"Hey!" He jerked back, eyes squeezing shut, hand over them. "That hurt!"
But Mary-Lynnette had already seen. She couldn't tell what color his eyes were right now, because the colored parts, the irises, were reduced to almost invis ible rings. His eye was all pupil.Like a cat's at maxi
mum dilation.
Oh, my God ...the things he must be able tosee. Eighth-magnitude stars, maybe ninth-magnitude stars.
Imagine that, seeing a Mag 9 star with yournaked eye. To see colors in the star clouds-hot hy drogen glowing pink, oxygen shining green-blue. To see thousands more stars cluttering the sky .. .
"Quick," she said urgently. "How many stars doyouseein the sky right now?"
"I can't seeanything,"he said in a muffled voice, hand still over his eyes. "I'mblind."
"No, I meanseriously,"Mary-Lynnette said. And she caught his arm.
It was a stupid thing to do. She wasn't thinking. But when she touched his skin, it was like completing a current. Shock swept over her. Ash dropped hishand and looked at her.
For just a second they were face-to-face, gazes locked. Something like lightning trembled betweenthem.
Then Mary-Lynnette pulled away.
I can'ttakeany more of this. Oh, God, why am Ieven standing here talking to him? I've got enough ahead of me tonight. I've got abody to find.
"That's it for the astronomy lesson," she said, holding out a hand for the binoculars. Her voice was justslightly unsteady. "I'm going up the hill now."
-240She didn't ask wherehe was going. She didn't care, as long as it was away.
He hesitated an instant before giving her the binoculars, and when he did he made sure not to touchher.
Fine, Mary-Lynnette thought. We both feel the same.
"Goodbye."
"Bye," he said limply. He started to walk away. Stopped, his head lowered. "What I wanted to say ..."
"Well?"
Without turning, he said in a flat and perfectly composed voice, "Stay away from my sisters, okay?"
Mary-Lynnette was thunderstruck. So outragedand full of disbelief that she couldn't find words. Then she thought: Wait, maybe he knows they're killers and he's trying to protect me. Like Jeremy.
Around the sudden constriction in her throat she managed to say, "Why?"
He shook his drooping head. "I just don't thinkyou'd be a very good influence on them. They'rekind of impressionable, and I don't want them getting any ideas."
Mary-Lynnette deflated. I should have known, shethought. She said, sweetly and evenly, "Ash? Get bent and die."
Chapter 8
She waited another hour after he set off down theroad, heading east-doing what, she had no idea. There was nothing that way except two creeks andlots of trees. And her house. She hoped he was goingto try to walk into town, and that he didn't realize how far it was.
All right, he's gone, now forget about him. You'vegot a job to do, remember? A slightly dangerous one.
And he's not involved. I don't believe he knows anything about what happened to Mrs. B.
She got the shovel and started down the road west.As she walked she found that she was able to put Ash out of her mind completely. Because all she could think of was what was waiting ahead.
I'm not scared to do it; I'm not scared, I'm notscared.... OfcourseI'm scared.
But being scared was good, it would make her careful. She would do this job quickly and quietly. In through the gap in the hedge, a little fast work with the shovel, out again before anybody saw her.
She tried not to picture what she was going to findwith that shovel if she was right.
She approachedBurdock Farm cautiously, going north and then doubling back southeast to come in through the back property. The farmland had gone wild here, taken over by poison oak, beargrass, and dodder, besides the inevitable blackberry bushes and gorse. Tan oaks and chinquapins were moving in.
Sometime soon these pastures would be forest.
I'm not sure I believe I'm doing this, MaryLynnette thought as she reached the hedge that surrounded the garden. But the strange thing was that she didbelieve it. She was going to vandalize a neighbor's property and probably look at a dead bodyand she was surprisingly cool about it. Scared but not panicked.
Maybe there was more hidden inside her than she realized.
I may not be who I've always thought I am.
The garden was dark and fragrant. It wasn't theirises and daffodils Mrs. B. had planted; it wasn't the fireweed and bleeding heart that were growing wild. It was the goats.
Mary-Lynnette stuck to the perimeter of the hedge,eyes on the tall, upright silhouette of the farmhouse.
There were only two windows lit.
Please don't let them see me and please don't letme make a noise.
Still looking at the house, she walked slowly, taking careful baby steps to the place where the earth was disturbed. The first couple of swipes with the shovel hardly moved the soil.
Okay. Put a little conviction in it. And don't watch the house; there's no point. If they look out, they're going to see you, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Just as she put her foot on the shovel, somethingwent hooshin the rhododendrons behind her.
Crouched over her shovel,Mary-Lynnette froze.
Stop worrying, she told herself. That's not the sisters. It's not Ash coming back. That's an animal.
She listened. A mournful maaaa came from the goat shed.
It wasn't anything. It was a rabbit. Dig!
She got out a spadeful of dirt-and then she heardit again.
Hoosh.
A snuffling sound. Then a rustling. Definitely an animal. But if it was a rabbit, it was an awfully loud one.
Who cares what it is? Mary-Lynnette told herself.There aren't any dangerous animalsout here. And I'm not afraid of the dark. It's my natural habitat. I love the night.
But tonight, somehow, she felt differently. Maybe it was just the scene with Ash that had shaken her, made her feel confused and discontented. But just now she felt almost as if something was trying to tell her that the dark wasn't any human's natural habitat. That she wasn't built for it, with her weak eyes and her insensitive ears and dull nose. That she didn't belong.
Hoosh.
I may have rotten hearing, but I can hearthatjustfine. And it's big. Something big's sniffing around in bushes.
What kind of big animal could be out here? Itwasn't a deer deer went snort-wheeze. It sounded larger than a coyote, taller. A bear?