Voice. Part 27

It came again-a sc.r.a.ping noise that Case immediately identified as that of a shoe on pavement. Her heart thumped in her ears.

Calm down. This is a parking lot. People come to places like this to get in their cars. The sarcasm didn't put her mind at ease. She waited, listening. She didn't hear the click of an opening car door, or the clunk of a closing one.

Another sc.r.a.pe, closer this time. There was somebody by the side of the van. She was almost sure of it.

Somebody's f.u.c.king with us. She thought of the equipment in back, adding numbers in her head. She guessed there was maybe twelve thousand dollars' worth of gear back there. Had somebody got it in their head to liberate some of it? If so, they'd G.o.dd.a.m.n well better be armed. Anger welled up in her, but it seemed a small, feeble thing next to her fear. Something about this felt very bad, and there was a familiarity to the badness of it that she couldn't place.

Another sc.r.a.pe, closer still, and this time a shadow fell across Danny's arm. There was somebody right behind her. Her skin p.r.i.c.kled with gooseflesh. Case could feel eyes tracing her body. The door was locked, right? Sure. That was basic Sleeping in the Car 101. They couldn't get in without breaking the window, and when they did, Case would go for the eyes. Or maybe she'd turn around right now, pop the door open, and slam it into the psycho standing back there. Both options sounded bad-sounded terrible, in fact-not least because Case felt paralyzed with fear.

She could wake Danny.

Even as she thought of it, somebody looked in through Danny's open window, appearing suddenly and leering at her.

She screamed.

Danny jolted upright, and there was movement from the back of the van, too. Erin screamed next, piercing and terrifying in the close confines of the van, and even Allen yelled.

Case turned, and-Jesus Christ! There was another person pressed to the window behind her, flattening the side of its face to the gla.s.s. The mouth was pulled back in a horrifying grimace, and one eye rolled madly. It settled on her, and the grimace stretched.

Case pushed back, almost landing in Danny's lap. Then she remembered the other one on Danny's side, and she froze. The person on her side started clawing at the gla.s.s.

"Johnny!" it said. "Johnny Johnny, we love you Johnny!"

And then from the other side: "We missed you Johnny! We missed you where it's so coooold." It opened its mouth, reared back, and tried to bite the window. Its top lip split open and one of its front teeth broke off. It didn't seem to notice. It tried again, tearing its lip open wider and leaving a cloudy smear of blood on the window. "Johnnyyyyyy! We love you!" Erin screamed again.

"For f.u.c.k's sake, Danny, get us the h.e.l.l out of here!" Johnny said. "Drive, G.o.ddammit!"

Danny seemed to remember where he was, and he cranked the starter. Not bothering to check behind him, he backed up as fast as the van could go. The side mirror knocked one of the people down, and Case heard it laughing as it slammed into the pavement.

Once they'd backed up, Case could see all of the people who had crowded around the van while the others slept. There were five of them, staring stupidly after the departing van.

"f.u.c.king go!" she told Danny. He didn't need telling by that point-he peeled out of the parking lot without looking back.

In the backseat, Erin burst into tears.

Chapter 27.

"What the h.e.l.l was that all about?" Case asked once they got on the road. Her voice shook slightly, and Johnny could see her checking the mirrors every few seconds, though it was impossible that anyone would be able to keep up with them. At least not on foot, he thought.

Perils of fame and glory, John my boy, "Johnny" said.

"Perils of fame and glory," Johnny said without much conviction. Case turned in her seat to look at him, and he suddenly got very interested in the view out the window.

"Bulls.h.i.t," she said. "Let's ask the guys in Crashyard how often this happens to them-I bet the answer is never, and you know it."

We don't know that, "Johnny" said. Johnny was too freaked out to argue. He just repeated the words as they came into his head.

"We don't know that," he said. Pause. "Besides, they have a tour bus and rented rooms. They probably haven't slept in the van for ten years."

"That's c.r.a.p, Johnny." Everyone was looking at him now. Even Danny kept glancing in the rearview mirror. Case's face was serious as death. "What did you do?"

He tried on an expression of surprise. It felt natural enough. "What do you mean, what did I do?"

"Johnny Johnny Johnny," Case said in an ugly, high-pitched voice. "Those creepy b.a.s.t.a.r.ds were all looking for you."

Johnny was silent. It's not my fault, the voice prompted. "It's not my fault the local mental hospital went on a field trip today. And you know I didn't arrange this-I was with you guys all night!"

Some of the fire seemed to go out of Case, but suspicion hung in the air like a particularly noxious perfume. She turned around and curled up in her seat, staring forward.

"I don't know what any of that was about," Allen said, "but it was some creepy s.h.i.t."

On that, everyone could agree.

They found another parking lot-a much more well-lit parking lot, which seemed both prudent and unfortunate as far as Case was concerned. She supposed it didn't matter. The odds of her getting any sleep before dawn were vanishingly small by now. Sure enough, sleep didn't come. It didn't come for Danny, either, though incredibly the three in back didn't seem to have any trouble. Even Erin had dropped off.

Danny talked about the show in a low voice. They'd talked about it at length earlier that evening, but he was still thinking about their thirty minutes of fame, rehashing the high points and talking about the things he needed to clean up at the next show. It was rea.s.suring talk of mundane things, and it helped bury the events of the last hour.

The sun came up, and Danny started driving. It was six or seven hours to their next stop, Raleigh, so they had plenty of time, but since neither of them could sleep, it seemed reasonable to get a head start. Maybe they'd sleep when they got there. Johnny woke up when they started moving and asked if they could stop and get breakfast before leaving Atlanta. They got greasy breakfast sandwiches at a rest stop, and Johnny picked up a newspaper.

"Maybe we got a review," he said defensively when Case eyed the paper. To her practiced ear, he sounded like he was full of s.h.i.t, but she was too tired to argue about it. If Johnny wanted to keep up on current events, that was his business.

By 7 a.m., Atlanta was a smudge in the rearview mirror.

The show in Raleigh went much as the show in Atlanta had, except the band was less terrified. They all agreed afterward that they played much better than the previous night, though the rush of performing didn't seem to have diminished any.

"I could get used to this," Allen joked.

The only worry they had afterward-unvoiced, but clear in the nervous eyes of all five of them-was that they'd get another nocturnal visit from the nutjob patrol. Danny drove them to a spot that was well clear of the venue and equally far from Crashyard's hotel, and though n.o.body slept well, they weren't bothered.

After that, they fell into a routine. Arrive early, get a couple hours of rest. Then sound check and a few hours of waiting. The thirty minutes they got onstage seemed terribly short for all the effort, but it was anything but anticlimactic. Each night, the crowd seemed more fired up than it had before.

"Some of the same people keep coming back," Erin said after one show.

"Are you sure?" Case asked. "These venues are hundreds of miles apart."

"Yeah, I'm sure. The tall girl with the blue mohawk is hard to miss. There are others, too, but she's the most obvious."

"Friend of the band? Die-hard Crashyard fan?"

"Maybe," Erin said skeptically. "I don't see them up front during Crashyard's set, though."

"Huh. Diehard Ragman fans. Who'd have thought?"

"Yeah," Erin said. She didn't sound like she thought that was a good thing.

After each show, they'd party with the guys from Crashyard and then go find a place to park for the night-always somewhere with lots of lights, always far away from both the venue and Crashyard's motel. There were no further nocturnal visitations.

The shows were getting creepier, though. After Erin's comment about the girl with the blue mohawk, Case started paying more attention to the crowd. That very night, she saw a tall girl with a blue mohawk over on Johnny's far side, staring raptly up at him and licking her teeth in a decidedly hungry-looking manner.

By the seventh stop-Boston-Case had identified no fewer than half a dozen recurring showgoers. The girl with the blue mohawk was keeping some very strange company. There was a middle-aged guy in a tie, with his white shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows. A biker, complete with enormous beer belly, bushy black beard, and Harley Davidson T-shirt. A heavyset woman covered in tattoos. Two college guys who typically showed up in polo shirts with their hair combed up in idiotic-looking fauxhawks. Case wanted to deck the both of them, and she was baffled by the fact that the girl with the blue mohawk hadn't already done so. The group seemed to travel together, though, and each night when Case spotted one of them, the other five were nearby. The lot of them seemed to have eyes only for Johnny.

"Is it normal for groups of people to follow you from show to show?" Case asked Kerry one night.

He shrugged. "It happens sometimes. I haven't had to get a restraining order yet. If you're worried, just give their descriptions to security. They'll keep an eye out for anything weird."

Case did just that, but she wasn't rea.s.sured. It didn't help that the whole vibe surrounding Johnny was getting weirder and weirder. He talked to himself constantly, and she didn't think he was aware of it at all. His voice was getting deeper, too-not lower, exactly, but deeper. He sang the same songs night after night at the same pitch as always, but his voice sounded larger than it used to somehow. It worked, she couldn't deny that, and the audiences loved him, but it unnerved her. His voice got better and stronger every night-it was unnatural.

It would be easy to dismiss it as paranoia, but paranoia was itself part of the weirdness around him. Ever since the episode in the parking lot in Atlanta, Case felt like she was being watched. Each night that Johnny sang, casting his eerie spell on the crowd, the paranoia intensified. She didn't smoke much pot anymore, but she had spent most of the year after she graduated high school stoned out of her mind, and this paranoia felt worse than a bad high-far worse, and much longer-lasting.

In Philadelphia-the twelfth show, maybe? maybe the thirteenth?-Johnny subst.i.tuted a whole line of ominous-sounding gibberish for one of the lines in "Changing Gears." Those strange, crackling syllables made Case shudder, and when she looked at Allen, his eyes were wide with alarm. He'd heard it, too, then-it wasn't just paranoia.

She accosted Johnny moments after they got off the stage.

"What the h.e.l.l was that?" she asked.

Johnny was grinning, still bopping his head to the music. "That was a good motherf.u.c.king show, that's what that was. What's your problem?"

"In 'Changing Gears'-what were you singing?"

Confusion flickered across his face, replaced a moment later by an uneasy grin. "Just singing the song," he said.

"My a.s.s. Those weren't words. That wasn't English. What the h.e.l.l were you singing out there?"

His grin got steadier. "Oh, I just forgot some of the lyrics. Brain freeze. I faked it, but I don't think too many people noticed. Looked like they were having fun, anyway."

She glared at him but she let it drop. Living in a van with five people, you learned to pick your battles.

She wasn't the only one who had noticed, though-and not everybody was willing to let it go.

Erin got the new shipment of CDs in Chicago as planned, and it was a good thing, too-they were down to only a dozen CDs. The good news was that they were making way more money than expected. A quick review of band funds told them they were far enough ahead that a night in real beds would fit comfortably in the budget. They got a couple of rooms in a Motel 6 off I-90, and Erin gave them a complete update on the state of their finances while they lounged in beds and chairs in the guys' room.

"At the current rate, you'll be able to make Danny whole on the recording costs and even make some money by the end of the tour," she said. She looked edgy, and Case didn't miss the p.r.o.noun-you'll instead of we'll. That wasn't like Erin.

"So that brings me to the last item of business," Erin said. Her voice wavered on the last word, and Case could see tears shining in her eyes.

Oh s.h.i.t.

"This has been wonderful, guys, and I'm so glad you brought me with you. But this was my last stop." She let out a long breath. "I'm going home."

There was an outcry from everybody in the room-except, Case noted, Johnny. He merely sat up and looked at her with narrowed, suspicious eyes.

"Why?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, what's up with that?" Allen chimed in.

Erin's eyes darted to Johnny and then away. "This is just too intense for me," she said. "I wasn't made for sleeping in a van, waking up in a new city every day, eating french fries nonstop. All this chaos. It was fun for a while, but I'm completely fried, guys."

"Come on," Allen said. "You know we can't run this traveling circus without you!"

"I'm sorry. I just can't do it anymore."

A somber silence greeted this p.r.o.nouncement.

"We're gonna miss you," Danny said finally. "Like you can't imagine."

At that, the first tears fell from Erin's eyes. "I'll see you when you get back to Dallas. The show's been confirmed, by the way-I'll make sure everybody's waiting for you when you get back."

There were hugs all around, then, and a proposal was put forward to get sloppy drunk. Erin begged off.

"I get an actual bed tonight. I think I'll enjoy it." She smiled thinly. "I'll see you guys at breakfast. My bus leaves at ten."

She left, still wiping tears from her cheeks.

Case followed.

Once the door to their room was closed, Case went over and sat on the chair by the window.

"I can't say that was the best surprise I've gotten lately," Case said.

Erin sat on the edge of the bed. "Yeah. Sorry." She brushed hair out of her face and wiped her eyes again. "I was gonna talk to you first, but then I thought if I did, I'd lose my nerve. I thought you'd talk me out of it."

Case nodded. It stung, but she understood. She probably would have tried to talk Erin out of it. "So what's the real reason?" she asked. "That line of c.r.a.p about this being too intense for you might go over with the guys, but you're not fooling me."

Another weak smile. Case noticed for the first time how tired Erin looked-she had dark smudges under her eyes, and there were lines on her face that Case didn't think were there when they'd left Dallas.

"Don't laugh," Erin said.

"I'm not even smiling."

Erin took a deep breath. "This tour is scaring the h.e.l.l out of me."

Case watched her face carefully. "That night in the parking lot?"

"That night in the parking lot was plenty bad, but there's more. Did you watch the crowd? Have you seen the people I told you about?"