In This Skin

  Why had the guy taken an insane dislike to Ellery? Maybe it was the stutter. Who knows?

  Logan didn't make empty threats. If he saw Ellery on Fairfax then Ellery would take what punishment was dealt out. Logan's head was completely fucked. He didn't care about legal retribution. He'd spent six months in jail for biting off a guy's nose in a fight. There were rumors that he'd been quizzed by cops about the fatal shooting of a drug dealer a while back, too, but there hadn't been enough evidence-or witnesses with the guts to testify-so the police hadn't filed charges.

  Ellery lifted the carcass of the VCR. A black clump of tape choked the heads like a glossy tumor. He could fix this easily enough. If only he could fix the Logan problem.

  He glanced up at the workshop clock. Four in the afternoon. Around sixteen hours from now he'd have to walk to work along Fairfax. Logan would be waiting for Ellery with his sidekick. In sixteen hours Ellery might be lying in the gutter with busted kneecaps.

  ***

  Robyn Vincent ran back to the doors that led to the lobby. She hadn't played the light on the monstered face for long. A mask… yeah, gotta be a mask. But those eyes? They bulged out hard from the head like glass balls. And they fixed on her. They burned like… like… oh, Jesus Christ, she wanted out!

  The void of the dance hall swallowed her cry of terror, so it sounded strangely small… more of a whimper than a cry. And suddenly the floor between her and the twin doors stretched out as a huge plain. A cold breeze-that cold, impossible breeze!-blew in her face; laden with moisture, it made her shiver to the roots of her bone. Behind her, feet made a slushing sound as if they ran through leaves. She ran hard, breathing in the sharpness of the air.

  Dear God, he was closer. That face with the red blossoming mouth… she closed off the image.

  Whatever you do, don't look back. Concentrate on getting back to the apartment. Lock the doors. But I've got the flashlight in one hand. The other hand's ripped open and bloody. How will I manage to handle the key? It'll slow me down.

  He'll be on me before IOh God. The image came of her lying naked on the table as the men with the knives stabbed her. It must have been a vision of the future…

  That's what will happen. Only it's minutes away, not days, not weeks.

  Panic detonated inside her head. Lights flashed before her eyes as emotion overloaded her nervous system.

  She raised the light, trying to pick out the doors to the lobby…

  They'd gone. Stunned, she searched the wall for them. Phantom lights surged in front of her to form a wall of misty gray It had to be shock that was doing this. She was hallucinating; sheer panic blew apart her ability to think straight. Robyn lunged forward, scything with the flashlight, hoping to pick out the doors. At last she could bear it no more and glanced back. The man followed. That horrible face fixed on her. His arms were extended toward her. Again she had the impression that the arms didn't end in hands, that they were long, tapering…

  A blow knocked her down. Gasping, her heart pounding, she looked up at the tall dark column that she'd just run into. It must be one of the mock Egyptian pillars. Dazed, her side aching from the concussion, she pulled herself up with it. But the pillar wasn't smooth and dry. It was rough and slimy. Before Robyn moved away from it she caught a glimpse of bark mottled with dark green moss. Moisture glistened. A tree? How can I run into a tree inside a building?

  But she didn't have time to figure it out. She had to escape from the man with the monster face bearing down on her. As she ran she swept the light to her right and behind her. The lobby doors! Goddamn. She must have been running away from them in confusion. She'd been heading for the stage. Then how in God's name had she run into a tree growing from the dance floor?

  Its shock. You imagined it.

  To her left, the figure tried to cut her off. He ran at her, arms reaching out. That red mouth dilated, showing a dripping hole that stretched deep into the face. Rimming that was an aureole of teeth.

  Oh, God, oh God… Chest burning, heart hammering, legs weakening, she willed herself to run faster. Suddenly the doors were in front of her; she crashed through them. At the same time she tried to fumble the key from her pocket.

  Please don't drop it. Please don't drop it.

  If it slipped from her fingers there'd be no time to pick it up. The man would be on her, grabbing her with those tapering arms. She imagined his face looming up close to hers. Dear God, to look into that monstrous face so closely would be enough to kill her, she was certain. Only there was no danger of dropping the key, because with the makeshift bandage her hand was too bulky to even reach into her pocket for it.

  With a scream of frustration as much as fear, Robyn bounded across the lobby, then by the glass-fronted ticket office. Ahead was the stout door that led to the stairwell. A second later the man crashed through the door behind her. He was just feet away from her. Glancing back, she saw the figure appear in the wildly ricocheting light beams from the flashlight. The huge glistening balls that were his eyes fixed on her with all the intensity of a predator locked onto its prey.

  ”No!”The word burst from her lips in something close to a scream.

  The figure turned sharply-too sharply for the tiled floor. His feet carried on from under him and he went skidding into the shadows with a crash. With one hand gripping the flashlight, she shook the duster bandage from her other hand and then used her bloodstained fingers to fumble the key from her pocket.

  No… no!

  The key flipped from her fingers, just like she knew it would. She'd dropped it. She saw it tumble end over end in the light from the bulb.

  Instinctively her free hand shot at it with the speed of a cobra strike and caught it before it reached the floor. Without even pausing she ran to the stairwell door, jammed the key in the lock, turned it.

  It won't open. I'll stand here fumbling with it until I feel the man's arms around my neck… those slithering, tapering, glistening arms…

  Robyn twisted the key with all her strength. Behind her she heard approaching footsteps. The sound of its breathing… wet, sucking breathing… filled her ears.

  You 're twisting the key the wrong way!

  In a split second she twisted the other way. The right way The lock mechanism engaged, clicked, turned. The bolt snapped back.

  Swiftly she pulled out the key, shoved open the door and half-tumbled through. How she did it she didn't know, but she simultaneously slammed the door shut behind her. This time not bothering with the key, she shot both bolts home. Then, gasping for air, she fell back on the stairs.

  The door handle on her side turned as the man… or monster, or freak… tried to open the door from his side. Then he pushed at it, shaking it against the frame. The bolts vibrated.

  The man tried again… then again and again. When she looked up at the fan design of glass strips she saw the gray misshapen face distorted even more monstrously by the frosted glass. The face pressed close to the glass, as if gazing through at her. The dark eyes resembled those of a fish. They chilled her… froze her blood as they stared at her.

  But it couldn't come in. The door held.

  She didn't know how long it stared in at her because she pulled herself into a fetal position as she sat on the stairs. She kept her head down on her knees and her eyes shut tight.

  Robyn sat like that for hours, feeling the cold force of that stare through the glass. When it seemed as if this would be her life forevermore, a loud tap on the door startled her. Her eyes snapped open.

  ”Robyn. Hello… hell-oh-oh! It's me, Noel. Are you going to let your lover in?”

  CHAPTER 15

  Noel was full of stories.

  ”I'm sorry I'm late.”With a huge happy grin on his face, he tore around the apartment, washing his hands, kicking off shoes. He'd also brought a backpack containing books that he stashed in the bedroom. ”I met Wilson in the college parking lot. He told me to put the car in the residents' compound. He can see it from his room. Did I tell you about Wilson
? His family owns a radio station in Tennessee. And the kid wants to become an accountant. Can you believe that? Anyway, Wilson will keep an eye on the car. I also lent him a spare set of keys. He'll drive it over here if we need it. That'll save hiking out for the bus. Hey, guess what?”

  ”What?”She smiled, happy he was excited.

  ”I saw Joe Steers from my course. He lent me a bunch of books so I can work on my assignments here. That means I'll only need to go into college for lectures three days a week. And Thursdays will be only for the afternoon anyway. All we need to do is keep you locked up tight here while I'm away And then I bumped into Randy, who told me that Bocko's quit college. He's joined a rock band that just got a contract to tour military bases overseas. I thought he was the last person on earth who'd do that. He was always real shy Hell, I didn't even know he could play guitar. Wow, Robyn, what did you do to your hand?”

  ”Oh, nothing.”

  ”Looks nasty And you can't use that dustcloth as a bandage.”He shot her a look of concern. ”You've been overdoing things.”

  Smiling, she shook her head. ”I'm five days pregnant, not eight months.”

  He took her hand to examine it more closely. ”Come over here by the sink. I'll clean it up.”

  ”Noel, honestly…”

  He shushed her. ”There's quite a lot of blood here.”

  ”I caught it on a shelf. Must be a nail or splinter or something.”So… a little white lie. But I can't tell him I've been wandering around the dance hall, can I? ”Well, let me take care of it.”

  ”Okay, but then I'll fix something to eat.”

  ”I'm fine. I had a hamburger with Joe. You know, he's just landed a sponsorship deal with a company of civil engineers. They're going to pay his college fees.”

  ”That's lucky.”

  ”I'll say. I don't know how I'm going to cover next year's tuition.”

  ”We'll find the money. You're not missing the chance of a college education.”

  ”Maybe I'll find a part-time job. They're hiring at… Huh?”

  ”What's wrong?”

  Noel was rinsing her hand under the cold-water faucet. ”Where did you say the cut was, Rob?”

  ”On the back… just over the knuckles.”

  ”You sure it wasn't a paper cut?”

  ”No. Why?”

  ”I can't find anything.”

  With a tissue, she dabbed away the water and blood smears.

  ”You were putting me on.”Noel laughed. ”You daubed ketchup on there and pretended you'd cut yourself.”

  ”I didn't.” 'Attention-seeker.”Playfully he tapped her butt with the flat of his hand, then kissed her on the side of the face. ”I'll fix you a sandwich.”He darted another kiss at her. ”I'm sorry I was so late, babes.”

  She studied the back of her hand. Puzzlement gave way to a shiver.

  ”Don't worry about it… I never noticed the time, so…”Her voice trailed. The rip in her skin had been a deep one, spanning two knuckles.

  Blood had rushed out in a gory waterfall, so how come the wound had vanished? Holding her hand up to the window to catch the evening sun, she could make out a faint pink line where the wound should be squirting blood. If anything, the pink line looked like a cut that was weeks old and had all but healed. Just looking at the mark brought back what had happened a couple of hours ago. The man with the monstrous red mouth.

  How he'd chased her. For a moment she'd really believed she'd be”Robyn… Robyn?”

  ”Hmm?”

  ”Planet Earth calling Robyn.”Noel pretended the wineglass was a microphone. ”Planet Earth calling Robyn Vincent. Over'' ”Sorry I was miles away.”

  ”Light years, more like. Are you sure you were okay here by yourself this afternoon?”

  ”Great. No problems.”She smiled. ”I loved playing house. And I arranged all the food in the larder. There was a carton of old videotapes there.

  I put them in the spare room.”

  No way, Robyn, she ordered herself. I'm not telling Noel about the seeing the stranger. Or even that I left the apartment. If Noel thought for one minute that there was some weirdo lurking in the dance hall, he'd make me go. And leaving here means going home to Mom and Emerson. I couldn't stand that. Especially now that Emerson's broke and the bank is going to repossess the house. Because I know both will pressure me into liquidating Dad's trust fund. And come hell or high water, I'm not giving that money to Emerson.

  She realized she hadn't been listening to Noel. But then, he hadn't noticed her attention had drifted. He was talking about Joe and the night they both got so drunk at a frat party that they'd fallen asleep on a bench and woke in the morning with frost on their clothes. ”It's a wonder we didn't lose our hands to frostbite. Say… Joe gave me something. A kind of housewarming present.”

  ”You told him that we-”

  ”Yeah, I had to, really. Don't worry. He's one of the good guys.”

  She sat down as he poured water into her glass. ”What kind of present?”

  ”Wait a mo'. I'll get it from the bag.”

  He only left the room a few seconds; then he was back with a canvas wallet the size of a hardcover book.

  ”Don't be shocked,”he told her. ”But after talking it through with Joe I realized he was right.”

  ”Right about what?”

  He opened the wallet and laid it on the table in front of her. Robyn stared at the contents. For a moment she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Lying inside the wallet beneath restraining straps gleamed a handgun.

  ”Noel”She stopped her voice from rising into a shout. ”What do we need a gun for?”

  ”Face the facts, Robyn.” He sounded persuasive rather than defensive.

  ”We're squatting in an apartment in a derelict building in the middle of nowhere. We don't know the kind of people who might come snooping around here.”

  Her voice was small and whispery. ”Joe gave you this?”

  ”He was concerned about us. He wants us to be safe.”He ran a finger along the stubby barrel. ”It's a.38 special. There's ammunition in the pocket there at the end.”

  She shook her head. ”Joe's got more of these?”

  ”He runs the college gun range. This is from his own collection.”He looked at her, concern returning to his eyes once more. ”It worries you, doesn't it?”

  ”The gun?”She gave a weak smile. ”More surprised than worried.”

  ”It'll give us peace of mind.”

  ”I guess so.”Her hands shook a little as she took a deep swallow of water. ”Just promise me you'll keep it in a safe place, Noel.”

  ”Don't worry, you can trust me.”He folded the pistol wallet shut, then pulled a chair up alongside her. ”I'll hide it away on top of the closet. Now, let me pamper you; you look exhausted. What would you like in the sandwich?”

  ”Tuna and salad would be wonderful.”

  ”You've got it.”

  ”You're a star.”

  ”Now, where's the bread?”

  ”In the basket with the word 'bread' written on the side.”She smiled.

  ”There, by the wall cupboard. And the salad is in the rack by the door? ”I'll have to get used to the layout.”

  ”While you get some practice I'm going to grab a shower”

  ”Good idea. Take your time. Enjoy?' He opened doors randomly until he found the larder. ”It'll take me a while to make the sandwich anyway.”

  Robyn walked through into the bedroom to undress. The sight of the new bedding helped restore her sense of well-being. This place looked like a home now. Their home. As she slipped down her jeans, some material smeared her fingertips. Puzzled, she looked at it. She'd inadvertently wiped a smudge of green from the fabric that covered her hip. For a second she stared at the trace of moss on her fingertips without understanding where it had come from. Then she remembered: the chase across the dance floor. Colliding with the treethat impossible tree inside the building-a tree that was sheathed in cold, wet moss. She'd rationalized
that she'd run into a supporting pillar.

  But here was moss on her fingertips. Moss. Undeniable moss.

  ***

  Ellery was in no hurry to get home. His father and brother would be sleeping after their usual afternoon beer fest. His mother would have long since retired to her bedroom.

  He took in an early movie at a cinema alone. The time was a little after eight. The moments were ticking away. In a dozen hours he'd have to walk along Fairfax to reach the repair shop. That's where Logan and sidekick would be waiting for him.

  ***

  Benedict again resurrected those VCR tapes that brought back to life the image of old Benjamin Lockram. Earlier, Benedict had returned from the police station, where he'd dictated a statement to the officer, recording what he'd witnessed the night before when the crook expired on the Luxor steps. Then he'd spent the day reviewing the VCR material. The latest footage was still more than a decade old. Earlier tapes had featured the old man's fascination with his dance hall, the Luxor. Tape number five was missing, while tapes six and seven didn't include any commentary by

  Lockram or even tell a story. They consisted of hours of material culled from security cameras in the building, merely a series of what appeared to be random shots of the public flowing into the hall through the lobby during early evening, then flooding back out at the close of business at midnight. For a while he'd hoped it might show a glimpse of Mariah Lee, the vanished love of his life. Even though he'd believed he'd seen her there, moving with the tide of people, a closer look at the freeze-frame image told him he'd mistaken a blond stranger for her.

  As the last rays of sunlight disappeared from the sky, he once more retrieved his father's gas lamp from the cupboard. Last night the dying hoodlum killed any chance of a search of the Luxor. Maybe he would be luckier tonight?