Stay nice. Stay smiling. Don’t get upset.
“Right. Thank you so much!” I chirp at her. She ignores me. I drag my case away from the desk and open up my Airbnb app. There are a few places to rent scattered in the nearby village, but they’re all booked. Panic rings through me as I widen the search.
This time, one listing pops up. I tap on it, and a photo of a wooden cabin fills my screen.
The Cabin, hosted by Cameron.
I greedily scan the description.
Set on the scenic farmland of Lochview sheep farm, The Cabin is a rustic, off-the-grid wooden cabin. A perfect overnight rest stop for hikers travelling through the Highlands.
A hiking cabin set on a sheep farm. Not exactly a luxury spa resort. But whatever. I quickly request to book for the night and then wait with bated breath. Come on, Cameron. I need you.
A notification pops up.
Your host, Cameron, has accepted your request.
Relief floods through me. Thank God. I knew I loved Cameron. A message flashes over my screen.
When will you be here
I check my maps app.
I’m about half an hour away but I need to call a taxi!
Thank you so much for accepting my request last minute!
After a moment of thought, I send the sparkle-heart emoji.
There’s a long, long pause until I eventually get a reply.
Fine
I breathe out a sigh of relief. Fine. Everything will be fine. I have a place to sleep, and I can work all of this out tomorrow. I bounce back to the reception desk.
“All sorted! Can you give me the number of that taxi, please?”
In the end, it takes the taxi over an hour to arrive at the resort.
The driver, a silver-haired man called Dougal with a Scottish accent so thick I struggle to understand it, chatters to me happily as he drives through the winding roads. “Dinnae fret, ye’ll havea lovely time,” he tells me cheerfully. “It’s a sweet wee farm. The lads will take good care of ye. They’re so helpful to us village folk. Why, Fraser just fixed my pipes the other week.”
I hum and nod, looking worriedly out of the windows. I don’t know who Fraser is, and I’m too nervous about my current situation to care. Night has fully fallen as we’ve been driving, and I can’t see anything beyond the few feet of grass and trees illuminated by the headlights. I try to send Lulu my location in case I get murdered and realise my signal is gone.
Shit.
Eventually, the driver pulls up in the middle of nowhere. “Here we are,” he says.
I peer out of the window dubiously. In the beam of the headlights, I can just about make out a shadowy cabin surrounded by trees.
It feels a bit like the beginning of a horror movie.
I check my phone, hoping to message Cameron and ask him to confirm that he lives in the middle of the pitch-black woods, but then remember I have no signal. Great.
“Um,” I say. “Are you sure this is it?”
He nods. “Off you go, lass. Don’t worry, the Lochview lads will take good care of ye.” He frowns. “Hey, while you’re here, if you see Alec, will you tell him to show his face down in the village? It’s been damn near a year since anyone saw him last. People are starting to wonder if he died and it’s been covered up.”
Oh God. I was right. There’s been anactualmurder here.
