Walk in Darkness - A Thriller (Jon Stanton Mysteries) by Victor Methos Page A

and fell to the floor. His mother lifted the pot and slammed it down over his head, shouting to his brothers not to turn away from it. One blow caught him in the back of the head and he saw flashes of light in his vision.
    “No, mama,” he said, crying now, “mama stop. Please, mama stop.”
    Calvin heard the kitchen table being pushed across the bare linoleum and the latch leading down to the cellar.
    “Get your ass in there, boy.”
    He got to his knees, wiping at the hot liquid drizzling down over his face. The opening in the floor was three foot by three foot and had wooden stairs leading down almost a dozen feet. It was where he had spent most of his childhood , or places like it. He used to fear the dark and quiet, but not anymore. Not since he was six years old was he scared of the dark anymore.
    He crawled down the stairs and his mother kicked his feet in, causing him to slide down a few steps. He looked up at her, his face red and swelling and she slammed the door shut. He heard the table pushed back over the latch and then the house went quiet.
    Calvin made his way down to the cement floor. Cold but welcoming. He knew every crack, every fracture, every bump and chip. He followed one crack to the right that led to the wall and curled up against it. He took off his shirt and pressed it to his face and neck, and wept quietly in the dark.

 
    19
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    The residents of Ocean Beach Park were fiercely protective of their local businesses, parks, playgrounds, and even surfers. Outsiders were regarded with a suspicious eye the moment they stepped on the sand and Stanton had been no different. It had even come to blows one night when one of the local surfers had slid across the bottom of his wave, knocking him off his board. He was willing to let it be forgotten but knew that if he did he could never surf this beach again.
    The man had been a thick Hawaiian named Kekoa. When Stanton came in to shore he found him in a group of other people near the cars. He walked casually by as if he hadn’t noticed him and Kekoa had turned around just long enough for Stanton to rush him. He could still replay it in his mind as if watching a bout blow by blow as it happened: he threw his arms around Kekoa’s waist and took him down. Kekoa wrapped his legs around him, trying to squeeze out the last of his breath; he then placed his elbow into the man’s throat and pushed down with his bodyweight. Kekoa spun his arm away and put his hands around his throat and he twisted his neck to the side, loosening the grip, and then bit down on the fleshy part of his hand, hard enough that the flesh tore and blood began to flow. Kekoa had then been distracted enough that Stanton landed a couple of elbows into his nose.
    They ’d been pulled apart seconds afterward, but it was enough. Stanton had shown that even though Kekoa could clearly come out on top in a brawl, he was going to get hurt in the process. Maybe even hurt bad. Kekoa, and the other surfers stayed away from him after that.
    Stanton felt the pressure shift in the water as he couldn’t see it in the dark. The wave was only ten feet behind him now and he began to paddle toward shore as the water started to lift him higher and higher. When he was nearly at the zenith of the wave he jumped to his feet.
    The wave pushed him toward shore with such speed that the wind howled in his ears. He pushed his board to the right, cutting across the wave, leaving a thin streak of white foam, and then cut back in the other direction. He crouched low enough that his fingertips touched the surface of the wave, dipping into the sea as if that was where they belonged. He rode it in to shore with his fingers in the water as far as he could.
    The wave died down and he jumped off the board in a few feet of water and began to carry it back to shore over his head. He stuck the board in the sand and collapsed next to it, looking up at the moon that radiated white light