Helena went up to the third floor and knocked gently on Helen’s closed bedroom door. She needed to try and smooth things over to keep peace in her household. She knew full well that Helen’s stubbornness would prevent her from being the one to initiate the healing process herself.
“Come in,” she heard Helen answer from behind the door.
“Were you sleeping?” Helena asked, poking her head around to try to get a feel for Helen’s mood before she entered the room.
“It’s hard to sleep in the day with these damn flowers on the wall,” Helen answered. She knew it was only in her imagination, but when she had a headache, the six-inch peonies seemed to grow bigger with every throb of her head. “Would you be terribly upset if, while I’m at the home renovation store getting you a new door and a set of coffee mugs, I took a look at their wallpaper selection as well?”
“Does that mean you’re planning on staying for a while?” Helena asked, noting that Helen was out of bed and busy unpacking her suitcase.
“It means I might be thinking about it,” Helen replied. She took some socks and placed them in the top drawer of the big oak dresser in the room. Ever since she was a child, Helen had reserved the top drawer for her socks. Helen liked routine.
Helena stood by the edge of the bed and adjusted her robe. “It’s draughty in here. I never noticed that before. I suppose you should pick up some window sealer while you’re out. If you think you can carry a tube of silicone, wallpaper, mugs… and a door, that is.”
Helen forced a shy smile. “Does this mean we’re good?”
“I’ll let you know after you answer one more question,” Helena replied. “You never did answer Ellie. How did you know about the vampire in her dream? Spill the beans, Helen. I can always hit you up with truth serum when you’re sleeping tonight. I keep hypodermics in my office for just such an emergency.”
Helen turned and looked out the window. She could see Ellie and Jacey standing in the driveway, just talking. It was nothing more than a typical afternoon for a couple of teenaged girls, but somehow Helen found their actions unsettling. What if Ellie really was in danger? She decided to tell Helena about her own visitor last night. Just to get a second opinion. “Willie told me.”
Helena was shocked. “Willie? You were talking to Willie? You? When?”
“He came into the bathroom when I was taking a bath and you were otherwise occupied, thank you very much. He told me about the vampire, and he told me there had been a second murder.”
“Kevin Clark,” Helena nodded. “Such a tragedy. The town is going to be in mourning for quite a while, I ‘m afraid. What else did Willie tell you?”
“He told me Ellie was in danger. That’s why I went storming into your room last night. I heard a moan and I thought maybe he had changed his mind and went after you instead. Seriously, I thought you were in pain.”
“Well, I’m not as flexible as I once was,” Helena sighed. “And for future reference, I can handle Willie just fine on my own. Did he tell you why Ellie was in danger?”
“He said he couldn’t tell me. I’m supposed to just figure that out, I guess.”
“You guess? You can do more than guess.”
“No I can’t.”
Helena stared obstinately at her daughter. Helen was incredibly stubborn, and had learned to turn her back on her calling no matter how loudly she was beckoned. But this time, it involved her own flesh and blood, and Helena found Helen’s reluctance to get involved more than a little disturbing. “You mean that you won’t,” Helena argued. “My God, Helen. If Willie has come here twice in one week, something is definitely up. It’s not like he just drops in for dinner. Did he tell you that Ryan Lachey is in jail?”
“Oh, that’s a shame,” she answered sarcastically.
“He’s in jail for murdering Brooke Quinlan. Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous? It’s all because Tara Wildman’s father found him with the little girl’s dead body in his arms. If you ask me, it’s nothing more than circumstantial evidence. I haven’t killed every dead body that I’ve held in my arms.”
“You’re maybe not the best example,” Helen replied. “Wildman…he was that farmer at the search party gathering, right? He said that Ryan was a pervert, and probably had something to do with the little girl’s disappearance. Probably, allegedly, the meanings are strikingly similar. Did you notice at the football game that Ryan is twice the size of the other players? Who knows what chemicals he’s taking to bulk up? It’s a well documented fact that steroids lead to aggressive behavior. I think it’s a bonus that he’s locked up. At least now I won’t have to worry about that testosterone-fueled maniac coming after Ellie.”
“Did Willie tell you that? Because if Willie knows Ryan is in jail, then he also knows Ryan is no danger to Ellie.”
“It’s not just murder I think the ‘boy next door’ is capable of,” she said, sitting back down on the bed. “I’d recognize that sex-crazed look in his eyes anywhere.”
“I’m going to have to get you laid, Helen.”
“There you go again. Did you have to say that? Just when we were getting good?”
“I apologize. That was uncalled for,” Helena admitted. “My life is an open book, and I need to be reminded from time to time that other people aren’t so inclined.”
“Then tell me about Mrs. Harbinger,” Helen replied, “if you’ve got nothing to hide between your covers.”
“Not now,” Helena said tersely.
Helen put her hands defiantly on her hips. “I’m waiting...”
“Oh all right,” Helena sighed, and sat down on the edge of the bed beside her daughter. “About a year ago, Marita Harbinger, your former babysitter, rented the house on the other side of the Lachey’s. She hadn’t changed much from the sweet young thing that appeared on my doorstep years ago, when Ellie was younger. Did I ever tell you the story of how she came to arrive on your own doorstep?”
“Not that I recall,” Helen answered. “She just kind of showed up.”
“Exactly. She showed up at my old house one day telling a tale of woe about how some man had a lengthy affair with her but ended it all rather abruptly. He kicked Marita and her son out of the house they were living in and took up with an even younger woman. This just goes to show you there is always someone younger. Anyway, she had no job and no place to live. Sound familiar? I felt sorry for her, so I hired her as a nanny for you. You were struggling yourself at the time, trying to raise a toddler on your own. I was as surprised as you were when she suddenly up and vanished. Easy come, easy go, I guess. You had a new man on the scene shortly after that so you managed.”
Helena paused, hoping that would be enough of a story to appease Helen. Mrs. Harbinger was better left dead and buried. The less anyone remembered about that day the better.
“And...”
“And nothing,” Helena sighed, standing up and making an effort to leave the room. “I never thought about her again until she turned up in Troy the summer before last. Imagine that, after all these years.”
“Okay, so it wouldn’t be the first place I’d move to,” Helen began to say then realized it was exactly what she had done.
“I thought it was a little strange too,” Helena admitted. “Obviously we didn’t need a babysitter anymore. I told her that. End of story.”
“Hang on,” Helen insisted, “if that’s all that happened, why was Betty Lachey going on about her the other day?”
Helena turned around and dropped her butt back down on the bed. There would be no deflecting the Mrs. Harbinger story, no matter how badly she wanted to. Helen was in one of her poke, poke, poke moods and wasn’t about to stop.
“Well... it was the Fourth of July and I was having a quiet neighborhood party out in the backyard. I thought it would be a good chance for people to get to know Marita. But you know how it goes, there’s always one uninvited guest who gets drunk and decides to perform an exorcism. It happens every time they have an occult marathon on cable.”
“
An exorcism?”
“We tried to humor him and it was all fine and dandy until Marita imploded. I swear, we thought we had all her pieces cleaned up, but Betty found some pretty big chunks of her in the lawn the next morning. I think that’s when she really started to hate me.”
“So…this uninvited guest of yours watches a few hours of cable, attempts a centuries old religious rite and something actually happens?”
“I know! I was as surprised as you are. His Latin wasn’t very good. Maybe that’s why she didn’t just turn to ash like she was supposed to. You get one thing wrong with one of those spellscall it what you want, but that’s what it isand all hell breaks loose.” She fiddled with the bottom of her robe, picking at an imaginary piece of fluff. It was easier not to have to look at Helen right now.
“You mean she really was possessed? That surprises me. I mean, she was a little loud and cranky when I knew her, but I there was no sign of any head spinning or anything.”
“Noooo,” Helena hesitated. “She would have had to have been taken over bodily to be possessed.” She made the sign of the cross across her chest. “Our little Marita was the real deal from day one.”
“You mean you sent a full-fledged demon over to take care of my child?”
“I didn’t know she was a demon then,” Helena insisted. “They’re getting better at assimilating here on earth all the time.”
“Tell me more,” Helen said, leaning in closer towards her mother. “I’m intrigued. Obviously Ellie and I survived her employment despite the lack of resume research you did.”
Helena thought back. They had been in the middle of a heat wave, and the temperature had been almost unbearable. The air conditioner had decided to quit working earlier in the day, probably due to over exertion, making an indoor celebration impossible. As the Fourth of July wasn’t one of those occasions you could postpone, she had tried to make the best of it by moving the festivities outside.
“It was crazy. Roy was just putting the finishing touches on my guest cottage, but it was so hot that we were seriously thinking of opening up the fire hydrant out front and running through it like a bunch of kids.”
“You have a guest cottage?”
“You’ve seen it out back. It’s my office now. Don’t look so excited, you can’t move in there.”
Helen pouted momentarily. “So...did Roy see the exorcism happen?”
“Unfortunately, yes. Marita was heading back to her house to refill her punchbowlshe made a killer margarita, let me tell you when the idiot guest started chanting. So unfortunately, Marita blew apart in front of Roy. And Betty. And Mr. Wagner.”
“Betty saw the whole thing? Not just the aftermath?”
Helena nodded her head. “I‘ve never seen anything quite like it, and I’m certain Betty Lachey hadn’t either. It was an ugly night.”
“What about Roy?”
“Roy had seen bodies blowup before, in the war,” Helena answered. “But I don’t think he was expecting it to happen here, in the middle of Mr. Wagner’s banjo tribute to Buck Owens and Roy Clark.”
“And Mr. Wagner?”
“Mr. Wagner was a big horror film fan. I think he secretly enjoyed it.”
Helen slapped her hand to her head. This was the most ridiculous story that had come out of her mother’s mouth in quite some time.
“That’s when I had to tell Roy about our little family secret. It put him in an awful position. In order to get Betty off our scent, he was forced to come up with a story that Marita was really a terrorist and had strapped a bomb to herself. Luckily for us, Betty likes her booze and doesn’t always have a sober sense of reality to begin with.”
“Roy’s story is a bit far fetched, even for this weird little town.”
“I know,” Helena shrugged. “But his story worked. At least it did for Betty. Mr. Wagner, not so much. That’s when I fell in love with him. Roy, I mean. Any man who can come up with a plausible explanation for something supernatural is a keeper.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Someday you will, Helen,” she said, patting her daughter’s knee. “Trust me on that one. And before you ask, Roy is single. He was married once, but has been divorced for several years. And I’m not expecting any more explosions, in case you were wondering.”
Helen let out a deep sigh. About sixteen years ago, she thought she had found her own special someone, Ellie’s father.
“You’re lucky you found Roy,” Helen told her mother. “I don’t know if I can ever love like that again. I dabble in affairs from time to time, thinking it’s love, but ever since...”
She couldn’t finish the sentence. Tears welled up in her eyes and before she knew it, she was sobbing uncontrollably.
Helena placed her arms around her daughter. “You have to let go of the past, Helen.”
“But, I killed the only man I ever loved.”
“Are you ready to tell me about it?” Helena asked, handing her a tissue from the nightstand. “I’ll just sit quiet and listen.”
“We were in St. Paul de Vence. I was called in as an historical consultant on a small excavation of a site built during the Renaissance period. The building had been damaged by a car missing a left hand turn on the narrow roadway and it had to be completely torn down. It had historical significance, but they couldn’t save it structurally. While I was there, I unearthed a tiny clay pot, no bigger than a pill box. It suddenly got really heavy, like it was trying to get me to drop it back into the ground. But you know me, stubborn has hell, I refused to do what it wanted.”
Helena smiled. There was no way in hell Helen could have left it alone. When she was a child, the presents could never go under the tree until Christmas Eve for the same reason.
“I opened the little lid. Big mistake. It unleashed a wraith rider who said he would spare my life, if I gave up something I loved. Well, you know I wasn’t crazy about this vision thing to begin with, so that’s what I gave up. Or so I thought. Until later than evening when I had a vision about Ellie’s father’s death. Two days later, it happened just like the vision said it would. So you see, I still had the visions, but I no longer had Ellie’s father. The wraith knew my true love and took it. That’s why I’m so afraid to dabble in that power again. I can’t bear the thought of losing someone else.”
“I’m sorry. I have to interrupt. You didn’t try to kill it, did you?” Helena asked. “The wraith rider? Because if you do it wrong they split in two and then you have bigger problems. I hope you’ll call me if you ever have to do that.”
Helen nodded. “Don’t worry, I have learned my lesson with wraith riders. I can still see their image to this day. They are nasty beasts, even if they do look human.”
“It’s another job best left to the professionals.”
“Maybe that’s why I felt the need to leave Tony. I don’t like to kill things. He kills things every day. I try to live my life like I’m normal. What’s so wrong with that?”
“We may not have a choice.” Helena said, hugging her daughter tightly. “We’ve all done things we’re not proud of. Conscience is an unfortunate part of the human side of us. It can weigh heavy on our minds.”
As she attempted to release Helen she felt her daughter shake in her arms. The tremble strengthened, and for a moment Helena thought her daughter was having petit-mal seizure.
“Take a deep breath, Helen. It’s over now,” she said reassuringly, as Helen’s body began to calm.
“It’s far from over,” Helen mumbled as she tried to regain her composure. Beads of sweat were forming on her brow even though she felt her internal temperature drop by about ten degrees.
“Just be quiet for a few moments,” Helena instructed.
“If I don’t tell you now,” Helen sobbed, “I’ll never have the courage to tell you. I need you to call Roy.”
“Seriously Helen, you can apologize later,” her mother assured her.
“No, I just had a vision. I couldn’t stop it. There’s been
an accident. About six miles out of town. The section where there’s the S-curve atop the first ridge by the ski hill. Tell him to go there and to look down to the right.”
“What did you see?” Helena asked patiently.
“A woman,” Helen whispered. “She’s in the front passenger seat of the vehicle next to a man. He didn’t have his seat-belt on. He’s gone through the front windshield,” she paused. “Tell Roy there’s no point rushing to get to them.”
Helena’s face grew grim.
“Is it a white truck, Helen? Is it the Clark’s? Roy said they were having trouble locating Kevin’s parents.”
Helen nodded. “I think so.”
“Hellsbelles,” Helena said. “You just had a pretty strong premonition attack for something that doesn’t involve our own family.” She paused. “Maybe it does. Maybe it’s all connected to this situation of Ellie’s.”
“I don’t know,” Helen answered honestly. “But since we’re not keeping secrets, there’s something else you need to know about Ellie’s situation. Willie says it’s going to happen whether I like it or not. He said that you were going to have to help me stop it, and even then we might not be able to.”
“Willie’s on crack,” Helena said emphatically. “Is that why you were so crazy this morning? Because of him?”
“You don’t understand. He said I had to watch Ellie. Carefully. And what did I just do? I let her go out the door with a future Ms. Plaything-of-the-Month, who wears expensive designer boots in the middle of a snowstorm.”
“You really have been tuning it out,” Helena said. “I wasn’t kidding when I said Jacey was sensitive. A sensitive. As in, someone who is perceptive without being psychic. That’s why she shook our hands. I felt her tapping into my sensory nerves. Well, attempting to anyway. She didn’t quite have the technique down, but she sure as hell was trying.”
“I thought she wanted to steal my ring,” Helen admitted, spinning her old engagement ring around so the diamond faced her palm. She’d need a ring to replace it when she divorced Tony. She couldn’t stand the feeling of her finger without the weight of a ring.
“Well, unless you know something I don’t,” Helena began, “Ellie is safe enough for the time being. Nightfall might be a whole other story.”
“So what are we supposed to do?” Helen asked.
“You go do what you have to do, and I’ll do what I have to do,” she said rising from the bed. “I’m glad we had a chance to sit down and talk about this, Helen. I’m not here to judge you. I’m here to help. I’m very sorry about what happened between you and the ring wraith and Ellie’s dad. But please consider giving your talents another chance. For Ellie’s sake.”
“I will,” Helen said as her mother left the room. “And thanks.”
“That woman is so gullible,” Helena thought to herself as she left the room. “It’s like shooting fish from a barrel.”
Behind the closed door, Helen was smiling smugly to herself.
“Nice try, Mother. I’ve got you hook, line and sinker,” she laughed.
CHAPTER NINETEEN