Reed was not where he was supposed to be.
Julie whimpered and leaned her head into Sly's shoulder.
"Don't touch anything down there," Pierce said sharply as I ran a finger through the moss. "And get the hell up here."
After closing the lid, I pulled myself out and brushed the dirt off my pants. "So," I said to Sly, "that was Reed we saw last night."
Sly stroked Julie's hair. "We don't know that," he said. "Reed was dead. Even you saw him in this coffin at the funeral. Explain to me how a person comes to life after having his blood drained and replaced with embalming fluid."
I shrugged. "Then he's not alive." I paused for a second. "But he's walking around Dodsville like he is."
"What the hell are you two talking about?" Pierce asked, shaking his head. "You trying to tell me you both saw Reed Price last night?"
I nodded. "It's a long story."
"I'm not doing anything right now," Pierce said. "So spill it."
He remained quietly listening the entire time I told him about Tabitha seeing, and talking with, Reed out at the mansion, Charlie seeing him the night after the drowning behind the tavern, and Sly and I seeing him at Wickerman's only last night. Julie and Sly sat down against the pine when I began the story, but didn't help me at all. They just stared at me without expression. The only sound other than my voice was the singing of the frogs in a nearby ditch begging for more rain.
When I finished, Pierce took off his hat and scratched the top of his head. "All right," he said after a long sigh, "let's get this grave filled back in. If I report this incident to the sheriff's department, Ryan'll have the three of you behind bars in a minute. Not to mention that the district attorney would cum in his pants at the same time." He shook his head. "And we can't have that. At least not until I know more about what's going on in this damn hick town."
I stared at him mutely. Did he actually believe me?
"What are you looking at? I'm letting you off."
"Why are you doing this?"
He sighed again. “Because someone killed the guard I had watching Beliwitz's body at the hospital's morgue. And that same person stole Beliwitz's body without anyone seeing him. That's why. My guard was killed with the same M.O., meaning Beliwitz wasn't the one we were looking for. Or at least he didn't work alone."
Sly stood, brushing off the back of his pants. "So what do we have to do with that? We were nowhere near the hospital tonight."
"I know," Pierce replied. "I had you tailed. And when my man told me you had turned off the highway and into the cemetery, I became more than curious." He cleared his throat and nodded toward Reed's open grave. "Then when I get here I find you doing a little grave digging. I thought you might be disposing of Beliwitz's body. But then I thought, why? You were already cleared of any murder charges." He pointed at me. "And somebody tried to kill your ass by blowing it up." He lowered his voice. "And I'm willing to bet money they'll try it again."
"So," I said, catching on, "I'm supposed to be bait, is that what you're thinking?"
"Either that or I have the bunch of you arrested for grave robbing."
Julie jumped vehemently to her feet. "No!" She walked up to me and stood protectively by my side. "I won't go along with this." She turned to face Pierce. "Haven't enough people been hurt already?"
Pierce nodded toward me. "Decision is yours."
Sly only shrugged weakly when I looked to him for help. Julie only shook her head. Her cheeks had been burned red from her tears.
"What choice do I have?" I told them. "If we go to trial on this, we'll be found guilty for sure. I'd rather be on the outside, working constructively to find Melissa. Even if it does mean risking my life. Everyone I've loved or cared for has been taken from me while I stood on the sidelines and watched. Now I have the opportunity to do something. Don't deny me that. Not after all I've gone through."
Neither one replied.
"If I'm wanted dead," I added, "prison bars wouldn’t stop it. The killer or killers have already proven they can get to anyone anywhere."
Still no reply from Sly or Julie.
I turned to Pierce. "Let's get this grave refilled."
He grabbed a shovel without saying anything and went to work. I picked up the other shovel to help as best as I could, but Sly took it away from me.
"Go sit down and watch, invalid," he said, smiling as best as he could.
I gave him the shovel without protest and sat next to Julie by the pine tree. She wouldn't even look at me.
"By all rights I should be dead now anyway," I told her. "But I'm not. And I don't know why."
"Why don't we keep it that way?" she whispered without looking up from her lap.
"I've been spared for a reason, Julie," I said, grabbing her hand and squeezing it lightly. "I can go after Tabitha's killer." I paused briefly. "And find Melissa."
She finally faced me. "You love Melissa, don't you?"
I nodded without hesitation. "So, you understand?"
She leaned her head on my shoulder. "What's going on in this town, Stephen?" She started to cry. "And where is my little brother?"
"That is what I intend to find out," I replied. "And that is what I shall find out."
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT:
Second Thoughts
The following morning I was awakened out of a deep, and surprisingly comforting, sleep by the peal of the telephone. Someone answered it on the third ring, and I jammed the pillow over my head. I hoped to get at least another hour or two of dozing before I had to start the day, but a knock at my bedroom door told me I was going to be out of luck.
"Who is it?" I yelled angrily from under my pillow. Maybe the tone of my voice would ward off whoever it was.
"Me," Julie said, walking in without an invitation. "You have a phone call. Get up; it sounds important." She left, leaving the door open behind her.
I pulled on my pair of jeans and stumbled out to the kitchen, trying to comb my hair with my hands. The receiver lay next to the phone. "Hello."
"Mr. O'Neal?" a male voice at the other end of the line asked. "Stephen O'Neal?"
"That's what my wallet says. What can I do for you?" I didn't recognize the voice, and I prepared myself for more bad news.
Julie walked into the dining room and sat at the table. She smiled at me for a second and turned her attention to her breakfast in front of her.
The voice on the phone cleared his throat. "This is Adam Scott, your grandmother's attorney here in Milwaukee. You certainly are a hard man to track down, Mr. O'Neal. I've been trying to reach you since her death. Finally, I remembered reading an article about you in the paper. The article claimed you were in Dodsville. You were in a bad accident, right?"
I said nothing.
The lawyer cleared his throat again. "I have your grandmother's will here with me, and we could set up a time at your convenience to discuss it."
Was that supposed to make me feel better?
"I could be up there in Dodsville sometime around three o'clock this afternoon, if that's all right?"
"I'll be right here," I replied. "You have the address?"
He said he did and I hung up.
Julie ate her breakfast without looking up at me. She was wearing one of Sly's shirts and a pair of slippers. As I approached her, I could see her shapely tanned legs under the table.
"Who's coming here?" she asked when I sat next to her.
A half empty box of donuts lay in the middle of the table and I grabbed one. "My grandmother's attorney," I replied. I took a bite out of the donut. Stale. "He's coming here for the reading of her will. Hope you don't mind that I told him we could use this place. It won't take long, I'm sure, as I'm her only remaining relative." I knew I could have used my room at the boarding house. The rent was paid until the end of the month, but I didn't want to go back there alone. Not after all that had happened.
"If it'll keep you off the street and out of danger, then I don't mind at all." She grabbed a donut out of the bo
x and bit into it. She immediately wrinkled her nose in disgust, and threw it back in the box. I've been thinking," she said, after taking a drink of her orange juice. "Maybe it would be smart if the three of us got out of town for a while. Maybe even spend the rest of the summer in Milwaukee at your grandmother's house. It's probably yours now."
Sly stumbled down the stairs and plopped down at the table. He rubbed his eyes emphatically and squinted at me. "I must still be asleep," he said. "Stephen's up already?"
"Got a phone call," I said.
"Ann?" He picked out a donut, smelled it, and placed it gently back in the box.
"His grandmother's lawyer," Julie replied for me. "He's coming here today for the reading of her will."
"When?"
I replied, "About three o'clock, he said." Sly's mention of Ann got me thinking about her--and how much I wanted to see her. She resided alone, and with everything that was happening in Dodsville she was an easy target. Maybe I would just go and see how she was doing. Julie's idea of heading off to Milwaukee until the situation cooled here was a good one. Not for me, of course. I needed to stay to find Melissa. But Julie and Ann could leave together.
"Julie's come up with a plan," I said to Sly, who had gone to the stove to scramble a couple of eggs.
He cracked a third egg and dropped the contents into the pan. "What's that?"
"I was just telling Stephen," Julie replied, wiping her mouth, "that maybe it would be a good idea to get out of Dodsville a while. Maybe spend some time in Milwaukee."
I pointed to Julie behind her back, hoping Sly would get the hint. He nodded slightly.
"What about your job at the hospital?" Sly asked.
"I'll take a leave of absence. A lot of people have left Dodsville already, and it's a little slow there anyway. They won't miss me. Much."
I wanted Sly to stay behind with me, but if we could get the women in our lives out of danger we would have incalculably less to worry about.
"Well," Julie said at length. "At least it's something to think about." She finished her orange juice and got up from the table. "And don't forget, Stephen, you have an appointment at the hospital at eleven this morning about your arm.”
I had forgotten. In fact, I couldn't even recall making an appointment.
"I made it for you," Julie said, reading my mind. "Well, someone has to look out for your well-being. You're not doing such a hot job of it." She smiled, and that made me feel warm inside. From the way she reacted last night, I was afraid she might never smile naturally again.
I smiled back. "I'll be there," I replied, and meant it. Maybe I would no longer need to wear this god-awful cast on my arm. It was only a little after eight o'clock now, so I would have plenty of time to walk to the hospital and visit Ann on the way back.
Sly shared half of his scrambled eggs with me. Julie left to the bathroom to shower, and we could now talk about her.
"Did you catch my amendment to Julie's plan?" I asked, after I heard the water running upstairs.
Sly washed down the breakfast in his mouth with some orange juice. "You mean about us sending her alone?"
"You're smarter than I give you credit for," I said. "Except I want to send Ann along with her. You think Julie will go for that?"
"If we can convince her to leave without us, then yes."
We sat in silence for a minute. "About last night," I said at length. We had been avoiding the topic all morning, and I felt it was time to discuss it. The implications of finding Reed's coffin empty were too important to ignore for long.
"Later," Sly replied. "I want to enjoy this morning for a bit, if you don't mind. I have the feeling we're not going to have this opportunity for serenity for some time to come."
I nodded, understanding him. The horror in Dodsville had taken an ominous turn for the worse.
I finished the stale donut I had started on earlier and went to my bedroom. I changed my jeans for a pair of shorts, as already the day was hot and humid. Last night's respite from the heat must have only been a brief, tantalizing interlude.
Julie had finished with her shower and met me at the front door on my way out. "Where do you think you're going?" she asked, blocking my exit.
"I thought I'd walk and enjoy the morning," I replied. "And maybe if I get to the hospital a little early, I'll get out a little early. I want to stop by and see how Ann is doing afterward."
"Oh, I don't know if you should be worrying about Ann Smith. I'll bet she's had a guy staying with her since the day you left her."
"Even so, I'd feel better if I saw that for myself."
She grabbed me by my shirt collar with both hands. "You really going to the hospital?"
I laughed. "I promise."
Sly entered the living room and dug his car keys out of his pocket. "Use my car," he said, proffering the keys. "And hurry back. We need to discuss some things." He winked.
I refused the keys. "I'd rather walk, if you don't mind. But I'll hurry back, and then we can talk." I knew he wanted to talk about Reed and didn't want to say anything in front of Julie. She was in a halfway cheerful mood, and it was better if she stayed that way for a while.
Julie stepped out of my way and allowed me to pass. "Be careful," she said, and kissed me on the cheek.
"Careful’s my middle name," I replied.
The sun beat hard on my back as I walked along the sidewalk. The lawns next to me already had brown spots where the sun was never shaded, and I expected that in a few more weeks there'd be a lot more of the crisp brown grass and less of the cool green color. Where the grass did grow, it needed mowing. In some areas, the grass had even begun to seed.
Taking off my shirt, I flung it over my shoulder. My walk to the hospital took me past my old house where I lived as a child. I remembered walking past it once before, on my first day back in Dodsville, and a little girl had played in the front yard then. Now the lawn was void of any human life. The house was silent; all the shades were pulled down. I reached out and touched the bark of the tree I had climbed as a child, and I felt the urge to climb it now. But I didn't; I kept on walking, shutting out Reed's childhood voice telling me that we would always climb trees--even as adults.
A drape in the house parted slightly and half a head appeared in the crack. I smiled and waved, but whoever it was quickly pulled back. Not quite the same reaction I received seven weeks ago. Not even close.
I arrived at the hospital an hour before my scheduled appointment, but Doctor Werner wasn't all that busy and I only had to sit in the waiting room for twenty minutes. He cut off my cast and x-rayed my arm.
"Real close," he said when I asked him if the bone had healed. "You won't need to wear a cast any longer." He eyed me over the top of his glasses. "If you promise me you won't play any football or do anything else aggressive enough to rebreak that arm."
I promised.
"Then we'll only wrap it with a steel plate underneath. I want you to keep using the sling, too."
"For how long?" My spirits sank, but only a little.
"A week. Two at the most."
He told me not to attempt lifting anything weighing more than a pound with my left hand, and I went on my way. I had hoped to be completely free of restraints, but at least the steel plate wasn't nearly as cumbersome as the cast. I was even able to use my left hand now. That would come in handy, I was sure.
Ann lived a mile from the hospital, and I reached her apartment twenty minutes later. As I climbed the stairs on the outside of the house up to her tenement on the second floor, a sudden chill ran down my spine. In the heat it was very much out of place. I hesitated before knocking, suddenly having a foreboding feeling that maybe something terrible had happened inside. The door creaked open and Ann peered around the corner. She smiled as soon as she recognized me, but that smile lasted only a second.
"Stephen." Her tone hinted relief. She frowned, and I felt like turning around and heading back down the stairs. Maybe it was a mistake to visit her without calling first. "Wh
at are you doing here? Is something the matter?"
"Hi," I said, forcing a smile. "I just came by to see how you were doing. Is this a bad time?"
She lifted her head to look beyond me. "You alone?"
I nodded.
She smiled again, though weakly, and unlatched the chain. "Come on in. You know you're always welcome here." Her voice quivered with uneasiness.
I stepped into her kitchen, and she immediately shut the door and bolted it behind me. She left the chain hanging. "I haven't seen you around."
I followed her into the living room. "Sorry about that," I replied. "Other events in my life have kept me busy. Not that they were more important than your welfare, though."
I sat on the couch, expecting her to sit next to me. Instead, she sat in a recliner on the opposite side of the room. Again I got the feeling that I shouldn't be here.
"I've come up with an idea," I said. "Well, actually Julie is the brain behind it."
"And what's that?" She wrung her hands nervously.
"What would you say about leaving Dodsville for a while?" I paused while she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "Until this horror passes. You and Julie can stay at my grandmother's house in Milwaukee. You'll both be safe there. At least a hell of a lot safer than staying here.”
She gave me a little smile, and I could see tears forming in her eyes. "That's really sweet of you, Stephen." She spoke so quietly I could barely hear her. She looked down to her hands in her lap. "If only you would have come around with that offer a few days ago." A single tear slid down her left cheek.
Something had happened to her a couple of days ago, I thought. But what? I stood and started walking over to her, but she emphatically held up her hands to stop me.
"No!" she said, her expression turning almost hostile. "Don't come near me. Please."
I sat in the chair closest to her, but still out of reach. She, in response, moved to the far side of her recliner. "What's wrong?" I asked, more than a little baffled.
She looked toward her bedroom door and, by her expression I thought there might be someone in there.
The Revenant: A Horror in Dodsville Page 34
