Page 57 of The Man Next Door
“Stop! You’re hurting me,” squealed the woman, which started Darling barking again and racing to put his front paws up on the fence to see what was going on.
He wasn’t the only one. Zona was trying to find a spot between the boards where she could see. She jumped a couple of times, trying to see over the fence. She caught a one-second glimpse of the couple at the edge of the pool, the woman pulling to get away from him and him glaring at her as he tugged on her arm.
“What’s going on over there?” Zona called sharply.
The couple next door was too busy to reply.
Suddenly Alec James roared, “You bitch.” Zona could hear the woman laughing hysterically. This was followed by a big splash. Was he drowning her?
Zona stooped with her eye to a tiny hole in the fence. Darling joined her and she nudged him away and squinted through the sliver of space. She could see Alec Jamesclimbing out of the pool, dripping water. Was that a phone he was holding in his hand?
So, Ms. PT Cruiser had pushed him in. If the arguing hadn’t been so violent, Zona would have laughed, but this was no laughing matter. His expression was fierce.If looks could kill.Suddenly she truly understood the meaning of that expression.
Where was the woman? Zona moved down the fence as quietly as she could and looked through another slit and saw her standing on the patio, hugging herself and biting her lip. Alec James appeared next to her, dripping wet and furious. He grabbed her arm and started dragging her in the direction of the house.
“Let me go! I hate you,” she cried and tried to pull back, but he kept moving her forward. Darling began barking again, rising up on his hind legs and scratching at the fence.
The pair moved out of Zona’s line of vision. She tried to look through the next space between the boards, but Darling was in the way.
The noise evaporated to the faintest muffled voices through the sliding glass doors. Zona turned and looked at Louise. What to do?
“This time we should call the police,” Louise said.
“And tell them what? He yelled at her, and she pushed him in the pool?”
“Probably in self-defense.”
Zona joined her at the patio table.
“Something bad is happening over there. He could be beating her even as we’re sitting here,” Louise fretted.
The woman was back outside again, crying. Zona moved along the fence, trying to find a place she could peek out to get a good glimpse of the poor victim. “Are you okay over there?” she called. “Do you need help?”
“He’s a monster,” the woman wailed.
Zona finally saw her. She was crumpled onto a patio chair, her face buried in her hands as she cried.
“Let us help you,” Zona called.
The woman shook her head and ran back into the house. Yikes! Right back into the lion’s den.
“We really need to call the police,” Louise insisted.
Next door a big engine sprang to life. Alec James’s truck.
“I’m going over there,” Zona said.
“No, it’s too dangerous,” her mother protested.
“He just left. I’ll be fine. I’ll get her and bring her here,” Zona said, and went out the backyard gate.
The truck was gone from the driveway, but the red PT Cruiser remained parked in its usual spot. What was that woman still doing inside the house? This was her chance. She needed to get away. Zona crossed his lawn and hurried to the front door, all the while wondering what she could say.
Her heart was thudding as she rang the doorbell. What if Alec James came back while she was there?
The woman didn’t come to the door. Zona rang the doorbell again and then knocked. Still, the woman remained inside. Afraid to answer?
“Please, let us help you,” Zona called. Could the woman even hear her? Maybe she was off in a bedroom, crying. Or packing.
