“My best friend is dead,” Melanie snapped, “and I’m not supposed to let it bother me?”
Gary waved his hand at her. “Of course you are. But why do you single Janice’s death out in particular? Why didn’t you stop me from mentioning Helen Jennings and Tony DiMagi?”
“That’s different,” Melanie said.
She stood up and headed for the door, not waiting for her husband. The hallway was dark, in spite of the light pouring into it from the study. Melanie’s nerves were on edge, as if anticipating that cold fingers would reach out through the blackness to grab her. But whose fingers?
At the end of the hallway, the small stained-glass window burst open, crashing against the wall.
“What?” Melanie cried out, turning around. She saw Gary in the doorway of his office.
“Just the wind, Melanie,” he said, hobbling to the window to shut it. When he looked out, he noticed the trees were perfectly still.
“Wait for me,” he said as he latched the window. ‘I’ll walk back to our room with you.”
He thought he heard someone laughing in the distance. But he blocked the sound from his ears and went to his wife. He wasn’t about to join her in thinking every little noise was the herald of something evil.
* * *
The next day Gary called his family together. After what had happened last night, he knew it was very important to talk to his children. He and Melanie shared a loveseat, while the children sat on the couch. Nancy bounced up and down playfully, until Gina stopped her. Gary noticed the dark circles under his oldest daughter’s eyes.
“I have to ask you kids something,” Gary said. “Kyle, Gina, Nancy—do any of you ever have dreams like Gina had?”
Kyle looked at the fireplace, as if in deep thought. Nancy brought her thumbs to her mouth. Melanie frowned as she noted Nancy’s gesture. It had been two months since Nancy had sucked her thumbs, and all it took was this suggestion of Gary’s to start her again. Maybe the children had the incident with Jacob Armand more deeply rooted in their minds than she thought?
“I had a lots of dreams right after the accident,” Kyle said. “But you knew about them, ’cause I came into your room a couple of times, remember?”
“I remember,” Gary said. “And that was to be expected so soon after what happened. But I’m asking if you’ve been having dreams lately?”
“No, dad,” Kyle said. “You told us not to think about those things.”
“How about you, Nancy?”
The little girl shrugged.
Melanie looked out the window and saw the bus coming. “Hey, you’d better get going,” she said.
Gary hoisted himself up from the chair and said, “Now, listen. If you ever want to discuss what happened that night, you just come to your mother or me, okay? Don’t bottle your feelings inside.”
“We won’t, dad,” Kyle said, heading out into the hall.
“They’ll be okay,” he said, putting his arm around Melanie. “I just wanted to let them know we won’t make fun of them if they’re still afraid. Now listen,” he said, abruptly changing the subject, “I’ve got news for you that’ll take your mind off of all this.”
“What’s that?”
“Guess where I’m going tomorrow?”
Melanie shrugged.
“To the medical center for tests. Melanie, if I do okay, I may be able to go back to work.”
Melanie’s smile broadened and became genuine. “Gary, that’s wonderful! It’ll be just like it was when we first moved here! The way it was supposed to be—with you going to work and me doing my painting.”
She threw her arms around him. She wanted so much to be happy, to believe that nothing but good could happen to her family from now on.
13
“Hey, Alicen, wait up!”
Alicen recognized Jamie Hutchinson’s voice and quickened her pace toward home. She had been made to stay after school that day. The accident had been heavy on her mind, and she had been caught daydreaming—again. This new teacher was worse than Mr. Percy had ever been. She had yelled at Alicen, humiliating her in front of the whole class. Oh, God, the girl thought, isn’t this day bad enough? All I need now is Jamie Hutchinson teasing me.
“Alicen, I know you can hear me,” Jamie said, his voice right behind her. “Why don’t you stop?”
“Why don’t you go away?” Alicen replied.
“You want a ride home?” Jamie asked, ignoring her remark. He came up alongside her on a bicycle.
“No,” Alicen said plainly.
“It’s a long walk,” Jamie coaxed. “Come on, will you? I rode all the way back to school just ‘cause I thought you’d want a ride home.”
Alicen stopped, considering this. “Really?” she asked. “You really came back for me?”
“Sure,” Jamie said. “Now, hop on, will you?”
He stopped the bicycle and patted the fender behind him. Alicen studied it doubtfully.
“I think I’m too heavy for that,” she said.
“It’s stronger than it looks,” Jamie said. “And besides, I already told you, you aren’t that fat. Get on.”
Alicen sighed with defeat and climbed behind him. She hoped none of her classmates would see them riding together.
They rode on in silence, until they reached the bottom of the hill that led to the VanBuren property. Alicen jumped off the bike, knowing it wouldn’t make it up the hill under their combined weight. She adjusted her skirt and books.
“Thanks, Jamie,” she said. “I’m sorry I acted so stuck-up before.”
But Jamie wasn’t listening. Straddling his bike, his sneakers toeing the asphalt, he was staring at the big gray house. It fascinated him, with its boarded-up windows and brown, overgrown grass. He turned back to Alicen.
“I want to look inside there,” he said.
“You can’t,” Alicen replied. “It’s private property. And besides, how would you get in?”
“I’ll find a way,” Jamie said.
He jumped off his bike and walked it toward the house, dried weeds and crab grass crunching beneath his feet. Alicen ran after him.
“Jamie, you can’t go in there!” she cried. “You’ll get in trouble.”
Jamie stopped and turned to her. “If no one tells on me,” he said, a warning tone in his voice, “I won’t get in trouble. Besides, I’m just looking.”
He found a place to hide his bicycle in the bushes that surrounded the house. To his dismay all the windows and doors were tightly boarded over. Alicen hoped it would discourage him.
“Ah-ha!” Jamie cried. He had discovered an entrance to the basement. An empty, rusted milk can rested against the slanted doors.
“Help me tear some of this up,” he said, pulling at the weeds. Alicen joined him, somewhat reluctantly. “See? They forgot to secure this lock.”
Jamie removed it and set it on top of the milk can. With a heave, he jerked one big door open. The basement below was a black pit, silent and frightening. But this only sharpened Jamie’s curiosity. He hurried down the stone steps. Alicen hesitated but decided she didn’t want to be alone out here and ran after him.
“Brr!” she mumbled. “It’s so cold!”
“Shh,” Jamie said, as if the house had ears. “Help me find the stairs.”
They groped through the darkness, Alicen holding fast to Jamie’s belt. She was struck by a mixture of smells. Cats, rusting metal, old wood. Her hands felt the stucco of a wall, then pulled back when cobwebs brushed her fingers.
“I don’t like this,” she said.
“Here’re the stairs,” Jamie said. “Follow me up.”
Unused for months, the wooden stairs creaked in protest under this new weight. Alicen felt the banister wobbling and tightened her grip on Jamie’s belt. At last he opened the door. They were in the kitchen. A beam of light shining through a crack in the window illuminated the empty floor. Jamie and Alicen stepped further inside.
“I’ll bet she’s watching us,” Jamie sai
d.
“Who?”
“The old lady,” Jamie said. “Helen Jennings. You know she died out on that hill last year?”
“Mrs. VanBuren said she had a heart attack.”
“Uh-uh,” Jamie said. In the half-light, Alicen saw his head shake back and forth. “I’ll bet she was one of the murder victims I told you about.”
“That was a lie!” Alicen cried.
Jamie didn’t reply. He opened a door and walked out of the kitchen. His sneakers made squeaking noises as he moved across the bare wooden floors, investigating each empty room. Their barrenness made them very cold, and Alicen wished she hadn’t come in here after all. Jamie poked around a fireplace in the living room, hoping to discover some treasure the movers had left behind. Alicen looked around the big room but didn’t move from Jamie’s side.
Suddenly something moved in the entranceway to the dining room. Alicen took a step toward it but quickly found herself unable to move. A woman was staring at her. She pointed at Alicen, her long arm glowingly white.
“Leave this place!” she cried. “There is danger, child!”
Alicen was frozen to the floor. The vision continued to point at her, a frothy light in the darkness of the dining room. Alicen wondered what was hidden in that darkness.
“Alicen, let’s look up—”
Jamie turned to see Alicen staring across the room. He snapped his fingers in front of her eyes.
“Alicen!” he cried. “What’s the matter?”
His cries broke her spell, and giving a gasp, Alicen turned to face him. She pointed to the entranceway. “There’s someone standing there!” she hissed.
Jamie squinted his eyes and looked through the darkness. He saw a shimmer of white where Alicen pointed. Someone was standing there, all right, blocking their only exit! For the first time since entering the house, Jamie was scared. Slowly he unbuckled his belt and pulled it through the loops of his jeans. Winding an end around his hand, leaving the buckle free, he walked carefully toward the white light. It did not move.
He raised it in the air, ready to swing it forward with all his might.
“Go away!” Alicen cried. “Leave us alone!”
Jamie gave a cry then and let the buckle of his belt swirl through the air at the unmoving form. It made a loud sound as it struck wood. The sound reverberated through the house like mocking laughter. There was no one there at all.
“Alicen, it’s only a curtain,” Jamie cried. “I just made a fool of myself over a dumb curtain.”
“I know I saw someone there,” Alicen insisted. “She pointed right at me and said, ‘Leave this place. There is danger, child!’ ”
“I think your brain is in danger,” Jamie scoffed. “I didn’t hear a thing.”
“It’s true,” Alicen said.
“Oh, you’re seeing things,” Jamie said. “If you’re so scared to be in this house, I’ll leave.”
He took her by the hand and walked through the darkness to the kitchen. Alicen didn’t protest, only too happy to be getting out of there. But she had seen something. It had spoken to her.
They cut across the dark basement, heading toward the light of the doorway. Once outside, Jamie closed the doors. Then he turned to Alicen, and squinting in the bright sunlight, he said, “If you tell anyone what happened in there, I’ll kill you. I feel like such a jerk—hitting a curtain with a belt!”
“I won’t tell a soul,” Alicen promised. She pulled her hand from his and ran across the lawn, wanting to get as far away from the house as possible. Jamie went to fetch his bicycle, pondering over Alicen’s overactive imagination.
“She’s nuts,” he said, then sighed. Climbing onto his bike, he rode back to the road and headed home.
He didn’t know he was being watched.
I try so hard to warn them, the dark-haired woman thought. I have spoken to Melanie many times, but she ignores me. They all ignore me.
I don’t know that I can save them.
After shepherding Gary through a number of tests and X-rays, Doctor Norton announced that he could go back to work on a three-day-a-week schedule. Derek readily agreed to drive Gary into the city, provided he promise that the remaining days be dedicated to therapy.
“After the bus accident, I knew something good had to happen to this family,” Melanie said when she heard the news. Thoughts of the mysterious dark-haired woman flashed in her mind, but she shook them away. This was a happy occasion, and nothing would mar it.
“You’ve waited so long for this,” she went on, “and now it’s here.”
The next morning, all the children gave Gary kisses of encouragement before they left for school. Around ten, Derek helped Gary put his things in order, then carried the briefcase and crutches downstairs while Gary rode the lift. Derek made a mental note to begin stairs therapy that week.
Gary took the crutches from him at the bottom, then hobbled into the kitchen to say goodbye to Melanie. There were tears in her blue eyes. He laughed and ran a thumb under one of them.
“Hey, this is a happy occasion,” he said.
“Why do you think I’m crying?” Melanie blubbered.
“Well, I’ll see you later tonight,” Gary said, kissing her. “Stop crying and wish me luck.”
“Good luck, Gary,” Melanie said, smiling.
The sun was shining brightly as the two men got into Derek’s car. There was a low hum in the air, the buzz of insects heralding summer. Gary opened his window and breathed in the aroma of flowers on the warm, soft breeze.
“Summer’s so close you can smell it,” he said.
“I love this time of the year,” Derek replied, turning his key. “I met Elaine on a day just like this.”
He looked up at the blue, cloudless sky and pressed his foot on the gas pedal. “Funny how a certain kind of day can make you remember things,” he said.
“For sure,” Gary agreed, wondering if Derek wanted to talk about his wife.
“I don’t think I could ever forget the way Elaine looked that day,” Derek said wistfully. “She was so beautiful.” But he forced his voice into a more cheerful tone. “I’m happy that I met Liza Crewe. She’s giving me something to look forward to in life. I’m hoping to marry her.”
“Hey, that’s great,” Gary said. “Any idea when?”
“I haven’t asked her yet,” Derek said. “I don’t think the time is right, since we’ve only known each other a few weeks. I don’t want to scare her off.”
“It’s usually smart to take it easy,” Gary said. “Although Melanie and I only knew each other for a few months before we tied the knot.”
“Those kind of marriages usually don’t work,” Derek said. “Which is why I hesitate to ask Liza this early on. You and Melanie were lucky.”
“We’ve had our problems,” Gary said.
“So I gathered from what you told me the other night,” Derek said. “Hey, listen. I wanted to apologize for laughing at you.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Gary said. “It is an unbelievable story.”
“Are you taking it back?”
“No,” Gary said. “It’s true. I just hope nothing ever happens again to prove it.”
Derek put on his signal as he headed for the exit ramp. He thought about the things Gary and Melanie had told him and wondered if there wasn’t a germ of truth in them. Not ghosts, of course. Derek firmly believed those things didn’t exist. But he knew some crazy people practiced the occult. Could the prowler who murdered those three people have been one of those?
Whatever, it didn’t concern him. He looked up into his rear-view mirror to be sure no one was tailgating him. Then he returned his eyes to the road. Seconds later, he did a double take.
“Damn!” he cried. “She’s back again.”
“Who?” Gary asked, trying to look out the back window.
“The hitchhiker I told you about,” Derek said, looking in his mirror at her. She was waving slowly. “I was hoping that bitch had decided to leave me alone.”
Gary hadn’t seen anything on the road but thought perhaps that the woman had moved out of his line of vision. He noticed that Derek’s forehead had broken out in a sweat and that his usually calm therapist was chewing at his lips.
“Hey, she’s really gotten to you, hasn’t she?”
“Huh?” Derek jumped a little. “Oh, Jesus in Heaven. I guess so. I had forgotten about her, but it looks as if she’s moving in on me again.”
“Somebody ought to call the police about her,” Gary suggested.
Derek reached the parkway exit, and he sped onto it, glad to be getting away from the woman. He didn’t understand why she frightened him so much. But he had seen something in her eyes a moment ago—the look one sometimes sees in the faces of killers pictured in the newspapers. If Jacob Armand—or whoever the prowler was—had belonged to some occult group, could she have also been a member? Was that why she was hanging around the VanBuren house?
A short while later, Derek dropped Gary off at his building.
“I’ll see you later today,” he said.
“Thanks,” Gary said, and turned to walk inside the building.
WELCOME BACK, GARY!
The sign was stretched across the waiting room, from a translucent glass door that read Warren Lee to one that read Gary VanBuren. Gary rocked on his crutches, grinning up at it. The secretary, who had been hired during his absence, asked politely if he needed help.
“I work here,” he said, grinning at the sound of those words. “I’m Gary VanBuren.”
“Oh!” the young woman said, standing. She rounded the desk, a petite redhead with a broad smile. She held out a hand, and Gary shook it. “I’m Judy Palance. Mr. Lee’s told me so much about you! Can I help you sit down? Then I’ll go get—”
Gary assured her that he was fine. The door to Warren Lee’s office opened then, and a handsome young Asian man stepped out. Seeing Gary, he smiled and went to put his arms around his partner. Then he stepped back and looked him over.
“It’s been a long time,” he said. He gave him a slight punch. “You look terrific. Are those muscles I see under that suit?”
Gary looked from one arm to the other. “I guess that’s from lifting weights. The way my therapist pushes me, you’d think I was training for the fight of the century.”
Ghost House Revenge Page 13
