When I tried to leave, I found the door locked, locked from the outside.”
I gazed up at Nick’s face, waiting to see the flicker of realization. Behind him, the house lights came on. Nick glanced over his shoulder, then back at me.
“Don’t you understand?” I said, but I could see by his face that he didn’t. He wouldn’t allow himself to believe that someone in Wisteria was a murderer.
“Understand what?”
“Nick, someone tried to kill me — to poison me with carbon monoxide!”
Another light went on downstairs, and three figures came out on the porch.
“What’s going on?” Holly shouted to us. “Is everything all right?”
“Fine,” Nick called back to her.
Fine, I thought wryly. Aloud I asked, “Why are you here, Nick? Did they call you?”
“Someone did,” he said.
“Nick, is Lauren out there?” Holly asked. “She’s not in her room.”
“She’s here, she’s fine,” Nick replied. In a quieter voice he said to me, “After I got home someone telephoned my house three times and hung up. The Caller ID listed Jule’s number. I thought Nora might be upset and trying to reach me.”
“She was upset,” I told him, “and sleeping in Aunt Jule’s room tonight — at least, she was supposed to be.” I saw Holly hurrying toward us, followed by Aunt Jule and Nora.
“So why did you come to the greenhouse?”
He hesitated. “It made sense to check here first. Nora spends a lot of time here.”
I gazed at him doubtfully.
“And I saw the flashlight on,” Nick added.
“When I used it to break the window, it was off.”
“I don’t think so,” he replied.
“I know so.”
Nick glanced away. “You’re too groggy to remember anything clearly.”
Holly stopped a few feet away, noticing the broken pane in the greenhouse wall and the pile of glass shimmering in the grass. Her jaw dropped. Nick stood up quickly and went to her, but I was still too dizzy to move.
Aunt Jule caught up. “Oh, no!” she exclaimed. “Lauren, are you all right?”
“Yes.”
“Nick?” Aunt Jule said, turning to him. “What happened?”
He repeated his story about the phone calls, then recounted what I had told him. Aunt Jule and Holly glanced back at Nora, who was peering at me from behind them.
“Lauren seems to be all right,” Nick concluded. “I saw the glass shattering, then her head come through. I lifted her all the way out. She wasn’t unconscious for long. And the cuts are superficial.”
Aunt Jule leaned down and reached for my hands, stretching out my arms to study them. “I don’t understand.
What was the point of all this?” she asked.
“To kill me,” I answered bluntly. “To poison me with carbon monoxide.”
She let go and took a step back. Holly looked incredulous, but then her face grew thoughtful. If there was anyone I could make understand, it was she.
“I don’t believe it,” Aunt Jule said. “This is the nonsense Frank planted in your head after your accident. Who would want to kill you?”
“I don’t remember,” Nora said softly.
“The same person who killed my mother,” I answered Aunt Jule.
“Don’t tell,” said Nora.
Aunt Jule ignored her. “No one killed Sondra, Lauren. It was an accident.”
“I used to think so.” Holding on to Rocky, I rose to my feet
“So why are you all here? Who got you out of bed?”
Aunt Jule glanced at Holly.
“Nora woke us,” Holly admitted. “She said something was happening outside.”
“How did Nora know that?”
“She always has difficulty sleeping,” Aunt Jule replied defensively.
“Yes, she had difficulty the night my mother died,” I said. “I went to see Dr. Parker tonight.”
Holly looked surprised. “Is that where you went? Oh, Lauren, you should have told me. I didn’t realize you were that upset.”
“We talked about the knots,” I continued.
Holly glanced at Nick, and he put his arm around her.
Aunt Jule and Nora listened, both of their faces pale.
“Dr. Parker said the knot-tying could be poltergeist activity.”
“What?” Holly exclaimed.
“He said that most of the time the phenomenon is caused by an adolescent, someone who is very upset. It’s a way of dealing with intense, suppressed emotions. Often it’s not even conscious. The person doesn’t know he or she is responsible.”
Holly frowned and shook her head slightly.
“My mother’s things were tied in knots just before she died. Tonight, my things were.”
“Lauren,” Holly said, “I think you need to talk to someone else. Coming back to Wisteria has been a lot harder on you than any of us thought it would be. We need to find you another counselor, one who is more—”
“It’s real! It’s happening!” I exploded. “Accept it!”
“It’s real, it’s happening,” Nora echoed.
The others gazed at Nora, then me with the same concerned, tolerant expression. I would have been angered by their patronizing looks, but I didn’t believe they were thinking what their faces showed. I didn’t trust any of them.
Not Nora, not Aunt Jule, not Nick, not Holly. They knew things they weren’t telling me. Maybe they had agreed among themselves not to tell me.
“I promise you,” I said, “I’m going to find out what happened to my mother and what is happening to me.”
“All right,” Holly answered softly, soothingly.
“Nick, I want to keep Rocky tonight.”
“If it makes you feel safer,” he replied with a shrug.
“It does,” I said, starting toward the house. “Rocky doesn’t pretend like the rest of you.”
I finally got some sleep Tuesday night, lying with my back against Rocky’s, listening to his dog snores. Early the next morning I went outside with him. While he swam, I fell asleep again on the grassy bank. Holly awakened me.
“This doesn’t look good,” she said, smiling, “one of my party guests asleep on the lawn the morning after.”
I sat up. “What time is it?”
“About nine-fifteen. How are you feeling?”
“Okay. My headache’s gone and I’m not nauseated anymore.”
She nodded. “I opened the greenhouse door and turned on the fans to air the place out. Did you realize there’s a big exhaust fan at the back of the greenhouse? Of course,” she added quickly, as if afraid she’d hurt my feelings, “it might not have helped last night.”
“The exhaust fan was sealed,” I told her, “as it is in winter.”
“No, it’s automated now. The flaps open when you turn on the fan.”
“So you replaced the fuses?”
“The fuses?” she repeated. “I just hit the switch.”
“Holly, there wasn’t any electric power in the greenhouse last night. I couldn’t turn on the fans or the light.”
She bit her lip, then said quietly, “Sometimes, when people get frightened, they think they’re doing something, but they’re not thinking clearly so they’re not doing it right.”
“I was doing it right.”
She didn’t want to argue with me. “Well, maybe. Let’s get some breakfast.”
“You go ahead. I’m not hungry.”
“Come on, Lauren, you’ll feel better if you eat something.”
I gave in and called Rocky. Nick’s wet and fragrant dog made it as far as the hall entrance to the house. “Please, not on an empty stomach,” Holly pleaded.
I brought Rocky’s breakfast out to the porch, some of last night’s meat and a piece of toast, though the toast was supposed to have been mine. Heading inside to make more, I entered through the dining room door and stopped in my tracks.