Robert Crane - Alone

A few streets later I found myself staring at the front of a house that should have looked familiar, since I lived in it, but didn’t because I hadn’t seen the exterior in over a decade except while fleeing from it in a rush.

“We’ll wait here until we get the all-clear,” Zack told me, leaning over the seat to talk to me. A few of the cars parked in front of us emptied and the agents were all wearing full length coats to conceal their weapons. They streamed across the street in a mass.

“Um,” I said with amusement, “shouldn’t we have parked a few streets away if we’re afraid Wolfe is watching the house?”

“Wow, you’ve outsmarted us. It must be our first day on the job,” Kurt answered with a snotty air of aggravation. “We are a few streets away. They’re going to walk the three blocks to get to your place.”

I looked at the house I had thought was mine. I tried to reconcile the facade with the brief glimpse I had gotten of my home as I fled into Reed’s car days earlier. I shook my head. They were all snow covered, blotting out differences between them. I gave up and looked at Zack, who was shaking his head at his partner.

We sat in silence for the next few minutes. Tempted as I was to make smartass comments to annoy Kurt to the point where he’d get out of the car, I restrained myself (not sure how). We waited, tension filling the air as mundane reports from the agents came across their radios. Staticky “all clear” calls came through over and over. Zack had unplugged his microphone so it piped out over a speaker.

I gnawed on one of my fingernails as I listened. The voices didn’t sound unhappy, just clipped and professional. I wondered if Wolfe would show up, if he was even looking for me here. I mean, he couldn’t just hang around my house all day, every day waiting for me to show up, could he?

I thought about those black, soulless eyes and suppressed a shudder. He could. He would. I had to act fast here, get to him before he got to anybody else. My ears focused on the radio, waiting for the first hint of any trouble.

“Found something in the basement,” came the voice over the speaker. I felt myself tense. If it wasn’t Wolfe, I could bet I knew what they found. “It’s…ugh…well, it’s not Wolfe. All clear.”

“All clear,” came another voice in agreement. “That’s the whole house.”

“You haven’t sent anybody here since the day I left?” I asked Zack, who was staring into space, concentrating.

“No.” His head gave a quick shake. “You ready?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Is our driver going to give us curbside service or do we have to walk from here?” I looked at Kurt and the flash of a scowl was my reward.

“One of these days, little Miss Daisy, you and I are going to go head to head,” he growled as he threw the car in gear and stomped on the accelerator.

“And I shall look forward to that day with greatest anticipation,” I said in a mocking southern accent, “if for no other reason than I’ll get to watch your head cave in from finally meeting one stronger.”

He said nothing else as we turned and flew down an alley, almost taking out a garbage can. His next turn was almost as violent and I didn’t get a chance to ask whether he was scared and pissed or just a bad driver, because he came to a screeching halt and the wheel hit the curb.

“Settle down,” Zack told him, wide-eyed.

“I’ll settle down when we’re out of here.”

“Only if you can find a nice fella who’ll take you,” I quipped.

“Oh, how quaint, a gay joke,” Kurt said without turning back. “I’m married.”

“Actually it was my way of calling you a little girl. What’s his name?”

“Haha. To a woman.”

“Shocking! Because no reasonable man would have you?”

“Can it, please.” Zack turned to me. “We’re here. Let’s hurry and get the hell out.”

“Sure,” I said as I slid over and opened the door, stepping out onto the curb covered in a half foot of snow. He parked this way intentionally. Ass. “Just trying to express my happiness for your pissy partner that he could find someone to put up with his menstrual cycles.” That wicked feeling of glee buoyed itself in my soul again as I stepped onto the sidewalk. I ignored Kurt, who made a rude gesture at me from behind the trunk and made no move to join us.

Zack followed me up the driveway, which had a thin layer of snow over it. I wondered if Mom used to shovel it herself after a snowstorm? No…she was always dressed nice before she went to work. Flurries fell around me and I found myself sticking out my tongue, trying to catch one.

Zack watched me with a small smile of amusement that evaporated after a few seconds. “We’re in a hurry, remember?”

My goofy grin faded. “Right.”

There was an agent at the door of the porch, hands buried inside his coat. I stepped past him with a sarcastic salute and he rolled his eyes and smiled. Now there was a man with a sense of humor. The screens and windows of the porch were all boarded up and covered – so that when Mom left in the morning, I couldn’t see outside.

It was dark as we stepped into the entry. The lights were on, but they didn’t cast much light compared to even the cloudy sky outside. I looked around the living room. Everything was where we left it, upturned furniture and all. There were a few darts sticking out of the walls, and a couple of the agents were chuckling over them.

I smiled as I passed them and brushed into my room. A few articles of clothing were on the bed, not where I left them, since the last thing I did before I left was sleep and then whoop the hell out of Zack and Kurt.

I felt Zack edge up behind me. “If your men didn’t move these clothes around, someone else has been here,” I told him.

He had the radio plugged back in and I saw his fingers move to touch his ear. “Did anyone move any clothes in this room?” He paused for a moment, waiting for responses, then looked back at me and shook his head. “Guess he’s been here.”

“Or someone has,” I replied.

He handed me a black duffel bag that he’d had slung over his shoulder. “Get what you came for and let’s go.”

I threw some clothes in the bag at random, then tossed in my eskrima sticks after retrieving them from where I left them behind the couch in the living room. As I picked them up I half-smiled, half-frowned as I remembered leaving them behind while I crawled away from Kurt as he fired his dart gun at me.

“Is that it?” Zack’s voice almost cracked with the sound of his nerves. “Can we go yet?”

“Just a few more things,” I said as I headed toward the door to the basement. My hand froze for a moment at the handle, then I slowly turned it. “Anyone down there?” I asked as I hovered in the doorjamb, waiting for Zack’s answer.

He shot a look at the other agents in the room. “Not right now.”

The white plaster of the living room walls gave way to concrete block at the entry to the basement. The staircase made an abrupt turn to the left ahead, following the foundation of the house. The steps were an old, unvarnished wood, and the only illumination was the single light overhead. I used to walk down these steps several times per day, but it was the last time I came up them that was giving me pause.

I reached the landing and turned, most of my thoughts about Wolfe forgotten. I knew he wasn’t down here. The smell of old sweat, blood and other foulness filled the air.

I looked back at Zack and saw him scrunch his nose in displeasure at the aroma. “Did your mother kill someone down here?”

I didn’t blink. “No. But not for lack of trying.”

He laughed, and I continued down the last few steps and felt the concrete underfoot. Even though there was a thick sole on the boots I was wearing, my mind filled in the sensation from the thousands of times I had trod these floors barefoot while Mom was away, giving my feet a ghostly feel of the familiar chill. It crept up my legs, infusing my body, and I felt an involuntary tremor run through me.