Behind her came a shout and swearing. There was a thunder of footsteps. Hands grabbed her waist.
“Away, away from him. Carter! Get back!”
Sierra pulled her to her feet and spun her from the scene.
Carter tried to get a handle on her racing thoughts. She couldn’t breathe. “We—we have to call an ambulance.”
“Did you touch him?”
“What?”
“Carter.” Sierra’s eyes were wide. Frightened. “Did you touch him?”
“I—I—” Her brain barely registered the question. “I shook his shoulders.”
“You didn’t try giving him CPR?”
“No—I only just found him—”
Sierra wrenched out her phone. “I’m calling 911.”
Adi and Beck gaped down at the scene as Sierra dialed with trembling fingers.
“Hi, there’s—there’s a body. We found a body.”
Abody.
Carter turned to look again at Louis. It was so unnatural, the way he stared at the ceiling.
Louis Augustus Russell was dead.
“Oh my god,” she said, no longer able to see through her burning tears. “Oh my god.”
She fell forward into Adi. After a brief hesitation, his arms came around her, tight and protective.
In the muddled background, Sierra was giving details of the hotel.
“I’m gonna hurl,” Beck said, running to the bathroom.
It was the smell—Louis had soiled himself, and it was visceral and foul andawful—
“Get me out,” she said into Adi’s shoulder. “Get me out of here.”
He led her past Sierra, back into the hallway, where the air was clearer. She sucked in fresh breaths, trying to regain herself.
Adi drew away. “I’m going back in.”
“No, don’t—”
“There’s a note. On the coffee table. I want to see what it says.”
Adi went into the hotel room. Carter hugged herself, shivering from the sudden cold. The smell was starting to waft out.
She didn’t want to be alone. After a hesitant moment, she went back inside, holding her breath.
Sierra was still talking to the emergency services. Adi was on the other side of the coffee table, bent over a piece of hotel paper.
Carter pressed her wrist to her nose and inched closer so she could see what it said, doing her best to keep her gaze away from the body.
