Laurie seemed on the verge of saying something else, but then nodded. Caroline leaned down and kissed her. “You sleep tight, and tomorrow morning you’ll feel much better. And if you have another nightmare tonight, come and wake me up. Okay?”
Laurie slid her arms around her mother’s neck. “I’m scared, Mom,” she whispered. “I’m afraid—”
“Shh,” Caroline whispered. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. I promise.” Yet even as she spoke the words, she knew they weren’t true. Brad was dead, and Andrea Costanza was dead, and despite the promise she’d just made, she was certain that there was, indeed, something to be afraid of.
Perhaps Laurie would sleep tonight, but Caroline was already certain that she herself would not.
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Ryan said. He was sitting up in his bed, his back against the headboard, his arms wrapped tightly around Chloe the way they had clung to his teddy bear when he was much younger. “And I don’t like her!”
“You hardly even know her,” Caroline said, wishing she’d waited until morning to tell him that Melanie Shackleforth would be staying with him while she went to work. At least that would have let the evening end as peacefully as it had begun. But now the storm in Ryan’s eyes was threatening to break, and she braced herself for it. “She just arrived here today, and we hardly know her, so you can at least give her a chance.”
“Tony knows her!” Ryan blurted out loudly enough to startle Chloe who wriggled free and jumped off the bed. Realizing what he’d said, his eyes widened with fright, and he clamped his hands over his mouth.
Caroline stared at her son. What on earth could he be talking about? How would Tony know her? And even if he did, how would Ryan know? She pulled the boy’s hands from his mouth. “What are you talking about? What makes you think Tony knows Melanie?” Ryan’s face paled, and now Caroline saw fear in his eyes. But fear of what? “Honey, what is it? Did something happen?” Ryan hesitated a long time, but finally nodded, though the movement of his head was so slight that Caroline almost missed it entirely. “What?” she asked softly. “What happened? And no matter what it is, I promise I won’t be mad at you.” She could see uncertainty flickering in his eyes, but then his hands tightened on hers.
“You won’t tell him I told you?” he whispered, his eyes darting around the room as if his stepfather might be lurking in some shadowy corner, listening to every word he spoke.
“Of course not,” Caroline replied.
“I–I snuck into his room one day — that room we’re not supposed to go into.”
“You mean his study?”
Ryan nodded. “And I found an old album.”
“A photo album?”
Ryan’s head bobbed once more. “On a shelf under a table by the fireplace. It was full of pictures — there was a picture of Tony, dressed in old-fashioned clothes. And there was a picture of that woman, too.”
“Melanie Shackleforth?”
“Unh-hunh. And there were a lot of other people too, and all of them were dressed like Tony.”
Caroline searched for an answer. “Maybe they were dressed up for a costume party.”
This time Ryan shook his head. “Tony said it wasn’t him at all. He said it was his great-grandfather. But it looked just like him.”
Several long seconds ticked by as Caroline tried to sort out what Ryan’s words could possibly mean. Even if he’d found an old photo album with pictures of Tony’s great-grandfather in it, why was he so frightened? “Maybe I’ll ask Tony to show me the pictures,” she suggested, but once more Ryan’s face paled, and now he squeezed her fingers so tightly they hurt.
“No! He — he told me I wasn’t ever to touch anything in there again, or even go in that room! And he told me not to tell. If he finds out…”
The fear in his voice was so palpable that Caroline wrapped him in her arms, cradling him almost like a baby. “Oh, honey, there’s nothing to be frightened of. You’re not afraid of him, are you?”
Ryan peered up at her, his eyes glistening as brightly as had Laurie’s only a little while earlier. “Just don’t tell him, okay? You promised! You said you wouldn’t.”
Caroline laid a soothing hand on his brow. “And I won’t,” she breathed. She reached down and picked up Chloe, putting her back on the bed next to Ryan. The little schnauzer instantly snuggled up against the boy, whose arms immediately wrapped around her. “I won’t tell Tony, or anyone else,” Caroline promised. “And I promise, there isn’t anything to be scared of.” But as she turned off Ryan’s light a few minutes later, closed his door, and started back down the stairs, her last words kept echoing in her mind.
There isn’t anything to be scared of.
There isn’t anything to be scared of.
There isn’t anything to be scared of.
But no matter how many times she repeated them, she still couldn’t make herself believe them.
There was something to be scared of; she was sure of it.
Tony?
No! It couldn’t be Tony. It had to be something else.
But what?
CHAPTER 26
Caroline walked past the door to Tony’s study three times before she finally stopped. It was early, a little after eight; Tony had left the apartment an hour ago, and Laurie thirty minutes later. Ryan had come down for breakfast, but not until after he was sure Tony was gone, and disappeared back to his room as soon as he was finished eating.
Through it all Caroline had been doing her best to ignore the door to her husband’s study. But the study was the last thing she’d thought about before she had gone to sleep and the first thing she’d thought of when she woke up this morning. Twice she’d almost asked Tony if he’d found Ryan in the musty old room, but both times she’d remembered the fear in her son’s voice when he’d begged her not to tell Tony what he’d said, and even though she couldn’t imagine what Ryan had said was true, she’d still been unable to bring herself to break the promise she’d made to him. But the moment she’d come downstairs that morning the closed door to her husband’s study had drawn her like iron to a magnet, and now, with her husband and daughter gone for the day, and Ryan upstairs in his room, she found herself approaching the door once again. For a long time she stood in front of it, listening to the huge grandfather clock next to the coat rack count the seconds.
What was she waiting for?
Did she think if she stared long enough at the heavy mahogany panel it would somehow turn transparent?
Or was she afraid of what she might find behind it?
But what could possibly be there? It was just a room, its furnishings worn and outdated. But it was the way Tony liked it. It wasn’t as if there was some great secret hidden away in the study.
Her hand closed on the ornate crystal knob, and she twisted it.
Locked.
Had it been locked before, or had Tony only locked it after he’d found Ryan inside the room? She had no idea, except she was almost certain it hadn’t been locked the first time Tony had shown it to her, and obviously it hadn’t been locked when Ryan had gone in. Suddenly the vague sense of guilt she’d felt about invading Tony’s study gave way to an urge to know what was inside, what it was that Ryan had seen that had made Tony lock the room. But where was the key? Or did she even need a key? Since she’d been working at the shop, she’d picked half a dozen locks, most of them on desks, but a couple on large armoires. Besides, there must be keys around somewhere. Going to the kitchen, she quickly searched through the drawers under the counter. The third one down to the right of the sink turned out to be the one that had wound up as the catch-all, and after she’d gone through all the rest, she went back to it, searching more carefully. Nothing.