The Nebulon Horror by Hugh B. Cave

Author:Hugh B. Cave [Cave, Hugh B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: voodoo, horror
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2015-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

13

Olive Jansen put down the telephone and frowned at her daughter. The call from Chief Lighthill had upset her. Her mind’s version of the conversation revolved in her head like a Fourth-of-July pinwheel, throwing off sparks.

“Olive, the Hostetter boy is missing again and I want to ask Jerri if she was at the Peckham house today and saw him there.”

“She isn’t allowed to go there, Chief.”

“But she may know if he went there or was planning to.” A pause, while she had put the question to Jerri and got a mumbled answer. “She doesn’t know, Chief. She didn’t talk to him in school today.”

On the floor of the apartment living room Jerri now seemed suspiciously engrossed in a picture book for children. Olive watched her for some time, and then said, “Did you see the Hostetter boy today?”

“No, Mommy.”

“You were late gettin’ home from school. Mrs. Trevett told me it was after four when you showed up. Where were you?”

“I played around school a little while.”

“Who with?”

“I don’t remember. Teresa was there. And Debbie.”

“Why don’t you look at me when I’m talkin’ to you? Is that book so great you can’t lay it down? You’re lyin’, aren’t you?”

Closing the book, Jerri lifted her head and silently returned her mother’s gaze.

“What’s wrong with your eyes?” Olive said.

“Wrong?”

Olive got up and went to her. Bending over, she put a hand under the child’s chin and peered into her eyes. “They’re red. You been readin’ too much.”

“Yes, Mommy.”

“I want to talk to you, anyway. Put your book away and sit in a chair.” Returning to her own chair, Olive waited for her daughter to obey. Then she said, “I want to go over what you told Keith and Melanie when they came here Friday after you spent the day at the nursery. I know we talked about it after, but I’m not satisfied.”

Jerri gazed at her in silence, not squirming, not even blinking. There really was something wrong with the child’s eyes, Olive thought. Maybe she should call Doc.

“Suppose we just begin again at the beginnin’,” she said. “You told us the only time you left Vin at the nursery was to go to the john. Vin says no. He says he discovered you missin’ three or four times when you was—when you were workin’. You wandered off to play in other parts of the nursery, he says. He called to you and you answered. Now who of you is lyin’?”

“I never went to where the trees were pulled up, Mommy.”

“But you did leave him.”

“Not for long. Honest.”

“Why’d you tell us you only left him to go to the john?”

“You were mad at me.”

“I’m gonna be a whole heap madder if I don’t get the truth out of you. You better believe me. Now if you never went to where the plants were tore up, how’d your footprints get there? Answer me that.”

“I told you. There was another girl. She came in car with her mother.”

“Baby, both Vin and Keith say that just isn’t so.

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