She took a very deep breath, then let it out slowly before opening the back door. Her calm voice belied the pounding of her heart as she called, “Derek, could you come in here?”
“Is anything wrong, honey?” Gary wanted to know.
“Nothing,” Melanie insisted. “I—I just want Derek to help me with something.”
Derek hurried up to the house. He couldn’t help staring at Melanie, wondering why her face was so pale. Silently she motioned him toward Nancy’s room. The color drained from Derek’s face when he saw Lad’s corpse. He looked up into her blue eyes, his own very wide. Melanie returned the gaze, wondering how he could ignore the terrible stench. She didn’t know it was meant for her alone and that Derek was unaware of it.
“How did this happen?” he asked, returning his gaze to Lad.
“I don’t know,” Melanie said. She blinked away tears. “I called you in because there isn’t anything Gary can do about it. Please, Derek, can you get ri—put him somewhere? If the children saw him . . .”
“Of course,” Derek said gently. “Can you get me a sheet?”
Melanie nodded and went to the linen closet. It was all she could do not to burst into tears.
“You’ll have to tell them,” Derek said, taking the sheet from her.
“Tell them what?” Melanie asked. “That their pet was murdered?”
“Somebody killed him,” Derek said, feeling a twist in his stomach. He recalled the pleasure he’d had with Janice and was sickened. She was responsible for this.
“I know that,” Melanie said. “And I’m frightened, Derek. But I don’t want to spoil this day for the kids. They don’t need to know he’s dead. I—I’ll tell them tomorrow that he ran away.”
“Thank you,” Melanie said. “For taking care of Lad.”
Derek walked downstairs, carrying the wrapped body. Melanie waited a few moments at the top of the stairs, until she heard the front door open and close. Then, forcing a smile on her face, she hurried down and went out the back door. By the time she crossed the vast lawn to her waiting family, she had relaxed, if only a little.
“Is everything okay?” Gary asked.
“Sure,” Melanie said, handing Nancy her rabbit.
“Where’s Derek?”
“He’ll be out in a minute,” Melanie said. She looked up to where the children were racing ahead.
“Lad’s dead, Gary.”
Gary’s head snapped around. “What?”
“Someone killed him,” Melanie went on, still fighting tears. “I—I asked Derek to hide the body from the kids.”
“Melanie, what do you mean?” Gary asked. “Who killed Lad?”
“I don’t know,” Melanie answered. “I found him in Nancy’s room, in her doll carriage.” The horror of it finally struck her, and tears began to fall. “Oh, my God, Gary! If Nancy had found him!”
“She didn’t,” Gary said soothingly, his own grief taking second place to shock. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay,” Melanie cried. “Nothing’s been okay for the past month! It’s starting again, Gary. I know it is!”
Gary looked past the trees to the house. Huge and white, it looked beautiful to him. How could it harbor so much evil? How could it be responsible for so much sorrow? Lad dead? But he was just a puppy—bought for the children when Gary came home from the hospital a few months earlier. He was barely eight months old.
“Gary, we have to do something,” Melanie said.
“No,” Gary said. “We’ll tell the children he ran away, and leave it at that.”
“I already figured that out,” Melanie said. “I mean, I don’t know what to do about the house.”
“Melanie,” Gary said stiffly, “there is nothing going on there. Not again. We’ve discussed this before, and my beliefs are unchanged.”
“Damn, you’re stubborn!” Melanie hissed. “After all that’s happened—”
Gary cut her off. “You know what I think? I think the culprit behind all this is mortal. Someone so filled with hatred that she’ll do anything to hurt others.”
“Who are you talking about?” Melanie asked quietly.
“Alicen,” Gary said simply.
“Oh!” Melanie cried. “Gary, that’s just ridiculous! She’s a little girl. I won’t have you accusing—”
“Listen to me,” Gary interrupted. “You can’t deny Alicen isn’t like normal children. She keeps to herself for hours, and her mind always seems to be off somewhere when anyone tries to talk to her. Haven’t you ever noticed that?”
“Why does it make her a murderer?”
“She’s trying to get back at her father,” Gary said. “Derek ignores her too much, and she’s rebelling.”
“I can’t say I blame her,” Melanie said. “But I refuse to believe she’d do all these things. Sabotage my car? Murder a dog? Damn it, Gary, she’s thirteen years old!”
“That doesn’t matter,” Gary said. “And in spite of your doubts, I think our problems will be over once we get rid of her.”
“Gary, we’re not sending that child away,” Melanie said. How could he be so stubborn? Couldn’t he see what was happening? He of all people, who stood there a cripple because of supernatural evil?
Before Gary could answer her, the sound of running feet silenced him. Kyle came up to them and tugged Melanie’s arm.
“Aren’t you coming?” he asked.
When Melanie turned, Kyle backed away at the sight of her bloodshot eyes.
“What’s the matter, mommy?” he asked.
Melanie forced a smile. “I got something in my eye, and we had to stop a minute. But I’m all right now.”
“Oh?” Kyle sounded unconvinced. But his excitement about the picnic soon overcame his doubts, and he cried, “Come on!”
He took his mother’s hand and pulled her forward. Hating to leave things unfinished, Melanie looked over her shoulder and shook her head a little at Gary. Then she saw Derek coming up behind him. Seeing him made her think of Lad, and she had to turn away to keep from crying again.
“Melanie told you?” Derek asked Gary.
“Yeah,” Gary said.
“I wish I had some explanation,” Derek answered.
I’ll bet you do, Gary thought.
Derek did have one, but he kept silent, even though the urge to tell Gary was strong. Poor Lad. Derek had found a pit in the grounds of the gray mansion that might have once been a duck pond. Thick with ivy and weeds, it was a perfect place to hide the dog. Infuriated that such a thing could happen, and at the same time moved with sorrow, he had dumped the body and marked the grave with Lad’s chain.
Melanie had been wise to keep the truth from them, Derek realized as he sat on a rock and watched the children playing in the water. Even Alicen looked happy today. Derek was surprised to find himself admiring her. She had grown prettier. Her hair was neatly combed, and even in her bathing suit, she was no longer fat. But at such a cost . . .
“Aren’t they wonderful?” he heard Melanie say. “They make you think everything’s going to be all right.”
“They’re having a great time,” Gary agreed. “Look, even Alicen’s laughing.”
Melanie shot him a glare, embarrassed. But Derek said, “Yeah, isn’t that something?”
He stood up, curling his toes in the sand. “I’d like to take a walk with her. How long until lunch?”
“At least half an hour,” Gary said. “Although I’m not very hungry.”
Derek nodded, then went to his daughter. Gary, keeping his eyes on the therapist, said, “He knows something.”
“Gary, please.”
To make her happy, Gary said nothing more. He kissed her lightly on the cheek and went back to the barbecue.
Derek tapped Alicen on the shoulder. She turned and smiled at him.
“Want to go for a walk?” he asked.
“Sure!” Alicen cried. She took his hand. “Just me and you?”
“If the other kids don’t mind,” Derek said.
Gina shook her wet head. “Go on.”
“I’ll see you at lunch,” Alicen said.
When they were a few dozen yards away, Derek spoke to his daughter. “Alicen, do you know anything about the VanBuren’s dog?”
“No,” Alicen said. “I told Mrs. VanBuren that at breakfast. Why?”
“He’s dead, Alicen,” Derek said softly.
He heard the choking sound of her breath stopping.
“What do you know about that?” Derek asked.
Alicen was wide-eyed. “Nothing!”
“Don’t start crying, please,” Derek said. “The other kids don’t know about it, and we’re going to tell them he ran away.”
“I didn’t kill him,” Alicen said.
“I know.”
She looked up at him, surprised. “You do?”
“Yes,” Derek said. “Alicen, did you hear anyone talking about hurting Lad? I mean, not one of the VanBurens—but someone no one else knows but you?”
Alicen gazed into his eyes for a long time, not speaking. They had stopped at a jetty, the dividing line between the VanBuren’s private beach and the public one. Alicen climbed up on the rocks and sat down. She brought her knees up under her chin and gazed at a boat passing on the bay.
“Mommy told me to kill him,” she said finally, distantly.
Derek stiffened. “Mommy told you?”
“She told me to put this funny-smelling stuff in his dish,” Alicen said. There was no trace of remorse in her voice. She was simply reporting an order obeyed. “She said she wouldn’t come see me any more if I didn’t do it.” Alicen looked up at her father, all innocence. “Mommy went away once. I don’t want her to go away again.”
Derek nodded slowly. He understood now why he had heard Alicen talking in her sleep so many times in the past weeks. She hadn’t been dreaming at all; she, too, was under the spell of the woman who controlled him. Innocent little Alicen, who sought in her dead mother the love she lacked from her father.
A pang of guilt made Derek’s throat tighten. Would it have been so hard to be kind to the child? It might be too late, but—
Suddenly he turned and pulled Alicen very close to him. Alicen returned the embrace, resting her head against her father’s warm chest.
“Isn’t it wonderful, daddy?” she asked. “Mommy’s back, and we can be a real family again.”
“Yeah, it’s wonderful,” Derek said quietly. He couldn’t tell her this woman wasn’t her mother.
“Daddy,” Alicen said, rubbing her bare feet up and down the moss-covered rock. “You’d rather have mommy than old Liza, wouldn’t you?”
What did Alicen know of Liza? Could she tell him why Liza never answered his calls? But something in Alicen’s expression told Derek she would never answer his questions, so he ignored hers and stood up. Alicen followed him down the rocks and took his hand as they headed back to the picnic.
“Listen,” Derek said, “this conversation is our secret, okay?”
“Sure,” Alicen said.
“No one has to know about Lad,” he said. “Or your mother.”
“Mommy told me that already,” Alicen said.
“If you ever need to talk,” Derek said, squeezing her hand, “come to me, okay?”
“Okay.”
Alicen ran to catch up to the VanBuren children. Derek walked slowly, planning. He’d give Gary his notice tomorrow and would hopefully be out of the house within a week’s time. Gary had made great progress and would get along fine with another therapist.
Derek looked at his patient. He didn’t really want to leave him. Gary was more a friend than a patient now. But that gave Derek all the more reason to believe he should get away from the house before it was too late.
He knew he should warn them. He should tell them about her, about the things she’d done. It was no accident that Melanie’s car was now in a junk yard. Her studio had not been torn apart by a mischievous puppy. And there was so much more. Lad’s death was only the beginning.
But for the first time in his life, Derek was afraid. All he wanted to do was run away from his problems. God knew he couldn’t face them much longer. Not when she drained his resistance each time he saw her. Or she saw him—was she watching him right now?
Derek wished to God he could forget.
But that wasn’t going to happen. Late that Sunday night, he was lying with his face buried in his arms when he felt a cold touch on his back. He didn’t move, but breathed more evenly as if in sleep. The touch stayed on him, moving up and down. It should have made him feel good, but instead a chill rushed through him.
“Look at me, Derek Miller,” he heard.
Derek refused to move. He didn’t want to see who shared his bed. But the pain of her nails in his flesh was so great that he was forced to roll over. He glared up at her. Even in the dim light of the moon, she was hideous. Derek fought to keep his eyes on hers, afraid to turn away.
“Good,” she said. “You should know by now that you can’t defy me, Derek. I own you.”
“No one owns me,” Derek said.
“I’ll make you happy,” Janice said. She leaned down and kissed his lips.
“What are you?” Derek asked. “How can you do these things?”
She didn’t answer.
“Why are you doing this?” Derek persisted. “Why are you trying to hurt the VanBurens?”
“I was murdered,” the vision said. “And I was only twenty-eight.”
“Murdered?” Derek asked, confused.
“Silence!”
Before Derek could protest, she pressed her mouth to his and pried his lips open with her tongue. Derek had learned to give in to her. She became violent when he showed his repugnance. But God, how he hated this! How he wished he could throw her away from him, smash her hideous face, drive her away forever. But that was impossible.
At last, satisfied for the time, she rolled away from him. Derek knew what would happen now. He would fall asleep and remember this only vaguely in the morning. But he needed questions answered. “Why did you say you were murdered? You can’t be dead. You’re here right now.”
She screamed, a scream heard only by him. Throwing her body on top of his, she pulled hard at his hair, making him want to cry out He foolishly tried to grab her wrists. It was like grabbing water.
“Stop it, please,” he said. “I won’t ask any more questions.”
“You must learn to be submissive,” Janice hissed. “You must be taught to obey. Look at me.”
Derek resisted.
“Look at me!”
To Derek’s horror, she faded away from him and returned as Elaine. He jerked his head away from the sight, feeling nausea rise in his gut. He had prayed never to see that twisted face again.
“Please,” he said quietly. “Please go away.”
“Remember this face,” Janice said.
Derek nodded, his face buried in his pillow. Several moments passed before he dared to turn around. He was alone once more.
21
Because his first meeting was at nine o’clock, Owen Crewe was up very early Monday morning. He sat on the couch in Liza’s living room, his blankets tangled up in a knot behind him. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned widely, then looked around. The door to his sister’s room was still open, her bed not slept in.
Owen had been certain she’d be home by now, if she was only on a weekend trip. And she couldn’t have left for school already—not when the kitchen clock read six o’clock. Owen frowned at it and filled the teakettle. He then walked to the table, where he found the note he had written for her the previous morning. He had explained his presence there and had told her he would be home as soon as orientation was over. But he had returned in the late afternoon to find an empty apartment.
“Easy, Owen,” he told himself. “She’s a big girl.”
Still, anyone seeing him crumble the note and throw it hard across the room to the wastebasket would have known he was more worried than he’d admit. Liza h
ad never been the type to disappear like this. Of course, she hadn’t known he was coming. But they had kept a correspondence going over the years, and Liza always told him when she was planning a vacation.
Hearing the kettle whistling, Owen went back to the stove and fixed his coffee. He carried the mug into the living room and sipped it slowly, looking out the window.
Pretty town, he thought, taking in the row of Colonial houses across the street. It was no wonder she had picked this neighborhood to live in. What could possibly happen to her in a town like this?
He finished the last of the coffee, gathered his papers together, then hastily wrote a new note for Liza, propping it up against a vase of dying flowers. Owen checked his pockets for his keys, then left. Surely Liza would be there when he returned.
Gary had spent all the previous night thinking of an excuse to dismiss his therapist. He couldn’t accuse Alicen of killing Lad, because Melanie would deny it. But he knew he was right. Alicen was a disturbed child, and he wanted her away from his kids. So now he hobbled up the fake stairs in the therapy room, trying to get up the courage to tell Derek he had to leave. But Derek beat him to the punch.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to be giving you my notice,” Derek said.
Gary stopped halfway up the stairs and looked over his shoulder. “Did I hear you right?”
Derek nodded. “I’m leaving. Alicen and I will be moving as soon as I find new work.”
Though he was grateful it was out of his hands, Gary had questions. “Why?”
“Don’t stop in the middle of your workout,” Derek said, waving at the stairs.
Gary continued to the top, then turned and started down again. “You didn’t answer my question,” he said when he reached the bottom. Would Derek admit the truth?
“I feel it’s time Alicen and I were moving on,” Derek said. “We’re becoming too dependent on you—especially Alicen.”
He did know the truth about Alicen—that was why he wanted to leave.
“Then send Alicen to boarding school,” Gary suggested. He didn’t want to lose his therapist. That would mean going back to the clinic.
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