Party Summer (16 page)

“Let's go to the dock and take Simon's boat back to Provincetown,” Eric suggested. “You know—the boat he took to check up on Jan's aunt.”

“I don't know how to drive a boat!” Cari cried.

“I do,” Craig said quietly. “I've spent a lot of summers on the Cape. My dad and I love to go boating. If we can get onto Simon's boat, I'm sure I can pilot it.”

“But what about Jan?” Cari cried. “We can't just leave her here.”

“We have to,” Eric urged, pulling her toward the door. “We don't know where she is. We'll get help. We'll get the police to come back and help us find her. But we've got to get away before Edward and Martin realize we know what they're up to.”

A few seconds later Cari was back in her room. She tugged open the dresser drawer and began frantically pulling out her clothing and jamming it into her suitcase.

I've never been in danger like this before, she thought. Real danger.

What did Edward Fear have in mind for them? Did he plan to kill them? To keep them prisoner?

It didn't really matter. It was clear from his letter that he planned for them all to disappear—just as Jan had disappeared—and never be seen again….

And what was Martin's role in this? she wondered as she jammed the last of her shorts and tops
into the bag. Had he been trying to frighten them—or to
warn
them? And Rose. Could she have lured them there as Eric suggested?

Martin had told them again and again not to stay, to get out. Was it because he knew what Edward planned to do to them?

Too many questions, Cari thought, shaking her head as if trying to shake the questions all away.

She stuffed the last of her belongings into the bag, looked around the room for anything she might have missed, and, not finding anything, squatted down and started to fasten the suitcase.

I just want out of here, she told herself.

I just want out of here without one more scare.

And then someone grabbed her shoulder from behind.

Cari screamed.

“Oh. Sorry,” Eric said.

She looked up at him, her heart pounding. He looked really embarrassed. “Sorry,” he repeated. “I really didn't mean to scare you.”

She clicked the suitcase shut and climbed to her feet.

He put a warm hand on her shoulder. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah,” she said.

He kissed her. A short, tense kiss. “That's for luck,” he whispered.

“I think we're going to need it,” she said. “Where's Craig?”

Before he could answer, Craig rushed in, wearing the jacket he had arrived in, carrying a bag. “Let's go,” he whispered.

Cari turned away from Eric and picked up her bag.

“Did Edward ever come back upstairs?” Craig asked.

“I don't know. I didn't hear anything,” Cari said.

“Neither did I,” said Eric, peering out into the hall.

“We'd better not risk going past his room,” Craig said.

“But the stairway—” Cari started.

“Craig's right,” Eric said. “We'll go another way. There's bound to be a back stairway that leads to the back of the hotel. Once we're outside, we'll just circle around to the front.”

“I think we should call the police before we go,” Craig said. “I-I'd feel a lot safer knowing that the police from Willow Island were on their way.”

“No, let's just get
out
of here,” Eric said impatiently.

“I think Craig's right,” Cari said, nervously checking the door. “We could tell them about Jan. Also, what if we get caught sneaking away? What if Edward or Martin stop us? Then at least we could tell them we called the police. It might save our lives.”

“But the nearest phone is in the front lobby,” Eric protested.

“There's a phone in back. By the kitchen,” Craig said, shifting his big canvas bag to his other hand. “I remember seeing it. If we go down the back way, we can call from there. It'll only take a second.”

“Okay, okay,” Eric reluctantly agreed. “But let's
just get going. By the time we finish discussing everything, Edward will be up here.”

Without another word, they crept out into the dim light of the hallway. Can took a deep breath. The air was hot and thick, making it hard to breathe.

Or was it just because she was so scared?

So scared that she had to concentrate just to get her legs to move.

So scared that every creak of the floor, every shifting shadow on the wall, sent a stab of terror up her spine.

They turned away from Edward's room, turned a corner into a long corridor that led toward the back of the hotel. Doors lined the right side of the corridor, most of them open, the rooms behind them dark and silent. Several of the small lamps on the left wall were out so that this corridor was even darker than the last.

“Are we going the right way?” Craig whispered.

“Sshhhh,” Cari whispered nervously. She stopped suddenly and turned to look behind them.

She just had a feeling, a feeling they were being followed.

“Cari, what's wrong?” Eric whispered.

“Nothing. Sorry,” she whispered back.

There was no one there. She shrugged and followed Eric.

They turned another corner, into another hot, musty-smelling corridor lined with rooms on only one side.

We're never getting out of here, Cari thought.

We're going to be walking in circles in this dark maze of hallways forever.

“Shh—look!” Eric whispered, pointing.

At the end of the corridor, a door was partially open, and light poured out from the room inside.

The three of them stopped. And listened.

Was the room occupied?

The only sounds were their own breathing.

They moved forward slowly, cautiously. “I don't think I've ever been down here,” Cari whispered to Eric.

They stopped a few feet from the door and listened again.

Silence.

“Maybe there's a phone in there. We could call the police,” Craig whispered.

Mustering her courage, Cari stepped up to the doorway and poked her head into the room. It took her eyes a second to adjust to the bright light.

“Wow,” she mouthed silently.

“What is itf” Eric asked eagerly. He stepped up beside her and peered in also.

They stepped into the brightly lit room, nervously checking all around them.

“It's some sort of trophy room,” Cari said.

“Yeah. Look at the hunting trophies,” Eric said, picking up a silver cup. It had a hunter and a hound etched into its side.

“I don't see a phone,” Craig said, sounding very disappointed.

“This is weird,” Eric said. “Way weird.” He stepped up to a glass display case, admiring the brass and silver trophies inside.

“Let's go,” Craig said impatiently, starting toward the door. “Who cares about a bunch of hunting trophies? So
what
if people like to hunt at this hotel?”

“Yes, let's get—” Cari started, but abruptly stopped. Her mouth dropped open, and she gasped in horror.

“Look—” she cried.

She was staring past the glass display cases to the far wall.

Mounted high on the wall, much like deer or moose heads, were four heads.

Four human heads.

I
nto the warm night.

The symphony of crickets. The shock of the darkness.

The relief of being out of the hotel.

The fear that she wasn't far enough away yet.

Cari ran with the two boys through the tall grass along the back of the hotel. Everything seemed exaggerated. All of her senses were distorted. She could see every blade of grass, every clump of sand before her. She could hear the scratching crickets, the brush of the wind off the ocean, the hard breathing of her companions. She could smell the salt from the water, even smell the grassy dew that clung to her legs as she ran.

She could feel the fear.

The fear that had made them run from the hideous trophies, run blindly down the stairs and
out the narrow back exit by the storage pantry, and keep on running without looking back.

Her bag felt heavy, but she didn't slow.

None of them did.

They turned the corner, breathing loudly, running at full speed, and headed past the hotel building, down the steeply sloping hill at its front, and onto the narrow private road that twisted through the woods down to the water.

“Ow! I've got a stone in my shoe!”

Craig stopped and dropped his bag onto the road and sat on it. Breathing heavily, he pulled off his sneaker and turned it over to empty it.

Cari, struggling to catch her breath, was grateful for the break. She turned to stare up the hill at the hotel, which was dark except for two lights on the second floor.

“I think we're going to make it,” Eric said, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. “They didn't see us. They're not coming after us.”

Such a hot night, Cari thought. She was dripping wet.

Craig was gulping air. “We're not away yet,” he managed to say, still trying to catch his breath. “We've got to get off this island. I won't feel safe till we're on the boat.”

“You sure you can drive a boat?” Eric asked.

“Yeah. I'm sure.”

“I can just picture you in a yachting cap,” Eric said, grinning. “And the white pants and the admiral's jacket with those things on the shoulders. It's perfect.”

“I can pilot it without a uniform,” Craig said with a grim smile.

Cari still saw the four mounted heads in her mind. She couldn't stop thinking about them. They seemed to be following her, watching her as she ran through the night. “Those heads—” she said, to no one in particular.

“Try not to think about “them,” Eric interrupted, squeezing her shoulder tenderly. “Let's just
go.”

“But were they—” She couldn't finish her question.

Were they four other people who had vanished on Piney Island? she wondered. Four hotel guests who never returned home? Had Edward written a letter to
their
relatives saying that they had mysteriously disappeared?

Cari tried to shut the hideous sight from her mind. She tried not to think about Jan. Poor Jan. But the four faces on the wall, their features stretched in horror, in agony, their hideous expressions trapped forever, followed her as she jogged with her friends down the road, through the whispering pines toward the water.

A few minutes later the tall wrought-iron fence came into view.

“We're almost to the dock!” Cari cried happily. Being so close to freedom helped her forget the aching of her arm, the heaviness of the bag, the fearful pounding of her heart.

Eric reached the gate first. He grabbed the gate latch and pulled.

He heaved a loud sigh.

Cari and Craig caught up with him. She could immediately see the despair on his face.

“The gate's padlocked,” he said, breathing hard.

He tugged at the lock. He tried pushing it.

He slammed his bag against the gate. He put his hands around the bars and shook the gate as hard as he could, more out of frustration than as an attempt to get it open.

“We're locked in. We can't get to the dock.”

“We can climb the fence,” Cari suggested. But then she looked up at how tall it was and saw the spikes all along the top.

“No way,” Craig muttered, dropping his bag to the asphalt. “The dock is so close. Just on the other side.”

“Wait!” Cari interrupted. She had an idea. “We'll go back to the hotel—”

“What?” Eric cried. “Have you lost it? Edward and Martin must know we're gone by now. They're probably out looking for us.”

“Wait—just listen to me,” Cari said shrilly, unable to hide her impatience. She knew
her
idea was good. “I don't mean go
into
the hotel. We can run behind it and get down to the hotel beach. There are those canoes at the hotel dock. You know the ones. They're always tied up there. We can take them to get away.”

“The canoes are on the bay—not the ocean. We can't take them around the island,” Eric scoffed.

“No,” Cari told him. “But we can take them to Willow Island. It's close, you can see it from the hotel beach. We can paddle to Willow Island and get the police.”

“Now, that's a great idea,” Eric said quickly.

“I guess so,” Craig said. “I just hate the idea of going back up to the hotel.”

“We'll keep to the trees,” Cari said, picking up her bag and leading the way, leaning into the hill, forcing her legs to climb. “We'll stay as far from the hotel as we can. The lights weren't on in the back. It's pitch-black back there. They won't see us.”

Her enthusiasm was catching. They picked up the pace as they made their way up the hill. The pale moon was just bright enough to light their way. Owls hooted softly from somewhere overhead. Again, Cari had the strange feeling that she could hear every sound, see everything around her with unnatural clarity.