Sixteen Minutes to Midnight

Chapter 10

Glen and Donna barricaded themselves in the master's quarters. It took lots of insistence from Glen to finally persuade her to stay, reluctantly, and so they stayed. There was nothing we could do, no matter how much we tried to get them to come with us. They were probably tired and wanted nothing more to do than to hope the storm died down. They locked the doors and bolted them, shut the dumbwaiter and sealed it with some pieces of wood they found lying about, and made sure the windows were nailed shut. They had turned it into a kind of fortress, and when we left it looked nothing like when we had first entered.

Maybe, I thought, just maybe they would survive. 

Although I knew the probability was very low.

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Drops slid down the sides of my umbrella and rippled through the ground. We splashed through the soggy dirt as the mud stuck to our boots and the storm raged around us. My arms ached and my eyes fluttered, desperate to stay awake. My body was solely fueled on adrenaline now, and the only thing keeping me going was drive. But I had lots of drive.

So I kept going.

We trodded down and down the hill until we reached the shack. Dmitri fished out his pair of keys and unlocked the door for us, and we entered once again. It was the same as we had left it when Alonzo brought us here a day ago. It still resembled as though a scuffle had taken place. The bedcloth lay spread apart, creased with innumerous folds. The floor was littered with a mixture of dirt and soil and residue. The ceiling fan was still on, just as it had been yesterday. Not much had changed. 

"We'll be staying here for the night," said Dmitri, "there are mattresses under the bed, and someone can sleep on the sofa. Other than him and I, only Sandra, Gilbert and Darren remained. Our numbers had been knocked down in just a day to under half of its initial size.

Gilbert rested on the couch and placed his feet on the coffee table. "Nice little shack, actually. The location is very suitable...can you feel that sea breeze?" he sighed, "Lovely."

"Are we taking shifts?" I asked.

"Of course," replied Dmitri, "it's safer this way."

"I'll take last shift," said Darren immediately. Sandra chuckled. 

"Well then, I'll take the second last shift," she added.

"I will be on duty first, so that you all can get some much needed rest," Dmitri briefed us, "and...Craig, would you like to be next?"

"Sure."

"Then it will be followed by Gilbert, Sandra and finally Darren. It is settled."

"Now then," I started, "why don't you all help me look for that secret room? It's the only place in the island we haven't had the chance to fully investigate."

"To be fair," said Gilbert, "what were the chances that the secret room would be here anyway?"

"The only chance we have left."

I walked around the room, lost in thought. I had organized the murders all out in my mind, tried to make sense of how each person was killed - and when, with what, and any additional details. I had tried to formulate a chronological order of what had happened, but I found myself unable to. We knew there was a 17th person, but not who. We knew that the murderer could easliy sneak around the house, but not how. We knew that all the murders were carried out by the same person, but in which way, we did not know. These were the main issues that we had to address.

Potentially, the 17th person was a vengeful servant from before Caleb's death. That was the only explanation, one that had engendered from my talks with Anita and Donna. Then we supposed that the murderer had a secret entrance into the house that allowed him to sneak in and out. That covered the second issue. The final issue that remained was how the murders were carried out. These would have to be addressed individually.