us.”
“How can she?” My lips felt numb, and not from the alcohol. “How can she, if you cure her?”
He gave me a look that asked if I were really that clueless. “I can’t cure her. Those eight diseases I mentioned were picked because none are amenable to cure by the secret electricity.”
The wind rose to a shout, and the first erratic bursts of rain struck the west side of the house, hitting so hard they sounded like thrown pebbles.
“Miss Knowlton turned off Mary Fay’s ventilator as we were coming here from the resort. She’s been dead for almost fifteen minutes. Her blood is cooling. The computer inside her skull, wounded by the disease she carried from childhood but still marvelous, has gone dark.”
“You think . . . you actually think . . .” I couldn’t finish. I was flabbergasted.
“Yes. It’s taken years of study and experiment to reach this point, but yes. Using lightning as a road to the secret electricity, and the secret electricity as a thoroughfare to potestas magnum universum, I intend to bring Mary Fay back to some form of life. I intend to learn the truth of what’s on the other side of the door that leads into the Kingdom of Death. I’ll learn it from the lips of someone who’s been there.”
“You’re insane.” I turned toward the door. “I won’t play any part in this.”
“I can’t stop you if you really mean to leave,” he said, “although to go out in a storm like this would be the height of recklessness. Would it help if I told you that I’ll proceed without you, and that would put Miss Knowlton’s life at risk, as well as my own? How ironic it would be if she were to die so soon after Astrid was saved.”
I turned back. My hand was on the knob; rain was pounding against the door on the other side. Lightning printed a brief blue rectangle on the carpet.
“You can find out what happened to Claire.” His voice was low now, soft and silky, the voice of Pastor Danny at his most persuasive.
The voice of a coaxing devil.
“You might even be able to speak with her . . . hear her tell you that she loves you. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Always assuming she’s still there as a conscious entity, of course . . . and don’t you want to know?”
There was another flash of lightning, and from the mahogany box, a poisonous greenish-purple wink of light shot through a gap in the latch, there at one second, gone the next.
“If it’s any comfort to you, Miss Fay agreed to this experiment. The paperwork is in apple-pie order, including a signed affidavit giving me power to cease so-called heroic measures at my own discretion. In return for my brief and entirely respectful use of her remains, Mary’s son will be taken care of with a generous trust fund that will see him well into adulthood. There are no victims here, Jamie.”
So you say, I thought. So you say.
Thunder roared. This time, just before the stroke of lightning, I heard a faint clicking sound. Jacobs did, too.
“The time has arrived. Come into the room with me or go away.”
“I’ll come,” I said. “And I’ll be praying nothing happens. Because this isn’t an experiment, Charlie. This is hell’s work.”
“Think what you want and pray all you like. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I ever did . . . although I really doubt it.”
He opened the door, and I followed him into the room where Mary Fay had died.
XIII
The Revival of Mary Fay.
There was a large east-facing window in Mary Fay’s death chamber, but the storm was almost fully upon us now, and all I saw through it was a tarnished silver curtain of rain. The room was a nest of shadows in spite of the table lamp. My left shoulder brushed the bureau Jacobs had mentioned, but I never thought of the revolver in the top drawer. All my attention was taken up by the still figure lying in the hospital bed. I had a clear view, because the various monitors had been turned off and the IV pole had been pushed into the corner.
She was beautiful. Death had erased any marks incised by the disease that had infested her brain, and her upturned face—alabaster skin set off by luxuriant masses of dark chestnut hair—was as perfect as any cameo. Her eyes were shut. Thick lashes lay against her cheeks. Her lips were slightly parted.