Chapter 4

"So you ended up in front of a firing squad."

"For all intents and purposes it was. Look, what I told you about Carolyn..."

"Don't worry, I'll say nothing. I hate lynch mobs as much as you do. What about the other one? Old Munsungan? Do you think he'll give us trouble again?"

"Not for a while."

George looked at Barnabas. He pictured him on his knees, his hands tied behind his back, and then he saw him naked with only a towel around his waist, like Derek...

"No." he shook himself." must not think of it."

"What is it?" Barnabas asked.

"Nothing. Probably coming down with something. Was it bad?"

"What was bad?"

"The firing squad."

"I had this idea that somehow if I did it would make up for...for some of the things I did. But when they were taking me there I realized that all it meant was that I was leaving a mess behind for other people to worry about."

"Interesting. Sounds like something that Dave once said."

"Dave?" Barnabas tensed.

"Dave Woodard. He was my friend."

Barnabas turned his face away.

"I know that you killed him. Have known for a long time. It isn't difficult to get information out of Willie if you know how to listen and what questions to ask."

"But...if you knew..."

"Why didn't I do something about it? Like turning you over to a lynch mob?"

"Maybe you should have."

"How long were you in that coffin? Years? Years of complete sensory deprivation. Do you know that's what the KGB does to people they want to break? A few days is enough to run some of them into vegetables. So you got released and you were mad. It wouldn't have been realistic to expect otherwise. That business with Maggie... you had to be off your rocker to try that stunt. Now, if you were brought to trial, do you know what your lawyer would say? First, make it clear that you no longer could tell reality from your own imagination. You had dreams of escaping many times, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"And when Willie set you free, you weren't sure that it wasn't another dream."

Barnabas nodded.

"And if you were discovered what might they do to you? They might kill you if you were lucky. But they might lock you up again."

Barnabas nodded again.

"So" George got up and struck an oratorical pose " Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you have heard how my client was tortured beyond endurance. How he was set free, his reason gone. How torture threatened him again. Dave Woodard was my friend, and I know that he would be the last person to want to torture this poor creature further. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, to find my client guilty you have to assume that yourselves, when submitted to the same torture would react differently. If you cannot assume that, you have to find him innocent by reason of insanity."

"Impressive" Barnabas tried to hide his emotion.

"Actually I don't think that it would go to trial. After a description of what was it like being locked in the coffin, the D.A. might be unwilling to prosecute. ...But that would only be if they did not know that you were a vampire. Because if they did, it would just be a lynch mob.. "He looked ahead, not seeing Barnabas. "Dave hated lynch mobs, too."

"I wish...I wish.."

"That you could make it up to him?"

"Yes. All the ones I hurt, somehow I paid them back..."

"Like giving Maggie a political career. And it hurts to know that there is nothing you can give Dave."

"There should be something.

"There isn't" he squeezed Barnabas' arm. "All you can do is to try to be the kind of person he'd want for a friend."

David stirred in the cage as Phillip came near it.

"Can I go up again?"

"Not a chance."

"It is daytime now." he pleaded.

"I don't want through last night's trouble again."

"You can't keep me here."

"Can't I?"

"Please let me go."

Phillip filled up a food bowl and pushed it towards the chained David.

"You expect me to eat like this?"

"All of it, or I'll throw cold water on you."

"At least, free my hands."

"Not a chance. Eat this way."

"I won't"

Phillip shrugged, then picked up a pail of water and swung it in David's direction.

"Wait!"

"Are you going to eat?"

David went to his knees, looking at Phillip with hatred. He bent down over the bowl and began eating the food.

"Don't wolf it down, kid." Phillip jeered "Wolf it down, en? Funny, isn't it?"

Julia finished checking on her notes. All those days of research had paid off. She knew more about Charity Trask that...probably Charity herself.

Charity had never married. She had lived to be a very old woman, still active until the last months of her life. True to her name, she was very active in charity work.

What was interesting was the type of charity work she engaged in: the rehabilitation of prostitutes and other 'fallen women' - and the way she went about it.

There had been several letters of hers, and when she had read them she was surprised at the sympathetic understanding of her charges and their circumstances, not what one could expect in a pious spinster.

There wasn't much about her possession by Pansy Faye, except a few references to a 'strange' time. Evidently that possession had ended after Petofi died, or was removed. Whether that was caused by Petofi's disappearance of by the fact that her father was not around to bully her, was not clear. Julia was willing to be that the Reverend Trask's disappearance had more to do with it.

So, Charity Trask had know Beth Chavez. Beth had been a 'fallen woman". Could they ask Charity's help for this 'fallen woman"? Could Charity help them rescue Louella from Jenny?

She heard a cough over her head. She looked up and saw Chris Jennings.

"Hello Chris."

"Did you ask, Amy to read the cards for you?"

"Yes. We needed it."

"You just can't help meddling, eh, old bag? You know that she has to study for her tests. Instead you get her started on the cards again."

"Chris! I know that you are upset, but you will not talk to me that way."

"I am sorry doctor." Chris sat down "but I don't like to have Amy read the cards."

"Why? You don't believe in them?"

"I believe." he shook his head. "What I don't believe is that she should try to earn a living that way. I want her to be able to get a good job, not have to depend on a gift handed down by a gypsy great-grandmother. If she had a degree and could work at something else I wouldn't mind. But I don't want her to do as I did."

"What did you do?"

"Think that because I could go on all fours and follow a scent that I had it made." he shrugged "Megan warned me, but I wouldn't listen. Since I had that, why bother with the nuts and bolts of the business? So it happened that after working in a detective agency I didn't know better than to sink money in an earthworm scam.

"I understand." Julia said sympathetically "we went to your sister because we were desperate. And we didn't pay her for it."

"That's better." he sighed "I am sorry if I snapped at you. I had a bad time lately."

"I heard that Sabrina left you."

"Left me? George and Barnabas ran her out of town on a rail. Well, I imagine that she likes working for Maggie. She's ambitious, and the job opens a lot of possibilities for her."

"And you, are you ambitious?"

"I'd like to find myself."

"Find yourself?" Julia said with dismay "you are into that, now?"

"It isn't what you think. It has to do with...with my curse. I grew up with it. It flared when most people get acne. I don't know how to explain it. At a certain age children stop being children. There are a lot of conflicts with parents, and that's part of growing up. But a conflict could bring a flare-up with my curse. So I avoided conflicts, and they were never solved. And I never grew up. I wonder if I ever became an adult." he stopped and moistened his lips "I envy Barnabas. At least he was an adult and knew who he was when it happened to him."

"I understand."

"It killed Tom, this thing. I didn't want to talk about it before. It hurt too much. I watched him go to pieces. I don't know how to describe it. He seemed to enjoy his curse at the end... The way he talked, it was as if he wanted to go out there and kill. The chains he used, they were rusted and would be no trouble to get out of. One day he came back, all covered with blood. He tried to sound regretful, but he...he looked smug. He persecuted Amy... I found dogs with their throat torn out. One or two much have wandered in... But then he told me of catching them and releasing them where he could tear them up."

"Dogs?"

"He swore that he didn't hurt people. I believed him. I wanted to. But now... No, that isn't true. When he disappeared I found in one of his drawers a bottle of chloroform. That and some rope and adhesive tape. And a piece of cloth that seemed torn from a blouse. Light green cloth. Later, in the newspaper there was this news about this dead girl found in the woods. Half eaten, by coyotes or a bear. She was wearing a light green blouse and there were signs of her having been tied up... Oh, God. why did he do it?"

"I am sorry, Chris."

"It isn't your fault. I loved Tom. And he...he.."