He decided that when he got back to the car, he would call her at her office, and turned to leave.
Then nature called, and he was a long way from Overbrook Estates.
He felt around the top of the door frame for her spare key, and when he didn’t find it, turned over the floor mat in front of the door, and when it wasn’t there either, took a last shot and, standing on his toes, ran his hands over the trim above the windows next to Cheryl’s door. He knocked a key off, failed to catch it, and it bounced off the floor and went over the edge of the walkway.
“Jesus H. Christ!” he said, and went down the stairs and two minutes later managed to find the key in the grass.
He unlocked the door and entered the apartment. There were, he remembered, two toilets, one with a bathtub off Cheryl’
s room, and another, just a water closet and a washbasin, off the kitchen. He went to the latter and relieved himself.
He was on the walkway checking to make sure the door was locked when a female voice asked, “Is everything all right?”
Now what the hell?
Jack found himself facing Mrs. Joanne McGrory.
“I’m Cheryl’s brother,” he said. “Jack Williamson.”
And as soon as you satisfy your goddamn curiosity and go away, so you can’t see what I’m doing, I will put the goddamn key back where it belongs.
“I’m Joanne McGrory. Next door.”
“I’m pleased to meet you,” Jack said.
“I’m pleased that everything is all right,” Joanne McGrory said. “After the mirror, I was worried.”
“Excuse me?”
“Our mirror came crashing off the wall, and I thought maybe something happened in there, too.”
“Everything’s fine in there.”
“I called the cops, but they wouldn’t go inside.”
“You called the cops? Why?”
“Well, if you were in bed in the middle of the night and your mirror came crashing down off the wall, what would you do?”
“Mrs. McGrory, you’re telling me the police were here last night?”
“Yes, they were,” Joanne McGrory said. “I called them, thinking that something might have happened to Cheryl.”
“And what did they do? Say?”
“They said they couldn’t go into her apartment.”
Jesus H. Christ, is my imagination running away with me? Is something really wrong here?
Jack Williamson put the key back in the lock and reentered the apartment. He’d already been in Cheryl’s kitchen and living room, so he went to her bedroom and opened the door.
Oh, my God!
Holy Christ, what happened in here?
She’s buck fucking naked and she’s tied to the bed!
He walked to the bed and looked down at Cheryl. Her eyes were open, but sightless.