“What did you do?”
“I told him it was mine.” She started to tremble. “I went out the back. When he gets like that he’s out of his mind.” She unwrapped the red cloth, which was a blouse, and produced the cup. “If it’s okay, I wanted to leave it with you.”
“Sure. If you want.”
“It’ll be safer here. If he gets his hands on it, I’ll never see it again.”
“You said you saw him behind you?”
“A few minutes ago. As I was coming up the walk. I don’t know how he found me here.”
It might have had something to do with your mentioning my name to him, you nitwit.
“Okay,” I said. “Just relax. Everything’ll be okay. We’ll get you some protection.”
“He says it’s not really mine. That he didn’t mean for me to keep it.”
“Why didn’t you call the police, Amy?”
“He’d kill me if I did something like that. You don’t know what he’s like when he gets mad.”
“Okay.”
“He goes crazy.”
I was thinking how much trouble people get into because they can’t keep their mouths shut. “Listen,” I said, “you better stay here tonight. Tomorrow we’re going down to report this and get some help.”
She shook her head violently. “Won’t do any good. He’ll be out again in a couple of days.”
“Amy, you can’t live like this. Eventually, he’s going to hurt somebody. If not you, somebody else.”
“No. It’s not like that. We just need to give him time to cool down.”
Carmen’s voice broke in: “Chase, we have another visitor.”
Amy began to tremble. “Don’t let him in,” she said.
“Relax. I won’t.”
“He’s on something.”
The door has a manual bolt. Extra security because I’ve never completely trusted electronics. I threw it just as the lights went out.
“He did that,” she said. “He has a thing -”
“Okay.”
“It kills power-”
I immediately thought of the Bayloks and their power drain. “I know. Take it easy.
We’re okay. Carmen, are you there?”
No response.
“It shuts everything down-”
A fist pounded on the door. It sounded heavy. Big.
“Open up, Amy.” It was Hap’s growl. No question about that. “I know you’re in there.”
“Go away,” she said.
More pounding. The door, barely visible in the glow of the moon and a streetlamp, literally bent. She was off the sofa, cowering near the window. But we were on the third floor. We weren’t going to get out that way. And there was no back door. “Don’t open it,” she pleaded. Her voice squeaked.
It sounded as if Hap was using a sledgehammer. I took a quick look out the window and saw that the other lights in the building were out, too. “Get into the bedroom,” I told her. “There’s a link on the side table. Use it. Get the police.”
She stood looking at me. Paralyzed.
“Amy,” I said.
“Okay.” Her voice was barely audible.
“Go away,” I told the front door. “I’ve called the police.”
Hap returned a string of profanity. “Open up, bitch,” he added. “Or I’ll do you, too.”
Amy disappeared into the bedroom and the door closed behind her. It had no lock.
Hap went back to pounding, and the latch started to come loose. I tossed the cup on the sofa and threw a cushion over it. Not much of a hiding place. Then, stumbling around in the dark, I drew the curtain across the kitchen entrance and closed the bathroom door.
“I have a scrambler,” I said. “You come in here, and you’re going down.” In fact I did have one, but it was up on the roof, in the skimmer. Good place for it.
He responded with a final hammerblow and the door flew open. It ripped around on its hinges and banged against the wall and he stumbled into the room, big and clumsy and ugly. He was an unnerving sight. I hadn’t taken much notice when I’d visited him under more peaceful circumstances. He was a head taller than I was and maybe two and a half times the weight. He wore a thick black sweater with enormous side pockets. The side pockets bulged, and I wondered whether any of them contained a weapon. Not that he’d need it.
He turned on a flashlight and stuck it in my face. “Where is she?” he demanded.
“Where’s who?”
I heard voices in the corridor. And doors opening. I thought about calling for help but Hap read my mind and shook his head. “Don’t do it,” he whispered.
My neighbor across the hall, Choi Gunderson, showed up in the doorway. Was I okay?
Choi was thin, fragile, old. “Yes, Choi,” I said. “We’re fine.”
He stared at the broken door. And at Hap. “What happened?”
“Had a little accident,” Hap growled. “It’s all right, Pop.”
“I wonder what happened to the power,” Choi said, and I thought for a moment he was going to try to intervene. I hoped he wouldn’t.
“Don’t know,” said Hap. “Best you go back to your room and wait until the repair people get here.” The lamplight fell across his open door.
Choi asked again whether I was all right. Then: “I’ll call Wainwright.” The property owner. He withdrew, and I heard his door close.
“Good,” Hap told me. “You’re not as dumb as you look.” He swept the room with the lamp. “Where is she?”
“Hap.” I tried to keep my voice calm. “What do you want?”
He started to say that I knew what he wanted, but stopped in mid-sentence to stare at me. “You’re from the survey.”
I took a step toward him. “Yes.”
“You’re the bitch who came to the house.” The veins in his neck bulged.
“That’s right.” No use denying it.
I was going to say something more, not sure what, I was making it up as I went along.
But he broke in before I got started. “You’re helping her cheat me.”
“Nobody’s cheating you, Hap.”
He grabbed my shoulder and threw me against a wall. “I’ll deal with you in a minute,” he snarled. Railing about what he was going to do to “these goddam bitches,” he looked in the kitchen, used his elbow to knock some glasses to the floor, checked the bathroom, and headed for the bedroom.
He scratched his armpit and yanked the door open. Had to do it manually since he’d killed the power. He pointed the lamp inside. “Come on out, Amy,” he said.
She squealed, and he went in after her. I looked for a weapon while his light bounced around the inside of my bedroom. Amy alternately pleaded with him and shrieked.
He dragged her out by her hair. She was holding my link in one hand.
“The police are on their way, Hap,” I said, in the steadiest voice I could muster. “Best thing for you is to clear out.”
But Amy would never win a prize for brains. She shook her head. No. “I didn’t call them,” she said. And, to Hap: “I didn’t want to cause you any trouble.”
“You’ve already caused me a lot of trouble, slut.” He took the link from her, dropped it on the floor, and stomped it. Then he hauled her to his side, twisted her arm behind her, dragged her backward to the front door, and kicked it shut. It banged open again, and a second kick didn’t improve things, so he shoved Amy in my direction, pushed the door closed and dragged a chair in front it. When he was satisfied nobody would come in and break up the party, and that no one was going to get out, he returned his attention to us. “Now, ladies,” he said, “let’s talk about the cup.”
He set the flashlight on a side table and tossed Amy onto the sofa, without ever taking his eyes off me. He was quicker than he looked. “It’s nice to see you again, Kolpath,” he said. “You’re the antique dealer. You never had any connection with a survey group, right? What did you want at my place?” His hands were balled into big meaty fists. If it came to a fight, it was going to be over in a hurry.
I could hear other people in the hallway.
“I thought there might be more where the cup came from.” No use lying.
“Stealing the cup wasn’t enough for you, huh?” He seized Amy’s arm and twisted it.
She cried out. “Where is it, love?”
“Turn her loose,” I said, starting toward him, but all he did was tighten his grip. Tears ran down her face.
I needed a weapon.
There was a hefty bronze bust of Philidor the Great on a shelf behind us. I didn’t look at it, didn’t want to draw his attention to it. But I knew it was there. If he could be distracted…