Bob standing in the hall a few feet behind her. She took the flowers from me and set them on a nearby table.

At first I was thinking she’d already seen my nose. It hadn’t occurred to me that I’d sustained more injuries. I glanced in the front hall mirror. My cheeks had several small cuts in them. My forehead was bruised. Shards of broken window glass and hitting your head on the steering wheel will do that to you.

And there was still duct tape hanging off one of my wrists.

“I don’t have time to explain,” I said. To Bob I said, “What have you got for me?”

“Where’s the Beetle?” he asked, peering out into the drive and seeing only the van.

To Susanne I said, in a rapid-fire delivery, “I know where Syd is. She’s in Vermont. In Stowe. There are people already on their way to get her. They might already be there. I need to get there fast.”

I thought she’d pepper me with questions, but she instantly grasped that my taking time to answer them would not be in Syd’s best interest. She said, “Just take Bob’s car. Go. Now.”

She was referring to the Hummer, Bob’s massive SUV. I didn’t like the idea of heading up to Stowe in that beast. It stuck out like a sore thumb, was lumbering and slow to respond, I’d lose too much time stopping every hundred miles to fill it up with gas, and before long the police might be looking for it.

“Something else, Suze,” I said.

She nodded, instantly understanding. “On the lot, we just took in a Mustang. Has a V8 under the hood.”

“Come on,” Bob protested, “you can’t be serious.” He looked at me. “You know the police have been by here twice tonight looking for you? What the hell’s going on, Tim?”

“A lot,” I said. “But at this point, all that matters is that I get on the road to Stowe.”

Susanne put her hand on the doorknob for support. “The Mustang’s in good mechanical shape,” she said to me. “Good tires.”

“And it’s fast?” I said.

She nodded. “In a straight line. Not so hot cornering, but it’s interstate all the way to Vermont.”

“Let’s get it.”

“I don’t like this,” Bob said. “If the police are looking for him, this is tantamount to helping a fugitive.”

Susanne looked long and hard into Bob’s face. “I can do this alone, or you can help me.”

Evan came down the stairs. “What’s going on?”

“We’ll be back in a bit,” Bob said grudgingly. “If the phone rings, answer it.”

“No, don’t,” said Susanne. “And if the police come to the door, you haven’t seen Tim, and you have no idea where we are.”

“So you want me to lie to the cops,” Evan said, half to himself. “Cool.”

As the three of us went out of the house toward the Hummer, Bob said, “Honestly, Tim, I think you owe us an explanation of just what the hell’s going on here. You call late at night, demand a car, have some story about Sydney being up in Vermont, you can’t-”

“Hang on,” I said, changing direction and heading over to the van. “I have to get my guns.”

That shut Bob up, at least for a while.

I THANKED IAN and told him to take off. In addition to the guns, I grabbed Milt, whom I gave to Susanne for safekeeping. On the way to Bob’s Motors, I laid it out for Susanne in point form. Bob, behind the wheel of his Hummer, listened, then made some noises about how what made the most sense was to call the police, here and in Vermont. I argued that the police were so focused on me right now we’d waste valuable time persuading them to move on Stowe.

Susanne said to Bob, “I’ll put my money on Tim, for now, if you don’t mind.” Then, to me, “That man you shot in the knee. Is he dead?”

“Owen?” I said from the back seat. “I don’t think so. If an ambulance got to him in time, he’ll live. But the two with him? Gary and Carter? They’re goners.”

“And Andy,” Susanne said from the passenger seat.

“Yeah,” I said. “And it gets even worse.”

“What?”

“Patty,” I said. “I don’t know how she was involved in any of this, but something happened to her in the last forty-eight hours. No one’s seen her. And one of those three who tried to kill me, he said I didn’t have to worry about her anymore.”

“Oh my God,” Susanne said. “Oh my God.”

“Yeah,” I said, feeling the pain of what had happened to Patty in a way I could not bring myself to tell my ex-wife. At least not now.

“I can’t believe this,” Susanne said. “It can’t be happening…”

We went the next few blocks in silence. Then Susanne said, “So someone really was watching the house.”

“Yeah,” I said. Behind the wheel, Bob looked chagrined. “They thought if Syd tried to come home, to your place, they’d get her then.”

“Why hasn’t she just called us?” Susanne asked. “Found a way to get in touch?”

“One reason,” I said slowly, knowing there was no real way to prepare Susanne for this, “is that she may have killed someone.”

Susanne started to form some words to respond, but nothing came out.