Cyrano had obviously been sitting there, waiting for the firefly-yet had not moved when it came. He would not have been sleeping-unless the monster had the ability to put its prey to sleep. Had the gas mask malfunctioned? Frank didn"t know how effective it would be against pheromones, yet presumably Cyrano had been a.s.sured that it was. In any event, an erection wouldn"t have put him to sleep, it would have alerted him.
About all Frank could conclude was that it wasn"t smart to await the firefly alone. It had never taken two people together, or taken one in the alert presence of another. So far.
He came to the house and stopped. Geode emerged, and after a moment, the woman. She was calling herself Jade now, instead of none; May had explained about that. She did look duller, not nearly as pretty as she had two days ago.
"It got him," he said simply. "I buried the bones. Need help to hide the truck."
Geode nodded. "I"ll go."
"Wait," Jade said. "You will have to take it a long way, so that when it is found it won"t be a.s.sociated with this region where people have already disappeared. If anybody sees you, that"s trouble. Someone else should do it, and come back with Frank."
Was she trying to be difficult? "We don"t have much choice or time," Frank pointed out. "Or personnel. Who were you thinking of?"
"May."
Frank paused, surprised. Of course May could do it! "Yeah, I suppose so, if she"s willing."
The woman merely looked at him, and abruptly he knew that she knew everything about him and May Flowers. That was why she had suggested it. She was giving him an excuse for time alone with May.
He turned back to his car. "Thanks."
Jade only smiled faintly. She seemed self-satisfied about more than that, despite her duller appearance, and he could figure only one reason why: she must finally have landed her man. Odd that she had done it while looking worse instead of better.
As he drove on, he pieced that minor mystery together. The firefly had fed again, and they all knew about its use of pheromones. Geode and Jade were touring the Middle Kingdom Ranch together now; the woman had fastened on him with rare tenacity. They had checked on Cyrano; he knew that, because they had advised him, so he could be on the scene to solve the riddle of the firefly, according to the deal he had made at the outset with May. The fact that he had found Cyrano"s body instead didn"t matter in this connection; it only confirmed that they had been right, and that the firefly had come to the cabin that night. The ambience of s.e.x, as it came in to feed, must have been horrendous. If the little bit left on the corpse was enough to give him a continuous erection, what of the firefly itself? So they had pa.s.sed that region, and smelled the approaching monster, and-you bet they"d made a night of it! Now they were happy but worn out. Mystery solved.
Which reminded him of May. d.a.m.n, he wanted that woman again! Maybe it was a thinning cloud of pheromones in this region, causing s.e.xual reactions all over. But mostly it was May. She was no s.e.xy young beauty, but that really wasn"t his type anyway. Sure, he"d watch the pert figures on TV, but that was the stuff of fantasy. Reality was a woman he could relate to, and that had turned out to be May Flowers. He never would have predicted it, but it was so. Maybe it was that he knew she didn"t give any part of herself to any man lightly. He could hardly blame her, after the marriage she"d had with that thug. But she was competent and knew her own mind, and if she saw something in him, he sure as h.e.l.l saw something in her. He had never figured himself for a two-timer, considering that his wife had never given him cause, but there it was.
So he would ask May to help him with that van, because he wanted to be with her again. She would accept, for much the same reason. Jade Brown had understood that much perfectly.
He stopped at a pay phone and called her. Quickly he explained the need, and as quickly she agreed, no questions asked. He arranged to pick her up around the corner from the hotel, so as not to be obvious; neither one of them wanted that sort of publicity, and small towns had big eyes.
He drove her out to the cabin, updating her on what he had done. Then she got out and took over the van. They had decided to leave it in a large parking lot in another county, near a train station; with luck, it would be weeks before anyone realized it was deserted. Some pa.s.senger trains still ran, but often late, so there were always cars parked in the vicinity. What he didn"t say was that he was hot for her again, for whatever reason; they did have work to do, so it wasn"t the time.
She drove the van up to Ocala. Then, a few minutes behind her, he drove to the station and through the lot, pausing only long enough at a deserted corner for her to appear and get in. He doubted that anyone had seen them. He moved by another route back down to Citrus County, not wanting to attract any possible attention from anyone who might know him.
Then he glanced at her. "This may be way out of line, but-"
"Of course, Frank," she said, understanding perfectly. No cutesy games about her; she was all business, even in pleasure, and right now he really appreciated that.
"You know you don"t have to," he said, though his erection was there, as it had been intermittently the whole time.
"With you, I want to." She laughed. "That is a compliment, because I never wanted to before. In all my years with Bull, it was never voluntary on my part. It was obligation, and then fear. I did anything to keep him from getting angry. I thought I"d never have any use for s.e.x, other than as self-defense. But now, knowing you want me, I want you. I was thinking about you the whole time I drove that van, foolish as that may have been."
He pulled into a side road, and drove until they came to a lonely turnaround. "This sort of thing isn"t much, in a car."
"It"s enough." She pulled down her panties, lifted her skirt, and hauled herself up off the seat, giving him room to slide into the pa.s.senger seat beneath her as he got his trousers down to the knees. Then she sat on him, much as before-and as before, he climaxed almost as he completed entry. There was something about her fleshy thighs and soft posterior against his legs and belly, and the audacity of doing it like teenagers in a car, with their clothing not even off, just pushed aside enough, that triggered him instantly. Even the d.a.m.ned discomfort of the jammed situation contributed, making it seem forbidden and therefore more exciting.
"Oh, no!" he groaned, chagrined again.
But she was laughing. "I never thought I was s.e.xy, but you certainly make me feel that way!"
"Must be the position," he muttered.
"Or the pheromones," she said cheerfully.
"Look, I"m spent, but there are ways to-if you want me to-"
She squirmed around so that she could bring her mouth to his, kissing him. "It"s enough," she repeated. "I wanted to make you happy, and I think I have done so in the most efficient manner."
"You really don"t mind?" he asked incredulously.
"I really don"t mind. Just hold me."
That he could do. So, awkwardly and not yet disconnected, they embraced, and kissed again, more deeply. Then, oddly, he felt her reaction.
"I sure see something in you," he said squeezing her, "but I"m d.a.m.ned if I see what you see in me."
"What you have in me cannot be seen at the moment," she remarked. "As for the other-you"re a gentle man."
"I"m not a gentle man! I run people in all the time, in my business."
"Yes, you are gentle-where it counts."
"If you mean I"m not like that wife-beating husband you had-"
"Exactly."
"But he was a freak! Only criminals are like that. The average man condemns that sort of thing just as I do."
"But you"re the one I encountered."
"It"s thin, very thin," he said. "Just because I don"t beat up on women is no reason to-"
But she cut him off with another kiss. He decided not to argue further. She had to have more reason than that-he hoped. Perhaps she did, for again he felt her reaction around his member, which had not diminished far yet. She was, after all, getting something out of it, in her way. He was glad.
In due course they straightened out and he started back toward town. They had succeeded in hiding yet another depredation of the firefly-but it would be impossible to keep the lid on much longer if they didn"t get rid of the monster. Inevitably it would take a regular townsman, and then all h.e.l.l would break loose. They both knew that.
He dropped her off near her hotel, then went to swap his car for the deputy car. He had his regular job to do too, and it was getting harder to answer questions about his time.
* 40 - MAY RETURNED TO her room, more satisfied than she felt she had a right to be. It remained a new experience for her to turn on a man to such a degree that he lost control-and to have him be apologetic for that. Never in all her years with Bull had that been the case, and it was exhilarating now. Who would have thought that it could happen when she was a too-solid forty! It was the stuff of dreams. But apart from that she did like him, and it did please her to please him, so she had not deceived him. She was in love late, but in love. The future was at best murky, but the moment was wonderful.
Actually, she had gotten a kind of satisfaction from the act itself. It could not have been an o.r.g.a.s.m in that little time, yet she had thrilled physically as she felt him spurting up into her, and their continued contact had allowed her pleasure to last, perhaps even to increase. Maybe the sheer audacity of it, of pulling up her skirt like a wh.o.r.e in a car, in daylight, and jamming down on his member, had excited her to the point of a reaction. She had wanted that s.e.x, and had reveled in it, though this was completely unlike her. In a private room, in darkness, she could have been properly receptive, but in that car-that was amazing. Now she felt warm there, satiated. Had she realized, she would have told Frank that, and pleased him even more.
But the larger situation was dubious indeed. Frank was right: it had been only sheer luck and grit that this thing hadn"t blown wide open yet. Now the firefly had taken Cyrano, and their best chance to destroy it without notoriety was gone. What were they to do? If this thing blew open, Mid would fire her and Geode, and Frank would lose his job, and they would all be in dire straits.
Well, there was no help for it: she would have to call Mid and let him know. She should have called him in the morning, but had wanted to get the bases covered first. She did not relish this at all. Therefore she did it immediately. With luck, she would get the answering machine.
Mid answered directly. "You hid the body?" he asked.
May was taken aback. Then she realized that Geode would have called; he was an employee too. She was off the hook!
"Frank Tishner did," she said. "Then we took the van to another town and-"
"Your husband"s body," he snapped.
"What?" She had never heard Mid angry before.
"In Cyrano"s van. You hid those bones?"
"OhmyG.o.d!" she gasped, appalled. "They must have been still in there, in his body bag!"
"Did you not smell them?"
The s.e.x-they had both been so eager for it! Frank might be understandable, being male, but she-she should have realized that something more was goosing her along! She had been glad to oblige him, true-but she had had no reticence at all. She had wanted it. There in the car, where they might have been discovered at any moment, jammed in uncomfortably-of course those lingering pheromones had acted! She had driven that van all those miles, soaking them up, thinking of Frank with increasing ardor. Those pheromones, clinging to her, setting him off too!
"I think my husband had vengeance on me even in death," she said.
"Your fingerprints-you wiped them off?"
May"s heart sank. "I-didn"t think of it," she said leadenly. So obvious, to wipe the wheel and gearshift and door handle clean, to remove the last vestige of her a.s.sociation with it. She had been so eager to get away from the van, and back with Frank, that she had bungled badly.
"Get those bones!" Mid hung up.
May got up, left the room, went down to her car, and started driving. She drove toward Ocala, depressed. At least Mid hadn"t fired her outright. But she had let him down seriously.
There was something on the road. She could not swerve far enough to avoid it; there was opposing traffic. She ran over it-and felt the b.u.mp, and heard a horrendous hiss.
She had run over a badly twisted fragment of metal and punctured a tire.
She pulled over to the side, getting out of the way of other traffic. It could have been worse; she could have gone out of control and had a serious accident. As it was, all she would lose was time.
She unlocked and opened the trunk. She started to take out the spare tire-and discovered it was flat.
There was a cut in it. The tire had been deliberately punctured.
But why, and how? The trunk had been locked, and she had the only key!
Then she remembered Bull. He had taken her car. He must have done this as a special surprise for her, for such time as she got her car back. It was his way.
Twice now, in death, he had scored on her. How she hated that man!
There was no salvaging either tire. She was stuck.
She turned on the blinker lights and waited for help to come. The need galled her, but she knew that fretting was pointless. So she fretted.
Before long a car from the sheriffs department stopped. If she had had the flat in Citrus County it might have been Frank who stopped, but this was Marion County. She explained her predicament.
"May I see your registration, please?"
"Of course." She kept it with the car. She opened the dash compartment-and discovered Bull"s third mean-spirited gift. The registration was gone.
Was it somewhere in the hotel room, as her purse with her own identification had been? Or had he hidden it in his own car, which had disappeared? With sick certainty she knew it was the latter. He had taken it so as to hold her car hostage to his will. He might even have planned to make her drive her own car while he drove his, knowing that the moment she strayed he could report her car as stolen. He had died before he could put the whole of this mischief into practice, but this piece of it was bad enough.
Before it was done, she had to go to the station and make a call to Geode. Soon Mid called the station and established the ownership of the car. "Don"t go to the van," he told her tersely. She knew why: she was now known, and any contact with the van on her part would be mischief enough. She was lucky the deputy hadn"t checked her purse and found its keys. They would have to let the van take its chances. With luck it wouldn"t be checked soon, and when it was, someone else might be a.s.signed to drive it away, and her prints would be obscured. She hated having to depend on luck, but it was now her best chance.
In due course she was on her way back to Inverness, tires repaired, chastened. She had messed up, and though Mid understood what her husband had done, it remained her failing. If anything else happened, her employment would be in trouble. Mid would not fire her with prejudice, because he knew that she had done her best, but she knew that sentiment went only so far with him. Her job was now as tenuous as Frank"s job, for similar reasons. What damage Bull had done, even after his death!
She shopped for groceries again and went out to the ranch. She explained in more detail what had happened. "So it is a gamble; when that van is checked, the bones will be discovered. If they are identified as Bull"s, they will know that he had a connection with Cyrano, who is mysteriously missing. It will land here at the Middle Kingdom Ranch soon enough, because Cyrano was Mid"s employee, and Bull was my husband, and I am Mid"s employee. I will be under suspicion, especially if they find my fingerprints there. It will not be possible to hide the firefly much longer."
"You have been so kind to me," Jade said. She was calling herself that now, as the result of their conversation, but May was uncertain whether it truly helped. "I am sorry to be the cause of such distress."
"You are not the cause!" May protested. "It"s my husband, and the firefly, working in unwitting tandem. We have to get rid of the firefly! Then perhaps we can stifle the rest of it."
"Yes, of course," Jade agreed, subdued.
But privately May was doubtful that it could be done. The monster was such an ugly thing, its revelation would attract wide attention. In order to explain the bones they would have to reveal the firefly, and there would not be any quick end to the matter.
Still, if they killed the firefly soon, so that the depredations ceased, then they might go quietly out to the van before it was discovered and move it elsewhere, or at least remove the bones and prints. Then things might remain quiet. They could tide through-if they were able to wrap it up quickly.
Moderately heartened, May drove away from the house. Maybe she could find a pretext for another liaison with Frank; that notion cheered her.
* 41 - GEODE WATCHED HER go, then turned to Jade. "The next time it feeds, we have to get it," he said.
"Geode, I am afraid."
"The firefly can"t get in here."
"I think it can."
"Even if it could, there are two of us. We can stop it. That"s the best way-to let it try."
She looked doubtful. "Still, I don"t know. Geode, I love you. Come to bed with me now."
They had had s.e.x several times yesterday, in the ambience of the firefly, and again at the house, to prove that they could do it without the firefly. That was important to them both. The barrier of his impotence had been broken This morning they had done it again, before getting up. And yet again, in the forest, near the cabin, when the remaining ambience of the firefly hit them. He was s.e.xually tired, yet the excitement of being able to perform was such that it was a pleasure to prove himself each time.
They went to his room and stripped. This time they made more of a production of it. He kissed her, and stroked her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and kissed them. She reacted as if electrified, her body getting hot. She ran her hands over his body, and caressed his member, and finally urged it into her. She had a hunger that was independent of the pheromones. What joy to do this, knowing that he could finish it!
"I love you, Geode," she repeated. "I want you to know that."
"I do know it. And I love you. I could not do this otherwise."
"I want you to understand how completely I do," she insisted. "Because I may ask you to do something strange, and I want you never to doubt."
"Nothing is stranger than our love." But how odd to hear himself talking this way, and meaning it! How readily the words of love came to him now, with her.
"I never really loved my husband. He was just-there. I thought I loved my son, but I have to confess that we really were not close. Only now have I approached anything like-"