Page 51 of The White Octopus Hotel
“They say there was a real octopus in the walls….”
“I spoke to him on the phone, my husband. He died three years ago….”
“Something not right about this place….”
“Got half a mind to check out this very night….”
“They say one of the octopuses is hidden in the past….”
“He coughs whenever a lie is uttered….”
Eve’s eyes slid towards the curtains, and she saw that the Eavesdropper was back, the tips of his shabby shoes poking out from beneath the hem.
“Who do you suppose he is, really?” Max asked, following her gaze.
Eve shook her head. She had no answer. All she had was questions piled on top of more questions. “Maybe he’s just a lost soul,” she said. “Maybe he feels safe at the hotel.”
“I say,” came a loud voice.
Eve glanced around and recognised the thin man from the Smoking Room earlier.
“Is it true what people are saying about the basement?” he asked. “And the forbidden objects?”
Harry glanced up with a sigh. “There are no forbidden objects in the basement, sir.”
Behind the curtain, the Eavesdropper gave one of those terrible, wet, choking coughs. Then the curtain rippled as he shuffled his feet and was gone. To Eve’s surprise, the guest didn’t say any more about the basement, but simply ordered a Sidecar and then retreated to a table by himself on the other side of the room.
“I apologise for not recognising you before,” Max said, draining his drink. “If our roles had been reversed, then I suspect you wouldhave known me at once, but I’m a dense fellow at times. Not dense enough to leave a friend in the lurch, though. I can say that for myself, at least.” He flicked a glance at her. “I realise you don’t know me yet, but you and I are very old friends. So I meant what I said about helping with the scavenger hunt.”
“Friends or not, why would you help me?” she asked. “If you believe a hotel key is letting me travel through time, then you must accept the other objects here could be magical too. Don’t you want to win a prize for yourself?”
Max shrugged and looked back at his empty glass. “I already told you. You saved my life. I owe you.”
“Aren’t you curious about what object I’m pursuing?”
“What difference does it make?”
It could make all the difference to you,Eve thought. If she changed the past and prevented Bella from dying, then Eve herself would never come to the White Octopus Hotel in the first place. And if Max was right about her saving his life in 1918, then that meant she wouldn’t do that either. Which meant…what? That Max died in 1918? She thought of that painting again, of the two people on the edge of the roof, the sinister dark wings that filled the air around them. A gate creaked loudly inside her head, and she suppressed a shudder. She wasn’t responsible for what happened to Max Everly. Shewasresponsible for what had happened to Bella. She snapped open the clutch bag and handed over the scavenger card. Still five clocks and sixteen octopuses to go.
“Here,” she said. “Take a look, if you want.”
Their fingertips touched briefly, and she felt a shiver ripple over her skin.
“I haven’t been to the steam baths yet,” she added. “They told me it was closed again this morning.”
“There are several clocks and octopuses there,” Max said. “There’s one in the Gatsby Room too.”
The Gatsby Room was a small, private dining room close to themain restaurant. “I went in there earlier, but I didn’t see it,” Eve said.
Max indicated her scavenger card. “Shall I write it in?”
She shook her head. She had the feeling she needed to see all the clocks and octopuses for herself or else perhaps it might not count. Certainly, she wasn’t going to take any chances. She drained the whiskey in one gulp and stood up.
“Show me.”
Chapter 34
Max wound his way through the maze of the hotel to a corridor near the restaurant. A bronze plaque on the door readThe Gatsby Room.
