Page 60 of Hidden in Memories
“Yes!” Daniel shouts, and immediately stops digging. Carefully he brushes the snow off an object in the hole, making sure he doesn’t touch it with his fingers.
Hanna screws up her eyes in the bright sunshine and sees a hunting knife with a sharp, highly polished edge. The silvery blade glints in the sunlight. The leather shaft is discolored with brownish-red marks, contrasting sharply with the white snow.
The stains look like dried blood.
Could it be Charlotte’s?
Have they found the murder weapon at last?
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Two girls are sitting on the bench in the changing room when Aada walks in after her shift.
The relief is immense; it’s so good not to be alone in the basement, which is slightly isolated. It feels safer with other people around—it means no one can harm her.
All day she has been looking over her shoulder. Her nerves are jangling; she was on edge every time she went into a different room to start cleaning. The very thought that there could be someone in there, someone who was waiting for her, was enough to make the lump in her stomach as heavy as lead.
Aada greets her colleagues and begins to take off her uniform. She recognizes the girls; they both live in Åre and grew up in Jämtland. She can tell they’re old friends—they are chatting away eagerly. Aada can’t follow everything they say, but she thinks they might be talking about the murdered woman in the Silver Suite.
A shudder runs through her body. She feels dizzy and has to sit down.
The older girl, Liv, turns to Aada and says something, but she speaks so quickly that Aada doesn’t understand. Her colleague repeats the question in English.
“We’re talking about the terrible murder. Have you heard that the police think the killer works in the hotel?”
Aada goes cold all over. She remembers the man rushing out of the suite. She is so frightened, so worried that he saw her and is trying to track her down.
“It’s horrible, isn’t it?” Liv says. “You hardly know whether it’s safe to go out at the moment.”
“The police were searching with a dog this afternoon,” the other girl informs them, speaking quickly and agitatedly. “There were a few of them running after the dog.”
The conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Sussie, the supervisor. She glances around the room, and her gaze settles on Aada.
“There you are!”
Aada is confused. She doesn’t understand why Sussie has been looking for her, but hopes she hasn’t done anything wrong.
“I was wondering if you could take on an extra shift this evening,” Sussie goes on. “We have a lot of absentees due to illness. I can’t get the roster to work, and I thought of you.”
“An extra shift?”
“Yes—the same as the one you did at the weekend, the late shift.”
Aada swallows hard. Last Sunday she stood in the bathroom of room 633 and heard that helpless scream.
If only she’d raised the alarm at the time. Instead she did ... nothing. A woman has been murdered, and Aada fears for her own life.
“It really would help me out—I don’t know who else to ask if you can’t do it. And you live so close by.”
Under normal circumstances Aada is happy to work extra hours. It means more money, and she saves most of what she earns. At some point she wants to get a place of her own. But a late shift means finishing in the early hours of the morning. After midnight. Which means walking home in the dark, all by herself.
She wants to say no, but can’t come up with an excuse. She can’t explain to Sussie how frightened she is.
“Of course,” she says through stiff lips. “No problem.”
“You’re a diamond, Aada.” Sussie claps her hands, looking very relieved. “Thank you so much for stepping in.”
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