by Diane Hoh
“I left it on my bedside table like I always do when I shower,” she said tearfully, pointing with à shaking finger toward the table in question. “And when I came back out, it was gone.” She stared at Maxie with tear-filled eyes. “Gone!” she breathed, as if she couldn’t quite believe it.
“Calm down,” Maxie said, in spite of a coil of dread that was spiraling upward inside of her. “I’ll help you look.” But she didn’t really expect to find the ring.
And they didn’t. Although they searched everywhere, it was nowhere to be seen. It hadn’t fallen off the table and landed in the carpeting, it hadn’t rolled behind the picture frames and books and notebooks on Candie’s table, and it wasn’t lying underneath the sink in the bathroom.
Candie’s beloved ring had disappeared.
And all Maxie could think was, it’s happening again.
Chapter 6
THE NEXT MORNING, MAXIE and Candie were the last to arrive in the kitchen. Everyone else had already left the house for classes. When they had eaten, they approached Mildred, asking if anyone who didn’t belong in the house had been there the previous evening. Since Erica had already told the housemother about the jewelry box, they also told her about Candie’s ring.
Mildred was horrified. When she was finally convinced that Candie hadn’t simply misplaced the ring, she said, “Well, let me see. The mothers were here. And the caterers were here twice. But they’d never steal anything. And Tom came in for a few minutes yesterday, to empty some garbage. But of course, he does belong here, so he wouldn’t count.”
When no one said anything, Mildred added slowly, “I’m as reluctant to call in the police as Erica is. Nasty business, having police cars come to the house. But if you haven’t found it by tomorrow morning, Candace, we’ll have no choice. We’ll have to summon them. Was the ring very valuable?”
Fresh tears filled Candie’s eyes. “Only to me, I guess.” Sadly she turned around and left for class.
Thinking that she had never seen Candie look so upset, Maxie went upstairs to shower.
She had just come down the stairs, books in hand, when the doorbell rang. Maxie answered the ring, to find a gray-haired man dressed in a white doctor’s coat standing on the porch. He was holding a large white handkerchief to his face. It was dotted with blotches of dark red. Maxie noticed a large black medical bag dangling from his free hand.
“Sorry to bother you,” he said from behind the handkerchief, “but my car cut out on me just around the corner. I was wondering if I might use your phone to call a tow truck.”
“You’re hurt,” Maxie said, pulling the door open and waving him inside. “You didn’t have an accident?”
“No, miss.” The man laughed. “I’m due at your infirmary for a consultation, and I was already late. Got so steamed when my car quit, I jumped out without looking and ran into a low-hanging tree limb. I need to call over there and tell them I’ll be late, and I need to get my car off that street corner before your campus security sees it and tows it.” Keeping the handkerchief over his nose and mouth gave his words a high, nasal quality. He put down his medical bag and extended a hand toward Maxie. “Michael Clark,” he said. “Dr. Michael Clark.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Maxie asked, shaking the man’s hand. “You’re bleeding.”
“It’s just a nosebleed. Could I borrow your phone?”
“Of course. And I’m sure it will be all right if you wait here for the tow truck. I have to leave, but our housemother, Mildred Booth, should be around here somewhere.”
He waved a hand in dismissal. “Thanks. You go ahead. I’ll be fine.”
Worried that he might not be as okay as he insisted he was, Maxie went looking for Mildred. Failing to find her, she went back into the living room, unsure of what she should do.
The doctor was talking on the telephone. Deciding that he seemed to have the situation in hand and that Mildred was probably out back and would return momentarily, Maxie left for campus.
Concentrating on her classes wasn’t easy. When she wasn’t thinking of Candie and the missing ring, she was thinking of the injured doctor. Maybe she shouldn’t have left him. What if he had a concussion or something?
Maxie, a voice argued, he’s a doctor. He would certainly know if he had a concussion, wouldn’t he? He told you he didn’t need you, so he didn’t need you. Period. Her thoughts turned to Tom Tuttle. Mildred had said he’d been in the house the day before. Had he emptied that garbage onto the refrigerator shelves?
Why would old Tom Tuttle take Erica’s jewelry box and Candie’s ring?
“I heard about Candie’s ring,” Tinker said as they stood in line at the student center’s lunch counter. “She must be really upset.”
Maxie nodded. “She is.”
Tinker shook her head. “I can’t believe this kind of stuff is happening at Omega house. Can you?”
“No,” Maxie admitted.
They sat at a corner table. Maxie was unwrapping her sandwich when Candie joined them.
“You guys look like you lost your best friends. I’m the one who lost something, remember?”
“We were just talking about that,” Tinker said. “Did you call your mom and tell her the ring was missing?”
Candie looked skeptical. “Are you kidding? I didn’t tell her about Erica’s jewelry box, either. Because she’d never believe me, not in a zillion years.”
“Well, of course she would,” Tinker said. “She knows you wouldn’t lie about something like that.”
“Nope.” Candie shook her head. “Not at the Omega Phi Delta house, in which Allison Barre spent the happiest years of her life.” She lifted a forkful of pie. “My mother has tunnel vision where her sorority is concerned. She only sees the good, and she won’t tolerate hearing anything bad about it.”
“It’s your sorority, too, Candie,” Maxie pointed out gently.
“Yeah, I know.” Candie tossed her chestnut-colored hair. “And it’s nice to have that in common with her. Something we share. It’s fun. Especially now with my dad and my brother gone. Enough about that,” Candie said. “Are we still going to have Cath walk the wall tonight?”
Each sorority had its own rituals to initiate a new member. At Omega Phi, the very last of these, which Cath Devon had not yet performed, was a blindfolded walk around the brick wall surrounding the fountain.
“I don’t know,” Maxie answered, shrugging. “I guess so. I had forgotten about it. All I want right now is for your ring to show up, Candie.”
And show up, it did.
It was Maxie who, once again, answered the door. She had come home from classes to find the house empty, Mildred gone, a note on the kitchen bulletin board announcing that the housemother had gone into town and would “be back soon.” Maxie was helping herself to a handful of grapes when the doorbell rang.
She knew before she even opened the door, with an eerie sense of certainty, that it was a messenger.
It was. The same one as the first time. She smiled as she handed Maxie the small package. “For Candace Barre,” she said, and grinned. “Candie Barre? Far out.” Then she handed Maxie the clipboard to sign.
The package was so small, Maxie knew it had to be the gold ring with the ruby in the center.
“Who sent you?” she asked quickly as the messenger turned to leave.
The young woman frowned. “Triple-A Messenger Services,” she said, pointing to the label embroidered on her jacket pocket. Her tone implied, Can’t you read?
“I mean,” Maxie amended awkwardly, “do you know where this package came from? Who sent it?”
“Nope. I just deliver them. She does live here, doesn’t she?”
Maxie nodded. “I’ll see that she gets it.”
The messenger left then. Maxie stood watching as the young woman ran down the steps and jumped on the bicycle waiting at the base of the hill.
Erica’s jewelry box had been taken … and returned.
Now Candie’s ring had arrived back at O
mega house.
On the one hand, it was wonderful for Candie. On the other hand, it meant that the person who had taken Erica’s jewelry box hadn’t had an attack of conscience, after all. It meant that returning the box was simply part of the game he or she was playing. Toying with them, jerking them around, he the puppetmaster, they the puppets, dancing to his tune.
The game hadn’t ended. Not yet.
The puppetmaster was still jerking their strings.
Chapter 7
CANDIE WAS ECSTATIC WHEN she ripped the wrapping off the package Maxie had given her and discovered the ring inside. She yanked the ring from the box and waved it in the air, grinning from ear to ear. “I can’t believe it!” she cried. “Where did you get it?”
“Delivered by messenger,” Maxie answered grimly. “Just like Erica’s jewelry box.” As much as she hated to ruin Candie’s joy, she couldn’t let the matter rest there. “Candie, I don’t like this at all. Maybe it’s just a game, maybe it isn’t. But the fact is, someone has been getting into our rooms.” She had a sudden mental image of a dark figure sneaking into Candie’s room, glancing about with sly eyes, moving stealthily to the table, picking up the ring, pocketing it …she shuddered.
Candie slipped the ring onto her finger. “Well, the ring is back on my finger where it belongs. That’s all I care about. And maybe that’s it for now, right? Nothing else will be taken and we can forget about this nasty stuff.”
“I hope you’re right.” Maxie got up to leave. Erica had decided that since the weather was good, tonight would be a good time to hold the final ceremony that would make Cath Devon a full-fledged member of Omega Phi Delta. The new pledge would perform her blindfolded walk around the brick fountain wall after dinner. “If Cath realizes that weirdos are waltzing in and out of our rooms taking things, she’ll pack her bags and go running back to Nightmare Hall so fast, she’ll be a blur on the highway.”
Lost in the joy of retrieving her precious ring, Candie didn’t answer.
Maxie went back to her room, changed into a skirt and sweater and was about to go looking for Mildred to find out what had happened with the injured doctor, when the phone rang. Tinker walked into the room just as Maxie picked up the receiver.
It was Jenna calling. “The campus movie tonight is Elvis!” she screeched into the phone. Jenna was obsessed with Elvis Presley. Her room was plastered with Elvis photos and she had even taken a trip to Graceland. “We have got to go! Meet me in front at seven.”
She would have hung up then, but Maxie said quickly, “Jenna, I can’t. Cath’s walking the wall tonight.”
There was a moment of stunned silence. Then, the excitement gone from her voice, Jenna said, “Ah, yes, the famous wall-walk. Wouldn’t want to miss that, would you? Must be right up there with catching the fireworks on the Fourth of July or watching the ball descend in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. A silly old Elvis movie must pale in comparison. Sorry I asked.”
Stung, and feeling guilty, Maxie retorted, “It’s just a tradition, Jenna. Like … like going caroling at Christmas or dressing up at Halloween. You dress up at Halloween.”
“I’m sure it’s exactly like that.” Jenna’s voice reeked of sarcasm. Then, more casually, she added, “Well, maybe I’ll call Brendan.”
“Brendan doesn’t like Elvis movies.”
“Maybe not. But since you’re too busy for him, too, maybe he’ll decide a movie is better than nothing. See you.” And she hung up.
Maxie stared at the receiver in her hand. She and Jenna had had this argument before.
It was so hard to make people who didn’t belong, like Brendan and Jenna, understand that she took her sorority seriously.
And now, when she needed her friends’ support, their answer was for her to move back to Lester. And that wasn’t what she wanted.
“Jenna mad again?” Tinker asked, brushing her short, pale hair away from her face.
Maxie nodded.
“She’ll get over it. She always does.”
Maybe, Maxie thought. But did Jenna really “get over it”? Or did she just bury her anger somewhere until she needed it again?
Would Brendan go to that movie with Jenna?
“Candie and I are responsible for the food tonight,” Maxie told Tinker. “I’d better go find her and get things started. See you outside.”
As she walked along the wide, carpeted upstairs hallway to Candie’s room she couldn’t help wondering how someone, a stranger, could have wandered the halls of Omega house, slipping in and out of rooms, taking things, without being seen. Had he been watching the house, waiting for hours until the moment when it was completely empty?
Gruesome thought, the idea of being watched.
The house was not completely empty very often. So many girls, going different places at different times. They all seldom left the house at the same time. And when they weren’t there, Mildred usually was. How had the sneak thief got past Mildred?
Erica’s refusal to call in the police suddenly seemed foolish … maybe even dangerous. Unless Candie was right, and there would be no more thefts.
She collected Candie and they went downstairs together.
Although the overhead fluorescent light was on, the large, square white room seemed deserted. Mildred wasn’t there, puttering at the sink or the fat, white stove or refrigerator. Plates and silverware and a thick pile of folded white napkins sat on the blue kitchen counter, in preparation for the dinner that would take place following the ceremony. Blue ceramic candleholders and white candles sat next to the dishes.
The room was so still, so quiet, that when a noise came from the walk-in pantry, Maxie jumped. And then relaxed. Silly girl. Mildred wasn’t in the kitchen because she was in the pantry, collecting some last-minute items for the ceremony.
“Well,” Maxie told Candie, “we came to help, so let’s help.”
They walked over to the pantry door and Maxie pulled it open.
But the light wasn’t on. All she could see at first was a bulky figure standing in front of the shelves. It wasn’t Mildred. Too short, too wide. Not Mildred at all.
Her heart began pounding in her chest. What was someone who wasn’t Mildred doing in the pantry in total darkness?
She took a step backward, smacking into Candie, who let out an “oof” sound. “Who’s there?” Maxie called into the deep, wide pantry. “What are you doing in there?”
“Jus gettin’ a can of beans,” the voice of the gardener answered. “Miz Booth said I could.”
Maxie let out a long breath of air. It was only the gardener, Tom Tuttle, in the pantry.
“In the dark?” Maxie questioned skeptically. “How can you find a can of anything in there without a light?”
“Got my flashlight,” came the answer. “Don’t need it, though. I know where Miz Booth keeps the beans.”
An arm reached up in the dark, lifted something off a shelf, and turned to begin approaching Maxie.
She backed up another step or two, pushing Candie along with her.
When he reached the doorway, the man fastened pale, watery eyes on Maxie and said sullenly, “I wasn’t stealin’ nothin’. You can ask Miz Booth.” He held up the red-labeled can of beans. “She said I could have this. Go ahead, ask her if you don’t believe me.”
He had a mean set to his mouth, Maxie thought, and he needed a shave. “I believe you,” she said, anxious to be rid of him. “Why wouldn’t I?”
He lowered his grizzled head. “I know what goes on here. I know some things been missin’. I seen the way you people look at me, like I’m not as good as you.”
“That’s not true,” Maxie protested feebly. But she thought maybe it was.
“But I didn’t take nothin’,” Tom Tuttle said vehemently, his eyes still on the floor. “Only the stuff Miz Booth says I can have. And I don’t want nobody sayin’ nothin’ different.” And without lifting his head, he shuffled away from the two girls and went out the back door, slamming it loudly behind him.
Maxie nodded. Then she added slowly, “We don’t really look at him like he said, do we? Like we’re better than he is?”
“Probably.” Candie switched on the pantry light. It wasn’t very bright, providing only a dim yellowish glow. “But if we do, it’s just because he’s, well, he’s not very clean and he’s a grouch. And he peeks in the windows sometimes, we all know that. We should get rid of him, but Erica says he’s been here forever. Like Mildred.”
Maxie and Candie moved on into the pantry, grateful that it was no longer pitch-black inside. It took only a second or two to locate the things they’d need for dinner. Maxie reached out a hand for one of the boxes.
It moved.
Maxie gasped. “What … ?” she murmured, staring at the round container.
And then she saw that the container wasn’t actually moving at all. Something … a lot of somethings … were moving on it. Black things. Large, elongated, dark things … living things, were crawling all over the box.
Maxie’s arm flew back to her side. “Candie,” she whispered. “Look …”
Candie looked. And cried out. “What? What is that?”
Maxie’s heart rose into her throat as her horrified eyes went from the rice container to other shelves, other boxes, other canisters. Many of them seemed to be moving. Many were covered with a thick layer of dark, scurrying, living creatures.
Ants.
Big, fat, black, disgusting ants.
Chapter 8
NOW MAXIE, HER EYES slowly, slowly, circling the room, wondered how they could not have noticed the ants before.
What was really frightening was how many there were. They were everywhere, marching up and down the white walls in long, thin lines like soldiers, covering the food containers with thick coats of black, layering the white shelves with sooty streams. As Maxie and Candie looked down in horror, the fat black ants trailing across the floor in determined columns began to march up Candie’s black heels and across Maxie’s beige flats.
