One Last Scream

“Okay. Be careful,” he said.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine,” Karen said.

“Be careful anyway. I keep thinking about Helene Sumner, and how she spotted Amelia at the lake house this morning. It could have been Annabelle, you know. And she could still be around there.” George paused. “Watch out for yourself, Karen.”

Karen had been right about Amelia. There was something wrong with her.

She stood too close, still clutching her purse and occasionally peeking inside it as if she were hiding some secret treasure in there. And then that strange smirk on her face, it was so unlike the Amelia she knew.

“Oh, let’s give the kids a few more minutes outside with Rufus,” Jessie said, forcing a chuckle. She wiped her hands on a dish towel. “They’re having a blast, and that pooch hasn’t seen this much attention since God knows when.” She nervously gathered up the light blue pills from the kitchen counter. Nice try, old girl, she thought.

Karen had cautioned Jessie that Amelia might be dangerous, and said to call her immediately if she should happen to run into the 19-year-old. Jessie hadn’t taken the warning too seriously. Amelia, dangerous? That sweet thing?

But then, suddenly, the young lady showed up in Karen’s kitchen. No doorbell, no knocking, she just waltzed right into the house, bold as you please. Brazen as the guts of Jesse James, as her Aunt Agnes used to say. That was the first sign that something wasn’t right.

So Jessie closed the kitchen door, to discourage Jody and little Steffie from coming inside, and to keep them out of harm’s way.

The young woman in Karen’s kitchen seemed too hard-edged and cold. Though unable to put her finger on it, Jessie detected something off about her, the strange way she acted, looked, and talked. Then Jessie caught a glimpse of something glistening in her purse. It was a knife.

She remembered Karen’s warning. She also remembered where she’d last seen those light-blue pills that had made old Frank so dopey and tired. They were in the spice cabinet, beside the aspirin and Karen’s vitamins. She thought she was being so clever with the lemonade routine. If Amelia was indeed dangerous, sedating her was one way to nip the situation in the bud and not do anyone harm. Jessie figured that once Amelia was down for the count, she could call Karen, and the police, if necessary.

But she’d been foiled even before slipping the stuff in her surprise guest’s glass.

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Trying not to shake, Jessie dropped the diazepam tablets back inside the prescription bottle. She could hear Jody and Stephanie in the backyard, laughing, and barking along with Rufus.

Leaning against the counter, the young woman picked up one pill Jessie had missed. “Why were you trying to drug me, Jessie?” she asked. She handed her the tablet. “Did Karen warn you that I might be unstable?”

“What in the world are you talking about?” Jessie put the prescription bottle away, and then moved to the refrigerator. “That’s just silly,” she added, plucking a lemon from the shelf. She closed the refrigerator door, and reached for the knife rack.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Suddenly the girl grabbed her by the wrist. She hit Jessie in the chest with her elbow. Whether or not it was an accident, it hurt like hell.

Jessie staggered back, and the lemon rolled across the floor. “Good Lord! I was just going to cut up a lemon for the lemonade!” She rubbed her chest and winced.

“It’s a mix. You don’t need to do that,” she shot back. With a quick jerk, she released Jessie’s wrist. “Now, go call the kids in, Jessie. They’ve been out there with that mutt long enough. I’d like to see my little cousins.”

Trying to catch her breath, Jessie glanced toward the backyard.

Rufus started barking furiously. A second later, the front doorbell rang.

Jessie turned toward her. “Well, I–I better answer that before Rufus has the whole neighborhood over here,” she said loudly, competing with all the yelps and barks. Jessie didn’t wait for a response. She swiveled around and quickly headed for the front door, almost expecting the young woman to grab her.

Rufus was going crazy outside. Jessie could hear Jody talking to him. “What is it, boy? What’s going on?” His voice, along with Rufus’s barking, seemed to come from the side of the house now.

Jessie flung open the front door, and recognized Chad, a tall, stocky, soft-spoken man in his early thirties. He was one of Amelia’s patients, and he looked like he was sorry he’d rung the bell. “Is Karen here?” he asked, over the dog’s yelping.

Jessie could only guess how frazzled she appeared, and Rufus, straining at his leash, was leading the two children around from the side of the house toward the front stoop. Poor Chad looked as if he just wanted to flee. “Um, I have a five o’clock appointment with her,” he explained, with an apprehensive look over his shoulder.

“Down, boy! Take it easy!” Jody chided Rufus.

“Down, boy!” Stephanie echoed.

A hand over her heart, Jessie stared at him. “Karen-she had to cancel her appointments today.” She glanced back toward the kitchen. “Um, didn’t you get her message, Chad?”

“Oh, nuts, I probably should have checked my answering machine,” he replied. He bowed down toward Rufus. “Hey, there, pooch.”

“Don’t go away, okay?” Jessie said, distractedly. “Stay there. You too, kids. I’ll be right back.”

With trepidation, she headed down the hall toward the back of the house. She edged past the kitchen entryway and gazed into the empty room. The back door was wide open.

Jessie hurried to the door, and then looked out at the backyard: no one.

Biting her lip, she closed the kitchen door and locked the deadbolt. Then she tried the door to the basement. It was already locked. No one could have gone down there.

Right beside her on the kitchen wall, just inches from her head, the telephone rang. Jessie almost jumped out of her skin. She quickly snatched up the receiver. “Yes, hello?”

“Is this Karen?” a woman asked.

“No, this is her housekeeper,” Jessie replied, again, her hand on her heart. She stepped out to the hallway as far as the phone cord would allow. She saw Chad, Rufus, and the children still at the front stoop. Chad was crouched down, petting the dog and talking to the kids.

Jessie sighed. “Karen isn’t in,” she said into the phone. “Can I help you?”

“I’m looking for Amelia Faraday. I’m her roommate, Rachel.”

“Amelia isn’t here right now. She-um, well, she just left.”

“Do you know if she’s coming back?”

I hope not, Jessie thought. But she merely cleared her throat and said. “I’m not really sure, hon. Is there something I can do for you?”

“Well, this is kind of an emergency,” Rachel explained. “If you see her, please, tell her to call me immediately. I’ve got the police ringing the phone off the hook here. They’re looking for her.”

“Really?” Jessie murmured.

“It’s pretty awful news,” Rachel said. “It’s about her boyfriend…”

“You mean Shane?” Jessie asked.

“Yeah, you know Shane Mitchell?”

“Yes, I do. Is he okay? What’s happened?”

“He, um, well, he’s dead,” the girl explained, a little crack in her voice. “They found Shane in a canoe, drifting in Lake Washington by the 520 Bridge. It looks like he shot himself.”

Meredith Marie Sterns was a pretty brunette who had disappeared the summer after graduating from East Marion High School in 1999. She had a dimpled smile and “Rachel” hair copied from Jennifer Aniston’s hairstyle in Friends.

“Meredith spent most of that June backpacking around Europe with a friend,” Caroline explained.

George stood over the Xerox machine, making a photocopy of Meredith’s graduation portrait. They were the only ones in the high school’s administration office; everybody else had gone home already. They had several old yearbooks piled on the secretary’s desk beside the copier.