In the Dark of the Night by John Saul Page A

of dirt from one cheek. The bandanna only made the smear worse.
    “It’s raked,” Adam stated, sounding more resentful about having had to remove the mown grass from the front lawn than pleased to have finished the job. “Are you done?” He scanned the patio area disinterestedly. “’Cause even if you’re not, I am.”
    “Thanks a lot,” Ellis said, then realized the sarcasm would be lost on Adam. “Yeah, I think it’s done.”
    “Yeah, well, you owe me.”
    “Hey, it’s not like no one’s paying you.”
    “There’s still about ten million better things to do. I feel like a pig.”
    “Look like one, too,” Ellis observed archly as he dropped down onto the cool grass and stretched out, feeling his aching muscles finally beginning to relax.
    “Hey, check that out.”
    Ellis sat up and followed Adam’s gaze, but saw nothing but two people fishing a few hundred yards offshore. “What?”
    “That piece-of-crap tin boat? That’s the one from Pinecrest. And that’s the conehead from Pinecrest in it. What a prick.”
    Ellis shook his head. “You think all the summer people are pricks. Just because you thought he wasn’t going to pick up his dog’s—”
    “He wasn’t!” Adam flared. “And he was hitting on Cherie Stevens right in front of me.”
    Ellis frowned. “Right in front of you? Okay, that’s not cool. Definitely not cool.”
    Adam scowled, spat at the ground, then glowered out at the tiny boat in the middle of the lake. “His buddies arrive today. I remember them. They’re all pricks.”
    “C’mon, Adam,” Ellis sighed. “Get real—they’re not all pricks. My mom says—”
    “You watch,” Adam cut in. “Those three guys are going to hit on all the girls. And guess what? Just because they’re rich summer kids who live at The ritzy-titzy Pines, they’re going to get ’em!”
    “Says you,” Ellis snorted.
    “Yeah, says me!” Adam shot back. “You should have seen Cherie—she was climbing all over herself inviting that jerk to the pavilion dances.”
    Ellis finally turned to face Adam, grinning. “Oh, really? I thought she was going with you.”
    “I thought so, too,” Adam said, suddenly wishing he hadn’t told Ellis that Cherie had practically dumped him. His eyes shifted back to the boat that was bobbing gently on the water. “If it wasn’t for that prick—”
    “Hey,” Ellis cut in, seeing Adam’s expression starting to darken into an ugly rage, which always wound up leading to some kind of trouble. “Come on. Let’s go get cleaned up.”
    But Adam wasn’t listening to him, his eyes still fixed on the boat. “I’ll tell you one thing,” he said, his voice so low that Ellis wasn’t sure Adam was talking to him at all. “If I catch him alone somewhere, he’s as good as dead.” Finally, he turned and looked Ellis straight in the eye. “Think I’m kidding?” he asked. “Well, I’m not. I’m not kidding at all.”

    E RIC FED A little bit more line off his reel, feeling the spoon he was trolling drop a few inches in the water. The sun was low in the sky, fish were feeding near the surface, and he could almost feel a strike coming. Slowly, he began to wind the reel, bringing the lure in, drawing it closer to the surface.
    And then his neck began to crawl, almost as if something was about to touch him.
    Or was staring at him.
    He turned around, half expecting to see another boat a few yards away—or even closer—but there was nothing. Then he saw two people on one of the lawns a few houses down from Pinecrest.
    One of them sat with his arms around his knees; the other one stood with his legs apart and his arms crossed over his chest.
    And both of them were staring directly at the boat.
    At
him.
    But that was stupid—they were too far away for him even to tell exactly in what direction they were looking—they could have been looking at anything. Another boat, or a bird, or—
    But there weren’t any other boats on the lake, and when he scanned the