The Ashworth Park Hotel.
If Jenny was the riddle, she was starting to suspect the Ashworths had something to do with the answer.
Chapter 28
Hugh didn’t call Issy when he was leaving.
She’d waited up, watching a reality series about bitchy LA real estate agents, but he’d texted at ten to say he’d bumped into Warwick, who it turned out was another old mate. Issy’s emotions had swung between quiet fury—how dare he treat her like this!— and resignation. Hugh was an extrovert. It was one of the things she found so attractive about him. And he’d grown up in this town, so perhaps it wasn’t surprising that there were friends he wanted to see. Maybe she was being needy.
By ten thirty, she was asleep on the couch. When she woke at eleven thirty, she rang him but got no answer.Screw you then, she’d thought, and hung up without leaving a message.
Just after midnight she woke again and checked her phone, but there was still nothing. Not even a text. It occurred to her then that maybe something had happened to him. An accident, possibly. Should she call the police? And tell them what, though? My fiancé hasn’t come home from the pub? They’d laugh at her. Anyway, what could possibly have happened to him? He’d probably kicked on with his mates. It wasn’t even particularly out of character, if she was honest. There had been a couple of nights out when she’d gone home before him, when the trips to the bathroom started. He was probably just back at someone’s place, she’d told herself, then she’d put her phone on silent and gone back to sleep.
When she woke the following morning, bright rays of sunlight were shining through the gaps in the curtains. What time was it? She rolled over to look at the clock radio. Ten sixteen! Remembering Hugh, she sat up and reached for her phone, checking the notifications. Two missed calls, a voicemail message and four texts.
She read the messages first.
12:23amI ended up getting a room at the pub.
8:29amCall me when you’re up.
9:17amIssy I’m waiting around for you. Call me.
And half an hour ago:
9:49amWTF Issy? Are you still asleep? Or are you punishing me? If I don’t hear from you soon I’m going back to Sydney.
Crap. She quickly tapped a reply.
Sorry. Coming down now. I’ll meet you in front of the jail.
‘About fricking time,’ Hugh said when he saw her. He hitched his overnight bag higher on his shoulder, as though to point out it was getting heavy.
‘Sorry, I slept in. I didn’t realise my phone was on silent.’
‘Five more minutes and I would have left town.’
‘I was asleep, Hugh.’ A beat. ‘I tried to call you last night and you didn’t answer. How am I meant to know—’
‘It’s after ten, Issy. You knew I didn’t know where you were staying.’
‘But …’ She was lost for words. How was she the one in the wrong here? All week she’d been waiting for him to come, then he turns up without so much as a simple text to let her know and chooses to drink with random mates instead of going home with her!Shewas the one who should be angry! Wasn’t she?
Hugh huffed. ‘Can we go upstairs now? I’ve been in these clothes since yesterday. I need a shower.’
She nodded and turned back to the stairs. Tears threatened, but she forced them back.No one likes a crybaby, her mother’s voice said in her head as she opened the apartment door.
Hugh dropped his bag and glanced around, the corners of his mouth turned down. ‘It’s certainly not the Ashworth Park.’
She swallowed. Best just to apologise, try to get things back on track. Maybe he’d meet her halfway. ‘Sorry things got off to a bad start.’
He shrugged. ‘It’s fine,’ he said, still sulky.
She reached out and touched his arm, but he flinched. ‘I need a shower.’
She let her arm drop. ‘Bathroom’s down the hall.’
He picked up his bag. A moment later the shower started. Issy felt a surge of self-loathing and went into the bedroom to lie down. The weekend was wrecked. Was Hugh right to be annoyed? She tried to see it from his perspective. He’d come down to see her and she’d been more concerned about getting a decent night’s sleep than being there for him when he needed her. She shouldn’t have put her phone on silent. It was juvenile. It was her fault she didn’t hear him call.
