Seldom Seen in August Read Online Free PDF Page B

into his hideout.
It wouldn’t work. The only option then was to shoot his way out and
hope for the best.
    Movement in the hall made his shoulders
tighten. He leaned out and saw a young, fresh-faced cop doing the
same thing. Only the cop looked surprised.
    Even more so when Wade shot him in the
head.
    The cop fell back against the
wall.
    There was stunned silence for a
second.
    Then all hell broke loose.
    More glass shattered, men shouted
commands, furniture was overturned, more crashing, hammers were
ratcheted back, static exploded from radios.
    Wade grinned. “Get the message, you
assholes?” he called out.
    “You’re a fucking dead man,” one of the
cops shouted back and was quietly reprimanded by
another.
    From one of the upstairs rooms came the
sound of footsteps. They were penning him in, as if he wasn’t
already penned in enough.
    As he prepared to rise into a crouch
and make a break for the stairs, his plan to intercept whoever this
latest unwelcome visitor was before the option was taken away, he
noted that the doll torso had somehow found its way into the
kitchen. It lay between his legs, eyes open and staring at
him.
    He rose onto his haunches.
    “You hear me, Crawford?” the angry cop
yelled at him, his voice cracking. “You’re not walking out of
here.”
    It was clear the young cop’s death had
hit the guy hard. Boo-hoo , Wade thought.
    “What? You mean like that kid out there
missing the top half of his head? Like him, you mean?” he called
back.
    The humming sound came
again.
    A quick check told him it was not his
phone.
    He tried to filter out the clamor from
the cops as they tried to talk some sense into their incensed
comrade.
    Hunkered shadows moved past the kitchen
window.
    Shit.
    He put a hand on the floor to steady
himself, his mind buzzing.
    Gotta be a way—
    His fingers brushed against the doll
and he recoiled. Was it his imagination or had the doll appeared to
be shivering when he’d touched it? He returned its unwavering stare
for a moment, until he realized he’d found the source of the
humming sound.
    The doll was vibrating.
    Gunfire made him duck as a chunk of
plaster and wood the size of a fist exploded from the doorway mere
inches above his head. Gray dust rained down on his
shoulders.
    “Hear me now, you prick?” the cop
roared at him.
    Rustling in the hall again. The cop the
shot had been meant to cover, he assumed.
    Well, this is it , he thought
with curious calm, and took a deep breath, bracing himself to swing
out around the kitchen door and plug another dumb cop. He cast one
last look down at the doll and smirked.
    The doll smirked back.
    Wade flinched.
    The doll opened its Cupid’s bow mouth
wide. Wider. Something glinted inside, and despite the horror,
despite the urgency of the situation in which he was currently
mired, Wade leaned forward and peered into that open plastic
maw.
    The doll began to hum again.
    Needles , Wade realized, it’s
got needles in its mouth , and jerked back a second too late to
avoid their trajectory as the doll winked and spat them into his
face.
     

CHAPTER SIX
     
    He awoke what felt like only seconds
later, but clearly it had been more than that because he was no
longer in the house, or at least in any part of it that he had seen
during his turbulent time there. As the effects of whatever drug
the needles had contained gradually abated, he was left with only a
mild headache, slightly muddled vision, and a great disappointment
not only that he had been caught, but also that he hadn’t managed
to take down a few more of the cops before the end. Not that he
blamed himself for that. Who knew a doll could spit poison darts?
He shook his head and it hurt.
    They had bound him to a chair by his
feet and ankles. In true modern fashion, they hadn’t used ropes,
but PlastiCuffs, the kind that you had to gnaw through your own
limbs to escape. As expected, when he tested their hold, there was
no give at all. He was, as Shakespeare had once said,