Midnight Voices

CHAPTER 20

The first day back at the Elliott Academy was over, and Laurie was already wishing she’d stayed at Columbus Middle School, where she and Ryan had gone the second half of last year. And it was all because of Amber Blaisdell and the rest of her old friends. Everything had changed while she was at public school. She’d known it that day at the park. A girl she hardly knew — Caitlin Murphy — had already replaced her in Amber’s group, and even though Laurie had eaten lunch with the same girls as before, Caitlin had taken the seat next to Amber.

The seat that had always, ever since first grade, belonged to Laurie.

The strange thing was that no one — not even Amber — told Caitlin that she was sitting in Laurie’s seat. In fact, it was as if they didn’t even notice. Laurie certainly hadn’t been about to say anything herself, and when she pulled a chair over from the next table, the girls across from Amber and Caitlin squeezed together enough to make room for her. But it wasn’t just that she was no longer sitting next to Amber. Everything else seemed to have changed, too. She hardly even knew the names of the boys they were talking about, and when they were talking about how they’d spent the summer, all they talked about was Southampton. When she’d tried to tell them about the two weeks she’d spent on Mustique, Caitlin Murphy had rolled her eyes.

“Nobody goes to Mustique anymore,” she’d said. “My mother says it’s nothing but Eurotrash and washed-up rock stars.” Laurie felt her face begin to burn and said nothing. But Caitlin hadn’t stopped there. “Why would anybody go there in the summer anyway?”

“My mom got married,” Laurie explained. “It was their honeymoon.”

“And they took you?” Caitlin asked. “That’s weird.”

That time, at least, Amber Blaisdell came to her rescue. “I think it’s nice,” she said. “I wish I could have gone along when my stepfather took my mother to Europe on their honeymoon.”

“Honeymoons are only for the bride and groom,” Caitlin pronounced, but she didn’t seem quite as sure of herself as she had a moment ago.

“Maybe the first time,” Amber said. “But if I had kids and got married again, I’d want to take my kids with me. And I wouldn’t marry a man who didn’t want them around.” She turned from Caitlin to Laurie. “What’s your stepfather like? What’s his name?”

“Tony Fleming.”

“So did he move in with you and your mom?”

Laurie shook her head. “We live on Central Park West now.” She hesitated a moment, then added three more words: “In The Rockwell.”

A silence fell over the group, and Laurie could see them all glancing at one another. It was Caitlin Murphy who finally spoke. “The Rockwell? You actually live there? How can you stand it?”

Laurie felt herself redden. “There’s nothing wrong with it,” she said.

Caitlin shuddered. “Yeah, right. Except that it’s supposed to be haunted, and there’s supposed to be all kinds of dead bodies buried in the basement, and everyone who lives in it is crazy.”

Laurie opened her mouth to argue with Caitlin, but before even a single word came out, the nightmare came flooding back, along with the memory of the voices she’d heard through the walls. But so what? She’d had bad dreams before, and in the old apartment they’d always been able to hear the people upstairs walking around. “There’s nothing wrong with it,” she finally said, but even as she spoke the words, she could hear the uncertainty in her own voice. “And nobody believes all those stories. Or do you really believe Rodney’s a troll who lives under a bridge in the park?”

Caitlin Murphy didn’t even look fazed. “Who’s Rodney?”

“The doorman,” Laurie told her. “Or didn’t anyone ever tell you that story?”

Caitlin Murphy’s eyes fixed coldly on Laurie. “You can say anything you want, but everybody knows it’s a weird building. My mom says it’s nothing but old people.”

“Old people aren’t ghosts,” Laurie shot back. “And anyway, Tony’s not old.”

“How old is he?” Caitlin demanded.

Suddenly Laurie wished she hadn’t sat down at this table. “Who even cares?” she asked.

“We all do,” Caitlin replied. “So what did your mother do? Marry a rich old man for his money? Is that how you got back in here?”

Laurie had had enough. Picking up her tray, she moved to another table — a table where no one else at all was sitting — and finished her lunch as quickly as she could. Then she went to the library for the rest of the hour, and made sure she didn’t sit close to any of her old friends in the afternoon. But as she was going down the steps after school, Amber was suddenly next to her. Laurie glanced at her, but didn’t say anything. Nor did she stop moving down the steps to the sidewalk, where she turned left toward the park.

Amber fell in beside her, even though she lived in the other direction, over on Riverside Drive.

They walked along in silence for a few minutes, and it was finally Amber who spoke. “I’m sorry about what happened in the cafeteria.”

“Who is that girl, anyway?” Laurie countered, not quite accepting the apology, but not rejecting it, either.

Amber shrugged. “She’s okay. I think she’s just jealous.”

Now Laurie stopped and looked at Amber. “Jealous? She didn’t act jealous — she just acted like she hated me. And she doesn’t even know me!”

“She knows we were best friends,” Amber replied. “And her mom got married for the fourth time last year, and they’re never home.”

“I thought they were all in Southampton all summer,” Laurie said, clenching her teeth the way snobby girls on television always did.

“Her mom was, but Caitlin only got to go for a couple of weekends.”

Laurie turned to stare at Amber. “You mean they leave her by herself?”

“There’s a maid and a cook. And a butler and a driver. It’s not like no one’s there at all.” She hesitated, then: “And her stepfather’s about eight hundred years old.”

Laurie stopped short. “You mean her mother got married for the money?”

“I didn’t say that,” Amber replied with exaggerated innocence.

“So how come you didn’t say anything at lunchtime?” Laurie demanded.

Suddenly Amber looked nervous, and glanced around as if she might be afraid someone was listening. “My dad wants me to be nice to her.” Now her voice dropped, and her face flushed slightly. “I think there’s some kind of deal or something. So I have to act like she’s my best friend.”

Laurie stared at her. “You’re kidding — he really told you to do that?” Amber nodded. “And your mom let him?” Amber nodded again. “My mom wouldn’t ever let Tony do that. But Tony wouldn’t do that anyway.” She hesitated. “You want to come over?”

Now it was Amber who hesitated. “I don’t know…”

“Why not? We’re friends, aren’t we?” There was a slight hesitation before Amber nodded, and as the two girls turned down Central Park West, Amber’s pace began to slow until finally she came to a complete stop at the corner where The Rockwell stood. “What’s wrong?” Laurie asked. “You’re not scared are you?”

Though she shook her head, all the stories she and Laurie and everyone else had heard when they were younger rose up in her mind as she gazed at the building’s darkly looming façade. But they were just stories — just stories they’d made up themselves! Why should she be feeling nervous? Then, from a window on the seventh floor, she saw someone waving. “Who’s that?” she asked.

“Rebecca Mayhew,” Laurie replied. “Want to meet her?”

Amber frowned. “How come she’s already home? Doesn’t she go to school?”

Laurie shook her head. “She’s sick. It’s not catching or anything. I think it’s like anemia, or something like that. She’s really nice. Come on — let’s go up and see her.” She started across the intersection, but then looked back when she realized Amber was no longer beside her. “Are you coming?”

Amber’s eyes were still fixed on the building. They were just stories, she told herself once again. They weren’t true. But even as she silently spoke the words to herself, a strange chill of apprehension ran through her and she turned away.

“Amber?” Laurie called out. “What’s wrong?”

Amber glanced back at Laurie but her eyes went involuntarily back to the building that rose behind her friend. Rebecca had vanished, but now there was another face, peering down at her out of another window, this one on the fifth floor.

It was a man, and even though Rebecca could hardly see him, there was something in the way he was looking at her that made the slight chill she’d felt a moment ago turn into a terrible cold dread.

I’ll die, she thought. If I go in there, I’ll die.

Without speaking another word to Laurie, she turned and fled back up Central Park West.

Detective Frank Oberholzer was leaning on the same buzzer at Andrea Costanza’s building that Nate Rosenberg had rung only a few hours earlier. But when Oberholzer identified himself, the super’s surly tone instantly changed. “Hey, I don’t want no trouble. I take good care of the building, and management’s got no problems with me,” he insisted in a voice that Oberholzer’s years of experience told him was that of someone who would start squealing the instant he was squeezed.

“So you got no problem with me talking to the management about your background check, right?”

The super’s pasty face lost a little of what color it had. “Jeez, what’d I ever do to you?”

“Not a thing,” Oberholzer assured him. “And all I’m asking is one tiny little favor. I just want a quick look inside Andrea Costanza’s apartment. What is it — one bedroom?”

“Studio,” the super said, and just the fact that he answered Oberholzer’s question told the detective he was ready to cave.

“So I can see it all from the door, right?”

“I guess.”

“So you open the door, I take a quick look, we don’t see nothing, you close the door, and that’s that, right?”

“What about the dog?” the super said. “If the dog gets out—”

“The dog won’t get out,” Oberholzer cut in. “So why don’t we get this over with, hunh? Sooner it’s done, sooner you get to forget I was ever here.”

Shrugging, the super led him to the elevator and punched the button for the fifth floor. “You ain’t gonna find nothin’,” he insisted. “I run a quiet building, and we ain’t got no problem. No rapes, no robberies, nothin’. Good people just tryin’ to mind their own business.”

The door slid open at the fifth floor, and the two men got out. A moment later the super was pressing the doorbell next to Andrea Costanza’s door, then knocking loudly. “See? What’d I tell you? Nobody home.”

Oberholzer ignored the super, listening carefully to a faint sound coming from the other side of the door.

A sound like a dog whimpering.

“So how come the dog’s crying instead of barking?”

Sighing heavily, the super put his master key in the lock, twisted it, and pushed open the door. Both men peered into the apartment.

“Oh, Jeez,” the super whispered. “Oh, Holy Jesus.”