The Loveliest Dead (19 page)

“Father Malcolm?” Penner laughed. “Malcolm DiGenova. He’s a piece of work. He was defrocked about twenty years ago. An embezzler and a convicted pedophile.”

“Wow. I’m afraid to ask which one got him defrocked.”

“Don’t. I never figured out exactly how the Binghams hooked up with this guy, but it was sometime in the mid-seventies. Every time they find a new infestation of demons, Father Malcolm puts on his priest clothes and does his little exorcism show. It gives their books an ending and makes for nice tabloid photo ops.”
 

“What does the Catholic church think of the Binghams and Father Malcolm?”

“They don’t even
acknowledge
the Binghams, let alone condone what they do.”
 

“Why hasn’t anyone pointed out the truth about Father Malcolm?”

“Some have. Arthur and Mavis appeared on
Jenny Jones
in the late nineties with James Randi, the famous debunker. Randi pointed it out then, and Arthur stood up and challenged him to a fistfight. Security had to come up on the stage and physically put Arthur back in his chair. They’ve been on other radio and television talk shows, and every once in a while, someone tells the truth about him. But it never sticks. Like I said, people
want
to believe this stuff. Ever hear of the Fox sisters?”
 

“The founders of modern American spiritualism, weren’t they?”

“The same. They lived in a farmhouse in Rochester, New York. Katherine was eleven and Margaret was thirteen in 1848 when they claimed to hear strange rapping sounds coming from a room in the house. They said it was the spirit of a murdered itinerant peddler who was rumored to have been buried in their basement. Pretty soon, people were coming from everywhere—I mean, from all over the
world
—to witness these rappings. The girls became famous and made a fortune traveling around America and England putting on their little rapping show.”
 

“That much I remember,” Lily said.

“Forty years later, they ‘fessed up and admitted the whole thing was a hoax. At first, they used an apple on a string to make the rapping sounds—they’d thump it against a wall by pulling on the string. Later, they realized they could produce the sounds by popping the joints of their big toes.” He chuckled. “Then they went on an ‘exposure tour’ to show everybody how they’d done it, and for the second time, people flocked to see them perform. Even after they admitted they were frauds, people
still
came to see the Fox sisters make their rapping sounds. People love this stuff. They don’t want to know the truth—they prefer the lie.”
 

“That’s pretty cynical, don’t you think?”

“Nope. You want to be the least popular person at the magic show? Tell everybody how the magician does his tricks. Trust me.”

“How did you manage to uncover all this stuff on the Binghams?” Lily asked.

“I studied journalism in college. That’s what I planned to do with my life. How I ended up here is anybody’s guess.”

“How
did
you end up there?”
 

“I sort of inherited it. My grandpa started it back in the seventies—inspired, in fact, by the Binghams. Then my uncle took it over in the eighties. Somehow, I got myself wrapped up in it. I enjoy it, to be honest. It’s pretty sleepy around here most of the time, but it’s okay.”
 

“If you don’t mind being the least popular person at the magic show.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, well, there’s that.”

A couple minutes later, Lily finished the Danish. She thought of the horribly burned face she’d seen in her vision and wondered what it meant. Something bad was going to happen soon, and it would involve the Binghams. But she still did not know what, when, or where it would take place.
 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Tuesday, 3:09 P.M.

That afternoon, Jenna got a phone call from a young woman named Avril Lauter. She was a college student with a paper that needed to be typed and printed up, and she wanted to bring it to Jenna first thing tomorrow morning.
 

It had started slow back in Redding, Jenna remembered, but after half a dozen customers had been satisfied, word got around that she was reliable and reasonable, and business had picked up. Jenna was confident the same thing would happen here, and it would start with Avril Lauter.
 

She expected David to be in a good mood when he got home from work, but he was tired and preoccupied. He had not been home five minutes when he asked her to call the Sheriff’s Department and ask for Hooper or Caruso and find out if they ever found those kids.
 

“I’d do it,” he said with an apologetic smile, “but you’re a lot better on the phone with people than I am.”

Jenna looked up the number and called. She managed to catch Deputy Hooper at the station, and learned that the children had not been found.
 

Deputy Hooper said, “I’m sure they’re fine. If something had happened to them, we would’ve heard about it by now. But if they come back, don’t hesitate to call us.”
 

Jenna found David sitting in his recliner in the living room, frowning at the television as he thumbed the remote. She told him what Deputy Hooper had said. “You’re still worried about those kids, aren’t you?” she said.
 

“They were here again last night. After you went to sleep.”

“They were? Why didn’t you wake me? Did you talk to them?”

“No, they took off.”

“The same kids?”

“Yeah, they were the same ones.” He sighed. “I walked all the way around the fence when I got home and didn’t find any openings. They have to be going through the gate. I’m going to put a padlock on it”
 

“I think there are a couple new ones in the toolbox, still in their blister packs.”

He put the remote on the arm of the chair and stood. “I’ll go look.”

Half an hour later, the gate in the Cyclone fence was firmly locked with a large Schlage padlock. David seemed distracted the rest of the evening. They ate dinner in the living room in front of the television, as usual. Jenna was able to get David to talk about his day at work a little while they ate, but he soon became preoccupied again. After dinner, he dozed in the recliner.
 

Jenna cleaned up in the kitchen, then went looking for Miles. He wasn’t in the living room with David and Martha, so she went upstairs and found him at the computer operating a joystick, playing a game on the Internet. She took a stack of shoe boxes off a chair, put it beside Miles, and seated herself.
 

“Is all your homework done?”

“Yep. I did it right after school.”

“Good for you. How’s school going?”

“Fine.”

“Really? Just fine? It’s not fantastic, or wonderful?”

“It’s fine. Really.” He smiled at her briefly before turning back to the monitor.

“Are you making friends? I mean, besides Todd Haney?”

“Todd’s okay. He’s kinda weird.”

Jenna reached out and turned his chair so he was facing her. “Hey, I want to talk about your nightmare. I don’t like it that you’re having trouble sleeping.”
 

“I’m only having trouble sleeping in my bedroom in the dark,” he said, as if it were all quite simple.

“Tell me about this nightmare.”

Miles looked into her eyes a moment, then cocked his head—he seemed to come to some decision. “I see a big fat man coming up through the floor of my bedroom with some kinda hat on his head.”
 

“And what does this man do?”

“He just talks to me.”

“What does he say?”

Miles lowered his voice to a growl. “ ‘You gonna be a good puppy? Be a good puppy and come on over here.’ Stuff like that.”

Jenna’s stomach did a fast-elevator flip when she heard the malice in Miles’s impersonation. “What does he look like?”

“I can’t get a good look at him because he never finishes coming up out of the floor. As soon as I turn on the light, he disappears. He doesn’t like the light.”
 

“Ah. So that’s why you want the overhead light on.”

Miles nodded.

“Well, if you haven’t gotten a good look at him, how do you know it’s a fat man?”

Miles frowned. “ ‘Cause that’s what he is. I can tell.”

“Do you think he’s going to hurt you?”

“I know he will, if he ever gets to me. I can tell by the way he talks to me that he wants to do bad things to me.”

“How tall is this man?”

“I don’t know, because he never comes all the way up.”

“How high does he get?”

“I don’t know, maybe ... this high?” he said uncertainly as he held his hand out approximately forty inches off the floor.

Jenna could not tell Miles that she had been trying to communicate with Josh, or that she was certain Josh had been trying to communicate with her. She found it all very confusing, and she was a grown woman—how would a ten-year-old boy take it? But she wondered if Josh was trying to get through to Miles as well? She remembered the message from the Ouija board—HELP PUPPEEZ. The figure in Miles’s room kept calling him a puppy, and its height was about the same as the toddler she had been seeing. Could there be some connection? Could Miles be misinterpreting something from Josh?
 

She said, “I bet if you look at it closer next time, you’ll see it’s not that at all. You’ll find that it’s something much more interesting. Maybe even something pleasant.”
 

Miles returned her smile and nodded once, but he said nothing. An awkward silence fell between them. Jenna stood, bent down, and kissed him on the head.
 

“If you promise not to abuse the privilege, you can go downstairs and turn on the television if it helps you to sleep,” she said. “But you have to
try
to sleep in your bed every night, okay? And this only lasts as long as you keep having this nightmare. Is that a deal? You won’t milk this like a monkey with a coconut, will you?”
 

Miles laughed, then shook his head. “No, I won’t. Thanks, Mom.”

“I’ll put a blanket and pillow down there for you. And promise me you’ll look closer next time, just to make sure, all right?”

“I promise. I don’t
want
to, but I will. For you.”
 

She hugged him, kissed his cheek, then started out of the room. She stopped in the doorway, turned to him. “Is anything else bothering you, honey? Anything at all?”
 

“No.”

“You’d tell me if there was, wouldn’t you?”

He nodded. “Sure.”

“Okay. Go ahead and play a little longer. Then it’s bedtime.”

Downstairs, Jenna sat on the couch with Martha and watched television for a while. Fortunately, Martha had heard nothing earlier that day while Ada was there— apparently, she’d slept through the whole thing. Jenna was relieved that she did not have to explain herself to anyone.
 

While they watched television, both David and Martha nodded off for a minute or so, then jerked awake, only to do it again.

Am I the only person in this house who’s sleeping well
? Jenna wondered.
 

When they finally went to bed, David’s feet were dragging on the floor. He let his clothes drop where he stood. Jenna picked them up, took them to the bathroom, and put them in the hamper while he crawled into bed. By the time she joined him, David was already asleep. She turned out the lights, curled up beside him, and wondered what tomorrow would bring. The question did not keep her awake long.
 

David was down in the kitchen by 12:49 A.M. He had awakened suddenly to the sound of the boys’ laughter outside in the backyard. After putting on his sweats and running shoes, he’d come down to the kitchen without turning on any lights. He stood at the back door, pulled the curtain aside with a finger, and looked out the window. He could see nothing in the dark.
 

The gentle patter of rain falling outside was occasionally interrupted by the shriek of the swing’s rusted chains and the boys’ playful laughter.
 

They had to climb over the fence
, he thought. It was the only remaining possibility.
 

He unlocked the door, opened it, and went outside. He did not take the flashlight or turn on the porch light this time, because he was afraid that would scare them off. He went down the porch steps and out through the weeds. The rain was cold on his face and the back of his neck.
 

“Boys?” he said. “Don’t run away. You’re not in any trouble.”

He could see them, five dark figures standing close together in front of the swing set. One of the swings still wobbled and swayed on its chains. The boys did not move. Even after his eyes adjusted to the darkness, David could not see their faces, but he could feel them staring at him.