The Patchwork House by Richard Salter Page B

definitely from the kitchen. It wasn’t loud this time, but it was clearly in pain. It was also clearly coming from Derek.
    I couldn’t wait any longer.
    “Beth, if you can hear me, I’m in the kitchen!”
    But there was no response. I had to help Derek. I ran the length of the hall, my swinging lamp causing shadows to lurch at me as I passed by. I stepped down into the kitchen and looked about me. The room was empty but for the detritus we had left from our abandoned meal. There were no more screams, the room was utterly silent.
    “Derek?” I called, not as loudly as I’d intended. “Derek, are you there?”
    No response. Maybe he really was upstairs. Maybe there were pipes or ducts that relayed sound from other parts of the house. Perhaps all I’d heard was an echo of Derek calling from upstairs.
    If I went upstairs now, I could be abandoning him. Maybe he was in the conservatory, or even in the ballroom. Perhaps he was in the upstairs apartment and the sound had carried into the kitchen via the narrow stairway. I shone the light in that direction. The door was closed but perhaps some sound filtered through. But how would Derek gain access to the apartment? There was no way in from upstairs.
    I listened for another few seconds and then I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to check on Beth. I retreated from the kitchen, back into the hallway, and hurried to the foot of the stairs. As I came around the bottom bannister and started my ascent, I was aware of someone coming down from above.
    I jumped, my heart in my mouth, and raised the lamp.
    It was Derek, torch in hand.
    “What the fuck, man?” he said, confused at the look on my face. “Something wrong?”
    “Derek, where were you?”
    “I was in the library. I’ve got the laptop, see?” He shined his torch at the computer tucked under his other arm.
    My head was starting to spin. What the hell was going on?
    “Where’s Beth and Chloe?”
    Derek just stared at me. “With you in the drawing room, no?”
    “Oh God, oh God no.”
    I charged past Derek, taking the steps two at a time. When I reached the landing, the upstairs was quiet.
    Derek came running up behind me. He was no longer carrying the laptop so he must have left it at the bottom of the stairs.
    “Where are they, Jim? Where did Chloe go?”
    “She came up here, looking for you. We heard you screaming, so she just ran up here. Beth followed her with a torch.”
    “I wasn’t screaming. I was just disconnecting the laptop. I didn’t see or hear anything. Wait a minute, if Beth followed Chloe with a torch, are you telling me that Chloe didn’t have one?” Derek sounded mad as hell.
    “Yeah she just ran out without thinking. We heard you scream and she was off. I tried to stop her…”
    “I didn’t hear a fucking thing!”
    We’d reached the library now. It was so quiet up here, apart from us arguing.
    “Beth?” I called. “Chloe? Where are you?”
    Icy tendrils clutched at my chest. I couldn’t have lost both of them, it just wasn’t possible. It was a big house, but it wasn’t that big.
    “We need to check every room. Maybe they stumbled in the dark and hit their heads.”
    “Both of them?” Derek sounded incredulous. “Chloe!” he called. “Answer me, damn you.”
    Inside the library everything was as it had been. The camera still stood on the tripod in the corner, and opposite was the bookshelf that had moved earlier that evening. The dustcovers were still on the centre table and the chairs around it.
    We left the library.
    “Split up,” Derek commanded. “I’ll go search the bedrooms and the games room. You go back past the stairs and check those rooms.
    “I don’t want to lose you too.”
    “You won’t, we’ll keep calling out, okay?”
    “Okay.”
    “One thing I want to know before we part, Jim.”
    “What?”
    “Why did I meet you coming up the stairs? Why didn’t you follow the girls immediately?”
    “I heard you screaming too, but it was coming from the