Page 54 of The Attic on Queen Street
“Beau uses EVP recorders with his investigations. Maybe I should ask him.”
“No,” Jack and I said simultaneously.
“Do you even know what an EVP recorder is?” I asked him.
“No. But I don’t think Nola needs to be asking Beau about it. He rides a motorcycle. She doesn’t need to be asking Beau about anything.”
“Didn’t you have a motorcycle in your distant youth?”
“Yep.”
I let that pass for now, saving it for a longer conversation later. “ ‘EVP’ means ‘electronic voice phenomenon.’ For ghost hunters who need help communicating with spirits. Basically, for amateurs.” I returned my attention to Nola. “Did she tell you what her name is?”
Nola shook her head. “No. She just said that she doesn’t like the bad man.” She let out a heavy sigh, finally turning to face us. “Why do you think she brought me down here?”
I opened the glass door covering the clockface as if I could find the answer there. It looked the same as it had the first day I’d seen it, whenvisiting Nevin Vanderhorst. “I don’t know. We recovered all of the diamonds. Believe me—we went through every part of this clock, so we’d know if we’d missed anything. It’s just a clock now.”
“Hmm.” Nola frowned. “Remember how the first time I saw the girl I said that I thought she was trying to warn me? I’ve just been staring at the clock, trying to figure it out. She left as soon as Dad entered the room.”
“Sorry,” Jack said. “Maybe she’ll give us another chance. Right now why don’t you take the dogs back upstairs and try to get a little more sleep? Tomorrow’s a school day. Or should I say today is a school day?”
Nola answered with a wide yawn. “Sure. But if you see her, please tell her to stop putting the Frozen Charlotte in my room. It’s creepy.”
We watched as she picked up the two small dogs and left the room; then Jack and I listened to her tread up the creaking stairs.
“I wonder what that was all about,” I said, turning to look at Jack.
He had an odd expression on his face.
“Is something wrong?”
“No. It’s just...” He brushed his hands over his cheeks, the raspy sound of his palms against his unshaven beard like a haunting memory.
“It’s just what?”
“I’d forgotten what you look like first thing in the morning. With your hair like that. And your face...”
I didn’t move as he lifted his hand and stroked the side of my face. “I’ve missed it,” he said.
“Me, too.”
He dropped his hand and we stared at each other in the growing light, listening to the incessant ticking of the clock, daring each other to make the first move.
“I’ve missed everything about you, Jack.” Before I could stop myself, I leaned forward to kiss him, but at the last moment, I turned my head and pressed my lips against his cheek instead. I was playing with fire—the fire that always smoldered between us, waiting for ignition. A fire I had to keep banked for now. I pulled away and ran from the room, running up the steps as fast as I could so I wouldn’t change my mind.
“Was that almost kiss number five?” he called out softly.
I paused halfway up. “If it wasn’t on the lips, then it doesn’t count.”
I ran the rest of the way up the stairs and into my bedroom, closed the door behind me, then leaned against it to catch my breath. I heard the grandfather clock chime the half hour as my gaze traveled to the bed. My breath sat suspended in the middle of an inhale at the sight of the neat little pile of buttons on my pillow, right next to the Frozen Charlotte sleeping inside her tiny iron coffin.
CHAPTER 16
I stood in front of the coffee machine in the kitchen, my bleary eyes staring it down to make it go faster, my fingers tapping impatiently on the counter. I hadn’t been able to go back to sleep the previous night, my toes continually bumping into loose buttons at the foot of the bed. Several times I’d gone to the door, wanting to go to Jack to talk to him about what the buttons might mean and who the “bad man” could be. My mind immediately jumped to Marc or Harvey, but we already knew they were bad. I just worried that we were missing something.
I told myself I just wanted to talk with Jack, discuss why the girl was trying to warn Nola and about what. Yet I never turned the doorknob, knowing that I had ulterior motives for going to Jack’s room in the middle of the night.I’d forgotten what you look like first thing in the morning.... I’ve missed it.The expression in his eyes as he’d said that was the primary reason I’d been unable to succumb to sleep.
Exhausted but still unable to sleep, I’d showered and dressed, then written Jack a long e-mail explaining everything I’d discussed with Yvonne and, not wanting to wake him with a bing on his phone, scheduled it for a delayed send so that he wouldn’t receive it until my meetingwith Suzy Dorf was over. He usually stayed up late to work and, like JJ, he was a grouch if awakened too early.
