Chain Letter (36 page)

The funeral finally came to an end, and Alison hugged and kissed Fran’s parents and
told them if there was anything she could do . . . What a futile offer. What could
she do for them? Be their daughter? Fran had been their only child. It was all so
sad.

Alison said goodbye to Brenda and her own parents and drove home by herself. But as
she had on Saturday, she passed by her usual off-ramp and headed for the mountains.
An hour and a half later she found herself walking beside the lake where she had met
the intriguing stranger. She went to the door of his cabin and knocked repeatedly.
There was no answer. She tried the knob, and the door swung in easily. But the inside
was not as she had remembered it, not exactly. There was the
same wood stove, the same black kettle sitting on top of it. But the place was filled
with dust and cobwebs, as if it had been months since anyone had lived there. It made
her wonder whether her encounter with the stranger had been a dream—or worse, a hallucination.
Yet she knew in her heart that it had been neither. She wondered if she should discuss
the matter with Eric. She’d have liked to tell Tony about the mystical encounter.
Where could he be? That morning his parents had said he was out doing errands.

Night was falling when Alison finally returned home. She sat in her room and read
a book before going to bed. She had trouble concentrating on the story, and when the
heroine died unexpectedly at the end, she felt nothing. She was too worried about
which of her friends was going to die next. Thank God Kipp had done what he promised
and gone away without telling anyone where he was. She had cursed God that morning,
and now she was thanking him. She hoped he gave her no more reasons to destroy her
faith.

But God did. Or rather, the Caretaker did.

Another call shook her awake in the middle of the night. She turned on the light before
picking it up. She knew the news couldn’t be good.

“Hello?” she said.

“Ali.” It was Brenda, broken and tearful.

“What’s happened? Is he dead? He can’t be dead, dammit!”

Brenda moaned. “He was at his aunt’s. Tony just called me.
The Caretaker got him there. Soaked him with gasoline and set him on fire. Oh, Ali,
Kipp’s gone.”

“Do you want me to come over?” Alison asked.

“No.” Brenda’s voice suddenly sounded distant. “I’m next on the list. There’ll be
a letter for me in the morning. Stay away from me.”

“But we have to have another meeting of the group. We have to go to the police. Brenda?”

Her girlfriend had hung up. Alison quickly dialed Eric. She woke him up, but he didn’t
sound mad. She told him what had happened. He cursed softly.

“Tell me the order of the people on the list again?” he asked.

“It’s Brenda, Joan, and Tony. Brenda will probably get a letter in the mail tomorrow,
the way this Caretaker works.”

“You say you guys are going to have a meeting tomorrow?”

“I’m going to try to organize one,” she said.

“Make it for the afternoon. I want to come, but I have to do some things in the morning
first.”

“I don’t know if the gang will let you come.”

“It doesn’t matter. You tell me when and where it is, and I’ll show up. They’ll have
to listen to what I have to say.”

“You’re going to tell them we have to go to the police, aren’t you? We have to put
a stop to this.”

Eric was evasive. “I hope I’ll have a better idea tomorrow about what to recommend.”

“Where are you going in the morning?”

“The record store. It’s more on my side of town, so you don’t need to go. Just stay
home and rest. The newspaper office, too. I want to see if I can trace who’s been
placing these ads.”

They had tried a similar tactic with Neil’s chain letters. They had been unsuccessful.
“Good luck,” she said.

“Once you have the meeting set, call and leave the information on my answering machine.
And, Ali?”

“Yes.”

“We’re going to stop this bastard.”

“How can you be so sure?” she asked.

“He’ll make a mistake. They always do. He may have made one already.”

“What?”

He hesitated. “Let me talk to you about it tomorrow.”

They said their goodbyes and Alison set down the phone. Tony had called Brenda but
hadn’t called her. That said a lot about the condition of their relationship. Reluctantly
she picked up the phone again and dialed his number. Someone answered quickly on his
end, but didn’t speak.

“Hello?” she said. “Tony? Are you there, Tony?”

She could hear breathing. It could be his. Then behind him she could make out faint
whispering. This did not belong to Tony.

It was a girl.

“Tony?” she cried.

The phone clicked in her ear, and she heard nothing but a dial tone.

T
he gang met at twelve sharp in the park beside the rocket ship. Once there had been
seven. Now there were only four: Brenda, Joan, Alison, and Tony. Alison had had to
get Joan to call Tony about the meeting. Tony wasn’t returning her calls. Tony sat
on the slide across from her and stared at her as if he had never seen her before.
But he knew who she was. She had tried to give him a comforting hug and tell him how
sorry she was about what had happened to Kipp, but he had brushed her away with a
sharp move of his arm. Life was wonderful.

Brenda had received a letter in the morning mail. Kipp’s name had gone the way of
Fran’s—into nothingness. There was an ad in the Personals section of the
Times
for Brenda. Decoded it read:

Cut off your trigger finger and give it to Joan with her letter.

Trigger finger? Brenda didn’t even own a gun.

But Joan’s dad did. He was a cop.

The gang wanted to start the meeting, but Alison stalled them for a few minutes. She
was waiting for Eric to arrive. She had called and left the information he requested
on his machine. He didn’t disappoint her. Out of nowhere he came walking over a grass
hill and strode into the center of the group. Joan and Brenda stared at him, amazed.
Strangely enough, Tony didn’t seem surprised to see him. Tony shook his head and spit
on the ground.

“Hi,” Eric said. “I’m a friend of Alison’s. I know about the chain letters, but please
don’t get mad at her. I made her tell me what she knew.”

Joan turned to Alison. “Are you out of your mind to bring in a stranger? Don’t we
have enough problems as it is?”

Brenda had been a decent shade of white before Eric’s arrival. Now she could have
tried out for the lead role in a play about Casper the Ghost. “Ali,” she begged. “What’s
got into you?”

“Eric discovered that it wasn’t Neil who burned to death in the fire in June,” Alison
said quickly. “He came to me, I didn’t go to him. But I’m glad he’s here. He’s an
amateur sleuth, and he’s better than most professionals. He’s discovered who the man
in the desert was.”

“Who?” Tony asked tonelessly.

“James Whiting,” Eric said. He looked at Tony. “May I sit down?”

Tony eyed him with barely concealed hatred. “Sure.”

Eric sat down near Alison. “I’m here to help you guys,” he said. “What Alison said
is true. She didn’t approach me, I approached her. My uncle works for the LAPD. I
was going through the police files and stumbled on the fact that Neil had been identified
by an emerald ring after burning to death in a raging fire. I knew an emerald would
melt in such a fire and figured there had to be something wrong. That started me on
my investigation. So far I have kept the confidence of your group. I’ve told no one
about the chain letters.”

Tony was amused. “You’re connected to the police. Great.”

“Only in an unofficial capacity,” Eric said smoothly. “But let’s not argue about whether
I should be here or not. I’m here, and I want to help you out of this predicament.”

“What can you do?” Joan asked sarcastically.

Eric turned the left side of his head toward her. “What?”

“Can’t you hear?” Joan asked.

“I can hear,” Eric said. “Please repeat your question?”

Joan was mean. “You can’t help us. You can’t even understand what we say.”

“I can give you advice,” Eric said. “I can point out certain facts that maybe you
overlooked. I’ll point out one right now. But first I have to ask a question. Who
in this group knew where Kipp had gone?”

“None of us,” Brenda said. ‘That was the point of his leaving.”

“Then how did the Caretaker know where to find him?” Eric asked. No one answered.
Eric scanned the group. “Someone must have known. How about you, Tony? You were closest
to him.”

Tony surprised them all. “I knew he was at his aunt’s.”

“How?” Alison exclaimed.

Tony ignored the question.

“How did you know?” Brenda had to ask.

“I called him and he answered,” Tony said simply.

“But how did you know he was there?” Joan asked.

Tony shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“You’re going to have to do better than that,” Eric said.

Tony chuckled and spit again. “I don’t have to do anything.”

“All right,” Eric said diplomatically. “Could you tell us if you told anybody else
where Kipp went?”

Tony flashed a fake smile. “I don’t remember.”

“Tony!” Brenda protested. “For God’s sake, tell him if you did.”

Tony hardened. “Why? This guy’s an asshole. He’s here to help us? He’s here to give
us advice? What kind of advice do you have for us, Mr. Amateur Sleuth?”

“I suppose the simplest thing for you to do now would be to go to the police,” Eric
said philosophically.

“If we do, we’ll go to jail,” Joan said with no strength in her protest. Indeed, it
seemed as if Joan was considering the possibility as they spoke.

“Better to be in jail for a little while than to die,” Eric said.

Brenda spoke in a faltering voice. “But this Caretaker could get us even there. Tony
wouldn’t have told anyone where Kipp was, even if he did know. In jail we could be
more helpless.”

“That’s not true,” Alison said. “With the police we’ll be safe.”

“Safe?” Brenda asked, and her voice cracked altogether. Her opinion of the Caretaker
had changed a hundred and eighty degrees since their last meeting, which didn’t surprise
Alison. “Who can protect us from this monster? I tell you no one can. He pulled Kipp’s
whereabouts out of thin air. He went there in the middle of the night, lured my boyfriend
into the garage, soaked him with gasoline, and then lit him on fire. He did all this
without leaving a trace. Tell me what kind of man could do that? Not one that’s human,
that’s who!”

Her words sent a shock through the group, and they fell silent. They had thought such
a thing—that their assailant might be of supernatural origin—when Neil’s letters had
been coming. Of course, they realized how silly they’d been—later. But not much later,
because right now, to Alison, there was a ring of truth to what Brenda was suggesting.
Eric did not agree.

“Kipp was killed by someone in a human body,” Eric said. “There is a rational explanation
for everything. It often takes time and hard work to find it, but the truth usually
comes out in the end.” Eric reached over and patted Alison on the leg. “Now, I went
to the paper and the record store this morning. I found out that—”

“I’m getting out of here!” Tony exclaimed, jumping to his
feet and hustling toward the parking lot. Alison got up and ran after him. She went
alone. She didn’t catch up to him until they were halfway to the cars, at the top
of a grassy bluff. He threw off her arm with a cruel swing of his.

“Tony?” she cried. “You have to stop this. You have to talk to me!”

“I don’t talk to whores,” he muttered, plowing forward.

Alison’s breath caught in her throat. “How can you call me that?”

He whirled on her, and his voice and face were savage. He was like a man possessed.
“I was there Saturday night when you were kissing your new boyfriend. I saw it all.
But that’s OK because you see, I wasn’t alone. I had a new girl with me.” He stabbed
a finger in the direction of his car at the bottom of the hill. “I have her with me
today.”

A young woman with long maroon hair sat in the passenger seat. She nodded and climbed
slowly out of Tony’s car. She did not approach them, but stood there leaning with
one hand braced on the side of the car, dressed entirely in black. She was extraordinarily
attractive, but a cruel light seemed to emanate from her straight into Alison’s heart.
It was almost as if the strange girl were challenging Alison to a duel with invisible
steel knives. In fact, Alison felt as if one of the girl’s knives had already struck
home. The pain in her heart was overwhelming.

“I did not cheat on you,” she whispered to Tony.

“Fine,” Tony said coldly. “I didn’t cheat on you, either,
when I slept with Sasha. All’s fair in love.” This time he spat on her. “Bitch.”

She watched him walk away. The girl—Sasha—didn’t climb back into the car until Tony
arrived. Then the girl gave Alison one last stab with her weird green eyes and got
in beside Tony. Alison watched them kiss. Sasha squashed so hard against Tony’s face
it looked as if she were trying to eat him alive. Then Alison watched them both laugh
and drive off.

Eric walked up to Alison. He offered her a handkerchief, which she took to wipe off
Tony’s spit from the side of her face. His saliva had a funny smell to it. It reminded
her of biology class.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“So am I,” she whispered.

“The girls are waiting back at the rocket ship to hear what I’ve discovered,” Eric
said. “But I don’t know if I want to tell now. This group is extremely unstable. I
don’t know if we can trust any of them.”

“That girl is bad.”

“Pardon?”

Alison looked at him. “That girl is bad.”

Eric blinked. “I can see why you don’t like her.”

Alison shook her head and sighed. She felt as if she were already trapped in the Caretaker’s
box. She couldn’t help wondering if everything that had just happened hadn’t been
planned in advance.