Monster (15 page)

“No.”

“Did you kiss him?”

“
Y
es.”

“
Bitch,
”
Mary said.

“You tried
to kill
Jim
last week.
I
can't believe you're jealous that
I
went out with him.”

Mary opened her mouth to snap at her friend again but thought better of it. She briefly closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. When she reopened them she reached across the table and took Angela's hand. Angela had thought Mary had bloodshot eyes the last time. Now the
y
were
more red than any other colour.

“
Jim
is not in love with you
,”
Mary said calmly.
“
He is not interested in forming a relationship with you. He warns to us
e yo
u to get to me. He's worried about what you know. He will probably kill you eventually. He might do worse
.”

“
He might turn me into someone like himself?
”An
ge
la
asked.

“
Yes.”

“
What is he, Mary?”

“
I
told you, I don't
know.”

“
Did you know Point
L
ake was formed by a meteor millions of years ago?
”

Mary scowled. “What does that have t
o do with anything?
”

“I don't know.”

“
Why did you bring it up?
”
Mary asked.

“It’s
a concern of mine that
I
drink pure, healthy water
.”

“
I'm serious
.”

“
It
's
hard to take you seriou
sly, Mary. You tell me about a war
ehouse but can't remember where it's located. You talk
a
bout
people disappearing inside this warehouse who are
never
reported missing. You tell me to watch out for
Jim
,
that he
's evil, even though he seems like such a fun-loving
guy. And
every psychologist in the country is branding you
a certifi
able lunatic after what you did last week. Now
I
think
it's time you gave me something concrete to go on,
or else
I'm going to
have to conclude once and for all t
hat you are what you appear to be: a young woman
who
com
mitted murder in a jealous rage.”

Mary sat back. She stared at the floor for a full min
ute
and then sighed.
“Chicken crates.”

“Yes.”

“
I
hid behind crates that had held chickens wh
ile I
watched them drag the two couples into the warehous
e.”

“And this warehouse is in Balton?”
Angela asked
.

“
I
think so.”

“
You
think so? You were sure last week.”

“
Where Balton joins Kally,
”
Mary said patiently
. “It’s
hard to tell where one city ends and the other
begins.
The warehouse may have been in Kally. It was at the
edge of town, I remember that much.”

“
How do you kn
ow the crates had contained chickens?”

“
I could te
ll by the smell.”

Angela stood.
“Good.”

“What are you going to do?”

“
I'm going to find all the warehouses where chick
ens are
stored in both Balton and Kally
.
Then I'm going to
these
places to search for an abandoned warehouse nearby
. If I
find such a warehouse,
I’
m going to break in and
search for bloodstains on the floor.”

“
I told you
I
went back to the warehouse
.
They
had
been there already and wash
ed away what was left of the blood.”

“
They couldn't have washed it all away. If it was
there
to begin with, I should be able to find traces of it.
” Angela stopped. “
Or
would you rather I didn't look?”

Mary
was tough.
“I’m curi
ous why you're looking at
all.
What did you do after ea
t
ing at the restaurant
, Angie?”

“
We went for a
walk along the lake. We kissed.”

“
Don't rub my face in it
. Is that all?”

“
Jim
cut his arm while he was chasing me,
”
Angela
said.

“Did he bleed?”

“
A tremendous amount. Like a normal human
being.”

M
ary frowned. “
Blood
,”
she wh
ispered.

“
It was
n't green or anything like that.”

M
ary snorted. “
You
st
ill haven't answered my original question. Why are you here? Why didn't you just writ
e
me
off as
a basket case?
”

“I tol
d you what happened to Fred K
e
ith.
”

“
That wasn't what brough
t you back here. You're scared. What sc
ared you?
Jim
?”

“N
o
.”

“What?”

Angela put her hand to her head
.
For a moment the
f
elt dizz
y;
the room spun. She had
that
peculiar pounding in
her
head again, like when she woke up. It had gone away
when
she had eaten. God, she was hungry again. She felt as
if
she could eat a cow whole.

“I had
a dream
,” she said finally. “That's what scared me.”

“What happened in this dream?”

Angela turned for the door. “
I was eaten alive. That'
s
all
.
I
re
member
.
I'll talk
to
you later, Mary. Stay healthy
.”

“
Stay a
li
ve, Angie
,”
Mary said.

Ng
u
y
en hardly ques
ti
oned Angela when she stopped by in
his office
after talking to Mary. She fed him the same
lies s
he
h
ad the previous we
ek and doubted he believed her for a moment.
She b
riefly wondered if he had been eave
sdropping
on their conversations, but de
c
ided it would
have b
een against the law.

Kevin joined her
in the waiting room and walked her
out to
her car.

“How did it go?” he asked.

“It’s
hard to say. We have to find a warehouse around
here
that stores chickens
.”

“
Sounds like my kind of Saturday afternoon,
”
Kevin said.

Of course
Lieutenant Nguyen didn't believe Angela, be
cause
once more he'd both eavesdropped on and recorded
the con
versation she'd had with Mary. Officer Martin,
one of t
he men who'd
helped Nguyen capture Mary the night of the party, we
nt into Nguyen's office carrying the
tape.
The two men listen
ed to the conversation twice before
speaking.

“
We made a mistake searching for
t
he warehouse
in Balton alone,” Nguyen said. “That may be why we didn’t find it.”

“It was my mistake,”
Officer Martin said. He was a s
hort
squat man with a serious at
ti
tude towards life. His wife
said
they slept together with their guard dog. If Martin h
ad a
first name, he had f
orgotten it. Nguyen liked him. “Where’s
that other girl comi
n
g from?
”
Martin asked.

“
Angela Warner? I don't know. Obviously she d
oesn’t
believe Mary's story
–
who would?
–
but there are ele
ments
in it that disturb her
.”
Nguyen removed the tape
from
the player and finge
red it uneasily. There was something
about Angela's state of m
ind that was different from that of t
he previous week. Last Saturday Nguyen wouldn't
have
imagined Angela going out with Mary's boyfriend
–
a
clear
act of disloyalty. But perhaps
Jim
had some kind of
power
over girls. He was an extremely handsome kid.

Maybe he was more than that.

Jim
reminded Nguyen of a young soldier he'd had
under
his command in Vi
etnam. The man's name had been Tran
Quan; he was the best killer Nguyen had ever seen
. On
sorties into the jungle Tran Quan always killed more
VC
than the rest of his squad combined. He hunted
like a
snake, though, not like a human. He wouldn't stop
at
shooting or stabbing a victim in the back. Nguyen
hated
him and needed him at the same time.

But that need had been superseded the night he
had
found Tran Quan ra
ping a village girl whom he had just
shot in the head. He had smiled when he was caught
in
the beam of Nguyen's flashlight. Nguyen had killed
him
on the spot and never regretted it.

What did nice, clean-cut
Jim
K
line have in common with
Tran Quan that Nguyen should link them together?
He
didn't know. But he was afraid what would happe
n if
he didn't find out.

“
I'd like to
follow all three of these kids,”
Nguyen
said
finally
. “
Angela,
Jim
, and especially Mary. Would y
ou
help me?”

“Yes,” Martin said. “I’
d
like to take Mary. It sounds like she
won’t
be out on bail too long with t
ha
t
kind of at
titude.”

“
She's seventeen, bu
t you know how dangerous she is?”

“
I saw
proof at that party last week.”

“
Don't forget what you saw
.”
Nguyen stood
. “
Le
t
's look
over
our list of warehouses once more and concentrate on
Kally. I
'm sure Angela is doing the same thing right now
. If there is
a warehouse like the one Mary's described
, I can probabl
y pick up Angela's trail there.
”