“Sarah?” I asked her in a low voice that was almost a whisper. “Have you ever seen a picture of Vater?”
“You know I haven’t,” she said, blinking. She looked surprised at this sudden turn of conversation.
“We have pictures of so many other relatives, statues even. But why not Vater? You’d think there would be a big portrait hanging in the entrance and a statue in lobby.”
She shrugged. “Maybe it’s for the same reason that we aren’t supposed to talk about him.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Or maybe there are pictures and statues, but there is something about them that caused the adults to hide them.”
Sarah shook her head. “Why?”
I didn’t answer her, I was thinking hard about something else. “And they say they know he’s coming, but how do they know? I mean did he call up from the airport like my Uncle Louis, asking for a ride? Or is there some kind of signal?”
“I don’t have any idea,” said Sarah. “But I know you are going to get me into trouble with this kind of talk.”
I noticed then that Thomas had drifted near me. He could move quietly, that one. I knew someone was there by the way that Sarah narrowed her eyes and looked over my shoulder. He spoke almost into my ear, making me jump.
“Maybe he’s a bug,” said Thomas.
We turned to stare at him.
“Who?” I asked.
“You know who. Maybe he’s something so awful, that the adults keep it quiet. Like a seamonster or a dragon or a snake or something.”
It was my turn to eye him closely. I saw something in his face. He wasn’t just making a joke. “What do you know?”
“Thomas, you’re not bunking with the rat tonight, are you?” came another voice, that of Danny. He was never far from his sidekick.
Thomas glanced back at Danny, who stood at the end of the hallway. He looked back at me.
“Yeah. I know stuff. We know stuff. We’ve seen things. Things the adults don’t want us kids to see.”
“Thomas,” came a quiet word from Danny. He didn’t seem to want to approach us, but hung back. He wanted Thomas to come when he called… like a dog. The thought made me smile.
“It won’t be funny when you find out the truth,” snarled Thomas, mistaking my smile for a jeering one.
“No, I believe you,” I said, as he walked away.
“No you don’t, but you will,” said Thomas. He stalked away down the corridor.
I started to go after him, but Sarah put a hand on my shoulder.
“You never know when to quit, do you?”
I looked back at her. “No,” I said seriously. Then I smiled.
“I like that about you.”
I blinked at her. Had she just said she liked me?
She left me in the hallway then and went upstairs to the girls floor and to bed. By the time I got to the room I was sharing with Jake, I was thinking hard.
“What is it?” asked Jake.
I glanced at him and then out the window, which was crusty with frost and snow. Outside the moon had come out from behind the clouds to light up the snowdrifts with a silvery shine.
“Tonight,” I said, “We are going on a little trip.”
Jake groaned and his head fell back against his old-fashioned, feather-filled pillow with a crunching sound.
Chapter Twenty-Three
About an hour or so later I actually had to wake Jake up. He was the kind of guy who could fall asleep no matter what was happening. He muttered and slapped at my hand, but I shook his shoulder again. I had the other hand ready, in case he came awake shouting, to clamp over his mouth. But he didn’t.
He looked at me, dazed. “What…?”
“Time to explore,” I whispered. There was only one other kid in our room, Chris Anderson. Anderson always snored loudly and wasn’t easily awakened.
“What time is it?” asked Jake, scratching his head.
I shrugged. “About midnight.” I was one of those people who didn’t feel sleepy just because it was dark out. In fact, I tended to feel more active at night. I wondered vaguely if this was the nocturnal rodent part of me coming out. I didn’t like the idea much and tried not to think about it.
I finally got a confused Jake into his shoes and pants and we crept out into the hallway. Jake yawned with a groaning sound and I shushed him.
“What are we going to do, anyway?”
“I told you what Thomas told me,” I said.
“He was just messing with your mind.”
I shook my head. “Not Thomas. He’s not that imaginative. I want to see what’s going on up in that attic.”
“Thrown out of the mansion the day Vater shows up,” muttered Jake, but he came along after me.
We’d made it as far as the next dimly lit hallway when the hardwood floors creaked behind us. I froze, melting against the wall. Jake, seemingly more awake now, pressed himself into a shadow beside me. We breathed there for a moment, listening. Nothing.
We crept forward and I peeked out to look around the corner into a side passage. I knew this hall led up to a fold-down stairway that allowed access to the attic. It wasn’t the main stairs, but a back way I’d noticed while cleaning up there earlier.
“Just what do you boys think you’re doing?”
We froze again and rotated our heads. I was thinking of Urdo, but there stood a much shorter figure, only a few feet behind us, hands on her hips. It was Beth.
“You didn’t think I was going to let you sneak off and get in trouble without me, did you?” she said with a grin.
“Oh,” said Jake, letting all the air whoosh out of him. “Great imitation of Urdo, you creep. I all but wet myself.”
I snorted and shook my head. I didn’t see any easy way to get rid of her, nor did I want to. I beckoned and the three of us proceeded into the dark side-passage.
The attic trapdoor opened and let down the stairs with what seemed like a tremendous clattering sound. I tried to do it slowly, but that just made it creak and squeal on unoiled hinges and springs. I let it go fast at the end, and it snapped down onto the carpet that ran down the middle of the hardwood floor with a resonating thump. We all winced.
“Do you want to wake the dead?” asked Beth.
“Don’t say that,” said Jake.
She gave him a funny look. I shushed them and we all listened for a few minutes. Someone opened a distant door. I heard a toilet flush. Another door opened and shut. Still, we waited, hearing nothing but the sounds of our own breathing. Cold, musty air poured down into our faces from the open trapdoor.
“It must be freezing up there,” whispered Beth.
“I don’t think anyone’s coming to investigate,” said Jake.
I nodded. We put on jackets and headed up the folding steps into the cold darkness above.
“This is a bad idea,” hissed Jake. He was the last one in the hall, looking up at us.
“Do you want to stay behind?” I asked.
“It’s just… I don’t know why we need to do this right now. I’m sleepy.”
“I knew you’d chicken,” I said, not doing a good job of hiding the disgust in my voice.
“I’m a sleepy toad, not an attic rat,” he muttered back.
My neck felt hot suddenly and I became angry. I realized somewhere in the back of my mind I was going to have to hear rat comments for the rest of my life and I already didn’t like it.
“This will work out perfectly,” said Beth, laying a hand on my shoulder. “He can stay behind and close up the stairway. We don’t want anyone coming along and finding the stairs folded down. They might come up here to investigate.”
I made a sour face, and then nodded. “All right you old toad. Close it up and do a quieter job of it than we did when we opened it.”
Jake smiled wanly, “I could hardly make it louder.”
A few minutes later, the trapdoor was closed and the attic became very dark. I opened my cellphone. It was one of those phones that only worked when you had money in the account for it, and of course mine was empty. But, the dim blue glow of the screen did help light up the room a bit. A very little bit.