“Just get out” he said. “I don’t want to hurt you. Just leave me alone.”
“The way you left me alone?” she demanded as she opened the door. “You’ll pay for that, Derek Miller.”
She was out of the car before he realized he had never told her his name. He jumped out of the car, calling out: “How’d you know my name?”
But the street was now completely deserted. Filled with curiosity, Derek walked up and down, looking for the strange woman. But she was nowhere to be found. Wondering how she could have slipped into the shadows so quickly, he returned to his car. He had never been a man to fear threats, and so he climbed into the car and tried to put the incident out of his mind.
“What could that crazy little bitch do to me?” he asked himself.
He drove home at a faster speed than usual, unwilling to admit that the thought of the woman knowing his name made his flesh crawl.
8
Derek stared up at the beam of dark wood that ran across his ceiling. He had been awake for an hour, trying to make sense of the evening’s strange events. His hands were folded behind his head, and his teeth dug into his lower lip, pressing harder as his thoughts grew more intense. He had already decided how the woman had gotten into his car. It was old, and the lock didn’t work very well. But how did she know where to find him? And more than that, how did she knew his name?
Derek shook his head roughly, driving away sleep that wanted to claim him. He wanted this mystery solved, now.
Thinking the comfortable bed was making his mind wander, he got out of it and pulled on his robe. Walking barefoot out to the hall, he closed the door softly. He stopped when he heard a whimpering noise—Alicen talking in her sleep. Derek ran his fingers through his hair, then reached for the knob of her door. His fingers held it but hesitated.
“Mommy!”
The kid sounded so frantic.
“Mommy, come home.”
Derek pulled his hand away from the door. Another dream? When were those going to stop? When was Alicen going to face the fact that her mother wasn’t ever going to come home?
But he knew Alicen would never accept the truth. Even though she had seen Elaine’s car explode and had stood there watching as the twisted body was pulled from the wreck, she refused to believe it was her mother. That first year had been especially painful. Alicen would look outside every time a car stopped in front of the apartment house, hoping it was her mother.
Derek was struck with the painful memory of Alicen’s eighth birthday. Elaine had only been dead a month.
“Mommy told me she’d buy me a new dress,” Alicen had said.
Derek could almost feel her small arms around his waist. He closed his eyes.
“I know, darling,” he had replied. “But mommy’s gone now. And you know how expensive the funeral was. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for your dress.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” the little girl said cheerfully. “I’ll have a new dress when mommy comes home.”
Derek recalled that he had given her a stuffed animal. Alicen had almost crushed him with her hug. She had once been such an affectionate child. But over the years she had drawn into a shell, until Derek could barely remember their last loving embrace.
He felt a pain for the child that used to be and drove it away.
He shuffled down the hall, then the stairs, and finally entered the kitchen. He always felt as if he were walking into another time zone. Despite the antiques in the rest of the house, the VanBurens had equipped their kitchen with every up-to-date convenience, from the white side-by-side freezer-refrigerator to the gleaming green and yellow tiled floor. The only antique in here was a wooden table with X-shaped legs. He sat down and propped his feet up on one of the X’s. At that moment Lad jumped up and barked at him.
“Shh,” Derek whispered. He slapped his thigh. “Come here, boy.”
Lad rested his chin on Derek’s knee. The soulful brown eyes looked up into Derek’s, asking for affection. Derek stroked the dog’s smooth head and spoke to him as if he were human.
“Can you figure this out?” he asked. “What do you suppose that woman wants from me?” Lad whined. “I don’t know, either,” Derek said, yawning.
He leaned back in the chair and turned to gaze through the back-door window at the moon. Sighing deeply, he just sat, waiting for an answer to come to him.
“Wait a minute,” he said, turning to the dog again. “I know! Suppose, for some crazy reason she’s been spying on me? She must know I go to the health club a few nights a week. She just followed me there and hid out in my car.”
It made sense, but it didn’t answer the most important question: why? What could she want from him? He had no money to speak of, and little of value—nothing of value, he corrected himself.
Suddenly Lad let out a growl and leaped for the back door. Startled, Derek pushed his chair back and went to investigate. The hitchhiker was staring through the back-door window! She was smiling at him, her pointy teeth glistening wetly. Her eyes, shining with malevolent delight, had a filmy look to them. She didn’t move or make a sound. She just stood there grinning.
“You bitch! Darek hissed.
He turned quickly to the cupboard behind him and removed the back-door key. As he twisted the lock, he glowered at the woman’s hideous face. He wouldn’t be afraid. He’d let her in and make her tell him. . . .
But just as Derek got the door open, she ducked away. He stepped outside quickly and peered around through the darkness. He could see the silhouettes of the trees beyond the huge back yard; nothing seemed to be moving. The moon above cast a silver-gray glow over everything at such an angle that there were no shadows.
“She must have run into the woods,” Derek reasoned, “and there is no way I’m going to chase her around out there.”
Let her go, his mind ordered.
He locked the door behind him. It was all a sick joke, of course. He shuddered and rubbed his arms to ward off a sudden chill. Lad nudged him and after receiving a few strokes of reassurance, went under the table to sleep.
Oh, damn, Derek thought as he headed out of the kitchen.
Never a man to be easily frightened, he decided to forget the whole thing. How could he let it upset him? It was just some smart-ass kid in old clothes and Halloween makeup. He’d ignore her. He wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of showing fear. Maybe she’d get bored and leave him alone.
He did not know that it wouldn’t be that easy.
* * *
“God, you look like you’ve been through the mill,” Gary said when he entered the kitchen the next morning to find Derek already up.
“I didn’t sleep much last night,” Derek answered, yawning into a cup of coffee. He poured another and set it in front of Gary.
“Thanks,” Gary said, adjusting himself in his wheelchair. “I thought I heard Lad barking.”
“I was here in the kitchen,” Derek explained. He took a sip of coffee. “Hey, Gary, are there any other families around here?”
“Not for a mile or so. And we told you the house down the road’s been empty for several months. Why?”
“Well, some crazy kid’s been bothering me lately. I made the stupid mistake of giving her a lift in my car one day—right down on Houston—and she’s been following me around ever since.”
“Maybe she’s got a crush on you?” Gary asked.
“Oh, no,” Derek said, shaking his head. “This isn’t infatuation, it’s harassment She is probably out of her mind. You should see her. She has stringy blond hair, blue eyes, and sickly pale skin. I mean, you can almost see her veins through it.” He thought a little more, then said, “Oh, yeah, and her hands are always red. Like she has frostbite.”
“It’s a little late in the spring for frostbite, don’t you think?”
“Of course,” Derek said. “She’s using some kind of makeup on her hands. And on her face, too. She’s just too pale—like something out of a horror movie.”
Melanie
entered the kitchen just then. She greeted them cheerily as Kyle scooted around her to the refrigerator.
“What intense expressions!” she cried. “What’s going on?”
“Some girl’s been harassing Derek lately,” Gary said. He cast a look at Kyle, who seemed to be busy filling his cereal bowl. “Do you know any young women with blond hair and pale skin?”
“Yea,” Melanie said, laughing. “Me.”
“Paler,” Derek said. “Like death warmed over. And her hair was a lighter blond. It’s down to her waist and looks like she hasn’t combed it in a week or two.”
Melanie shook her head. “No, I don’t know anyone like that.” She went to the refrigerator and took out a container of milk.
“Wait,” Derek said. “She told me her name. Do you know anyone named Janice?”
The milk container fell to the floor, the white liquid spilling all over the floor. “Oh, God,” Melanie said in a soft voice. She waved her hands. “No, damn it. I don’t know anyone named Janice.”
She went to the pantry for a mop. Her heart was beating rapidly, and she felt a chill crawling over her. She rubbed hard at the milk, keeping her back to the others. Derek eyed her, wondering why she had reacted so strangely to the mention of Janice’s name. Perhaps she did know her?
Later Derek asked Gary about Melanie’s reaction. Gary tried to explain it.
“See, Melanie had a good friend once named Janice,” he said. “But she died the same night I was hurt. Uhm—I was unconscious at the time, but they told me later that the same—uhm—the same guy who pushed me from the window killed her.”
“No wonder Melanie was upset. I probably brought back painful memories,” Derek said apologetically.
“Melanie’s sensitive about it,” Gary said. “She somehow feels responsible for what happened to Janice, but of course that’s ridiculous.”
“What did happen to her?”
Gary stopped and stared into his eyes. “I don’t really know,” he said.
“Well, okay,” Derek replied. “But I know of course that that Janice isn’t the one who was in my car. Not if she’s dead. There’re no such things as ghosts.”
Across the room, an unseen woman laughed silently.
Oh, but there are ghosts, my handsome Derek! she cried, unheard by him. You’ll soon learn how real I am! They’ll all learn, and they’ll pay for what they did to me.
Derek decided he would simply ignore the woman the next time she showed up. But a week had gone by with no sign of her. Well, that was fine. Maybe she had seen him with Liza and decided he wasn’t single and worth pursuing any more.
Tonight he was dressing in his best clothes for the dinner with Sarah and Marc Kaufman. He had bought Alicen a new dress (much to her surprise). His child shouldn’t look like a street urchin around all this wealth.
Down the hallway, Melanie was in Nancy’s room, busy tying and retying the blue sash to her daughter’s best dress. Kyle bounced on the bed, whining about his seersucker suit. Gina stood at the vanity table with Alicen, combing her friend’s hair.
“Kyle, sit still,” Melanie said, at last finishing the bow. “You’ll mess up your clothes.”
“How come I hafta wear these dumb pants?” Kyle asked, settling on the mattress. “They’re scratchy!”
“Oh, Kyle,” Gina said in a motherly tone, “stop complaining. You look very nice.”
Kyle clicked his tongue and jumped from the bed, heading for the door. Just as he reached it, Gary entered the room, on crutches. Kyle stopped short to avoid a collision, his arms spread out at his sides.
“Where are you going so fast?” Gary asked, laughing.
“Downstairs to the kitchen,” Kyle said, ducking past him.
“Stay out of the food!” Melanie called. She smiled at Gary. “Say, you look great. It’s been a long time since you wore a suit.”
“And a long time since I was walking,” Gary said. “I hope I do okay tonight.”
“You’ll do fine,” Melanie reassured him. This was the first time Gary would be using his crutches in front of strangers. Melanie went to him and slid her arms around his waist. They kissed warmly.
“We make a beautiful couple,” she said.
“You’re beautiful,” Gary said, running his hands over her peach-colored jersey dress. “And you’ve really done a great job tonight. I’ve never seen the kids so immaculate.”
He looked over his shoulder at his daughters. Gina was dressed in an eyelet-trimmed denim jumper, while Nancy wore a red-and-white flowered dress. Even Alicen was attired neatly. Her father had bought her a stylish shirtdress with tiny vertical stripes that made her chubby body look a little thinner.
“You’d think it was Easter Sunday,” he said.
“It isn’t going to kill you,” Melanie responded, picking up a comb from Nancy’s dresser to brush her hair for the fifth time.
Now Nancy opened her little jewelry box, revealing a tiny dancing ballerina. She lifted out a silver and turquoise bracelet Gina offered to help her put it on, but Nancy refused, insisting that her father do it. Gary obliged, smiling at his little daughter.
“Why don’t you kids go downstairs?” Melanie said after he had finished. “You can make sure everything looks right.”
“Yea,” Gary said. “Your mother’s expecting the queen of England.”
“It’s just the mayor,” Nancy said.
“The way your mother’s got you kids dressed up,” Gary said, “she might as well be the queen of England.”
“Gary!” Melanie cried.
Gary left the room laughing. Melanie had to admit he was right, though.
Sarah arrived wearing a pale pink suit. Four gold chains hung from her neck, and gold earrings dangled from her ears.
“Boy, she looks rich,” Kyle whispered.
Melanie aimed a swat behind her to hush her son, then smiled and greeted Sarah and Marc Kaufman. Marc, who had brown hair just turning gray and a thin mustache, offered a stark contrast to his wife in his plain, though expensive, gray suit.
“Sarah and Marc,” she said, “I’d like you to meet my husband, Gary.”
“Glad to know you,” Sarah said.
Marc hesitated to extend his hand, seeing Gary’s crutches. But Gary reached out and took his firmly. Marc grinned.
“This is Derek Miller,” Gary said, “my therapist.”
Derek and Marc shook hands, then Melanie introduced the children. Sarah leaned down to Nancy and chucked her under the chin.
“My, aren’t you a pretty little thing?”
Melanie saw Alicen shuffling in the background and quickly said, “This is Alicen Miller, Derek’s daughter. She and her father live with us.”
“Hello, dear,” Sarah said.
“Hello,” Alicen replied, shyly averting her eyes from this stranger.
Sarah and Marc followed everyone down the long hallway. Sarah commented that something smelled luscious, and Melanie told her they were having rib roast for dinner. In the dining room, Sarah complimented Melanie on the centerpiece of azaleas and baby’s breath as she settled herself into a massive oak chair. Melanie suddenly remembered Gary’s comment about the queen of England and bit her lip to suppress a giggle. She turned into the kitchen to get the food, aided by Kyle and Gina.
Gary’s chair had been placed near the sideboard so that he could serve the wine. He turned around and lifted a heavy crystal carafe, filling five matching goblets.
“Excellent wine,” Marc said. “What is it?”
Gary laughed. “You’re asking me? I hardly know the difference between red and rosé!”
“Well, let’s see,” Melanie said, leaning toward the sideboard.
She picked up the empty bottle that sat behind the carafe and brought it closer to read it.
There was a sudden crash, and giving a cry, Melanie jumped away from the table. The bottle had exploded in her hand. Shocked, she held out her palm to Gary, showing a trickle of blood that ran from a gash in her skin.
&
nbsp; “Kyle, get the first-aid kit,” Gary said quickly.
He reached for his crutches, but Derek was already on his feet and leading Melanie into the kitchen. He held a white napkin to her hand to stop the flow of blood. Melanie grimaced in pain.,
“I don’t know how that happened,” she cried as Derek put her hand under a running faucet to wash it.
“You’ll be okay,” Derek said, examining it “It’s a long cut, but not a very deep one.”
Melanie shuddered. “It hurts.”
Kyle entered the kitchen with the first-aid kit and put it on the counter. While Derek opened it to take out a bandage, the little boy stood on tiptoe to see his mother’s hand. Gary, who was standing in the doorway, called to him.
“Kyle, leave your mother alone,” he said.
“Is she gonna be okay?” Kyle asked. “Mom, does it hurt a lot?”
“It just stings,” Melanie said, smiling for his benefit.
Derek wrapped the cut with gauze, then closed the first-aid kit. Holding her hand upright, Melanie reentered the dining room while Gary held the door open for her. She looked around at her guests. Sarah and Marc looked worried, Gina and Nancy were whispering, and Alicen kept her eyes on her lap.
“Wait until you see what I do for an encore,” Melanie joked, hoping to ease the tension.
Everyone laughed. Melanie was glad, for this night was very important to her. She wouldn’t spoil it by letting them know how much her hand hurt.
“What do you suppose happened?” Marc asked.
“Maybe a tremendous pressure built up inside the bottle while it was sitting there for so many months. Melanie just happened to pick it up at the wrong time,” Gary theorized.
“That makes sense,” Derek agreed.
“Yes, I’m sure that’s what it was,” Melanie said, a slight inflection in her voice betraying her uneasiness. She just wanted to forget the whole thing. “Come on, eat the food before it gets cold. Gary, will you carve the roast for us?”
“Yeah,” Kyle said. “I’m hungry.”
Beef, mashed potatoes, and peas made the rounds, and at last everyone settled down to eat. Sarah noticed Melanie was having problems and asked, “Would you like me to cut that meat for you? You really should rest your hand.”
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