Helens-of-Troy (26 page)

“Under the circumstances,” Cohen
agreed, “that’s probably a good idea.” He gave Stan’s hand to
Purdy.

“
Are you still going over to
Helena’s? In case I need to get hold of you later?” Purdy
asked.

Roy nodded. “Some things just can’t
wait until morning.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Helen slipped her naked body into the
old-fashioned pedestal bathtub. Its depth allowed her to slide her
shoulders below the waterline without having to raise her legs too
much to compensate for her height. She had poured some of Helena’s
Epsom salts into the water while it was running, and the muscle
soothing effect was beginning to loosen the tension knots in her
back. She closed her eyes and breathed in the steam rising from the
water. It was like a mini-sauna and she was enjoying every minute
of it.

For a few moments, she forgot about the
situation in Troy. For a few minutes, she imagined she was floating
in the aquamarine waters off Cozumel. She had been there once, on
spring break with her high school class. It was a carefree time in
her life; away from her mother and not yet a mother
herself.

She took a sip of the Pinot Blanc wine
from the glass she had rested on the soap holder on the wall. That
was the bad thing about the design of old-fashioned tubs, no ledge
to put anything on. The wine was room temperature, not really the
way she liked it, but she wasn’t going to follow Helena’s
suggestion and throw an ice cube into it. That would be uncouth.
She also vetoed using a plastic wineglass, despite Helena’s protest
that “she’d be sorry if it went crashing on the mosaic tile
floor.”

She imagined feeling the waves of the
Atlantic Ocean rolling over her chest with her every breath. For a
moment she almost thought she could hear the hired resort musicians
playing wooden flutes in the background, their tropical notes
lulling her to sleep.

But it wasn’t the beginning of a
wonderful fantasy. There really was water smacking her in the face.
She sneezed as the salted water went up her nose. The melodic wind
instrument was actually a wind of a different sort. It was more of
a whistle. And it was off-key.

She tried to scream, but a hand reached
around from behind her neck and covered her mouth, muffling her
attempt.

“Helen, I’m going to remove my hand
now,” the voice said. “Do me a favor and keep quiet. We don’t need
to go and wake the dead.”

She nodded in agreement, tricking him
into thinking she was submissive, just before sinking her teeth
into him, hard enough to break the skin. “You bastard!” she gasped,
after releasing his hand from her jaws.

“Don’t go there, Helen,” he sighed, “we
all know who is and isn’t a bastard in this house.” He looked at
the puncture mark on the fleshy part of his palm. “Do you know how
many germs are in your mouth? That was borderline barbaric of
you.”

Helen took what was left of the wine in
her glass and flung it at him. “Here, pour a little alcohol on the
wound if you’re so concerned.”

“I see you’re still a firecracker,” he
laughed. He reached for a hand towel and wiped the wine from his
black jacket. “If you’re in the mood to share your booze, I could
murder a double malt scotch,” he said, putting the lid of the
toilet seat down so he could sit next to her.

“Willie!” she said, her throat holding
back a quiver as she uttered his name. “What the hell are you doing
here?” She had hoped she would never see this man again in her
life, and here he was, making himself at home in her mother’s
bathroom.

“Oh, so now you’re talking to me,” he
said. “I tried calling, I tried emailing...really Helen, you’re not
very good at keeping in touch. How long has it been? Five? Six
years?”

“I don’t know.”

“Liar.”

“What were you doing with
Ellie?”

“I’m fine, Helen. Thanks for asking.
And you?” he smiled. “She’s a lovely girl. A lot like you in so
many ways. Stubborn as hell, yet somehow beguiling.”

Helen’s eyes were burning with
fury.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. I
didn’t lay a hand on her. I just took her on a little road
trip.”

“So I heard. You scared the hell out of
her. You are such an asshole.”

“That depends on how you look at it. I
did what I had to do. She needed to see her destiny.”

“No one needs to see his or her
destiny, Willie.” She felt his eyes peeping below the bath
water.

“You still look pretty good, Helen,” he
said. “You’ve been working out.”

Helen immediately stood up in the tub
and reached for the towel she had placed on the floor. Her modesty
seemed somewhat unimportant to her at the moment. “Willie, so help
me God, if you lay a hand on her...”

“I’m not here to harm her. The danger
she faces is far more evil than I am. I know that’s hard for you to
believe, but it’s true. I am not the bad guy here. I’m just a guy
stuck in a purgatory time warp. I have a thousand souls to save
before I get out. I’m not even close, if you’re curious. I can only
see far enough into the future to see the Reaper hovering, and I
can try to guide the mortals away from him, but they never listen.”
He shook his head. “Little lost lambs, they’ve been a problem since
the Bible.”

“Who are you kidding? You’re never on
time. An innocent child is already dead. Couldn’t you have stopped
it? Doesn’t a child’s soul count for you?”

“If the truth were known, her soul
wasn’t even on my radar.” He moved to the edge of the tub and
pulled the stopper out. The water started to swirl against the
gravitational pull. “I don’t know why that always happens,” Willie
said, perplexed. “I’ve never been able to wear a watch either. The
hands go counter-clockwise.”

“Quit changing the subject,
Willie.”

“Why? Isn’t that what you do, Helen?
Don’t you change the subject every time paranormal conversations
start around you? I love this floor tile. It reminds me of Grecian
bathhouses.” He glanced at Helen with the devil in his eyes.
“Sorry, my bad. I’m not supposed to save lives, Helen. I’m to save
souls. Not the same thing, unfortunately. The life saving I leave
to you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I couldn’t have
done anything.”

“How’s your head, Helen? Does it still
hurt? You should ask Helena for a diagnosis. Are you mildly
schizophrenic with these voices in your head, or is it more like a
massive high-pressure system causing a storm on your psyche every
time you try to shut one of your visions out?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking
about.”

“Mendax, mendax, tuum braccare
flagare,” he insisted, waving his finger in front of her face.
“Latin good enough for you, Miss Pants-on-Fire, or do you need it
in Italian?”

“Shut-up.”

“What did you see in that vision of
yours, Helen? Did you see another innocent child being killed
tonight? I think you did. Are you going to do anything about the
actual life, Helen? I didn’t think so. Can you live with that if
your vision turns out to be true? At least Ellie wanted to find the
little girl before it was too late. You’re washing your hands of
the whole thing. Maybe I need to pull you out of your bathwater and
take you on a night-journey? I thought we were past all
that.”

“You have a peculiar sense of justice,
Willie.”

“Moi? Do you know anything about your
next door neighbor being in jail for a crime he didn’t commit? What
is his name? Ryan? Well, he is.”

Helen smiled.

“See that?” Willie laughed. “You’re
glad he’s behind bars and away from Ellie. Is that why you haven’t
done anything about it, Miss Scales of Justice? Girl, you are going
to get psoriasis, washing your hands of so much.”

“Why don’t you just go.”

“I can’t, Helen. I’m after a soul. Not
just an ordinary run of the mill human spirit, but something a
little more...enriched.”

Helen’s hand went to her mouth.
“Ellie?”

“Ellie is safe in her bed right now.
But mark my words Helen, that sweet slumber she’s enjoying right
now is going to be the last one she has for a while.”

“Don’t threaten me,” Helen snarled.
“You know damn well if Helena gets a whiff of this, or a whiff of
you, there will be hell to pay.”

“Maybe,” Willie said, turning to look
in the mirror hanging above the sink. “That woman can do some
damage when she puts her mind to it. But Helena’s powers aren’t
yours.” He wiped the steam off the glass and looked at Helen’s
reflection. She was as beautiful as he remembered. “Helena will
destroy anything in her sight that threatens you or your daughter,”
he continued, “but here’s the problem... those darn lost lambs.
What if Helena can’t find Ellie? What if only you can do
that?”

Helen lunged towards Willie, her hands
reaching for his neck.

He grabbed her. “You need me, Helen.
You need me more than ever.”

“How could you do this to me?” she
asked. “You know I vowed a long time ago, never to use my gift of
seeing. I shouldn’t have to remind you that for every reaction
there is an equal and opposite reaction. Hell, you were probably
there when Isaac Newton figured that out. You know the price I pay
every time I listen to one of those voices.”

“But is it worth Ellie’s life, Helen?
Ignorance is not bliss. Let me spell it out for you as much as I’m
allowed, because evidently you’re not listening to what I am trying
to tell you. This chapter of Ellie’s life began the moment she was
born. Like you, and your mother before you, and her mother before
that, she is a gatekeeper. It’s in her blood. But let’s face it.
The girl hasn’t a clue about what to do. So unless she gets some
help fighting thisdemon, the chances of her survival are slim.
Newton’s theory is already in motion. He had more than one theory,
as you may recall.”

“Demon? What demon? What do you know
that I don’t?”

“Didn’t she tell you, Helen? Is Ellie
keeping secrets like you do?”

Helen remained silent.

“We weren’t alone in our dream, Helen.
We had a visitor.”

“I know, the little girl. She told us
about that.”

“But did she tell you about the boy? Of
course not. Girls never tell their mothers about the boys,” he
sighed.

“What boy? Does this have something to
do with Ryan? With Tom?”

“You should be so lucky,” Willie said.
“You could ask Helena,” he teased, “but no, I’ve said too much
already. I really have to be going. Let’s do lunch sometime. Call
me.” He held his thumb to his ear and poised his baby finger by his
mouth before exiting the room.

Helen paused at the bathroom door,
debating whether she should follow him or not. At least he was
being polite. At least he used the door. Or did he do that just for
effect?

“He wants to drive me crazy,” she
sighed. “He wants me to follow him down the hallway and up to
Ellie’s room, just to show me he still has power over me. Well, I’m
not going to do it. I’m not going to let that man run my
life.”

She heard a moan rumble through the
hallway.

“Okay. Maybe I am,” she reluctantly
admitted.

Helen opened the bathroom door slowly,
peeking around the opened frame, giving her eyes time to adjust to
the darkness of the corridor. “So far so good,” she noted. “There’s
no tall, dark and slightly handsome, in an evil-kind-of-way man,
lurking in the hallway. Hmm, where the hell did he go?”

She began making her way down the hall,
taking care not to step too hard on the cold, old floorboards. She
didn’t want to give away her approach.

“I’ll have to talk to my mother about
getting some wall-to-wall carpeting,” Helen thought to herself.
Carpeting—practical in so many ways, helping her sneak around being
one of them.

She had only seconds to formulate a
plan. She needed to creep by Helena’s room without disturbing her,
and on up to Ellie’s floor to ensure her daughter was safely asleep
in her room. There was no sense bringing her mother into this if
there was no danger. Willie could have just been yanking her chain.
It wouldn’t be the first time.

Her thoughts were interrupted by
another lengthy moan. This time it was closer to where she was
standing. The voice didn’t belong to Willie, it belonged to a
female.

“My God,” she gasped, not knowing what
to do. “He’s in Mother’s room. He’s not after Ellie, he’s after
her.”

She ran to Helena’s room, leaving
slippery wet footprints behind her as she made her way down the
hall. She reached for Helena’s doorknob. The door was locked.
“Sure, this door she locks,” Helen said in frustration.

Then she heard Helena moan
again.

“Willie, if you think a lock on a
century-old door is going to stop me from saving my Mother, you are
sadly mistaken.”

Helen stepped back as far as she could
from the door, pushing her back up against the wall across from it.
There wasn’t much room to take a running shot at it, but she was
going to have to do the best she could within the confines of the
tiny hallway to break the damn thing down. She turned her right
shoulder towards it and charged at it with all her
might.