The House Guest by Mark Edwards(17)

My insides had gone cold.

‘Who the hell,’ Jack said, ‘is Eden?’





PART TWO





Chapter 10

Silence filled the room. I stared at Jack and Mona. They stared back.

‘Wait,’ Jack said, a hopeful smile appearing at one corner of his mouth. ‘You’re pranking us, right?’

‘No. Why would I be?’

Mona had taken a seat on the sofa. Her hands twisted together in her lap. ‘Tell us everything,’ she said.

So I did. I told them how Eden had turned up on a rainy night a week ago. I recounted the story she’d told us about how her ex was a friend of theirs.

‘Which friend?’ Jack asked, interrupting me.

‘She never told us his name. She said she couldn’t bear to say it. But she said he was an old college friend of yours who lives in LA.’

‘I don’t have a college friend in LA,’ Jack said. ‘No one I’ve been in touch with for years, anyway.’

I went on with the story until I reached Friday night. ‘She went out to buy us dinner and came back with two bottles of tequila. Ruth was having a crisis about her career and . . . well, we both drank a lot more than we would normally. I was wasted. I didn’t wake up until about seven yesterday evening, and they weren’t here.’

Neither Jack nor Mona seemed particularly bothered about Ruth’s absence yet. They were focused purely on Eden.

‘And she definitely told you she knew us?’ Mona asked.

‘Yes. She made out that you were great friends. She said you told her she could come and stay if she was ever in New York.’

‘And you believed her?’ Jack said.

‘Yes. I mean, you invited us to stay. It seemed like the kind of thing you’d do. And the way she talked about you. She was so convincing. Are you certain you don’t know her?’

Blank looks.

I groped for an explanation. ‘Maybe she exaggerated how well she knows you. It could have been a brief encounter. One you’ve both forgotten.’ I was aware how unlikely this sounded. Eden had told us that Jack and Mona had stayed with her and her boyfriend in Los Angeles. She’d clearly said the Cunninghams had told her she could come and stay anytime she was in New York.

‘Whoever she was,’ Jack said, ‘she told you a pack of lies.’

Mona hugged herself. ‘This is creeping me out.’

‘Me too,’ said Jack. ‘It’s like, I don’t know, finding out you’ve got a stalker. I mean, how did she know we live here? How does she know us?’

‘Do you have any photos of her?’ Mona asked.

‘Yes! Yes, I do.’

My phone was charging in the kitchen. I rushed to grab it and brought it back to the living room. I sat beside Mona on the sofa and Jack perched on the other side of her, both of them leaning over to peer at the screen as I unlocked the phone and opened the photos app. I flicked the screen with my thumb and watched pictures from the last few days float downwards. There were lots of shots of random things I’d seen wandering around New York. A few selfies in front of landmarks. Photos of Ruth in the house. Then I found myself looking at photos from London, before we’d come to America.

I scrolled back up. Then down again.

‘What is it?’ Mona asked.

‘The photos I took of her. They’re gone.’

We had taken selfies in the bar on Wednesday night. I knew that for a fact.

‘They’ve been deleted,’ I said, no doubt sounding as stunned as I felt. ‘How . . . Oh God.’

‘What is it?’ asked Jack.

‘She saw me enter my passcode. She must have memorised it.’

‘You are kidding me. I mean, what the fuck, Adam?’

My cheeks burned with embarrassment. I checked the deleted items folder on my phone, just in case she’d forgotten to remove the pictures entirely, but it was empty.

Mona had got up and was looking around the room, inspecting shelves, opening drawers.

‘What are you doing?’ Jack asked.

‘What do you think? I’m checking to see if anything is missing.’

He jumped up like he’d been bitten. He ran up the stairs and I could hear doors opening and closing while I sat there, dumbfounded. This could not be happening.

For want of something to do, anything, I called Ruth’s number again. Once more, it went straight to voicemail. But then I saw the last messages I’d sent her had been read. That was a good sign. Wasn’t it? Except, why hadn’t she replied?

Jack came back downstairs. ‘I can’t see anything missing up there. But you should check your jewellery, honey, just in case.’

Mona nodded. ‘I will. I can’t see anything missing down here either. Did you check the laptops? What if she managed to get on to those? I have all my banking details saved on mine . . .’

Jack swore and ran back upstairs to find their laptops, which they had apparently left behind while they went on their retreat. Mona thumbed her phone, and I guessed she was checking her bank balance.

I stared at my phone, at the unanswered texts. ‘Where are you?’ I said in a whisper.

Mona lifted her face from her screen. ‘What?’

It felt as if someone had removed my bones and replaced them with jelly. ‘Ruth,’ I said. ‘Where is she?’