Page 73 of Steel & Jenna
He dialed the operator and rushed out a demand to speak with the police. Maybe he should have called Chief Cunningham’s home number but he had no idea if the Chief was home or still at work. During a storm like this, the police station was used as a shelter for anyone who didn’t feel their home was safe to stay in. Chief Cunningham was usually out helping residents pack up and escorting them to the station. Even if he got Mrs. Cunningham on the line, she might not be able to get ahold of her husband quickly.
Dialing the station was still his best bet.
As soon as someone picked up, Jack explained where he was, what he believed had happened, and that he needed the Chief to his house immediately. He hated waiting while the officer who answered got the Chief on the radio. Finally, Jack was informed the Chief and two officers were on their way.
Jack hung up. Then snatched the phone off the wall again. He dialed Mr. Zarin’s work number, but it continued to ring and ring. He must already be on his way home.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
What the hell was he supposed to do? His dad had Mrs. Zarin and Lilly! Who knew what he was doing to them? Where would he take them? The trailer? He needed to go there. He needed to find them, save them?—
Movement in the backyard caught his attention. Jack’s eyebrowsdrew down. Through the falling snow, he saw the light in the back shed was on. It shouldn’t be. There was no reason for it to be.
The shed door flew open. Through the kitchen window, Jack saw Lilly in socked feet come running out of it.
Jack was out the back door and down the steps in a heartbeat. Lilly’s frantic eyes landed on him. It took Jack a second to realize she wasn’t holding something in her hands but that they were bound with rope at the wrists. He recognized the rope, too. It was from a spool Mr. Zarin kept in the shed.
Lilly threw herself into Jack’s arms. He went down on a knee in the snow, holding her to him. She was screaming and crying so loud in his ear, but he didn’t care. She was alive! Snot ran down from her nose to her lips. Tears stained her cheeks. She had a red mark under one of her eyes like she’d been struck or maybe fell into something.
Jack pulled her back. As much as he longed to continue holding her, he needed answers. The police were on their way and they needed to know where Mrs. Zarin was.
His eyes landed on the snow on the ground before him. It was faint, covered by the falling flakes descent, but he noticed for the first time the boot prints—as well as the drag marks.
Jack’s heart hammered in his chest as his eyes landed on the open shed door. Through the wind and Lilly’s crying, he could just barely hear the sounds of someone shouting. It was too muffled and he couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman, but there was definitely someone inside Mr. Zarin’s shed.
“Get inside!” Jack ordered Lilly, standing. He needed to get to Mrs. Zarin!
But Lilly clung to him. Her little hands gripping the jacket he hadn’t taken off yet. She was panicked, rightly so, and a mess. His hyperactive brain picked up on the wet spot on her pants, though he didn’t blame her in the slightest.
“Lilly, I need you to go inside!” he tried again. How was she so strong? But she wasn’t listening. She kept grabbing for him, her words a jumbled mess of incomprehensible spluttering. Her gray eyes were wild with fear.
“Lilly, I?—”
The gunshot shook the air, loud and distinctive enough to be heard over the storm.
Jack instinctively took Lilly to the ground. Falling into the cold snow with her big brother on top of her seemed to snap Lilly out of her panic. She took a gasping breath and blinked, looking around.
“Are you hit?” Jack demanded.
She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
He got up, staying low. There was no doubt that gunshot had come from the shed. “Get inside, Lilly!”
This time her argument was less panicked, but still just as fearful. “Jackie, no! It’s Dad! He has a gun!”
Jack didn’t need her to tell him that. Those were facts he already knew. But he still had to get in there. He had to save Mrs. Zarin.
An unhinged shout echoed, drawing his attention back to the shed just in time to see the muzzle flash accompanied by a second bellow of gunfire. Something splattered onto the frosty glass from the inside.
Frantic now, Jack pushed Lilly to the back stairs. It was a little too forcefully and she fell onto the snow-covered wood, unbalanced. Jack didn’t look behind him.
He ran for the shed.
He didn’t hear the oncoming sirens or Lilly shouting his name. He didn’t feel the cold of the storm or the slight heat of the shed. He didn’t see the flashing lights or the setting sun.
For one single heartbeat, he just stood there. Taking it all in.
His father was slumped on the floor, leaning up against the right wall. Half of his skull was missing. The crimson of blood and the gray of brain matter were splattered across the wall and window above him like spray from a faucet.
