The Influence (37 page)

At least, that’s what she started to do. 

But somewhere along the way, her goal changed. Why was she hurrying to warn Ross when
she
was the one being pursued? What she needed to do was get as far from here as quickly as possible and hide. Go someplace where no one would find her. Ross would be safe once she was safe—nothing was after
him
—and if she could ditch this whatever-it-was now, she would be free from it forever. 

Jill was aware that her thoughts were not as clear as they should be, that something was wrong with her logic, but it didn’t seem important, was a trivial objection in the back of her mind. What was important right now was getting away from their house and out of San Diego, and she found a freeway heading east, took it and continued out of the city into the countryside. Buildings grew more spaced out, offramps farther apart. The freeway shed two lanes, became a highway, and somewhere in the mountains, she turned off on a side road. She had no idea where she was, but that was an advantage. It would make her more difficult to track.  

It occurred to her that this reaction was wrong, that she was doing precisely what she
shouldn’t
do, but she pushed those thoughts aside. Passing a gas station, some tourist cabins and an occasional farm, she followed the road as it wound upward through high chaparral, twisting and turning. Ahead, she saw the twinkling blue of a large reservoir. Ringed with pine trees, it was beautiful, and she stopped at a roadside pullout, got out of the van and stared for several minutes at the shimmering water, enraptured.  

She decided that she would like to paint this scene. Ordinarily, she was not one for landscapes, but something about this place spoke to her. 

Did she have any art supplies still in the van? A quick search determined that she did not, but that was easily remedied. She’d seen a sign a ways back on the road announcing at least two upcoming towns. Even assuming that neither community had an art supply store, all she had to do was find a Target, a Wal-Mart or even a CVS. Any of those places would carry simple school supplies, and they were bound to have construction paper and watercolors, which were really the only things that she needed at the moment. Then she would come back here and paint. Maybe from this spot, maybe from another, maybe from several. And if she could not find a place nearby to stay for the night, she would sleep in her van. 

Why
? Jill wondered. 

It was not a question worth answering. It was what she wanted to do, what she needed to do, and what she would do. 

Jill knew she should call Ross and tell him where she was, but she didn’t dare because she didn’t want
it
to know. This way was safer, and she would stay here until…until…until she didn’t need to anymore. 

She got back into the van. 

And continued up the road to the next town, where she bought her paints and paper before heading back to the reservoir.  

THIRTY FOUR 

Dave had been after her to go back to Magdalena, if only to check on their property and their animals—“We can’t stay away forever,” he said—but although Lita worried about the fate of her horse and wondered if Jackass was even still taking care of the ranch for them, she agreed with Ross: she would only go back when it was proved to her that that monster was gone. 

Unfortunately, she had not been able to contact any of her friends in Magdalena to find out what was happening. For all she knew, they had left, too. But if that were the case, their cell phones and email should have worked—and they didn’t. Her gut told her that things were worse now than they had been when she’d left, though there was no way to know one way or the other. 

Her dad was still missing, and it was getting harder and harder to tell herself that there was nothing sinister in that. No one had any clue as to his whereabouts, the police were apparently stymied in their investigation, and it took every last ounce of hope and optimism she had in order to convince herself that he was not dead. 

And that it was not connected to the angel. 

The monster. 

Dave, too, had been trying to get ahold of people back in Magdalena, and when he finally did get through to Jackass, the news was not good. The handyman said that over half the population of the town and surrounding area had fled, and that of the ones who remained, many were holed up, survivalist style, in barricaded houses filled with guns and supplies.  

Some had
changed
. 

They talked for a few moments, before Dave handed the phone to Lita.  

“What about our place?” she asked after a quick greeting. “How’s Mickey?” 

There was a short pause, while Jackass obviously tried to decide what and how much he should say. He opted for the vague and simple, “He ain’t Mickey no more.” 

Lita felt as though she’d been kicked in the chest, as though she’d had a hole punched through her heart, but she quickly decided that she didn’t want to know the details. She was silent for a moment. “Get out of there,” she told him finally.  

“As soon as I get the rest of my gold, I’m off for better climes,” he promised. 

“You should go now.” 

“I’m bein’ left alone so far. As long as my luck holds out…” 

“Luck changes,” she said. “That’s what it does.” 

“I know. And at the first sign, I’m outta here.” He sounded apologetic. “But there’s a lot a gold, Lita. And after all this time of everyone thinkin’ I’m crazy…” 

“You don’t still think that angel’s protecting you, do you?” 

“No, but a lot of people are protectin’ the angel now. At least that’s what I hear.” For the first time, there was a hint of fear in his voice. “They’re waitin’ for it to
arise
.” 

A chill caressed her spine. “Did the sheriff ever come out there?” she asked. “Or any priests or anyone from the Catholic church?” 

“Not to my knowledge.” 

She’d been afraid of that, though she didn’t see how it was possible.
Several
people had gone to the sheriff’s office, Ross and Dave had both phoned, and the sheriff
had
to send someone out to at least take a look at what was happening in Magdalena.  

Of course… 

It
was powerful. She remembered the mob that had been gathering in front of the market before they left town, seeing in her mind the man with the pig nose, the suddenly youthful Ben Stanard. Anything that could do that could certainly exert a little influence over local law enforcement. 

In a way, that was what scared her the most: how easy it was for the institutions of society to break down, how quickly Magdalena could be so completely cut off from the rest of the world. It made her realize that things like this could be happening all the time in small out-of-the-way locales without anyone in the wider world being the wiser.  

“Get out of there,” she told the handyman again. 

“I will,” he said. “Soon.” 

After that call, she and Dave were both depressed. They were glad to be away from Magdalena but felt guilty that they’d run away without doing anything to stop the horrors that were occurring there. It was the uncertainty of the future, however, that weighed heaviest upon them. His parents were dead, her mom was dead, her dad was missing…what would come next? How far did those tentacles reach? 

Dave was no longer suggesting that they return to Magdalena, but neither of them wanted to live indefinitely in her mom’s house here in Albuquerque, either. Their lives were on hold, everything was up in the air, and it left them feeling completely unsettled. 

They had finished sorting through most of her mom’s belongings, separating the things they were going to sell from those having sentimental value that Lita wanted to save. Originally, she’d planned to have a big garage sale, but they decided to do what they’d done with Dave’s parents’ possessions and have someone come in and buy the whole estate, so until they figured out where they were going to live, she needed to find a cheap storage unit to hold everything she planned to keep. 

Her eyes alighted on a small unicorn of curlicued glass that was lying on top of a box of knickknacks. She remembered when she bought that unicorn for her mom at a glass-blower’s shop in Scottsdale. She’d been ten, and her dad had brought her back to the shop after dropping her mom and her aunt off at Los Arcos Mall. She’d given the object to her mom for Christmas, and Lita was both touched and surprised that she’d kept it all these years.  

She picked up the unicorn, her eyes tearing up. 

Maybe their luck would change again, Lita thought. 

Although she wasn’t sure if she really wanted that. She didn’t want anyone she knew to die, but at the same time, there were a thousand different ways that their lives could be affected by a slight change of fortune. Their car could have a dead battery, which would make them stay home instead of going to the grocery store as planned, and because they didn’t go to the store, they would be home when a robber tried to break into her mom’s house, and, upon seeing them, the robber could break out his gun and start shooting... 

Her mind instantly came up with a dozen such scenarios, but Lita immediately pushed them all from her mind, not wanting to consider any of them. 

“I have to go to the bathroom,” she told Dave. “I’ll be back in a minute.” 

She tripped on the way. She was not a clumsy person; in fact, she had always been athletic and very well coordinated. But she stumbled over a wrinkle in the hallway carpeting, and instead of instantly righting herself, the way she would ordinarily, her left foot, already in mid-step, smashed into the back of her right ankle, and she pitched forward, arms flailing. In the brief second before her forehead connected with the corner of the table that her mother, for some inexplicable reason, had placed in the hallway, a single thought flashed through her mind:  

Her luck had run out. 

**** 

Dave called Ross from the hospital and told him what had happened. 

“She’s still unconscious, but she’s stable. You don’t need to come out here,” he added quickly.  

“I’m coming.” 

“No. I don’t want you to.
Lita
wouldn’t want you to.” 

“Why?”  

“Something…might happen.” There was no need to go into more detail. He knew that Ross knew what he was talking about. “You and Jill just stay there.” 

“Jill’s gone,” Ross said. 

“What do you mean she’s gone?” 

“I came home from work yesterday and she wasn’t here. She didn’t come back last night, and I haven’t heard from her.” There was a pause. “I think she might’ve gone back to Magdalena.” 

“Have you tried—” 

“I’ve tried everything.”  

“It could be something else. Are you guys having problems? You know, she might not be used to California…” 

“She wouldn’t just run off without telling me. Not if it was something normal. Besides, her van’s gone, but she didn’t take any of her stuff. Not even clothes.” 

“Did you tell the police? Maybe she’s been kidnapped.” Dave knew he was reaching for rational answers, but he didn’t want to go where he knew this was headed. 

“It’s that monster in Magdalena,” Ross said. “We both know it.” 

Yes, he did know it. Not logically, in his head, but where it counted, in his gut. He recalled the power he had felt in Cameron’s smokehouse, thought of Father Ramos describing how the angel would be reborn. It seemed highly unlikely that whatever it was would be contained in Magdalena. 

Why had they left in the first place without first destroying that thing? 

And what the hell
was
it? 

Dave looked over at Lita’s unmoving form and was suddenly filled with rage, an emotion that felt purifyingly welcome after the numbness of the past six hours. “I’m going back,” he vowed. “I’m going to get rid of that angel, and put an end to this once and for all.” 

“No,” Ross said, and Dave heard an authority and seriousness of purpose in the other man’s voice that he hadn’t before. “You stay with Lita.
I’ll
go back.” 

“Ross—” 

“I know what to do. I can get it done.” 

“We’ll both go.” 

“No,” Ross repeated. “Lita needs you. Stay with her.” 

He spoke a thought that had been floating around in the back of his mind but until now had remained unspoken. “What if I
do
something to her? What if it makes me tear out the tubes she’s hooked up to…or…or smother her with a pillow, or…?” 

“That’s not going to happen, Dave. And you’re safer in Albuquerque than you would be in Magdalena. You both are.” 

It was true, but he felt cowardly for even thinking it. “You can’t go after that thing yourself. It won’t let you. Jorge and his men are there, and who knows what defenses it’s built up since we left? You need me.” 

“I don’t. I told you, I have a plan. And I won’t be doing it all myself. You just take care of my cousin.”  

Dave’s mind was suddenly filled with an extraordinarily clear and extremely unwelcome vision. “Tell me the truth,” he said. “Did you fuck her?” 

Ross was brought up short. “What?” 

“Lita. Did you fuck her? I know you wanted to.” 

“That’s crazy!” The emotion in the denial was not as outraged as the words were. In fact, Dave thought, it wasn’t really a denial. 

“Did you?” he pressed. 

“Of course not!”
Was he protesting too much?
“This is exactly what I mean. It’s getting to you already. In New Mexico. Do you know what would happen if you went back?” 

He took a deep breath. Ross was right. “This is exactly what
I
mean,” he said. “What if I do something to hurt her?” 

“Do what you need to do, then. Stay away from the hospital if it makes you feel better. But you two need to keep away from Magdalena.” 

Unwelcome images were still flashing through his brain— 

Lita on her knees in front of her naked, erect cousin 

—but Dave ignored them. “We shouldn’t have left,” he said. “We should have stayed and taken care of things.”