A Noise Downstairs(62)

“Not exactly,” Charlotte said. “But—”

The door opened. A tall, gray-haired man in a dark blue suit, open-collared white shirt, and no tie stepped in.

“Charlotte?”

“Walter,” Charlotte said.

She started to stand, but he raised two palms, as though he could keep her in her seat through some invisible force. “Please, don’t get up. How nice to see you. Is something wrong with Paul?”

“Why would you ask that?” Charlotte asked, her voice tinged with suspicion.

“I just—” He cut himself off, looked at Hailey.

“I told Walter you were heading up in the elevator,” Hailey said, “and all we could think was that Paul was in some sort of trouble. Has he been back to see the neurologist? Is that what this is about?”

“He hasn’t,” Charlotte said. “It’s a different issue than that. I came here because, I think you need to know that Paul is going through a very difficult time, and I don’t know that I can handle it all alone.”

Hailey shrugged hopelessly. “Tell me about these voices he’s hearing.”

“Jesus, hearing voices?” Walter said.

“I never said voices,” Charlotte said. “More like sounds, in the night, sounds I don’t hear.”

“It’s a good thing you’re telling us this,” Walter said. “Thank you.”

Charlotte shot him a look. “Thank you?”

“Well, it’s good to know,” he said. “Because of Josh.” Walter glanced at his wife. “Right? If there’s something wrong with Paul, we need to know.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Charlotte asked.

Hailey looked apologetically at Charlotte. “It’s just, well, if Paul is unstable, I mean, that’s something we’d have to take into account when it’s your turn to have Josh.”

“There’s nothing wrong with me,” Charlotte said. “And I’m not suggesting Paul’s dangerous.”

“Of course not,” Hailey said earnestly. “But I can’t help but be concerned about the environment Josh is in. It could be very troubling to him, to be there if his father is having . . . episodes. He was very upset after his last visit to your house.”

Charlotte slowly shook her head.

Walter was nodding, as though he’d seen this coming all along. “We know that what’s happened with Paul isn’t his fault. He didn’t ask that man to attack him. It’s a terrible tragedy, all the way around. But we have to deal with the fallout from that, whether it’s fair or not.”

“I don’t believe this,” Charlotte said.

“Well, if he’s delusional,” Walter said, “it’s simply out of the question that Josh can be spending any unsupervised time with him.”

“I have to agree with Walter,” Hailey said.

Charlotte pushed her chair back and stood.

“Nice to know you’re all so very concerned,” she said.

“No, Charlotte, please,” Hailey protested, placing a hand on Charlotte’s arm. Charlotte shook it off.

“I came here looking for some help, or failing that, some sympathy, maybe even a shred of insight,” she said. “But look what you’re doing. Seizing on Paul’s misfortune as an opportunity to keep sole custody of Josh.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Hailey said.

“How dare you,” Walter chimed in.

“That’s what you’d like, isn’t it? Full custody. Force Paul right out of his son’s life. In his current state, he needs the love of his son more than ever. He needs to know people love him.”

“That’s absurd,” Hailey said. “I would never do that to Josh, or to his father.”

“Seems to be exactly what you’re proposing. Maybe it’d make your whole life easier if Paul just did go ahead and kill himself.”

Hailey gasped and recoiled. “Where did that come from? How could you say such a thing? Is Paul suicidal?”

Charlotte burst into tears. “I don’t know! I hardly know anything anymore.” She quickly pulled herself together. “All I’m saying is, it would make it simpler for you.” She fixed her eyes on Walter. “Then you could stop bitching and moaning about getting stuck on the FDR while coming out to Milford.”

“I think it’s time for you to leave, Charlotte,” Walter said.

“I couldn’t agree more.”

As Charlotte moved for the door to the conference room, she stopped, as if she’d forgotten something.

She looked at Hailey.

“How did you let yourself in the other day?” she said.

“What?”

“Into our house. You had the door open before anyone could get down there to open it for you. Do you have a key? Did you make a copy of Josh’s?”

“What on earth are you implying?” Hailey asked.

Charlotte left without saying another word to either of them.





Thirty-Nine

Paul and Anna were not allowed to take much of anything into the main prison area. Car keys, purse, wallet, even spare change, all had to be checked. The guard asked what was in Paul’s envelope and he said “papers.” The guard flipped open the end of the envelope and peered inside long enough to see it did, in fact, contain papers and nothing else—Paul wondered if he was expecting to find a couple of joints in there—but did not pull them out far enough to see what was typed on them. Paul was allowed to keep them.