Jack said, "This looks pretty clear to meThe
kids went up to your studio, then came back down
againThe adult stayed by the front door,
probably as lookoutalthough if this was the
middle of the night, there probably wasn't much to
look out forHave you been setting the burglar
alarm?"
790
"No," I said, not quite meeting his eye"I can't
remember the numbersI keep them on a slip of
paper in my wallet, but each time I came through
the door turned into a race against time, me
versus that fucking beeper on the wall-"
"It's okay Wireman gripped my shoulder"These
burglars didn't take; they left
"You don't really believe Miss Eastlake's dead
sisters paid you another visit, do you?" Jack
asked
"Actually," I said, "I think they did I thought
that would sound stupid in the bright light of an
April afternoon, with a ton of sunlight pouring
down and reflecting off the Gulf, but it didn't
"In Scooby Doo, it would turn out to be the crazy
librarian," Jack said"You know, trying to scare
you off the Key so he could keep the treasure for
himself
"Suppose those small tracks were made by Tessie
and Laura Eastlake,"
coco chanel black wallet Wireman said"Who made the
bigger ones?"
Neither of us replied
791
"Let's go upstairs," I said at last"I want to
look in the basket
We went up (avoiding the tracks - not to preserve
them, but simply because none of us wanted to step
on them) to Little PinkThe picnic basket,
looking just like the one I'd drawn with the red
pen I'd pilfered from Gene Hadlock's examining
room, was sitting on the carpet, but my eyes were
drawn first to my easel
"You can believe I beat a hasty retreat when I saw
that," Jack said
I could believe it, but I felt no urge to retreatI was drawn forward instead,
like an iron bolt to a magnetA fresh canvas had
been set up there and then, sometime in the dead
of night - maybe while Elizabeth had been dying,
maybe while I'd been having sex with Pam for the
last time, maybe while I'd been sleeping beside
her - a finger had dipped into my paintWhose
finger? I didn't knowWhat color? That was
obvious: redThe letters that staggered and
draggled and dripped their way across the canvas
were redThey almost seemed to
shout
792
viii
"Found art," I said in a dry, rattlebox voice
chanel classic purse that
hardly sounded like my own
"Is that what it is?" Wireman asked The letters seemed to waver in front of me,
and I wiped my eyesThey'd love it
at the Scoto
"Maybe, but that's some creepy shit," Jack saidAnd it was my studio, goddammit, mineI snatched the canvas off the easel,
momentarily expecting it to burn my fingersIt was just a canvas, after all, one I'd
stretched myselfI put it against the wall,
facing in"Is that better?"
"It is, actually," Jack said, and Wireman noddedif those little girls were herecan
ghosts write on canvas?"
"If they can move Ouija board planchettes and
write in window-frost, I imagine they could write
793
on a canvas," I saidThen, rather reluctantly, I
added: "But I don't see ghosts unlocking my front
doorOr putting a canvas up on the easel to begin
with
"There wasn't a canvas there?" Wireman asked
"I'm pretty sure notThe blank ones are all
racked in the corner
"Who's the sister?" Jack wanted to know"Who's
the sister they're asking about?"
"It must be Elizabeth," I said"She was the only
sister left
"Bullshit," Wireman said"If Tessie and Laura
were on the ever-popular other
pochette louis vuitton multicolore side of the veil,
they wouldn't have any problem locating sister
Elizabeth; she was right here on Duma Key for over
fifty-five years, and Duma was the only place they
ever knew
"What about the others?" I asked
"Maria and Hannah both died," Wireman said
"Hannah in the seventies, in New York - Ossining,
I think - and Maria in the early eighties,
somewhere out westBoth married, Maria a couple
of timesI know that from Chris Shannington, not
Miss EastlakeShe sometimes talked about her
794
father, but hardly ever about her sistersShe cut
herself off from the rest of her family after she
and John came back to Duma in 1951
where our sister?
"And Adriana? What about her?"
He shrugged"Qui?n sabe? History ate her up
Shannington thinks she and her new husband
probably went back to Atlanta after the search for
the babby-uns was called off; they weren't here
for the memorial service
"She might have blamed Daddy for what happened,"
Jack said"Or maybe she just couldn't stand
to hang around
I remembered Adriana's pouty I-want-to-besomewhere-
else look in the family portrait and
thought Wireman might be onto
colored prada fairy bag something there
"In any case," Wireman went on, "she has to be
dead, tooIf she was alive, she'd be almost a
hundredOdds of that are mighty slim
where our sister?
Wireman gripped my arm and turned me to face him
His face looked drawn and old"Muchacho, if
something supernatural killed Miss Eastlake in
795
order to shut her up, maybe we ought to take the
hint and get off Duma Key
"I think it might be too late for that," I said
"Why?"
"Because she's awake againElizabeth said so
before she died
"Who's awake?"
"Perse," I said
"Who is that?"
"I don't know," I said"But I think we're
supposed to drown her back to sleep
ix
The picnic basket had been scarlet when it was new,
and had faded only a little over its long life,
perhaps because so much of it had been spent
tucked away in the atticI began by hefting one
of the handlesThe damn thing was pretty heavy,
all right; I guessed about twenty poundsThe
wicker on the bottom, although tightly woven, had
sagged down someI set it back on the carpet,
pushed the thin wooden carry-handles down to
796
either side, and flipped back the lid on hinges
that squeaked
chanel bags to buy fake slightl