"So, it'll be our secret?" Kirk said.

Dad nodded. "Every family has its secrets, Kirk. They're usually kept for the good of someone else. It would be for your mother's own good if we could come up with a way of keeping this from her. Because if we have to tell her the truth, she's really going to freak."

Kirk found himself laughing. He was still feeling the residual effects of the pot and was unusually relaxed considering the circ.u.mstances.

Dad smiled. "Maybe I can get a couple Xanax into her before we tell her. That might make a little difference."

Dad drove up Witch's Hill. At the top, Kirk saw a Sheriff's cruiser parked at the road's dead-end.

"Bobby beat me here," Dad said as he parked beside the cruiser. "You guys stay in here, I'm going to go talk to Bobby."

"Why do you have to talk to Bobby?" Kirk asked.

"He's the only one who knows about what happened with Duke. He came here with me to talk to Mrs. Kobylka the night I brought Duke back. He'll understand all this. He's also a cop, so he'll know what we should do next. Natalie killed someone, Kirk, and there's a good chance you could get blamed for that. I don't know if we should take her to Mrs. Kobylka, or if we should go to the cops with this whole story. So I'm going to ask Bobby."

Dad got out of the SUV, closed the door, and got into the cruiser with Bobby.

Randy said, "You think we could get in trouble, too? 'Cause we were there when she killed him? We didn't do anything about it."

"There was nothing we could do," Kirk said. "As soon as she got out of the trunk, it was out of our hands."

"She moved so fast," Liz said.

"Hungry," Natalie said in back. "I'm hungry."

"Wait just a little bit longer, okay, Nat?" Kirk said.

She turned and looked him. "Longer?"

"Just a little longer, honey." His voice broke on the last word and he turned away from her. Staring at the dashboard, he whispered, "I can't believe I've done this to her."

"You didn't know it was going to be like this," Liz said. "If you'd known, you wouldn't have done it."

A noise in the back made them all turn toward Natalie. She was starting to climb toward them over the seats. She tried to smile, but it only made her broken face look more horrific.

"No, Nat, stay there, okay?" Kirk said. "Just for a little while longer, okay? Please?"

She slowly moved back to the rear compartment of the SUV without taking her eyes from Kirk. He could not look at her collapsed face long. It made him feel like dying.

- EIGHT -.

A few minutes later, Dad and Bobby got out of the cruiser.

Bobby was tall and beefy with short-cropped black hair speckled with gray and wire-framed gla.s.ses that looked small on his large face. His right arm was in a blue fibergla.s.s cast. He and Dad came to the driver's side of the Durango and Dad opened the door. They moved in close. Bobby wrinkled his nose and recoiled at the smell at first.

"Bobby needs to ask you a few questions, Kirk," Dad said.

Bobby had a high, scratchy voice. "What happened with Wyatt Parks?"

"We went over to see d.i.c.ky, but he wasn't home. We had Natalie in the trunk, and when we"

"In the trunk?" Dad said. "How could you do that, Kirk?"

Kirk closed his eyes a moment. "I didn't think it was Natalie. I thought it was just her body, not her. If she'd complained or made any noise, I would've taken her out, but she didn't. Not until Wyatt walked us out to our car. Then she pounded on the trunk and started talking. Wyatt got upset and wanted to know who was in our trunk. So we showed him. And she attacked him."

"She didn't just attack him," Liz said, "she was on him in a second."

"What did she do to him?" Bobby asked.

Kirk said, "She ripped his throat out with her teeth. He didn't... last long."

"And then she ate him," Dad said. "Right?"

Kirk nodded.

"Jesus," Bobby said. "Well, it hasn't been reported yet, so I'm guessing n.o.body's found him. Did you touch the body, any of you?"

"We didn't go near the body," Kirk said. "We went to the car."

"And you let her eat him?" Bobby said.

"We didn't know what else to do," Kirk said. "I knew if we went over there, we'd have to pull her off him, and we could leave something."

"Leave something?" Bobby said.

"I watch CSI. We could leave hairs, fibers, maybe even fingerprints. I figured she'd come to us eventually, when she was done, and if we stayed away from the body, there'd be nothing to connect us to it."

Bobby nodded. "That was good thinking, Kirk. But you were in the house. Do you go there often?"

"Sometimes we stop by to see d.i.c.ky. Every few weeks or so."

"Are you aware," Bobby said, "that Wyatt Parks is a convicted drug dealer and that his son d.i.c.ky has been in trouble with the law for drugs as well?"

Kirk widened his eyes and said, "You're kidding. Really?" He turned to Randy.

"d.i.c.ky? He didn't say anything about that." Randy turned to Liz. "Did you know anything about that?"

"It's news to me," Liz said.

"That wouldn't happen to have anything to do with your visits, would it?" Bobby said.

"We grew up with d.i.c.ky, we know him from school. We stop and see him once in awhile, that's all."

"You say Natalie bit Wyatt?" Bobby asked Kirk.

"A lot, yeah."

"Well, even if you become a suspect, the teeth marks won't match. But to tell you the truth, Natalie should be given a medal. I don't know if anybody's going to look too hard to find the killer of Wyatt Parks. He sold drugs to kids, did some time. He was probably doing it again; we just hadn't caught him yet. My guess is, you'll be safe. But if you're smart, you'll stay clear of d.i.c.ky Parks from now on. He's nothing but trouble, just like his old man."

Kirk, Randy, and Liz nodded their agreement.

To Kirk, Dad said, "We'll have a talk about that later." To Bobby, he said, "So what do you think we should do?"

Bobby chewed on his lower lip a moment, then said, "You come forward with a story like this, I don't know what would happen. I think your best bet is to get rid of her and lay low. Get rid of her before she does it again and you've got too much trouble to lay low from, if you get my meaning."

"I get your meaning," Dad said. "Thanks, Bobby."

"No problem, Donny. Sorry you have to go through this again."

"Go through what again?" Kirk asked.

"I've gotta run," Bobby said. He turned to Kirk. "You stay away from that Parks kid, Kirk."

"He will," Dad said. "Thanks for coming out, Bobby."

He got in the cruiser, started the engine, and backed out of his parking place at the road's dead-end, then headed back down the hill.

Dad said, "Okay, everybody out. We're going in to see Mrs. Kobylka."

"I'm not going in there," Liz said.

"Oh, yes you are," Dad said. "All of you. It might not have been your idea, but you were involved. Let's go."

Mrs. Kobylka opened her door and came out on the porch while they were making their way through the front gate.

"What you want?" she said. "Why you don't leave me alone?"

"Mrs. Kobylka," Dad said. "My son is ready to pay the price for what he's done."

"Is that so?" She turned to Kirk, stepped over and stood in front of him. She smiled. "You learn anything, boy?"

"You mean, like, be careful what you wish for?" Kirk said.

The corners of her mouth turned downward and her eyebrows rose high as she wobbled her head back and forth. "Mm, that could be, that could be. Learn anything else?"

"Well... I learned not to f.u.c.k with you," Kirk said.

"Kirk!" Dad said.

But Mrs. Kobylka laughed hard enough to have a brief coughing fit. Smiling, she patted Kirk on the shoulder and said, "That's my boy." She waggled her fingers at Natalie and said, "Bring her around back of the house."

They all turned and went back out the front gate, around the fenced front yard and along the side of the house to the back. There was nothing there but weeds and a rickety old clothesline. The yard became the large empty field that spread beyond it.

There was a s.p.a.cious screened-in porch on the back of the house. Mrs. Kobylka came out with a hammer in one hand and a cloth bag in the other. She went to Kirk and handed them to him.

"In the bag," she said, "are stakes that are attached to manacles. You are to undress the girl, put her on the ground, drive in the stakes, and put the manacles on her wrists and ankles."

"I will not," Kirk said.

"Kirk, you'll do as you're told," Dad said.

"Dad, I won't do anything to hurt her."

Mrs. Kobylka said, "You will do it, or I will make you do it, it is your choice."

Kirk said, "There's no way I'm going to stake Natalie to the"

Mrs. Kobylka raised her hand, palm out, and pa.s.sed it in front of Kirk's face as she muttered something under her breath.

Kirk stopped talking and put the hammer and cloth bag on the ground. He turned to Natalie and said, "Let's get you out of these things." He took the blanket off first and handed it to Dad, then the sheet.

"I'm hungry," Natalie said.

"Just wait a little while longer," Kirk said as he tugged on her elbow. "Get down here on the ground for now, just lie down."

Once she was flat on her back, he began to position her properly, although inside, all he wanted to do was scream at the top of his lungs, "Stop!" Arms raised, legs spread. He hammered the barbed stakes into the hard, rocky ground and fastened the manacles to Natalie's wrists and ankles. Then he stood over her and surveyed his work.

"Hungry, Kirk," Natalie said. "I'm hungry."

Suddenly, Kirk was in control of himself once again and he turned to Mrs. Kobylka. "Why... did I just do that?"

She smiled. "Because I made you do it. You will wait here." She turned and went back into the house.

Kirk got down on his knees and tried to pull one of the stakes out, but he could not. Each time he tried, his hands became limp.

The back door opened and Mrs. Kobylka returned with Baltazar, her enormous black-and-red bird, on her right arm. The bird immediately took flight and Kirk watched it soar into the air. Gooseflesh crawled across the back of his neck. The bird's wings were like a bat's, just as he'd suspected when he'd seen Baltazar in his cage the first time. They were like a bat's wings, but enormous in span. The bird circled a few times high above them, a black crescent against the gray clouds, then dove. The sound Baltazar made was a mixture of a hawk's piercing cry and the squealing of a piglet. It landed in a flutter of its vast wings on the ground beside Natalie.

Mrs. Kobylka stepped in front of Kirk. "You will watch."

"Watch what?" Kirk said, although he had a sickening feeling he knew what was about to happen. "Don't tell me you're going to let that bird"

Mrs. Kobylka pa.s.sed her hand in front of his face again and mumbled something, then stepped aside, saying again, "You will watch."

Baltazar hopped onto Natalie's abdomen and began eating her genitals first. Her scream was shrill and child-like and she struggled against her manacles.

Kirk could not move or speak. He could not even move his eyes in their sockets. He was frozen in place, able to do no more than breathe, and watch as Baltazar ate Natalie.

Kirk's eyes, out of his control, followed every move Baltazar's head made. The bird consumed Natalie's flesh with surprising speed, although each second seemed an eternity to Kirk. Baltazar had a mouth that opened beyond the beak. Small razor-like teeth rimmed the beak and mouth. The bird also used its tongue to pull meat into its mouththe tongue was long and narrow and black, forked at the end, prehensile, with three rows of curved red barbs. Baltazar made guttural cooing sounds as he ate.

Kirk could not close his eyes or look away as the bird ate the flesh off Natalie's bones, and he could not cover his ears to block out her horrible screams. Sometimes she called his name pleadingly, and a couple times, she cried out, "Frog Boy! Frog Boy!" Baltazar tore into her flesh continuously with talons, tongue, beak, and teeth. Her energy slowly decreased, but she still struggled weakly with her arms and shoulders, and turned her head back and forth.

Kirk wanted to help her, to pull that filthy bird off her and tear it apart with his bare hands. But he could not even move a single finger. As he watched the bird eat its way to the bone down one leg and up the other, Kirk felt as if his heart were being crushed in an enormous fist, squeezed into mush. He wanted to die. He prayed that G.o.d would end his life, strike him dead.

Baltazar took to the air for a break and flew in a few circles in the sky. While he was gone, what was left of Natalie lay there crying and babbling.

"Momma, please let me help," she said, "I can baste the turkey." She cried for awhile, lying there even more naked than beforeclean bones from the waist downthen said, "Santa brought me the new Barbie!" She laughed a little, then screamed and cried, "Kirk! Kirk! I'm hungry!"

Baltazar returned and went back to his meal.