The Dead Woman

CHAPTER FIVE

"Well?" Dale asked. Matt couldn't help but notice that the lawman had yet to holster his pistol. A thin trickle of smoke rose from the barrel. It wasn't as big as Brad's gun, but it could still put a big hole in something. Or someone.

Matt found his voice. Finally. "I was just trying to help."

Dale nodded. "Uh huh. And how did you know what Brad was doing?"

Good question, Matt thought. I wish I knew.

"I... Just a hunch, I guess."

"A hunch? You expect me to believe that?"

"How did you know to come here, Officer?" Matt shot back.

"Don't take that tone with me, fella. I'll haul your ass in for the sheer fun of it if I want to. I can make up a charge if I wanna."

"Leave him alone, Dale," a new voice said.

Both men turned to look at the end of the hall. There was Abbey, standing at the top of the stairs. "Matt's a hero. He saved Laura and David. You should be thanking him that you aren't having to clean bits of them up off the floor right now."

A woman wrapped in a blanket emerged from the bedroom, nodding her head. "That's right, Dale," she said. "Brad was gonna kill us. Said he was gonna paint the walls with our blood." Tears streaked down her face, leaving thin mascara smudges down her cheeks. With her makeup in ruins, she looked a bit like Alice Cooper. "If that man there"—she pointed at Matt—"hadn't gotten here when he did, David and I would be dead."

Dale looked from Laura to Abbey, then back. Finally he grunted and shoved his pistol back into its holster. Matt breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at Abbey, silently thanking her for her help.

"I don't like this," Dale said to Abbey. "That guy's hiding something. You can tell just by looking at him."

"Like what, Dale?" Abbey asked. "He's got his own tarot deck or something?"

"I don't know," Dale replied. Then he turned towards Matt and glared from under his wide-brimmed hat. "But I'm gonna find out. Don't go anywhere. You either, Laura. You're all going to have to answer some questions." With that, Dale walked to the far end of the hall and grabbed his radio off his belt.

While Dale called in the incident, Laura slipped back into the bedroom, where David had finally stopped his litany of never ending oh shits.

Abbey squatted down next to Matt and put her hand on his cheek.

"You all right?" she asked.

Matt nodded. "Just a scratch. I've had worse."

"Big tough guy, aren't you?"

"Depends. Did I piss myself?" Matt asked.

Abbey's eyes flicked to his crotch, then back to his face. "Nope."

"Then yes. I am a big tough man." Matt smiled.

Abbey smiled back and proceeded to tear off a piece of Matt's shirt. "I wouldn't feel right rummaging through their bathroom, you know what I mean?"

Matt nodded. Suddenly he was very tired. He closed his eyes and let Abbey bind his shoulder without interruption.

"Tell me something, Matt."

"What?"

"How did you know to come here?"

"Just a hunch. Like I told Dale."

"Bullshit."

Matt opened his eyes to find Abbey staring at his face. Her gray eyes bored into his. She knew he was lying, but what could he tell her? He could see evil? That would go over well.

He sighed. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Abbey turned to look at Dale, who stood about twenty feet away chattering into the radio. Then she turned back to Matt and leaned in close, putting her lips right next to his ear. "I know better, Matt," she whispered. "You see them, too, don't you?"

"See what?" Matt asked, so low even he had trouble hearing the words.

"Them," Abbey said, pointing at Brad's corpse. "When they start to rot and fester. Just before something bad happens."

Matt couldn't breathe. He couldn't speak. Could she? Could she really?

"You can see it. Can't you?" she asked. "The evil. I thought I was the only one."