The Coffin (Nightmare Hall) (16 page)

Noncommittally, the officer asked, “You still have that note?”

Charlie nodded. “Over there, in my jeans,” he said, pointing to his clothes, folded over the back of a chair.

The officer unearthed the note, read it quickly, and turned back to Charlie. “This her handwriting?”

That was the question Charlie hated to answer. “Yes,” he admitted reluctantly, then added hastily, “But she wouldn’t have written that unless someone made her do it. I tried to explain that to the other officers, but …”

“So where exactly do you think your friend is?”

Charlie’s heart leaped with hope. This officer was listening to him, which was more than the others had done. “I think she’s still in that house,” he said firmly. “And I don’t think she’s able to leave or get to a phone. If she could, she’d have called me. And then there’s Jodie, Jodie Lawson,” he added, “another friend of ours. She went to that house, at least I think she did, and no one knows where she is now. So could you please check it out? The house, I mean? You can get a warrant or something, right?”

The officer pocketed his notebook, “Let me get this straight,” he said. “You think that two of your friends are being held prisoner in Dr. Leo’s house right there on Faculty Row? With professors going in and out of their houses every day, and kids playing in the street? Don’t you think that’d be a little hard to pull off?”

Charlie sagged back against the pillow.

The officer smiled. “The nurse said you might have a concussion. A blow on the head can do some mighty strange things, kid. But then,” he added sympathetically, “so can being dumped by a girlfriend.”

“She didn’t dump me,” Charlie said wearily, giving up. This guy wasn’t going to be any help. Making one last attempt, he asked, “Can’t you at least try to call Tanner’s mother? Just check it out?”

The officer shrugged, “You said you don’t remember her last name. And you don’t even know where exactly she is. If you can’t find her, what makes you think we can?”

“You have computers!” Charlie cried in disgust. “You’re supposed to be able to find people.”

“Yeah, well, even a computer needs more to go on than the fact that someone is traveling in the Orient,” the man said drily. “The Orient’s a big place.” As he turned to leave, he said over his shoulder, “If you can remember the woman’s last name, and come up with any more information on her whereabouts, let me know. Maybe I can make a phone call or two.”

When he was alone again, Charlie made his own phone calls. He couldn’t just sit in his bed doing nothing while he waited to be discharged. He had to do something. There was always the possibility that Tanner and Jodie had turned up while he was sleeping off the effects of that shot the nurse had sneaked into him. If it hadn’t been for that, he could have been out looking all night.

Maybe his friends had done it for him.

They hadn’t. Philip and Vince weren’t in their room. Sloane, when Charlie reached him, said that Philip was probably working and Vince had a class. “Sandy’s frantic, though,” he added, his tone of voice indicating that he couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. “She’s called here half a dozen times this morning. Can’t find her roomie. Personally, it wouldn’t kill me if Joellen stayed lost. She’s a pain in the …”

“Not funny, Currier,” Charlie said sharply. “Jodie may not worship the ground you walk on, but she’s a friend, and something’s happened to her. I have another call to make, and then I’ll meet you at the frat house. We’ll go to Tanner’s together.”

“Charlie, I have classes, and my g.p.a. isn’t all that great.”

Charlie held the phone to his chest, rolling his eyes to the ceiling. When he spoke again, it was coldly and carefully. “Sloane,
be
there!” He hung up.

He made one more phone call. And to his relief, the next voice he heard, traveling a long distance through the telephone wires, was Dr. Leo’s.

Charlie was reluctant to tell Tanner’s father the truth. If he said Tanner was missing, Dr. Leo would hang up immediately and phone the Twin Falls police. And they would tell him it wasn’t true. Not officially, anyway. He’d think Charlie was jerking his chain, and that would make things at the Leo house even chillier than they were now.

More important, Charlie wouldn’t have learned a single helpful thing.

He made up some stupid story about wanting to get in touch with Tanner’s mother to find out what Tanner wanted for her birthday.

The doctor was incredulous. “You called me in Hawaii, and you’re planning on calling Gwen in the Orient to ask some ridiculous question about a birthday present? What’s going on, young man? Is this a joke?”

Somehow, Charlie stumbled through the conversation long enough to discover that the ex-Mrs. Leo went by the name of Reed now, and that she was probably in some place in Japan called Kyoto. But Dr. Leo had no idea what hotel she was staying in, or if she was even staying in a hotel, adding coolly that “Gwen has friends all over the planet. She could be staying with friends in Japan, but I would have no idea what their names are. We no longer share that sort of information.”

Okay, so that hadn’t told Charlie much. But he wasn’t ready to hang up. He had never believed that Tanner was with her mother, anyway. He had just thought it was important to know how to get in touch with the woman if necessary.

Charlie decided to take a different tack. “Dr. Leo, while I have you on the phone, this is going to sound crazy, but hang with me for a minute, okay? Do you … well, is there someone on campus who might have it in for you?” Enough to hurt your daughter, he added silently.

The sound that Charlie heard then sounded very much like a snort. Hard to believe, but there it was. “You can’t be serious, young man. I am probably the most universally disliked teacher on that campus, as if you didn’t already know that. I tell people the truth, and that is not something most people want to hear. Why are you asking me such an odd, and completely unnecessary question?”

It
was
stupid, Charlie admitted to himself. The list of people who disliked Dr. Leo could be a mile long. But, what else did he have to go on?

“Think, sir, please. Someone who made threats against you, maybe? A student with a bad grade? Something like that?”

Dr. Leo sighed impatiently. But he fell silent for a moment, and then said slowly, “Well, there was this one patient. A young man, your age, Charles. Began at Salem last year, but had so many problems, he couldn’t continue. Had to be hospitalized. I’ve never seen a patient so angry. Filled with rage, that boy.”

“But he’s hospitalized, you said.”

“Oh, not anymore. He was in for a year, and then his insurance ran out. Had to be dis charged. As a matter of fact, he’s matriculating at Salem now. He started as a freshman again, in September.”

Charlie’s stomach rolled uneasily. “But he’s okay, right? I mean, you said he was discharged.”

“Charles, some patients are discharged when they’re well. Others are discharged when there is no more money to keep them in the hospital. This was the case with the patient I’m talking about. I was very much against his release, but since I wasn’t willing to foot the considerable bill for his continued care, my objections were overlooked. I will say, however, that he came to me as soon as he returned to campus and told me with what seemed to be sincerity, that I’d done the right thing. His rage seemed to have dissipated, and he seemed grateful for my diagnosis and prescription. I had planned to keep an eye on him for signs of renewed mental distress, but after that visit from him, I decided it was unnecessary.” Dr. Leo paused, then added, “I wasn’t wrong, was I?”

“Can you tell me that patient’s name, Dr. Leo?”

“I suppose that wouldn’t be breaking confidentiality. I’m sure there are other students on campus who are aware that he was hospitalized. Those things aren’t exactly kept a secret on a college campus.”

Then he told Charlie the name of the angry patient.

Into the silence that followed, Dr. Leo added, “I’m convinced this young man bears me no ill will, Charles. Why are you asking? Has there been some vandalism to my property?”

Charlie didn’t answer. He was still too stunned.

“Charles?” The doctor’s voice changed, took on a note of genuine concern. “Is my daughter all right? Has something happened to Tanner?”

Charlie returned to awareness. Tanner would have been surprised to hear the worry in her father’s voice. She wasn’t certain how he felt about her.

“No,” Charlie lied. Why make the man frantic when he was too far away to be of any help? Any
more
help. He’d already done more than he knew. “She’ll probably call you later.” Charlie prayed he was right. He hoped that Tanner would be
able
to call her father later. “Thanks for your help,” he said sincerely.

And then headed as quickly as possible to the frat house.

Charlie had been wrong about the police officer. He had indeed taken Charlie seriously, but had seen no point in alarming Charlie further. Two girls not where they were supposed to be? That wasn’t something to be taken lightly. The officer knew about the seventy-two hour rule, but didn’t hold much stock in it. If a person was missing, the trail could get pretty darn cold in seventy-two hours.

A drive past the Leo house, maybe a walk around the perimeter couldn’t hurt. The doc, who the officer knew wasn’t the most popular guy in town, had once helped with a problem with the wife, who was having a hard time with nightmares. Knowing the limitations of a small-town police officer’s salary, the doc had charged very little for his services, which had been successful. Officer McKeon felt he owed the man. No, a little side trip to Faculty Row couldn’t hurt.

He found nothing unusual on the outside of the house or on the grounds. The surveillance cameras seemed to be working, and there was no sign of a break-in.

But since he was there, might as well go inside. Had a skeleton key, could use that if he had to. Was surprised to find the back door unlocked.

The doc wouldn’t have gone off to Hawaii and left a back door unlocked.

Curious now, the officer went inside. The house was quiet as a tomb. Not a sound anywhere. The girl couldn’t be here, like her friend thought. Cameras in every room, she’d have seen a police officer arriving. If she was being held here against her will, she’d be screaming and shouting her lungs out now, to get his attention.

But there wasn’t a sound.

Hand on the gun at his side, he checked every room, opening doors, closing them when he found no sign of life in them. Listening intently the whole time for a sound, a voice. Heard nothing.

The only room he didn’t check was one at the front of the house, on the left side of the hall. Tried the door, rattled the knob, but it wouldn’t budge.

Must be that music room Officer McKeon had heard about. Valuable instruments and manuscripts in there. Soundproof, too, he’d heard. Doc kept it locked up tighter than a safe with the queen’s jewels in it.

Shaking his head at such measures, the officer took one last look around, and left by the back door.

If he noticed a scrap of yellow and rust fabric hanging over the edge of the closed freezer lid, he thought nothing of it.

Officer McKeon left the Leo property satisfied that the young man in the infirmary had been misguided. There was nothing unusual going on inside that house.

He was almost to his car when a tall, stocky young man in a green plaid shirt and jeans ambled by, giving the officer a friendly smile and a casual wave.

Officer McKeon waved back and got into his car.

The campus was full of young men exactly like the one passing by.

Like I said, he thought as he pulled away from the curb, nothing unusual there.

T
ANNER WAS NEVER AWARE
of Officer McKeon’s presence in the house. She heard nothing, and since she was inside The Booth, she didn’t see him on the surveillance screen.

Unaware, Tanner continued to work diligently on painstakingly prying the nails loose from the side walls, leaving them intact in the back section of The Booth. She hadn’t stopped since Sigmund first pushed her inside early that morning. She hadn’t bothered to keep track of the time. It didn’t seem important. She was going to continue doing what she was doing, as fast as she could do it, so what difference did it make whether she had only a little time or a whole lot of it?

The metal ruler was beginning to make groaning sounds when she slid it into the gaps and pried the nails upward, and she was terrified that the tool was about to snap in half. She’d been working it very hard. Without it, she had no hope at all.

Tanner was very tired. Her head ached. She had been standing for hours, her weight pressing the swollen, infected soles of her feet into the rough wood. The pain never eased. Her skin itched. She felt sticky and sweaty, and had to constantly brush her oily hair away from her face. Finally, in exasperation, she snapped off a long piece of Scotch tape from the dispenser, yanked her bangs away from her face, and slapped the tape against them to keep them out of her eyes. “It won’t make the fashion magazines,” she muttered aloud as she turned her attention to another nail, “but it works. That’s all that counts.”

The thought that kept driving her in spite of her exhaustion and pain was a strong, certain belief that Sigmund didn’t intend to let her live through the night. He had said the police would be called in soon, and he didn’t want them “snooping around.” Although Tanner had no idea why the police hadn’t already arrived when her friends knew she was missing, she had concluded that it probably had something to do with the note Sigmund had pinned on the mailbox. If the police saw that note, they’d assume she’d left the house of her own free will. So they wouldn’t be willing to look for her, would they?

Eventually, though, and Sigmund had to know this, the truth would come out. Someone, probably Charlie, would learn that she wasn’t with her mother, after all, and then the police would have to act. That was what Sigmund was worried about.

Convinced that she had very little time left, Tanner’s sore and swollen fingers moved as swiftly as she could manage.