Chapter 9.
“Jesus, Nathan, you found her finger?”
Nat uncertainly swallowed his third glass of champagne and nodded.
“Was it…?” but Joshua stopped, uncertain perhaps how to question the state of a finger.
“Was it dead, Joshua? I think so, yeah…” Nat’s words slurred a little.
“But… what did you do with it?” for the first time Joshua had lost his cool, his voice became edgy, agitated.
[Think, Nathanial, think carefully. How did he appear]
“Well, like I told you, I got really freaked. I thought I may have killed her, and I tore up the apartment, and that’s when the police arrived. Do you have any more champagne?”
“But what exactly did you do with the finger, Nathan? Exactly where did you put it?”
I… well, I, I put it in my pocket.”
Joshua gulped. “You put Terri’s finger in your pocket?”
“Yeah. I didn’t know what else to do. The police were, like, banging on the door. I wasn’t going to open it, was I, with them there. I mean, seriously.”
Joshua had gone white. He rubbed his left shoulder again and Nat wondered, absent mindedly if there was something wrong with it. He seemed to keep doing it. “Did they see it?”
“What?”
“Answer me, Nat” Joshua was leaning forward, his hands gripping the table. “Did the police see the finger?”
“What? Well, no of course they didn’t. I mean, Jesus, do you think I’d be here if they had?”
Joshua relaxed visibly and sat back. “No, of course. Of course they didn’t.”
“Why did you want to know, anyway?”
“Oh,” Joshua brushed the air, “I don’t know. I thought you might have screwed up. I thought you may have done something stupid.”
“Yeah” laughed Nat bitterly, “I kind of think I have.”
“You don’t know that. You may not have done anything to her.”
“You think she chopped off her own finger and then went and hid somewhere that no one could find her?”
Joshua didn’t react to the sarcasm. “No, no, of course not. You just never know; strange things happen sometimes.”
Nat sighed and shook his head. “What am I going to do, Joshua?”
“The finger…”
“What?”
“The finger. Terri’s finger.”
“What about it?”
“Do you still have it?” There was suddenly an edge to Joshua’s voice, his whole manner.
“Erm, well, yeah.” Nat shifted uncomfortably at his seat. He looked at his empty glass, at the empty bottle. “Do you think we could…”
“Do you have it on you?”
“What?”
“The finger, Nathan. Do you have the finger with you, now?”
Instinctively Nat rested his hand on his pocket. He could feel the lump there now. In all this time, since leaving the house hurriedly, he hadn’t thought to move it, to do anything with it. Even when he got changed at the hotel, he hadn’t thought to remove it. He shuddered as he thought about the torn flesh, about the blood. He glanced down. No stain.
Joshua was staring at his hand, at his pocket. “You do, don’t you. It’s there, in your pocket, isn’t it?”
“Well, yeah, maybe it is, but…”
“Can I see it?”
Chapter 10.
“He actually asked to see it?”
“Yeah. I mean, he did. Yeah.”
“And did you show him?”
“Christ’s sake, of course I didn’t. What sort of sick question was that? I mean, Christ, why did he want to see it?”
“A good question.” Strange nodded approvingly. “A very good question. Why indeed.”
White Eyes Page 9
