The Haunting of Anna McAlister (23 page)

“Sure,” Tom shook his head and scoffed. “Why not?”

Anna touched Phillipe’s arm. “Phillipe, will you do me a favor and get the elevator? We’ll be right there.”

“Or course.”

Anna had never been one to take an elevator to the second floor. “What’s wrong with you?” she whispered to Tom as soon as Phillipe slipped from earshot.

“What do you mean?” Tom sounded genuinely unsure of the reason for Anna’s question.

“You were being so rude.”

“Was I?”

Anna looked in his eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she hesitated. “Not like before? ”

“No, I’m fine, really,” Tom looked away. He pulled the knife from the table and placed it on the shredded napkin.

“Maybe you should wait down here while I show Phillipe the music boxes.

“Why?” Tom said nonchalantly. “So you can fuck him?

Chapter 21

“Fuck you,” Anna got up from the table and walked toward where Phillipe waited at the elevator. As she did, she held up her middle finger to emphasize her point and deliver a parting message.

“You always have to have the final gesture, don’t you?” Tom said as he walked up behind her. “I was only kidding for Christ’s sake. Do you have to be so fucking sensitive?”

Anna again raised a finger, this time she hid it behind her head where only its intended target could see.

“
Merci
, Phillipe,” Anna said as she stepped onto the elevator.

“Yeah, thanks Phil,” Tom followed her.

Phillipe released the door and held his hand up to the buttons. “Which floor?”

“Two,” Tom said.
 

“No,” Anna countermanded Tom’s order. “Push five.”

* * *

When the group arrived at room 531, they found the door locked and the hallway dark and deserted. Anna tried to turn the doorknob but it wouldn’t budge, as if it were frozen or rusted in place.
 

“You said the door was open?” Anna looked at Tom.

“It was. I swear it was,” Tom said. “Someone must have come up and locked it.”

“And painted it,” Phillipe noted that the door had actually been painted shut, with a solid line of paint between it and the frame. He tried to turn the knob, but his luck was no better than Anna’s.

“Let me try,” Tom said. He didn’t bother with the knob. He pushed against the door with his shoulder as hard as he could. It was like he was trying to push his way into a boulder. Tom gave up and rubbed his shoulder. “I’m telling you, it was wide open. It was like whoever was in there was expecting company.”

“Perhaps you only dreamed of this room,” Phillipe suggested.
 

At dinner, Anna had told him about Tom’s search of the hotel. She had ended that part of the story with Tom’s feeling tired and needing a nap. Again she omitting his later assault.

“It was no dream,” Anna said, feeling at first uneasy and then scared. She knew something was coming toward them from inside the apartment.
 

“Let’s go,” Anna backed away from the door. It was there, just on the other side. She knew it.
 

The men hesitated.
 

“Now!” Anna turned and ran. The men followed.
 

Anna moved down the hallway as fast as she could. “Don’t look back!” she screamed the order to Tom and Phillipe.
 

As she ran, Anna remembered the old woman she had seen the last time she had been in this hallway. She knew she was dead. She knew how she died.
 

Anna ran faster. She reached the elevator a few steps ahead of the men and pressed the down button. She pressed it again and again until the doors finally parted and she and Phillipe stepped inside. Tom was the last in line. As he followed he happened to glance over his shoulder.
 

“Oh shit!” Tom saw that the hallway was now full of people, walking slowly toward them. “Push the button, Anna. Hurry!”

Fortunately Anna had done just that as soon as she had gotten into the elevator. When Tom cleared the door, it immediately closed behind him.

“Come on . . . come on . . .” Tom said, expecting the door to again open, and for the crowd of whatever they were to come pouring in before the old elevator had a chance to move.
 

“Come on!” Tom jumped up and down, jarring the elevator to life. As it dropped, Tom swore he could hear the door opening above.
 

“What did you see?” Anna asked as she watched the numbers above the door click down from five to four to three.
 

“Tell you later,” Tom said as they arrived at two and the door opened.
 

Tom was relieved to see the that hallway was empty, but as he exited the elevator he thought he heard the sound of footsteps on the other side of the elevator’s ceiling and words in French being whispered from above.
 

Anna led the way, and started walking very quickly to their room. She was in a hurry, and it had nothing to do with ghosts, murderers or goblins of any sort. Anna realized that she hadn’t peed since she returned from the library, and that she had consumed enough wine since then to make that a very uncomfortable situation. So uncomfortable in fact that the fullness of her bladder overcame any terror of the moment.
 

“Gotta go,” Anna said as she picked up her pace

When she had been running from room 531 Anna almost lost control, which would have made her current state of urgency unnecessary. However the fear of embarrassment had prevailed.

“Sorry to walk ahead,” she called back to the men. “Meet me in the room.
 

Now, Anna semi trotted, holding her legs tightly together as she did. Tom followed, with Phillipe several feet back. Anna made it to 201 with little time to spare. She left the room door open and closed the bathroom door behind her.
 

When Tom stepped into the room, he stopped and turned around to face Phillipe. He braced one hand high on either side of the door frame.

“Excuse me,” Phillipe tried to slip under Tom’s left arm, but he dropped it to block the younger man’s path.
 

Tom’s eyes flared angrily. He moved his face within inches of Phillipe’s. “Get out,” he hissed.
 

Phillipe stared back at Tom, almost equaling his intensity. Then, he smiled, bowed and left.
 

“Where’s Phillipe?” Anna asked as soon as she came out of the bathroom and saw only Tom waiting for her on the bed.

“He changed his mind,” Tom said without expression or concern. “Something about other plans.”

Anna felt her anger rising, although she wasn’t sure why she was so mad.

“He changed his mind about seeing the music boxes?” Anna’s voice was hard and cold. She became even angrier when Tom answered almost happily.

“Yep, I guess your boyfriend dumped you, huh?”

“Asshole.”

“Yeah, he really is.”

“I mean you, not Phillipe.”

“Hey don’t blame me if you can’t get your boyfriend to your bedroom.”

Anna wanted to throw something. Instead, she sat down in front of the dresser mirror and started furiously brushing her hair. “Oh, well,” she said, trying to match Tom’s casual tone. “He can see the music boxes tomorrow, when he picks me up. He really has been so helpful, I wish there was some way I could think of to say thank you.”

Anna could see Tom’s reflection in the mirror. Her words had been meant to hurt and it was obvious from the look on his face that they had.

“I’m sorry,” Anna put down the brush. She got up and moved next to Tom. She put her hand on his arm. “I didn’t mean to be a bitch. Sorry. I love you.”

“I love you too,” Tom said softly.

Anna looked deeply into Tom’s soft blue eyes, the eyes she had fallen in love with when they first met. For a moment Phillipe’s caramel colored eyes flashed through her thoughts. Anna quickly put their beauty out of her mind.

“Are you really seeing him tomorrow?” Tom asked.

“Seeing who?” Anna joked and hugged him. Tom pulled away.

“I’m serious. Are you seeing him tomorrow?”

Anna paused before nodding. “Tom, Phillipe is helping translate records. That’s all. We’re going to the police station where he knows someone who can get us in. I can’t do it alone. I need him.”

“I’m sure you do,” Tom sneered. He got up from the bed and walked across the room.

“Tom, please don’t. Why are you being so jealous?”

“Am I being jealous? Is that all it is?”

“Yes, that’s all it is,” Anna lied a little. “Phillipe is just a friend who can help.”

“But why can’t I just go with you? Why do you need him?”

“Because he can read French?” Anna suggested.

“So can I.”

Tom could feel something happening. His heart beat faster and his blood pounded in every artery. He saw himself from above, and then through Anna’s eyes. He saw himself as a woman, a stranger, a monster. He shook his head. Now he was looking at Anna. He wanted to scream. Then, he wanted to hurt. Tom clenched his fists and fought for control.

“Tom?”
 

Anna looked scared. Part of Tom now liked that.

“Are you all right, Tom?”

Tom hit the mirror with his right fist, shattering it and slicing three of his knuckles open.

“Tom!”

Tom held his right hand with his left, fighting against the rage within him. He now remembered everything that had happened earlier in the room after Anna’s return. He remembered and he became erect.

“I have to go,” Tom said and started for the door.

“No, Tom, don’t.” Anna blocked his path.

“I have to go!” he screamed, roughly shoving Anna to the floor.

“Tom!” Anna cried.

Tom threw open the door so hard that the knob knocked a hole in the plaster wall where it hit. As he walked out, Tom paused. Without looking back he whispered “I love you.”
 

“Then stay with me.”

Tom screamed, as if in pure agony. He stepped out and slammed the door behind him.
 

By the time Anna got up and ran after him into the hallway, Tom was gone.
 

Tom did not return that night, leaving Anna alone and shaken. When she finally did sleep it was only in short spurts measured by minutes. When she did dream, she dreamed only of death.

Chapter 22

Anna turned off the light next to the bed, with the rising of the sun, false daylight was no longer needed. It had started to get light a half hour earlier.
Why is it so much easier to be scared at night?
Anna thought, knowing that there probably was an answer. An answer she would rather not hear.

But, as welcome as this dawn was, it also had a much darker side. It signaled the fact that Tom had been gone all night. She had no idea where he was. She only knew that she was still alone.
 

Anna picked up the telephone. Maybe the concierge had seen Tom, or he might have left word.
 

When a friendly voice answered, “Bon jour,” a gentle knocking at the room door made Anna’s questions unnecessary.

“Pardon,
merci
,” Anna said and hung up. She had looked at Tom’s hotel room key on the desk at least 50 times through the night. She knew he would have to knock to get back in.
 

“Coming Tom,” she said as she moved quickly to the door. “Coming.”

When Anna opened the door she was ready to first give Tom the biggest hug of his life, and then biggest lecture he ever had for being gone all night. She was also going to admit to, and apologize for, flirting with Phillipe.
 

Instead, she didn’t do a thing or say a word when she saw the person in the hallway in front of her.
 

“Anna, I am so sorry to bother you so early but I had no choice.”

“Phillipe, what’s wrong?”

Phillipe looked tired and shaken.
 

“It’s Tom, isn’t it?” Anna grabbed his arms and pulled him into the room. “What’s happened to Tom?”

“No,” Phillipe said softly. “I know nothing of your Tom.” He sat down on the bed and sighed.

“Then what’s wrong?”

“The woman you visited yesterday, you said her name was Madame Lapautre,
oui
?”

Anna nodded. “Yes.”

“She is dead. Murdered.”
 

“Oh no,” Anna sounded surprised, although she wasn’t, not at all.

“I heard a report on the radio this morning.”

“What did it say?”

Phillipe paused. He shook his head.
 

“Tell me.”

He took a deep breath before speaking. “The report said that an elderly woman named Isabelle Lapautre was found murdered in her apartment. The radio newscaster said she had been sexually assaulted and horribly mutilated.”