4: 4
4
The whole room was stark white.
The bed was covered over completely with white cloth.
Not a speck of dust anywhere. Spotless past all reason.
The brown floorboards had been scrubbed until they threw back the light.
And yet, against all that neatness, this room was hideous.
The stench drove up into your nose, thick enough that even a trained officer bent double and threw up.
My mother-in-law's voice hit my ear first. “You cursed jinx! See that? My son came out here to work! You just had to say he was dead! If that's not putting a curse on him, then what is it!”
The front-desk clerk made a little sound and pushed past us into the room ahead of the rest.
The officers traded a glance, catching that something was off. “Ma'am, is something wrong here?”
The clerk retched out a mouthful at the doorway, wiped her mouth, and only then came shuffling over. “Everything's wrong! This isn't what our rooms look like at all. Forget it, I can't explain it to you. See for yourselves.”
With that, she pushed open the door beside it.
There was no one inside.
This was a private inn. The curtains, the bedding, all of it was that red-and-pink floral print.
The floor, long left uncared for, had gone over with a layer of caked grime.
“We've never had white sheets. And why does this room stink like that?”
My mother-in-law shot back, “Making a fuss over nothing! My son's a neat freak. So what if he bought some disposable sheets while he was out? Don't believe me? Ask her!”
I walked a circle around the room. The deeper in I went, the stronger the smell.
It was the heavy reek of blood.
But the room was bare, everything in plain sight, and even the one place a person could hide, under the bed, was empty.
I nodded along. “My husband really does have a bad case of that, he's a neat freak. But……I think I've found something.”
I pointed at the dip in the bathroom floor, and the officers all crowded in.
They wore white gloves, and one swiped a hand through the hollow.
The white glove came up crimson.
Blood.
“Seal the scene. Get forensics down here!”
“Yes, Captain!”
“Anyone not involved, please step outside and wait. We need to preserve the scene.”
My mother-in-law and I were herded out.
She lost her nerve on the spot.
“This, how is this possible? Didn't you people make a mistake? Nanette! It's all you, you and your jinx of a mouth! Look what you've done! Cursing your own man for no reason, you'll get what's coming to you!”
I didn't answer her.
I was still studying the layout of the inn.
Seeing if I could turn up any thread of a clue.
Behind me she kept up her frantic cursing.
Then she watched them string up the cordon tape, and her nerve broke completely.
“What does one drop of blood prove? Don't you go making a scene here. In the car, didn't you all hear me talking to my son? Ah! Right! I'll call my son right now and make him come straight back!”
“Once he's back, you'll believe me then, won't you?”
She pulled out her phone and fumbled clumsily through the numbers, straining to prove it to us.
She slapped the phone, held it up over her head, muttering, “What a dump. The signal's terrible! Ugh! There!”
The call went through.
An eerie buzzing came from inside the room.
She didn't notice, still fixed on the screen. “Why isn't he picking up?”
The officers and I stood at the doorway, eyes locked on that room.
“Bzzz……”
That muffled ringing was coming from inside the ceiling.
