by Rick Hautala
“I see,” Claire said, nodding knowingly. “And it was she you wanted to contact.”
Elizabeth nodded. “I think I —”
“You know, many people are knocked back at their first genuine contact with the beyond,” Claire said warmly. “And I think it’s important that you realize that. Probably the one thing that works against us most is our own fear. We generate it, usually out of ignorance. But if you are willing to try again sometime, let me know, all right?”
Unable to speak, Elizabeth nodded again.
“It’s only knowledge and love that helps us rise above our ignorance and fear,” Claire said. She glanced at the clock on the mantle and stood up swiftly. “Well, it’s getting late and I’m sure you two aren’t looking forward to that long drive home. Are you feeling calmed down now?”
“I think so,” Elizabeth said shakily. She and Junia got up and followed Claire out to the kitchen, where they put on their raincoats and prepared to leave. When Claire swung the door open for them, a cold gust of wind blew rain into their faces. Claire quickly leaned over and gave Elizabeth a tight hug, patting her lightly on the back. “You give me a call if you want to try again,” Claire said softly. “And please — whatever you do, don’t let your fears get the better of you, all right?”
“Thanks,” Elizabeth said, her voice no more than a gasp. “I’ll try not to.” She followed Junia out into the rainy night and down to the car.
3.
Still feeling dizzy and embarrassed by her outburst, Elizabeth pulled out of Claire’s driveway onto Egypt Road and headed down Route 85 to Route 302, She noticed something that she hadn’t been aware of, at least not consciously, on the drive out to Claire’s. With the windshield wipers slapping back and forth and her headlights trying to force back the rain-swept darkness, she saw, no more than a hundred feet down the road behind her, a pair of headlights wink on. The reflection in the rearview mirror stung her eyes, and she remembered — now — that there had been headlights behind them almost the entire drive out to Claire’s house.
“What the-” she muttered. She stepped down on the gas as she sped away, and the headlights sped up right along behind her.
Was there someone following her, she wondered, or was she just overreacting after her scare at Claire’s seance? How could it be the same car? Who would even be interested in following her? It had to be just a coincidence. As one car had turned off the road, another had simply fallen in behind her. What this had to be was just another car that had happened to get behind her.
But the more she thought about it, the more she convinced herself that it was the same set of headlights, keeping the same distance behind her just as it had all the way from Bristol Mills.
“Jesus Christ,” she said softly to herself.
Junia was chilled, sitting hunched up inside her raincoat, waiting for the car’s heater to kick in. She stirred and, picking up on Elizabeth’s agitation, said, “What is it, dear?”
“I ... no — nothing.”
She was about to tell Junia about her suspicions but then thought better of it and simply shook her head. “No, I was just ... remembering what happened at Claire’s.” She glanced over at her aunt and forced a weak smile. ‘‘I’m so embarrassed about it. I ... I really don’t know what came over me.”
“There, there,” Junia replied, feeling for Elizabeth’s hand on the steering wheel and patting it gently. “You were overexcited, and considering what we were trying to do, it’s more than understandable. Claire understands these things better than you realize,’ you know.”
“Oh, I know that,” Elizabeth said, nodding. “She seemed very nice.”
She glanced into the rearview mirror again. The headlights were still keeping pace behind them, neither dropping back nor pulling ahead to pass. Whoever it was, if the car was following her, was certainly not losing her on the twisting road. Elizabeth considered playing a game of speeding up and slowing down, just to see what the other driver would do, but she decided against it, not wanting to upset Junia.
“You know, though,” Elizabeth said, speaking more to keep her mind occupied with something other than who might be following her and why, “I still can’t believe neither one of you heard what I heard.” Her eyes kept dancing back and forth between the road ahead and the rearview mirror. “The voice seemed so ... so clear, at least to me.”
“Oh, I’m not all that surprised,” Junia replied. “Like Claire said, quite often the spirits don’t speak directly through her but use her simply as a ... a ... What’s the word I want?”
“A conduit?” Elizabeth said mechanically. She slowed the car when she saw up ahead the stop sign at the intersection of Route 302.
“Right,” Junia said, “a conduit — they use her as a conduit to speak directly to the subject. But I suppose sometimes the only direct contact could be telepathic. Sort of like mind-reading. It’s entirely possible that the spirit, whoever it was —”
“She called me ... Mommy,” Elizabeth said, her voice hitching painfully in her throat.
“Maybe it was Caroline, speaking directly to you inside your head. Claire said she sensed you have a high psychic potential.” As Junia spoke, she stirred in her seat. Elizabeth felt a dart of panic when her aunt casually glanced over her shoulder at the headlights behind them. It was as if she had sensed her niece’s concern about the car that was following them. Apparently satisfied, Junia turned and looked straight ahead at the road again.
As she approached the intersection, Elizabeth reached for the turn signal, but then decided against it, just to see what the car behind her would do. There was no traffic on the road, so after angling the car to make it look as if she intended to tum right, she quickly wheeled to the left and started down Route 302, stepping hard on the gas and keeping as close to the speed limit as was safe, considering the slick road conditions.
A hard lump formed in Elizabeth’s throat when she saw the car take the left hand turn without using its turn signal as well. She silently cursed the rain-smeared rear window, which reflected the glaring streetlights and made it difficult for her to see clearly what kind of car was tailing her.
“So I’m not surprised you would hear something that neither one of us heard,” Junia said. “Especially if it really was Caroline, trying to get through to you.”
“Do you honestly think something like that is possible?” Elizabeth asked, unable to hide the quaver in her voice. “I mean — it just seems so ... so — unlikely.”
“I wouldn’t have introduced you to Claire if I didn’t think it was possible,” Junia replied, smiling at her niece in the darkened car.
As they passed through the sprawling mall section of North Windham, Elizabeth purposely slowed to less than half the speed limit and pulled into the right-hand lane, hoping the car would pull out and pass her. Lights from stores and restaurants reflected brightly on the wet pavement.
“Goddamn it!” Elizabeth muttered when she saw the headlights stay right where they were, between one and two hundred feet behind her. All she could think about was what Frank had said to her yesterday — that someone was after her, and that she was in trouble!
“Oh, I wouldn’t be too disappointed,” Junia said kindly. Elizabeth realized her aunt, still unaware of the car following them, had misread her reaction. “Actually, I was thinking about someone else I could introduce you to. A man named Eldon Cody. He’s got a method of contacting the —”
“Would you like a cup of coffee?” Elizabeth asked suddenly, seeing the golden arches of McDonald’s up ahead on the right. She thought she had a good idea how to lose the car tailing her — if it was tailing her. She was driving slowly enough in the right-hand lane so that she could easily make the turn without using her blinker, and she hoped to force the driver behind her — whoever it was! — either to make an obvious sudden turn and give himself away or else to continue on his way.
“Isn’t it too late?” Junia asked. Her eyes reflected the bright yellow light of the McDonald
’s sign. “I wouldn’t sleep a wink if I had any caffeine.”
Hell, I probably won’t sleep a wink as it is. so what does it matter? Elizabeth thought.
All she said aloud was, “I think I’d like a cup, though.”
At the very last possible moment, she jerked the steering wheel to the right and sped into the entrance. She slowed almost to a stop. Staring long and hard at the rearview mirror, she tensed, waiting to see the pursuing car go by. Before it did, though, she felt forced to keep moving so she wouldn’t raise Junia’s suspicions that something was wrong. She rolled down her window, thankful that the wind wasn’t blowing the rain straight in on her, and drove around back to the ordering window.
“May I take your order, please?” a voice said, rattling the speaker on the metal post in front of the lighted menu.
Elizabeth was barely aware of the request as she leaned forward, craning her head around as she tried to see the taillights of her follower disappear down the glistening road. No cars went by, and she wondered with a flush of anxiety if she had missed it or if the driver behind her had had enough time to pull over to the side of the road, and if he was sitting out front, just waiting for her. She tried to cover her agitation as she turned to Junia and said, “You’re sure you don’t want anything?”
Junia shook her head .
“Just a cup of regular coffee, then — with cream and sugar,” she said, scanning the road in front of the restaurant for any sign of the car. She was trying to convince herself that the car had indeed sped by just at the moment they had passed behind the building, but she couldn’t quite accept that. She could easily imagine the car, idling in the breakdown lane just in front of the McDonald’s entrance.
“Would you like an apple pie with that?” the tinny voice asked, sounding bored, almost mechanical.
“Ahh, no ... no thanks,” Elizabeth said, all the time thinking,
Who the hell would be following me on a night like this? And why?
“That will be fifty-three cents, please,” the metallic voice said. “Please drive up to the window.”
The muscles in Elizabeth’s leg were beginning to cramp as she stepped lightly on the gas and eased her car ahead to the window. She paid for her coffee and, after dumping a packet of sugar and two creams into it and stirring, pulled away from the window. She approached the exit onto the road with anxious caution. Her heart was fluttering in her throat and her free hand clenched the steering wheel in a death grip as she forced herself to look to the left to see if the car was there.
Nothing.
Because it was so late and such a stormy night, the long stretch of road was empty except for a northbound sixteen wheeler and, way off in the distance, just cresting the hill as it headed toward her, a pair of headlights that couldn’t possibly belong to the car that had been tailing her. After coming to a complete stop at the McDonald’s exit, she took a sip of coffee and waited as the distant car approached and went whizzing past. Its tires sounded like tearing paper on the wet pavement.
Once the car’s taillights had disappeared down the road, Elizabeth let her breath out in a long, slow hiss. When Aunt Junia looked at her questioningly, she covered it up by pretending to blow over the steaming coffee to help it cool. Finally, she pulled back onto Route 302, intending to follow it down to Foster’s Comer, where she’d pick up Route 202 back to Gorham and then Bristol Mills.
As she approached the lights at the intersection where the Dairy Queen used to be, though, her heart skipped a beat when she noticed a dark car parked close to the road in the Shell service station on her right. The gas station was closed for the night, and the car’s headlights were off, but she could see a plume of exhaust, spewing like a tiny tornado from its tailpipe. The windshield was streaked, as though the wipers had been turned off recently. Trying not to appear too obvious — either to Aunt Junia or to whoever the hell was in that car — Elizabeth slowed down and stared over at the idling car. She wished to hell she could see the face of the person behind the steering wheel, but the dark figure was nothing more than a black blur behind the rain-streaked window. She sensed more than saw his head turn to track her as she went slowly past.
Elizabeth’s first impulse was to pull right over into that gas station and angle her car so that her headlights shined directly in the side window and onto the driver. Let him see what it feels like, she thought. Let him know she knew he was following her. And make it Goddamned clear she wasn’t about to be intimidated.
But the traffic light was green, and the last thing Elizabeth wanted to do was alarm Junia. She knew that if she was in trouble, that was one thing, and she would just have to deal with it; but if at all possible, she didn’t want to involve — or endanger — Aunt Junia. She pressed down hard on the accelerator, and the car sped down the road. A cold tightness gripped her chest when, in her rearview mirror, she saw a pair of headlights wink silently on and pull out, falling in behind her.
“You bastard!” she muttered.
“Is something the matter, dear?” Junia asked.
Looking at the headlights behind her, which had dropped back and were following her at exactly the same distance as before, Elizabeth covered up by saying, “Oh, no — no. For a second, there, I thought that car was going to pull out right in front of me.”
“I didn’t even see it,” Junia said, twisting to look over her shoulder.
“Umm — I guess only fools would be out on a night like this, huh?” Elizabeth said, trying to turn it into a joke, if only to lighten her own mood.
But as she cruised down Route 302 toward Foster’s Comer, she kept well under the speed limit; not because of the wet roads, but because she no longer cared that the car was right there behind her. She calmed herself as best she could, resolving that she would handle things as they came. Worrying about who this was and why he was following her would only work to unbalance her, and she couldn’t afford that.
The car stayed with her all the way to Bristol Mills, but long before she had passed through downtown Gorham, Elizabeth no longer wondered who it was. The more she thought about it, the clearer it became. There was only one possible answer. This wasn’t someone “out to get her,” as Frank had said. That was indulging in paranoid thinking. No — Elizabeth was positive who it was, and as she drove down Main Street to Junia’s house, she vowed, first thing tomorrow afternoon — when she knew she could get him on the phone at work — she would call Frank up and tell him just where the hell he could go!
4.
“Hello. This is Officer Melrose,” Frank said, picking up the phone in the squad room.
“Frank,” the voice on the other end of the line said, and with that one word, Frank knew who it was. His mind flooded with thoughts and speculations as to why she was calling.
“Hey, Elizabeth. What can I do you for?” he asked.
“I think you’ve probably got a pretty good idea what you can do me for,” she said. “You can take a flying fuck at a rolling donut, okay?”
Elizabeth’s cold, controlled tone of voice was like a slap in the face. For a moment, Frank was confused. Hadn’t they ironed out everything yesterday afternoon before he dropped her off?
“Umm — I’m sorry,” he said, clearing his throat. ‘‘I’m not exactly following you.”
“Oh, that’s rich, Frank — real rich! Following me! I get it! You’re just too hilarious!” Elizabeth said. Her mock laughter crackled like fire over the phone line.
“Uh, look, Elizabeth,” Frank said, scratching behind his ear. “I was just heading out on patrol. Is there something I can do for you?” He glanced up at the clock on the squad-room wall and saw that it was already ten minutes into his shift. Norton had called in sick yesterday, and Frank assumed he wouldn’t be in today, either.
“You can start by leaving me the fuck alone, all right?” Elizabeth snapped. Her voice was steely and hard. “I remember what you said yesterday — that like it or not you’re going to be watching out for me. I didn’t think you meant it
that literally, but I certainly don’t want to feel as though every time I turn around, I’m going to see you lurking in the shadows.”
Frank sighed deeply and said, “Elizabeth — you’re not making sense. What the hell are you talking about?”
“Last night ... ? Or don’t you remember? Driving out to Raymond and back ... ? A little house on Egypt Road? I know that was you who followed me.”
“I what?” Frank said sharply. “Last night I was on my usual shift from three to midnight. I don’t —”
“Frank, you can cut the bullshit with me, all right?” Elizabeth shouted. “I know it was you who followed me when I took my aunt out to visit a friend of hers last night, all right? I know that was you parked in that gas station waiting for me, and I know it was you who — finally — pulled off just before I drove into my aunt’s driveway, okay? All I’m asking you now ... No, I’m not asking you, I’m telling you — if you don’t stop following me around like a frigging watchdog, I’ll talk to a lawyer and have a ... an injunction or whatever thrown at you to keep you away from me! Can I make myself any clearer?”
Frank’s face tightened into a hard, unsmiling expression as he stared blankly at the institutional green wall of the squad room. “No, Elizabeth. You couldn’t be any clearer,” he said softly.
“Good!” she replied. “I’d really appreciate it.”
Frank listened as she hung up with a click. For several seconds he just stood there with the receiver pressed against his ear, listening to the steady, insect like drone of the dial tone. Usually that sound irritated the shit out of him, but now-for some reason-he found it almost comforting, almost a distraction from the question that was raging inside his mind ...
Who the Christ is trying to terrorize Elizabeth? ... And why?
TWELVE
Visiting Caroline
1.
“You never let me explain about Eldon Cody,” Aunt Junia said when Elizabeth came to visit the next day. The rain had stopped during the night, and a warm, spring fresh breeze rustled the leaves, casting deep green shadows over the lawn. The world seemed refreshed and vibrant, truly alive.
