Woman (21 page)

     
No!
his voice demanded. But, already, he was stepping aside to admit
her, closing the door.

     "You look
nervous," she said.

     "I'm all right,"
he said, knowing instantly that he was not convincing her.

     "Is it because of that
woman?" she asked.

     He didn't know how to
answer.

     "I remember her,"
Ganine said. "She was here Thursday night." Her expression darkened.
"Did she tell you something bad about me?"

     David felt himself
floundering for an answer. Was it conceivable that Ganine didn't even
recall
what happened here on Thursday
night, that she had no memory of it at all? Fear or no fear, he had to know.

     "Do you have any idea
what happened here on Thursday night?" he asked.

     "Thursday night?"
she said. Now the innocence in her voice sounded contrived.

     "Do you, Ganine?"
he asked.

     "I don't know what you
mean." It was obvious now that she was lying.

     "That woman's husband
died on Thursday night," he told her.

     Her breath faltered. "I
don't—" she started feebly.

     "He had a stroke,"
David said. "And the man who came out of the bathroom—"

     "I don't
remember," she interrupted him.

     "His name was Charlie
Mann, my wife's executive producer—" he began.

     "No, I don't—" she
cut him off.

     "He died yesterday
morning," he told her. "He had an internal hemorrhage. I told you
about him yesterday."

     "No." She shook
her head, looking frightened.

     "And my wife's brother
had a nervous breakdown. It started Thursday night when he was trying to
deliver a speech."

     "
Idon't remember,"
she said. She
sounded irritated now.

     Her change of mood alarmed
him but he couldn't stop himself. "His girlfriend—you remember, her
name is Candy—has a rash all over her body with running sores."
1 don't know anything about it,"
she
insisted.

     "And my wife is
gone," he said. "She's
disappeared."
He tried to make her think about what she'd done to her kitten.

     "I don't know anything
about your wife," she said. "I don't know anything about your friends."

     "Where is she,
Ganine?" he asked. He knew he was risking his life but couldn't stop
himself now. He had to know.

     "
Idon't know what you mean"
she said.
Her anger was apparent. The sight of it chilled him but he wouldn't back down
now. He had to
know.

     "I think you do,"
he said.

     She shuddered. "No, I
don't," she said. She sounded frightened but it didn't lessen his dread.
He believed totally now what she was capable of doing.

     He braced himself.
"You're lying, Ganine," he said.

     She shook her head.
"No," she insisted. "I don't know anything."

     "You're lying."

     
"I
don't lie."
Her tense expression terrified him. He
was amazed at himself for pressing on. "Where's my wife?" he asked.

     "
Idon't know"
she said.

     "I think you do."

     She stared at him, breath
quickening. Suddenly, she turned to leave. "All right, don't help
me," she said. "I can—"

     She broke off with a gasp of
surprise as David lunged to block her way.
"You
aren't leaving,"
he told her. You're committing
suicide! his mind cried.

     "Yes, I am," she
said.

     "
No
." He pushed her back and she
retreated, her expression hardening to one of
disbelief.     

     "Don't hurt me,"
she said.

     
"Hurt
you?" he answered. "Everyone who's come in contact with
you since Thursday night has been hurt." He stiffened. "Hurt,"
he said.
"Destroyed."

     "I have to go
home," she told him, sounding like a frightened child.

     
"To
your mother?'
he snapped. "So you can hurt
her?'

     She looked startled.
"My
mother?"
she
asked.

     "She was here," he
said, feeling guilty for betraying her mother but unable to contain his rage.
"She told me all about you," he said. "About your father."

     She tried to pull open the
door but David stopped her. "You're not going," he told her, grabbing
her wrist.

     She made a sound like the
whimpering of a dog. "Don't hurt me," she begged.

     
"Damn
you," he muttered.

     "Please let go of
me," she said.

     
"Where's
my wife?"
he shouted.

     Jerking free, she backed
away, glaring at him in fury.

     "All right!" she
cried. "You want to know where she is?!"

     David felt his body going
rigid.
Don't,
he thought.

     
"You
want to know where she is?"
she cried again.
"All right!
All right!
"

     Whirling, she pointed at a
section of the wall. "There!" she raged.
"There!"

     David glanced at the wall,
then back at Ganine. Had she lost her mind?

     
"Just
like my kitten!"
she cried.

     David looked back at the
wall, started to turn to Ganine again, then jerked his head around, staring at
the wall, his eyes widening as he saw what was happening. He felt his stomach
muscles drawing in. He couldn't seem to breathe.

     The wall was very slowly
bulging outward. Flakes of paint began to drizzle off. Then the plaster started
cracking, pieces of it crumbling loose and falling to the floor. No, he
thought, mindlessly. No. Oh, no.

     A larger piece of plaster
dropped to the floor now and David sucked in horror-stricken breath of what he
saw.

     A plaster-whitened hand.

     Suddenly, it seemed to him
as though his heart had stopped and breath was unavailable to him. His face a
frozen mask, he gaped at the crumbling wall as chunks of plaster continued to
drop from it.

     Ganine shrieked.
"There's
your wife!"

     His mouth fell open as he
saw, in the wall, an arm, a section of hip. He made a sickened noise as a big
piece of plaster fell away from Liz's white, staring face. He couldn't move or
think, standing, frozen, as the toppling fragments revealed Liz's corpse
powdered with plaster dust. David heard a feeble whining sound in his throat.

     Then Ganine made it worse.

     "You want your precious
wife?!" she screamed. "He
wants
you now! Your husband
wants
you, Mrs. Harper!"

     David made a choking sound
of shock as Liz began to move.
No,
he thought. It was the only word his harrowed mind could manage.

     He wanted to move, to turn,
to flee as Liz's corpse broke out from the remaining section of wall and
started toward him with a shuffling stiffness. David felt a wave of icy dread
envelope him as her right arm slowly, jerkingly, rose.

     She still held the ice pick
in her hand.

     David backed away
unconsciously, staring at her, dazed and unbelieving, as she kept advancing
toward him, her movements jerking and mechanical. He heard his voice begin to
plead. "No. No."

     He backed into the coffee
table, lost his equilibrium and fell back thrashingly. With a stricken cry, he
struggled to his feet. "Make it stop," he begged, his voice just
audible.

     "No!" Ganine
cried, smiling fiercely, glaring with avenging fury.

     "Make it stop!" he
screamed, his face rigid with maddened horror.

     "No!" she cried.
"I won't!"

     David backed off further,
one arm raised to block the ice pick stab. Liz's corpse was almost to him now.
Her arm hitched higher, brandishing the pick, her lifeless face without
expression.

     David screamed in mindless
terror.

     He started violently as Liz
was yanked back by some invisible force and flung to the floor like a rag doll.
At the same instant, Ganine cried out in shock, then stood with stunned
disability. David looked at her, paralyzed with amazement, then looked down at
Liz's corpse sprawled motionless on the floor.

     His gaze jumped back to
Ganine as she began to speak. But it was not Ganine's voice. Where hers had been
timid and fearful or childishly demented, this voice—deeper than hers—spoke
with absolute authority.

     "You will have to
forgive her," the voice told David. "She is a sick, unknowing child
who has no conception whatsoever as to what has happened to her."

     David felt his terror turn
to awe as he listened to the continuing voice.

     "It was assumed,
mistakenly, that she could maintain her separate existence unimpeded. That
enough awareness of the self which had assimilated her would filter down into
her consciousness. It was obviously not so. She is disordered, her bestowed
power utilized too randomly, creatingviolence. She has become too lethal and
must be restrained. It is unfortunate that she was chosen to be one of the
first. It was an errant choice although she seemed to possess the necessary
qualifications."

     David's voice was dazed.
"Who—?" he started.

     "— am I?" the
voice broke in imperiously.

     The voice was still then.
David began to speak, then sensed that he had to wait, that somehow, he was
forbidden to interrogate.