Head to Head (31 page)

When Dottie moved away into the shadowy part of the cellar, I struggled against the ropes and felt them give a little. Maybe I could break them or pull down the pipe. I jerked desperately until she opened a freezer chest against the wall. The light inside came on and illuminated her face where she stood almost invisible in the darkness. She said, “Family’s important. I like to keep them close. I’m pretty disappointed that they didn’t take to you right off, but they will. Once they get to know you, Annie, they’re gonna love you as much as I do.” She lifted the lid and reached inside and pulled out one of the decomposed heads with blond hair. It was still resting on a Blue Willow dinner plate and still wore a red party hat.
Oh, Lord, please, please help me.

“I didn’t really introduce everybody at the party. I was just so excited that I forgot. Maybe that’s what got you off on a bad foot with everybody. But I’m gonna fix that right now. Momma, this is Annie. Annie, this is my dear momma. Father made me watch him embalm her down in the cellar. I held her hand, but I didn’t cry. He got mad and threw her down the stairs, and he said it was my fault, so I had to help him make her smile again. Doesn’t she have a lovely smile?”

Dottie set the plate on the table beside Harve’s head. “All that happened before you and your mother came to cook for us. But Momma was always with us. Father made me kiss her good night before I went to sleep. Don’t you remember me at all, Annie? The way I had to run home before dinner so he wouldn’t know we were playing in the creek? Don’t you remember the way I cried and beat on your front door the night you went away and left me?”

Realization finally dawned, and I cried, “Oh, my God, you’re talking about Thomas. How’d you know Thomas?”

“And look, Annie, here’s your momma. I got her, too. I punished her for taking you away and leaving me behind with Father.”

I groaned and shut my eyes when she pulled out the other decapitated head with blond braids, frozen now and unrecognizable.
That is not my mother
, I thought frantically.
It isn’t; Dottie’s lying
. Dottie slapped me hard across the face and held my head so I had to look. “Oh, no, you’re not going to pass out on me, sweetie. You’re going to see everything I went through after you left me there with him, every little thing he did to me after you left.”

Gripped with unspeakable revulsion, I began to shake, couldn’t stop until Dottie grabbed my hair.

I twisted against the ropes, pulling desperately. “Let me go, let me go. You aren’t Thomas; that’s not my mother. You’re sick. You’re talking about your own family, not mine….”

She slapped me again, so hard I tasted blood at the corner of my mouth. I stopped struggling and hung limply against the ropes. Everything was silent except for the sound of the pouring rain. “It wasn’t so bad when you and your mother were there, but then you had to leave. I thought you were my friend. We used to feed Mr. Twitchy Tail together. Don’t you remember that, Annie? Look, I’ve still got him for us to play with.”

I watched her pull a dried-up animal carcass out of the freezer and hold it up by its tail. “Don’t you remember how we played with him, and how we laughed and ran through the hose? How I pushed you on that old swing? You were the only friend I ever had, and you left me there with him so he could do awful things to me!”

Dottie was getting increasingly agitated. “You wanna see what he did to me after you went away? Do you? I want you to see what you did. Then you’ll understand, then you’ll know why I had to kill your friends and make you suffer, too.” Dottie jumped to her feet and jerked open her robe. She was naked underneath, and I groaned and squeezed my eyes shut tight. “Look, Annie, see what he did to me so I could be a woman like he wanted. I was a boy, I was Thomas, and he made me a girl because you went away and left me there with him.”

“Oh, God, Dottie, stop, stop. I can’t stand to hear this….”

“So
now
you remember me? I’m your friend Thomas. I loved you and your mother and her chocolate chip cookies and apple pies, but you left me, you left me alone with him!” Enraged, Dottie jerked the cleaver out of the table and hysterically hacked the squirrel carcass into bits of fur and dried hide. Then she fell to her knees, panting for breath and still clutching the cleaver. I held my breath and could not move.

When she was calm again, Dottie stood up and looked at me. Blood was running down her arm where she’d cut herself in her frenzy. “After your mother took you away, all I could think about was finding you. I got her first; she was the very first one I did after I killed my father. Did you know that? I hacked him up with a cleaver. Then I followed you and made sure you suffered like I did, and that everybody you ever loved suffered the way I did. And now it’s Harve’s turn, and I hate it, sort of, because he’s a pretty good guy, really. But then again, this time is very special because this time you get to watch.”

“Please, please, Thomas, I was so little then, I didn’t know,” I pleaded, my voice growing desperate and shrill as she leaned over Harve and raised the cleaver. “I’m begging you, Thomas, please don’t hurt him! He didn’t have anything to do with this, nothing. Do it to me, kill me! I’m the one you hate!”

At that, Dottie went completely still. She lowered the cleaver, a shocked expression on her face. “I don’t hate you, Annie. I love you. I’ve always loved you. That’s why I never killed you.” She leaned down close and kissed me on the forehead.

“And I love you, Thomas,” I muttered hoarsely. “I begged my mother not to leave you there. I said you were like my brother and we couldn’t go away without you.” I saw Harve move slightly, and I knew he was coming around. I went on quickly, “I said I wouldn’t leave without you, but she made me. I was little like you were, don’t you see? She made me do things I didn’t want to do, just like your father made you do things you didn’t want to do!”

Dottie stared at me, affected by my words, and then we both looked toward the window as the low buzz of a motorboat filtered into our hearing. It was close, in the cove below, and when the boat’s air horn began to sound short emergency blasts, Dottie dropped the cleaver on the table and ran up the steps. It was Black or Bud, I knew it, but I didn’t move until I heard Dottie’s footsteps cross to the front door and go outside. Then I put my foot on the table and jabbed at Harve’s shoulder.

“Harve, Harve, wake up, wake up; we’ve got to get outta here!”

Harve shook his head, trying to listen to me. It took a few seconds for him to awaken, and I kept yelling at him until he turned his head and looked blearily in my direction.

“The cleaver’s on the table. Get it, quick, get it, and cut me loose.”

I groaned when he laid his head back and closed his eyes, but then he tried to sit up. He knocked into the decapitated head, and it fell off the table and shattered the Blue Willow plate.

“There, Harve, there beside your head; grab it and cut me loose!”

Groggy from the drug, Harve moved so slowly that I twisted on the ropes, no longer thinking of the pain in my shoulder. When he got hold of the cleaver, I screamed, “Cut me loose, cut me loose!”

He pushed himself on his side, then raised up enough to slash at the ropes holding my arms. He missed them, chopped at them again, and missed again, and I looked at the door at the top of the steps and tried to lean toward him so he could reach me with the cleaver.

“Harve, hurry; she’ll be back any minute!” He swung at the ropes again, and they finally gave way, but he lost his balance and fell headfirst off the table. I scrambled to the floor and held out my wrists to him. “Cut through the tape. Quick, quick, hurry!”

“What’s Dottie doing? Why’d she tie you up?” he said in confusion.

“Just cut through the tape. Now!” I cried, and he cut through the tape, and I was free. I stuck the cleaver into my belt and grabbed the bat, then stood paralyzed when I heard footsteps running across the floor upstairs. I backed into the darkness away from Harve, but Dottie ran past the cellar door and into the back of the house. A door slammed somewhere; then I heard her footsteps running to the front door again, and then she was gone. Somebody was coming to help us, but I couldn’t count on them getting her before she got us.

My shoulder was killing me and bleeding profusely now, and I knew I couldn’t best Dottie in a fight injured the way I was, even with the cleaver. She was too strong, and I also knew we couldn’t escape through the house without running into her. I ran to the coal chute and climbed the concrete incline to the low door with a window. I looked outside, but it was too dark to see anything. It was still pouring, and I turned the latch and shoved the door open. I waited a second, rain stinging my face, cleaver gripped in my hand, waiting for Dottie to see me. But she didn’t come, and I jumped back down and grabbed Harve’s face with both hands.

“Harve, listen, listen to me. You’ve gotta help me get you up that ramp over there. Can you drag yourself?”

“What’s going on?…”

“Just do it, Harve. Can you move?”

He began to pull himself with his arms, and I put the bat under my arm and got hold of the back of his shirt and dragged him along with all my strength. He was still under the effects of the drug, and every few minutes he’d stop and become deadweight, and I’d prod him and pull him again, until I got him up the ramp and to the edge of the door, and we both dropped out and hit the ground together. I felt the stitches tear loose, and the blood was hot where it ran down my arm, but the back porch light was on, and I could see Dottie down on the path that led to the lake.

“Shhh, Harve, don’t say anything. Just try to stay awake.”

I crawled along on the ground, dragging him along with me and heading for the thick undergrowth that surrounded the house. When Harve collapsed in exhaustion, I knelt and got my hands under his arms and pulled him toward the woods. It took several minutes to reach cover, and I considered the barn as a hiding place but knew she’d find us there. The woods would be safer, so I half-carried, half-dragged Harve through the mud and kept my eyes on the path as long as I could. Then I saw her, a flashlight beam leading her to the back porch. Oh, God, she was going to find us missing. We had to hide, had to find someplace to hide.

I kept going, praying she wouldn’t go into the cellar yet, giving us time to get away, but it was dark and pouring rain, and Harve was groaning. Then I heard her yelling my name in the distance, saw the flashlight beams moving from side to side in wide, sweeping arcs. She was coming.

I saw a fallen log and dragged Harve to it, then frantically dug in the soft ground with the cleaver. When I made an indentation, I pushed Harve back under the log and raked sodden leaves up over him; then, as the light beams got closer, I slid in with my back against his chest and desperately pulled leaves and branches over both of us.

“Annie, what’s—”

“Shhh, Harve,” I said and clamped my hand over his mouth.

I could hear Dottie’s voice now. “Annie, Annie, you’re being a bad, bad little girl. You’re gonna get in big trouble when you get home.”

She was getting closer, moving back and forth in the rain. I gripped the cleaver tightly and peered through the branches. Lightning flashed, and I saw that she was only about twenty feet away.

I lay still and waited for her to find us.

“Yoo-hoo, Annie, where are you?”

I kept still. Harve was unconscious behind me. The first time Dottie had come looking for us, she had stepped around the log in the darkness and had not found us. This time we probably wouldn’t be so lucky. She had run back to the house when the air horn had started up again down on the lake, but I had stayed put and tried to stanch the bleeding of my shoulder with a scrap of Harve’s shirt. I was shivering uncontrollably in my torn bra and pants and was getting weaker by the minute. I knew I couldn’t drag Harve any farther, so I prayed whoever was in the boat would come up the hill and look for us. Now Dottie was back and getting closer, and the darkness was giving way to a misty gray light.

“I’ve got a new surprise for you, Annie,” Dottie singsonged happily, about thirty yards away from the log. “You’re gonna
love
it.”

I tried to see her but couldn’t without moving, and I was afraid to move. Harve groaned, and I stifled the sound with my hand.

“I don’t have time to keep looking for you, Annie. But I tell you what: I’m not gonna kill Harve, if that’s what made you run away. I like him too much, anyway. I just wanted to kill a friend of yours in front of you, and he was the only one I had. But now that’s all changed: I’ve got somebody else to kill now, and I don’t even like him, so it’ll be easier. I’ll trade you Harve if you’ll come in and watch me kill Doctor Black.”

I shut my eyes and didn’t move. She was lying. Please let her be lying.

“It’s really him, Annie, and he came all the way out here to find you. You didn’t like him much at first, but you ended up sleeping with him, didn’t you? You’re not much of a friend, Annie. You just forgot all about me and Harve and spent all your time hanging around with him. Well, guess what? He’s hanging around on my porch now, just waiting for us.” She gave a cackling laugh; then there was silence under the dripping trees.

I debated whether she could get the jump on a man like Black, but he wouldn’t be expecting Dottie to be here; he’d be expecting her to be dead. If he’d been the one blowing the horn, she could have knocked him out with something or led him into a trap when he walked up the hill.

“Listen, Annie, hear this?” There was a crackling buzz over the sound of the drizzling rain, and I knew that sound well. I bit my lip. Oh, God, she’d gotten him with a stun gun.

“It’s my new toy, and it works really good, Annie. You should see him jerking around on the ground, just like Mr. Twitchy Tail. I bet you never thought you’d see him get his, did you? And you know what? I’m going back over there right now, and I’m going to zap him every minute or two until you come out. When I see you, I’ll stop, but not before. So you hurry up now, you hear?”

I put my face down in the wet dirt, and I tried to think what to do now, but I was all out of options. I’d been trained with stun guns and police Tasers. I’d seen demonstrations of what they did to people. A couple of seconds completely immobilized a grown man. Three seconds or longer felt like the victim had been dropped out of a building onto concrete. It wasn’t designed to be used more than once or twice; Black couldn’t take it over and over. Dottie wouldn’t stop until she killed him with it.

I took a deep breath, then crawled out from under the log. Dottie was gone, so I covered Harve up with leaves and dead limbs. I kept the cleaver in one hand and the baseball bat in the other and stayed low as I edged through the undergrowth toward the opposite side of the house. Maybe she’d go inside for a moment and leave him; maybe I could find a way to get him away from her. When I was almost to the far side of the house, I heard a static crackle and then Black’s agonized cry, then Dottie’s voice.

“That’s number five, Annie, but who’s counting? You’re not being very nice to your new boyfriend, letting me have my way with him like this. C’mon now, he’s not that bad. Even I’m beginning to feel guilty shocking him so many times.”

I could see her now where she sat on the porch swing. She had her right foot on the railing, pushing the swing back and forth as if enjoying a quiet, rainy morning. Then she reached out and hit Black’s chest with the stun gun, and his body went into horrible, kicking spasms. I couldn’t stand it, couldn’t stand to see her hurting him. I placed the cleaver and bat on the ground and stood up, and when Dottie saw me, she jumped up and clapped her hands.

“I knew you couldn’t stand to see him suffer. You love him, don’t you?”

Black was still convulsing a little, and his eyes were shut, and he was groaning, and I wanted Dottie to get away from him.

“Dottie, come help me.” I clutched my bleeding shoulder and dropped to my knees. “I’m too weak to make it any farther. I’ve lost so much blood; you’ve got to stitch me up again. I think I’m bleeding to death.”

“No, you aren’t. That’s just a trick. You think you’re smarter than I am, but you’re not.”

“Please help me, help me, and I’ll go with you, Dottie. I’ll be part of your family. That’s where I belong, with you and your family. That’s where I want to be forever.”

Dottie hesitated, then moved to the top of the steps. Behind her, I saw Black coming out of the shock and trying to swing back and forth so he could kick her.

I said, “I love you so much, Dottie. I didn’t realize it until you gave me that wonderful party, and I got to be with everyone again. It was great, and I wasn’t sad and lonely anymore. I was happy, truly happy.”

“Do you mean it, Annie? Really, truly, that you’ll come live with us and meet the new friends I bring home?”

Black was ready to strike now, and I held my breath as he pulled his knee up and kicked her as hard as he could with the heel of his foot. He got her in the back of the head, and she went sprawling down the steps, and in my adrenaline rush, I grabbed up the cleaver and charged her. She rolled and came up on her hands and knees and lunged at me with the stun gun, but I dodged it and swiped a gaping wound across her back. She screamed in pain but got up and ran for the path. I took the cleaver and chopped through the rope holding Black suspended. He fell, and I knelt beside him and cut his wrists apart. He was still half-dazed, but when I saw him clawing at his ankle, I realized he had a gun strapped there. I grabbed it from the holster and took off after Dottie. All I could think about was stopping her, making her pay for what she’d done to me and everyone I’d ever loved.

By the time I reached the top of the path, she was halfway down the hill. I drew up, aimed, and fired but missed, then half-ran, half-slid down the hill after her. She was going to escape in Black’s Cobalt, and I wasn’t going to let her get away to kill again, not even if it killed
me
. I fired again but couldn’t hit her through the trees. Then she was in the boat. Seconds later, I jumped into the bow after her, gun out in front, but when she rammed the motor in reverse, I fell forward and the gun spiraled out of my reach. The motor died, and I scrambled after the gun, and then Dottie jerked off a boat paddle clamped to the side and hit me in the leg with it so hard, I felt a shinbone crack.

Groaning, I lunged for the gun, but then Black was there, barreling out of nowhere, tackling Dottie and taking her with him over the side into the water. I got the gun and pulled myself up the side of the Cobalt to shoot her as sirens sounded above us at the house. But Black already had Dottie by the throat, choking her and holding her under the water, his face so dark and enraged that I knew he was going to drown her.

“Black, Black, let her go, let her go. It’s over!”

Black didn’t let up, didn’t even hear me, so I fired a shot in the air and that brought him spinning around to me and back to his senses. He let her go and left her floating facedown in the water. About the time he heaved himself onto the stern platform, Bud showed up on the path, gun in hand. Black crawled up to me, still shaking with rage, and I collapsed on the floor, in relief and pain and exhaustion.

“Good God, we’ve got to stop the bleeding,” Black muttered, stripping off his shirt and holding it against the gaping hole in my shoulder. He stretched out and yelled over his shoulder to Bud, who was dragging a limp and lifeless Dottie out of the water.

“Call an ambulance. Claire’s hurt bad!”

I caught hold of Black’s arm and whispered, “Harve’s out in the woods beside the barn. Tell them he’s hidden under a log. Tell them to get him out of there.”

“Okay, we’ll get him,” Black said, examining my swelling leg.

I said, “Now, tell them now.”

Black yelled and told them about Harve, and that’s the very last thing I remembered before I got pulled down into that safe, dark hidey-hole of unconsciousness again, where I knew no pain and nobody chased me with a cleaver.