It was no use trying to explain anything to him when he was like that. I hated to leave him that way, but the only way I could get him to come out of his trance was to prove to him that I didn’t kill anybody. I had to find the killer, and to do that I had to find the statue first. I didn’t have a lot of time, either, because they were going to come and empty the dumpster with the evidence in it.
The pain in my ribs was getting worse and I felt sick so I went into the bathroom to throw up but I couldn’t. The toilet paper was unrolled all over the place and I couldn’t think who would have done that. I went to my room and opened the door, thinking I might lie down for a minute. I grabbed the edge of the open door and stood leaning against it and staring at the floor. It felt like a fist squeezing and twisting inside my chest, turning me inside out. Finally it let go.
I didn’t see Mr. Winkley, and I looked under the bed and all around the room for him but he wasn’t there. I thought that I shouldn’t have told the Colonel and Gladys that I saw a picture in his eye, because one of them might have told the killer and then the killer might have gone into my room and kidnapped him. Then I remembered the toilet paper was unrolled, and that made me think that he hadn’t been kidnapped, but he’d escaped and was running around loose in the hotel. Howie must have gone into my room looking for the statue, and when he opened the door Mr. Winkley ran out.
There was no telling how long the Colonel would be in his trance, or if he would help me anyway, and so I had to think for myself. My door had six panels just like Nancy’s door, and I looked at it, opened it and felt the panels. I figured either Howie or Roy killed Nancy. Howie could have pushed the panel out with his left hand, held it open with his right, and closed the door from the hallway with his right hand still sticking through the door into the room. But the Colonel had said that Howie couldn’t have crawled through. Crawled through what? I wondered.
Roy couldn’t have held the panel open and closed the door from the hallway, because he only had one arm. Maybe Howie and Roy worked together, but I didn’t think so because I was pretty sure that Howie didn’t even know the statue was Nancy’s until I’d told him about it.
The investigation was at a dead end. I’d followed or interrogated everybody except Roy. I couldn’t put a tail on Roy because he had a car and I didn’t. I’d tried to search his room but he always locked the door. I never wanted to talk to him, but I was running out of suspects.
I lay down on my bed and thought about it. If Roy killed Nancy and Howie didn’t help him, how did he get out of the room and lock it from inside, especially if he was carrying the statue in his only hand? What would he want the statue for, anyway?
I closed my eyes and tried to think. I pictured Roy standing there in Nancy’s room after killing her, and he’s standing there with the statue in his hand. He walks to the door, and he’s got to push and hold the panel open while he leaves the room, but he can’t close the door from the hallway with his hand sticking through the door, because the door would have to close on his arm, unless …
He used the statue to get out of the room!
I still didn’t know how Roy could have gotten into the room, but I had a pretty good idea how he might have gotten out.
I went straight to his room and stood outside his door. I never liked him and I never wanted to talk to him. I raised my fist to pound on the door.
Everybody always told me that I should stay away from Roy and don’t bother him. I wondered if it might be better for me to stay undercover, because if I knocked on his door and talked to him, then he’d know that I suspected him and he’d hide all the evidence.
Not only that, but the Colonel had told me to desist from further investigation, and so if I knocked on Roy’s door, that would be in direct contravention of the Colonel’s orders.
Then I thought that probably Roy wasn’t even in his room, and so there wasn’t any point in my banging on his door in the first place.
I tried to think of every reason not to knock on his door. The truth was, I didn’t want to get mixed up with him at all, because I was afraid that he would get to me the way he got to Nancy.
But he was the only suspect left. I had to at least try, for Nancy.