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against the wood. She looked around. There was an old rocking chair on the porch. I ll sit in that, until he comes back. But just as she turned from the door she heard the click of the latch. The door swung inwards a few inches, as if in invitation. Kate hesitated, staring into the seam of darkness between the jamb and the slightly opened door. She waited: for a voice, for a hand to pull it open further, for anything. A chill crawled up the nape of her neck. The door creaked open another inch. Kate jumped back, her heart stuttering. Paul? Her memory danced back to this morning was it just this morning? when she had asked Paul why he hadn t come out of the house was it just last night? when she had arrived on his porch in a state. He d said he couldn t, but he d never told her why. The inky blackness beyond the door offered no answers. Deep inside the thick blanket of clouds, thunder rumbled. The wind gusted, rattling the porch roof. Rain prickled against Kate s back. Go or stay. Dawn was too long a wait. She looked over her shoulder, at the wind- driven rain pummeling the trees and the sidewalk. The wind drove a sheet of it into her face. Go or stay. Hesitantly, she lifted her hand and, with just the tips of her fingers, pushed the front door open all the way. Nothing jumped out to get her. The entry room was lit by a small emergency light in the ceiling. She saw a tiled floor, a credenza against the left wall, stairs leading upwards. Other than that, she saw only shadows. She stepped inside. Paul? Her voice fell flat in the silence. The wind gusted and the door banged shut. Kate whirled, then laughed a little, to let off the tension. The same wind that had blown open the door had blown it shut again. No one was here. She was alone in Paul s house. Oddly, she found the silence and the emptiness soothing. At home, Vanessa and Gwen would be swarming on her with questions and comforts and solicitation, and that would collapse the distance separating her from fear and anguish and anger. She wasn t ready for that. Not yet. Besides, this was the place where Breakfast Paul lived. Other than their trip to Mapleton, Kate had never known him outside Caf Foy. If he wasn t telling his secrets, maybe she could find a few answers for herself. Anything was better than thinking about the way the whole room had shuddered when Ellie pulled that trigger. Kate began to explore. On her left, the first open doorway led to the kitchen. She groped along the wall until she found a light switch. When the overhead light chased away the shadows, Kate felt her shoulders relax from tension she hadn t known was there. Her nose twitched. Something smelled strange. On the table she saw an open wine bottle and a pile of crushed flowers. She lifted one of the browned and bruised petals and sniffed. She ran her finger down a cracked and splintered stem. Lightning flashed outside the window. The kitchen light flickered. One & two & three & four& She got to six before the thunder rolled, throaty and deep. Had Paul sent the flowers or received them? The stems and petals gave no answer, so she continued her exploration. Across the hallway from the kitchen was a closed door. She expected a bathroom or a closet. What she found, when she clicked on the light, was an artist s studio. Paul never told me he could draw. Canvases tilted on easels. Sketches papered the floor. Three sketches were tacked to the wall near the door, sketches of the same man. Kate didn t recognize his features, but he was handsome in a hard way. In one picture, he stood in a garden surrounded by faceless people in top hats and feathered headpieces. In another, he roamed the narrow streets of some European-looking old city. And in the last, he stood at the top of the stairs of Paul s house just outside the studio wearing a well-cut suit with wide lapels straight out of the seventies. Weird. The crisp lines and subtle shadings created an almost photographic reality in the portraits. But there was something wrong. Kate slid her eyes over the drawings, trying to find what it was that bothered her. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |