12
Gert Kinshaw was hurrying for the bathroom, almost running, when-wonder of wonders-she saw the very woman she'd been looking for just ahead. She immediately opened her capacious bag and began hunting for the photograph.
"Lana!" she called.
"Hey, Lana!" Lana came back up the path.
"I'm looking for Cathy Sparks," she said.
"Have you seen her?" "sure, she's throwing horseshoes," Gert said, cocking a thumb back toward the picnic area. "saw her not two minutes ago."
"Great!" Lana started in that direction at once. Gert cast one yearning glance at the comfort station, then fell in beside her. She guessed her bladder would hold a little longer.
"I thought maybe she'd had one of her panic attacks and just fired on out of here," Lana was saying.
"You know how she gets."
"Uh-huh." Gert handed Lana the fax photo just before they reentered the trees. Lana studied it curiously. It was her first look at Norman, because she wasn't a D amp; S resident. She was a psychiatric social worker who lived in Crescent Heights with her pleasant, non-abusive husband and her three pleasant, non-dysfunctional kids.
"Who's this?" Lana asked. Before Gert could answer, Cynthia Smith walked by. As always, even under these circumstances, her weird hair made Gert grin.
"Hi, Gert, love your shirt!" Cynthia said smartly. This was not a compliment but just something the girl said, a little Cynthia-ism.
"Thanks. I like your shorts. But I bet if you really tried, you could find a pair that let even more of your cheeks hang out."
"Hey, tell me about it," Cynthia said, and went on her way with her small but undeniably cute fanny ticking back and forth like the pendulum of a clock. Lana looked at her with amusement, then turned her attention back to the photo. As she studied it she absently stroked her long white hair, which she had tied into a ponytail. "do you know him?" Gert asked. Lana shook her head, but Gert thought she was expressing doubt rather than saying no.
"Imagine him without the hair." Lana did better than that; she covered the photo from the hairline up. Then she studied it more closely than ever, her lips moving, as if she were reading it rather than looking at it. When she looked up at Gert again, her face was both puzzled and concerned.
"I gave a Yogurt Pop to a guy this morning," she began hesitantly.
"He was wearing sunglasses, but-"
"He was in a wheelchair," Gert said, and although she knew this was where the work really began, she felt a great weight slip off her shoulders, just the same. It was better to know than not to know. Better to be sure.
"Yes. Is he dangerous? He is, isn't he? I'm here with a couple of women who've been through a great deal of trauma in the last few years. They're pretty delicate. Is there going to be trouble, Gert? I'm asking for them, not me." Gert thought it over carefully before saying, "I think everything's going to be all right. I think the scary part's almost over."
13
Norman tore off Cynthia's sleeveless blouse, baring her teacup-sized br**sts. He damped one hand over her mouth, simultaneously pinning her to the wall and muzzling her. He rubbed his crotch against hers." He felt her trying to pull back, but of course there was no way she could do that and that excited him more, how he had her trapped here. But it was only his body that was excited. His mind was floating about three feet over his head, watching serenely as Norman leaned forward and clamped his teeth on Miss Punky-Grungy's shoulder. He battened on her like a vampire and began drinking her blood when it burst through the skin. It was hot and salty, and when he ejaculated in his pants, he was hardly aware of it, any more than he was aware of her screaming against his hard palm.
14
"Go on back and hang with your patients until I give you the all-clear," Gert told Lana.
"And do me a favor-don't mention this to anyone, not yet. Your friends aren't the only women here today who are psychologically delicate."
"I know." Gert squeezed her arm.
"It'll be fine. I promise."
"Okay, you know best."
"Yeah, right, dream on. But I do know he shouldn't be hard to find, if he's still cruising around in that wheelchair. If you see him, keep away from him. Do you understand? Keep away from him!" Lana looked at her with deep dismay.
"What are you going to do?"
"Take a leak before I die of uremic poisoning. Then go to the Security office and tell them that a man in a wheelchair tried to snatch my purse. We'll go from there, but step one is getting him the hell away from our picnic." Rosie wasn't here, she might have a date, or some other appointment, and Gert had never been so grateful for anything in her life. She was his trigger; with Rosie not around, they had a chance of neutralizing him before he did any damage. "do you want me to wait for you while you go to the toilet?" Lana asked nervously.
"I'll be fine." Lana frowned at the path leading back through the grove.
"Maybe I'll wait anyway," she said. Gert smiled.
"Okay. This won't take long, believe me." She had almost reached the comfort station when a sound impinged on her thoughts: someone panting, and hard. No-two someones. A smile curved the corners of Gert's large mouth. Someone was enjoying a little afternoon delight behind the toilets, from the sound. Just having a nice little-"Talk to me, you bitch!" The voice, so low it sounded almost like the growl of a dog, froze the smile on Gert's lips.
"Tell me where she is, and do it right now?
15
Gert ran around the side of the squat brick building so fast she barely avoided hitting the abandoned wheelchair and going ass over teakettle. The bald man in the motorcycle jacket-Norman Daniels-was standing with his back to her, holding Cynthia so tightly by her thin upper arms that his thumbs had nearly disappeared into her scant flesh. His face was jammed down against hers, but Gert could see the peculiar cant to Cynthia's nose. She'd seen that before, once in her own mirror. The girl's nose had been broken.
"Tell me where she is or you'll never have to bother with lipstick again, because I'll bite your f**king kisser right off your fa-" Gert stopped thinking then, stopped hearing. She went on autopilot. Two steps took her to where Daniels was. As she took them, she laced the fingers of both hands together to make a cudgel. She raised this over her right shoulder, getting as much height as she could; she wanted all the velocity she could muster. Just before she brought her hands down, Cynthia's terrified eyes shifted to her, and Rosie's husband saw it happen. He was quick, Gert had to give him that. He was terribly quick. Her locked hands caught him and caught him hard, but not on the nape of the neck, where she had wanted to hit him. He had already started to wheel around, and her hands caught him on the side of his face and the angle of his jaw instead. Her chance for a quick no-fuss, no-muss knockout had passed. As he turned to face her, Gert's first thought was that he had been eating strawberries. He grinned at her with teeth that were still dripping blood. The grin horrified Gert, and filled her with the certainty that she had only managed to make sure two women were going to die back here instead of one. This wasn't a man at all. This was Grendel in a motorcycle jacket.
"Why, it's Dirty Gertie!" Norman exclaimed.
"You wanna rassle, Gertie? Is that what you want? To rassle? Gonna whip me into submission with those 52-Ds of yours, is that what you're gonna do?" He laughed, patting the flat of one hand against his chest to communicate how tickled he was by the idea. The zippers on his jacket jingled. Gert snatched a glance at Cynthia, who was looking down at herself as if wondering where her shirt had gone.
"Cynthia, run!" Cynthia gave her a dazed look, took two hesitant steps backward, then simply leaned against the comfort station, as if just the thought of escape had tired her out. Gert could already see bruises rising on her cheeks and forehead, like fresh dough.
"Gert-Gert-bo-Bert," Norman crooned, starting toward her.
"Banana-fanna-fo-Fert, fee-fi-mo-Mert... Gert!" He laughed like a child at this, then armed some of Cynthia's blood off his mouth. Gert could see beads of sweat clinging to his naked skull. They looked like sequins.
"Oooh, Gertie," Norman crooned, and now his upper body began to sway from side to side, like the body of a cobra emerging from a snake-charmer's basket.
"Oooh, Gertie. I'm gonna roll you like a doughnut. I'm gonna turn you inside out like a pair of gloves. I'm-"
"Then why don't you come on and do it?" she barked at him.
"This ain't the high-school prom, you chickenshit ass**le! If you want me, come and get me!" Daniels stopped weaving and gaped at her, seemingly unable to believe that this tub of guts had shouted at him. Had taunted him. Behind him, Cynthia retreated another two or three tired stumble-steps, the seat of her shorts whispering against the brick of the comfort station, then leaned against the wall again. Gert cocked her arms and held them out in front of her. The palms of her hands faced each other, about twenty inches apart. Her fingers were splayed. She dropped her head between her shoulders, hulking like a mother bear. Norman observed this defensive posture, and his expression of surprise dissolved into amusement.
"What you gonna do, Gert?" he asked her.
"You think you're gonna run some Bruce Lee moves on me? Hey, I got news for you, he's dead, Gertie. Just like you're gonna be in about fifteen seconds-just a fat old nigger bitch lying dead on the ground." He laughed. Gert suddenly thought of Lana Kline, glancing nervously around and saying that maybe she would wait for Gert to use the bathroom.
"Lana!" she screamed at the top of her voice.
"He's here! If you're still there, run and get help!" Rosie's husband looked startled again for a moment, then relaxed. His smile resurfaced. He snatched a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure Cynthia was still there, then looked back at Gert. His upper body resumed its back-and-forth swaying.
"Where's my wife?" he asked.
"Tell me that and maybe I'll only break one of your arms. Hell, I might even let you go. She stole my bank card. I want it back, that's all." Can't rush him, Gert thought. He has to come to me-there's no other way I have even a chance of handling him. But just how am I supposed to make him do that? Her thoughts turned to Peter Slowik-the parts that had been missing, and the places where the concentration of bite-marks had been the heaviest-and thought she might know.
"You give the term eat me a whole new meaning, don't you, fagboy? Just sucking his c**k wasn't enough for you, was it? So what do you say? Are you coming for me, or do women scare you too much?" The smile did not just slip from his face this time; when she called him a fagboy it fell off so suddenly that Gert almost heard it shatter like an icicle on the steel toes of his boots. The weaving stopped.
"I'll KILL YOU, YOU BITCH;" Norman screamed, and charged. Gert turned sideways, just as she had when Cynthia charged her on the day Rosie had brought her new picture down to the basement rec room at D amp; S. She kept her hands lowered longer than she did when she was teaching throw-holds to the girls, knowing that not even his blind rage was enough to guarantee her success-this was a powerful man, and if she didn't suck him all the way in, she'd be chewed up like a rat in a threshing machine. Norman reached for her, his lips already peeling back from his teeth, getting ready to bite. Gert tucked even further, her fanny slapping against the brick wall, and thought, Help me, God. Then she seized both of Norman's thick, hairy wrists. Don't spoil it by thinking about it, she told herself, and turned back toward him, socking one big hip into his side and then snap-pivoting to her left. Her legs spread, then bunched, and her corduroy jumper never had a chance; it split up the back almost all the way to her waist with a sound like a pineknot exploding in a fireplace. The move worked like a charm. Her hip had become a ball-bearing and Norman went flying helplessly across it, his expression of rage turning to a faceful of shock. He crashed headfirst into the wheelchair. It overturned and landed on top of him.
"Wheee," Cynthia said in a husky little croak from where she was leaning against the wall. Lana Kline's brown eyes peered cautiously around the side of the building.
"What is it? What are you shouting ab-" She saw the bleeding man trying to crawl out from beneath the overturned wheelchair, saw the bright malevolence in his eyes, and stopped talking.
"Run and get help," Gert snapped at her. "security. Right now. Scream your head off." Norman shoved the wheelchair away. His forehead was only dripping blood, but his nose was gushing like a fountain.
"I'm going to kill you for that," he whispered. Gert had no intention of giving him a chance to try. As Lana turned and fled, howling at the top of her lungs, Gert landed on Norman Daniels in a flying drop that Hulk Hogan would have envied. There was a lot of her to drop-two hundred and eighty pounds at last count-and Norman's efforts to get to his feet ceased at once. His arms collapsed like the legs of a card-table that has been asked to hold a truck engine, his already wounded nose slammed into the hard-packed dirt between the brick wall and the fence, and his balls were driven into one of the wheelchair footrests with paralyzing force. He tried to scream-his face certainly looked like the face of a man who is screaming-and produced only a harsh wheezing sound. Now she was sitting on top of him, the jumper's split skirt hiked almost all the way to her hips, and as she sat there, wondering what to do next, she found herself remembering the first two or three times in Therapy Circle when Rosie had finally mustered enough courage to speak. The first thing she told them was that she had terrible backaches, backaches that even lying down in a hot bath could sometimes not ease. And when she had told them why, many of the women had nodded in recognition and understanding. Gert had been one of the nodders. Now she reached down and pulled the split skirt higher, revealing a pair of vast blue cotton underpants.
"Rosie says you're a kidney man, Norman. She says that's because you're one of those shy guys who don't like to leave marks. Also, you like the way she looks when you hit her there, don't you? That sick look. All the color goes out of her face, doesn't it? Even her lips. I know, because I had a boyfriend who was that way. When you see that sick look on her face, it fixes something inside you, doesn't it? At least temporarily."
"... bitch..." he whispered.
"Yeah, you're a kidney man, sure, I can tell a lot from faces, it's a talent I have." She was using her knees to wriggle her way up his body. She had made it almost to his shoulders. 'some guys are leg men, some guys are ass men, some guys are tit men, and then there are some guys, weirded-out ass**les like you, Norman, who are kidney men. Well, you probably know the old saying-"To each her own, said the old maid as she kissed the cow."
"... off me..." he whispered.
"Rosie's not here, Norm," she said, ignoring him and wriggling a little higher, "but she left you a little message from her kidneys, by way of my kidneys. I hope you're ready, because here it comes." She knee-walked one final step, positioned herself over his upturned face, and let go. Ah, sweet relief. At first Norman didn't appear to realize what was happening. Then understanding came. He screamed and tried to buck her off. Gert felt herself rising and used her bu**ocks to thump herself back down on top of him. She was surprised he was able to make as much of an effort as he had, after the pounding he had taken.
"No, you don't, me foine bucko," she said, and went on voiding her bladder. He was in no danger of drowning, but she had never seen such revulsion and anger on a human face. And over what? A little hot water. And if anyone in the history of the world had ever needed pissing on, it was this sick fu-Norman gave a vast, inarticulate cry, reached up with both hands, grabbed her forearms, and sank his nails into them. Gert screamed (mostly in surprise, although it did hurt like hell) and shifted her weight backward. He timed her move perfectly and flung himself up again as she made it, harder than before this time, and succeeded in tipping her over. She went sprawling against the brick wall to her left. Norman stumble-staggered to his feet, his face and bald head running with moisture, his motorcycle jacket dripping with it, the plain white tee-shirt beneath the jacket plastered to his body.
"You pissed on me, you cunt," he wheezed, and lunged for her. Cynthia stuck her foot out. Norman tripped over it and went sprawling face-first into the wheelchair again. He scrambled away from it on his hands and knees, then turned. He tried to get up, almost made it, then fell back, panting, looking at Gert with his bright gray eyes. Crazy eyes. Gert started toward him, meaning to put him down and keep him down. She would break his back like a snake if that was what it took, and this was the time to do it, before he found enough strength to get on his feet again. He reached into one of the motorcycle jacket's many pockets, and for one stomach-freezing moment she was sure he had a gun, that he was going to shoot her two or three times in the gut. At least I'll die with an empty bladder, she thought, and stopped where she was. It wasn't a gun, but it was bad enough: he had a taser. Gert knew a crazy homeless woman downtown who had one and used it to kill rats with, the ones so big they thought they were cocker spaniels who just didn't happen to have pedigree papers.
"You want some of this?" Norman asked, still on his knees. He waved the taser back and forth in front of him.
"You want a little, Gertie? You might as well come and get it, because you're gonna get some of it whether you want it or..." He trailed off, looking doubtfully toward the corner of the building. Cries of female excitement and dismay drifted from that direction. They were still distant, but they were getting closer. Gert used his moment of distraction to take a step backward, grab the handles of the fallen wheelchair, and jerk it upright. She stepped behind it, the chair's push handles completely lost in her big brown fists. She darted it at him in quick little pushes.
"Yeah, come on," she said.
"Come on, kidney-man. Come on, chickenshit. Come on, fagboy. You want to zap me? Got your phazer set to stun, do you? Come on, then. I think we got time for one more tango before the men in the white coats show up to take you away to Sunnydale Acres, or wherever they store weird f**ks like y-" He got to his feet, glancing again toward the sound of the approaching voices, and Gert thought, What the f**k, I only have one life, let me live it as a blonde and shoved the wheelchair at him as hard as she could. It struck him dead-center and he went over again with a yell. Gert lunged after him, hearing Cynthia's teary, wavering scream just one instant too late:
"Look out Gert he's still got it!" There was a small but vicious crackling sound-ziiittttt!-and a bolt of chrome-plated agony shot up from Gert's ankle, where he had applied the taser, all the way to her hip. The fact that her skin was wet with urine probably made Norman's weapon even more effective. All the muscles in her left leg clenched eye-wateringly tight, then let go completely. Gert spilled to the ground. As she went, she grabbed onto the wrist of the hand with the taser in it and twisted it as hard as she could. Norman howled with pain and kicked out both booted feet. One missed completely, but the heel of the other caught her high up in the diaphragm, just below her br**sts. The pain was so sudden and so strong that Gert forgot all about her leg, at least temporarily, but she held onto the taser, twisting his wrist until his fingers opened and the nasty gadget fell to the ground. He scrambled back from her, blood bubbling from his mouth and snorting out of his nose in fine droplets. His eyes were wide and disbelieving; the idea that a woman had administered this beating hadn't sunk in, perhaps couldn't sink in. He staggered up, glanced in the direction of the approaching voices-they were very close now-and then fled along the board fence, back toward the amusement park. Gert didn't think he would get far before attracting the interest of Park Security; he looked like an extra from a Friday the 13th movie.
"Gert..." Cynthia was crying and attempting to crawl to where Gert lay on her side, watching Norman disappear from view. Gert turned her attention to the girl and saw she'd taken a much worse beating than Gert had thought at first. A bruise like a thundercloud was puffing up over her right eye, and her nose would probably never be the same. Gert struggled to her knees and crawled toward Cynthia. They met and held each other that way, arms locked around necks to keep them from tumbling over. Speaking with enormous effort through her puffy lips, Cynthia said:
"I would have thrown him myself... like you taught us... only he took me by surprise."
"That's all right," Gert said, and kissed her gently on the temple.
"How bad are you hurt?" "don't know... not coughing up blood... step in the right direction." She was trying to smile. It was clearly painful, but she was trying, anyway.
"Pissed on him."
"Yes. I did."
"Bitchin-good," Cynthia whispered, and then began to cry again. Gert took her in her arms, and that was how the first group of women, closely followed by a pair of Pier Security guards, found them: on their knees between the back of the bathroom and the abandoned, overturned wheelchair, each with her head against the shoulder of the other, clinging together like shipwrecked sailors.
16
Rosie's first blurred impression of the East Side Receiving Hospital Emergency Room was that everyone from Daughters and Sisters was there. As she crossed the room toward Gert (barely registering the men clustered around her), she saw at least three were missing: Anna, who might still be at the memorial service for her ex-husband; Pam, who was working; and Cynthia. It was this last which most sparked her dread.
"Gert!" she cried, pushing through the men with barely a glance at them.
"Gert, where's Cynthia? Is she-"
"Upstairs." Gert tried to give Rosie a reassuring smile, but it wasn't much of a success. Her eyes were swollen and red with tears.
"They admitted her and she's probably going to be here awhile, but she'll be okay, Rosie. He beat her up pretty bad, but she'll be okay. Do you know you're wearing a. motorcycle helmet? It's sort of... cute." Bill's hands were on the buckle under her chin again, but Rosie was hardly even aware of the helmet's being removed. She was looking at Gert... Consuelo... Robin. Looking for eyes that said she was infected, that she had brought a plague into their previously clean house. Looking for the hate.
"I'm sorry," she said hoarsely.
"I'm so sorry for everything."
"Why?" Robin asked, sounding honestly surprised.
"You didn't beat Cynthia up." Rosie looked at her uncertainly, then back to Gert. Gert's eyes had shifted, and when Rosie followed them, she felt a surge of dread. For the first time she consciously registered the fact that there were cops here as well as women from D amp; S. Two in plainclothes, three in uniform. Cops. She reached out with a hand that felt numb and grasped Bill's fingers.
"You have to talk to this woman," Gert was telling one of the cops.
"Her husband was the one who did this. Rosie, this is Lieutenant Hale." They were all turning to look at her now, to look at the cop's wife who'd had the deadly impudence to steal her husband's bank card and then try to flee from his life. Norman's brothers, looking at her.
"Ma'am?" the plainclothes cop named Hale said, and for a moment he sounded so much like Harley Bissington she thought she might scream. "steady, Rosie," Bill murmured.
"I'm here and I'm staying here."
"Ma'am, what can you tell us about this?" At least he didn't sound like Harley anymore. That had only been a trick of her mind. Rosie looked out the window toward a freeway entrance ramp. She looked east-the direction from which night would come rising out of the lake not so many hours from now. She bit her lip, then looked back at the cop. She placed her other hand over Bill's and spoke in a husky voice she hardly recognized as her own.
"His name is Norman Daniels," she told Lieutenant Hale. You sound like the woman in the painting, she thought. You sound like Rose Madder.
"He's my husband, he's a police detective, and he's crazy."