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She decides she’d better get up. Plus it’s goddamn cold. She flicks the light switch of the lamp on her bedside table, but it doesn’t go on. It’s very dark in the room. She crosses the floor, shivering in bare feet, to open the curtains. She’s surprised by what she sees. Not the fluffy winter wonderland of last night – but the unleashed fury of an ice storm. Obviously the power is out. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. She wonders how much battery she’s got left in her laptop. Maybe five hours, max. This is a disaster! She needs to find out when the power’s going back on. She quickly pulls on some warm clothes and heads cautiously downstairs in the dark.
As she rounds the landing and sees down the stairs into the lobby, she stops abruptly. There’s a cluster of people at the bottom of the stairs and they all glance up towards her. Every one of their faces is drawn and uneasy. And then she sees why. There’s a woman lying at the bottom of the stairs, so still that she is clearly dead. It’s Dana Hart. The attorney is standing over her, his face serious. There’s no sign of Matthew.
David has volunteered to break the terrible news to Matthew, who as far as they know is still up in his room. Properly speaking, he supposes that it’s the duty of the owner of the hotel to inform Matthew. But James doesn’t look up to the task. This is what David tells himself as he treads back up. James accompanies him, obviously grateful that the attorney has offered. The others remain behind, standing in place, dumbly watching their quiet progress up the stairs.
‘Which room is it?’ David asks.
‘Room 101,’ James tells him in a distraught voice.
They stop outside the door. David pauses, preparing himself. He listens for any sounds within. But he hears nothing. He lifts his hand and knocks firmly.
There’s no response. David glances at James, who appears even more anxious. David knocks again, harder this time. He’s beginning to think about asking James to go and fetch the key when he hears movement within. Finally the door swings open and David is face to face with the man he met over cocktails the night before. David suddenly feels a terrible pity for him. Matthew still looks half asleep. He’s clumsily pulling on a bathrobe.
‘Yes?’ he says, obviously surprised to find them at his door. Then he glances over his shoulder at the bed he’s just got out of, as if he’s missing something. He turns back and looks David in the eye and it registers all at once. Matthew’s eyes sharpen. ‘What is it?’ He looks from David, to the visibly upset James, and back to the attorney. ‘What’s happened? Where’s Dana?’
‘I’m afraid there’s been an accident,’ David says, in his professional voice.
‘What?’ Matthew is clearly alarmed now.
‘I’m so sorry,’ David says quietly.
‘Has something happened to Dana?’ Matthew’s voice is full of panic.
‘She’s fallen down the stairs,’ David says.
‘Is she okay?’ But his face has gone white.
David shakes his head sombrely and says the dreaded words again. ‘I’m so sorry.’
Matthew gasps, ‘I don’t believe it!’ He looks ghastly. ‘I want to see her!’
There’s nothing to be done. He must see her. David leads him down to the landing, where he stops, respectfully. Dana lies below them like a broken doll, thrown across a room by a petulant child. Matthew sees her, cries out, and stumbles past him in his rush to get to his beloved.
‘Don’t touch her,’ David advises.
Matthew collapses beside her and begins to sob as the others step back. He ignores David’s warning and strokes her too-pale face, runs his thumb along her bloodless lips in disbelief. Then he buries his face in her neck, his shoulders heaving.
The others look away; it’s unbearable.
Finally, Matthew looks up. ‘How did this happen?’ he cries, half crazed, at David, who has descended the stairs and has stopped above him on the second step. ‘Why would she even be out of our room?’
‘You didn’t hear her go?’ David asks.
Matthew shakes his head slowly in shock and misery. ‘No. I was asleep. I didn’t hear anything.’ He covers his face with both hands and weeps wretchedly.
Bradley fetches a white sheet and they all stand by sombrely as he and David settle it gently over Dana’s inert form.
Chapter Nine
Saturday, 6:33 AM
GWEN WALKS WITH Riley back to their room as if in a trance. She can’t seem to take it all in. Dana is dead, just like that. She might have fallen down those stairs and died while Gwen was in David’s room last night. It’s possible she was already lying at the bottom of the stairs on the ground floor when she left his room on the first floor and climbed to the second floor to her own room. How fleeting and precious life is, she realizes. You never know when it may be snatched from you, just when you’re least expecting it. Dana had everything to live for, Gwen thinks. It’s too horrible. It makes her realize that she should try to enjoy every moment. Live life to the fullest. She hasn’t been very good at that. Maybe it’s time to try. Maybe it’s time to let go of the baggage, the guilt, and try to live her life, she thinks. Maybe last night is a new beginning for her. She feels a surging warmth and happiness inside about David that she can’t help, even though Dana is dead.
She’d wanted so much to go to him just now. But it would have been completely inappropriate. They’d managed a warm glance at one another, but that was it. There was time. They would be together again.
Riley won’t like it that she was with David last night. Gwen knows that, but Riley is her friend, not her keeper. Riley should be happy for her that she’s met someone. Gwen was always happy for Riley when she met someone, and Gwen usually didn’t have anyone special herself. She’s sorry it had to happen when they were supposed to be spending time together this weekend, but you must take good things when and where you find them. They are rare enough. Dana’s dreadful accident has brought this home to her. Riley should understand that. It’s not like she planned it this way.
They reach the room and Riley closes the door behind her. Gwen looks up at her warily, waiting for her to say something. When she doesn’t, Gwen reaches for some clothes from her overnight bag. She would like a shower, but that seems out of the question. The water will be freezing.
‘There’s something I need to say,’ Riley says at last, her voice serious, as she pulls a top on over her head and flips her long hair over her shoulders.
Here it comes, Gwen thinks.
‘That attorney, David Paley.’
‘What about him?’ Gwen’s voice comes out more sharply than she intended.
‘Did you sleep with him?’
‘Actually, yes, I did.’ She turns and glares at Riley. ‘Why, is that a problem? I’m a grown-up. I don’t recall ever having a problem with any of your flings.’ She zips up her jeans with an angry snap, and reaches for a thick sweater. She adds, ‘God knows there were enough of them.’
‘But you don’t know anything about him.’
‘Yes I do. He’s David Paley, a defence attorney from New York City. And a very nice man.’ She can’t help adding, ‘And we’re good together.’
‘Gwen, sit down for a minute,’ Riley says, sitting down on her bed.
Gwen slumps down tiredly on the bed across from Riley and starts pulling on warm socks. She refuses to look at her, to show that she is listening. She doesn’t want to listen. Riley should mind her own business. How quickly things have changed this weekend. She was supposed to be taking care of Riley, but somehow Riley is trying to re-establish herself in the role of her protector. Gwen doesn’t like it.
‘I don’t know what it is, but something about him is bothering me,’ Riley says, clearly tense.
Gwen looks up at her and says, in a voice that shows she means it, ‘Riley – I don’t want to hear it.’
Riley bites her tongue and finishes getting dressed in silence.
David returns to his room briefly to dress. His mind is racing. So much has happened in such a short time. Meeting Gwen. Now this awful accident. That looks like it might not be an accident.
