Book of Horrors (Nightmare Hall) (16 page)

Lindsey would not leave the hospital, and insisted that Reed drive her car back to campus. “You can come and pick me up here tomorrow if I’m ready to leave. Call me.”

Reed had no choice. It was too late for the shuttle. She took Lindsey’s car.

What had Karen been so afraid of? Was it something at the McCoy house, as Lindsey thought? Or was it something that had nothing to do with the writer? That was possible, too.

Reed slept very little that night. The rain continued to slap at the windows and the sound reminded her of the way it had been slamming against the pavement when that car came out of nowhere …

If only she could have seen the car better.

It was nearly dawn when she finally closed her eyes.

But she had no Saturday morning classes, and slept until nearly noon. It was still pouring when she awoke.

The pounding rain reminded her of what had happened last night, and she moaned and buried her face in the pillow. Then she quickly roused herself to call the hospital.

Karen Overmeyer was “holding her own, no change.”

Well, at least she hadn’t taken a turn for the worse.

Karen “knew something,” Lindsey had said. What did Karen know? And why hadn’t she told anyone?

Because she was too frightened. Someone had scared her into silence. Scared her off campus, away from the life she knew. Sent her back home.

It
had
to have something to do with McCoy, Reed realized unhappily as she dressed. If it didn’t have anything to do with McCoy, Karen wouldn’t have called
me,
wouldn’t have come all this way to see
me.
She knows I work there.

Reed deliberately set aside the black slacks and sweater and chose instead jeans and a bright blue, red, and yellow patchwork blouse. Not black. Not today. Not now.

Tisha came in carrying an armload of books and her green jacket. Her face and her hair were dripping. “It is coming down in buckets out there! I heard it’s supposed to change to snow. That’ll be a lovely mess! Fortunately, I just had my last Saturday class. So I’m sacking out right here all afternoon with a good book. Not,” she added as she whipped off her sodden jacket, “one of your beloved McCoy’s. Something romantic.”

“Tisha,” Reed asked in spite of the large knot of dread in her stomach, “did you tell anyone that Karen Overmeyer was coming to see me last night?”

“Oh, gosh, I heard! It’s horrible, isn’t it? There are cops all over campus this morning. Asking questions about the hit-and-run, and they’re also asking a lot of questions about Carl. You know they found his car in the river?”

“Yes. Did you?”

“Did I what?” Tisha disappeared inside the bathroom.

Reed sighed impatiently. “Did you tell anyone about Karen?” she called.

“Only Link,” came the reply.

Link?

“He was in the caf when I went down for coffee. Said he’d been looking for you and did I know where you were or who you were with?”

He wanted to know if I was still with Rain, Reed thought. “Was Lilith with him?” She was instantly ashamed of herself. What difference did it make if Lilith was with Link? That wasn’t what she needed to know right now.

“No, he was alone. It was late, around ten-thirty, I think. Where
were
you, anyway, if you weren’t with Link?” Tisha poked her head out of the bathroom and said impishly, “Trouble in paradise, Reed?”

Almost ten-thirty … Reed flushed. She
had
been with Rain then.

“You didn’t tell
anyone
else that Karen was coming here? No one?”

Toothpaste suds in her teeth, Tisha peered out again. “Uh-uh. I don’t think so. Although the place was crowded. I think I saw some people from your fan club there. Debrah wasn’t there, but I think Jude and Ray and Tom Sweeney were. Bad weather Friday night, Reed, so more people were in the building than usual. Anyone could have overheard me telling Link you were meeting Karen.”

Yes, but only
one
person had driven that car. Only one.

Who
was
it?

Reed sat down on her bed. Sunny Bigelow … McCoy’s assistant. … drowned? Maybe. Dead. Very dead. Carl Nordstrum … also McCoy’s assistant … missing, his car in the river … Karen Overmeyer … McCoy’s assistant … the victim of a deliberate hit and run.

Reed Monroe … McCoy’s assistant … ?

She would have to be insane to return to that house.

Well … she’d have to return just
once
… to give her notice, pick up anything she might have left there …

But that was all. Her fascination with the writer hadn’t ended. She would still read every book McCoy wrote. And she would still head the fan club. But she wasn’t adding her name to the list of former assistants who had met with disaster.

I don’t know what’s going on, she thought, standing up. Somebody else will have to find out what it is. But I do know my days as Victoria McCoy’s assistant are coming to an end … before
I
do.

Feeling a little better now that she had made her decision, Reed slipped into her raincoat.

Tisha came out of the bathroom. “You’re going out in
that?
You’ll be sorry. Where are you going?”

‘To McCoy’s. I’m quitting.”

“Smart move. And it’ll make Debrah really happy.”

Already on her way to the door, Reed stopped. “Debrah?”

“Yeah. She’s been driving me nuts. Asking me every time I see her if I think you’re ready to quit yet. And if I think you are, would I please,
please
call her immediately. So should I call her?”

Reed thought for a minute. Then, “No,” she said quietly. “No, I don’t think you should call her. I’ll tell her myself.”

R
EED WENT FIRST TO
Debrah’s room.

No answer when she knocked. Where was Debrah? Out running around in the pine grove dressed in Jude’s raincoat? Debrah had a car. She didn’t drive it very often. It was old and unreliable, and she didn’t like to drive it unless it was absolutely necessary.

Would keeping Karen Overmeyer from telling Reed something important … something that could incriminate Debrah … qualify as “absolutely necessary”?

McCoy had been so insistent about having seen Debrah before. Maybe she had. And maybe Karen had, too. Maybe Karen had seen Debrah doing something she shouldn’t have been doing. Like … like what?

Reed didn’t know.

Instead of heading directly outside as she had planned, Reed swerved toward the stairs and ran down to the dining hall.

They were all there, sitting at a table in the back. Link and Lilith, Debrah and Jude, Ray Morrissey and Tom Sweeney. Victoria McCoy’s fan club. All they needed was their founder and president to complete the group.

Hands in the pockets of her raincoat, Reed strode over to the table. “Discussing McCoy, are we?” she asked, her voice cool. She didn’t sit down.

“We heard about Karen Overmeyer,” Lilith said. “And we know which book it’s from.”

Reed stared at her. “Book? What are you talking about?”

“It’s from
The Wheelchair,”
Lilith said in the smug voice Reed had learned to hate. “Remember? The athlete? He’s injured in a game, but the coach makes him keep playing, and by the time the game is over, the guy is crippled. In a wheelchair for the rest of his life. To make up for it, the team buys him a specially equipped van so he can drive. So he sets out to get revenge by blowing innocent pedestrians away on the road, hoping they’ll be crippled like him. We’ve decided,” Lilith glanced around the table, “that what happened to Karen is pretty close.”

“Except that she’s not crippled,” Reed said.

“Well, yes, but the person who hit her probably hoped she would be.”

I don’t
think
so, Reed thought. The person who hit her hoped she would be
dead.

“You can’t go back to that house,” Link said, standing up. “Use your head. Karen’s in the hospital, Carl is still missing, and Sunny Bigelow is dead. They all worked for McCoy. You’re next on that list. Can’t you see that?”

Oh, yes, she thought, her blood like ice, I can see that.

She didn’t want them to know she was headed for the house. Because she didn’t trust any of them. Maybe McCoy
had
lost it again, and was acting out the plots of her novels, using her assistants.

But maybe not. Maybe someone just wanted it to
look
that way.

“I’m quitting,” she announced, her eyes on Debrah’s face. “I’m going to call McCoy today and tell her. I thought you all should know. So, if anyone wants to take my place in that house, be my guest. But if I were you,” Reed added as she turned away, “I’d make sure my life insurance is up-to-date first.”

Then she turned on her heels and walked away.

“Reed, wait!” Link called.

Reed kept walking. Link had a car, too. It was dark blue, and wouldn’t have been easy to see in a heavy rainstorm. He had seen to it that she knew about the job at McCoy’s … totally unlike him to be so generous … almost as if he
wanted
her to be in that house …

Shaking her head to rid it of such a terrible thought, Reed took the elevator up to the lobby,

Link was right about one thing. It would be a mistake to go back to that house now.

Instead, she went to the phone in the lobby. Dialed McCoy’s number with shaking hands. Of course, it wasn’t polite to quit a job with only a phone call, but …

Reed laughed bitterly. Not polite? It wasn’t polite to run people down with a car, either.

Instead of a ring on the other end, she heard only a dull buzzing. The McCoy phone was doing its thing … out of order in bad weather.

She had just replaced the receiver when Rain came in the front door, stomping fresh snow from his boots.

“Hey, what luck!” he cried, smiling broadly. He hurried over and planted a kiss on her cheek. His face was red with cold. “McCoy sent me to get you. She wants to talk to you about all these crazy rumors on campus. I think she’s worried that you’re going to abandon her.”

Good guess, Reed thought. But something kept her from saying it out loud. She couldn’t help feeling sorry for McCoy. If she
was
doing these things, she couldn’t help it, and if she wasn’t, someone was being very cruel to her, setting her up.

“I’ve got errands to run in town,” Rain added blithely. He didn’t seem to notice Reed’s confusion. “I’ve got my car out front. I’ll drop you off at the house, go on into town, and you and McCoy can talk. She’s really upset, Reed. I guess you know why she was at Brooklawn. Everyone seems to, now. The grapevine doesn’t waste any time, does it?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, trying to decide what to do. Rain seemed so calm, so normal … as if nothing were really wrong. If McCoy had lost her grip, wouldn’t he be upset?

He shrugged. “Can you blame her for not wanting anyone to know? Even these days, it’s not the kind of thing you brag about. And it’s not like she was really crazy, Reed. She was just exhausted, that’s all. So she forgets things. Big deal. Who doesn’t? Just come and talk to her, okay? You’d be doing me a big favor.”

“I never thought she did those things, anyway,” Reed said as they began walking toward the door. “I thought it was someone else making it look like your mother had … was sick again. I mean, using the plots of her books? McCoy would never be that obvious, would she? She’s not stupid.”

“No,” he said, opening the door for her. “She is definitely not stupid.”

Before she climbed into his car, Reed’s eyes automatically turned toward the front fender. There were no dents, no scratches, no sign that Rain’s car had hit anything recently. Ashamed of herself for even checking, she slid into the front seat.

“The police came this morning,” he said as he drove to the house. “But when I told them we were both home all night long, they seemed satisfied. They agree with you, Reed. That someone is trying to set up McCoy. Don’t have a clue why, though. Neither do I. But my mother has an enemy somewhere on this campus, and I intend to find out who it is.”

“Let the police handle it,” Reed said uneasily as they pulled up in front of the house. Looking at it now, she wondered how she could ever have found it fascinating. It was just an old, gloomy house. Nothing more. “Whoever is doing this doesn’t mind killing. They almost succeeded with Karen.” She turned toward Rain. “You said you didn’t want anything bad to happen to me. Well, I feel the same way about you.”

“Moi?” He grinned, and gave her a quick kiss. “I’m invincible. Look, you go in and calm McCoy down, and I’ll be right back. If she’s forgotten that you’re coming and gone into her study, go and pound on the door. And look, don’t worry, okay? Did I tell you Poe is trained as an attack bird?”

Reed laughed. “Yeah, right. He could always talk an intruder to death.”

Rain was laughing, too, as he pulled away and turned the car around.

No scratches, no dents, no bumps … it hadn’t been
his
car that hit Karen.

The front door was, as always, unlocked.

Just to be on the safe side, Reed locked it when she was inside. Rain would have his own key. He’d probably be pleased that, unlike his mother, Reed had thought to lock it. Especially now.

McCoy wasn’t waiting for her in the living room. Rain knew his mother well. She’d probably completely forgotten that she’d asked to see Reed.

Or maybe she’d decided to work while she waited. There was always the chance that her son hadn’t been able to find Reed, and McCoy could be wasting valuable writing time, waiting.

Maybe McCoy had left a note on the desk.

Slipping out of her raincoat, Reed walked to the desk and checked its surface.

There was no note.

But a spiral notebook with a black and white cover lay on the blotter, a white label pasted across its front.

McCoy had left a manuscript out?

The old, familiar excitement welling up inside her, Reed hurried around the desk and looked at the label.

Betrayal.

The last of Reed’s anxiety at being in the house again completely disappeared. At last! Just as she had planned to leave the house forever, she was actually going to see the beginning of a McCoy novel. The book that would no doubt be on the best-seller list sometime in the future was in front of her now.