The Midnight Tour (48 page)

Then came a break in the traffic and they hurried across.

They stopped just short of the high, chain link fence in front of the Kutch property.

Dana stared at the house.

“Have you ever been in there?” she asked.

“Not in the house itself. I’ve trespassed on the grounds, though. I was hoping to get a look inside.”

“No windows.”

“I knocked on the door.”

“You
knocked?

“Oh, yeah. I thought maybe I’d introduce myself to Agnes. I brought her a bouquet of flowers.”

“That was nice.”

“Well, you know. All women are supposed to love flowers. Agnes Kutch is apparently nuts, but she’s still a woman. Thought I’d try to win her over and maybe she’d give me a tour of her house. But she wouldn’t open the door. She doesn’t open it for anyone.”

“I’ve heard she’s sort of a recluse.”

“Sort
of. It’s like she’s hiding in there. She has a remote system for opening the gate of her driveway. Whatever she needs, she orders it by phone and has it delivered. See how the porch is all enclosed? They leave the stuff inside and she gets it after they’ve gone.”

Warren turned away. Dana stayed with him. Together, they walked along the sandy patch between Front Street and the fence. “She can’t stay in the house
all
the time, can she?”

“Looks like she does.”

“She must pay her bills somehow.”

“Janice pays them. Everything is billed to Janice.”

“So, does
Janice
ever see her?”

Warren shook his head. “Not in the past four or five years. Nodody has.”

“How creepy.”

“Well, you can’t really expect someone like Agnes to be normal. When you think about what she’s been through.”

“You’re probably right about that,” Dana said.

“Amazing she survived,” Warren said. “Here. Up this way.”

They headed to the left up a narrow lane of asphalt. The road was cracked and pitted. Grass and dandelions grew in some of the fissures.

“Going nuts was probably her way of coping with it,” Dana said.

“I guess you either go nuts or kill yourself.”

As they walked along, Dana looked over at the Kutch house.

She imagined a withered, hunched old crone lurching through its blue-lit rooms. “What kind of life could she have in there? What does she do all day?”

“God knows,” Warren said.

“Glad Idon’t.”

“An advantage of not being God.”

“I wonder if she’s got a T.V.”

“Last time Janice was inside, she didn’t.”

“And all the lights are blue?”

“I thought...”

“They
were
blue. Back when everything happened. But Agnes switched over to red lights a year or so later.”

“I hadn’t heard about that. Do you think she was trying to cheer the place up?”

Laughing softly, Warren shook his head. “If that was the idea, I guess it didn’t work. Janice said it was like looking at the world through blood-colored glasses.”

“You’d think
she
would’ve appreciated the change.”

“Janice? You’d think so, but she didn’t.”

“I can’t even imagine her going
into
the Kutch house. After what happened to her in there?”

Warren met Dana’s eyes, then quickly looked away and said, “Neither can I”

For a while, they walked up the lane in silence. Dana heard the squeals of seagulls. The wind hissed through the nearby trees.

It seemed to be blowing much stronger as they neared the ocean. It flung Dana’s hair. It pricked her legs with flying sand. It flapped her T-shirt, sometimes pressed the thin fabric against her body, other times blew underneath it and billowed it out. Once, the wind flung her T-shirt up as if to show Warren her bra. While the shirt was up, sharp bits of sand blasted against Dana’s belly. She pulled her T-shirt down, then switched the purse strap to her other shoulder so it crossed her chest like a bandolier. The wind was no match for the leather strap.

“Would you like to go to the beach for a while?” Warren asked. “Or straight to my cabin?”

“How about your cabin?”

“Good idea. Awfully windy today.”

“I noticed.”

When they came to a long row of rural mailboxes, Warren opened one and pulled out a handful of envelopes and catalogs.

He shut it, then nodded to the right at a side road. Narrow and unpaved, the lane stretched off into a shadowy, wooded area. “This way,” he said.

The trees kept most of the wind out. Dana could feel the heat again. The road, dim with shadows, was littered with bright dabs of sunlight. Pine needles crunched softly under her shoes. The air smelled of Christmas trees.

“I like it in here,” she said.

“It’s not L.A., is it?”

“Makes me wonder why I live there.”

“Why
do
you?”

“I don’t know. I grew up in L.A. My parents live there. Most of my friends, too. I’ve thought about moving away, but...there’s so much I’d
miss
. Earthquakes, riots, fires, floods, the late-night crackle of gunfire.”

Warren laughed.

“I really do like the restaurants and movie theaters. And the beach.”

“I hear you’re a life guard.”

“I’ve
been
a life guard.”

“Just like
Bay Watch
, huh?”

Grinning, she said, “Oh, yeah. It’s me and Mitch. Actually, my life guarding has mostly been confined to swimming pools.”

“You didn’t feel like doing it this summer?”

“I liked the idea of coming up here. And I hadn’t seen Lynn in a while.”

“Well, she has a pool. You can life guard her.”

“Right! She needs it.”

She really
might
need it, Dana suddenly thought. She’ll probably go out there tonight with or without me, no matter
who
might be lurking around.

What if something happens to her
?

“You really do need to keep an eye on her,” Warren said. “She’s...maybe a little too daring for her own good.”

“Oh, yeah, I know. More guts than sense.”

“Here’s my place.” He nodded toward a log cabin off to the left. It had a screened-in porch along the entire front, and a large stone chimney at one end. Sunlight coming down through the trees dappled the cabin and yard with gold. The yard was forest floor: pine needles and cones, twigs, rocks, saplings and scattered trees.

“It’s like a vacation cottage,” Dana said.

“If you’re having a really
cheap
vacation.”

“I think it’s nice,” Dana said, following Warren toward the porch.

“I like it. But wait till you meet my neighbors. The Seven Dwarfs live over that way.” He nodded to the right. “And over there...” He pointed at a bleak-looking cabin some distance to the left. “That’s where my buddy Ed lives. Ed Gein.”

“Oh. Charming. You’ll have to introduce us.”

“I don’t know. Ed’s sort of a loner.”

“Ah, but I bet he’d like
me.
”

“He’d
love
you.”

“With mustard and relish?”

Warren’s head swung around. He looked surprised and delighted. “You’re
bad,
” he said.

“
You’re
the one who brought up Ed Gein.”

“He doesn’t really live there.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Warren trotted up the porch stairs. He pulled open the screen door and held it for Dana.

Before entering, she paused and said, “I’m not on the menu
here,
am I?”

“You’re safe with me.”

“Okay, then.” She stepped through the doorway, then moved out of the way to let Warren by. He fumbled with a load of keys, chose one, and unlocked the cabin’s main door.

“You mean to tell me that you keep your door locked? In a bucolic place like this?”

“When you’ve got Ed Gein on one side and the Three Stooges on the other...”

“The Seven Dwarfs.”

“Oh. Right.” He opened the door. “Come on in.”

Dana followed him into the cabin. Straight ahead, on the other side of the living room, was a picture window bright with sunlight. A couch was facing it. She stepped around the couch and walked up to the window.

Behind the house, the woods continued for twenty-five or thirty feet. But there were few trees. Through the spaces between them, Dana could see down to the beach. The surf was rolling in. A man, looking very haggard, was jogging near the water.

Warren came over and stood beside her.

“Great view,” she said.

“Look at the fog out there.”

It lay spread across the ocean, far out, thick and pure white in the sunlight.

“Think it’ll come in?” Dana asked.

“Hard to say. Sometimes, it just stays offshore all night.”

“Must look great in the moonlight.”

“Oh, it does. Stick around long enough and you’ll get to see it. Either out there, or up close and personal.”

“That’d be nice,” Dana said. “I’m not sure how long I can stay, though. I’m a little nervous about leaving Lynn by herself.”

Warren looked concerned. “Is something wrong with her?”

Should I tell him? Dana wondered. What if
be’s
the prowler.

Not likely.

“Somebody was hanging around outside the house last night.”

And inside it
this
morning?

“Like a prowler?” Warren asked.

“I guess. We were in the hot spa and Lynn saw him. He was apparently hiding in the bushes on the other side of the swimming pool.”

“Did she recognize him?”

“All she saw was his arm, I guess. A bare arm.”

Warren grimaced. “What’d you do?” he asked.

“Ran into the house and locked the door. Lynn phoned the police. Then we kept an eye on things till a cop showed up.”

Why didn’t I tell him about the gun?

He doesn’t need to know everything, she thought. He sure seems like a nice guy, but...

“Which cop?” Warren asked.

“Eve Chaney.”

“Ah-ha! Eve of Destruction! What’d you think of her?”

“Very impressive.”

“Yeah. I’ll say. I’d sure hate to get on her bad side.”

“Having seen her,” Dana said, “I don’t think she
has
a bad side.”

“That isn’t exactly what...”

“I know. But she sure is a good looking woman, isn’t she?”

“She’s not bad.” Warren hesitated, then said, “But you’re better looking than she is.”

“I don’t know about
that.”

“I do.”

“Well...Thanks.”

He gazed into her eyes.

Her heart thumped hard and fast.

“Anyway,” Warren whispered, “that’s my opinion. For what it’s worth.”

“It’s worth plenty. To me.”

He glanced at her lips, then met her eyes again.

Come on, do it. Don’t just look.

“I bet you could use á drink,” he said.

Damn!

“Sure. Sounds good,”

“Do you like margaritas?”

She nodded.

“Why don’t you relax in here and enjoy the view? I’ll get changed , real fast. Then I’ll make the drinks and bring ’em in.”

She watched Warren hurry off to a bedroom. After he shut the door, she set down her purse and sank onto the couch.

She sighed deeply.

Take it easy, she told herself.

But he didn’t even make a try! He should’ve kissed me right then. What’s wrong with him?

He’s a gentleman, she thought.

Or maybe he is gay.

Maybe it’s something wrong with me
.

When the door opened, Dana looked over her shoulder. Warren came out of his bedroom. His tan uniform was gone. He now wore sandals, white trousers and a bright, flower-patterned shirt. Loose and untucked, the shirt floated around him like silk.

“Drinks coming up,” he said, hurrying toward the kitchen.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Help yourself.”

Dana followed him into the kitchen. “You got all dressed up,” she pointed out.

“I hate to stay in my work clothes. By the end of the day, they always smell like burgers and fries.”

“I’d think that would be nice.”

“It gets old.” He removed some bottles from a cupboard. “Anyway, you were telling me about your prowler?”

“Oh, yeah. Well, Eve went hunting for him around the other side of the pool, but he got away. She found where he’d been, though. He’d trampled the area pretty good. She figured he must’ve been spying on us.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Neither did we.”

Warren set the bottles on the counter, then turned around to face her. “Some kind of peeping Tom?”

That’s one of the possibilities.”

“No wonder you’re worried. Any ideas at all about who it might be?”

She shook her head. “Clyde?”

Laughter burst out of Warren. He looked surprised by it, himself.

Dana started laughing with him. When she stopped, she said, “You don’t think Clyde is a likely suspect?”

“It isn’t that. I wouldn’t put
anything
past him. It’s just that he’s
such
a jerk. And he’s the first name out of your mouth.”

“Anyway,” Dana said, “we don’t have any reason to suspect him except for the fact that he
is
such a jerk. And he’s shown some interest in me at work.”

“I bet he’d love to get his hands on you.”

“He’d better not hold his breath.”

Warren turned away and continued preparing the drinks.

“He isn’t my type,” she said.

“Then you’re the exception. Most women find him irresistable.”

“So I’ve heard. Personally, I find him creepy.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“We don’t really think he’s our prowler, though. He doesn’t seem like the type to sneak around and spy on people.”

“You have to be careful of him, though.”

“Oh, I am. But it’s this
prowler
who has me worried. I mean, there’s no telling what he might try. And I just
know
Tuck’s going to...”

“Tuck?” Warren turned around.

Oh, no!

“Lynn.”

“You called her Tuck?”

“She’s gonna kill me.”