"Don't worry too much about that right now," Katrina said. "There's no real evidence you did anything, and they have enough instances of real abuse to deal with. If there's much said, my cousin Isaac works in the D.A.'s office. I'll talk to him for you."
"Thanks. They're taking her up to a room for the night. Observation."
“We'll make sure you're settled," Katrina said.
Tanner nodded, his hands in the hip pockets of his jeans. He seemed uncertain as to what to do. He had no defined role here, and it made him awkward.
"Thank you both for being here," Gab said.
The room was small and narrow, with a bed and a chair that folded back to become a cot. Once Heaven had been tucked into bed, she dropped onto a seat, her hands trembling.
"I don't know what to make of all this," she said.
"I'm all right, Mommy." Heaven's expression was solemn.
She's worried about me, Gab thought. "I know, baby. You just rest."
Before long the medication had Heaven dozing. Gab prayed she wouldn't have another nightmare.
"I can't explain what happened, and I saw it with my own eyes," Tanner said.
"You're saying her clothes tore and these welts just appeared?" Katrina asked.
"That's it," Gab said.
Katrina's eyes flicked to Tanner for confirmation. He nodded.
"Something very unusual is happening here," Katrina said. "These nightmares and now this."
"My God, what if it happens again?"
"Look, we'll talk to Marley tomorrow," Katrina said. “This is his department."
"It's like the first part of The Exorcist."
"Come on, she can't be possessed," Katrina said. "Don't be ridiculous."
She looked at Tanner. "You're a mystery writer. Isn't everything supposed to have a logical explanation."
"If there is one for this I'm hard put to say what it is."
Gab rubbed her eyes. "Well, it's late. Maybe some answers will turn up when daylight comes."
Katrina nodded. 'They'll bring you pillows and a blanket. You want me to stay? Harris has the kids covered."
"No, I'm fine. I'm going to have to call in sick tomorrow. I hate to ask this, but could you stop by my house on your way to work and pick up something for Heaven to wear home? I don't want to take her out of here in a gown."
"I'll get some clothes for her and you."
"I'm sorry to have to ask you."
" It won't take me five minutes."
"Would you like me to hang around?" Tanner asked. "I could stay in the waiting room."
"I can't ask you to do that."
"You don't have a car here," he said. "I could come back and give you a lift in the morning."
He was trying to help and to be near her as well. It was imposing, but what the heck? He was offering. "I guess around eight," she said.
Gab couldn't sleep as she lay on the makeshift bed. The night light on the wall created odd shadows, and the evening’s events kept replaying in her brain. Heaven, standing there, cuts coming from nowhere.
Each pop and hum in the hospital made her jump, as if the whole scary business was about to start over again. She didn't know what had happened. Worse still, she didn't know how to keep it from happening again.
Chapter 7
Tanner was standing in the hallway outside Heaven's door while Gab was dressing her daughter when the priest approached.
Tanner had been feeling awkward, had been wondering if Gabrielle was going to tell him to get lost when the priest attracted his attention. A big man with broad shoulders, and with his long black coat fluttering around him, the priest looked as though he'd be more at home holding a longshoreman's hook than a chalice. Jake watched him move, noting the power in his walk.
Still, the man appeared weary. His bearded face looked haggard, and the skin beneath his eyes was discolored. He didn't seem like a traditional chaplain, but he was in command of things as he scanned the room numbers.
He finally stopped at Heaven's door and knocked. Perhaps he was the family pastor. The other inference, in light of the previous night's events, was too weird and frightening to consider. Besides, this man didn't look like Max von Sydow.
"Come in," Gab called from within.
Jake wondered if he should follow.
Gab was startled at seeing the big, red-haired man in the doorway. She'd expected Tanner to walk in, impatient from loitering in the hall. Instead she was facing this imposing man with a slight scowl.
"Can I help you?"
"My name is Danube," he said. She couldn't place the accent. It was an odd mixture of tones, as if it had developed from constant use of several languages, yet he didn't stumble with English.
"Did Katrina ask you to come?"
He was eerie in some way, not like a kindly parish priest at all.
"I came because I am needed," he said.
"What do you mean?" Her voice faltered.
His voice was firm, impatient. "Your daughter has been experiencing some trouble."
"She has, but I haven't talked to anyone about it yet." If he hadn't been wearing a Roman collar she would have been inclined to add an indignant complaint, but she refrained.
Cautiously, behind the priest, Tanner eased into the room, apparently uncertain if he should continue to wait outside. Gab motioned him to come all the way in. She appreciated Jake's presence.
"You've been experiencing some difficulties," Danube said.
"I'm not exactly sure what happened," Gabrielle said.
"Something evil," the priest stated. "Pretending it did not is no solution."
"What do you know?" She hoped he could detect the suspicion in her voice.
"Little at this point. I will need to talk to you.”
“Why?"
"To determine the evil’s precise nature, so that it can be dealt with."
Gab swallowed. He was like someone out of a comic book—The Phantom Stranger—except he was serious.
She could read it in his dark, piercing eyes, his gaze relentless.
She turned, looking at Heaven to see if he was frightening her, but her daughter was more concerned with the Velcro straps of her tennis shoes. The gauze bandages on her arms and legs didn't seem to be bothering her.
"I have to get my daughter home," Gab said. "My friend is driving me, and I don't want to inconvenience him. If you'll excuse me …"
Danube peered at her for a long, lingering moment, then gave Tanner a glance and shook his head before walking from the room.
"How could he have heard?" Tanner asked as Gab helped Heaven off the bed.
"I don't know. He's probably some weirdo who found out there was a little girl in here. He can't be the regular chaplain. I'm not Catholic, but he's not like any priest I ever saw. He looks seedy."
"There is something strange about him," Tanner agreed.
"You're probably getting a lot of story ideas from hanging around me." She turned her attention to helping Heaven finish with her shoes. The child was sore, but she didn't wince at movement.
In Tanner’s car, Heaven aimlessly dialed the radio past blips of static intermingled with sounds she didn't linger on long enough to identify. Gab didn't correct her because Heaven had been through so much. She would worry about social etiquette again once the trauma had been dealt with. She was going to have to talk to Marley again, and hopefully he would provide answers. What kind of answers, though? Something she didn't want to hear, something mystical and dark?
She was afraid he'd tell her things were possible, things she didn't want to acknowledge. She'd seen what had happened. Tanner had too. How could it be explained? Who could cough up a logical clarification of something like that? She wanted one, one that had nothing to do with unexplained phenomena or ghosts or devils. But she also wanted to hear that there was nothing wrong with Heaven's mind, that her child wasn't traumatized by the divorce. Who wanted to deal with the fact that they were raising a child out of a Stephen King novel? That was why she hadn
't named her daughter Carrie.
When they reached the house, Tanner pulled in behind Gabrielle's car. She found herself glad that he climbed out to help her with Heaven's things. She didn't want to walk into the house alone.
Nothing inside seemed out of place. She left Heaven in the kitchen with Tanner while she checked her daughter's room for Gnelf toys or books, and when she had collected them, she stuffed them all in the closet of her own room. Then she returned and broke in on the chat Tanner was having with Heaven.
"I'm going to put her to bed," she said. "She's still exhausted, I know."
"I'm not tired," Heaven said, but her eyes and the lack of conviction in her voice overruled the statement.
She didn't protest much as Gab picked her up. It was difficult because Heaven was getting heavy, but Gab managed.
"Would you like me to fix some coffee?" Tanner asked behind her.
"That would be great," she said.
He had it ready when she made it back to the kitchen a few minutes later.
"Asleep before she hit the pillow," Gab said.
"She's been through a lot."
"Too much." Gab sat down at the kitchen table. "You found everything all right?"
"I'm a mystery writer. It's my job."
She laughed. It felt good, easing her weariness a bit.
"What do you take in it?"
"Black for now."
"Didn't know you were walking into a family in crisis did you?" Gab asked as he sat down across from her.
"Life, like art, has its little unexpected twists," he admitted.
"You're probably thinking `Why did I bother with this woman?’"
"No." He turned his face away from her, embarrassed.
She laughed again, slightly. "Jake, I know we hardly know each other, and with Heaven's situation I'll understand if you want to just back away."
He hesitated, still not looking at her directly. "You don't need the entanglement right now?"
"Heaven's going to need me while we try to work out whatever this is. It scares the hell out of me. I just don't know if I'll have time for any life of my own for a while."
He got up from his chair and walked over to the kitchen window, stared out. His hands slipped into his hip pockets, and he rocked on the balls of his feet.
"We've only seen each other twice," he said. "I can't say there's some major connection there that we can't let go of, but I don't know. It just seemed like there was something, you know?" He turned back and looked at her.
"I don't feel it's fair to you to ask you to stand by."
His brow wrinkled as he turned to her, searching for words, and his left hand came out of his pocket to slide through his hair, ruffling it over his forehead.
"I don't know. I'll be around, you know. This is not an easy town for meeting people, and meeting people you have a dime's worth of things in common with is even rarer."
It was his turn for a slight laugh.
"I kind of know what you're talking about," she said. "It's hard to meet a man who's not scared away by your five-year-old."
"And me, hell, I'm not that exciting as people go. Once you get past that notion that I do something a little different for a living, I'm worse than average."
Gabrielle lifted her fingers to her temples. "Ah, life is so confusing. For the record, I like you, Tanner."
"I like you too," he said doing a bad Nicholson impression followed by a broad grin and raised eyebrows.
"You just met me."
"I'm a sensitive artist."
She didn't know what to do, didn't know what to say to him or what to ask him.
He threw up his hands. "You've got enough to worry about without dealing with my emotions," he said. "I'll get out of your way. Uh, but if you need me you can call, or if you want somebody to talk to, I'm around. Maybe when it's leveled off we can talk again."
“Let's stay in touch. I want to see you again. It's not that I don't. I hope you understand.”
"I will stay in touch, just let me know. Maybe I can come by some.”
“Soon. Really."
He walked over to her and softly kissed her forehead before showing himself out. She stayed at the table for several minutes, her eyes closed, trying to sort things out. She had much to do, but for a while she just let the emotions range about inside her.
After a minute or two, she got up, worry about Heaven winning out. She went to the small desk in the spare bedroom where she did her paperwork and dug Dave's number out of a cubbyhole. She didn't get an answer when she tried his house, and she had no work or cell number for him. She counted the time zones in her head, realized it was still early morning in California and found herself wondering where he must be. Sleeping with someone? Add some jealousy into the mix. Why not?
Hanging up as the receiver still purred, she walked to the bathroom. She was just beginning to realize how tired she was, and viewing her face in the mirror crystallized the fatigue. Her eyes were red rimmed, her cheeks puffy. She wondered why Tanner had even hesitated to walk out.
She felt guilty for letting her thoughts drift back to him. He had wedged himself between her and worry, but a flicker of anxiety cracked the dam and brought all of the fears back into her head.
There was no way she could make sense out of this mess. It was as unexplainable as a ghost story. She pulled her hair back into a pony tail in preparation for a bath. She had to rest before she started trying to find an exorcist.
She had turned the water on and was testing its temperature when the doorbell rang. Cursing under her breath, she told herself to be thankful she was not undressed and in the tub.
She paused to look through the narrow window beside the door. The priest stood on the doorstep.
She held her breath as she looked out at him. His face was weathered, and his dark eyes were weary, shrouded with a squint that conformed to deeply etched wrinkles. The morning wind tossed the tangles of his red hair about, but he seemed oblivious, like a sailor on the bow of a ship.
Making sure the chain was in place, Gab eased the door open only a crack, ready to slam it.
"What do you want?" she asked. "I thought this business was finished at the hospital."
"It's far from finished," he said. "It's only begun."
"What's going on? Who are you?"
"I'm Danube. You need me."
"Come from where?"
"I've made a long journey."
"How do I know you're not trying to hurt my daughter? And me too?"
" Something strange has happened to you. Am I right?"
"How do you know?"
"I have to know. Knowledge is survival."
"Of what?"
He offered no answer.
"Why don't you just leave me alone?"
His eyes grew even more intense than they had at the hospital, but finally he nodded. "So be it." He bowed his head slightly;. "I wish you well."
She closed the door without speaking again and realized she was sweating through. Her skin felt hot, but perspiration around her collar had chilled, making her neck feel as if she were being touched by ice.
"Fuck you," she muttered under her breath as she leaned back against the door. Poltergeists in the living room and weirdos at the door.
She looked out through the window again. He’d disappeared. She whispered prayerful thanks, then rechecked the doors to make sure they were secure.
Another call to Dave's number drew no answer, so she returned to her bath. The hot water cleansed her of the sweat and worked on her muscles, but it did nothing to relieve the stress.
She slept for a couple of hours before calling Marley. He showed up about mid-afternoon with Althea Rogers, a woman somewhere in her late forties. The set of her jaw was perhaps a bit too square, and early warnings of wrinkles were forming.
Gab found her likable as she showed her into the living room and Althea settled on the couch, her dark eyes conveying genuine interest. After slipping her jacket off, she leaned forward, elbows res
ting on her knees, as she listened to Gab's account.
Gabrielle tried to give as objective an account as possible. She felt the woman was analyzing her, but she was not intimidated.
As Gabrielle's story unfolded, Marley sat at Althea's side, nodding from time to time. He placed an index finger against his temple, pushing a fold of skin toward his scalpline as he took in the information.
"What can be wrong with her?" Gab asked. "I've never heard of anything like this."
"It's unusual," the woman said. "Some trauma following a divorce is understandable, yet it sounds as if you've got some odd phenomenon accompanying it."
"Can a child's mind bring on that sort of thing?"
"There are things that go beyond explanation," Althea replied. "I've read of them in journals, been told of others by colleagues at conventions. We work very hard to gather explanations."
"Are you saying my daughter can't be helped? You haven't even talked to her."
"I'm not making any judgments. I just want you to understand. Marley called me for a couple of reasons. One is that I've counseled people who have been through ill-advised exorcisms and that sort of thing. I've learned answers are elusive at times."
Her voice was matter-of-fact, but somewhere in her tone Gab detected a trace of cynicism. This woman didn't believe in answers.
At Althea's request, she got a copy of the Gnelf storybook.
"Is there anything in it harmful? I hear so much about children's books these days," Gab said, "but I never thought until the last few days there would be anything bad in these."
"They appear to be typical cartoon characters," Althea said. “Not images that would normally frighten a child. Of course we can never tell what will trigger a child's fears. Darth Vader, the boogie man, bug bears, Santa Claus."
She closed the book and placed it on the coffee table, and Gab immediately picked it up and held it against her with the cover turned inward. It had to be put away so Heaven wouldn't see it.
"Do you want to talk to Heaven?"
"Yes,” Althea said. "Let's bring her in." She turned to Marley. "It might be better if you wait in the kitchen. We don't want to intimidate her with a crowd, but I would like her mother here."
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