San Diego Lightfoot Sue

by Tom Reamy

  “Why did you leave?”

  “No reason to stay. When I was eight, my parents were killed in a fire. Our house burned down. I was taken in by a balmy old woman who lived not far away. I had some kin, but they didn’t want me.” He looked at me, trusting me. “They’re pretty superstitious back in there, you know. Thought I was… marked. Anyway, the old woman took me in. She was a midwife, but she fancied herself a witch or something. Always making me drink some mess she’d brewed up. She fed me, clothed me, educated me, after a fashion, tried to teach me all her conjures, but I never could take ’em seriously.” He grinned sheepishly. “I did chores for her and eventually became a sort of assistant, I guess. I helped her birth babies… I mean, deliver babies a couple of times, but that didn’t last long. The parents were afraid me bein’ around might mark the baby. She taught me to read and I couldn’t stop. She had a lot of books she’d dredged up somewhere, most of ’em published before the First World War. I read a complete set of encyclopedias—published in 1911.”

  I laughed.

  His eyes clouded. “Then she… died. I was fifteen, so I left. I did odd jobs and kept reading. Then I wrote a story and sent it to a magazine. They bought it; paid me fifty dollars. Thought I was rich, so I wrote another one. Since then I’ve been traveling around and writing. I’ve got an agent who takes care of everything, and so all I do is just write.”

  Detweiler’s flush of health was wearing off that afternoon. He wasn’t ill, just beginning to feel like the rest of us mortals. And I was feeling my resolve begin to crumble. It was hard to believe this beguiling kid could possibly be involved in a string of bloody deaths. Maybe it was just a series of unbelievable coincidences. Yeah, “unbelievable” was the key word. He had to be involved unless the laws of probability had broken down completely. Yet I could swear Detweiler wasn’t putting on an act. His guileless innocence was real, damn it, real.

  Saturday morning, the third day since Miss Herndon died, I had a talk with Lorraine and Johnny. If Detweiler wanted to play cards or something that night, I wanted them to agree and suggest I be a fourth. If he didn’t bring it up, I would, but I had a feeling he would want his usual alibi this time.

  Detweiler left his room that afternoon for the first time since I’d been there. He went north on Las Palmas, dropped a large manila envelope in the mailbox (the story he’d been working on, I guess), and bought groceries at the supermarket on Highland. Did that mean he wasn’t planning to move? I had a sudden pang in my belly. What if he was staying because of his friendship with me? I felt more like a son of a bitch every minute.

  Johnny Peacock came by an hour later acting very conspiratorial. Detweiler had suggested a bridge game that night, but Johnny didn’t play bridge, and so they settled on Scrabble.

  I dropped by number seven. The typewriter had been put away, but the cards and score pad were still on the table. His suitcase was on the floor by the couch. It was riveted cowhide of a vintage I hadn’t seen since I was a kid. Though it wore a mellow patina of age, it had been preserved with neat’s-foot oil and loving care. I may have been mistaken about his not moving.

  Detweiler wasn’t feeling well at all. He was pale and drawn and fidgety. His eyelids were heavy and his speech was faintly blurred. I’m sure he was in pain, but he tried to act as if nothing were wrong.

  “Are you sure you feel like playing Scrabble tonight?” I asked.

  He gave me a cheerful, if slightly strained, smile. “Oh, sure. I’m all right. I’ll be fine in the morning.”

  “Do you think you ought to play?”

  “Yeah, it… takes my mind off my… ah… headache. Don’t worry about it. I have these spells all the time. They always go away.”

  “How long have you had them?”

  “Since… I was a kid.” He grinned. “You think it was one of those brews the old witch-woman gave me caused it? Maybe I could sue for malpractice.”

  “Have you ever seen a doctor? A real doctor?”

  “Once.”

  “What did he tell you?”

  He shrugged. “Oh, nothing much. Take two aspirin, drink lots of liquids, get plenty of rest, that sort of thing.” He didn’t want to talk about it. “It always goes away.”

  “What if one time it doesn’t?”

  He looked at me with an expression I’d never seen before and I knew why Lorraine said he had a lost, doomed look. “Well, we can’t live forever, can we? Are you ready to go?” The game started out like a Marx Brothers routine. Lorraine and Johnny acted like two canaries playing Scrabble with the cat, but Detweiler was so normal and unconcerned they soon settled down. Conversation was tense and ragged at first until Lorraine got off on her “career” and kept us entertained and laughing. She had known a lot of famous people and was a fountain of anecdotes, most of them funny and libelous. Detweiler proved quickly to be the best player, but Johnny, to my surprise, was no slouch. Lorraine played dismally but she didn’t seem to mind.

  I would have enjoyed the evening thoroughly if I hadn’t known someone nearby was dead or dying.

  After about two hours, in which Detweiler grew progressively more ill, I excused myself to go to the bathroom. While I was away from the table, I palmed Lorraine’s master key.

  In another half hour I said I had to call it a night. I had to get up early the next morning. I always spent Sunday with my mother in Inglewood. My mother was touring Yucatan at the time, but that was neither here nor there. I looked at Johnny. He nodded. He was to make sure Detweiler stayed at least another twenty minutes and then follow him when he did leave. If he went anywhere but his apartment, he was to come and let me know, quick.

  I let myself into number seven with the master key. The drapes were closed, and so I took a chance and turned on the bathroom light. Detweiler’s possessions were meager. Eight shirts, six pair of pants, and a light jacket hung in the closet. The shirts and jacket had been altered to allow for the hump. Except for that, the closet was bare. The bathroom contained nothing out of the ordinary—just about the same as mine. The kitchen had one plastic plate, one plastic cup, one plastic glass, one plastic bowl, one small folding skillet, one small folding sauce pan, one metal spoon, one metal fork, and a medium-sized kitchen knife. All of it together would barely fill a shoebox.

  The suitcase, still beside the couch, hadn’t been unpacked—except for the clothes hanging in the closet and the kitchen utensils. There was underwear, socks, an extra pair of shoes, an unopened ream of paper, a bunch of other stuff necessary for writing, and a dozen or so paperbacks. The books were rubber-stamped with the name of a used-book store on Santa Monica Boulevard. They were a mixture: science fiction, mysteries, biographies, philosophy, several by Colin Wilson.

  There was also a carbon copy of the story he’d just finished. The return address on the first page was a box number at the Hollywood post office. The title of the story was “Deathsong.” I wish I’d had time to read it.

  All in all, I didn’t find anything. Except for the books and the deck of cards there was nothing of Andrew Detweiler personally in the whole apartment. I hadn’t thought it possible for anyone to lead such a turnip existence.

  I looked around to make sure I hadn’t disturbed anything, turned off the bathroom light, and got in the closet, leaving the door open a crack. It was the only possible place to hide. I sincerely hoped Detweiler wouldn’t need anything out of it before I found out what was going on. If he did, the only thing I could do was confront him with what I’d found out. And then what, Mallory, a big guilty confession? With what you’ve found out he could laugh in your face and have you arrested for illegal entry.

  And what about this, Mallory. What if someone died nearby tonight while you were with Detweiler; what if he comes straight to his apartment and goes to bed; what if he wakes up in the morning feeling fine; what if nothing is going on, you son of a bitch?

  It was so dark in there with the curtains drawn that I couldn’t see a thing. I left the closet and opened them a little on the
front window. It didn’t let in a lot of light, but it was enough. Maybe Detweiler wouldn’t notice. I went back to the closet and waited.

  Half an hour later the curtains over the barred open window moved. I had squatted down in the closet and wasn’t looking in that direction, but the movement caught my eye. Something hopped in the window and scooted across the floor and went behind the couch. I only got a glimpse of it, but it might have been a cat. It was probably a stray looking for food or hiding from a dog. Okay, cat, you don’t bother me and I won’t bother you. I kept my eye on the couch, but it didn’t show itself again.

  Detweiler didn’t show for another hour. By that time I was sitting flat on the floor trying to keep my legs from cramping. My position wasn’t too graceful if he happened to look in the closet, but it was too late to get up.

  He came in quickly and bolted the door behind him. He didn’t notice the open curtain. He glanced around, clicking his tongue softly. His eyes caught on something at the end of the couch. He smiled. At the cat? He began unfastening his shirt, fumbling at the buttons in his haste. He slipped off the shirt and tossed it on the back of a chair.

  There were straps across his chest.

  He turned toward the suitcase, his back to me. The hump was artificial, made of something like foam rubber. He unhooked the straps, opened the suitcase, and tossed the hump in. He said something, too soft for me to catch, and lay face down on the couch with his feet toward me. The light from the opened curtain fell on him. His back was scarred, little white lines like scratches grouped around a hole.

  He had a hole in his back, between his shoulder blades, an unhealed wound big enough to stick your finger in.

  Something came around the end of the couch. It wasn’t a cat. I thought it was a monkey, and then a frog, but it was neither. It was human. It waddled on all fours like an enormous toad.

  Then it stood erect. It was about the size of a cat. It was pink and moist and hairless and naked. Its very human hands and feet and male genitals were too large for its tiny body. Its belly was swollen, turgid and distended like an obscene tick. Its head was flat. Its jaw protruded like an ape’s. It too had a scar, a big, white, puckered scar between its shoulder blades, at the top of its jutting backbone.

  It reached its too-large hand up and caught hold of Detweiler’s belt. It pulled its bloated body up with the nimbleness of a monkey and crawled onto the boy’s back. Detweiler was breathing heavily, clasping and unclasping his fingers on the arm of the couch.

  The thing crouched on Detweiler’s back and placed its lips against the wound.

  I felt my throat burning and my stomach turning over, but I watched in petrified fascination.

  Detweiler’s breathing grew slower and quieter, more relaxed. He lay with his eyes closed and an expression of almost sexual pleasure on his face. The thing’s body got smaller and smaller, the skin on its belly growing wrinkled and flaccid. A trickle of blood crawled from the wound, making an erratic line across the Detweiler boy’s back. The thing reached out a hand and wiped the drop back with a finger.

  It took ten minutes. The thing raised its mouth and crawled over beside the boy’s face. It sat on the arm of the couch like a little gnome and smiled. It ran its finger down the side of Detweiler’s cheek and pushed his damp hair back out of his eyes. Detweiler’s expression was euphoric. He sighed softly and opened his eyes sleepily. After a while he sat up.

  He was flushed with health, rosy and clear and shining.

  He stood up and went to the bathroom. The light came on and I heard water running. The thing was in the same place, watching him. Detweiler came out of the bathroom and sat back on the couch. The thing climbed onto his back, huddling between his shoulder blades, its hands on his shoulder. Detweiler stood up, the thing hanging onto him, retrieved the shirt, and put it on. He wrapped the straps neatly around the artificial hump and stowed it in the suitcase. He closed the lid and locked it.

  I had seen enough, more than enough. I opened the door and stepped out of the closet.

  Detweiler whirled, his eyes bulging. A groan rattled in his throat. He raised his hands as if fending me off. The groan rose in pitch, becoming an hysterical keening. The expression on his face was too horrible to watch. He stepped backward and tripped over the suitcase.

  He lost his balance and toppled over. His arms flailed for equilibrium, but never found it. He struck the edge of the table. It caught him square across the hump on his back. He bounced and fell forward on his hands. He stood up agonizingly, like a slow motion movie, arching his spine backward, his face contorted in pain.

  There were shrill, staccato shrieks of mindless torment, but they didn’t come from Detweiler.

  He fell again, forward onto the couch, blacking out from pain. The back of his shirt was churning. The scream continued, hurting my ears. Rips appeared in the shirt and a small misshapen arm poked out briefly. I could only stare, frozen. The shirt was ripped to shreds. Two arms, a head, a torso came through. The whole thing ripped its way out and fell onto the couch beside the boy. Its face was twisted, tortured, and its mouth kept opening and closing with screams. Its eyes looked uncomprehendingly about. It pulled itself along with its arms, dragging its useless legs, its spine obviously broken. It fell off the couch and flailed about on the floor.

  Detweiler moaned and came to. He rose from the couch, still groggy. He saw the thing, and a look of absolute grief appeared on his face.

  The thing’s eyes focused for a moment on Detweiler. It looked at him, beseeching, held out one hand, pleading. Its screams became a breathless rasping. I couldn’t stand it any longer. I picked up a chair and smashed it down on the thing. I dropped the chair and leaned against the wall and heaved.

  I heard the door open. I turned and saw Detweiler run out.

  I charged after him. My legs felt rubbery but I caught him at the street. He didn’t struggle. He just stood there, his eyes vacant, trembling. I saw people sticking their heads out of doors and Johnny Peacock coming toward me. My car was right there. I pushed Detweiler into it and drove away. He sat hunched in the seat, his hands hanging limply, staring into space. He was trembling uncontrollably and his teeth chattered.

  I drove, not paying any attention to where I was going, almost as deeply in shock as he was. I finally started looking at the street signs. I was on Mulholland. I kept going west for a long time, crossed the San Diego Freeway, into the Santa Monica Mountains. The pavement ends a couple of miles past the freeway, and there’s ten or fifteen miles of dirt road before the pavement picks up again nearly to Topanga. The road isn’t traveled much, there are no houses on it, and people don’t like to get their cars dusty. I was about in the middle of the unpaved section when Detweiler seemed to calm down. I pulled over to the side of the road and cut the engine. The San Fernando Valley was spread like a carpet of lights below us. The ocean was on the other side of the mountains.

  I sat and watched Detweiler. The trembling had stopped. He was asleep or unconscious. I reached over and touched his arm. He stirred and clutched at my hand. I looked at his sleeping face and didn’t have the heart to pull my hand away.

  The sun was poking over the mountains when he woke up. He roused and was momentarily unaware of where he was; then memory flooded back. He turned to me. The pain and hysteria were gone from his eyes. They were oddly peaceful.

  “Did you hear him?” he said softly. “Did you hear him die?”

  “Are you feeling better?”

  “Yes. It’s all over.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  His eyes dropped and he was silent for a moment. “I want to tell you. But I don’t know how without you thinking I’m a monster.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  “He… was my brother. We were twins. Siamese twins. All those people who died so I could stay alive.” There was no emotion in his voice. He was detached, talking about someone else. “He kept me alive. I’ll die without him.” His eyes met mine again. “He was insane, I think.
I thought at first I’d go mad too, but I didn’t. I think I didn’t. I never knew what he was going to do, who he would kill. I didn’t want to know. He was very clever. He always made it look like an accident or suicide when he could. I didn’t interfere. I didn’t want to die. We had to have blood. He always did it so there was lots of blood, so no one would miss what he took.” His eyes were going empty again.

  “Why did you need the blood?”

  “We were never suspected before.”

  “Why did you need the blood?” I repeated.

  “When we were born,” he said, and his eyes focused again, “we were joined at the back. But I grew and he didn’t. He stayed little bitty, like a baby riding around on my back. People didn’t like me… us, they were afraid. My father and mother too. The old witch-woman I told you about, she birthed us. She seemed always to be hanging around. When I was eight, my parents died in a fire. I think the witch-woman did it. After that I lived with her. She was demented, but she knew medicine and healing. When we were fifteen she decided to separate us. I don’t know why. I think she wanted him without me. I’m sure she thought he was an imp from hell. I almost died. I’m not sure what was wrong. Apart, we weren’t whole. I wasn’t whole. He had something I didn’t have, something we’d been sharing. She would’ve let me die, but he knew and got blood for me. Hers.” He sat staring at me blankly, his mind living the past.

  “Why didn’t you go to a hospital or something?” I asked, feeling enormous pity for the wretched boy.

  He smiled faintly. “I didn’t know much about anything then. Too many people were already dead. If I’d gone to a hospital they’d have wanted to know how I’d stayed alive so far. Sometimes I’m glad it’s over, and, then, the next minute I’m terrified of dying.”