Adrian opened his eyes. With a yawn, he sat up in his bed. Something had woken him up. A sound?
He walked up to the door and, opening it a crack, peered outside. One room away, Hunter stood before the door in his pyjamas. His brows were furrowed and he had an angry look on his face.
“What’s wrong?” Adrian asked. He exited the door and started walking towards where Hunter stood. Instead, seeing what Hunter was staring at stopped him dead in his tracks.
Lying on the floor, in a pool of blood, inside the room was Raven.
“Did you hear it too?” Hunter asked quietly.
“I heard a sound. I didn’t know what it was,” Adrian said. “I do now.”
“A gunshot,” Hunter muttered. He turned and looked at the six doors on the other side of the hall. Adrian followed his gaze. None of those doors had opened. Adrian turned around and looked at the Hwang’s door. It wasn’t open either. He knew what that meant.
“We should wake the others up,” Hunter said.
After waking up Hwang first and explaining to her what had happened, the three went over to the left side to wake up the other six. There was no panic, only calm acceptance when they were told that Raven had been murdered. The nine people walked over to Raven’s room where Raven lay dead on the floor and, as they had done the day before, they started cleaning up.
Adrian helped Hunter, Raj, and Kel carry Raven’s body on her bed. There had been a gun left atop Raven’s body. After a short debate, they decided to take it down to the living room where the detective could take a look at it without suspicion during the day. Then they divided work amongst themselves and began cleaning the floor. The women mopped and wiped the blood off the floor while the men set about picking up the solid matter that had been blown out of Raven’s head. After that, they covered Raven’s body as they had Richard and Tharonby’s and then left the room, shutting the door behind them.
“Our host had to kill Raven of all people,” Hunter muttered after the others had dispersed and walked back to their own room. “Three people from our side have died. Do you think there’s a pattern there?”
“I don’t know. Tharonby wasn’t part of the pattern,” Adrian said. Only Richard and Raven were. Tharonby had died because she had figured out his identity. “I’m going to go shower.”
“What time do you think it is?” Hunter asked, pointing at the windows.
Adrian stared at the sunlight steadily streaming through the window. It was yellow – no, orange. Slowly turning golden. The shadows cast by the metal grills were long but not too long. He could tell it was morning.
“I’d say around six,” he said. “See you later at breakfast. I think I’ll be staying in my room for a while.”
After Hunter left, Adrian returned to his own room. The others had gone to their respective rooms to brush their teeth and change their clothes. Adrian started doing the same.
A few minutes later he stood before the bathroom mirror, staring at the brush going back and forth across his teeth in the reflection. He was thinking about all he had seen an hour ago at Raven’s room.
The gun left on top of Raven’s body had been a GSh-18, a gun used primarily by the Russian Armed Forces. Adrian couldn’t help but smile at the irony. Raven had been killed by the weapon of the people she hated.
While moving the body to the bed, Adrian had observed slight burn marks around the entry wound. She had been shot point blank. The exit wound was on the same level as the entry wound. The killer had been about the same height as Raven.
That information was useless. Everyone was more or less of the same height.
Now, onto something more important. Hunter had heard the gunshot. That was what had woken him up. He had had described that it hadn’t been loud and had instead sounded like someone had set off a small firecracker that turned out to be a dud. Curious, he had opened his door and slowly crept outside only to discover Raven’s body in the room next to his just moments before Adrian had opened his own room’s door.
As for Adrian himself, he had heard a sound although he could not have determined what it was if he hadn’t seen Raven’s body like that.
Hwang and the occupants of the six rooms on the other side had heard nothing.
Adrian spit the toothpaste foam into the basin and then rinsed his mouth. Putting away the toothbrush, he took off his clothes and entered the shower. In all his life he had never directly handled a dead body. The day before he had only helped clean Richard’s blood off the floor. Today he had not only helped carry Raven’s body, he had picked up the remains of her brain off the floor as well. He felt unclean and was doubtful if a shower alone would be enough for him to mentally wash off that grimy feeling. He decided to go for a swim in the pool room later that day.
He turned his thoughts back to the case.
It was obvious that the host had used a silenced gun to shoot Raven. Contrary to what is shown often in movies, a silencer doesn’t completely silence the sound from a gun. It would instead dull the otherwise loud bang to a tolerable one. But they should have still heard it regardless.
Soundproof walls?
He hadn’t heard anything the night Tharonby had been murdered either. There should have been some sound.
Yes, the walls must be soundproof. Hunter, despite being right next to Raven’s room, had heard a dull bang. A room away, the same sound had sounded even softer to Adrian. They must have heard whatever sound had escaped through Raven’s room’s open door. Hwang, being the furthest away, had heard nothing. The other six, being way across on the other side with their doors closed, hadn’t heard anything either.
As for the host, he or she must have walked off immediately into their room after shooting Raven. The most probable suspects in this case would be Hunter and Hwang since their rooms were not too far from Raven’s.
Do they suspect me of being the killer? Adrian wondered. His room too was quite near Raven’s. What about the other six? Any of them could have killed and walked off into their room by the time Hunter or Adrian come out to investigate what had happened.
So, in conclusion, everyone was an equal suspect.
Adrian sighed. He turned the shower off and then exited the bathroom, rubbing himself with a towel. He put on fresh clothes he had brought to his room from the locker downstairs the day before. Then he sat down at the table.
Adrian had stopped making a mental list, instead opting to write them down on paper. He crossed out the names of the people who had died. This time, he added countries next to the people’s names:
Hwang China
Richard United States of America
Raj India
Kel Somalia
Eun-Kyung South Korea
Hunter Australia
Akiko Japan
Shanice Canada
Raven Sweden
Antoine Italy
Tharonby Norway
He arranged the list alphabetically in descending order:
Richard United States of America
Raven Sweden
Eun-Kyung South Korea
Kel Somalia
Tharonby Norway
Akiko Japan
Antoine Italy
Raj India
Hwang China
Shanice Canada
Hunter Australia
He stared at the list for a few seconds. Could this be the order? Ignoring Tharonby who had died out of order, the list made sense if he started form the bottom. Richard had died first, followed by Raven. Then this meant Eun would be the next to die.
Adrian frowned. Was this really the pattern? If it was, others would soon discover it too. On top of that, this would place him fifth on the list behind Kel. When his turn came and he didn't die, suspicions would turn towards him. The host would surely want to avoid that.
Adrian shook his head. This couldn’t be it then.
A bell rang.
“Good morning everyone! It’s seven o’ clock in the morning. I hope everyone’s woken up.
If you haven’t discovered her already, Raven is dead. I put a bullet through her little black skull this morning. I wish you were there to see the way her brain sprayed all over the floor. It was beautiful.
You’re psychotic, Adrian thought. His thought briefly wandered to his friend Peter and Antei. Were they looking for him? He had effectively been missing for three days after all. Today would be the fourth.
I know you all must be stressed out. The detective, especially. I bought and placed all those bottles of alcohol in the kitchen for a reason. Please use it. It’s not poisoned, I promise. There would be no point to having all of you dead in a single night.
That’ll be all for today. Have a nice day!”
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