She spun and stared the length of the foyer. For a moment she had thought someone was there. The foyer was empty. But she couldn't escape the feeling that she wasn't alone.
Be careful, Rob.
To distract herself, she began to look around.
▼
Rob entered the basement cautiously, wishing at first for a flashlight. But when he flipped the switch he found he didn't need one. There were plenty of incandescent bulbs hanging among the pipes in the exposed ceiling.
The basement was not quite what he had expected. There were the usual crates of odds and ends, and a furnace and a water heater at the rear. But it was smaller than he had anticipated. And it was clean, warm, and dry—heated and dehumidified. There was green industrial grade carpet on the floor and relatively new oak planking on the walls. Part of the area appeared to have been walled off but there was no access to the space.
He sniffed the air. There was a sour smell. Maybe Gates was having some trouble with his sewer line. Maybe it was time to call Roto-rooter.
One thing was sure at least: Nobody was hiding down here.
▼
Kara explored the first floor. All the ceilings seemed at least fifteen feet high. She peeked into the front room. It was a small study with curtains drawn across the bay window. A computer terminal sat on a desk. The next room was a bathroom with ornate tiles and an old fashioned paw-footed tub. Next came the kitchen and pantries. She opened a few of the cabinets. One of them was stocked with jars of baby food.
She was standing there and staring at the rows of Gerber Junior Meals, trying to imagine what use Dr. Gates could possibly have for them, when she felt suddenly weak. Hungry… so hungry. Her knees wobbled as the room whirled about her once, then stopped. Then she was fine.
What had caused that? And then she remembered that in the turmoil of Rob's visit and Mr. Wheatley's bombshell about inheriting this house, she hadn't got around to eating lunch.
Promising to grab a bite soon, she moved on to the rear of the house which was taken up entirely by a large dining room with a huge marble fireplace.
She heard Rob on the stairs and hurried back to the foyer.
"All clear," he said. "On the small side, but it's clean. Looks like whoever does the rest of the house vacuums and dusts the basement as well. Never seen a clean basement before."
"That kind of goes with the rest of the place. It's immaculate. But he looked like the fastidious sort, didn't he."
Rob was rubbing his jaw, looking at the gleaming oak paneling running around the foyer.
"Yeah. Real fastidious. But something's up. Got to be. Why would he leave you his house?"
Kara only shrugged. She couldn't answer that question. At least not yet.
Rob said, "Let's give the rest of the place the onceover and then get out of here."
The second floor had a bedroom in the bay-windowed front section, but the rest of the level was one huge library. Bookshelves ran from floor to ceiling around the entire open space. Two ladders on rollers stood ready to give access to the top shelves.
"I've never seen this many books outside of a public library," Rob said.
"They look old and rare. I don't know much about book collecting, but I'll bet he's got some choice first editions here."
She pulled out a copy of Huckleberry Finn. The book was dated 1884. Suddenly it slipped from her fingers. For an instant her hand felt numb, tingling, as if recovering from a novacaine injection, and then.it was fine again.
"Oops!" she said and replaced the book on its shelf. She wondered if her blood sugar was low.
"So much for the second floor," Rob said, heading for the stairs. "Now for three. The Magical Mystery Tour continues."
The third floor had been opened up into one huge room. The windows at each end were hung with heavy draperies and the walls were covered with an assortment of rugs and hangings. Plush carpet hid the floor. A grand piano dominated the rear end of the room; the front section was taken up by an eight-foot high projection screen set up before the draped bay window. It was flanked by racks of electronic equipment arrayed in two arcs. Along the side wall were shelves holding thousands of record albums, tapes, and CDs. A television projection unit was suspended from the ceiling, aimed at the screen. And in the center of it all was a single reclining chair.
Kara noticed Rob being drawn to the front section as if by a magnet.
"Look at this stereo rig!" he said.
"That's all it is? Just a stereo?"
Rob laughed. "Right. 'Just a stereo.' Kara, this is to the average stereo what the space shuttle is to paper airplanes. He's got a turntable that plays both sides of a record, reel-to-reel, cassette, and even eight track tape players, a ten-disk CD player, plus for video he's got VHS, Beta, and videodisk." Rob was like a little boy in a toy store at Christmas. He approached one of the coffin-sized, fabric-covered boxes situated around the room. "Look at these surround-sound speakers! Christ! There's enough wattage here to blow the roof off!"
"I'm surprised his neighbors haven't had the police on him."
"That's what I think all these drapes and wall hangings are for. They're like baffles. They keep the sound from bouncing off the walls as well as vibrating through. He's fixed himself a miniature concert hall here."
Kara looked through the titles of some of the albums.
"He must have every opera by every diva whoever warbled a note."
"You like opera?" Rob said, coming over to her side.
"Can't stand it." But as she stood there with her hand on the record rack, she thought she heard an operatic voice wailing faintly in the back of her mind. She shook her head and it was gone. She moved to his classical section.
"He's got composers I've never even heard of," she said.
"No ZZ Top?"
"Not a one."
"Guess there's no accounting for taste." He put a hand on her arm. "Let's go. I've got to get back."
"I want to look around some more," Kara said. "It's safe, don't you think?"
"Nobody here but us. You really want to stay?"
"I want to check out his study, see if he's got any papers that will give me a clue as to what he was all about—and why he left it all to me."
"You sure you want to know?"
"I think so."
Kara didn't say so, but she was still half-convinced that Gates had somehow used her body. She wanted to find a way to contact the person who had sent her that warning note. She wouldn't rest easy until she knew for sure.
Rob had her follow him down to the front door.
"Make sure you keep it locked while you're here, and turn on the alarm when you leave."
"Yes sir!"
"Now—when can we get together tonight? We've got a lot of talking to do, and some decisions to make."
She'd known this was coming.
"How about after dinner? Meet me at Ellen's and we can go someplace."
"Ellen knows?"
Kara nodded. "Ellen, my mother, and Bert. They're the only ones. And Kelly, of course."
Rob's eyes were intense as they bored into hers.
"Of course. Everyone but me. And Jill. We've got to figure out when to tell her."
"Yes. I know."
Kara wasn't looking forward to tonight's discussion.
Rob hovered outside until she had locked the door behind him, then waved good-bye and hurried off.
As she turned away from the door, Kara felt her arms and legs give way, as if someone had severed all their nervous connections. As she went down, a voice spoke in her mind.
"At last! I thought he'd never leave!"
February 26