Body Rides (30 page)

At that moment, he wrapped his right hand around Sue’s wrist, He hooked a finger underneath the heavy coil and jerked it forward.

Sue’s hand came up out of the crevice. It hovered beside her leg, supported by the bracelet. It jumped and shook as Neal tugged at the solid hoop. When the bracelet flew clear, her hand fell and slapped her thigh.

Neal pushed at Sue, trying to shove himself off her.

‘Ow!’ she gasped. She twitched and squirmed. ‘Get off me! Ouch!’

A moment later, Neal was sitting upright. He slipped the bracelet onto his left hand, where it would be safe from a sudden grab by Sue. Trying to catch his breath, he shook his head. ‘Sorry,’ he said.

‘Like fun ya are.’ Scowling at him, Sue rubbed her leg. ‘Ya didn’t have to get so rough. Cripes, I was
gonna
give it back to ya.’

‘I didn’t mean to hurt you.’

‘Like I believe
that
.’ She rubbed her left breast. Just above it, the red plastic name-plate tilted and wobbled like a raft on stormy lake. ‘Damn near creamed my tit,’ she pouted.

‘Uh . . .?’

‘Ya don’t gotta
stare
.’

He turned to the windshield.

What’s going on? he wondered. Sue was acting like a girl who’d gotten roughed up, not like someone who’d just taken a magic ride to weirdsville.

‘We just gonna sit here all day?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Neal said. He faced her. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’ll live,’ she said. An odd look suddenly came into her eyes. She turned her head away. ‘C’mon, let’s go.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Sure I’m sure.’

‘I could let you out right here, if that’s what you want.’

‘Why’d I want that?’

‘You aren’t frightened?’

‘Of what?’

‘Me.’

‘I ain’t scared of you.’ She looked him in the eyes. ‘Anyhow, Sunny
knows
I gone off with ya. She took down yer license plate. Somethin happens to me, and yer gonna be in a whole heap of trouble.’

‘I wouldn’t do anything to you.’

‘Okay, then. We gonna get a move on?’

Nodding, he waited for some traffic to pass. Then he pulled onto the highway again and poured on the speed.

She must not realize what happened to her with the bracelet, Neal thought. Maybe she figured she was hallucinating.

Should he come right out and ask her about it?

Better not.

She
had
given him that funny look after saying, ‘I’ll live.’ As if she knew he’d already murdered someone else and might be tempted to do away with her, too.

If she thinks I’m a killer, she’s acting pretty cool about it
.

She doesn’t believe any of it happened, he told himself. Or, at the very least, she’s so confused about it that she doesn’t know what to think.

Nobody
would immediately assume the truth.

She’d slipped out of her own body and taken a detour into Neal?

That would be about the
last
thing she would figure for the truth.

So if I don’t confirm it for her
. . .

‘Sure wish I had
me
a bracelet like that,’ Sue said.

Neal felt a sinking sensation.

‘S’pose to ward off snakes?’

‘That’s the story.’

‘How come ya went nuts and grabbed it back? Got a rattler under yer seat, or somethin?’

‘No. I was just worried.’

Go for it!

‘The thing is,’ he said, ‘you passed out. Right after you put it to your mouth. I was afraid you might’ve been poisoned.’

‘Huh?’

‘Marta warned me . . . I thought she must be joking about it, but . . . well, she told me that part of the bracelet’s magic comes from snake poison. That’s what the guy told her at the gift shop where she found it. That it had been dipped in asp venom. Which
is supposed to keep the snakes away. She said he seemed pretty serious about it. He warned against getting the thing near your mouth.’

‘Sounds like a crock to me.’

‘Well, apparently it’s not supposed to be enough to kill someone. When I saw you pass out, though . . .’ Neal shook his head. ‘You’re feeling okay now?’

He looked at her. She was frowning as if deep in thought.

‘One other thing,’ he said, ‘asp venom is supposed to be hallucinogenic.’

‘Huh?’

‘In small doses, it makes you see and hear things that aren’t there. You know, hallucinate. Like LSD, or something. Hippies used to use it, but it fell out of favor after a while. Just a little too much, and you’re a dead duck.’

‘Really?’

‘Really,’ he said, though he’d never heard of such a thing. For all he knew, the asp that nailed Cleopatra might’ve been the last of its species.

Maybe it isn’t a species at all, he thought. Asp might be nothing but a synonym for snake.

Whatever it is, I’m getting plenty of mileage out of it
.

Have to look it up sometime
. . .

He forced himself to smile. ‘Did you have any interesting hallucinations from the venom?’ he asked.

She was giving him a funny stare again.

‘Maybe,’ she said.

‘You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I mean, hallucinations are sort of like dreams – they’re mostly just an expression of your own . . . worries, obsessions, fantasies. Stuff you might want to keep private.’

‘Yer handin’ me a load,’ she said.

‘No, I’m not.’

‘Ya know darn well I wasn’t havin no hallucination. I was in yer head, and you know it.’

‘No, I . . .’

‘Shoot, ya kept on yellin at me to get out.’

He tried to look amused. ‘Really?
I
was in your fantasy? I’m flattered.’

‘Weren’t no fantasy. I got in ya ’cause of the bracelet, I reckon. That’s how come ya was in such a hot rush to get it off me and break the spell.’

‘There wasn’t any spell,’ he said. ‘I was afraid you’d been poisoned.’

‘Bull-roar. You figured I was in ya, and you didn’t like it one whit. Kept yelling at me with yer thoughts. Said stuff like, “Damn it, Sue, get the hell outa here!” Which I figure is ’cause ya didn’t want me findin out how yer a murderer.’

‘I’m not a murderer,’ he said.

‘Who’d ya kill?’

‘Nobody!’

‘C’mon, fess up.’ Sue smiled. Was she actually
amused
to find herself riding with a murderer? ‘I been in yer brain,’ she said. ‘So c’mon, who’d ya kill? Marta? Did ya kill her to get yer hands on her bracelet?’

‘No!’

‘Bet she scratched up yer arms while ya was murderin her.’

‘No! That’s ridiculous. Marta’s perfectly fine.’

‘Don’ worry, I ain’t gonna tell on ya.’

He gaped at her, hardly able to believe he’d heard her correctly. ‘No? Not tell on me?’ He was amazed, shocked. ‘Why the hell not?’

‘Yer my ride.’

‘Aren’t you afraid of me?’

‘Ya got no call to kill me. Anyhow, like I said, Sunny got yer license number.’

‘Oh, that’s right.’

‘So we oughta just keep on goin to the Fort like nothin happened. How’s that suit ya?’

‘Suits me fine,’ Neal muttered.

‘Good.’

‘Anyway,’ he said, ‘I never killed anyone. I might be in some trouble because of a murder that happened a couple of days ago, that’s the thing. I actually shot the guy who did the killing, but it seems that he got away. So there’s a chance I might end up being a suspect, even though I’m completely innocent. And the
real
killer is probably after me. Unless he died, or something. So
that’s
why I’ve got murder on my mind, not because I did someone
in
. And
that’s why I’m going to the Fort, just to stay out of L.A. and let things blow over for a while.’

The way Sue looked at Neal, he might’ve been a dog that had just performed a wonderful trick. ‘Yer the guy,’ she said, ‘that musta killed that diver champ. Alice Waters?’

‘Elise,’ Neal said. ‘Her name was Elise, not Alice. And I didn’t kill her. I saved her life.’

‘Oh, no ya didn’t. She’s deader than hell.’

‘I know. I know, all right. You don’t have to tell
me
she’s dead. She got murdered
after
I’d saved her. The fact is,
she’s
the one who gave me the bracelet. Marta never gave it to me, Elise did. Just before she was killed. She gave it to me as a reward because I’d saved her life.’

Sue raised her eyebrows. ‘Really?’

‘That’s right. Cross my heart and hope to die.’ With his right hand, he let go of the steering wheel and marked an X on his chest.

Sue reached out and knuckled his upper arm as if it were a door. ‘Gimme back the bracelet.’

‘You’ve got to be kidding.’

‘I wanta try it again. C’mon. Wanta see if yer still lyin to me.’

‘No way.’

‘C’mon.’ She rapped on his arm again. ‘Give it over.’

Ridiculous. Let her at me again? Not a chance
.

But in another part of his mind, he thought, Why not? She’s already figured out what the bracelet does, and she already knows about Elise. What harm can it do, now?

If it’ll convince her I’m innocent
. . .

‘All right,’ he said. Holding the wheel steady with his right hand, he swung his left arm across his body.

Sue reached out and removed the bracelet from his wrist. She slipped it over her own left hand. ‘How do ya make it work? Rub it on yer face, or . . .?’

‘Your lips. Kiss it.’

‘Oh. Okay.’ She raised the bracelet, looked at it, then frowned at Neal. ‘This time, don’t go ape and start jumpin all over me, okay?’

‘All right. Before you do it, though, I’d better warn you about a few things. It can be dangerous. Don’t go anywhere but into me, and . . .’

‘Fine, okay.’ She kissed the bracelet.

‘Hey! I’m not . . .’

She sagged limp in the passenger seat, hand and bracelet flopping onto her left thigh.

‘I wasn’t done with the warnings,’ he said, knowing she could hear him – not with her own ears, but through himself.

If she’s in here
, he thought.

She probably is. So weird, though, not being able to tell. ‘Hello in there, Sue. Are you in? Never mind. Don’t try to answer. There’s no two-way communication. You can’t get in touch with me while you’re in there. Not even if it’s a matter of life and death. You can’t tell me anything, can’t make me do anything. You’re just a passenger along for the ride. We can discuss it later
.’

What’s she doing in there?
he wondered.
Exploring around? This could be awfully embarrassing. Better watch what I think about
.

No, no no. Don’t go down that road or you’ll start thinking about exactly what you
don’t
want to think about
.

He looked over at Sue’s body, and his eyes settled on the rise of her white blouse beneath the name tag. He could see her white bra through the fabric. And the roundness of her breast filling the bra.
No! Stop it!

He jerked his gaze forward.

Don’t think about her!

(Damn good thing I didn’t try to take a peek up her skirt.)

Even as he thought the thought, he imagined the shadowy view he might obtain by peering between her knees.

Shit! She’s gonna think I’m a pervert!

THINK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE!!!

Elise. Think about Elise. That’s why Sue’s doing this, right? To find out what happened. To find out if I’m the guy who killed her
.

‘
Hey in there, sorry about thinking the nasty stuff. These things happen, you know? They can’t necessarily be helped. Anyway, I’ll try to make myself have memories of what happened on the night of the murder. Okay? I’ll, like, imagine it the way it happened. You just sit tight. By the time I’m done, you’ll know everything
.’

Everything, all right. Including the size of my cock
.

OH, MY GOD! I CAN’T BELIEVE I THOUGHT THAT!!!

‘Sue,’ he said aloud, ‘I think I’ll try talking to you. You can just sit back and monitor my thought processes, or whatever. You’ll see that I’m not lying. Okay? Here goes.