“So how’s your father-in-law?” Steve hoisted himself out of the car and slammed the door.
“Huh?”
Steve shook his head, dismissing it. “Got any ideas what this is all about?”
“Doris just called and said Athena needed to see us here at one o’clock. Sounded kind of weird.”
“It’s one thirty now.” A dark puddle spread beneath the clattering air conditioner. They crossed the parking lot, Barry a little in the lead.
“Damn.” He sauntered in the door. “Would you look at this reception committee?”
Blind from the sudden change in light, Steve stood in the doorway and relished the coolness. He strained his eyes in the direction of the corner booth. Even from across the room, the group’s quiet conveyed a tautness, and only Athena failed to look up as Barry approached. Steve stared a moment, shocked: her face was the color of lead.
“You’re late,” said Doris, and Steve noticed the worried way she kept sneaking looks at Athena.
Barry stood in front of the table, glaring down. “You got guts, boy. What the fuck you doing h ere? You didn’t tell me he was gonna be here, Doris.”
Very red, Jack fidgeted and shot Larry a glance, while Steve appropriated chairs from a nearby table.
“Yessir, you really got balls.” Barry sat. “You’re lucky to be still breathing.”
“Look, Barry,” began Jack carefully.
Barry leaned across the table, pushing his face too close to Jack’s. “Don’t give me that ‘look, Barry’ crap.”
“Hey,” Doris interrupted, “what goes on? I thought you guys were supposed to be such good buddies.”
“Not no more,” Barry growled. “Some buddy.” His tone became aggrieved.
Steve relaxed as the violence almost imperceptibly melted from his partner’s stance.
“A guy don’t want buddies that are hanging around the house while he’s out working.”
“You got it wrong, Barry. Cathy and me ain’t…”
“Oh Christ,” interrupted Doris. “You two would have to start this now.” She kept checking Athena, but the other woman kept her eyes fixed on the table, her face unreadable. Larry, however, had gone dead white.
“And you supposed to be her cousin,” Barry went on with a nasty smile. “Let me tell you something, cuz. I ever catch you two at it, I’m gonna blow your head off.”
“You’re crazy. I never…” Jack stopped. His jaw tightened, and he gave Larry a look that clearly said “you owe me big-time, pal.”
Steve’s gaze never wandered from Athena. Something was going on here. Something bad. There were blotches under her eyes. Her blouse was newly washed, very clean, very wrinkled. She’d been the source of the tension when they’d entered—he felt sure of that. Dread coiled deep in his gut.
Finally, there came a lull in the noise from Barry.
Still gazing down at the table, Athena drew a deep breath. “I asked you two to stop here because, well, really, Doris asked you, but we both thought so, because I wanted to ask you—I mean, tell you—what I’ve just been telling the others.” She paused, gathering strength. Barry stared at her, and the ambulance crew squirmed. “The night my husband, I mean, my brother-in-law died, the night before last when Lonny was killed…I saw something in the woods. It came after me. Something like a man.”
“What?”
“But I thought”—Steve paused, searching her expression—“I thought it was the dogs.” She raised her head for the first time, and with a sinking feeling, he recognized the look in her eyes; he’d seen it often enough in mirrors. But what could she have to feel guilty about? “Are you telling us a man killed Lonny?”
“Like a man.”
“What are you saying?” Barry glared at her.
Everyone shifted uneasily. Doris picked up a hamburger. “There’s a hair in this. Oh Christ, I think it’s from Sims’s mustache.”
Larry nudged Jack. “Quick, man, get the throw-up pan.”
“What exactly did you see, ’Thena?” Steve kept his voice calm.
“You can’t expect her to describe it,” Doris interrupted, bristling. “Not after everything that’s happened, not when—”
Athena put up a hand. “It was dark…and the storm…” Her voice fell, and she turned her face toward the window. “Barry? I saw its teeth. They were human teeth. And it stood up.”
“So what are you saying? It was the Jersey Devil or what?”
Steve asked, “Did anyone else see this…this thing?”
Athena looked away from the window. “My sister-in-law was there.”
“And did she see it?” he repeated gently.
Doris leaned forward.
She shook her head. The Formica tabletop was scratched and yellowed, and she stared at the worm tracks of cigarette burns.
Steve’s voice coaxed. “What did she see?”
“Dogs,” she whispered, gazing into her coffee mug as though peering down a well.
With a laugh both exasperated and triumphant, Barry sat back. Before he could speak, Doris added, “I took some scrapings from the bodies of both victims.”
“What both?” Barry looked ready to snarl.
“Athena’s brother-in-law and the construction worker found in the car.”
“Oh for—”
“I took scrapings,” she continued, “and left them with a friend of mine at the lab. Unfortunately, the hospital administrator got wind of it. Took sort of a dim view.” She sighed. “So we don’t exactly have a lab report, but—”
“You support this?” Steve interrupted, watching her face. “You’re supporting this story? This claim that there was a man or what ever involved? Do you know something about this?”
“It’s like I was saying, I don’t exactly have a report. But one of the bodies, the hard hat, I’m pretty sure what the scrapings were. Semen.”
“Jesus,” Larry breathed.
“You may have noticed this last little fact wasn’t in the official account,” Doris finished. “No mention of it at all.” Exhaling a cloud of smoke, she put a supportive arm around Athena’s shoulders.
Barry stared hard at Athena. At the next table, a woman asked loudly for the check.
“Even so.” Steve nodded slowly, his voice grim. “It could still have been dogs.”
“Oh shit.” Larry looked sick.
Unnoticed until now, photographs had been lying facedown on the table. Doris flipped them over.
“Jesus H. Christ!”
The color enlargements revealed each wound in pornographic detail.
“Where the hell’d you get these?” demanded Barry. “Oh. Of course. You and your frigging friends.”
“Doris?” A slight tremor marred Steve’s attempt at a tone of mere professional interest. “Have you got anything else to go on?”
Some of the anger drained from her face, but her hands remained clenched. “Well, for one thing,” Doris began, “there are no animal hairs on this body. And there should be, especially considering the method of attack—the ferocity, the violence. Look at the claw marks.” She pointed to a photo, nodded to Steve. “We both saw those. Even on the side of the car.” She stubbed out her cigarette. “There should be fur all over, inside the wounds, even.”
“And the other? Lonny?” asked Steve. “Was there any fur on him?”
“Well,” Doris hesitated. “He may have been killed first and later eviscerated by dogs.”
“Shit,” Barry grumbled. “So what you’re saying is there were dog signs all over Lonny. Am I right?” Again he laughed. “This is fucking ridiculous.”
Steve watched Athena. Her fingertips stroked her forehead, one hand shielding her eyes from Barry, screening her face from his words. She seemed so drained, so weary, yet still so strong. He felt as though he were seeing deep inside of her now, as though this quality, this endurance, this purity were something she normally kept hidden from the world.