Chapter 9
The girl collapsed, her face frozen in fear.
Barnabas let her lie down. He fought off his impulse to hold her and comfort her. There would be time for that later. Now that fear had its uses.
He wondered for how much longer he would have to do this. Granted that it was a good idea, he didn't think that he could take much more of it.
He remembered Kathy confidently resting her head on his shoulder. That was the way it was meant to be. Gentle and pleasant, with no bitter aftertaste..
He knew that the physiological damage was slight. The attacked girls would probably be warier getting back home and would start worrying about safe transportation, thus keeping themselves out of reach of the one who had killed Donna.
But did they have to be so afraid, so helpless? Did they have to collapse on the ground, like limp rags?
And they would be prostrated afterwards. Not for long, thankfully, but they would be, all the same. And their memories would be bitter.
He promised himself that as soon as this trouble would clear up he would do something about it. If he had been able to explain to Iris and the others from town, he should be able to explain to these girls why they had to be hurt.
The girl woke up. They always did. And in schedule, the scream came.
Harry Redwolf swung his legs over Davenport's desk.
"You know what the problem is." he said. "it is in all the newspapers."
"It cannot be him." Davenport protested.
"It is him. It has to do with the fact that shop girls don't have safe transportation back from work."
"Even if he was..."
"He brought you here. You put him on your payroll for a while."
"I should not have let him go..."
"Let's say that he's lucky and gets away with it. In the meantime, there will be a lot of questions asked." Harry pounded his fist against his other hand for emphasis. "There is plenty of Indian money and jobs tied up here. I don;t want them to go down the drain."
"What is it that you are suggesting we do?" Xavier pushed his chair back.
"I am not suggesting anything. Just explaining the situation."
Xavier looked at him with scorn. "You are a politician, all right. Straight talk is an impossibility for you."
"Well, do you have an idea of what to do?
"You are testing me to see how I react to the idea of having him bumped off."
The blood drained off Harry's face " I couldn't... I wouldn't"
"As Nixon said 'it would be wrong'. You don't sound convincing, either."
Redwolf looked at him hard. "You do not mind having him killed. You just want someone else to do the dirty work for you. You just want to be able to deny everything."
"I think that you have said enough" Xavier said stonily "I think that you have overstayed your welcome, Mr. Redwolf."
Maggie's livid face was enough to tell Sabrina that she had seen the paper.
"What did I tell you?" she said truculently "here it is, just as in 1967."
"There is no proof that it is him." Sabrina protested.
"Does it matter? The investigation will get close to him, anyway."
"Calm yourself."
"Calm myself? Am I not getting enough trouble with endorsements and finances that I need this? I got three bills pending, and my reelection will hinge on getting them passed. And any chances for the Senate, too. do I also need to worry about what Barnabas is doing in Collinsport?"
She sat down and put her head in her hands. "Why, oh why, did I ever let him manage my first campaign?"
"He was helpful then. And then that was a long shot..."
"Well, this isn't a long shot. I am going to be the next elected Senator from Maine. I am not going to lose this chance."
"Do you want me to go there, and see what I can do?""
Maggie nodded. "I need you here, too... but this is so damn important."
She was tired. It had been several days that she lived on coffee, sleeping intermittently. And campaigning would be rougher still. She did not need the aggravation that Barnabas represented.
"I will try to talk sense into him." Sabrina said.
"You may not be able to."
"In which case, do I deep-six him?"
"Yes."
Vicky held the paper close to her. Yes, things were as they should be. Girls were being attacked on lonely nights.
She had been right. Things hadn't changed. HE hadn't changed.
"A penny for your thoughts" Willie said.
"I was remembering the party at the Old House. When we all dressed up in old clothes."
"I remember it." In spite of himself Willie tensed up.
"I was supposed to be Josette. Elizabeth was supposed to be Naomi. Roger was supposed to be Joshua... who were you supposed to be?"
"Me?" Willie laughed nervously "I was just the handyman."
"You looked scared, then."
"I guess I had reason to be, then."
"Do you still stutter?"
"No... I... I... do...do.. a lot less of it no.. no... now."
Vicky's lips curled imperceptibly. Yes, Willie was still nervous, still scared. Just as she remembered him.
Willie wondered why he couldn't control himself better. He had a business, money in the bank, respectability of sorts. Why did he feel like the shiftless drifter he had been?
"You had been in jail, hadn't you?" she asked, almost innocently.
"Yes."
"That was where you met Jason McGuire."
"Yes."
He knew that he was breaking into a cold sweat. He felt like shaking Vicky and screaming at her to stop it.
But stop what? She was doing nothing... just trying to make sense of what had happened to her.
"Willie, where are you?" Louella came in from the shop front. "Someone wants you to demonstrate the new gizmo."
"I am going" Willie breathed deeply, reminding himself that this was his shop and his customer out there. That he wasn't back at the Old House, locked into Barnabas' self- destructive games.
Louella studied Vicky. What was with her that made Willie so uncomfortable? She sensed it, but could not understand it.
"Do you mind if I say something?"
Vicky lifted her eyes. She was there still. The woman who was supposed to be Willie's wife. But how could that be? Willie wasn't married...
"You and Willie talk a lot together" Louella tried to sound good humored. "I feel kind of excluded.
"Are you jealous of me?"
"Of course not. But I would like to know what you two talk about."
":Just old times. The way things used to be."
"When Willie was still working for Barnabas?" Louella sat down.
She wasn't going to go away, Vicky realized. No matter how hard she wished Louella gone, she stayed there.
"How was Willie then?" Louella asked, knowing that the answer would explain the way that Willie had been behaving.
"Rather sneaky. He was involved in Jason McGuire's blackmail plot. And we knew that he had been in jail."
"Yes, he was in jail" Louella said between her teeth.
"And he used to look so... so nervous. He stuttered and drank."
"He's changed a lot since then, don't you think?"
"It is hard to believe that he would one day have a shop of his own. That he would one day amount to this."
Louella bit her lips so as not to scream. She knew now what Vicky was doing to Willie.
"Who yelled at you today?" Oriana asked while editing her papers.
"Megan Graham"
"That makes it ten. Iris, the sheriff, Julia, her husband, Phillip, Chris, Amy, Angelique, Davenport and now her."
"At least you don't do it." he sighed as he sat down next to her "Soon I'll be hearing from Willie."
"I think that it is difficult enough for you wihtout everyone yelling at you on top of it."
"Do you understand why I have to do this?"
"I think that if they want to criticize you they should come up iwth a better idea, not just say that you are cutting your own throat and that nothing can be done about it."
She laid her hand on his shoulder and began moving, imperceptibly, towards him.
"Please, don't" he said. he pulled away gently "it is risky for you."
"I don't mind."
"You know what might happen to you. It could happen very easily since you are the only one of my sources who does not lecture me."
"Not even Frances?"
"Not even her. So you see, you are too attractive to me. And if I had an accident with you, I'd never forgive myself."
"What about Willie's wife?"
"They decided they are going to have a baby, so she's off limits."
Oriana shrugged "All right. I will make it ways on you." she got up and moved away from him. "But it is going to be strained. I know how much you need affection."
"When I am done at the shopping center, I'll come back and let you mother me."
As he left, Barnabas knew that he stirrings he felt for Oriana were not just the results of bloodlust.
"Admit it" he told himself "you want to make love to her."
He had wanted to, from the first. But there was his loyalty to Iris to consider. And then, while she was his prisoner, he could not submit her to sexual abuse.
But she wasn't a prisoner anymore. And Iris... Iris was not on speaking terms with him again.
Iris had consoled herself with Phillip. Why couldn't he console himself with Oriana? There was no law that said so...
Damn it! There was also no law that said you couldn't court Josette while at the same time bedding her maid! Practically everyone else did it, for that matter!
So he felt bad. He had the blues. Still that didn't give him the right to treat Oriana like a convenience... to treat her the way he had treated Angelique...
