The Dark: A Collection (Point Horror) Page 18

  Bianca didn't have anything else to do besides brood about her problems and look out the windows to see if perhaps Rick Roscoe had followed her here to carry out his threats. So, while she tugged at one of her turquoise earrings, she tried to count the number of people at the party. That was the sort of thing that Ronnie had told her to do — distract herself. Bianca hadn't gotten past fifty-one or fifty-two when she saw someone she thought she recognized. He was standing in a far corner of the room in the shadows all by himself. Why, it looked like Harry Fellini!

  Bianca recalled their last meeting outside the library. That had been right before Marianna had spilled the beans about their relationship beyond any doubt whatsoever by showing Bianca photos.

  Bianca clenched her jaw and ground her teeth together. What was Harry doing here? Trying to rub it in? Harry certainly wasn't a medical intern. In fact, he didn't belong in a medical crowd at all. Nevertheless, he was standing here dressed in an ordinary business suit eyeing her.

  "Where are you going?" Ronnie interrupted his conversation for a minute to ask Bianca. He evidently didn't see Harry. If he did, he didn't recognize him in a suit.

  "I — I just need some more wine."

  Bianca tried to excuse herself as gracefully as possible. She held up her crystal glass and smiled. Indeed it was almost empty. She must have been sipping it all along, though she couldn't remember doing so. No doubt Ronnie would think that was another sign of her deteriorating mental condition.

  Bianca inched her way toward the banquet table in the center of the room. It sat near the big picture windows where uniformed waiters were constantly refreshing the punch bowl as well as the number of wine bottles on ice. They were bringing more plates of shrimp hors d'oeuvres. They were refilling the three-tiered trays of sweets.

  Harry seemed to get the message. He moved quickly and quietly toward the same table himself. He darted behind pillars whenever he could, hiding behind groups of doctors whenever he could not.

  A waiter moved forward to grab Bianca's glass and automatically refill it. As soon as Harry stopped in front of the crystal punch bowl, one of the waiters stationed near it filled a cup of punch and handed it to him. The waiters in white coats and black suit pants retreated to the nearest pillar and stood there motionless.

  Bianca and Harry eyed each other for awhile before speaking.

  "Well, fancy meeting you here!" she snapped frostily.

  "So this is your Dr. Byron Kingsley dude!" Harry nodded toward Ronnie and the Latin American interns. "I hear from the neighbors you've been shacking up with him all week long, ever since I left, in fact."

  "At least Ronnie has enough taste not to invite photographers into the apartment. He doesn't have pictures taken in the bathtub the way you and Marianna Haynes do," Bianca hissed in a low whisper.

  "Look, I don't know what lies that guy's been filling your head with, but he looks mighty suspicious himself — at least to me."

  Harry glanced at Ronnie out of the corner of his eye. "I've been asking people questions about him, just like they're teaching us to do at the Academy in Brunswick. It's part of our surveillance and bodyguard training. Nobody knows anything about him. Oh, they know he's an English intern all right. They don't know anything else — except that he spends lots and lots of money."

  "You can play James Bond all you want." Bianca drew herself up. "Ronnie and I are none of your business."

  "What's more, nobody ever saw this Byron Kingsley before a week or two ago."

  "He's from London!" Bianca reminded Harry. "He just arrived."

  "Maybe so. But at lot of the other interns who just arrived a week or two ago have managed to meet lots and lots of people. They have connections, friends, girlfriends. He doesn't. Even his landlady knows nothing about him except what he filled out on his apartment lease — name, address, phone number and that sort of thing. She doesn't even know his birthday or his favorite flavor of ice cream."

  "Is that a crime?"

  "Even stranger yet," Harry leaned closer and whispered in a barely audible tone of voice, "I saw him in the pharmacy early this evening after I met you at the library. I was buying something for my mom. I was in line behind some guy. I saw the name Byron Kingsley on the credit card he handed to the cashier. He was buying a box of blond hair dye. I hid myself behind a mannequin until he left the store."

  "Don't you have anything better to do than snoop!" Bianca was shocked.

  "I followed him after that. He went to the local gym to work out. Everybody else was wearing shorts and T-shirts. He wore long pants and long sleeves, as if he had something to hide."

  "What could he possibly have to hide?"

  "I don't know. That's just the point."

  Bianca turned to go. She sucked in her breath in surprise as Ronnie himself slipped his arm around her waist. He turned her back to face Harry. She should never attempt anything behind Ronnie's back. It didn't work. He knew everything that she did.

  "What are you doing here?" Ronnie confronted Harry.

  "Better yet, what are you doing stealing my girl?" Harry challenged him.

  Ronnie looked Harry up and down and sniffed.

  "Really, my dear," he said to Bianca, "I advise you to have better taste and not associate with the lowlife of St. Simons Island! A girl of your position and stature really ought to have more suitable friends."

  Harry lost his temper. He threw his cup of punch in Ronnie's face.

  Ronnie stood there glaring back at him, not moving an inch. He fished out his handkerchief and wiped his face. He grabbed his cellphone out of his pocket and summoned the police from outside the building.

  "He assaulted me," Ronnie accused Harry once the police surrounded them. "This is the convict's kid brother — you know, Harry Fellini. It's in all the papers how Mike has escaped again. I suspect Harry had something to do with it."

  "No, he couldn't have," Bianca spoke up in a small voice.

  "Bianca, hush! Don't interfere in matters you don't know anything about," Ronnie scolded her in a low whisper as if she were a child and didn't know any better.

  "But—"

  Ronnie shook his head at her.

  She bit her tongue. It was still hard to believe that Harry had anything to do with Mike when he had been at school in Brunswick.

  The police arrested Harry. They handcuffed him, read him his Miranda rights, and dragged him off.

  "You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney. Anything you say can and will be used against you. . ."

  Bianca's heart went out to her old boyfriend as they led Harry toward the door. Harry paused briefly at the top step and gazed back at her. Their eyes met. Then he was gone.

  Chapter 6

  As soon as Harry had been arrested and dragged out of the room, a dark pall seemed to be cast over everything. Harry had always been the one who had told Bianca that she could do everything, that she could overcome every fear by herself. He was the one who had always told her that she was strong. Even during the darkest days this past spring when Doc had put her back in the hospital, Harry had stood up for her and made her feel good.

  Now she didn't understand what was happening to her. All the progress she had made toward overcoming her fear of the dark seemed to vanish in an instant. The darkness in the room closed in on her. It pressed down on her head and her shoulders. It forced itself down on her chest so that she could hardly breathe.

  Ronnie grabbed hold of Bianca's elbow and escorted her across the room. There was an eminent psychiatrist that he wanted her to meet. The man gave lectures at Northern Florida University down in Jacksonville. He had helped to inspire Ronnie's interest in problems of the mind.

  She felt the sweat start up under her arms as Ronnie introduced her to eminent physician after eminent physician. She could barely extend her arm to greet them and shake their hands. It took all her strength of will to keep herself from fleeing the dimly lighted room this very instant.

  A chandelier blinked out near
where she was standing. While one of the waiters changed the light bulb, Bianca couldn't help herself. She tugged at Ronnie's tuxedo sleeve. They were standing there by themselves before they met the next group of important doctors.

  "Ronnie, I want to leave now."

  "Bianca, the evening's just getting started. There are a lot more doctors I want you to meet."

  She swallowed hard. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. Please! I don't want to spoil your evening. I'll make it up to you somehow. I promise."

  "You know you should stay and fight your fears. That's the only way to conquer them. If you flee now, you'll only have to come back here again another night and confront the darkness all over again."

  "Let's do it another night. Please!"

  "Very well. You make the decision. I'll go get your shawl," Ronnie offered.

  He led her over to the stairway. They climbed to the top step. She clutched his arm. He had to aid her every step of the way because she constantly felt as if she were about to stumble and fall. Even though they were merely stairs out of the dining room, they felt so high up.

  "You wait here." He positioned Bianca exactly at the top of the stairway leading down into the ballroom. "Don't move until I get back."

  She wanted to protest. Her tongue seemed all tied up in her mouth. She tried to avert her eyes from the plunge down the steps, but she couldn't.

  Suddenly it reminded her of standing on top of the lighthouse clutching Little Katie, except that Little Katie wasn't here now. Bianca could be brave for the little girl. Yet when Katie wasn't here to help her be strong, she lost it. She clutched the banister, feeling herself beginning to sway. Her head whirled around and around.

  "Are you all right, miss?" a waiter asked.

  "Oh yes . . . I'm fine." She managed to smile.

  Where was Ronnie? Why was he taking so long? She glanced toward the door to the outside. Bianca wanted to get there. She didn't know if she could manage it by herself. What was happening to her? She used to be able to get around town by herself. Bianca was becoming an emotional cripple.

  Finally Ronnie slipped her shawl around her shoulders. With relief she leaned back against his chest.

  "The car's waiting. I tipped the doorman to fetch it."

  When they arrived back at Ronnie's apartment, she immediately turned on the lights.

  "Now, Bianca, I want you to go lie down in the bedroom while I take my shower and get ready for bed." He led her over to the bed.

  "Aren't you going to take off your shoes?" he asked as she did so. When he left the room, he flicked off the lights.

  Again she was alone in the darkness. She clutched a pillow to her and tried to concentrate on the slim bar of light emanating from under the bottom of the closed bathroom door where Ronnie was taking his shower.

  Finally she heard him coming out. Bianca leaped up off the bed and ran to him. She threw her arms around Ronnie and hugged him to her, dressed as he was now in his terry cloth bathrobe. He was rather formal. He always insisted on niceties like that.

  "My, my, Bianca, get hold of yourself!" He stroked her hair and wound it around his fingers. "This does seem to be a rather severe regression on your part. We'll have to explore it in the morning when we have more time."

  With that he picked her up and carried her over to his bed. Bianca woke up during the night and thought, This is dark, too. Then she told herself it wasn't the same. Ronnie was with her. His body was warm next to hers even if he was fast asleep.

  So gradually her eyes closed, and she went back to sleep again. Her eyelids flicked open. Each time she would snuggle up closer to Ronnie, pressing her back more firmly against his. She even intertwined her legs with his.

  When the room got impossibly dark, she turned and faced Ronnie. She couldn't see anything else except him. She couldn't feel anything except his striped pajama top. She could relax at last.

  Bianca had planned to go to summer school the next day after Ronnie left for his internship at the hospital. He wanted to make a lecture given by Dr. Rankin, the Shipleys' family physician.

  Ronnie's advice was different. He advised her not to exert herself. She should stay in the apartment and rest. When he got back, they could finish exploring together everything that had happened yesterday.

  Bianca was afraid of flunking out of summer school. The teachers had already issued strict warnings about her grades. They had told her that she wouldn't graduate from high school if she didn't apply herself. Summer school was her last chance — unless she wanted to repeat grade twelve all over again in the fall!

  Bianca phoned her lawyer. He had helped Harry when he had been arrested in the spring. That had been the last time that his brother, Mike, had broken out of jail. She directed the lawyer to get Harry out on bail if he could. It was the least she could do for him. She had done as much before. Everybody deserved a fair shake.

  Bianca left the apartment for school. She thought to take her car, but she remembered that it was still parked at her house. She'd driven it there last night when she had gone home to pack her clothes. So she had to walk.

  Black thunderheads had gathered overhead. Lightning streaked across the sky. Rain pelted down on to the pavement in torrents. There was a power outage at the school.

  Bianca was in a basement classroom when the lights blinked out. There were no windows. It made her think of when Mike Fellini had clapped her inside that coffin inside the old McCollough mausoleum in the cemetery. She fidgeted in her seat while the other kids were joking and laughing. She couldn't take it any more.

  "May I please be excused to go to the bathroom?" She gulped as she asked the teacher.

  Bianca remembered that the nearest ladies' room had a window well. She could wait there until the lights came back on again. It was stuffy inside the bathroom in this heat. She struggled with the window handle. She tried to pull it open to let some air in.

  When the window finally creaked open, Bianca gasped. There crouched Rick Roscoe in the window well with the rain pelting down on top of him. He pressed his face up against the screen.

  "I figured you'd show up here. You're in big trouble for not kidnapping Little Katie for me. Don't think I've forgotten either. I'm planning something especially horrible for you. Don't even think about going to the cops, or I'll make sure that little girl doesn't see her third birthday."

  Bianca backed away from the window. She ran into the sink. She kept on backing up until she got her hand around the doorknob. She flung it open and raced down the darkened hallway until she found the stairs. Groping up the stairs in the pitch blackness, she finally managed to reach the ground floor. She saw daylight down at the end of the hallway. That must be the door to the parking lot.

  "Where are you going, Miss Winters?" the building secretary called after her as she spotted Bianca heading toward the door. The secretary had candles lighted all around her desk in the office so she could see.

  "Did somebody threaten you?" A uniformed policeman stepped forward.

  A policeman was stationed in the office every day of the summer session. It was like the spring all over again. No one could be sure whether the killer was after Bianca. Did the murderer think that she had seen him do away with Tom Jones that night on the yacht? Did he think he had to waste her? Was Bianca in danger of being kidnapped herself, just as Doc had almost made away with her in May because she'd witnessed him kill Mrs. Ingersoll?

  No one wanted to take a chance with the life of the heroine of St. Simons Island!

  "No ... ah ... I just don't feel well . . . that's all. . ." Bianca lied as she stopped in front of the office door. She did not want to tell the policeman about the darkness scaring her. He would think she was loony. Nor did she want to tip the policeman off about Rick Roscoe in the window well. She had Little Katie to think of.

  "Do you want a ride home?"

  The officer led her over to the entrance to the school. He started to signal to the officers who surrounded the school on all sides. They were there as a further
precaution to ensure Bianca's safety.

  "No ... ah ... I just want to walk. It will be good for me . . . you know, the fresh air and all. . .I thought I might even stop by the market and get some fruit. . ."

  "But, Miss Winters, it's raining!" the officer objected.

  Bianca tried not to blush. She had not told anyone that she was living with the new intern from England, Dr. Byron Kingsley. She did not want her parents to find out during their trip to Alaska. The police might very well call and notify them. Nor did she want some snoopy newspaper reporter to report it in the gossip column. Since she had saved Little Katie and inherited two million dollars, her picture frequently appeared in the paper.

  "That's OK. . . I don't want to be too much trouble.''

  "Nonsense!" The officer put up an umbrella for her and led her over to a policeman standing near the sidewalk directly in front of the school. "Miss Winters doesn't feel well," the first officer instructed him. "Take her home."

  While the two officers were making small talk, Bianca caught sight of Rick Roscoe glaring at her from the far side of the school parking lot. He climbed into his old wreck of a car and started the engine as if he intended to follow her.

  Bianca swallowed hard. If the officer dropped her at her house, she would be all alone. Rick could break a window. He could knock down a door and get to her easily.

  If Bianca got back to Ronnie's apartment on her own, the landlady was always there. She had eyes like a hawk and could help protect her against Rick Roscoe.

  Bianca waited until the policemen were turned another direction, waving to a fellow officer passing down the street in his squad car.

  She made a dash for it across the lawn in the opposite direction from where Rick Roscoe was still sitting inside his car. She hid behind one live oak tree after another as she made her way down the street. Their branches were good for keeping the rain off her head.

  While Bianca tried to sneak back to Ronnie's apartment, a refrain ran through her head: Oh, Ronnie, I wish I would have listened to you! You advised me to wait for you at your apartment. Now I've got Rick Roscoe after me again.