Read Brain Child for Free Online Page B

into the water. A moment later he came to the surface and turned around to grin at Lisa.
    She was gone.
    The effects of the two fast beers suddenly neutralized by the cold water, Alex scanned the crowd, sure that Lisa must be among the kids still on the pool deck. Then he was equally sure she was not. If she’d made up her mind not to come into the pool, she wouldn’t change it.
    And Alex suddenly felt like a fool.
    He hadn’t wanted to come to the party, he hadn’t really wanted the two beers he’d drunk, and he certainly didn’t want Lisa mad at him. He scrambled out of the water, grabbed a towel, then dried himself off and dressed as fast as he could. As he started into the house, he asked Bob Carey if he’d seen Lisa anywhere. Bob hadn’t.
    Nor had anyone else.
    Ten minutes later, Alex left the house, praying that his car wasn’t blocked in.
    *   *   *
    A quarter of a mile down Hacienda Drive, Lisa Cochran’s quick pace slowed, and she wondered if maybe she shouldn’t turn around and go back to the party. What, after all, was so horrible about skinny-dipping? And who was she to be so prissy about it? In a way, Alex was right—it
had
been her idea that they go to the party. He’d even argued with her, but she’d insisted. Still, he
had
drunk a couple of beers, and by now he might be working on a third. And if he was, she certainly didn’t want to drive home with him.
    She stopped walking entirely, and wondered what to do. Perhaps she should walk all the way into the village and wait for Alex at home.
    Except that her parents would be up and would want to know what had happened.
    Maybe the best thing to do was go back to the party, find Alex, and convince him that it was time for them to go home. She would do the driving.
    But that would be giving in, and she wouldn’t give in. She had been right, and Alex had been wrong, and it served him right that she’d walked out on him.
    She made up her mind, and continued down the road.
    Alex jockeyed the Mustang around Bob Carey’s Porsche, then put it in drive and gunned the engine. The rear wheels spun on the loose gravel for a moment, then caught, and the car shot forward, down the Evanses’ driveway and into Hacienda Drive.
    Alex wasn’t sure how long Lisa had been walking—it seemed as though it had taken him forever to get dressed and search the house. She could be almost home by now.
    He pressed the accelerator, and the car picked up speed. He hugged the wall of the ravine on the first curve, but the car fishtailed slightly, and he had to steer into the skid to regain control. Then he hit a straight stretch and pushed his speed up to seventy. Coming up fast was an S curve that was posted at thirtymiles an hour, but he knew they always left a big margin for safety. He slowed to sixty as he started into the first turn.
    And then he saw her.
    She was standing on the side of the road, her green dress glowing brightly in his headlights, staring at him with terrified eyes.
    Or did he just imagine that? Was he already that close to her?
    Time suddenly slowed down, and he slammed his foot on the brake.
    Too late. He was going to hit her.
    It would have been all right if she’d been on the inside of the curve. He’d have swept around her, and she’d have been safe. But now he was skidding right toward her …
    Turn into it. He had to turn into it!
    Taking his foot off the brake, he steered to the right, and suddenly felt the tires grab the pavement.
    Lisa was only a few yards away.
    And beyond Lisa, almost lost in the darkness, something else.
    A face, old and wrinkled, framed with white hair. And the eyes in the face were glaring at him with an intensity he could almost feel.
    It was the face that finally made him lose all control of the car.
    An ancient, weathered face, a face filled with an unspeakable loathing, looming in the darkness.
    At the last possible moment, he wrenched the wheel to the left, and the Mustang responded, slewing around Lisa,