Last Room by Reah Danuta

Author:Reah, Danuta [Reah, Danuta]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime fiction
Publisher: Caffeine Nights Publishing
Published: 2014-05-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 36

When he got back to the hotel, he called the airline. There were seats on a flight leaving at seven that evening if he was prepared to pay a steep fee for altering his travel plans. He dealt with the admin briskly and booked the seat, then he gathered up the few things he’d bothered to unpack and stowed them in his suitcase. His laptop and his papers were already in the bag he carried everywhere with him. At least with those he’d been careful.

He didn’t know what to do with Ania’s things. He was half tempted to leave them here for Erland to deal with. Let him have them if he laid such a strong claim to her memory. He picked up the backpack, weighing it in his hands, then emptied the contents out onto the bed.

He caught a drift of perfume, a fragrance that bought her vividly back to him. He saw her standing outside the cottage in St Abbs, Keeper tugging impatiently at the lead she was holding; he saw her in her life jacket throwing the ropes to someone on the harbour side; he saw her scrambling over the rocks under the cliffs, her hair blown about by a stiff breeze from the sea; and he saw a stream of grey ashes pouring into the water, drifting for a moment on the surface and then vanishing forever.

‘I understand. I’ll do it,’ he said.

He shook the bag again and something rolled out, something he’d missed before. It was a pink teddy bear, faded and stained. The ears were uneven and the arms stuck out like starfish. He felt a stab of recognition that was so sharp it was painful as he picked it up

Small Bear. He’d found Small Bear.

He moved it in his hands, feeling its worn softness.

Elžbieta had had this on the car seat next to her, that day she made her last trip, as if the toy could stand in for the child she’d lost. He’d never found out what had happened to it. He hadn’t cared. The police must have returned it with the bag of Elžbieta’s possessions. He had thrown the lot away, but Ania must have retrieved the toy. She’d said nothing, but she had kept it all these years.

Small Bear has a secret. This was what the Facebook site meant. He had been looking too hard. There was no secret code, no hidden message on the page that he was unable to find. It was simply this, to tell him to look at the bear.

He had found what she wanted him to look for.

But as he turned it round in his hands, he could feel that it was loose and floppy. He checked more closely and saw one of the seams had been split open and the stuffing pulled out. He pulled out the rest, searching through it, pressing the empty limbs of the toy between his fingers, but there was nothing there.

The awareness cut through him like a knife. Once again, by the time he understood what she was trying to tell him, it was too late.

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