Night Shift (2 page)

She liked being alone, and she liked sending her voice and music out to others who lived at night.

With an eye on the clock, Cilla adjusted her headphones. Between the fade-out of hit number four and the intro to hit number five, she crooned out the station’s number four and the intro to hit number five, she crooned out the station’s call letters and frequency. After a quick break when she popped in a
cassette of recorded news, she would begin her favorite part of her show. The request line.

She enjoyed watching the phones light up, enjoyed hearing the voices. It took her out of her booth for fifty minutes every night and proved to her that there were people, real people with real lives, who were listening to her.

She lit a cigarette and leaned back in her swivel chair. This would be her last quiet moment for the next hour.

She didn’t appear to be a restful woman. Nor, despite the voice, did she look like a smoldering femme fatale. There was too much energy in her face and in her long, nervous body for either. Her nails were unpainted, as was her mouth. She rarely found time in her schedule to bother with polish and paint. Her dark brandy brown eyes were nearly closed as she allowed her body to charge up. Her lashes were long, an inheritance from her dreamy father. In contrast to the silky lashes and the pale, creamy complexion, her features were strong and angular. She had been blessed with a cloud of rich, wavy black hair that she ruthlessly pulled back, clipped back or twisted up in deference to the headphones.

With an eye on the elapsed-time clock, Cilla crushed out the cigarette and took a sip of water, then opened her mike. The On Air sign glowed green.

“That was for all the lovers out there, whether you’ve got someone to cuddle up with tonight or you wish you did. Stay tuned. This is Cilla O’Roarke, Denver. You’re listening to KHIP. We’re coming back with our request line.”

As she switched on the tape for a commercial run, she glanced up. “Hey, Nick. How’s it going?”

Nick Peters, the college student who served as an intern at the station, pushed up his dark-framed glasses and grinned. “I aced the Lit test.”

“Way to go.” She gratefully accepted the mug of steaming coffee he offered. “Is it still snowing?”

“Stopped about an hour ago.”

She nodded and relaxed a little. She’d been worrying about Deborah, her younger sister. “I guess the roads are a mess.”

“Not too bad. You want something to go with that coffee?”

She flicked him a smile, her mind too busy with other things to note the adoration in his eyes. “No, thanks. Help yourself to some stale doughnuts before you sign out.” She hit a switch and spoke into the mike again.

As she read the station promos, he watched her. He knew it was hopeless, even stupid, but he was wildly in love with her. She was the most beautiful woman in the world to him, making the women at college look like awkward, gangling shadows of what a real woman should be. She was strong, successful, sexy. And she barely knew he was alive. When she noticed him at all, it was with a distractedly friendly smile or gesture.

For over three months he’d been screwing up his courage to ask her for a date. And fantasizing about what it would be like to have her attention focused on him, only him, for an entire evening.

She was completely unaware. Had she known where his mind had led him, Cilla would have been more amused than flattered. Nick was barely twenty-one, seven years her junior chronologically. And decades younger in every other way. She liked him. He was unobtrusive and efficient, and he wasn’t afraid of long hours or hard work.

Over the past few months she’d come to depend on the coffee he brought her before he left the station. And to enjoy knowing she would be completely alone as she drank it.

Nick glanced at the clock. “I’ll, ah, see you tomorrow.”

“Hmm? Oh, sure. Good night, Nick.” The moment he was through the door, she forgot about him. She punched one of the illuminated buttons on the phone. “KHIP. You’re on the air.”

“Cilla?”

“That’s right. Who’s this?”

“I’m Kate.”

“Where are you calling from, Kate?”

“From home—over in Lakewood. My husband’s a cabdriver. He’s working the late shift. We both listen to your show every night. Could you play ‘Peaceful, Easy Feeling’ for Kate and Ray?”

“You got it, Kate. Keep those home fires burning.” She punched the next button. “KHIP. You’re on the air.”

The routine ran smoothly. Cilla would take calls, scribbling down the titles and the dedications. The small studio was lined with shelves crammed with albums, 45s, CDs, all labeled for easy access. After a handful of calls she would break to commercials and station promos to give herself time to set up for the first block of songs.

Some of the callers were repeaters, so she would chat a moment or two. Some were the lonely, calling just to hear the sound of another voice. Mixed in with them was the occasional loony that she would joke off the line or simply disconnect. In all her years of handling live phones, she couldn’t remember a moment’s boredom.

She enjoyed it tremendously, chatting with callers, joking. In the safety of the control booth she was able, as she had never been able face-to-face, to relax and develop an easy relationship with strangers. No one hearing her voice would suspect that she was shy or insecure.

“KHIP. You’re on the air.”

“Cilla.”

“Yes. You’ll have to speak up, partner. What’s your name?”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Okay, Mr. X.” She rubbed suddenly damp palms on the thighs of her jeans. Instinct told her she would have trouble with this one, so she kept her finger hovering over the seven-second-delay button. “You got a request?”

“I want you to pay, slut. I’m going to make you pay. When I’m finished, you’re going to thank me for killing you. You’re never going to forget.”

Cilla froze, cursed herself for it, then cut him off in the midst of a rage of obscenities. Through strict control she kept her voice from shaking. “Wow. Sounds like somebody’s a little cranky tonight. Listen, if that was Officer Marks, I’m going to pay those parking tickets. I swear. This one goes out to Joyce and Larry.”

She shot in Springsteen’s latest hit single, then sat back to remove the headphones with trembling hands.

Stupid. She rose to pluck out the next selection. After all these years she should have known better than to freak over a crank call. It was rare to get through a shift without at least one. She had learned to handle the odd, the angry, the propositions and the threats as skillfully as she had learned to handle the control board.

It was all part of the job, she reminded herself. Part of being a public personality, especially on the night shift, where the weird always got weirder.

But she caught herself glancing over her shoulder, through the dark glass of the studio to the dim corridor beyond. There were only shadows, and silence. Beneath her heavy sweater, her skin was shivering in a cold sweat. She was alone. Completely.

And the station’s locked, she reminded herself as she cued up the next selection. The alarm was set. If it went off, Denver’s finest would scream up to the station within minutes. She was as safe here as she
would be in a bank vault.

***

But she stared down at the blinking lights on the phone, and she was afraid.

The snow had stopped, but its scent lingered in the chill March air. As she drove, Cilla kept the window down an inch and the radio up to the maximum. The combination of wind and music steadied her.

Cilla wasn’t surprised to find that Deborah was waiting up for her. She pulled into the driveway of the house she’d bought only six months before and noted with both annoyance and relief that all the lights were blazing.

It was annoying because it meant Deborah was awake and worrying. And it was a relief, because the quiet suburban street seemed so deserted and she felt so vulnerable. She switched off the ignition, cutting the engine and the sounds of Jim Jackson’s mellow all-night show. The instant of total silence had her heart leaping into her throat.

Swearing at herself, she slammed the car door and, hunched in her coat against the wind, dashed up the stairs. Deborah met her at the door.

“Hey, don’t you have a 9 o’clock class tomorrow?” Stalling, Cilla peeled off her coat and hung it in the closet. She caught the scent of hot chocolate and furniture polish. It made her sigh. Deborah always resorted to housecleaning when she was tense. “What are you doing up at this hour?”

“I heard. Cilla, that man—”

“Oh, come on, baby.” Turning, Cilla wrapped her arms around her sister. In her plain white terry-cloth robe, Deborah still seemed twelve years old to her. There was no one Cilla loved more. “Just one more harmless nut in a fruitcake world.”

“He didn’t sound harmless, Cilla.” Though several inches shorter, Deborah held Cilla still. There was a resemblance between them—around the mouth. Both their mouths were full, passionate and stubborn. But Deborah’s features were softer, curved rather than angular. Her eyes, thickly lashed, were a brilliant blue. They were drenched now with concern. “I think you should call the police.”

“The police?” Because this option had simply not occurred to her, Cilla was able to laugh. “One obscene call and you have me dashing to the cops. What kind of nineties woman do you take me for?”

Deborah jammed her hands in her pockets. “This isn’t a joke.”

“Okay, it’s not a joke. But Deb, we both know how little the police could do about one nasty call to a public radio station in the middle of the night.”

With an impatient sigh, Deborah turned away. “He really sounded vicious. It scared me.”

“Me too.”

Deborah’s laugh was quick, and only a little strained. “You’re never scared.”

I’m always scared, Cilla thought, but she smiled. “I was this time. It shook me enough that I fumbled the delay button and let it broadcast.” Fleetingly she wondered how much flak she’d get for that little lapse the next day. “But he didn’t call back, which proves it was a one-shot deal. Go to bed,” she said, passing a hand over her sister’s dark, fluffy hair. “You’re never going to be the best lawyer in Colorado if you stay up pacing all night.”

“I’ll go if you go.”

Knowing it would be hours before her mind and body settled down, Cilla draped an arm over her sister’s shoulders. “It’s a deal.”

***

He kept the room dark, but for the light of a few sputtering candles. He liked the mystic, spiritual glow of them, and their dreamy religious scent. The room was small, but it was crammed with mementos—trophies from his past. Letters, snapshots, a scattering of small china animals, ribbons faded by time. A long-bladed hunting knife rested across his knees, gleaming dully in the shifting light. A well-oiled .45 automatic rested by his elbow on a starched crocheted doily.

In his hand he held a picture framed in rosewood. He stared at it, spoke to it, wept bitter tears over it. This was the only person he had ever loved, and all he had left was the picture to press to his breast.

John. Innocent, trusting John. Deceived by a woman. Used by a woman. Betrayed by a woman.

Love and hate entwined as he rocked. She would pay. She would pay the ultimate price. But first she would suffer.

***

The call—one single ugly call—came every night. By the end of a week, Cilla’s nerves were frazzled. She wasn’t able to make a joke of it, on or off the air. She was just grateful that now she had learned to recognize the voice, that harsh, wire-taut voice with that undercurrent of fury, and she would cut him off after the first few words.

Then she would sit there in terror at the knowledge that he would call back, that he was there, just on the other side of one of those blinking lights, waiting to torment her.

What had she done?

After she dropped in the canned news and commercial spots at 2:00 a.m., Cilla rested her elbows on the table and dropped her head into her hands. She rarely slept well or deeply, and in the past week she had managed only a few snatches of real sleep. It was beginning to tell, she knew, on her nerves, her concentration.

What had she done?

That question haunted her. What could she possibly have done to make someone hate her? She had recognized the hate in the voice, the deep-seated hate. She knew she could sometimes be abrupt and impatient with people. There were times when she was insensitive. But she had never deliberately hurt anyone. What was it she would have to pay for? What crime, real or imagined, had she committed that caused this person to focus in on her for revenge?

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a movement. A shadow amid the shadows in the corridor. Panic arrowed into her, and she sprang up, jarring her hip against the console. The voice she had disconnected barely ten minutes before echoed in her head. She watched, rigid with fright, as the knob on the studio door turned.

There was no escape. Dry-mouthed, she braced for a fight.

“Cilla?”

Heart thudding, she lowered slowly into her chair, cursing her own nerves. “Mark.”

“Sorry, I must have scared you.”

“Only to death.” Making an effort, she smiled at the station manager. He was in his middle thirties, and he was drop-dead gorgeous. His dark hair was carefully styled and on the long side, adding more youth to his smooth and tanned face. As always, his attire was carefully hip. “What are you doing here at this hour?”

“It’s time we did more than talk about these calls.”

“We had a meeting just a couple of days ago. I told you—”

“You told me,” he agreed. “You have a habit of telling me, and everybody else.”

“I’m not taking a vacation.” She spun around in her chair to face him. “I’ve got nowhere to go.”

“Everybody’s got somewhere to go.” He held up a hand before she could speak. “I’m not going to argue about this anymore. I know it’s a difficult concept for you, but I am the boss.”

She tugged at the hem of her sweatshirt. “What are you going to do? Fire me?”

He didn’t know that she held her breath on the challenge. Though he’d worked with her for months, he hadn’t scratched deep enough beneath the surface to understand how precarious was her self-esteem. If he had threatened her then, she would have folded. But all he knew was that her show had pumped new life into the station. The ratings were soaring.