Quarter to Midnight by Ned Oaks

Author:Ned Oaks
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780719821462
Publisher: Robert Hale

CHAPTER NINE

Pete Taylor alighted from the railway carriage, pulling his hat brim down over his face. His eyes were wary as they moved over the station platform. He hadn’t been home in years, and although he was in Salem now rather than Stayton, he felt like someone might recognize him here.

Why the hell should I care, he thought defiantly. I’m a Taylor. Nobody can touch me, and they better watch their mouths if they want to say something smart to me.

He often bolstered his confidence like this. Despite his outward bravado, he had never felt sure of himself or his place in the world. Much of his insecurity stemmed from his father. Taylor knew that he and his father had never had a good relationship, and as his problems with gambling and women intensified in early adulthood, his father’s disapproval had become more and more undisguised. This had only served to make the young man’s behavior less respectable, as if the only way he could assert his individuality was to offend his father.

The telegram his father had sent him had startled him as few things had in his life. Steve Karner was alive, and he had tried to kill Phil. It was almost incomprehensible that Karner could have survived that attack. When he had contacted Phil for more information, he had learned about the deaths of Clarence Snow, Gil Thompson, Dave Villiers and Norm Ballard, as well as the disappearance of Jack Buckley. Pete Taylor didn’t have a penetrating mind, but he was smart enough to know that it must have been Steve Karner who killed those men, and he must also have been responsible for whatever happened to Buckley. And the only reason Karner could have had for attacking Phil was that he knew of Pete’s involvement in the attempt on his life.

Taylor had gone over these things time and time again in the two days that had passed since his father’s telegram had reached him. He had scarcely slept since. The nervous tension within him was almost unbearable, but his native arrogance helped him maintain control of his anxieties—for now. His main fear was the possibility that Karner had told someone else that Pete Taylor was behind that ambush in the woods, all those years ago.

But there was more to it than that. If he was going to go down for the crime, then he would make sure he wasn’t the only one to take the blame. Because it hadn’t been his idea to begin with. He had been paid to do it, and there was no way he could decline the offer he had received, or at least that was how it had seemed at the time. He had been vulnerable, and when the man approached him, promising him $5,000 to set up Karner’s murder, he had been willing to do anything to avoid letting his father know about his new gambling debts, and about the men who had threatened his life if he didn’t settle with them.

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