Page 35 of A Matter of Murder

“Just a little farther down,” Lizzie said.

But very quickly, she realized, there was a wall before her. A dead end. “Oh, drat.”

“What is it?” Charlotte asked, her voice high with apprehension.

“Dead end. Don’t worry, we’ll just turn around.”

Lizzie turned to face her friend, who was backlit by the light all the way at the end, where the door stood open. “Sorry, Charlotte, I didn’t mean to—”

BAM!

They were plunged into darkness and Charlotte screamed. Lizzie jumped but managed not to make a noise, even as she felt fear claw its way up her throat.

“Lizzie!”

“I’m here,” Lizzie said, trying to keep calm in the sudden darkness. She reached out and felt Charlotte’s arm. At her touch, Charlotte clasped Lizzie’s hand tightly. “It’s all right. A draft probably slammed that door shut on us.”

“The door opened into the corridor,” Charlotte whispered. “And I don’t feel a draft.”

Charlotte was right, of course—the only thing Lizzie felt now was the stuffy, closed-in air, Charlotte’s desperate grasp on her hand, and Guy pressing against her skirts.

“Well, one never knows with these old houses,” she said with far more confidence than she felt. “Turn around and start walking toward the door. I’ll be right here behind you. Guy, come.”

Slowly, they began to move back toward the door. “You’redoing brilliantly,” Lizzie encouraged Charlotte. “And Guy, what a good dog you are.”

It seemed to take an age, but they finally reached the end of the corridor, and now that Lizzie’s eyes had adjusted, she could see a faint line of gray light where the seam of the door was. She could hear Charlotte feeling around for the knob.

“Lizzie, I don’t know how to open it,” she whispered.

“Try pulling?”

“I am!”

“Here, let me.” Lizzie brushed past Charlotte and felt her way down the door. She could feel the seam of the jamb, and a groove where she supposed one might grip the door, but neither pushing nor pulling yielded any results—it was stuck. Or locked. A shiver traveled down her spine when she thought about the way the door had slammed suddenly. She didn’t recall seeing movement around the door before it closed, but perhaps...

No, she wasn’t going to think about the possibility that someone had trapped them here on purpose.

“Lizzie,” Charlotte said in a voice that sounded perilously like a whimper.

“I know. I’m sorry,” Lizzie said. Her friend was no coward, but she also vastly preferred office work and research to going down strange corridors and exploring unknown spaces. “Look, there has to be another way out. They wouldn’t have built a corridor to nothing. Let’s keep looking.”

“Perhaps we bang on the door and hope someone will come to our rescue?”

“That’s not a terrible idea,” Lizzie said. “But it could be hours before they realize we’re missing. I haven’t heard anyone else in quite a while.”

Charlotte sighed. “Are you sure you can find another way out?”

“Of course,” Lizzie said confidently. “Put a hand on my shoulder. Guy, with me.”

Lizzie turned once more and moved slowly back down the corridor, reaching in every direction. The sound of Guy’s small steps beside her was a reassuring presence in the dark, and hearing Charlotte’s quick breaths grounded her. Lizzie wasn’t sure how many steps she’d gone when she sensed that Guy was no longer right beside her—he was simply gone. He hadn’t pushed ahead of her, she was fairly certain. “Guy?” she said, and reached out and felt along the wall and gasped when she felt the rough walls give way to nothing.

“What?” Charlotte asked, barely containing her panic.

“There’s another corridor, to the left,” Lizzie said. “We missed it in the dark.”

“Lizzie, I don’t like this!”

“I know, but this has to be a way out. Trust me.”