Bank Owned by J. Joseph Wright Read Free Book Online Page B

staircase shimmied and shook. They both thought it would come down and bring them with it. Neither cared particularly. Angie wanted to show Brian he had nothing to be afraid of, and Brian just wanted to get his wife the hell out of there. At the bottom of the steps, both of them out of breath, they each got the surprise of a lifetime. Nothing. Bare wood walls, dirt floor, open rafters, a breeding ground for bugs. Nothing else.
     
    Angie stumbled in the dimness, searching for the table of diapers and washcloths, rooting for the cabinet of stuffed animals, probing for the bassinet which was no longer there. Brian, in a similar state of confusion, turned a full circle, his eyes used to the dark by now, and not spotting a thing from earlier. No medieval instruments. No wheel of torment. No hanging razor wire or kinky sex toys. Nothing.
     
    “Where is it?” she felt the exposed two by fours. “Where did it all go?”
     
    Despite the absence of provocative items, Brian still harbored suspicion. “Where did all what go, Angie?”
     
    “Everything that was in here?”
     
    “So you’re admitting you knew what was in here. Did you have anything to do with it? Was it yours?”
     
    She looked at him. “At first I thought you did it. To surprise me.”
     
    “What!” his face felt hot. “Don’t be disgusting!”
     
    “Disgusting?” she’d had enough of his attitude. “How can you say that?” she studied him closer. He was shaking, with anger or fear, she couldn’t tell. “What did you see in here?”
     
    “What did you see?”
     
    “It was a…” she scanned the empty space once more. “A nursery.”
     
    “Nursery?”
     
    “Yeah. A baby’s room,” she filled with warmth at the thought. “It was magnificent. Everything a baby would need. Blankets, a crib, a changing table, stuffed animals,” she gave him a pleading look. “Oh, Brian, it was beautiful,” she returned to her confused search. “I just don’t understand where it all went.”
     
    “A nursery,” he repeated, trying to understand. “Impossible.”
     
    “Why? Brian, what did you see down here?”
     
    He turned away. No way could he, or would he, talk about it.
     
    “Brian?” she refused to back down. “Tell me what you saw.”
     
    He found it unbearable to look at her, and just as unbearable to speak a word. Confusion turned to fear, then fear to anger. He backed away from her, feeling for the staircase behind him. When he found it, he went up, slowly, carefully.
     
    “Brian? What is it?” she followed, aware of the dark, suddenly. “What are you thinking?”
     
    “Something’s going on around here,” he said. “Something really fucked up.”
     

 
     
    11.
     
    “So, you want your usual?” Betty flashed her best sunrise smile, despite wanting to do the exact opposite. She remembered the girl in the Lexus, the one who’d bought the Castle. How could she forget? That poor girl and her husband were all Betty thought about since the second they’d met.
     
    “Huh?” Angie heard the woman. She just wasn’t listening. Too much on her mind.
     
    “Small, nonfat half caf vanilla hazelnut cappuccino?”
     
    “Oh,” she shook away the haze in her head, appreciative to see a friendly face. “You know what? No. Gimme a large…full fat…and load it with caffeine this time,” she spied the baked goods lined up in a transparent plastic bin. “And one of those bagels, too. Smear it with cream cheese, would ya?”
     
    “With pleasure,” Betty giggled. “Treating yourself this morning, are you?” she got to work on Angie’s order. “Good. Indulge yourself once in a while. Nothin’ wrong with that, I always say.”
     
    Angie peered into the little Coffee Hutch. It seemed empty except for Betty. No omnipresent and foreboding husband around to squelch any free talk.
     
    “Betty?” she read from the nametag. “You seemed a little…disturbed by something the last time I was here. Do you