Calypso (29 page)

    He had not yet seen the horror on the bed.

    There was blood all over the carpet around the bed. There was blood soaked into the bedclothes. On the bed, on his back, a man lay spread-eagled, his arms and legs tied to the four posts. The man was still screaming though Lily Parker lay wounded on the floor, where she could no longer harm him. The man had skin only on his face. The rest of his skin had been peeled away from his body so that he lay there a naked pulsing bleeding mass of unsheathed muscles and nerves.

    Carella turned away at once, almost colliding with Meyer who was directly behind him. "We'll… we'll need…" he said, and could not get the rest out. He looked for a phone, found none in the room, and went swiftly out into the cellar and upstairs to the kitchen where he found one on the wall. He dialed the local police then, and identified himself, and told them what he had here, and asked that they send an ambulance at once.

    "It's very bad," he said. "I've never seen anything like it in my life."

    

    

    It did not stop raining until Sunday morning, September 24. The rain stopped all at once; the clouds would not dissipate for hours, but for now at least there was no rain. The first tentative rays of the sun filtered down through the overcast at 2:00 p.m. and by 2:15 the wet pavements were glistening with sunshine. At 3:30 that same afternoon, Santo Chadderton died in the Intensive Care Unit of the Fox Hill Hospital. That same day, in the Psychiatric Unit on the sixth floor of Isola's Buena Vista Hospital, a team of psychiatrists was interviewing Lily Parker to determine whether or not she was sane enough to stand trial. A transcript of the interview later found its way to Carella's desk. It was in the form of a standard Q and A. As he read it, he could remember nothing but the flayed body of Santo Chadderton in that basement room at Hawkhurst.

    

    

    Q: Mrs. Parker, can you tell us why you killed George Chadderton?

    A: Because he knew.

    Q: What did he know?

    A: That Robert was with me on the island.

    Q: Robert?

    A: My husband.

    Q: Was with you on the island?

    A: In the basement room where they used to lock me up.

    Q: Who used to lock you up?

    A: Robert and my father.

    Q: Mrs. Parker, your husband left you almost twenty years ago, isn't that so?

    A: Well, yes, but he came back.

    Q: If he left you so long ago…

    A: Yes, but he came
back,
I just told you.

    Q: Then it would have been impossible for
him
to have locked you in that basement room.

    A: Yes, but not my father.

    Q: It was your father who locked you in that room, is that it?

    A: Nurse sitting outside the door. Giving me
shots
all the time.

    Q: Your father did that to you?

    A:
And
Robert.
Because
of Robert, don't you see?

    Q: Because Robert left you?

    A: Yes. That was when I got sick. When Robert left. That was when my father had the doors put in, and locked me up.

    Q: Mrs. Parker, when did your father die?

    A: Seven years ago.

    Q: What month, would you remember?

    A: July.

    Q: And when did you meet Santo Chadderton?

    A: I don't know who that is.

    Q: Mrs. Parker, we have here a guest list for something called the Blondie Ball, a charity ball that took place on September eleventh, seven years ago.

    A: Yes?

    Q: Your name is on the list-we
assume
it's your name-L. Parker. Is that you?

    A: Yes, Lily Parker.

    Q: Santo Chadderton was one of the musicians at the ball that night.

    A: I don't know anyone named Santo Chadderton.

    Q: Isn't Santo Chadderton the man you were living with on the island?

    A: No, no.

    Q: Who was that man then?

    A: Robert. My husband. He came back. After Daddy died, Robert came back to me.

    Q: Where did you meet him again, Mrs. Parker?

    A: At a ball in September, fairy princess all in white, mask on my face, he didn't even know it was me at first. Silly Robert making music in a band.

    Q: When did you take him to the island?

    A: In the morning. We spent the night at the hotel, he was extremely apologetic, we made such beautiful love.

    Q: And in the morning, you went out to the island?

    A: Yes.

    Q: And he stayed there with you from then on?

    A: Oh, yes, why would he want to leave? I took very good care of him. He knew that. He finally came to understand how much he loved me.

    Q: Mrs. Parker, why did you kill Clara Jean Hawkins?

    A: She was the one who told.

    Q: Told what?

    A: About us on the island. I brought her home to Robert one night because I thought he might be, well, stimulated by her, you know, by a third party. It wasn't fair, he never wanted to leave the island, I thought I'd bring him some outside stimulation, you know. I spotted her on the street downtown one day, in the city outside the railroad terminal, she seemed young and vivacious, I asked her if she'd like to come out to Hawkhurst with me. And of course she accepted, she could see I was a beautiful woman of good breeding, he always used to tell me how beautiful I was, my father, gave me the island as a sweet-sixteen present you know, and C. J. recognized my beauty as well, licked my cunt, savored my cunt, it was a shame I had to kill her.

    Q: When you say she told…

    A: She told his brother, don't you see?

    Q: Santo's brother?

    A: I found out last Thursday when I was driving her back to the station. She told me she was going to do an
album
with him, songs! They were going to write
songs
about all her experiences, can you imagine? Songs about us! Songs about what we did together on the island.

    Q: She said that? That the songs would be about you?

    A: Well, what else
could
they be?

    Q: So you killed her.

    A: Of course. To save Robert.

    Q: To save him?

    A: Yes, to
save
him, to
keep
him.

    Q: Then… Mrs. Parker… why did you kill
him?

    A: I didn't.

    Q: He's dead, Mrs. Parker. We learned a little while ago that he's dead.

    A: No, no. He'll come back, you'll see.
I
thought he was dead, too, for the longest time, but he came back, didn't he? Only this time I won't be as understanding, I can tell you that. I took all his clothes from him, you know. Stripped him naked. That was so he wouldn't run away again. But when he comes back this time, I'm going to be a bit harsher with him. I put needles in his cock one time, to keep it stiff. That was before C. J. started coming out to join us. Cut off one of his fingers, too. But that was because his cock wasn't stiff. A man has to have a stiff cock. If he hasn't got a stiff cock, what good is he? I kept telling him that. This time… when he comes back this time… well, he'll see, I can promise you that.

    Q: What will you do this time, Mrs. Parker?

    A: Oh, he'll see. He'll see.

    

    

    It was almost October when the report reached Carella's desk. By that time, Lily Parker had been remanded to the Riverhead Facility for the Criminally Insane. By that time, the city's skies were clear and blue, and there was a clean crisp bite on the air. Typewriters were clacking in the squadroom, phones were ringing. Carella rose from his desk and walked to the filing cabinets, and found the folder for Chadderton under C, and filed the report at the front of the folder. The case was closed, everything wrapped up neatly and tied with a pretty little bow. All the pieces in place, just like a phony fucking mystery novel. But the phone on his desk was ringing again.