“Oh, man,” Janice muttered.
“What?”
“It’s dark.”
“All the better for sneaking around, my dear.” He slung the camera strap around his neck and climbed out. While Janice scooted across the seat, he opened the back door. He lifted a blanket and flashlight off the floor.
“What’s the blanket for?” Janice whispered.
“In case we want to make out.”
She looked at him. She said nothing.
They started across the road, Janice staying close to his side. “Actually,” he said, “it’s in case we do find the hole. I’ll want to get some shots of it, and we can use the blanket to shield the flashes.”
“Clever.”
“Disappointed?”
“Oh, sure.”
They walked along the edge of the road, heading down the slope toward town. Janice’s cowboy boots sounded loud on the pavement. When the wind rushed through the trees, it seemed to Brian like the noise of an approaching car. He often looked over his shoulder.
“Nervous?” Janice asked.
“I don’t want to get run over.”
“Fat chance of that.”
“You get careful,” he said, “after you’ve had a close one.”
“Did you…?” she suddenly turned her face to him. “My God, that’s right. I forgot about that. Must’ve been pretty hairy.”
“You see your own car speeding at you without anyone at the wheel—yeah, I’d say it’s pretty hairy.”
“Awful,” she said. “God, you’ve been through a lot. I don’t know how you stood it.”
He shook his head slowly. “I came very close…to taking Martha’s way out. When I found her in the tub, and all that blood…”
Janice patted his forearm, gave it a gentle squeeze.
“Well,” he said, “it was a long time ago.”
“You must still miss her.”
“Not a day goes by when I don’t…Hey, let’s not get maudlin here and spoil the fun.”
“Fun?”
“I’m all right. Honest.”
She let go of his arm, and nodded. Her face was a dim blur in the darkness. Brian brushed her chin with his forefinger. “Let’s find that hole,” he whispered.
Near the bottom of the road, with the corner of the Beast House fence in sight, they crossed a shallow ditch and started along the slope. Brian led the way through the underbrush, ducking beneath low branches, climbing or descending to bypass trees and thickets, always staying roughly parallel to the fence. When he came to a cluster of rock, he climbed onto it and found a smooth surface. He sat down to rest. Janice settled down beside him. He put a hand on her back. “How you doing?”
“Okay.”
With no trees blocking the view, Brian could see the rear corner of the fence not far below. The lawn of Beast House was pale with moonlight. Just in back of the house stood a small enclosure of latticework. “The famous gazebo,” he said, “where Elizabeth and Dr. Ross had their ‘blissful delights.’”
“Guess so,” Janice said. “Do you really think we’re gonna find that hole?”
“Should be over there,” he answered, pointing toward the hillside directly behind the house. “Just outside the fence.”
“It could be anywhere.”
“Elizabeth wrote that the tunnel came out just beyond the property line.”
“But I don’t remember she said in which direction. It might’ve been along the back, or it might’ve been along this side. For all we know, we already passed it.”
Brian grinned. “Or it might be right behind us!”
“Creep,” she muttered, and nudged him with her elbow.
He struck back, tickling her side. She squirmed and yelped.
“Shhh. It’ll hear you.”
She clamped her arm down, pinning Brian’s hand against her side. “Gotcha,” she said. “No more tickling, okay?”
“I promise.” He slipped his hand free. “Why don’t you wait here and relax a minute? I’ll be right back.”
“Not a chance. Where you go, I go.”
“Fine with me. Pick a tree.”
“Oh. In that case. Stay close, though, okay?”
He climbed over the top of the outcropping. After only a few steps, he turned around. The back of Janice’s head was a shaggy silhouette in the darkness. “Don’t peek,” he warned.
“I won’t.”
He unzipped his pants and relieved himself. Then he climbed over to Janice. “Ready to go?” he asked
“All set.”
He picked up his flashlight, tucked the folded blanket under one arm, and led the way down the rocks. The hillside slanted down to a shallow ravine, then curved as if to follow the line of the fence. Though there were few trees here to give them cover, Brian felt certain that they couldn’t be spotted from the distant road. Only someone looking out a rear window of Beast House would be able to see them crossing the slope.
The windows were all dark.
He waited for Janice. “Anyone in there at night?”
“I doubt it.”
“Just the beast, huh?”
“Very funny.” She didn’t sound amused. “As a matter of fact, they say it wanders the house at night.”
“Looking for Elizabeth?”
“Looking for victims.”
“Let’s hope it stays away from the windows.”
Janice lagged behind, staring at the house, then hurried to catch up. “Maybe we ought to get out of here,” she whispered.
“We haven’t even started searching for the hole.”
“C’mon, what are the chances we’ll find it? You said yourself that we probably wouldn’t.”
“What’re you so worried about?”
“I’m not worried, I’m scared shitless.”
“What for?”
She waved toward the house. “It can see us.”
Turning to Janice, he shook his head. He let the blanket and flashlight fall to the ground, and put his hands on her shoulders. He could feel her trembling. “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he said.
“I’m sorry. Really. But…”
“That business with Elizabeth was more than seventy years ago,” he said in a calm, soothing voice. “Even if the stuff in her diary is true, which I strongly doubt, that creature would be ancient by now. Decrepit. Probably dead. At any rate, nobody’s been killed since that kid almost thirty years ago.”
“What do you mean? It killed three people last summer.”
Brian frowned. “There’s nothing about that in the travel brochure.”
“Well, it’s outdated.” She glanced at the house. “They were killed up there, in a corridor on the second floor.”
“The police must’ve investigated.”
“Sure, but they couldn’t come up with an answer. They don’t think the beast had anything to do with it—at least that’s what they say. They said it must’ve been a nut.”
“They’re probably right.”
“They just said that. They can’t admit there’s some kind of a goddamn monster in the house.”
“There is no monster, Janice. I mean, that’s nonsense.”
“No, it’s not. You read the diary.”
“Thorn was crazy.”
Janice stared up at him. She smiled slightly. “If she was crazy, what the hell are we doing out here looking for the goddam hole?”
Brian let out a quick laugh. “Touché,” he said.
“Let’s leave.”
“Gorman thinks there might be a hole. He’s more gullible than me.”
“Let him come and look for it.”
“What’ll I tell him?”
“Just say we couldn’t find it.”
“That would be fibbing.”
She glanced to each side. “I don’t see the hole. Do you see the hole?”
Brian laughed. “You’re really something, Janice.”
“Am I?” She put her hands on his sides, and stared into his eyes. “What kind of something?”