The Complete Beast House Chronicles

by Richard Laymon

  Nora said, ‘Not a thing.’ Jack shook his head.

  ‘If the motel’s going to close up,’ Tyler said, ‘we’d better find out. ‘Her heart started racing. ‘Why don’t Abe and I go on ahead and check it out? We can register, if everything’s okay, and meet you back here.’

  ‘Terrif.’

  ‘That okay with you, Abe?’ Tyler asked.

  ‘Let’s go.’

  They left Nora and Jack spreading towels on the sand, and trudged up the slope. Tyler was eager and nervous. The parking area seemed very far away, as if the path had stretched itself simply to frustrate her. At last, they reached the car. Abe opened the passenger door. He rolled down its window, and tossed the towels into the back seat.

  ‘Whoa,’ Tyler said. ‘I’d better put something on.’

  ‘You look fine,’ he said.

  With a shrug, she climbed in. She jumped at the burning touch of the seat cover, then settled down and watched Abe wince as he sat behind the wheel. ‘Hurt?’ she asked.

  ‘I can take it.’

  ‘We should’ve put clothes on.’

  ‘I like you this way.’ Reaching over, he slid a hand up her leg. He patted her thigh, met her eyes for a moment, then started the car.

  Tyler slumped down in her seat as they passed through the middle of town. Abe kept glancing at her, looking a bit amused. He drove in silence.

  Nervous? she wondered.

  ‘We’ll check the office later,’ he said finally.

  Except for Gorman Hardy’s Mercedes, the courtyard of the Welcome Inn was deserted.

  ‘My room’ll be fine,’ Tyler whispered.

  He parked in front of it. Tyler stepped out into the shade. A mild breeze chilled the sweat on her skin. Leaning over the back seat, she gathered her handbag and all her clothes.

  Her hands were trembling. She dropped the room key on the stoop. Abe picked it up and unlocked the door.

  The room was dusky, the curtains drifting out from the open windows. The bed Tyler had slept in last night was still unmade. She stepped over to the dressing table, and emptied her arms.

  In the mirror, she saw Abe come up behind her. Parting her hair, he kissed the nape of her neck. He caressed her sides, her belly. She watched his hands glide upward, and moaned as they cupped her breasts through the filmy bikini.

  ‘Tyler,’ he whispered.

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘It’s a nice name.’

  ‘It’s a weird name.’

  ‘I like it. I like everything about you.’

  ‘Flatterer.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Do you like my sweat?’

  ‘I like how it makes you slippery,’ he said, sliding his hands down her belly.

  ‘Soap will do that, too.’

  ‘Mmm.’

  ‘Let’s take a shower.’

  He fingered the ties at her hip. She lifted his hand away. ‘Patience. We’ve got to rinse the salt water off our suits.’

  He laughed softly and followed her into the bathroom. Leaning over the tub, Tyler turned on the hot water faucet. She kept a hand under the spout. The water, cold at first, slowly became warm. She flinched with surprise when Abe touched her rump. His hand was big and warm. It moved slowly lower. She gasped and felt her legs go weak when it stole between them. She gripped the edge of the tub to hold herself steady. Steam rose from the splashing water, hot against her face. She looked around. Abe gave her an innocent smile, and his hand went away.

  Tyler turned on the cold water. She adjusted the faucet and touched the water. Still too hot. She reached again to the faucet, and felt Abe’s fingers on her hip. Looking back, she saw him pluck open the knotted cords. He let the ends fall. The white triangle at her groin swung away like a hinged flap. She twisted the faucet. Abe untied the other side. She turned the faucet slightly more and felt a tingling brush of fabric as Abe drew the garment away. He tossed it over her head. It dropped into the tub.

  ‘You’re very helpful,’ Tyler said.

  ‘I try to be.’

  She touched the water. It felt right. ‘What about your trunks?’ she asked as she twisted the shower handle.

  ‘That’s your job.’

  The spray came down. Straightening up quickly, Tyler yanked the shower curtain almost shut. She reached through the gap to test the temperature. Abe, standing beside her, moved a hand down her back and rump. ‘It’s ready,’ she said.

  ‘Ladies first.’

  Tyler climbed into the tub. She passed through the spray and backed up against a tile wall. Abe stepped in. He closed the curtain and turned to face her, one eye squeezed shut against the pelting shower, a rather silly smile on his face.

  Tyler eased into his arms. The water rained down on their faces as they kissed. His body was slick against her. His hands roamed down her back, caressed and plied her buttocks as if he was fascinated by the firm mounds. Then they slid up. They opened the ties behind her back, behind her neck. Holding onto the neck cords, he stepped away and peeled the bikini down. He let it fall to their feet. He gazed at her streaming breasts. He explored them with his hands, stroking and holding and squeezing, clasping the nipples between his thumb and forefingers, pinching them gently in a way that made Tyler catch her breath and squirm.

  Crouching, he rubbed his face on them. She felt his nose, the tickle of an eyelash, the rasp of whiskers, kisses, the soft circling tip of his tongue, the firm pressure of his lips, the edges of his teeth. Tyler clenched his hair as he sucked. His mouth felt huge and powerful, drawing her in until it almost hurt, then going to her other breast and doing the same. As the mouth released her, she pulled his hair to make him stand. She latched her mouth against his, and writhed in his embrace.

  Turning so the spray was on her back, she wiped the water from her eyes. She rubbed Abe’s slippery shoulders and chest. She looked down at his bulging trunks. The narrow gap was there between the waist band and his belly, as she’d seen it on the path to the beach. Now she slipped her fingertips into the gap and drew the band toward her. Forehead resting on his chest, she stared down at him. His hands were motionless on her shoulders. She reached into the trunks, curled a hand around his thickness, and explored its hard length. Crouching, she pulled the trunks down his legs. He stepped out of them. Tyler’s hands moved up his thighs. She gently squeezed the furry sac of his scrotum. She wrapped her fingers around his shaft, slid them lightly up and down, then kissed the slitted head. Her tongue swirled around the silken skin. Holding his buttocks, she licked down the underside, feeling the solid heat of him against her cheek. Then she took him in, lips stretching around his smooth flesh, tongue stroking. She drew him in deeply until her mouth could accept no more. He squirmed, clutching her hair, his rump flexed taut under her hands as she sucked.

  ‘Better stop,’ he warned in a husky voice.

  She slid her mouth back, kissed the swollen knob, then sheathed him again.

  ‘Tyler.’ He pulled gently at her hair. She sucked hard as he eased her away. Then her mouth was empty and she rose and embraced him, feeling the hardness against her belly.

  ‘I want you now,’ she gasped into his mouth.

  ‘Here?’

  ‘Yes.’ She lay down in the tub, pressing her knees to its walls, and Abe lowered himself onto her. The hot shower smacked her face. Then Abe’s head blocked the spray. He was light on her, braced by his elbows and knees. As he kissed her, she felt a touch between her legs. He moved slowly, the head of his penis stroking her cleft. She flinched as it nudged her clitoris, squirmed and moaned as it stayed there, rubbing. Then it moved lower and very slowly slid in. She wanted it thrusting deep, but Abe held back as if to torture her. He withdrew completely, and she groaned. She dug her fingers into his rump. He pushed her opening. He entered. He suddenly shoved in fast and deep, spreading her, driving in farther and farther until she thought it impossible for there to be more – but there was more and it filled her.

  They lay locked together, Abe deep in her body as if part of h
er. Neither of them moved. Tyler understood – and maybe so did Abe – how close they were to orgasms that would mean an ending, at least for now, to the terrible aching need for so deep a joining. She wanted to prolong the moment, to savor it.

  The water was spraying down. It dripped off Abe’s face onto Tyler’s face as he kissed her lips, her nose, her eyes.

  ‘Oh, Abe,’ she whispered.

  Behind the registration desk stood a portly, red-faced man in a white shirt and bow tie. Strands of hair crossed his head like streaks sketched on with a black pen. He made a lopsided smile. ‘What can I do for you, folks?’

  ‘We were guests last night,’ Abe said. ‘We’d like to extend our stay, if you’ll be open.’

  ‘Names?’

  ‘Ours are under Branson,’ Tyler said.

  ‘Branson and Clanton,’ Abe told him.

  The man fingered through cards in a metal box. ‘I’ll be running the place for now,’ he said as he searched.

  ‘Have the police found out anything about the Crogans?’ Abe asked.

  ‘Looks bad. Blood in Marty’s car. I’m his brother-in-law, you know. We’ve got a piece of this place, so I’ll be seeing to matters. Hope my wife doesn’t let the pharmacy go to hell.’ He pulled out two cards. ‘Here we go. How many nights will you be wanting to stay on?’

  ‘One more,’ Abe said. He tried to pay for all the rooms, but Tyler insisted on picking up the tab for hers and Nora’s.

  ‘Will the restaurant be open, too?’ she asked.

  The man nodded. ‘We’ll keep it running.’

  ‘I hope everything turns out all right,’ Abe said.

  ‘I do, too, but I don’t suppose it’ll be that way. We’ve had folks disappear before in this town. It’s not likely they’ll show up again.’

  ‘Take care, now,’ Abe told him.

  ‘I’ll see your rooms are made up before long. I’ll take care of it myself if I can’t round up Lois. I think she knew I’d need her. That’s why she hightailed it. Probably off at the beach with Haywood.’

  ‘We’re on our way to the beach,’ Tyler said.

  His eyebrows lifted. ‘If you see Lois, you want to let her know her father needs her over here? I’d appreciate it. She’s sixteen, long brown hair, wears this polka-dot bikini she ought to be ashamed of.’

  ‘If we see her,’ Tyler said, ‘we’ll tell her to come by.’

  He thanked her, and they left.

  ‘She wasn’t the one we saw,’ Abe said as they stepped down the porch stairs.

  ‘No, but she might be there now. It’s been a couple of hours.’

  ‘Doesn’t seem that long.’

  She grinned, and Abe patted her rump. He opened the passenger door. She climbed in. ‘I hope Nora and Jack aren’t burnt to a crisp,’ she said.

  ‘If they are, it was for a good cause.’ Abe shut the door and walked around to his side of the car. As he sat down behind the wheel, Tyler leaned over. She kissed him.

  She rode with her elbow out the window, the breeze tossing her hair and fluttering the front of her blouse. The two top buttons were open.

  ‘Eyes on the road, buster.’

  ‘It’s not easy.’

  She smiled and threw back her head. Abe glanced at her throat, the smooth tanned vee of skin below it, the pale slope of a breast as the breeze lifted a side of her blouse.

  He turned away and watched the road. He felt very strange – pleasantly tired, happier than he could remember ever being before, yet troubled.

  It couldn’t be going better, he told himself

  Maybe that’s the problem.

  Some problem.

  It’s gone too well, too fast. It started less then twenty-four hours ago when he first saw her face – spattered by that lunatic’s blood. When he first looked into her eyes, and felt as if he’d known her before. No, as if he should have known her before. As if she had always been out there, and he’d known it but not who she was or where to look. It was like finding a part of himself that had been lost.

  From that time on, she’d been a constant presence in his mind. He’d wondered about her, worried and hoped. Yesterday afternoon had been very bad, especially when she went looking for Dan. During dinner and later, the threat from Dan had faded, but not completely, and he’d spent the night in a restless half-sleep, eager for the morning to come but dreading its arrival, afraid of losing her.

  He nodded, realizing he’d discovered the source of his worry: he was still afraid of losing her.

  The worry seemed unfounded. She’d apparently made up her mind in favor of Abe even before finding out about Dan’s death. She wanted him – maybe as much as he wanted her. But their lovemaking had brought such a closeness, such a joining that he now had much more to lose than he’d ever thought possible.

  It was amazing.

  But frightening, too.

  ‘You’re looking mighty glum,’ she said.

  ‘Post-coital depression.’

  She laughed. ‘How long do you expect it to last?’

  ‘Probably till we coit again.’

  ‘Can it wait till after lunch?’

  ‘If it must,’ he said. He turned onto Beach Lane.

  At the end of the dirt road, parked next to a pickup truck, was a long, gray Mercedes.

  ‘That looks like Hardy’s,’ Tyler said. ‘I wonder what Mr Wonderful’s doing at the beach.’

  20

  ‘My father, he’d been living with the guilt more than thirty years, and he told me he couldn’t abide it any longer.’ Captain Frank raised the can of Bud to his mouth. He shut his eyes against the sun as he gulped.

  Gorman took another can from the six-pack he’d brought along to lubricate the old man’s tongue, and popped open its top. Captain Frank mashed his empty and tossed it. Gorman watched it drop a long way to the ground.

  ‘It was then he told me, for the first time, all about Bobo and how Bobo must still be alive and murdering.’

  ‘Have another,’ Gorman said.

  Captain Frank accepted the fresh can. ‘Much obliged.’ He settled back in his lawn chair and took a long drink. ‘Well, I begged my father to let me go with him, but he’d have none of that. Wanted me to stay behind and look after Mother. It was as if he knew he’d never come back, and he didn’t. He was a mighty fine shot with that Winchester of his. I ’spect Bobo must’ve snuck up on him, caught him from behind.’ With his free hand, the old man savagely clawed the air. ‘Just like that.’

  ‘Was your father’s body ever found?’ Gorman asked.

  ‘No, sir. I ’spect it’s buried over yonder, more than likely in the cellar.’

  ‘The cellar of Beast House?’

  ‘That’s what I figure.’

  ‘If the beast actually killed him, as you believe, wouldn’t the Kutch woman have put a replica of your father on display for the tour.’

  ‘Could’ve, but she didn’t. You ask me, the old bat’s mighty careful who she exhibits. You look at who’s in there. Take the Bagley kid, for instance. His friend, Maywood, got out alive and went running to the cops. Now how’s she gonna deny the killing? She doesn’t. She turned it to the good by having dummies made up. Same goes for the three last year. One’s Danny Jenson, the cop. How’s she gonna pretend it never happened? But let me tell you.’ He squinted an eye at Gorman. ‘There’s plenty of folks just up and disappear. I figure Bobo got most of them. But old Maggie, she’s not gonna put them on display when she’s got a way to cover up. She’d have a whole house full, and how’d that look?’ He took a long drink of beer.

  ‘Four people disappeared last night,’ Gorman said. ‘The Crogans, who run the Welcome Inn . . .’

  ‘Oh, dear Lord.’

  ‘And a friend of mine.’

  Captain Frank scowled at the top of his beer can.

  ‘The Crogans’ car was found abandoned this morning on the road to the highway.’

  ‘Well, it got them. I was you, I wouldn’t count on seeing my friend again. Or the Crogans, either
. Their girl, she gone too?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He let out a long sigh. ‘She was such a cute thing. Used to see her down at the beach. Always had a kind word. Goddamn, they should’ve known better. You just don’t go near that house, not after dark, not unless you’re looking to get yourself killed. They should’ve known that.’

  ‘Does the beast actually leave the house?’

  ‘Sure does. Unless Wick or Maggie are grabbing folks. One look at that pair, you know they’d be hard put to get away with it. Bobo’s gotta be prowling around. In the hills back of the house. Down on the beach. Some twelve years back, we even had a gal disappear from the cabin next door.’ He nodded to the right. ‘Ry, that’s her husband, he come home late from the Last Chance and she was gone. Folks all said she’d run off ’cause he was always whumping on her. But I knew different and told him so. He called me a screwy old fart and said to stay out of his business.’

  He peered at Gorman and raised a thick white eyebrow. ‘You think I’m a screwy old fart?’

  ‘Not at all,’ Gorman assured him.

  ‘Well, lots of folks do. They’ll change their tune one of these days when I hand over Bobo’s body.’

  ‘You plan to kill it?’

  ‘I’ll get Bobo, or it’ll get me.’

  ‘Have you ever gone after it?’

  ‘Why, sure. I’ve gone and laid ambush for it – oh, more times than I can count. But it’s never showed up.’

  ‘You’ve never seen it?’

  ‘Not a once.’

  ‘Have you ever gone into the house after it?’

  ‘Now, that’d be trespassing.’

  Gorman controlled his urge to smile. Obviously, the old man was afraid to enter Beast House. ‘It seems,’ he said, ‘as if the house would be the best place to hunt it.’

  Captain Frank squeezed his beer can and hurled it from the bus top. It hit a low-hanging tree branch and fell to the ground. ‘Say, young man, how’d you like to take a look at my book?’

  ‘What book?’

  ‘I been keeping track. Yes, indeed. You’d be surprised.’

  ‘I’d like very much to see it.’

  The old man winked. ‘Thought you might. You’re a lot curiouser than most.’ He pushed himself out of the lawn chair, and walked unsteadily along the top of the bus. ‘Bring the beer along,’ he said.