Night Film(39)

“Why that particular song?” I asked.

“She’d played it before.” He smiled. “It reminded me of her. That night, Stace ended up in the hospital and was put on bed rest. I had to transfer back to days. I didn’t see Ashley for a week. I was worried I missed her playin’ it. But the first night I was back on the night shift she darted into that music room and I was freaking out because I wasn’t sure she was going to play it. But then she did. Right at the end. I knew then we were on.”

He stared at us, flecks of light brightening his small eyes. He was newly animated, remembering it.

“The next night, around one, I get the prerecorded tapes going. Then I tell the officer on duty who sits out front, Stace’s having another pregnancy scare and I had to head home. I go straight to Maudsley, thinking I’m going to have to slip up to Ashley’s room to get her. But if she isn’t already standing out in front waiting for me in those white pajamas. My heart’s beating like crazy. I’m nervous as a goddamn schoolkid because, you know, it was the first time I was seeing her in the flesh. She just took my hand, and together we ran across the lawn, simple as that.” He grinned sheepishly. “It was like she was leading me. Like she’d planned it. I opened my trunk, she climbed in, and we drove out of there.”

“But wasn’t it dark inside the trunk?” Nora asked. “If Ashley had nyctophobia she wouldn’t have climbed in there.”

Morgan smiled proudly. “I took care of it. I had two flashlights in there for her so she wouldn’t be afraid.”

“Did they stop you at the gatehouse?” I asked.

“Sure. But I said my wife was having another emergency and he let me through. As soon as we were out of there I pulled over so Ashley could get out of the trunk. I brought her back here so she could shower and change. I also had to put my daughter to bed. Stace was still in the hospital, so our neighbor was watching the baby. I asked Ashley where she wanted to go and she said the train station because she had to get to New York City.”

“Did she say why?” I asked.

“I think she was meetin’ someone.”

“Who?” Hopper asked.

“Don’t know. She was shy. Didn’t talk much. Just looked at me. She liked my little girl, Mellie, though. Read her a bedtime story while I was on the phone with Stace at the hospital.”

“Where was Ashley going in the city?” I asked.

“Walford Towers? Somethin’ like that.”

“She told you this?”

He looked guilty. “No. She’d asked to use the Internet while she was here. When she was in the bathroom I checked the browser to see what she looked for online. It was a website for a hotel on Park Avenue.”

“The Waldorf Towers?” I suggested.

Morgan nodded. “That sounds about right. When she was dressed, she put on that red coat and she looked like the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. I drove her to the station. We got there ’Bout four in the morning. I gave her some cash, then left her in the car while I went and bought two tickets to Grand Central.”

“Two tickets?” I asked.

He nodded, embarrassed.

“You hoped to go with her.”

He stared down at the ground. “Seems crazy now. But I’m romantic. I thought we’d go together. She kept smiling at me. But when I got back to my car with the tickets, she was gone. I saw a train had pulled in. I ran up to the platform, but the doors had already shut. I moved down it, searching for her in every car, feelin’ sick about it until I found her. She was sitting right by the window. I knocked. And slowly, she turned to me, stared at me. I’ll never forget the look she gave me, not for the rest of my life.”

He said nothing for a moment, his shoulders hunched.

“She didn’t know me.”

He exhaled, his breathing unsteady.

“You were fired shortly afterward?” I asked quietly.

He nodded. “Soon as Ashley was found missing it was all traced back to me.”

“When did you find out that she’d died?”

He blinked. “Head of the hospital called me in.”

“Allan Cunningham?”

“Yeah. He said nothing would happen in terms of the law if I signed a confidentiality paper sayin’ I’d acted alone and never, ever talk about it—”

“Morgan!”

It was Stace again. Her voice startled all of us, not just by its shrillness but its close proximity. We couldn’t see her, but heavy footsteps were coming nearer, heading down the dark gravel drive.

“Morgan! Are those people still here?”

“You’d better go,” Morgan hissed at us.

Before I could stop him, he’d snatched the paper from me, racing back up the driveway.

I took off after him.

“That paper—we’d like to keep it—” I shouted.

But he was sprinting with remarkable speed. I could barely keep up.

Stace abruptly appeared at the top of the hill. I froze. She wasn’t brandishing a shotgun, but even more terrifyingly, she was brandishing children. The half-naked baby was still in her arms, and the girl wearing the nightgown was holding her mother’s hand, sucking her thumb.

“They’re going right now,” Morgan said. “They needed directions to the highway.” He put his arm around her, saying something inaudible as he moved them back toward the house, shoving the paper into his back pocket.