After Darkness Fell Read Online Free

squatted, lifted him and carried him over my right shoulder to the truck. I set him down on the tailgate and let him fall backward, his head thumping the bed. I slid him the rest of the way beside his dead partner. When his tennis shoes cleared the bed, I slammed the tailgate shut.
    ***
    I made a right onto the main road and we went west, up the mile-long hill that brought us to the intersection of Bakerstown–Culmerville Road and Deer Creek Road. As I’d suspected, there were no vehicles in sight, and aside from the junk cars and pickups languishing in the abandoned front yards up the hill, we saw nothing. The two men who’d wandered onto our property and tried to kill us had obviously come from a different direction.
    I pulled into the deteriorating lot of the old abandoned garage, turned around and sat there a few moments, thinking. Those two had obviously come from somewhere. Had they driven here? Or walked? If they’d driven, they could have come from anywhere. If they’d walked, that meant they’d lived close by.
    Two psychos living so close frightened me. I knew it was possible, I just didn’t like it. It meant there could be others. It also meant that what happened this morning could happen again.
    For obvious reasons, I didn’t want to tell Fields my fears.
    “Where exactly did he say he broke down?” she asked.
    “From what he told me, we should have passed their ride on our way up this hill. He said he checked both garages, saw they were abandoned, and walked back down the hill.”
    “I think he lied to you.”
    “Looks that way, doesn’t it?”
    “If it were me, I would’ve checked those houses up the hill. They all look empty, but you never know. Someone could still be moving around in one of them.”
    “We both know what they were after.”
    “He and his friend obviously followed us from Bakerstown the other day.”
    That made me feel much better than the possibility of a gang of psychos living close. “And they’ve been biding their time, waiting for the right moment.”
    “So where do you think they came from?”
    I eased back out onto the road and we went back down the hill, past the farm. At the horseshoe curve rounding the barn and front pasture, the road went down a fairly steep decline for about a mile before bottoming out and starting another gradual ascent up the next hill. At the bottom, about sixty feet from the road and in the middle of a narrow dirt road, a battered station wagon sat hidden behind wild brush, its body riddled with dents, scrapes and holes, its windows covered with dust and dirt.
    I pulled onto the dirt road and brought the truck to a stop about twenty feet from the front of the vehicle. We sat in tense silence for several minutes, staring at it. I expected dark shapes to suddenly kick open the doors and leap from the cab, guns blazing.
    There was no movement and no sign of life, but I knew better than lower my guard. I grabbed the .357 from the console. “I’m gonna check it out.”
    “Not alone, you won’t.” She snatched the .45 out of her Uncle Mike’s and cocked the hammer. She meant business. I felt sorry for anyone naive enough to give her trouble.
    “Okay. But we do this my way, all right?”
    “Unless you plan to do something stupid again.”
    I sighed. She wasn’t going to let me live that down. “Let’s get this right, then. We’ll get out the same time and leave both doors open.”
    “Why?”
    “If someone jumps out of the car or the woods and starts shooting, we can get behind the doors. They’re not bullet-proof, but they’ll provide some protection.”
    “All right.”
    “We’ll approach the wagon at the same time—me on this side, you on your side. Keep your gun pointed at the wagon. Keep as close to the door as you can while I check out the passenger’s side. If it’s clear, I’ll signal and you can join me. Okay?”
    “Yes.”
    “Now ... before we move, any other questions?”
    “Just one. What’s the procedure if we