Hotel Nigh

Chapter 08

Investigating the Residents

Though three rooms on my first-floor list were empty (we had our suspicions on who those belonged to) we still made our way upstairs to the second floor to interrogate those residents.

Our interrogation wasn't exactly going to plan, though Melina's initial plan of action was to sell the products and she'd sold one so far, but we had time. This storm would give us a lot of time, and I didn't think for one minute that I'd be sleeping a good nine hours in the night. Every night. Definitely not. Three if I'm lucky.

"That's my room," Melina pointed out, gesturing haphazardly to DAWN as if she thought I'd forgotten which room was hers. I most definitely had not forgotten, Melina, I thought, although I nodded and pretended like I had done to make this conversation flow fluently. "Let's try this room," announced Melina, gesturing at SAND.

She was seemingly nonchalant despite the menacing warning we'd received (specifically her) from the puzzle. It was like the murderer knew our every step. Did they anticipate this?

Once I'd knocked, I took my time to quickly update my notepad which I hadn't actually done once. I filled in the room names and left three blank, but then wrote the other three residents – including myself – next to the currently occupied rooms. I was just about to write for the second-floor on the next page when the door burst open, nearly hitting the wall to the bathroom inside.

"Jenny, be careful!" a female voice scolded.

Eyes trailing down slightly, Little Jenny was holding onto the doorknob as she peered up at us. "You're not my dad," she said, her free hand holding onto an arm of the same stuffed bunny she was clutching before when I found her on the stairs. The bunny looked like it had seen better days. Did she sleep with it as well?

A moment later, Little Jenny's mum came to the door and frowned at us. "Sorry, I was expecting Matt, my husband. He said he just had to run an errand. We were expecting him back any minute. Sorry," she added, "my name's Hilda."

"It's nice to meet you," Melina interrupted. "I was wondering if we could interest you in some of our products," she began, and then listed the product inventory devoid of the blank notepad that we'd sold to the writer. "I work for Blue Sales."

Hilda must have been repeating Melina's words in her mind over and over again for a good few, silent seconds until she sighed and said, "No, I'm sorry. I don't think it's wise that I buy something without Matt's consent. We don't really have any use for that stuff considering we're on our honeymoon."

"I'm sorry," Melina spluttered, amused. "Honeymoon?" She cast me a glance and I knew what she was insinuating. A honeymoon with your child in the same room? Definitely not a honeymoon.

Suddenly obtaining more authority over Melina, Hilda straightened her posture and said, "Yes, honeymoon. Certain things came up when we got married and we were unable to go on a honeymoon some years ago. Not that it's any of your business anyway. Thank you."

Then, indignantly, she closed the door in our faces and I turned to Melina. "Nice going," I said sarcastically. "That was really polite."

Glaring at me, she shook her head and ambled off to the next room which was END. I scribbled down the family's names next to SAND on the second-floor list as Melina knocked on the door, but then she spotted Matt ambling down the corridor and marched off to him with the box, which left me standing outside END as the door opened.

"Hello," I said, looking back at the door to find that a teenage girl occupied the room, and she was irrefutably below the legal age of being an adult. "Are your parents in the room?"