Airhead: Being Nikki Part 19

Now. And Gabriel was at my right.

Justin, realizing something serious might be going on, finally stopped dancing. His eyes widened to normal size.

Whoa, he said. Whats with the third degree? Im just dancing.

Youll be lying in a pool of your own blood if you dont hand your cell phone over to my sister, Steven advised him.

Neither Christopher nor Gabriel nor Steven could have had any idea why I was so anxious to see Justin Bays cell phone. But the fact that they were willing to wipe the floor with him merely on my say-so was warming my heart. It really was.

Fine. Justin reached into a pocket of his tight striped suit pants and pulled out a silver flip phone, which he tossed in my direction. I dont know what you want it for, anyway. You e-mail me enough as it is.

I nodded, feeling triumphant. Thats what I thought, I said, scrolling through Justins messages.

You still e-mail him? Lulu stared at me. Oh, my G.o.d, I thought you gave up on that loser, like, months ago.

Hardly, Justin said, with a sneer. Shes still begging for it. Bad.

Christopher stepped forward and, in a smooth motion, wrapped Justin in a headlock. It was a startling development that caused Fridas jaw to drop. I have to admit, I was shocked myself. Christopher had never been the most physical of guys back in his pre-supervillain days.

But now I suppose he had the forces of evil propelling him.

Jesus, Justin croaked. The models hed been dancing with, so skinny they looked like pieces of Slim Jim, pranced backward a little, eager to get out of the danger zone in case there was bloodshed. They didnt want their Dolce&Gabbana outfits messed up. Let go of me, man! Do you know who my father is?

Apologize, Christopher said. Hed evidently squeezed, since Justin began making choking noises.

Sorry, Justin said, gagging. Dont bruise the face, man. Im starting an Ang Lee film after the New Year.

I scrolled until I found a message with NikkiH as the sender, then read the extremely flowery text I found there.

It didnt make any sense.

But then, neither had the dinosaur stickers.

Can Felix trace an e-mail? I asked Christopher.

Of course, Christopher said.

Tell me where to send this so he can figure out where it came from.

Christopher did. I pressed FORWARD and sent the message from NikkiH to Felix, with a note asking him to trace its origin.

Oh, I said, looking up when I was done. You can let go of him now.

Christopher released Justin, who staggered around a bit, holding on to his neck.

Christ, he said. Have you lost your mind? What was that all about?

I dont know. Gabriel seemed quite calm. But this is for lying to the little girl about the punch.

And he slammed his fist into Justins stomach"really hard, judging by the way Justin doubled over, then collapsed onto the floor, gasping like a goldfish that had leapt from its bowl.

Steven, standing beside Lulu, glanced from Justin to Gabriel to Christopher and then back again. Then he said, with a grin, You know, I had my doubts at first. But this is turning out to be a really great party.

I dont understand any of this, Frida said, looking upset as she stared down at Justin, who was beginning to recover himself"with the help of the models whod come tottering over to his rescue. Whats going on? Why did you need to look at Justin Bays cell phone? What is Christopher even doing here?

Thats a very good question for you, I said, eyeing her severely. And what have you got on? Where did you get a dress like that? If it can even be called a dress.

I came to support Lulu, Frida said, pouting. I know how much this party means to her. I didnt want to let her down"

Lulu looked touched. Aw, she said. Isnt that sweet? Really, Nikki, you cant be mad at her for that.

Yeah, I can, I said. I told her she wasnt invited, and you were there when I did it, remember, Lulu? I dont think theres anything sweet about it.

I think youre being a bit harsh, Gabriel said. To my utter astonishment, he plucked off his jacket"an ultra expensive one with frayed edges, just like Stevens"and laid it over Fridas bare shoulders, since she was s.h.i.+vering a little from the breeze that was seeping in through the open window she was still standing in front of. Shes learned her lesson, dont you think?

Yeah, Frida said, clutching the collar of the jacket closed and gazing up at Gabriel with what looked, literally, like stars in her eyes. But then I realized they were reflections of the special party halogens Lulu had installed. Ive learned my lesson.

Lulu elbowed me, giggling, but I didnt see what was so funny, really. My little sister was crus.h.i.+ng on Gabriel Luna"something shed been doing for months now"and it was inappropriate. He was too old for her, and he was only encouraging her with this behavior, knocking out cretins like Justin Bay.

And, okay, yeah, that had been pretty bada.s.s. But h.e.l.lo. That didnt mean Gabriel could just go around giving his coat to my sister. My little sister, who wasnt even supposed to be here, let alone dating at her age.

This is probably Felix, Christopher said, and reached into the pocket of his leather jacket for his cell phone, which had just let off a dragon battle cry. When he glanced at the screen, he nodded and picked up. What have you got? he asked.

He nodded a few more times. Then he looked at me. His blue-eyed gaze was like a laser pointer, it was so sharp. I could feel it all up and down my spine.

And not in a good way.

I couldnt read the thoughts behind the gaze. But I sensed trouble.

Christopher pressed END and put away the phone. Then, that impenetrable gaze still on me, he asked, Can I have a word with you"in private?

This time, however, Steven put his foot down.

No, he said. He didnt say it angrily. He said it quite calmly, as a matter of fact.

But that No came out as forcefully as a kings.

Anything you have to say to her involving all of this, you can say to me, Steven said. Im her brother, remember?

Christopher blinked at him. I dont know what went through his mind at that moment"Youre not really her brother? which we all knew was true (well, maybe not Gabriel). Even Steven.

And yet, in those few seconds, it seemed more true than if Steven had been my real brother. Christopher certainly didnt seem to question it.

Right, he said to Steven. Well, heres what Felix found out. He traced the e-mail to a computer with an IP address in Westchester.

I gaped at him. Westchester? Thats just, like, twenty miles from here.

Right. And it belongs to a doctor. His name is Jonathan Fong.

Lulu made a face. Why would a doctor be sending e-mails to Justin Bay, pretending to be Nikki Howard? What kind of sick perv is he, anyway?

Thats not the real question, Christopher said. The real question is, who does Dr. Jonathan Fong work for?

I stared at him. Even though the party was still in full swing behind us, and it was boiling hot in the apartment except for the few places where the windows were open, I felt cold as ice all of a sudden.

No, was all I said.

TWENTY-ONE.

THE SAD PART OF IT WAS, IN THE END, five of us"not counting Cosabella"ended up going to Westchester. And one of us was unconscious.

It wasnt nice or fair to use Brandon Stark that way. But we needed his limo. How else were we going to get to Dr. Fongs house? No taxi would take us someplace so far away, and the trains had stopped running until morning. Christopher said his aunt Jackie would probably let us borrow her minivan, but that meant schlepping all the way out to Brooklyn to pick it up first, not to mention explaining why we needed it.

Whereas there was Brandon, pa.s.sed out on my couch from too many lycheetinis.

At least we took him with us. Even if we did tell Tom, his driver, to run inside to get some Pepto for him at the deli"then, while he was gone, Steven slipped behind the wheel and drove off with us all inside.

The hard part to explain"at least to Gabriel"was why he couldnt come along. He had no idea where we were going (except to Westchester), or why. But he wanted to come with us. When I thanked him for his help with Frida and said, Well, we have to go on an important errand now. I guess well see you later, hed said, Thats nice. Ill help you, and held all doors as Christopher and Steven dragged a semiconscious Brandon through them.

And because he wouldnt leave, of course neither would Frida. Finally, I took him by the arm and whispered, Please, will you do me a huge favor and take her home? Shes too young to be out this late, and Im afraid something will happen to her if I try to send her home alone. You saw what happened at the party. Will you see that she gets home to her parents safely? Its only a few blocks away.

Gabriel agreed"but only when I said wed wait for him. And, of course, when Frida found out shed be riding"alone"in a cab with Gabriel Luna, she was more than willing to go with him. She whispered to me as we hugged good-bye, Im sorry I said such b.i.t.c.hy things to you the other day. I didnt mean any of them. Youre an awesome big sister, actually. And thanks for these. She pointed to her earlobes, into which, I saw, shed slipped the diamond studs Id gotten for her.

You were supposed to wait to open those on Christmas morning, I said, feeling dismayed. Now what will you have to look forward to?

Seeing you, she said, and kissed me good-bye, then took Gabriels arm and disappeared with him down Centre Street.

But of course we had no intention of waiting for Gabriel to come back. Steven pulled out and started toward the highway at once, anxious to get to Dr. Fongs as soon as possible. Not that he"or any of us"had any idea what to expect when we got there. Out of all of them, I think I was the only one who kept thinking dinosaur stickers. Those e-mails still didnt make sense but neither had those dinosaur stickers Id given to Christopher"at least, not to him at the time. Seen out of context, they had to have been totally random, like those e-mails Justin kept getting, allegedly from me.

Christophers words kept reverberating through my head, No one can just disappear foreverThey feel compelled to reach out to friends they knew beforeIts force of habit. Everyone messes up eventually.

But who was messing up with those text messages? Maybe it was only a mean-spirited prank (except how could some random kid have gotten Justin Bays private number?). Maybe it was nothing. Maybe this whole thing was just a wild goose chase.

But maybe it wasnt.

The problem was, once we left Manhattan and got to Westchester, Christopher wouldnt let Steven use the limos GPS to find the address we were looking for.

Are you kidding? he said. Stark will point every satellite theyve got right at us. The copsll pull us over in five seconds.

Lulu looked excited, hearing that. Are we actually doing something against the law? she wanted to know.

Christopher gave her a sarcastic look. We just stole a limo, he said.

Well, I said. Technically, we only borrowed it. I glanced at the sleeping Brandon, stretched out on the side seat, dozing like an angel in a tux. He was wearing his red velvet Santa hat. The owners still inside, right?

Here, Christopher said, pulling up a map on his iPhone and showing the screen to Steven. Youve got another two miles to go on his road.

Thanks, Steven said from the drivers seat. The winding countryish road we were on, dotted with large mansiony house after large mansiony house, seemed virtually deserted this time of night. Snow came down in light fluffy flakes, not enough to stick yet, but enough to be beautiful. I was still glad Id thought to kick off my stiletto sandals for a pair of Marc Jacobs boots. Steven had the heat up in the limo, but even so, my leather jacket didnt seem like it would provide much warmth when I got out of the car. Maybe thats because I still had on my halter top evening gown. At least I had Cosabella draped across my thighs for warmth.

I still dont get where were going, Lulu said from where she sat next to Steven. Lulu was wearing Toms chauffeur cap, which hed left in the car. It went very rakishly with her bleached blond pageboy, with which she often wore extensionsthough not tonight. But I guess thats the adventure of it! Its like a scavenger hunt! Isnt Nikki fantastic? She always knows the best way to make a party fun!

I couldnt tell if Lulu was just trying to make herself feel better, or if she really didnt understand that something serious was going on. She still seemed to be on cloud nine about her discovery that she and Steven were astrologically compatible, according to her astrologist.

And then Christopher said, It should be the next driveway.

Steven turned down a long driveway walled on either side by low round stones piled one on top of the other, with a sloping yard and nice trees, bare-branched this time of year. The sky was just starting to turn pinky red over in the east, and because the snow clouds were hanging so low, the lights from the city reflected up against them, so it wasnt hard to see the house, even though it was so late. It was an old-fas.h.i.+oned redbrick colonial, with black shutters and a single electric imitation candle in each window.

I remembered reading somewhere that women put those candles in their windows during wartime, to guide loved ones home. Now people had started doing it during the holiday season as well. Who was Dr. Fong guiding home? I wondered.

Steven pulled all the way down the driveway until it made a circular loop in front of the entrance to the house. Then he stopped the car and turned off the engine.

Well, Lulu asked, turning around to peer at us from the front seat, the chauffeurs cap jauntily askew. What now?

I looked up at the house through the tinted windows of the limo. It wasnt an intimidatingly huge mansion like some of the other houses wed driven past, but it wasnt small, either. It looked almost aggressively normal"the kind of house youd drive by and never think twice about, never wonder who lived there, never think to yourself, Gee, thats the kind of house Id like to have someday. It was justthere.

It was silent in the car, except for Brandons gentle snoring.

I lifted Cosabella, who was still pa.s.sed out across my lap, and crawled across Christophers legs for the car door.

What" Christopher sounded alarmed. Wait for me.

And me, Steven said, getting out.

Me, too, Lulu said.

Soon I was leading a little parade up to Dr. Fongs front door"everyone from inside the limo but Brandon, who hadnt stirred. It was incredibly cold out"so cold my nostrils felt as if they would freeze together if I inhaled too deeply. The air smelled pleasantly of wood smoke. It was silent"absolutely still"in Dr. Fongs neighborhood except for the sound our footsteps made as we walked up the icy pathway to his front door.

Once there, I lifted the heavy bra.s.s knocker and let it fall two or three times. The sound it made seemed so loud in the predawn stillness, I was afraid it might wake some of his neighbors.

After a minute, when there was no reaction, Lulu said, N-no one is home. Her teeth were chattering from the cold. Lets g-go back to the car. At least its warm there.

I ignored her. Instead, I reached up and lifted the knocker and let it fall again.

This time, a light turned on above our heads. I heard footsteps inside the house. Then the door opened to reveal a middle-aged man in a bathrobe, peering out at us sleepily. When he saw my face, his eyes widened perceptibly.

Hi, I said.

Dr. Fong started to shake his head. No, he said. Thats all. Just a single word.

But there was a world of fear in it.