Chain Letter Omnibus Read online

  “Do you think she was run off the road?”

  “There was no sign of skid marks. Usually when someone runs you off the road, you have a chance to hit the brakes. But maybe not. The accident’s going to be thoroughly investigated. I wish I could tell you more. I really am sorry.”

  Alison started to turn away and go back inside to find Tony. She needed his strong arms now more than ever. She just hoped that when she found him, he would open his arms to her. Yet she hesitated before leaving and asked the officer what was probably another stupid question. It was just something she felt she had to ask.

  “How exactly did Fran die?” she asked.

  The police officer looked uncomfortable. “From the force of the impact.”

  “Her body got smashed between the car and the tree?”

  The cop fidgeted. “Not exactly, but close enough. I can tell you for certain that she died instantly.”

  The odd purple color of the chain letter envelope flashed in her mind, along with the sick purple and red lights of the nightmare she’d been having when the phone rang. She remembered the dream then—the invisible people crying in the smoky distance. It was a memory that made her shudder.

  “Tell me exactly how it was,” she said.

  The officer looked down. “You don’t want to know.”

  “I need to know.”

  “Her head went through the windshield and struck a thick branch of the tree at an unfavorable angle. That broke her neck and—”

  “And what?”

  The officer looked puzzled. “I’ve been to a hundred serious car accidents, and I don’t know how it happened. It must have been the shattered glass of the windshield in combination with the impact of her skull on the tree.”

  “What are you saying?”

  The officer lowered his gaze once more. “Your friend was decapitated in the accident. We found her head in a nearby bush.”

  Chapter Six

  Saturday morning the surviving members of the original ill-fated “gang” met at the city park beside a kiddie rocket ship in the play area. Joan Zuchlensky was present, finally back from hiking in the mountains. The gang had met in the same spot a few months earlier, after Kipp received notice of his “small service” to perform. That time Kipp only had to tell everybody he cheated on his SATs to please the Caretaker. But life had become tougher. Kipp received a letter in the mail that morning, even though Fran hadn’t passed hers on to him. Fran’s name was no longer on the list, but otherwise the letter was identical to the one Fran had received. A coded ad had appeared in that morning’s edition of the Times. Decoded it said:

  Burn sister’s entire right arm.

  “Who wants to open this meeting?” Alison asked. She was sitting on the park bench outside the concrete circle that surrounded the rocket ship and the playing sand, Brenda beside her. Of them all, Tony decided, Alison looked the palest. Of course, she had been the closest to Fran. Yet none of them looked too hot. Even Kipp had lost his smile. He was very protective of his little sister.

  “We don’t need to formally open it,” Joan said “We just need to start talking.”

  “Fine,” Alison said. “We’ll all start talking at once.”

  “Are you going to hassle me?” Joan asked Alison. “Because if you are, I’d just as soon leave now.”

  Alison seemed to be too hurt to argue. “I’m not going to hassle you.”

  “Good,” Joan replied. She wasn’t dressed in her usual leather and metal style. Her platinum hair was short and unadorned, almost as white as her T-shirt. She had on blue jeans, a shade too much lipstick, but a pound less makeup than when she was in school. Her voice sounded tough as ever, though.

  “Why don’t I start things off,” Kipp said, sitting at the end of the rocket slide with the chain letter in his lap. “I’ll list what we know about this letter and the situation as a whole. Then I’ll list what we don’t know.”

  “Sounds good,” Tony mumbled. He was sitting in the sand, off to the side from everyone else. It was eleven in the morning, and he hadn’t gone to bed yet. Maybe when the others left, he would lie down in the sand and take a nap.

  “This new chain letter was written by someone who knew about Neil’s chain letters,” Kipp began. “The wording is almost identical. The envelope it came in is identical. But this chain letter can’t have come from Neil because he’s dead. That’s a fact. Tony buried him. But the person who wrote this new letter also knows how far Neil took us through his ‘Columns.’ You’ll remember we were all in Column Two when the truth finally came out. This person has started us off in Column Three. You all follow where this is leading?”

  “Neil had an accomplice,” Alison said.

  “It seems like it,” Kipp said. “And a mean one at that.”

  “Neil didn’t have an accomplice,” Tony said. “He was my friend. I was with him when he died. He would have told me.”

  “He didn’t tell you he was the Caretaker to begin with,” Brenda said.

  Tony shook his head. “It’s not possible.”

  “I have to agree with Brenda,” Kipp said carefully. “Neil was physically and mentally ill. He was very weak toward the end. Having an accomplice would explain how he was able to do all the stuff he did before he died.”

  “If Neil had an accomplice,” Tony asked, “how come this person didn’t know about Alison? She’s not on the list.”

  “I can’t explain that,” Kipp admitted.

  “Wait a second,” Joan interrupted. “We’re acting like babies. How do we know this new Caretaker was responsible for Fran’s death? She ran into a tree. The police think it was an accident.”

  “It could have been an accident,” Tony said. “We all know how upset she was. She couldn’t have been driving very well.”

  “I suppose it’s possible,” Kipp said. “But it’s a hell of a coincidence.”

  “Are you guys nuts?” Alison broke in. “The Caretaker promised Fran would die if she didn’t drown her puppy. Well, she didn’t and she’s dead. That’s not coincidence. That’s cause and effect. And are you forgetting how she died? She was decapitated! Talk about a horrible death.” Tears sprang into Alison’s eyes. “Let’s not fool ourselves that she wasn’t murdered.”

  “I think you’re being overly dramatic,” Joan told Alison. “People lose their heads in accidents all the time. My dad’s a cop, you know. He’s told me plenty of stories like this.”

  “The cop who was at the scene of the accident didn’t know how it could have happened,” Alison said bitterly.

  “He was probably a rookie,” Joan said.

  “Goddamn you, I talked to him!” Alison swore.

  “Hold on, you two,” Kipp interrupted. “Both of you are making good points. As I said, that Fran should suddenly die is an amazing coincidence. But if she was murdered by the new Caretaker, how did he do it? Fran was in a devastating car crash. The Caretaker couldn’t have been in the car with her when she crashed. He wouldn’t have survived. That leaves the possibility that she was run off the road. But even the cop Alison talked to didn’t think that was likely.”

  “He didn’t say it was impossible, though,” Alison muttered.

  “All right,” Kipp said. “Let’s say she was run off the road. What about her losing her head?”

  “Would you guys please quit hammering that point?” Brenda asked, and now she began to get teary as well. “You’re making me sick.”

  “We have to talk about it,” Kipp said. “We have to talk about everything that’s happened if we’re to get out of this situation alive. Now, how was she decapitated if not by the accident alone? Did the person who ran her off the road stop and hack off her head?”

  “It’s possible,” Alison said.

  “Not really,” Kipp said. “The guy would have had a few minutes at best. It’s hard to cut someone’s head off. You’d need a saw, and a coroner would spot saw marks immediately. It must have been the impact with the tree in combination with the shattered windshi
eld—like the cop told you, Alison.”

  Alison stared at him. “I cannot believe that you of all people, Kipp, could turn this into a simple accident.”

  “I’m not,” Kipp replied. “I believe she could have been run off the road. I’m simply not buying the scenario that she was purposely decapitated.”

  “Could we move on, please?” Brenda complained.

  “We have to come to conclusions before we move on,” Kipp said. “Was Fran’s death an accident or not? Let’s take a vote.”

  “I say it was an accident,” Joan said.

  Brenda glanced at Alison. “Accident,” Brenda said.

  “Brenda!” Alison said in disbelief.

  “It doesn’t make sense she could have been murdered while driving down the street in her own car,” Brenda said. She gave Alison a quick hug. “I’m sorry.”

  “It was no accident,” Alison insisted, pushing Brenda away.

  “What do you think, Tony?” Kipp asked.

  The question startled Tony. He had been watching and listening but from a distance. He had almost forgotten that he was part of the group. It might have been the stress of Fran’s death and the missed night of sleep, but his old friends all looked like strangers to him. These people he had gone to school with for years. Even Alison. They had hardly spoken to each other before they parted at the hospital the night before.

  “I think we’re not seeing the big picture,” Tony said. “I think we’re asking ourselves the wrong questions.”

  “Whether Fran’s death was accidental or not is a vital question,” Kipp said.

  “Do you think it was an accident?” Tony asked him.

  “I just don’t know,” Kipp said. “Do you?”

  Tony shrugged. “Who knows? Who can know? Something weird is going on, that’s for sure.”

  Kipp showed impatience. “What’s your point?”

  “Who’s sending these chain letters and why?” Tony asked. “That’s the only thing that matters. All this other stuff is just that—stuff.”

  “I agree,” Joan said.

  “All right,” Kipp said. “We can talk about that. Do you have any suggestions, Tony?”

  Tony nodded. “The loose end we had last time, after we found out the Caretaker was Neil, was that we never discovered who the dead man in the desert was.”

  “Do you think someone connected to him might be sending the letters?” Alison asked.

  “Yes,” Tony said.

  “Why?” Alison asked.

  “Revenge,” Tony said. “We ran the guy over, after all.”

  “We don’t know that for sure,” Kipp said quickly. “Talking about him won’t do us any good. We talked about him three months ago and went around in circles. We don’t know who the man was, and we’re probably never going to know who he was. We’ve got to take steps that can help us right now—”

  “Last time it was one of us,” Joan interrupted, eyeing Alison. “It could be one of us again.”

  “None of us would kill Fran,” Alison said.

  “She was scared,” Joan said. “She ran off the road.”

  “Yeah, while you were conveniently unavailable,” Alison snapped at her. Joan jumped up, fire in her eyes.

  “Are you saying I wrote these sick letters?” Joan demanded.

  “You’re the only one in the group who’s sick enough to have done it,” Alison shouted back, and the fact that she was contradicting herself of a moment ago didn’t seem to bother her.

  “You bitch,” Joan swore, taking a dangerous step toward Alison.

  Alison stood slowly. “What are you going to do, Joany? Try to make my day?”

  “Stop it,” Tony said quietly. “Joan is not the Caretaker.”

  Alison gazed at him incredulously. “I can’t believe you’re taking her side.”

  Joan laughed. “Looks like you don’t have him wrapped around your little finger like you thought.”

  Tony waved away both of them. “You two fight whenever you get together. Sit down and let’s figure out what we have to do next.”

  Alison continued to stare at him before she nodded. “All right,” she said and sat back down. Joan strolled over and leaned against the rocket ship, studying her nails and looking bored. Kipp resumed command of the group.

  “The demands made in these new letters are much stronger than Neil’s ever were,” Kipp said. “In fact if they continue the way they’re going, none of us is going to do any of them. I’m sure as hell not going to hurt Leslie.”

  “But what if it’s a choice between hurting her and being killed?” Brenda asked Kipp, real anxiety in her voice. Kipp’s reaction was a combination of fondness and surprise.

  “But you said you thought what happened to Fran was an accident,” he said.

  “Kipp, I’m serious,” Brenda said. “What if?”

  Kipp was disgusted. “There is no what if. I’m not going to burn my sister’s arm. It’s as simple as that.”

  “Why don’t we go to the police?” Alison suddenly blurted out.

  Tony sat up with a start. “Are you kidding?”

  “No, I’m not kidding,” Alison said firmly. “With everything that happened with Neil, no one died. No one was even hurt, except Neil. But this round of letters has only begun, and already one of us is dead. We can’t fool around this time. We have to go to the police.”

  “If we go to the police, I go to jail,” Tony said flatly. “If that’s what the rest of you want, tell me now. I’ll have to find myself a lawyer.”

  “You don’t have to go to jail,” Alison said.

  Tony felt a stab of anger. “You know what I love? I love it that out of everyone in this group, you’re the one who’s making this suggestion. I just love it, Ali.”

  His words pierced her like a sword. She shook her head slightly and stared at him some more, but now there were more tears to cloud her vision. He didn’t care, he told himself. He couldn’t believe that his welfare wasn’t a prime consideration of hers.

  “Tony probably would go to jail if we went to the police,” Kipp said. “He was the one who was driving when we hit the man.”

  “But it was Joan who punched out the car lights on him,” Brenda broke in. “If it weren’t for her, Tony wouldn’t have hit anybody.”

  “If it weren’t for your beer, I wouldn’t have been so drunk that I wanted to punch out the lights!” Joan yelled.

  “Stop it!” Kipp raised his hand. “We’re all involved in this. All of us helped bury the man. None of us reported what happened to the police. We could all go to jail. I was just pointing out that Tony is in the most vulnerable position.”

  “Yeah,” Joan said to Alison. “You don’t care what happens to your boyfriend. You’re just interested in saving your own skin.”

  Alison closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Tears trickled over her cheeks. As angry as he was, Tony had to restrain himself from getting up and wiping her tears away. He hated to see Alison cry. Of course he cared. And maybe she was right. Maybe it was time to go to the police. But it was a suggestion he was not going to second. There had to be a better way out of this madness. They just had to find it. Alison reopened her eyes and scanned everyone.

  “I’ll go along with what the group decides,” she said. “I’m not trying to hurt anybody, least of all Tony. But I want Kipp to go away for the next few days. I want him to disappear to a place none of us have heard of.”

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Brenda said, nodding in the direction of her boyfriend. “You’re getting out of here, Kipp.”

  “I can’t go now,” Kipp said. “I’m leaving for MIT soon. I have things to do.”

  Brenda got up. She walked over and slapped Kipp on the head. “You’re not going to argue with me!” she shouted. “You’re going to leave today because you’re not going to die.”

  “All right, I’ll go,” Kipp said, trying to protect himself from another blow with a raised arm.

  “When my turn comes, I’ll split,” Joan said
. “It’ll be better than running off and crying to the police.”

  Tony got up and wiped the sand off his butt. “Are we done? Have we decided to do nothing? If that’s it, I’ve got to go.”

  Alison also stood. “Do you have any other suggestions about what we should do, Tony?” she asked.

  He eyed her across the distance between them. It wasn’t far—maybe fifteen feet. But she could have been on the far side of the moon as far as he was concerned. He felt no contact, no connection, between them. It made him more sad than angry. They were under attack, and from the outside. A common enemy usually brought people together, but that wasn’t the case here. Maybe they’d been too quick to dismiss the possibility that the Caretaker was one of them. Tony’s heart was aching so badly, it was as if the attack were coming from within.

  “I have nothing else to say,” Tony replied. He turned and walked away.

  Chapter Seven

  It was good to come home to the old school. It was only across the street from the park, and Tony walked there without going back for his car. He climbed the fence that enclosed the football stadium and track. Ah, the stadium—the site of his adolescent glory. It was good to see it, but at the same time it filled him with revulsion. All the things he had done in high school to construct an invincible self-image. Of what use was that image to him now? He was tired and his back ached and he had an unseen monster on his tail. He wished his name were at the top of the list instead of Kipp’s. It would be good to see what his task was and get it over. It might be even better to refuse the task and meet the monster head-on. Sometimes he imagined he saw the new Caretaker when he looked in the mirror.

  Tony walked out onto the field, marveling at the silence. He couldn’t remember a time when he had played football or run track with the stands completely empty. What a shallow jerk he’d been. He’d always needed an audience in order to perform.

  A sudden desire to run came to him right then. He had shorts and running shoes on. Even though his spine hurt, his doctor had said light jogging shouldn’t aggravate his condition. He’d been a good runner once—a great one, in fact. He’d won league championships in the quarter mile and the half mile. Some of that old endurance must still be with him.