Читать книгу The Dinner Party - R. J. Parker - Страница 17

‘Maybe that wasn’t Evie or Jakob,’ Ted said as soon as the footfalls had faded.

Juliette turned to Ted in alarm and then directed her attention back to the hallway.

Ted closed the door.

‘Evie!’ Juliette called up the stairs. ‘Jakob!’

No response.

Ted clenched his stomach, put his palm on the banister and took the first couple of steps slowly, their boards creaking under the dark-blue carpet. His mouth was already dry.

Juliette was right behind him. ‘Be careful,’ she whispered.

She was right. There could still be intruders in the house. Maybe Evie and Jakob were lying injured upstairs. His pace quickened. But they were there because of an argument between the couple. Could there really be anyone else involved?

They reached the landing and found five closed doors.

‘Evie?’ Juliette’s voice sounded loud in the enclosed space.

Ted had never been upstairs in their house. There was a downstairs bathroom, which they used when they visited, so he’d never had any reason to.

‘Jakob?’ Juliette said quieter.

‘Look.’ Ted pointed.

There was a long smudge of blood at shoulder height along the right-hand wall.

They both halted.

‘Ring the police.’ Ted whispered and didn’t take his eyes from the stain. All he could hear was their breathing.

Juliette took out her phone and dialled. ‘Police,’ she hissed.

While she relayed the specifics, Ted seized the nearest door handle.

Juliette put her hand firmly on his. ‘OK. As fast as you can though.’ She hung up. ‘They said we should leave the house immediately and wait for them outside.’

‘But they could be hurt.’

‘They’re sending an ambulance.’

‘God knows how quickly that will arrive though.’ Ted kept his grip on the door. ‘Somebody fled. I’m not leaving if either of them could be bleeding up here and need our help.’

‘Nobody’s answered us.’

‘They could be unconscious.’

She bit her lip.

He could tell how shaken she was by what they’d found but already knew what her reaction would be to what he suggested next. ‘Go and wait outside while I look.’

Juliette shook her head resolutely. ‘We do it now, quickly.’

‘Sure?’ But Ted knew it was pointless arguing.

‘Evie?’ She called again.

They both listened to the silence for a moment.

Both their breathing stopped as he depressed the handle, the spring in the mechanism creaking as he pushed inside.

The large sparsely decorated space looked like an office, with only a table and swivel chair skulking under the window. The blinds were sealed. An open laptop glowed on the desk and illuminated the empty room. There was nobody here.

They moved down the passage and Juliette opened the next right-hand door.

It was a spotless bathroom: nobody inside and no signs of a disturbance. The heat from the towel radiators and an aroma of tea tree oil rolled out at them.

Ted was at the third left door first. These had to be the bedrooms. ‘Jakob.’ But he didn’t wait for an answer.

It was a spare room. A double bed made up, but lots of paperwork and magazines stacked on the duvet.

Juliette had already moved to the last two doors at the end of the passage. ‘Evie?’

Ted opened the one nearest to him. It probably used to be a bedroom but now it was a generous changing room with doorless wardrobes along the right wall. Evie’s clothes took up considerably more space than Jakob’s. He recognized the outfit Evie had been wearing lying on top of a laundry basket. A familiar feminine scent hung around the room. No trace of a struggle in here either.

There was only one door left to open and they both paused outside. This had to be the main bedroom.

Ted yanked the handle down but stayed where he was as the panel swung wide. It bumped against the wall as they took in its interior.

No Evie or Jakob and the king-size was still made.

Juliette switched on the light and the bulb buzzed overhead.

‘So the argument started before they went to bed.’

‘Look.’ Juliette nodded to the far side of the room.

There was brown blood smeared on the long radiator under the window.

She crossed to examine it and Ted joined her there. On the oatmeal carpet in front of it were more dark red patches. The heat from the radiator had dried the fingerprint stains but the ones on the floor still looked wet.

Ted scanned the rest of the carpet. ‘Let’s not touch anything.’

‘We’d better go outside.’ Juliette gulped. ‘I don’t want to be in here.’

Ted was about to move when the light in the room changed. He turned to the window and realized the security light had come on at the rear. A cat was slinking across the back lawn. ‘Motion detector.’

But Juliette moved her face closer to the pane. ‘Is that …?’

Ted followed her gaze. Somebody was lying on the frosted grass by the summerhouse.