So Then There Were None

by Annie Adams

  “Hang on!” I said. “Somebody’s been watching too much TV.” And I had no idea why she thought he had any extra money lying around.

  “What’s going on in here? Why are you guys shouting?” a male voice said from behind me.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  I couldn’t believe my ears. I looked back and found Alex standing in the doorway, holding something pink in his hand.

  I resisted the urge to shout out, “Where have you been?” I was just happy he was safe and he was here.

  Pam didn’t resist the urge. “Where have you been, Alex?” She sounded like my mother interrogating me or my sisters for coming home a half an hour late from a date. Actually, only Allie or I would have been interrogated. My older sister, Sandy, the perfect sister, always seemed to get a pass.

  A stark stillness set into Alex’s face. Experience told me he was extremely annoyed. He glanced at me, his eyes softening. It seemed like he looked at me for a few extra seconds, trying to convey something.

  He looked back at Pam. “I’ve been in my room, how about you?”

  She looked like a deflated, fuchsia-colored balloon. And being the petty person I was, I reveled in her discomfort. “I…uh…I was in my room too,” her voice trailing off to an almost imperceptible squeak on the last word.

  “I guess I didn’t get the memo that we were all meeting,” he said congenially. “I’m so hungry right now. What’s left in the fridge?”

  I would let him get some food and wait to find some time alone with him before I attacked him with an apology. I didn’t want to create a scene in front of everyone else. I also couldn’t fathom that he had been in our room all night. How could he have completely ignored my knocking?

  It occurred to me then, that I had already created a scene—or contributed to the making of one—a few minutes before. But, I was almost glad the yelling storm had happened. It had gotten some things out in the open, but not everything.

  I didn’t know what to do at that point. I had just about been ready to accuse Eva of being the murderer. If I had, the mystery would be solved and we would be done with the miserable game. But then, now that Alex was here, I could ask him what to do next. He went and found a plate and silverware, and set them down on the kitchen island, along with something else.

  “What is that?” Audra asked.

  “Isn’t it a makeup bag?” he said.

  “Yeah,” Pam said, “but why do you have it?”

  “It was hanging on the staircase just now by this strap. Thought I’d ask if one of you left it there.”

  “Let me take a look at that, Alex,” K.C. said. She lifted it and looked surprised. She shifted it up and down as if assessing its weight. “It doesn’t feel like anything’s in it. Does it belong to any of you gals?”

  Everyone shook their heads.

  “Well, I know my cosmetics bag is near splitting at the seams no matter how often I throw something out of it. This is strange.” K.C. carefully unzipped it and sucked in an audible gasp. “I don’t believe it.” She held up a charm from the wedding cake pull. “It’s a little lipstick charm.”

  “That’s Megan’s,” Audra said.

  “No wonder she isn’t here,” K.C. said.

  “I guess she’s the next victim?” Eva’s voice lifted at the end of her statement. As if she really didn’t know. Now I was sure she was the murderer. She was acting too hard. But we would have to confirm that Megan was gone before I could make my big speech, a la the famous Belgian detective.

  “We should go look for her,” Pam said.

  “She was supposed to meet us back here at the kitchen by now,” K.C. said.

  “We should all go together,” Audra said.

  “Why?” Pam said defiantly.

  “So that we all see the clues together, I guess. I don’t know, it just seems like a good idea.”

  “I thought you weren’t playing,” Pam replied.

  “I think Audra’s got a good point,” K.C. said as she gave me a sideways glance and a subtle nod toward Alex. She was still on her streak of good, subtle, behavior. It wasn’t often she worried about such things.

  “Can I finish my breakfast?” Alex asked, his voice tinged with desperation.

  “I know,” K.C. said. “Audra, you, me and Pam, will go upstairs to look for Megan, and Eva, Quincy and Alex can stay here in the kitchen. If Megan does happen to still be with us, maybe she will come to the designated meeting place, which is here. And, there will be three of us in each group, so nobody can do something in cahoots with another person without there being a third party to witness it. Okay?”

  Everyone nodded in agreement.

  The three of them left to go upstairs and I zeroed in on the two people still in the kitchen with me.

  “Okay. Tell me what’s going on,” I said.

  Alex and Eva looked at each other and then looked at me like they had no idea what I was talking about.

  “I was worried to death…” my voice caught up in my throat and I paused to clear it. I could feel my eyes welling up, so I tried looking at Alex’s mouth instead of into his eyes, in an attempt to keep it together. “Where have you been all night?”

  “I’ve been in our room—like I said.”

  “I knocked on the door and you didn’t answer.”

  “When?”

  I decided to start with the first time. “Before we all met in the study,” I said.

  His expression was blank.

  “Last night,” Eva clarified. “You weren’t there yet, Alex.”

  I swung my head over to look at her. “And how would you know?”

  “I probably owe you both an explanation.”

  “Yes, explain to me why K.C. saw you leaving my room early this morning, too, while you’re at it. Alex what’s going on?” My legs felt shaky and weak.

  “Wait a minute, Quincy. You’re jumping to conclusions. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you that the two of us dated all those years ago. I already told you that I thought you knew. But this doesn’t have anything to do with Eva coming to see me in our room.”

  I think my mouth may have dropped open.

  “That didn’t sound right,” he said. “Eva, could you help me out here?”

  “Quincy, please let me explain,” Eva said. “K.C. saw me trying to see which key was yours and which one was mine. After Alex gave me your key, I put it in my pocket without thinking. The same pocket that held my key.” She pulled a key card from her pocket and held it out to me.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said.

  I looked at Alex and then at the key Eva held out and I slowly took it from her.

  “But, how did you get this key?” I asked. I turned to Alex. “You gave this to her? When?”

  “Wait a minute.” He looked at Eva. “You didn’t give it to her?”

  “Let me explain that as well. Earlier last night, before we all met in the study, I followed you two outsi—”

  “You followed us?” I said, incredulous.

  “It sounds more sinister than it was. I’d passed Pam in the hall and asked if she had seen you, and she told me you guys had gone outside toward the beach a while earlier. I needed to talk to Alex about the boat.”

  Of course Pam had been keeping tabs on us, I wouldn’t waste time asking about that. And I wanted so badly to ask about the boat, but as I went to speak, Alex gave me a look. I kept quiet. One thing at a time, I realized.

  “As I left the building, I could hear you guys maybe shouting or talking kind of loudly, so I wasn’t sure if I was interrupting something. Quincy, I saw you come up toward the building, but not Alex.

  “I felt stupid for spying on you, so I didn’t say anything. You went around the corner of the building and then Alex came toward me.”

  He left his seat at the kitchen island and came around to stand next to me. When Eva finished talking, he held my hand. “At which point, I gave Eva your room key and asked her to give it to you. I figured you would want some time away from me, so I entrusted
it to her.” He finished with an imploring stare at Eva. I was glad not to be on the other end of it.

  “I’m sorry, I guess I just—got distracted by—something,” Eva said. She was obviously determined to be evasive, so it didn’t seem like we were going to get anywhere with the mystery of the missing or misplaced keys. And we hadn’t even started on the much larger mystery to be addressed. What boat were they talking about?

  “Eva, I still want to know what happened with the key. You didn’t explain,” Alex said.

  Wow. Maybe I was willing to avoid conflict by letting Eva off the hook, but apparently, Alex was not. How absolutely fantastic, I thought to myself.

  Eva took a couple of timid steps backward, then set her jaw. After looking over us both for a long time, she appeared to force the words to come out. “Okay. I’ll admit it. I was mad at you, Quincy. After some of the things I’d heard, and then to have you treat Alex that way, which confirmed what I’d heard, I wasn’t in the mood to do something nice or considerate for you.” She stared directly at Alex’s eyes as she said, “He’s a terrific guy and anyone he’s with should treat him that way.”

  Alex cleared his throat and looked at me as if at a loss to what to do next.

  I squeezed his hand and said, “You know what, Eva. You’re right to be upset with me. Kind of. I don’t know what you heard about me, or from whom, but I didn’t treat Alex right yesterday. I don’t think you’re the best judge of our relationship, but I appreciate you bringing that up. It was so not cool of you not to give me the key, though. I slept in a closet, on the hard floor, among other things.”

  “I thought you must have slept in K.C.’s room. Or your own, since you borrowed the master key,” she said.

  “Well, things didn’t exactly work out that way. When I did get into K.C.’s room, someone stole my clothes while I was in the shower.”

  I heard a noise from Alex just then. It sounded a lot like someone expressing relief. I looked up at him and he shrugged while staring at the Mumu. “You look so beautiful, my darling,” he said.

  I gave him a knowing smile. “You know what, Eva? I’m glad you got distracted. Not having my key gave me some perspective.”

  “I’m really sorry, you guys,” Eva said. “I know we’re supposed to stick together in here, but, I think you might want some time to talk to each other in private. I think I’ll go find the rest of the group upstairs.”

  Alex looked at me. “That’s a good idea. Thanks, Eva.”

  She turned and walked to the door, then stopped.

  “We found something,” I heard K.C. shout from down the hall.

  Once everyone had returned to the kitchen, Audra announced, “Megan’s gone.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  "How do you know she's gone?" Eva said toward the hall from where she stood within the kitchen doorway.

  K.C.'s form arrived and filled out the negative space in the doorframe around Eva's silhouette. The older woman clutched something in her right hand.

  "We found this," she shouted out.

  The rest of the group filtered into the kitchen and eventually gathered around one of the islands. I noticed a slight hesitation in Eva’s body language as she returned, as if she wished she could get out of the kitchen, away from everyone.

  I couldn't fault her for that. I certainly had the same wish and another to go along with it. I wished that somehow I could have a moment alone with Alex, so that we could talk about the previous night and everything that had happened since.

  "We found a lipstick." K.C. held up a silver tube, its metallic surface shimmering under the industrial-style pendant light hanging over the island.

  "That's definitely Megan's," Pam said.

  I didn’t question the identification Pam made, since she’d been so all-up in my personal business, it wasn’t a stretch to assume she paid attention to everyone else’s business, too.

  "Where did you find it?" Eva asked.

  In that moment, I knew I was right about Eva being the murderer. She thought she was being clever with the innocent act. It was almost painfully obvious to me that she was just trying to divert our attention, but everyone else seemed to be eating it up, just like the wedding cake they had pulled from the fridge for breakfast.

  "Babe, are you okay?"

  "Hmm?" I snapped to attention, realizing I had drifted into a different world for a while.

  I felt the unease of having all eyes upon me, so I put a smile on my face and nodded. “Where did you find the lipstick?” I asked. Anything to get out from under the scrutiny of the others.

  Once they were occupied, Alex leaned over and whispered, "No really, do you feel alright?"

  I looked up at him, directly into his eyes. I didn’t feel alright. About anything. I wouldn’t feel better until I had the chance to talk to him, apologize, and move on. But we were in the wrong place for that, and I had to find a way to get him alone. And then, inspiration struck.

  “You’re a genius,” I whispered to him, as K.C. recounted the story of how they had found Megan’s lipstick near the front door of the lodge. He returned a bewildered expression.

  "You know what,” I said loud enough for everyone to hear, “I guess I don't feel so well after all."

  "What's wrong? Are you sick?" Pam asked in an exaggerated and fake show of concern.

  "I just—my stomach is upset. And I feel kind of—I don't know—just not right."

  "Are you getting the flu?" K.C. asked.

  "I don't think so..."

  "The last thing we need is to have everyone in this place get sick because of you," Audra said with her usual indelicacy.

  "You know, she's probably right," Eva said with an apologetic note to her voice, perhaps still trying to keep up the ruse that she was my ally against Audra. I still hadn’t figured out why that was her strategy, especially now that all the confessions had been made about her involvement with Alex.

  "You should go upstairs to bed," K.C. said. "You can't have gotten enough sleep in that closet. Maybe you're just extra tired and not coming down with something."

  "She can't go upstairs!" Pam insisted.

  "Why not?" Audra said, sharp as the blade of a kitchen knife.

  Pam reeled it in a bit and replied more calmly. "I thought none of us were supposed to be alone."

  "I can take care of that problem," Alex said.

  Pam wasn’t finished with her Pamness. "How do we know the two of you aren't working together as the murderers? You should have someone else with you."

  K.C. turned to me. "Pam's right,” she said. “We did just say that three people needed to be together. And luckily, I happen to need to get into your room, I left my nail file in there and I've got one doozy of a snagged fingernail." She extended her middle finger and held it aloft. There was no indication she realized the vulgar expression she was making. She pointed at me with the offending finger still hovering just above the other slightly curled fingers on her hand. "I can also take my Mumu with me after you change out of it." She looked around once she stopped talking. "What? Why is everyone looking at me like that?"

  I bit my lip and pointed to the middle finger on my left hand.

  She looked down and after a short pause shouted out, "Oh, hell's bells. I do apologize, everyone."

  The ensuing laughter provided much needed relief from the tension that had been building. Once we were well out of hearing range, I thanked K.C. for coming to our rescue. “The fingernail was not only a clever excuse, but a great distraction, too,” I said.

  “Don’t mention it. And I’m really not that clever. I chipped off a bit of my fingernail while I was yanking on that doorknob in the closet, when we first got locked in.” She glanced at her curled fingers. “I’m hoping your room is where I left that nail file. I don’t know where else to look.”

  The three of us mounted the stairs. I had to bunch up the neckline of the Mumu in my fist. Walking down the hall hadn’t posed as much of a problem as going up the stairs. The change in direc
tion was enough to shift the garment to falling off my shoulder. I caught it just in time.

  “You need any help with that?” Alex asked while stifling a laugh.

  “No, I just need to get to our room so that I can put on some clothes that fit me.” I realized as I said this that it might have sounded like a slight at K.C.’s—more robust—dress size. “I’m so grateful to you for letting me borrow this, K.C. I don’t know what I would have done if this wasn’t there in your closet. And I should say thanks again for letting me use your shower.”

  “You’re welcome, Boss. Anytime.”

  “What was it you were saying about your clothes being stolen and the two of you being locked in a closet?” Alex asked.

  “I don’t know if I can talk about it yet. It’s too embarrassing.”

  “Oh, now, Quincy,” K.C. gently chided. “It wasn’t your fault. Everyone has to heed nature’s call. You did what you had to do. And those boys have probably already forgotten all about it.”

  “Not likely,” I said.

  “Now I’m not so sure I want to hear what happened,” Alex said. “Should I be afraid?”

  I sighed. “It’s a long story. Maybe I’ll tell you some day.”

  “Very kind of you,” he joked.

  “Take it easy on us. We’ve been through a lot in the last few hours. Especially our girl, here,” K.C. said.

  “I’m ready to hear all about it,” Alex said as we reached the door to our room.

  I took out my key before Alex could reach for his. “Allow me,” I said. “I’ve been dreaming of this moment for the last twelve or so hours.”

  “Go right ahead.” He motioned with his hands like someone offering up their spot in line or their seat at a table.

  I slid the key into the lock, waiting for that satisfying click and green light, but it never came. I heaved a sigh, trying to release a frustration that originated from the very depths of my core.

  “Maybe you put it in backwards,” K.C. said, trying to convey a hopeful spirit, no doubt.