Liz hammered on the door lock, forcing it down. The central locking secured all four doors and the tailgate. Baker slid off the roof of the car and into kneedeep water. Baker's face, streaked with blood from his torn ear cartilage, smirked at her from outside the Jeep. He drew back with his right arm and drove his elbow at the window glass. Liz recoiled as he struck, but it did not give. Oh, wonderful, strong car, she thought, to stand up to Baker Ramsey! Baker looked as surprised as angry; then he disappeared. Some cloud scudded away, and more blue sky appeared, sending more light down onto the scene. Dawn is coming, and the change in the storm is remarkable, she thought. She still couldn't see Baker. What am I doing here? Why am I waiting for him to come back? she asked herself. She restarted the car and struggled to get it into four-wheel drive. As she was about to drive away, she realized that she was sufficiently disoriented not to know where the dike lay. If she moved ahead, she might drive along it to the other side, or she might simply drive off it into deep water. Then she remembered what was in the water, and she froze. The windshield exploded into a thousand fragments. Shielding her eyes, she could see that it was still held together by the lamination. Then she caught a glimpse of Baker outside the car. He had what looked like a fence post, and he was drawing back to swing again. He hit the windshield again, and this time the post penetrated, leaving a hole as large as her head. Baker's arm followed it, snaking inside toward her. She rolled sideways on the seat, and reached the passengerside door, clawing at the lock. She got the door open and jumped out, looking over her shoulder, determined to keep the car between her and Baker. He was wading around the front of the Jeep.
She moved toward the rear of the car, and, as she did, she suddenly became aware that another vehicle had pulled up behind hers. The door of the pickup opened, and Keir climbed out. He seemed to be struggling, and there was pain in his face. In his hand was a light ax, the tool from the back stoop of the cottage. Baker did not seem to notice the truck; his eyes were riveted on Liz as he rounded the front of the Jeep and moved toward her. Liz stood her ground, waited for him. His path would bring him near the truck. Then, as he came around the rear of the Jeep, he saw Keir, too late. Keir had leaped to the hood of the pickup, and he was swinging the ax. The flat side of the implement struck Baker alongside the neck, and his head snapped sideways, followed by his body.
He let go of the fence post and fell down. Liz thought he must be dead, but she had reckoned without the training and the muscle-building drugs that had gone into the development of that neck. Baker struggled to his feet, and, his face distorted into a mask of insane determination, came after Keir. There was something in Keir's face Liz had not seen before: a coldness and cunning, a deadly calculation that excluded reason. She knew what he meant to do.
Keir started his swing, and this time the blade of the ax pointed the way. With a sound like a lumberjack striking a tree, the ax drove into Baker Ramsey's neck, and the handle snapped. Blood sprayed both Keir and Liz, who was no more than three feet from where Baker still stood, a look of astonishment on the once handsome face. Then, slowly, like a great tree in the forest, Baker Ramsey fell forward, gushing blood, into the knee-deep water. Liz, horrified, jumped out of his way, and his momentum carried him, face down, off the dike and into the rushes at lakeside, painting the water red with each faltering beat of his dying heart. Liz stared at him for a moment, then turned to Keir, who had slumped to a sitting position on the hood of the pickup.
"Are you all right?" she asked, reaching for his hand.
"I don't know," he replied, and there seemed little strength in his grip. Then he was looking past Liz, with an odd expression on his face. Liz turned and followed his gaze. Baker Ramsey was moving again. In a blur of motion, Baker turned over on his back, then sat bolt upright, his jaw slack and his eyes blank. He was in that position for a split second, then his head snapped back, the ax blade still embedded in his neck, and he went backward under the water.
"What is he doing?" Liz said, staring in wonder.
"He isn't doing anything," Keir said, a small smile on his face, "Goliath is."
Suddenly, a huge, wet trunk broke the surface; then the twenty-foot alligator's head came out of the water, clutching Baker Ramsey in its enormous jaws. The beast whirled furiously on its own axis, whipped its head sideways, and a snapping sound seemed to come from Baker's body. Then the two vanished under the lake. The water churned for a moment, then slowly became quiet, ripples lapping against Liz's legs. The wind was rising again and the blue in the sky disappeared. Liz went to the truck and helped Keir into the cab. She brushed the golden hair away from his eyes, which looked up at her gravely. "Keir, are you all right?" she asked him a second time.
"When I hit him that last time, something stuck me inside," he said, slowly. "That guy had some bear hug." Then he coughed, and blood rose over his lips.
"Oh, my God!" Liz cried. "What's wrong?" Keir leaned against her, and she put her arms around him.
"I think he broke something," Keir said, seeming surprised. His head fell onto her shoulder, and his breath came in short gasps. She held him, talking to him, stroking his hair, while the storm rose around them again. After a while, he seemed to sleep, and, her stores of adrenaline depleted, she slept alongside him. She was awakened by stillness and by the sound of a helicopter. Starting, she looked up and saw the aircraft hovering over the water next to the truck. She watched as it moved a few yards and set down on the lakeshore.
"We've got some help, now," she said to Keir, turning his face up to her. He didn't wake, and he was cool to her touch. She looked up to see the sheriff and two strange men splashing toward her across the submerged dike. Then she pulled Keir's face into the hollow of her neck and began to cry.