The Scarred Man by Andrew Klavan

Author:Andrew Klavan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781453252253
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road

Chapter twenty-one

They were buried in the churchyard. I took her to the grave. We climbed the little hill and stood before it, side by side. One plain rounded marker with the name Turner in large letters, then my parents’ names beneath and the date of their death. There was no other inscription.

The sinking afternoon sun had edged the shadow of the church spire over the ground on which we stood. The chill air made me shiver. The housewife next door had banged out through her rear screen door and was gathering the laundry from the line. The traffic on Main Street was whispering by. I heard a sparrow singing. I felt the calm, steady sweetness of an unwavering rage.

“It was after midnight,” I said. “We had a cuckoo clock out in the hall. I think it must’ve awakened me. Then I lay in my bed, in the dark. I was scared. I don’t know if I heard him downstairs. Maybe I did. Maybe I was just scared the way you get scared in your bed in the dark when you’re a kid. The way you lie there in a sweat, listening to the house settle, figuring it’s some monster or killer come to get you. Talking yourself out of it, but not quite relaxed. Still listening, still clutching the covers. Then the house creaks again, and you’re sure. Whatever it is, it’s coming to get you.

“And this time, it was.”

I was staring at the grave. I had almost forgotten Susannah was beside me.

“It happened so fast. So fast. Whispered voices. I remember. I still wasn’t sure. The wind seemed to be whispering at the window. Footsteps—there were footsteps in the hall, but I couldn’t tell, I was so scared by then. I couldn’t tell if it was the house or … I got out of bed. My parents’ room was right next door. But I didn’t want to wake them up. I wanted to be a big boy. I crept out into the hall. I crept toward the top of the stairs. I thought I’d take a look—you know the way you tell yourself you’ll take a look and then you’ll be sure it’s nothing and you’ll be able to sleep. I thought I’d take a look and then I’d be sure.

“I remember—I remember reaching out, reaching out toward the banister, and I just … my ears, my head seemed full of whispers, the creaks of the house seemed to be inside me.… I turned the corner of the stairs, and just at that moment, down below me, down in the front hall, there was a scream, God, a woman’s scream, and I saw—I saw Laura, the maid, trying … She was trying to run up the stairs, and the stairway light went on. She might have hit it. Maybe he did. He was standing below her with the gun, the rifle. She screamed, and at the same moment, the gun went off, and Laura was thrown against the wall. I remember.

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