After dinner that evening Vic called everyone together at the big table for a discussion of the plans for departure the following day. He was taking the Lincoln and going back to Kansas City. Carrie would follow him in her MG, which had been recovered by the state police from the garage in town. Vic wanted to know what Nolan was going to do.
Nolan felt Myra and Cal watching him. "I'm not sure yet. Why?"
"I'm putting the house on the market," Vic explained. "It'll probably be several years before it sells. At least until the publicity about Denke dies down. If you're still here when I leave, I'll let you mail the key to the realtor."
Nolan nodded. "What are you going to do back in K.C.?"
Vic shrugged. "I've got some ideas. Carrie knows a couple of private investigators who are looking for help. Might be right up my alley."
"Where are you going to stay?" Nolan asked thinking of the house Vic had sold before leaving.
Carrie's face turned pink. "They're going to stay with me," she said in a small voice. She refused to look at Nolan. Vic reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. Carrie looked up at Vic, grateful for the contact.
Nolan blinked as he watched the exchange. Then he felt Myra look at him again. He looked at her and she turned away.
Later, when everyone was in bed for the night, Carrie sleeping in his former bed, Nolan left the couch and went upstairs to Myra's room. He paused outside the door and listened for a moment before reaching for the knob. Myra turned on the bed and looked at him as he entered.
"Wrong room," she said. "Carrie's down the hall."
Nolan ignored her and moved to sit on the bed. "I want to talk to you."
Myra laid back and looked at the ceiling. She crossed her arms over her chest.
"A lot has happened," Nolan began. "It feels like everything's going by me in a rush." He lifted a hand and reached for one of hers. "Tell me what happened when you got shot."
Her head abruptly turned to look at him. "What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. Tell me."
"There's nothing to tell. I don't know what happened."
"What do you think happened?"
Myra closed her eyes. "Okay. What I think happened is that the woman I was dreaming about, Drusilla is a ghost or a presence or a spirit here in this house. I believe she actually came inside my body and somehow absorbed the bullet that struck me. Make sense? No. Well, it doesn't to me, either, but that's what I think happened. And since I haven't seen or felt her since, I'm thinking she was a guardian of some kind, sent to warn those who came after her. Now that the Denke way is gone, so is she. I know I sound crazy, but..." Myra stopped talking. She put her hands over her eyes and rubbed hard. "It is crazy. If I hadn't experienced what I did, I'd think I was nuts."
Nolan stretched out on the bed beside her. "Cal saw her, you know. He thought she was an angel."
Myra sat up. "He did? He didn't say anything."
"He thought he was hallucinating," Nolan said. "Something his rational mind couldn't find a way to explain."
"What about your rational mind?" Myra asked.
Nolan moved his head back and forth. "I don't have one. I guess I believe in ghosts after all."
"Thank God," Myra said on a sigh. After a moment she looked at him. "Nolan, you shouldn't sleep here."
"Why not?"
'What about Cal? What will he think?"
"He'll think his mother has finally shown some good sense."
Myra bristled. "Nolan—"
"Myra, I probably couldn't do anything if I wanted to. I'm not healed up enough yet. Let's just lay here and talk, okay?"
"Talk about what?"
"You told Vic tonight that you and Cal were going to California. Where in California?"
"Berkeley. Cal wants to check out the school."
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know. Look for work. I can still draw." Myra looked at him then. “What about you? Are you going back to the fire department?"
Nolan took her hand and held it against his chest. "That depends. You were leaving, Myra. You told me you'd stay and you were leaving."
Myra closed her eyes. "I was terrified. I don't owe you any more of an explanation than that."
"I can't trust you," Nolan said.
"Who asked you to?" Myra pulled her hand away.
Nolan took it back again. He pressed her fingers to his lips. Then he put her hand on the back of his neck and pulled her to him. He kissed her tentatively at first, and when he felt her begin to kiss him back, he put his arms around her. Myra made a noise and attempted to pull away. Nolan held on to her and kissed her as if he would never see her again. Myra gasped for breath when he finally released her mouth. She stared at him in the darkness, her eyes round. "What did that mean?" she asked, her voice a whisper.
Nolan didn't answer. His mind was working again, figuring the angles.
"Nolan?"
He shook his head. "This is too much. I mean it. When I think about you and Cal leaving, I get this sick feeling in my gut and I feel like hell. I guess what it means is that I'll have to come with you.”
"To California?"
He nodded.
"What if I don't want you to?"
"You do."
"I do?"'
"Yeah. I can take care of you and you know it. And you're crazy about me."
"I am?"
"You kiss me like you are."
There was a long pause, then Myra said, "Nolan, I don't think you're capable of a monogamous relationship, and that's the only kind I want."
"Try me," he said. "I want you and Cal to be my family."
Myra's eyes glittered in the darkness. "And how about another baby? You want one of those?"
Nolan was silent. Finally he said, "I'm getting that sick feeling again. Something tells me you're not going to give me a chance."
"I'd be stupid to give you a chance. I'd be stupid to let myself love you. You're a game player and a risk taker. You'd be dead within five years and Cal and I would be left with nothing but a picture and a pension. I won't do that to him. I won't do it to myself. You're not what I want."
Nostrils flaring, Nolan sat up. "I may not be what you want, but I'm just what you need. And you're what I need, Myra. I think I'm in love with you, dammit, and I can't let you get away. Whether you want me to or not, I'm coming to California with you."
“Nolan—“
"Save your breath. There's not a goddamned thing you can do about it. Cal will welcome me even if you won't."
The hitch in his throat surprised both of them. He made to leave the bed and Myra put out her hand to stop him. Her grasping fingers caught his bandaged wound and Nolan sucked in air between his teeth and growled in pain. Myra left the bed and put her arms around his neck. She told him in a whisper she was afraid. He held her and said he was afraid too, afraid she would be like this even after they were living together. Myra laughed a little and still whispering apologized and asked him to forgive her for hurting him. Nolan wasn't sure which hurt she was talking about, but he wasn't going to ask questions. He was happy to have her right where she was, doing what she was doing. When she took his hand and led him back to the bed, his face split in a wide smile.
CHAPTER 35
The morning was a jumble of confusion as preparations for the two separate departures were made. The refrigerator was emptied in the cooking of a huge breakfast, and all the furniture was draped with linens. Vic wanted to sell everything in the house. He didn't intend to come back.
Myra said tearful goodbyes to Christa and Andy and promised to send an address to them as soon as she had one. She spent a moment in her room upstairs, thinking of the night before. Of Nolan. After a moment she shook her head and walked around the bed to look out the window. She wanted to say goodbye to Drusilla, but she thought it unnecessary to do so. Drusilla no longer had any reason to be there.
Nolan called her down eventually and she descended the steps in time to hear him wish Vic good luc
k and then question Carrie about the receipt of some layoff papers.
Was that why Carrie had come to see him? Myra wondered. Had he been laid off from his job in his absence?
Carrie's voice reached her ears then. "What are you going to do in California, Nolan?"
"Surf, sun, and sing in a piano bar," he said with a wink for the nearby Cal. "And maybe marry Myra. Might have to, after last night."
Myra's cheeks blazed as she stood at the bottom of the stairs. Nolan turned and saw her and his gaze immediately warmed. He laughed at her horrified expression. "Don't worry, honey, we didn't wake up anyone."
Cal snickered and Myra angrily shouldered her purse and moved past them. As she went by Nolan he delivered a pat to her bottom, causing the furnace in her face to bum even hotter. As she reached the door she felt a sudden coolness envelope her. Her skin began to prickle.
"Nolan. . ." she began, but he was already behind her, already frowning as he looked past her. She followed his gaze and caught her breath. There were people out there. Dozens of people. Their cars and trucks lined the drive and stretched to the road. Stone-faced women and children stood beside the vehicles and stared at the house with frighteningly intent expressions.
"Who are they?" Carrie whispered from behind them.
"The women of Denke," Vic answered. "They won't do anything to us. Let's go."
He had the Bible with him, Myra noticed. He held it up as they left the house and made a show of dropping it with a loud bang to the front porch. Several of the women in the crowd flinched.
Nolan put Myra and Cal behind him as they walked out to the Buick and the Mustang. "If they throw anything, duck and floor it," he told Myra as she climbed behind the wheel of her car. "I'll be right behind you."
The women didn't throw anything. They simply stood and stared as the small procession of cars idled down the drive. Myra looked away from the cold, hostile glares of Coral Nenndorf and the other wives to glance at the house in her rearview mirror. She half-expected to see someone carrying a burning torch up to the front porch. Instead she saw a face in an upstairs window—an incredibly pale female face with large dark eyes and long brown hair. Drusilla.
The Mustang's tires threw gravel as Myra mashed the accelerator and shot forward on the dusty road.
It wasn't over.
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