Chapter Eleven
Both Crump and Johnson wanted to shower after falling in the pool. When Gansley entered the living room afterwards, he found Johnson sitting near the fire in a robe, with a throw pulled over his shoulders.
Johnson didn't look up. "I know you must be as hurt as Crump was, if not more."
"I can't deny that." Gansley sat across from Johnson. "What on Earth possessed you to say something like that to Noa?"
"I don't even know," Johnson said forlornly. "I was desperate to assure him we wouldn't all lose. I'd told so many lies by that point that one more didn't seem all that terrible, even a lie about two of my best friends. I thought if it would save you in the end, it was justified." He looked up. "But I never wanted any of you to find out what I'd said. I knew you wouldn't understand or appreciate it, and I was so afraid you'd all leave me because of it."
Gansley looked at him carefully. "But it was a lie," he prompted. "You didn't believe it?"
"Of course not!" Johnson looked up at him. "You're my oldest friend, Gansley. We've been through so much together and I've always appreciated that! And Crump . . . well, I often don't understand him, but I still love him. If I could take back what I said, I would."
"No." Gansley got up and went over to sit beside him. "You did calm Noa down and he didn't try to kill us any more at that point. You saved us, Johnson. Maybe nothing else you could have said would have worked." He drew an arm around him. "As long as I know you didn't mean it, I'm grateful."
Johnson managed a smile. "Thank you. . . ."
"What we need to know now is how that person even knew what you'd said," Gansley said. "Something isn't right here."
"A whole lot of things aren't right!" Crump exclaimed, entering the living room after his shower. All of the mansion's other living occupants trailed after him.
"So we're going to have a conference about it, right here, right now," Yami Bakura said.
"But wait a minute," Evangeline interjected. "Démas said the siren in the pool is real and it almost drowned you two?!" She looked from Crump to Johnson.
"Yeah," Crump said. "That's a real piece of work out there."
"How horrible!" Serenity exclaimed.
"Let's think about something else," Yami Bakura said flatly.
Between him and Crump, they relayed the entire experience from the club and Crump played back the recording he had made on his phone. Johnson was pale again by the time they finished.
"I . . . I have no idea how he could have known what I said," he gasped. "It doesn't make sense!"
"I think he's been in touch with supernatural forces," Atem frowned. "Someone must have told him!"
"Would just any spirit know, though?" Lector countered. "It seems to me that the only person who knew was Noa."
"Noa wouldn't do this!" Mokuba insisted. "He saved all of us and went into the light. . . . He's not bad anymore. . . ." He slumped back into the couch, defeated.
Seto frowned. He didn't know what to believe. Noa had saved them, but after everything else he had pulled, he certainly seemed capable of doing something like this. Noa had hated the Big Five. Then again, he had hated everyone else too, and he'd had a change of heart and stopped them from being killed. . . . He ran his hands over his face. It seemed like a question without an answer.
"There's other ways he could know," Evangeline said. "Like if he could look into the past. . . ."
"Then that's what he probably did," Mokuba pounced. "Maybe he has some voodoo thing that lets him do that."
No one could protest that idea after all that had happened.
"But did he somehow cause me to lose my memory of Lector?" Nesbitt wondered. "Or did it happen some other way?"
"If we knew that, maybe we'd have a big part of this mystery solved," Crump groaned.
"And then there's the wardrobe," Johnson said.
"What about the wardrobe?" Seto sharply asked.
Johnson and Nesbitt quickly explained.
". . . Okay, that's just freaky," Joey said.
"I had no idea," Evangeline exclaimed. "I don't see any purpose in it."
"We should check all the rooms to see if they're the same way," Gansley said.
Duke was silent, pondering.
"What's on your mind, Duke?" David asked.
Duke looked to him. "I doubt Snakes knows anything about the North wing or the paperback wardrobe or he would have warned me. But I think I should call and ask him anyway." He looked at the clock. "Going by Pacific Time, he might be getting off work about now."
"Then call him," David encouraged. "We need all the help we can get!"
Duke dreaded telling Snakes of all the new trouble and making him worry, but he got out his phone and dialed. As he had thought, Snakes soon answered. "Hello?"
"Hey, Snakes." Duke hesitated. "Look, I'm sorry to bug you as soon as you got off work, but I'm wondering if you know anything about the North wing in this house. It's . . . kind of important."
"The North wing," Snakes mused. "It does seem like Ismael said something about it. . . . Yeah, I remember him talking about needing to change the lock on the doors leading into it. I asked him why it was locked up anyway, and he said it was just another of his wife's idiosyncracies, that she just didn't want anyone wandering in there by accident."
"I'm afraid by keeping people out, she was protecting them from some serious trouble," Duke said.
"Why? What's wrong?" Snakes demanded.
Duke started to explain about the North wing and what had happened to Nesbitt. Snakes listened, stunned and more than a little creeped out.
"This sounds like bad news. And all those other ghosts are just stubborn and won't talk or help or anything? You've really got into something bad this time, Pal."
"No kidding," Duke sighed. "We don't know how to help Nesbitt, Lector's devastated . . . oh, and we discovered the siren story is real. She almost drowned Johnson and Crump. And the back of the wardrobe in Nesbitt's and Johnson's room is barely stronger than paper and opens up into some weird drop-off where the pipes are."
Snakes swore. "Maybe I'd better come out there."
"It'd be great to see you, Snakes," Duke said, "but I'd be worried for you to get mixed up in this mess too. This is not a good place. Not even Yami Bakura could get the spirits to talk."
". . . I can't deny I'm freaked," Snakes said. "But I'll see if I can get away so I can come out there. Be careful until I get there!"
Duke smiled a bit. "I'll be as careful as possible. And around here, that might not be saying much. See you, Snakes."
Both Serenity and David were watching him as he hung up.
"He's coming out here?" Serenity said in concern. "He might get hurt. . . ."
"He wants to come anyway," Duke said. He sighed. "I hope no one else is going to get hurt, but around here, who can say."
"Well, I recommend that we try to salvage what's left of the night," Gansley said. "Everyone needs more sleep, especially Nesbitt. And some of you haven't slept at all."
Seto nodded. "And I'll have to call the D.A. in the morning," he grunted. "I'm not looking forward to that."
"At least your doc can verify Nesbitt's injuries," Joey said.
"Yeah. And . . . oh man, what if they don't postpone the case and we have to go in today?" Tristan grimaced. "Come on, let's hurry and sleep for as long as we can!"
That was more than enough to send the majority of the group running for the stairs. Those left followed, at a slower pace.
"Tristan has an excellent point, Yugi," Atem said. "Let's try to get some sleep."
"Yeah. . . ." Yugi shuddered. He really doubted he would sleep, but he had to admit he wanted to try.
xxxx
To everyone's surprise and relief, they all did get back to sleep—but with all the chaos, most of them slept far too long.
"Oh my gosh!" Téa exclaimed, sitting up like a shot and staring at the clock. "If we're supposed to go to court, we're late!"
Serenity mumbled something indistinguishable from the next bed. Téa glanced to her while throwing back the covers. She would let the younger girl sleep on until she found out what was happening. Surely someone was awake and knew!
She pulled a robe on over her nightgown before running into the hall. Tristan was already there, talking to Seto. She ran over, picking up their conversation as she went. To her relief, apparently Seto had awakened on time and taken his doctor to meet with the judge and the district attorney in chambers. The end result had been to postpone both trials, at least for the time being, as Nesbitt's testimony was important to both trials and what had happened to him had affected Lector and Evangeline to the point that they might not be able to provide accurate testimony either.
"How did you explain Nesbitt only forgetting one person?" Tristan exclaimed as Téa came up to them. "Oh hey, Téa."
"Good morning, Tristan. Kaiba." Téa covered her mouth to hide a yawn.
Seto nodded in her direction. "Unfortunately, we could only say we didn't know what happened and that it might be psychological," he said. "Even if New Orleans accepts ghosts and voodoo, I wasn't about to say that either thing might have been responsible for Nesbitt's amnesia."
Téa sighed. "Poor guy. . . ."
"Is he still asleep?" Seto asked.
"I think so," Tristan said. "And Yugi got up and started working on the silverware puzzle again. He said it's all we've got to go on right now."
"He's probably right," Seto said.
"We could also try going over the attic better," Tristan said. "We didn't really get to see it in detail on the tour."
"It's worth a try," Seto conceded.
"And what are we going to do about that creep from The Gates of Hades club?" Téa wondered. "I really hate to think of just letting him roam free after all the stuff he admitted doing in the past and everything he's been doing to torture Johnson. He's obviously not planning to turn over a new leaf any time soon. But if we tell about him, Johnson really might go to prison, and that just doesn't seem fair when he is trying to turn over a new leaf and he isn't dangerous anymore. . . ."
". . . I talked to the judge about that, too," Seto admitted, "and we also called the district attorney back in Domino City. The end result was that everyone agreed that man was and still is extremely dangerous and that Johnson will be let off the hook if he turns state's evidence against that lunatic."
"Oh, that's great to hear," Téa said, smiling and relaxing in relief.
"I just hope Johnson won't be upset that you took it upon yourself to tell all that stuff without his permission," Tristan remarked.
"He might be," Seto shrugged, "but I'm sure the end result will make him feel it was worth it."
Atem, who had come out of his room in time to hear the last part of the discussion, said, "It was good of you to take the time to try to help him, Kaiba."
Seto grunted. "It wasn't for him so much as it was to keep all of us safe from that madman."
Mokuba just smiled. That might be true, but he knew Seto didn't want to see the Big Five split up now that they were all allies, and when Seto understood how devoted they were to each other.
"Anyway," Seto continued, "let's try that idea of looking through the attic. Anyone who wants to come with me, I'm going up right now." He headed for the stairs to the third floor.
"Wait up!" Mokuba called, hurrying after him.
"I'm going to see how Yugi's coming along with the silverware," Atem said. "Why don't you two go with the Kaibas?"
"Okay," Tristan shrugged.
"I hope Yugi's making some progress," Téa said.
"Maybe later I should check the basement," Atem said. "Evangeline was originally sure there was a secret passageway that opens down there, and I wouldn't be surprised."
"Sounds good to me," Tristan said.
xxxx
Nesbitt wasn't at all sure what to think when he started to rouse up and realized he was resting against Lector. The other man was still asleep, but one arm was protectively around Nesbitt to keep him from rolling off the bed. Normally Nesbitt sprawled all over a bed in his sleep, so it was a bit of a surprise to him that he had stayed still. Maybe it was just because of his injury; that would certainly be reason enough to keep him from wanting to roll everywhere.
"Well, the two of you look cozy."
Nesbitt looked over Lector's shoulder. Gansley was standing in the doorway, looking both amused and touched.
"I don't know how this happened," Nesbitt stammered.
"I do," Gansley said. "You were rolling around so much in your sleep that Lector was afraid you were going to roll right off the bed and hurt yourself worse. So he laid down next to you to try to make you settle down."
Nesbitt stared at Lector. A flash of memory came to him—Lector falling out of bed with a crash one night when they had been forced to share a bed in a crowded hotel.
". . . I knocked him out of bed, and he'd risk that happening again?" Nesbitt said in disbelief.
"Of course he would, when he was worried about you," Gansley said.
"I don't even remember him . . ." Nesbitt said quietly.
"But he remembers you," Gansley pointed out. "He wouldn't stop caring about you just because right now there's some strange block over your mind."
Nesbitt fell silent. "He sure doesn't."
"He must have been extremely exhausted," Gansley said. "It's been such a long night."
". . . And of course he couldn't really be at peace because of what happened to me. . . ."
Gansley couldn't deny that. "He seems to be at peace now."
". . . He deserves that," Nesbitt said. "I just hope I'll be able to remember him soon." He had to admit that this was incredibly awkward when he just didn't remember the man. And yet, somehow, he felt comfortable with it at the same time. Deep down, he remembered.
"You're making progress," Gansley said. "Whatever spell was put on you, it can't hold you."
That was comforting, Nesbitt had to admit.
"Some of us are going to look through the attic for any clues or secret passages," Gansley went on.
"Well, good for you," Nesbitt mumbled. He didn't feel much like moving. Not to mention he doubted he could without disturbing Lector.
Sensing that, Gansley turned back to the door. "We'll let you know how it goes."
"Thanks," Nesbitt said. "Be careful."
"I can assure you, we will," Gansley said.
When Gansley left, Nesbitt started to doze again.
Even though he didn't remember Lector, he felt so safe here, somehow. . . .
xxxx
Johnson was told what Seto had done for him as he, Gansley, and Crump were heading up to the attic with some of the others. Naturally, he wasn't sure what to make of it at first.
"He told about my past?!" he said in horror.
"I think just what you did to that creep from the club last night," Tristan said.
"And they've all arranged it so you'll stay free if you testify against him," Téa added.
"That's wonderful," Serenity beamed.
Crump whooped. "You're gonna be okay, Buddy! You don't have to worry they're gonna lock you away!"
Johnson stopped walking on the stairs, adjusting his glasses as he tried to process this information. He had been worrying so much about what would happen to him, and now thanks to Seto Kaiba, he was safe? It was so much to take in. . . .
"Mr. Kaiba would really do that for me?" he said at last.
"Well, of course he said it was to protect all of us from that creepy guy," Téa said. "But yeah, he did it."
Seto didn't comment on the conversation. Instead, he pushed open the door to the attic at the top of the steep stairs from the third floor.
Joey jumped when it gave a loud and unsettling creak. Then he was alert, glaring around the large room as he looked for any sign of a ghost.
"Man, there's so much stuff up here," Tristan commented, pushing a box aside before it could fall off a table. "The house is so big, you wouldn't think they'd need to store so many things in the attic."
"I guess the bigger the house, the more 'stuff' they collect," David said.
"Hey, did anyone else check their rooms to see if they have a paperback wardrobe?" Téa wondered. "There isn't one in my and Serenity's room."
No one else had found one either. But that only made the mystery more bewildering.
"So why Nesbitt and Johnson's room?" Mokuba frowned.
"The only way we might find any answers is to investigate behind their wardrobe more thoroughly," Seto said. "See how far down the drop is, see where the pipe goes, etcetera."
"That would make a lot of noise," Crump said.
"So put Nesbitt in a different room," Seto said. "Unless he feels well enough to be up and around more today."
"I hope he will," Johnson said. "And I wish he could remember Lector. . . ."
"I wish we could figure out why he doesn't," Gansley said.
"Well, in any case, I'm not feeling anything strange up here," Tristan said. "Maybe we should start spreading out."
"We really can't feel any ghosts on the second floor in the daytime," Téa said. "Maybe they really don't come out then."
"If a spirit is truly haunting a location, it should be there no matter what time of day it is," Ishizu said.
". . . That makes sense," Tristan said with a shiver.
"So . . . what exactly are we doing here in the attic anyway?" Joey wondered. "Are we trying again to summon a ghost, or are we trying to find secret passageways?"
"Both, I guess?" Tristan said. "Although it doesn't seem very hopeful about the ghost." He sighed. "I just don't get why none of the ghosts will talk to us!"
"They obviously care nothing for the problems of the living," Seto grunted.
"Lousy ghosts," Joey muttered.
"Hey, watch it! You'll make them mad!" Tristan hissed.
Joey stiffened in alarm. ". . . Good point."
The group gradually started to disperse to various parts of the attic, some trying to draw the ghost out while others tapped walls or looked through some of the many boxes.
"Wow, these toys look ancient," Joey commented as he peered down at some old dolls.
"Probably something that belonged to Lector's mom or even her mom," Tristan said, looking over from where he was feeling across the wall.
"Hey, Joey, is this a friend of yours?" Mai smirked playfully from several tables over.
"Huh? What are you talking about, Mai?" Joey looked, just in time to see her pull the sheet back on a skeleton hanging on a hook. Of course, Joey screamed. "What the heck is that doing here?!"
Seto glanced over at it. "It looks like the kind of model they use in medical schools."
"But it's a real skeleton, right?!" Joey quavered.
"Probably," Seto said matter-of-factly.
Mokuba shook his head and turned to the wall, tapping across it in determination. "There's gotta be a secret passage somewhere," he said. "They're everywhere else. . . ."
At last he pressed down on one side of a particular piece of wood and something clicked inside the wall. A panel swung open, and a limp body that had been propped against it fell out on the floor.
Mokuba screamed. It was Marik.