Chapter 21 Wren #2
I can’t keep my eyes from what I see on the bed, but as I look down at the trail of blood pooling onto the hardwood, I see a familiar item that I know should not be there.
Darting in, I’m so focused on completely dulling all my senses as I grab it and shoved it under my T-shirt.
I try to flatten it around my body so it’s not so bulky, escaping the room quickly and falling back into the wall of the corridor.
“He’s dead—Jay. Oh my god.” Bran breathes choppily, then he gags, the haunting stench of rotting flesh poisoning the air. Scrambling across the wall so I can’t see into the room, I curl my legs up against my chest, partly to keep what I'm hiding out of Sterling's vision.
Screaming starts, but also loud sobs from more than one person. Both detectives step up and peer inside, Starling flinching away as he covers his nose with his bicep.
“Jesus Christ, everyone back to your rooms. Now!” he directs, but no one is listening.
Mavis pushes past Willow and throws herself at the open hotel room door, before a sound escapes her throat that I never wish to hear again in my life.
Bran pulls her back and bands his arm around her chest, but Goldie moves to separate them and takes her by the elbow.
“No one goes in this room. No one tampers with evidence. This is now a crime scene. Back to your rooms.” Unlike Starling, Goldie always has a firm edge to him, causing the small group to retreat back from the door.
“We’re going to need statements from you both.
” He points to me and Bran, but all I’m focused on is not throwing up again and getting myself back to my room.
Phin and Robin aren’t in the corridor, and I’m so thankful neither had to witness what I just did.
I don't think either would survive seeing another dead body.
“You’re seriously not suggesting we stay here?
Someone else—our friend, has been murdered!
The gates are locked, cars vandalized. We’re not safe!
” Willow argues, her head whipping to each person standing in the corridor before landing on me.
Her eyes are wide, pleading and she stutters around words that aren’t coming out.
She must think we’re all losing our minds, because no one backs her up.
Sighing like he’s tired of her tantrum, Goldie lets go of Mavis and grabs Willow by both shoulders, forcing her to take steps backwards towards her hotel room.
“We said go back to your room.” he grits out between clenched teeth, his face hovering down over her.
My vision suddenly becomes clouded and I’m standing, arm clenched on his shoulder and not thinking of the consequences as I fling him into the wall.
I don’t remember even getting up, but suddenly I’m between them and my chest is heaving.
The way he loomed over her sent an uncomfortable signal to my brain, memories pounding on a door I sealed flooding my system.
“Don’t fucking touch her.” I don't recognise the rage in my own voice.
Long fingers curl around my bicep and the other subtly snakes underneath my t-shirt, taking what I’ve hidden under there and removes it. Both detectives staring me down don't notice.
“Wren, it’s ok,” Willow whispers, looking around me. “We’ll all go back to our rooms.”
Still in a daze, she pulls at me, leading me down the corridor and away from rising shouts from both Bran and Mavis trying to speak with each other.
I didn’t notice Cardinal was there, but his tall frame meets my other side like they’re both shadowing me to my room.
I can see each muscle in his arms and hands are taut, but he doesn’t look back as we turn the corner.
Taking the lead of the situation, she knocks on my door and it opens, like Robin was waiting on the other side.
“What’s going on? We heard screaming.” Her eyes frantically roam over all of us, taking in my appearance.
God, I hope she can’t smell sick on me, but that idea makes the bile rise in my throat again.
“I’m going to throw up.” I announce, pushing past everyone and throwing myself at the bathroom door.
I find Phin in there, sitting in the empty bathtub fully clothed, knees pressed up under his chin.
He says my name in a panic, but I can’t answer him, instead falling to my knees hard as I lifted the toilet lid and started to violently vomit.
He scrambles out of the tub. “Jesus, are you all right? Robin? Help!”
A large palm rubbed circles on my back, and my body spasmed as I choked on air, my body trying to purge everything out of me like I had toxins flowing through my veins.
“He’s—” I try to warn my friend but images of Jay's body flung on the bed flash before my eyes and I heave again.
I can hear talking in the bedroom before Roo appears, but I can’t look up from the toilet as my eyes and throat burn together.
“Jay’s dead.” she gasps, the hand on my back stilling.
“What happened?” Phin asked, cold air meeting my back as he no longer touches me. “No, no, Robin. He can't be.”
My heaving turns dry as nothing else can possibly come out of me and with shaky arms, I press my palms to the tiles, sitting myself up. Closing the lid so neither of them can see, I flush the toilet and grab tissue to wipe my mouth.
Whilst he starts to pace and ask questions I can't answer, I pull myself towards the sink, wash my hands twice, I stick my full face under the water and don’t even care when the soap burns my eyes as I scrubbed with my fingers.
Then I brushed my teeth, endlessly spitting like I can’t chase away the smell I’ll never forget.
Finally collecting myself, I look up into the mirror, meeting pools of caramel. “I found him in his room. Someone stabbed him, in the stomach.”
Robin stiffened. My girl is smart, because her eyes widen as she comes to the same conclusion I have.
I’m not just losing my goddamn mind because I found my friend dead, it's because only a couple of days ago, I read a book with a very descriptive retelling of the scene I just stumbled on. From the kitchen knife to the way Jay’s body was flung on the bed, with his arms spread like he’d accepted his fate.
The way his face was twisted in agony, told me otherwise, meaning someone staged his arms like that.
Just like the way the mother-in-law had taken her fated death in Robin's novel.
First the murder in the pool, now this? It can’t be a coincidence, someone was involving her in this all somehow, and I feared she could potentially be the end goal in this sick game.
Willow appeared behind her in the doorway, hand raised with the item I’d taken from Jay's room. “Care to explain why you took this?” she asks me, my throat sore as I swallow. Pushing my damp curl off my face, I lift my chin and we all make our way back out into the bedroom.
Cardinal stands by the window, frowning out at the darkened skies and lashing rain.
Phin moves around me to throw himself onto my bed, snatching a small cushion to press into his chest and curl his legs.
He looks exhausted, but my nerves are too shot to put his needs above my own.
Taking the item from Willow, I run my fingers over the green cardigan; the one with the velvet black bows scattered on it.
I remember the way it had fallen down one of Roo’s shoulders when I first saw her, showing me her soft collarbone.
She’d scowled and ignored me, but when we’d started on the stupid scavenger hunt, she’d come alive and thrown the cardigan down on the ground as she ran off into the garden. I think fell in love with her cackle.
“Why do you have my cardigan? I’ve been looking for that everywhere.” Robin asks, tone suspicious.
“I found it in Jay's room.” Turning to look at her heart-shaped face, I hold it out to her still hoping the scent of sick hasn’t clung to my clothes. The cardigan didn't have a drop of blood on it, which made it stand out as obviously being placed there afterwards.
“I’ve never been in there. I took it off Friday and haven't been able to find it.”
“I think someone's trying to frame you for murder by putting it in there.”
“Anyone could have swiped it. We weren't exactly paying attention when we started that stupid game.” Cardinal turns to look at all of us.
“Hang on a minute, this is incredibly serious,” Phin lets go of the pillow to hold both his hands up. “Why would someone do that?”
“Someone staged both deaths like how you wrote them, Drew. Maybe because no one has voiced it, they wanted to send a clearer message.” Approaching us in the center of the room, he looks down at the cardigan and then back up to her.
“So you think it’s one of us?” Willow’s expression is in utter disbelief.
“Unless someone is magically getting into a locked hotel at night, or anyone has seen a stranger stalking around in the day, it has to be.” I reply, pulling at the hair on my nape.
“Why would one of us do this? Jay was our friend, Corbin my brother.” Phin looks so lost, clutching the pillow again.
I let out a sigh, knowing that we need to tell him about Merle’s secret, knowing it'll break his heart further.
Robin must have the same realisation because she hesitantly sits at the foot of the bed.
I know I should be right there with them, but I'm having a slight fishbowl sensation of peering in on the room, rather than being present.
“I’m so sorry to tell you this now, but we found out Merle had a lot of money issues with your brother.
He owed Corbin so much money for the hotel and was going to take it back because he couldn’t pay the debt.
We thought it was him—that maybe he attacked him out of panic of you finding out or he didn’t want to lose the hotel.
” She shakes her head, eyes pleadingly for our best friend to understand.
“I don’t think he would do this, though. Not to Bran.”