Bloodchild (29 page)

"Teddy, don't you believe me?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's not that."

"Yes, it is," she said. "Never mind, I'll handle this myself. I'm going to sleep. Good night," she added, and hung up before he could say another word. She sat there for a few moments, the fury building up in her. What was she going to do? What
could
she do?

She got up and went to Harlan and Dana's room, hoping she could call him out and tell him what had occurred, but the door was closed and she was afraid of waking Dana. She saw from the light in the hall and entryway that Nurse Patio was still downstairs. Her rage still strong, she went downstairs and found her in the kitchen, cutting raw roast beef into thin slices. For a moment she was able to watch her unnoticed.

Although she had to admit that there was something very attractive and obviously very sexy about Nurse Patio, there were times when she looked more masculine. Right now, when Colleen viewed her from behind, her back looked wider, her shoulders fuller. Her neck looked thicker and more muscular as well. She cut through the meat with ease, the muscles in her arms and back rippling against the tight uniform.

Even before Nurse Patio turned to confront her, Colleen had a great sense of dread. Fear weakened her rage. She felt herself begin to tremble. The air had become so still. Her feet were suddenly glued to the floor and she had the familiar, horrible feeling that she was melting. She had had this grotesque image in her mind when she had returned to the house, hysterical after seeing what she thought was Jillian's deformed corpse in the shed. Once again she felt as though her body had turned to wax. Now she was dripping down into a small puddle between her quivering legs. Nurse Patio would scoop up the hardened material and mold her into candles to be burned at these culinary feasts she prepared for Harlan. He wouldn't even know that the tiny flames before him were consuming the flesh and blood of his sister.

She closed her eyes and then opened them as a way of erasing the bizarre imagining. She heard a thin, scraping sound against the window above the sink. It was almost as though someone had run her fingernails over the pane.

Nurse Patio looked first at the window and then turned sharply toward her, holding her body at an angle to block Colleen's view of the meat. Colleen gasped. The woman's face looked distorted; all her features were larger. Her beautiful, catlike eyes lost their slimness and were more like the bulging eyes of an enraged bull. Her widened nostrils complimented that image. Her lips turned rubbery and stretched into a mad smile.

Then, as suddenly as this distortion had occurred, it began to disappear. Her face softened and reformed, returning to the face of the dark, Indian-like beauty Colleen had first confronted. Even so, there was an ugly sneer at the corners of her mouth and around her eyes.

"Sneaking around the house?" she asked.

"I'm not sneaking," Colleen said. "I came down here to see you specifically."

"Oh? How can I help you?"

"You… you had no right to stop Teddy from coming in to see me. You had no right to tell him those lies."

"What lies?" She turned her body completely to her now, holding the bloodstained meat knife out. There was even some blood on her knuckles.

"You said I was too sick to see anyone," Colleen said, eyeing the blade.

"Well, weren't you? Your little religious friend had to leave because you were so upset," Nurse Patio said, still smiling. "I was only trying to do what was best for you."

"You had no right. You're not my nurse. You're Dana's. Don't you ever do anything like that again. Don't answer my phone or greet my friends," she added, building courage with every word. "I'm going to tell my brother what you did," she added.

Nurse Patio smiled. "Why, dear, he already knows," she said. "And he thought I did the right thing."

"You're lying."

"Ask him yourself, and after you do, you can apologize."

"I'll never apologize to you. I think you're doing terrible things here!"

"Now don't get yourself all excited again, Colleen. If there's one thing your brother and his wife don't need, it's an hysterical teenager on their hands these days." Her smile evaporated and she took a few steps forward, still holding the knife straight out. "If you do have another emotional breakdown, I'm going to have to recommend to Harlan that he send you someplace else for a while… at least until Dana gets strong enough to deal with someone like you. Do you understand?"

Nurse Patio's face began to revert to the state it had been in when Colleen had first entered the kitchen. Colleen stepped back. It seemed to take all her effort and strength to move her feet. For a moment she thought they really had been glued to the floor. She was tempted to look down to see if there was any evidence she had stepped in some sticky substance. Her heart was beating so fast, she thought she might pass out. Her head was getting very light.

"I don't know who you are, but you're evil. You're evil," she repeated, and turned to run off. Nurse Patio's laughter followed her to the stairway. She paused at the base of it to catch her breath and then went up to her room.

For the first time since she had moved in with her brother and her sister-in-law, Colleen Hamilton locked her bedroom door.

The first thing Colleen realized when she opened her eyes in the morning was that Audra's mother hadn't called. She didn't think the woman would forget to, and she was certain that if Audra had returned and learned about all that had occurred, she would have called herself to apologize for worrying everyone. Something was seriously wrong.

She sat up, debating what to do. She knew that Audra's mother was probably hovering over the telephone, and that its ringing would jab pins and needles into her heart, but she couldn't contain her own concern and curiosity. Besides, maybe there was something else she could do for Lucy Carson, she thought, and with that as a rationalization she dialed. As she expected, Audra's mother lifted the receiver after the first ring.

"It's Colleen," she said after the woman's tiny hello. "What's happening, Mrs. Carson?"

"Oh, Colleen. I've heard nothing. I've been up all night. I keep calling the police but they haven't been able to find her. Something's happened to her, something terrible," she said, and started to cry. For a moment Colleen couldn't speak. Then the right words came.

"Hold yourself together, Mrs. Carson. Audra's going to need you when we find out what's happening. You've got to be strong."

"Yes, yes."

"Do you want me to come over?"

"Oh, dear. No," she said after a moment. "You go to school. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure? Is there anything you need?"

"No, dear, thank you so much."

"I'll come over as soon as I can, Mrs. Carson."

"That's very nice of you, Colleen. You're a good friend, a true friend. Audra's only friend," she added, and Colleen was unable to speak. She nodded and squeezed out a good-bye before hanging up. For a while she just sat there. Then she decided to get up and get dressed. She would go to school. Sulking and moping about the house would do no good. She had to get herself together again; she had to become active and strong, for she sensed she was involved in some kind of a battle, even though she was uncertain as to who the actual antagonists were.

Nurse Patio was one; that was for sure, she thought. She was surprised to see her bedroom door still closed. She had imagined the woman would be downstairs preparing Harlan's breakfast, continuing to develop her influence over him. She was shocked to find Harlan asleep on the couch in the living room. He was still in his pajamas. Confused, she went to the kitchen and put up some coffee. When she returned to the living room, Harlan was stirring.

"What happened, Harlan? Why are you sleeping down here?"

"Oh. What time is it?" he said, rubbing his face.

"A little after seven."

He nodded and sat up, shaking his head to loosen the hold fatigue had on him. His eyes were bloodshot. He looked up at Colleen, who stood staring at him.

"Bad night," he said. "Terrible night."

"What happened?"

"Dana tossed and turned and moaned something terrible. I thought she was in some kind of pain. I called in Nurse Patio, and she gave Dana some warm milk and asked that I sleep downstairs so Dana could be more comfortable. I wasn't getting any sleep, anyway, so I did what she said. It must have been about four in the morning before I finally came down here."

"What's wrong with her?"

"Nurse Patio thinks she might have to stop breast-feeding and take some sedatives. She's bringing her to see the doctor today, and he'll decide. All of it…the death of the baby, the pressure of taking care of Nikos, the situation with Jillian, and…" He hesitated.

"And me," Colleen said.

"Whatever. All of it has been too much. She's a nervous wreck. I don't know," he said, shaking his head. "I don't know."

Her brother looked very small and weak to her. She realized why he had always avoided personal conflict and controversy. He simply didn't have the strength to stand up to them. Right now he looked overwhelmed, beaten down. She felt sorry for him, but she was also disappointed. If at any time in her life she needed someone with strength, she thought, it was now.

"Audra wasn't found last night," she said. "I called her mother. There's no trace of her."

"My God. That poor kid." He shook his head. It seemed to be the only action he could take.

"I decided to go to school," Colleen said with determination. "I've got to get back into the swing of things."

"Good idea," he said.

"I put up coffee."

"Great. I'll take a quick shower and get dressed. This all has to happen the night before my biggest day of the week, the day I have most classes."

She nodded, but she was losing her sympathy for him. He shouldn't be feeling so sorry for himself, she thought. Not with all the problems other people around him were having. And by now he should have realized how terrible Nurse Patio was instead of placing even more faith in her and becoming more dependent upon her.

By the time he came down, she had finished her breakfast and gotten her things together.

"Everyone's dead to the world up there," he said, and poured himself some coffee.

"Did you know," Colleen said before leaving the kitchen, "that she turned Teddy away last night? Told him I wasn't well enough to see him?"

"You weren't feeling well. Audra had to leave," he said.

"She had no right to do that, Harlan. And you had no right to let her. You and Dana have become more like her prisoners in this place, and now she's trying to do it to me."

"Colleen," he said with a sigh, "really…"

"Forget it," she said, and rushed away from him. She went out the front door, got into her car, and backed out of the driveway, but about a block down the avenue she stopped because she saw a patrol car parked in front of the Jensens' house. Thinking about Audra, she got out to see what she could learn. She found both Mr. and Mrs. Jensen standing by the side of their house, talking to a patrolman. Everyone turned to her as she approached.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"My Lollypop," Mrs. Jensen said.

"What?" Colleen asked. She looked at Mr. Jensen, who smirked. Colleen had never been very fond of the man. He was always quite surly, even reluctant to wave hello or acknowledge Harlan and Dana.

"Our dog," he said. "One of our friendly neighbors," he added, and smirked.

"I don't understand," she said, looking to the policeman.

"Their dog's dead. Its neck's been broken."

"Oh, my God. I'm sorry."

"It happened last night," Mrs. Jensen said. "But I didn't realize it until I went out to feed her. And we had just tied her up, too, after what had happened at your brother's house," she said. Her eyes grew small, as though she had just concluded that Harlan had taken revenge for the dogs digging up some of his lawn.

"I can't imagine anyone on this street doing this," Colleen said, but she was impatient with the problem of a dead dog when there were bigger problems. "Do you know anything about my friend?" she asked the patrolman. "Audra Carson?"

"The missing girl? No, nothing yet. You have any information that might help?"

"No. She had been visiting me," Colleen said with disappointment.

"Missing girl?" Mrs. Jensen said. "Oh, dear. What a night. My poor Lollypop," she repeated. Colleen turned away and hurried back to her car so she could continue on to school.

Ever since she had begun a romance with Teddy, he met her at her locker in the morning, just before homeroom. That morning he wasn't there. She saw him down by the auditorium, surrounded by other students—mostly girls—who were reviewing the championship game. When he started away from the auditorium, they moved along and behind him as if they were attached. She saw that he had seen her, but she slammed her locker shut and walked off to homeroom.

He didn't catch up to her until the bell rang for the first period, and even then he was followed by what was rapidly becoming his entourage of adoring fans.

"Calm down some?" he asked her.

"For your information," she said, spinning around abruptly, "Audra is still missing. The police have been unable to find any trace of her."

"No kidding." He turned around to see if any of the other students had heard what she'd said.

"A dog was killed on my street," she added. Even though she didn't see how it related to the situation with Audra, she wanted to impress him with the events. "The Jensens' dog. Someone broke its neck."

"Jesus."

"But I suppose all this is my imagination," she said, and started for her first-period class.

"Hey, wait a minute." He reached out to seize her by the elbow, but she didn't stop walking. "Why are you so angry at me?"

She stopped and looked at him. The students who had been with him caught up.

"When we can have a word in private, without your fan club, I'll tell you," she said, and continued on. She heard the comments and whistles. "What's got into her? Her time of the month, Ted? She wants you all to herself, Ted." There was some laughter, so she walked even faster.