The Safe Man

that’s right.”
    “You took the door off and leave it off?”
    “Yes…”
    Brian slowly hung up, even as he could hear Pepin’s voice on the line exhorting him to be cautious. He thought about the girl he had seen in the house on the island. He thought he now recognized her eyes. He picked up the phone again and called his wife at work. As soon as she heard his voice, she whispered that she was really busy. She wanted to talk to him but the phone was ringing off the wall. Her job was to take reservations for the most popular restaurant in town.
    “Real quick, then,” he said. “I have to know. It’s a girl, right? We’re having a girl.”
    “Why are you asking now?”
    “Because I need to know right now.”
    “I’m not going to tell you. You told me not to tell you.”
    “I need to know, Laura. It’s important. Just tell me. Is it a girl?”
    There was a long pause before she answered.
    “Yes, it is a girl, Brian. You are the father of a daughter named Lucy.”
    “Okay, thanks.”
    He knew it was a significant moment and Laura was expecting more from him but it was all he could think to say. He put the phone down. He turned away from the workbench and looked at the old blue blanket that covered the door of the Le Seuil safe.
    He knew what he had to do.

    Robinette answered the door. This time Brian did not go to the service entrance.
    “Look,” Robinette said before Brian could speak, “I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you. The police asked me for a list of names. Yours was on it. End of story.”
    Brian noticed that there were deep lines under Robinette’s eyes now. He looked weary and defeated, even though he had gotten his daughter back.
    “I’m not here about that,” Brian said. “I don’t care about that.”
    “Then what do you want? You can’t just show up here and—”
    “I want to talk to your daughter.”
    “What? No, you’re not going near her. She’s been through enough. We’re moving.”
    “I have to talk to her.”
    “I’m going to call the police if you do not leave my property.”
    “I want to talk to her about the ghost. About the little girl.”
    Robinette closed his mouth and just stared. Brian saw recognition in his eyes. It was recognition of something that maybe Robinette wasn’t sure he believed himself. Then he changed when he saw the ploy.
    “The police told you,” he said.
    “No, the police wouldn’t talk to me. I know because I saw her, too. When I was here I saw her.”
    “I don’t care what you think you saw, I want you out of here.”
    He started to close the door but Brian put his foot over the threshold and stopped it.
    “Her name is Lucy. I saw her, too, and I need to talk to your daughter.”
    “Why? She’s been through enough. First she lost her mother, now this. What can you possibly say to her?”
    “I can tell her who Lucy is.”
    Brian pushed on the door and Robinette moved back without resistance. Brian walked by him and headed to the stairs.
    “Where is she?”
    “In her room.”
    Brian went up the stairs and found all the doors in the upper hallway closed. Robinette called from below.
    “The second room on the left.”
    Brian went to the door, knocked, and then opened it when he heard someone call, “Come in.” The girl he had seen in the police station was sitting on a bed, her legs folded beneath her, her back against the wall.
    “Teresa, right?”
    “Who are you? Did my father send for you?”
    “No, I just came. I’m the one who opened the safe. I saw the girl that day. She talked to me. She said her name was Lucy.”
    Teresa’s eyes widened.
    “Then you believe me?”
    Brian nodded.
    “I believe you. Have you talked to her?”
    Teresa nodded.
    “What did she tell you?”
    “She, um, doesn’t know what is happening. She said she came through the door. That’s all she says about that.”
    “What about what happened to her? Does she know?”
    “She said there was a pool and she didn’t know how to swim.”
    Brian closed his eyes for a moment.
    “She’s confused,” Teresa continued. “I said, when did it happen? and she said it didn’t happen yet. She didn’t make sense.”
    Brian nodded. It did make sense to him.
    “When does she come?” he asked. “When do you see her?”
    “I don’t know, anytime. It’s not like there is a schedule. Sometimes I close my eyes and when I open them she’s there.”
    “Do you know where she goes when she isn’t here?”
    “I think she