Chapter 5
The front door beeped at one minute past one the next afternoon.
Helen looked up from the damaged wedding album on the dining table.
The lock clicked. A woman in a gray uniform pushed the door open with one hand and pulled a cart of folded sheets and cleaning supplies behind her.
She stopped when she saw Helen.
"Oh. I thought the house was empty."
"Who gave you the code?"
"Mr. Parker. I'm here for the turnover."
The woman checked the address on her phone, then looked toward the stairs.
"The last guest checked out early, right?"
Helen stared at the clean white sheets stacked on the cart.
"There are no more guests."
The woman frowned and turned her phone around.
A cleaning schedule filled the screen. The house address appeared at the top. Beneath it was a note:
PREVIOUS GUEST DEPARTED EARLY. FULL RESET REQUIRED.
The next line showed another name.
DANIELS FAMILY — CHECK-IN 3:00 P.M.
Helen read it twice.
"Richard told me the rentals were stopped."
"I only know what's on the schedule."
The cleaner reached for a bundle of sheets.
Helen stepped between the cart and the stairs.
"No."
The woman froze.
"You're not cleaning the bedrooms."
"I was already paid for the turnover."
"Then keep the payment. But no one is going upstairs."
Helen called Richard.
He answered quickly this time.
"The cleaner is here."
A pause.
"She's supposed to be."
"You said there would be no more guests."
"I said I stopped the rentals."
"There is a family arriving at three."
"That reservation was already confirmed."
Helen gripped the phone harder.
"Then you didn't stop anything."
"I stopped taking new bookings. We can't cancel people who have already paid."
The night before, he had looked directly at her and promised there would be no more guests. Now he was changing the meaning of his words as if Helen had misunderstood them.
"Tell them not to come."
"Helen, be reasonable. It's one family."
"It was one man yesterday."
"And throwing him out accomplished what? We lost the stay, we'll probably have to refund him, and now he can leave a bad review."
Helen looked toward the empty place on the wall where her photograph had hung.
Richard still sounded more troubled by the stranger's review than by what his wife had found in the storage unit.
"No one else is entering this house."
"You have no idea how much damage you're creating."
"I know exactly what was damaged."
Her eyes dropped to the swollen wedding album.
Richard released a hard breath.
"Do not send the cleaner away. Let me handle this."
"You handled it last night."
Helen ended the call.
The cleaner stood beside her cart, carefully avoiding Helen's eyes.
"I don't want trouble," she said.
"Neither do I. Please take your things and leave."
"What about the guests?"
"They won't be staying here."
The woman hesitated, then turned the cart around. The wheels bumped over the threshold, and the door closed behind her.
Helen locked it.
For the second time in two days, she had removed someone her husband had authorized to enter her home.
But the cleaner had shown her the schedule.
Helen looked at the clock.
It was five minutes past one.
The next guests would arrive at three.
She had less than two hours to stop another family from walking through her door.