Blue Dahlia

me from my children again.”
    There were tears now as the figure flowed across the room toward the terrace doors. Stella laid a trembling hand on Gavin’s head, on Luke’s. Safe, she thought as her knees began to shake. Safe and warm.
    “I’ll help you,” she stated firmly, meeting the grieving eyes again. “We all will. If you want our help, give us something. Your name, at least. Tell me your name.”
    The Bride began to fade, but she lifted a hand to the glass of the door. There, written in rain that dripped like tears, was a single word.
    Amelia
    When Logan burst through the door behind her, Stella spun toward him, laid a hand quickly on his lips. “Ssh. You’ll wake them.”
    Then she buried her face against his chest and wept.

epilogue

    “AMELIA.” STELLA SHIVERED, DESPITE THE DRY clothes and the brandy Roz had insisted on. “Her name. I saw it written on the glass of the door just before she vanished. She wasn’t going to hurt them. She was furious with me, was protecting them from me. She’s not altogether sane.”
    “You’re all right?” Logan stayed crouched in front of her. “You’re sure?”
    She nodded, but she drank more brandy. “It’s going to take a little while to come down from it, but yes, I’m okay.”
    “I’ve never been so scared.” Hayley looked toward the stairs. “Are you sure all the kids are safe?”
    “She would never hurt them.” Stella laid a reassuring hand on Hayley’s. “Something broke her heart, and her mind, I think. But children are her only joy.”
    “You’ll excuse me if I find this absolutely fascinating, and completely crazy.” Mitch paced back and forth across the floor. “If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes—” He shook his head. “I’m going to need all the data you can put together, once I’m able to get started on this.”
    He stopped pacing, stared at Roz. “I can’t rationalize it. I saw it, but I can’t rationalize it. An ... I’ll call it an entity, for lack of better. An entity was in that room. The room was sealed off.” Absently he rubbed his shoulder where he’d rammed against the solid air. “And she was inside it.”
    “It was more of a show than we expected to give you on your first visit,” Roz said, and poured him another cup of coffee.
    “You’re very cool about it,” he replied.
    “Of all of us here, I’ve lived with her the longest.”
    “How?” Mitch asked.
    “Because this is my house.” She looked tired, and pale, but there was a battle light in her eyes. “Her being here doesn’t change that. This is my house.” She took a little breath and a sip of brandy herself. “Though I’ll admit that what happened tonight shook me, shook all of us. I’ve never seen anything like what happened upstairs.”
    “I have to finish the project I’m working on, then I’m going to want to know everything you have seen.” Mitch’s eyes scanned the room. “All of you.”
    “All right, we’ll see about arranging that.”
    “Stella ought to lie down,” Logan said.
    “No, I’m fine, really.” She glanced toward the monitor, listened to the quiet hum. “I feel like what happened tonight changed something. In her, in me. The dreams, the blue dahlia.”
    “Blue dahlia?” Mitch interrupted, but Stella shook her head.
    “I’ll explain when I feel a little steadier. But I don’t think I’ll be having them anymore. I think she’ll let it alone, let it grow there because I got through to her. And I believe, absolutely, it was because I got through mother to mother.”
    “My children grew up in this house. She never tried to block me from them.”
    “You hadn’t decided to get married when your sons were still children,” Stella announced, and watched Logan’s eyes narrow.
    “Haven’t you missed some steps?” he asked.
    She managed a weary smile. “Not any important ones, apparently. As for the Bride, maybe her husband left her, or she was pregnant by a lover who deserted her, or ... I don’t know. I can’t think very clearly.”
    “None of us can, and whether or not you think you’re fine, you’re still pale.” Roz got to her feet. “I’m going to take you upstairs and put you to bed.”
    She shook her head when Logan started to protest. “You’re all welcome to stay as long as you like. Harper?”
    “Right.” Understanding his cue, and his duty, he got to his feet. “Can I get anyone another drink?”
    Because she was still unsteady, Stella let Roz take her upstairs. “I