Louise Cooper - Services Rendered

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The Vengeful Spirit of Lake Nepeakea

Services Rendered

Louise Cooper

The cultured female voice at the other end of the phone line said, "I

saw your advertisement in Alternatives. It's possible that I might be

able to help."

The sick lurch of hope had become all too familiar over the last few

months, and Penny tried to ignore it and keep her mind neutral. "I

see. What… uh… exactly would you be suggesting?"

There was a slight pause. Then: "I'd guess from your tone that

you've had other calls, yes? But nothing worth while came of them?"

"You could say that." Hope turned sour as she recalled them: two

fringe herbalists, a crystal healer, a woman trying to sell her a

"magic luck talisman" complete with a Your Personal Love

Rhythms chart. Oh, and the crank who had banged on about Jesus

and the wages of sin, until she had sworn at him and slammed the

receiver down. The magazine had advised her, when she placed the

advert, not to include her home number. Desperate needs, though,

called for desperate measures.

"Look," Penny said, "if you're marketing some new miracle cure,

then—"

"Oh, no. It's nothing like that, I assure you; what I could offer is

entirely practical, and entirely effective. The only caveat is that the

patient must be prepared to accept certain side effects."

Hope began to creep back. Words such as "patient" and "side

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The Vengeful Spirit of Lake Nepeakea

effects" were reassuring; they had a ring of orthodoxy.

"May I ask you a question?" said the woman.

Penny snapped back from the tangent her thoughts had abruptly

taken. "Yes; yes, please do."

"You obviously couldn't go into detail in the advertisement. It's your

husband who's ill?"

"Yes."

"And the doctors say that… well, that there's nothing more they can

do?"

"Yes." The GP; tests; the specialist; more tests; that loathsome

hospital… Penny breathed deeply and carefully to knock the tremor

out of her voice. "It's incurable, and it's progressive. Over the last

two years we've tried everything, but it didn't… And now — now,

he might have a couple of months, but the doctors say that…"

Something caught in her throat; she turned her head aside from the

receiver and tried to clear it.

"That there's no hope," the woman gently finished the sentence for

her." I understand. I'm so sorry."

"Thank you," Penny said tightly.

"So, then. I think I can help you, if you want me to. But I'd prefer to

talk about it face to face."

Penny's cynicism had begun to come back in a reaction to the last

few moments, and she demanded, "Why? That's the sort of thing the

evangelists do: worm an invitation, then start on their conversion

technique. Only last week I answered the doorbell and there were

some bloody—"

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The Vengeful Spirit of Lake Nepeakea

"Please. I promise you, I am not an evangelist in any shape or form.

Far from it. But what I… need to explain really does need a

personal meeting."

Penny looked down the length of the hall. The thin February

daylight made everything look bleak and depressing; the stairs were

deeply shadowed, and David was lying up there in their bedroom,

drugged to the eyeballs with painkillers, hardly knowing her, hardly

knowing anything.

"All right," she said on an outward rush of breath. "When, and

where?"

"It's best if I come to your house, I think. Would this evening be

convenient?"

"Yes." Face the thing quickly. If it's yet another disappointment,

better to have it over with. Feeling that the situation wasn't quite

real, Penny gave her address and agreed on 7:00 p.m.

"I don't know your name," she added.

"Oh, of course. It's Smith. Carmine Smith."

Penny didn't believe that, and she didn't believe that the woman

could be of any use at all. But what did it matter? There was nothing

left to lose.

Carmine Smith was probably in her early forties, elegant in

classically understated dark clothes and expensive black silk coat.

Her hair, too, was dark, cut in a young, gamine style that suited her

perfectly. Her eyes were subtly made up, but she wore no lipstick.

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The Vengeful Spirit of Lake Nepeakea

"Thank you," she said, taking the coffee (black, no sugar) that

Penny handed to her. She looked around the room, assessing it, her

expression inscrutable. Then she asked, "Is your husband at home?"

Penny nodded. "They said there was no point his staying in hospital.

They need the beds, and there's nothing…"

"Of course. Could I see him?"

Penny became defensive. "He's probably asleep. He sleeps a lot, and

even when he's awake he's vague. He couldn't tell you much."

"All the same, if I could just look in?" Carmine's eyes were very

intense.

Penny hesitated, then shrugged.

They climbed the stairs. Carmine walked noiselessly, which Penny

found faintly unsettling. She fancied that if she were to turn her

head she would find nobody at all behind her, and that this whole

encounter was a delusion.

David, as she had predicted, was asleep. Carmine moved to the bed

and stood gazing down at him by the soft light of the bedside lamp,

while Penny, who no longer liked to look at her husband too often,

hovered by the window.

At length Carmine said quietly, "He's very handsome."

"Yes." Or was, before he couldn't eat properly any more and

started to waste away.

"How old is he?"

"Forty-six." Penny moved restlessly. "Look, I don't want to wake

him. You've seen him now; if we're going to talk, I'd prefer to do it

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Louise Cooper - Services Rendered

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