Erika (10 page)

Dr. Tyler sighed. “Mr. O’Brien. I for certain don’t need your money. You should take what you just offered me and somehow use it to better the relationship between you and Hawk.”

O’Brien puffed his Cuban three times. “I don’t need your advice. My son does.”

Dr. Juggson returned. His face reflected exhaustion and disgust. “Your son has regained consciousness. I urge you to use caution. Confine your stay to a few minutes. Any longer and I’ll have the orderlies throw you out, regardless of who you are, Mr. Billionaire.”

“You’re expendable, Juggson.”

“Shit, you fucking asshole, we all are. You think the world revolves around Mr. Terrence Hawkins Archibald O’Brien. Nuts, you could die on Monday and I’ll bet my year’s salary nobody would remember you on Wednesday of the same week. So kiss my ass, you inhuman bastard.”

Dr. Tyler interrupted. “Gentlemen, please. We’re here to help Hawk. Settle your personal differences later, like maybe in a boxing ring.” He faced O’Brien. “Stay with Hawk only for a few minutes.”

“I’m not. You are. When you have some results you know how to reach me.”

Dr. Tyler nodded. “Have you ever told your son you love him?”

O’Brien’s slate gray eyes flashed anger. “The word love, Dr. Tyler, has a zero in it and no dollar sign. Juggson, if you weren’t number one as a doctor, you would now be unemployed. Nobody talks to me like you did.”

“Go to hell, O’Brien,” Juggson replied. “Take your cigar and body stink with you. And close the door quietly behind you.”

O’Brien left. Dr. Juggson turned to Dr. Tyler. “I’ve wanted to tell him what’s what for three years. He’s the most miserable piece of humanity I’ve ever met. He isn’t human.”

Dr. Tyler smiled. “Oh yes, O’Brien’s human. Perhaps he’s too human for his own good. I worry about his type a good deal.”

“Is Hawk like him?”

“No. He’s like no other person I’ve ever met.”

* * * *

Who belonged to the voice? Fog clogged his ears.

“It’s Dr. Helmut Tyler, Hawkins. Can you hear me?”

“Yes. Who did you say you are?”

“Dr. Tyler.”

Words came hard, slurred, a feeble croak. “Why are you here? Where am I?”

“I’m here to talk to you. You’re in O’Brien Hospital.”

“Why?”

“You don’t remember?”

“No.”

“Try.”

“I Can’t. Feel weak. See blurs. Why?”

Dr. Tyler reached out to touch Hawk’s right shoulder. “Steady, Hawkins. You’re going to be all right. Now try to recall what happened to you.”

Hawk thought. Everything was muddled, crazy, made no sense. Erika loved him. Yet she shot him. Why? Wasn’t love supposed to create rather than destroy?

“Hawkins, do you remember anything?” Dr. Tyler asked.

“Yes.”

“What?”

“I was shot.”

“Can you tell us who shot you?”

“It was Erika.”

“Erika? What about Erika?”

“She shot me.”

“Hawkins, I know Erika is a doll.”

Hawk turned his bandaged head to face Dr. Tyler. He blinked his eyes a few times. It didn’t help much. The blurs remained.

“Did you hear me, Hawkins?”

“Yes.”

“Is yes your only comment?”

“Yes. Yes it is. You think Erika’s a doll when I know she isn’t.”

“I’m attempting to help you. Say anything you wish about her.”

“She’s alive. Does that help you?”

“Not really. Did you play with the Erika doll when you were a child?”

His mind didn’t want to form an answer. He shook his head in an effort to clear his vision and felt sharp pain. He whimpered.

“Hawkins, are you all right?”

The doctor’s question irritated him to the point where it gave him a little strength. “Did it take a degree in psychiatry to ask a stupid question? I’m in the hospital. Do people who are all right become patients in a saw bone’s factory like this?”

Dr. Tyler smiled. “Welcome back, Hawk. You’re now your usual disagreeable self. That’s a good sign. Are you able to answer my question about the Erika doll?”

“Godammit, yes I played with Erika for years, even for several months after my mother was killed.”

“I see. You said Erika was alive. When did you realize that?”

Hawk’s eyes lost their dazed appearance to flash fire. “Don’t try your psychiatric bullshit on me. You don’t believe me about Erika being real.”

Dr. Tyler shook his head. “It’s too early in this game of questions and answers for me to make a judgment. However, if you cooperate I might be able to come up with some conclusions which will help you. Tell me about the Erika doll.”

“She’s real.”

“You’ve already mentioned that. Give me more details. When did you first notice something unusual about the doll?”

Hawk frowned. “I can’t give you the exact date. I can remember when I first became aware she’d moved. I had her hid away in a trunk. When the servants weren’t around I would play with her. One day I opened the trunk to discover she’d moved her arms.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes. You see I always moved Erika’s arms down to her sides when I put her away on the nights I didn’t sleep with her. Now I know what you’re thinking. Maybe there’s a spring or something in the arms to make them pop up. There isn’t. Her arms have to be moved by me, or by herself.”

“Did this happen more than once?”

“After the first time, it happened every time. That wasn’t all. One night a tapping noise woke me up. The sound came from Erika’s box. I opened it and saw her move.”

“At that instant what were your feelings?”

“I was overjoyed. When she spoke to me I knew she was the most special person in the world.”

“You say person? Spoke to you? What did she say?”

Hawk smiled. “Just the most wonderful words known to the human race, ‘I love you.’ She made me completely happy. And then father put me in the nut house until he decided I needed private analyzing. So enter you, Dr. Tyler.”

“If Erika loves you, why did she shoot you?” Dr. Tyler looked at his watch. “We’re getting somewhere, Hawkins. Try to hurry. My time with you is almost up.”

“Okay. Erika and I were in the woods by the mansion’s lake. She told me about a life essence in her, how she would materialize to become real. But she was tired of waiting and there was a chance the materialization might never be complete. Her plan was for me to crossover, to meet her halfway. I guess she thought my dying would accomplish that. It didn’t make sense to me and I said as much to her. That’s about all, Dr. Tyler.”

“I see. Can you tell me anything else before I go?”

“No.”

“All right, I’ll be back tomorrow.”

Chapter Eighteen

Shanna wanted to inform Hawk their relationship had ended. She drove to Inessa Mansion. No one made an appearance to park her vehicle. When someone answered the front entrance door it wasn’t Connors, or Matilda. A terrible foreboding numbed her. It became hard to talk, harder to ask questions for fear of answers she might receive.

“Who are you? Where are Connors and Matilda?”

“I’m Digby. Connors and Matilda are no longer employed here.”

Shanna noted the man’s ill-fitting butler’s suit. Could it actually belong to Connors? “Why did they leave?”

“I have no idea.”

Something was horribly wrong. The fear in her grew. “Tell Hawk I’m here.”

“I can’t. He’s gone.”

“Gone? Do you know where?”

“No.”

“Let me in.”

“You have no reason to come in.”

Anger flashed through Shanna. It wrapped itself around the strength devouring fear in her soul. She wanted to bash Digby aside, barge through the door and holler Hawk’s name but thought better of it. “I’ll be back.”

As Shanna left, the man known as Digby took a photograph and a cell phone from his pocket. Instructions from Terrence Hawkins Archibald O’Brien had been simple. “Don’t tell Shanna Mason anything.” He punched numbers.

* * * *

Periodically Templeton checked into police headquarters to offer his help on private matters the police desired not to handle. Today he could hear and feel the wall’s buzzing. His detective’s sixth sense told him a few of the higher ups walked around with their police bungholes puckered and their mouths shut. Still, little things did have a way of leaking out. A careless word, a suspicious look, even the smell of the air telegraphed someone was in a position to cause big trouble. It jackhammered at his senses informing him he was involved.

Captain Luskovitch had glared at him when he walked through the entrance door. He had quickly noticed the clamp down on the phone calls. They were all being filtered through Luskovitch. Why?

He stood across the room from Luskovitch when another phone rang. The captain grabbed it and faced the opposite direction. “No, I sent him out on an investigation. I don’t know when he’ll be back. I’ll tell him you called.”

Luskovitch hung up. “Come here, Gordon.”

He walked to the captain’s desk.

“Have you been playing tootsie wootsie with Shanna Mason?”

Anger flooded him. It threatened to burst forth with flying fists. He breathed deeply. “It’s no secret I like her. That’s personal business.”

Luskovitch nodded. “Shanna Mason is the most gorgeous piece of ass I’ve ever seen. Take her to your shack at Cannon Beach, pecker her so hard her butt sinks into the mattress.”

His voice was deadly calm as he spoke to Luskovitch. “I hope the next time I see you you’re without a badge pinned to your beer belly. Your gutter mouth could use a bar of soap. I’ll keep one in my back pocket just for you, after I knock you around a bit.”

Luskovitch jumped up. “Get out of my office before I have you in handcuffs.”

“Get back in your chair and shut your mouth. That phone call you hung up on was for me. You are now going to tell me who it was from.”

“Go to hell, Gordon. I’ll tell you nothing.”

“You will. I’ve done favors for people who are higher up the police chain of command than you. They owe me. So who phoned asking for me? Or do you want to lose your badge and your pension?”

Luskovitch paled. “Shanna Mason. She needs your help.”

“I’ll phone her to find out what’s wrong. If somehow you’re the cause of anything happening to her, no matter how insignificant it might be, you’ll find you can’t handle the trouble I’ll give you.”

* * * *

“You want to what? Surely you can’t be serious.”

“Mr. O’Brien, I sincerely believe the only solution to your son’s problem lies with the Erika doll. He takes her with him wherever he goes.”

“Inessa Mansion has thirty five acres of trees, brush and lake. Finding a small doll in all that, well, it is a bit bigger than a needle in a haystack.” He blew smoke rings and pursed his lips. A glance at the ceiling triggered a slight nod. “How many people will you need?”

“I have no idea. I’ll leave that to your discretion.”

“When the doll is found what will happen then, Dr. Tyler?”

“As of right now I’m not entirely sure. Ideally I’ll be able to work with Hawkins and prove to him the Erika doll is merely a doll, nothing else. I hope you understand his cure will not be immediate. He’s lived with his problem for a long time.”

O’Brien nodded. “I’ll arrange the search at once. The lake will be investigated first. Hawkins rowed the boats quite often.”

“You’ll join us?”

“No. It’s business as usual.”

“Of course, Mr. O’Brien, when isn’t it?”

“Prove to Hawkins that Erika is a lifeless bit of porcelain, Dr. Tyler. I need a normal son.”

Chapter Nineteen

Templeton’s yellow Volkswagen Beetle was noisy and according to the bumpy, teeth rattling ride the shocks died a horrible death years ago. Shanna was driving. In spite of her constant fear about Hawk’s disappearance she couldn’t hold back her laughter.

“Templeton, I’m enjoying your car along with the challenge to keep it on the road and right side up.”

The Beetle hit a bump. Templeton grabbed his navy-blue watch cap to keep it from being knocked off his head. “You’re doing fine for a beginner. Keep going.”

“What did you call me? Who won the race the track officials set up so we could compete against each other?”

“I had car trouble. It was a dreadfully embarrassing thing to happen, particularly when one is racing against a ravishingly beautiful woman driver.”

“Are you saying you lost the race on purpose?”

Templeton displayed an innocent look. “Of course I didn’t. Perish the thought.”

Shanna laughed. “You’re a dishonest rat and I love you. I also love your yellow hunk of junk. It travels all over the road like the steering wheel is loose. Honestly, Templeton I don’t see how anybody who is such a superb mechanic with his racing car can let his everyday one become a heap.”