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– How’s Uncle Carter?
– All at work. They have something to do with a shortage of granaries there. He is engaged in the construction of a warehouse. The season is in full swing.
– As always. Say hi to him.
– I’ll definitely pass it on.
– How are things going with your paintings? Haven’t finished your collection yet?
– No, what are you talking about? There are still a lot of things that need to be finalized. But I think I’ll meet the deadline. – Giselle took a deep breath and said: “Okay, honey.” I will not distract you. Keep cooking.
Kayla smiled and replied:
– Fine. A big hello to Ines and Rebecca.
– I’ll definitely tell them, honey. I kiss you deeply. Bye-bye.
15. Beach, moon, sea of blood
Jerry Ings and Alexa Monroe decided to spend a late evening on the beach by the lake. To do this, Jerry requisitioned his father’s van. After graduating from school, their dates began to happen more often. Apparently, this summer Jerry and Alexa will go to universities located on different coasts of the country. A year ago, they seriously expected to enter the same university. But the card turned out differently. They saw separation as worse than any nightmare. Deep down, they both understood that parting for such a long period would probably mean the end of their love story. The years to be spent in different universities with thousands of students around will probably push them into other lovers, as a result of which they will forget about their four-year whirlwind romance. But in their hearts, hope was still far from dying.
They parked close to the boat station. Stopping right on the sand, Jerry put the handbrake on the van, after which his fingers released the lever and lay on Alexa’s smoky caramel hair, lowering down to her neck, casting a gaze into her honey-colored eyes. Alexa wrapped both hands around Jerry’s forearm and pressed it to his cheek. She was about to lean towards him, but suddenly stopped and said:
– Let’s go to the lake. The heat has already subsided.
– Let’s go to.
They stopped a few meters from the water and sat down on the sand. Alexa leaned against Jerry’s chest, wrapping her arms around his waist like a little girl cuddling a teddy bear before bed. Glancing somewhere into the distance between the stars and the lake, the opposite shore of which was too far to see even during the day, Alexa began to think deeply.
– You know, I was thinking, – Jerry began, – we’re not leaving soon. Maybe we can go somewhere? I’ll ask my dad for the Chrysler and we’ll head to Corpus Christi or Galveston. If you don’t want the Gulf of Mexico, we can choose something else.
Alexa didn’t make a sound in response.
– Do you hear?
A few more seconds passed before Alexa said:
– I didn’t know how… when…
Alexa hesitated for a long time. As a result, she sat down, straightened her back and only then said, hiding a strand of hair behind her ear:
– I’ve missed a period.
Jerry moved his lips silently for a while, but still asked:
– A-and-and… how long has it been?
– About a month and a half.
– Didn’t you take the test?
Alexa covered her trembling lips with the back of her hand, and then answered:
– I’m afraid.
– Come on. What is there to be afraid of? We need to know for sure.
Alexa wiped away the tears that had accumulated in her eyes, and then said:
– We need to discuss this with parents. I’m afraid to tell mine. My father will kill me. I wanted to ask if yours could help?
– You want…
– Yes. Think by yourself. What future awaits us? Me? I can forget about university education. There is only one way out.
The guy thought for a moment and said decisively:
– Why do we even need to tell the parents? We will decide everything ourselves.
– Jerry, we are two seventeen-year-old teenagers. We don’t yet have the brains to understand what and how.
After a pause, Jerry said:
– Perhaps you’re right. – After a short pause, he added: – I really don’t know…
Jerry’s voice was interrupted by a certain hum coming from somewhere behind and gradually turning into the roar of an engine. Soon the scarlet lights of the headlights appeared. A black car drove onto the beach and stopped right next to the van. The engine stalled. The headlights went out.
– Do you know who is it? – Alexa asked anxiously.
With some trembling in his chest, Jerry shook his head negatively several times.
The driver’s door of the Dodge opened. His foot landed on the sand. Then the second one. Soon a dark silhouette emerged from behind the door. The stranger walked around the door, leaving it open and headed towards the teenagers.
– Sit here – Jerry said and walked towards the stranger. Alexa stood up and remained standing there.
As he approached, Jerry began to more clearly examine the Racer’s appearance. One meter eighty centimeters. Oversized shoulders. He was wearing a dark green leather raincoat that reached his knees, a black jumper and black jeans. His hands were hidden under leather gloves, and his face was hidden under a black mask. There were cutouts for the eyes, but inside there was complete darkness. His steps were long, but unhurried. There was a sense of firmness and determination in them.
– Can I help you? – Jerry asked.
The Racer suddenly quickened his pace as he passed Jerry and continued towards Alexa.
– What’s the matter? Hey!? – Alexa shouted at the end and reflexively began to back away, without taking her bulging eyes off the Racer.
But the Racer did not stop, but only continued to speed up his pace.
Alexa turned around in fear and ran along the shore about twenty meters past the boat station office, after which she stopped and turned around. She hardly swallowed the lump that had risen in her throat, continuing to look at the Racer walking on her heels.
– Hey guy? Don’t touch her! I’m talking to you! – Jerry shouted, chasing after the Racer. He ran up to him from behind and said, grabbing his shoulder: – If you have something to say, say it…
His voice broke as the Racer grabbed his hand and squeezed it with his powerful fingers. He shredded all the bones in Jerry’s palm, clenching his fingers into a fist. Jerry’s face was hidden under a grimace of silent but hellish pain. Soon he could not stand it and a scream was heard. At that moment, the Racer grabbed Jerry by the neck with his other hand and lifted him, tearing his legs off the sand.
– JERRY! – Alexa screamed in hysterics through her tears, unable to take even half a step towards.
The Racer made a sharp movement with his hand and a loud crunch was heard in Jerry’s neck. Then he lifted the guy’s immobilized body a little more and threw it to the side with some ease. Jerry’s body flew through a steel mesh fence and into the boathouse office window. There was a crash of breaking glass, which fell into many pieces. Jerry’s head, arms and torso were inside on the other side of the broken window, while Jerry’s legs were left dangling outside. His body remained hanging on the windowsill.
Alexa screamed even louder. This scream did not become quieter even after she continued to run away, noticing how the Racer continued to follow her at a fast pace. He did not run, but his steps were long. Each imprint of his shoes on the sand seemed to leave a trace of death, which was already rushing towards the inhabitants of Heartstone. Alexa felt the full weight of these steps. Her chest was squeezing and her heart was pounding against her ribs. She continued to run in hysterics until she ran into the fence that separated the boat station area from the public beach. The steel mesh was attached to iron pipes of small diameter. Alexa jumped onto the mesh, hooked her fingers on it and began to desperately crawl up it.
She screamed something incoherent and called for help. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and the trembling in her voice made the scream not as loud as she would have liked. Before her eyes there was still Jerry, flying over the fence, as if he had jumped from a trampoline.
Three meters of the fence separated Alexa from entering the territory of the boat station. She caught on to the very edge of the fence mesh and had already begun to drag her body over the pipe to which the mesh was attached. Suddenly she felt something grab her left leg, like a ring that was squeezing like a vice. Feeling this touch, the girl experienced a coldness that sent a shiver through her entire skin from her heels to her head. The Racer’s hand held Alexa’s leg in a death grip. The girl’s screams became stronger, but immediately stopped as soon as the Racer sharply pulled her leg down, as a result of which the end of the pipe entered the soft tissue in the lower jaw, passed into the oral cavity, pierced the palate and reached the inner surface of the skull through the brain. Alexa’s pupils disappeared, sharply rolling upward, leaving the whites of her eyeballs in their place.
16. When God and death come together
John Minton was carving up freshly killed nutria carcasses while Deborah washed the dishes after putting the chicken in the oven. After dinner, she planned to start working on the cake so she could let it soak overnight. But Ursula was still not there.
– This monkey is stuck in the supermarket again – said Deborah. Then she looked at the digital clock on the kitchen set and added: – She’s been gone for two hours now.
– Come on – John answered, cutting the nutria’s ribs with pruning shears. – As if you don’t know how much she loves to talk. Shop across the street. She didn’t go to the other end of the town. I’ll finish now and go get her.
Deborah finished drying the dishes and looked at the watch once again. Then she turned to husband:
– John, go get her. I’ll cut up the nutria.
John handed the pruning shears to his wife and went into the hallway. He looked at the marks that were left on the T-shirt from the meat and decided to wear a shirt instead.
He went outside and thought about how suspiciously cool the nights were this summer. Having lived in Heartstone all his life, he didn’t remember anything like this. It seemed to him that if he had known in advance what the temperature was outside, he would have wanted to throw on something warmer. But it was not far to go. John crossed the road and entered the supermarket, which was soon to close. Entering the trading floor, he saw one working cash register, on which Cassandra Bello was dozing. He walked up to her and gently placed his hand on the girl’s shoulder. But she still got scared and jumped up with a slight exclamation:
– No, no, I don’t… I don’t, it’s…
– Quiet, quiet.
Only then, having looked a little closer, she said in a calmer tone:
– Oh, Mr. Minton. It’s you.
– Don’t sleep, Sandra. Yann could show up at any second.
She looked at her wristwatch, counting down the minutes until the end of the work day.
– Yes. It’s good that it turned out to be you – Cassandra answered, trying with Homeric difficulty to lift her lead-filled eyelids.
– I’m picking up Ursula.
– Yes, okay – Cassandra said, not quite recovering from sleep. But suddenly she said: – Wait, Mr. Minton. Didn’t she come home?
– No.
Cassandra began to strain her memory.
– She went through the cash register. Well, yes. I remember exactly. Yes, she also took yeast.
– Are you sure? – the girl’s father asked, narrowing his eyes.
– Quite. But I couldn’t have dreamed it. Just a second – Cassandra added at the end and went deeper into the trading floor.
She approached her partner.
– Raymond.
Having finished arranging the bottles of mineral water, he responded:
– Hm-yes.
– Is the boss nearby? – Cassandra asked in a whisper.
Raymond looked back and said:
– Relax, friend. What’s happened?
Raymond began unpacking the lemonade box while listening to Cassandra.
– Was Ursula in the store?
He looked at his partner and said:
– Well, yes. I chatted with her for another ten minutes. As usual, we chatted a little, then she took something from the shelf near the powdered sugar and walked towards the cash register. Did you fall asleep and now you don’t understand whether you dreamed or in reality? – Raymond said the last words with a slight smile.
– Mr. Minton has arrived. He says she didn’t return home.
Raymond thought about it. After a short pause, he broke the silence:
– Kind of weird. It’s right across the road. What could have happened?
– That’s what I think.
Soon Cassandra returned to the checkout, where Ursula’s father was still waiting.
– Sorry, Mr. Minton. – Then Cassandra began to speak, concentrating on one point somewhere to the side, as if she was recalling a poem she had learned by heart: – Ursula was definitely here. She definitely took the yeast and paid at the checkout. We exchanged words before saying goodbye, and after that she left.
John touched his closed eyelids with his fingers, then lowered his palm, closed his lips and opened his eyes. One could read a state of complete confusion on his face.
Noticing this grimace, Cassandra asked:
– Are there any friends nearby that she could meet and hang out with?
John silently shook his head and then asked for a phone to call the sheriff’s office.
Leonardo Benetti watched through tears as Ursula Minton’s corpse in a body bag was loaded into a van that would take the body to the morgue. Her identity was identified after Harry reported on the radio that he had received a call from a man who reported his lost daughter. The description – height, age, hairstyle, hair color and clothing – everything matched.
Lowering his head and burying his face in the ground illuminated by spotlights, Sheriff Desmond Poe said in a faded voice:
– We need to tell the parents.
After these words, Father Benetti seemed to cheer up. He said:
– Sheriff, trust me with this. I know the Mintons. Especially John. I will try to soften this blow for the parent’s heart, if this is at all possible.
The sheriff did not object. He doubted that he could find the words to convey such terrible news to the girl’s parents.
Father Benetti hurried back to his blue ’77 Chevrolet Nova, which he had left on the side of the road, started the engine and hurried to the Minton family home. Along the way, the padre ran a handkerchief over his face twenty times, wiping away tears. Having driven halfway, he noticed that the eyes already looked normal. All that was left were reddened areas of skin around the eyes.
Soon the priest’s Chevrolet was parked in front of the Minton family’s home. He looked in the rearview mirror again, took in as much air as possible, exhaled sharply and glanced at the windshield. He wanted to wait another minute to let his heart calm down a little. But John Minton appeared ahead, leaving the supermarket building and crossing the road very slowly and with short steps in the dim light of the street lamps. Father Benetti hurried out of the car and headed towards John.
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Примечания
1
The ninth part of the series of novels about Fantomas by French writers Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allen.
