The Unkindest Cut (9 page)

Smiling, Avery asked them both their names and room numbers. When Bart gave him the same room number, Avery smirked for a moment, but he scribbled something on his paper. ‘‘I’ve got you two down for nine. That leaves one more slot for that half hour. Ladies?’’ He looked from Sophie to me and back again.

Sophie shook her head, and I was about to do the same. Then I changed my mind. Put it down to nothing more than blatant curiosity about the man. I wanted to see if he acted like a human being when he was teaching. He had to have earned his reputation in the bridge world somehow.

‘‘Yes,’’ I said. ‘‘Put me down for nine also.’’ I looked at Bart and Bob. ‘‘You don’t mind?’’

‘‘Of course not,’’ they chorused.

‘‘Thanks,’’ I said before giving Avery my name and room number.

‘‘Right,’’ Avery said. ‘‘I’ll see you at nine tomorrow morning in my suite.’’ He gave the room number before going on to the next table.

‘‘Should be interesting,’’ I said.

Bob laughed. ‘‘After everything that’s been happening, I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next.’’

Sophie and Bart laughed along with him. I had to smile, but inside I felt troubled. I had bad feelings about everything I had witnessed today, and I was afraid there was worse to come tomorrow.

As it turned out, I was right.

Chapter 9

By nine thirty both Sophie and I were feeling pretty tired, so we made our excuses to Bob and Bart. The men brushed aside our apologies.

‘‘Don’t give it another thought,’’ Bob said. ‘‘We’ve been to this event before. There will be plenty of people to play with till probably two or three in the morning. ’’ He smiled at us. ‘‘You go and rest, and we’ll see you tomorrow.’’

Sophie and I beat a rapid retreat to our suite. Marylou was nowhere to be seen. I called out her name but got no response.

‘‘She had that nap this afternoon, remember,’’ Sophie said, suppressing a yawn as she preceded me into our bedroom. ‘‘I’m going to brush my teeth and change. Mind if I hog the bathroom for a few minutes? ’’

‘‘Go for it,’’ I told her, while sinking gratefully down on the bed. I slipped off my shoes and flopped backward, with my legs hanging off the end of the bed. The mattress felt comfortable, and I thought with a pang of my cats, Olaf and Hilda. This was my first night without them in quite some time, and I would miss their comforting presence on the bed with me. I knew they would be missing me, too, because they hated any disruption of their routine. I pictured them roaming around the house, looking for me. ‘‘Oh, stop it,’’ I told myself. ‘‘They’ll be okay. It’s just for a few days, and you know Jackie will take good care of them.’’

‘‘Talking to yourself already,’’ Sophie said, laughing at me a little. I hadn’t heard her come back into the room. ‘‘Really, Emma, stop worrying about your cats.’’ She had a live-in housekeeper to look after her dogs, but unfortunately the woman was afraid of cats. Otherwise she could have looked after all the animals.

‘‘I’m trying to stop,’’ I said, and sat up.

‘‘Try to relax and have some fun this week,’’ Sophie said. She pulled back the covers of her bed and climbed in. Making herself comfortable, she switched off the lamp by her bed. ‘‘I certainly plan to, and I’m going to make it my job to see that you do, too.’’

‘‘I have been duly warned,’’ I said, grinning down at her. She stuck out her tongue.

‘‘Go on and get ready for bed,’’ she said. ‘‘I’m ready to go to sleep.’’

Her eyelids drooped even as she spoke, and she snuggled into the bed. I knew she would be sound asleep in three minutes. I had always envied this ability to drop off to sleep so quickly. She slept very soundly, too, unlike me. I was a restless sleeper, and I usually woke up at least twice a night. Of course, having nocturnal animals sharing the bed with me didn’t help.

Ten minutes later, with the lights out, I, too, was in bed. I lay in the darkness, willing myself to relax, but it wasn’t working. My head was buzzing too much with the events of the day, and I couldn’t stop myself from replaying some of them. Avery Trowbridge appeared to be a flash point for controversy and dissension, but it hadn’t seemed to bother him all that much.

After half an hour of this, I had at last begun to feel drowsy. Enjoying the floating feeling of imminent sleep, I cleared my mind to let the sleep come.

When the voices began to speak to me, I knew I was dreaming. I could make out two different voices, though the pitch was distorted somehow. The voices had an odd, tinny quality, and I struggled to make out the words.

They talked for some time before the volume grew louder. One of the voices seemed to be quite angry. I could almost make out the words. I had the feeling I should be paying more attention to what they were saying, but the effort was too much for my relaxed state. The voices stopped talking, and there was another sound. After that, silence. I drifted off.

‘‘Emma, wake up,’’ a voice called to me. ‘‘Come on, Emma, time to get up for breakfast.’’

‘‘Go away,’’ I mumbled as I turned away from the sound of the voice.

‘‘Emma, it’s already seven thirty, and you have that bridge lesson at nine. Don’t you want to get up and have some breakfast first?’’ I felt a hand on my shoulder, and startled by the touch, I came awake.

‘‘Sophie,’’ I said, lying on my back and blinking up at her. ‘‘Have you been talking to someone else?’’

Sophie shook her head, laughing. ‘‘No, I haven’t. I’ve just been trying to wake you up, sleepyhead. Now, come on and get out of bed. You’ll be late if you don’t get going.’’

I sat up, trying to clear my head. The last thing I remembered last night, I had heard two people talking. I was so sure they had been close to me, but in the light of day I realized how foolish that was. It was a dream, I decided as I threw back the covers and swung my feet to the floor.

Standing in the space between the two beds, I stretched a couple of times. I had slept pretty well, and I felt refreshed this morning. I turned back to the bed, grabbing the covers and pulling them up over the pillows. I hated to leave the bed messy, even though I knew someone would be in to make it later.

As I twitched the bedcovers into place, I stared at the wall across from me. There was a large air vent there. I gazed at it a few moments longer as an idea struck me. On the other side of this wall was the next suite.

Perhaps I really had heard a conversation last night. I could have heard voices coming through the air vent, because I figured there was a twin to this vent in the same place in the wall in the next suite.

I sniffed the air. I had caught a whiff of an unpleasant scent. What could it be? The smell reminded me of something.

‘‘Emma.’’

I turned and saw Sophie standing in the doorway of our bathroom. ‘‘I’m done in here. Now, come on and get ready. I’m hungry, and I want my breakfast.’’

‘‘Come here a minute,’’ I called to Sophie. ‘‘Do you smell something funny?’’

Sophie stepped closer until she stood near me. She sniffed audibly. ‘‘No, not really, but I just got through putting on perfume. Why? What do you smell?’’

I shrugged. ‘‘Something odd, but I guess it’s gone now. Maybe it was a mouse in the wall.’’

‘‘Yuck,’’ Sophie said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. ‘‘I don’t want to think about that. Come on, and get ready. I want breakfast.’’

Laughing, I threw up my hands in a gesture of surrender. ‘‘Okay, you win. I’m going to hop into the shower right now, I promise. I’ll be ready to go in fifteen minutes.’’ I glanced back at the air vent. ‘‘But just to be safe, when I go downstairs, I think I’d better tell someone at the front desk there might be a dead mouse in the air vent.’’

Sophie grimaced again before pointing toward the bathroom. I took the hint.

I lived up to my promise, because fifteen minutes later, at ten minutes to eight, I followed Sophie out of our bedroom to the door of the suite.

‘‘What about Marylou? Have you talked to her this morning?’’

Sophie shook her head. ‘‘I peeked in on her a few minutes ago, and she was sound asleep. I’m betting she played bridge until after midnight, but she’ll be up in time to play again this morning. I think the duplicate sessions start at nine thirty.’’

We were stepping into the hall when the phone rang in our bedroom. ‘‘Oh, just let it ring,’’ Sophie said. ‘‘I doubt it’s anything important.’’

‘‘No, let me get it,’’ I said, hurrying back into the suite. ‘‘It’ll just take a minute.’’

Sighing, Sophie stepped back inside to wait.

I picked up the phone on about the fourth ring.

‘‘Hello,’’ I said.

‘‘Emma, is that you?’’ It was Jackie, the cat sitter.

‘‘Yes, Jackie, it’s me,’’ I said, and my stomach began to knot up. Something was wrong with one of the cats.

‘‘It’s not an emergency,’’ Jackie said, responding to the note of concern in my voice.

‘‘What is it?’’ Sophie had followed me to the door of our bedroom.

‘‘Hang on a second, Jackie,’’ I said. Covering the mouthpiece with one hand, I told Sophie, ‘‘You go on down to breakfast. It’s Jackie. I’ll talk to her and then I’ll come down and join you.’’

‘‘Is everything okay?’’

‘‘She said it’s not an emergency,’’ I replied. I motioned for her to go on. Shaking her head slightly, she turned and disappeared.

‘‘Sorry, Jackie, I was just telling Sophie to go on to breakfast. Now, what’s going on?’’

‘‘The cats are fine,’’ Jackie said. ‘‘I didn’t mean to alarm you by calling you so early.’’

‘‘That’s okay,’’ I said, relieved. ‘‘If the cats are fine, though, is something else wrong?’’

‘‘It’s my mother,’’ Jackie said, sounding apologetic. ‘‘She lives in Dallas, and she’s got to go into the hospital for some tests. My mother wants me to come and stay with her, and I can’t say no.’’

‘‘Well, of course,’’ I said. ‘‘I understand completely. Your place is with your mother.’’

‘‘Thank you,’’ Jackie said. ‘‘I wanted to let you know about it, and I also wanted to let you know that I’ve arranged for a good friend of mine to take over for me.’’ She paused, and when I didn’t respond immediately, she went on, ‘‘I’ve known her for over twenty years, and she loves cats. I know she’ll take really good care of Olaf and Hilda for you.’’

‘‘Jackie,’’ I said, ‘‘if you vouch for her, then I’m sure she’ll be just fine. I appreciate your taking care of this. You go on to Dallas and look after your mother.’’

‘‘Thanks, Emma,’’ Jackie said, sounding greatly relieved. ‘‘Kathy has your numbers, and I’m going to take her over to your place to meet Olaf and Hilda. I’ll go over everything with her there, and then I’ll head for Dallas.’’

‘‘Drive carefully,’’ I said. I didn’t envy Jackie the long and boring drive from Houston to Dallas.

After another round of assurances on both sides, we hung up. I had a few qualms about my cats being in the care of someone I had never met, but I did trust Jackie’s judgment. So I fussed at myself for being a worrywart.

‘‘Go get yourself some breakfast,’’ I said aloud. ‘‘You’ll feel better once you’ve had some coffee.’’

I left the bedroom, trying not to laugh at myself. I paused for a moment in the living room. Still no peep out of Marylou’s room.

Stepping out into the hall, I pulled the door shut quietly behind me. As I moved down the hall toward the elevator, I glanced to my left at Avery Trowbridge’s door. I remembered the voices I thought I had dreamed last night, and I wondered again whether what I heard had come from this suite.

I stopped in front of Trowbridge’s door. There were six pieces of paper taped to his door, two across and three down. Examining them briefly, I saw that they were schedules of his lessons, and I saw my name, along with those of Bart and Bob, in the nine o’clock slot for this morning.

Then I realized the door was every so slightly ajar, and for some reason, that struck me as strange. After a moment’s hesitation I stepped closer to the door and put my ear near the opening.

Not a sound to be heard from inside.

But I did catch a whiff of an unpleasant odor—the same one I had smelled in our bedroom just a short time ago.

I debated with myself over what I should do, and curiosity won. I had to investigate, because Avery Trowbridge could be ill in there and too weak to get to a phone. At least, that was how I justified it to myself.

I pushed the door open with my shoulder. Some instinct told me not to touch anything. The smell grew stronger, and I had a very bad feeling that I knew what it was. I tried to breathe as shallowly as I could. I remembered now where I had smelled it before. It was the smell of something dead.

The lights were on, and as I moved slowly forward, I could see that the floor plan of this suite was different from ours. In front of me was a living room, and to the right was a door into a bedroom. This appeared to be a one-bedroom suite, unlike ours.

I scanned slowly to my left, and my heart nearly stopped when I spotted someone sprawled in a chair in the corner of the room. The chair, a large leather wingback, partially obscured my view, but there was something unnatural about the position of the person in it.

Without even thinking, I took about three steps toward him, but then I halted. I clapped my hand over my nose and mouth, trying to filter out the stench that grew stronger the closer I came to the chair.

The person in the chair was Avery Trowbridge, and he was dead. The handle of a knife protruded from his chest.

Chapter 10

I couldn’t move, nor could I tear my eyes away from the horrible sight of Avery Trowbridge’s corpse. There were a few flies buzzing around him, and a fair amount of blood had dripped from the wound in his chest down his stomach and onto his legs. Some of it had spattered onto the carpet.

Trowbridge’s head was turned away from me, and I couldn’t see his face completely, but there was no doubt in my mind it was he. I shuddered. I needed to get out of here before I started throwing up.