Page 65 of The Housemaid
But maybe I shouldn’t question it. I should just be happy.
“Hey,” he says. He tucks a strand of my own blond hair behind my ear. “I can see your roots starting to show a bit.”
“Oh.” I touch my hairline self-consciously. Andy loves blond hair, so I started going to the salon after we got engaged to lighten my hair to more of a golden shade. “Gosh, I guess I’ve been so busy with Cece, it just slipped my mind.”
I can’t quite read the expression on his face. He’s still smiling, but there’s something off about it. It doesn’t bother him that much that I missed a hair appointment, does it?
“Listen,” he says. “I need your help with something first.”
I lift an eyebrow, glad he doesn’t seem too upset about my hair. “Sure. What is it?”
He raises his eyes in the direction of the ceiling. “There are some papers from work that I stashed in the upstairs storage area. I was wondering if you could help me try to find them. I’ve got to get this contract done tonight. And then after, we can…” He grins at me. “You know.”
He doesn’t have to tell me twice.
I’ve been living in this house for about four months now, and I’ve never been up to the storage area in the attic. I climbed the stairs up there once, while Cece was taking a nap, but the door was locked, so I turned back. Andy says it’s just a bunch of papers. Nothing too exciting.
And the truth is, I don’t love going up there. I don’t have any crazy phobias about attics, but the staircase leading up there is kind of creepy. It’s dark, and the stairs creak with every step. As I follow Andy up the staircase, I stay close to him.
When we get to the top of the stairs, Andy leads me down the small hallway to the locked door at the end. He gets out his set of keys and fits one of the small ones into the lock. Then he throws the door open and tugs on a cord to turn on the light.
I blink as my eyes adjust to the light and I take in my surroundings. This is not a storage closet like I thought it would be. It’s more like a tiny room, with a cot pushed up into one corner. There’s even a little dresser and a mini-fridge. There’s a single tiny window at the far end of the room.
“Oh.” I scratch my chin. “This is aroom. I thought it would just be junk and storage stuff.”
“Well, I store everything in the closet over there,” he explains, pointing to the closet near the bed.
I walk over to the closet and peer inside. There’s nothing inside except a blue bucket. There are no papers at all, much less enough for searching through them to be a two-person job. I don’t quite understand what he would like me to do.
Then I hear a door slam shut.
I lift my head and turn around. Suddenly, I’m all alone in this tiny room. Andy has left the room and shut the door behind him.
“Andy?” I call out.
I cross the room in two strides and reach for the doorknob. But it doesn’t turn. I try harder, throwing my weight into it, but still no luck. The doorknob doesn’t budge even an inch.
It’s locked.
“Andy?” I call out again. No answer. “Andy!”
What the hell is going on here?
Maybe he went downstairs to get something and the door blew shut. But that doesn’t explain why there aren’t any papers in this room when he said that’s what we were coming up here to get.
I pound on the door with my fist. “Andy!”
Still no answer.
I press my ear against the door. I hear footsteps, but they’re not coming closer. They’re getting further away, disappearing down the stairwell.
He must not hear me. That’s the only explanation. I pat my pockets, but my phone is in the bedroom. There’s no way to call him.
Damn it.
My eyes fall on the window. There’s one tiny little window in the corner of the room. I walk over and look outside, realizing that the window looks out on to the backyard. So there’s no way to get anybody’s attention outside. I’m stuck here until Andy returns.
I’m not exactly claustrophobic, but this room is very small with a low ceiling that slants over the bed. And the idea that I’m locked in here is starting to freak me out. Yes, Andy will come back shortly, but I don’t like this enclosed space. My breathing quickens and my fingertips start to tingle.
