Page 85 of Everything Under the Sun

ATTICUS

I rapped my knuckles on the screen door before going inside. David was still reading his newspaper in the recliner; Emily and Shannon were in the kitchen, but came out the moment I re-entered the house.

“Where’s the girls?” Emily asked, wiping her hands covered in flour on her apron.

“They’re on their way.” I gestured casually toward the barn. “Getting to know each other, I guess.”

David’s eyes raised from the newspaper, the black-and-white corner folding down with the movement of his work-worn fingers. Without turning his head, he looked toward the large window that framed the field, stared a moment in consideration, and then looked at me again.

“I had a feelin’ those two would hit it off better than my Shannon,” he said. “Any sign o’Lance out there?”

I shook my head.

“Nothing yet,” I said. “Hey, would you mind if I cleaned up?”

Emily and David’s eyes met across the room. I watched them all closely, every movement, every facial expression, not for a second letting them onto the reason I was really there. A quiet sort of communication passed between the brother and sister.

David gave her a short nod.

“Sure, right this way.” Emily gestured me to follow her down the hallway. “Just’ let me get the laundry out of the floor for yah.”

Once I had her in the confines of the narrow sheetrock walls, I reached down into my boot and pulled my knife, whirling around behind her and seizing her body against mine.

Emily yelped; the knife pressed against her jugular; I pushed the blade against her throat, daring her to move.

Hearing the scuffle in the hallway, David and Shannon rushed toward us, their heavy footsteps reverberating through the weak floor. They stopped cold when I forced Emily into their view, exhibiting her life-or-death predicament.

“I won’t hesitate,” I warned. “Put the gun on the floor.”

David looked down at the gun in his hand, and then raised his hands out at his sides and moved his finger away from the trigger. “Now there ain’t no need for this,” he said. “If ya jus’ wanna take somethin’ and leave—whatever ya want—then ain’t no one gonna stop ya. But ain’t no need to hurt my sister.”

“I SAID PUT THE GUN ON THE FLOOR!”

Emily squeaked, and her body jerked in surprise. A moment later I caught the stench of hot urine wafting into my nose.

David bent over and set the gun on the floor, springing back up into an upright position quickly enough that suggested he possessed more deftness than he appeared. A lot of things about these people were not as they seemed.

Shannon backed away, arms raised out at her sides, threatening scowl twisting her features with rage. “You’re just like the rest,” she accused acidly.

“Shut the hell up—no one ever robbed you,” I said, recalling the story she’d told. “This whole thing is a setup, and you’re not fooling me. Move back into the living room—now!” I squeezed Emily’s body, the blade fastened to her throat, and her head fell back against my shoulder in response to it.

Keeping their hands up, David and Shannon backed their way into the living room.

Moving toward them down the hall, I stopped when I stood boot-to-barrel with the gun. Without letting the blade fall away from Emily’s throat, I fell into a squat, taking her down with me, and scooped the cold metal into my free hand. Once I had the gun, I gave Emily a shove in the back and sent her falling forward. Unable to keep her balance, she tumbled onto the floor, then scrambled toward David and Shannon on her hands and knees, her long dress catching under them.

I pointed the gun at David, and shoved the knife back into my boot.

“I’m not going to spend what little time there is listening to your lies,” I said. “The girl out in the barn already admitted that people are coming for us—who the hell is it and how far out are they?”

“W-We don’ know what you’re—”

In two enormous strides I went toward them, gun raised and ready to fire.

David held firm, and pretended to know nothing of the accusations. Had I been wrong about them? Had paranoia gotten the best of me? No—I refused to believe that I was wrong.

“You’ve been burning tires,” I pointed out, “since we got here. Tires. The perfect signal to let someone, oh I don’t know”—I cocked my head to one side in a sarcastic fashion—“someone out hunting maybe, to know that you’ve got new people in your house. That’s why Lance hasn’t come back, isn’t it? Because he saw the black smoke, and instead of coming home, he went to alert someone. Am I about right?”

I knew that, undoubtedly, I was. And judging the shell-shocked faces the family wore but tried so hard to hide, it was further proof I knew all I needed to know.

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