The House Guest by Mark Edwards(16)

It didn’t make sense. And Ruth and Eden, who I was sure had drunk more than me and who were smaller and lighter, had apparently been less affected than me.

I scrubbed at the sofa and fought back the urge to be sick. With every passing minute, my sense of dread and anxiety increased. Something had happened last night, after Eden had told her story. Something that hovered at the edge of memory, like a presence behind a door. I thought about my clothes, piled up here on the living room floor. The women’s absence. The state I’d been in when I woke up. I was no longer sure if I’d really crawled naked into the bathtub or if I’d dreamt it.

I tried to concentrate on the task at hand, but I kept getting up and going over to the front window, looking out. A group of teenagers were gathered outside the frozen yoghurt place opposite. A heavily muscled man walked a tiny dog. Life went on as normal. There was no sign of the man with the grey beard.

And the minutes ticked by. Sixty of them. Another hour.

Soon, it was almost midnight and neither Ruth nor Eden had appeared. Ruth still wasn’t answering her phone. The message I’d sent her hadn’t been read.

Where were they?

What had happened last night?

I finished cleaning the house at three in the morning, jumping at every noise outside, compulsively checking my phone. I even scoured the local news websites, seeing if there were any reports of accidents, or, worse, involving two young women.

Finally, exhausted by worry and still feeling the effects of the night before, I collapsed on the sofa and closed my eyes.



I woke up to hear a car door slamming outside.

I jumped up from the sofa and rushed over to the front window. It was already sunny and a cab had pulled up to the kerb. The driver was lifting bags out of the boot, setting them on the pavement, and then the back door of the cab opened on my side and Jack got out. On the other side, Mona emerged. She saw me watching them through the window and looked startled for a moment – clearly not expecting me to be up, waiting for them – before she smiled and waved. She said something to Jack, and he turned and smiled at me too.

I opened the front door and ran down the front steps to greet them. I hugged Mona and shook Jack’s hand. I was already on the pavement before I realised my feet were bare.

‘You two look great,’ I said. It was true. They were both tanned – actually, a little sun-scorched – and Jack had grown a beard, which suited him. He looked like he’d lost a little weight too. Mona looked exactly as she had on the last days of the cruise: relaxed and healthy, with her hair tied back in a loose ponytail.

‘You look a little green,’ said Mona. ‘Are you okay?’

I touched my face. I actually felt okay. Sleepy but much better than yesterday. Better, that was, until a lurch in my belly reminded me that Ruth and Eden hadn’t come home.

Had they?

Jack paid the cabbie and I helped him carry the bags up into the house.

‘Ruth still in bed?’ Jack asked.

I opened my mouth to answer, then thought I’d better check, just in case she and Eden had snuck in while I was asleep. I’d look daft if I told Jack and Mona that Ruth had vanished and the next second she came sauntering down the stairs wondering what all the fuss was about.

‘Hang on a second,’ I said, before running up the stairs. I prayed that I would find both women in their beds.

But they weren’t there. Both rooms remained empty.

I went back down. Jack and Mona had gone into the living room, and Jack had picked up the pile of post that had arrived while they were away and was sorting through it, muttering about bills and junk mail.

‘Anything?’ Mona asked.

He shook his head and tossed the pile of envelopes aside. ‘Is it me or does this place feel smaller?’ he asked.

‘It’s you,’ Mona responded. She winked at me. ‘Be prepared for him to go on and on about the wide-open spaces of New Mexico. Thanks for keeping the place so clean and tidy.’

‘Yeah,’ Jack said. ‘Though it smells like you had a party last night. Ruth hungover, is she?’

Mona laughed. ‘That explains why Adam is so pale.’

‘And why isn’t the A/C on? It’s almost as hot as the desert in here.’

I needed to stop this banter.

‘The unit’s broken,’ I said. ‘And I don’t know where Ruth is.’

Mona and Jack exchanged a look. ‘What?’ Mona said.

‘I haven’t seen her since Friday night. When I got up yesterday, she wasn’t here and neither was Eden and—’

I stopped. They were both staring at me blankly.

‘Oh, sorry, you didn’t know. Your friend Eden has been staying here for the past week. She just turned up and we weren’t sure what to do, and we couldn’t get hold of you, so . . .’

They were looking at me like I was talking in a foreign language.

‘Eden?’ said Jack.

‘Yes. She said you’d told her she could come and stay with you whenever she was in New York. She didn’t have anywhere else to go and we didn’t want to turf her out. I hope that was okay.’

‘Eden?’ asked Mona after a beat. ‘Like the Garden of . . . ?’

Now it was my turn to be confused. ‘Yes.’

Jack looked at Mona and Mona looked at Jack. They both shook their heads at the same time, before turning their attention back to me.