stayed in Wisconsin, Nell.
They let me know what was going on in your life. I knew you were here well before I came.”
“What are you going to do?” Her voice trembled.
He took another cautious step toward her. “Well, first, Nelly, I’d like to explain about Bess.”
“No,” she said and her fear was as real as it had been that sunlit July morning when he had clamped his bloody hand against her mouth. “If you don’t let me out of here, I’m going to scream.”
“Nelly—”
“I mean it, Karl, I’m going to scream.”
He opened his hands wide. “You’re free to go, Nell. If I wanted to hurt you, I could have done it a long time ago.”
She pushed the walker before her like a shield. Her hands were slipping on the metal. As she passed Karl, she didn’t look at him.
The walls seemed narrower and the distance to her room much too short. When she got inside, she closed the door, wishing that it would lock. But she knew that part of her fear was irrational. There wasn’t much a ninety- five-year-old man could do to her here, not in this home filled with bright lights and young nurses. All she had to do was scream and someone would come to her. They didn’t ignore screams in Household 5.
Nell tugs at her knickers. No matter how tightly she ties them, they always stay uncomfortably loose about the waist. She has been reluctant to slide into a base like Chucky tells her to because she’s afraid that if she does her knickers will come off.
She takes the path that goes through Kirschman’s apple orchard.
Mr. Kirschman hates it when the kids take the shortcut through his orchard, but they do anyway.
As she turns the corner to the center of the orchard, someone clamps a hand over her mouth and drags her back against the tree.
The hand is tight and slippery. It smells like iron.
“Nelly, promise not to scream if I let you go?”
The voice is Karl’s. She nods. Slowly he releases her.
“What were you trying to do?”
He raises a grimy finger to his lips. His dark hair stands out in sharp relief to his pale skin. “I don’t want you to go any farther, okay? I want you to go back and get your father right away. Promise?”
Nell nods again. She’s staring at his stained white shirt and she realizes that it is covered with blood. She wipes at her mouth and her hand comes away bloody.
“Nell—”
She turns and starts to run, not realizing until she’s rounded the corner that she’s disobeyed Karl. There, lying across the orchard path, is her sister. Bess’s hair is strewn about her, and her blouse is covered with blood.
“Nell,” it’ll be okay, just—”
Nell screams. Karl is standing behind her. She pushes him out of her way and runs down the orchard path toward home. This time running seems easy although the air still catches in her throat. She can’t hear Karl behind her, and as she nears the house, she knows she’s safe. Karl won’t hurt her, Karl would never hurt her. The only one Karl hurts is Bess, and that is Bess’s fault because she doesn’t listen to Papa and now it’s too late, it’s all too late because Nell has left her there, bleeding and helpless, with Karl, the man who hurts her, the man whose hands are covered with blood.
“Did I ever tell you that my sister was murdered?”
Anna smoothed her already neat skirt and sighed. “Yes, Mother.”
Her tone said,
Nell clutched her hands in her lap, trying to decide if she should continue. Anna would never believe her. Even though she was fifty-five, Anna rarely thought about anything more serious than clothing and makeup. And, of course, she had never known her Aunt Bess.
“I saw the man who killed her.”
Anna suddenly became stiff, and her eyes focused on something beyond Nell’s shoulder.
Nell’s heart was pounding. Her oldest, Elizabeth, would have listened. But Bess had been dead for six years. “I think I told you this once,” Nell said. “But the man who killed her — his name was Karl — also killed her fiance, Edmund. And they never caught him.
And it used to frighten me, thinking that someday he’d come back for me.”
“That was a long time ago, Mother.” Anna’s voice had an edge to it.
“I know.” Nell’s fingers had grown cold. “But I wouldn’t be telling you now if it weren’t important.”
Anna looked at her mother full in the face, a deep, piercing look.
“Why is it important now?”
“Because he’s here,” Nell whispered. The words sounded too melodramatic, but she couldn’t take them back. “He’s across the hall.”
Anna took a deep breath. “Mother, even if he were here, there’s nothing he could do. He probably doesn’t even remember you.”
“He remembers,” Nell said. “I talked to him.”
“Even so.” Anna reached out and took Nell’s hand. Her palm was warm and moist. “He’s an elderly man. He probably won’t live long.
If we called the police and they verified what you said, he probably wouldn’t even make it to trial. I mean, who else knows about the murder, besides you?”
“My father knew and—”
“Anyone living?”
“No.” Tears were building in Nell’s eyes. She blinked rapidly.
“Then it would be your word against his, and frankly, Mother, I don’t think it’s worth it. I mean, what can you gain now? He’ll die soon and then you won’t have to worry.”
“No.” A tear traced its way down Nell’s cheek and stopped on her lips. She licked it away quickly, hoping Anna didn’t see. “He won’t die soon.”
Anna frowned. “Why not?”
“He’s working on an experiment to prolong his life.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, Mother.” Anna pulled her hand away. “How many other people have you told this piece of nonsense to?”
“I haven’t—”
A nurse knocked on the door and walked in. She set a tray next to Nell’s armchair. “I have your medication, Nell.”
Nell reached over and took the Dixie cup. The liquid inside was brown. “This doesn’t look like my medication.”
She looked up in time to see Anna shaking her head at the nurse.
“Just drink it, Nell,” the nurse said in her fakely sweet voice, “and it’ll be all right.”
Nell took a sniff of the cup. The contents smelled bitter. “I really don’t want it.”
“Mother,” Anna snapped. Then in a confidential tone to the nurse, she said, “Mother is having a bad day.”
“The past few days have been difficult,” the nurse said. “She hasn’t gone to meals and she won’t leave her room at all.”
“Is that true, Mother?”
Nell swirled the liquid in her cup. Sediment floated around the bottom. Suddenly she realized that it didn’t matter. No one would care if Karl poisoned her. She put the cup to her lips and drank before she could change her mind.
The liquid bit at her tongue like homemade whiskey. She coughed once and then set the cup down. “I don’t see why you want to know,”
she said.
Anna pursed her lips. “Mother, really.”
Nell rubbed her tongue against the roof of her mouth, but she couldn’t make the taste go away. She grabbed the side of her chair and got to her feet. Her hips cracked slightly when she stood. The nurse handed her the
