Wrong Number 2 (11 page)

“Shhh!” Jade instructed. “Be quiet. Let's see if we can hear anything.”

Both girls stood frozen by the doorway, listening. But there was no sound, except for the rush of the wind and the pounding of the sleet against the walls and windows.

“I don't hear a thing,” Deena whispered. “I think the house is empty.”

“Let's look around,” Jade suggested.

Gingerly, Deena stepped farther into the kitchen. She aimed her light around the small room. “Wow,” she murmured. “This place is a wreck.”

A year ago the house had been messy. But now it was a disaster area. Cans, bottles, dishes, pots, and pans were strewn everywhere, along with empty, crushed boxes of cereal, flour, and rice. Deena shuddered as her light swept over small animal footprints on the floor.

“I don't think the Farbersons were such good housekeepers,” Jade joked.

“I bet Linda did all this,” Deena replied. “When she was searching for the money.”

“She was thorough,” Jade said. “She searched everything.”

Deena kept the flashlight beam aimed ahead of her as they moved into the living room. This room was even more torn apart than the kitchen.

Furniture had been overturned. Books and pillows
littered the floor. The sofa had been cut open and its stuffing pulled out and tossed all over.

Deena spotted a faint brown stain on the rug near the hallway. She moved the light away. She remembered it was the place where they had discovered Mrs. Farberson's stabbed body.

“There are more rooms downstairs, aren't there?” Jade asked.

Deena tried to remember the house. “There's a dining room and I think there's a closet over next to the stairs,” she replied.

She cautiously opened the dark wood door next to the stairs, to reveal a hot-water heater and several pieces of luggage, all ripped open.

“I wonder if she tore everything apart upstairs,” Jade said after they searched the dining room.

“Probably,” Deena replied. “She told us she'd been all through the house.”

Deena had breathed a little easier as they finished wandering through the downstairs rooms. But now, as they started up the creaky wooden stairs, she felt panic rising again. Each time she placed her foot on a creaking step, she remembered the sound of Farberson climbing the stairs to get them last year.

They stopped halfway up the stairs. “Why don't we hear Chuck moving around?” Jade wondered out loud.

“Maybe he's deliberately keeping silent. Maybe he hears
us
and thinks we're here to stop him,” Deena suggested.

“Maybe,” Jade agreed. “Chuck!” she suddenly called. “Chuck, it's us! Jade and Deena!”

No answer.

They made their way up to the landing. Deena couldn't see light from any of the upstairs rooms. The air felt even colder on the second floor. “I don't think I've ever been so cold in my life!” she complained, shivering.

“Just keep moving,” Jade instructed. “Chuck!” she called again. “Chuck, are you up here?”

Silence.

“No one here,” Deena murmured. “Maybe he already found the money and left.”

“Maybe,” Jade said. “Come on, let's check out the bedrooms.”

The first bedroom had been Stanley Farberson's office. Deena felt her stomach turn over as she recognized the beat-up desk, the overturned file cabinets, and the closet where she and Jade had hidden.

“Yuck. This brings back bad memories,” Jade whispered.

“It looks like someone has gone through all this stuff,” Deena replied, sweeping her light over the room. “There's no way to tell if it was Linda Morrison or Chuck.”

“It might have been both of them,” said Jade. “But no one's here now—at least not in this room.”

The next room had a broken card table leaning against one wall. No other furniture. The closet was
dark and empty. Someone had cut through the wallpaper with something sharp.

They stepped into a tiny bedroom. It looked as if it might have been a guest room, with a single bed and a low, two-drawer dresser.

Jade kneeled down and searched under the bed. Nothing there.

“We're running out of rooms,” Deena whispered.

“One more,” Jade replied grimly. “I'm sure you remember it.”

Deena nodded. She could never forget the fourth bedroom. Farberson had trapped them in that room when he'd discovered them hiding in the house.

The room was a complete wreck. The contents of the dressers had been emptied onto the floor, and the mattress had been slashed open.

A tall pile of trash had been shoved against the closet door. Deena kicked it aside. She swept her light into the closet.

Empty. Except for a heap of women's clothes on the floor.

“Chuck's not here,” she told Jade. “In fact, I don't think he ever came.”

Jade sighed. “When he left the hospital, he must have decided the weather was too awful to travel here.”

Deena uttered an angry growl. “He's probably home safe and warm—while we're here freezing to death. I'll
kill
Chuck when I see him.”

Jade giggled. “Not if I get my hands on him first!”

Deena felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

“I can't wait to get home,” Jade said. “I'm going to take the hottest bath I can, and drink about a gallon of cocoa.”

“Great idea,” Deena said. “So what are we waiting for?”

She was already halfway down the hall, making her way quickly toward the stairs, when Jade's voice stopped her. “Deena—come back. Check this out!”

“Huh?” Deena turned around, the light bobbing in front of her.

“I just found this on the floor,” Jade said. “It looks like—oh, no!”

Deena lowered the light to Jade's hand. She was holding a clear, flat plastic ring.

It took Deena a few seconds to recognize it.

She gasped when she finally realized it was an ID bracelet, the kind hospitals give to patients.

Trembling, Deena took the bracelet and examined it. A wave of fear swept over her. She already knew what the bracelet would say. But a hard shudder shook her body as she read: “Charles B. Martinson.”

“He's here!” Jade breathed. “Or at least he
was
here.”

“But where?” Deena cried, uselessly searching the room.

No sign Chuck had been here. No sign anyone had been here, except for  . . .

Deena's flashlight stopped on the bare floor in front
of the closet. In the quivering circle of light she saw several dark stains.

Deena hesitated. But Jade hurried to the closet and knelt down. She stuck out a finger, rubbed it on the floor.

In the white light from the flashlight, the tip of Jade's finger came up red.

She gazed up at Deena, her face twisted in horror. “It's blood,” Jade whispered.

A
strong wind rattled the windowpanes.

Then Deena heard another sound.

A soft rustling.

“Did you hear that?” she asked Jade in a whisper.

Jade listened hard. “Hear what?”

“There it is again,” Deena insisted. “I think it's coming from inside the closet.”

“Huh? We searched the closet,” Jade replied.

Taking a deep breath, Deena stepped around Jade and pulled the closet door all the way open.

Nothing in there.

Just the pile of women's clothing. Sweaters and skirts.

“Ohhhh.” Deena let out a moan as the clothing started to move.

“Deena—what is it?” Jade moved up behind her.

They both stared in shock as the skirts and sweaters began to rise.

Two arms shot out from under the clothes. Someone groaned. “Deena. Jade. Is that you?”

The clothing fell away. Chuck raised himself to a sitting position on the closet floor. He stared up, squinting against the beam of light. His forehead was bruised, and a wide smear of blood covered the right side of his head.

“Chuck!” Deena managed to choke out.

“What are you
doing
in there?” Jade demanded. “What happened?”

“Where is it?” he groaned, rubbing the wound on the side of his head.

“Where is
what?
” Jade demanded.

“The money! Someone took the money!” He pushed himself to his knees and started to stand up. But he instantly sat down again, holding his head.

“There's no money here,” Deena insisted. “What are you talking about?”

“I found it,” Chuck mumbled groggily.

“You found what?” Jade cried. “You found the money?”

He nodded, still squinting, still rubbing his head. “It was in a metal box under the floorboards. I pulled it out. But then I heard a noise.”

“What happened?” Jade asked.

“That's the last thing I remember,” Chuck groaned.
He leaned back against the wall of the closet. “Someone must have hit me and taken it.”

“Let's talk about it later,” Deena urged. “We've got to get out of here.”

Both girls knelt beside Chuck. The hospital bandage around his head had come half unwrapped. Beneath it, Deena could see the stitches from the wound he had received in the fight with Teddy. Next to the stitches she saw a new cut oozing blood into his hair.

“You're still bleeding,” Jade told him softly. She took an edge of her scarf and tenderly dabbed at the blood.

“Come on, Chuck,” Deena urged. “Get up. We'll help you.”

Leaning heavily on both girls, he managed to stand up. He took a deep breath. “Wow! What a headache!” he cried.

“No wonder,” Deena told him. “You have another big cut on your head.”

“So what happened?” Jade asked as they awkwardly made their way into the hallway.

“I hitched a ride from the hospital,” Chuck reported. “When I got here, it was still light out. The kitchen door was unlocked, so I came in. Then I started searching for the money, but everything was trashed and ripped apart.”

“Tell me about it,” Jade murmured.

“Anyway,” Chuck continued as they helped him down the hall, “I tried to think of a weird place
Farberson might have hidden the money. Someplace his girlfriend hadn't thought of.”

“Where would that be?” Deena exclaimed. “She even ripped off the wallpaper in some of the rooms.”

Halfway down the hall, Deena stopped.

What was that sound? Footsteps downstairs?

No. Just the old house creaking in the strong wind.

“So where did you look?” Jade asked.

“I realized that Morrison had searched everywhere but the floor,” Chuck replied, sounding stronger. “So I started going through the house room by room, searching for any floorboards that seemed loose, or didn't seem to match the others.”

“And?” Deena asked eagerly.

“It took me a really long time,” Chuck continued. “Finally, in the closet of the last bedroom, I found two floorboards that didn't quite match. The wood seemed to be newer.

“I found a letter opener in the desk in the other room. I used it to pry the boards up. And there it was.” He stopped for a moment and leaned against the wall. “All hundred- and five-hundred-dollar bills. I never saw so much money in my life! It was awesome!”

“And someone hit you and took it!” Jade exclaimed.

Chuck nodded. “I guess.”

“Farberson,” Deena said firmly. “Farberson was here already.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Chuck demanded, squinting hard at her.

They told Chuck about Farberson's release from prison. “That's why we're here,” Deena finished. “We came to warn you.”

“How long ago did he get out?” Chuck demanded.

“We're not positive,” Deena replied. “Come on. We've got to hurry.”

But Jade held back, her features tight. “He could still be here,” she murmured. “Farberson could still be in this house.”

“Cool!” Chuck cried. “Then I could punch out his lights and take the money back from him!”

“Are you crazy?” Deena wailed. “Chuck, you can hardly walk. Farberson probably has a gun. He nearly killed us once. Let's just get out of this house and go home!”

“Let's get out before he has a chance to come back,” Jade urged.

“All right. All right,” Chuck said grudgingly. “I'm still a little dizzy. Let's go.”

“Lean on me,” Jade instructed. She put one arm around Chuck's waist and began to help him down the stairs.

Deena made her way quickly to the living room. As she looked back to Chuck and Jade, it seemed as if they were moving in slow motion.

What if Farberson
was
still in the house?

“Come on, guys—hurry!” she pleaded.

“We're going as fast as we can,” Jade called down. “We don't want Chuck to suddenly faint or something.”

“I'm feeling steadier,” Chuck said. They reached the bottom of the stairs. Deena saw him pull away from Jade. “I can walk on my own now,” he reported.