Hold Back the Night by Sean Lynch

Author:Sean Lynch [Lynch, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 2021-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Mary Hernandez tossed her cigarette and mounted the porch steps. She knew it was late enough that her parents, sister, niece, and nephew were probably already in bed. As if to confirm her assertion, she looked up and found no lights flickering in the upstairs windows. Downstairs, she detected a faint glow filtering through the blinds. She guessed somebody must be up since there were at least a few candles lit or one of the battery-powered lanterns was still switched on.

Mary wasn’t tired, though she realized she should be exhausted. Despite spending most of the afternoon and evening in bed, she got little sleep. She did, however, consume two beers, a half-pack of cigarettes, a significant amount of marijuana, and another line of methamphetamine. Tad Guthrie partook of everything along with her but the cigarettes.

Mary knew her father had cold beer in the refrigerator. She figured on helping herself to a couple in the hope of taking the edge off her accelerated metabolic state. She doubted her parents or the kids would recognize that she was under the influence of booze, pot, and speed, but figured Marjorie might suspect if her nosy sister was still up and around.

She found the front door unlocked, which surprised her. She remembered her father almost always kept the door secured. She recalled how she’d arrived after the drive from Sacramento the night before needing to urinate badly and had to pound on the locked door to get inside to the bathroom.

When she opened the unlocked door and entered, she was further surprised to find Marjorie standing alone in the hallway to greet her. The buttons on her shirt were strangely misaligned, and there was an odd look on her bruised face. Her expression seemed to be a combination of dread, guilt, and fear. It also looked as if she’d been crying.

“You didn’t have to wait up,” Mary said, grateful the light was dim. The only illumination in the house was from a candle in the kitchen and a battery-powered lantern on the coffee table in the living room. She didn’t want her dilated pupils to give her illicit drug use away. “I stopped obeying curfews in high school.”

“I’m sorry, Mary,” Marjorie said, understanding all too well how her mother must have felt when she and her children arrived earlier.

“What have you got to be sorry about?” Mary asked, confused.

“Me,” Mims said, stepping from behind the front door for the second time that evening. He poked Mary in the kidney with the Glock.

“What the fuck?” Mary exclaimed.

Mims closed the door, locked it, and forced Mary and Marjorie into the main room at gunpoint.

“What the hell is going on?” Mary asked her sister. “Who is this asshole?”

“There’s another one upstairs,” Marjorie said. “Mom, Dad, and the kids are down in the basement.”

“In the basement?” Mary said. “Who are these guys? What do they want?”

“You’ll have to ask them yourself.”

Mims took Mary’s handbag from her and motioned for the two women to sit on the couch.

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