Eating the Cheshire Cat
Page 26
“Let her go,” Mrs. Summers whispered. “Let her go, let her go.”
As alumni gathered around the two strickened mothers, Bitty Jack crept out of the president’s box. Surprisingly, the spectators were not running scared. Most everyone remained in their seat as the fire trucks tore the turf, firemen slipping in their race across the field.
Gingerly, Bitty Jack made her way through alumni. She walked toward the presidential elevator, abandoned by the operator, which would take her to the parking lot. As she descended all those stairs, she heard the crowd sizing up what they would be speaking of for years.
The elevator doors opened and Bitty Jack walked forward, the stadium like a mausoleum, a little fuller, right behind her. The crowd could be heard over the walls. News helicopters hovered above the stench that was left. Mr. Hicks’s voice could be heard on the Sony JumboTron.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please stay in your seats. You’ll be the most help if you don’t crowd the exits. Please remain calm. It’s all over. There’s nothing to see.”
When the firemen sifted through the remains, they would discover Nicole, as her mother suspected. In her embrace would be Sarina and what had happened would be clear. It was a murder/suicide. Death by obsession. No further questions asked.
If the firemen searched past the burned, girlish bodies, they might ferret out a blackened coffee can. The brand could be identified if they took it to the lab. Chock Full O’Nuts. “The Heavenly Coffee.” More than likely, the technician’s favorite.
Even if the string that tied the coffee can to the front legs of the throne still existed, even if the saw marks remained on those legs, even if they found traces of sulfur and acid and charcoal, the blame would still go to Nicole.
Bitty Jack, one day, might feel bad for what she’d done. But worse things could happen. In fact, worse things had. Besides, Bitty Jack was comfortable with her future. She had savings and bus money. She had courage. She would dare.
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SCRIBNER PAPERBACK FICTION
Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2000 by Helen Ellis
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
First Scribner Paperback Fiction edition 2001
SCRIBNER paperback fiction and design are trademarks of Macmillan Library Reference USA, Inc., used under license by Simon & Schuster, the publisher of this work.
Designed by Brooke Zimmer
The Library of Congress had cataloged the Scribner edition as follows:
Ellis, Helen.
Eating the Cheshire cat : a novel / Helen Ellis.
p. cm.
I. Title.
PS3555.L5965E28 2000
813'.54—dc21 99-16217
CIP
ISBN 0-684-86440-1
0-684-86441-X (Pbk)
ISBN 978-1-5011-4211-6 (ebook)