The Devil You Know (23 page)

Chapter Twenty-One

Marie
stayed with Tom until the evening. The police left not long after Jasper’s body
had been removed. Sergeant Clifford left Marie his card and told her he would be
in touch if anything developed on the burglary investigation. When they were
gone, the house seemed far too quiet, and Marie talked Tom into taking a little
drive. They kept the windows down, the fresh air doing both of them good. After
a quiet meal at a burger stand on La Brea, they drove back to the house. All
the while, Marie kept an eye on him, watching for signs that he might be
slipping away again. Though he was quiet and thoughtful, he was not withdrawn
and always responded when she spoke. By the time she got him back home, it was
after six, and the sun had gone down. They walked out to the gazebo, talking
quietly for a while until Tom grew silent.

Marie
put a hand on his and said, “Maybe you’d like to get some rest.”

He
turned toward her, and for a moment she thought he was going to ask her to stay
with him tonight, his eyes expressing a sad tenderness that bordered on desire.
She would have said yes if he’d asked, but after a moment, he only nodded and
said, “Maybe that would be best.”

Marie
nodded, then gave him a little smile and a kiss. “You’ll call me if you need me?
Anytime?”

“All
right.”

“I’m
serious. If it’s three in the morning, you call me—got it?”

Tom
smiled at her. “Got it.”

“Good.”

They
said goodnight, and Marie drove home with the car radio off. When she thought
of Jasper, tears came again, so she tried to think of Tom instead. Her mind
wandered, though, and she was dwelling on Julian Piedmont and the incubi by the
time she pulled up in front of her house. When she had first come to Jasper for
help with the incubi, it had been a quest for knowledge. Once the old man had
helped her see just what Piedmont and his monsters were up to, it became a
quest to stop them and save their victims. But with Jasper dead, Marie now
wanted nothing more than vengeance.

After
she fed Murphy, she took out the notes she’d made over the last week and pored
over all the threads of ideas that she and Jasper had given each other. Sitting
in her favorite chair by the front window, she read page after page. When she
came to an exorcism prayer that Jasper had dictated from one of his books, she
read it carefully several times and told herself that she would need to commit
it to memory if she really planned to drive the demons from their artificial
bodies. As she went over the prayer, though, she asked herself how she was
going to get the chance to use it. The answer, she realized, had to be Colin
Krebs. The man might be pathetic, but he at least had a stake in seeing the
demons stopped. If she could get him to betray Julian Piedmont and lead the
demons to her, she would have a chance.

When
the phone rang, she jumped in her seat. Then she dropped her notes to the floor
and ran to the phone, certain that it was Tom on the line. She glanced at her
watch as she raced to the kitchen to grab the receiver off the wall and saw
that it was almost ten o’clock. “Hello?” she said, trying to keep worry out of
her voice.

It
was not Tom who replied, but rather a woman. “Hello, is this Marie?”

Marie
did not recognize the voice. A bit taken aback, she said, “Yes. Who’s this?”

“It’s
Laura Tremaine.”

Surprised
to find that the woman had not yet joined the ranks of other victims at
Camarillo, Marie replied, “Laura?”

“Yes,
you came to my—”

Marie
cut her off. “Yes, yes. I remember. I just…didn’t expect to hear from you after
that.”

“I
know. I’m sorry I was rude.”

“Well,
what I had to say probably sounded pretty bizarre.”

There
was a moment’s pause, and then Laura said, “What you said about…him.”

“Is
it happening the way I said?”

“Yes,”
Laura said. She sounded frightened. “Just like you said. He comes and we’re
together and…and then I just don’t know.”

“You’ve
got to stop. Is it taking you longer and longer to get back to normal after
you’ve been with him?”

“I
don’t know what normal is anymore.”

The poor thing
, Marie thought. She
wondered why Laura had been able to last so long whereas Elise had been driven
into her bizarre state after only a few visits from her demon lover. In the
end, it didn’t matter. The only important thing was getting Laura away from the
monster. And then an idea occurred to Marie.

“Laura,”
she said, “do you want to make it stop?”

“What
do you mean?”

“Do you want to save yourself? Make him go away forever and never
bother you again?”

“How
can you stop him?”

“It’s
hard to explain. Maybe we could meet. ”

“That’s
why I called,” Laura said. “I was hoping you could come by so we could talk
about all of this. It would be better for me to speak face to face.”

“Okay.
How’s tomorrow afternoon?” Marie said before realizing that Tom might need her
tomorrow to help plan Jasper’s funeral. She would find a way to work around it.
She had already let Father Joe know what had happened and had asked for the
next day off work, so she knew she should have time for everything she needed.

“Can’t
you come tonight?” Laura asked.

“Tonight?
It’s a little…”

“Please!
I just don’t know what I’m going to do if he comes around tonight wanting…you
know.”

Marie
sighed, looking at her watch again. She wanted to be here in case Tom called,
but at the same time, this might be her only chance to meet with Laura and move
forward on the work Jasper had given his life for. Tom was most likely sound
asleep with a Nembutal, and if he did try calling when she was gone, she knew
he would understand tomorrow when she explained everything.

“All
right,” she said. “I’ll come. Give me fifteen minutes or so.”

She
freshened up in the bathroom, added some more food to Murphy’s bowl, and
grabbed her purse and keys. She thought about taking some of her notes with her
to show Laura more specifically what they were dealing with, but decided
against it. The demon’s victim would know more about the demons than Marie, and
no amount of references from Jasper’s books could make her situation more real.

Driving
along Melrose and then working her way up to Hollywood and Ivar, she thought of
different ways to suggest to Laura what she had in mind. Laura had sounded
distraught and possibly disoriented, and Marie knew she could not count on her
to be a willing helper in defeating the demon. Even if Laura agreed to act as
bait for the incubus now, she could very easily change her mind or forget the
idea altogether once the time arrived.
It
doesn’t matter, though
, Marie told herself. All she needed was to be at
Laura’s apartment when the demon returned, and with any luck, Jasper’s prayers
would do the rest.

She
had a hard time finding parking on the steep street where Laura lived and had
to leave her car several buildings away at the top of the hill. Paying no mind
to the click of her heels on the sidewalk, Marie almost ran down the hill
toward the apartment building, feeling a rush of adrenaline in anticipation of
finally getting an upper hand on the incubi and Julian Piedmont. Inside the
building, she rushed past Mrs. Thomas’ apartment, took a deep breath and rapped
lightly on Laura Tremaine’s door.

It
opened a crack. Marie saw a sliver of Laura’s face—one wide eye, a cheek,
and her hair. Beyond, the apartment was darkened save for the flicker of
candles. “Laura?” she said quietly, half expecting the woman to have forgotten
their phone conversation. “It’s me. Marie.”

“No
one else came with you?” she whispered, her voice edged with fear.

“No.
I’m alone.”

“You
said there were others. That he was part of a group.”

Marie
nodded. She wanted to be let inside and not to have this conversation in the
hallway. “It’s true. But I have nothing to do with them. They’re who I’m trying
to stop.”

Laura
blinked and remained silent a moment. “Will they come for me?”

“Who?”

“The
others.”

Confused,
Marie said, “No. I mean…why would they? Do they know about you?”

“They
might. Who knows what he’s told them.”

“I
don’t—” Marie began.

“Who
are they?”

Demons from hell
, Marie wanted to say.
Now let me into your goddamn apartment.
Instead,
she took a deep breath and said, “They seem to be connected to a man who lives
up in the hills. He sends them down to do what they do to young women.”

“Who
is he?”

Marie
glanced up and down the hallway. “Let me in and I’ll tell you.”

Again,
Laura blinked and said nothing. She closed the door for a second, and Marie
heard the rattle of the safety chain being undone. Then the door opened just
wide enough to let Marie inside the apartment and closed again behind her. As
she had thought, it was almost completely darkened. An end table near the door
had a thick candle burning on it. In the dim light, it looked like Laura had
arranged a cheap dressing screen to divide the room in half, and another faint,
flickering light beyond it told Marie that there must be another candle burning
there. She was able to step into the room, but could get no farther, as Laura
blocked her way, giving no indication that she was ready to move.

“Well?”
she said, her voice still just above a whisper.

Unsure
of herself, Marie decided there was little to be lost from telling Laura the
truth. The woman may have been unbalanced, but Marie still needed her, and as
volatile as she was, it would not do to get caught in a lie. “His name is
Julian Piedmont,” she said.

Her
eyes already wide, Laura’s face took on a look of even greater fear. “As in
Piedmont Pictures?” she said.

Marie
nodded.

“Oh,
Jesus.”

“What
is it?”

Laura
shook her head and took a step back from the door, Marie matching the movement
with her as though it were a dance. “Someone with that kind of money. He’s
going to find out. He’ll come after me for sure.”

Unsure
if the woman was delusional or just not making herself clear, Marie said, “Why?
What is it you think you’ve done?”

Now
Laura smiled in spite of herself. “I wanted to stop you, you know. And to
protect myself at the same time. And to keep him all to myself. It took me a
couple days to get the nerve up, but I did it. I figured if I could bring you
here, let you see what it’s like…you’d stop trying to—” She shook her
head for a moment and clenched her teeth, then spit out the rest of her
sentence. “Ruin everything!”

Marie
had begun to feel a sinking dread as Laura spoke. Shaking, she took a step back
toward the door, one hand reaching out behind her for the knob. Laura Tremaine
was a lost cause; it would be futile to try enlisting her in the fight against
the incubi. Marie no longer wanted to know what Laura was talking about, what
she feared, or why she feared it. All that mattered was getting back out the
door and into the hallway.

When
Laura swung a fist toward Marie’s shoulder, she tried to dodge and block at the
same time, but Laura must have thought everything through quite carefully. With
Marie focused on the one attacking hand, Laura was easily able to reach out
with her other hand. Marie felt the prick of a needle before she even noticed
that Laura’s other hand had moved. Twisting away, she slapped at Laura’s hand
and saw something fly out of it in the dim light. Marie dropped her purse and lunged
at Laura, knocking her down and landing on top of her. In seconds, she was
straddling Laura’s chest with one hand on her throat and the other clenched in
a fist, ready to punch her in the face. At the same time, she began to feel a
bit woozy.

“What
was that? What did you do?” she barked at Laura.

Laura
smiled under her weight, seemingly content to be struck and waiting for it.
Then, perhaps thinking better of it, or perhaps not thinking at all, she said,
“Just a little something to help you sleep.”

“Why?”
Now Marie could feel the dizziness intensify at the back of her head, but the
rage she felt at being drugged counteracted it to a small degree.

“I
told you,” Laura said with a sneer. “To keep you from ruining everything. One
ought to work well enough on you. I tried it. Just makes everything nice. It
takes four to keep Taylor in line.”

“Taylor?
Who’s—?” Marie stopped short. Suddenly, she understood. The demon was on
the other side of the screen. Laura had held him here as her captive,
administering drugs to keep him from being able to control his body. And while
Marie now saw that she had the thing within her grasp, the drug that had slowly
made it through her tissues and into her blood and brain now made her feel
rather unconcerned. She had to fight the urge to lie down on the floor and wait
for the dizziness and lethargy to pass.