Full Dark, No Stars

“No grabbing, no throwing,” Tess said, and saw by the twitch of the other woman’s mouth that grabbing and throwing had indeed been in Ramona’s mind. “I can read you like a book. Why else would I

be here? Keep backing up. Al the way down to the living room. I just love the Trapp Family when they’re real y rocking.”

“You’re crazy,” Ramona said, but she began to back up again. She was wearing shoes. Even in her housecoat she was wearing big ugly shoes. Men’s laceups. “I have no idea what you’re doing here,

but—”

“Don’t bul shit me, Mommy. Don’t you dare. It was al on your face when you opened the door. Every bit of it. You thought I was dead, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re—”

“It’s just us girls, so why not fess up?”

They were in the living room now. There were sentimental paintings on the wal s—clowns, waifs with big eyes—and lots of shelves and tables cluttered with knickknacks: snowglobes, trol babies,

Hummel figures, Care Bears, a ceramic candy house à la Hansel and Gretel. Although Norvil e was a librarian, there were no books in evidence. Facing the TV was a La-Z-Boy with a hassock in front of it.

There was a TV tray beside the chair. On it was a bag of Cheez Doodles, a large bottle of Diet Coke, the remote control, and a TV Guide. On top of the television was a framed photograph of Ramona and another woman with their arms around each other and their cheeks pressed together. It looked as if it had been taken at an amusement park or a county fair. In front of the photo was a glass candy

dish that gleamed with sparkle-points of light beneath the overhead fixture.

“How long have you been doing it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“How long have you been pimping for your homicidal rapist of a son?”

Norvil e’s eyes flickered, but again she denied it… which presented Tess with a problem. When she had come here, kil ing Ramona Norvil e had seemed not just an option but the most likely outcome.

Tess had been almost positive she could do it, and that the boat-rope in the left front pocket of her cargo pants would go unused. Now, however, she discovered she couldn’t go ahead unless the woman

admitted her complicity. Because what had been written on her face when she’d seen Tess standing at her door, bruised but otherwise very much alive, wasn’t enough.

Not quite enough.

“When did it start? How old was he? Fifteen? Did he claim he was ‘just foolin around’? That’s what a lot of them claim when they first start.”

“I have no idea what you mean. You come to the library and put on a perfectly acceptable presentation—lackluster, obviously you were only there for the money, but at least it fil ed the open date on our calendar—and the next thing I know you’re on my doorstep, pointing a gun and making al sorts of wild—”

“It’s no good, Ramona. I saw his picture on the Red Hawk website. Ring and al . He raped me and tried to kil me. He thought he did kil me. And you sent me to him. ”

Norvil e’s mouth dropped open in a gruesome combination of shock, dismay, and guilt. “That’s not true! You stupid cunt, you don’t know what you’re talking about!” She started forward.

Tess raised the gun. “Nuh-uh, don’t do that. No.”

Norvil e stopped, but Tess didn’t think she would stay stopped for long. She was nerving herself up for either fight or flight. And because she had to know Tess would fol ow her if she tried to run

deeper into the house, it would probably be fight.

The Trapp Family was singing again. Given the situation Tess was in—that she had put herself in—al that happy choral crap was maddening. Keeping the Lemon Squeezer trained on Norvil e with

her right hand, Tess picked up the remote with her left and muted the TV. She started to put the remote down again, then froze. There were two things on top of the TV, but at first she had only registered the picture of Ramona and her girlfriend; the candy dish had just earned a glance.

Now she saw that the sparkles she had assumed were coming from the cut-glass sides of the dish weren’t coming from the sides at al . They were coming from something inside. Her earrings were in

the dish. Her diamond earrings.

Norvil e grabbed the Hansel and Gretel candy house from its shelf and threw it. She threw it hard. Tess ducked and the candy house went an inch over her head, shattering on the wal behind her. She

stepped backward, tripped over the hassock, and went sprawling. The gun flew from her hand.

They both went for it, Norvil e dropping to her knees and slamming her shoulder against Tess’s arm and shoulder like a footbal tackle intent on sacking the quarterback. She grabbed the gun, at first