She walked over to the electronic coat rack and pressed a button. The rack stopped and she waved a hand. “Have at it. I’d start about here and go clockwise. I think the ones before this are from earlier in the evening.”
He began looking. “I hate to cut out early, but the weather is getting worse and my car isn’t made for ice and snow. This has all the makings of a big ice storm.”
“An ice storm? Surely not. In the Hill Country in early December?”
“Freak storm.” He pulled out his smartphone, frowning as he tapped icons. “I can’t pull up the weather app in here, but I looked at it right before I decided to leave. The temperature is dropping and the rain turned to sleet some time ago.”
“Damn. We’re nowhere close to the end of the ball. The silent auction hasn’t ended yet.”
“I’m sure there are a lot of trucks and SUVs here. Most of those people won’t worry about the weather.”
“What kind of car do you have?” she asked curiously as he flipped through the coats.
“Hmm? Oh, it’s a Ferrari.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Nice car,” she said dryly. He must have made a killing in Dallas. Not that it surprised her. She’d always known Harlan had it in him to go far.
Still rifling through the coats, he threw her a grin. “What can I say? I like sports cars.”
Savannah had a number of other questions, but she stifled the urge to ask them. She walked inside to see if she could help. “Haven’t you found it yet?”
“No. There are a lot of coats here and a number of them look just like mine.”
The door slammed shut behind her, the sound reverberating throughout the small room. Startled, Savannah turned around to look. “That’s weird. I don’t know why the door slammed shut. There’s no breeze.” She walked over to it, turned the handle and tried to open the door. No luck. Setting her shoulder against it, she tried again. Still wouldn’t budge. She thought about kicking it, but her shoes—silver skinny, high-heeled sparkly sandals—weren’t made for that. She’d break her toes if she tried.
“Harlan, can you come see if you can open this door?”
“Hold it. I think I found my coat.”
“Fine, but I need your help.”
“Help with what?” he asked, emerging from amongst the multitude of coats and wraps.
“The door,” she repeated impatiently. “I can’t get it open.”
He hung a coat on the hook beside the rack and walked to the door. He turned the knob, pushed, and when it didn’t open he tried again. He rattled the doorknob, put his shoulder to the door and pushed. “It feels like it’s locked.”
“That’s impossible. The only way it could be locked is if someone locked it from the outside.”
“Whatever, I think that’s what happened.”
“Try again.”
He complied. Again, it didn’t budge. “We’re stuck.”
“Stuck? How can we be stuck? That’s ridiculous.”
“Maybe so, but that doesn’t change the fact that I can’t get the door open.”
“Who would have locked us in here? And why?”
“I don’t have a clue. Do you?”
“No. I can’t imagine how this happened.” Tapping her foot on the floor, she stared at the door, then turned to Harlan and said, “Do something.”
He laughed. “Like what? Kick it open?”
“Yes.”
