Shooting in the Dark

Jenkins, the guy who had killed Ralph. He talked to them on the doorstep. ‘Keep your doors locked,’ said the auburn-haired WDS Hardwicke. ‘He killed your brother so he might have something against you as well.’
    ‘Right.’ Geordie closed the door. Locked it.
    He went back to the chair.
    He wished Janet was there with him. That they were locked in the house together. He got to his feet suddenly, pulled out of the chair by the thought that it was Janet who had identified Jenkins.
    He was pulling on his leather jacket. He got his sheepskin-lined boots out of the cupboard under the stairs and hit the road. The policewoman in the car outside watched him go, shaking her head in disbelief. Geordie didn’t stop to explain. If this guy was on the street, he’d be looking to finish Angeles Falco, and Janet and his daughter Echo were with the blind woman...
     
    Geordie went around the back of the house and over the wall. He could see clearly in the moonlight. There were lights on in the bedroom and in what appeared to be a ground-floor kitchen. Thick drapes were closed around a patio door. He strained to hear but there was only silence.
    He moved slowly from tree to tree, past the frozen swimming pool, intending to get close enough to the house to put his ear against the wall. It would be Echo’s feeding time soon and if she was in there, she’d broadcast it to the world.
    When he reached the ash tree he paused. In front of the patio door was a paved area and he didn’t want to take the chance of making audible footfalls. If Janet and Echo were being held in the house, the last thing he wanted was to warn their captor that he was here.
    He felt rather than heard a movement behind him. As he turned he was pinned to the tree by powerful arms and a gloved hand smothered any sound that might have come from his lips. With his face up against the dark bark of the tree he could see the movement of a small insect draped in the red and black colours of anarchy. Sam’s voice in his ear whispered, ‘Don’t suppose you thought to bring coffee.’
    ‘Nearly shit myself,’ Geordie whispered when Sam released him. He followed Sam back up the garden, away from the house. Looked like Sam was going to sit on the stone bench next to the swimming pool. Maybe break through the ice and have a moonlight swim. He stopped at the pool and tested the ice with one foot. It looked solid but Geordie felt his hair rise from his scalp when Sam stepped off the side of the pool and moved on to the crystallized surface. It creaked and groaned but held his weight.
    He left the ice and went down on all-fours at the side of the bench, disappearing under a bush. Geordie went after him and found himself in a small clearing with enough room for the two of them to sit cross-legged like a couple of Buddhas. Sam had found a plank of wood somewhere and put it on the earth to insulate them from the ground-frost.
    ‘Nice,’ Geordie said. ‘This your den?’
    He began to scramble out again but Sam stopped him. ‘Wait.’
    ‘No,’ Geordie said. ‘Janet and Echo’re in there with the guy who killed Ralph.’
    ‘And you’re gonna bring ’em out?’
    ‘You bet.’
    ‘Listen, Geordie. If we try to break in, he’s gonna hear us. It’s not possible to get in quick enough to save them. We’re better off waiting until he makes his move.’ Geordie shook his head. ‘I don’t know if I can do that, Sam. What about we get a ladder and go in through the bedroom window?’
    ‘We have to wait,’ Sam said. ‘The guy’s interested in Angeles. He’ll be bringing her out here. When he does that you can go around him and get Janet and Echo out the front door.’
    Geordie thought about it. He didn’t know the exact numbers but he reckoned if they counted how many times Sam had been right and how many times Geordie had been right, Sam’d come out tops. The guy seemed to have an instinct for these situations. Geordie just wanted to go in there, all guns blazing. Except he didn’t have a gun. Sam was different. He was sure. He could sit on a plank and wait, all night if necessary. The guy better come out soon, though; the two of them would be ice-statues by the morning.
    ‘What’s with walking on the ice?’ he asked. ‘You gonna take up skating?’
    ‘An informed hunch,’ Sam said. ‘The swimming pool is one of the reasons we’re here. The main reason that Rod Jenkins is here.’
    ‘Save it,’ Geordie said. ‘I just want my family back.’