P. Parrish - An Unquiet Grave

He had stayed in the shower almost thirty minutes, feeling the hot water burn his skin, standing there, eyes closed, hoping the heat and water would somehow wash away the stench of the tunnel and everything else, but knowing somewhere inside that nothing would ever wash it off.

Charlie was staring at the cops, his breaths slow and heavy.

“I messed up,” he said finally.

“We both did.”

Charlie glanced at him, holding the look a long time before he spoke. “They told me you got stuck in the hole.”

“Yes.”

“Were you down there a long time?”

“Yes.”

“Was it dark?”

“Yes.”

“Were you scared?”

Louis didn’t answer. Charlie drew his feet to the edge of the bunk and wrapped his arms around his knees.

“Did you see them?” Charlie asked.

“See who?”

“Those things that come in the dark.”

“Yes,” Louis said. “I saw things.”

“Did you see the apple babies?”

“I heard them.”

Charlie lowered his head to his knees and was quiet for a long time. “They’re not coming back, are they?”

“No,” Louis said quietly.

Charlie lifted his head and pulled his knees closer to his chest, watching the stir of activity in the office.

“You don’t need the apple babies to make a new home somewhere, Charlie,” Louis said. “You have everything you need to do that by yourself.”

They sat silent, only the ringing of phones and murmur of voices in their ears. Charlie seemed to be thinking about what Louis had just said. Then Charlie looked at him, his eyes clear and focused.

“‘I had a dream,’” he said softly. “‘I had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream.’”

“That’s from your book,” Louis said.

Charlie nodded. “Do you know what it means?”

Louis let out a long breath. “Yes, I do.”

Detective Bloom stood behind his desk, collar open, tie loose, his eyes fogged with fatigue or maybe disbelief, Louis wasn’t sure. Dalum stood off to the right, and another detective Louis didn’t know stood to the left.

All three were digesting what he had just told them, which had been everything he knew about this whole case. The rapes, dating back to Claudia and including Millie Reuben, and both of them being burned with cigarettes. How they had dug up Donald Lee Becker. Louis then went on to betray Dr. Seraphin, explaining how she came to E Building and picked out suspects. How Ives had been one of those suspects.

And then he had wrapped it up with his theory of how Dr. Seraphin had for some reason condoned or arranged the rapes, and that there had been babies conceived-Charlie’s apple babies-and those babies were aborted or later killed because of deformities and were now in rusty cans in John Spera’s tent.

Louis waited, watching their faces, knowing with every word how insane it sounded to three seasoned cops, but he didn’t care. He knew it was true.

Bloom looked at Chief Dalum. “Maybe you should take Kincaid back to your house, Dan.”

Dalum looked at Louis, trying to work some sympathy into his face, but Louis was seeing only incredulity.

“I know how crazy it seems,” Louis said. “But I can take you to Millie Reuben. She’ll tell you. She may even be able to identify Ives as her rapist.”

“No.”

“Then take me to Dr. Seraphin’s lake house,” Louis said, stepping forward. “Confront her on all this. Ask her about our trip to E Building and how she picked Ives out and why she let him do what he did.”

Again, they were quiet. Louis felt a slow shiver make its way across his shoulders as he waited for an answer, some sign that they would take this one step further.

“Do your damn job,” Louis said. “Just ask her some questions. She knows everything.”

“All right,” Bloom said. “I’ll go out there.”

“I want to go with you.”

“Jesus Christ,” Bloom said. “Give me a break here, Kincaid. You’re in no shape to go anywhere.”

“I can help you. I know what to ask, how to handle her.”

Bloom gave a heavy sigh and he looked to Dalum, then back at Louis. “All right, but you keep your mouth shut unless I need you to open it. We clear?”

“Yeah.”

Bloom picked his coat up off the chair, his head moving in a slow, impatient shake.

“I want my gun,” Louis said. “Give it back to me.”

Bloom was pulling the black overcoat on his shoulders. “Not today, Kincaid. You see yourself a doctor first and we’ll talk about that.”

Louis rubbed his face, fighting the urge to argue, knowing he wouldn’t win. He turned and left the office, walking stiffly through the halls and pushing out the front doors.

Everything was gray and muted and cold. He stood on the steps for a few minutes, then walked down to the sidewalk, head bent, hands in his pockets.

The door opened behind him and he looked back to see Chief Dalum come out, but he turned away from him, not wanting a lecture. Or sympathy. Or pity.

“Louis,” Dalum said.

When Louis didn’t answer him, Dalum came up next to him and stood quietly for a second before speaking. “I want you to know, I believe most of what you said in there.”

Louis stared at the ground.

“Something else, too,” Dalum said. “The state has no death certificate on file for Claudia DeFoe.”

Louis could not answer. There was something in his head that couldn’t grasp what Dalum was telling him. Couldn’t figure out what to do with the information. God, what was wrong with him?

He felt Dalum’s hand on his shoulder. “It’s time for you to go home,” he said. “You need to be with family right now.”

Louis’s eyes were drawn to a state cruiser pulling from the parking lot. It stopped in front of the station, and Bloom honked the horn for him.

Louis faced Dalum, reaching slowly into his pocket and withdrawing his wallet. He flipped it open and took out the Ardmore badge.

“Thanks for everything, Dan,” Louis said.

Dalum took the badge and Louis walked away from him, toward the blue cruiser.

Oliver opened the door of the lake house and stood there, one hand still on the door to block their entry. Bloom held open his coat so Oliver could see the badge.

“We’d like to see Dr. Seraphin.”

Oliver’s chin dipped in a quick nod and he walked away, leaving the door open as he disappeared down the hall. Louis and Bloom made their way to the living room. Louis was drawn to the fireplace and moved to it, holding out his hands. Bloom went to a window.

“Lake’s not frozen over yet,” Bloom said.

Louis didn’t answer.

“Pretty isolated area for a woman who might be in danger from a crazy man,” Bloom added, turning back to Louis.

“I think the man who let us in is her bodyguard,” Louis said. “My guess is she’s had him for years.”

“Why?”

“Because she knew Ives might come after her someday.”

Bloom looked at Louis, his face wrinkled with the same doubt as it had shown in his office. Louis let it go, edging closer to the fire. He heard footsteps coming back down the hall, then Oliver’s voice.

“The doctor will see you in the den.”

Dr. Seraphin was standing near the glass doors that led out to the snow-covered deck, a glass of white wine in her hand. Behind her, the lake moved with an icy slowness, almost blending into the smoke-colored afternoon sky.

Her eyes went to Louis and stayed there. She seemed to sense something was different and her face reflected first a glimmer of curiosity, then changed to a mask of defiance. Maybe anger.

“Good afternoon, Officers,” she said.