Return to The Quarry

Chapter Six

 Nick leaned against the reception desk, arms folded across his chest, which felt lighter for having spoken about what he had been feeling for the last six years. Everyone was silent, almost as though they had been worn out from the transparency with Braden.

A loud, brittle tick sound came from somewhere in the hotel.

Everyone heard it. They all looked around to one another. Then it came again.

"What is that?" Kaitlyn asked everyone quietly.

"A shutter sound?" Nick offered. "From a camera?"

Jacob went to the windows of the lobby and peeked around the corners.

"Nothing outside." He frowned.

"Are we alone here?" Kaitlyn asked.

Emma watched Jacob's expression darken. Something about the set of his mouth, the way he looked intently around in sharp, quick little movements, was so unlike the clumsy jock she passed that one summer with. Something about it impressed her, though mostly the fact that she was seeing it made her a little uneasy.

Standing to his full height and squaring his shoulders, Jacob's tone was commanding.

"Stay here."

Peering around the room, Jacob spotted a wood burned map mounted to the wall which indicated where certain amenities were located within the building. He noted where he stood on the map, and then found the corridor that ended in a shaded area marked Staff Only, situated at the rear of the ground floor near the kitchen.

"I'm going to have a look around," he told everyone quietly. "Stay here until I get back."

Jacob started off down the dark service hall in the direction of the red glowing exit sign. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the small Maglite he always carried with him. The lights were not on in the long hall that stretched to the back of the building, but he could see in the beam of his light that there were several doors, as indicated on the map.

Working his way down the hall, he tried each door with one hand while the other rested inside his blazer. By touch alone, he found his service Glock and with no effort at all clicked off the safety. Trying the row of various doors, he found each locked.

A hand touched his shoulder, making him jump. He wheeled about.

"Kaitlyn!" he hissed. At this, she jumped and was only slightly amused.

Jacob wasn't. "Jesus, Kaitlyn, what the fuck are you doing?"

"Uh, sorry," she began facetiously, "but why the hell are you wandering off all alone to investigate what could be a burglary in progress?"

His pulse no longer hammering in his ears, Jacob turned his back to the end of the hall where the others stood watching from a distance of at least twenty feet away. He spoke to Katilyn in a low tone.

"Look, I have a gun,"

"You have a fucking gun?"

"Shh! It's my service- ugh, look. No one's down here."

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. "Yeah, no shit, Rambo. We heard it again. It's back that way."

As Kaitlyn and Jacob returned to the lobby, the others had drifted cautiously over to where Nick and Ryan noticed for the first time a pair of polished wooden doors situated beneath the landing, tucked away behind the fireplace. The backlit ironwork sign above them announced the entrance to the Main Ballroom.