“There’s a preseason NBA game on,” he said quietly.
“Care to join me upstairs?”
“If this thing gets too gruesome, I might do that,”
Renie responded.
The movie’s opening shot followed a young woman
in late-nineteenth-century dress down a dark, winding
London street. She was obviously nervous, and
stopped periodically to look over her shoulder. As she
turned a corner, a light glowed from a narrow timberfronted building. Expressing relief, she pulled the iron
knocker on the door. To the accompaniment of creaking hinges and ominous music, the heavy door opened
slowly. The young woman rushed inside. The door
slammed shut behind her. Strong, hairy hands swung a
big ax. She screamed in terror. The hands and the ax
came down again and again as blood spurted, presumably from her unseen body.
“That’s it,” Renie said, getting up. “I’m going to
check out the basketball game. If I wanted brutality, I’d
watch hockey.”
Judith didn’t much blame her cousin but felt obligated to watch at least the first fifteen minutes of the
movie. The scene changed to what appeared to be an
interior of Scotland Yard. The policemen were discussing the crime spree that had been taking place in
London’s East End. They shook their heads a great
deal and muttered “Baffling” several times.
“Wow!” Ellie enthused. “This is sooo good. Watch,
Mrs. Flynn, Ben’s coming up in the next scene.”
Sure enough, Ben Carmody, dressed in the garb of a
nineteenth-century gentleman, sauntered up the same
street where the young woman had presumably been
murdered. It was daylight, and Ben carried a cane. He
stopped in front of the building where the ax-wielding
maniac had done his dirty deed. Ben looked up to the
second story. Then, as a stout woman carrying a wicker
basket entered the street, he turned and disappeared
around a corner. Judith suddenly realized she’d seen
this before.
“Excuse me,” she said, getting up. “It’s after nine,
and I’m going to take our jack-o’-lanterns in. The
trick-or-treaters should all be home by now.”
As far as Judith could determine, the fog-filled culde-sac was empty. Taking the trio of pumpkins inside,
she found Renie in the kitchen.
“I thought you were going to watch the game with
Joe,” she said, placing the pumpkins on the counter.
“I’m stealing a Pepsi first,” Renie said, opening the
refrigerator. “Did you get scared, too?”
“Sort of,” Judith admitted. “But I think I’ve seen
that movie before, though I can’t imagine why. Joe and
