The Hanging Hill

42

Judy returned to the fifth floor.

She couldn’t find Reginald Grimes. The company manager said he was tied up in meetings with the producers for the rest of the day.

Fine. It was almost one-thirty and she was getting a hunger headache. If Zack was done playing with Zipper and his new friends, maybe they could go grab a sandwich at the diner across the street.

She entered her room and went to the door connecting her half of the suite with Zack’s.

“Zack? Are you in there? Zack, honey?”

She heard a crash. It sounded like glass shattering.

“Zack? Are you okay?”

No answer.

“Did something break, honey?”

Nothing.

She fumbled with the doorknob and realized it was locked on the other side.

“Hang on, honey.”

Judy went out into the hallway, where she saw a tall, slender woman with curly hair walking away from Zack’s bedroom door.

“Excuse me,” Judy said. The woman kept walking. She said it more loudly: “Excuse me?”

The woman drifted down the hall toward the stairwell.

“Were you just in my son’s room?”

No answer.

Judy hurried to Zack’s door. Jiggled the knob. It was locked.

“Zack? Are you in there? Zack?”

“Hey, Mom.”

Judy whirled around to see Zack and Zipper stepping off the elevator.

“What’s up?” he asked.

Judy turned to see if the woman with the curly hair was still walking down the hall.

She wasn’t.

She had vanished.