Colby looked up at them again.
“Thing is, the mannequin should have been in the attic. That’s where I left it. I don’t know how it got down to the parlor. Or if my sister did go crazy, head up to the attic and drag it down. I just know that…well, I may be bothering you for nothing. Maybe that’s what she did. Maybe it’s all finally been too much and my sister is going crazy. But, I—I heard that this…this kind of situation is what you do. Like…weird things happening. Kathy could have died! I mean, you’re a P.I., Quinn, but you were a cop, and I read up on you and…you’ve solved crimes that centered around…weird things. You, uh, own a collectibles shop, right?”
“Danni does,” Quinn said, smiling at her.
Yes, they ran a shop. And they were involved with weird things, found out about them, destroyed them, or added them to the strange collection Angus had started in the basement—built up first floor, really—of the shop on Royal.
“I’d read about some strange crimes in NOLA and saw that you’d been instrumental in solving them,” Colby said. “So I called you,” he whispered. “Thing is, too, Kathy got me the work that made us think we should take out little vacation and now…this, whatever, happens to her.” He swallowed and looked over at Danni. “Weird. But, then you’ve probably seen a few weird things in your day, right?” Colby asked Danni.
“A few,” she murmured dryly.
“But, evil things? Kathy is insisting that the thing is evil—and that it was out to get her. She’s absolutely terrified of being alone. I think she believes that it’s going to drive itself up here and attack her in her hospital room. Things can’t be evil—they’re just things!” Colby said.
Quinn thought that Colby was waiting for vindication of his words. “People can be very evil,” Quinn told him quietly.
“And people can—perhaps, in a way--imbue things they—that they use with that evil,” Danni said carefully. “What do you know about the doll or figure or—exactly what is it? And where is it now?”
“It’s a—a moveable mannequin, something like a puppet,” Colby told them. “There were five of them—they were used in a movie called ‘Zombie Nuns of the Apocalypse.’ The movie is, naturally, bizarre, but something of a cult classic now. Oh, I guess it’s really an animatronic—it’s battery operated and can jerk—the arms lift, that kind of thing. The moviemakers put them up at an auction—they were coveted by collectors! I was really lucky to have snagged one—or, at least, I thought I’d been incredibly lucky.”
“So it was a prop in a move,” Danni murmured.
“More than a prop,” Colby said. “Scream Queen Arianna Palacio played a nun as well—the zombie nuns were created to look just like her. With the actress and the five mannequin/puppets, the filmmakers were able to make it look as if an army of the things was swarming. Each was a little…well, eaten away a little differently. Missing flesh, bone sticking out, scabby—in different places. Okay, so the move was no ‘Casablanca’—or even a ‘Friday the 13th,’ but like I said, it wound up with a huge following. It was shot for less than fifty-thousand dollars—a modern miracle in the film world. It grossed millions around the world. And I’m yapping on about a movie when my sister….” he stopped speaking, his voice choked off, and his eyes becoming moist with tears.
Danni reached across the table, setting her long slender fingers over Colby’s hand. “Kathy’s going to be all right; you told us she’s going to be all right.”
Colby nodded. He straightened and shook his head slightly, as if by doing so he could regain his composure. “Broken leg, two broken ribs…serious concussion. But we’re lucky—really lucky. She’s alive. And the driver who hit her wasn’t a drunk or an ass. He stopped and got the cops and an ambulance and the cops called Tracy and me so that we were able to hit the first little plane out of the Bahamas and get back here. It’s less than an hour…still felt like I was so far from her. She’s all I have, you know. My dad died three years ago and my mom…she’s been in a home for the last six months.” He paused again, wincing. “Alzheimer’s and other complications,” he said quietly. “I’ve told the nurses at the home not to even think about trying to tell her about Kathy.”
“Of course not,” Danni murmured.