Inanimate (21 page)

MacNamee turned to Crass.

“
We
have to stop this, it’s too
much!”

Crass simply raised a hand; he wanted
Connor to give up more information, regardless of how it made
Frieda feel.

“
Well I have to say Doctor
Frieda, if it was me…” Connor lowered his voice to a whisper “…I’d
be pissed off!”

Frieda
looked at Connor hard, trying to
search for lies, but there weren’t any. Connor’s words rung hard in
the ears of the Doctor before him, causing him to ask himself
questions.

“
Was there a
ta
pe? Why
didn’t they show me it?”

“
You mu
st be mistaken Connor, there is no
tape. If there was I would know about it.”

Frieda
said this with every ounce of
confidence he could muster but Connor simply chuckled
again.

“
You’re sure about that
Doctor? You’re
colleagues definitely wouldn’t keep you in the dark about this
would they? They care more about your safety than you think? Don’t
worry; I believe you didn’t see Dixie. In fact I’ll make sure and
send him round to your house tonight so you can get a real good
look at him.”

Frieda
stood up noisily; the whole session
had been too much for him. He stormed out of the room and out into
the corridor, making a beeline straight for Crass and
MacNamee.

CHAPTER 22

“
What the hell was that sir? You
didn’t think it was important to tell me about this
Dixie?”

Frieda
was furious with his boss Doctor
Crass for not telling him what he knew beforehand but he resented
MacNamee more, for it seemed he was also in the loop. MacNamee gave
Crass a look, which quietly enraged Frieda further. It wasn’t just
his good looks that the other doctors were jealous of; it was also
his relationship with the boss.

“
I’m sorry
Doctor Frieda” Crass said with a
professional apology “I made the decision not to tell you. Both
Doctor MacNamee and I have seen the video, along with the orderly
on shift that night but that’s it. We felt the fewer people knew
about it the better, we didn’t want to start a panic.”

Frieda looked at the old man then switched
his gaze to MacNamee who dropped his eyes to the floor. The old
doctor’s logic seemed to calm him down a little.

“
But sir you pretty much hung me
out to dry there. He made me look like a fool. Again! And it didn’t
have to be that way.”

If Doctor Crass had his way he would tell
Frieda to stop whining and get back to work, however the situation
called for diplomacy. Crass knew he might need Frieda to speak to
Connor some more. Regardless of how it made Frieda look the old man
had learned a lot about Connor and his visitors from their meetings
and now that something strange was definitely going on, he needed
those meetings to continue.

“
You’re right Paul, what I did
was quite disrespectful. But the truth is we need you on this. We
had to keep you in the dark about the tape because that was the
only way Connor would feel he had the advantage and that was the
only way he would tell us about the creature. Connor reveals
information to you, and we need that right now.”

Frieda was suspicious.

“
Why the
sudden push to get him to talk? He
isn’t going anywhere.”

Crass didn’t inform him of the murders;
instead he told a lie he felt was beneficial to the
situation.

“
We need to help this child Paul;
he has been let down his whole life. It’s time someone did
something about it. He needs you.
I
need you.”

Despite the fact this statement made Crass
feel very uneasy he said it regardless, in his mind he had to.
Falling prey to the smooth, personalized praise of Crass, Frieda
relented. He looked at MacNamee who struggled to maintain his
sincerest look.

“
Ok, but no more
surprises!”

Crass
nodded back.

“
No more surprises.”

Jimmy Collins enjoyed
these sunny
afternoons. The southern heat was about the only thing that made
Staunton a bearable place to live, even in fall. Sure, his town was
old, full of history and there were a few things for the tourists
to do but for a local, the only thing you had to look forward to
was drinking, playing pool and the possibility of leaving Staunton
someday. Still, all the sour thoughts of his little goldfish bowl
named Staunton disappeared when the heat was upon him. It was
unusually warm for this time of year and the sun was rife on the
streets. Passing under tree shades in this family neighborhood
Jimmy enjoyed the cooling sensation he got until he stepped back
out into the sun again.

“
This must be global warming. I
love it!”

Jimmy thought to himself as he
strolled along, en route
to see his girlfriend. The thoughts of a couple of
days ago had started to disappear in Jimmy’s mind, that’s how easy
it was for a dead man to be forgotten. Although Jimmy didn’t
physically harm Andy, he was fully aware of Tony’s temper when the
fight began and he made no effort to stop it. It was all behind him
now though.

“
A few beers and a bar fight gone
bad.”

T
hat was how he justified it to
himself.

As he neared the house his
stomach rumbled, he knew he would be getting lunch here, but he
also knew Lucy was a terrible cook and so wished he had picked
something up before he left his house. Ringing on the
doorbell
, he
waited a moment. Lucy answered, wearing his old college football
shirt and sweat pants. Lucy Ellis looked good in anything she wore
but Jimmy especially liked it when she wore loose fitting clothing,
he found it more of a turn on than being able to see absolutely
everything. With only a slight greeting Jimmy pushed past her and
slipped into the kitchen, leaving Lucy to close the door. He
grabbed a beer from the fridge then came into the living room.
Sitting down he kicked off his boots and turned on the television.
Lucy was used to this type of behavior, by now none of it surprised
her. Parking next to him on the couch while Jimmy stared at the TV
Lucy started her usual, mostly one-way conversation.

“
I got called into work tonight;
they picked up more reservations so they need an extra
body.”

Grunting, Jimmy swigged
his beer.

“
What
’s for lunch?” he asked, slightly
frightened of what culinary disaster he might be forced to
eat.

“
I
have some chicken and fries in the
oven”

This ple
ased Jimmy. Frozen food was hard to
screw up, and if it did taste bad, there was always ketchup for him
to turn to. Jimmy was able to relax now; he knew he would at least
have something edible to eat today. As Lucy cuddled into him on the
couch, his manly instincts started to tingle. Putting his arm
around her he kissed her on the head, the scent of her strawberry
shampoo got his blood flowing. Believing his subtlety was better
than it actually was, Jimmy went in for another kiss. A small one
at first and then another, gradually turning his body he tried to
get his hands involved in the action. This was when Lucy decided to
stop it.

“
Jimmy…
I don’t want to.”

The
four words which have deflated many
other men’s libidos in the past had the same effect on Jimmy’s.
With an over exaggerated huff, his frustration whined in his
voice.

“
Why? We probably
have like ten
minutes before lunch.”

“
My niece
is upstairs.”

“
Really? Why?”

“
She was sick so she
couldn’t go to
school, but my sister had to work and couldn’t watch her so she
called me. She’ll only be a couple of hours.”

“
Well, she
’s upstairs, couldn’t we just...you
know.”

“
No!”
exclaimed Lucy “What if she came
down?”

Jimmy realized
he wasn’t going to
be getting any action today so nothing much else mattered to
him.

“
She
has to learn sometime” he
mumbled.

Lucy was pissed, not least at the fact
that Jimmy made the remark right in front of her. She got up from
the couch.

“
You’re fucking sick Jimmy,
she’s seven! Whatever, I’m going to go check on her!”

“
Bitch!” Jimmy
uttered as she left
the room.

Lucy
jogged up the stairs, wanting to get
away from her boyfriend quickly. She walked down her hallway. Even
though it was only about a dozen feet to the end she savored the
journey. Her parents had bought her this house six months ago but
they were still in the process of decorating. The areas that were
finished though (like the hallway), looked pristine. Olive green
walls were covered in pictures; some of Lucy with family and
friends, and others were just pictures selected from stores because
they looked good. Lucy’s bedroom was at the end of the hall; this
was where her niece, Jessica liked to play when she came over.
Pushing open the door to her bedroom Lucy smiled. She didn’t really
believe Jessica was sick, the kid probably just wanted the day off
school, and now looking at her she saw she was right. Jessica
wasn’t in bed, where her mother had left her before she went to
work, she was up having a tea party with some dolls. Lucy stood at
the door for a moment, she noticed Jessica’s large Barbie doll
which stayed at the house for when she came to visit and the cuddly
toy elephant, Jessica’s favorite. She took that elephant everywhere
and for some reason it had a smile stitched on to its face. Lucy
always found that odd, never in her life had she ever seen a
smiling elephant. Strangely though, there was a fourth member at
the tea party who Lucy didn’t recognize. A well-dressed porcelain
doll sat with the two others and Jessica, sitting at the table
looking quite comfortable. This wasn’t Lucy’s doll and she didn’t
see Jessica bring it in with her. Looking at it she thought she
would have definitely noticed Jessica bring it in as it was fairly
large, standing above Jessica’s waist.

“
Jessica where did you
find
that
doll?” asked Lucy, moving into the room.

“
I didn’t, she
found me. Her name
is Betsy, she and some friends came in from the city.”

Jessica
responded while pouring her imaginary
tea.

Puzzled, Lucy
decided to leave it
alone. It was early when her sister dropped Jessica off and Lucy
had worked late last night, maybe she was just too tired to notice
it with her. Lucy bent over the table to get a look at the
doll.

“
Ok, well lunch
will be ready in ten
minutes, so you’ll need to say goodbye to your little friends for a
while.”

Lucy leaned in to take Jessica’s
are but
Betsy’s head swiveled round and looked up at her. Betsy’s
movements were fluid, not doll-like at all. Stepping back in fright
Lucy cried out then giggled awkwardly.

“
Whoa Jess! Y
ou didn’t tell me she
moved.”

Jessica
beamed
.

“
Oh
yes, Betsy moves! She walks and talks, I
bet she sings too!”

Jessica
was looking fondly at Betsy as the
dolls head moved slowly back round to face the little
girl.

“
It’s strange” commented Lucy “It
doesn’t
look
like one of those moveable dolls, she looks antique.”

“
She’s perfect!”

Lucy
was a little shaken, she changed her
mind about bringing Jessica with her, instead decided to let her
play some more, Betsy gave her the creeps and she wanted to leave
the room.

“
Ok, well remember, lunch in ten
minutes.
”

As Lucy
headed down the hall she could hear
Jessica talking behind her.

“
That doll was
creepy
,”
Lucy thought to herself.

Jimmy
was all apologies when she came
downstairs

“
Hey sweetie I’m sorry I
said what I said I’m just hungry.”

Lucy
sighed, she was hoping this wasn’t
just another fake apology to try and get back into her pants,
usually however, it was.

“
Look, I forgive you, just sit
down; I want to finish making lunch.”

Sheriff Oates
sat at his desk
looking at the same picture from this morning, the same face caught
on video of the mysterious suspect in the double murder case. Oates
hadn’t slept yet, he knew that he couldn’t keep this information a
secret forever, word of the murders were quickly spreading as they
had only recently notified the victim’s families. He wondered if
the process of notifying the families would be easier if the
murders took place in the city. It was just so personal in a small
town like Staunton. It’s not to say that everybody knew everybody,
that wasn’t exactly true. It was just that people had a lot more
links to each other here than they would have had in a larger
population. Thoughts of the victim’s families really took hold when
he thought how he had to tell them there were no suspects. An
“ongoing investigation” provided little solace to grieving mothers
but it he was all he could say. Unfortunately for them, Oates’ duty
was to the town as a whole. Letting slip theories of killer kids or
worse killer dolls could tear the town apart and he was not about
to see that happen, not after all he had been through. His cell
phone dragged him back from his thoughts, flipping open the speaker
and resting his head on his hand he answered.