The Follower

by Nicholas Bowling

  “No, Mum,” said Vivian. “Just me again.”

  There was a very long pause.

  “Is he there?” said her mother.

  “No,” said Vivian.

  “Have you—”

  “Can we talk about Dad?” Vivian interrupted.

  “If you’re going to nag me about taking his clothes back to the charity shop, I’ll hang up, Vivian.”

  “It’s not that.” Another long pause. “You met Dad, when? ’89, was it?”

  “Why are you asking? Put Jesse on, would you.”

  “Jesse’s not here. Mum, quickly, I just need you to tell me something. It’ll help me find him. Jesse, I mean.”

  “I thought you’d found him?”

  “Mum. When did you meet him?”

  She sighed.

  “I met your father in 1988. We got married in 1989.”

  The same time John of Telos disappeared, Vivian remembered from The Violet Path.

  “Do you know what he did before that?”

  “He was a consultant. You know that.”

  “But what do you mean by that?”

  “What I say!” Her mother sounded angry. There was flutter in her voice. “He was a consultant. People consulted with him. About business and things.”

  “‘Business’? Was that all he told you?”

  “He didn’t go into detail, no. He knew I didn’t understand all these sorts of things.”

  “But when he went away, Mum. When he was away for all that time. Did he tell you where he was going?”

  “Why do you have to bring this up now, Vivian? I’m tired.” She was crying, Vivian could hear, but it was the kind of dry, restrained crying that she’d only ever heard her mum doing. “Put Jesse on,” she said again.

  “I can’t,” said Vivian. “He’s not here.”

  “Oh, give me strength.”

  “So Dad never said anything about California? Or the name Telos?”

  “Vivian, you’re confusing me. Why are you doing this? This isn’t a joke, is it? Please get Jesse, would you.”

  The conversation was getting her nowhere. Vivian put the matter to rest and reassured her mother that she’d get Jesse to ring once she got back to his “summer camp”. The call ended on a hopeful, delusional note that nearly brought Vivian herself to tears. She hung up, ruminating on everything that had remained unsaid – not just since she’d got to Mount Hookey, but for years and years before that.

  Jerome glanced at her from the driver’s seat.

  “No luck?”

  Vivian shook her head.

  “Well. Like you say. Maybe this Blucas man can help. Right?”

  She shrugged.

  When they got to Dos Amigos they turned down the gravel road and the Buick struggled with the troughs and potholes. The dashboard sounded like it was going to come loose. Jerome drove with one hand on the wheel, the other pressing down the moulded plastic to stop it flying up. Vivian began to feel sick as they approached the crash site. She recognised the bits of farm machinery, the outhouse where she’d hidden from the sun. The prairie looked even more bleached than it had the day before, like she was viewing it through the fog of a migraine.

  “My God,” said Jerome. The Buick rolled gratefully to a stop. “What a mess.”

  The smashed truck was still there, pitched downwards into the foundations of the farmhouse. The carcass of the dead foal, too. The birds had already been at it.

  Jerome got out of the car. Ex-policeman, of course – his first instinct when presented with something like this was to go and take a closer look. Vivian stayed in the passenger seat and didn’t even undo her seat belt. It was all too real, this. Jerome looked back at her through the windscreen, made no expression, then went and did a tour of the truck.

  He limped back, frowning. He rapped on Vivian’s window. Again, something he must have done hundreds of times. License and registration, please. She was sick with worry. She wound down the window.

  “Nobody here, Vivian,” said Jerome.

  For the moment, she didn’t know if this was good or bad news.

  “Nobody?”

  “I can see where you had your tussle,” he said. “And there’s a hell of a lot of blood on the seats and the dash. But there’s no one here.”

  Vivian stared out of the windscreen. When she didn’t say anything, Jerome slapped the roof of the car with his palm and hobbled around looking at the ground. He squinted and bent over, one hand on his back. He did this in several places, then returned to Vivian’s open window.

  “Yup,” he said, “there’ve been other cars here. Recently.”

  “Police cars?” she said.

  He shook his head. “If it was the cops this whole place would be cordoned off by now. No one finishes up a crime scene this quick.”

  “So… what does that mean?”

  “Means your guy probably woke up. Maybe both of them did.”

  “So I’m in trouble, then.”

  “Not as much trouble as if you’d killed him, but yes. Trouble.” Jerome gave her a look that was something like pity. He surveyed the carnage again and said, “Listen. As a policeman I shouldn’t be saying this, but: maybe you should skip town while you can.”

  “But Jesse. And Nathan.”

  He sighed.

  “If this guy is alive and well, he’ll come back for you. You know that, right? I guess I can talk to the police, but I can guarantee they won’t want to get involved. Hell, your guy might have already gone to the police with a hole in his head and a description of you.”

  “He’s got more than that,” said Vivian.

  “What do you mean?”

  Glenn had all her details from when she’d signed up for the Sanctuary. Even her address back in London. Even if she flew home, they’d find her. She didn’t reply to Jerome. She leaned over, reached around the steering column, and started the car. Jerome took the hint.

  19

  THEY WENT back and picked up Minnie before heading to the mountain. Vivian offered her the front seat but she deferred and sat in the back, eating refried beans from a Tupperware she’d brought with her. She offered them round but Vivian said she wasn’t hungry.

  The drive to Mount Hookey was a couple of hours. No matter what direction they were pointing in, the mountain seemed to fill the whole windscreen. Half an hour in they passed a police car in a layby, a speed gun pointing threateningly out of the driver-side window, and Vivian ducked out of sight as if looking for something in the footwell.

  When they came up the 55, Vivian had the same feelings she’d had when she first arrived. When you didn’t care to look at the detail, Mount Hookey was like any other worn-out frontier township. Then she began to see the crystal shops and the yoga retreats and the men and women in robes. Doubly unsettling, now she knew her father had started the whole thing. The place was her inheritance.

  Had everyone known? Was that why everyone was so complimentary about her and Jesse’s energies? Glenn had always talked about her being family. Then again, perhaps they hadn’t known to begin with, but had subconsciously noted the likeness between John of Telos’s serene, smiling face and her own.

  There was no going back to the Sanctuary now, obviously. It was probably wise to avoid town altogether. The person she really wanted to see was Mr Blucas, the one who lived in the cabin. He was probably the only person who knew all about Telos but was no longer faithful to the cause. Perhaps he knew more about Jesse than he’d let on when she’d first met him. He certainly knew more about her father, and right now that seemed almost as important as finding her brother.

  She planned to park at the motel and hike up the mountain from there, but at the intersection in the middle of town she suddenly said, “Go right here.”

  Jerome looked at her.

  “Here? Why?”

  “Just want to check something.”

  He turned right, and then right again, at Vivian’s instruction, and they drove slowly down Vista until they reached Shelley and Troy
’s house. Vivian could see before the car had come to a stop that things had not gone well. The large living room window was shattered and the door to the house was wide open, and someone had sprayed an upside-down triangle in black paint on the front of the house and on the garage door. The front yard was churned with tyre tracks, and Vivian could see some of Chason’s toys pressed into the mud.

  “Too late,” said Vivian. In all the confusion at Wing’s, she’d forgotten to tell Shelley what Forrest had been planning.

  “Jesus Christ,” said Jerome.

  Vivian heard Minnie sucking her teeth behind her.

  “These people! What in the hell is wrong with them?”

  “She made some enemies at the Telos Sanctuary.”

  She opened the door and the smell hit her straight away. The plan had obviously come off beautifully. Jerome got out after her and retched and spat.

  “All this talk of goddamn world peace,” he said from behind his hand. “And they’re happy to do this to each other. I just can’t even… God damn.”

  “Please, Jerome!” said Minnie from inside the car.

  Vivian pulled up her T-shirt so it covered her nose and mouth, but the stench of the sewage was already in her. She held her breath and approached the front door, which was also defaced with the inverted black triangle, which she guessed had some kind of negative runic power. She saw an oil drum lying on its side in the living room, spilling its contents. It did not contain oil. There were two jerry cans on the table in the kitchen. The carpet in the hallway was glistening.

  Vivian called out.

  “Shelley?”

  She inhaled carefully through the narrow slit of her lips.

  “Troy?”

  When she got no answer she went around the side of the house to the back yard. The kitchen windows were broken too, and the stuff was sprayed all up the patio and the back wall. Forrest and the others must have used a hose or something. God knows how they did it.

  Vivian came back and got in the car.

  “Oh my,” said Minnie. “I’m sorry, dear, I don’t mean to be impolite, but did you tread in something?”

  “This is insane,” said Jerome. “It’s the goddamn end of days in this town! That’s it. Enough. I’m going to get some good po-lice up in here. I don’t care if I have to call them in from another county.”

  “What about me?” said Vivian.

  “What about you?”

  “I thought we weren’t going to get the police involved.”

  “I didn’t know it had got so crazy. Look at this place. Kidnapping and vandalism. Not to mention the number of drugs arrests they could make up here.”

  “But what if the thing with Glenn comes up?”

  “Better we let them know first. And like Minnie said, you can claim self-defence. You’ve got an ex-sheriff here to back you up. That’s got to count for something. And this—” he gestured to the house “—they can’t ignore this.”

  “You’re a nice young woman,” said Minnie. “I’ll tell them that.”

  Vivian wasn’t sure that was true, and wasn’t sure she wanted the police involved anyway.

  “Take me to the motel,” she said. “We can decide what to do there.”

  “Oh, I’ve decided,” said Jerome.

  Jerome pulled a violent U-turn and they made their way to Cedar Lodge. Minnie kept sniffing and coughing politely, but there wasn’t much Vivian could do. Back on the main road they passed half a dozen more men and women in robes, a couple with rods, too.

  “You see these people?” Jerome shook his head. “Can you imagine Nathan in a get-up like that?”

  “It’s not a crime to dress funny,” said his wife.

  He turned to Vivian suddenly, and the tone of his voice had changed. “And your dad never talked about any of this?”

  “No. He didn’t even tell Mum, I don’t think.”

  “He must have been a piece of work.”

  “That’s enough, Jerome!” said Minnie.

  He must have been, thought Vivian. They drove on in silence.

  The Cedar Lodge parking lot was empty as usual, although when they pulled in Vivian could see that one of the rooms on the first floor, two doors down from her room, was occupied. The light was on and the door was open. It was strange to think there were other guests. Vivian had got used to thinking of the place as her own.

  She checked reception. No Troy, no Judy. She came back to the car and led Jerome and Minnie up the stairs of the fire escape to her and Jesse’s rooms. Perhaps, she thought, it was time she broke a window and had proper look in room 29.

  Before they got there Vivian recognised the voices of the new guests. She looked into room 32. Shelley was perched on the edge of the bed, knees together, looking very small. Chason was asleep in a carry cot balanced on the bedside table. Troy, stooping, was making sure everything in the room was in order.

  “You got your tea and coffee things here, Mom. Wait. No, just tea. The kettle’s a bit temperamental. What I usually do is use one of these plastic spoons to kind of flip the switch. Like this, see? Just to be safe. What else.” He went into the bathroom. “You need a hairdryer? Mom?”

  Shelley didn’t answer. He came back out, ducking under the doorframe, and saw Vivian and her surrogate parents waiting outside the room.

  “Oh,” he said. “It’s you.”

  “It’s me,” said Vivian.

  “No robes?” he said. “What is it, dress-down Friday at the Sanctuary?”

  “I saw what they did to your house,” said Vivian. “Sorry.”

  “Right,” said Troy. He turned back to his mother. “I should get back to the desk,” he said. “You want that hairdryer or not?”

  She shook her head.

  “When did it happen?” asked Vivian.

  “Night before last,” said Troy. “You want something?”

  “I tried to stop them,” said Vivian. “I know who did it, if that helps at all.”

  “I know who did it,” said Troy. “Fucking Glenn and everyone. You took the night off that night, did you? Didn’t want to get your hands dirty?”

  “I wasn’t there,” said Vivian. “Glenn drugged me and drove me out into the desert.”

  Troy scratched the back of one massive hand and frowned.

  “Sure, whatever,” he said. There was a long pause. Chason burbled something and Shelley winced, but he went back to sleep. Troy raised his voice and spoke over Vivian’s shoulder to Jerome and Minnie. “I know it looks like there’s a party in here, but you need to head down to reception.”

  Vivian started to speak but Jerome took a laboured step past her into the room.

  “Sheriff Jerome Carter,” he said, and extended his hand. “Retired,” he added, before Minnie could say anything. “This is my wife.”

  “Was it your house?” Minnie said to Shelley. “That is all so, so sad. I am so sorry.”

  Shelley looked up but didn’t say anything.

  “They’re helping me find Jesse,” said Vivian. “And they’re looking for their son. Nathan. They got him, too. Telos got him.”

  “Has he ascended?” said Shelley. Everyone seemed to give her the same look of weary pity, except Minnie, who went and sat on the bed next to her and patted her knee and said, “It’s okay, dear.”

  “So,” said Troy. “Glenn kidnapped you.” There was an uncertain amount of sarcasm in his tone.

  Vivian nodded.

  “But you’re here now.”

  “I got away,” said Vivian.

  “You do something to his face?”

  Jerome and Vivian exchanged a look.

  “I knocked him out,” said Vivian. “With the rod.”

  Troy laughed out loud.

  “No shit. That’s why he looks like he walked into a wall. And with his own rod. That’s perfect.”

  “It wasn’t his rod.”

  “Ha ha!”

  “How do you know? About what he looks like?”

  “He was up here looking for you. Earlier
.”

  Vivian scrunched her toes in the ends of her hiking boots.

  “Was there someone else with him?”

  “No.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “I told him to get the fuck out, or I’d do the other side of his face for him. Dipshit acted like he knew nothing about the house.”

  Minnie was steeling herself against Troy’s coarse language. She had her eyes closed and seemed to be muttering silent prayers.

  “I don’t think he did know,” said Vivian. “He was in the truck with me two nights ago. And then he was out in the desert.”

  “Bullshit. He runs that whole operation, and they do whatever he tells them to.”

  “It was a girl called Forrest.”

  “It was more than one girl, I know that much. You see the size of those oil cans? Jesus, fucking barrels of the stuff. Anyway, I’m not talking about who actually did the thing, I’m talking about who inspired them to do it. ’Course Glenn was never going to actually do the business.”

  “Listen, Mr…” Jerome said, and waited for Troy to tell him his name, but Troy just looked at him. “We’ll get some police up here to settle this, don’t you worry.”

  “Don’t you worry about it, sir,” said Troy. “I’m going to settle it myself.” He began rolling a cigarette. “So you’re going up the mountain are you, Viv?”

  “Can’t hang around down here anymore,” she said.

  “You going with her?” Troy asked Jerome.

  “Well, I don’t know…”

  “With your hip, Jerome?” said Minnie. “Please.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Troy said to Vivian. Then he said to Jerome, “Would you mind watching the desk for me?”

  “The desk?”

  “Reception desk. There’s nothing to it. It’s not like anyone’s going to check in.”

  “I—”

  “Thanks, Pops. Don’t worry, we’ll find your boy. You ready to go now, Viv?”

  Vivian didn’t know. She supposed she was. She hadn’t planned on having an accomplice. Shelley was looking at her son with her mouth open. She looked like she was going to say something. She put her hand over her heart, but as soon as she’d taken a breath Chason stirred in his carry cot and her words were lost in his wailing.