Spiral

our village for one day, and maybe he can help me. I do not believe, but the healer comes and touches me here and here.” Dujong indicated her chest, stomach. ”Then he touch me there and there.” Upper arms, thighs. ”Then he tell to my mother, he can maybe help.”
    Crossing her arms, Dujong shivered. ”That night, the healer makes a fire and sings words in Tagalog—our language there. I remember I drink something from cup he hold to my lips. Then I begin crying out, and I cry out all night. Then I feel the healer squeezing on my leg, here.” She released a hand to point above her left knee, under the dress. ”The healer squeeze and squeeze, and then the evil come out.”
    ”It ‘came out’?”
    ”I can feel it, break out through my skin at the inside of my leg, and the evil smell terrible and my mothers voice is screaming and the healer sound scared, too. He yell at the evil, make it go away.”
    ”Go away?”
    Dujong steadied her eyes on me again. ”Crawl away, on its... feet.”
    Jesus. ”Ms. Dujong, I don’t—”
    ”Healer wrap my left leg in cloth and leaves. Next day, I can see. Not perfect, but more than just light and dark. One day more, and my right leg come straight.” She brought it forward now in her chair, unbending it until her sandal heel rested on the tiled patio. ”Third day, my left leg come straight. One week more, and my mother take off leaves and cloth. By then I can see well enough to...”
    Malinda Dujong inched the hem of her dress above her left knee. There was an impression—almost a brand—in the flesh. The outline of a miniature, reptilian head, with spiky horns and a wide jaw.
    Unless I was Charlie Brown, looking for portraits in a summer cloud.
    I raised my head back to Dujong, and she drew the dress down over her knee again.
    ”That, Mr. Cuddy, is how I know evil.”
    ”Quite a story, but—”
    ”You do not believe.”
    ”That I don’t believe doesn’t make it untrue.”
    A small, fleeting smile. ”Then please listen to me a little more. The day of the birthday party, I am supposed to be there.”
    ”You were invited, but didn’t attend?”
    ”Yes. Do you wish to know why so?”
    ”I would.”
    Dujong refolded her arms across her chest. ”I am in my apartment that morning when I receive a telephone call. A woman’s voice I have not heard before. She is very upset. She say Jeanette Held is a good friend, that Jeanette told her about my help to her, and that she now needs help, too.”
    ”The woman on the phone.”
    ”Yes.”
    ”Her name?”
    ”She say ‘Wendy.’”
    ”How about a last name, too?”
    ”No. She does not want to tell me the rest because of her husband. I tell her I go to a party, and Wendy becomes more upset, say she must see me that afternoon, but not at her home, her husband will be there. Wendy say she try to call Jeanette, but get only the answering machine, probably because they are busy, prepare for the party.”
    ”Wait a minute. This Wendy woman knew about the party for Nicolas Helides?”
    ”Yes. Which mean she sound legitimate, especially because I call Jeanette, too, that morning, but get only machine. However, Wendy also very upset, I feel that over the telephone. So I tell her yes, I can see her at a Denny’s restaurant near my apartment, only she must be on time, so I can get to the end of the party. Wendy say yes, but please to wait if she not there on time, because she must wait for her husband to leave.”
    ”If he was going to leave anyway, why not go to her house?”
    ”Because he maybe come back.”
    ”Let me guess the rest. You went to the Denny’s and waited, but Wendy never showed.”
    ”That is right.”
    ”And when you asked Jeanette about her, Jeanette never heard of her.”
    The small smile. ”Mr. Cuddy, you are not psychic.”
    At first I didn’t get what Dujong meant. ”You never asked Jeanette Held about whether she had this friend?”
    ”Jeanette lose her only child to murder. She is so upset, I did not think it important.”
    ”How about the police?”
    ”The police?”
    ”Did you tell them about this Wendy woman?”
    ”When I arrive at the house of Mr. Helides that day, the police and ambulance already there in the street. I ask police in uniform what is happening, he tell me to stand back. I wave to Umberto at the gate, and he come over. I ask him, and Umberto say Veronica is dead. Then he ask me, where am I? I say I supposed to meet somebody. Then police dressed in shirt and