RANSVESTIA

Harriet had just heard must have been very close.

It was then that she remembered the cracked skylight on six. Harry had neglected to look at it on the midnight tour. There might be some more water seeping in through that crack — perhaps too much for the tarpaulins beneath to absorb. He decided to check it immediately. Forgetting Harriet's affairs for the moment Harry took his flashlight and leaving Harriet's bulky purse on a table inside the fur department he walked with a sense of urgency to the nearby elevators. He was somewhat irritated with himself about overlooking the skylights earlier.

The main elevators opened on six at a point on the opposite end of the building from where the home furnishings stockroom and skylight were located. As he walked down a broad aisle lined on either side with dining room sets Harry could hear the muffled sounds of the storm out- side. He had walked about one third of the building's length when that instinctive chill that people get when they think they are alone and then sense someone's nearby presence ran up his spine. It was an odd noise that triggered his awareness. He stopped dead in his tracks, switched off his flashlight and listened intently.

In a building as large as Thayer and Company's downtown store there were a surprising number of unexplained noises during any given night. In his first month as a watchman Harry had found the job a little spooky. But diligent investigation of these "ghosts" had led to the conclusion that the source was the plumbing and the creaking masonry, expanding and contracting according to the weather outside and the heating and cooling system inside. Or occasionally a box or some other article would shift or fall unaccountably from a shelf or counter. He had grown accustomed to these sounds and now only his subconscious mind heard them. But the noise he had just heard did not fit the usual category. It had sounded remarkably like a human voice. The sound was faint but had carried through the store's length above the dulled far-off noises of the storm outside. As he listened he peered with fixed eyes through the dim light over a polished forest of tables, chairs, commodes, bookcases, and beds towards the opposite end of the floor at an exit light. The noise had come from somewhere in that vicinity. He listened for fully ten seconds an apparent eternity before he heard it again.

There was no mistake the second time. The sound had the peculiar timbre of the human voice. The realization had paralyzing impact. Harry was not alone in the store. Somehow, someone had broken in through the roof probably using the broken skylight. He stood poised on his toes in the aisle to get a better view, straining to see what his cars already confirmed. It was as if his eyes disbelieved what the ears had