Reign

sensation steadied him, and he nodded at Evan. 'Thanks,' he heard himself say harshly, and cleared his throat.

'Pretty dusty down here,' Evan said, acknowledging Curt's roughness of voice.

'Yes… it is. Maybe we've been down here long enough. We can finish this next week.' He tucked the clipboard under his arm and let a cold jolt of the soda sear his throat. 'Have you seen our recreation area?' he asked Evan, thinking that an exit from the tunnel in that direction would keep him from once more passing the dark mouths of the bays.

'Not yet.'

'Come on then, I'll show you,' he said, and led the way out of the tunnel.

What he had seen, he told himself, had to be an hallucination. He had been working too long without a break, maybe thinking too much about Tommy Werton's death, and, finding himself alone in a particularly eerie place, and in a morbid state of mind, that mind had just overloaded its circuits and shown him something that did not, could not exist outside the network of ganglions in his brain. Simple as that.

The only alternative was that there were ghosts, and Curtis Wynn had never believed in ghosts. He had spent over half of the thirty-eight years of his life in theatres, a good many of which were reputed to be haunted, and not once had he ever seen anything inexplicable by natural means, not once had he felt the presence of any creatures other than human.

Hallucination, then. A visit home was just what he needed, and he decided to leave early.

~* ~

As soon as Curt and Evan stepped into the basement hall and closed the door to the storage area behind them, the musty odor was replaced by that of chlorine. 'Smell that?' Curt said. 'The pool. Right around the corner. But in here…” He crossed the hall and opened a door. 'A bowling alley, shuffleboard court, even quoits, if anyone is still into that.'

'Very thirties, huh?' Evan said, grinning at the large room. Although he had never played quoits, he had bowled often while in the Marines, and had enjoyed shuffleboard at several of the boarding schools he had attended, even though it was considered a retiree's game.

'In here,' Curt went on, sliding open a pair of paneled doors, 'are pool tables and card tables. Kirkland's bridge club met here some years ago. Dennis had the pool tables' surfaces recovered.' Evan nodded appreciatively. The tables were elegant, with legs of polished mahogany and large net pockets rather than ball returns. But he had little time to examine them closely, for Curt led the way immediately out another door and across the hall, from where the chlorine smell came.

'The pool,' he said as he passed through the doorway. 'Six lanes. We use this a lot. You have a suit?' Evan nodded. 'You may want to give it a try today then. It's heated, of course. The locker rooms are through there.' He gestured toward a door at the deep end of the pool. 'Come on – it goes through to the gym.'

'A gym too? You've got everything here.'

Curt shrugged. 'It was a community center. And the man who ran the community was generous.'

As they passed through the men's locker room, down the rows of dark green metal lockers, Evan pictured it as it must have been over half a century before – the laughing, sweaty bodies of businessmen, sated with their Saturday luncheon at the local Rotary, casting off their inhibitions with their suits and ties, becoming kids again, splashing about in the pool David Kirk had given them. But this picture of aquatic felicity was banished by the sight that met his eyes as they walked into the spacious and well-appointed gym.

Terri Deems, clad in a leotard and Reeboks, was driving the flywheels of a rowing machine to a state of frenzy. Her short red hair was plastered to her forehead, and sweat darkened the light green fabric between her breasts. When she saw the two men, it seemed to startle her. She broke her rhythm, then took two more long strokes before she relaxed, letting the machine come to a rest with a long hum of gears.

'You two met?' Evan asked.

'Yesterday,' Terri said.

'So,' Evan said smiling, 'you're into exercise.”

“I'm into not dying an early death, that's all.”

“Things slow upstairs?' said Curt, crossing his arms.

'Marvella's in one of her solitary moods – she can't stand the sight of me right now.'

'If I remember right,' Evan said, 'most of the time Marvella can't stand the sight of anyone in her shop.' Terri gave a sour smile.

'Well, the five dollar tour is over,' said Curt. 'I'm going to take our list to the office, then get out of here.' He started to move toward the door, but Evan didn't follow. Curt turned back, gave him a look half-amused and half- pitying, and nodded. 'Happy Thanksgiving. See you both next week.' Then he was gone.

Jesus, thought Evan, is it so obvious? Well, if it was it was. He was simply not capable of walking away from Terri Deems without an overwhelming reason. 'So,' he began, 'how did you come to work for Marvella?'

'Your father used to date my mother,' she said, without the trace of a smile. The answer took him by surprise, and he gave a chuckle that he was sure sounded as uncomfortable as it felt. 'I'm sure there was more to it than that.'

'Really? And how did you get your job?'

He felt his face redden. 'I, uh, I had some connections too.'

She shrugged. 'Makes the world go round, doesn't it.'

'Look, um, would you like to have some lunch?'

“Why?”

God damn it, but she was cold. 'Well, it's almost noon, and I thought you might be hungry.'

'I brought my lunch, thanks.”

“Maybe dinner?'

'I eat dinner at home.'

'A movie?'

'I don't think so.' There was not a hint of apology in her voice. Evan knew that any further attempt would be useless.

'Okay, well… I'll be seeing you.' He gave a half-hearted wave and left the gym. Outside the door he paused and listened to the rowing machine crank up immediately. God, what an impression he must have made on her – not even a moment of contemplation for the poor putz who tried to date her. Nope, just pump that machine and feel the burn. Hell.

He decided to go watch the television in his suite and think about ways to look sexy.

~* ~

Hot shit bastard, Terri thought, trying to punish the machine by yanking the oars out of their cradle. Just because his old man runs the place, he thinks he's got free and easy access to all the help. Fuck that.

She stopped her rowing, thrust the oars from her, and sat with her head down, watching the sweat trickle from the hollow of her throat down onto her chest. Dennis Hamilton's kid. Just the person she didn't need in her life. She was angry at her mother, and she was angry at Dennis as well for having loved Ann, and for maybe still loving her, and she was goddamned if she was going to have anything to do with his kid.

Even if he was as cute and charming as hell.

Even if she did, in spite of herself, like him.

~* ~

She likes the boy. She'd like to have him, I'll wager, have him between her legs, making her sweat even more.

Sweat.

God, look at her sweat.

But that's nothing to how I'll make her sweat. Christ's jewels, I'll make her MOAN and sweat, sweat blood before I'm done with her, the little whore.

Sweat.

And blood.

Blood.