Part 5
He couldn't stay in the chair. He couldn't lie in the bed with the sheets smelling of bleach while whatever was in that room breathed against the lath. If Mona Higgins had put someone in there to toy with him, or if this was some twisted extortion scheme cooked up by the county, he needed to look them in the face.
Julian shoved the folded drawing into his coat pocket alongside the ultrasound scan. He pulled his trench coat tight, reached into his trouser pocket, and pulled out his three-inch stainless steel folding knife.
He stepped to the corridor door, unlocked the deadbolt with a muted click, and slipped out onto the exterior breezeway.
The mountain blizzard hit him like a frozen fist. Sleet whipped horizontally beneath the overhanging roof, stinging his eyes and crusting his hair in seconds. The yellow neon glow of the King's Rest sign flickered through the gale, humming a dull, electrical buzz over the roar of the pines.
Julian moved two yards down the balcony to the entrance of Room 214.
The door was weathered raw, its veneer split into jagged gray scales from years of mountain runoff. A heavy iron hasp hung across the seam between door and jamb, anchored by an ancient brass padlock greened with verdigris.
He stepped closer, shielding his eyes from the blowing drift. The padlock was shut, but the wood beneath the mounting bracket was soft as wet sponge cake.
Julian flicked open the blade of his pocketknife. He wedged the tip beneath the rusted bracket and threw his shoulder into the leverage.
The rotten pine gave way with a sickening, splintering crunch. The screws tore free in a shower of damp pulp, leaving the heavy padlock dangling uselessly from the hasp.
Julian's heart hammered against his ribs, loud and hollow in his ears. He pocketed the knife, placed his bare palm against the frozen wood, and shoved.
The door swung inward into pitch-black stillness.
A wave of stagnant air spilled out—not the sharp bite of the mountain squall, but the suffocating stench of damp plaster, ancient mildew, and the faint, sweet trace of melting paraffin.
