Free Dark Road by David C. Waldron Page B

Marissa closed her eyes for two seconds and took a deep breath.
    When she opened her eyes she had changed again, like she had on the night Danny died. “He threatened the girls, Dan, he was threatening us. He’s not going to be threatening anyone else anymore. Let’s get him behind the bushes and then we need to get into the house before someone comes out to see what the noise was.” She swallowed, proving she wasn’t actually completely over it. “It’s been a couple of weeks since we heard gunshots around here but we can hope everyone just keeps their heads down for a little while. Dan, I did what needed to be done.”
    “Right, ok…and then we need to talk.”
    “Fine, later.” Marissa replied. “Get his shoulders; we need to get him off the porch.”
    The number of barking dogs was up to three.
    …
    Once they were inside, they both noticed that Bekah was awake and looking at them from under her covers. Jessie was still sound asleep.
    Marissa was the first one to her but only by half a step. “Bekah, honey, are you ok? Did anything happen while we were gone?” Dan asked.
    “Mr. Carey came in through the window in the kitchen, but I stayed still because I didn’t want him to know I was awake,” she said.
    Dan closed his eyes and let out the breath he’d been holding. “Good girl,” Marissa said. “Mr. Carey is gone now. It’s ok.”
    “What was the noise outside?” Bekah asked.
    “Don’t worry about it right now,” Dan told her. “Mommy and I need to do some things and you need to get some more sleep.”
    Bekah wasn’t stupid, so she wasn’t going to argue with her parents, but she also wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep. “Ok,” she said and then rolled over and pretended to try to go back to sleep while Dan and Marissa watched her for a few seconds and then went into the other room.
    “We have to leave, like tonight or this morning, as in, as soon as we can pack the bikes.” Dan said.
    Marissa nodded her head. “I know. I’m sorry. Not for what I did but for what it means we have to do.”
    The look on Dan’s face was one of shock, and bewilderment, and dismay. “Come again? You just killed a man Rissa. You’re not sorry?”
    “No, Dan, I’m not.” Marissa’s face was as hard as her voice. “And once the shock wears off you’ll be able to see my point of view, even if you won’t agree with it. He threatened us and our children, and I would not and will not have it. Not now, not ever.” Then she walked away to start packing.
    …
    The last thing to pack took the longest because they had to get Jessie awake enough to get her into the pull-behind and that was no mean feat. Bekah was still awake, and when Marissa realized she hadn’t gone back to sleep she had her get up and get dressed since she would be riding her own bike anyway.
    As Marissa was bringing the last load of things out to the garage she saw Dan tinkering with the lawnmower and asked him what he was doing.
    “Creating a diversion.”
    “How so?” She asked.
    “It’s been over a month since anyone has heard a lawnmower, right?” Dan asked. Marissa nodded. “Well, even though they siphoned out all the gas from the tank there’s still a little bit in the bowl of the carb and the tank that they couldn’t have gotten. I’m guessing it’ll run for at least a couple of minutes.”
    “I’m going to take it down the street and around the corner a half a dozen houses in the other direction from where we’re going and fire it up. I figure if I leave it running on the sidewalk, everyone will come out to see what the commotion is and hopefully won’t even notice us leaving. With the gunshot earlier, some people are bound to be awake already. When we open the garage door someone is more than likely going to come outside and investigate. I’m going to take this out through the front door and have it running when we open the garage door.”
    Marissa nodded. “All the attention will already be down at