When Helen burst into the room moments later, out of breath and pointing towards the door, doubt quickly turned to panic.
“Get up!” Helen breathed, skidding to a halt on the flagstone floor. “You have to see what I’ve found!”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Emily followed the others past the Hardys’ living quarters, through the back door, and out onto the porch. Helen raced along, pointing to a grey metal box attached to the exterior wall. The group crowded around, bustling against each other as they strained to see. A gap opened up and Emily squeezed into it. From where she now stood, she could see the wiring inside the box protruding like spindly fingers.
Panicked voices filled the air.
“Whoever broke into the office must have cut the line to stop us from getting help,” Helen said. “Or to at least buy them more time to make a break for it.”
Daniel waded through the bodies until he stood beside Emily. “Wouldn’t that suggest the thief is an outsider? And that he’s now long gone with our belongings.”
“Not necessarily. Perhaps the thief is right here, waiting for the right opportunity to grab their stash and run.”
Each person in the group turned and eyed the others.
“Well if it’s one of us, we need to find out who,” Janelle said, her calm demeanour all but gone. “I have places to be on Monday. I can’t be stuck here, waiting for a replacement car key.”
Murmurs of agreement rippled through the group. Helen held up a hand. “The question is, how do we go about uncovering the thief’s identity?”
“That’s easy,” Ben said, pushing his way to the front. Sylvia followed after him. “We do like I said. We search everyone’s rooms.”
“Absolutely not.” Heads turned towards Pamela, who had moved away from the group in a clear attempt to re-establish her position as leader. Her eyes moved from face to face. “I understand your concern and I sympathise with you all, but I will not have you ransacking through my house like Vikings. When Sergeant Wells gets here, whoever stole your belongings will answer to him.”
“But when will he get here, Pamela?” Helen said. Heads swivelled back to her. “The police should have been here ages ago. Meanwhile, a thief is about to get away with our belongings and poor Oscar is still out there hanging from a tree.”
At the mention of Oscar’s name, silence fell over the group. Emily felt fingers squeeze her arm. Jerome’s worried face peered down at her.
“I don’t like this,” he whispered. “It’s getting out of hand.”
Emily could only agree. Suspicions had already been running high, but the discovery of the sabotaged phone line and now the idea that there was a thief among them only served to feed the group’s paranoia. How long would it be before they descended into mob mentality?
“We form a search party and go room to room,” Ben said. “If no one has anything to hide, there’ll be nothing to find. At least that way we’ll know who we can trust.”
“Good idea,” Helen said. “But everyone needs to agree.”
“And what if we don’t?” Daniel asked.
“Well, I guess Sergeant Wells will know who to call on first when he arrives.”
“You can’t do this,” Pamela said, thrusting a hand on her hip. “It’s unethical and I won’t allow it.”
Helen smiled. “What if we have everyone’s permission? You all want to get out of here, right? The quicker we find the thief, the quicker we find our car keys. Let’s see a show of hands.”
Ben, Sylvia, and Helen raised their hands immediately, followed by Janelle.
“What about the rest of you?” Helen stared at Jerome. “Do you give permission for your rooms to be searched?”
“Only if you promise to make my bed while you’re in there,” Jerome said.
“How about you, Emily?”
The idea of strangers rifling through her belongings left Emily feeling deeply uncomfortable, but she had a feeling that it was about to happen whether or not she gave permission. Besides, she didn’t want to give Helen any cause to start asking personal questions that would lead to her name appearing in newspapers again.
Reluctantly, she nodded.
Helen turned to Melody. “What about you?”
“No.” Melody’s body seemed to shrink in on itself like a punctured balloon. “It's my private space. I don’t want you going in there.”
“It’ll be all over in two minutes,” Sylvia said, taking a step towards her. “If you have nothing to hide, then there’s nothing to worry about.”
“No! It’s my room, my space. You’re not allowed to violate it.”
“I think perhaps Melody and I will join that search party,” Jerome said, moving up beside her. “Someone needs to make sure everything’s above board.”
“Me too.” Daniel shot a challenging glare at Ben.
Helen’s eyes moved to Pamela. “The more the merrier. We’ll just search the guest rooms for now.”
Before Pamela could reply, the group began to disperse.
“Are you coming?” Jerome waited for Emily as the others headed back towards the house.
Emily remained where she was, a tight knot of anxiety twisting her stomach. She had no interest in rummaging through people’s personal belongings, and now that Jerome would be there to oversee the search, she at least knew it would be conducted with both sensitivity and military-like precision.
Shaking her head, she watched him disappear inside the house. Only Pamela and Sam remained. Both were silent and unmoving.
“A few stolen phones and people are up in arms,” Emily said. “A stranger hangs himself and no one wants to know.”
Pamela nodded, slowly and deliberately. The air felt thick with trouble. “You’ve just summed up everything that’s wrong with modern society.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The search began with Jerome’s room. To everyone’s surprise, Helen had elected not to join the search party but to remain downstairs, putting together a rough outline of her news story. Standing in the doorway, Jerome watched as Ben and Sylvia went to work.
“I hope you’re going to leave that bed as neat as you found it,” he warned as Sylvia pulled up the mattress. “If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s creased sheets.”
“We need to look in your bags,” Ben said.
Out in the corridor, Melody was growing increasingly animated, hovering from one foot to the other, and swinging her arms from side to side.
Finding nothing, Ben and Sylvia filed out of the room. Seconds later, Helen’s door opened, and Daniel and Janelle stepped out.
“It’s clean,” Janelle said. She stared across the corridor at Oscar’s door. “Should we take a look?”
“Maybe a quick look,” Jerome replied. Brushing past Melody, he followed Ben and Sylvia into Emily’s room. Being here without Emily felt like an invasion of her privacy, especially when strangers whom he disliked with increasing intensity were rifling through her belongings. But seeing as how Ben and Sylvia were conducting their search with about as much subtlety as a police raid on a drug den, he had little choice but to track their movements with hawk-like attention.
While Ben pulled back bedsheets and pillows, Sylvia picked up Emily’s toiletry bag and tugged on the zip.
“You don’t need to look in there,” Jerome said.
“Why not?”
“Because there’s such a thing as discretion—something you’ve obviously never heard of.” He marched towards her. Ben stepped in between, blocking his path.
Jerome watched as Sylvia unzipped the bag and pulled out strips of medication.
“Okay, now you’re crossing a line.” He pushed past Ben and snatched the pills away. “This isn’t anything to do with what you’re looking for.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Sylvia asked.
“Nothing. You don’t know her. You’ve no right to go making judgements.” Jerome returned the toiletry bag to the dresser. “I think we’re done in here.”
Janelle’s and Daniel’s rooms were next, followed by Sylvia’s and Ben’s. Each pair searched the others while Jerome stood in between, keeping a watchful eye. Meanwhile, Melody moved on to chewing her fingernails.
“Well, I guess you’re both off the hook,” Jerome said to Ben and Sylvia, once their rooms had been searched from top to bottom. “To be honest, my money was on the pair of you.”
“Us?” Ben’s face soured to a dangerous shade of purple. “We can more than afford to buy the things we want without resorting to stealing!”
There was one guest room remaining.
“I said no.” Melody stood between the search party and the door. Lines creased her forehead as she swayed back and forth, her eyes not quite meeting theirs.
“What is your problem?” Sylvia said. “We’ve all been through it and no one complained.”
Ben reached out a hand. Melody flinched. “We’ll be quick. Then you’ll be off the hook.”
“I said no!” She pressed her body up against the door.
Jerome moved up beside her. “We agreed outside that we’d need permission to search a room. Melody hasn’t given it, which means you’ll have to wait for the police.”
“Where are the police?” Sylvia had moved closer to Melody. “We could be waiting all day.”
Ben moved up beside her. “That’s right. And if someone is saying no to us, then I’d say that was a pretty solid indicator they have something to hide.”
“Guess what? You’re not the cops.” Jerome was fast losing his patience with these people. He looked to Daniel, then Janelle, whose expression was filled with conflict.
Daniel nodded in agreement. “He’s right. If Melody doesn’t want us in her room, then we have to respect that.”
“Okay fine, we’re not the police,” Ben said, ignoring Daniel and squaring up to Jerome. “But neither are you. So if we want to search that room, who are you to stop us?”
He moved in closer until there were just inches between them. Anger coursed through Jerome’s veins.
“Okay, first of all, there’s this thing called personal space,” he began. “Second of all, who do you think you people are? Melody has said no. It’s been a while since I used a dictionary but I’m pretty sure that means you’d do well to get the hell out of my face.”
Ben took a slow step back.
“We’ll see about that,” he said.
Before Melody or Jerome could react, Sylvia pushed past them and threw open the bedroom door.
“Stop!” Melody shrieked. She ran into the middle of the room. “Please, stop!”
Ben followed her in, a sly smirk on his lips. Daniel and Janelle stood helplessly watching from outside.
“You assholes!” He wanted to take the couple’s heads and smash them together, to throw them down the stairs, one after the other. Instead, Jerome watched as they took Melody’s room apart.
“We have to do what has to be done,” Sylvia said, catching his eye. She picked through the garments hanging in the wardrobe as if browsing through a clothing store and seeing nothing she liked. She moved to the dresser, where a framed photograph sat on top.
“Is this your cat?” She laughed as she held it up.
Melody wept and dug nails into her thighs.
Ben moved onto the bed and began stripping it down to the mattress. As he held up a pillow, his eyes lit up with suspicion. He stared at it, then gave it a shake. Realisation spreading across his features, he reached inside the pillowslip.
“Look what I’ve found!” His voice was filled with triumph as he pulled out the object and showed it to the group. Out in the corridor, Janelle’s mouth hung open.
Melody shrieked and pulled at her hair. “I told you not come in here!”
Behind her, Jerome slowly hung his head.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The day was heating up. Tiny beads of perspiration lined Emily’s brow as she sat on the porch seat and watched birds flit over the treetops. Pamela and Sam had returned indoors some minutes ago, and now that she was alone, she took a moment to absorb the stillness. She understood why people were upset—discovering Oscar’s body and then learning they’d been robbed hadn’t exactly done much for the equilibrium of the group—but all of that fighting and shouting and pointing of fingers had left Emily feeling shaken. But it wasn’t just the dissension among the guests of Meadow Pines that had unsettled her. It was Oscar. There was something about his suicide that felt ... off. She couldn’t put her finger on what, though.
From somewhere above, she heard voices, doors opening and closing, and she hoped that Jerome was managing to keep the search party under control. He could certainly give Helen a run for her money—years of serving hard-nosed Londoners had taught him a thing or two when it came to pushy characters—but she was worried about how he would handle Ben. Daniel had already taken a beating from the man, although they’d both come out of it worse for wear. But Jerome wasn’t a fighter. Sure, he could talk his way out of situations and he could act the tough guy when he wanted to, but if it came down to an actual fight, Emily wasn’t confident he’d walk away unscathed. At least he wasn’t alone up there with them.
A sudden thirst overcame Emily. Getting up, she crossed the porch and went inside. She slowed down as she passed the Hardy’s living quarters. It was quiet in there. Perhaps Pamela was meditating, or perhaps she was pacing up and down, wondering where her daughter was and worrying about the future of her business. Suicide and theft weren’t exactly great advertising. If Helen’s story did make the national newspapers, Meadow Pines could suffer a terrible blow to its reputation. Perhaps an irreparable one.
Soup bowls still sat untouched in the dining hall. A jug of water sat on the table, the ice almost melted. Picking up a glass, Emily poured herself some and drank it down. It was cold and refreshing, and for a few moments, pulled her away from her busy mind. When she’d had her fill, she set down the glass and paced towards the kitchen doors. It was quiet in there too.
Leaving the dining hall, Emily wandered along, passing by the mediation room and the art room. She could hear the search party moving about upstairs. Voices grew louder as they spilled out of the rooms and into the upstairs corridor. Then, Melody’s voice rose high and shrill.
“I said no!”
Emily heard Jerome, then Ben, both voices filled with warning. She moved to the foot of the stairs and looked up. She could hear them clearly now. Ben and Sylvia were trying to get into Melody’s room, but she was refusing to let them. A burst of noise, followed by Melody’s high-pitched wailing, told Emily that they’d forced their way in. Very quickly, an argument broke out. People were shouting, accusing each other. Melody sobbed and sobbed.
Emily was about to head back to the Hardys’ living quarters when Pamela appeared behind her. She looked exhausted, as if she hadn’t slept for days. Her gaze momentarily crossed paths with Emily’s as she brushed past and hurried upstairs. Emily followed, reaching the top of the stairs in time to see Pamela push her way into Melody’s already crowded room.
“Look what I found! It was stashed away inside Melody’s pillow,” Ben said.
Emily hung back in the corridor, watching at a distance. She heard Melody crying, but she couldn’t see her through all the bodies.
“I’m not a thief, Pamela! Please believe me, it’s not what you think!”
Sylvia’s voice was sharp and acerbic. “Then how do you explain this, eh? I knew that Goody Two-shoes act was a load of rubbish!”
When Jerome spoke next, Emily was shocked to hear him so angry.
“We agreed we’d only search the rooms of those people who gave consent. These two idiots practically pulled out pitchforks and burning torches and forced their way into Melody’s room. You should be ashamed of yourselves!”
“Well, lucky that we did,” Ben said. “Because see what we found. Now all she needs to do is tell us where she’s stashed the rest of it.”
Bodies shifted. Through the gaps, Emily stole glimpses of Melody, who sa
t on the bed, hair covering her face as she wept. Ben stood over her, holding the source of all the drama—a black touchscreen tablet.
Pamela took it from him and stared at it as if she were holding a bloody knife. “Melody? What do you have to say about this?”
Braying sobs escaped Melody’s mouth. “I didn’t steal anything, I swear! It’s mine, I brought it with me. I didn’t hand it in. I’m sorry, Pamela!”
A wave of muttered voices surged through the room.
When Pamela spoke again, her words dripped with disappointment. “No mobile phones. No technology. You’ve been here enough times to know the rules, Melody! You deliberately hid this from me?”
“I’m sorry! I just wanted to have it close to me, so I didn’t miss Derek.”
“Oh dear, Melody!”
Emily edged closer to the room. She could see the top of Jerome’s head on the right. Janelle and Daniel were at the back on the left. Helen wasn’t here.
“As disappointing as Melody’s behaviour is to me, I can assure you she’s no thief,” Pamela said, addressing the group. “I remember her handing in her phone when she checked in yesterday, but she most certainly did not hand in this tablet.
“Clearly you don’t know when you’ve been played.” Ben said coldly.
“This isn’t proof of anything except that Melody deliberately broke the rules of Meadow Pines.”
On the bed, Melody wept into her hands.
Ben continued to argue, but Emily was no longer listening. She tapped Janelle on the shoulder.
“Where’s Helen?” she asked.
“She’s downstairs working on her story. Can you believe this guy?”
Janelle turned back as Pamela handed the tablet to Melody.
“You’re giving it back to her?” Ben was incredulous.
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