Chapter 16 - Psycho Shower Scene

56 10 9
                                    

"She told me things about myself that only I would know."

~ Client testimonial, Sneak Peek


"Never confuse movement with action."

~ Ernest Hemingway, misquoted





The bathroom is empty.

The stall behind the shower curtain is empty. The small closet for hanging bathrobes is empty. The toilet is not empty, but it's just the way Zandra left it. The cleaning staff must've skipped it. Whether that was an intentional oversight isn't clear.

Zandra addresses the toilet with a flush, then searches the bathroom for signs of activity. She's careful to watch her step.

Inside the shower, behind the curtain, is the only place someone could hide. Do showers ever really dry out? Not in hotels. The basins are all shit. The plastic is lumpy. Little pools of water form that never make it to the drain.

There. Right there.

She spots a thin crescent of water roughly in the shape of a heel on a tile between the shower and the vanity.

Could that have been from me?

There's no way to tell the actual size of the apparent heel, but Zandra tries anyway. She sheaths the lawnmower knife. With a hand that braces against the counter of the vanity, she guides her right heel into place in the crescent. Her sense of balance works against her, and her foot scatters the water.

"Someone had to have been in here," Zandra says to no one in particular after hoisting herself back upright.

Zandra rubs her eyes. She shuffles out of the bathroom and back to the phone to dial Sunglasses's room.

"I just about pulled a Norman Bates in here," Zandra says after Sunglasses picks up, citing one of the handful of movies she's made the time to watch.

"What? Norman who?" Sunglasses says.

"Psycho. The shower scene? Never mind," Zandra says. "Look, I think someone was in my bathroom."

Sunglasses pauses, and then says, "You should've let me clear your room. I don't know why you won't accept help."

"Fuck yourself, that's why. I haven't even gotten to the best part," Zandra says.

"You sound remarkably calm for someone who hasn't told me the best part yet."

"The person was in the bathroom while I was in the room. I heard them moving around, but when I checked, no one was there," Zandra says.

"I'm coming over," Sunglasses says and ends the call.

A minute later, Zandra hears a knock at the door. She confirms with the peephole that it's Sunglasses before opening up. He's still dressed in a Packers T-shirt and jorts, but the sunglasses and flip-flops are missing. He steps barefoot into the bathroom.

"This bathroom?" Sunglasses says, his hand planted in the pocket with the revolver.

"No, I shit the bed and call the sheets a bathroom. Of course it's this bathroom," Zandra says. She stays a few steps away from Sunglasses. The lawnmower knife stays in its sheath up her sleeve, but Zandra keeps her right hand fingers wrapped around its paracord handle. She notices Sunglasses catching a glimpse at the stunted way she keeps her hand. She returns the look with one of her own at the revolver.

The Broken Clock is Right Thrice: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective #4Where stories live. Discover now