The minute was almost up. The smoke was getting thicker by the second.
A clue. A word. Four letters. Was it something in the anniversary card? Maybe the invitation? What was it? She closed her eyes and pictured the motel, the rooms, the pool… It had to be there somewhere, hiding in plain sight.Four letters… What wasn’t she getting?What?
Suddenly, she had it.
It was so obvious, it had been in front of them this whole time, flashing brightly, taunting them. The road sign: four letters. It had clearly been recently repaired—and not very well, as two of the letters were out of sync. Why had Bates gone to the effort to repair the sign at all? He hadn’t bothered to fix anything else around the motel. Just the four-letter sign, winking at them over and over.
The motel name was the clue. It had to be, right?
She heard Alex coughing. Her eyes were stinging. There were all kinds of noises, creaking metal, crackling fire. When she looked around, she could barely make out Alex’s outline through the smoke.
The keypad lit up. This was their last shot, their last three guesses. They couldn’t last much longer in this hellhole.
She focused on the name. They had already triedL O B A. No luck. That would have been too obvious. But Loba meant wolf in Spanish. Wolf. Why wolf? This wasn’t an area with wolves. That must mean something. Why else would Bates choose wolf?
Leaning over the keypad, she typed carefully, her eyes smarting from the smoke.
W O L F
Beep. Red light. Her heart was beating too hard, she felt sick. Only two chances left; she had to get it right. Something to do with the sign.Think!
Maybe she had it the wrong way around? Maybe it wasn’t what the motel name had been changed to; maybe it was the old name?
Quickly, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the coaster, turning it over to look at the image on the front. She peered at it in the smoky dark, scanning the faded photo of the old motel. The road sign was cut in half under the image of the rose in the corner. Only the first two letters were visible—R and O. Could it be? She looked back at the rose image. There were pink roses all over the motel—on the curtains, the dodgy wall art, the cheap laminate countertops. Could it beThe Rose Motel?
That must be it!
Her hand was shaking as she typed the letters:
R O S E
Beep. Red light. Wrong again.
A rush of panic hit her. They had one last chance. What could it be? They’d tried everything! She’d been so sure it was the motel’s name. It was the last thing to try, the last thing that made sense.
The smoke caught her, and she coughed hard. It was impossible to breathe. But she had to. She could hear Alex coughing at the door, and something else that sounded like shouting. Light was cutting through the smoke.Was the door open?
Ana pushed the thought away. She couldn’t screw this up. Alex was depending on her. There was only one way they both survived this. She stared at the glowing keys, her eyes watering, coughing hard.
Motel Loba, Wolf Motel, Rose Motel… What was she missing? She pictured the road sign. That stupid, miserable light, looming over everything from the moment they had arrived. Flashing over and over, the red and yellow lights out of sync. MOTEL L B, MOTEL O A, MOTEL L B. Two of the letters newly replaced in a mismatched font. Two of the old letters—something O, something A.
Ana gasped. Suddenly she had it—she knew the motel’s old name.She had been so close. Just one letter off. It must be the code. It had to be—it had to.
It was impossible not to cough. She pulled her shirt over her mouth and held it in place with her left hand. With her right hand she reached for the keypad.
This time her fingers didn’t shake.
She brushed the ash off the keys and carefully typed four letters.
Something O, something A.
R O S A
The Motel Rosa. The pink motel.
Click.
The lock released. She’d done it. She’d cracked the code.
