by J. S. Bailey
“The way you’ve been talking, you probably think cancer is caused from stress, too.”
She glared at her sister, feeling angry at herself for the wave of irritation that suddenly coursed through her. “Look. I’ve been through a lot this week. Maybe it all upset some sort of balance in my head and made me a little loopy for a few minutes.” She hadn’t told Rachel that she’d zoned out again in the bathroom at the Kemper House. One minute she’d been walking into the stall, and the next minute she was standing at the sink washing her hands with no memory of what happened in between.
“You haven’t been through that much,” Rachel said.
Her head pounded like a bass drum. “I’ve been through plenty! Losing my apartment—”
“You moved out on your own.”
“—arguing with Sidney about stupid things—”
“That can’t be that stressful.”
“—putting up with—” She broke off. Putting up with what?
The mind-fog rolled in for another visit, and for a split second she couldn’t remember where she was. Who you gonna call?
“Ghosts?” Rachel suggested.
Jessica stifled a giggle. Sounded like her sister was the only one losing her mind around here. “What ghosts?”
“Very funny.”
“How am I being funny? You’re the one talking about ghosts all of a sudden.”
Rachel’s bluish eyes flared wider for a moment. “You mean you have no idea what I’m talking about? Your little graveyard excursion and the bloody spirit that Sidney saw?”
Jessica shook her head, which only made it hurt worse. “Sidney doesn’t believe in ghosts. Why would she say she saw one?”
“That’s it.” The last traces of humor abandoned Rachel’s face. “I’m taking you to the hospital.” She did an about-face and strode toward the nearest exit.
Jessica jogged after her, nearly colliding with a display of silk ties. “Why? I’ve just got a headache.”
“And you had a seizure, and now you’re having either selective memory loss or a heck of a lot of fun at my expense, which isn’t like you. Something is clearly wrong in there.”
They stepped out into the crowded parking lot, where sunlight glinted off thousands of vehicles. Rachel cursed and retreated to the cement just outside the store. “Great. I forgot Eric has the car.” She got out her phone and dialed. “Eric, come back over here. We need to take Jessica to the emergency room.”
“I do not need to go to the hospital!” Jessica shouted, not caring that people walking into the store were giving her and Rachel a wide berth. “What’re they going to do, take out my brain and soak it in a bowl of Efferdent to get the plaque out?”
Rachel ignored her. “Please hurry.” She shoved her phone back into her purse with unnecessary force. “When is your birthday?”
Evidently Rachel thought she had developed amnesia.
“January first, nineteen eighty-nine.”
“And when is my birthday?”
“February twentieth, nineteen eighty-seven.”
“And Wayne and Sidney’s?”
Jessica rolled her eyes. This was some test. “May eleventh, nineteen eighty and December third, nineteen ninety. Do I get an A?”
“I’m not finished yet. When was the last time you went ghost hunting?”
“I don’t remember. Monday night, maybe.” Suddenly the image of a merry hamster danced in her head, and she smiled. “Yeah. At Vince and Ellen Shoushanians’ house.”
“So you don’t remember anyone named Jerry.”
She shook her head. “Only Jerry Springer. But I don’t think he’s dead.”
“Stop acting like this is a joke!” Rachel sounded like she was on the verge of tears. She needed to stop getting worked up over nothing; it was bad for the baby.
“Then you stop acting like I’m going to drop dead!” Jessica crossed her arms. “I can’t go to the hospital. I don’t have any health insurance. Or money.”
“Yes, you’ve been rather emphatic about that last point. Oh, where is Eric?” Rachel craned her neck to look out over the sea of vehicles. “Wait. I think I see him.”
Jessica’s heart fluttered. They couldn’t do this to her. She needed rest, not a physician! “Please don’t take me to the hospital. I’m just tired. Let me go home and sleep this headache off, and I’ll be fine.”
Rachel didn’t answer. The Nissan Altima pulled up to the curb outside the department store, and they climbed in.
“Don’t take me to a hospital!” she blurted to Eric before either of them had a chance to speak. “I’m not sick!”
Eric cocked his head and looked into the rear-view mirror. “You look okay to me.”
“That’s because I am! Rachel thinks I’ve lost my mind because I can’t remember something that she thinks I should.”
Rachel was kneading her eyelids with her fingertips. “God help me,” she said.
Eric cast his bewildered gaze back and forth between them. Jessica almost felt bad that he’d gotten caught in the middle of this. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Take me home! I just want to go to bed.”
Silence. His eyes studied her. He glanced back to Rachel, who must have already given up, because she wasn’t nagging anymore.
“If you don’t do it,” Jessica said, coming up with the best threat she could think of, “I’ll disown you as a brother-in-law. Forever.”
“Now that’s just brutal.” Eric stepped on the accelerator and eased the car away from the curb. “What is it you don’t remember?” he asked when they were back on the main road minutes later.
“She seems to have forgotten about Sidney seeing an apparition,” Rachel butted in. “And about her own experiences with it.”
There she was, talking about that again. When could she or Sidney have possibly seen a ghost? Maybe this was some elaborate practical joke that Rachel had concocted to mess with her aching head. Smile, you’re on Candid Camera, and now the whole world knows your sister tried to make you doubt your sanity.
“Memory wipe,” Eric said. “It happens all the time in the movies.”
“She could have a tumor, for crying out loud!”
Jessica sat forward. She needed to convince Rachel that nothing was wrong, or she would never leave her alone. She put on a cheery face. “I’m fine! Really. I was just messing with you about not remembering. I guess it wasn’t very funny, huh?”
“You make a horrible liar.”
“When have I ever lied to you?”
Rachel sighed.
Silence settled over them. Jessica leaned her head against the window and watched the mile marker signs flash by along the highway. The Tylenol must have finally begun to work, because the pain behind her eyes had dulled to a more bearable throb.
Even the unexplainable aches and pains that continued to afflict her had begun to fade.
She closed her eyes. Rachel and Eric were gabbing about something—her, most likely—but she paid them no attention. She could just pretend that she was already asleep if they asked her anything. Funny, how simple lying turned out to be once you’d tried it a few times.
Her consciousness wavered, and a face swam before her in her mind’s eye. A woman. Blonde, with dark brown eyes. Abigail. The one who had to die, though she would not be the first to perish at her hand. Abigail could be spared until the very end, her death being the grand finale of it all. It might take months to track her down. The wait would be worth it. Everything that had happened was worth it.
A tear of joy rolled down the curve of her cheek, and through the ebbing pain of her headache, she smiled.
Wayne was more distraught than he would let on to his cousin. Now that his initial shock had worn off, an almost paralyzing anxiety set in, tightening his chest so much that he could scarcely breathe. He wanted to leave but knew he shouldn’t. If only he could be in two places at once!
“I am not going to drive to Kenwood,” he said, even though it took every ounce of his r
esolve not to hop in the truck and exceed every speed limit known to mankind so he could get to Jessica at the mall before something terrible happened, if it hadn’t already.
He laced his fingers together in a gesture of prayer. Father, please guide us.
Sidney paced back and forth across the kitchen and entryway. She threw a glance out the window every five seconds, which began to grate on Wayne’s already frazzled nerves. “We’ve got to do something.” She’d said that at least a thousand times already. She’d end up saying it a thousand more, too, if Jessica didn’t turn up soon. Wayne didn’t know which was worse, that or the pacing.
“Pray,” he said, craning his neck to see out the window, too. “It’s got to be more useful than wearing a rut into my floor.”
Her eyes flashed. “I’ll do what I want.” She paced onward.
The clock on the wall ticked the seconds away like a bomb counting down to detonation. It was now after four o’clock. If Jessica were to have dinner with Rachel and Eric, she might not be home until after dark. Then again, if she did stay with them, she might be safe. Who knew? He wished he did, because not knowing was killing him.
“Are you cancelling your plans tonight?” he asked Sidney in an effort to distract his reeling thoughts.
She halted. “What plans?”
“You were going to hang out with the guys. Remember?”
“Crap! I totally forgot! I guess I can come down with a stomach virus again.” She grabbed her phone off of the table and started pecking away with her thumbs. “There. I told him I don’t feel good and won’t be coming over.”
The unexpected sound of gravel crunching beneath tires outside lifted some of the apprehension that squeezed Wayne’s chest, and he took a welcoming breath of relief. Jessica was home. He had allowed himself to get worked up over nothing.
Babbling voices moved up onto the porch. Sidney threw the door open so hard that it bounced off the wall and smacked her in the side on its rebound. “Come in!”
A yawning Jessica walked in first, followed by Rachel, whose short hair stood out in odd little tufts that made it look like she had run her hands through it a hundred times. Eric brought up the rear, wearing an uneasy look that made all the worry come crashing back down on Wayne like a tsunami.
“She’s lost it again,” Rachel said to him as she glanced at Jessica, who hadn’t so much as looked at him since entering the house. “I take no responsibility in the matter.”
Jessica stood next to the refrigerator, bearing the confused look of one who’d just awakened from a day-long nap. Was Jerry really the reason why she had acted so oddly at the reunion and why she looked like this now?
Wayne cleared his throat. It was best to speak with caution, just in case the beast could hear him. “Why didn’t you take her to the ER?”
Eric put his hands in his pockets and started examining the tiles on the kitchen floor. “She didn’t want me to.”
For a second Wayne thought Jessica’s eyes flared wider. “That’s because I’m fine,” she said in a faint voice. She shivered and hugged her arms close to her body.
Wayne continued to scrutinize her. Something was off, and not just in her tone of voice. He stepped closer to her. “Look at me,” he said.
She lifted her chin and gazed at him blankly. The pupils in her eyes were far too dilated for the amount of light in the room, turning her blue-gray irises into rings barely the width of threads.
“What?”
“There’s something really bad we need to tell you guys,” Sidney said before Wayne could ask her how she felt. “You might want to sit down.”
Jessica suddenly became more alert, as if she only just realized she was standing in his kitchen. “Wait a minute, I think I left my purse out in the car. I’ll be right back.” She hurried past them and slammed the door shut behind her.
“Could somebody please tell me what’s going on?” Rachel asked. “The way today is going, I feel like I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole.”
“Just wait,” Sidney said. “It’s going to get worse.”
Wayne silently cursed her for being so blunt, but he supposed that was better than sugarcoating news as serious as this.
Seconds passed by like eons. What was taking Jessica so long?
He was about to go outside and check on her when a car engine roared to life.
The situation had worsened already.
The three able-bodied persons in the room dashed to the window ahead of him. “Jessica’s driving away!” Sidney exclaimed.
Wayne made it to the door and stared out through the pane of glass just in time to see the green Taurus back out of the driveway. Tires squealed as the car lurched forward and disappeared down the street.
Rachel swore. “What in the blazes is she doing?”
“Isn’t it obvious? She’s running away.” Wayne started to turn the doorknob but stopped himself. What could he do, chase her down in the truck? Not likely.
Sidney gaped at him. “And we’re just going to let her go?”
“I can try to follow her,” Eric said, still staring out the window. “If she’s out on fifty-two, she should be easy to spot.”
“But we don’t know which way she’s going!” Rachel exclaimed.
He and Sidney couldn’t put this off any longer. “We need to talk before any of us go anywhere,” Wayne said, turning from the door to face the three of them.
“But Jessica—”
“I have an idea she won’t be heading too far.”
Rachel eyed him with suspicion. “How would you know that?”
He didn’t answer. “How about we all sit down? Sidney, show them what you found on the Internet.”
Rachel sank into a chair. Eric sat down beside her and put his hand over hers. “Lord, my nerves are shot.” Rachel sniffled.
“It’s okay,” Sidney said softly. “So, you want to see what we found?”
Wayne held up his hand. It was shaking. “Wait.” He looked at Rachel and Eric. “How much do you know about Jerry Madison?”
“Nothing,” Rachel said.
“Isn’t he the spirit who followed Jessica home?” Eric asked, glancing cautiously around him as if fearing that Jerry might come after him just for mentioning his name.
Rachel nodded. “You think he has something to do with the way she’s been acting today?”
“It’s possible.” Wayne took a seat across from her and Eric.
“But before we go talking about Jessica, you need to understand some things first. Yes, she met Jerry at a graveyard the other night. She said he was lonely and refused to move on from this plane of existence because he would go to hell for something terrible he’d done.”
They stared at him, wide-eyed and pale. He could only imagine what wild thoughts ran through their heads.
Wayne continued. “Jerry also told Jessica that he’d been murdered and that his body lay somewhere in the woods behind the graveyard. I did some research online and found out that a guy named Jerry Madison went missing from his house in Alexandria in 1986, and nobody ever saw him again. Are you both with me so far?”
The couple nodded. “So Jerry did something that got him killed is what you’re saying?” Eric asked.
Wayne took a deep breath. Here we go. “Yes. Now take a look at what Sidney found earlier today.”
Sidney passed the laptop over to them. “Don’t shoot the messenger,” she said, and began to bite her nails.
Rachel’s brow creased while she read. Suddenly every last bit of color drained from her cheeks, and she put her hand over her mouth.
Eric leaned back, shaken. “Who’s Sarah Roman-Dell?”
“Can’t you read?” Rachel snapped. She read from the screen. “The four victims were identified as Megan and Josie Walsh, daughters of Patrick and Amy; Sarah Roman-Dell, daughter of Stephen and Maria; and Lauren Scott, daughter of Meredith. All three families are residents of Alexandria.” She shook her head. “What the heck?”
“Evidently,” Wayne said as
calmly as he could, “you aren’t Stephen and Maria’s first child.”
“But that’s impossible!” Two spots of color returned to her cheeks. “I mean, I know that Mom and Dad lived in Kentucky before they bought the house here in Eleanor, but how…”
“Did you ever wonder why they moved?”
“They said it was because of work! You move to where the jobs are. That’s what they always told us.”
“But if they’d just lost their only child, they wouldn’t have wanted to stay there. Right?”
Rachel continued to shake her head. “This makes no sense. I have tons ofrelatives. Why didn’t anyone ever mention her? If she really did exist, they can’t have just forgotten about her. There would be photographs and things.” She gasped. “Photographs! Oh my gosh. I never realized it.”
“What?” Eric asked.
“Pictures,” she said, sounding strangely excited. “Years ago I was digging around in some boxes in the basement looking for some old drawings I’d made when I was in kindergarten because I wanted to show them off to my friends, and I found a bundle of pictures tied together with a rubber band—stuff from birthday parties and whatnot. I thought they were pictures of Jessica, because the kid had dark-brown hair like her, but it was weird because I didn’t remember seeing anything like them before, and because I wasn’t in any of them.” She gave a hollow laugh. “Mom and Dad hardly ever took pictures of us. There had to have been at least a hundred in that stack.”
“And you never suspected anything?” Sidney asked.
“What was I supposed to think? That my mother and father had another kid they conveniently forgot to tell me and Jessica about? One who had obviously received far more of their attention than we ever got?” She paused. “Oh, God. If they were that close to Sarah, her death would’ve ruined them.”
Eric tore his gaze away from the computer. “What does all of this have to do with this Jerry guy?”
“Everything, I think,” Wayne said. “These murders happened two days before Jerry’s disappearance, and it was in the same town.”
“You think…” Rachel swallowed. “That Jerry is the one who shot them all?”