Swim Deep - Page 58

“I guess it’s possible,” Valeria admitted slowly. “I mean, something had to have happened. But still… it opened so easily for me.”

I nodded, thinking, replaying the sequence of events in my head, and trying to make sense of the nonsensical.

“But at some point, I turned down the temperature as far as it could go, even though I couldn’t turn it off all the way. It didn’t feel like the air temperature went down that much afterward, but maybe that’s because I was so overheated to start with. Maybe it’d cooled enough by the time you got here, and the door had contracted again?”

Valeria frowned. “If that’s true, then the manufacturer of that sauna ought to be sued. Of course there’s going to be expansion and contraction of the wood with the heat. You’d think they’d have that factored into the design.”

“You’re right,” I said, standing. Thankfully, my legs held firm this time. “I’m going to call the manufacturer first thing tomorrow and tell them what happened. That was so scary.”

“I’ll bet. If I hadn’t shown up, you could have been killed.”

I glanced at her uneasily, shocked by hearing her say out loud what I’d feared the most while locked in that hotbox.

“Maybe you shouldn’t mention this to Evan,” I said. “I’d better be the one to tell him. He already worries enough about me as it is.”

“If you think so,” Valeria said, but I heard the anxiety in her tone.

I nodded, pretending confidence. “And I’m going to go and check with the work crew… ask that guy, Jesse, if he saw anything unusual when he came back from the kitchen.”

Valeria did a double take. “You mean you’re still not convinced? You think it could have been a person who was responsible for holding the door shut?”

“No, not really. It’s just… I thought I was going to die in there,” I admitted, laughing uneasily when I heard the words. They sounded strange. Surreal. A distance was already growing between the Anna who stood here chatting with Valeria, and that scared-shitless woman desperately sucking air from a tiny crack beneath the door. Maybe confronting death was just too big, too awful for my normal, everyday consciousness to dwell on for long, let alone comprehend.

“It’ll just make me feel better to cover all the bases and hear what Jesse has to say,” I assured, smiling in the face of Valeria’s obvious concern.

She probably was starting to suspect I was crazy.

I was beginning to wonder about the same thing myself.

Chapter Eleven

The emotional distance between my sharp fear of what had happened in the sauna and my typical, everyday sense of safety and normalcy continued to grow. So much so that by the time Evan called at around six thirty that evening, I didn’t have to try overly hard to sound light and carefree in our conversation.

I’d tell him about what had happened in the sauna eventually. But I didn’t want him to worry about it while he was away and had those important meetings on his mind. Especially since I’d gone to the viewing room earlier and spoken to Jesse.

Jesse had been just as Valeria described: friendly and unassuming. I couldn’t have imagined a less likely candidate for attempted murder. The idea had never seemed more ludicrous than when I looked into his frank, open face.

It was the first time I’d been in the viewing room since that day after we’d arrived at Les Jumeaux. I was pleased to see the garish fabrics and the sickening odor were long gone. The space had been completely gutted, even the drywall torn out, leaving the wood beams exposed. Piles of rubble dotted the room. In one, I noticed a strip of vivid scarlet fabric amongst the torn white drywall and splintered wood planks.

A man in his late forties greeted me when I cautiously entered the large room, apologizing for the intrusion. He said his name was Dave Sanchez, and he seemed to be the second-in-command, acting as supervisor in absence of Keith, the man who owned the construction business and Evan’s acquaintance.

“I’m the one who asked Jesse to take the box upstairs to Mr. Halifax,” Dave explained after I’d stated my case and he’d called Jesse over at my request. “I hope that it wasn’t a problem that I sent him up to the main house?”

“No, not at all,” I assured, smiling at Jesse who stood awkwardly next to Dave.

“Something happened to me over in the workout facility at around the same time you went upstairs. It wasn’t a big deal. But when Valeria mentioned that you’d been up to the kitchen at around the same time, I just wanted to ask: did you see anyone or anything out of place on your way to or from the kitchen?” I asked Jesse.

“No, ma’am,” Jesse said, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. “I did hear some pounding. It was coming from a different part of the house, so I didn’t think it was us,” he said, holding up the hammer he clutched in his hand. “I mentioned hearing it to Valeria, when I gave her the box.”

“Yes. She told me you’d mentioned it, thank you,” I said.

“You didn’t give the box to Mr. Halifax, like I told you?” Dave asked Jesse sharply.

Jesse started to open his mouth to defend himself, but I spoke first.

“Evan was away for the afternoon,” I explained, keeping it vague. There was no need to tell people Evan was away for the entire weekend. I started to thank them for talking with me when I noticed Dave’s troubled expression.

“Is everything all right?” I asked him.

Tags: Beth Kery Romance
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