Shiver

her. She did not. The house was still and quiet. She couldn’t even hear Marco, much less anything else. But she knew that the quiet was an illusion, knew the most terrible danger could engulf them at any second, and the knowledge made her stomach knot and her pulse race.
    “Come on, Mom.”
    Sam was halfway out the window when Marco appeared in the doorway. Until she actually saw his tall dark shape swinging toward her, she hadn’t realized how terrified she had been that something might have prevented him from rejoining them. Some of the anxiety that had been constricting her throat eased.
    Oh, God, I’m crazy about him. There was absolutely no future in it, and she didn’t have time to dwell on the implications of it, but there it was: a fact.
    “I can’t figure out why nobody’s coming up here after us.” Reaching the window, thrusting his crutch and then his head and shoulders through the opening, Marco said it as if he were talking more to himself than to her.
    “You wouldn’t happen to have another gun in there, would you?” Sam whispered, gesturing at the crutch.
    “Fresh out,” Marco whispered back.
    Seeing her clinging to the shingles just outside the window looking back at him, he added, “Go. Don’t wait for me. Hurry.”
    If Marco was telling her to hurry, hurry was what she was going to do. Icy little curls of fear spiraled through Sam’s stomach as she scrambled carefully along the overhang. One thing she didn’t need to worry about was Tyler’s climbing ability, she saw with relief. He was clinging to the layered gray shingles like a monkey, moving in the direction she had indicated, toward the edge of the overhang nearest to the gate in the fence that surrounded the backyard, through which they would ultimately escape the property. Despite having both hands and feet planted flat against the shingles, she wasn’t quite as good at negotiating the shingles as Tyler seemed to be. The surface was uneven and slippery with moss in places, with no convenient handholds. Her boots were having trouble finding purchase, too. Twice she slid almost all the way down to the gutter, but she kept going. Between his bad leg and the need to hang onto his crutch, Marco seemed to be having some difficulty as well. Sam kept casting anxious glances back at him as he moved awkwardly in her wake, but there was nothing she could do to help him. All she could do was keep going.
    Tyler reached the edge of the roof, crouched, peered over. Sam felt her heart stutter as she watched his small body teeter in midnight-black silhouette against the charcoal black of the sky. Out in the open air as they were, with no way of telling if anyone was below them in the yard, or anywhere else within earshot, Sam was afraid to call out to him to wait for her, to warn him not to try to jump. But—smart boy!—he stayed where he was anyway, looking back at her.
    Reaching him, Sam clung precariously to the shingles and looked down, too. The drop wasn’t that far—maybe twelve feet. Far enough to hurt them? Maybe. Maybe not, if they were careful. What scared her more was wondering what might be waiting for them below. Although they had tried their best to cross the roof as silently as possible, inevitably there had been slithering footsteps and the slight dragging sound made by Marco’s crutch as he hauled it along with him. Had they been heard? Was Abramowitz’s killer tracking their progress across the roof even now? It was a chance Sam knew they were going to have to take. As far as she could tell, this corner of the yard was deserted. It was also thick with shadows; unless someone knew exactly where they were, they should be able to drop down unseen. The gate was nearby. Once they were off the roof, it would only take a couple of minutes to get through it. Then what? If Abramowitz was dead, what about the others? Realizing that she had absolutely no idea what was waiting for them sent a shiver racing down her spine.
    Marco had caught up to them. Tyler scooted close to him as Sam looked around at him wide-eyed.
    “Should we just jump?” Tyler’s whisper, directed at Marco, was full of fear.
    “Hang tight a minute.” Marco looked at Sam. “I’m going to lower you down.” His instructions were low and rapid. “Then I’ll hand Tyler down to you. Then the two of you run like hell. Don’t wait for me.”
    “You’re coming with us, right?”
    He nodded. “Count on it.”
    “Are we going to the other town house?