Piper's lips stretched in a smile. She turned it on Georgia, who recoiled from the crazy lady who had appeared so suddenly on the steps while they'd been having a nice sunsetter or two. 'How did you know! the lying lesbo cunt's name? 1 didn't say it.'
(Georgia's mouth dropped into an O of dismay. And for the first time something flickered beneath Carter Thibodeau's calm. Whether fear dr just annoyance, Piper didn't know.
Frank DeLesseps got cautiously to his feet. 'You better not go around spreading accusations you can't back up, Reverend Libby.'
'Nor assaulting police officers,' Freddy Denton said. 'I'm willing to let! it go this time - everyone's under stress - but you have to cease and desist these accusations right now.' He paused, then added lamely: 'And the pushing, of course.'
Piper's gaze remained fixed on Georgia, her right hand curled so tightly around the black plastic grip of Clover's leash it was throbbing. The dog stood with his foirepaws spread and his head lowered, still growling. He sounded like a powerful outboard motor set to idle. The fur on his neck had bushed out enough to hide his collar.
'How'd you know her name, Georgia?'
'I,.. I ,,. I just assumed...'
Carter gripped her shoulder and squeezed it. 'Shut up, babe.'
And then, to Piper, still not standing (Because he doesn't want to be pushed back down, the coward), he said: 'I don't know what kind of bee you've got in your Jesus bonnet, but we were all together last night, at Alden Dinsmore's farm. Trying to see if we could get anything out of the soldier-boys stationed on 119, which we couldn't. That's on the other side of town from Busheys'.' He looked around at his friends.
'Right,' Frankie said.
'Right,' Mel chimed in, looking at Piper distrustfully.
'Yeah!' Georgia said. Carter's arm was around her again and her moment of doubt was gone. She looked at Piper defiantly.
'Georgie-girl assumed it was Sammy you were yelling about,' Carter said with that same infuriating calm. 'Because Sammy's the biggest lying scumbucket in this town.'
Mel Searles yodeled laughter.
'But you didn't use protection,' Piper said. Sammy had told her this, and when she saw Thibodeau's face tighten, she knew it was true. 'You didn't use protection and they rape-kitted her.' She had no idea if this was true, and didn't care. She could see from their widening eyes that they believed it, and their belief was enough. 'When they compare your DNA to what they found - '
'That's enough,' Carter said. 'Shut it.'
She turned her furious smile on him. 'No, Mr Thibodeau. We are only getting started, my son.'
Freddy Denton reached for her. She pushed him down, then felt her left arm caught and twisted. She turned and looked into Thibodeau's eyes. No calm there now; they were shining with rage.
Hello, my brother, she thought incoherently.
'Fuck you, you f**king bitch,' he remarked, and this time she was the one who was pushed.
Piper fell backward down the stairs, trying instinctively to tuck and roll, not wanting to hit her head on one of those stone risers, knowing they could smash her skull in. Kill her or - worse - leave her a vegetable. She struck on her left shoulder instead, and there was a sudden howl of pain there. Familiar pain. She had dislocated that one playing high school soccer twenty years ago, and damned if she hadn't just done it again.
Her legs flew over her head and she turned a back somersault, wrenching her neck, coming down on her knees and splitting the skin on both. She finally came to rest on her stomach and br**sts. She had tumbled almost all the way to the bottom of the steps. Her cheek was bleeding, her nose was bleeding, her lips were bleeding, her neck hurt, but ah God, her shoulder was the worst, humped up all crooked in a way she remembered well. The last time she'd seen a hump like that, it had been in a red nylon Wildcats jersey. Nevertheless, she struggled to her feet, thanking God she still had the power to command her legs; she could also have been paralyzed.
She'd lost hold of the leash halfway down and Clover jumped at Thibodeau, his teeth snapping at the chest and belly under his shirt, tearing the shirt open, knocking Thibodeau backward, going for the young man's vitals.
'Get him off me!' Carter screamed. Nothing calm about him now. 'He's gonna kill me!'
And yes, Clover was trying. His front paws were planted on Carter's thighs, going up and down as Carter thrashed. He looked like a German shepherd on a bicycle. He shifted his angle of attack and bit deep into Carter's shoulder, eliciting another scream. Then Clover went for the throat. Carter got his hands on the dog's chest just in time to save his windpipe.
'Make him stop!'
Frank reached for the trailing leash. Clover turned and snapped at his fingers. Frank skittered backward, and Clover returned his attention to the man who had pushed his mistress down the steps. His muzzle opened, revealing a double line of shining white teeth, and he drove at Thibodeau's neck. Carter got: his hand up, then shrieked in agony as Clover seized on it and began to shake it like one of his beloved rag toys. Only his rag toys didn't bleed, and Carter's hand did.
Piper came staggering up the steps, holding her left arm across her midriff. Her face was a mask of blood. A tooth clung to the corner of her mouth like a crumb of food.
'GET HIM OFF ME, CHRIST, GET YOUR FUCKIN DOG OFF ME!'
Piper was opening her mouth to tell Clover to stand down when she saw Fred Denton drawing his gun.
'No!' she screamed. 'No, I can make him stop!'
Fred turned to Mel Searles, and pointed at the dog with his free hand. Mel stepped forward and kicked Clover in the haunch. He did it high and hard, as he had once (not so long ago) punted footballs. Clover was whipped sideways, losing his hold onThibodeau's bleeding, shredded hand, where two fingers now pointed in unusual directions, like crooked signposts.