"Oh, I didn't say that," Eppstadt replied, somewhat cautiously. "I didn't say I didn't believe. I've been to Gettysburg and felt the presence of the dead. But a battlefield is one thing—"
"And an old Hollywood dream palace is another? Why? People suffered here, believe me. A few even took their own lives. I don't know why I'm telling you. You know how people suffer here. You cause half of it. This miserable town's awash with envy and anger. You know how cruel LA makes people. How hungry."
The word rang a bell. Eppstadt thought of the face of the woman at the back of the house. The appetite in her eyes.
"They might not be the kind of ghosts you think you hear moaning at Gettysburg," Jerry went on. "But believe me, they are very dead and they are very desperate. So the sooner we find Maxine and Sawyer and get out of here the better for all of us."
"Oh dear God," Eppstadt said softly.
"What?"
"I'm starting to believe you."
"Then we've made some progress, I suppose."
"Why didn't you tell me all this before we came up here?"
"Would it have stopped you coming?"
"No."
"You see? You needed to see for yourself."
"Well, I've seen," Eppstadt said. "And you're right. As soon as Joe's closed the door, we'll all go out and find Maxine and Sawyer. You're sure those things—"
"Use the word, Eppstadt."
"I don't want to."
"For God's sake, it's just a word."
"All right... ghosts. Are you sure they won't come after us? They looked vicious."
"They want to get into the house. It's as I said: that's all they care about. They want to get back into the Devil's Country."
"Do you know why?"
"I've half a notion, but I don't fancy sharing it with you. Shall we not waste time standing around trying to guess what the dead want?" He returned his gaze to the expanse of green outside the window.
"Well all of us know sooner than we care to."
TWO
At 5:49 a.m., when the 6.9 earthquake (later discovered to have had its epicenter in Pasadena) had shaken Los Angeles out of its pre-dawn doze, Tammy had been standing on the nameless street outside Katya Lupi's house in Coldheart Canyon, drawn back to the place with an ease that suggested she had it in her blood now, for better or worse.
She had left the party at the Colony a few minutes after the departure of Eppstadt's expedition, having decided that there was little point in her waiting on the beach. If Todd and Katya were still in the water, then they were dead by now, their corpses carried off by the tide toward Hawaii or Japan. And if by some miracle they had survived, then they surely wouldn't go back to Maxine's house. They would head home to the Canyon.
Her initial plan was to give up on this whole sorry adventure, return to the hotel on Wilshire, shower, change into some fresh clothes and then get the first available flight out of Los Angeles. She'd done all she could for Todd Pickett. More than he deserved, Lord knows. And what had she got for her trouble? In the end, little more than his contempt. She wasn't going to put herself in the way of that ever again. If she wanted to cause herself pain all she had to do was bang her head against the kitchen door. She didn't need to come all the way to Los Angeles to do that.
But as she drove back to the hotel, fragments of things that she'd seen in the Canyon, and later in the house, came back to her; images that inspired more awe in her soul than terror. She would never get another chance to see such sights this side of the grave, certainly; should she not take the opportunity to go back, one last time? If she didn't go now, by tomorrow it would be too late. The Canyon would have found new protections against her—or anybody else's—inquiry; new charms and mechanisms designed to conceal its raptures from curious eyes.
And, of course, there was always the remote possibility that Todd had survived the ocean and made his way back up there. That, more than any other, was the strongest reason to return.
Her decision made, she drove on up to Sunset—forgetting about the shower and change of clothes—and made her way back to the Canyon.
No doubt it was foolhardy, returning to a place where she had endured so much but, besides her desire to see the spectacles of the place one last time, and putting aside any hopes she might have for Todd's survival, she could not shake the niggling suspicion that her business at the house was not at an end. She had no intellectual justification for such a feeling; just a certainty, marrow-deep, that this was the case. She'd know when it was over. And it was not.
It had been an eerie drive up the winding Canyon road in the pre-dawn gloom. She had deliberately switched off her headlights so as to attract as little attention as possible, but that made her feel even more vulnerable somehow; as though she were not quite real herself, here in this Canyon of a Thousand Illusions.
Twice something had moved across the road in front of her, its gray form unfixable in the murk. She put on the brakes, and let the creature cross.
Once she got to the house she realized she was not the first visitor. There were two cars already parked outside. She was crossing the street to examine the other two when the earthquake hit.
She'd been in earthquakes before, but she'd never actually been standing so close to the bedrock while one took place. It was quite an experience. She almost lost control of her bladder, as the road idled under her feet, and the trees, especially the big ones, creaked and churned. She stood and waited for the first shock wave to pass, which seemed an eternity.
Then, when her heart had recovered something approximating its natural rhythm, she headed toward Katya Lupi's dream palace.
Eppstadt was in the hallway, looking down the stairwell. It was dark at the bottom, but he thought he saw a motion in the darkness; like motes of pale dust, spiraling around.
"Joe?" he called. "Are you there? Answer me, will you?"
The sound from below had died away: the din of beasts was now barely audible. All that remained was the sound of the wind, which was remarkably consistent, lending credence to the notion that what he was hearing was a soundtrack, not reality. But where the hell had Joe got to? It was fully five minutes since he'd disappeared down the stairs to close the slamming door.
"I wouldn't go down there if I were you."
Eppstadt glanced over his shoulder to see that Brahms had forsaken his place at the window, and had come into the hallway.
"He doesn't answer me," Eppstadt said. "I thought perhaps he'd fallen, or ... I don't know. The door's still slamming. Hear it?"
"Of course."
"I don't suppose you want to go down there and close it for me?"
"You're big on delegation, aren't you? Do they teach you that in business school?"
"It's just a door."
"So close it yourself."
Eppstadt threw Brahms a sour look. "Or don't. Leave him down there if that's what your instincts are telling you."
"And if I do?"
"Put it this way: the longer you wait, the less chance there is you'll ever see him again."
"I should never have sent him down there," Eppstadt said.
"Huh. I never thought I'd hear that from you."
"Hear what?"
"Regret. This place is changing you. Even you. I'm impressed."
Eppstadt didn't reply. He simply stared down the long curve of the stairway, still hoping he'd see Joe's well-made face emerging from the shadows. But the only motion down there was the dust stirred up by the wind, circling on itself.
"Joe!" he yelled.
There wasn't even an echo from below. The bowels of the house seemed to consume the shouted syllable.
"I'm going upstairs," Jerry said, "to see if there's anybody up there."