“What is that thing?” June asked behind her.
“I don’t know.” Emily stepped farther into the room. She looked up at the ceiling and pointed at a chain hanging from the center of the room. “I think it was attached to that and fell.”
“It fell? Just like that? Right when we were in the other room?” June shook her head. “That’s a strange coincidence.”
Emily walked farther into the room, and June released her hand, staying in the partially opened doorway. She leaned down and picked up the metal pot, surprised by its weight. She carried it back to June, and the two of them examined it closer. After a moment, June took it from her and peered at it carefully.
“That’s strange,” she said.
“What? What is it?”
June shook her head. “It’s funny, but I think it’s a bronze hanging bowl. I’ve seen a few of them over the years in museums. I took a class on Celtic art in graduate school, but I can’t imagine what it’s doing here.” She pointed out a relief punched into the metal. “It even has the patterns characteristic of some Celtic peoples—flowers and waves in this case. La Tène influence, if I remember correctly. Usually that kind of piece has three rings for hanging, but this one has only this one in the center.” She frowned at Emily. “Why on earth would this be in here?”
Emily walked back to examine the chain more closely. “There’s a hook here at the end. The bowl must fall off all the time, given how heavy it is.”
June’s fear had dissipated with the mystery, and she entered the steam room. She lifted the hanging bowl and set it back on the hook. It swung there for a moment before coming to a stop, hanging in the center of the room at about chest level.
June looked at Emily, her eyebrows up. “What on earth?”
“I can’t imagine. I mean, it’s metal, right? Wouldn’t it rust in here?”
“Too weird.” June peered around the room. “Still, this place is really great. I love steam rooms. I wonder how you turn it on.” She walked across the little room and sat down on the tiled seat, resting her arms on the step behind her. She patted the spot next to her, and Emily immediately went and sat down.
June grinned. “I could get used to a daily swim and steam. Sure beats teaching summer classes. This is the life.” She closed her eyes again, relaxing backward, resting the back of her head on the step behind her.
Emily was perched on the edge of her seat, staring around her curiously. The mechanism for the steam hung high above on the ceiling next to the neon lights. The ceiling in this room was the only part of the building she’d seen that wasn’t glass. It was covered with the same tile they were sitting on and seemed much closer than the glass ceiling in the atrium with the pool. They had entered the pool house on the far side from where they were now, so she hadn’t seen the steam room from the outside. Sitting here, she imagined that it would look like a little brick building next to the larger pool house. It might have been added later, as an afterthought, or perhaps it was simply necessary to build it this way to trap the steam.
The two of them were only perhaps ten feet from the door, the hanging bowl about midway between them, and Emily might still have had a chance to stop it if she’d reacted right away, but, as she watched the door swing shut, she felt rooted to the spot. When she’d opened it, the door had swung into the pool house, away from where they sat inside now, so in order to close it, you would need to push it closed from the outside. It had been partially closed since they came in, so it didn’t have far to move. The sound of the door latching made them both jump.
June clutched her chest and laughed, weakly. “Jesus. What is it with the doors around here?”
Emily’s heart was still racing. June obviously hadn’t seen the door close. Anyone that had would realize that it simply couldn’t have done so on its own. Someone must have pushed it from the outside. June didn’t need to know this.
“Let’s get out of here,” Emily said, jumping to her feet. She tried to keep her voice calm. “I need to get to work sometime today.”
June sighed. “Yeah. I guess you’re right. Now, in addition to all that Romantic art in the house, I’m going to have to figure out what the heck that thing is doing in here.” She pointed at the hanging bowl. “It couldn’t possibly be genuine. If it was, it would be locked up inside the house. No one would keep something so priceless out here hanging in a stream room. I’m sure it’s a replica, so that will mean some digging to figure it out.” She stood and stretched. “Think we have enough time to poke inside the greenhouse for a minute?”
Emily’s heart was still tripping around in her chest. She kept seeing the door close, as if on a mental loop. More than anything, she simply wanted to get out of here and back to the safety of the house. Still, she didn’t need to make this little outing a complete disaster. She needed to stay cool, collected. “Sure. We can check it out.”
She’d seen door mechanisms like the one on the inside of the door in a restaurant she worked at in college. Instead of a pulling handle, like the one on the outside, the handle in here was a large circle intended to be pushed to unlatch the door. The door, on the whole, had been designed very much like a large refrigerator, probably in order to seal in the heat. She reached for the handle, and when she touched it, she suddenly knew what would happen next.
It wouldn’t move. They were locked in.
She turned to June and must have looked as frightened as she felt. June’s eyes grew larger, and she moved Emily, none too gently, out of the way and tried the door. She pulled and pushed at the knob, desperately, then turned back to Emily.
“We’re locked in!” she said.
Emily had taken a few steps away from her and the door. Her palms were damp and her heart wouldn’t slow down. A tingling numbness that started in her fingers quickly spread up her arms. The air around them seemed to constrict, and she gulped, painfully, for breath. Her vision dimmed a little, and she swayed. A moment later June launched herself forward and grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Whoa, there,” June said, and directed her over to the tiled bench.
Her knees hit the edge and she sat down heavily, almost collapsing.
“Hey, Emily, hey,” June said, her voice low and calm. She’d sat down next to her and taken her hand. “It’s going to be okay. Take some deep breaths, all right? Put your head between your legs.”
Emily obeyed, and June mimicked breathing in and out in deep breaths, rubbing small circles on Emily’s lower back. Having her head down and breathing did help, and the world came back into focus again.
She sat up to see June watching her critically, searchingly. Apparently satisfied with what she saw, she said, “Better? You look better. You went as white as a sheet for a minute.”
“Much better. I’m sorry.”
June shook her head, dismissing her extreme reaction. “It’s fine. I am glad you didn’t actually pass out. I thought for sure you were going down. That would have hurt like hell on this tile.”
“I’ve never fainted before,” Emily said, feeling foolish. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“Are you claustrophobic?”
Emily lifted one shoulder. “Not really. I think I was just startled.”
June’s eyes searched the room for a moment or two, and she sighed. “Well, there’s no other way out of here but through that door.”
“Do you have the key?”
June laughed. “It’s in my cardigan, and that’s out in the pool room. And anyway, I think it locks from the outside.”
Emily’s courage was returning, and she squeezed June’s hand. “Someone will come for us eventually. They knew where we were going, or Mr. Wright did anyway.”
“I suppose you’re right. It’s not the end of the world.” June’s expression turned a little sly. “And it gives us a chance to get to know each other a little better.”
Emily couldn’t help but smile, and June returned it. “You should smile more often, Emily. It’s really pretty.”
&nbs
p; Emily looked away, blushing. “Thanks.”
June laughed. “You’re pretty when you don’t smile, too. I mean that it suits you.”
Emily met her eyes to see if she was being genuine and found June grinning at her. They were sitting very close together, and June was still holding her hand. Not stopping to second-guess herself, Emily leaned forward, and June’s eyes fluttered closed. Their lips almost brushed, and then the sound of the steam turning on made them flinch and pull apart.
June laughed. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
The steam was coming out in billowing waves from the mechanism near the lights, and Emily leapt to her feet in panicked desperation. “How did it turn on?”
June stood up and searched the room before shaking her head. “I have no idea. It couldn’t have been from in here. There’s probably a switch outside the door.”
Their eyes met, and they both looked at the door. June walked over and slammed on it with her fist a few times. “Hey! Is someone out there? We’re locked in!”
They waited, listening, but the sound of the steam was loud enough that, even if someone was out there, they probably couldn’t hear them.
Emily had to raise her voice almost to a shout to be heard. “Who do you think it is?”
June frowned. “It could be Jim, fucking around. He seems like the type.”
Emily wanted to agree, but she couldn’t. “I don’t know. He was so dead-set on working today. You heard him. I’m sure he’s in my room right now, knee-deep in paperwork.”
“But it couldn’t be Mark. He’s not like that.”
Emily thought for a moment. “Maybe Mr. Wright is doing maintenance or something.”
“Could be. But why can’t he hear us?”
The steam was coming out so fast it was getting hard to see. Emily waved a hand in front of her face a few times, coughing, and stepped a little closer to June.
June laughed. “This is ridiculous! We’re going to steam to death before someone finds us.”
Emily frowned, suddenly terrified, and June squeezed her hand. “Hey, we’ll be fine. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t joke about it. But really, it’s fine. We just have to wait a little longer. Someone will come for us eventually.” She pulled on Emily’s hand and led her back to the seat. “Let’s sit. We’ll feel better closer to the ground.”
It was better, but only a little. The heat was tremendous, and both of them hunched over, nearer the floor.
“How long do you think the steam will last?” Emily shouted.
June raised her shoulders. “Ten minutes? That’s how long the one at my gym runs. It should turn off on its own.”
They sat quietly for a while, Emily breathing in and out of her mouth. The heat of the steam hurt the inside of her nose.
“God, you must be roasting in those clothes!” June said.
“I am.”
“Well take some of them off, for God’s sake. Everyone will understand if we come out of here half-naked. It must be a million degrees.”
Emily was about to object, but June started unbuttoning her shirt. Emily froze, startled, and June stopped what she was doing and laughed.
“Hey—don’t get any funny ideas. I’m helping you cool off here. For now.” She winked at her.
Emily tried to smile back at her and raised her shaking fingers to help.
They heard the door unlatch almost the moment the steam turned off, and then Jim came into the room. He waved an arm in front of his face, coughing.
“Jesus Christ! What in the hell are you two doing in here? We’ve been looking all over for you!”
June’s hands dropped from Emily’s shirt, and she jumped up and rushed past Jim and out into the pool room. It was all Emily could do not to run after her. The two of them paused next to the pool. June was waving a hand in front of her face dramatically, and Emily bent at the waist, taking deep lungfuls of cool air.
Jim watched them, his face crinkled with apparent confusion. “What they hell were you doing in there with all your clothes on?”
June walked toward him, fists clenched. “Do you honestly think we’d go in there on purpose dressed like this?”
He gave her a nasty grin. “What the hell do I know? It seems like you were getting ready to get a little more comfortable.”
“Fuck you,” June snarled. “We were locked in there, you jackass.”
Emily pulled her shirt closed and held it that way, suddenly realizing that it was almost completely unbuttoned. The movement caught the eyes of the others, and they both looked at her and away. Jim’s face colored with embarrassment or anger.
June wiped her face with a hand and grimaced in disgust. “Thank Christ you finally came. I thought we’d be stuck in there all day.”
“You nearly were,” Jim said. “Like I said, we’ve been looking for you guys for hours.”
June’s head snapped at him, eyes blazing. “That’s impossible!” She stared at Emily. “We haven’t been in there that long. Right, Emily?”
Emily considered. “Maybe thirty minutes. We left the house an hour ago, tops.”
Jim shook his head, his face cloudy. “At noon, lunchtime, Mark noticed that the two of you weren’t around. I was still working, but he came up and found me. We didn’t think you were still out on your walk—this was hours later, after all, so we checked the house first. We checked the garage and saw both of your cars, and when we ran into him, Mr. Wright said both of you had headed this way, to the pool and greenhouse. He hadn’t seen you come back, and he was in the gardens all morning. The three of us came out here and looked for you, and we didn’t see you in either the pool room or the greenhouse. We went back to the house, made a few phone calls, and we were getting ready to call the police, but then the housekeeper remembered the steam room. I came right out here to check.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s going on four now.”
“In the afternoon?” June shouted.
“Of course, in the afternoon! What the hell else would I mean?”
Emily lost track of their back-and-forth argument as she was swept into an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. Three days ago, on her drive here, she’d also lost time. She had been unable to account for three hours, and she hadn’t let herself think about it since. Now it had happened again, and, like the last time, she’d returned to reality just before four o’clock. She was sure that if she looked at Jim’s watch, it would be the same time she’d seen on the watch of the helpful cyclist on the road.
“Emily? Back me up here,” June was saying. “There’s no way that’s the right time. I’d have gone crazy if we were in there for hours and hours. It was thirty minutes, at most—less, really. What do you think? Can you think of any other explanation?”
Emily licked her dry lips. “I think…” She was suddenly confused. Her thoughts were muddled, her tongue thick in her mouth. She shook her head and tried again. “I think…I think I need to lie down.”
She felt a curious sinking sensation, and then everything went black.
Chapter Seven
Emily felt sunlight on her face. The canopy was open again, and she sat up, a scream rising to her lips.
June pushed her back onto the pillow, firmly. “Whoa, there. Take it easy. You’re okay.”
A wet rag had fallen onto Emily’s lap, and June picked it up and put it back on Emily’s forehead. “Lie back. Relax.”
June was sitting next to her on the bed, and that side of her body felt distinctly hot. “How did I get here?”
June grinned. “Jim carried you, if you can believe it.” She looked behind her, and Emily saw Jim and Mark sitting in chairs facing the bed. “My hero.”
Jim rolled his eyes and got to his feet, wincing for a moment before walking closer. “And I’m going to feel it in the morning, let me tell you.”
“Oh, don’t exaggerate,” June said. “She can’t weigh more than a hundred pounds.”
“You try lugging a hundred pounds half a mile and see how your back holds out.”
�
��Enough, you two,” Mark said, getting up. He walked close enough to peer down into Emily’s face. “Are you okay? Do you want us to call a doctor?”
She considered his question. She didn’t want to seem like a victim. She also hated having all this attention. “I feel fine now. Really.” To prove her point, she sat up again, setting the rag down on the table next to the bed. Her head felt strangely light and detached from her body, but the feeling faded after a few seconds. She scooted up a little in the bed to get more comfortable and then winced from a pain in her side. She touched it gingerly and raised an eyebrow at June.
June made a sympathetic face. “You must be pretty bruised up. You fell on the tile.”
“Like a bag of hammers,” Jim said. “One second you were up, and then you were down. Never saw someone fall like that.”
“I’m just glad you didn’t hit your head,” June added. “At least I think you didn’t. Does it hurt?”
She lifted a hand and gingerly explored her scalp under her sweaty, damp hair. “Feels okay.”
“Small favors, anyway.”
Emily made as if to get up, and all three of them held up their hands. “Hang on a little longer,” Mark said. “You need to rest.”
“I feel fine. Really.”
June put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her back into the pillows. “Please. Just stay there for a while, okay? It was really scary seeing you fall like that.”
Emily met her eyes, ready to argue, but her retort died in her throat. She would never be able to deny her anything.
June, seeming to realize she had let it go, smiled at her gratefully and got off the bed. “At least she’s okay,” she told the men. “But it still doesn’t solve the problem.”
“What problem?” Emily asked.
They glanced at her and then at each other. Mark shook his head, wearily. “While you were unconscious, we talked about your excursion today.”
June met her eyes. “I told them our side of the story again, but they don’t believe me.”
Mark shook his head, sighing. “It’s not a matter of belief, June. It’s a matter of fact. The two of you left the house at, what, eight thirty? Jim didn’t find you until four. That’s almost eight hours.”
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