Darkling

by R. B. Chesterton

  The telephone in Cora’s house rang, and I stopped reading. There were only a few paragraphs to go. I considered not answering, but if it was Bob or the sheriff or Jimmy Finch, if I didn’t answer, they would come looking for me. And I didn’t want to be disturbed. I answered the phone in a monotone.

  “Are you okay?” Jimmy Finch asked.

  “Yes.”

  “The sheriff wants to see you in Mobile, Mimi. I told him I would drive you.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’ll come and pick you up.”

  “Okay.”

  He hesitated. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I think I understand a lot now. Things I didn’t know.” I tried to keep the thoughts in my head from swirling too fast. “Did you ever find out who sold Belle Fleur?”

  “Trident Company, the realty group, wasn’t very helpful. They only said descendants of the Desmarais family. They wouldn’t be more specific, but I haven’t given up. That there are descendants of the Desmarais family is a big lead. I can track that.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Mr. Finch.”

  “It’s a point of curiosity, Mimi. I’ll keep on it, no charge.”

  There was no sense arguing. Finch was a stubborn man once he got his teeth into something.

  “Thank you.”

  “I’ll be by Cora’s house in fifteen minutes. Twenty at the latest. I just think it would be best for you to have someone with you.”

  “Thank you. If I’m not here, I’ll be at the Hendersons.” Twenty minutes wasn’t enough time, but it was all I had. I returned to the pages. Cora had called Belle Fleur my birthright. I had to find out what she meant.

  I think you’ve guessed the rest by now, Mimi.

  I think from the moment you first saw Belle Fleur, you knew. You feel it. The house, the property, the history. Even as a child, when I would bring you there, to sit on the lawn, you were drawn to the house. And now, you live there as you were always meant to. You are a Desmarais.

  I didn’t need Cora’s words to tell me anything else. I had to find Annie.

  58

  Pulling into the driveway of Belle Fleur, I had a sense that the house was already empty, Bob and the children gone. Belle Fleur had always been a fantasy for me, a place where the glamour of the past lived on, a place where I had a family. Now, the sight of the empty windows, like soulless eyes, frightened me. I hoped Bob and the children had escaped. I wanted that to be true more than anything. I couldn’t protect them—I accepted that fact. Their only hope was to leave Coden as quickly as possible. And to leave without Annie, though she would do anything to keep Bob there.

  The sensation of being watched followed me as I opened the door and checked the garage. Berta’s car, the convertible that she’d loved to drive with the summer wind blowing her blond hair, was to the right. I touched the trunk, seeking a trace of what? The past? Berta’s joyful essence? A time that had been too brief? I could almost see her in the driver’s seat, sunglasses shielding her eyes and a wide smile because her world was good.

  Bob’s car was gone. He was probably in Mobile making arrangements for Berta’s funeral. I prayed the children were with him. Surely he wouldn’t have left them alone in the house. But where was Annie?

  I walked to the backyard. The windows of her room were open, and the curtains blew out onto the balcony and back inside again, as if her room breathed. In and out. In and out. Strange, because there was no breeze to stir the material, or none that I could detect.

  Whatever Annie was, she wasn’t my sister. She might have been born into my birth family, but she was something other than ordinary flesh and blood. Cora had brought her to Coden in an effort to help her, but it had destroyed the Hendersons and my happiness. The family that had accepted me with open, loving arms was gone. Bob would never recover. Erin and Donald would bear the scars of Belle Fleur for the rest of their lives. It was all for nothing.

  I went back to the front door and entered the house, the emptiness echoing all around me. Blood marred the hardwood floor where Berta’s body had lain, a pool of rusty red and black stains. For a long time I stared at the blood. There seemed no option open to me. None that I wanted to take. I knew what I had to do, and while a part of me wanted it, another part rebelled. Cora had taught me that all life was precious, but the instinct to survive, to save what I loved, was stronger.

  The one truth I knew was that Bob would never be rid of Annie unless I killed her. That creature she’d spawned, the nester, would never leave Belle Fleur. Like Annie—like me—it had come home to this house. With Cora’s help, the last of Sigourney’s line had returned to Coden. But Cora had never anticipated what Annie would bring with her. The blood of the Desmarais family pumped through the nester’s evil veins just as it did mine and Annie’s. Sigourney, who had imprisoned and mistreated her daughter Chloe, who had thrown her own grandchild into a well, was the root-stock of the nester. The cruelties Sigourney had inflected on Chloe and her baby had changed the infant in unfathomable, physical ways. Emotion was made manifest.

  And I was descended from that unwanted bastard.

  I could see it clearly now. Cora’s ancestors had worked at Belle Fleur. In the old photograph of the garden workers, Cora’s people could be found. She’d mentioned all of this in passing, how the gardens had been a paradise for the workers. From others, I’d learned of Chloe’s love affair gone wrong, and the child that resulted, tossed into a well to drown.

  Only the workers had intervened. Cora’s grandmother had taken action to save the baby. Anna Nyman and Delphine. She’d been unwilling to let the child die alone and frightened at the bottom of a well.

  Cora’s connection to Belle Fleur went back generations. And when Belle Fleur was sold to the Hendersons by descendants of the Desmarais family, that was me and Annie. That’s how Cora had settled my college debt. I’d never stopped to ask her where the money came from or why she’d volunteered to treat me as her own. Now I knew. It was what her family did for Chloe and those who came from her.

  The problem was that Annie was far more Sigourney than Chloe. She was Sigourney to the tenth power. She was able to take her anger and rage and desperation and create from it a creature that did her bidding. The nester. Wanting all the love and willing to push everyone else out of the nest.

  I’d watched it transform into Margo, Berta, Donald, and Erin, and if I didn’t stop it, it would kill the last Henderson children. And sooner rather than later. And me? Would it come after me? I had no way of knowing.

  I went into Bob and Berta’s bedroom and found the gun in the closet. I would kill Annie and the creature she’d spawned.

  The nester was a physical manifestation of her need, her endless, unfillable desire for love. How she had accomplished this, I had no idea. How did one create such an entity out of emotion? It was impossible, except I’d seen it for myself. Cora saw it, too. It was the last thing she saw.

  While I would kill the nester, I wanted to kill Annie first. Chop off the head of the snake. It was a smart lesson for one who’d grown up in south Alabama where moccasins and rattlers coiled along paths, waiting for victims.

  No one could give Annie what she so desperately craved, and when they failed, she killed them. When they got in her way, she eliminated them. Mark and Margo were obstacles she removed. Cora and Berta, both mother figures, had failed her. Ultimately, we were all hurdles in the path to Bob. I had no doubt that Erin, Donald, and I would also find a brutal death if Annie was not stopped.

  The gun was heavier than I’d expected, but my hand gripped it with assurance. My finger fitted to the trigger. I tested the pull. An automatic was so much easier than a revolver. I checked the clip to make sure I had a full load. I pushed the clip back into place and started up the servants’ staircase to the third floor.

  59

  Annie’s room was alive with whirling fabric. A small cyclone of energy emanated from the bed. While Jimmy Finch believed much of what I told him, he’d never understand this.
Even I didn’t, but I believed it because I witnessed it.

  Creeping to the bed, I steadied the gun. No warning. Whatever Annie was doing in the midst of the shifting bed hangings, I would end it. I pulled the trigger and the gun fired three times into the bed. Even before the echo of the bullets died, all motion in the room stopped. Dead calm.

  Chop off the head.

  Grasping a fistful of the gossamer material, I pulled it back. The bed was empty.

  Where was the bitch?

  A gut instinct told me to look beneath the bed. Gun extended, I braced myself as I leaned down. The space was empty. I’d been tricked. Again.

  I went to the balcony and stepped out. At the edge of the woods the nester waited. It wore a replica of Erin’s riding jacket and breeches. It didn’t require boots. The dog-like claw feet required nothing.

  “Mi-mi.” It sang my name. “Come down and play. A last game, Mimi.”

  I aimed the gun and fired without thinking. If not the head of the snake, the tail would do.

  Bullets bit into the ground and the oak it stood beside, but my aim was off. I didn’t stop until the gun was empty, but I missed the creature.

  “Come and play, Mi-mi. Soon Erin will join us. We’ll play and play until she dies of exhaustion.” The creature giggled. “You know the game.”

  I wanted to throw the gun at the vile thing, but I didn’t. Instead, I went back inside and ran down the stairs to Bob and Berta’s bedroom. From the top of the closet I found two more loaded clips.

  Above me, I heard footsteps on the second floor. Annie! She’d abandoned her room and hidden on my floor.

  Slamming a clip into place, I hefted the gun. A sound outside the bedroom stopped me. The front door creaked open. Footsteps in the foyer. Someone paused, waiting.

  The creature was inside the house. It had come to torment me face-to-face. Swollen with bloodlust and power, it had no fear of me. Perhaps I could not kill it, but I would damn sure try. But Annie first.

  Instead of going to the front, I headed to the servants’ staircase. If I was quiet, I might take Annie by surprise. If I could kill her, I hoped the nester would die. Step by step I moved up the worn stairs. There was definitely someone on the second floor moving around. A door creaked open, then closed. What was Annie looking for? The children were gone. What did she hope to find?

  When I got to the second floor, I scanned the empty hallway. At the far end, light filtered through the beautiful stained glass. It was as if the window had come alive. I’d never seen it so vibrant.

  “Looking for me?” Annie stepped out of the doorway of my room.

  “Yes.” I brought the gun up from my side.

  “I’m your sister.” Annie didn’t flinch. “Cora told you, didn’t she?”

  “Cora is dead. But then you know that.”

  “You’re such a liar, Mimi. You’ve lied about everything your entire life. You can’t face the truth.” Whatever else Annie was, she was not afraid. She walked toward me, her hands hanging empty at her side. I could kill her with one bullet.

  Or perhaps not. It hadn’t occurred to me that Annie might not die if I shot her.

  “You’re nothing to me, Annie. Once you’re dead, the Hendersons will be okay. They’ll heal and grow strong again. I’ll help them.” My hand shook slightly from holding out the weight of the gun.

  “You’ll destroy them, Mimi. Like you do everything you touch. The irony is that I’m the only one you can’t kill, but not from lack of trying.”

  I wanted to shut her up. I wouldn’t listen to anything else she had to say. As I steadied the gun and began to squeeze the trigger, the front door slammed. The momentary distraction was all she needed. Quicker than I ever imagined, she ran toward me. She slammed into me, knocking me off my feet and against the staircase railing.

  “You’ll never get another chance at me. I know you for what you are,” Annie said. She rushed down the stairs and disappeared before I could scrabble to my feet.

  I scrambled up and chased after her. As I rounded the alcove where the staircase fed onto the first floor, I heard her in the hallway headed to the foyer and front door. Darting out, I fired. The clock in the hallway splintered. Plaster blasted from the walls. Nine bullets, until the hammer fell on an empty chamber. I ejected the empty clip and pulled another from my pocket. “I will kill you,” I said as I walked forward. “I will pursue you relentlessly.”

  When I rounded the corner, I stopped. Jimmy Finch lay on the floor of the foyers in a pool of creeping blood. He looked up at me, realization dawning in his eyes. His hand went to his jacket and I saw the edge of a manila folder there.

  “Mimi.…” He coughed blood.

  “Mr. Finch!” I knelt beside him. “I’ll call an ambulance. I thought you were—” I ran for the hall phone and called for help. By the time I replaced the phone, Finch was dead.

  Annie and the nester had tricked me, had forced me to become what they were—murderers. I’d shot a man who was trying to help me. I’d been driven to act irrationally, out of fear. I’d killed the only true adult who’d thought to help me. Annie had defeated me.

  I took the envelope from his jacket and sat down on the stairs to wait for the law officers or Bob, whichever one came first. Annie was gone now. She’d accomplished more today than she’d ever dreamed possible. Cora was dead, Finch was dead, and I would be charged with murder. She had an open playing field. Erin and Donald wouldn’t last a week.

  60

  Deputy Frank Grange sat with me on the porch as the crime-scene men and the sheriff went through the house. They hadn’t handcuffed me. Not yet. They’d allowed me to tell how I’d gone to get Bob’s gun to defend myself and the children, how Finch had slipped into the house, and how I’d fired, thinking he meant to harm me. Self-defense was the way Frank viewed it. I made no mention of Annie’s presence in the house.

  “Where is the other girl, Annie?” he asked.

  “I don’t know.” She wasn’t far, I would be willing to bet on that.

  “Do you have any idea why someone would want to kill your grandmother?”

  “Berta was murdered, too. She didn’t kill herself. Someone did that while I was looking for Donald.”

  The deputy wrote in his notebook. “This house has seen a lot of tragedy.”

  “More than you’ll ever know.” I didn’t elaborate. I could tell he thought I was in shock. Perhaps I was; but more than that, my spirit was broken. Annie had won.

  “Mrs. Eubanks brought Annie into the Henderson home. The girl has no known history. Deputy Walton had looked into her past before he died, but without much success. Did you ever learn more about her?”

  I shook my head. What could I tell him? That Annie was my sister, an evil creature with tainted blood in her veins that could create monsters out of her will and emotions. Right. Searcy Mental Hospital would become my new home if I talked like that. Cora wanted me to know Annie was my blood, but that secret would die with me.

  Bob’s car turned off Shore Road and stopped. The sheriff’s car, the emergency vehicles, it was enough to warn him. I thought for a moment he would turn around and flee, but he came on, slowly. To my relief, Donald and Erin were in the car with him. He got out slowly but waved the children to remain in the vehicle. Deputy Grange stood to speak with him, and they stepped away from me, where I couldn’t hear. I didn’t have to listen to know what was being said. I watched Bob’s face, gray and unemotional, crack for one moment before he resumed a blank expression.

  “Bob?” I stood.

  “What the hell, Mimi? Where’s Annie?”

  “I don’t know.”

  The sheriff arrived and walked onto the porch. He went to speak with Bob and I heard the mention of bullet holes in the third floor bedroom. I’d have to fabricate a lie, and quickly. I settled on denial. They couldn’t prove I’d fired those shots.

  Donald and Erin got out of the car. They came slowly toward me, crying silently.

  “It’s okay,” I told them. �
��It was an accident.” I was crying, too.

  Bob took them to the back door and up to the second floor bedroom. He was gone a while, but when he came back, he spoke to the sheriff. “I called my sister in California. I’m sending the children there right away.”

  “That’s a good idea, Mr. Henderson.”

  “We should have left after Margo.…” He didn’t finish. “Berta wanted to leave. She wanted to take our daughter home to Cambria, but I wanted to stay here, to renovate the Paradise, to—” He covered his face with his hand. “I should have listened to my wife.”

  “Annie is missing.” The sheriff glanced at me. “There are bullet holes in her bed, but no blood.”

  “She shouldn’t be far. She’s on foot.”

  “We’ll search for her. Is it possible she was in any way involved in the things that have happened here at Belle Fleur?”

  Bob glanced at me and our gaze connected. I willed him to say yes, to say he finally saw her for what she was. “She’s just a kid. Why would she do such things?”

  The sheriff pursed his lips, and his gaze, too, found me. “You didn’t know much about her. You’ve got a good heart, but that doesn’t safeguard you. Look at Mrs. Eubanks. We believe she knew her killer. We believe she talked with the person who killed her. Whoever it was got a butcher knife from the kitchen and walked right up behind her and slit her throat.”

  Bob staggered. “I have to pack the children. What about Mimi?”

  “We’re taking her to town. We want a doctor to speak with her.”

  “Is she hurt?” Bob’s glance held concern, and I wanted to rush into his arms, to let him hold me and tell me it would all be okay.

  “Physically she’s not injured.”