Alarums. Part 1

Richard Laymon.

Alarums.

Melanie Conway is a pale and lovely violinist who has strange visions of death. When she crashes to the floor during a concert her boyfriend, Bodie, is at hand to hear her fearful premonition of disastera Penelope Conway is even more stunning than her sister but her looks frequently get her into trouble. Although she takes herself seriously as a writer, men only seem impressed by her beauty. The last thing she needs is a series of obscene phone callsa Captivated by these two alluring sisters, Bodie finds himself drawn deep into a strange mystery that is fired by s.e.x and haunted by blood.

TO KATHLEEN AND KELLY LAYMON, MY MOM AND DAD,.

WHO BROUGHT ME INTO THE WORLD AND RAISED ME WITH LOVE AND HAVE ALWAYS STOOD BESIDE ME.

- FROM ME WITH LOVE -.

E'en the Daws and Jackals trembled with Afright.

As strange Alarums, crying Chaos, bruited through the Night.

'The Portent' Henry Loveworth.

CHAPTER ONE.

Bodie fidgeted, trying to find a comfortable way to sit on the straight-backed chair. It was impossible. The chair had been designed by a s.a.d.i.s.t.

The music, too.

He could be at a movie right now. Or back at his apartment, sprawled in his lounge chair, reading a book. Instead, here he was in Wesley Hall on a chair grinding his b.u.t.t bones to powder, listening to a string quartet.

The music fairly lilted.

Boring as h.e.l.l. Doug Kershaw or Charlie Daniels, now those are a couple of guys who know how to treat a violin.

Melanie, of course, wouldn't be caught dead stomping her foot and sawing out a lively number.

She sat there as stately as a mortician, stiff-backed and prim, playing what sounded like the background score of 'Four Wimps at Tea-Time'.

Melancholy Melanie.

She looked like a poet contemplating suicide. Thin, almost cadaverous. Glossy black hair hanging to her shoulders. Big, gloomy eyes set in a face so white it seemed nearly translucent. A very long, pale, vulnerable neck. And the choker, of course - one of those velvet bands around her neck.

Bodie found her chokers very erotic. Especially when that was all she had on.

'If I unfasten that,' he had once asked, 'will your head fall off?'

'Perhaps.'

Straddling Melanie, he'd reached behind her neck to remove the narrow ribbon.

She'd whispered, 'Not yet,' held onto her ears, then said, 'Now.'

Sensitive and haunted, but not without a sense of humor.

Bodie s.h.i.+fted his position on the chair. Crossing his legs helped a little. He'd been smart enough, this time, to take a front row seat. At the last concert, he'd been so boxed in that even the small relief of crossing his legs had been impossible. He checked his wrist.w.a.tch. Ten till nine. Fifty minutes down, seventy to go. He wondered if he could survive that long.

A number ended to quiet applause, and Bodie clapped harder than anyone.

They'll think I'm truly appreciative, he thought. They'll be right. I appreciate the fact that it's over.

Melanie looked at him. Her expression didn't change. Distant, solemn and rather haughty, befitting the occasion. Bodie winked.

Melanie quickly turned her eyes away, but blushed. The color suffused her creamy neck and face. She squirmed just a bit, then stiffened her back even more than before, tucked down her chin firmly against the violin and waited, rigid, for the music to resume.

The new tune sounded much like the last one.

Here we go again.

Bodie glanced at his wrist.w.a.tch again. Only two minutes had pa.s.sed.

Don't worry, he told himself. This will end. Eventually. Then freedom. Stretch. Get the kinks out. A nice long walk to Sparkey's. A salami pizza, a pitcher of beer. Relief.

All you've got to do is hold on until ten o'clock.

Does anyone really enjoy this music? he wondered. The hall was pretty crowded. Everyone here couldn't possibly be the lover, relative, or friend of a performer. Well, plenty of them were students and teachers from the music department. They probably eat it up, the same way Melaniea She jerked as if she'd been kicked in the back, but n.o.body was behind her. She flung her arms across her face. The violin fell to her lap. The cello player to her left dodged the tip of her flying bow. She made strangled, gasping sounds. The violin dropped to the floor as tremors jolted her body.

Bodie leaped up and ran to her.

A seizure?

Heart attack? Epileptic fit?

He lurched to a stop in front of Melanie, careful not to step on the violin, and grabbed her wrists. Her rigid arms jumped and twitched in his grip as if an electric current were sizzling through them.

'Melanie!' His voice had no effect.

He forced her arms down and pinned them to the sides of her thras.h.i.+ng body. Her face was inches from his - twisted and gray, eyes rolled back so that only the whites showed. Her tongue lolled out. Spittle dribbled down her chin. Her wheezing breath was hot on Bodie's face.

Somebody b.u.mped into him. He realized they were surrounded by a crowd. People murmured to each other, some asked questions, some called out advice.

'Get back!' he snapped.

He was scared. He'd never been so scared. Melanie looked as if she were being killed - ripped apart inside or electrocuted.

'Paramedics,' said a voice behind him. 'I'll call the paramedics.'

'Yeah, quick!' Bodie yelled.

Melanie's chair suddenly tipped back as she rammed her feet against the floor. Bodie tugged her arms. The chair thumped down and she lurched against him. Bodie, off balance, staggered backward. Someone tried to catch him, but failed. He tumbled to the floor, Melanie on top. Her forehead smashed his nose.

Suddenly, the quaking stopped and the stiffness went out of her. She lay motionless. Bodie tasted blood, felt it trickling down his throat and dribbling along his upper lip and cheeks. 'Are you okay?' he asked.

Melanie shook her head. 'I have to go home,' she muttered. She looked up at the crowd cl.u.s.tered around them. 'I'm sorry,' she said, and burst into tears.

They a.s.sured everyone that they were both all right. The paramedics hadn't been called yet. Bodie turned down an offered ride to the hospital. Handkerchief pressed to his nose, he explained that he would take Melanie to the hospital himself, for a checkup. She nodded in agreement, red-eyed but no longer crying.

'We'll be fine,' she said. 'Thank you. Thank you all for your concern.'

A member of the quartet brought Melanie's instrument case to her. 'Everything's in there,' the girl told her. 'Your violin's fine.'

Some of the group stayed with them as they left the auditorium - offering sympathy or encouragement, asking questions, ready to help in case of a relapse. Professor Trueblood, head of the music department, preceded them and opened doors. 'My car's just around in back,' he said. 'I'll drive you to the emergency room, I insist.'

'Really, I'm fine,' Melanie told him. 'Thank you, anyway. I'm fine.'

'I'll take care of her,' Bodie said through his sodden handkerchief.

'You're in some need of attention yourself, young man.'

'I'll be all right.'

Professor Trueblood watched from the door of Wesley Hall as they hurried down the concrete stairs. Once away from him, they walked slowly side by side.

They walked through the warm night in silence. Then Melanie asked, 'How's your nose?'

'It'll live.' He sniffed. 'I think the bleeding's stopped.'

'I'm sorry I hurt you.'

'It's nothing.' He looked at her. 'Are you going to tell me what happened?'

'Oh, Bodie,' she whispered. Her arm slipped around his back, her small hand warm on his hip. 'It's something terrible.'

'I know. I saw.'

'Not that. I meana what I saw.'

'What you saw?'

'My dad. It must've been Dad. Or my sister.' Her hand tightened on Bodie's hip. 'G.o.d. Hea he must be dead. One of them, anyway. Ia d.a.m.n it.' She sobbed. 'I don't know which one. But Dad, I think. When it happened last time, it was Mom.'

Bodie stopped. He turned and stared down into her glistening eyes. Her sorrow made a thickness in his throat and a tight hurt in his chest. But her wordsa What was she saying?

He tucked the handkerchief into his pocket and gently took hold of her shoulders. Too late, he realized he had blood on his fingers. 'I want to understand,' he said.

Melanie stiffened. She lowered her head and wiped her nose with a cuff. 'There was something coming at me,' she said in a shaky voice. 'Only not at me. It was dark and noisy and running at me and I knew I had to get out of the way or it would kill me, but I didn't have time, it was too fast and it got me. It got me.'

Bodie pulled her gently against him. She lowered her face against the side of his neck. He felt its wetness, the tickle of her eyelashes. 'That's what happened in your mind?' he whispered. 'While you werea shaking and stuff?'

He felt her nod. 'Jesus,' he muttered.

'When it happened before, I was eleven and at summer camp. It was Mom that time.'

She had told Bodie about the loss of her mother, the woman slipping in the bathtub, smas.h.i.+ng her head and drowning. 'You had a vision or whatever then - like tonight?' he asked.

'Not exactly like tonight. But yes. That's why I know Dad's dead.'

'You don't know it,' Bodie said. 'Not for sure.'

She didn't answer.

'Come on. Let's get back to the apartment. You can call home. Maybe everything's fine.'

In their apartment two blocks from campus, Bodie stood in silence behind Melanie while she dialed. Her head was down. On the shoulders of her white blouse were the rust-colored marks left by his fingers.

She listened to the phone for a long time, then hung up and turned to him. 'n.o.body answered.'

Bodie looked at his wrist.w.a.tch. Nine-thirty. It would be eight-thirty, Pacific time. 'Maybe they went out for dinner or something. Why don't you try again in an hour or so?'

'It won't do any good.'

'You can't be sure,' he said. 'How many times have you had thesea visions?'

'Only once like this. Strong like this. When Mom was killed.'

'How come you never told me about it?'

She was silent for a moment. Her arms tightened around him. 'I didn't want you thinking I'm a weirdo.'

'h.e.l.l, I already knew that.'

'I love you, Bodie.'

'See? That proves you're a weirdo.'

'Yeah.'

'Look, what do you want to do?'