“It gets easier the more often you do it.”
“I hope it’s not every afternoon.”
“It varies. We’ll sometimes go two or three weeks without a problem. Then again, sometimes it might be two or three days in a row.”
“I could do without it completely,” Dana said as they reached the bottom of the stairway.
“Rhonda’s probably right outside. I can get her to finish up with me, if you’d rather...”
“Trying to get rid of me?”
“It’s your first day. You’ve done plenty.”
“I’ll stick with you,” Dana said.
“All right, good deal. Let’s see how Ethel’s doing.”
Dana followed Tuck into the parlor and watched her scurry about in search of the missing tourist.
“Are you sure we started with a hundred and fifty players?” Dana asked. “Maybe we were one short...”
“Nope. I checked, myself. We started with a hundred and fifty players in full working order.”
“So one is definitely still out.”
“Yep.” Pausing, Tuck stared down at Ethel. “She still decent?”
“Semi-decent.”
“Good enough. I’d sure like to get my hands on whoever was in here screwing around with her.”
“Better be careful what you wish for,” Dana said.
Tuck came out. Together, they crossed the foyer and entered the dining room. They both glanced under the table, then split up to walk around it. They met again before stepping into the kitchen.
As they searched the kitchen, Dana said, “What if we can’t find him,”
“If we can’t, we can’t.”
“Does it ever happen?”
“Now and then.”
“Somebody just disappears?
Tuck grinned at her. “Now and then.”
“Oh, terrific.”
Off to the side of the kitchen was a door marked EMPLOYEES ONLY. Dana opened it and leaned in. She glanced at the old-fashioned toilet, bath tub and sink. In one corner stood a water heater. On the floor was a modem electric space heater. There were plush purple rugs and matching towels.
But no tourist.
“Make sure nobody’s in the tub,” Tuck said.
Dana groaned. Then she stepped through the doorway.
Tuck had pointed out the special “employees only” restroom yesterday, but this was the first time Dana had entered it. The air smelled like fresh, scented soap. Murky light filtered in through the window curtains.
A breeze came in with the light, filling the curtains and lifting them gently.
Turning her back to the window, Dana stared at the bath tub.
It looked very old and very large. It was nestled in shadows. against the far wall.
From where she stood, she couldn’t see all the way to its bottom.
If somebody’s hiding down there...
How ironic to pee my pants a few steps away from a toilet.
Fear growing in her belly, she rushed toward the tub.
And saw its bottoms.
Empty.
“All clear,” she called out. Then she added, “I think I’ll take advantage of the john while I’m here.”
“Help yourself.”
She returned to the door and shut it, then stepped over to the toilet.
This was really much nicer than the public restrooms out back.
Seated on the toilet, she found herself staring at the tub.
You hardly ever see them that big, she thought.
A green bath mat was draped over its side.
A bath mat?
“Hey, Tuck,” she called out, and realized she’d used the wrong name. “Lynn? Does somebody actually take baths in here?”
No answer came.
Dana felt a tremor of dread.
“Lynn? Answer up.”
Silence.
“Very funny,” she called.
Nothing.
“Damn it, Lynn!”
Still nothing.
“You just gonna stand out there and pretend you’ve disappeared?”
Lynn didn’t answer.
“Okay,” Dana said. “Great.”
As fast as she could, she finished at the toilet. Holding her shorts up with one hand, she hurried to the door and pulled it open.
Tuck wasn’t standing there, looking pleased by her prank.
Nor was she sprawled on the floor, bloody and dead.
Dana stepped out.
Tuck didn’t seem to be in the kitchen at all.
Heart thudding, Dana buttoned the waist of her shorts. She pulled up the zipper. She buckled her belt.
In the room behind her, the toilet went silent.
Dana heard only her own quick heartbeat and breathing.
“Tuck!” she shouted.
“I’m in the cellar!” Tuck called. Her voice, sounding far away, came through the open pantry door at the other side of the kitchen. “Be right up!”
Dana hurried to the pantry and looked in.
At the back of it, the cellar door stood wide open.
Dana walked slowly to the open door. Stopping, she peered down the steep wooden stairway. In the darkness near the bottom, the beam of a flashlight flitted this way and that. She couldn’t see Tuck, though.
“Are you all right?” she called down the stairs.
“Fine. Just thought I’d check down here and save you the trouble.”
“Thanks a lot.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I thought the beast had gotten you.”
“Not this time,” Tuck said.
“Anyone down there?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Are you coming up?”
“In a second.”
“Come on up now, okay?”
“Do you wanta come down?”
“Not particularly,” Dana admitted.
“Didn’t think so.”
“But I will if you don’t come up.”
“Okay.Here I come, ready or not.”
At the bottom of the stairs, Tuck stepped into sight. She smiled up at Dana, then switched off her flashlight and started to climb.
“It’s beginning to look like we’ve lost a tourist,” she said.
“What do we do about it?”
“Not much. We’ll go ahead and lock the place up. And we’ll check the parking lot before we leave, see if a car’s been left behind.”
At the top of the stairs, she shut and locked the cellar door.
“Should we tell the police?” Dana asked.
“Tell them what? That one of our tape players is missing?”
That a person is.”
“Somebody might’ve just absconded with one of our machines. It happens.”
“Have you had people. disappear?”
“While taking the tours?”
“Yeah.”
“Not many,” Tuck said, and grinned.
Chapter Nineteen
IN HOT WATER
That night after supper, after reading, after watching some television, Tuck left the room and Dana flipped through channels.
She was feeling groggy. She wondered whether to go to bed now or try to stay up for the eleven o’clock news.
Nothing much of interest seemed to be on the TV.
If she tried to read some more, she would undoubtedly nod off.
Tuck came back into the room. She had changed into a white terry cloth robe.
"Going to bed?” Lynn asked.
"Going for a dip. Want to join me?”
“Are you kidding? It’s freezing out there.”
“It’s not freezing. Anyway,I’m going in the hot tub, not the pool.”
“The hot tub?”
“It’s great on chilly nights like this.”
“Sounds pretty nice,” Danaadmitted.
“Nothing like it. I’ll get us a bottle of wine and meet you out there. We’ll celebrate your first day on the job.”
“Celebrate that I survived it.”
“Exactly.”