“Gifts are one thing,” Decker said. “I’m talking about personal belongings of Marie’s. Things like maybe a lockbox filled with letters and photographs—”

“So Marie gave me the box for safekeeping. So what?”

“Ah, so you do know what I’m talking about,” Decker said. “You know about the box because you discovered it while you were staying with Marie during your so-called pregnancy? Of course, we all know you weren’t really pregnant. Not like the first and only time—”

Kill him now!

Decker said, “The second one was all in your imagination.”

Kill him!

No.

Yes.

No, you’re not real!

Kill him. KILL HIM!

“Tandy, are you here?” Decker asked.

A glow spread across the young woman’s cheeks. “Marie gave me the box, and you can’t prove any different!”

“Why would she give you her lockbox without the key?”

“Who says I don’t have the key?”

“I have the key, Tandy.”

“So she gave it to me without the key.” Tandy shrugged. “She didn’t want me looking inside.”

“You’re right about that, Tandy. I don’t think Marie wanted you looking inside. Because the box held all her personal mementos, some of them very, very private—”

“Shut up!”

Decker leaned across the table. “But you snooped anyway.”

“Shut up.”

“You found it while you were staying at Marie’s recovering from your shock at not being pregnant—for a second time.”

“I don’t have to listen to this.” She closed her ears and began to hum. “I can’t hear you!”

Decker yanked her hands from her head. “Tandy, Marie didn’t give you any box. You stole it from her apartment.”

“Shut! Up!”

“And we both know why Marie wouldn’t have given you the box. It contained love letters and photographs of her and your father. Probably very graphic love letters—”

“Shut! Up!”

“Man, what betrayal you must have felt!” Decker added. “You thought you found an angelic mother in Marie, and irony of ironies, she turned out to be the very bitch that broke up your parents’ marriage!”

Tandy jumped out of her seat and threw the tape recorder against the wall. “SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!”

Decker stopped talking. Tandy grabbed her hair.

“SHUT! UP!”

“I’m not talking,” Decker said.

“NOT YOU!” She sobbed openly. “THEM!”

Them? The voices! Decker realized. The panic seized him suddenly. The girl is unbalanced, you moron!

Decker said to the mirror, “Can I get Sergeant McKlintock in here?”

“I’ll get her,” Marge said.

Tandy threw herself at Decker, hugged him as tight as she could. “MAKE THEM STOP! PLEASE!”

She started to hyperventilate. Decker’s heart did triple time. He shouted, “Get me Donna, damn it!”

The mirror answered, “She’s coming!”

“MAKE THEM…” She sobbed and gasped, her lips taking on a bluish tinge. “MAKE THEM…STOP!”