“Don’t even think it, okay?”
From the look on Jean’s face, he could see that she’d already considered the possibility.
“Just go ahead and call out,” she said. “We don’t want to barge in on something.”
Speak for yourself, he thought. If Pete was having at her, he wouldn’t mind a glimpse of it. Not at all. But he kept the thoughts to himself.
Without looking around the corner, he yelled, “Pete! Barbara! You all right?”
No answer came.
A second ago he’d pictured them rutting. Now he saw them sprawled dead, murderous savages hunched over their bodies, heads turning at the sound of his voice.
He gestured for Jean to wait, and stepped past the end of the building.
Three
“Where are they?” Jean whispered, pressing herself against his side.
Larry shook his head. He couldn’t believe the couple was actually gone. “They probably just wandered off somewhere,” he said. The idea that he would catch them fooling around had been the product of wishful thinking, and he knew that his worries about murder had been farfetched. But so had his worries that they’d disappeared.
“We’d better find them,” Jean said.
“Good plan.”
But all he saw were the rear facades of the other buildings, and the desert stretching away toward a ridge of mountains to the south.
“Maybe they’re playing some kind of trick on us,” Jean suggested.
“I don’t know. Pete was awfully eager for his beer.”
“People don’t go for a leak and vanish off the face of the earth.”
“Only on occasion.”
“It’s not funny.” Her voice was trembling.
“Look, they’ve got to be around.”
“Maybe we’d better go and get the gun.”
“It’s locked in the van. I don’t imagine Pete would be very happy about a broken window.”
“Pete!” she suddenly shrieked. “Barb!”