Forty-Eight
I had every intention of following the nurse’s advice and grabbing an early dinner in the cafeteria before returning to Dr. Shaw’s room. Instead, I found myself driving back to the guest cottage to collect the viewer that Nelda had given to me the day before. I’d promised Devlin I wouldn’t go back to the cemetery or to Rose’s house alone, but I could at least study the stereogram we’d found.
I entered the main house first to give Nelda an update on Dr. Shaw’s condition, but when I couldn’t find her, I went out through the French doors and crossed the garden to the cottage.
Someone had been in to tidy up while we were out. The bed was made and fresh towels had been left in the bathroom. I couldn’t imagine that Nelda did all the work herself, but as I moved about the tiny space, I detected the faintest hint of cloves.
The cottage unsettled me so I snatched up the stereoscope and hurried back outside to sit in a patch of sunlight on the steps. I would linger only for a moment, I told myself. Just a quick look at the stereogram and then I’d drive back to the hospital.
I inserted the card in the holder and lifted the viewer to the light. As I searched the house in the background, I once again experienced the sensation of being watched. Shifting my focus to Nelda, I peered into her three-dimensional eyes and the feeling grew stronger. The intensity of her gaze startled me and my first instinct was to set the viewer aside. I wasn’t certain I wanted to uncover whatever Rose had meant to reveal.
But the secret was right there in front of me. Literally staring me in the face. A mask had lifted when the shutter opened, allowing a glimpse of something feral in the curl of Nelda’s lips, in the angry flare of her nostrils.
A breeze swept through the trees and as I looked up from the viewer, I saw the real, flesh-and-blood Nelda standing before me. She hovered in the shadows of her garden watching me.
“What has Rose left for you now?” she asked in a pleasant voice.
I didn’t respond. I was still reeling from the weight of my discovery.
Placing one hand on top of the other, she leaned heavily on the head of her cane. A subtle change came over her features and I could see something cold and calculating in her eyes. “You don’t know it,” she said in a raspy voice. “The energy you call an entity. But it knows you.”
Fear stole my breath as my heart began to pound. “Who are you?” I gasped, but I really didn’t want to know the answer. “What are you?”
“Oh, I’m still Nelda. Only stronger and smarter. A better Nelda, you might say.” Her eyes cleared and her voice lightened. “My visitor is here, too. My dark caller. We’ve coexisted quite nicely all these years.”
“How?”
“Oh, I think you already know the answer.” Her lips curled again as she hobbled toward the steps, but I didn’t feel threatened. Not at that moment. The entity that used Nelda Toombs as a conduit was limited by the constraints of her body. I could outrun her. I could get away whenever I wanted. Right now, I had a compulsion to hear what she—it—had to say.
“Rose has been waiting a long, long time for you to come into your own. We all have, I suppose. But for very different reasons.”
“What do you mean?”
“The rules kept you safe even from Rose. So she waited until you were free of them and strong enough to help her. She was clever luring you here with that old stereogram. Very clever indeed.”
“Did you send someone to break into my house to get it back? Why?”
“I had to find out what Rose was up to. I needed to know what she’d revealed to you in that image.” Nelda cocked her head as she gazed up at me. “The resemblance still amazes me, but you’re not as cunning or as clever as your great-grandmother. Truth be told, you’re a bit dense about all this. But you’re stronger than Rose ever was. You’ve got that going for you. I doubt you realize how much power you possess, let alone how to wield it. You’re the only one left who can truly do us harm.”
I clutched the viewer to my chest. “How can I harm you? By finding out the truth? Are you afraid of what I’ll uncover in the cemetery? In Rose’s house? Are you worried I’ll reveal what you did to all those colonists? That was you, wasn’t it?”
A sly smile flashed. “That was us. The idea was mine, though. It’s what made me so desirable.”