The Secret History

'It served him right,' said Henry.

'Tell him about the ice cream.'

'Really, this was the last straw,' Henry said crossly. 'He took a quart of ice cream out of my freezer to eat while he waited he couldn't bother to get a bowl of it, you understand, he had to have the whole quart – and when he fell asleep it melted all over him and on my chair and on that nice little Oriental rug I used to have. Well. It was quite a good antique, that rug, but the dry cleaners said there was nothing they could do. It came back in shreds. And my chair.' He reached for a cigarette. 'He screamed like a banshee when he saw us '

'- and he would not shut up,' said Francis. 'Remember, it was six o'clock in the morning, the neighbors sleeping…' He shook his head. 'I remember Charles taking a step towards him, trying to talk to him, and Bu

'It was only a few seconds,' Henry said.

'- after a minute, Camilla picked up a glass ashtray and threw it at him and hit him square in the chest.'

'It wasn't a hard blow,' said Henry thoughtfully, 'but it was quite judiciously timed. Instantly he shut up and stared at her and I said to him, "Bu

We've hit a deer in the road on the way home."'

'So then,' said Francis, 'he wiped his brow and rolled his eyes and went through the whole Bu

'And meanwhile,' Henry said, 'the four of us were standing there in the bloody sheets, the lights on, no curtains, in full view of anyone who might happen to drive by. He was talking so loudly, and the lights were so bright, and I felt so faint with exhaustion and shock that I couldn't do much more than stare at him. My God – we were covered with this man's blood, we'd tracked it into the house, the sun was coming up, and here, to top it all off, was Bu

'I practically had to rip the sheet off,' said Francis. The blood had dried and it was stuck to me. By the time I'd managed that, Henry and the others were in the bathroom. Spray was flying; the water in the bathtub was backed up red; rusty splashes on the tile. It was a nightmare.'

'I can't tell you how unfortunate it was that Bu

'Exactly,' said Henry. 'I don't want to convey the impression that Bu

If there'd been time, I would have sat him down and explained things to him the instant we got in. But there wasn't time.'

'Good God,' Francis said, and shuddered. 'I still can't go in Henry's bathroom. Blood smeared on the porcelain. Henry's straight razor swinging from a peg. We were bruised and scratched to pieces.'

'Charles was the worst by far.'

'Oh, my God. Thorns stuck all over him.'

'And that bite.'

'You've never seen anything like it,' said Francis. 'Four inches around and the teeth marks just gouged in. Remember what Bu

Henry laughed. 'Yes,' he said. 'Tell him.'

'Well, there we all were, and Charles was turning to get the soap – I didn't even know Bu

'He was standing there for part of the time, making comments of various sorts,' said Henry, 'but the next thing I knew he wasn't.

I was disturbed by how suddenly he'd left but glad he was out of the way. We had a great deal to do and not too much time.'

'Weren't you afraid he'd tell somebody?'

Henry looked at me blankly. 'Who?'

The. Marion. Anybody.'

'No. At that point I had no reason to think he'd do anything of the sort. He'd been with us on previous tries, you understand, so our appearance didn't seem as extraordinary to him as it might have to you. The whole thing was deadly secret. He'd been involved in it with us for months. How could he have told anyone without explaining the whole thing and making himself look foolish? Julian knew what we were trying to do, but I was still pretty certain Bu

He paused and lit a cigarette. 'It was almost daybreak, and things were still a dreadful mess – bloody footprints on the porch, the chitons lying where we'd dropped them. The twins put on some old clothes of mine and went out to take care of the porch and the inside of the car. The chitons, I knew, should be burnt, but I didn't want to start a big fire in the back yard; nor did I want to burn them inside and risk setting off the fire alarm. My landlady is constantly warning me not to use the fireplace, but I'd always suspected it worked. I took a chance and as luck would have it, it did.'

'I was no help at all,' said Francis.

'No, you certainly weren't,' said Henry crossly.

'I couldn't help it. I thought I was going to throw up. I went back to Henry's room and went to sleep.'

'I think we all would have liked to go to sleep but somebody had to clean up,' Henry said. 'The twins came in around seven.

I was still having a terrible time with the bathroom. Charles's back was stuck full of thorns like a pincushion. For a while Camilla and I worked on him with a pair of tweezers; then I went back in the bathroom to finish up. The worst of it was over, but I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open. The towels weren't so bad – we'd pretty much avoided using them – but there were stains on some of them so I put them in the washing machine and dumped in some soap. The twins were asleep, on that fold-out bed in the back room, and I shoved Charles over and was out like a light.'

'Fourteen hours,' said Francis. 'I've never slept that long in my life.'

'Nor have I. Like a dead man. No dreams.'

'I can't tell you how disorienting this was,' Francis said. 'The sun was coming up when I went to sleep, and it seemed like I'd just closed my eyes when I opened them again, and it was dark, and a phone was ringing, and I had no idea where I was. It kept ringing and ringing, and finally I got up and found my way into the hall. Somebody said don't answer it but -'

'I've never seen anybody like you for answering a phone,' said Henry. 'Even in somebody else's house.'

'Well, what am I supposed to do? Just let it ring? Anyway, I picked it up, and it was Bu

Henry nodded. 'You came too,' he said. 'Remember?'

'Of course,' I said, unaccountably excited that the story was at last begi

'If you don't mind my saying so, we were all a little surprised when he showed up with you,' said Francis.

'Well, I suppose eventually he wanted to get us alone and find out what happened, but it was nothing that couldn't wait,' said Henry. 'You'll recall that our appearance wouldn't have seemed so odd to him as it might. He'd been with us before, you know, on nights very nearly as – what is the word I'm looking for?'