Bord De L’Eau, the Fourniers’ home. He had never felt anything as strongly as he did the presence of Marley. She was there and she was calling for him.
Chapter 47
Eric’s grip on Marley’s arm was not gentle. His fingers dug at her and he pulled her to her feet. “I’m tired of pretending,” he said. “We’ve got things to do.”
With Sidney, Pipes went ahead and down the steps Marley had expected to find in the pantry. Eric hurried after them and memories made Marley sick to her stomach. Her heart thudded.
To be in this place, with him, disgusted her.
Pipes had started to cry. She drew back against a wall and covered her face.
“Don’t cry, honey,” Eric said. He went to her and pulled her unresponsive body into his arms. He tilted up her face and kissed her, long and deep, then released her, laughing bitterly when she slipped down to sit on the floor and sob quietly.
“What’s wrong?” Marley asked. She started toward Pipes but Sidney yanked her back.
“Nothing you’re not going to solve,” Eric said. “Now move it—we’ve already taken too long.”
“Make sure we do everything the way we’re supposed to,” Sidney said. She didn’t sound confident anymore.
“I don’t need your input,” Eric told his sister. “We go through the locker.”
Pipes cried aloud.
“Stay with me,” Eric told her. “You’re safe with me.”
“Hah,” Sidney said.
“If you weren’t a jealous bitch we wouldn’t be going through this,” Eric said. “You had to meddle with humans. You had to want what they chase after. You wanted to be famous. Look what you’ve done.”
Sidney glared at him.
“Aren’t you human?” Marley said. It sounded like a bizarre question.
Eric smirked at her. “Not quite the way you mean.”
“I’m human,” Sidney yelled. “I want to be human. And I’ve got the best voice in this town. I’m not just a blonde bimbo. If I was like her,” she pointed at Pipes, “that journalist would have come to me first. You slept with him, didn’t you?” she shouted at Pipes.
“N-no,” Pipes mumbled.
“I’m the best,” Sidney stormed. “But I was overlooked because I’m not flashy. Liza and Amber stood in my way. Only that’s changing right now. With Pipes—for as long as I need her—I’ll get the notice I deserve. I’m going to be the biggest headliner in town once all this quiets down.”
“Sure you are,” Eric sneered. He turned to Marley. “She brought her rivals here to frighten them and threaten them. But then they couldn’t be allowed to leave because they knew too much. Sidney’s competition had to die, you see.”
“Shirley Cooper was nothing to do with me,” Sidney said. “I was just the excuse for another killing. A stupid street singer. He wanted to have her and then he wanted to kill her.”
“Shut your mouth,” Eric said. “You talk too much.”
“Where is Erin?” Marley whispered to Pipes.
The other woman only shook her head and cried harder.
“Is she okay?”
“Quiet,” Eric said. “You need to concentrate. We were worried in case Sidney had been careless, and someone would come here looking for the women. We decided to start leaving the bodies in the Quarter. That way all attention is concentrated there. We will continue until the danger is past.”
Marley decided she should just keep her mouth shut. She only became more convinced that she, too, was never intended to go free again.
“Because of her,” Eric nodded at Sidney, “at first the killing was essential to keep us safe. Strength came from destroying those women. Then the appetite for death reignited and it was all her fault. Sidney’s. The lust for thrill killing had been quelled, but once the hunger returned, it had to be fed.”
Marley listened quietly to this mad diatribe. How long did she have before they decided to dispose of her? And they would. Like the others, she was too dangerous to them as long as she was alive.
“So you killed anyone who Sidney decided was a better singer than her?” she said.
The shrieking that went up tore around the roof. “They were not better. They were lucky. Now it’s my turn. First, anyone left who can harm us will have to go.”
Who did she mean, “anyone who can harm us?”
She wasn’t asking any questions, Marley decided. If there was any chance, she would do everything in her power to stop more carnage…and the madness. That was the duty she’d taken on from Belle.
“Now,” Eric said. “Let me show you why you’re going to do everything you can to help us.”
He dragged her across the dirty concrete floor to the locker in the corner of the room.
Marley visualized the inside of the dollhouse, the pipes she had seen that would be beneath this very floor.
All around her the walls sweated, and the ceiling. Rivulets of grimy moisture trickled down—the same as on her other visits.
Eric hauled open the heavy locker door and pulled Marley inside after him. Icy vapor roiled around them. She glanced back and saw the other two women follow.
Again Marley remembered the grids under the floor. Were they some sort of freezing system? Not that it mattered anymore.
The line of white, oblong containers, like top-opening ice boxes, stretched in front of them.
“See this?” Eric said, pointing out a red lever on a wall. “All I have to do is turn this and the air in here freezes within minutes. If you’re unfortunate enough to be locked in here, it freezes your lungs.”
“Did you design all this?” Marley asked. “It’s brilliant.” Flattery pleased a lot of people.
“This was done by my…my guide,” he said, the corners of his mouth jerking down.
He threw open the first box. “They’re in order by date of death,” he said. “We’re very organized here.”
Marley looked down on a woman she recognized without knowing why. She was older and perfectly preserved—and perfectly dead. Marley held her breath. She didn’t have time to get emotional or sick.
The woman had been in that room where she’d seen Erin in the dream. The hat the woman had worn rested on her chest. Her head was twisted at an unnatural angle.
“Meet Selma,” Eric said.
Marley recoiled. “I thought Selma was your mother. I thought you were going to take me to meet her.”
“I have,” he said and giggled like a schoolgirl. “And here’s Eustace.”
The man had been bulky with a thick head of gray hair. His eyes were open and Marley had to look away.
“Not our parents. That’s just a convenient story. These two used to own the house but they were empties. Made no impression on anyone, so when they disappeared no one noticed. A new family lived here instead. Us!”
“How old are you?” Marley asked impulsively.
“We reach our perfect age within days of our birth,” Eric said. “We never change after that. That’s how old we are.”
This time it was Sidney who laughed. She pointed upward where Marley didn’t want to look. “You’ll like them,” she said. “You really will. Look.”
Unwillingly, Marley followed Sidney’s pointing finger.
“They’re next,” Sidney said. “We’re keeping them alive until they’re going to be left in the Quarter. That way they’re fresher—and they get plenty of time to consider what’s happening to them. Torture is good for the backbone, and fun to watch.”
Eric said, “Liza had already frozen before we dropped her off for her show.” He laughed. “The police could get really curious about the condition of the body, if they’ve got enough gray cells between them to notice.”
“Amber’s next,” Sidney said. “She won’t use me again.”
Marley did look up then and slammed her hands over her mouth to hold in a scream. Side by side, Amber and Pearl Brite, swathed from their feet to their necks in plastic bags and suspended in harnesses, swung gently from overhead hooks. Both were gagged.
Marley wanted to rush and get them down. Both women stared at her with terrified eyes.