“Thank goodness, Dr. Brown,” the frazzled woman said. “It’s Nicole, Nicole Ash over there.”
She pointed to the far corner of the room where a woman, probably in her thirties, lay sprawled on Stephanie’s gleaming hardwood floor.
The woman was lying in front of a chair on the edge of an oriental rug. Her blond hair was splayed around her head, and her blue eyes were open, staring at nothing I could see. She appeared to be in a state of shock.
“Hi, Nicole, I’m Ditie Brown, a doctor. Can you talk to me?” I felt her pulse, which was strong and steady, and took a cursory look at her. She tried to sit up and I told her to wait a minute. “Did you fall or faint?” I asked. “Did you hit your head on anything?”
“I don’t think so,” Nicole said. She seemed to be coming back to herself, and this time she insisted on sitting up. “I thought I saw something outside the window. I must have screamed, and I don’t know what happened next. I think I tried to duck out of the way.”
I stared in the direction she pointed. A window that looked out on Stephanie’s back yard was dark.
“Are you certain you didn’t hurt yourself when you ducked,” I asked again, “and that you didn’t lose consciousness? You seemed a little dazed a moment ago.”
“I didn’t hurt myself. Maybe I did faint but I’m fine now.”
I helped her stand and got her settled in a chair that wasn’t facing the window.
“What did you see?” I asked.
She whipped her head around once more to look.
“It’s more what I thought I saw. I don’t know if I can describe it. I don’t want to describe it!” She sat up straighter in her chair. “It was ghoulish, a figure with a face that looked like a skull with a horrible grin, a rictus grin like risus sardonicus.”
I stood back from her. “How do you know that term? Are you a doctor or a nurse?”
“A nurse,” she said, “and yes, it’s the kind of grin we sometimes see on people after they die. Clenched muscles, a gaping smile. That’s what it looked like and that’s why I called it ghoulish.”
At this point two women and one man stood clustered around us. I hadn’t noticed them when I came in but they all seemed intent on hearing what Nicole had to say. Lurleen went to the back window and asked Stephanie if she had an outside light for the yard.
“Yes, of course,” Stephanie said. She switched it on and even from where I was standing I could see a well-lit patio with potted plants along the edges of a small raised platform.
“How could you see him?” I asked Nicole. “Was his face illuminated?”
“Yes, illuminated. It didn’t look like a he, more like a thing.”
“I’m taking a look,” Lurleen said.
“I’ll go with you.” That came from the only man in the room.
“Should we call the police?” someone asked.
“It was most likely a prank,” Stephanie said. “We have a lot of kids in the neighborhood, and I wouldn’t put it past any of them to play a Halloween joke on us. Your boys knew about the book club, didn’t they, Dawn?”
Dawn who had been standing near Stephanie took a giant step back from her. “My boys? They wouldn’t do something like this!”
“This smacks of what teenage boys might find very amusing,” Stephanie said.
Dawn frowned at her, rubbed a hand over her short dark hair and settled on a couch several feet away from where Stephanie stood.
It was obvious nerves were getting frayed, and I decided it was time to intervene. “Lurleen, why don’t you check the back yard with anyone who wants to go. I’ll stay here with Nicole and see if she can remember anything more about what she saw. Halloween is a week away, so a Halloween prank sounds likely.”
“Got it,” Lurleen said. “Let’s go.”
The man followed Lurleen. Everyone else remained inside
“I’ve been a little jumpy lately,” Nicole said. “I’m sure it was a neighborhood kid with a great costume, nothing more than that.”
“Let me get you something to drink,” Stephanie said, “assuming you’re done with your examination, Dr. Brown.”
“Almost,” I said. “Nicole, may I feel your head to make sure you didn’t hit it when you passed out. Same for your arms and legs if you don’t mind.”
“It’s overkill,” Nicole said, “but if you insist.”
People in this newly-formed book club seemed quick to bristle.
“Why don’t we find a private place to do that?” I said.
Stephanie showed us to a guest bedroom, and I felt Nicole’s head and then looked over her arms and legs. There were scratches and bruises on her body; some looked old and some more recent.
Alarm bells went off in my head.
As a pediatrician I mainly looked for abuse in the children I saw, but Nicole had me worried.
She pulled her arm away when she saw me examining a bruise in some detail.
“That’s enough,” she said putting on her jacket.
I spoke as quietly as I could. “Where did the bruises and scratches come from?”
“Not from an abusive husband if that’s what you’re imagining. I’m not married.” Now, I clearly felt her anger. “I don’t know you, and you’re treating me like a battered woman. Where do you get off?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come on too strong, but you have a lot of scratches and some bruising that looks old.”
“I’m a hiker and I like to go on back trails and that’s where the scratches come from. The bruising—well, when you go into the back woods it’s easy to stumble. I’ve taken some falls. Now, if you’re done with your third degree, can we join the others?”
“Of course,” I said.
I wasn’t sure if Nicole needed a drink, but I did. This book club was getting off to a very rocky start.
When we came back to the living room, Stephanie handed each of us a glass of white wine. “I have red if you prefer.”
“No, thanks,” I said, “this is just what I need.”
Lurleen and the man who went with her to check the back yard had returned. “We found nothing outside,” Lurleen said. “Maybe some footprints, but it’s too dark to tell for sure.”
Nicole took her glass and sat as far away from me as she could get. No one seemed to notice the chill between us except perhaps the man. He kept glancing back and forth between us and settled on a seat beside Nicole.
I think Lurleen spotted something at that point, and she sat down beside me.
“Everything okay?” she whispered to me.
“Not sure,” I whispered back.
“It was a prank,” Nicole said, “nothing more. I’m sorry I overreacted. Can we pretend it didn’t happen?”
“We can,” Dawn said. She was about my height with a pixie hair cut that suited her small frame. “I’ve been looking forward to this group for a month. I read one or two mysteries a week. It’s wonderful to finally find a place where people respect mysteries and don’t think I have a weak brain because I read them.”
“No one could think that about you,” Stephanie said. “Dawn is a physical therapist and a yoga instructor.”
“May I start the introductions?” Dawn asked. She didn’t wait for a reply. “As I mentioned I love mysteries, and I’m Stephanie’s neighbor. When I heard about the book club, I begged to be included. My work is very physical, so it’s nice to relax with a book at night. I have two sons and a husband who keeps them in line. Not that he needs to because they’re really good kids.”
She looked at Stephanie, eyebrows raised.
“I didn’t mean to imply they weren’t,” Stephanie said, “but they’re at that age, too old for Halloween and just old enough to cause mischief.”
“Shall we move on?” Lurleen asked. “Ditie doesn’t know any of you.”
Nicole went next. “I’m sure you’ve formed an opinion of me already. I’m not usually the hysterical type. I’m a nurse and Stephanie and I go way back. I was flattered she wanted to include me in the group, and I promise you I don’t normally overreact to things.” She pointed to the one man in the group. “Nate is a mutual friend that Stephanie and I both know. When he heard about the group he insisted on coming.”
Nate was a good-looking man, likely in his late thirties, the kind of man who undoubtedly worked out every day and probably enjoyed the attention he got for his super-charged physique.
“Hi,” he said. “I’ve been a jack of all trades and a gardener on Stephanie’s father’s estate. That’s where I met Nicole and Steph. I’m not much of a reader but I thought it would be a good idea to work on that.”
It looked to me as if Nate worked on a lot of things, like his body and his desire to be appealing to women. Maybe I wasn’t being fair, but it was something about the grin he turned on all of us. It struck me as ingratiating, possibly seductive.
“I’ll go next,” said the woman on the other side of Nate. “I’m Crystal, a homemaker. I live near Nicole. Through her, I met Stephanie. I dabble in the Dark Arts but only for the good of the world. I brought my tarot cards in case anyone would like a reading later on.” She pushed her shoulder length crimson hair away from her face perhaps to show a more serious side of herself, or perhaps she wanted to highlight the black streak of hair that ran from scalp to chin along the right side of her face. I wondered if it was there for the sake of drama. Everything about Crystal seemed to exude drama from her bright red lipstick to her smokey eye shadow. If she was doing a tarot card reading I assumed she could be very convincing.
After a brief pause, Lurleen and I introduced ourselves. Lurleen emphasized her love of the unknown and her fascination with mysteries. I stuck to a more practical description of myself as a physician and the mother of two.
“We’re waiting on one more person,” Stephanie said, “my Aunt Josie. She was happy to help organize the book club when she heard about the reading I had with Crystal. That reading suggested I needed to get out more and expand my friendships. When I spoke to Lurleen about it, she said a book club is the perfect place to get to know people.”
“While we wait for your aunt I wonder if we might do some relaxation techniques,” Dawn said. “Stephanie suggested I bring over some equipment to do that, and it looks as if this might be as good a time as any.”
“Let’s start with ringing a bell and lighting a candle,” Stephanie said. “That’s what I planned to do before all the excitement happened.” Perhaps she saw the look on my face. “No worries, Dr. Brown. I won’t be inviting spirits to this session even though they figure heavily in the book we read. I understand you are not a believer in the occult although Lurleen did say you had one or two experiences you couldn’t explain through any rational means.”
I looked at Lurleen who kept her eyes straight ahead. Stephanie had to be talking about the odd event that happened in the mansion where I was part of a cooking contest. I didn’t reply.
Stephanie continued as if I had spoken. “I’m not here to convince you, Dr. Brown, or anyone else of the power of the mystic world in our daily lives. I simply want everyone to relax.”
She lit a large candle in the center of a coffee table and motioned for Dawn to take over. Dawn dimmed the living room lights. “Sound therapy is one of the latest forms of relaxation techniques,” she said. “I brought my own recording. I thought it might add to the atmosphere of the evening, and now, after what happened, I think it will help settle our nerves.”
“I’ve always wanted to try that,” Lurleen said.
“Always, Lurleen?” I asked.
“Ever since I heard about it a week ago. It sounds perfect, no pun intended, to get us in the right frame of mind before we start discussing the book.”
Dawn smiled. “Good. I think we have enough room and I brought mats in case we wanted to try this.”
She pointed to a pile of mats in one corner of the room.
We each took one except for Nate.
“I’ll sit this out if you don’t mind,” he said.
“Nate is like that,” Nicole said to the group. “A non-believer in every sense of the word.”
I was tempted to join Nate on the couch, but when in Rome . . . .
We scattered ourselves around the floor. We were told to lie down, get comfortable and close our eyes.
I took one last look at Nate. He was staring at all of us and then at the back window as if he were waiting for something to happen.
Dawn was sitting cross-legged at one end of the room. She had a copper bowl and what looked like a padded hammer. She struck the bowl from time to time as sounds emanated from her recording. I closed my eyes, and in spite of myself, I started to relax. The sounds had no kind of tune but the whole experience was like listening to a dulcimer, soft and soothing. I found myself drifting.
We were interrupted by a knock on the door, followed by heavy footsteps inside the house.
“What in the world?” a woman said as she entered the room. “It’s dark in here! Am I on the scene of a mass murder? I thought we were reading about murders, not participating in them.”
Eyes popped open, and it was clear our relaxation session was over. We rolled up our mats and found seats again around the room.
“Oh, Aunt Josie,” Stephanie said. “I’m so glad you made it.”
Aunt Josie was solidly built and as tall as Lurleen, a little over six feet I’d guess. She had short gray hair and was older than the rest of us by a good ten years or more. She was probably in her mid to late fifties, and the only similarity I could see between her and Stephanie was the intensity of her brown eyes. Aunt Josie looked over us with what appeared to be a hint of disdain.
“I’m sorry I’m late. I’m Josephine Strout. What have I missed?”