Endless Night Read Online Free PDF

be on their way to the far end of the hedge. It would take them a while to get there. Ten or fifteen seconds, maybe.
    If only we could disappear!
    Crawl back through to the other side? Right. It wouldn’t take a genius to leave the ax man behind, just in case.
    Andy suddenly clutched her short sleeve and tugged at it. “I know! You go back and try and get Dr. Youngman to open up. I’ll lead those guys on a wild-goose chase.”
    “That’s nuts!” Jody blurted.
    “It’ll work! I’ll circle around and meet you.”
    “No. We’ll...”
    “Go back through.” He tugged her sleeve, stretching the neck of her nightshirt down off her shoulder.
    “Hey.”
    He kept pulling. “Get down. Go back through.”
    No time to argue. She sank to her knees.
    “See ya.” Andy whirled and sprinted off across the lawn.
    The stupid jerk! she thought. He’s acting like it’s a cowboy movie!
    She started to get up, intending to go after him.
    He was already halfway to the next driveway.
    She was on one knee, ready to stand, when the first of the pursuers raced past the end of the hedge. He slowed. He turned his body. Jody froze, knowing he was about to face her. But he spotted Andy first and lurched into a run.
    Jody dropped flat on the grass just as the man with the saber appeared on the sidewalk and joined the chase. A moment later, he was followed by the ax man.
    They all cut across the grass, going after Andy.
    Just the way he’d figured.
    They think I’m with him. Probably think I’m up ahead somewhere.
    “Go, Andy, go,” she whispered.
    Then she turned herself around and squirmed back through the gap at the bottom of the hedge. At the other side, she sprang to her feet. She switched the bat to her left hand as she sprinted across the driveway. She wondered if anyone could hear the slap of her bare feet. They sounded even louder on the painted concrete of the walkway curving from the edge of the driveway to the porch. She leaped the porch stairs. She flung herself against the front door and crashed her fist against it.
    She pounded on the door with all her might, eight times, nine, ten. Then thought, My God, what if they hear me knocking?
    So she quit and slid herself across the cool wood and jabbed the doorbell button again and again and again. Each time she poked it, she heard a faint chime from inside the house.
    “Come on, come on, come on,” she whispered.
    Continuing to jab the button, she twisted her head away from the door and peered over her shoulder. She saw no one. Just the broad lawn, the driveway and hedge, the empty street. Empty except for the vehicles in front of the Clark house. Five cars, one van.
    “My goodness, hold your horses!”
    Jody flinched. She dropped her hand from the doorbell. “Help! Please! There’re men after me.”
    “I’m coming, now.”
    Jody pushed herself away from the door. She turned all the way around. Still okay. Facing the door again, she bent down and braced her elbows on her knees. An awkward stance, particularly with the bat in her hand, but it helped her breathing.
    With a quiet squeak, a hatch in the door swung inward. It was just the size of the thin, wrinkled face behind it. A nose jutted out between two upright wooden bars. But the bars got in the way of the woman’s eyes, so she tilted her head sideways. She wore glasses with bright red frames and lenses the size of hockey pucks.
    “Now you tell me what’s going on, young lady. What’s this about being chased?” Her gaze roamed past Jody as if searching for pursuers.
    “You’ve gotta let me in,” Jody gasped.
    “I’ve got to do nothing of the sort. Are you one of those loudies that was doing all the yelling a while back that woke me up?”
    She had heard them. “Yes! It was me and Andy Clark.”
    “Andy Clark? That’s a fine lad. What’s he doing out and about this time of night?”
    “He’s with me!”
    “I don’t see him. You are a sight, girl. Whatever have you been up to?”
    Jody stood up