The Charity Read Free Page B

found her, it wouldn’t take long to find us.” He placed a finger gently on her lips to stop the protest before it started. “No. The only way is to come forward on the details to the national racing board and the press.”
    “Why the press? They’ll vilify you for cheating, making it easier to ruin you.”
    “If I get to them first, maybe I can win their sympathy. At a minimum, I can keep alive in the glare of their spotlight. I’ll hide out in the open. I should have done this long ago, but now I have more than enough evidence. Maybe now with Dark’s breakdown the additional attention might help us. If we break the winning streak and come forward with what we know, Worldwind Farm will be useless to the old man.”
    “I’m afraid, Jim. I’ve heard stories.”
    “Me too, but we can’t think about that now.”
    They hugged one another with the cold knowledge of their fate if they were wrong. The house was quiet now. Its stillness somehow growing, pushing them to action.
    “Get the girls ready to go early in the morning. I’ll bring you to your sister’s place. Bridget will help you all go further, if necessary. If my plan works, the worst should be over in a week or two. If not...” He wrapped his arms around her and placed his chin on her head so she could not see his face. There was no need to finish his sentence.
    Jessica rose in the dark hours of the morning. She had another unsettling dream of clouds and thunder. Restless, she padded quietly down the stairs of her home to get herself a drink of juice. The sodden fog of sleep was pulling her back to a soft, warm bed when a sound caught her attention. The shrill grate of metal on metal escaped from the garage. The little girl opened the door and saw a man emerge from under the hood of her mother’s immense station wagon.
    The man’s eyes darted to the unexpected visitor. Something shiny ran along his cheek from his mouth toward his ear, baring his teeth and pulling his smile to one side. He seemed a little bit skittery, like something spooked him. A child’s instinct told her to stay away from him, but his presence offered a challenge. She lifted her chin and offered one back.
    “Who are you?”
    “I’m just helping out with the cleaning.” The man made a queer snort in response to his own joke. His mouth fought his words and he sounded just like Gus. “So, be gone with you.” He turned and stuck his head back under the hood.
    “No! I’m gonna get my Daddy and tell him !” The movement to tattle made her leg catch against the sharp edge of a tool chest. Metal dug into her skin. “Ouch!”
    An eerie, animal-like sound filled the air. Where was it coming from? Hair rose up on her neck and arms as she watched the man’s head again emerge. His face was locked into a contorted grin, one side of his mouth painfully yanked aside by his scar, the crooked smile replaced with a carnivorous leer. It was no longer human. And it was coming closer to her.
    She did not truly hear the vindictive laugh of the man or see the malice of his grin. She only heard an animal’s anguished cry and saw the hungry mouth of a wolf. She scrambled to get out of the path of the oncoming fangs. The arms of the beast were outstretched, trying to entangle her. As she ran from the garage, through the haze of her cold terror, a fragment of colors lodged somewhere in her mind.
    Working like a camera and film, her eyes saw something clearly and distinctly. Her mind stored the frozen images deep within the place of a child’s psyche reserved for only the most primal fears and chilling fantasies. The little girl was not consciously aware of a shamrock tattooed on the man’s inner arm. There was more to the shamrock than her mind could grasp in that split second. Her eyes saw but did not comprehend the knife slicing through the shamrock with a trickle of red coming from the wound.
     
     

June 1983
    BRIDGET STOOD ON the porch of the farmhouse with her arms crossed watching as the