An Unwanted Guest(39)
Finally, they are finished, and as they all leave the room, Henry casts an anxious look out of the window. The sky is black outside. The wind howls around the hotel. He can hear the creaking of the ice-coated branches sawing in the wind outside the windows. He feels a sinking sensation in his core – more than that – it’s a sensation of dread.
They step out of the room, and David closes his door behind them. The others are already entering Matthew’s room, where David leaves it to them to feel through luggage, open drawers, lift carpets, stir ashes. He watches Matthew’s reaction as his and Dana’s room and private belongings are searched. He is uncomfortable at having his things examined, but nothing more than that.
David is startled when Henry finds a gun. It’s in Matthew’s luggage, properly locked and stowed, along with ammunition.
‘I have a permit,’ Matthew says a little defensively. ‘I don’t normally take it anywhere,’ he tells them. ‘I keep it in my bedside table at home, in case of intruders. But I thought it might be handy if we did some skiing or hiking up here. There are bears. Better to be prepared.’ He turns to James. ‘You can scare them off easily with the sound of a shot. Isn’t that right?’
James nods nervously. ‘Yes.’
David nods, and Henry returns the gun carefully to the overnight bag and puts the bag back down on the floor.
Matthew leans over and grabs the overnight bag and pulls it towards him and puts it on the bed. He takes the gun out of the bag and methodically loads it. David freezes. Everyone has stopped what they’re doing to watch Matthew. He grabs extra ammunition and shoves it into his pockets. He’s not looking at anyone. He holds the gun in his hand; David wonders if he should say something, do something.
Time seems to stop. David’s heart is racing. Everyone is transfixed by the sight of Matthew handling his gun. As if they are afraid that Matthew is the murderer, and he is going to kill them all. But then Matthew looks up, and it’s just Matthew.
‘We could use this, for protection,’ he says. And the moment passes.
Henry and Beverly’s room is beside Matthew’s, across from the empty housekeeping closet. They find nothing there. Now even David doesn’t know what they’re looking for. He’s starting to think he’s on a fool’s errand, searching the guests’ rooms. The two rooms across from each other at the end of the hall, near the back staircase, are unoccupied, and cleaned, prepared for the next guests.
Saturday, 6:30 PM
‘We’d better search the rest of the hotel,’ James says. ‘The entire ground floor, and then the cellars.’ James is very disturbed by the appearance of room 202. Nothing like this has ever happened before. He asks himself if it is possible that there is someone here that they’re not aware of – some interloper. But he has no enemies. Not that he can think of. No mad relatives hidden away. No disgruntled employees. He wishes now that he’d installed security cameras, but he hadn’t wanted them in his quaint, old-fashioned hotel. He hadn’t thought they would ever be necessary. But now, if only he’d had cameras installed in the corridors, they might have shown what happened to Dana – if it happened before the power went out. But then he realizes they wouldn’t have been able to review the video anyway, without electricity.
James glances at Bradley. Bradley is standing in the hall with the rest of them, staring down at the floor, unaware that he’s being observed. There’s naked fear on his face. And something else that James can’t quite read. It’s a look he’s seen before …
James feels his stomach drop with a sickening lurch. He doesn’t really know everything about his son. No parent does. Bradley has had some brushes with the law. James thought those days were behind them. Dear God, he hopes Bradley hasn’t become involved with something bigger than he can handle. But then he assures himself that anything Bradley might be involved in couldn’t have anything to do with this. Bradley is a good boy, who once got involved with some bad people. But he’ll talk to him when he gets a chance.
He comes up beside his son and whispers, ‘Are you okay?’
Bradley looks up at him, startled. ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ And that look on his face is gone and he looks like he always does, and James tells himself he’s worrying for nothing. This has nothing to do with Bradley. He’s just frightened like everybody else.
‘Bradley,’ James says, ‘you’ve got the lamp, why don’t you lead?’
This time, they take the back staircase down to the ground floor. It’s the first time Beverly’s seen it. It’s narrow and uncarpeted. They go down single file, their steps echoing.
‘This was the servants’ staircase,’ Bradley says.
‘Is there an attic we should be checking out?’ David asks.
‘No,’ James says.
They arrive at the bottom of the stairs where a door opens onto a hall that runs along the back of the hotel. Immediately to the left is the kitchen.
‘Let’s leave the kitchen and cellars for last,’ James says. ‘Let’s try the woodshed.’
Down the hall from the kitchen is the door to the woodshed. They follow Bradley. Beverly hadn’t really looked closely at the woodshed when she was here before, being in a hurry to follow the others to the icehouse. But she looks at it now. It’s really cold in here. The walls are simple barn board. It’s not insulated. There’s a large wooden stump with an axe plunged into it in the centre of the earthen floor. Logs are neatly stacked all around. Kindling, too. There are some gardening tools, and a musty smell, but there is nowhere to hide in here.