He gave her a gentle smile. “Absolutely.”
“Anyone seen any sign of Daniel yet?” She sighed. “And the pilot? Which side is he on?”
“Well, there’s a big question mark over the pilot. That’s for sure,” he said, “but he’s also been injured.”
“But so was Chucky,” she said. “At least in theory.”
“You don’t believe him?”
“I don’t know what to believe,” she said.
“I can tell you that he was locked in, but, beyond that, I’m not sure,” he said.
“Could he have gotten free from the inside of the freezer?”
He frowned and shrugged. “I’d have to go check.”
“Then let me get dressed,” she said. “That way we can at least knock something off our list.”
He grinned at that. “Does that mean you don’t want to stay here and try to sleep?”
“I’m not sleeping at all,” she said, “particularly after whoever the hell knocked on my door.”
Immediately his frown disappeared, and he studied her with an intense gaze that she had already come to recognize.
He wanted answers, and he wanted them now. With whatever little tidbit of information she had to offer. She shook her head. “No, I have no clue who it was.”
He nodded. “You didn’t recognize the voice? You didn’t recognize anything?”
“No. I didn’t. But I did recognize the anger in the voice. Not per any one person, just the fact that whoever it was either expected to be let in or hoped to be let in and was angry that he wasn’t.”
“Which could be all kinds of things.”
“In a place like this in this situation? Yes.”
“Unfortunately we do find a breakdown in human decency under emergency situations sometimes,” he said. “And the fact that you’ve been friendly with us could have sent somebody over the edge.”
“Not surprised if it did,” she said quietly. “I’ve already told you about a couple guys giving me trouble.”
“But only one who’s here now, correct?”
“Yes,” she said. “Most of the other guys are harmless. Go stand facing the door, and I’ll get dressed really fast.”
He nodded and asked, “Do you want me to step out?”
“You don’t need to.” She was already pulling on her jeans. She left her sweatshirt on over her pajama top and grabbed her socks and shoes. “I’m ready to go.”
He turned and looked at her and smiled. “Okay, let’s go.” He led the way out. “I want you to stay with me,” he said, as he led went down the stairs.
“Don’t worry about that,” she said. “I have no intention of getting more than an arm’s length away.”
“So, how about we make sure you’re close enough.” He held out his hand.
Smiling, she grabbed it. “This is getting to be a habit.”
“Safety first.” He smiled, barely over a grin.
“Is that all it is?” she said in a teasing voice.
He looked at her in mock outrage. “Of course not. You’re too beautiful to ignore. But I obviously won’t distract either of us or do anything that could make you feel uncomfortable, while we’re in a situation like this.”
“Ah,” she said, “I wondered.”
He shook his head and smiled, tugging her closer. Heading down the hall, he released her hand to send a quick text while she watched; then he reached out, snagged her hand again, and repeated, “Stay close.”
“This way I don’t have much choice,” she murmured.
“We’re not turning on any lights,” he said, as he led her down a different hallway.
Very quickly they were in the storage area. He walked over to the cold rooms.
“So this is where he was, in this first one?” She walked over, nearly being pulled.
He studied it, using a flashlight, and then pulled open the door.
She studied the door and then stepped inside, using her phone for a flashlight. “Well, no sign of Lionel here.”
“I know. We still haven’t found him either,” Troy said, a dark edge to his tone. He looked at her. “Do you trust me?”
“Meaning, you’ll shut the door on me? Yes,” she said, with a smile. And, just like that, the door closed in front of her. She stood there for a long moment, studying the door. No handle was on the inside. She called out, “Why would no handle be here?”
“Check on the side of the door,” he said, “There should be a quick-release lock.”
She ran her hand up and down the side and found a button. She pushed it and heard an intermittent grinding noise.
He pulled open the door and said, “I heard it try to work,” he said, “but obviously it’s broken.”
She nodded. “But, if he went in here and didn’t know that, he might have ended up locked inside, unaware that he couldn’t get out.”
“But he never mentioned that. And we don’t have a motive,” he said quietly. He studied the inside, now that the door was wide open, and the two of them were standing in the open doorway, using their flashlights.
“I can’t think of any motive, except for the fact that Lionel was in here,” she said. “Or at least I think it was this one, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was this one.” They stepped out and checked the other two freezers.
“This is the only one that doesn’t have an automatic opener from the inside,” she said. “This one’s got a lever, but it opened and closed easily.”
“So the only way somebody would be caught inside any of them is with that broken one.”
“Exactly,” she nodded. She stepped out and ran her hands up and down her arms. “Now that I’ve been inside all three,” she complained, “it’s damn chilly.”
Immediately he wrapped his arms around her and tucked her up close. He wore a jacket, so she took a moment to spread the side of the jacket wide and tucked in close, as he wrapped the jacket around her, so they were both wearing it.
“That helps,” she murmured, the shivering starting to rock her body.
“Hey, I didn’t realize you were that cold,” he muttered and wrapped both arms around her and held her tight.
“I think it may have been the subject matter as much as the cold,” she muttered. When she could feel some of the chills settling back, she looked up at him and smiled. “Thank you. I feel better.”
He let his arms drop to his side, and she stepped back out again and immediately felt a sense of disappointment. It was a perfect opportunity for him to kiss her, but he hadn’t. But then why would he? It’s not like they were in that kind of a relationship. Hell, she didn’t even know what the hell they had right now. And given the same thing that she had just thought about him, she hadn’t taken the opportunity to kiss him either.
She stepped a little farther back, looked around, and said, “Is there anything else down here to look at?”
“Well, we’re still missing the one body,” he said. “And Daniel hasn’t shown up yet.”
“And what about the others, are they still there?”