The Drifter (12 page)

“There
must
be a way I can stay with Mom,” Carolyn groaned, and Andy shook his head in gentle reprimand.

“The doctor doesn't want her having visitors for a while. You heard him.”

“Yes, I heard him,” she conceded glumly.

“Carolyn”—Andy chuckled—“she's going to be fine. Now, stop worrying!” He looked relieved as Carolyn tried to smile. “Look, why don't you go home and get a good night's sleep, and tomorrow, if the doctor says it's okay, I'll drive you back here. In fact, I'll bring you back every day, if you like. Anytime he says you can come.”

“That's really sweet of you, Andy. But that's asking a lot.”

“You didn't ask. I volunteered.”

He swallowed the last of his coffee, stood up, and nudged her toward the door. As they walked out of the coffee shop, Andy suddenly stopped in his tracks, slapping his forehead with his palm.

“Damn—I really
do
have to get back to the island. I totally forgot—I'm taking some tourists on a boat ride tonight. Hey, why don't you come with me?”

Again Carolyn smiled but shook her head. “Some other time maybe. I'm not exactly in the mood for tourists.”

“But are you in the mood for the tour guide?”

“Let's get back. You've been so great about all this—”

“Hey”—he grinned at her—“I'll do anything to get out of work.”

“Even be with me?” she teased.

“Especially be with you. As a matter of fact, I think you could easily become my most favorite excuse.”

She had to laugh at that. After checking with Mom's nurse one more time, they went out to the car and headed for home.

Twilight was falling. As the last few rays of a brilliant sunset sank slowly beneath the sea, the world went shadowy and still. Carolyn stared out her open window, then closed her eyes, letting the salty night air wash over her face and mingle with her tears.

“What else can happen?” she murmured.

“What?”

“I said, what else can happen? Hazel died, and now Mom had an accident. And you say you don't believe in haunted houses.” She thought about the attic and the voice on the cliffs, and she wanted to tell him, to talk about it, but suddenly she was just too tired.

“Why don't you try to sleep?” Andy suggested. “I'll wake you when we get home.”

For a long time Carolyn was silent. Then she glanced at Andy's profile and said, “Before you found me in the library today, I was talking to Molly McClure.”

“Who?” Andy sounded puzzled.

“Molly McClure,” Carolyn said again. “And she was telling me her theory about the captain.”

“Oh, no,” Andy groaned. “The hook. Okay. Now I know who you mean. The bag lady who wanders around the beach all day getting drunk.”

“She's not drunk,” Carolyn corrected him. “She's sick.”

“Right.”

“No, really. The librarian told me that Doctor Brown gives medicine to Molly because she's sick, and the medicine makes her confused.”

“Okay.” Andy smiled. “If you say so.”

“Why didn't you mention the hook before?” Carolyn's tone was mildly accusing. “It's horrible, but it's a really good theory. It makes a lot of sense.”

“I guess.” Andy sighed. “If you believe ghost stories make sense.”

“She said a lot of weird things. Things that—well—actually, most of them
didn't
make a whole lot of sense.”

Andy glanced over at her. “Like what?”

“I don't know … she sort of rambled on and on. She talked about the hook and how the captain was a murderer. And she warned me about staying at the house.”

She had Andy's full attention now. He glanced at her again and frowned.

“I hope you're not gonna let someone like that scare you.”

“She said she sees strange things—shadows in the house and ghost lights by the water. And she said things about the captain, too, but they were all mixed up and I really didn't understand a lot of it.”

Andy shook his head slowly. “She probably
does
see strange things if she's drunk—uh, sorry—
medicated
all the time.”

“She said he isn't finding what he's looking for or else he'd go away. And then she said he'd tell me things if I listened to him.”

Andy rolled his eyes. “That's great, Carolyn. Is she planning on having a seance by the sea?”

“She told me to …” Carolyn closed her eyes, thinking back, trying to recall every word. “To know him for what he was, and then I'd know things for what they are.” She opened her eyes again and shrugged. “Something like that.”

Andy threw her a sidelong glance, then slowly shook his head. “Doesn't make a bit of sense to me, either, Carolyn. Sorry.”

“But don't you see? Molly warned me about the house! She said things about more tragedies happening, and I could tell she really believed it. She was scared.”

“Carolyn”—Andy gave a tolerant sigh—“after what the librarian told you about Molly, please explain to me why you're even listening to those stories! So what does this mean? The captain's ghost is on the rampage? He pushed your mom off a ladder?”

“Maybe.”

Andy made a sound in his throat, but Carolyn rushed on.

“Listen—the other night I heard something moving around over my room. Something was hitting the wall and then sort of scraping it. It was so—so—” She broke off, feeling that same panic she'd felt then. “It was horrible! I was so scared! I'll never forget those sounds as long as I live!”

“Mice,” Andy said reasonably. “Or rats. Or bats, even. Old houses are full of them—especially the attic.”

“Well, Mom tried to convince me I dreamed it. But I didn't.” Carolyn turned to him with a stubborn frown. “I
didn't
Andy! Something was up there! I saw it!”

“What do you mean, you saw it? Saw what?”

“When I went up, it looked like blood all over and I saw—”

“Shadows, probably, or old stains. Geez, Carolyn, the house is over a hundred years old!”

He kept his eyes on the road. His jaw clenched slightly, and it was several seconds before he spoke.

“You know that couldn't be real, don't you. You know that couldn't have happened.”

“But it did happen!” she insisted. “When I went out in the hall, the attic door was
open
. But it's never been open before, and Nora said there's no key.”

She started to say more when something nagged at the back of her mind. Andy was talking again, but Carolyn frowned, searching back through her memory.
Key … of course … that key I found yesterday in the closet
…

“Andy—”

“—but doors are pretty common symbols in dreams, aren't they?” Andy was going on, and Carolyn realized she'd missed half of what he'd been saying. “Maybe the doors mean something. You know, making choices. Making changes. Discoveries. Uh … transitions … going from one place to another. Things like that.”

Carolyn pulled herself back to the conversation, shaking her head adamantly. “I went upstairs, and then I saw a ghost—well, something—by the door that goes out to the widow's walk—”

“Well, there, you see?” Andy said triumphantly. “Another door!”

“Listen, Andy, that door was the least of my worries, okay? There were
gouges
in the wall. Deep places where the wood was scraped away. And there were these dark spots splattered all over everything, and a pool of blood coming across the floor. Don't look at me like that—I know what I saw! And then when I was talking to Molly today, she told me about the hook. And it makes sense, Andy, it really does!”

Andy groaned. “
What
makes sense? Certainly not you at this particular moment—”

“The captain was in a jealous rage. He murdered Carolyn, then chopped up her lover. He clawed the walls with his hook and got bloodstains all over the place and—”

“Listen to you!” Andy's jaw dropped. “I think you're beginning to enjoy this, Carolyn. And you really think, after all these years, that no one ever bothered to straighten up the attic or wash away the blood?”

“Why would they?” Carolyn threw back at him. “People were scared of everything in those days. After a brutal murder like that, they probably avoided the house like the plague!”

Andy opened his mouth to argue, but Carolyn kept on.

“And remember the voices, Andy?”

“What voices?”

“The voices of the drowned sailors calling their own names? Well, I heard one yesterday—I swear I did! Along the cliffs by the house. He was calling Matthew!”

Andy's glance was patronizing. “And you'd swear to it—
swear to it
—that it wasn't the wind or the gulls?”

“Well …”

“For God's sake, Carolyn, where do you think these legends come from? Those superstitious people you were just talking about didn't have rational explanations for spooky noises, so they made things up!”

Carolyn stared at him, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She wished more than anything that she'd never told him about any of it.

“I know what I saw,” she said sulkily.

Andy chewed his bottom lip. He put one hand to his forehead and pushed back his hair.

“I'm not debating what you saw in the attic, okay? I think you probably saw everything you say you did—but in a dream, not in real life! And I know how eerie those gulls sound out there on the point—it can make your skin crawl. At least think about it, Carolyn. You've been under a whole lot of stress, and Nora's been filling your head with all her gory stories.”

“I saw that stuff in the attic,” Carolyn said through clenched teeth.

“Oh, yeah? Okay, then, fine. Just show it to me when we get to the house.”

“I can't.”

“Why not?”

Carolyn's look was almost sheepish. “Because when I woke up, the door was locked again. That's why Mom said I dreamed it. But look—” She pushed up her sleeve, and Andy leaned over, squinting.

“What's that?”

“Bruises.”

“I can't see them. Are you sure they're not shadows?”

Carolyn stiffened and yanked her sleeve in place again. “If you don't believe me, then wait and look again when we're in the light.”

She heard Andy chuckle softly, but when he reached to touch her shoulder, she pulled away.

“Well, it might interest you to know that when I was trying to get out of the attic, I also fell. No, I don't think I fell, I think something
pushed
me. All the way down the steps. That's the last thing I remember till I woke up in bed the next morning. This bruise,” she said smugly, “is evidence.”

“Carolyn,” Andy said patiently, “how many boxes did you lug around that day? How many times did you go up and down the steps and run into things?”

“You sound like Mom,” she accused him.

“Well, your mom is sensible. Like
I'm
trying to be sensible. You
dreamed
it! There's no other explanation except for something supernatural, and I don't see why some ghost would suddenly decide to come back to Glanton House
now
. Hazel lived there all those years and—”

“She saw and heard things that nobody else did!”

“Okay, okay. I get the message.”

“Maybe she saw ghosts, too. Carolyn watching … the captain searching …”

Andy gave a solemn nod. “The lover loving …”

“Andy!”

“Sorry.”

Carolyn didn't think he looked sorry at all, and she turned her attention back out the window.

They were almost to the house now. As Andy pulled off the main road down the long narrow drive, Carolyn could feel her heart hammering, her muscles beginning to tense. Glanton House loomed before her, forbidding and alone. Only one window showed any light. Andy turned off the engine, and almost at once they saw the front door open.

Carolyn didn't move. She waited as the tall figure glided through the shadows along the porch … watched as it came slowly down the stairs and toward the car.

“Who's that?” Andy mumbled.

“Joss. You met him earlier.”

“I didn't actually meet him, Carolyn. I mean, it wasn't like we were introduced or had time for socializing—”

“Well, then, you can meet him now.”

“He moves like a ghost, Carolyn. What's wrong with him—doesn't he have feet?”

Any other time Carolyn might have found this funny, but now as she watched Joss move closer, she felt only a growing uneasiness.

“Carolyn,” Joss said. He stopped on Andy's side and leaned in through the window. “How's your mother?”

The wind was blowing, and it was hard to hear. Carolyn watched Joss's dark hair stream wildly back from his face.

“She's going to be okay, I think.” Carolyn swallowed over a lump in her throat. “She woke up before I left, and we talked for a little while.”

“That's a relief,” Joss mumbled. “Nora made dinner, and I kept it hot. I thought you'd want something to eat when you got home.”

“I'm not very hungry,” Carolyn admitted.

Andy glanced over at her and asked, a little too loudly, “Is Nora staying tonight?”

“No,” Joss said. “She was just getting ready to leave.”

There was an uncomfortable silence. Carolyn's mind raced, and she stared down at her shoes, trying to think clearly.
I have to stay here tonight
—
I don't have the money to stay on the mainland.… I have to stay here and watch the house.… Mom's counting on me to take over
—

“Can you stay and eat?” Carolyn asked Andy, then felt her heart sink as he shook his head.

“I'd like to, but I can't. I've got that tour tonight.”

He didn't look very happy about it. As Carolyn got out of the car and gazed back at him, she decided he looked about as upset as she was feeling.