He sat there for a moment. Then he leaped to his feet. "Neither of you leave the house. If she comes back, call the police. Do you hear me, Jesse?"
"Yes sir," he said.
"Don't say a word to your mother if I don't get to her first," he added.
I wondered how we would manage that. One look at us would tell her something was terribly wrong. He looked at us, shook his head, and walked out of the living room. To me, it felt as if the air followed him. Jesse sat there staring at the wall. Then he turned to me slowly.
"You're not lying, are you? She's really not up there."
"I didn't see her, and she didn't respond when I called," I said, and then something came to mind, something that sent a chill through me.
"What is it?" he asked, seeing my face pale.
"I didn't look in one place, her hiding place, the old armoire. She once showed me how she could hide in it if anyone came up to the attic unexpectedly."
"But why wouldn't she come out when she heard you call her?"
I shook my head, rose, and walked slowly back to the stairway. Jesse followed, and we went up the attic steps. I looked back at him, and then we continued up to the door, paused, and opened it.
She was standing by the window, looking down at the new sports car. She had been in the armoire. "Karen," I said. It was barely a whisper.
She turned slowly, smiling. "You two have a wonderful life, you know that? Whenever I came over here, I would bathe in the love and affection. I would fantasize that it was my home, too, and they were my parents. I told you that before, didn't I, Zipporah?"
"Yes."
"I never told you, Jesse." She laughed. "I even felt a little incestuous being with you. That's how powerful my fantasy was."
"Jesse knows everything now, Karen," I said. "That's good. I wish I did. Know everything, that is."
"There's no proof to support the story you told about Harry Pearson," Jesse said. "We mean the part about him and his dead mother. The apartment .. . there is no apartment."
"There was," she said.
"No, I was in it last night. It's an unfinished room. No one could live in it."
She kept shaking her head.
"And the police didn't find the wig you claimed you were wearing, or the dress," Jesse added.
Karen's eyes widened. "They're lying."
"Why would they lie about something like that, Karen?"
"Then my mother got rid of it all before they arrived."
"But why?" Jesse asked. "Why would she submit both of you to such madness?"
"You'll have to ask her. Maybe someday someone will, but probably not anyone in this onehorse town. You ever hear of Gulliver's Travels? Well, this is Gullible Travels, stories about the fools in Sandburg," she said, and laughed.
"My father knows everything, Karen."
"Everything again? Even what went on between us, Jesse?"
Jesse blushed.
"I didn't think so. I saw him rush out and drive off and figured as much. Well," she said, walking toward us and the door. "At least I'm getting out of here."
"Where are you going?" I asked her.