House of Skin

DOWN AND OUT

When they finally got to Gulliver’s room, they found him staring off into space. There was a Bible resting on his lap. His right leg was exposed, swathed in bandages. He looked very old, very wasted. He saw them and simulated a smile.

“How are you feeling?” Fenn said, clasping his hand and shaking it.

The exchange of warmth between the two of them startled Lisa. Had she missed something? Some male bonding? It seemed out of character for both of them.

“Okay. Knee hurts, but not as bad as last night. Really wonderful stuff those nurses are giving me,” he said. “You could cut your leg off and never so much as shrug.”

“We’re sorry to hear what happened,” Lisa said.

“Not your fault.”

Fenn couldn’t help himself. “What happened?”

Gulliver sighed and shook his head. “I went out for a bottle of booze. Decided I’d best stay behind locked doors for the meanwhile. I wasn’t gone more than fifteen minutes. When I got back, the door was ajar.” He looked pale. “I thought it was funny, but like an ass, I went in. Eddy was there.”

“My God,” Lisa said in a whisper.

“What then?”

“I’m afraid I panicked. I couldn’t help myself.”

They both waited for him to go on.

“He had a knife. He had it against my throat and… I told him things. I was scared, I guess.” He breathed deeply, steadying himself. “He knew I’d told somebody about seeing him and Spider. I tried to lie to him that I hadn’t, but he knew. Somehow, he knew.”

“You didn’t have a choice. You had to save yourself,” Fenn said.

But, much as Lisa respected his warmth and comforting words, she had to know. “Did you tell him about me?” Her voice was oddly airless.

“Yes. I told him everything. I opened my mouth and I couldn’t stop. He knows about you. He knows you’re after him.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Fenn told him.

But Lisa thought it did. If Eddy got to Gulliver, he could just as easily get to her anytime he wished. But she was being selfish and cruel. This was no time to be worrying about herself. Besides, she’d come to find him and the chances of that were very good now.

“He would’ve figured it out eventually. He’s clever,” she said.

“What did he say?”

“He told me he and Spider had killed those women for a reason.”

This is what Fenn had been fishing for. “And why was that?”

Gulliver looked uncomfortable. “So they could go to some place called the Territories. It’s where his father went.”

“Shit,” Fenn snorted. “It’s the same thing Spider’s been saying.”

“You have him?”

Fenn nodded. “He won’t be hurting anyone for a long time. We’ll get Eddy, too. Sooner or later.”

“Did he say anything else?” Lisa inquired. “Anything about ‘the sisters’?”

“The Sisters.” Gulliver said it and from the pinched, compressed look on his face, he wished he hadn’t. He pressed himself down into the bed as if hoping he’d lose himself in it.

“You know something about them?”

“I suppose,” he said dryly, “that I should tell you that part…”

He did. The telling didn’t take long. He closed his eyes as his lips did the work. He didn’t want to see the looks on their faces.

“I ran then,” he concluded. “That’s the only part I left out the other day. It was too crazy to mention. I’m not even sure if it happened.”

Lisa and Fenn looked at each other.

“And they just walked up?” Fenn asked. “Out of nowhere?”

Gulliver shrugged. “I guess. They weren’t there one moment, the next they were. One was naked and fat, hideous… the other, it was a thing.”

“You really believe you saw them?” Fenn said. “The truth now.”

Gulliver looked in his eyes, unblinking. “Yes.”

“It’s not possible.”

“Maybe not. But I saw it. Now you know why I left it out.”

Fenn wasn’t sure what he felt at that moment. Oh, he knew the man was telling the truth or what he believed to be the truth. But there couldn’t have been anyone else there, unless it wasn’t just Spider and Eddy involved in this. The entire scenario was getting crazier by the moment.

“I’m not saying I believe or disbelieve you, Gulliver. But I need time to think on something like this.”

“I think we all do,” Lisa said. “We’ll stop back later.”

“There’ll be a cop at your door from now on,” Fenn informed him. “Just to be on the safe side. Is there anything we can get you?”

“No, I’ll be all right now.”

They left and went out to Fenn’s car in silence.

“He’s telling the truth,” Lisa finally said.

“I know and that’s what bothers me.”

And it did, just as it bothered her. This mystery of sorts was changing and mutating every time they thought they had it nailed down.

“Spider spoke of the Sisters like they were gods of some sort, not real people,” Fenn recalled. “I had the impression he was referring to supernatural beings.”

“Do you believe in ghosts, Mr. Fenn?”

“Hell of a question from a head doctor.”

“Do you?”

“No, of course not. And neither do you.”

“Who are they then? These Sisters?”

“I don’t know,” Fenn said. “But if they’re not real flesh and blood, I’m handing in my fucking badge.”