So Then There Were None

by Annie Adams

  The back door was probably still locked and the pool side of the building was less than attractive as an option in the case of naked stragglers or the probability that even if the outer gate to the pool was unlocked, I wouldn’t be so lucky with the French doors leading to the garden room. I would try the opposite side of the building, and if none of those doors were open, I could make my way to the front entrance. Surely it would still be open. This was a sort of hotel, after all. Didn’t they need to leave the front door open?

  The sides of the building were more fully landscaped with bushes and plants than the façade of the building. This made things even scarier, because things could hide in those bushes.

  I heard a swishing sound ahead of me, near the side of the building. I froze in place. My mind flashed to a documentary where I had seen jaguars in the Amazon jungle who could swim great distances, like from the shore to an island. Could cougars swim?

  I needed to pull myself together. It was probably nothing. Or…

  “Alex?” I whispered.

  No reply.

  The sound happened again. Only this time it was louder. What other animals could be on this island? Suddenly, Jurassic Park came to mind. I tore out of there and zigzagged while I was doing it just in case it was a T-Rex.

  I backtracked and tried the rear door once again with the same result as the last time. I would have to go all the way around the other side of the building, past the pool.

  Another motion-activated light came on as I hurried past. I looked up and noticed another door. It was plain, with very little hardware. The lock was flush with the door and there was no handle or knob. I pushed against it out of desperation, expecting it to be immovable. It bounced back under my hand and opened a crack. I wedged my fingers into the small gap and pulled the door open. It was the back door to the kitchen. The one with the emergency exit only sign that said an alarm would go off if it was opened. I didn’t hear any alarm.

  An under-cabinet recessed light illuminated a small pool of counter space against the wall. It was enough light to find my way around one of the large islands in the center of the room without running into an appliance. But it wasn’t enough to identify any creatures or people waiting in the dark.

  I knew my imagination was out of control. But there is something automatically scary about walking around in a quiet, dark room, no matter where it is. Once you've reached a certain time of night, a place of comfort and happiness like the kitchen—I mean we're talking about food here—becomes the Terror Castle at the amusement park, where you just know a living mannequin dressed up in ragged clothing, wearing a ratty wig, lurks around the corner behind the fridge.

  It didn’t help that my emotions were frazzled. I felt terrible about the way I’d left things with Alex. I just wanted to find him, apologize and go home as soon as possible. It felt like weeks had passed since I’d last seen my family, including my dog, Jerome. I couldn’t believe I was actually missing my mother’s nagging phone calls and my older sister’s sometimes superior attitude. I decided that I was a wreck.

  Alex had probably made it inside the lodge by now and he was likely in our room. I would go upstairs and face the music. We could talk things out and go to sleep. Everything would improve with a little bit of sleep.

  The main hallway was well lit, which improved my mood dramatically. I could hear something going on in one of the larger rooms behind the staircase, but I wasn’t going to stop and find out what they were up to. After what seemed like an endless number of stairs, I finally stood outside our room. I reached into my pocket only to find—nothing. There was no key. I checked and rechecked all the pockets of my jeans with no success.

  I knocked on the door, hoping that Alex had beat me back into the lodge. He either wasn't inside or didn't want to talk to me, which I could understand, but this was an extenuating circumstance. I needed to get inside—the mannequin people were out there. I thought I heard the rustling of ragged clothing around the corner. It’s a very distinct sound.

  I tried to think back to what had happened since I’d gotten dressed and intentionally held the key up to look at it before putting it in my pants pocket. The more I thought about it, I remembered some—eh—messing around that I had done on the grass with Alex. My key had probably fallen out then. My tired brain couldn't comprehend going all the way back out to the beach to find it. I needed another way.

  Suddenly, a full-on spine-wracking shiver overtook me. The air around my body became cold, as if I’d just walked into my flower cooler. With arms covered in goosebumps, I knew I was about to hear a ghostly whisper…but it never came. The thing was, my mind cleared, and it was as if my eyes were closed, even though they weren’t. And an invisible pen wrote a word in fluorescent ink in the dark canvas in my mind.

  Eva.

  The fire I had felt, only a short while before, came right back when the irony hit me. The best chance I had of getting back into my room was Eva.

  I knew Alex had been telling the truth about her visit to our room, and despite my frustration with him, I believed that he didn’t realize he hadn’t told me about his past relationship with her. But still, they’d been an item. Ick.

  Eva was petite and pretty and toned. Her clothes had an understated elegance. And I could just imagine that Alex’s visit to this wedding had been on her mind since Mike and Christie had announced their engagement.

  Maybe Alex had put their relationship behind him. But Eva? Maybe each time she was extra nice to me, like when she took me aside at the pool, she was really just mocking me in a backhanded way. Either that, or thinking that getting closer to me would be a way to get closer to him vicariously. Whatever her reasons, she knew how to get into my room, and that meant I would have to ask for her help.

  I went downstairs hoping Eva might just be standing around, waiting for me to need that key instead of sitting in the middle of a room full of women who could overhear our conversation. It was the least she could do for me, right?

  The volume of laughter and voices coming from behind the grand staircase grew louder with each step I took. I just hoped they all had clothes on.

  As I walked down the hall, the noise from the others stopped. The only sound was that of my sneakers, squeaking on the marble-tiled floors. I continued on, annoyed at every single conspicuous squeak of my shoe, until I found a sliver of light escaping the barely ajar study door. I peeked in to see who was inside and if it was worth interrupting whatever was going on.

  “Hi Quincy!”

  I shrieked and probably peed a little.

  “Eva,” I said on an exhale of the breath I’d been holding. She stood directly behind me.

  “I’m sure you can just go on in,” she said.

  “Oh…I wasn’t meaning to snoop, I just—” I could feel the fire spreading up my arms and my neck. My cheeks felt like the bottom of a furnace. Why did I say anything about snooping? I wasn’t—exactly.

  The door flung open. “Everything okay out here?” Audra asked at the opening, sounding very lucid for someone who, only hours before, had been completely “blind and blotto,” as it said on the list of slang from the wedding party.

  “Everything’s great,” I replied.

  “Quincy, come in, you’re just in time,” Pam said from inside the study.

  “Come in, come in, come in, Boss!”

  I felt a pain in my jaw and realized I was clenching my teeth. I couldn’t confront Eva in front of everyone, and I knew K.C. well enough that it wouldn’t be a simple thing to say Eva and I needed to talk privately in the hallway. Also, Eva was halfway through the door already. I would have to cook up an excuse to talk to her once I found out what everyone was up to in the study.

  The room looked just as I would have imagined. Shelves full with a multitude of different sized books, all with various colored spines, covering all of the walls. Overstuffed, brown leather couches faced a fireplace, and a large mahogany desk behind the couches anchored the room. The carpet was lush and thick in a subtle
teal and rusty orange plaid pattern that tied all of the colors of the room together.

  “Is something on your mind, Quincy?” Megan asked as I slowly made my way in.

  Obviously I wasn’t going to tell them that my thoughts were occupied with the woman who stood behind me, who may have sparked the fight that may have just ruined my potential marriage.

  “It’s just that…” I glanced at everyone trying to think of something clever. Nothing came, so I just pointed out the obvious. “Um…you’re all wearing clothes.”

  The room erupted with the sound of their laughter.

  “That’s right, I forgot you were there at the pool,” Regan said in her usual condescending, dismissive way. The light reflected off of her necklace—the one that she had been rumored to have stolen the design for, from her sister.

  “I didn’t forget who you were with, though,” Audra said.

  Everyone stopped talking and the room became painfully quiet except for the ticking of a clock on the mantle. I looked at her, keeping my face void of expression, trying with all my willpower not to ask her if she’d rolled any strikes or picked up any spares lately.

  “So, what are we all up to, now?” I asked in a happy, light-hearted tone.

  “Glad you asked,” K.C. replied. It was hard to miss the scarf she’d draped over her hair and tied at the nape of her neck. The fringe of her natural brown hair stuck out around the edges. She wore giant gold hoop earrings. No telling where she picked those up, but they did look suspiciously similar to shower curtain rings. “Take a seat—no, no, not that one—this one across from me.”

  “Okay…K.C.”

  “Tonight, it’s Madam Karma, purveyor of the future. Sit, and I vill tell your fortune.”

  I sat across from her at the formidable desk.

  She snapped her fingers and someone turned out the lights. I heard the click of the chain on the green shaded desk lamp. Her face was illuminated along with a small area on the desk.

  “Now, cut zis deck of cards in half,” she instructed.

  “Did you just say zis?”

  “Work with me, kid,” she whispered.

  She pointed to a colorful deck of tarot cards. I shrugged and played along. She laid out the cards in kind of a “T” shaped pattern, and then put four cards running down the side.

  K.C. mumbled to herself as she looked over the cards. “Yes, that’s right. I expected that…oh,” she glanced up at me with a deadly serious look on her face. “That’s a shame,” she said, as she returned her attention to the cards and then tsked.

  “Isn’t that the Death card?” Regan asked.

  The others audibly sucked in their breath. “Maybe we know who’s next to go,” Audra said. “Not that I care, I’m not playing,” she reminded.

  “That is not the meaning of the Death card…usually,” K.C. said.

  I didn’t really believe in card reading and that kind of thing, but it did seem very interesting. And there was a picture on one of the cards of a man. He looked like a king. He also looked a lot like Alex.

  “I see a lot of cups here, missy. A lot of cups.” K.C. still perused the cards, hemming and hawing to herself.

  “Aww, look,” Pam said over my shoulder. “That one says The Lovers on it. That’s like you and Alex. What does it mean when it’s upside-down like that?”

  K.C. looked up at Pam and me, opening her mouth as if to speak, but then looked like she thought better of saying what first came to mind. She glanced to the side and then looked back up, her eyes sparkling.

  “It doesn’t really mean anything, dear. This card is, of course, for lovers. They are lucky, aren’t they?” I knew her well enough to know she was using her full of baloney tone of voice. “And, as Regan pointed out, we have the Death card here, meaning…well, it probably just means that Quincy is going through a big change.”

  “What kind of change, Quincy?” Megan asked.

  I shrugged. “Nothing as far as I know.”

  “Well you’ve set a wedding date, haven’t you?” K.C. said. “That’s a new beginning, a significantly big change.”

  “Oh, well…yes.” Errgh. My eyesight had adjusted enough to see all of the faces crowded around the desk. I heard coos of interest and even some congratulations. Pam had a particularly peculiar look on her face. Unfortunately, I had slipped in a moment of weakness and told K.C. about our new wedding date. I had only told her because she mentioned wanting to plan a trip with her husband and I didn’t want her to miss the wedding. She was supposed to keep the date a secret.

  I didn’t know the rest of this group well enough to want to share that special news. Especially not with Alex’s ex-girlfriend.

  I cast a look at K.C., but I could tell by the look on her face she realized she had spilled the beans.

  “Now, this Tower card has me flummoxed,” K.C. almost shouted out. I think she was trying to distract the others from my news.

  “What does it mean?” Eva asked.

  “It could be nothing but—”

  “People are falling off the top of a tall building on that card,” Regan said. “It can’t be a good card.”

  “We never vant to be too literal when interpreting zee Tarot,” K.C. said, back in character.

  “What else could it mean?” Regan persisted.

  “Some kind of disaster…” K.C. hesitated to say. “Or—orrr, a big revelation. Something will be revealed to you, Quincy.”

  “Maybe she’ll figure out how to solve the mystery,” Eva said. Very friendly, that Eva. Too friendly, the more I thought about it. Could she be feeling guilty, I wondered?

  “That Tower card is right next to that King card.” Pam’s voice got shaky and quiet. “He looks a lot like Alex. Is Alex okay, Quincy? It doesn’t seem good that those two cards are together.”

  There was no way in this world I would be talking about my fight with Alex right now, especially not with Pam. “He’s doing great. We were just walking out at the beach together.”

  “Where is he now?” Pam asked.

  “I’m going to think about this reading before I give you a final report, Boss.” K.C. had apparently read my face and intervened. She sat back and stretched her arms, a bent elbow on either side of her head, then she snapped her fingers for like before. “I think it’s time for this old cowgirl to go to bed. Gotta get that beauty sleep, right?” The lights came on in time to see her lightly jab her elbow into Audra’s side.

  I helped her gather her cards, which she then put into a purple velvet pouch. It looked like something that would have dangled from the arm of a Victorian era woman.

  Everyone else had left the general vicinity of the desk when K.C. leaned in and said, “I need a word with you,” her whispered words sounding serious.

  "Okay," I said, as I looked over my shoulder. "But not here."

  "Fine. I need to go get my dress. I lost my fool head and left it on the beach.” Leaving her dress on the beach was the foolish thing she’d done? I would’ve gone for the naked pool party if I were choosing.

  “We can talk while we retrieve it," she said.

  "I brought your—shoot. I brought your dress up from the beach after..." I paused not knowing how much I wanted to share about what had happened between me and Alex at the beach. "Anyway, I brought it with me on the way back to the house, but I must have dropped it."

  "You dropped it? It's not like you just to drop something like that."

  "No, I was scared by a noise and I took off. I can't believe I did that. I'm sorry, K.C."

  "No, no, don't you worry. It's the thought that counts. Besides, I'm the one who left it out in the first place. But, since it did cost me a pretty penny, I'd better find it. I really do love that dress. Let's retrace your steps and see where you dropped it."

  I thought back and tried to remember my route and where I may have left the dress. And it struck me just how scared I had been. Not so much at the sound I’d heard, but at the way I was so upset, that my mind had actually gone completely blank
. This didn’t happen to me. I remembered everything. It was one of my better qualities that really helped me in running my business. Now, I couldn’t remember a single thing about dropping that dress. K.C. was right. It wasn’t like me to do something like that. I was rattled and that scared me the most.

  "I'm sure I didn’t have it in my hands when I came in the house."

  "See, now there's a start."

  "It's outside. But it's really dark out there now."

  "I've got a little flashlight on my keychain. We can go up to my room and get it."

  We went up to her room and got the flashlight, passing Regan in the hallway on the way out.

  "Are you done for the night, Miss Regan?" K.C. asked.

  "Yeah, I think I'll go to bed."

  "Goodnight," we told her.

  We used the back staircase, which put us in the hall near the kitchen when we reached the bottom.

  “I came through here,” I said, as we crossed into the kitchen. “The weird thing was, I was able to come through that door that says it will set off an alarm if you open it.”

  “I didn’t hear any alarms.”

  “Me either—well, it was slightly open anyway. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get back in, but this was open.”

  K.C. gingerly pushed on the door. “It’s shut tight now. Did you close it when you came in?”

  “I put it back just as I found it.”

  “As everyone should. Good girl.”

  “For some reason that door being left open creeps me out. And so does the fact that it’s closed now. Not that I wasn’t glad to be able to get in. I didn’t see anyone outside of the kitchen or wandering around in the halls when I came in, although Eva did follow me into the study.”

  “Well that makes sense. She went to get some snacks. And this would be the place where those would most likely be found. She must have just missed you.”

  Hmm. Maybe. I was growing more and more suspicious of Eva for…I wasn’t sure what yet, but I would figure it out.

  “I did go upstairs first. In fact, I wouldn’t have come back down to the study if I hadn’t lost my key.”

  I stopped talking before I said anything else. I didn’t need to go into the details of how I lost it.