Page 14 of Forever Dark
Eric nodded like that answer told him enough and not nearly enough.“Room four is clean.Quiet, too.At least as quiet as this place gets.”
“Sounds perfect.”
He reached to the wall rack and took down a brass key on a plastic tag.No key card.Of course not.He placed it in her hand.“Ice machine’s around the side.Coffee in here at six, if you’re up.”
“I will be.”
“Welcome back to Harlan County, Selena.If you get lonely and want to catch up…” He looked wide-eyed, like a wolf eyeing a succulent lamb.
“Thanks,” Selena said, too tired.“No doubt I’ll see you around.”
“I’m here all the time,” he answered, enthusiastically.“You have a good night.”
She left the lobby with the key in hand, crossed the dim lot toward her room, and told herself that maybe all her reunions would be that easy to slip out from.
But she knew they would not.
CHAPTER THREE
Morning arrived in pieces.
First came the dull glow through the motel curtains.Then the rattle of pipes in the wall.Then the sound of water drumming against tile as Selena stood under the shower in the Wilson Motel and tried to let the heat knock the stiffness out of her shoulders.She could hear the water passing through a pipe somewhere, rattling like something trapped behind the plaster trying to escape the walls.
The room had been better than expected.The mattress had sagged only a little.The sheets had smelled faintly of fabric cleaner.She had slept in bursts, waking every few hours to unfamiliar creaks and the low rush of a truck on the road outside.Still, it had been sleep.Enough to make the morning manageable.
Water streamed over her hair and down her back.For a few seconds, with her eyes closed and steam curling around her face, she could almost imagine she was nowhere at all.Not in Elmsview.Not a few miles from Eagleton.Not about to walk into a sheriff’s department and face the man she had left behind.
Then the water turned freezing.Like the Arctic on a cold day.
Selena jerked back with a gasp and slapped a hand against the tile.“Jesus!”
Another blast hit her shoulders like melt-water off stone.
She twisted the knob.Nothing changed.
By the time she got out, skin prickling, towel wrapped tight around her, irritation had taken the place of whatever peace the hot water had brought her.She grabbed the phone from the bedside table and dialed the front desk.
It rang twice.
A young woman’s voice answered.“Wilson Motel Reception.”
“Hi, I’m in room four.The shower’s gone ice cold,” Selena said.“I don’t know if the water heater’s out or if something’s wrong with the room.”
A pause.
Then, faintly in the background, a man’s voice said, “Is that Selena?Room four?”
The girl on the phone covered the receiver, but not well enough.“I think it is, Dad.”
A chair scraped.Footsteps moved fast.
Selena closed her eyes for one second.Of course.
The line changed hands.“Selena?Eric Wilson.I’m coming down.”
“That’s really not nec…”
He had already hung up.
