“How?” she said. If time was so short, and he was so certain, why waste a breath on argument?
“Go into the kitchen and get a knife.” He told her. “A strong knife, one that’s not going to break on you. Then go to the back door and dig in the threshold.”
“The threshold?”
“The wood frame you step over to go outside. There are five icons, in the wood. Ancient Romanian symbols.”
“And all I have to do is remove them?”
“You just remove them. The dead will be ready, as soon as the threshold is clear. They’ve waited a very long time for this. Been very patient.” He allowed himself the smallest of smiles as he spoke; dearly the prospect of the dead invading the house pleased him. “Will you do this for me, Tammy?”
“Of course. If that’s what you want.”
“It’s what’s right.”
“Then I’ll do it. Of course I’ll do it.”
“You only need open one door, they’ll all find their way in. I suggest the back door, because it’s rotting. The threshold will be easier to … ” He stopped, his lips drawn back from his teeth in a grimace. The wound was taking its terrible toll. Fresh blood came between his fingers.
“You don’t need to tell me any more.” She told him. “You just lie quietly. I’ll go get some help.”
“No,” he said.
“You need help.”
“No,” he said again, shaking his head. “Just get to work.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. This is more important.”
“All right, I’ll — ”
She was about to repeat her reassurance when she realized he’d stopped breathing. His eyes were still open, and there was still a lively gloss in them, but no life there; nothing. William Zeffer’s long and agonizing life was at an end.
On the floor above, Jerry looked up as the door to the master bedroom opened and Todd emerged.
“Hello, Jerry,” he said as he started down the stairs.
“You got hurt?”
“I fell during the quake.”
“We need to get outside and find Maxine.”
“Really?”
“She’s lost out there. And Sawyer’s dead. I’m afraid if somebody doesn’t get to her — ”
“I heard the shouts,” Jerry said vaguely, looking and sounding like a man who’d lost all interest in the drama that was being played out around him.
“Who else is here?” Todd asked him.
“Eppstadt’s downstairs with some kid he brought from the party — ”
“Yes, I saw him. Is he one of Maxine’s new superstars?”
“No. He’s just a waiter,” Jerry said.
Todd looked down the rest of the flight. There was a body at the bottom of the stairs, and somebody else, a woman, bent over, touching the face of the dead man. With great gentility, she closed the dead man’s eyes.
Then she looked up the stairwell.
“Hello, Todd,” she said.
“Hello, Tammy.”
“I thought you were drowned.”
“Sorry to disappointment you.” He started down the stairs towards her. She turned her face from him, returning her gaze to the body.
“Did you see Eppstadt?” he asked her as he came down the flight.
“You mean that sonofabitch from the studio?”
“Yes. That sonofabitch.”
“Yes, I saw him.” She glanced up at Todd. There were tears in her eyes, but she didn’t want to shed them in front of him. Not after what had happened on the beach. He’d been so horribly careless of her feelings. She wasn’t going to show any vulnerability now, if she could help it.
“Where did he go?” Todd asked her, as if there was much choice in the matter.
She nodded down the passageway towards the door to the Devil’s Country.
“He went in there, I think. I didn’t see it. Jerry told me.”
“How long ago?”
“I don’t know,” she said. IAnd frankly, I don’t really care right now.” Todd put his hand on Tammy’s shoulder “I’m sorry. This is a bad time. I never was very good expressing my feelings.”
“Is that supposed to mean you’re sorry?” she said.
“Yeah,” he replied, the word hardly shaped; more like a grunt than an apology. She made the tiniest shrug of her shoulder, to get him to take his hand off her, which he did. There was so much she wanted to say to him, but this was neither the time nor the place to say it.