Carol O'Connell - Bone by Bone

The judge's voice could be heard inside the small room, but the words Were unintelligible. Oren cracked the door and looked inside, asking, "Did you need something, sir?"

"He's sleeping." Hannah lightly tugged on Oren's arm to pull him back.

"He sleeps with his eyes open?"

"Just wait." After closing the bedroom door, the housekeeper produced a string of cowbells from a drawer in the glove table and hung them on the knob. She walked down the hall saying, "You'll see."

Oren followed her into the kitchen, where the table was laid out with a whiskey bottle, two empty shot glasses and an ashtray-evidence that Hannah and the judge continued to enjoy their postprandial drinks and cigars. She set out two clean glasses and Oren's gift, the bottle of Jack Daniel's. Next, she laid down a stack of paper with printed text.

Oren pulled out a chair for her, a habit learned in childhood. He turned his own chair around and straddled it, folding his arms across the wooden back-another habit, one learned in his years as a CID agent. This was his preferred interrogation posture. "So the old man sleeps with his eyes open- and he walks in his sleep? That's why you hang bells on his doorknob?"

"You just wait-and watch."

"And that's why you installed all those dead bolts-so he can't leave the house at night without a key."

Hannah picked up a sheet of paper from the pile in front of her. "This report's from a sleep clinic in San Francisco. They claim you can't predict an episode of somnambulism. But I've got a computer printout from another outfit in LA, and that one tells you how to make it happen. So much for expert opinions."

"Printouts? You're surfing the Internet, Hannah? I thought you'd be the last person on earth to get a computer."

"Oh, the judge wouldn't have one of those damned things in the house. I use the computer at the library."

"But no one in Coventry ever goes to the library."

Down the hall, the cowbells were ringing.

"You have to see this for yourself," said Hannah. "That's why I stopped his medication when I knew you were coming home."

"You mean your medication-the prescription I filled at the drugstore, right?" Oren got up from his chair and left the kitchen. As he walked down the hall, Hannah was close behind him.

"He won't go to a doctor," she said. "So I go. It doesn't matter much if the doctor sees him or me." She spat out the word, "Doctors. They can't agree on anything. One tells you it's not psychological-and another one says it's all in your head. And your father believes it's all in my head."

The judge stood before the front door, pulling on the knob, then jerking it. His eyes were vacant and so at odds with his urgency to get out of the house.

Hannah looked up at Oren. "This morning I changed his decaf for regular coffee, real strong and lots of it. Caffeine is one of the triggers that brings it on, and the medication keeps it turned off. It's like working a pharmaceutical light switch."

The old man twisted the knob with one hand and banged on the door with the other. Oren took his cue from the housekeeper, who showed no sign of alarm. This was something witnessed many times.

"Your father doesn't see the locks. The door he's looking at doesn't have any yet. I got locks on the windows, too, but he's never tried to get out that way. I don't know why. Only doors."

"The window wasn't locked when I came home last night."

"No need. I was waiting up for you. Must've fallen asleep in my chair."

Her second job as the sleepwalker's watcher would explain why the judge thought she seemed sluggish at times, and this must be why she took naps in the afternoon.

His father began to cry, and Oren came undone. He had never seen the old man in tears before, not even after Josh went missing.

"He wants to get out of here so bad," said Hannah. "He's got the night terrors."

"How long does this go on?"

You don't have to whisper," she said. "It's real hard to wake him. This can last a few minutes or half an hour, sometimes longer."

The judge gave up on the door. Oren and Hannah followed him down the hall and into the kitchen. The housekeeper motioned for Oren to take a seat as she poured their whiskey. She pushed one of the shot glasses to his side of the table. "You'll need that."

So spake Hannah the Oracle, and he knocked back the whiskey with unconditional faith.

His father had found the back door and struggled to open it. His obstacles were three strong bolts, but he never tried to undo them, not that he could-not without a key.

Hannah watched, almost bored by this. "It began after Josh went missing, but it only happened a few times. You were never around in those days-always out in the woods, looking for your brother. Then the night terrors started up again when the judge sent you away at the end of that summer. The sleepwalking went on for a long time, but then it finally stopped. Years and years went by."

"And then the bones started turning up on the front porch."

"Anxiety." Hannah rewarded him with a smile. "That's the key."

Oren looked up to see the judge staring at him. "Sir?"

"Don't get fooled," said Hannah. "He's looking your way, but you don't know who he sees in your chair."

"You should've told me this was going on. You didn't have to go through this alone."

"I promised your father I wouldn't worry you with this silly notion of mine-that he walks in his sleep."

The desperate need for escape was forgotten. The judge opened the refrigerator, perused its contents and pulled out a jar of pickles. Next he raided the breadbox, and then he stood at the counter, using a fork to smear one slice with the juice from the jar.

"He thinks that's mayonnaise," said the housekeeper, shaking her head. "There's as many theories about what's going on here as there are experts who think they know what they're talking about."

"He's acting out a dream?"

"Some say yes." She riffled the papers in the stack on the table. "Others say he can't be dreaming. Sleepwalking happens in non-REM sleep." She laid one of the printed sheets in front of him. "But according to this doctor, he can sleepwalk in a dream state. When you deal with more than one medical opinion, it's always a crapshoot."

The judge sat down with them. An invisible object was cradled in one arm, and now, with great care, he set it down on the table. After lifting a latch that only he could see, he stared at the contents of a box that was not there.

"I've seen that before." Hannah shook her head. "I mean to say-"

"I know." Oren also stared at the nonexistent box. "Any idea what it is?"

"Wish I knew. It drives me nuts. No sense in asking him. His answers don't always work with the questions. Watch this." She leaned toward her employer and raised her voice. "What's in the box?"

The judge turned to her without expression and said, "The soup was burning on the stove."

"Nothing to do with my question." Hannah sat back in her chair and turned to Oren. "But you heard his answer clear as can be."

He nodded. His father might be reliving a night months after Josh had vanished. Oren had come home from the woods, dirty and exhausted. The judge and the housekeeper had waited up for him long past the dinner hour. Distracted and frazzled, Hannah had allowed the soup to bubble over in its pot and burn. Now Oren could see it, and he could smell it, too. A trace of that same broth lingered in the air tonight, mingled with the stale odor of lamb cooked for dinner. He had a collection of scents that triggered strong emotions. In combat zones, the stench of burning flesh called up the adrenaline rush of a man standing out on a ledge. The smell of Hannah's soup conjured the helplessness of a teenage boy in freefall.