Padlocked Penthouse (Locked House Hauntings Book 2) Read online

  She was alone. There was nothing where his hands had been. She turned to look behind her, and he was gone. Her eyes flickered to the dark mirror, and she could see a face right behind her. She let out a surprised gasp and swirled, but there was nothing, just darkness.

  The darkness was playing tricks on her.

  But she had never fantasized about Barnett touching her before. Sure, just like any girl, she wondered what it would be like to kiss him. But she never imagined him so hard she felt his touch. What was happening to her? Did she have the flu? Her fingers reached out and she flushed the toilet still full of the sushi she had just eaten.

  She was utterly confused. What had just happened? All of her thoughts of Barnett were passing and sweet. But this, this was intense jealousy like she had never experienced. Or… or she had eaten bad sushi. That was the only explanation. The rest of it was delirium from the fever she was surely running. She walked back to Pear’s room and looked in at the family, curled together on the bed, discussing how much they would miss that cat. She didn’t feel anything, not jealousy, certainly not… attraction so strong she would hurl. Her hair swung as she shook her head to clear it.

  “Aurora, I hate to interrupt, but I think that sushi made me sick. I’m going to go to bed early, I think. Do you know if we have any light bulbs? Mine are burned out,” Wynne said.

  Aurora looked up, her red curls shivering pleasantly around her face. She had tiny little tears and Barnett was tickling Pear. They looked so lovely. The three of them, madly in love with each other. “Lightbulbs? I don’t know. Call down to the front desk for them, I guess. You do try to feel better.”

  And Wynne slipped out, listening to the growing giggles from the happiest family she had ever met.

  6

  Pear wept until she slept. Barnett hired a team of people to scour the airport for the cat. They searched long and hard, set up fliers, and did everything one could do, but they did not find even a trace of Calleo.

  Barnett and Aurora were restless, worrying about their daughter. “I just can’t stand that she has had her first broken heart. She’s only four.”

  “I know what you mean, dear,” Barnett replied. “It is just a cat. But it’s also her only consistent playmate.”

  Aurora slowly slid her silken robe to the ground. Her naked body immediately changed the conversation. Barnett soothed his wife with his own glorious body.

  Before anyone else awoke, Pear crawled out of bed and over to the dollhouse. The dollhouse was the exact replica of the very home in which she had been born. It was a little two-story yellow house. The roof was a dark red color, the front doors green. Inside was an exact replica of all of the furniture at the time, and a gorgeous set of very expensive dolls. There was Barnett, Aurora, and the cutest little baby Pear that you’ve ever seen. They had this re-created perfectly for her when she was three.

  Aurora told her that house was the cheapest place they would ever live. Barnett got his big break not six months after Pear was born. They would never live in something that small and cheap again. But, Aurora had whispered to her, it was always good to remember where you came from.

  Pear carefully unwrapped the last few pieces of furniture that were still in the box Wynne had not finished unpacking. She carefully looked over the dollhouse, and a little bit of panic set in. “Did you take it?” She looked around the room, but no one answered her. Carefully, she opened every little drawer and every little chest in the dollhouse. “Give it back.” She stood up and balled her little fist. “You can’t keep this room sad! It’s mine now. Give it back!”

  Wynne charged into the room. “What is the problem? Why are you shouting?”

  “Calleo is missing.” Pear was extremely angry and shivering.

  “He got out of the airplane, at the airport. He’s in the city; we just have to find him. Maybe we’ll luck out and he’ll be at the pound,” Wynne continued, “but that is no reason to shout so early in the morning. You know he is missing.”

  “Calleo is missing, and his doll is missing.” The little girl pointed an accusing finger at the dollhouse. “He’s supposed to be right there.”

  Wynne wrinkled her nose. The figurine of the little odd-eyed cat was indeed missing. She carefully looked through the scraps of tissue paper and the box. But she did not find the little figure with a green eye and a yellow eye. She did not find the cat.

  “How could he be missing? I remember putting them in this box.” Wynne had a very irritated sound to her voice. “Did you hide his figure because we can’t find him?”

  Pear responded with a loud sob. “No!” Her wail was hard and Wynne wrapped her up in her arms. Her eyes narrowed into little angry slits. “I think I know who took him. It was that girl I saw. I’m sure it was her.”

  “Baby, I’m so sorry about Calleo. We can get a new figurine if you want. But, babe, you have to stop talking about the girl. She doesn’t exist. Nobody was here, nobody is here.” Wynne grabbed Pear’s hand and pulled her to the kitchen. “Let’s have some breakfast and calm down. I’m sure we will find him.”

  Pear wasn’t convinced that the little girl would ever give him back.

  7

  “Mama!” Pear ran to Aurora. Aurora was wearing a long fur robe and a silken nightgown underneath. She considered it her duty to dress like a movie star every single moment of her life.

  “Good morning, Pear! How are you, love?” Her mama scooped her up with a great big hug. Whenever Aurora was not in heels, she’d hold Pear whenever she asked.

  “Mama! I want to move. Let’s get a different place. We could go back to Paris? I miss the bread.” Pear kissed her mama’s nose and gave her a pretty smile.

  But Aurora simply frowned. “No, we can’t go back to Paris. I can make sure Wynne gets some really good bread if you’d like.”

  “Well, if we can’t go to Paris, can we go anywhere else? I don’t like my room. Could we get me a blue one?” Pear continued.

  “We are not going to move. We just bought this place, silly girl.” She stared at her daughter. “I can have your room painted, but then we’d have to get you some new furniture. Are you sure you want blue?”

  “I don’t want blue, Mama. I want a different place to live. I don’t like the girl here!” Pear was suddenly shouting in her mother’s face, and Aurora glared at her child. Pear was dumped gently in a chair by her monther.

  “Don’t you shout at me!” She poured herself a cup of coffee and walked back towards her bedroom, pausing before turning and saying, “Has Wynne shown you the pool yet?”

  Pear’s eyes lit up like fireworks on the Fourth of July and not five minutes later, she had already wrestled on a swimsuit. “Let’s go!” she cried, forgetting all her woes and grabbing Wynne’s hand. “I’m ready. Let’s swim.”

  Wynne let out a chirpy laugh. It was nice to see Pear finally excited about something. With any luck, there wouldn’t be any more tears today about the missing Calleo. Pear’s suit was a tiny little bikini in red. The bottom was covered in ruffles, and Pear didn’t like them because they were lumpy to sit on. “Let’s go!” They latched hands together and Wynne led her to the glass elevator.

  Moments later, they were up on the top of the building. The skyscraper had large glass panels around the roof to prevent any accidental falls. But the view was spectacular, all skyscrapers and blue sky. Pear couldn’t care less about the view. She wanted the pool. They stood on a long concrete deck with all sorts of activities like shuffleboard painted upon it. There was a massive fire pit and chairs galore. This would be an excellent location to host a hundred of their closest friends. Wynne smiled when she considered that she’d be allowed to rub shoulders with the richest men in the world.

  They walked past the fire pit and past the chairs, across the shuffleboard, until they were at the other end of the oval. Here sat a large pool with an attached hot tub designed to seat twenty people. Pear screamed with excitement the moment she saw it and ran full speed towards the sparkling water. Wynne did
n’t bother to stop her, as the child knew how to swim quite well already. It was one of the first lessons she had taught her. She cannonballed from the side, but her splash was as tiny as her little body and not even a drop escaped the pool. Moments later, she was holding up one hand with something sparkling in it. “I found this! Is it for me! Did you give me this?”

  “What do you have there?” Wynne frowned at the girl and sat on the edge of the pool, her feet soaking in the water. Pear swam closer, still keeping her one hand out of the water, holding it out to Wynne. The child dropped the ring into Wynne’s hand.

  Wynne let out a stunned whistling sound. “We have to show this to your mother. Come on. Time to get out; we’ll swim again in a bit.” Pear let out a whiny cry, but Wynne gave her a look and she shushed immediately. “If this ring is real, then you found some real treasure in this pool.”

  Wynne carefully dried off Pear enough that they could go back inside and down the glass elevator they flew. Moments later, Aurora was hushed and staring at the ring. The diamond was real, as far as she could tell. It looked like an engagement ring. She estimated it to cost at least a million dollars, but she’d certainly need a jeweler to verify it. It didn’t take long for the jeweler she called to both verify it and announce to whom it had been sold.

  Coralina Rodenberge.

  The name made Aurora frown. She knew Coralina. They had become close a few films ago when her husband played a man who seduced Coralina and then murdered her. Fury welled up inside Aurora as she realized what this meant.

  Barnett was sitting in his office working on the details of a new movie contract with his agent when Aurora came charging in. “I’m working,” he chastised her, angrily staring at her.

  “How could you keep from me that this penthouse is where Coralina was killed! She was killed here, you bastard!” Aurora was breathless and waving her hands angrily.

  A long silence entered the office as the two lovers stared at each other. Aurora’s face was twisted with fury, but Barnett simply looked surprised.

  8

  “I’m sure this is a big misunderstanding,” the realtor began, but he faltered as Barnett slammed his fist on the table.

  “You are supposed to inform us of these things! The last couple here was murdered two years ago.” Hot rage poured out of his mouth like a waterfall. “They haven’t even caught who did it! How could you do this to us! We trusted you. Now we’re living in a murder suite. The bloody penthouse. A fucking death chamber!” His knuckles cracked across the wooden desk a second time. The whole room rumbled at the hit. The realtor resisted the urge to whimper in fear at the man. “You are ruined. You are so fucking ruined.”

  “Wait, no, I can fix this. This is just a big misunderstanding.” He tried again to pacify the raging bear of a man in his office.

  “You are finished. You’ll never sell anything worth any money ever again, you fucking scumbag.” Barnett could hardly spit the words out fast enough. It was true; he’d never sell real estate again. The man killed himself within the week.

  But none of it solved Barnett’s problem. Once the word was out, dumping the penthouse proved difficult at best. They installed security cameras throughout the entire penthouse, every room laden with cameras. Aurora in particular was terrified. Someone had killed Coralina and her husband in her house. Someone nobody had caught. That monster still knew the secrets of the penthouse. This new building seemed less and less like a safe place. “Do you think whatever killed them is going to break back in here?” Aurora would whisper to her husband at least once a day, and he’d shake his head and tell her no. He did his best to console her fears.

  But if he was honest, he was scared.

  9

  It was their third week living in the penthouse before anything particularly odd happened.

  Besides, of course, the missing Calleo, who still had not been found. Not his figure or himself. He hadn’t turned up at any pounds or anywhere. He was just gone. When it was suggested that perhaps Pear would like a new cat, she cringed and shook her head. They didn’t offer again, hoping that time would heal the painful spot in their dear daughter’s heart.

  But then, one morning, Pear was missing. Wynne had visited her room in the morning and found her bed made and empty. She walked to the kitchen and looked for the child, expecting her to be munching on an apple or something of the sort. But she was gone. Wynne walked the entire first floor, checking the dining room, then the two sitting rooms, and even peering into Barnett’s office. She checked Pear’s bedroom again, and then both guest rooms. She examined her own room, calling for Pear the entire time. When she made it to the kitchen for the third time around the oval loop of the penthouse, she finally had to admit the child was missing.

  Or.

  Or she had gone the one place Wynne had not and would not look. She stared at the bedroom where Aurora and her husband were sleeping. Hesitantly, she rapped at the door with her knuckles. Silence replied. She hadn’t been in the master suite, not even once. She knocked again, louder still. But there wasn’t a single sound. She creaked the door open. She found herself standing in a little hallway; to the left was a set of closets. To the right was the bedroom. She stepped further in, turning around the corner a bit before she saw them both. He was naked and standing behind Aurora. She was draped over the bed and he was behind her, thrusting into her. His delicious dark eyes caught Wynne’s, and he looked shocked for a moment, but then suddenly burst forth with orgasm. Wynne’s skin grew electrified and terrified, embarrassed and aroused all at once, watching his perfect body burst into her.

  His eyes stayed connected to hers the entire time. Aurora seemed to not even notice she was there, simply too busy to care. Wynne clapped her hand over her mouth and backed out slowly. Pear couldn’t be in there with them doing that.

  She wandered the oval again, confused and flustered, her own body warm. She could feel her heart pounding. And for a moment, she saw brown curls walking into Pear’s room. “There you are!” she said, and hurried to the bedroom door. The door slammed shut just before she got to it, startling her so badly she almost shouted.

  She turned the handle, but the door was locked.

  She knocked. “Pear, let me in. We have to do lessons. Did you eat yet?”

  There was no reply. She rattled the door handle. “Pear! Let me in!” But there was no reply. Aurora finally showed her face, her hair neatly curled. She was wearing a flowy lace jumpsuit in her favorite mauve color.

  “Wynne, what is all this racket about?” Her face was stern, and her robe was flowing around her like a cloud. She was already in stilettos.

  Wynne couldn’t look at Aurora, not after that embarrassing moment earlier. “Pear has been hiding from me all morning and now she has gone and locked herself in her room.”

  Aurora frowned. “I believe the key is on the door frame.” Her perfectly manicured nails touched the frame and instantly found the little key. A moment later, they were in Pear’s room. Pear was not visible anywhere. They both scrambled, tearing apart the room, looking under the bed, in the closets, searching even the bathroom cupboard. “When did you last see her?” Aurora frantically screamed at Wynne.

  “I don’t know, last night, but this morning, I was looking and I thought I saw her come in here, and the door shut right in front of me, I swear!” Wynne was frantic too, and they were both shouting.

  “Why didn’t you wake me! What is wrong with you!”

  Wynne flushed red, and tried to think of something to say. “I didn’t want to bother you and Barnett. I know I shouldn’t come into your room.”

  “Barnett? He’s in Chicago this week; don’t you remember that? It’s not like you would have walked in on us or anything. Where could she be? Pear!” Aurora left Pear’s bedroom, shouting for the child as she ran through the house, running briskly from one end of the oval penthouse to the other. Wynne stared as the older woman stepped into the glass elevator, nervously ascending.

  Wynne should have searched t
he top floor. Maybe Pear was just swimming in the pool.

  Or drowned.

  But her entire brain was crashing. How could he be in Chicago? He stared into her eyes as he burst.

  Her body grew warm as she remembered. Did she imagine that? This crush on him was getting weird. She was starting to feel crazy.

  Maybe she was crazy.

  She remade Pear’s bed, completely confused. How could she have thought she saw them—doing it?

  Shaking her head to clear the image, she thought about Pear. She smoothed out the blankets and put the little stuffed cat back in its place between the four ruffled pillows. This version of Calleo was the most recent form of him. Barnett had it specially made two days after they had given up searching for him. Perhaps a new kitten wouldn’t suffice, but a white stuffed cat with one yellow eye and one green would be enough.

  Calleo always knew where the girl was. If you couldn’t find Pear, just follow his constant meowing. He’d lead Wynne directly to her every time. He was a smart cat. Pear hid occasionally, but this had gone on too long. Wynne had never searched so long for the missing child. Wynne had been searching for over an hour now. She finished making the bed. Wynne stepped back into the master suite, slowly calling Pear’s name, looking through the closets, under the bed, in the cabinets. She saw no sign of Pear. Or her father. She lingered for a moment longer than she needed to, trying to figure out why she thought she saw him.

  But for a moment, when she was looking at the bed, she swore she heard the child giggling. She tried to follow the sound, but found nothing. She was walking towards the elevator to help Aurora search the roof, when the glass elevator came back down. Aurora was standing alone, sobbing.

  “Let’s walk through one more time before we call the police,” Wynne said softly, taking her mistress’s hand in hers. They slowly circled the penthouse—kitchen to dining room, past both sitting rooms, into the office, to Pear’s room. They both paused a moment, hearing a slightly rustling noise. “Did you hear that?” Wynne whispered.