Melody Burning Read Online Free PDF Page B

thing he’d done was to go down into the apartment. He’d walked through the rooms, touching nothing. Trembling so hard he could barely control himself, he’d gone from room to room. He’d touched Melody’s blue silk bedspread and watched the sun go down through her huge window.
    When he’d heard them yelling as they came down the outside hall, he’d levered himself back up into the crawl space and pulled his hatch closed.
    As he listened, they came into the living room and Melody screamed, “He attacked me! What don’t you get about that? He’s a druggie and a potential rapist and he’s gone , Mom. And it is NOT my fault!”
    “Honey, I know it, and I hate it, but we might lose the show anyway. It’s not your fault, but the network is embarrassed.”
    “The network ? You’re scaring me, Mom, you really are.”
    “We need the money, Mel!”
    “You need it, not me. If I had my way, we’d still be in Calabasas.”
    “And you’d be flipping burgers and singing ‘Memories’ in the Calabasas school talent show.”
    Their voices drifted off. They’d gone to the kitchen.
    Swingles was over?
    Their voices rose again, and then glass broke. He clapped his hands over his ears. They were throwing things, and that could not be good.
    He just ached to go down there and take her in his arms and somehow make it all better, but Frank, the new super, was hunting him like crazy, and if he got found, he didn’t know what would happen. He couldn’t get thrown out of the Beresford. This was home.
    Melody’s bedroom door slammed. He slid over to the crawl space above it and pressed his ear against the rough plaster of the ceiling.
    Crying came up from below, long, bitter sobs.
    Very carefully, he moved back off the ceiling and down into the chase between Melody’s room and the stairwell. From here, he could stay near her, and somehow maybe his love and his hope for her would help her.
    He settled in, trying to get comfortable. He would guard her all night. Later, he’d sleep in his own tiny space on the roof, but not until after he was sure she was okay. It was real tight in here, and he had to keep twisting and turning so his legs wouldn’t go to sleep. If he was very still, he could hear her breathing.
    Instead of the sounds of sleep, he heard a shuffling noise. Then the wallboard seemed to shift a little.
    “Get out of my wall, you creep!” Then bang , right in his face, and bang bang bang ! “I know you’re in there, you sicko, and I’m gonna call the cops and get you put away!”
    He was frozen with fear. She knows , and she hates me .
    His heart broke as he quickly reached over to the crawl space that crossed 5052, then hurried along the beams. He headed for the elevator shaft, oblivious to the tears that were blinding him.
    This was the top floor, so the way to the roof for him was to climb the cables into the elevator room, then go out through the ser vice door. He never, ever used the stairs. He understood cameras very well, and he didn’t want to be seen on any of the security system screens in the basement.
    He rushed out onto the roof and ran. He ran all the way to the far end, then around the edges. He got up on the rail and ran the rail, crying out and waving his arms, trying to make the feelings of sorrow and upset leave him.
    He ran swiftly, deftly, and when he came to the spot where Daddy had fallen, he stopped. As he always did, he looked down into the alley. At night it was lit only by the one light over the side door. He looked down, and as always, he called out, cupping his hands around his mouth and shouting with all his might, “Daddy! Daddy!” Then he went on—or, he was about to go on—when he saw something below.
    What he saw was a face like the face he’d seen peering at him the day Daddy was pushed, the same glittering lenses, the same robot appearance. Somebody was using a set of night-vision goggles to look up the side of the building.
    That would be Frank or one of the other