‘Where are you?’ A whisper. Cora.
‘Over here.’ She stopped. ‘Helen with you?’
‘Yeah. Don’t move. Quiet.’
Silently, Abilene got to her feet. She put out her hands and crept forward. She thought the stairway should be straight ahead of her, but it wasn’t. Instead, she met a wall. Turning around, she leaned back against it. The wall felt cool and slippery against her wet skin.
She was breathless, her heart slamming. She struggled to stop gasping.
The only sounds she heard were her own heartbeat, her own breathing, and the faint lapping sounds of water. Nothing from her friends. Nothing from anyone moving about in the pool.
That doesn’t mean he’s gone, she thought. He might be swimming under water. Coming closer. Or standing motionless, listening and waiting.
She gazed into the blackness. She couldn’t see the pool. Nothing at all was visible except the gloom of the high windows and the pale archway. She realized that the archway with its curved top and vertical sides was shaped like a headstone.
A headstone. A marker for the grave of the headless body found in the pool twelve years ago.
She imagined the body floating there now. And wondered if that was what they’d heard. Not an intruder at all, but the decapitated corpse of…
Bull.
There’s no damn stiff in the pool.
Maybe there’s no one at all, she told herself. Maybe what we heard was nothing. Maybe currents from the hot spring had simply disturbed the surface and made those splashy sounds.
Abilene’s heart lurched as she heard a quiet, groaning creak.
Someone stepping on a floorboard?
That didn’t make sense. The pool’s apron was granite, not… the stairs.
A beam of light, angling downward, swirled through the darkness just to her right. It cast a bright disk on the floor. Scooted about. Settled on the extinguished lantern.
A second beam started flitting around.
Two people with flashlights?
And Abilene almost laughed as she remembered Finley and Vivian.
What if it’s not them?
‘Who turned out the lights down here?’
It was them, all right.
‘Get down here quick!’ Cora called.
Abilene turned her head. Though the flashlight beams were on her other side, they provided enough brightness for her to make out the dim shapes of Cora and Helen. The two stood only a few feet to her left, just in front of the wall, Helen hanging onto Cora’s arm.
She gave the pool area a quick scan, saw no one, then watched as Cora pulled away from Helen.
‘Do you think it was a false alarm?’ Abilene asked.
‘I don’t know.’ Cora watched the water as she hurried toward Abilene. Helen, right behind her, kept a hand on Cora’s shoulder.
‘What’s going on?’ Finley asked. She was still out of sight, but the light beams were jumping around and Abilene heard feet thumping down the stairs.
‘Is everything all right?’ Vivian asked.
Abilene rounded the corner just as Finley and Vivian, side by side, stepped off the bottom of the stairway.
Cora rushed toward them, leaving Helen behind. ‘What took you guys so long?’
‘I thought we were pretty snappy about it. Why’s the lantern out?’
‘Somebody’s here.’
‘Holy shit. Someone’s here nowV
‘Think so.’
‘Oh my God,’ Vivian said.
Cora snatched the flashlight from Finley’s hand and swung around. Rushing toward the pool, she flicked the beam to the right and left, making sure nobody had followed them out.
Abilene went after her. She heard the others approaching as Cora began to sweep the light over the water’s surface.
She saw cut-off jeans.
With a gasp, she lurched backward. Collided with someone. Dry hands grabbed her sides. She felt skin against her back. Bare breasts. Finley.
Then she saw that the cut-off jeans were empty.
Nobody in them.
Another flashlight joined Cora’s. Both beams searched the water.
As Finley stepped around to her side, Abilene saw that the pool was littered with floating and submerged garments. The cutoffs that had given her such a fright were her own, sinking toward the bottom. Finley’s safari shirt drifted nearby. Deep beneath the water were Vivian’s sundress, Cora’s shorts, Helen’s blouse and her own. Cora’s T-shirt, puffed with air, bobbed on the surface like a Portuguese man-of-war beside a floating bra. Panties hung suspended like flimsy, limp rags. Finley’s tan shorts lay at the bottom, along with several shoes and socks, towels and the three flashlights that they hadn’t taken with them when they entered the pool.
Except for the lantern, everything they’d left behind now seemed to be in the water.
The flashlights searched the rest of the pool. Farther away, the beams weren’t powerful enough to penetrate the depths. They lit little more than the surface as they skimmed the middle, darted into the corners, and swept along the far side.
They criss-crossed again and again.
‘If he’s still in here,’ Cora whispered, ‘he must be holding his breath.’
‘He might be anywhere,’ Abilene said.
Vivian turned, swinging her light toward the open space and bar beyond the end of the pool.
‘Want me to check back there?’ Finley offered.
‘No,’ Vivian said.
‘We stay together,’ Cora said.
Vivian, stepping back away from the edge of the pool, turned completely around as if to make sure nobody was sneaking up on them.
‘He didn’t go up the stairs,’ Finley said. ‘We would’ve run into him. Might’ve ducked into one of the dressing rooms, though.’
‘I don’t think he left the pool. Not over here, anyway.’
‘Yeah,’ Cora said. ‘We’d have heard him.’
Both flashlights returned their beams to the water.
‘Maybe he snuck out through there,’ Cora said, pointing her light at the archway to the outer pool.
‘We’d better check behind the bar,’ Abilene said.
Cora and Vivian led the way, continuing to play the beams of their flashlights over the water. The others followed close behind them. When they reached the bar, Cora knelt on one of the stools. She stretched over the counter top and shone her light down behind it.
‘Not here.’
‘So he’s either still in the water,’ Abilene said, ‘or he’s gone.’
Cora climbed off the stool.
For a while, they all stood motionless at the end of the pool. They listened and watched as Cora and Vivian swept the surface again and again with their flashlights.
‘I think he’s gone,’ Finley said.
‘Guess so,’ Cora finally agreed.
‘Are we still planning to spend the night?’ Vivian asked.
Cora let out a sigh. ‘No. I think this does it for me.’
‘Same here,’ Helen said.
Abilene felt almost giddy with relief.
‘Let’s get our stuff and hit the road,’ Cora said.
They started to walk back along the side of the pool, it was probably that kid,’ Finley said. ‘He must’ve come back, after all.’
‘Why’d he want to throw our things in the water?’ Abilene asked.
‘Pissed off at us?’ Finley said.
‘Maybe to scare us away,’ Cora suggested.
‘Glad it worked,’ Vivian said. ‘I might’ve done it, myself, if I’d thought of it.’
‘God,’ Helen muttered. ‘How creepy. He must’ve been sneaking around in here while we were right outside.’
‘I wonder where he came from,’ Abilene said.
‘He could’ve been in here all along,’ Cora pointed out. ‘Even before we came down, you know? Maybe he was in the water and we just didn’t spot him.’
‘Wonderful,’ Vivian said. ‘Watching us undress.’
‘Nothing he hadn’t seen already,’ Finley told her.
They lined up along the rim of the pool. Cora and Vivian aimed their lights into the water. Everything except the air-bloated T-shirt had sunk.
‘There’s no point in all of us getting wet,’ she said.
‘We’re the dry ones,’ Finley remarked, and clapped a hand onto Vivian’s shoulder.
‘Yeah. I'm not going in.’
‘We’ll hold the lights,’ Finley said, ‘while you three bring up the stuff.’
Helen moaned. ‘Don’t let anybody sneak up on us.’
‘Just hurry,’ Vivian urged.
‘Maybe we should light the lantern first,’ Abilene suggested.
Cora crouched, picked it up and shook it. Fuel sloshed in its tank. ‘Didn’t run out,’ she muttered. She twisted a knob at its base. There was a brief hissing sound, then silence. ‘He shut it off.’
‘Figures,’ Finley said.
‘The matches are upstairs.’
‘We could go get them,’ Abilene said. ‘It’d be a lot better if we had some decent light.’
‘Geez,’ Helen said, ‘I hope he didn’t bother the stuff up there.’
‘Didn’t look like it,’ Vivian told her.
Cora set down the lantern. ‘Let’s just get this over with. Shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes.’
She stood, stepped over to the pool and jumped in.
Abilene considered going after the matches herself. Finley would probably be glad to accompany her. But the thought that someone might be up there changed her mind.
She sat on the edge, lowered her legs into the water, and hesitated. She scanned the pool. The flashlights brightened only the small area surrounding Cora, who had already grabbed her T-shirt. The rest of the pool was shrouded in darkness. A beam shone on Cora’s gleaming buttocks as she curled forward, kicked and plunged.
Abilene pushed off. She dropped, the heat rushing up her body. Peering down through the clear water, she saw towels and flashlights, shoes and a few garments near her feet. She ducked under and started to grab for them.
A heavy splash thudded in her ears. Currents buffeted her. Helen coming in.
Struggling to keep herself close to the bottom, she snatched up a towel, a flashlight, three socks and a pair of panties. She sprang to the surface. Cora was already turning away, having deposited a heap of sodden clothes in front of Vivian.
Abilene set her load onto the edge, then waded past Helen’s submerged body. She spotted her cut-offs. They were down near the bottom, quite a distance from the side of the pool, barely visible in the murky light. She dove. Swimming toward them underwater, she glided past Finley’s shirt. She grabbed it, continued on her way, and finally snatched up her jeans. She was about to rise with them when something ahead caught her attention. She could hardly see it through the gloom of the poorly lighted water. But it seemed to be fabric undulating near the bottom, very close to the bars of the grate that covered the hot spring.
Had she strayed that far from the poolside?
She suddenly felt very alone and vulnerable. She ached to turn back. But the thing near the grate was probably clothing. And she was almost close enough to grab it.
Though her lungs were starting to bum, she swam forward and reached down. Her fingers snagged fabric. She clenched it, kicked to the surface and stood up. Gasping for air, she twisted around.
She was alone in the middle of the pool, surrounded by darkness. Neither of the flashlights were on her; they were aimed down at Cora and Helen.
‘Hey!’ she called.
A beam darted about, then found her.
‘Thanks.’
As she waded toward her friends, she lifted her hand out of the water to see what she had retrieved. Helen’s plaid, Bermuda shorts. She had snagged them only by one leg, and they hung upside down.
She gathered them in against her belly. Holding them there along with her shorts and Finley’s shirt, she trudged through the chest deep water. She took only a few steps before the light abandoned her. She almost called out to complain, but decided not to bother. She would be with the others soon.
It was slow going, though. She thought about the darkness at her back. The nape of her neck tingled. A few times, she glanced over her shoulder, but saw nothing.
She gasped when something brushed her thigh. Goosebumps scurried up her skin.
Telling herself it was probably just an article of clothing, she reached down. Her fingers hooked a strap, and she lifted a bra out of the water. From the size of the thing, it had to be Helen’s.
Ahead of her, Helen flung some things at Finley’s feet, then boosted herself out of the water.
Exactly what I’m going to do, she thought. Get out. I’ve had enough of this.
She was nearly to the side when Cora emerged with Vivian’s wadded sundress clutched to her chest.
‘I’m done,’ Abilene said.
‘I think we’ve about got it all,’ Cora told her.
‘I don’t see anything else,’ Finley said, peering down from the rim and sweeping her light through the water.
Abilene and Cora reached the side at the same time.
As Cora climbed out, Abilene tossed the bra and Bermuda shorts to Helen.
‘Thanks,’ she said, catching them.
Finley was looking the other way when Abilene tossed the safari shirt to her. The shirt hit her belly with a sodden smacking sound and clung there long enough for her to bring up an arm and clamp it. ‘Thanks for getting me all wet, Hickok.’
‘Welcome.’ She flung her cut-offs onto the granite, then boosted herself from the pool.
Helen, still in her swimsuit, was stepping into her shorts. She hadn’t even bothered to wring them.
‘We can get dressed upstairs,’ Abilene told her. ‘Let’s just get out of here.’
‘Yeah,’ Cora said. ‘The sooner the better.’
After that, everyone began crouching and squatting, gathering up the things that had been recovered from the pool, not bothering to separate their belongings from those of others, just grabbing as fast as they could, then rolling clothes and shoes and flashlights inside towels.
Cora, a bundle pressed against her side, picked up the lantern. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘We got it all?’
Helen, the last to finish, clutched a lumpy rolled towel to her chest and rose from her crouch, ‘I’m done,’ she muttered.
As they started for the stairs, Finley turned around. Abilene, beside her, also looked back. The light swept over the pool’s apron. Where they’d been, the granite was wet and shiny. If anything had been left behind, Abilene didn’t see it.
She and Finley turned and followed the others up the stairs. At the top, Abilene stepped into the corridor and closed the door. The snap of its latch sounded wonderful to her. She felt as if she had shut away whatever danger lurked in the pool area.
And we’ll be out of here in a few minutes, she told herself.
She no longer cared about whether they would have any luck finding a motel. Being far from this place would be enough.
Just a few more minutes.
She felt even better once the lantern was lit, the glare of its mantels filling the lobby with brightness.
The suitcases, bedrolls, video camera and water container didn’t appear to have been disturbed.
She pulled off her bikini, dropped it onto the wet towel, and used a blouse from her suitcase to mop herself dry. She stepped into panties, then put on a bra. The dry garments felt wonderful.
‘You should get out of those wet things,’ she advised Helen.
Helen, still in her swimsuit and Bermudas, shook her head and finished buttoning a blouse from her suitcase.
‘You’ll be sorry,’ Finley said. She wore a fresh pair of baggy tan shorts that were much the same as those that had been rescued from the pool. Adding, ‘You’ll itch,’ she slipped into a big, tan safari shirt identical to her wet one.
Abilene drew a short, denim skirt up her legs and fa
stened it. She dug her moccasins out of the corners of her suitcase and slipped her feet into them.
While.she put on a blouse, she watched Vivian, dressed in a knit pullover and matching white shorts as if prepared to hit the tennis courts, hop on one foot as she struggled to get into a sock.
Cora, already dressed in a tank top and glossy red shorts, squatted down and shut her suitcase.
Abilene closed her own case and latched it.
She glanced about at the wet bundles, the suitcases and bedrolls, camera, water container and lantern. ‘Can we take all this out in one trip?’
‘Sure as hell try,’ Cora said.
‘Maybe if we consolidate the wet stuff…’
‘Yeah.’
They’d brought five dripping towels, loaded with clothing and shoes and flashlights, up from the pool area. Working together, Abilene and Cora quickly combined the bundles until everything was gathered inside two towels. They knotted corners together, forming a pair of makeshift sacks.
By the time they were done, the others were ready to go. Cora and Abilene each clamped their bedrolls under one arm, picked up their suitcases with the same hand and a wet load with the other. Finley, Helen and Vivian also managed their sleeping bags and suitcases with one arm, leaving hands free to carry the video camera, water and lantern.
Vivian, holding the lantern by its wire loop, led the way to the door. She opened it. She waited until everyone was outside, then shut the door.
‘And so we bid this damn place a fond farewell,’ she said, and followed them down the porch stairs.
‘Farewell, farewell,’ Abilene said. She felt great.
They hurried over the paved area to the north corner of the lodge, then stepped down the slope and walked down alongside the Wagoneer to its rear.
Helen, halting at its tailgate, set down her suitcase and bedroll. She shoved a hand deep into the right front pocket of her Bermuda shorts.
‘Oh my God,’ she muttered.
‘What?’ Cora asked.
Shaking her head, she dug into the left front pocket. Then she patted both seat pockets. Hands clasped against her huge buttocks, she straightened her back and gazed straight ahead. Abilene felt her stomach go cold and tight.
‘Don’t tell me,’ Vivian pleaded.
Cora groaned. ‘You’ve lost the keys?’