For Kelsey this seemed both puzzling and a little frightening. Enough had happened recently in his life to weigh him down and cause any amount of anguish. Yet this seemed a deeper, older pain. The look of it had been clear in the photograph Marisa had hung in her studio. Perhaps since Kelsey’s own acceptance of the way she felt about Tyler, her perceptions went deeper and she saw the troubling questions in him—the indecision he tried to hide. Disturbing in so decisive a man.
There was one vivid moment when Kelsey had stood on the balcony outside her room savoring a stormy day. The ocean rolled in and broke on the land, sending white froth high. Rain spattered her face, but she didn’t mind. She was surprised to see Tyler climbing up through the trees, his head wet, the collar of his pea jacket turned up as he attacked the hill vigorously, not slowed by its steepness. He came to one place where wind tossed the brush about so that Kelsey caught a glimpse of white marble, and saw that he had stopped before the little statue that Ruth’s mother had brought home from France. He seemed to study it for a long time, heedless of wind and rain as the storm beat about him. When he climbed again and neared the house, she caught a glimpse of the same look of despair she had seen in him before. Once more, his shoulders rounded under some burden he couldn’t deal with, and she saw their heaviness as he disappeared into the house.
During all this time, Ruth remained shut away in her own sad, frightened world. Occasionally, she was brought down to see Jody, and at least she did nothing to upset him. In fact, when she was present he seemed to make more of an effort to talk—as though there were something he wanted terribly to tell her. The sounds were still unintelligible, except for a few words, and Kelsey suffered with him over his inability to say what he wanted to say. Sometimes the struggle would end in tears of frustration. Then there could be a setback, when he lost himself in an apathetic world where nothing seemed to reach him. Setbacks were to be expected, since progress was never entirely upward, but these times seemed especially upsetting. And Ruth responded with her own frustrated tears.
With tubes going into Jody’s body, infection was always possible, and then antibiotics were needed. But those drugs brought their own undesirable aftermath, and then Dr. Norman increased the nutrients that would counteract such damage. She suggested a new type of catheter that seemed to help. She said that as his body grew stronger he would be better able to fight infections, and the treatment he was now under would increase this ability.
Ever since Kelsey had brought the tape home from Marisa’s, she had felt increasingly uncomfortable about possessing it. She took to concealing it in a different place in her room whenever she left, though—except for that one unnerving phone call—she had no evidence that anyone held a grudge against her, or would be interested in the tape. Was she, after all, more sensitive to vibes than she realized?
One plus, without any reservations, was the uninhibited presence of the small dog, Wolf. By this time he knew how to jump up on Jody’s knees, and he seemed to sense that this helpless young boy was his new family to whom he was ready to give loyal, loving allegiance. His uncritical attitude was good for Jody, since Wolf never asked for anything but love. In response, the boy began to blurt out a few syllables of a language that only he and Wolf understood. Everyone helped by taking Wolf for walks, and he cheered them all. The household fell into what was almost a comfortable routine. Almost—since Kelsey still felt there were stormy seas ahead, and a rocky, threatening shore where sooner or later they had to land. More than once she asked herself what it was that Tyler seemed afraid to face.
Once she even questioned Denis about what might trouble Tyler so deeply. Denis had said, “Don’t ask, Kelsey. You don’t really want to know.” She felt sure that whatever it was had to do with Ruth, and that Denis suffered some pain of his own for his sister.
One sunny afternoon Tyler arranged a special outing—their most enjoyable time with Jody before everything blew open and the strange, inevitable march toward Point Lobos began. Although it was not until much later that Kelsey could look back and see the inevitability.
On this occasion Tyler asked Ginnie to get Jody ready for a short trip. Kelsey was to come with them to help look after him. A new wheelchair that would fit Jody’s specifications had been ordered, but in the meantime they still used Ruth’s chair for outings.
This time they were going to Carmel Mission, where Jody could sit in the beautiful gardens and soak up the sun. It was a place he had enjoyed visiting, and it might give Tyler some good video shots.
The Mission of San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo, which Father Junipero Serra had founded in 1770, was the best restored mission in California. The first church on the site had been built of adobe bricks, and ten years later a sandstone structure had been erected, the stones quarried from the Santa Lucia Mountains in Carmel Valley. This building had fallen into neglect and ruin when all the California missions were secularized. It became a place haunted by bats, owls, and buzzards, to say nothing of vandals. Not until the thirties did real restoration begin.
Now the basilica raised its cross to the sky, and inside cool walls was the marble tomb of Father Serra. The tiny cell where he had lived and died had been restored, and the padre’s library contained historic books and papers.
Jody, Tyler said, had shown some interest in the history of the Monterey area, so this place might stir a few pleasant memories.
As promised, the gardens glowed with color. There were fountains and cloistered walks, and small rooms that had once been the cells of monks. Over all rose two towers—one of them the bell tower, with the mud nests of swallows clinging high on the wall.
Jody managed to move his head to look around, and he didn’t let it fall back to his chest. Tyler set up his video camera on its tripod and began to record Jody’s reactions. He seemed more at ease with his son now, and Kelsey left them together while she wandered about a wide paved courtyard and into the quiet church. Not until she returned to sit on the stone edge of a fountain to watch Jody and his father did Tyler drop his bombshell.
He came to sit beside her, out of Jody’s hearing. “I had a phone call from Marisa this morning,” he said. “She wanted to know what I thought of the interview with Francesca that she’d taped. She said she gave it to you to give to me some time ago. So how about it, Kelsey? Why have you been holding it back?”
For a moment she tried to put him off. “After all, you did that interview, so you already know what’s on the tape. Why is it important to hear it again?”
“Considering what happened, I don’t remember a fraction of what was said. Marisa said I should hear it the way it went over the air—hear it objectively. I don’t believe that’s possible, and I dislike living through it again, but Marisa is insistent. She even thinks it might tell me something useful. Why didn’t you give it to me, Kelsey?”
He seemed neither angry nor outraged, but merely puzzled—troubled in an unforeseen way.
“I’ll get it for you as soon as we return to the house,” she said. “I’ve been worrying about it long enough. I wasn’t sure whether Marisa was right this time. I don’t know why, but I’m afraid of that tape.”
“I expect that’s for me to decide. Have you any idea why Marisa wanted me to listen to it? She wouldn’t explain.”
“She said …” Kelsey hesitated, “she said it had something to do with Jody’s getting well. There’s some connection with Francesca Fallon, of course—perhaps something she said on the air. Though I don’t understand how it can affect Jody now.”
He stared at her for a moment, and then stood up. “Let’s go home and you can give me the tape.”
At least he was careful not to upset Jody with any suddenness about leaving. They’d seen all they needed for this time, he told his son, and they would come back again if Jody would like that. He’d take one more shot of Kelsey talking to Jody, and then they’d leave.
“I wonder if you can point at the swallows’ nests, Jody?” Kelsey asked. “Can you lift your arm a
little so your father can take a picture of you pointing at the nests?”
“Sure,” Jody said quite clearly, and raised his arm at least three inches. Significantly, a forefinger pointed.
“Did you hear?” Kelsey cried to Tyler. “Did you see?” Tyler had heard and seen, and he’d recorded the whole thing on tape. They both hugged Jody at the same time. Caught in their arms, he laughed between them. It was a lovely, close moment. Too close, because for those seconds Tyler’s arms were around Kelsey as well as around his son, and for her it was a moment of trembling restraint. She kept very still, not wanting to lose the sense of their physical closeness. Tyler must have sensed it too, because he dropped his arms abruptly and began to get Jody ready for the trip home.
When they reached the house, Tyler had withdrawn again, and spoke to her curtly. “Get the tape now,” he said. “I’ll take Jody to his room and wait for you in my study.”
The moment she stepped into her room, Kelsey knew that someone had been there. Not just Hana. Her cosmetic case had been opened and moved off center. Someone had looked into bureau drawers—not disturbing anything very much, but just enough so that Kelsey suspected there had been a rapid, cursory search.
This time she’d placed the tape inside a pillowcase when she’d made the bed that morning to save Hana extra work. When she thrust her hand inside the case, the small plastic box containing the tape was there. For a moment she held it in her hand, undecided. There was still time to destroy it, but if someone else was so interested then Tyler had better have it at once.
She went downstairs to his study and placed it on the desk before him. Then she hurried away, with no wish to hear the tape again, or to watch Tyler’s face as he listened to it. More and more, she feared something that she didn’t understand, but that Tyler would recognize at once.
The moment she reached the upstairs hall to her room, she knew someone was there waiting for her. She felt the sense of a breathing presence that never occurred in an empty place.
The upper hall seemed ominously dark, and she realized someone had turned out the lights.
XV
A window at the far end of the hall, though shaded by pines, let in a little green light. Otherwise the rooms with their closed doors made the hall seem all the more shadowy. She knew absolutely that someone was there, perhaps quietly watching her.
“Dora?” she said. There was no answer. Surely Ruth wouldn’t risk moving about by day, but Kelsey spoke softly again. “Ruth?”
Still no answer, but a board not far away creaked under the weight of a foot. She realized that the door of her room stood ajar, though she’d closed it when she left. The sound had come from that opening. Suddenly she was frightened. The telephone was too far away, and the delay of trying to rouse someone might be too great a risk.
She moved a few cautious steps ahead until she was even with an elbow of hall that jutted toward the front of the house. Though she had no idea where the jog went or what blind alley she might step into, it seemed better to follow than to go blindly ahead toward her room—or try to escape toward distant stairs.
The new hall was short, its ceiling sloping with the eaves of the house, and it ended at another window that overlooked the front courtyard. This, she realized, was one of the windows from which she’d seen Dora watching her—a window that was well concealed. There seemed no place here to hide, however. Then as her eyes grew used to the darkness, another narrow, closed door emerged from the shadows on her left, its china knob gleaming palely. Since there was nowhere else to go, she opened the door and slipped into what seemed a dark closet, bumping her head on the low ceiling.
Inside, she stood very still, breathing quickly, wondering what to do now. In a moment, however, she realized that it wasn’t a closet at all but a passage that led a few feet farther into the dark, where there appeared to be still another door.
Opening the second door, she heard voices below, and realized where she was. This was the small gallery built out over one end of the great living room. Denis had told her that musicians had played up here, and there had been poetry readings in the old days. Now, standing in this unlighted space, she could look down into the room below, where two people sat talking before the empty fireplace. The sofa on which they sat was set at right angles to the fireplace and to this gallery, so she could see them in profile. The two were Dora and Denis Langford.
She hadn’t noticed Denis’s car when Tyler drove in, and she wondered how he’d gotten here. The two were speaking softly, but the walls of the room formed a sounding board, and one word reached her clearly—her own name. Kelsey knelt behind the open balusters of the balcony.
“Kelsey’s all right,” Denis was saying. “She only cares about Jody. She won’t hurt anyone. And she’s helped Jody a lot.”
“That’s what we all want,” Dora said. “You know that. But the moment he is able to talk—if he can remember—he will tell what he saw. Then you know what will happen. You know how violent Tyler can be.”
Denis put his face in his hands, looking the picture of misery. “I want to help Ruth. But this is something no one can stop.”
“She only told me a day or so ago about what happened,” Dora said. “I’ve been thinking this out carefully. That’s why I phoned you while Tyler and Kelsey are still away at the mission with Jody. Did anyone see you come in?”
“It doesn’t matter. I left my car down the hill a little way, but I can certainly visit my mother if I like. What did Ruth tell you?”
“Never mind that now—there’s no time. Marisa phoned me to say that she’d given the taped interview to Kelsey. But Kelsey hasn’t given it to Tyler yet. She wanted me to ask Kelsey why she hasn’t. What was on that tape, Denis? I need to know before I start meddling.”
He seemed at a loss. “It concerns that time years ago when you went to Nepenthe. I still think that was an idiotic thing to do, Dora. It wasn’t like you to be so impulsive.”
“You know why I went. Denis, can you get that tape back from Kelsey before she shows it to Tyler?”
“It’s already too late for that.”
Dora stood up impatiently. “I can see that as usual you’re no help. Stay away from Ruth, Denis. I don’t want her to be any more upset than she already is.”
She walked out of the room and Denis stayed dejectedly where he was for a moment. Then he rose and looked absently around, his gaze seeming to rise to where Kelsey knelt in shadow. He didn’t see her, however, and after a moment he went out of the room.
Kelsey retraced her steps, stooping through the low doorway to follow the elbow toward the main hall. It hadn’t been Dora up here, waiting for her in silence. So that left Ruth. Ruth, taking a chance, and moving about by day, believing her husband was out of the house.
The long hall was very still, and now there was no sense of someone breathing, waiting. The door of her room had been closed, and that could mean that whoever had waited for her had gone away, or else that Ruth—it must be Ruth—had let herself into the room and was still there, waiting. Less frightened now, Kelsey opened the bedroom door and stepped inside, pulling it shut behind her.
At once her feet crunched over peanut shells strewn across the carpet, and she remembered the peanut-eating ghost Hana had mentioned. There was no one in the room, but Ruth stood outside on the balcony, and when she heard Kelsey she came in, smiling.
“A nice touch, don’t you think—the shells? We always like to amuse our guests.”
“Why didn’t you answer a little while ago when I called you?” Kelsey asked.
Ruth shrugged and sat down in an armchair. She still wore a robe, but jeans showed under it. “Maybe I wanted to worry you a little.”
“I don’t understand why. Anyway, you scared me enough so that I explored and found a door that led to the gallery over the living room. An interesting side trip.”
“Oh?”
“Your mother and your brother were there in the living room whispering to each other. That room magnifies
sound, so I could hear what they said.”
Ruth sat up, suddenly anxious. “I didn’t know Denis was in the house. I don’t want him to know that I can walk now. It’s better if he doesn’t. What did he want?”
“Your mother must have summoned him. She seems worried about the time when Jody may begin to talk. And she wanted to know what was on the tape Marisa Marsh made of Francesca’s interview with your husband. Is the tape what you’ve been looking for here, Ruth—or was it Dora who went through my things?”
Ruth blinked and ignored that. “What could Dora possibly expect Denis to do?”
“Maybe she thought he’d try to get the tape away from me. When he told her it was too late for that, she walked out. So this is a good time for you to explain to me what this is all about.”
“That’s why I came to your room, Kelsey. The last time I saw Jody he was struggling to speak, and I think it’s all going to be blurted out before long. You’re with him a lot, and he may talk to you. If that happens, you can save everyone a lot of grief and pointless trouble. Just listen and tell me what he says. Try to keep him from talking to anyone else until we know what he remembers.”
Kelsey plumped up a pillow on the bed and sat against it, stretching out. “I’m ready to listen, Ruth.”
Ruth’s fingers plucked at the cloth of her robe. “I’m sure I behaved foolishly at the time, but I was too frightened to be sensible.”
“Suppose you begin at the beginning.
“I hate to talk about it—it was so awful. But I know I must, because of Jody. Tyler wasn’t the only one who was angry with Francesca after that radio interview. I wasn’t there, but I heard it on the air, and I could see what she was up to. If she was going to blackmail anyone, it was better if it was me than Tyler. So I drove out to Flaming Tree to see if I could talk to her. There was no one to leave Jody with that day, so I took him along. I thought he could play outside while I talked to Francesca. Only that wasn’t the way it happened.”
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