I knocked on the passenger’s side window and waited.
There was no response, so I went around and looked through the windshield. I didn’t see him in the car. He’s patrolling the grounds, I thought.
I called to him and waited.
It was quieter than ever. Because of the late hour, there were no cars on the streets around our home or leading to it. I saw some planes crossing east to west, their blinking lights clearly visible against the overcast inky night, but I didn’t hear them. Even the coyotes were asleep and not howling as they usually did making their way down the wash, hunting for food. It was almost as if this were all a dream or I was walking in my sleep. In a moment I would wake up in my bed.
Sterling didn’t respond nor appear after my additional calls. Either he didn’t want to show himself for some reason or he didn’t hear me, I thought and headed back to the house. I need him to hear this though I told myself and found the transmitter he had given me. I pressed it and waited and listened and then pressed it again. Still I heard nothing. The silence was very unnerving.
Willy will surely be home soon, I told myself, and went to the kitchen. I was surprisingly not hungry for a change, but I was thirsty. I drank a full glass of ice cold water and then went to the rear patio door and looked out at the pool. I didn’t recall putting on the pool light, but it was lit. It put a greenish-yellow glow around the decking.
For a moment I thought I was imagining someone there, but then I realized it was Sterling. It actually brought a smile to my face. He had sprawled out on one of the lounge chairs and looked asleep. No wonder he didn’t hear me calling or hear the transmitter. Some bodyguard, I thought, and then told myself even he had to get some rest. I was sure he had some alarms set up anyway.
I opened the patio door.
“Sterling,” I called. He didn’t respond.
I closed the door behind me and walked to him. He was really in a deep sleep, I thought, and called to him again. He didn’t move nor open his eyes. Alarm bells rang inside my heart. I stared down at him and then I reached out and nudged his shoulder. His body barely moved and he didn’t open his eyes. I pushed him harder. He didn’t move. His eyes remained shut. I shook him and shook him. His head rocked from side to side, but he didn’t awaken.
When his head fell to the left, I saw a small dartlike object in his neck.
With a gasp that seemed to emerge from the very bottom of my soul, I backed away. For a moment or two, I froze. Then I looked about fearfully. I saw no one, not a movement, but every shadow seemed threatening, seemed poised to leap in my direction and cast a dark blanket over me. The terror I felt was drawn up from my feet as if I had stepped into a pool of ice water. I turned and rushed to the house. Just as I closed the door behind me, the phone rang. I stood there staring at it.
It rang and rang until the answering machine came on with Willy’s wiseass greeting.
“We’re not answering either because we’re not here or we don’t feel like it, so do what you’re supposed to do at the buzz.”
It buzzed and I heard the voice say, “Now you know why it’s almost too late.”
The phone went dead with a long, deep, and annoying tone before the machine went off and the message light began to blink.
I couldn’t move. I heard myself gasping, which brought on a strange feeling. It was as if I were out of my body observing myself. I wondered, is that me? Am I struggling to breathe?
My stomach constricted and the cramp brought me to my knees.
I fell over on my side and closed my eyes. I descended into a pool of black quicksand as warm as blood. Crimson-faced fetuses danced around me on feet that looked like the roots of flowers. They grimaced and shed putrid green and yellow tears. My ears were stuffed with the howling of wounded beasts drowning out my own desperate cries for help. I was spinning, shrinking, folding into myself until I began to resemble one of the gruesome fetuses and lost my voice.
It was the cold washcloth on my forehead that brought me back to consciousness and rescued me from my own horrific dream. I looked up at Willy, who had tears streaming down her face. She lifted my head first to kiss my cheek and then she got me into a sitting position.
“Kate, oh damn, Kate, are you all right?”
I heard Eve coming in through the patio.
“He’s gone,” she said. “It looks like some kind of poison dart.”
“Poison dart? Kate,” Willy said, “what happened? Who was here?”
I tried to speak, but didn’t utter a sound. My eyes felt as if they were bulging with the effort.
“Let’s get her to bed,” Eve said, and knelt to take my left arm. The two of them stood me up. I leaned on Willy and we made our way into the bedroom.
Gingerly, they laid me down and made me comfortable, fixing the pillow under my head. Eve sat beside me on the bed and took my hand in hers.
“You’d better call the police,” she told Eve.
“Is that wise?” she replied.
“What do you mean?”
“With the party and all tomorrow…a scandal like this?”
“It’s not a scandal. A man was murdered on our property.”
“You’re going to have to explain who he is and why he’s here.”
“So?”
“I’m just telling you…anticipate reporters, television…” She nodded at me. “Think about her.”
“Well, what are we supposed to do, Eve? Leave him out there for a while?”
“Call Genitor, Lois Matthews. Let them handle it,” she suggested.
It was so odd. I heard their conversation, watched the changing expression on Willy’s face, but it was as if I were watching a television show, as if I really wasn’t in the scene itself. There was a distance, a chasm I couldn’t get across yet. Just like before, I felt caught in a dream.
“Yeah, maybe,” Willy thought aloud. “Get her opinion about it anyway.”
“I’ll call,” Eve said. “The number’s right by the phone in the kitchen, right?”
“Yeah.”
Eve hurried out and Willy turned back to me.
“How you doing, Kate?” She rubbed my hand. “Did anyone hurt you? Why did you faint?”
I took a deep breath as if I were about to dive underwater.
“I found him,” I said in nothing more than a whisper.
“Damn.”
“It all started with the picture in the car,” I added.
“What picture?”
“I found a picture in my car when I left the plant. It was horrible, a horrific-looking fetus. Whoever put it there wrote that it was inside me.”
“Where is this picture?”
“Sterling put it in his jacket pocket. He was going to have it processed,” I explained. “I took one of those pink pills and fell asleep.”
“Yeah, he told me that when I called earlier this evening.”
“They called, too.”
“Who? You mean they? The wackos?”
“Yes. There are two messages on the machine out there,” I said. “I went out to tell Sterling and I found him on the lounge chair. He wouldn’t wake up. When I saw the dart in his neck, I realized he was dead and came into the house to call you. The phone rang and it was them again. They must have been watching me and knew I had come back inside, and then I guess I passed out.”
Eve appeared in the doorway.
“Someone’s on the way. She understood the problem and said it was smart to call her and let the company handle it. She’s making sure there’s another security guard assigned.”
Willy nodded, looked at me and then stood.
“I want to check him for something,” she said.
“What?”
“A picture Kate found in her car earlier.”
She hurried out.
“I’ll get you a glass of cold water,” Eve told me and followed Willy.
I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. Eve returned first with the water and then Willy came in shaking her head.
“What?”
“No picture in any of his pockets. I checked his car, too. Nothing.”
“Maybe whoever did that to him took it, or he had given it to someone to check out. He said he was going to do that,” I suggested. She nodded. “Did you listen to the answering machine, Willy?”
“No.”
“Go listen, Willy. You should hear that voice, too. Go ahead.”
“Okay, relax,” she said.
She went out. Eve remained smiling down at me.
“It’ll be all right.”
“Someone killed him, Eve. How can things be all right? You said as far as you knew, they didn’t do anyone physical harm.”
She shrugged.
“They’re getting more aggressive. Maybe they’re frustrated or they just feel their oats.”
“It frightens me.”
“I know.”
“Are you absolutely sure of your sister-in-law’s cause of death?”
“Yes. She was a picture of health, but as I understand it, that can happen even to people who have no other symptoms. Besides, she was in a hospital. No one was shooting darts at her.”
“There are many ways to kill people in a hospital,” I said.
“Don’t get yourself worked up. Your imagination will run havoc.”
Willy returned.
“Well?” I asked immediately. “What do you think of that voice?”
“I didn’t hear it, Kate. There weren’t any bad messages on the machine. You must have erased them.”
“I didn’t,” I said pushing myself up with my elbows.
“I’m sure there’s nothing on the machine.”
I looked at Eve, and she looked at Willy.
“You two think I made it all up, the picture, the phone calls?”
“No, but you could have just inadvertently hit the delete button, Kate. No big deal,” Willy said.
“I didn’t, damn it! I never got to that machine. I fainted, remember?”
“Okay, okay. I’ll check it again,” she said.
“Stop humoring me!” I screamed after her.
“Easy,” Eve said. “C’mon, Kate. Calm down. You’ll get yourself sick.”
“I am sick,” I said. I lowered my head to the pillow.
“Maybe you want to get out of those clothes,” she suggested.
“What? Oh. Yeah.”
I sat up again and she began to help undo my dress.
“I can do it myself,” I said sharply.
“Okay.”
Willy returned, shaking her head.
“Look, I realized even my message is gone, Kate. You hit the button. That’s it. You probably don’t remember doing it.”
I stared at her.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I said, “and then get some sleep. I’m sorry. I know you have a lot on your mind and you’ve got to get up early.”
“Kate?”
“No, let me alone,” I said, waving at her.
Eve stepped back as I rose and headed for the bathroom.
“But are you sure you’re stable enough?” Willy asked me.
I paused and looked at her.
“I’ve been threatened by some fanatics, diagnosed with pseudocyesis, discovered my security guard was killed by some sort of poison dart at our pool, and passed out on the floor. Considering I’m still moving about all right, I’d say I’m pretty stable,” I replied.
Willy smiled.
“You’re such a dyke,” she said.
We heard the doorbell.
“If that’s them, that’s pretty quick,” Willy told Eve.
“More than likely they had some sort of backup nearby,” she said.
“Take your shower, Kate. We’ll handle it,” Willy told me.
I nodded and went into the bathroom. When I came out, Willy was getting undressed to prepare herself for some sleep.
“It was them?”
“Yeah. They took him away and his car as well.”
“What about that dart? What do they think?”
“They said they would let us know, but they left someone out there tonight. We’ll have a new man on the job tomorrow. He’ll introduce himself to you. I’ll be at the plant,” she said. “And then the convention center, unless you aren’t feeling well and we have to get you back to Dr. Aaron.”
“I’ll be all right.”
She nodded and went into the bathroom.
When she got into bed beside me, she reached for my hand and then turned over to kiss me softly.
“It’s going to be all right,” she said.
“I’m nervous about not calling the police, Willy.”
“I’m not. I think Eve’s right about what would happen, Kate, and they should be taking care of this mess. We have a lot on our plate. Besides, they’re better equipped at it than we are. It’s the best way. I’m confident of it.”
“I’m glad one of us is.”
She laughed.
“I don’t know how you can laugh. Go to sleep, you idiot. You have to be exhausted and I’m not getting blamed for making you sick,” I said.
“Okay, boss.”
She turned over, but I lay there staring into the darkness, afraid to close my eyes, afraid of falling into that black quicksand again.
And then I had the quickening, that symptom of pseudocyesis Dr. Aaron had described.
If my imagination was that powerful, I should try to put it to good use, I thought, and imagine myself on some South sea island drinking a piña colada.
However, before I could try, I thought the stirring inside me was followed by the wail of an infant so shrill it vibrated through my spine and shook the very foundation of my being.
As silly as it sounded, I hummed a lullaby my mother had sung to me. Fortunately, Willy was already asleep and didn’t hear me or she would surely think I had gone over some deep end. I kept humming to drown out the cries echoing inside my ears.
Soon it worked and I fell asleep as well, the two of us, me and whatever it was within me that had shuddered with fear.
14.
FOR THE FIRST TIME since I began this insemination process, I suffered what anyone else would assume was severe morning sickness. Of course, I knew there were many other possible reasons for the nausea, and since my doctor’s visit I looked to one of those. After what had occurred the night before, I didn’t sleep well at all and my nerves were sizzling so much, I had enough static electricity in me to light a movie marquee. That alone would upset my stomach. Willy heard me in the bathroom and wouldn’t leave until she was assured I was all right. I felt even more terrible because this was happening on what I knew to be the busiest day for her and our business. I struggled to put on a good face and ease her concern.
“I hate leaving you here. I know you’re nervous as hell, but they are sending another security person to protect you. Nevertheless, you’ll call me to let me know how you’re doing,” she demanded. “You promise, Kate, or I’ll just keep coming back here.”
“I promise. I’m not stupid about it, Willy. If I have any other problems, or something more serious occurs, you’ll be the first to know, big payday for us or not. I know my priorities.”
“Yeah, you know,” she said skeptically. “Okay, even so I’ll call in periodically. Either Eve or I will stop by around lunch time.”
“I don’t need either of you to do that,” I said sharply. She raised her eyebrows. “Look, I’ll be fine. I’m feeling better already and I might very well go to the plant and the convention center.”
“Whatever,” she said. I hated to see her losing patience with me.
Eve came in to bring me a box that had been delivered during the night and left out front.
“What could this be?” I asked. Willy tore it open with her pocket knife and plucked out one maternity outfit after another. There was a note inside.
“It’s from Lois Matthews, from Genitor. Apparently, she spoke with Dr. Aaron and had this delivered to make you feel comfortable. There are five
outfits in here.”
I stared at them in disbelief.
“Why would she do this?”
“She’s only trying to be of some help. It’s very considerate,” Willy said.
“I’m not going to wear these things until I absolutely have to.”
“Fine. At least you know you have them,” she said.
Eve prepared one of her herbal teas for me before they left and then I went back to bed. I didn’t get up again until I heard the doorbell. I slipped on my robe as I started out of the bedroom. My head was heavy, more symptomatic of a hangover than anything, but the nausea had passed soon after I had drunk the tea, and I was actually starting to feel a little hungry.
I checked through the peephole and saw a woman in a dark black suit. She had short reddish-brown hair, trimmed in a style resembling a page boy. I saw she had no makeup, not even lipstick, no earrings either. Her eyebrows were more like a man’s eyebrows and she had a sprinkles of tiny freckles splattered over the crests of her cheeks.
“Yes?” I asked through the door without unlocking.
“I’m from Genitor,” she said. “New security.”
She held up an open ID wallet to show me her picture and her name, Trinity Masters. The same security company as Sterling’s was identified.
They sent a woman? I thought, and opened the door.
“Good morning, Kate,” she said, sounding as if we had known each other for years. “Sorry to disturb you, but I wanted to introduce myself right away and get you into a comfort zone. I’m Sterling’s replacement.”
“What exactly happened to him?” I asked without passing through introductory small talk.
“He was hit with a dart that had been dipped into a very potent poison.”
“What do you mean, potent? What kind of poison?”
“You want the technical answer?”
“I want any answer,” I said visibly annoyed. “Poison darts aren’t exactly common around here.”
She smiled.
“This dart was dipped in batrachotoxin, which comes from the skin of what are known as Phyllobates terribillis, more commonly called poison dart frogs. They’re usually found in South America and used by certain primitive tribes. These frogs are very dangerous. Okay?”
Unholy Birth Page 17
