15.
Oded decides to drive behind us to Jabbeke. He wants to have a taste from Jabar’s famous whisky now. The sky has meanwhile become clearer and looks azure and blue.
When we get home, we find Diedie in tears and shock in the living room. She looks ashamed at us and can barely tell us something in between the crying.
I quickly get her a glass of water from the kitchen and give it to her. We all sit around her in the Chesterfield in front of the hearth and patiently and worriedly wait until she’s somewhat calmed down.
Finally she looks at us with tears in her eyes. I feel a hate from the bottom of my heart boiling inside of me for that Lex or whatever his name is. I certainly know he has something to do with it.
‘What happened?’ Jabar asks. I can hear his restrained anger in every word.
‘Manon,’ she says and points at me with a trembling finger. ‘I though it was Manon.’
‘Oh?’ What does she mean? I don’t understand.
The others neither, because Oded silently asks: ‘What do you mean, Diedie?’
‘I…I was busy cleaning. Vacuuming.’ She takes a sip of her water.
‘Yes,’ I urge her. ‘And then what?’
‘The noise of the vacuum cleaner drowns out most of the other sounds. So I didn’t hear a thing. Until you stood in front of me.’ She points at me.
‘I? But I left together with Jabar and Oded.’
‘It wasn’t you.’
We look at her as if she’s crazy.
‘Was it me or wasn’t it?’ I ask. ‘Wait a second…’
Diedie nods. ‘It was a transformer in your figure.’
‘Yuck,’ I utter while pulling a face.
‘Because he looked like you, he could, of course, sneak in through the window. The protective shield around the house is set up in such a way yours, mine, Jabar’s and Oded’s outlook can come in effortless. And suddenly you were in front of me, nah well, he was in front of me.’
With shaking fingers she takes a gulp of her water and sighs.
‘Did he do anything to you?’ Jabar asks.
‘No.’
We all heave a sigh of relief.
‘But I was scared silly, you can imagine. First I really though it was you, Manon, and I asked why you came back without Jabar. But I still didn’t thought… How stupid of me.’
I comfortingly caress her shoulder. ‘Not at all, Diedie. If it was a talented transformer you couldn’t see the difference between the real me and him. Just believe me.’
‘I should have known. After all those years…’ She takes another gulp of her water. ‘But transformers are rare. They are the least numerous among the otherkinds.’
‘And then?’ Oded asks.
‘He again acted somewhat normal and asked whether I had something to eat for him. So for Manon. I even made him some fucking sandwiches!’
According to my memory this is the first time I hear Diedie curse.
‘About what did you two talk?’ Oded asks.
Jabar has stand up in the meantime to take the whisky. He pours down four glasses and gives them to us. Diedie almost swallows her whisky in one draught down.
‘Initially about this and that,’ Diedie answers. ‘But after that he began interrogating me. I had already abandoned my distrust, because believe me, he acted just like Manon, talked like she does. He wore the same clothes as she did when you left this afternoon. He even smelled like you, Manon, your perfume, everything.’
Diedie shakes her head as if she is scarcely able to grasp it.
‘He asked if I had still discovered something. I answered: “What do you mean? I’ve been cleaning the entire afternoon and I haven’t been checking the computers.” He even knew you guys were at the auction and told me Jabar didn’t get a hold on the paintings. That’s why I didn’t become suspicious.’
‘Of course not,’ I say. ‘Anyone would have believed him.’
‘But still.’
‘No, not but still,’ I say firmly.
‘How did you eventually knew it wasn’t Manon?’ Jabar asks.
‘We, the transformer and I, just had had a conversation about Sharon. Besides, Manon, she called again.’
‘Shit, I still have to call her back.’
‘Go on,’ Jabar urges her.
‘I was talking about Sharon and all of a sudden he began to ask a lot of questions about her. What I though about her and so on, but I found it a normal conversation like we have so often. The same as ever. And also about you, Oded, he asked a few things. In a way as if Manon was interested in your past. I should have been more suspicious, certainly with what’s going on lately, with the burglary and so.’ She’s frightened by her own words and looks at Oded and then at Jabar.
‘Oded knows everything,’ Jabar reassures her.
‘But I don’t think I told anything wrong now.’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ Jabar pacifies.
‘After an hour or so, he stood op – we were in the kitchen – and transformed right before my eyes. I jumped out of my skin! All of a sudden there was a man in front of me, not that big with ginger hair and freckles.’
‘That proves nothing,’ I bring forward. ‘He probably didn’t show his true outlook.’
‘I also don’t think so. Anyhow. He just stood there with his self-satisfied grin. I was so bewildered I couldn’t speak a word at first, let alone cast a spell. Then all of a sudden his cell phone began ringing, but he didn’t answer it and ran away.’
‘When was that?’ Oded asks. He stands up to open a window so Squeaky can answers nature’s call in the garden.
‘About fifteen minutes before you arrived home.’
‘Then he probably got warned we were coming,’ I think.
‘I didn’t see the Audi,’ Jabar says.
‘Oded was driving behind us at a sudden moment. Was there an Audi driving behind you?’ I ask Oded who’s waiting at the window until Squeaky is done.
‘Damn, I didn’t notice, to be honest. Brainlessly stupid of me.’
I can feel new anger coming up. ‘So they’re still keeping an eye on us. They knew we were gone and Diedie was home alone. The bastards!’
‘He just said one other thing before he left.’ Diedie bites her lower lip.
We all look at her expectantly.
‘He said: “tell that elf it isn’t over yet”.’
It all makes us speechless. It’s one thing to know it isn’t over, but being confronted with it once again is something different.
‘It sounds kinda fucking personal,’ Oded says in a soft tone. ‘Meaning: personal orientated towards you, Jabar.’
‘Yes, but I still don’t know who it could be.’
‘Until now they didn’t do harm to any of you guys,’ Oded continues. ‘Luckily.’
He opens the window and Squeaky enters. Time and time again it surprises me that that rat doesn’t run away when he can run around in the garden on its own.
‘It seems as if that Lex guy wants to bother you through us,’ I add. ‘Playing a game with us, showing how much power and money he has.’
‘I suspect it isn’t just that simple.’ Jabar stares into the distance, absorbed in thought.
‘No, the big bang still has to follow,’ I say.
‘Diedie, can you track bugging devices or cameras with magic?’ Jabar asks.
‘Yes, I can and I’ll do it right away!’ She sounds combative.
While Diedie does her thing in every room of the house, starting at the library upstairs, we finish our whiskies.
‘I want to do something!’ I suddenly cry out. ‘Something! Anything! I just can’t stand to wait totally powerless.’
‘Me neither, Manon. But what can we do? We don’t have any real names or addresses,’ Jabar says.
‘We do know that a devil, vamp and transformer are working together with Lex. So we’re a bit better prepared. Dumb of that Lex not to think about that.’
‘I think it’s an arrogant shithead,’ Oded thinks. ‘He gets a kick out off showing his power, despite that fact that we have been warned. Apparently that’s of no importance in his plan.’
Diedie comes back with deep purple eyes and confirms our suspicion. She holds a few little technical devices in her hands.
‘Beneath the desk lamp at the attic, the Buddha statue in the meditation room, behind Jabar’s television set and on a few other places. I’ll go and check the living room and the kitchen now.’
She places the devices on the coffee table and walks towards the kitchen. Oded snatches them from the table, throws them to the ground and starts crushing them like a madman.
‘There, there and there!’ he yells. ‘You bunch of fucking bloody peeping Toms!’
‘I should have thought about it earlier.’ Jabar’s words sound punctuated with grief.
I notice he’s being weighed down with feelings of guilt. His look is somber and his forehead is deeply frowned.
‘It isn’t so you get confronted with things like these very often,’ I comfort him. ‘We’ve never come around anything like this before.’
Diedie again throws two devices on the table, which Oded knocks off with as much enthusiasm and rage.
She now takes the living room on task. She mumbling keeps her hands in front of her. Of course I can’t see what she’s doing, but all of a sudden she resolutely walks towards the piano and raises the big lid. According to what Diedie once told me I think she now sees a purple haze on the places where the devices are hidden. Without hesitation she grabs in the piano and gets something out. The same happens when she turns the painting around.
When these last ones know their definitive end, Diedie exhaustedly drops down on the couch.
‘I’ll have a look in the garden right away,’ she sighs. ‘First I have to cook.’
‘Now it’s clear why they knew so much about us,’ I say, looking at the shattered pieces on the floor.
‘You’re eating with us, Oded?’ Diedie asks.
‘Yummy, I’d love to.’
Diedie stands up, but Jabar stops her.
‘Let’s order something and get it delivered home, Diedie, you’ve already done enough today.’
She looks at him with a mixture of doubt and relief. ‘But I had sprouts and…’
‘They’re still fine tomorrow,’ I say quickly.
Finally she gives in. ‘Alright, yes. Looks nicer to me.’
‘I’ll order the pizza.’ I jump up. ‘After that I’ll call Sharon back.’
I go to my room where I have more privacy to chatter with Sharon. The conversations with her aren’t rarely about sex and boyfriends, so not suitable for anyone else’s ears. I’m curious about how much experience she has with vamps. Maybe she can give me some advice.