It couldn’t be Sarah, I figured. There was no reason for her to come home late morning from work. Paul was at school, Angie at college. But whoever it was, it presented an opportunity. Maybe, if the Gorkins allowed me to answer it, I could mouth “Help!” Roll my eyes, nod my head back into the house, somehow indicate that I was in a great deal of trouble.

“I should see who it is,” I said, turning and looking at Mrs. Gorkin.

Another knock. Harder, more insistent. Maybe it was Detective Herlich. No, that made no sense. He’d only just called. Unless he’d called from his car. Maybe he was out front.

Yes. Let it be Detective Herlich.

“Really,” I said. “Just let me answer it. I’ll get rid of them.”

“You girls,” Mrs. Gorkin whispered. “You get on sides of door.” To me, she said, “I stay up here on stairs. Have gun. You be stupid, I shoot you.”

“Of course,” I said.

Gavrilla cleared the way for me to get down the rest of the stairs, then she and her sister hid on either side of the door.

There was another knock. Whoever wanted me to answer it was banging it with his fist now. Would a cop bang a door like that?

I approached the door, my heart pounding. I took hold of the knob, turned it, and opened the door wide.

It took me a moment to recognize him. Even though I’d heard so much about him, I’d only seen him once in person, at the stun gun demonstration.

Gary Merker. Arms down at his side, one hand, his right one, held slightly behind his back. Beyond him, in the driveway, I could see an old Ford pickup with one adult in it, on the passenger side, and possibly a child in the middle.

“You Zack Walker?” he said.

“Uh,” I said, wondering how much crazier things could get. “Yeah, that’s me.”

Then Gary Merker raised his right arm, and I saw that there was something gun-like in it, but not a gun exactly.

Okay, now I knew what it was. A stun gun.

Merker squeezed the trigger, and then I had, and I hope you’ll forgive me for this, the most shocking experience of my entire fucking life.

CHAPTER 33

33

I DROPPED TO THE FLOOR.

I went down without any accompanying theatrics. This was no Broadway death scene where I clutched my chest and staggered across the stage in tiny steps whimpering that the end was near.

I simply dropped. Like a Thunderbirds puppet with the strings cut.

All the little messages my brain had been sending to my legs to keep me standing, to my hand to keep holding the doorknob, to my mouth to keep asking questions I hoped would buy me some time, all were abruptly interrupted.