by Ira Levin
Rosemary ate and drank.
“A book?” Minnie asked, weighing the package.
“Mm-hmm. She was going to mail it and then she realized she’d be seeing me.”
Minnie read the return address. “Oh, I know that house,” she said. “The Gilmores used to live there before they moved over to where they are now.”
“Oh?”
“I’ve been there lots of times. ‘Grace.’ That’s one of my favorite names. One of your girl friends?”
“Yes,” Rosemary said; it was easier than explaining and it made no difference really.
She finished the cake and the drink, and took the package from Minnie and gave her the glass. “Thanks,” she said, smiling.
“Say listen,” Minnie said, “Roman’s going down to the cleaner in a while; do you have anything to go or pick up?”
“No, nothing, thanks. Will we see you later?”
“Sure. Take a nap, why don’t you?”
“I’m going to. ’By.”
She closed the door and went into the kitchen. With a paring knife she cut the string of the package and undid its brown paper. The book within was All Of Them Witches by J. R. Hanslet. It was a black book, not new, its gold lettering all but worn away. On the flyleaf was Hutch’s signature, with the inscription Torquay, 1934 beneath it. At the bottom of the inside cover was a small blue sticker imprinted J. Waghorn & Son, Booksellers.
Rosemary took the book into the living room, riffling its pages as she went. There were occasional photographs of respectable-looking Victorians, and, in the text, several of Hutch’s underlinings and marginal checkmarks that she recognized from books he had lent her in the Higgins-Eliza period of their friendship. One underlined phrase was “the fungus they call ‘Devil’s Pepper.’”
She sat in one of the window bays and looked at the table of contents. The name Adrian Marcato jumped to her eye; it was the title of the fourth chapter. Other chapters dealt with other people—all of them, it was to be presumed from the book’s title, witches: Gilles de Rais, Jane Wenham, Aleister Crowley, Thomas Weir. The final chapters were Witch Practices and Witchcraft and Satanism.
Turning to the fourth chapter, Rosemary glanced over its twenty-odd pages; Marcato was born in Glasgow in 1846, he was brought soon after to New York (underlined), and he died on the island of Corfu in 1922. There were accounts of the 1896 tumult when he claimed to have called forth Satan and was attacked by a mob outside the Bramford (not in the lobby as Hutch had said), and of similar happenings in Stockholm in 1898 and Paris in 1899. He was a hypnotic-eyed black-bearded man who, in a standing portrait, looked fleetingly familiar to Rosemary. Overleaf there was a less formal photograph of him sitting at a Paris café table with his wife Hessia and his son Steven (underlined).
Was this why Hutch had wanted her to have the book; so that she could read in detail about Adrian Marcato? But why? Hadn’t he issued his warnings long ago, and acknowledged later on that they were unjustified? She flipped through the rest of the book, pausing near the end to read other underlinings. “The stubborn fact remains,” one read, “that whether or not we believe, they most assuredly do.” And a few pages later: “the universally held belief in the power of fresh blood.” And “surrounded by candles, which needless to say are also black.”
The black candles Minnie had brought over on the night of the power failure. Hutch had been struck by them and had begun asking questions about Minnie and Roman. Was this the book’s meaning; that they were witches? Minnie with her herbs and tannis-charms, Roman with his piercing eyes? But there were no witches, were there? Not really.
She remembered then the other part of Hutch’s message, that the name of the book was an anagram. All Of Them Witches. She tried to juggle the letters in her head, to transpose them into something meaningful, revealing. She couldn’t; there were too many of them to keep track of. She needed a pencil and paper. Or better yet, the Scrabble set.
She got it from the bedroom and, sitting in the bay again, put the unopened board on her knees and picked out from the box beside her the letters to spell All Of Them Witches. The baby, which had been still all morning, began moving inside her. You’re going to be a born Scrabble-player, she thought, smiling. It kicked. “Hey, easy,” she said.
With All Of Them Witches laid out on the board, she jumbled the letters and mixed them around, then looked to see what else could be made of them. She found comes with the fall and, after a few minutes of rearranging the flat wood tiles, how is hell fact met. Neither of which seemed to mean anything. Nor was there revelation in who shall meet it, we that chose ill, and if he shall come, all of which weren’t real anagrams anyway, since they used less than the full complement of letters. It was foolishness. How could the title of a book have a hidden anagram message for her and her alone? Hutch had been delirious; hadn’t Grace Cardiff said so? Time-wasting. Elf shot lame witch. Tell me which fatso.
But maybe it was the name of the author, not the book, that was the anagram. Maybe J. R. Hanslet was a pen name; it didn’t sound like a real one, when you stopped to think about it.
She took new letters.
The baby kicked.
J. R. Hanslet was Jan Shrelt. Or J. H. Snartle.
Now that really made sense.
Poor Hutch.
She took up the board and tilted it, spilling the letters back into the box.
The book, which lay open on the window seat beyond the box, had turned its pages to the picture of Adrian Marcato and his wife and son. Perhaps Hutch had pressed hard there, holding it open while he underlined “Steven.”
The baby lay quiet in her, not moving.
She put the board on her knees again and took from the box the letters of Steven Marcato. When the name lay spelled before her, she looked at it for a moment and then began transposing the letters. With no false moves and no wasted motion she made them into Roman Castevet.
And then again into Steven Marcato.
And then again into Roman Castevet.
The baby stirred ever so slightly.
She read the chapter on Adrian Marcato and the one called Witch Practices, and then she went into the kitchen and ate some tuna salad and lettuce and tomatoes, thinking about what she had read.
She was just beginning the chapter called Witchcraft and Satanism when the front door unlocked and was pushed against the chain. The doorbell rang as she went to see who it was. It was Guy.
“What’s with the chain?” he asked when she had let him in.
She said nothing, closing the door and rechaining it.
“What’s the matter?” He had a bunch of daisies and a box from Bronzini.
“I’ll tell you inside,” she said as he gave her the daisies and a kiss.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said. She went into the kitchen.
“How was the memorial?”
“Very nice. Very short.”
“I got the shirt that was in The New Yorker,” he said, going to the bedroom. “Hey,” he called, “On A Clear Day and Skyscraper are both closing.”
She put the daisies in a blue pitcher and brought them into the living room. Guy came in and showed her the shirt. She admired it.
Then she said, “Do you know who Roman really is?”
Guy looked at her, blinked, and frowned. “What do you mean, honey?” he said. “He’s Roman.”
“He’s Adrian Marcato’s son,” she said. “The man who said he conjured up Satan and was attacked downstairs by a mob. Roman is his son Steven. ‘Roman Castevet’ is ‘Steven Marcato’ rearranged—an anagram.”
Guy said, “Who told you?”
“Hutch,” Rosemary said. She told Guy about All Of Them Witches and Hutch’s message. She showed him the book, and he put aside his shirt and took it and looked at it, looked at the title page and the table of contents and then sprung the pages out slowly from under his thumb, looking at all of them.
“There he is when he was thirteen,” Rosemary said.
“See the eyes?”
“It might just possibly be a coincidence,” Guy said.
“And another coincidence that he’s living here? In the same house Steven Marcato was brought up in?” Rosemary shook her head. “The ages match too,” she said. “Steven Marcato was born in August, 1886, which would make him seventy-nine now. Which is what Roman is. It’s no coincidence.”
“No, I guess it’s not,” Guy said, springing out more pages. “I guess he’s Steven Marcato, all right. The poor old geezer. No wonder he switched his name around, with a crazy father like that.”
Rosemary looked at Guy uncertainly and said, “You don’t think he’s—the same as his father?”
“What do you mean?” Guy said, and smiled at her. “A witch? A devil worshiper?”
She nodded.
“Ro,” he said. “Are you kidding? Do you really—” He laughed and gave the book back to her. “Ah, Ro, honey,” he said.
“It’s a religion,” she said. “It’s an early religion that got—pushed into the corner.”
“All right,” he said, “but today?”
“His father was a martyr to it,” she said. “That’s how it must look to him. Do you know where Adrian Marcato died? In a stable. On Corfu. Wherever that is. Because they wouldn’t let him into the hotel. Really. ‘No room at the inn.’ So he died in the stable. And he was with him. Roman. Do you think he’s given it up after that?”
“Honey, it’s 1966,” Guy said.
“This book was published in 1933,” Rosemary said; “there were covens in Europe—that’s what they’re called, the groups, the congregations; covens—in Europe, in North and South America, in Australia; do you think they’ve all died out in just thirty-three years? They’ve got a coven here, Minnie and Roman, with Laura-Louise and the Fountains and the Gilmores and the Weeses; those parties with the flute and the chanting, those are sabbaths or esbats or whatever-they-are!”
“Honey,” Guy said, “don’t get excited. Let’s—”
“Read what they do, Guy,” she said, holding the book open at him and jabbing a page with her forefinger. “They use blood in their rituals, because blood has power, and the blood that has the most power is a baby’s blood, a baby that hasn’t been baptized; and they use more than the blood, they use the flesh too!”
“For God’s sake, Rosemary!”
“Why have they been so friendly to us?” she demanded.
“Because they’re friendly people! What do you think they are, maniacs?”
“Yes! Yes. Maniacs who think they have magic power, who think they’re real storybook witches, who perform all sorts of crazy rituals and practices because they’re—sick and crazy maniacs!”
“Honey—”
“Those black candles Minnie brought us were from the black mass! That’s how Hutch caught on. And their living room is clear in the middle so that they have room.”
“Honey,” Guy said, “they’re old people and they have a bunch of old friends, and Dr. Shand happens to play the recorder. You can get black candles right down in the hardware store, and red ones and green ones and blue ones. And their living room is clear because Minnie is a lousy decorator. Roman’s father was a nut, okay; but that’s no reason to think that Roman is too.”
“They’re not setting foot in this apartment ever again,” Rosemary said. “Either one of them. Or Laura-Louise or any of the others. And they’re not coming within fifty feet of the baby.”
“The fact that Roman changed his name proves that he’s not like his father,” Guy said. “If he were he’d be proud of the name and would have kept it.”
“He did keep it,” Rosemary said. “He switched it around, but he didn’t really change it for something else. And this way he can get into hotels.” She went away from Guy, to the window where the Scrabble set lay. “I won’t let them in again,” she said. “And as soon as the baby is old enough I want to sub-let and move. I don’t want them near us. Hutch was right; we never should have moved in here.” She looked out the window, holding the book clamped in both hands, trembling.
Guy watched her for a moment. “What about Dr. Sapirstein?” he said. “Is he in the coven too?”
She turned and looked at him.
“After all,” he said, “there’ve been maniac doctors, haven’t there? His big ambition is probably to make house calls on a broomstick.”
She turned to the window again, her face sober. “No, I don’t think he’s one of them,” she said. “He’s—too intelligent.”
“And besides, he’s Jewish,” Guy said and laughed. “Well, I’m glad you’ve exempted somebody from your McCarthy-type smear campaign. Talk about witch-hunting, wow! And guilt by association.”
“I’m not saying they’re really witches,” Rosemary said. “I know they haven’t got real power. But there are people who do believe, even if we don’t; just the way my family believes that God hears their prayers and that the wafer is the actual body of Jesus. Minnie and Roman believe their religion, believe it and practice it, I know they do; and I’m not going to take any chances with the baby’s safety.”
“We’re not going to sub-let and move,” Guy said.
“Yes we are,” Rosemary said, turning to him.
He picked up his new shirt. “We’ll talk about it later,” he said.
“He lied to you,” she said. “His father wasn’t a producer. He didn’t have anything to do with the theater at all.”
“All right, so he’s a bullthrower,” Guy said; “who the hell isn’t?” He went into the bedroom.
Rosemary sat down next to the Scrabble set. She closed it and, after a moment, opened the book and began again to read the final chapter, Witchcraft and Satanism.
Guy came back in without the shirt. “I don’t think you ought to read any more of that,” he said.
Rosemary said, “I just want to read this last chapter.”
“Not today, honey,” Guy said, coming to her; “you’ve got yourself worked up enough as it is. It’s not good for you or the baby.” He put his hand out and waited for her to give him the book.
“I’m not worked up,” she said.
“You’re shaking,” he said. “You’ve been shaking for five minutes now. Come on, give it to me. You’ll read it tomorrow.”
“Guy—”
“No,” he said. “I mean it. Come on, give it to me.”
She said “Ohh” and gave it to him. He went over to the bookshelves, stretched up, and put it as high as he could reach, across the tops of the two Kinsey Reports.
“You’ll read it tomorrow,” he said. “You’ve had too much stirring-up today already, with the memorial and all.”
CHAPTER 8
DR. SAPIRSTEIN was amazed. “Fantastic,” he said. “Absolutely fantastic. What did you say the name was, ‘Machado’?”
“Marcato,” Rosemary said.
“Fantastic,” Dr. Sapirstein said. “I had no idea whatsoever. I think he told me once that his father was a coffee importer. Yes, I remember him going on about different grades and different ways of grinding the beans.”
“He told Guy that he was a producer.”
Dr. Sapirstein shook his head. “It’s no wonder he’s ashamed of the truth,” he said. “And it’s no wonder that you’re upset at having discovered it. I’m as sure as I am of anything on earth that Roman doesn’t hold any of his father’s weird beliefs, but I can understand completely how disturbed you must be to have him for a close neighbor.”
“I don’t want anything more to do with him or Minnie,” Rosemary said. “Maybe I’m being unfair, but I don’t want to take even the slightest chance where the baby’s safety is concerned.”
“Absolutely,” Dr. Sapirstein said. “Any mother would feel the same way.”
Rosemary leaned forward. “Is there any chance at all,” she said, “that Minnie put something harmful in the drink or in those little cakes?”
Dr. Sapirstein laughed. “I’m sorry, dear,” he said; “I don’t mean to laugh, but r
eally, she’s such a kind old woman and so concerned for the baby’s well-being…No, there’s no chance at all that she gave you anything harmful. I would have seen evidence of it long ago, in you or in the baby.”
“I called her on the house phone and told her I wasn’t feeling well. I won’t take anything else from her.”
“You won’t have to,” Dr. Sapirstein said. “I can give you some pills that will be more than adequate in these last few weeks. In a way this may be the answer to Minnie and Roman’s problem too.”
“What do you mean?” Rosemary said.
“They want to go away,” Dr. Sapirstein said, “and rather soon. Roman isn’t well, you know. In fact, and in the strictest of confidence, he hasn’t got more than a month or two left to him. He wants to pay a last visit to a few of his favorite cities and they were afraid you might take offense at their leaving on the eve of the baby’s birth, so to speak. They broached the subject to me the night before last, wanted to know how I thought you would take it. They don’t want to upset you by telling you the real reason for the trip.”
“I’m sorry to hear that Roman isn’t well,” Rosemary said.
“But glad at the prospect of his leaving?” Dr. Sapirstein smiled. “A perfectly reasonable reaction,” he said, “all things considered. Suppose we do this, Rosemary: I’ll tell them that I’ve sounded you out and you aren’t at all offended by the idea of their going; and until they do go—they mentioned Sunday as a possibility—you continue as before, not letting Roman know that you’ve learned his true identity. I’m sure he would be embarrassed and unhappy if he knew, and it seems a shame to upset him when it’s only a matter of three or four more days.”
Rosemary was silent for a moment, and then she said, “Are you sure they’ll be leaving on Sunday?”
“I know they’d like to,” Dr. Sapirstein said.
Rosemary considered. “All right,” she said; “I’ll go on as before, but only until Sunday.”
“If you’d like,” Dr. Sapirstein said, “I can have those pills sent over to you tomorrow morning; you can get Minnie to leave the drink and the cake with you and throw them away and take a pill instead.”