The Dark: A Collection (Point Horror) Read online

  She was too numb and stunned to feel much of anything. The grief would come later. She slowly took the rings off her finger and placed them on the nightstand beside the turquoise earrings that Doc had given her for her seventeenth birthday.

  She wondered about the diamond. Why had Doc gone to so much trouble to steal it again and again? There must be something more to the story that he hadn't told her. That part of the story would almost certainly never be known now. It would all become part of the mystery that had been Doc.

  As Bianca fell asleep, her eyes kept on popping open to gaze at the rings. What was Bianca going to do with them now that she was probably not a married lady? Without knowing the answer, she fell into an exhausted slumber.

  The last thing she heard was Doc speaking his final vow to her. "I'll be back for you if I make it. I swear it."

  ***

  During the next several days the island was abuzz with the story about Doc and his return from the grave. Newspaper reporters from other cities came to cover the news. They wanted to interview Bianca. Her parents and the Shipleys firmly but politely turned down all offers, even the ones with money attached.

  The island and the waters offshore were searched for any traces of Doc. Two days after the jumping incident a fisherman reported seeing a white parachute floating on the surface of the ocean, being tossed about by waves. Police went out to investigate and pulled it ashore to examine. It was identified as Doc's parachute. There was no body anywhere around.

  Could Doc have been eaten by sharks? The waters off coastal Georgia were full of them. That was what the coroner concluded and wrote on Doc's second death certificate, throwing away the certificate from two months before.

  Bianca attended a second funeral for Doc, along with her parents and the Shipleys. The McColloughs refused to come. An empty coffin was lowered into the same grave, the one where someone else's ashes had been buried. Those ashes had been removed.

  Bianca told herself, "He's dead now. He's got to be." She tried to put his voice behind her, the one that spoke to her in her dreams promising to return someday soon.

  One week later Bianca sat with the Shipleys and her parents at Harry's graduation ceremony. He had been calling every day, but they hadn't seen each other alone since the morning he'd driven her back from the Jacksonville Airport. He was getting his degree from the police surveillance academy in Brunswick. Bianca and her family had the best seats in the front row. Little Katie herself rested on Bianca's lap.

  Harry graduated at the head of his class. He made a speech. He gave credit to Bianca.

  "If you want to see a real hero, don't look at me," Harry proclaimed to wild applause. "Look at the brown-haired girl with chestnut-brown eyes in the front row. Her name is Bianca Winters, as if everyone here didn't already know that."

  Everyone rose in a standing ovation. Katie clapped. She had her bears clap, too. Bianca had trouble fighting back her tears. She didn't feel like a hero.

  After the ceremony, Bianca handed Katie back to her parents. She got into her car and drove off. She knew that Harry had seen which way she had gone. He came right after her in his own car, a graduation present from the Shipleys.

  She stopped at the Christ's Church Cemetery and wandered over to Doc's grave. She stared down at it, promising herself that she would try not to feel guilty about his death in which she'd had no part.

  Soon Harry was beside her. They turned to face each other. Now he had a grip on both of her hands.

  "Doc left me with a problem," she tried to explain, "when he gave me that diamond ring. I've finally decided how to solve it."

  "How?"

  She grabbed Harry's arm and took him for a stroll down the main path in the cemetery. They waited outside the church. There was a ceremony going on inside. A minute later the double doors opened. A wedding party came out. The guests lined the sides of the walkway, throwing rice on the young couple.

  After the photographer took the pictures and everyone shook everybody else's hands, after the wedding party began to get into cars to leave for the reception, Bianca led Harry inside the church with the stained-glass windows. They walked hand-in-hand up to the altar, which was still decorated with flowers.

  Bianca turned to Harry. She took out a medal that she'd had made. In one corner she'd had the jeweler place the diamond from her engagement ring over Harry's name. She reached up and pinned the medal to Harry's suit pocket.

  Bianca read it aloud:

  To Harry Fellini, My Hero From Bianca.

  Beneath her name was the date.

  "Do you really want to give this to me?" Harry asked after a pause.

  "I tried to return the stolen diamond to its rightful owners. After they heard my story, they said they didn't want it back. I could keep it."

  He rubbed the tears from his own eyes.

  She felt for the gold band that Doc had given her, dangling from a chain around her neck. She would keep it in remembrance of him like the turquoise earrings. She couldn't wear it as a wedding band when she wasn't a married lady.

  "I have something for you, too." Harry reached down into his pocket. "I was going to see you later, and. . . Well, now may be the best time of all."

  He thrust a ring on to her finger. It also was a diamond. It was not nearly as big as the one that Doc had given her. Nor was it as showy. But Harry had bought it all by himself.

  "The Shipleys didn't give it to me. I bought it with my paycheck as a chauffeur. Now that I'm Katie's new bodyguard as well, I've gotten a raise."

  His lips found hers. Suddenly the church got darker. She looked up startled to see a passing thunderstorm go by.

  "Still scared of the dark?" he teased.

  "How could I be scared of anything with you around?" She smiled and kissed him back.

  Author’s Bio

  Linda lives in Tucson, Arizona with her husband, Gary, her son, Kenny, and her dog and cat — Sabaka and Putlitz. When school is out she travels around the country looking for ghost stories. One of her favorite spooky places is the haunted lighthouse at Saint Simons Island, Georgia, the setting for Hang Loose. Another is Amelia Island, Florida, the setting for Pool Party and the home of many haunted Victorian mansions. Virginia Beach has creepy swamps and a Norwegian monument with a story to tell, the subject of The Surfer. The waterfalls of the Sierra Nevada have suggested many a tale as has the crashing surf along the central Oregon coast. When the thermal features at Yellowstone hiss, Linda listens. Even a cave in southern Arizona has been featured in a novel. You may reach her through her author's website at www.lindacargill.org or at the Cheops Books website: www.cheopsbooks.org or www.cheopsbooks.com where she has a blog. Her email address is [email protected].