Booktree.ng_Forgotten-Witness

CHAPTER 6
Upstairs at The Robert Lee Hotel was no better than down.
The guest floors were aged, grimy and clinging to their old
glory by a fraying thread. The seventh floor smelled like a
stew-pot of dirt, bad plumbing, mold, bodily fluids, and food.
The plaster ceiling crumbled in places where melting snow
and driving rain had leaked through a roof that needed
replacing thirty years ago.
At the end of the hall was a window and icy air blew
through the broken glass. Josie could make out the shadow of
a fire escape past that. She walked slowly, noting the silent
butlers outside each room, the grime on the doors, the torn
carpet. Josie measured her steps, staying alert but she heard
nothing until she knocked on the door of room 720 at the end
of the hall.
“Mr. Francis?” she called. “Mr. Francis. It’s Josie Bates.
From the hearing?”
She knocked again. The sound her fist made on the door
was hollow and swallowed by the room beyond. Josie took
hold of the knob, ready to break the door down if necessary. It
wasn’t. The door was unlocked so she pushed it open slowly.
“Mr. Francis? It’s Josie Bates,” she called. “I’m coming in
to talk to you. Don’t be afraid.”
Josie wished she could take her own advice, but she
couldn’t. She was terrified. Her heart beat harder, sweat
formed under her collar, her coat weighed her down, and her
gloves seemed to constrict around her hands. She strained to
hear a response. She heard nothing. Josie had heard this kind
of nothing in Billy Zuni’s house where death kept its quiet,
cold counsel. She had heard this silence in the concrete prison
where she thought she would die. Josie had heard this silence
in her home when she was thirteen and her mother deserted
her. She wasn’t sure she could walk into that void again and
alone. But this time it was for Hannah, so she threw the light
switch.