The Four-Fingered Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

were
in the servants’ end of the wing. Here were the linen cupboards, a storeroom for
brooms and mops, and the start of narrow stairs that led down the back of the hotel.
And Tom.
    His hand was gripping the banister, one foot out in space and ready to descend. He
started at the sight of them. None of those gold tooth-flashing smiles now. Just
a glowering one-eyed scowl.
    Charlie and Amelia stopped abruptly, then Charlie said, ‘What are you doing, sneaking
around up here?’
    Amelia thought that was brave, but also extremely rude, seeing as Charlie had never
actually met Tom before.
    Tom’s eyes widened for a moment, but then his face crumpled back into an angry grimace.
‘I could ask you the same question.’
    ‘Us?’ said Amelia, trying to keep her voice steady. ‘I live here! What about you?’
    Tom raised an eyebrow. ‘I live here too, and I have done for far longer than you
have, Amelia.’
    Amelia swallowed, suddenly wishing they’d never come up here.
    ‘So what?’ said Charlie. ‘You think that gives you the right to –’
    ‘To do my job? To attend to hotel business?’ said Tom calmly. ‘Yeah, I think it does.’
    Charlie glanced sideways at Amelia. She felt the look but refused to return it. She
was too busy trying to will herself invisible.
    ‘Now,’ Tom continued, ‘why don’t you kids move along? I don’t think your parents
would be too happy to find you snooping around the guest quarters, do you?’
    And with that, he limped heavily down the stairs. Amelia closed her eyes, stomach
twisting. If she’d been on the wrong side of Tom before, what did he think of her now ?
    ‘Amelia?’ Mum called from the other end of the hotel. ‘Is that you home? Have you
got Charlie with you?’
    They ran back to the gallery end of the corridor and leant over the railing to see
her looking out from the library, a phone pressed to her ear. The phone cord stretched
tight behind her, so she couldn’t come out any further.
    ‘Mum!’ Amelia was flooded with relief. ‘Tom was up here – in Miss Ardman’s room!’
    ‘Tom? Really?’ Mum frowned.
    Amelia and Charlie glanced at each other.
    ‘I hope you two didn’t bother him while he was working,’ said Mum, taking away any
thread of hope she’d be on their side. ‘Oh, err, hang on.’ She turned her attention
to the phone. ‘I’m sorry, could you just give me a moment? Well, yes, I know I was
waiting on hold for you, but now I just need thirty seconds to – right, very kind
of you, I’m sure.’ She covered the mouthpiece, and turned back to them. ‘Look, never
mind, I’ve got to take this. But don’t distract Tom, OK? You can see how much work
this place needs before we can open.’
    ‘But, Mum –’
    Mum held up a finger. ‘Not now. Go on – scoot. I’m busy.’
    ‘Come on, Charlie,’ muttered Amelia. ‘Let’s go to my room.’
    ‘ Hotel business, ’ Charlie sneered, following her across the gallery to the family
wing. ‘Yeah, right! As if that’s what Tom was doing!’
    ‘Yeah,’ Amelia breathed. She crept into her room and over to the bay window, beckoning
Charlie to follow. ‘That’s why I want to see where he goes.’
    ‘Why are you whispering?’ said Charlie, in his usual voice.
    ‘Shh!’
    Amelia crouched on the window seat, and saw Tom trudge down the steps, then pause
and glare at the hotel. He took a step back towards them, then thought better of
it and continued across the grass in the direction of his house.
    ‘Go on,’ Amelia murmured. ‘Keep going … don’t hang around here …’
    Finally, Tom stomped off down the driveway and across the lawn to the magnolia trees.
    Amelia breathed a sigh of relief.
    ‘You know,’ said Charlie, ‘Tom must have seen that woman sunbaking. We did.’
    ‘Miss Ardman? So?’
    ‘So, if Tom knew she was out there , then what did he want in here ? If it were really hotel business then he would have just told her, right, and come up and down the
front stairs like a normal