And then, as if I'd already slid into that bath, and found it freezing, chills went up my spine.
Jesse. My hasty discussion with Jesse before I'd left for Tad's. Jesse had gone to Father Dominic.
No, he wouldn't have. I'd told him not to. Not unless I wasn't back by midnight. And I'd gotten home by ten. Earlier, even. Nine forty-five.
That couldn't be it, I told myself. That couldn't possibly be it. Father Dominic did not know about Jesse. He did not know a thing.
Still, when I said hello, I said it tentatively.
Father Dominic's voice was warm. "Oh, hello, Susannah," he gushed. "So sorry to call so late, only I needed to discuss yesterday's student council meeting with you - "
"It's okay, Father D," I said. "My mom hung up the downstairs phone."
Father Dominic's voice changed completely. It was no longer warm. Instead, it was very indignant.
"Susannah," he said. "Delighted as I am to find that you are all right, I would just like to know when, if ever, you were going to tell me about this Jesse person."
Oops.
"He tells me he has been living in your bedroom since you moved to California several weeks ago, and that you have been perfectly aware, all this time, of that fact."
I had to hold the phone away from my ear. I'd always known, of course, that Father Dominic would be mad when he found out about Jesse. But I never guessed he'd go ballistic.
"This is the most outrageous thing I've ever heard." Father D was really warming to the subject. "What would your poor mother say if she knew? I simply don't know what I'm going to do with you, Susannah. I thought you and I had established a certain amount of trust in our relationship, but all this time, you've been keeping this Jesse fellow secret - "
Fortunately, at that moment, the call-waiting went off. I said, "Oh, hold on a minute, would you, Father D?"
As I hit the receiver, I heard him say, "Do not put me on hold while I am speaking to you, young lady - "
I'd been expecting Debbie Mancuso to be on the other line, but to my surprise, it was Cee Cee.
"Hey, Suze," she said. "I was doing a little more research on your boyfriend's dad - "
"He's not my boyfriend," I said, automatically. Especially not now.
"Yeah, okay, your would-be boyfriend, then. Anyway, I thought you might be interested to know that after his wife - Tad's mom - died ten years ago, things really started going downhill for Mr. B."
I raised my eyebrows. "Downhill? Like how? Not financially. I mean, if you ever saw where they live …"
"No, not financially. I mean that after she died - breast cancer, diagnosed too late to treat; don't worry, nobody killed her - Mr. B sort of lost interest in all of his many companies, and started keeping to himself."
Aha. This was probably when the first onset of his "disorder" began.
"Here's the really interesting part, though," Cee Cee said. I could hear her tapping on her keyboard. "It was around this time that Red Beaumont handed over almost all of his responsibilities to his brother."
"Brother?"
"Yeah. Marcus Beaumont."
I was genuinely surprised. Marcus was related to Mr. Beaumont? I'd thought him a mere flunky. But he wasn't. He was Tad's uncle.
"That's what it says. Mr. Beaumont - Tad's dad - is still the figurehead, but this other Mr. Beaumont is the one who's really been running things for the past ten years."
I froze.
Oh my God. Had I got it wrong?
Maybe it hadn't been Red Beaumont at all who'd killed Mrs. Fiske. Maybe it had been Marcus. The other Mr. Beaumont.
Did Mr. Beaumont kill you? That's what I'd asked Mrs. Fiske. And she'd said yes. But Mr. Beaumont to her might have been Marcus, not poor, vampire-wannabe Red Beaumont.
No, wait. Tad's father had told me straight out that he felt sorry for having killed all those people. That had been his motivation for inviting me over all along: he'd been hoping I'd help him communicate with his victims.
But Tad's father was clearly a couple of fries short of a Happy Meal. I don't think he could have killed a cockroach, let alone another human being.
No, whoever had killed Mrs. Fiske and those other people had been smart enough to cover his tracks . . . and Tad's dad was no Daniel Boone, let me tell you.
His brother, on the other hand …
"I'm getting a really bad feeling about all this," Cee Cee was saying. "I mean, I know we can't prove anything - and despite what Adam thinks, it's highly unlikely anything my aunt Pru would have to contribute would be permissible in court - but I think we have a moral obligation - "
The call-waiting went off again. Father D. I'd forgotten all about Father D. He'd hung up in a rage and was calling back.
"Look, Cee Cee," I said, still feeling sort of numb. "We'll talk about it tomorrow at school, okay?"
"Okay," Cee Cee said. "But I'm just letting you know, Suze, I think we've stumbled onto something big here."
Big? Try gargantuan.
But it wasn't Father Dominic on the other line, I found out, after I pressed down on the receiver:
It was Tad.
"Sue?" he said. He still sounded a little groggy.
And he still seemed to have only a slight clue what my name was.
"Um, hi, Tad," I said.
"Sue, I am so sorry," he said. Grogginess aside, he sounded as if he meant it. "I don't know what happened. I guess I was more tired than I thought. You know, at practice they run us pretty hard, and some nights I just conk out sooner than others...."
Yeah, I said to myself. I bet.
"Don't worry about it," I said. Tad had way bigger things to concern himself with than falling asleep during a date.
"But I want to make it up to you," Tad insisted. "Please let me. What are you doing Saturday night?"
Saturday night? I forgot all about how this kid was related to a possible serial killer. What did that matter? He was asking me out. On a date. A real date. On Saturday night. Visions of candlelight and French kissing danced in my head. I could hardly speak, I was so flattered.
"I have a game," Tad went on, "but I figured you could come watch me play, and then afterward we could maybe get a pizza with the rest of the guys or something."
My excitement died a rapid little death.
Was he kidding? He wanted me to come watch him play basketball? Then go out with him and the rest of the team? For pizza? I wasn't even burger material? I mean, at this point, I'd settle for Sizzler, for crying out loud.
"Sue," Tad said when I didn't say anything right away. "You aren't mad at me, are you? I mean, I really didn't mean to fall asleep on you."
What was I thinking, anyway? It would never work out between the two of us. I mean, I'm a mediator. His dad's a vampire. His uncle's a killer. What if we got married? Think how our kids would turn out....
Confused. Way confused.
Kind of like Tad.
"It wasn't that you were boring me, or anything," he went on. "Really. Well, I mean, that thing you were talking about was kind of boring - the thing about that statue with the head that needed gluing back on. That story, I mean. But not you. You're not boring, Susan. That's not why I fell asleep, I swear it."
"Tad," I said, annoyed by how many times he'd felt it necessary to assure me I hadn't been boring him - a sure sign I'd been boring him senseless - and of course by the fact that he could not seem to remember my name. "Grow up."
He said, "Whadduya mean?"
"I mean you didn't fall asleep, okay? You passed out because your dad slipped some Seconal or something into your coffee."
Okay, maybe that wasn't the most diplomatic way to tell the guy his father needed to up his meds. But hey, nobody's going to go around accusing me of being boring. Nobody.