Flowers in a Dumpster (13 page)

“We’re doing just fine,” Mr. Brackett answered with a tight smile.

“But you could be doing even better. I’ll donate half the profits from the book to the school.
Half
. All you’ve got to do is get me up in that tower for five minutes.”

Mr. Brackett didn’t respond right away. Alec watched a war raging in his eyes. He was resisting, but he wanted that money, Alec could practically smell the want in the air. “Why is the tower so important?” he finally asked.

“It will be the focal point of the story.”

“Why not choose some other location to be the focal point instead? Why not the basement of Winnie Davis? We’ll be more than happy to let you roam around down there all you want.”

“No, it has to be the tower.”

But did it, really? If Alec examined the situation objectively, the idea he entertained didn’t absolutely hinge on the tower. He could move the lair of the entity to the basement without changing anything integral to the story. Yet, the more access was denied to him, the more he felt it
did
have to be the tower. He hadn’t taken many psych courses as a student, but he knew that depriving someone of something often left that person more desperate than ever to get it.

“I have an idea,” Mr. Brackett said. “Why don’t I describe the tower to you?”

“What?”

“I could tell you what it looks like up there, and you could use my description for the story.”

Alec considered this. It could work. Accuracy wasn’t necessary in fiction.

But damn it, he wanted to
see it!

“Okay, now I have a counteroffer,” he said. “If I’m not allowed up there, what if you went and took some pictures for me?”

Mr. Brackett visibly stiffened. “That isn’t possible.”

“Why not?”

“Mr. Stevenson, I really don’t have time to continue this repetitive conversation with you. I have a lot of work to do, so I suggest you go.”

Alec stood, anger bubbling inside him like the carbonation of a shaken soda. “This isn’t the end of it. I’ll get in that tower one way or the other.”

He began to make his way out of the office, but paused when Mr. Brackett called his name. Alec looked over his shoulder. “Yes?”

“Don’t do anything crazy.”

***

“This is crazy,” Alec mumbled to himself.

He felt like a spy in some espionage movie, or more accurately, in some parody of an espionage movie. Night had settled when he slipped into Winnie Davis through the back door. The guards would soon lock up the building for the night, so he needed to be quick, but also cautious.

Despite the warm weather, Alec wore a jacket to conceal the bolt cutters he’d tucked under an arm. He hated to admit that he wasn’t doing a terribly good job. The blades poked out at his waist, but chances were he wouldn’t run into anyone. The building should be mostly deserted. He hoped.

Alec thought it wise to avoid the stairs, so he took the elevator to the third floor. He crept through the building, pausing each time his shoes squeaked on the floor, listening for any sound that would indicate that he wasn’t alone. All was quiet, but he didn’t let his guard down.

Jesus, this really is crazy
, he thought. He couldn’t understand why he felt like a criminal. It wasn’t as if he was breaking into a bank. After getting nowhere with Alumni/Development, Alec had called the office of the president of the college. Dr. Grey, he had been president since the late 80s and had always seemed to like Alec. In fact, he had sent a letter after the release of Alec’s second novel asking if he would be interested in teaching a creative writing seminar at the school. Alec had responded by thanking Dr. Grey for the offer but taking a pass due to other commitments. But at this point, Alec was willing to reconsider if it would mean getting up in the tower.

Unfortunately, Dr. Grey wouldn’t even talk to him. He sent a message through his secretary, saying he needed to take a pass on meeting with Alec, due to other commitments. The other commitments could be anything, but Alec had heard Dr. Grey’s twenty-six year old daughter had gone missing a few months ago.

When Alec’s options ran out, he decided to break into the tower. It was a desperate, stupid act, but he felt fairly desperate and stupid. He didn’t even know if the bolt cutters would work. Still, he had to try.

When he reached the stairs, he stood on the landing, straining to hear if anyone descended from above. When nothing sounded, he started up the stairs, praying Dr. Rob wasn’t in his office this late.

There were two faculty offices on the fourth floor, and both doors were shut. Without pausing, he hurried to remove the velvet rope that cordoned off the staircase. He pulled out the bolt cutters as he approached the trapdoor. The lock looked bigger and more daunting today than last Friday. He felt foolish, breaking into a restricted area, like a character in a bad novel he’d be ashamed to write. He should turn around right now and get out of here, but he continued forward, stopping only when he could go no farther. He opened the blades of the bolt cutter and fitted them on either side of the U-ring of the padlock. It would be like trying to cut through a tree trunk with a butter knife.

As the saying goes: Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Alec heard someone below clear his throat.

He froze.

He wanted to move, to at least glance back and see who it was, but it felt as if the air had solidified like cement, encasing him in place. He tried not to panic. It might be a student, if so he could talk his way out of this. Taking a deep breath and slowly lowering the bolt cutters, he turned his neck, hearing it creak like rusty hinges. He looked down and saw not a student, but several familiar faces.

The old security guard, Dale Trilling, Mr. Brackett and Dr. Grey all stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at him. “I told you he was going to try something like this,” Mr. Brackett said, addressing the president.

Dr. Grey shook his head, like a disappointed parent. “Alec, what are you doing, son?”

He wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He couldn’t exactly deny his attempted breaking and entering. In the end, Alec only said, “I tried to call you today.”

Dr. Grey sighed wearily. “What are we going to do with you?”

The group of men suddenly seemed more menacing. Alec found himself gripping the bolt cutters tighter. The guard noticed this and stepped forward, his right hand resting lightly but meaningfully on the butt of the gun in his holster. “I think you need to put those down and come with us.”

“Listen to Chief Simms,” Dr. Grey said. “It’s in your best interest to do what he says.”

Alec hesitated for a moment then sat the bolt cutters on one of the steps, resting the handles against the wall. He slowly made his way back down.

He’d really done it now, let an obsession impede his better judgment, and he had a feeling he’d be talking to the cops very soon.

***

“We’re not going to call the cops,” Mr. Brackett said.

Together in the security office, Alec was being fenced in by the other men. Alec threw up his hands. “What then? Do you want me to say that I’m sorry and I’ll never do it again?”

“What we want is for you to go,” Chief Simms said, his bulldog jowls quivering as he stared down at the writer as if he’d like nothing more than to pistol-whip him. “Get off campus and don’t come back. If we see you around here again, we will call the police.”

Alec looked at each man in turn, a smile curling the corner of his lips upwards. “Is that so? I don’t think you’ll call the cops at all.”

“Alec, please,” Dr. Grey said.

“I’m right, aren’t I? If you were going to call the cops on me, you’d have done it by now. No. I don’t think you want the cops out here, because maybe they’d start asking questions about what’s up there, and I don’t think any of you want that.”

Now it was Dale Trilling who threw up his hands. “Why won’t you let this go?”

“I’m tenacious. I am not going to drop this matter until I find out what you are hiding up there.”

“We’re not hiding anything,” Mr. Brackett said. “I swear there’s nothing in the tower. Nothing.”

“Then what are you protecting? And don’t feed me anymore of that ‘it’s dangerous’ bullshit.”

“But it
is
dangerous,” Dr. Grey said, his voice imploring. “You have no idea how dangerous, but maybe it’s time you did.”

Chief Simms reached out and put a hand on the president’s shoulder. “Sir, I really don’t think you should.”

“Perhaps if we tell him, if we make him understand, he’ll leave it alone.”

“Make me understand what?” Alec said. “This whole cryptic vibe you’re giving off is getting old. Now either you tell me what’s in the tower or
I
go to the police.”

Chief Simms snorted a laugh. “And tell them what? We ain’t breaking any laws here.”

“Well, maybe I think you are. Maybe I think you have young girls trapped up in the top of Winnie Davis.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Trilling said.

“Be that as it may, I bet I could convince the police to at least check it out.”

“You little piss-ant,” Chief Simms said, advancing on Alec. “I ought to tear your spine out and beat you with it.”

“Enough!” Dr. Grey said in a loud, sharp voice. Chief Simms backed off, but he didn’t seem happy about it. Dr. Grey pulled up a chair and sat across from Alec. Meeting the writer’s gaze, he said, “We can’t let you go up in the tower because . . . because you may not come back.”

“What?”

Dr. Grey took a deep breath before he continued. “Sometimes people go up in the tower and they don’t come back.”

Alec squinted at the older man, waiting for the punch line. “Uh-huh. Where exactly do they go?”

“No one knows. They simply . . . vanish.”

A thick, suffocating silence filled the security office. Finally Alec cut through the smoke with a wild laugh. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe that.”

“It’s the truth,” Dr. Grey said. “Doesn’t happen every time, there were plenty of people through the tower during the renovation that came back down fine, but every so often, someone goes up there and simply disappears.”

Alec was in shock. What was Dr. Grey playing at here? Did he really think such a preposterous story was going to keep him away from the tower? Or had grief over the loss of his daughter driven the man insane? That would mean the rest of them were crazy, too. None of the others confirmed Dr. Grey’s story, but none of them denied it either.

“Okay,” Alec said, deciding to play along for the moment, “exactly who is supposed to have disappeared in the tower?”

Mr. Trilling was the one to answer. “The first was the foreman of the construction crew doing the renovations, Lester Todd. There were a lot of men in the tower at the time, installing the panes of the skylight. At the end of the day, no one could locate Lester, and the last time anyone remembered seeing him was in the tower. It was assumed at the time that he had left without being noticed by anyone, although his truck was still parked behind the building and no one knew why he would walk out on a job. Weeks, then months, went by and no one heard from him, not even his family. The missing person’s case is still open.”

“One of my guards was next,” Chief Simms said. “The building had already been renovated, but wasn’t open for classes. Pete was on his routine rounds; a kid really, couldn’t have been no older than twenty-five. Had a girlfriend and a kid on the way. Anyway, I get this call from him over the two-way, saying there was something strange going down in the Winnie Davis tower. I asked him what the problem was, but there was so much static on the radio, I couldn’t tell for sure what he’d said. Thought it was something to do with snow, but that didn’t make no kind of sense. Then the line went dead. So me and one of my other guards went over to Winnie Davis and straight up to the tower. The trapdoor was propped open but when we went up there, no sign of Pete anywhere. We searched the entire grounds but he was gone. His girlfriend thinks he freaked about the baby and took off.”

“Maybe he did,” Alec said. “I mean, what do you guys really know? Both men were in the tower at some point shortly before their disappearances, but that’s flimsy reasoning to support the theory that the tower is eating them up or whatever.”

Dr. Grey nodded, his eyes cast to the floor. “That, of course, wasn’t the first conclusion we drew from the disappearances. At least, not until the third person went missing.”

“And who was that?”

Dr. Grey took a shuddering breath and the expression on his face suggested it hurt him, as if he were inhaling thorns. “Have you heard about my daughter, Melanie?”

“Yeah, I read that—wait a minute, are you trying to tell me she vanished in the tower, too?”

Dr. Grey started to speak, but then he grimaced and choked back a sob. He stood and walked to the corner of the room. Mr. Brackett took the chair vacated by the president and answered for him.

“We were getting ready for the building dedication ceremony to commemorate the reopening of Winnie Davis. Melanie was here helping out. She wanted to see the view from the tower.”

“I said I’d take her up myself,” Dr. Grey said, still facing the wall. “But when we got to the fourth floor, Dr. Robinson was there setting up his new office and asked to speak with me for a moment. I sent Melanie ahead, told her I’d be there as soon as I was done. I didn’t even go in Dr. Robinson’s office. We stood right out in the rotunda the whole time. When we finished our conversation, I went up the stairs to the tower, but Melanie wasn’t there. I checked both levels, but she simply wasn’t there.”