The doors closed and Dunlop was gone. Harvey waited a few minutes, to make sure Dunlop got off the elevator on the twelfth floor, then he punched the down button. One floor. He just had to get down one floor.
Three minutes later, the elevator doors opened again, and he wanted to scream when he saw the Levinsons inside. Christ, at this rate, everybody in the damn building was going to know he had this blasted magnet!
He stood there a moment, trying to figure out whether he’d be better off riding this elevator, with people who’d already seen the magnet, or getting it on the next trip, and risking the chance that someone else might see him. Before he could make up his mind, Abe Levinson was stepping out to help him.
“That must weigh a ton,” Abe said. “Let me help you get it on the elevator.”
No choice. He and Abe pushed it onto the elevator, while Mrs. Abe squeezed back into the corner.
“Looks like an industrial magnet,” Abe remarked.
Well, there went the art excuse, Harvey thought grimly. “Yeah,” he said.
“What do you do with it?”
Harvey wanted to tell him it was none of his stinkin’ business, but he figured that might be a stupid thing to do. “Health,” he said finally, remembering a flaky girlfriend he’d had once. “Magnets are good for health.”
“I’m surprised you can run it off the building current,” Abe said.
Harvey thanked his lucky stars when Abe and Mrs. Abe got off on the fourth floor. That meant he didn’t have to ride all the way down to the lobby and maybe get off the elevator again.
And what was this about running it off the building current? He looked down at his monstrous purchase and for the first time wondered if he’d made some kind of mistake.
He hit the up button for the ninth floor, but Abe had already pushed the lobby button—damn all these helpful neighbors, anyway—so Harvey had to ride all the way down before he could go back up. But this time nobody interfered.
And he consoled himself that it didn’t really matter if everyone figured out he was behind the magnet; all that mattered was that they didn’t hold the seance, even if they rode him out of town on a rail.
Which nobody did anymore, so he wasn’t really worried about it.
Every muscle in his body was screaming by the time he pushed the magnet down to the snowbirds’ apartment on the ninth floor, but he managed it. The lock was easy enough to pick, and finally, he had the thing safely inside with the door locked behind him. He pushed it into the kitchen, then knocked it over.
With a loud thud, it landed on the floor, probably clinging the linoleum. He didn’t care. All he had to do now was plug it in. But first, he thought, he was going up to his place to get a beer.
Jake heard the terrible thud on the ceiling. He was in his office, but hurried out to the living room to see what was going on. Nothing. Not another sound.
The ghosts, he decided. It had to be the ghosts. “Joe,” he said to the empty room, “you’ll get your chance tomorrow, okay? Just let me work in peace for a little while. Please?”
Nothing and no one answered him.
Joe fumed to Lucy, “I don’t want to be blamed for anything that turkey does!”
Lucy patted his arm consolingly. “Jake will figure it out, dear. He’s a very bright young man.”
Harvey had more than one beer. He figured he’d worked hard enough that he was entitled to more than that, so he had three. By the time he went back down to the ninth floor, he was feeling a whole lot better about everything. He also couldn’t feel his aching muscles anymore, which was fine by him.
He returned to the snowbirds’ unit and felt the heat slap him in the face when he entered. Jeez, it was hot in here. The unit was like an oven. Thesnowbirds had turned off their air conditioning.
That was when he had his second qualm. What if they’d turned off their power, too? The thought gave him butterflies in his stomach, and he started cursing himself for a jerk, but switched to congratulating himself when he was able to turn on a light.
The three beers probably had a lot to do with the fact that he decided to wire the magnet directly into the wall, even though he didn’t know a whole lot about electrical wiring. But, he told himself, he hadn’t been known in his former life as Herbie “The Brain” Moroney for nothing.
The plug was too big to fit the wall outlet, so naturally it only made sense to take the plug off the magnet and the plate off the wall and connect the wires directly. At his first attempt, he got a shock that threw him backward.
Cursing, he figured out that he’d probably be safer if he turned off the circuit breakers first. He couldn’t figure out which one to throw, so he threw them all—which made it a little difficult to see what he was doing in the shadowy kitchen that didn’t have even a little window.
But he finally managed it, twisting the wires together to make a direct connection. Then he flipped the circuit breakers and went back to turn on the magnet.
It made a brief hum, and then with a slam he heard all the circuit breakers blow as the kitchen light went out.
“Damn,” he said, kicking the magnet, then yelping at the pain. “Oh, shit, I broke my toe!”
He hopped around on one foot for a minute, swearing through his teeth, until the first slicing pain eased and the beer in his system anesthetized him again.
“Shit!” he said one last time.
Duct tape. He needed duct tape. That necessitated a trip back up to his apartment, but this time he didn’t run into anyone else.
He taped the circuit breakers in the on position, so they couldn’t blow again, and turned on the magnet.
There was a long, loud hum, almost like a purring engine, and he laughed gleefully as he imagined everything metallic in Jake’s apartment below gluing itself to the ceiling.
A check of the circuit breakers showed they were still taped into position.
That’s when his beer-fogged brain remembered the main circuit breakers for the building.
He swore again and darted out into the hallway, limping because of his broken toe. He jabbed the elevator button, but nothing happened. Of course not. Power to the whole building was out.
Muttering nasty words, he hit the stairs. Nine flights. Christ. At least when the power came back on, he’d be able to take the elevator.
He was two floors down when he remembered that he’d left the magnet turned on and the circuit breakers taped. He wouldn’t be able to throw the main. It would just keep blowing.
By this point, he was very close to giving up. But he’d spent all that money, and he was damned if he was going to just throw it away. Growling, and panting like a winded runner, he climbed the two flights, let himself back into the unit, and switched the magnet off.
That was when the dim lightbulb of his brain came on. The only way he was going to get this to work was to wire the magnet into the 220 dryer outlet.
“You’re a genius, Herbie,” Harvey told himself. “An absolute genius.” And just in case somebody reached the main downstairs before he did, he’d turn off the circuit breakers here so he wouldn’t get fried.
Man, it was nice to be so brilliant.
Jake’s computer screen winked off, along with his desk lamp. The unit was suddenly utterly silent, as even the air conditioning shut down. He waited a couple of minutes, thinking it was just a brief power outage, but finally he went to check his circuit breakers. They were all on.
He waited another few minutes, then decided maybe he’d better go check the mains. He opened his door to find Abe Levinson standing there, hand raised as if he were about to knock.
“Power’s out in the whole building,” Abe told him.
Jake nodded. “I was just going down to check the mains.”
“The super ought to do that,” Abe said.
He was right. Jake decided to wait anoth
er few minutes, especially since the elevators wouldn’t be working. “Did you want something?”
“No, I just wanted to tell you I saw the weirdest thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Harvey Little. He was in the elevator with a huge industrial magnet.”
Jake felt surprised. “How big is huge?”
Abe gestured with his hands.
“That would lift an entire car!”
Abe nodded. “I know. He said it was for his health.”
“His health?” Jake had run across his share of New Age wackiness in his life, but he couldn’t remember any of it needing an industrial magnet.
“That’s what he said,” Abe repeated. “However. The wife and I were downstairs visiting the Adding-tons when it suddenly struck me that an industrial magnet might explain some of the goings-on around here.”
“It wouldn’t explain the furniture on my ceiling.”
“Of course not. But maybe some of the other stuff. Maybe Harvey’s been behind a lot of this.”
The idea appealed to Jake. While he’d come to accept that Joe had put the furniture on the ceiling, he couldn’t imagine why his uncle would want to scare the other residents half to death. And he really relished the possibility of being able to explain away some of the other stuff. It would vindicate him, just a little.
No, he decided, it was just too easy. Too much had happened to be blamed on a single industrial magnet. And no magnet could have lifted that plastic watering pot and dumped it on his head.
So what was Harvey Little up to?
Just then the power came back on, and the air conditioning kicked in with an audible thunk.
Jake spoke. “Where was he taking the magnet?”
“Out of the building, I think. At least, he was headed down on the elevator.”
“I still don’t know how much he could have done with it. Besides, how could he run it off the building current?”
“I wondered the same thing myself.”
The phone started ringing, and Jake glanced at it over his shoulder. Maybe it was Rainbow. “Come on in while I get that, will you, Abe?”
“Sure.” Abe stepped into the unit. “It sure looks better with all the furniture off the ceiling. How’d you manage it?”
“I didn’t. It just came down all by itself and went back to where it’s supposed to be.”
Abe shook his head. “Well, no magnet could have done that.”
Jake picked up the phone and said, “Hello.”
But it was not Rainbow’s voice that answered him. “Jake, this is Millie Cartera down the hall from you.”
“Hi, Millie. How’s it going?”
“I think you ought to go check out the hall near the janitor’s closet. I came up in the elevator just a short while before the power went out. When I passed by the closet on the way to my unit, I felt…” She hesitated. “I wasn’t going to call you because I felt silly, but the more I thought about it… anyway, could you walk by there yourself? I think you’ll see what I mean. Are you sure we can’t have the seance any sooner than tomorrow?”
“Roxy Resnick is adamant about that, Millie. Not before tomorrow morning.”
Her sigh was audible. “Well, I just hope nothing else happens before then. I’ll meet you in the hall by the closet. I want you to see this for yourself!”
“I’m on my way.”
He hung up. “That was Millie Cartera.” “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure. She seems awfully nervous about it, whatever it is. She wants me to meet her by the janitor’s closet.”
Abe raised an eyebrow. “That’s a strange place to meet.”
Jake shrugged. “Whatever is going on is apparently happening there.” “I’ll come with you.”
They didn’t have to walk far. The problem wasn’t visible from Jake’s door, because the janitor’s closet was in a little dogleg in the hallway, but as soon as they rounded the corner they could see what had unnerved Millie. There was a faint, white mist hovering there, and the closer they got to it, the colder the air grew.
“Whoa,” said Abe, uneasily.
Millie’s door was right across from the closet, and it opened now as she peered out. “You see?” she said. “I don’t want any ghosts and cold spots right outside my door.”
“Me, neither,” said Jake sympathetically. He walked closer to the mist, and felt a definite chill on his skin. “Boy, that’s cold.”
“It gave me goosebumps,” Millie told him. “And I almost couldn’t bring myself to walk through that fog.” She shuddered. “I was afraid I’d … feel something.”
Jake stuck his hand into the thickest part of the mist. “Just cold. Very cold.” He stood there considering this phenomenon, every instinct telling him it had to have a logical explanation. He looked down, trying to see what it could be corning from—and that was when he noticed the white fog seemed to be swirling from beneath the closet door.
“Does anybody have a key for the closet?” he asked.
“The super,” Abe said. “He should have it.”
“Go back to my unit and call him, will you?” Millie lived alone and Jake didn’t know if she’d be comfortable letting them into her apartment.
“Sure thing.”
“I’m going to stay right here and make sure nobody runs off with the evidence.”
Abe, who had already started back toward Jake’s, paused and looked at him. “Evidence?”
“I’d bet fifty bucks right now that this is a hoax.”
And he had a pretty good idea what they were going to find when they opened that door.
“A hoax?” Millie repeated, as Jake disappeared around the corner. “But who on earth would want to frighten me this way?”
“I don’t think it’s directed at you, Millie.”
“Then what could be the point?”
“I wish I knew.”
But right then, a loud humming seemed to fill the building. Millie gasped and looked around wildly as the hall lights flickered. “Oh, my God,” she whispered, “what’s that?”
“You stay here and make sure nobody opens that door until I get back.”
“But…”
He didn’t wait for her protests, he ran down the hall, noting that the noise grew louder as he approached his place. And he had a damn good idea what was causing it.
He reached his door and stepped inside. Here the humming was loud enough to make his ears hurt, and he saw Abe standing by the phone, watching as silverware jumped off the counters and plastered itself to the ceiling.
“Neat effect,” Abe remarked. “The super’s on his way up.”
“And I bet I know what’s going on here.” Abe grinned at him. “Harvey Little,” he said. “Where do you suppose he stashed it?”
“The unit above mine is empty.” “Shall we go see?”
They decided to take the stairs, figuring the magnet must be drawing so much power that the mains were likely to blow at any instant, and they didn’t want to be in the elevator when it happened. Abe lagged only a couple of steps behind as they loped up to the next floor.
Here they found residents in the hallway, looking around worriedly. The noise was louder than ever. Jake headed straight for the empty unit and tried the door. It wasn’t even locked.
He threw it open, and across the living room saw Harvey Little looking like a madman as silverware and pots came flying out of cupboards toward him. Jake walked over and looked down at the magnet, which was covered with kitchen utensils.
Just then, a can of tuna popped out of a cupboard and attached itself to the magnet with a clang. Harvey jumped.
Wires in the laundry room off the kitchen were spitting sparks, and Jake didn’t wait to see any more. He headed for the circuit breakers and ripped the tape off them, allowing the 220-volt line to shut down.
“Damn it, Harvey,” he said sharply, “are you trying to burn the building down?”
Harvey, still a little stunned by what had happened, didn’t
answer. He stood all hunched up, with his arms wrapped around himself, as if he expected the silverware to attack him again.
“I think he got more than he bargained for,” Abe said.
“Looks like it.” Jake supposed he ought to be angry at Harvey, but all he felt was amusement bordering on laughter. The guy looked so silly standing there, as if he expected to be assaulted, and the wiring job he’d done—well, it would have made excellent fodder for the Three Stooges.
On the other hand, Jake reminded himself, the guy had broken into someone else’s apartment and had risked burning the place down with his jury-rigged wiring.
“I guess we’d better call the police,” he said.
That seemed to wake Harvey up. “No!” He turned, looking almost wildly at Jake.
“Why not? This isn’t your unit, so you’re guilty of breaking and entering. God knows what that magnet did to the floor, and you tore up the wiring in here. I imagine you broke a whole bunch of laws.”
“I’ll fix it,” Harvey said. “I’ll fix it all. And I didn’t take nothin’.”
Jake looked at Abe. “What do you think?”
“I think I want to know what the hell he was trying to do.”
“Me, too.” Jake looked at Harvey, raising a questioning eyebrow.
“If I tell you, do you promise not to call the cops?”
“Maybe. If you pay to have everything in here fixed.”
“I said I’d fix it.”
“No, you’ll pay to have it properly fixed,” Jake said. “Judging by what you did to the wiring, I wouldn’t trust you to repair anything.”
Harvey scowled. “You don’t have to be so nasty.”
“I’m talking to a criminal, remember?”
Harvey’s frown deepened, but fear crept into his eyes. “I was just making a haunting.”
“Oh.” Jake exchanged looks with Abe. “Why do you want to do that?”
“Because I don’t want no seance tomorrow!”
“Why not?”
Harvey had already considered this question and had a ready answer. “Because it’s wrong. It’s evil.”
“Well, you don’t have to participate.”
Harvey wasn’t yet ready to let go of his original plan. “But you don’t need a seance now,” he said eagerly. “Because it was me. I did it. And I won’t do it anymore, so you can forget all this ghost stuff.”