So Then There Were None

by Annie Adams

  I stepped onto the perfect bath rug, and dug my toes into the plush that massaged my feet. I turned to the bench where I had stacked all of my clothes and saw nothing but bare, luxurious, sand colored tile.

  My mind had really been playing tricks on me this entire weekend. I must have left the clothes on the chair outside the bathroom door in K.C.’s room. The air in her room was a cold shock to the system compared to the sauna I had just stepped out of. My skin broke out in goose flesh as I looked to the spot where I must have left my clothes. They weren’t there.

  After a search of the entire room, including looking through K.C.’s drawers and closet—I would have to apologize for that later—I found no trace of my clothes. I went back through the bathroom into Jill’s old room with the same result—nada.

  K.C. must have taken them. I don’t know why, but what other explanation could there be? The ghosts? Whoever or whatever it was—it wasn’t funny. I went to K.C.’s closet again and looked for something I could wear temporarily, just long enough to go and find her. The bathrobe she’d worn the night before was gone. There was the red, sequined dress. The plunging neckline combined with the size would make it an impossible option. I might as well walk down the hall naked for as much as it would cover. The only thing left that would work was the giant floral-print Mumu. The neck line was higher, yet would still gape open. But the ruffle on the collar might fill the gap. The ruffle on the bottom reached the lower half of K.C.’s shins when she wore it, but on me, it hung just below my knees.

  I pulled the garment from the closet. It was as heavy as it looked. I draped it over my body and averted my eyes from the full-length mirror on the wall. I was wearing my Aunt Rosie’s curtains from nineteen eighty-five, I didn’t need to see that kind of thing. Nobody did.

  I had two options to choose from before I left K.C.’s room. The first was to go to my room, and carry out the plan with Alex. The second choice was to go downstairs, risking being seen by any number of people who were still around and being seen for certain by K.C. and Megan.

  I chose to be a grown up and to face Alex—while wearing my Aunt Rosie’s floral curtains. Maybe it would help. He would take pity on me and it would soften the blow of his anger. I considered that maybe Alex wasn’t as mad as I thought he would be. It was just that, despite my weakness for feeling jealous all the time, I cared for him so much. And despite my frustrations about the way he handled some of those situations that caused me to feel jealous, I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.

  I was so worried I had blown it by walking away the night before. It still baffled me that our fight had only happened such a short time before. It seemed like days had passed. Maybe it was because I missed him that much.

  The catch with leaving K.C.’s room was that I didn’t have a key. And I didn’t want to risk leaving the door open, even just a crack, with all the unknowns roaming around this island.

  I took a deep breath, stepped out into the hall, and pulled the door closed behind me. I tried the knob and determined it was locked for certain.

  The Mumu was so wide at the bottom, it swished and swirled around my knees as I hurriedly walked down the hall. It reminded me of a tide pool where the water swirls from all sides around your legs.

  I stopped in front of the door to our room. This was it. I took a deep, cleansing breath, and exhaled it forcefully while shaking my limbs to loosen up. This caused the Mumu to slip over my shoulders and fall to the floor.

  Panicked, I did a power squat, grabbed the thing, and hoisted it up to my ears. I thought I probably resembled an overstuffed ottoman with the worst floral print fabric ever chosen for furniture.

  I gained my composure, stood up, and knocked on the door without any hesitation.

  I waited. Not wanting to get too anxious, I counted to one hundred Mississippi before knocking again, only this time with more force, in case he hadn’t heard the first time.

  I waited…and waited some more.

  After enough time had passed that I knew he wasn’t going to answer, I avoided the urge to bite down on my lip when it began to quiver. I put my back against the door for support as I slid to the floor, folded my arms around my knees, bent my head into the tent created by the Mumu, and sobbed.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  After allowing myself a few minutes of self-pity at my hotel room door, I wiped my eyes—finding it super-convenient to have all that extra fabric at hand—and went downstairs to find K.C.

  “There you are,” K.C. said. She stood outside the garden room, just opposite the grand staircase in the main foyer. I’d chosen to use the main set of stairs because I didn’t care who saw me anymore. I didn’t care about anything but finding out what had happened to Alex. Whether he wanted to see me or not, he couldn’t just disappear like that. Even if it was only behind the closed doors of our room, I needed to know he was okay. There were too many weird things going on around the lodge, besides the mystery game and the disappearing bridesmaids.

  “You know, you’re welcome to wear my clothes any time, Quincy. But I don’t think my size is very flattering to your figure.”

  I’d gotten so worked up and worried about Alex, I’d forgotten what I was wearing as I marched down the hall on my mission.

  “You don’t think so, huh?”

  “Kinda reminds me of the broomstick scarecrow out in the cornfield, wearing my grandma’s old housecoat.”

  I explained why I was wearing her Mumu and that I wanted to know what had happened to my clothes.

  “Boss, I didn’t take your clothes. Once you got in the shower, I left and came down here to meet Megan—who stood me up—by the way.”

  “Really? I didn’t think she was the kind of person to stand someone up,” I told her.

  “Me either. So what are we going to do about your clothes?”

  I tugged the neckline up on the Mumu, which had slipped dangerously near one of my shoulders, again.

  K.C. broke into boisterous laughter, bending over and slapping her knees. “I…ha…I’m sorry, Boss.” She sighed and continued to laugh. “But you look like the main tent pole holding up the big top.” She paused to wipe tears from her eyes. “No offense, you’ve got a great figure, it’s just my tent of a dress. It looks ridiculous on you.” She looked up at me and the joy cleared from her face. “I mean—you don’t look ridiculous—”

  “I get what you’re saying. I know I look ridiculous. I’m going to find Eva and get that master key back from her. I’ve got to change clothes, and then I’ve got to find Alex.”

  K.C. nodded, the expression on her face taking on the appearance of an empathetic, wise woman of the world. “Yes. It’s time you do. He’s had enough time to sort out his feelings. And so have you—I gather?”

  I nodded. “Yes, I have. And if he’s still upset with me, it’s okay. But I’m getting worried. With Kourtnee being pushed off of the roof—maybe—and Pam chasing him around so—so—”

  “Aggressively?”

  “Yes, that. With all that’s been going on, I’m a little scared. What if something happened to him out there after I left?”

  “I get where you’re coming from. Although, we did search around that same area last night or this morning—whenever it was. We didn’t see him then.”

  “But it was dark. Anyway, I need to find Eva.”

  “You’re in luck. I know where she is. Follow me.”

  She headed down the hall toward the kitchen, but then stopped and turned to face me. “Listen, kid. Before we go in there, I need to tell you something.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  She took in an apprehensive breath before continuing. “I may, or may not,” she held her hands up, “have seen Eva leaving your room while you were showering this morning. Like I said, I’m not sure, I may have misunderstood.”

  I paused while taking in the information. “Okay. Thank you for telling me.” She nodded at me as if to ask if I was alright, and I nodded back in the affirmative. I would try with all my
might to pretend that K.C. was mistaken.

  We continued on to the kitchen. As we got closer, I could hear voices echoing off the high ceilings and tile floors of the spacious room, and spilling out into the hallway.

  We found Eva, Pam, and Audra rummaging around, looking through the cupboards and refrigerator.

  “Hey, K.C. Hey, Qui—” Eva stopped abruptly when she got a view of what I was wearing. She didn’t even try to hide the head to toe appraising scan.

  “Nice outfit,” Audra said, with absolutely no pretense of trying to say something nice.

  I flashed a smile, combined with the squinty-eyed death stare my sisters and I had perfected against each other as teenagers, at Audra. I wasn’t here to make friends, at least, not anymore.

  “Eva, can I talk to you in the hall for a second?” I said with all the calmness and gentility of a seating hostess at a fancy restaurant.

  “Oh. Um, can you hang on just a quick sec? I’ve got toast under the broiler—don’t want to burn it.”

  “Sure,” I said. The last thing I wanted to do was stand there in that Mumu for one second longer, but I kept my cool.

  “I guess you’re going to tell us that Alex is upstairs, asleep,” Pam said, seemingly out of the blue.

  “I wasn’t going to tell you anything at all about Alex,” I said.

  “Whoa, cowgirl,” K.C. muttered. “Let’s keep that wild filly in the barn.”

  I took a deep, supposed-to-be-calming breath, but it didn’t work. I opened my mouth to reply, but K.C. nearly shouted, “Who wants eggs? I cook a mean Denver omelet. Pam, how about it? I just hope we have the ingredients. Old Cookie here hasn’t been on the chuck wagon in a while, but I can improvise.”

  She was trying to keep me from tearing Pam’s hair out and making a scarf out of it to wrap around her throat.

  Okay…so maybe I was still a little sleep deprived.

  Pam, who was sitting on the tall kitchen stool at the counter, had disappeared from my view because K.C. had also put herself between the two of us.

  “No thank you, K.C.,” Pam said loudly and pointedly in a saccharine voice. “I know you would never be involved with the cover-up that’s been going on around here.” By the time she said “cover-up,” she had ascended from the kitchen stool and walked all the way around the kitchen counter and K.C., and stood less than a foot away from me. Her hands were planted on her hips and she craned her neck to look up at me.

  “He would never let you leave the room wearing that. Admit it, you don’t know where he is.”

  “Pam,” I said, nudging even closer to her so that she would have to bend her neck backward so much to look at me that it would be painful, “what in this world makes you think that there is anything about my life that I need to admit to you?”

  “She does kind of have a point about what you’re wearing,” Eva said.

  “Now, now, ladies,” K.C. said.

  “And just what point is that, Eva?” I asked.

  “It just seems from my experience, that Alex would probably make some kind of comment before you wore something like that in public.”

  “Oh really?” I said, my voice having risen an octave. “And what is it, in your vast experience with my fiancé that makes you the expert on living with him, since you obviously are not?”

  “Ooh, serious burn,” Audra said.

  Eva looked like she was about to choke on her toast.

  “Oh, Boss!” K.C. said under her breath. I thought she was about to chastise me. She put the back of her hand next to her mouth. “That was a good one,” she whispered.

  “Okay wait,” I said. I realized that everyone was probably tired and as annoyed at each other as we all were, we still had to coexist here until our ride home presented itself. “Listen, we’re all tired. I’m sorry to have snapped at you like that. The reason that I’m wearing K.C.’s Mumu is that someone stole my clothes while I was in the shower.”

  “I knew it! I was right about Alex,” Pam shouted.

  I rolled my eyes. “Why does everyone care so much about him? He’s not here right now. So what? Aren’t any of you worried about anything else—like how we’re getting home—or how about—the murderer that we’re trying to catch? Has it occurred to anyone that the murderer is one of us—here in this room?”

  “Don’t forget Megan and Regan,” Audra—she, who wasn’t keeping track of the game—said.

  “Okay,” Eva said. “Since you know so much, who is it?”

  “It’s not me,” Audra said.

  “It’s not me,” Pam said.

  “Well, it ain’t me,” K.C. said.

  That left Eva and me, as the only two people left in the room. “It’s not me,” we said, simultaneously.

  “Okay, so it’s none of us, then,” Eva said. “It’s got to be one of the twins or Kourtnee.”

  Pam shot a look from me to K.C. She raised her eyebrows, imploring K.C. to say something.

  “Uh—about, Kourtnee,” K.C. said.

  “What about her?” Eva asked.

  “She’s not here,” Pam said, looking at me like a nervous hamster.

  “We found Kourtnee...” K.C. was next to me by now and looked at me as if she wasn’t sure how much to reveal. “We also found her charm on the ground, outside.”

  The nervous glance that Pam shared with Eva didn’t escape my attention. “Where—outside?” Pam asked. She seemed genuinely astonished.

  “On the side of the building, in some bushes.”

  “How would you find such a small thing over there?” Eva wondered out loud.

  “I dropped my…pills the other day,” K.C. said. “And we’ve looked high and low for those things, haven’t we, Boss?”

  “Mm-hmm,” I said as I nodded.

  “We found the little bottle of pills. It had rolled under a bush, and there was the charm, right next to it. Darnedest thing.”

  “So where is the charm now?” Eva asked.

  “In my room,” K.C. said.

  “I thought we weren’t going to move any clues, to make it fair for everyone playing the game,” Pam said.

  “It was a special circumstance,” K.C. said. “I didn’t think anyone would be able to find it under there, it was just a fluke that we did. And besides, I’m sharing it with all of you now, aren’t I?”

  “I guess so,” Eva said. “I just don’t think it makes the game fair to have people moving the clues from their intended places. Or wandering into places they shouldn’t be.”

  The hypocrisy almost knocked me over.

  “You mean, like in other people’s rooms?” I asked.

  “That was different,” Eva protested.

  “Whoa. Quincy, are you saying Eva went into your room? Without your permission?” Audra said.

  I looked at Eva. She’d just exposed her true self and it wasn’t a pretty picture. In a way, I felt bad for her. I didn’t want to make it worse. Who knew how much time we would all have before any kind of boat came to let us off of the island?

  “It was a misunderstanding,” was all I said.

  “I’m glad I didn’t agree to play this silly game,” Audra said. “It seems to be making people all crazy. Besides, didn’t that poem say exactly the order in which each person would go?” She made a crude, knife across the throat gesture. “Who is next, anyway?”

  “We don’t know,” Eva said. “Someone took it.”

  “Actually, we found that, too,” I said.

  “While you were out, looking for pills?” Eva said while making air quotes.

  “Yeah,” K.C. said. “That’s right.” K.C.’s deadpan response made it feel like we’d suddenly been transported into the town square in a Spaghetti Western. She may have reached for an imaginary six-shooter or her hip or—had an itch—hard to tell. But I was voting for the former.

  “So, did you move that clue, too?” Pam asked.

  “Listen up,” K.C. said loud enough to get the attention of anyone who might be on the island. “We aren’t the ones who moved
that poster in the first place. We found it, outside, with Kourtnee—”

  “You know where Kourtnee is?” Eva asked. She sounded like a little kid who’d just met the person who’d admitted to stealing their dog.

  “No, we don’t.” K.C. looked at Pam with eyes that looked like they could shoot out laser beams and slice Pam in half.

  “What’s going on? I remember enough about that poem to know that Kourtnee shouldn’t be around anymore. Who is we? Which one of you is the murderer? It has to be one of you, if you were the last people to see her,” Audra said.

  “It’s not me or K.C.,” I said. “We found Kourtnee, who wasn’t in a good state when we found her, by the way. We took her upstairs to let her sleep off whatever she was on, and then when we went to see what happened to Regan, Kourtnee left.”

  “What’s wrong with Regan?” Audra nearly shouted.

  “She’s the next victim,” Pam said, matter-of-factly.

  “How do you know that? Do you know it for a fact?”

  “Well, she disappeared,” Pam said.

  “Did Megan tell you this?” Audra asked.

  “Yeah,” Pam replied, sounding like it should have been obvious.

  “Did you find a charm for her?” Audra continued.

  “No, we didn’t but—”

  “It’s Megan. She’s the murderer. I knew it,” Audra said.

  “What are you talking about?” Eva said. “I thought you weren’t playing.”

  Suddenly, everyone had something to say, all at once. And as each person put their two cents in, they increased their volume. Me included. Like a flash fire, the discussion of the murder mystery quickly morphed into an artillery barrage of vocal bullets.

  “We all know who the real next victim is,” Pam shouted as she stood in front of me, pointing her finger up at my face. “It’s Alex. She’s gotten rid of him. She’s the murderer for real. She’s a…a black widow. She lured him in somehow and all she wanted to do was steal his money.” Her face glowed crimson, and it trailed all the way down her neck. It looked like her eyes would bulge right out of her head.