She rose to shut the window. She paused for a moment, drinking in the cool flow of air, the fresh smell of wet grass. Then she went to slide the window shut.
A hand suddenly reached in from the darkness and caught the window’s edge, stopping it from closing. It was bloody, with broken nails.
Corrie dropped her hands from the window and backed away wordlessly.
A white, moonlike face now appeared in the window: bruised, cut, streaked with filth and blood, with a wispy beard and a strange, childlike puffiness. Slowly the terrible hand pulled the window open until it would go no more. A terrible stench—all the more terrible for the memories that it stirred—flowed in and filled her nostrils.
Corrie backed toward the door, numb fingers feeling in her pocket for the cell phone. She found it, hit the send button twice, directing the phone to call the most recently dialed number. Pendergast’s number.
With a jerk the huge hand ripped out the cheap aluminum window frame, shattering the glass.
Corrie turned and ran from her room, tearing down the hall in her bare feet, racing across the living room toward—
With a crash, the front door was flung open. And there stood Job: Job, still alive, one eye ruptured and weeping yellow liquid, his oversized child’s clothing torn and filthy, crusted with blood, hair matted, skin sallow. One arm hung, useless and broken, but the other was reaching toward her.
Muuuh!
The arm was reaching out, clawing at her, andhe took a step forward, his face distorted with rage, filling the room with his stink.
“No!” she screamed. “No, no, get away—!”
He advanced, slashing and roaring incoherently.
She turned and raced back down the hall to her room. He was after her, blundering down the hall. She slammed the door and shot the bolt home, but he came through with a shuddering crash that flattened the flimsy plywood against the wall. Without pausing to think, she dove out the window headfirst, rolled over the broken glass and wet grass, stood up, and began sprinting toward town. Behind came a crash; a roar of frustration; another crash. Lights were going on in the trailers around her. She glanced back to see Job roaring, literally clawing his way out the window, smashing and tearing.
If she could get to the main road, she might have a chance. She raced through the trailer park. The gate was just a few hundred yards ahead.
She heard a roar and glanced sideways to see the bent and wounded figure running crablike across the grass with horrible speed, cutting off her route into town.
She strained, gulping air, but now he was angling back toward her, leaving her no choice but to veer toward the back of the trailer park, toward the darkness of the naked fields. She jammed her hand into her pocket and pulled out the phone, pressing it to her ear as she ran. There was the voice of Pendergast, speaking calmly.
“I’m coming, Corrie, I’m coming right now.”
“He’s going to kill me, please—”
“I’ll be there as soon as possible with the police. Run, Corrie.Run. ”
She ran for all she was worth, jumping the back fence and flying into the field, the sharp corn stubble lacerating her bare feet.
Muh! Muh! Muuuuuh!
Job was behind her, closing in with a strange, brutal, apelike gait, loping ahead on the knuckles with his good arm. She kept going, hoping he might tire, might give up, might find the pain too much—but he kept on, roaring in agony as he went.
She redoubled her effort, her lungs burning in her chest. It was no good. He was gaining, steadily gaining. He was going to catch her. No matter how fast she ran, he was going to catch her.
No. . .
What could she do? There was no way she’d reach the creek. And even if she did, what then? She was running directly away from the town, into the heart of nowhere. Pendergast would never arrive in time.
Muuuh! Muuuh!
She heard a distant siren. It just confirmed that Pendergast was way too far away. She was on her own.He was going to catch her, grab her from behind and kill her.
Now she could hear feet pounding like a frenzied accompaniment to his agonized cries. He couldn’t be more than ten yards behind. She called up every ounce of energy but could already feel herself faltering, her legs weakening, her lungs almost bursting from the effort. And still he kept coming, closing the gap. In a second he would be on her. She had to do something. There had to be some way to reach him, to make him understand, to make him stop.
She turned back.“Job!” she yelled.
He came on, roaring, oblivious.
“Job, wait!”
In another instant she felt the blow, the terrible blow that threw her backwards into the soft dirt. And then he was on top of her, roaring, spittle spraying into her face, his great fist raised to smash in her skull.
“Friend!” she cried.
She closed her eyes, turning away from the anticipated blow, and said again: “Friend! I want to be your friend.” She choked, sobbed, repeating it over and over. “Your friend, your friend, your friend . . .”
Nothing happened. She waited, swallowed, and opened her eyes.
The fist was there, still raised, but the face looking down at her was completely different. Gone was the rage, the fury. The face was twisted into some new, powerful, and unfathomable emotion.
“You and me,” Corrie croaked. “Friends.”
The face remained horribly twisted, but she thought she could see hope, even eagerness, shine from his one good eye.
Slowly the great fist uncurled. “Fwiend?” Job asked in his high voice.
“Yes, friends,” she gasped.
“Pway wif Job?”
“Yes, I’ll play with you, Job. We’re friends. We’ll play together.” She was babbling, choking with fear, struggling to get a grip on herself.
The arm dropped. The mouth was stretched in a horrible grimace that Corrie realized must be a smile. A smile of hope.
Job lumbered off her awkwardly, managed to stand unsteadily, grimacing with pain but still smiling that grotesque smile. “Pway. Job pway.”
Corrie gasped and sat up, moving slowly, trying not to frighten him. “Yes. We’re friends now. Corrie and Job, friends.”
“Fwiends,” repeated Job, slowly, as if recalling a long-forgotten word.
The sirens were louder now. She heard the distant screech of brakes, the slamming of car doors.
Corrie tried to stand, found her legs collapsing underneath her. “That’s right. I won’t run away; you don’t need to hurt me. I’ll stay here and play with you.”
“We pway!”And Job squealed with happiness in the dark of the empty field.
2
The Rolls-Royce stood in the parking lot beside Maisie’s Diner, covered with dust, its once-glossy surface sandblasted to dullness by the storm. Pendergast was leaning against it, dressed in a fresh black suit, his arms in his pockets, motionless in the crisp morning light.
Corrie turned off the road, eased her Gremlin to a stop beside him, and threw it into park. The engine died with a belch of black exhaust and she stepped out.
Pendergast straightened. “Miss Swanson, I’ll be driving through Allentown on my way back to New York. Are you sure you won’t accept a ride?”
Corrie shook her head. “This is something I’d like to do on my own.”
“I could run your father’s name through the database and give you advance notice of anything, shall we say,unusual in his current situation?”
“No. I’d rather not know in advance. I’m not expecting any miracles.”
He looked at her intently, not speaking.
“I’m going to be just fine,” she said.
After a moment he nodded. “I know you will. If you won’t accept a ride, however, you must at least accept this.”
He took a step closer, withdrew an envelope from his pocket, and handed it to her.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Consider it an early graduation present.”
Corrie open
ed it and a savings account passbook came sliding out. The sum of $25,000 had been deposited in an educational trust account in her name.
“No,” she said immediately. “No, I can’t.”
Pendergast smiled. “Not only can you, but you must.”
“Sorry. I just can’t accept it.”
Pendergast seemed to hesitate a moment. Then he spoke again. “Then let me explain why you must,” he said, his voice very low. “By chance, under circumstances I’d rather not go into, last fall I came into a considerable inheritance from a distant and wealthy relation. Suffice to say, he did not make his money via good works. I am trying to rectify, if only partially, the blot he left on the Pendergast family name by giving his money away to worthy causes. Quietly, you understand. You, Corrie, are just such a cause. A most excellent cause, in fact.”
Corrie lowered her eyes for a moment. She could make no answer. Nobody her whole life long had ever given her anything. It felt strange to be cared about—especially by someone as remote, as aloof, as unlike her as Pendergast was. And yet the passbook was there, in her hand, as physical proof.
She looked at the passbook again. Then she slid it back into its envelope.
“What does it mean, educational trust?” she asked.
“You have another year of high school to get through.”
She nodded.
A twinkle appeared in Pendergast’s eye. “Have you ever heard of Phillips Exeter Academy?”
“No.”
“It’s a private boarding school in New Hampshire. They’re holding a place at my request.”
Corrie stared at him. “You mean the money isn’t for college?”
“The important thing is to get you out of here now. This town is killing you.”
“But aboarding school? In New England? I won’t fit in.”
“My dear Corrie, what’s so important about fitting in?I never did. I’m certain you’ll do well there. You’ll find other misfits like yourself—intelligent, curious, creative, skeptical misfits. I’ll be passing through in early November, on my way to Maine; I’ll drop in to see how you’re getting on.” He coughed delicately into his hand.
To her own surprise, Corrie took an impulsive step forward and hugged him. She felt him stiffen and, after a moment, relax and then gently disentangle himself from her embrace. She looked curiously at him: he seemed distinctly embarrassed.
He cleared his throat. “Forgive me for being unused to physical displays of affection,” he said. “I was not raised in a family that . . .” His voice stopped and he colored faintly.
She stepped back, feeling a confusing welter of emotions, embarrassment foremost among them. For a moment he continued looking at her, a faint, cryptic smile slowly gathering once again on his face. Then he bowed, took her hand, brought her fingers close to his lips, and quickly turned and got into his car. In another moment the Rolls had turned onto the road and was accelerating toward the rising sun, the light winking briefly off its curved surface before it vanished down the long, level stretch of macadam.
Corrie waited a moment and then got into her own car. She looked around—at the suitcase, the tapes, the small pile of books—making sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. She put the envelope with the passbook into her glove compartment, wired it closed. Then she started the Gremlin, let the engine rev a bit, giving it gas until she was sure it wouldn’t stall. As she eased out of Maisie’s parking lot, her eye fell on Ernie’s Exxon across the street. There was Brad Hazen. The sheriff’s son was filling the tank of Art Ridder’s powder-blue Caprice, one hand on the gas nozzle, the other on the trunk. His jeans had slipped down and she could see faded, grayish underwear, the line of a butt crack beginning just above the belt. Brad was staring, gape-jawed, in the direction Pendergast’s Rolls-Royce had vanished. After a minute, he turned away, shaking his head wonderingly and reaching for the squeegee.
She felt a sudden pity for the sheriff. Strange what a decent man he’d turned out to be. She’d never forget him lying in his hospital bed, his bulletlike head resting against the crisp pillow, his face looking ten years older, tears coursing down his cheeks as he talked about Tad Franklin. She looked back at Brad, wondering if perhaps, deep down, there was a spark of decency buried within him, too.
Then she shook her head and accelerated. She wasn’t going to stick around to find out.
As the road rose up to meet her, she wondered where she would be next year, in five years, in thirty years. It was the first time in her life that such a thought had ever occurred to her. She had no idea of the answer. It was both a wonderful and a scary feeling.
The town dwindled in her rearview mirror until all she could see were stubbled fields and blue sky. She realized that she could no longer hate Brad Hazen any more than she could hate Medicine Creek. Both had moved from her present into her past, where they would gradually dwindle into nothingness. For better or worse she was off into the wide, wide world, never to return to Medicine Creek again.
3
Sheriff Dent Hazen, head still heavily bandaged and one arm in a cast, was standing at the end of the short corridor, talking to two policemen, when Pendergast arrived. He broke away and came over to the FBI agent, offering his left hand to shake.
“How’s the arm mending, Sheriff?” Pendergast asked.
“Won’t be able to fish again until after the season ends.”
“I’m sorry to hear it.”
“You heading out now?”
“Yes. I wanted to stop by one last time. I was hoping I’d find you here. I wanted to thank you, Sheriff, for helping to make this a most, ah, interesting vacation.”
Hazen nodded abstractedly. His face was deeply lined and full of bitterness and anguish. “You’re just in time to see the old lady say goodbye to her bundle of joy.”
Pendergast nodded. He had come to see that, as well. Although he did not expect anything from the visit, he hated to leave a loose end,any loose end, behind him. And this case still had one remarkably large unanswered question.
“You can view the tender parting through the one-way glass. All the shrinks are there already, clustered like flies. It’s this way.” Hazen led Pendergast through an unmarked door and into a darkened room. A lone window, a long rectangle of white, was set into the far wall. It looked down into the “quiet room” of the locked unit of Garden City Lutheran Hospital’s psychiatric wing. A group of psychiatrists and medical students were standing before the one-way glass, talking in low voices, notebooks at the ready. The room beyond was empty, its lighting dim. Just as Pendergast and Hazen stepped up to the window a set of double doors opened and two uniformed policemen wheeled Job in. He was heavily bandaged over his face and chest, and one arm and shoulder was in a cast. Despite the dimness of the room, Job blinked his one good eye against the light. An oversized leather belt was snugged tight around his haunches, and the handcuff for his wrists ran through a ring in its front. Both legs were shackled to the wheelchair with leg irons.
“Look at him, the bastard,” said Hazen, more to himself than to Pendergast.
Pendergast watched intently as the policemen parked Job in the middle of the room, then took up positions on either side.
“I wish to hell I knew why the guy did what he did,” Hazen went on in a quiet, dull voice. “What was he doing in those clearings out there in the corn? The crows arranged like that, Stott cooked like a pig, the tail sewed up in Chauncy . . .” He swallowed hard. “And Tad. Killing Tad. What the hell was going through that fucking head of his?”
Pendergast said nothing.
The doors opened again and Winifred Kraus came in, leaning on the arm of a third policeman. She was in a hospital gown and moved very slowly. A tattered book was tucked beneath one arm. Her face was pale and sunken, but as soon as she saw Job it brightened and her whole appearance seemed to transform.
“Jobie, dearest? It’s Mommy.”
Her voice came into the darkened observation room through a loudspeaker above the window, sound
ing harsh and electronic in the sudden silence.
Job raised his head, his face grimacing into a smile.
“Momma!”
“I brought you a present, Jobie. Look, it’syour book.”
Job let out an inarticulate sound of joy.
She came over and pulled up a chair next to her son. The policemen tensed, but neither Winifred nor Job took any notice. She seated herself beside him, put one frail arm around his bulk, pulled him close. She began to hum softly while Job beamed, leaning against her, his calflike face illuminated with joy and happiness.
“Christ,” Hazen muttered. “Look. She’s rocking him like a baby.”
Winifred Kraus placed the book in his lap and opened to the first page. It was a book of nursery rhymes. “I’ll start at the beginning, shall I, Jobie?” she crooned. “Just the way you like it.”
Slowly, with a singsong, infantile voice, she began to read.
Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye;
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened,
The birds began to sing;
Wasn’t that a dainty dish,
To set before the king?
Job’s big head nodded to the rhythm of her voice, his mouth making anooooooo sound that rose and fell with the cadence of her words.
“Jesus Christ,” said Hazen. “The freak and his mother. It gives me the creeps just watching.”
Winifred Kraus finished the rhyme, then slowly turned the page. Job beamed, laughed. And she began again.
Davy Davy Dumpling,
Boil him in a pot;
Sugar him and butter him,
And eat him while he’s hot.
Hazen turned and grasped Pendergast’s hand. “I’m out of here. See you in purgatory.”
Pendergast took the hand without responding, without noticing. His eyes were fixed on the scene in front of him, the mother reading nursery rhymes to her child.
“Look at the pretty picture, Jobie. Look!”
As Winifred Kraus held the book up, Pendergast got a glimpse of the illustration. It was an old book, and the page was torn and stained, but the picture was still discernible.
Still Life with Crows Page 45