I suggested rather firmly I'm afraid to Erica that she remain in her room while I escorted the doctor to the front door.
As he was leaving, he turned to me and said, "I won't bill either of you for this visit, since there was no actual reason for me to be here."
"You most assuredly will bill me for this visit." I replied sternly. "You came in perfect faith and the fact that it was part of some sort of hoax is not a reason for you to forgive the expense. I shall in turn collect your fee from Miss Erica, although I don't see exactly how right now. In any case, I can't thank you enough for your discretion and your tolerance of what was quite an imposition on our part. I hope to be able to explain it to you one day. I hope to understand it myself one day."
"Thank you, Mary Susan." He said. "Good luck with whatever this is about. And good day."
I was angry as I started up the stairs to have a visit with Erica, the anger turning to curiosity as I made my way to her door on the second floor. I knocked. She responded. Her voice was soft but firm. I went in. She was still sitting on the bed and invited me to sit on the chair. I did so, and looked at her, hoping that she would tell me what this was all about without my asking. She didn't. Saying exactly what was in my mind at the moment, I asked, "Why are you playing at vampires with Constance Claire and Louis? Does it have anything to do with the idea of someone from Germany trying to murder you?"
"Yes," she said, "and no. The vampire idea wasn't mine. I just went along with it. I went too far with the ink marks on my neck. Thanks for getting me out of that one. I owe you for that."
"But why?" I asked lamely. It wasn't the best question, but it was the only one I could think of.
"Mary Susan, someone is entering my room at night while I am sleeping, searching it for something and then returning later on the same night. I haven't been able to learn who it is without revealing myself. I don't know if it's the same man they sent to kill me but of course I think it is. I wish he would find whatever it is he is looking for. I wish I knew what he was looking for. I would help him find it. I admit to hoping that if he found that I have no political connections whatsoever in this country he would just go away and I wouldn't have to do anything."
"So every night someone comes into your room while you pretend to be sleeping."
"Not every night. About twice a week."
"How do you know he won't just murder you in your sleep?"
"I don't know. Maybe he will. But I think he's looking for something and won't kill me until he's found it. He thinks I am drugged, by the way."
"Do you take sleeping medicine? I didn't think you did."
"No, but he thinks I do. He has a good reason to think that. I can't say any more about that right now. I appear groggy at breakfast most mornings, to let whomever it is believe that I'm taking the drug. When Constance Claire became curious, I'm afraid I allowed her to imagine a vampire to explain my behavior in the mornings."
"I guess I hope my late night visitor will believe I am doped up enough to show me his face. If he does that, then the whole situation changes. I will know what to do then. The situation will be very different when I know who it is."
"Erica, shouldn't we just go to the police about this? If they do an investigation they might find out who it is without any action on your part." I emphasized the word action ever so slightly. I did not like what I was thinking.
"Mary Susan, you know very well what would happen. Not only would they not find anything, they wouldn't even look. I would immediately be labeled a hysterical woman who is taking drugs and having hallucinations. Whatever happened after that would certainly not remove the threat to my life, but it would remove my ability to take any action on my own. No, I implore you, do not tell the authorities anything of this. You will put me in even greater danger if you do so, and nothing good will come of it." She paused, then said, "But maybe you believe I am being hysterical. That all of this is made up, that I'm imagining all of it."
I thought about that for several seconds. No, I did not believe Erica was making it up. Strange as it was, terrifying as it was, it was real. I also had the cold feeling that I was betting Begley House and my own future on my intuition.
"No," I said softly. "I don't think you are hysterical. God help me if I'm wrong about that. I will not call in the police. Now, what action do you have in mind?"
"I can not tell you that. It's not so much that I'm afraid of what you might do, it's more that you would become an accomplice. I have the right to do what I wish with my own life. I do not have the right to involve you."
Accomplice to what, I wondered. But I would not ask.
"Erica, you're playing a very dangerous game." I said this a seriously as I knew how.
"I know, but I must. It's for Klaus, not for any political idea or movement. It is just something I have to do."
"It is my feeling that you are equally dead no matter what you die for. I don't suppose you have any experience with firearms?"
"No. Not directly. Why do you ask?"
"It's just that I have one. That's not to be generally known, by the way. It's not seemly for a respectable church-going lady of my station to have a firearm, or even to know what they are. It's a civil war cavalry pistol that belonged to my grandfather. I have cartridges for it and my husband showed me one time how to use it." I paused a long moment, looking directly into her eyes. But I had made up my mind. I said, "Would you like to borrow it?"
To my surprise, her pretty face turned slowly from impassive to hard and after a long moment she said simply, "Yes."
I invited her to follow me to my bedroom and showed her the trunk with the pistol in the bottom. I carefully lifted the pistol out of the trunk and offered it to her.
To my surprise, she declined to take the thing. "If I take the pistol, whomever is searching my room will find it. If I need it I will steal it from you. I suppose you lock your bedroom." There was an obvious question in that statement.
I very carefully replaced the pistol, closed the trunk, and said, "I keep my bedroom locked when I'm not in it, mostly as an example for the others. But, as you know, most of the keys around here fit most of the locks, so I can't be sure it is really secure, now can I?"
She smiled, but said nothing.
"There is one thing I want to add. I have fired the pistol exactly once. My husband showed me how to do that. He told me to hold the gun quite firmly in both hands when I pulled the trigger. It was very good advice. That thing has a really terrific kick."
We tried her key in my bedroom door until we were convinced that it would indeed, with a little fiddling, unlock my bedroom door. As a final thought, I said, "I assume you would use the pistol only in self defense, that you don't intend to actually murder someone yourself."
"Please do assume that, Mary Susan. I will try my best to have it come out that way."
That really did send cold shivers down my spine. It wasn't so much the words as it was the tone of her voice and the look on her face. I remembered Constance Claire relating in her overly dramatic way of her confrontation with Erica walking to Begley House. She may have been dramatizing the scene, but she did have a basis to work from. Suddenly, I didn't want to be Erica's adversary.
She seemed to recognize my fear. "I don't yet know who has been sent to kill me. Not for certain. Before I do anything, I have to be absolutely sure."
I certainly wished her all success with that. Once again, I did not like what I was thinking.