Read Endless Night for Free Online Page B

here before, so maybe he knew of something upstairs that would help. Maybe Ernest the healer had a firearm, after all.
    Her own dad kept plenty of secrets from Grandma Fargo, things that Jody knew about and sometimes revealed to friends.
    So maybe Andy knew where to find a gun.
    Oh God, please!
    Hearing quick footfalls from below, she glanced over her shoulder just in time to see the ax man hurry out of the dining room. He jogged through the archway, looked toward her from the foyer but didn’t react or slow down.
    Andy had already reached the top of the stairs.
    Jody, taking three at a stride, sprang to the top a moment after him. There, she turned around and saw the ax man jerking open the front door.
    He’s leaving?
    He didn’t spot us after all?
    He thinks we ran outside!
    Right at the start of all this, the guy who killed Evelyn hadn’t noticed Jody standing just behind her in the dark room. Maybe this guy had no better eyesight than ...
    He didn’t run out into the night, but whirled away from the open door and rushed for the stairs as his friends with the knife and saber charged into the house.
    Andy grabbed Jody’s sleeve. He pulled it hard, stretching the neck of her nightshirt down off her shoulder. The pull sent her stumbling toward him, and a wall blocked her view of the three intruders.
    “Come on!” he gasped in a whisper.
    “They got a gun?”
    She heard a thunder of footfalls on the stairs.
    “Phones. Almost every room has a ...”
    “It’s too damn late for 911.”
    “We can...”
    “Let go of my sleeve.”
    He let go. The ruined neck still drooped off her shoulder.
    “Get ready to run.”
    “What ... ?”
    She leaped sideways. The ax man was in the lead, rushing up the stairs like a crazed lumberjack. When Jody loomed above him, he hefted the ax.
    Jody hurled her Louisville Slugger like a short, stubby spear.
    She’d aimed for his forehead.
    That’s where the bat struck him, its fat end clouting him above his eyebrows, bashing his head back.
    The moment she saw the bat hit him, she sprang sideways past the wall and gasped, “Go!” and hoped Andy would lead them to someplace with a lock.
    From the sounds of thuds and slams and outcries she heard as she lunged after Andy, she guessed that the ax man must’ve gone backward down the stairs and knocked into one or both of his buddies.
    He’s gotta be out of the picture, she told herself.
    But that leaves the other two.
    Two against two. Now the sides are even.
    Right. Even, my butt.
    They’ll kill us.
    “Where’re we going?” she blurted as she dashed down the corridor on Andy’s heels.
    “Jim’s room.”
    “He got a lock?”
    “A phone.”
    “Does his door lock?”
    “Don’t know.”
    She heard the men behind her.
    “Johns got locks,” she gasped.
    “No phone.”
    A glimpse back showed her two dim figures rushing side by side.
    “The parents’ room,” she said. “Where?”
    Andy’s vague, pale arm swung up and pointed to a gray rectangle just ahead—a doorway perhaps a shade less dark than the corridor.
    “Go there ! ”
    He cut across the corridor. So did Jody. “The door, the door, the door!” she yelled.
    She followed him through the doorway. They both skidded and staggered, stopping fast, reversing direction. Andy grabbed the door by its edge and slammed it. They threw themselves against it.
    Shoulder to the wood, Jody reached out and swept her open hand down the wall. She found a light switch. She flicked it up and the room filled with light that made her squint.
    The muffled thud of footfalls rushed closer.
    Jody looked down at the doorknob. No lock.
    No mechanism at all for securing the door.
    Great.
    She flipped herself around. Back to the door, she scooted her feet over the carpet and bent her knees and braced herself for impact.
    Andy did the same.
    She felt his arm against her arm.
    The bedroom was very large. It did look like the master bedroom, but it also looked as if the old Mrs. Youngman had been