Free Waiting and Watching by Darcy Darvill Page B

you got here when you did. Martin needs help, Nola. Or he needs to see the inside of a jail cell for a very long time. He was going to rape and kill me.”
    â€œI know. He’s always wanted you, and I plead guilty for encouraging him to keep trying to win you over.”
    With that, Martin broke into tears and began wailing. “I’m sorry, Mama.”
    Nola put her arm around him. “Martin has been under a lot of pressure. He needs help. Please don’t press charges against him. I’ll get him the help he needs and right now I’ll get him out of here so you can put yourself together. Come with me, son.” Nola spoke in a comforting voice as she led him from the room and down the stairs.
    Connie stood in her old bedroom trembling. She couldn’t catch her breath. She wanted to run, but her feet felt like lead. In shock, she stood there for what seemed like an eternity. Still in her old prom dress, slashed by Martin’s knife, she darted down the steps and out the front door.

Chapter 18
    Earl Lookey still lived in the same house he had lived in for over 40 years. He and his wife, Sue, bought it the year they were married, thinking it would be the perfect place to raise children. Unfortunately, they never had any and it was a great disappointment to them both. Sue fed her maternal instinct by teaching third grade, but Earl just got crotchety and rigid due to the lack of loving chaos that comes with children and grandchildren. Sue’s death several years back left him a bitter recluse with only his television and a basset hound named Sniff for company.
    Earl had been dozing in front of his television when he heard something outside his front door. He went to the window to investigate and could see a woman collapsed on his front porch steps. She was disheveled, her fancy dress was torn, and she was crying as if she’d lost her last friend, but Earl was still leery of opening the door to a stranger, particularly at this hour of the night. He was always suspicious of pranksters. In his opinion, the behavior of kids today was appalling, even in this affluent suburb.
    However, when the woman looked up and spotted him through the door’s beveled glass, the illumination from his outdoor light revealed her identity. Earl couldn’t believe his eyes. He stood there like a deer in headlights, unable to reconcile seeing Connie again. She was older now of course, but she still looked enough like the pretty young girl he remembered for sympathy and concern to fill his heart.
    He opened the door and rushed to her aid. “My God, Connie, what’s happened to you, girl?” He helped her up and into the safety of his living room.
    â€œMartin abducted me,” she explained, as he sat her down and she settled into the welcoming comfort of his well-worn sofa.
    â€œWhat!” Earl frowned, noting she was shaking like a leaf. He rushed over to the sideboard in the attached dining room to pour her a stiff shot of scotch from a crystal Tantalus. “I always knew that boy had a screw loose,” he said, returning with the drink. “Here, take a big swallow. It’ll put some starch in your knees.”
    Connie accepted the drink from him but she was shaking so hard, Earl had to cup his hands around hers to keep the scotch from spilling. She grimaced after taking that first bolstering swallow. The heat of it running down her throat and into her stomach worked quickly to calm her jangling nerves.
    â€œThank you, Mr. Lookey. I really needed that.”
    Earl looked at the torn top of her party dress. She had obviously been through a terrible ordeal. “The bastard didn’t hurt you, did he?”
    â€œNo, but only thanks to Nola finding us. Could I please use your phone, Mr. Lookey?”
    â€œOf course.” He hurried into the kitchen and brought her the receiver off his wall phone. She dialed the Tilden Park Inn’s phone number and asked to be connected to her