Chapter 3
They arrived at the hotel when it was getting dark.
Small round lamps arranged on its front veranda lighted the hotel building. The bright wooden shutters by the windows were eclipsed by the cloudy evening sky. Rain was getting nearer and the air felt humid.
“I’m going to take a shower and I’ll meet you here on the porch in twenty minutes”, Kevin said to Jackie, as they were getting their keys from the reception.
“Okay, I’ll do the same”, she answered with a tired voice. Everyone just wanted to get into the rooms and sleep. Kevin was hungry.
“Would you like to have dinner?” he asked randomly. They hadn’t eaten a meal the whole day, only biscuits and sandwiches. Jackie stared at him as if water from the river was still between them, blocking the view.
“Okay, sure. Dinner would be good.”
“I’ll see you later then.”
“See you.”
They went up to their rooms.
Kevin climbed the stairs, but stopped at the end of the first floor: a beautiful woman with porcelain features, shiny brown hair, heavy makeup and a glamorous, long, silky dark green dress was watching him, smiling warmly and mysteriously, as if she knew the detective from somewhere. She whispered three syllables, something that seemed like “el-cielo”. He took a step towards her, but then she turned away with a shadow of sorrow in her eyes and went straight into the wall, vanishing completely.
Kevin blinked in disbelief. He knew the river ride had been exhausting, but he had never had hallucinations before. He was almost sure he had seen a ghost. He couldn’t be absolutely certain though, even if he had seen the green dress three times already, in just one day.
He simply didn’t think about it anymore. He went to have a shower, change his clothes and return to the veranda half an hour later.
Jackie was sitting in the lamplights on the wooden bench in front of the elegant hotel, smoking absently.
“Will you stop it with the cigarettes already?” he said, sitting next to her.
“Sorry. I’ll finish this in a minute and we can go have some dinner. I succeeded in speaking to my son Andrew a while ago, so now we can do anything”, she smiled.
“Do you think we could try the restaurant in this hotel?”
“Why not? I’m too tired to go out anyway.”
Kevin didn’t mention the ghost to her. He wasn’t sure of what he had seen and of her reaction to it. So he remained silent about it.
However, when they entered the hall to go to the restaurant, he noticed pictures with photographs on the walls. In one of the images he recognized the lady from the stairs. It seemed she was on a stage in a show. He turned around and went to the reception immediately.
“Can you tell me something about that picture in the corridor? The second one to the left… who’s in the photo?”
The girl from behind the desk smiled with a trace of sadness.
“That’s Maggie. She was a singer, but she died years ago. She jumped from the fourth floor of the hotel. She used to sing so beautifully. Such a great talent… such a loss.”
Kevin stood there for a while, thinking about the sudden death of the successful singer. He had a feeling her apparition in the hall had a reason – that there was more to it than declared.
“Was it suicide? Was there an investigation?”
“Yes, it was considered suicide. The case was closed.”
The girl at the reception added politely:
“We can provide a DVD for you, with her last show.”
“That would be nice, thanks.”
“We’ll send it to your room this evening.”
“Thank you.”
He returned to the restaurant. Jackie had chosen a table and was waiting for him.
“What was that about?” she asked curiously.
“I saw a singer in those pictures. She died many years ago. “
“Why are you concerned about her case?”
He glanced along the tables, not certain whether to tell her or not.
“I think I saw her ghost in the corridor earlier.”
Jackie stared at him silently. He continued:
“I think it wasn’t suicide. She didn’t die on her own.”
“And you believe she’s trying to tell you that by showing herself to you?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
Jackie looked away.
“Damn”, she said.
“I want another cigarette.”
“Do you believe me?”
“Maybe... I’m not sure. The old man and the Slovenians haven’t returned yet. They’re still in the mountains.”
They heard thunder and heavy rain started beating against the windows.
“She said something to me”, Kevin continued thoughtfully.
“What did she say?”
“I don’t know. Two words in Spanish: el cielo. Or something like that.”
“It means the sky, right?”
“Yes. Why would she tell me about the sky?”
“I have no idea.”
They stared at the restaurant tables. The rain was raging against the windows outside.
“What would you like to eat?” Jackie asked him, changing the subject.
“Some soup would be good.”
“Okay, I’ll have some soup too. Where’s that waiter?”
That night, as the storm raged outside, he watched the DVD with the singer’s last show. Her smile was radiant but sad, as if she knew something would happen. Her voice had so much warmth and brightness, he couldn’t believe she was gone – and she had disappeared so soon. In the interviews that followed on the DVD, some of her closest friends confessed she had said goodbye to them before the show. At the moment they didn’t understand why. The words gained more meaning later, when the police came to pick up the body and look for clues. The case was closed as self-inflicted death by precipitation from the window of the fourth floor.
Kevin went to sleep with his mind full of questions. He didn’t know why or how the bus accident was connected to Maggie’s unfortunate end, but he was sure there was something. He had a dream: he was up in a balcony in the hotel. Maggie was there, with a glass of wine. She placed the glass on the table and smiled at him, with a glimmer of sadness and affection. “El cielo”, she said softly.
“I didn’t fall on my own”, she whispered.
“He pushed me.”
Kevin woke up suddenly. He had the feeling she had been there and really spoke those words to him. He went to the window, looking at the city lights in the distance. Who had pushed her? Who was the man that had done that and why?
“Find the reason”, he thought.
“Find the reason and you find the answer. It will be revealed”, he said to himself and decided to look for someone who would know more about Maggie’s case. Someone from the DVD interviews - one of her closest friends.
It turned out the owner of the hotel was one of them.
The next morning, as he went downstairs for breakfast, he met Jackie on the way.
“Good morning. Did you sleep well?”
“Not so much. I was up on the phone with my son, then the guests made lots of noise.
“Are the Slovenians back?” he asked casually, sipping calmly from his coffee.
“Yes. They came late last night. Boris had a fight with Natasha. He left at midnight to get drunk downtown”, Jackie said.
“How do you know that?”
“I heard them down the corridor. Their room is at the same level. They were so loud, you couldn’t miss it if you tried.”
Aysun came to sit at their table.
She spoke seriously:
“So where is he now? Don’t forget he still has that gun.”
“He must show up for the selection night. We’ll ask about his gun when we see him.”
Aysun got up.
“I must get my outfit ready for the show tonight, but later I’d like to go out and see the city. Would you like to come too?”
“First I need to discuss something with the hotel manager”, Kevin replied.
“But if you’re going out later we’d be happy to join you, wouldn’t we Jackie?”
“Sure”, she said. “We’ll come.”
“Ok, it’s settled then. I’ll see you in two hours?”
“We can meet in front of the hotel”, Kevin concluded, looking at Aysun’s deeply serious and attentive almond eyes.
She had a reason to want to spend time with the detectives, he thought. She probably knew more about everything than anyone in the dancers group.
The owner of the hotel was a very kind Italian lady named Luz. She had long blonde hair and thoughtful eyes. She wasn’t old, as Kevin had expected, but at most in her thirties. She had inherited the hotel from her aunt and had been running