The boy came up to them and stopped. “She’s changed her mind,” he said again. “She’s calmed down and she’s going to stay, which is a good thing because Grandma is not going to be calmed down until that sedative kicks in. You’re Mr. Demarkian, aren’t you? Cool.”
“How do you do?” Gregor said.
The boy had grabbed his hand and started pumping it. “I’m Mark DeAvecca. Liz is my mother. Jay DeAvecca was my father. He was—”
“Mark.”
“Well, whatever. It’s complicated to figure out. I’ve got this whole monologue I use on new people from school. You know how conventional people are. Any sign of the cops?”
“You called the police?” Gregor said.
“We had to,” Liz Toliver said.
“Come on back and I’ll show you,” Mark DeAvecca said. “It’s in the garage. It’s a detached garage. That’s why we didn’t hear. But it couldn’t have been too long ago. I mean, it was still bleeding when Mrs. Vernon saw it—”
“Who’s Mrs. Vernon?” Gregor said.
“Grandma’s nurse,” Mark said.
“And you only know she said it was bleeding,” Liz Toliver said. “Considering the way she was behaving, God only knows what she actually saw—”
“I saw it bleeding,” Mark said confidently. “Not much and not for very long, but the blood was definitely liquid. I was the first one out there after Mrs. Vernon had her fit, and it was oozing—”
“Mark.”
“She’s got that sound programmed on a chip inside her skull,” Mark said. “She doesn’t have to make any effort to say it anymore. It just comes out automatically, every time I—”
“Mark,” Liz Toliver said, more calmly, but not much more. “If you don’t start behaving like a human being—”
“I am behaving like a human being,” Mark said. “I am behaving like a very upset and frightened human being, and also like a very angry human being, because I told you so, I told you that this was a bad idea. And it’s a good damned thing—don’t you dare tell me not to say ‘damn’—it’s a good damned thing that Geoff didn’t see it, because if he had he’d be up with nightmares for weeks.”
“Wait,” Liz said. “Geoff—”
“I’ve got the garage barricaded off. I didn’t want to touch anything, so I piled up a bunch of stuff at the end of the drive so he can’t get over it. And as soon as the police get here, I’m going to call Jimmy and tell him about this whole thing, and after that I hope you’re going to listen to reason, because this is fucking stupid. And don’t you dare tell me not to say ‘fuck.’”
“What?” Liz said. “We’re in some kind of crisis so it doesn’t matter what you say? I don’t get that. Since when—”
Mark turned his head to Gregor. “You want to come out back and see before the police get here? It’s really lovely. There’s blood all over everything. We’re never going to get it out of the cement floor. If the real estate agents know about it, we’re never going to sell the place. It’s unbelievable.”
“All right,” Liz said. “It’s unbelievable. I’ll give you that.”
Somewhere in the distance, there was the sound of a police siren. Gregor wondered if Liz and Mark had been as incoherent with the police as they had been with him, or if they’d sounded this panicked. That would be enough to bring a siren. Of course, so would boredom, cops with nothing else to do in a small town on a Monday night. He cocked his head at Mark.
“What is it?” he asked. “I take it nobody is dead.”
“Not somebody,” Mark said. “Some thing.”
“It hardly seems right to call it a thing,” Liz said.
“A dog,” Mark said. “Grandma’s dog. She’s had it forever. That’s one of the things we were supposed to do up here this vacation. Find someplace to put the dog. Except the dog looks as decrepit as Grandma. Although that could just be me. I can’t really tell you how good my perceptions are in a situation like this, because I’ve never been in a situation like this, and I never intend to be in one again. If we can’t talk my mother into packing up and going back to New York, I may just tie her up and throw her in the trunk and take her back myself.”
“You can’t drive,” Liz said.
“Don’t bet on it,” Mark said.
The sirens were much closer now. It was, Gregor was sure, only a single police car, but he had the noise on as high and fast as it would go.