Page 107 of The Midnight Knock
He felt it again now.
Ethan led the way into the motel’s office. It was pitch-dark, the air thick with the warning smell of smoke. Ryan pulled a Zippo lighter from his pocket and gave it a click. Surrounded by a little bubble of light, the three of them stepped over Jack Allen’s corpse. Over the lake of blood around Hunter. Over Hunter.
In the back of the office, they found the walnut door that had loomed there from the beginning. It was still locked. Ethan could hear scratching and shuffling from the other side. To Kyla again, he said, “Did you say Jack Allen opened this door last night?”
“Yeah. One of those things is on the other side. It killed Thomas and Tabitha.”
To Ryan, Ethan said, “Do you still have the key you took from his pocket?”
Ryan dug around in the pockets of his jacket and produced a shiny brass key. Before he handed it over, he said, “Why do you want to open this door? We got lucky with the other Guardians. Are we sure the stone eggs will work with this one?”
Ethan felt another memory flit through his mind. When it passed, he nodded. “Jack Allen had one of the eggs in his pocket, remember? It kept him safe.”
“But still…”
“He unlocked this door for a reason. I think I know why.”
Another hesitation, and Ryan passed over the key.
The three of them pulled the eggs from their pockets before Ethan slipped the key in the lock. The creature on the other sidewent quiet at the sound. From the direction of the cafe, the fire caved in a wall.
Ethan turned the key.
He pushed open the door and took a rapid step back. Sure enough, a Guardian was waiting there, its wings and talons stretched wide, but the moment it saw the stone eggs in the glow of Ryan’s lighter, it went calm, just as the others had. It regarded them, regarded the office, and stepped out of the sealed room. A tongue darted from its serpent mouth, tasting the air.
The creature stayed in the office with them. It stood near the window, watching the trio with what almost looked like concern.
“I almost liked it better when they were trying to kill me,” Ryan said.
Ethan took the Zippo from Ryan’s hand and examined the room on the other side of the walnut door. It held a single twin bed, a desk, a short dresser. The walls were covered with maps and diagrams and index cards bearing symbols Ethan didn’t recognize. A chunk of grooved white stone, like a broken piece of wall, stood on the desk, near smaller fragments of rock. When Ethan touched it, he felt a strange warm energy leak from the stone and stir his blood, like a latent charge of electricity.
As he searched, Kyla and Ryan stayed in the office. In the near-total darkness, a strange honesty seemed to come over the older man. It reminded Ethan of the way he himself had lain next to Hunter—and admitted something he’d kept hidden his entire life, even to himself. He’d admitted he wanted something more than Ellersby.
Ryan said to Kyla, “That film you found in the supply closet—I stole it from y’all’s room.”
“Youwhat?”
“Earlier tonight, before I went to try and talk to Sarah, I heard you and Penelope going down the back porch. I was in room three. I watched through the peephole as y’all went into the cafe. A few minutes later, I saw Fernanda doing the same. She didn’t kill Sarah, don’t worry. She just went to rough up Stanley, probably because with Penelope out of their room, she knew she’d find Stanley alone.”
Kyla said nothing.
Ryan went on. “I had a smoke with Hunter when I first got here—we happened to catch each other’s eye across the parking lot. He told me the situation. He said that you two girls seemed to be on the run from Frank, and I figured that might have made y’all and myself… allies, of a sort. But I wanted to do some reconnaissance, just to be sure. I was trying to keep my presence here as secret as possible. I didn’t want to spoil that for nothing. So I went to y’all’s room when I knew the coast was clear. Fernanda had left the front door unlocked. I let myself in. I poked around. One of the mattresses was a little off-center, so of course I had to see what was under it.”
Kyla’s silence was growing lethal. Ethan found a bookcase in the dim room, flipped through a few volumes.
“There was a green backpack under the mattress,” Ryan said. “It had a lot of money inside, but I didn’t care about that. There was a roll of yellow Kodak film hidden at the bottom.Thatgot me curious.”
“So youstoleit?”
“I was curious what sort of chips I could get on the board, you know? Thought maybe the three of us could use it as some sort of leverage, a way for me to get Penelope away from Stanley. But then I went next door and found Sarah Powers more than a little murdered. I figured it would look very bad to be found with a roll of stolen film on my person in case things went sideways, but before I could put it back in y’all’s room I saw Stanley coming out ofhis. Your back door was locked, so I had to keep moving. I found the supply room and stuck the film there. I figured I’d come back once the coast was clear and get the lay of the land, but I was still in the supply room when Tabitha found the body. One thing led to another. You know how it goes.” Ryan let out another grunt of pain, no doubt thanks to the wound in his shoulder. “Sarah used the same brand of film as y’all, but you probably figured that out by now. I guess it’s not much of a coincidence. Everything’s going digital. There can’t be many companies still out there selling actual camera film, right?”
Kyla said nothing.
The smell of smoke grew thicker. From nearby, Ethan could hear the crackle of flames.
And then, in the nightstand of the little room, he found what hewas looking for. Stepping out into the office, he showed it to the others.
“Another key?” Kyla said.
