Neely grinned. “Yeah. Grub hasn’t ever played and he’s not too good at it, and Curtis isn’t exactly in one of his better moods.”
Carmen’s answering smile was distant, preoccupied, and as Neely watched it changed into something that looked like sudden fear. Carmen started across the kitchen and as she passed the table she reached out to put down the bucket of soapy water—but she didn’t reach quite far enough. Neely made a dive to catch the falling bucket but she was too late. It hit the floor with a loud clatter and a great splash of soapy water. Carmen didn’t even look back.
Chapter 35
THE GAME ROOM WAS EMPTY, THE CUE STICKS WERE STILL lying on the table among scattered balls, but there was no sign of Grub or Curtis. Carmen looked around quickly and then hurried across the room and into the library. As Neely followed close behind her, she found herself fighting against a slowly rising tide of anxiety. There was no one in the library. From above the mantel Monica and her family looked out across a silent, empty room.
Back in the game room Carmen leaned for a moment against the pool table. She was breathing hard, her hands still in the yellow rubber gloves, clutching the table railing. Neely stared at the gloved hands, her mind racing in confused circles. Something about the strangeness of the wet rubber gloves on the beautiful inlaid wood was terribly frightening, turning the trickle of anxiety into a sudden flood of terror.
“What is it?” she asked frantically. “What’s the matter, Carmen?”
“Where are they?” Carmen said, but not to Neely. Her eyes were rolled upward and somehow the question sounded like a prayer. “Where could they have... Her voice died away, and turning suddenly she almost ran across the room to the corner beyond the fireplace. Following close behind her, Neely watched as if in a trance while a yellow-gloved hand reached out to touch the open latch of the gun cabinet. The padlock was missing. Neely stared at Carmen—and then followed her horrified gaze to where three guns hung against the back wall of the cabinet. Only three. One of the handguns was missing.
“Curtis!” Carmen shouted so loudly and so suddenly that Neely recoiled with shock. There was no answer. Hurrying, almost running, Carmen retraced her steps, back across the room, through the entry hall and out onto the veranda, while Neely ran beside her still asking, “What is it? What’s the matter? What’s happening, Carmen?”
But Carmen didn’t answer. Standing on the steps, she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted first in one direction and then in another. “Curtis! Curtis, you come here. You come here this minute.”
“Carmen! What’s the matter?” Someone else was calling now from inside the house, and through the open doorway Neely was able to see Joyce Hutchinson teetering down the stairs in her high-heeled slippers...down the stairs and across the veranda, blinking in the sunlight, her old/young face looking smeared and frightened. She grabbed Carmen’s arm and shook her. “What’s the matter, Carmen? What is the matter?”
“It’s Curtis,” Carmen said. “He has a gun. And Grub. Grub’s with him.”
“A gun.” Joyce Hutchinson’s face looked frozen. “How could he have a gun? The cabinet is locked.”
“No. It was open. He must have found the key.”
“Oh no.” Joyce’s hands went up to her mouth. “Oh no,” she said again, and then something halfway muffled that sounded like “not again.” Stumbling down the stairs, she ran clumsily out across the lawn, her long robe floating out behind her. As she ran she shouted, “Curtis. Curtis. Where are you, baby?” And Carmen ran, too, in the opposite direction.
Left alone on the veranda, Neely started after Carmen and then Joyce...and then stopped altogether. After a moment’s thought she turned back to the house. Back to the house and up the stairs, three steps at a time, all the way up the first flight and the second and into the ballroom. Into an empty ballroom where, to her immense relief, the window behind the bandstand still seemed to be sealed shut, the glass unbroken.
But she had to be sure. Running down the long floor, Neely staggered across the bandstand, gasping for breath, and leaned on the top bar—the bar that had been put in place after Monica fell...Monica. Neely stared down the steep drop to the rocks below and whispered, “Monica.” And standing there by the window, saying Monica’s name, she suddenly knew what she could do. Knew, as suddenly and as surely as if someone had whispered it in her ear, exactly what to do to find Grub.
She ran again then, back across the ballroom, down two flights of stairs, through the back hall and kitchen, dashing across slippery hardwood floors and taking stairs in flying leaps. And then out the kitchen door to where Lion strained against his chain, facing down the path that led to the rose garden. The moment that Neely unsnapped the chain from his collar he sprang forward, growling as he ran, and disappeared down the path.
Neely followed him, gasping and panting now, but still running as hard as she could. But Lion was much faster and she was soon left far behind. She had just left the rose garden and was turning toward the stable when she heard the shot.
Chapter 36
AS NEELY BURST THROUGH the stable door, out of the sunshine and into the dim light of the central corridor, she could see only that something was moving toward her. Something that growled and, at the same time, sobbed and pleaded, “Come on, Lion. Let’s go. Come on.”
As the large, confused shape moved closer and her eyes became accustomed to the light, she saw with a great rush of relief that it was Grub. Grub, tugging on Lion’s collar while Lion, growling fiercely, tried to pull away and go back. Neely grabbed for the collar and together they managed to pull the big dog down the corridor and out through the stable door. Outside, in the bright sunlight, Neely could see that Grub’s face was pale, his eyes huge and wet with tears.
“Grub,” she gasped. “What happened? Where’s Curtis?”
“Back there,” Grub whispered. He let go of Lion’s collar, closed the stable door, and leaned against it. “In one of the stalls. He tried to shoot Lion but he missed and then he tried again but it didn’t go off, and then he hid in one of the stalls.” Hearing his name, Lion pressed against Grub, trying to lick his face.
“Oh, Grub.” Neely suddenly found her voice so shaky she could barely talk. She pushed Lion aside and clutched Grub’s shoulders, shaking and hugging him at the same time. She was still hugging when suddenly Carmen was there, too, and a moment later Joyce.
Carmen’s gray hair had fallen down around her flushed face and she was gasping with exhaustion. “Grub,” she whispered and suddenly reeled, staggered and almost fell. Neely let go of Grub and jumped to help Carmen regain her balance.
“Grub,” Carmen whispered again, reaching out for him with her yellow-gloved hands. “Thank God.” And then, “Curtis? Where’s Curtis?”
Neely pointed. “In there. In one of the stalls. He’s all right.”
Still gasping and panting, Carmen staggered into the stable, and Joyce, who had said nothing at all except for some strange whimpering noises, followed her.
Left alone, Neely and Grub stared at each other. “Grub,” Neely said, “what happened? Why did Curtis have the gun?”
Grub shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t know why. But I think he was—”
“What’s going on here?” It was Reuben, his wrinkled face tightened and pinched with concern. “What happened? Thought I heard a shot.”
“Yes,” Neely said. “It was Curtis. Curtis had a gun. But nobody got shot.”
“He missed,” Grub said. “He missed Lion.”
Reuben stared at Grub. Then he knelt down and ran his hands over Lion’s head and body. When he stood back up he turned to look at the stable door. “Crazy kid,” he said. “Ought to be locked up.” Taking off his belt he looped it through Lion’s collar and led him back down the path toward the house.
It was quiet then and from inside the stable there was the sound of voices. Carmen’s and then Joyce’s speaking softly and pleadingly. And then there was shouting. Curtis shouting, “No, no. I wo
n’t come out. He’ll kill me. That dog will kill me.”
Neely pushed the door open and went in. “Stay here,” she told Grub. “I’ll be right back.” She was well into the stable before she could see Carmen and Joyce standing in front of a stall door. And she was even closer before she saw Curtis’s hands clutching the top of the door.
“He’s gone,” Neely said. “Lion’s gone. Reuben came and took him away. You can come out now.”
The door opened slowly and Curtis came out. He was clutching his chest, his head hanging. “That dog tried to kill me,” he said in a high-pitched voice. “He tried to kill me.
“Curtis,” his mother said, “where is the gun?”
“In there,” Curtis nodded back toward the stall. “It didn’t work. The stupid thing didn’t work.”
Carmen tried to put her arms around Curtis but he shoved her away. “The gun, Curtis.” Her voice was sad and stern. “Why did you have the gun?”
Curtis’s head came up slowly. He was smiling. “I found the key,” he said. “Dad thought he had it hid where I’d never find it, but I did.”
“But why?” his mother asked in a shaky voice. “Why did you have the gun? What were you going to do with it?”
Curtis looked around. His eyes focused on Grub, who was standing in the stable door, silhouetted against the light. Lowering his voice to a whisper he said, “It was Grub. He wanted to see it. He begged and begged me to show him how to shoot it. So I was going to show him, but then someone let that stupid dog loose and it almost killed me.” Curtis put his arms around his mother and leaned against her, hiding his face. “He was going to kill me, Mom,” he said.
Joyce Hutchinson patted her son’s head. Then she turned to Carmen and said, “See? It’s all right. He’s all right. He was just trying to be nice to the little boy.”
Grub and Neely walked home. Carmen offered to drive them but Curtis didn’t want her to. “Don’t go away, Carmen,” he said, his face twisted into a tragic mask. “I need you to be here. I’m sick. I’m sick because of that dog.” The pitiful face changed into a reproachful one. “Besides, you just want to talk to them. You can talk to them some other time, when I’m feeling better.” He turned to his mother. “Tell Carmen she can’t go,” he begged. And Mrs. Hutchinson did tell Carmen she couldn’t go.
“He needs someone with him, Carmen,” she said. “And I’m just going to have to go up and lie down this minute. I’m not feeling at all well myself. I’m sure Curtis’s little friends won’t mind walking home.”
So Neely and Grub walked home just as they had so many times before, but this time was very different. It was different because Neely knew now, without the slightest doubt, that it was the last time. The last time they would ever walk home from Halcyon House. And it was different, too, because of the way Grub was acting. Usually, coming home from a visit to Halcyon, Grub was happy—bouncing, skipping, humming, happy. But now he was silent and pale, his eyes dark and clouded. When Neely tried to talk to him he only shook his head.
But she kept trying. “Grub, I know you don’t feel like talking, but you can just answer yes or no. Can’t you do that?”
Grub shook his head.
“Just yes or no,” Neely insisted. “Did you really ask Curtis if you could see the gun? Just yes or no. Please, Grub.”
But Grub would only shake his head.
Mom was in the kitchen when they got home. “Well,” she said. “You’re home early. I wasn’t expecting you for a while.” Then she stopped talking and her eyes followed Grub as he walked across the room and disappeared down the hall. “Something wrong with Grubbie?” she asked Neely.
Neely took a deep breath, biting her lip, and thought. The decision came quickly. She would burn the bridges—all the bridges to Halcyon House. She would make certain that she could never change her mind and go back, and most of all, that Grub could never go back. She would tell about the gun. Knowing how her mother felt about guns she knew that would be enough.
She pulled back a chair and sat down at the kitchen table. “Mom,” she said. “Something scary happened at Halcyon House today, so we’re not going to go there anymore.”
“Scary?”
“Yes. Remember we told you about the gun cabinet that Mr. Hutchinson has? Well, when we were there today, while I was in the kitchen talking to Carmen, Curtis opened the cabinet. I guess he’d found the key somewhere. And he and Grub went out to the stable and he was showing the gun to Grub and it went off. It didn’t hit anybody, but it might have. So we’re not going there anymore. Not ever again.”
Mom sat down at the table. She looked shocked, horrified. “That’s awful,” she said. “And it just proves what I’ve always said about having guns around....” She paused and then asked, “Is that what upset Grub? He is in one of his moods, isn’t he? A bad one. I saw it the minute he came in. Is it because of what happened with the gun?”
Neely nodded. “Partly, I guess. The gun, and because we can’t go back there anymore. Grub loved going to Halcyon.”
“I know,” Mom said. “Did you talk to him about it? About not being able to go there anymore?”
“Not exactly,” Neely said. “But he knows. I think he just knows.”
Of course that was the reason for Grub’s mood—knowing that they couldn’t return to Halcyon ever again. Neely was certain of that. So a little later she went to his room and tried to cheer him up, but nothing she said seemed to help. In fact Grub still refused to discuss it at all. Lying on his stomach on his bed, he covered his head with a pillow and told Neely he couldn’t talk about it.
Neely was worried. Not that there was anything so unusual about Grub having a gloom-and-doom attack. It was just that this one seemed different, deeper and more despairing.
Chapter 37
THE NEXT MORNING THERE WAS NO CHANGE. GRUB WAS still sad and silent. But then, around ten o’clock, when Mom and Neely were both in the kitchen, the phone rang and Mom answered it. Neely was peeling apples at the kitchen sink and even though she could only hear Mom’s part of the conversation she quickly became aware that the caller was Carmen—and that whatever she was saying was scaring Mom to death.
At first Mom said, “Why, yes. Hello, Carmen,” in a normal phone-conversation tone of voice, but then she began to sound more anxious as she said, “Yes, Neely told us about the episode with the gun, and we were very concerned, of course.”
After that there were many minutes in which Mom only listened and said almost nothing, except “oh no,” and “how awful.”
Neely stopped peeling apples and just watched while Mom’s eyes grew wide and fixed and her tanned face faded to a strange grayish color. Finally, in a shaky voice, she said, “How terrible for you and his parents. And thank you, Carmen. Thank you so much for letting us know. And about Grub...I just don’t know. I’ll talk to my husband and call you back as soon as we decide what to do.”
Mom sat down at the kitchen table and stayed there for a long time with her head in her hands, and when Neely asked her what Carmen had said she would only say that she would have to talk to Dad first. Neely went on asking until Mom got angry and yelled at her. Mom called the motel then, but it turned out that Dad had gone on some errands in Monterey and couldn’t be reached right away. So Neely had to wait and wait some more. And even after Dad finally got home there was more waiting because he and Mom went immediately into the study together. They stayed there for a long time and when they came out they both went into Grub’s room. Even by standing very close to Grub’s door Neely couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, but after a while she could hear Grub sobbing.
It wasn’t until they came out of Grub’s room and had gone back to Dad’s study that Dad asked Neely to come in. Taking hold of her arm, he led her over to sit between him and Mom on the sofa. And then came the most maddening wait of all, sitting there with her heart thudding against her ribs, looking back and forth at their pale, tense faces. It was Mom who finally began to speak.
“It was
Carmen,” Mom said. “The call this morning was from Carmen.”
Neely nodded. “I know,” she said calmly, squeezing down the urge to yell, I know that! “But what did she say?”
“It was about Curtis. It seems—” Mom took a deep breath—“it seems it’s happened before. Curtis shot someone before.”
Neely had to try twice before the word came out, “Someone?”
“One of his cousins,” Mom said. “A boy about his own age. About a year ago. They were playing with the gun and it went off accidentally. At least that was what Curtis said happened, and no one could prove differently because there were no witnesses—and the other boy was dead.”
Dad broke in then. “Carmen said everyone believed Curtis’s story. And Carmen believed it, too, at least until yesterday. Or at least she tried very hard to believe it. Carmen loves Curtis very much. She’s cared for him since he was born and he’s almost like her own child. So of course she didn’t want to believe that he would deliberately shoot someone. But now she’s afraid that he did, and—” Dad paused, looking at Mom.
Mom took a long, quavery breath. “And she believes that he probably meant to shoot Grub too.”
There was a strange noise, a gasp that was almost a moan. For a moment Neely didn’t realize that it had come from her own throat. Dad reached out and took her hand.
Mom went on then, telling more about what Carmen had said about Curtis and his cousin, and the reasons she now thought the shooting had been deliberate. And then Dad said that Carmen’s call was really to ask for Grub’s help.
“Carmen says that unless Grub will testify about what really happened she’ll never be able to convince people that Curtis must have professional help. Carmen thinks that Curtis ought to be taken away from his parents and put in a stable environment where he could get the kind of counseling he needs if he is to have any chance of a normal life. But she needs some proof of Curtis’s intentions in order to convince his uncle and the authorities.”
The Trespassers Page 13
