Susan Andersen - Coming Undone

"I'm sorry about that. But I'm being paid to see to it that you don't go off by yourself. Trust me, you don't want to be on your own if the whack job, as you called him, makes a return appearance."

"Oh, please." She stopped at the door to the bus and looked up at him. "Do you honestly believe he was anything but a one-shot deal?"

"I hope to hell he was exactly that. I really do. But as I told you before, I'm not betting your safety on it."

Because she understood what he was saying on an intellectual level-even while the thought of constant surveillance felt stifling on an emotional one-she let it go. "Hi, Marvin," she greeted the driver as the door swished open and she boarded the bus.

"Hiya, Miz Morgan. I put your package on your bed."

"Thanks," she said absently, thinking ahead to what she needed to grab. She strode straight toward her stateroom.

"What package?" Jared asked.

"The one the security guy said Miz Morgan told him to give me to put in her room."

"Is that true?" he called after her. "Were you expecting something from last week's shopping trip, maybe?"

"Hmm?" She greeted Hank as she passed him lounging in an open-curtained sleeping berth reading a James Lee Cooper book, then entered her room. "Oh, look!" she said, dropping her purse on the built-in counter and crossing to the beautifully wrapped package on her bed.

It was fairly large, about the size of three stacked boot boxes. She reached for the iridescent ribbon.

"Don't touch that!"

She gaped over her shoulder at Jared as he burst into the room. "What?"

"Did you or did you not ask a security guard to deliver this to your room?"

"No. Of course not."

He squatted down to inspect the package. "Well, that's what the man who delivered it told Marvin." He pressed his ear to the side of the package. "And you don't open unexplained gifts without a few precautions."

"No, I suppose not. Is itticking? "

"No." He looked up at her. "Go stand outside the door."

"What? No."

Jared rose to his feet, grasped her by the shoulders and backed her out the door. "Stay there."

"I'm not going to leave you to deal with that on your own."

"Stay there!" he barked. "Dealing with it is my job."

Hank rolled out of the berth behind her. "What's going on?"

"Unexplained package," Jared said succinctly. "See that she stays out of the room."

"You got it."

"Hank," she protested, but he merely wrapped a sinewy arm around her shoulders and hugged her to his side. She watched with her heart in her mouth as Jared went back to the package.

He examined it up, down and sideways, then reached for the tips of the ribbon.

She held her breath as he untied it, but nothing happened. Nothing happened when he carefully unwrapped it, either. But she saw his back stiffen when he lifted its lid free with a ballpoint pen.

"What?" she demanded, pulling against Hank's hold. "What is it?"

"Shit," Jared said.

She broke free and crossed the room, but stopped dead when she saw what the package contained. Her lips drew back from her teeth in revulsion.

For uncoiling out of the box, tongue flicking and head weaving, was a big orange and gold snake.

"OMIGAWD, OMIGAWD, OMIGAWD."P.J. couldn't backpedal from the bed fast enough. But neither could she seem to rip her gaze from the narrow, reptilian head rising above the lip of the box. She watched hypnotized as the snake slithered over the container's side. When it touched the comforter and began to wind across the bed, Jared tossed aside the box lid and grabbed it.

"Are you crazy?" Her backward momentum stopped dead. "Don'ttouch it! It might be poisonous."

"No." He grasped the snake behind its narrow head and just above its tapered tail and, holding it up, stretched the reptile out to what appeared to be a full six feet. "It's a corn snake. I knew a jarhead in North Carolina once who had one for a pet. They're nonpoisonous."

"He had a snake for apet? " She shivered. "I bet he didn't have a lot of girlfriends."

"No shit," Hank agreed.

Jared looked up from studying the snake. "You don't think he's kind of pretty? Look at this coloring."

And from a distance the reptile did have a beauty of sorts. Its skin was gold with vibrant red-orange markings outlined in brown. Had it been behind glass in a zoo, she might even have admired it.

But it wasn't, and she didn't.

"Hank," Jared said. "Check inside the box to see if there's a message. Then get the lid, will you? Try not to touch either too much, though, if you can avoid it. The cops will probably want to dust it for prints."

Hank brushed by her and leaned to peer in the box. "There is something here." He pulled out a sheet of paper by its upper-right corner and traded it for the box lid on the bed. "Ready when you are."

They worked like a team of long standing as Jared returned the snake to the box and Hank slipped on the lid to secure it. Then J bent to read the paper. She and Hank crowded in on either side to see what it said.

I WILL SEND THE TEETH OF BEASTS UPON THEM, WITH THE POISON OF SERPENTS OF THE DUST.

YOU HAVE FAILED TO HONOR THY MOTHER AS THE BIBLE INSTRUCTS.

"It's the same person, isn't it," she said. The tone was consistent with the last message. She glanced uneasily at the box. "Are you sure that snake's not poisonous?"

"Yes. But I'll get on the horn with the cops." Using his palms on the corners of the box, Jared lifted it off the bed and set it out in the hall. He was already pulling his cell phone from his pocket as he stepped back into the room.

"What 'them'?" she asked suddenly. When both men gave her a blank look, she said, "It says 'I will send the teeth of beasts upon them.' What them? He sent the snake to me."

"It's a biblical reference," Hank said. "From 'Moses' Song' in Deuteronomy. The 'them' refers to the Israelites." When both she and Jared stared at him, he shrugged, flashing them a wry smile. "I'm a southern boy. That's pretty much synonymous with being raised in the church."

Jared turned his attention to the 911 dispatcher that had obviously just picked up and P.J. moved closer to Hank.

"So what this guy is saying, then, is that he's not happy about Mama's version of our relationship? Likehe knows anything about it." But she waved the brief flash of bitterness aside. "Good thing I had you to interpret, Hank, because I'm not sure I'd have gotten it without you. Seems to me he'd have a better chance putting his message across if he used something that everybody's familiar with whether they're churchgoers or not. You know, like the Lord's Prayer or that Lord is my Shepherd psalm. I know neither makes the point he's trying to get across, but still, there must be something more well known." Her eyes lit up. "I know, maybe that 'a thankless child is sharper than a serpent's tooth' thing. I would've gotten that one."

"Except it's not from the Bible," Hank said.

"Oh." She grimaced. "I guess that shows how important Mama thought religion was to my upbringing. Itsounds like something that might be in the Bible."

"Yeah, it does. It's Shakespeare, though, and this guy is clearly a zealot, so I doubt that in his mind a playwright's words would fit the bill. Religion's his thing."

"Sending snakes to people he doesn't know anything about doesn't seem very Christian to me."

"I'm talking about the way he apparently views himself, Peej. You're right, though, it isn't the way I was taught. My God is benevolent. And even to the hell and brimstoners, Romans clearly says, 'Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. For in doing so thou shalt heap coals upon his head'." He reached out and squeezed her hand. "Which is probably more information than you want or need. This kind of shit just burns me up, though. The guy who sent that snake might consider himself some onward Christian soldier, but that's bull. He's nothing but a stalker."

"Oh God." Ice formed in her stomach as she gaped at Hank. "I hadn't thought about it like that, but that's exactly what this is, isn't it? Stalking. Like with John Lennon."

Sliding his cell phone back into his pocket, Jared rejoined them. "I know it's easier said than done not to worry," he said. "But try at least not to let it make you crazy."

"I know." She grimaced with self-deprecation. "I'm hardly in Lennon's class."

"That's not what I'm saying. I just meant that I'm going to take care of this before it has the chance to escalate to that sort of violence."

"What happened to calling in the cops?"

"Oh, I called them. Unfortunately there's no telling when they'll get here, since no one was hurt or is in immediate danger. That's a good thing, but it makes us a low priority so it could be a while. I think we should put the box in one of the free berths to keep from contaminating it any more than we already have. I can't imagine them not dusting for prints when they get here. If we're lucky our guy will be in the system and that will be the end of it."

"I wouldn't count on it if P.J. is the first person he's stalked," Hank said.

"I know. And I don't plan on standing around waiting for information they may or may not feel like sharing with us even if he is." Jared stowed the box in a berth. Pulling the accordion curtain closed, he called, "Marvin!"