Solid Walls

Chapter Six

Nell knew she'd have a good chance of running into Samantha O'Keefe at the hardware store. When she dropped Chloe off at the house fifteen minutes ago, Talia mentioned that her oldest stepdaughter was indeed at work this morning. Of course in just a few hours her shift would be over and they could have met at the house, but Nell knew if Chloe was there, the talking could get in the way of the observing. And she had a feeling there was much to observe about this particular twin.

At first Nell wasn't sure why she could so easily identify the young woman restocking packets of washers and bolts down aisle 14. She certainly looked nothing like her tiny, big-eyed sister, and Nell had yet to meet their father or see a picture of their mother. But then she realized. The broad shoulders, the widow's peak hairline, the worried eyes that darted down the aisle in the universal expression of someone ill-suited to customer service work—Sam took after her grandfather to an almost startling degree.

"Um, can I help you?" the girl asked as Nell approached.

"I think so." Nell noted with satisfaction the word SAM on the girl's name tag. "I'm looking for a sturdy tape measure. Flexible. At least 50 meters."

"Okay, I think we've got some that length." Sam seemed relieved to encounter a customer who knew exactly what they wanted. "Most of our tapes top out at about 100 feet, but we do get occasional orders of longer ones for industrial-type jobs. Follow me."

She led the way through the mostly empty aisles. Clearly feeling awkward by Nell's lack of chatter, she reached for more to say.

"This is going to be a lot of tape. What do you need it for?"

"I'm trying to understand the dimensions of a house."

"Oh, cool." She seemed like she really meant it. "Big house, then?"

"Yes. A gothic revival mansion just off the highway."

They stopped in front of a display of measuring tapes, and Nell made a show of considering the offerings as Sam stared at her.

"Off Sky Blue Lane?" she asked.

Nell looked at her and cocked her head. "Yes."

"Um...I'm sorry, are you a friend of Talia O'Keefe?"

"My colleague and I are doing a job for her."

"Ohhh, so you're one of the people writing the book?"

Nell nodded and waited for Sam's first reaction to the interlopers invading her home. But there was none of her brother's disdainful smirking or her grandfather's helpless resignation, or even her stepmother's blind hope. Instead, Sam seemed to light up with excitement, the words that came so hard to her before suddenly stumbling over each other to get out first.

"Oh, wow, Talia told me about you guys! I read the article in the newsletter about your research, and it sounds amazing. You know, I think if I had the book smarts I'd want to be an architect, too, but I'm better with my hands, so construction seems more likely. You are the architect, right?"

Nell smiled in spite of herself. "I'm Nell. You must be Sam."

"That's me."

"I'm glad I ran into you. We've been wanting to talk to you."

"Me? Really? I don't know what help I could possibly be."

"I think maybe a great deal of help. I wanted to learn more about the windows."

"The windows?"

"The holes in the walls upstairs, giving Willa a view outside. You made them, didn't you?"

Sam looked down at her shoes. "Well...yeah, I guess I did most of the work. Did Talia tell you that?"

Nell shook her head. "It was too practical a job for Talia to have done. Neat, but no frills. Your grandfather has limited mobility, and from what I've heard of your father so far, he wouldn't do anything that might encourage his daughter to stay put. That left you and your brother. Since you work here, I guessed you were the more likely suspect."

Sam blushed.

"Was it your idea?" Nell asked.

"Um, well, yeah, mostly. It was after Willa had been, you know, stuck for about a month or so. I started thinking of ways I might be able to help, and then I thought, well, if she could just see a little bit of daylight sometimes, maybe...maybe that would be one good thing."

"It was very thoughtful," Nell said. "You did it all yourself?"

She shrugged. "It wasn't hard. Just needed a reciprocating saw and some two-by-fours. I mainly just had to convince Talia. She can be kind of...overbearing about changes to the house, I guess. I didn't want to step on her toes. But I think after a while she was desperate enough for anything that might help Willa, so she let me do it."

"Have you considered the possibility of cutting more windows into the room? Or just removing more of the walls in general?"

"What, thinking that might, like, free her?" Sam seemed to consider. "I don't think that would do it. From what she's told me, the windows are great because they give her a way to see out and interact with us better, but it hasn't made leaving any easier, you know? And as for knocking down the whole room, that wouldn't work. All four walls are load bearing."

"Right, Talia mentioned something about that," Nell said. "I'm sure you're right, but it doesn't sound quite possible."

"Yeah, I know. But none of the walls are thin enough to just be partitions, and almost every one in the whole house has some kind of purlin bracing. But even if that wasn't the case, it's such an old place I'd still be nervous to knock down too much."

Nell nodded thoughtfully. "While you were working on the windows, did you notice anything else odd about the construction of the second floor?"

Sam looked puzzled. "Have you been to the second floor?"

"Okay, anything odd that might not be obvious to the casual observer. The placement of fixtures, the angle of walls. Strange openings or features that don't belong...?"

Sam bit her lip and furrowed her brow. "I mean, I'm not a journeyman or anything yet, so I could have missed something. Honestly, I was just focused on getting it done as quickly as possible so I could get back downstairs."

"You feel something up there, too, then?" Nell asked.

"Oh sure. Nothing like what Willa feels, I'm sure, but still. I just feel a kind of tightness in my chest, I guess, the closer I get to her room? Like it's harder to breathe? Just like how you'd feel in any creepy place. I go up and sit with Willa for about an hour every day, just to talk or play games or something, but I can't really stay for longer than that. Sometimes I can't even last ten minutes before I have to step away. I took a lot of breaks when I was cutting those windows. It's kind of like...like how you can only stay underwater so long before you have to come up for air?"

Nell nodded, remembering the feeling.

"But I'll try to think back and remember any weird things I came across. I'm sure there was some strange stuff. Do you think it could help with your research?"

"It might," Nell said.

"Excuse me, miss?" a white-haired woman called toward them from down the next aisle.

Sam glanced over her shoulder. "Sorry, I have to go help this customer. Will y'all be back at the house later today?"

"Yes."

"Good. I work most mornings, but Ed'll come and pick me up this afternoon. You know, I don't think you guys are kooks like some of the other ones. Maybe you can actually help."

She said goodbye and hurried down the aisle, the anxiety in her eyes returning at the prospect of having to provide more customer service. Nell watched her retreat, then selected the longest measuring tape dangling on the wall and strode across the store to check out.