One-Eyed Jack (34 page)

You lied to
him
, she said.

“
I did not,” I retorted. I
looked at Skees. “She’s here.”

You lied. You said I
wasn’t Jenny Derdiarian.

“
You aren’t. You’re just
an obsession she used to have, one she got over but that took on a
life of its own.”

I
am
Jenny. I killed my babies, I
starved them to death.

“
Jenny’s kids are alive
and well. I met Jason.”

Jason is dead!

“
Jason’s fine.”

He’s dead! I loved him, so
he’s dead!

“
What are you talking
about?” Skees asked.

“
She’s claiming to be
Jenny Derdiarian.”

“
Didn’t she
always?”

“
Yeah, but she says I lied
to Trevor.”

You did lie.

“
I did not!”

I’m Jenny. I know I
am.

“
No, you aren’t. You’re a
thing – not human, not a ghost, just a thing that stole an unhappy
piece of Jenny’s imagination.”

No!
She came at me, claws outstretched, and I backed away – I had
a suspicion she could scratch me right through the
bandages.

I’m Jenny!

Skees stepped between us. He couldn’t
see Jenny, but he must have guessed, from the way I moved, what was
happening.

She stopped, and spat at him like a
cat; he didn’t hear it, didn’t see it. He just stood there, and I
pressed up behind him, grateful for his presence.

Jenny glared at me with her mismatched
eyes, then turned away.

And she was gone.

“
Wow,” I said, a little
unsteadily, stepping away from Skees. “She really doesn’t like
being reminded she isn’t what she claims to be.”

“
Maybe we can use that,”
Skees said, turning around.

I looked at him. “You mean bring her
face to face with the original Jenny Derdiarian?”

“
Yeah, that’s what I was
thinking.”

I considered that for a
moment. I’d wondered about the possibility myself. We didn’t really
know what it would accomplish, if anything – there were a lot of
unknowns involved. It
might
do some good, though. It might dislodge the false
Jenny’s obsessions with dead children.

I was still thinking when
Skees said, “You know, this whole thing – it
looks
like a fake.”

“
What?”

“
You and
the ghost. To me, it looks like you’re arguing with empty air. I
don’t see a thing, not a goddam flicker, not a shadow,
nothing.
You
say you see it, and the kids say
they
do, but I can’t see anything at
all. I tried squinting, or looking out of the corner of my eye –
nothing.” He shook his head. “It’s hard to believe. And if it
wasn’t biting pieces off kids, I
wouldn’t
believe it.”

“
I don’t
blame you,” I said. “I wish I didn’t
have
to believe it.” I touched the
bandages. “By the way, thank you – she was coming at me again when
you got between us.”

“
You’re welcome.” Skees
looked at his watch. “It’s only about nine,” he said. “Think you
can find this thing again tonight?”

“
I don’t know,” I said.
“Why?”

“
I was wondering about
getting the Derdiarian woman here tonight.”

“
Seems a little late. It’s
a half-hour drive from Winchester.”

“
At least. But it might be
worth asking.”

I shrugged. “I guess.”

“
You’ve got her number,
and she knows you – think you could talk to her?”

“
I guess,” I said
again.

We found a quiet corner of the waiting
area by the nurses’ station, and I called. I didn’t really know
what to tell her; I mean, how do you invite someone to help hunt
her own ghost? I reminded her of what we’d talked about, fumbled
around a little, then said, “Here, I think Detective Skees would
like to talk to you.” I handed him the phone.

He gave me a dirty look as he accepted
it, then said, “Ms. Derdiarian? Yes, I’m Detective Benjamin Skees,
with the Lexington-Fayette police department. I realize it’s late,
and that you aren’t directly involved in this, but we have evidence
that someone here is pretending to be you, and we think it might be
helpful if you could come out here and confirm your identity, maybe
talk to a few people about it.”

I didn’t hear her answer,
but Skees answered, “It’d be a big help if you could come
tonight
,
ma’am.”

A brief pause, and then, “You can
bring your husband if you like, ma’am, or anyone else you want;
it’s entirely up to you. In fact, the imposter’s been saying a few
things – it might be good if you could bring your kids.”

He listened.

“
No, ma’am, this isn’t an
official request,” he continued. “I don’t have the authority to
make one even if I wanted to, what with you being in Clark County
and not Fayette. You aren’t in any sort of trouble at all, and we
don’t have any legal basis for calling you a witness, so it’s just
a friendly request, completely unofficial.”

That got a quick answer,
apparently.

“
Thank you, ma’am. We’re
at the University of Kentucky Health Center, the Chandler Hospital
on South Limestone. You can’t miss it. I’ll be waiting for you out
front. In plainclothes.”

She must have had more to say, because
he didn’t say another word for a few minutes, just made occasional
noises of agreement. Finally, though, he snapped the phone shut and
handed it back.

“
Thanks,” he said. “She’ll
be here in an hour, give or take.”

“
Is she bringing her
family?”

“
Maybe her husband. She
wasn’t sure. No kids.”

I nodded. “I’ll look around, see if I
can find ghost-Jenny,” I said. “And this time I won’t chase her
off.”

“
Right.” He indicated his
own phone. “I’ll call you when she gets here.”

I nodded, and we split up.

I didn’t start looking for Jenny right
away, though; first I called Mel.

After greetings and mutual assurances
that Jenny hadn’t hurt either of us, Mel said, “That was
weird.”

“
What?” I couldn’t help
envisioning various horrors that might prompt that
reaction.

“
Trying to exorcize a
ghost I couldn’t see. She was really there?”

“
Oh, she was there, all
right.” I shuddered.

“
I couldn’t see a
thing.”

“
She was
there.”

“
I believe you. But she
wasn’t scared of me?” She sounded almost wistful.

“
Not at all.”

“
Would’ve been nice to get
some use out of this damned curse. I mean, besides the stuff I do
all the time.”

“
Yeah,” I said. “At least
you can use yours to make a living.”

“
If you call this living.
So, now what? Want to go out on the town?”

“
No.” I stopped and
swallowed; it never felt good to refuse Mel anything. Then I
explained, “Skees has something else he wants to try. He wants to
see how ghost-Jenny reacts to meeting real Jenny.”

“
Oh, interesting idea! But
why should she do anything special?”

“
She won’t admit she isn’t
really Jenny’s ghost. We’re hoping seeing Jenny alive will shatter
her conviction, and maybe that will break her obsession with
killing children.”

“
Maybe live Jenny will
re-absorb ghost Jenny.”

I hadn’t thought of that. “Maybe,” I
said.

“
Can I help? Or at least
watch?”

“
I don’t think so,” I
said, with a very uncomfortable mixture of reluctance and relief.
“It wouldn’t be fair to live Jenny.”

“
Yeah, that’s true. Not
that life is fair, but why make it worse, right? I’ll stay
clear.”

“
Thank you. I’m sorry,
Mel.”

“
Take care, Greg.” Then
she cut the connection.

I closed my phone, put it in my
pocket, then turned and started the hunt for Jenny. I was fairly
sure she would still be around. I still had my original list of
four names, and they were still good, so I decided to start with
those.

She wasn’t in the fourth kid’s room –
at least, I didn’t find any trace of her. I went back to the room
with the whole family, and found that the gathering had broken up;
only the parents and the patient were still there. The patient was
sound asleep; her parents were over by the wall, whispering to each
other. They stopped to stare at me when I stuck my head
in.

I ignored them and looked for Jenny. I
didn’t see her.

The parents were glaring at me. “May I
help you?” the father asked.

“
Lost my phone,” I said.
“Any chance I left it in here?”

They, too, glanced around.

“
Don’t see it,” he
said.

“
Thanks anyway,” I said.
“If you come across it, give it to the nurses’ station, would you?
Thanks.”

Then I popped back out and tried Door
Number Two again, where the kid was still asleep. Not easily
troubled, that one.

I hesitated after that, unsure what to
do next, but I decided to take a quick look in Trevor’s to room,
see if he had any suggestions.

He was there, propped up in bed – and
so was she. The ghost-creature was back. They had both turned to
stare at the sound of the door.

Go away
, she demanded.

“
I’ll go when I’m good and
ready,” I said. “What have you been telling this kid?”

Go away!

Apparently she had decided the time
for courtesy was past.

“
It’s not your room,” I
retorted.

“
It’s mine,” Trevor said.
“She can stay if she wants.”

“
That’s up to
you.”

He didn’t look as sure of himself as
his words implied. “It is?”

“
Sure. It’s your room, and
as I said before, we don’t think she can hurt you unless you let
her.”

“
But you... you brought
that scary lady to chase her away.”

“
Yeah, we did, and we’d
rather she did go away, for good. She eats kids. She killed Andy
McPhee. Not everyone is strong enough to resist her; she can be
pretty persuasive. We don’t think that’s someone who should be
hanging around hospitals, and if we had a way to make her go away
forever, we’d use it. But we don’t, so as long as she’s going to be
around here, your room’s as good a place for her as
any.”

He gave her a nervous
look. “She really
ate
him?”

“
Part of him.”

I loved him. He was in
pain.

“
Is that true?”

I shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I didn’t
get a chance to talk to him.” I looked from Jenny to Trevor and
back. “So she came back, and you let her?”

He looked scared, as if he expected me
to be furious with him. “Yes,” he said. “She said you’d lied, that
she loved me and wanted to help.”

“
I
don’t
think
I told you anything that wasn’t true,” I said.

You lied! Go
away!

“
Are we back to that
again?”

“
He can stay,” Trevor told
her. “At least for now.”

“
Thank you.”

Trev, I love you. He
doesn’t. I just want to make the pain stop.

“
I’m not in any pain right
now,” Trevor told her.

Judging by his expression
that wasn’t completely true, but it was good enough.
I’ll be here when you’re ready
, she said.

“
Good,” I said. “I’d be
glad if you hung around, Jenny. In fact, there’s someone I’d like
you to meet.”

Trevor, who hadn’t exactly been
heavily tanned to begin with, went pale. “Another one? Like that
lady?” he whispered.

“
No,” I reassured him
quickly. “Not like her. Not scary. Just someone I met recently who
knows Jenny very well.”

“
Really? Who is
it?”

I glanced at the monster. “I’d like it
to be a surprise.”

Jack. It must be
Jack.

“
Maybe.”

“
Who’s Jack?”

“
The boy who brought her
to the hospital,” I explained. “He lives near her old home. They’ve
known each other for months.”

He didn’t love me. He said
he did, but he didn’t.

“
That means he wouldn’t
let her eat him,” I explained to Trevor. “Or not all of him,
anyway; she did eat a finger and an eye.” I pointed to her face. “I
don’t know if you can see it, but her eyes don’t match, and that’s
because one of them was Jack’s.”