One Last Scream

“I thought I’d wait until we were safely at home before giving him the latest developments. I didn’t want to worry him.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Karen sighed.

She stared out past the windshield at the starter trees in the orchard, lined up in a row. Their leaves fluttered in the breeze, and dusk loomed on the horizon. Her heart ached, and she wanted to cry for Shane, but there was no time.

She didn’t for a minute believe he’d shot himself.

“Listen, Jess, please, be careful driving home,” she said at last. “Make sure you aren’t being followed. Keep an eye out for my car-and that black Cadillac.”

“What black Cadillac?” Jessie repeated.

“The old black Cadillac with a broken antenna. It was following me around over the weekend. I told you-”

“Oh, Lord, honey, how do you expect me to keep track of all this stuff?” Jessie said, exasperated.

“Well, just watch out for it now, okay?”

“I’ve seen it, for Pete’s sakes. A car matching that description was parked just down the block from George’s house earlier today. It was still there when Jody and I left to pick up Steffie.”

“Oh, my God,” Karen murmured. “Listen, Jess, don’t go back to George’s. Better not stick around my place, either. Take the kids to a hotel, and make sure you’re not being followed. Just hide out there for a while, order room service, and watch pay-per-view movies. I’ll handle the bill. Call me once you get settled in, okay?”

“Well, all right,” Jessie said. She sounded a bit perplexed. “I’m just not sure what hotel-”

Karen heard a beep, and checked the caller ID. She recognized the number: Amelia’s cell phone.

“Jessie, I have another call,” she said hurriedly. “Can you just get yourself and the children to a hotel? Any hotel, it doesn’t matter: the Westin, the Marriott off Lake Union, anyplace….”

“I hear you,” Jessie replied.

“Thanks, Jess. Just make sure no one’s following-”

“Yeah, I know,” she cut in. “Make sure no one’s following us. Will do. Take your call. I’ll phone you in a bit.” There was a click on the line.

Karen switched over to the other call. “Amelia? Is that you?”

“Hi, Karen,” she murmured. “You must be so mad at me right now. I just listened to all the messages from you and Uncle George and Shane. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. It was awful of me to run away this morning.”

Karen wasn’t certain she was really talking to Amelia. It certainly sounded like her; and the call was coming from her cell phone. “Well, you, um, you couldn’t have run very far,” she said. “I just got off the phone with Jessie, and she said you paid her an unexpected visit at my house about a half hour ago.”

“What?” she shot back, sounding stunned. “Karen, that’s impossible. Why would Jessie say that? I’m nowhere near your house-or Seattle, even. I’m calling from Grand Coulee Dam.”

The car engine was still running. Karen turned off the ignition, and listened to the motor die. “Grand Coulee Dam?” she repeated numbly.

“Yeah, I know, it’s pretty crazy, huh? But I woke up from this horrible nightmare last night. In the dream, I was-I was attacking you with a knife, and you were screaming….” She trailed off. “Anyway, I suddenly woke up, all sweaty. I was so scared that it might have really happened. I listened at your door, and heard you snoring. Did you know you snore?”

“No, I didn’t,” Karen said.

“Anyway, I figured you were okay. But I realized I had to get out of there before I hurt you, or somebody else. So I packed my things and snuck out of your house at around four o’clock this morning. I walked up to Fifteenth, and called a cab.”

“You didn’t take my car?” Karen asked.

“God, no. I’d never do that without asking you,” she replied. “I had the taxi drive me to Shane’s place. I borrowed his car, then drove to the house in Lake Wenatchee. I know it sounds nuts, but I just wanted to get as far away from everyone as I could. But when I went down to the house, I just couldn’t make myself go in. So I climbed back inside Shane’s car, and kept driving east.”

“What time was this?” Karen asked.

“Oh, around eight-thirty or nine,” she replied.

According to Helene Sumner, Amelia had been at the lake house at around just that same time. But she’d heard Amelia talking to someone, and laughing.

“Were you with anyone?” Karen asked.

“No, why?”

“Nothing, go ahead. You couldn’t step inside the house, so you went on driving.”

“That’s right, so I ended up here at the Grand Coulee Dam. I’ve been here for the last few hours, Karen.”

“What have you been doing there?” she asked.

“Well, I ate, I napped a little in the car, and I looked at the damn dam.” She let out a skittish laugh, but then her tone suddenly turned serious. “Anyway, I’ve been here. I swear to God. This can’t be another one of my blackouts. There’s no way Jessie could have seen me in Seattle this afternoon. I’m at least four hours away….”

Karen still couldn’t help wondering if she had Amelia on the line or her twin, being very clever. “Amelia, do you remember our session the week before last, when you accidentally broke that cheap vase on the coffee table in my office?”

She listened to the dead silence on the other end of the line. There hadn’t been a vase on her office coffee table. There had been no such occurrence. But Annabelle Schlessinger wouldn’t have known that.

“Remember that session, Amelia?” she pressed. “Do you recall what we were discussing at the time?”

More silence.

“Amelia, are you still there?”

“Karen, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied, at last. “Did I break a vase of yours? Oh, my God, is this something I blacked out?”

Closing her eyes, Karen smiled. “You know what? My mistake. That was someone else entirely. Never mind. Listen, I’m in Wenatchee right now-”

“What?”

“I’ll explain when I see you,” Karen said. “I can probably get to Grand Coulee Dam in about ninety minutes.”

“Let me meet you there in Wenatchee instead, okay?” she asked. “I’ve kind of been-there-and-done-that here today, and I’d like to hit the road. I was about to head that way, anyway.”

Karen hesitated. It made sense. They’d save at least an hour and a half traveling time back to Seattle if Amelia came to her. “Okay,” she said finally. “Could you meet me at the Wenatchee Public Library on Douglas Street?”

“Sure, I know where that is,” she said. “See you there in about two hours. I’m leaving right now. Oh, and if it’s okay with you, I don’t want to hang around Wenatchee too long, Karen. I’d like to be back in Seattle before nine tonight, and get the car back to Shane. I think he’s kind of mad at me. He wasn’t answering his cell phone earlier. Anyway, you don’t mind if we meet up and then get a move on, do you?”

“No, that’s fine, Amelia,” she replied.

She couldn’t tell her anything more, not right now.

“Then I’ll see you soon, Karen.”

“Drive safe,” she said.

Before she headed out on the road again, Karen phoned Detective Jacqueline Peyton. After all the times she’d refused to pick up the policewoman’s calls, Karen figured it probably served her right that she got Detective Peyton’s voice mail. Karen waited for the beep.

“Hello, Detective, this is Karen Carlisle again,” she said into the phone. “My housekeeper called the police about forty minutes ago. Amelia Faraday-or rather, someone pretending to be Amelia-was just at my house. I’m