Leave Her Hanging: A Noir Thriller

Chapter Thirty-Two

The other bathroom was at the end of the hall. I could hear Cassandra humming while she showered. She might be beautiful, but she couldn’t keep a tune for shit.

I opened one door. Just a closet full of towels, robes, sheets. I closed it and tried another door. This one was more promising. It was an office of some sort. Another computer, some shelves and boxes. I closed the office door behind me and had a peek in a cardboard box in the corner. It was full of dildos and vibrators with so much variation it made my head spin. Some of them looked more like kitchen appliances than sex toys. I closed it and unzipped a leather bag stashed under the desk. Ball gags, leather cuffs, something that looked like a table-tennis paddle missing the rubber. I also found a trio of whips in the cupboard, along with a box full of condoms and lubricant. There were also office supplies, printer paper, a toolbox, general crap.

Damn it, this wasn’t what I was looking for. My ears were tuned to the first sound of Cassandra’s shower switching off.

The computer was off, and I didn’t have time to wait around while it booted up. I brushed a couple of power bills off the computer desk. There was something underneath, black leather. A wallet. I picked it up and opened it. Malcolm Barker’s face stared out at me from his driver’s license photo.

Footsteps echoed through the walls. Someone was coming down the stairs. I stuck my head out of the office and picked up a muffled voice coming from the main room.

“…got halfway there before I found out I left my wallet behind. Have you seen it?”

Shit. If Malcolm saw me here and remembered me from the bar, I’d be made. But the only way out was through the main room. Think.

Acting on impulse, I tucked the wallet into my pocket, put the papers back in place, glanced around the room to make sure everything was in place. I heard Dennis say something. It sounded an awful lot like, “Check the office.”

I ducked out of the office, pulled the door closed, and hurried back along the hallway as quickly as I could. I could see Malcolm’s shadow on the floor at the entrance to the main room, getting closer.

I pulled open the bathroom door and practically dived inside. Closed the door, turned the handle as slowly as I could. Blinked the shower steam out of my eyes. Malcolm’s footsteps trudged down the hall a moment later. I could hear him shuffling in the office over the sound of the shower running.

“Damn it, it’s not here,” he called. “I must’ve left it at home.” His footsteps went past again, back towards the main room. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

I sank back against the bathroom door and sighed. I needed to be gone before he got back. But the office was another dead end. If they had anything on Ella, anything to even tell me she really had been here, I needed to see it. There had to be something here, damn it!

Cassandra stopped humming, and her shower shut off. If I was going to stick around a bit longer, there was no point hiding in here. I needed to play the part. I took Malcolm’s wallet out of my pocket and buried it in my backpack. There was a flimsy little lock on the bathroom door. I flicked it and stripped my shoes and clothes off, then shoved them in my bag as well along with my switched-off cell phone. Climbed into the shower. Got out again. If I was going to play the part, I needed to do it properly.

There was an unopened package of disposable razors in the cabinet under the sink, just as Cassandra said there would be. I took one back to the shower, along with a travel-sized can of shaving cream.

It was stupid, worrying about shaving my balls when I had a hell of a lot of other things to worry about. But something about this made it real. How many other kids had stood in this shower, staring at a razor and a can of shaving cream? What did they have to do after? And how far would I have to go tonight to get what I needed?