“Oh, Sam.” Carly folds the other woman into a hug. Leaving them to their tears, I go into the bathroom. When I come out, they’re gone, but Jason’s standing just outside the door.
And he’s staring at me.
“What’s your game?” he demands. “Why are you following me?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Even to me, I sound unconvincing.
He takes a step closer. I step back, but there’s nowhere to go. He puts his hands on either side of me so that I’m pinned against the wall.
“I saw you at the funeral, I saw you at McDonald’s, and now you’re here.” Flecks of spit land on my face. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”
“I, I, I…” The words get stuck in my throat. He’s so close I can feel the heat radiating from his body. His face shines with sweat, and there are damp rings under both of his arms.
“I hear the clicks on my phone.” His pupils look wide, unfocused. “I know you guys are tapping me.”
“What?” I don’t have to pretend to be confused.
“You’ve bugged my house. You’ve got undercovers following me.”
Does he think I’m a cop or an informant? “I’m not anyone.” Remembering Duncan’s plan for a cover story, I add, “I’m just Duncan’s girlfriend.”
“Right.” He rolls his eyes. “And now go run off and report to Steve. Just be sure you tell him one thing for me.” He pokes a finger in my sternum. “You tell him that no matter how hard you guys try, I’ll still be one step ahead of you.”
He spins around, leaving me shaking. He’s moving toward the front door, so I head toward the back. Has Jason just confessed to murdering my parents? Is Stephen really having him followed?
Someone is cutting through the shadowy side yard just ahead of me, underneath the oak tree. At first I think it’s Duncan, but then I catch a whiff. It’s Benjy, still in his dirty overcoat, his hair sticking up in spikes. We reach the group around the table at about the same time.
“Hey, Benjy.” Carly pulls her lips back in an imitation smile. “How’ve you been doing?” Her husband puts his arm around her protectively.
“Oh, you know, they surprise you and put little needles in your scalp and listen to you for years whether you know it or not.” Carly starts to respond, but Benjy continues, his words like a string of freight cars. The whole party has fallen silent, except for the shrieks of a little girl running through the sprinkler. “They have this really fantastic equipment they use to check my head, to see if the electricity is a little different. It’s easier to focus, see, because of all the fillings I got.” He opens his mouth and points at jumbled teeth and at gaps where teeth used to be.
“Fillings,” Sam repeats. “You did go to the dentist a lot.”
“Exactly,” Benjy nods rapidly, as if someone finally understands him. “That wasn’t a coincidence. They wanted me there.”
Audrey steps toward him. “Can I make you up a plate?” Her smile is genuine, but by the way she phrases it, it’s clear that she doesn’t want him touching the food. And that she wants him to take whatever she gives him and go away.
I’m not sure Benjy’s capable of understanding the nuances.
“Can I share some food, break the mood, be so crude?” His expression is oddly flat.
“How about if I get you a little bit of everything?” Audrey says. She’s already begun filling a paper plate.
Benjy hasn’t noticed me yet, and I don’t want him to. Spotting Duncan, I slip behind him.
Duncan turns and whispers, “Don’t worry. I see this guy all the time. He’s harmless.”
But Benjy catches a glimpse of me. “Naomi’s here,” he says.
I freeze, my stomach rising up and pressing against the bottom of my throat. Now everyone will know who I am.
“Naomi’s here in spirit,” Carly agrees. “Her and Terry.”
But I’m not off the hook. Benjy’s still staring in my direction. “Be careful, Naomi. I said who you gonna call and it’s Ghostbusters.” He shakes his head, his mouth twisting. “No, that came out wrong. It’s a joke. But who are you gonna call?”
Stephen comes around the corner. “Hello, Benjy.”
At the sight of him, the other man freezes.
“I need to go.” Benjy takes a step back. “I’m getting very uncomfortable right now. I think somebody might be trying to shoot me.”
Stephen winces and raises his empty hands. “I’m not a policeman today, Benjy. I’m just a person. You’re safe.”
Benjy shakes his head. “In the hills, flies are landing.” He looks from face to face as if imparting some important news. “Amongst all confused the wind speaks.”
He turns and snatches the half-filled plate from Audrey. With a muffled cry of surprise, she lets go. He scurries out of the yard.
“Who was that?” she says. “How did you guys know him?”
“I’ve seen him around,” Gregg says. “You can’t really miss that hair.”
“He was in our year at school.” Sam sighs. “He’s schizophrenic. He used to be so smart. He got the highest SAT score of anyone in school. Not just our year. Any year. He got accepted into all these big-name colleges and ended up going to Stanford. But one year he came home for Christmas break and never went back. He was saying everyone was looking at him.”
“The way he was acting, he was right,” Carly says. “Everyone was looking at him. He was talking to people who weren’t there and claiming that the weather guy on Channel Eight was sending him secret messages through his tie.”
“I met him in the cemetery yesterday when I was walking with Nora.” I step out from behind Duncan. “I heard he sits on Naomi’s grave and talks to her. And then he tried to talk to me, but I didn’t really understand him.”
“What did he say?” Lauren asks.
“Something about halos and snow, blood and hands. And that he was sorry. It all kind of ran together and didn’t make much sense. The only thing I really remember was he said, ‘Orange trucks suffer.’”
Carly puts her hand to her chest. “Oh my God. Terry’s truck was orange.”
“Was that the Christmas when he started going crazy?” Sam asks the group.
By the looks on their faces, it was.
Stephen looks thoughtful. “We were both volunteers for search and rescue back then. After Naomi’s body was found, we got called out to help search for evidence, but Ben was pretty worthless. He kept wandering around and talking to himself.”
“Oh my God.” Carly’s eyes are wide. “He could have gone crazy because he killed them. Because he killed my brother and Naomi.”
“Whoa, Carly, whoa!” Stephen raises his hands. “Of course, we’ll bring Ben in for questioning. But just because someone is mentally ill doesn’t mean they’re violent. Most schizophrenics are only a danger to themselves. We’ve never had any complaints about Ben being violent. Drinking in public, trespassing—it’s all misdemeanors.”
“Come off it.” Carly clenches her fists. “It makes perfect sense. He must have gone with them that day. The only kind of person who would stab Naomi so many times is a crazy person.” Other people nod. Her husband pulls her closer.
“Carly,” Sam says, “this is Ben we’re talking about. If he did it, he wasn’t capable of keeping it a secret back then. And he sure isn’t capable of keeping one now.”
“He could be talking about it all the time, for all we know,” Sam points out. “Who hears what Ben’s trying to say? Nobody wants to get too near him. Nobody wants to pay attention. He could have been trying to tell us the truth all along.”