The Amityville Horror (17 page)

"Eric," George asked, "what's the Venetian Veil she mentioned just before you left?"

"From what Francine's told me," Eric answered, "that's a caul some babies are born with-a kind of skin covering, like a thin veil, over the face. It can be removed, but Francine says that that person is somehow blessed with a highly developed degree of clairvoyance."

George hung up and sat in the kitchen for over an hour, trying to think of where or how he could get help before it was too late.

Then the telephone rang. It was George Kekoris, a field investigator for the Psychical Research Institute in North Carolina, who said he had been told to contact George and arrange to set up some scientific tests at the Lutz home. Kekoris also said he couldn't make it that day, since he was calling from Buffalo, but would try to get there the next morning.

After speaking to Kekoris, George felt as if he had received a last-minute reprieve. Then, to pass the time until Kathy returned, he busied himself by taking down the Christmas decorations from the tree standing in the living room. Tenderly he placed the delicate ornaments on spread newspapers for Kathy to repack in cardboard boxes, taking special care of his great-grandmother's beautiful gold and silver piece.

All that Thursday morning and afternoon, Father Mancuso nursed his recurrent case of flu. He had resigned himself to this newest affliction as another show of power and displeasure by the evil force he had alienated at 112 Ocean Avenue.

This time there had been no solicitous call by the Pastor, even though Father Mancuso was sure the cleric had been informed of his new illness. He remained in his own apartment, resting in bed, using the medication he had been given on the doctor's previous visits. His fever ranged as high as 104 degrees, his stomach hurt continuously, and as the day wore on, he alternated between chills and sweating. Fortunately no marks had erupted on his palms-a sign that Father Mancuso interpreted to mean that he was receiving a lesser degree of punishment for involving himself again with the Lutzes.

Father Mancuso hadn't even attempted to reach the Chancellors' office again. The priest felt that the aches and pains would eventually lessen if he divorced himself from thinking about the Lutz situation, and so he waited for Father Ryan or Father Nuncio to get in touch with him. At one point during the afternoon, in fact, the priest hoped that the Chancellors would ignore his request for another audience. He passed the time by reading from his breviary.

By four o'clock, Kathy had returned from shopping. Since the Lutzes still had Jimmy's car, there was no way for the honeymooners to travel unless they were picked up. Kathy volunteered to go after her brother and his new wife.

George vetoed her suggestion-the icy roads to her mother's in East Babylon were still in a hazardous condition, and Jimmy's car had a stick shift-a gear system Kathy had never really mastered. George drove instead and was back in Amityville within the hour.

Kathy was delighted to see Jimmy and Carey again and spent the next hours eagerly listening to their account of every single moment they had spent in Bermuda. The newlyweds also had a bundle of Polaroid snapshots to go through with a detailed explanation behind each one. Jimmy didn't have a dime left, he said, but they had memories that would last a lifetime. Naturally they had brought some presents for the children, and that kept Danny, Chris, and Missy out of the adults' way for most of the evening.

Rather than spoil the pleasant visit by recalling their own weird experiences since the wedding, George and Kathy simply shared the excitement of the other two. Eventually Kathy and her new sister-in-law went upstairs to change the linen on Missy's bed. Jimmy and Carey would be staying overnight in Missy's room, while the little girl slept on an old couch in the dressing room down the hall.

Jimmy explained to George his plans for moving out of his mother's house. He wanted to rent an apartment situated exactly between his mother's house and his new in-laws, who also lived in East Babylon; this way, both families would be placated for a while Everyone retired fairly early. Before turning in, George and Jimmy checked the house inside and out. George showed Jimmy the damaged garage door, but didn't offer any explanation beyond the theory that it was caused by a freak windstorm. Jimmy, who had been victimized of his money by an unknown source, was suspicious of something else, but he too kept silent and followed George as he checked the boathouse.

Back inside, they continued their tour of doors and windows, until both were satisfied with the security of 112 Ocean Avenue. It was eleven o'clock when the couples said goodnight to one another.

George knows that it happened at 3:15 A.m. because he had been lying awake a few minutes and had just checked his wristwatch. It was then that Carey woke up screaming.

"Oh, God, not her too!" he muttered to himself. George leaped out of bed, ran to Missy's room, and snapped on the light. The young couple were huddled together in bed, Jimmy cradling his sobbing wife.

"What's the matter?" George asked. "What's happened?"

Carey pointed to the foot of Missy's bed. "S-s-something was sitting there! It touched m-m-my foot!"

George approached the spot Carey had indicated and felt the bed with his hand. It was warm as though someone had been sitting there.

"I woke up," Carey continued, "and I could see a little boy. He looked so sick! He was trying to tell me to help him!" She began to cry hysterically.

Jimmy shook his wife gently. "Come on, Carey," he said soothingly. "You were probably having a dream, and-"

"No, Jimmy!" Carey protested. "It wasn't a dream! I saw him! He spoke to me!"

"What did he say, Carey?" George asked.

Carey's shoulder's were still shaking, but gradually she looked up from her husband's cradling arms. George heard a noise behind him and a touch on his shoulder. He jumped, then looked around. It was Kathy. Her eyes were misty, as though she too had been crying. "Kathy!" Carey cried. "What did the little boy say?" Kathy prompted her.

"He asked me where Missy and Jodie were!"

At the mention of Missy's name, Kathy bolted from the bedroom and ran to the other side of the hallway. In the dressing room the little girl was fast asleep, with one foot sticking out in the air. Kathy lifted Missy's blanket and bent her leg back under the covers, then leaned down and kissed her child on the head. George came into the room. "Is Missy all right?"

Kathy nodded.

In about fifteen minutes Carey had quieted down enough to fall asleep again. Jimmy was still nervous, but soon he too drifted off. George and Kathy had shut the door on the couple and returned to their own bedroom. Immediately she went into the closet and took out the crucifix that hung inside. "George," she said, "let's bless the house ourselves."

They began on the third floor, in the children's playroom. In the eerie predawn silence of the cold room, George held the crucifix in front of him while Kathy intoned the Lord's Prayer. They did not go into Danny and Chris' room; Kathy said they could wait until the next day to bless that room and the ones in which Missy and Jimmy and Carey were sleeping. They moved on to their own bedroom, and then to the sewing room on the second floor. Warning his wife to be careful of the newly repaired banister, George led the way down to the first floor, still brandishing the silver crucifix as he supposed a priest would during a holy procession.

When they completed their blessing of the kitchen and the dining room, it was just starting to get light outside. Even without turning on the lights, they could see the livingroom dimly visible before them. George marched around the furniture and Kathy started to recite: "Our Father who art in Heaven; hallowed be thy-"

She was interrupted by a loud humming. Kathy stopped and looked about her. George halted in midstride and looked up at the ceiling. The hum swelled into a jumble of voices that seemed to engulf them completely. Finally Kathy clasped her hands to her ears to drown out the cacophony of noise, but George clearly heard the chorus thunder: "Will you stop!"

20 January 8 to 9 - Father Mancuso felt too weak to celebrate Mass at the church, so he remained in his quarters, praying at his ~prie-dieu. The phone rang. It was Father Nuncio calling from the Chancellor's office to say that he and Father Ryan could see Father Mancuso.

The priest pleaded that his illness prevented him from coming to the Chancery, but asked whether he could discuss the Lutz situation over the telephone. Father Nuncio agreed and listened as Father Mancuso related the latest developments at 112 Ocean Avenue. Without hesitation, the Chancellor agreed with Father Mancuso's suggestion that the Lutzes move out of their house for a while. Father Mancuso informed Father Nuncio of his decision not to return to the house in Amityville and said that he would merely relay the message over the telephone. In Amityville, Kathy and George were still shaken from the previous night's performance by the unseen chorus. She had remained awake, sitting in their bedroom. George returned the crucifix to the closet wall and then he and Kathy held hands, each whispering reassuring words to soothe the other's fright. At eight o'clock, Kathy had risen from the edge of the bed and awakened the children. Jimmy and Carey came out of Missy's bedroom at eighty-thirty, dressed and ready for breakfast.

After speaking to Father Nuncio, Father Mancuso called George Lutz to tell him of the Chancellor's decision. He let the telephone ring for a long time and was ready to give up when George answered. Father Mancuso assumed the instrument was up to its weird tricks, so he was surprised that he had gotten through without interference.

George said that they had just returned from seeing Jimmy off to East Babylon. Then George repeated the results of their impromptu blessing ceremony the night before. Dismayed, Father Mancuso urged George to heed the Chancellors' advice and get out of the house then and there. "And George," he said, "don't ever do that again. Your evoking God's name in the manner you did can only anger whatever is in your house. Just don't do anything anymore. It's already completely out of hand ..."

"Father," George interrupted. "What are you saying?"

The priest hesitated. Had he said too much? The Chancellors had confined any discussion of the Lutzes' case to scientific causes, and there would be a long period of investigation before the Church would acknowledge demonic influence. He hadn't meant to express his own personal fears. "I'm not sure," Father Mancuso corrected himself. "That's why I plead with you to leave your house now until some determination can be made, scientifically or-" The priest hesitated.

"Or what?" George asked.

"It may be more dangerous than any of us realize," Father Mancuso answered. "Look, George, many things happen that none of us can really explain away. I admit I'm very confused about what seems to be an evil force in your house. I also admit that it may be caused by more than our imaginations." The priest paused.

"George? You still there?"

"Yeah, Father. I'm listening."

"All right, then," Father Mancuso began again. "Please get out. Let things cool down for a while. If you get away, maybe we can all think this thing out with more rationality. I'll tell the Chancellors what happened last night and maybe they'll send someone right ..."

Father Mancuso was interrupted by Kathy's scream over the telephone. George blurted, "Call you back!" and the priest heard him bang down the receiver. He stood there in his livingroom, wondering what unnatural act was now being played out at 112 Ocean Avenue.

George ran up the stairs to the third floor. When he reached the landing, he saw Kathy in the hallway shrieking at Danny, Chris, and Missy. George could see why: On every wall in the hall were green gelatinous spots, oozing down from the ceiling to the floor, settling in shimmering pools of green slime.

"Which one of you did this?" Kathy fumed. "Tell me or I'll break every bone in your bodies!"

"We didn't do it, Mama!" all three children chorused at once, dodging the slaps she was aiming at their heads.

"We didn't do it!" Danny yelled. "We saw it when we came upstairs!"

George stepped between his wife and the children. "Wait a minute, honey," he said gently, "maybe the kids didn't do it. Let me take a look."

He went up to one wall and stuck his finger into a green spot. He looked at the substance, smelled it, and then put a little against the tip of his tongue. "It sure looks like Jello," he said, smacking his lips, "but it doesn't have any taste at all."

Kathy was calming down after her tirade. "Could it be paint?" she asked. George shook his head. "Nope." He tried to get the feel of the jelly by rolling it against his finger tips. "I don't know what it is, but it sure leaves a mess."

He looked up at the ceiling. "Doesn't seem to be coming from up there..." George stopped. He looked around him as if realizing for the first time where he was. In a rush, he recalled the conversation be bad bad with Father Mancuso a few minutes before, and the dreaded word "Devil" almost slipped from his lips.

"What'd you say, George?" asked Kathy. "I didn't hear you."

He looked at his wife and children. "Nothing. I was just trying to think ..." He began to edge the others toward the staircase. "Listen," he said, "I'm hungry. Let's go down to the kitchen and have a bite. Then the boys and me'll come back up and clean up this gook. Okay, gang?"

Jimmy and Carey bad arrived back in East Babylon. Carey was happy to be away from 112 Ocean Avenue, even if it meant being at her mother-in-law's. "I felt creepy there, Jimmy," she said, as they got out of their car. "I know I saw that little boy last night, no matter what anybody says." Jimmy reached out and patted his wife's behind. "Aw, forget it, baby," he said. "It was just a dream. You know I don't believe in that stuff." Carey squirmed away from Jimmy's touch, looking around to see if any neighbors were watching. But as she was about to go in the door, he grabbed her arm. "Listen, Carey," he said, drawing her close, "Do me a favor. Don't mention what happened in front of Ma. She gets very upset about such things. Next thing you know, we'll have a priest over here."