The Haunting of Anna McAlister (16 page)

“Mademoiselle,” the manager said curtly. “There is no room 531.” He was lying and he wasn’t very good at it.

“Of course there is,” Anna responded without a hint of emotion. “It’s in the front and has a perfect view of the carousel in the park across the street. Am I right?”

Again, the three hotel employees shared their emotions through their eyes. “Please step this way,” the manager moved around the desk and ushered Tom and Anna into a plush lounge area just off the bar. It was full of red velvet overstuffed chairs and small couches. A grand piano filled one corner of the room, which featured oil paintings on its walls and statues of nude men and women embracing as if frozen in time.

“Sit, please.” The manager motioned for Anna and Tom to have a seat on a couch.
 

Tom sat all the way back and crossed his legs, while Anna stayed on the edge of the couch’s cushions. The manager sat across from the two guests. “Louie,” he called to the bartender. “Champagne for our guests.
Vite
. . .quickly.”

“That really is not necessary,” Anna said.
 

“Of course it is necessary,” the manger smiled. “This is Paris.”

Louie quickly delivered the bottle of Champagne in a sterling silver ice bucket. Tom looked up at him, “California, I hope?” he joked.

No one laughed.
 

“Ah, sorry about that,’ Tom grimaced. “Jet lag.”

Louie popped the cork and served the Champagne. The paper-thin crystal glasses reflected the light in such a way that they looked like delicate bubbles shimmering in the air.
 

“Now. . .” the manager said. “. . . regarding room 531.”

When he said the number, Anna saw a surprised look cross Louie’s face. He looked up at the manager for just a moment, almost causing him to overfill Anna’s glass.

“Why do you ask about this room?” the manager asked, trying to hide the tension in his voice.
 

“It’s important that we stay there.”

The manager looked at Tom who shrugged his shoulders in an
I have no idea what she’s talking about
gesture.

“I must apologize for my earlier statement, although to a degree it was true.” The manager spoke quickly. “Room 531 is not available for guests. In fact it has not been available for, perhaps, 30 years or more.” He looked at Louie, “
Oui
?”

“
Oui
,” Louie said, and quickly returned to the bar.

“That room is locked and closed to all. So, while the room does in fact exist, it is never used.”

“Why not?” Tom finished his glass of Champaign.

“That is hotel business.”

The manager rose from the couch. He turned to leave, but stopped. “May I ask you one question?” He looked at Anna.

“Of course.”

“How did you know about the carousel in the park. It hasn’t been there in many, many years.”

“I saw a picture of it once,” Anna lied much better than he did.

“I’ve never seen such a photograph,” the manager said. When Anna and Tom said nothing, he decided to accept the lie rather than pursue the truth. “Forget about 531,” he said as he left. “And enjoy Paris.”

When the manager disappeared back into his little room behind the front desk and closed the door, Tom touched Anna on the shoulder. When he did, she jumped. “So, exactly what is so important about room 531?”

“It’s where she was murdered,” Anna whispered.

“How do you know that? And don’t tell me you saw a picture.”

“No, no picture. I just know it.” Anna shook her head. She too wished she knew where this sudden influx of knowledge was coming from. “I just do.”

Louie returned to refill their glasses. “Excuse me,” Anna said. “I saw how you looked when the manager mentioned room 531. Can you help us?”

“In what way?” Louie asked.

“Do you know anything, anything at all about the history of that room? Was someone mur. . .”

Louie held up his hand and turned his head away to stop Anna from finishing her sentence. He looked around the lobby and seemed sad. “Mademoiselle,” he said. “There are times when history is best left undisturbed.”

Chapter 15

Anna dreamed that she couldn’t breathe. When she woke up the dream continued.

Earlier that night, Anna had again tried to convince the manager to move them to room 531. She begged, she pleaded, she even bribed, but he wouldn’t budge. Finally she demanded to speak to the owner of the hotel. At that point the manager suggested they might be better served at another, more
American
, hotel.
 

Having lost the battle, Anna quickly changed tactics in hopes of salvaging the war. “I’m so sorry for being unreasonable,” Anna tried an old trick that had always worked with her dad, and later with boys and men. She batted her eyes and gave her nose a wrinkle. “It must be the heat and the travel. Please forgive my behavior. It was inexcusable.”

The manager agreed wholeheartedly with Anna’s new position. He eventually, although somewhat reluctantly, accepted her apology. Room 201 would have to do . . . for now.

* * *

Hours later, Anna sat up naked in bed, gasping for air. She noticed that the light blanket she and Tom had used had been thrown across the room.
Just as well
, she thought. The heat was suffocating.
 

Anna wiped a drop of sweat away from the tip of her nose. She remembered the doctor’s words, “Paris is rarely this hot. . .
se la vie
.”

Anna pushed against Tom’s bare hairy bottom, hoping to wake him. Instead, he just rolled onto his back, smacked his lips and started to snore.
 

“Shit head!” Anna’s surprising anger made it easier to breathe. She got up and walked to the bathroom. She splashed cold water onto her face, neck and chest. It felt wonderful when the drops ran down her stomach before nestling in her pubic hair.
 

Anna took a deep breath, and splashed again. Feeling much better, she tried to turn on the light, but the bathroom remained dark. She quickly flicked the switch on and off several times. “Great. Just what I need.”

Anna stepped into the sweltering bedroom. She immediately noticed that the small air conditioning vent was silent and the air was still.
 

“Okay, do it.” Anna challenged the shadows that surrounded her. She stood silently
 

for a moment, embraced by the heat and staring into the darkness. “If you’re going to do it . . . do it now.”
 

Anna gritted her teeth and waited for something to happen, for the terror to begin again. It didn’t. At least not just then.

When she felt nothing but the heat, she smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. “Fine. Then leave me alone.”
 

Anna looked out the window and saw that no lights were on in any of the buildings that she could see, and even the street lights were out.

“Good,” Anna rubbed her hands together. “Time to play the ugly American.” She picked up the telephone and called the lobby to find out what was going on with the power.
 

“I am sorry,” the night clerk apologized in broken English. Anna only wished her broken French was a tenth as good. “There has been a, how do you say, a light out?”

“Black out?”

“
Oui
. It happens. Power should return soon. Just do as the rest and go back to sleep.”

“In this heat?” Anna whined. “Without air conditioning?” Anna over-acted on the whine, thinking the desk clerk would find in amusing. He didn’t.

“Perhaps you could try opening the window. There is a lovely breeze tonight off the Seine.
Bonne nuit, Mademoiselle
.” The desk clerk hung up the phone.
 

“Yeah, yeah goodnight,” Anna said to no one and hung up the phone.
 

Taking the clerk’s advice, Anna opened the window. When she did the Parisian night air flooded in, followed by the soft sounds of a woman’s rhythmic moans of passion.

“I guess there are other people who can’t sleep,” Anna giggled as the women’s sounds became more urgent and intense.

Anna looked at Tom. He was still lying on his back, but Anna no longer focused on his snoring. Because of the heat, he had also decided to sleep in the nude. With the blanket gone, Anna could clearly make out his full form in the moonlit room.
 

The moans from some other room and woman continued. Anna’s eyes fixed on Tom’s chest, legs, and finally came to rest on his semi-erect penis. It lay draped over to the right, as was its habit.

The woman’s moans became screams of pure pleasure and Anna moved onto the bed. She took Tom’s cock in her hand. “Time to get up.”

Anna lowered her head and opened her mouth. She licked the tip of Tom’s suddenly growing member and was about to engulf its length when a gentle knocking at the door to their room caused her to snap her jaws shut and jump up from the bed.

“Oh my God,” Anna whispered loudly, both in response to the unexpected intrusion and to the realization of how lucky Tom was that the knock hadn’t occurred a second or two later.
 

“What’s wrong?” Tom sat up in bed. “Why has the air conditioning stopped?”
 

Tom now realized his state of excitation. He made no effort to hide it. “And what have you been doing, little girl?”

“Shh,” Anna whispered. “There’s someone at the door.

“I don’t hear anything.”

The knocking returned, this time a little louder than before.
 

“Now I do.”

Tom quickly got out of bed and picked the blanket up from the floor. Wrapping it around his waist, he walked toward the door. “Coming,” he called out.

“Don’t open the door,” Anna ran to him and pulled his arm. “Don’t let it in.”

“Don’t let what in?” Tom asked.
 

The knocking returned. Anna jumped back, freeing Tom to continue toward the door.

“No, Tom, stop! Look!” Anna shouted. She pointed to the floor in front of him. A soft green light could be seen coming from under the door.

Tom didn’t listen to Anna’s warning. He didn’t want to. He moved swiftly to the door.
 

Anna shielded herself with a pillow. “Please don’t!”

Tom reached for the door knob. He hesitated for just a second before turning it and pulling open the door.

The strange green light now filled the doorway. In it, Anna could see the dark figure of a man. She hugged the pillow close to her breasts and huddled into the corner next to the bed. She watched for the knife, and waited for it to strike.
 

The light was now slowly shimmering throughout the room. Everything took on this strange green glow. The man reached for Tom. Anna wanted to scream for him to run, but she couldn’t make a sound. Anna closed her eyes and squeezed the pillow.

“Pardon the interruption,” she heard a man say with a French accent. “From your wife’s call to the desk, we thought perhaps that you would like some light. This is the best we could do.”

The concierge handed Tom two green glow sticks, said goodnight, and left.

“Boy he sure was scary,” Tom waved the glow sticks around the room after closing the door. “And these must be the glow sticks from hell.”

“Shut up,” Anna watched from her hiding place. Relief raced through her body. She stood up and felt the breeze from the window. Anna remembered the moans and screams and imagined that the woman who made them was now wrapped in her lover’s arms with the soft wind caressing their bodies. She let the pillow fall to the floor.
 

Tom stopped waving the sticks. He looked at Anna’s magnificent body in the green light of the room. She stepped slowly up to him, giving him ample time to watch her approach.
 

Anna pressed against him and pulled the blanket from around his waist. Soon, they were her moans that filled the warm Parisian night.

Chapter 16

Anna loved the feel of the night breeze on her bare back. She lay on her right side with her left leg over Tom’s lower body and her left arm across his chest. Her head rested in the crook of his arm which held her tightly to him.
 

“That was wonderful love making, Sir Thomas.” Anna kissed his shoulder. “You are indeed a gallant knight.
 

“Thank you me lady,” Tom kissed her head. “Not bad for an American, huh?”

Anna snuggled closer. She almost fell asleep until she felt the wetness between her legs start to spread. “I’m going to take a shower,” she said. “I’m really sticky.”

“I think that’s so sexy.”

“You would,” Anna got up from the bed. She picked up a glow stick and carefully walked toward the bathroom. When she did Tom rolled onto his side, into a position that Anna knew meant just one thing.
 

“Don’t you dare go to sleep until I get back,” she ordered. “I’ll make it a quick shower.”