Anna tried to look away, but couldn’t. She saw semen and blood between the woman’s outstretched and bound legs. Her vagina and anus gaped wide and continued to ooze forth the mixture, which dripped down into a growing pool below. The woman screamed continuously in agony.
“We have to help her!” Anna turned to Detective Malmann, who kept his gaze fixed on the bed. She then looked back at the woman. Their eyes met and locked.
“Aidez-moi,” the woman begged and cried out to Anna. “Aidez-moi.”
Anna watched as the woman’s eyes darted first to one side, then the other. “No!” the woman shrieked as shadows crossed her face from the left and the right. “No no no!”
Anna saw a cut begin as a thin line on the side of the woman’s neck, perhaps two inches below her ear. It drew red slowly to the other side. The cut was only skin deep, but served as a guide. A larger unseen knife followed it, sawing into and finally through the woman’s throat until her head fell free from her body.
Anna closed her eyes. She heard the sound of people laughing. She closed them even tighter when she felt a hand run through her hair, and something hard very gently trace a line from one side of her neck to the other. Anna didn’t open her eyes until the voices and the feeling of being touched faded away. When she did, she saw only Detective Malmann leaning over the bed. He reached out with his left hand and touched the white sheet, which still covered the mattress.
“You saw her, didn’t you?” Anna asked, both relieved that she wasn’t hallucinating and terrified at the validation of what she had seen.
When Detective Malmann pulled his hand away, his finger tips were covered with fresh blood. He stared at them for a moment, before the blood faded away and was gone.
“Yeah,” he said slowly. “I saw her.”
Chapter 28
“I want to hold a séance in 531.” Anna and Detective Malmann had returned to the lobby without saying a word. Anna waited until they had rejoined Stacy and Phillipe before revealing the decision she’d made before she and the detective had even left that room. “I think it’s the only way.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Stacy laughed. “A séance? Come on, Anna. I think you have the wrong century.”
“Then again, why not a séance?” Phillipe said. “Perhaps you should not dismiss the idea so quickly. Something could happen, no?”
“Yeah? Like what?” Stacy asked. “Like levitating tables and rattling chains? Or maybe you can contact Jim Morrison and find out if there are drugs in Heaven.”
“I don’t think a séance is a good idea either,” Detective Malmann said. “Not with the way everything’s been going.”
“But you saw for yourself that there’s something in that room,” Anna said. “And you know it has something to do with all the murders.”
“Whoa, slow down,” Detective Malmann put up his arms. “I’ll admit that there was something. Now, it could just as well have been my imagination as my eyes.”
“You know that’s bullshit. And anyway, even if somehow we both imagined seeing the exact same thing at the exact same time in the exact same place, a séance couldn’t do any harm. But, if what I think is true, and you really want to solve these murders, then you’d help me do it. You know I have to do it.”
Detective Malmann took a deep breath. He glanced at his fingertips. “Okay. But I have to be there.”
“Fine.”
“What?” Stacy said loudly enough to attract the attention of everyone in the lobby, and a couple of people walking by on the street. She looked around at those looking at her. “Sorry.”
Stacy turned back to the immediate group and whispered, “What?”
“Stacy, it’s got to be done, and I need Detective’s Malmann’s support to get anywhere near that room.”
“Anna, I love you. You know I love you. So forgive me for saying this, but you’re a wreck. I bet you’ve lost twenty pounds, and you look like shit.”
“Thanks.”
“Seriously, Anna, the last thing you need to do is put yourself through some hocus pocus séance. You have to let this go, and let it go now.”
“Not until it’s done.”
“You are so fucking stubborn.”
“That’s why you love me.”
“And you,” Stacy turned to Detective Malmann. “You call yourself a cop? What, are séance sessions now admissible as evidence in court or something? How could you go along with this crazy shit?”
“She’s your friend.”
“Okay, so you want to have a séance,” Stacy said to Anna. “You don’t know dick about having a séance.”
“I know enough,” Anna said. “We use to have them in high school.”
“Oh wow, high school. Did anything ever happen at one of your high school séances?”
* * *
Anna was momentarily silenced by a string of memories, a series of events she hadn’t thought of since she was 18. In her junior and senior years in high school, she and a group of her friends had started having séances, first as a joke, then more seriously. It got to the point where they were held every weekend and then finally several times a week. They didn’t stop until one particular night, a night when the candle went out.
Anna remembered the feeling of marrow deep fear as she sat in the darkness that night, holding the hands of friends on either side of her. They had been concentrating on the flame, when it simply went out. There was no wind, no wax, no reason for it to do so.
This particular séance was held at a girl’s house whose parents were away for the night. What was her name? Anna couldn’t recall. They’d been so close in high school, and she couldn’t remember her name.
Anna did remember sitting in complete silence in that pitch-black basement. There wasn’t a sound until everyone heard the shattering of glass coming from upstairs.
“Turn on the light!” Anna remembered yelling.
A boy named Rob broke from the circle and found the switch next to the stairway. When her eyes adjusted to the light, Anna saw that his face was void of color and filled with fear. She was sure she looked the same.
“Holy shit, what happened?” Anna could still hear another girl, Loraine?, say.
“The noise came from the kitchen,” the girl who lived in the house said. “Come on.” She led the way up the stairs.
In her mind Anna could see everyone getting up from the séance table. She remembered running up those stairs to the kitchen and seeing the girl open the kitchen cupboard doors. Every glass inside had shattered.
“My parents are going to kill me.”
“Shut up,” Rob had said. “Is everyone okay? Did anyone feel anything else when the candle went out. We all know what its suppose to mean.”
Everyone knew. It was the reason no one moved when it had happened. When the flame goes out for no reason at a séance, it means death.
Anna remembered Rob counting the people. “All present, all accounted for, all alive,” he laughed. “Thank God and let’s party.”
All of the teenagers stayed overnight at the girls house.
Anita. Her name was Anita.
They smoked pot, drank wine and listened to very loud music. Some of them fucked. Everyone played harder than usual. They were glad to be alive, and happy to forget the darkness. It wasn’t until the next morning that they got the news about a boy named Gary, Gary Newsome. Anna shuttered.
Gary was going to attend the séance the night before, but didn’t after getting into an argument with Rob. It was Rob who called to tell her that Gary had been killed instantly at just abut the time the candle had gone out. His car hit a tree at what the newspaper reported as a very high rate of speed. Gary died when he was thrown through the windshield. Anna could still see his closed casket. Someone told her that they couldn’t have it open because he had been too badly mangled by the broken glass.
* * *
“Yeah,” Anna looked at Stacy. “Things happened.”
“You know you’re going to end up in some
psycho ward if you keep this up, don’t you?”
“Stacy,” Anna looked into her friend’s eyes. “I am going to do this, with or without your permission. You don’t have to be part of it.”
“Yeah, right,” Stacy smirked.
“You don’t.”
“Of course I do,” Stacy hugged Anna. “Someone’s gotta protect your crazy little butt.”
Anna hugged her back, happy with Stacey’s decision.
“Not to mess up a moment,” Detective Malmann said. “But when do you want to do this séance thing?’
“Tomorrow night,” Anna answered immediately. “10pm.”
“I’m sure Inspector Cerone will want to be there too.”
“The more the merrier,” Anna smiled. “Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but I would very much like to get mother-stinking-fucking drunk.”
“I like the way you talk,” Stacy laughed.
“Would you care to join us, Detective Malmann?” Anna asked. “I think maybe you could use it too.”
“No thanks,” Detective Malmann said. “I still have a bunch of paperwork to do.”
“Are you sure?” Stacy smiled as seductively as Stacy could. It was not one of her better expressions.
“Yeah,” Detective Malmann smiled back. “I also gotta get an early start tomorrow. Another time?”
“Another place.”
“If you two are done,” Anna said. “I want to go freshen up.”
She pulled Stacy to come along. “So, let’s get to the important things,” Anna joked as they walked away. “Do you really think I’ve lost weight?”
When the women disappeared into the elevator, Detective Malmann turned to Phillipe. “Boy, she really knew when she wanted to have the séance, didn’t she.”
“Oui, and for good reason,” Phillipe said.
“Yeah? Like what?’
“Tomorrow is August 27th.”
“Ah huh, so?”
“August 27th is the anniversary of the murder of Ariene LaMoreau.”
* * *
Anna and Stacy joined Phillipe in the bar fifteen minutes later. “No detective, eh?” Stacy said as she sat down at the table. “To bad. he was kind of cute.”
“You really have to do something about your taste in men,” Anna said. “Remember, he’s the detective who arrested Tom.”
“I know,” Stacy nodded. “But as they say, a good dick is hard to find.”
“You don’t have many hard dicks in America?” Phillipe smiled. “That is not a problem in Paris.”
“It was a joke,” Stacy laughed. “You know, dick . . . meaning like a detective.”
“Ah, slang, oui?”
“Oui.”
“Even so, my statement still holds true,” Phillipe continued. “That is not a problem in Paris.”
“May I help you,” a new bartender asked as he approached his three unwelcomed customers. His voice was chilled and he never made eye contact with anyone at the table.
“Wine?” Phillipe suggested.
“Shooters?” Anna counter offered.
“More slang?”
“You got some tequila in Paris?” Stacy looked at Phillipe sweetly “To go with all your hard dicks?”
Phillipe ordered in French, then said in English, “I think you can be well satisfied on both fronts. “
Not a minute after he left the table the bartender returned with a bottle of tequila, a small porcelain bowl filled with lemon slices, three small crystal glasses and a matching shaker of salt.
“Merci,” Anna said as the bartender made his delivery, filled the glasses and walked back to the bar as quickly as possible.
An hour later the bottle was empty, the lemons were gone and Stacy had fallen off her chair.
“I think we better get her to her room,” Anna’s speech was slurred and her vision was fuzzy.
“I’ll take care of it,” Phillipe lifted Stacy to her feet.
“Thanks, Phillipe,” Anna rose and touched his cheek. “If it’s okay with you, I’m just going to go up to my room. I’ll be there if you need anything.”
Anna barely had time to weave her way to her room and start undressing before Phillipe was at her door, holding a tray with two slightly larger glasses filled with tequila. Each was on a china plate with a slice of lemon and a tiny salt cellar. The tray also held a candle and a red rose.
“Phillipe, what are you doing here?”
“You said if I need anything . . .” Phillipe let the statement hang in the air on its own.
“And what exactly is it that you need?” Anna tried to sound cold and sober, but she knew that it came out quite the opposite on both counts.
“A nightcap?” Phillipe held up the tray for Anna to see. She moved away from the door.
Phillipe walked in and placed the tray on the night stand. He then picked up both glasses. Handing one to Anna, he raised his in a toast. “A nightcap and you.”
With her mind numbed, Anna acted on impulse and desire. She and Phillipe looked deeply into each others eyes as they drank the tequila. Neither bothered with the lemon or the salt.
As soon as their glasses were empty, Phillipe took Anna’s glass and placed it with his own back on the tray. He moved close to Anna, never losing eye contact or control. Just as he had arrived at her room moments earlier, Anna had started to undress. She had unclasped her jeans and was pulling down the zipper when he knocked. She hadn’t bothered, or remembered to redo what had been undone before answering the door. Now Phillipe reached forward to gently complete the job. Anna did not back away.
Their eyes never parted as Phillipe pulled the zipper apart, or when her reached up and put his hands on either side or her waist. Phillipe took the denim in his hands and carefully, almost cautiously started to lower Anna’s jeans over her hips. As he did so, he followed their course with his body.
Now, he was kneeling before her and her jeans were on the floor. Anna stepped out of them. Phillipe very softly kissed the front of her panties before pulling them down as well.
Phillipe leaned forward. Anna sighed when she felt his breath against her pubic hair. She moaned and spread her legs when she felt his tongue.
Before rising, Phillipe removed his pants. When he stood up, Anna could feel his hard cock against her stomach. Anna was suddenly very frightened by what was about to happen. She tried to pull away. But Phillipe held her. He lifted her onto the bed.
“No, Phillipe, stop.”
“Not now,” Phillipe climbed on top of her and forced her legs apart with his knees. “Not ever.” He entered her roughly and completely.
Despite herself Anna climaxed when Phillipe did.
“You bastard,” Anna moaned, feeling him softening inside her.
“No,” Phillipe gently kissed her lips and withdrew. “I am much more than that.”
Before Anna could respond, the last of the tequila took hold and she passed into a deep and uncomfortable sleep.
Chapter 29
Anna awoke the next morning terrified and ashamed. She reached down and touched her vagina, which remained full of Phillipe’s semen. It dribbled down the inside of her thighs as she got up and ran to the bathroom. She showered for a long time, trying to cleanse herself of what she viewed as last night’s sin.
After the shower Anna quickly dried herself and walked into the bedroom. Phillipe slept soundly on the bed, naked and content. Anna silently dressed and left the room without again looking at the bed. Once safely outside in the hallway, she leaned back against the door for a moment and took several deep breaths. She then walked quickly away to visit Tom.
* * *
Despite the shower, she could still feel Phillip burning inside her when she was led into the visitor’s room at the police station. Tom sat in a small cubicle, on the other side of a reinforced pane of glass. Anna sat down on a hard wooden chair. She pressed the palm of her hand up against the glass. Tom did the same. Both picked up the black telephones that were attached to the walls on their respectiv
e sides of the cubicle.
“I love you.”
Tom’s first words struck Anna to her very core. “I love you too.” Anna remembered Phillipe’s cock and what it felt like as he forced it into her. She remembered her orgasm and started to cry. “I really do love you.”
“Hey,” Tom smiled sadly. “I’m the one in jail.”
“I’m sorry,” Anna sniffled. “I just miss you.”
Anna knew that Tom had known she was hiding the truth. He always could tell when she was concealing something or lying, and would nag her incessantly into agreeing to show and tell all. This time however, all Tom said was, “Me too, baby. Me too.”
“So,” Anna swallowed her tears and her guilt. She would tell Tom everything that happened, but not now, not in this jail. “Are you all right?”
“I guess so,” Tom said. “They’re keeping me in a cell by myself, which is okay. The last thing I need is a new girlfriend named Pierre.”
Both Anna and Tom thought of Jeffrey and Duncan. Neither laughed at Tom’s joke.
“Anna, they really think I killed that woman.” Tom’s tone was deliberate and serious.“That America cop, Malmann, told me about the hair, and the fingers. I have no idea how they got into our room.” Tom shook his head. “I really don’t.”
“I know,” Anna said. “And I think that maybe Detective Malmann might be changing his mind.”
“You do? Really?” For the first time since the visit started, Tom sounded hopeful. He sounded almost like himself.
“Yes. Just hang on Tom. I’ll get you out of there.”
“How? What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to end it,” Anna said calmly. “Tonight.”
Before Tom could ask what she meant, a guard stepped up to him and said their time was up.
Tom squeezed his fingers against the glass that separated his hand from hers.
“Let’s go,” The guard pulled Tom’s hand away.
“I love you,” Tom said before the guard took the phone and hung it up on the receiver. Anna could see the contempt in the guard’s eyes as he pulled Tom to his feet. Anna watched as he led Tom out of the room.
The Haunting of Anna McAlister Page 21
