Walls within Walls (15 page)

CJ was staring at the map on his door, lost in thought. He felt like he did when he ate large amounts of brownies, all jittery.

“Do you have the map here that you want to push?” Patrick asked again.

When CJ did not answer, Pat got distracted by his toy wrestling figures. He had no idea how important his revelation was.

CJ paced and thought about what the writing on Brid's moldings might say. He wanted to burst through her door and tell her, but she had brought a friend home from school. He would have to wait.

He went into the closet in Pat's bedroom, where Eloise had told them Torrio had gotten in. Was that the silver
room the moldings had referred to? CJ pushed the back panel, and nothing happened. He pushed the sides the way Eloise told him, and silently the panel slid aside, revealing a narrow hall, dark and uninviting. CJ didn't enter. He thought about going down to Eloise's apartment to ask her about it, but he didn't want to do so unannounced. He'd learned from the Williamsons to call ahead, especially if he was entering by way of a secret panel.

He looked on the kitchen blackboard for Eloise's phone number, but the collage of messages, phone numbers, and Carron's art made finding it a daunting task. He had no idea how his mother found anything at all.

CJ decided to go to Eloise's back door by way of the fire stairs. He could do that without a doorman and an audience. He knocked, but there was no sound from within. He had brought a pen, paper, and some tape, and he began to write: “Dear Eloise, Access to map with symbols may be from silver room. Please advise.” He folded the note and taped it to the door, thinking she or Annika would find it by evening. He couldn't wait to speak with her.

CJ was about to turn and bolt up the stairs again, when he heard a noise from below. It was a door, opening and closing rapidly.

Torrio? But he lived on the other side, below the Williamsons' apartment. It couldn't be him. Unless…did
he travel between all four apartments using the fire stairwells
and
the silver room? Did everyone leave their door to the fire stairwells unlocked?

CJ stood perfectly still. The other person in the stairwell had paused, too, because no noise came from either landing. There was a rushing sound in CJ's ears, his own blood coursing through his body, so loud that he prayed nobody else could hear it.

For a moment, it was as if these two people were almost daring each other to make the first move. CJ heard a soft ticking sound and wondered if the other person had a wristwatch on. Then CJ heard a click, and the entire stairwell was thrown into complete and utter darkness.

One full minute went by. CJ tried to adjust his eyes to the darkness but was only able to make out the banister to lead him upstairs. It stood about three feet away from him. He fixated on it, working on a plan to dash for it the moment the other person made a move upstairs.

The next thing he heard paralyzed him. The other person was simply walking up the stairs. Effortlessly, this person was coming closer, and CJ once again had jelly-filled legs that felt heavy and lifeless. He forced himself to reach forward for the banister, to feel his way up the stairs. He felt as if he was swimming to the top of a black and sightless pool, desperate for air at the surface. He knew there were eighteen steps between floors. He could see the faintest crack of light peeking out from his back
door: the finish line, the place he needed to get to.

He let go of the banister to step onto the landing but instead, he felt his foot kick something hard, something that made him trip and fall forward, directly onto his face. His shin slammed against the firm thing again, the thing that was really the top step. He had miscounted! He hadn't run the full eighteen steps; it must have been only seventeen, and he had tripped himself.

From behind him he could hear a grunt, and before he could rise, the grunting thing tripped over him, falling hard and slamming CJ back onto the stairwell floor. Even though he couldn't see anything, CJ felt certain it was Torrio. The man groaned in CJ's ear.

“You should get Eloise to talk to me,” the man said, in a low, gravelly voice. “I think you're a smart kid. You have no idea how complicated this thing is. You don't know the whole story.”

CJ could hardly breathe. “Let me up,” he said weakly.

“Yeah, we both need to get up.” The old man's breath was pungent and smelled like coffee. He leaned on his hands, lifting himself off the floor.

“C-c-c-c-c-c-can't breathe,” CJ said. He felt dizzy, and his mind was fuzzy. He slipped into a dark and foggy place, and that was the last thing he remembered.

“My boy, please get up!” Something smelled bad and his throat hurt. CJ thought dreamily that it sounded like Eloise's voice, and she must have come to meet with him. He just couldn't get the energy to answer her. “Take a big sniff of this, dear, please?” she implored. He realized she was holding a jar of smelling salts.

The back door to the Smithfork apartment opened, and Brid dropped to the floor next to CJ. “What happened to you?” she asked. CJ felt her touch his forehead, and he grimaced.

Patrick's voice came next. “CJ, are you faking it?” CJ wished they would go away and let him be. His head was pounding.

Gingerly, Eloise, Brid, and Patrick got on either side of
him and helped him to sit up. Something wet ran down his forehead, and he shut his eyes.

“His forehead is bleeding!” Brid said, a touch of panic in her voice. “I need to get Mom.”

“Mom isn't home,” said Patrick. “It's just Maricel and Carron.”

Eloise held some gauze to his forehead, and CJ met her hand with his own and pressed on the tender spot. His forehead was sticky with blood.

“Should we get Maricel?” Brid sounded a little anxious.

“No, I just fell forward in the darkness. I think I caught the edge of the top step with my head,” CJ said.

Eloise looked at him skeptically. “I heard a loud noise, and when I came out here, all the lights were off, and you were lying on the ground.”

“Yes, I was walking up the stairs and tripped.”

“Well, let's get you inside, at the very least,” Eloise said. “Does anything feel broken to you?”

“Nope,” said CJ, wondering how much he should tell her. “I just feel groggy.”

“I know exactly what to do for that,” she said, bringing her container of smelling salts closer to his face.

A few minutes later, CJ was lying on his bed. Patrick had wandered back to his own bedroom.

“I do think you'll be fine,” said Eloise, “but we would appreciate the truth. Did anyone hurt you?”

“But I told you…” CJ's voice trailed off. “I'm not
sure if he hurt me on purpose, or if it was an accident where we tripped over each other,” he said. He took a deep breath and began to tell them what Brent had discovered and what had really happened on the staircase.

When he finished, the three of them sat in silence. Brid was looking up at his moldings. “Eloise, did you ever notice the dot writing?”

Eloise twisted her face into a half grin. “I stared at those poems on the moldings enough to see the dots, but I never paid them any mind. I always thought they were little nail heads, places where the nails were driven into the wall. I just saw a lighthearted poem about math, something to make me do my sums. Silly, right?

“Brid,” she continued, “please go into your room and see if the poem on your molding has dots. If so, please copy those letters down for us.”

“Right away!” Brid shouted, and took off down the hall.

Eloise stayed seated beside CJ's bed, looking thoughtful. “I thought you would be happy,” CJ said.

“Happy that Torrio attacked you? It's high time we called the police on him. He's coming into your apartment, beating up children!”

“No!” said CJ. “He didn't beat me up. He was just sort of talking to me about working together. I really did trip myself up on the stairs. He even may have been trying to help me; I can't remember it so well. But this is
important: we found a message about the silver room, and we need to look in there.”

“But we've been through that in the past,” said Eloise. “The silver room is a pathway from Pat's room to a back stair, but it's empty. I have a feeling access to the map was sealed when the walls were put up. He was either eavesdropping on you or looking for something. He refuses to believe nothing is here.”

Just then Brid burst into the room, papers in her hands. “There is nothing in the other bedrooms, but I have a plan. It's time to launch Operation Mortar.”

“What?” CJ said. “What is Operation Mortar?”

“It's my plan to get behind the wall to the wooden map. It's finally ready. It will take us to the next level of this mystery, if you think you're ready to go there,” Brid said solemnly. “Because once Operation Mortar is launched, there is no going back.”

It seemed Brid had already gotten started. She had asked Ray to call Mr. Smithfork's office. Using his most courteous, professional voice, he had requested a DigiSpy unit be sent to their home. Once the Smithforks' home connected to the office, Ray turned into a fantastic actor who claimed his boss needed to work on DigiSpy the moment he returned from China. Ray didn't mash any words together, and the people from LeCube thought nothing of this request. The prototype arrived a couple of days later. CJ couldn't believe his sister had done all this without asking for help.

The DigiSpy was essentially a little robot with a camera. By using their computer keys, they could direct the robot to go anywhere, even tiny places behind the wall.
They practiced and soon could get clear images on the computer screen of any nook the DigiSpy pod visited in their apartment.

The third part of Operation Mortar called for Pat to go back up in the dumbwaiter with the DigiSpy. He had to stop the dumbwaiter in just the right spot under the silver room wall and make certain that the Torrio and Williamson apartments were empty before launching the pod into the spaces too small for him to crawl into. CJ would stay in the driver's seat—Mr. Smithfork's home office—with the computer. Pat would stay still in the dumbwaiter and wait to retrieve the DigiSpy pod. Once the robot had recorded the images, they would have a clear picture of the symbols Pat had seen behind the walls. CJ was increasingly sure that what they would see was a map of Manhattan, marked with symbols to push.

Project Mortar was going to be launched on Saturday. Brid had worked out a schedule:

 

9:00
AM
: Eloise arrives to babysit.

9:15
AM
: Mom leaves for baby yoga with Carron.

9:30
AM
: Ray will be sitting outside the building in his car, looking as if he is awaiting his usual Saturday drive with Eloise. From that position, he can confirm that Mr. Torrio has left for his Saturday-morning walk. When the coast
is clear, Patrick, Brid, and Eloise go down to storage area.

9:45
AM
: Patrick enters the dumbwaiter with DigiSpy pod in front pocket of his hoodie. He must wear his headlight and carry his walkie-talkie.

9:45
AM
: CJ launches DigiSpy program on Dad's computer. Brid will radio to him that Patrick is heading into the walls.

9:50
AM
: Patrick activates DigiSpy pod. He and CJ communicate by walkie-talkie so CJ knows exactly when the DigiSpy is in the right spot.

10:00
AM
: Using the arrow keys on his computer, CJ directs the movement of the DigiSpy. This will allow him to see the hidden wall on his computer screen.

10:05
AM
: CJ prints photo of wall behind wall.

10:30
AM
: Patrick retrieves DigiSpy and uses walkie-talkie to tell Brid that he is coming down in the dumbwaiter.

10:40
AM
: All return to Dad's office to see photos of the hidden wall behind the wall.

 

That had been Brid's master plan, but this was what really happened:

When Mrs. Smithfork woke up that Saturday morning, she didn't feel well. She decided to stay home from
baby yoga. She picked up the phone and, while Brid, Pat, and CJ watched helplessly, called Eloise to tell her not to come. Next, Anne proceeded to labor through the motions of making a big breakfast. Something was making her nurturing side come out, and worse, she seemed to want to talk in that heavy way.

“I miss your dad so much,” she said, to nobody in particular, while making omelets for the kids. “I sometimes wonder if this China project is worth it.”

Brid wished she could pour herself some cold cereal, but she didn't want to upset her mom.

“Oh, it will be worth it,” CJ said.

“It makes me wonder if more really means more. Does a bigger company with bigger profits make for a happier life?” Anne Smithfork continued wistfully.

“Mom, don't get all heavy with us. He'll be home soon, and everything will be normal again,” CJ answered.

“That's good, because I miss normal,” their mom said. She cracked some pepper over the eggs, and the knob on top of the pepper grinder fell off and into the eggy mess. As she grabbed the top of the grinder, she upset the egg bowl, sending drippy egg whites across the counter and down the front of the cabinets.

“Darn it!” she said, in a meek, defeated voice.

“Mom,” Brid said soothingly, “I think you need to go back to bed. We'll watch Carron while you take a nap.”

Anne stabbed at the mess with paper towels. “You kids are so sweet. I feel like I have the flu or something.”

“Really, Mom, take a nap. We'll be quiet.”

As if she was sleepwalking, Anne drifted out of the room and back to bed.

“She must be really sick,” said Brid. “She didn't even try to resist the offer.”

 

An hour later, everyone except Eloise was in place. Carron was downstairs with Brid and Patrick. Pat climbed into position, DigiSpy in hand, while Carron tried to get into the dumbwaiter with him.

“Me come. Me come. Kawan come, too,” Carron pleaded.

“No Kawan wit Paddy,” Patrick said, imitating her. “Next time.” He turned to Brid. “Let's get going,” he said matter-of-factly, adjusting his headlamp.

“Pat, we haven't checked with Ray whether Mr. Torrio is in his apartment,” said Brid. “We're getting a late start, so he might be back from his walk soon.”

“It's not a problem,” Patrick insisted. “I'll be really quiet.”

“It's the DigiSpy I'm worried about. It makes a little whirring sound,” Brid said.

“He's not going to hear anything behind the wall. Let's just start already.”

Brid radioed up to CJ. “Rafael is ready for action,” she said, using Guastavino's first name, their secret code name for the DigiSpy pod.

“Got it,” CJ answered solemnly, double-clicking on the DigiSpy icon. The computer screen turned an undulating black color, and CJ worried that the DigiSpy wasn't working. He played with the lighting on the screen, but nothing helped. He radioed Brid. “Rafael's fuzzy,” he reported.

“Because he's in the hoodie,” Brid answered shortly.

Of course, thought CJ to himself. Of course the DigiSpy was fuzzy and dark. It was sending CJ footage of the inside of Pat's pocket.

About one minute later, CJ's screen got brighter as it became obvious that Patrick was in the right place and had taken the pod out of his pocket. When Patrick turned his headlamp toward a dark, narrow opening, CJ's screen lit up perfectly. Next, Pat turned the pod on himself. This was CJ's signal to indicate whether he could see clearly enough. He spoke into his radio. “Thumbs up, Rafael.”

Patrick placed the DigiSpy on the ground. CJ touched his arrow keys, and the pod moved deeper into the space between the walls. The screen turned downright spooky, with wisps of thick cobwebs, balls of gray dust, and pipes everywhere. CJ saw some writing on the wall, and he held the DigiSpy in place to read the inscription: a heart with initials that meant nothing to him: BS
+ MB. Probably one of the original construction workers, grabbing a piece of Fifth Avenue history for himself and his love, CJ thought. Ugh.

Then CJ stopped pushing the arrow keys as something new came on the screen, something with intricate lines and pictures. He could plainly see an image of a star, a general's star like the one he had seen on Grant's Tomb! Clearly, this was one of the symbols that Mr. Post was saying needed to be pushed. The back of the wall was full of them. He realized he was looking at a huge map studded with symbols.

With his heart pounding, CJ hit his print button over and over, printing out sections of the map. The images formed a familiar shape: a map of a long, skinny island with symbols all over it. CJ felt certain that on the real map behind the wall, the symbols could be pushed. He laughed out loud. This was the missing piece: with the poems as their guide, they would be able to figure out the right seven symbols to push and solve the mystery. Once they knew the right symbols, the rest should be simple.

CJ's radio crackled and interrupted his thoughts.

“Gotta go,” Pat said, not bothering to speak in code. On the screen, CJ could see what appeared to be Pat's arms reaching for the pod, but not getting close enough to grab it. Before CJ could do anything to help him, the screen went totally black. Pat seemed to have turned off
his light, and it was impossible for CJ to get an idea of which way he needed to steer the pod. He tried hitting the down key, hoping the device would simply retract back to wherever Pat was at that moment. He radioed Brid, knowing he had to say as little as possible.

 

 

 

“Where's Rafael?”

“Returning to earth,” she said. CJ could hear Carron wailing in the background.

At that moment, Anne Smithfork shuffled into her husband's office. She sneezed. “CJ, I know Daddy doesn't want you on that computer, dear. Please don't mess anything up. Are the kids all right?”

CJ jumped up to grab the pages he'd printed. “Yeah, they're great. Brid and Pat and Carron just went down to get their scooters out of storage. They'll be right back.” It felt strange to lie so easily to his mother.

“Well, please leave Daddy's stuff alone, okay? I'm going back to bed, but I called Eloise to ask her to come after all. I'm afraid I'm useless today.”

“Yeah, okay,” mumbled CJ, relieved that Eloise was coming and worried that they were getting in over their heads.

“CJ,” Anne said exhaustedly, “I need to thank you for taking this babysitting idea so well. I know you don't need a caregiver all the time, but for now, we really need another adult around to help supervise. Thank you for being so gracious about it.”

Great, CJ thought, not only do I lie to my mother, but then she thanks me for it. Ugh.

He stood and shut the door behind his mother before radioing Brid. “Any news?”

“Patrick is back.” Brid paused, then said, “But Rafael has gone missing.”