An Unwanted Guest(26)
‘Were you up late last night?’ James asked.
‘No,’ Bradley said, picking up the trays. ‘I need to take these out.’ Then he’d taken the muffins and croissants out to the dining room.
James finishes with his frying pan and puts it on the drying rack. He wishes the power would come back on. He misses his bloody dishwasher. He wishes the police would get here and take the body away. He can’t believe he’s got to take care of almost a dozen people without electricity and that there’s a dead body at the foot of the grand staircase in his beloved hotel and he can’t do anything about it.
Saturday, noon
Lauren descends the staircase into the lobby, stepping with distaste around Dana’s body, Ian right behind her. It’s a rather horrible choice they all have to make – whether to use the creepy back staircase or the main one with the body at the bottom. When she looks up, the lobby is empty except for Candice, who hurriedly puts a book down on a side table and turns to face her. It’s Lauren’s book.
‘That’s mine,’ Lauren says. ‘I thought I’d left that book down here.’
Candice asks, ‘Do you know where Bradley is? I came out to ask him to bring me some hot tea.’
‘I can tell him if I see him, if you like,’ Lauren says.
‘Oh, would you? And tell him to bring my lunch to the library. Thanks. I didn’t really want to bother his father in the kitchen.’ Candice hurries away.
Lauren watches her go.
She sits down on the hearth of the lobby’s big stone fireplace and pulls Ian down beside her, trying to warm up while they wait for the others to appear and for lunch to be served. Lauren stares across the room at the front windows. She can’t stop thinking about it. Dana is dead, at the foot of the stairs. She avoids looking in that direction as best she can. ‘This is so terrible,’ she whispers to Ian.
‘I know,’ he agrees, beside her. He takes her hand, clasps it in his own. ‘I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.’
She lightly kisses his cheek. Then she whispers, ‘I don’t see why she can’t be moved. Why do we have to wait for the coroner?’
‘It’s awful to leave her lying there,’ Ian agrees.
‘Do you think someone might have pushed her?’ Lauren whispers.
‘No, of course not. It must have been an accident. David’s an attorney – he’s just following procedure.’ He adds, pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear, ‘Lawyers always think they know everything.’ He glances over his shoulder at the body and says, ‘But if the police don’t get here soon, surely we can’t just leave her there. It’s too creepy.’
One by one, the guests reappear in the lobby, as if summoned by an invisible bell. Hungry, no doubt, David thinks, wondering what there is to eat.
After speaking to Matthew, David had spent the morning in his room. Thinking about Dana at the bottom of the stairs. About how it might have happened. Thinking about the bereft young man holed up in his room, waiting for the inevitable visit by the police.
Thinking about Gwen. Thinking a lot about Gwen.
Now, in the lobby, David looks at her. She seems even more distressed than she had earlier that morning, at breakfast. And she hasn’t turned his way once since he entered the lobby. She’s sitting by the fire, holding her hands out to it for warmth, not looking his way. He would like to go to her, but he senses she doesn’t want him to. He tries to understand it. She can’t be one of those women who enjoy one-night stands but want nothing more. He doesn’t think she’s the type. He’s certain of it. Of course, they’re all distressed by the death of Dana.
And he doesn’t know what her friend Riley might have said to her, once they were alone together. Warned her off him, no doubt.
He knew it was better not to get involved, with any of it. Not with her, and not with Matthew. He’s had enough trouble. What he wants now is peace. But he fears that peace might have to wait.
Gwen catches David looking at her and averts her eyes. What Riley told her about David – it can’t possibly be true. Maybe she’s just saying this to restore the balance of power between them to what it was before. Maybe Riley is deliberately sabotaging her. That is what Gwen doesn’t know. How easy it would be to do – to warn her to stay away from David all weekend, and then when they get back to civilization and google David Paley, he probably won’t be who she’s thinking of at all. The only thing he will have in common with the man who was arrested for murdering his wife is that they are both attorneys. And Riley will just laugh it off, Oh, I was so sure. Sorry. But it will be too late. Her opportunity with David will be gone. She’s already thirty and she might never meet anyone else. She studies Riley resentfully and then turns away.
Or maybe it’s not deliberate at all; maybe Riley’s paranoia is simply spilling over into everything.
Henry is sitting beside his wife, not looking at her. His muscles are pleasantly tired from clearing the path out to the icehouse, and he’s built up an appetite. Surely lunch will be soon.
He can feel Beverly looking sidelong at him. He wonders what they would be doing right now, if this hadn’t happened. Dismantling their life together bit by bit, he thinks, over cold cups of coffee in some corner of the hotel. He realizes that he is almost glad of the diversion the accident has brought.