Nebulon Horror (28 page)

Doc hurried to his car.

As before, Yambor was on his porch when Doc drove into the yard. Descending the steps, he opened the door of the car and bent himself into it without waiting to explain his behavior. "Back out and turn right, Norman. Then take your second left. And I'm not going to talk to you. I don't want to influence your thinking."

They came eventually to one of the town's older houses half a mile distant. A police car was parked at the curb, and two Glendevon policemen guarded the front door. Yambor nodded to the men. "This is Doctor Broderick from Nebulon. Knows the whole story. I want him to see what's in there."

The men stepped aside.

"Her name was Emily Morgan," Yambor said to Doc as he led the way into the house. "She was related to Teresa's father, actually. His aunt. That's how I got her to take the child in." He walked Doc along a short hall into a small, plain bedroom. "A Mrs. Jackvony, who lives next door, found her here in bed
when she came over this morning. Seems they took turns visiting each other for breakfast. The Jackvony woman called me."

Finding himself gazing at a dead woman about sixty years old on a bed, Doc leaned over for a closer
look at her face. There was something strange about
it. Her mouth was open in such a contorted, unnatural way that he could almost hear a scream shrilling
out of it. Her eyes were enormously wide, as though
gazing in sheer terror at something no human eyes ought to be confronted with. Even the sight of her
hands, lying outside the white summer blanket, caused Doc to feel suddenly cold inside and induced in him a prolonged shiver of apprehension. The fingers of both hands were spread as wide as they could go, as though to ward off an attacker.

"What happened to her?" Doc said at last in a voice no louder than a whisper.

"God knows. She was alive when I got here, but almost gone, and could barely speak to me. I didn't get much of what she said. Something about Teresa coming into the room at about three in the morning, in the dark, and staring at her in some strange way
with glowing eyes. Something about the child's eyes
having some awful power. That's why I called you. It was the red eyes of the Nebulon kids that brought
you to me; remember? She died before I could do anything. I looked her over but couldn't find a mark on her. There'll be an autopsy, of course. Maybe that will turn up something."

"I wonder," Doc said tonelessly.

"What?"

"Elizabeth Peckham died this morning, Victor."

"What? But I thought she—"

"At two o'clock. And you say Teresa came into this room about three." He glanced at a clock on the bedside table. "I don't know what it means, but it sure as hell scares me."

There was a moment of silence. Then old Doctor Yambor said quietly, "Come with me, Norman," and walked out of the room.

Doc followed him across the hall and into another bedroom.

"This was Teresa's," Yambor said. "She's gone now. Disappeared completely. No one in the neighborhood has seen her. But look here."

Taking hold of Doc's arm, he pulled him around the bed and pointed to the floor. And there it was on the carpet, drawn with a white substance that appeared to be flour. The symbol. The vévé. The diagram.

Gustave's door.