‘Ah!’
The single red bead was all that fell before Batty slipped the necklace back on. The skull made a smudge on the skin of the old lunatic’s chest.
Batty aimed a finger at the spot of blood on the map.
‘That’s where you think Helen is?’ Cora asked.
‘Ghost Lodge.’
‘The Totem Pole Lodge?’
‘Call it whatcha want.’
Stunned, Abilene stared at the dot of blood. Its position, in relationship to the outline of the lake and the hole marking Batty’s cabin, actually did seem to be in the vicinity of the Totem Pole Lodge.
Finley murmured, ‘Holy shit.’
Vivian gazed at the spot. Her head shook slowly from side to side.
Looking up at Batty, astonishment in her eyes, Cora said, ‘That’s where we were. That’s where she disappeared.’
‘She’s there.’
‘Is she all right?’ Abilene asked.
‘Can’t say.’
‘Do you know?’
Not answering, Batty picked up the bowl and set it on the hardwood floor beside the table. A creak sounded in a far corner of the room. Abilene turned her eyes to the rocking chair. The cat was gone.
Vivian groaned. She was looking down. Abilene followed» her gaze and found Amos hunched over the bowl. Tail twitching, the cat lapped away at the remaining slick of blood.
‘Y’ain’t from these parts,’ Batty said. ‘Don’t know better. Get y’Helen ’n get back where y’come from. ’N praise the Lord it’s old Batty y’run into. Some folks nearby, they’duz soon kill y’dead as spit on y’feet. Now scat.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Batty followed them through the kitchen door and down the back stairs.
‘I left something of mine in your shed,’ Cora said.
‘Fetch it.’
‘Watch what you step in,’ Finley warned.
They waited while Cora hurried into the shed. She came out with her tire iron.
Seeing it, Batty cackled. ‘That spose t’hurt someone?’
‘She just carries it around in case of a flat,’ Finley said.
The mention of a flat tire triggered a thought in Abilene. She’d seen no evidence of a driveway or road, much less a car, since leaving the lodge. But she asked, anyway. ‘You don’t have a car, do you?’
Batty answered with a snort.
‘What about a telephone?’
‘Who’d old Batty wanta call?’
‘Are there any homes nearby with cars or telephones?’
‘Y’find any home ’round this neck a the woods, y’d best run from it. Now get on back ’n find Helen, ’fore y’all get got.’ Batty stood watching while they turned away and walked around the corner of her cabin.
Vivian glanced back as if afraid the old creature might be pursuing them. ‘God, is it good to get away from there.’
‘Too bad Helen wasn’t with us,’ Finley said. ‘She would’ve loved all that.’ Leading the way, she returned to the tree where she’d left the water bottle and chips. She picked them up, then looked back at the cabin. ‘Should we go the rest of the way around the lake, or what?’
‘Maybe we’d better head back the way we came,’ Cora said. ‘It’ll be quicker. If Helen’s really at the lodge…’
‘Besides,’ Abilene said, ‘I didn’t much care for what Batty had to say about her neighbors.’
‘What do you expect from a loony?’
‘I just want to get back to the lodge,’ Vivian said. ‘If we keep going around the lake, there’s no telling who we might run into. I sure don’t like the idea of meeting up with any more weirdos.’
‘Yeah,’ Abilene said. ‘Batty was more than enough.’
‘And it’d be a lot farther, that way,’ Vivian pointed out. ‘I don’t have any shoes.’
‘We’re lucky that’s all he wanted,’ Cora said.
‘She, it,’ added Finley.
‘We need to look after our cuts, too,’ Abilene said.
‘I’ve got a first aid kit in my suitcase,’ Cora said.
‘Is it settled, then?’ Vivian asked.
‘I don’t hear any objections,’ Cora said. ‘So I guess we’ll go back the way we came.’
‘And let’s be quick about it,’ Finley said. ‘Before we get got.’ They started hiking away from the cabin, heading for the north end of the lake. As she walked along, Abilene inspected her cut. The short slit, caked with a thread of thickened blood, was no longer leaking. The edge of her hand was stained as if she’d rubbed it against a rusty sheet of metal. It felt stiff and sore. The patch of blood on her skirt was tacky when it touched her thigh. Lifting the skirt, she saw a ruddy stain on her skin.
Now that she was away from Batty, she found it hard to believe that they had actually entered the cabin at all, much less cut themselves with the maniac’s knife and drunk their own blood.
‘That was about the craziest damn thing we’ve ever done,’ she said.
Cora smiled back at her. ‘Seemed like a good idea at the time.’
‘Speak for yourself,’ Finley said. ‘It never seemed like a good idea to me.’
‘You didn’t have to go along with it,’ Abilene said.
‘Didn’t want to be the party-pooper. Besides, it might’ve ruined the spell. Such as it was.’ After a few moments, she said, ‘Hey, if it turns out the old bat was full of shit, does Vivian get her shoes back?’
‘That’s only fair,’ Vivian said. ‘Will you collect the refund for me?’
Abilene smiled, surprised to find Vivian joining in the banter. Cora abruptly halted and turned around, frowning.
‘What?’ Vivian asked.
‘This talk of going back makes me think. While we were there, we should’ve asked Batty where to find the car keys.’
‘Oh, let’s go back right away,’ Finley said.
‘She’d want somebody else’s shoes,’ Vivian said.
‘He, it.’
‘He/she/it’s got Viv’s,’ Abilene pointed out. ‘We’d have to give up something else.’
‘Like our duds,’ Finley said. ‘Old Batty could sure use a decent wardrobe.’
‘Yours,’ Abilene told her. ‘The fit’d be just right.’
‘Gimme a break.’
‘Maybe arrange a trade,’ Vivian said. ‘Fin’d look great in that vest, wouldn’t she?’
‘You got blood on your polo shirt,’ Finley pointed out. ‘Never gonna come out.’
‘So?’
Finley shrugged. ‘Just hoping to ruin this giddy mood of yours. You’re really annoying when you’re cheerful.’
We’re all acting incredibly cheerful, Abilene realized. It seemed strange until she thought about it. They’d just gone through some bizarre, rather harrowing experiences, and come out of them unscathed. It was the nervous, heady feeling of exhilaration that comes from knowing the crisis is over and everything is okay once again.
Like after an earthquake.
But the crisis isn’t over, she reminded herself. Everything isn’t okay. We’re safe from Batty, but Helen’s still missing.
Maybe we will find her at the lodge.
Following the others as they continued their journey around the end of the lake, Abilene thought how great it would be if Batty had been right about Helen’s location.
There all the time. Never was abducted.
It was what Abilene had really hoped all along.
But don’t count on it, she warned herself. Helen might be anywhere. You can’t rely on the hocus-pocus of some freaky old hermit.
You can’t rely on it, but you can’t discount it, either.
Abilene considered herself to have an open mind. Maybe too open. Harris sometimes accused her of being gullible. But she couldn’t help what she believed.
Among other things, she accepted the possibility that mysterious forces might be at work in the universe. There was plenty of circumstantial evidence to support the notion of God, for instance. The same with such matters as telepathy, visitors from outer space, reincarnation, ghosts, and various forms of fortune-telling. Some of these things were undoubtedly hogwash. But she suspected that not all of them were.
So why not a Batty able to ‘see’ where Helen is?
Maybe hogwash. But maybe not.
Batty’d had no control over just where the drop of blood would land when it fell from that awful pendulum. But it had struck the map almost exactly in the location of the lodge.