Light bled through the gap under the bathroom door. The exhaust fan whirred quietly on the other side, combating the faintly pungent smell that had begun creeping from the tub. Javi sniffed, pulling a face.
Vero put a hand to her temple as he reached for the doorknob. “Before you go in there, Javi, there’s something I should probably—”
“Bathroom break’s over, asshole!” Javi threw the bathroom door open. Vero and I stood back, knuckles to our teeth as Javi went still. Marco and Louis sat in a shallow puddle of melted ice. Louis’s tie hung loose around his neck and rosehip oil glistened on Marco’s belly. His skin had turned a pasty shade of blue around his haphazardly placed toupee, and Louis’s gray lips were parted as if in surprise.
Javi turned slowly to face us.
Vero crossed her arms over her chest. “Don’t look at me like that. Those guys were dead when we got here.”
“There’s a very reasonable explanation for this,” I said calmly. “We just don’t know exactly what it is yet.”
Javi tore out of the bathroom.
“Come on,” he said, towing Vero toward the door.
“Javi, wait—”
“Do not say one more word, V. You’re not confessing to anything.” He paced to the nightstand beside the bed. “I’m getting you out of here. Help me look for my phone. Those assholes probably took it. Maybe it’s still here.” He jerked open the drawer, then flung the comforter off the unmade bed. We all paused, staring at the distended belly of the sickly-looking wiener dog nestled in the rumpled sheets. Kevin lifted his head, too miserable to growl at us.
Vero turned to me as he whined and rested his muzzle on his paws. “Where’s Cam?”
“Who’s Cam?” Javi asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I assumed he was walking Kevin Bacon.”
Javi frowned. “This day could not possibly get any weirder.”
“Think it was the sausages?” Vero asked as Javi resumed his search.
“Maybe. But he seemed fine when we left them here.”
“You don’t think…” Vero paled.
“No!” I gasped. Was it even possible? We both turned to stare at Kevin’s swollen belly.
“… you will find what you desire in someone close to you…”she whispered.
“He holds painful secrets inside him…”
“… in festering, broken pieces.Oh, shit.”
“No! Absolutely no shit!” I insisted. “That drive has to be here somewhere.” I ransacked drawers and closets. Vero searched the bathroom. She knelt to check under the bed, stifling a cry as she pulled a tiny, mangled piece of plastic out from under it. She held it out to me, mortified. It looked suspiciously like the cover of a chewed-up thumb drive.
“He couldn’t have eaten the drive!” I argued. “It has metal in it!”
“Ike’s dog ate his tooth!”
Kevin whined again. We both turned to stare at him.
“What do we do?” Vero whispered while Javi rummaged in Louis’s luggage, looking for his cell phone. “We can’t leave Kevin Bacon here. For all we know, his next dump is worth fourteen million dollars.”
“We’ll take him with us. I’ll text Cam and tell him we took Kevin for a walk.”
“My phone’s not here,” Javi called over his shoulder. He swore, whipping his hand back as Vero shut the suitcase on his fingers.
“Will you please quit touching everything! You’re leaving fingerprints all over the place.”
“Good,” he said. “Better mine than yours.”
