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That night she lay in bed waiting for the phone to ring. This house is too large, she thought. Anyone could come in the front door, the west door, the back door, come up the back staircase and I’d never hear him or her. The keys were hanging in the office. They were locked up at night but often during the day the office was empty. Suppose someone took a house key, made a copy and returned the first key to the office? No one would ever know.
Why am I worrying about that now? she wondered.
It was just that dream, that recurring dream of touching flesh, of her fingers grazing a cheek, an ear, hair. It was happening almost nightly now. And always the same. The heavy scent of pine, the feeling of a presence, the touching, and then a faint sighing sound. And always when she turned on the light the room was empty.
If only she could talk to someone about it. But who? Dr. Elmendorf would suggest she see a psychiatrist. She was sure of that. That’s all Granite Place would need, she thought. Now that Krueger woman is going to have her head examined.
It was not quite ten o’clock. The phone rang. Quickly she picked it up. “Hello.”
The line was dead. No, she could hear something. Not breathing but something.
“Hello.” She felt herself start to tremble.
“Je
“Who is this?”
“Je
“Who is this?”
“Have you got another boyfriend from New York with you yet, Je
“What are you talking about?”
Now the voice burst forth, a shriek, a scream, half-laugh, half-sob, unrecognizable. “Whore. Murderer. Get out of Caroline’s bed. Get out of it now.”
She slammed the phone down. Oh, God, help me. She held her hands against her cheek feeling a tic under her eye. Oh, God.
The phone rang. I won’t pick it up. I won’t.
Four times, five times, six times. It stopped. It began to ring again. Erich, she thought. It was after ten o’clock. She grabbed the receiver.
“Je
“I don’t know. It was just a voice.” Her own voice was near hysteria.
“You sound upset. What did whoever called you say?”
“I… I couldn’t make out the words.” She couldn’t tell him.
“I see.” A long pause, then in a resigned tone, Erich said, “We won’t discuss it now.”
“What do you mean we won’t discuss it?” Shocked, Je
“Darling, calm yourself, please.”
“But, Erich, who?”
“Darling, think. It was Rooney, of course.”
“But why? Rooney likes me.”
“She may like you but she loved Caroline. She wants Caroline back and when she gets upset she sees you as an intruder. Darling, I warned you about her. Je
Sometime during the long, sleepless night the cramps began. First they were shooting pains in her abdomen. Then they settled into a steady off-on pattern. At eight she phoned Dr. Elmendorf. “You’d better come in,” he told her.
Clyde had left early for a cattle auction and had taken Rooney with him. She didn’t dare ask Joe to drive her. There were a half-dozen other men on the farm, the daily help who came in the morning and went to their own homes at night. She knew their names and faces but Erich had always cautioned her “not to get familiar.”
She didn’t want to ask one of them. She called Mark and explained. “By any chance…?”
His answer was prompt. “No problem. If you don’t mind waiting until after office hours for me to drive you back. Or better still my dad can do it. He just got up from Florida. He’ll stay most of the summer with me.”
Mark’s father, Luke Garrett. Je
Mark came for her at nine-fifteen. The morning was warm and hazy. It would be a hot day. Je
Mark’s car was a four-year-old Chrysler station wagon. His bag was tossed in the back. A stack of books was scattered next to it on the seat. The car had an air of comfortable untidiness.
It was the first time she’d ever really been alone with Mark. I’ll bet even the animals know instinctively he’ll make things better when he’s around, she thought. She told him that.
He glanced over at her. “I’d like to think so. And I hope Elmendorf is having the same effect on you. He’s a good doctor, Je
“I do.”
They drove down the dirt road that led past the farm into Granite Place. Acre on acre of Krueger land, she thought. All those animals grazing on the fields. Krueger prize cattle. And I really had visualized a pleasant farmhouse and some cornfields. I never understood.
Mark said, “I don’t know whether you heard that Joe is moving back in with his mother.”
“Erich told me.”
“The best possible situation. Maude is a smart woman. Drink runs in that family. She’ll keep a tight rein on Joe.”
“I thought her brother started drinking because of the accident?”
“I wonder. I heard my father and John Krueger talk about it afterward. John always said that Josh Brothers had been drinking that day. Maybe the accident was his excuse for coming out in the open with his boozing.”
“Will Erich ever forgive me for all this gossip? It’s destroying our marriage.” She hadn’t expected to ask the question. She heard it come from her flat and lifeless. Did she dare tell Mark about the phone call, about Erich’s response to it?
“Je
“You make it sound so easy.”
“Not easy, but maybe not as bad as you think.”
He dropped her at the doctor’s office. “I’ll just sit out here and catch up on some reading. You shouldn’t be too long.”
The obstetrician did not mince words. “You’ve had false labor and I certainly don’t like it at this stage. You haven’t been exerting yourself?”
“No.”
“You’ve lost more weight.”
“I just can’t eat.”
“For the sake of the baby, you’ve got to try. Malted milks, ice cream, just get something down. And stay off your feet as much as possible. Are you worried about anything?”