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Page 220
"Well, no. But he didn't say anywhere else, and where else could he mean?"
Suddenly fear and suspicion gripped Linda. "Gertrude," she said hurriedly, "you wait here for a few minutes until the steward comes. Make sure he takes all the valisesand if Peter hasn't shown up by then, you can ask if the steward has seen him. I'm going to make sure Mrs. Bates is all right."
In her hurry, Linda forgot to ask Gertrude for her key. Had the door been locked, she would have remembered as soon as she couldn't turn the knob. However, even as she came down the corridor, Linda could see that it was not even shut. Gertrude would not have left the door open no matter how briefly she expected to be away. Linda broke into a run and then stopped short, gasping with fright. Through the small aperture she could see the sole of a shoe.
The paralysis that held her did not last long. Cold as ice and wrenchingly reluctant, Linda forced herself forward. One part of her mind screamed at her to hurry, that Mrs. Bates might have fainted or had a heart attack and moments could be important, but under that, something warned that the old woman was deadnot of natural causes but horribly murdered. And as Linda's hand fell on the knob, it occurred to her that she had never seen death. She had seen the preludes, the comas and convulsions, but not death itself.
In that second frozen moment, before Linda could nerve herself to apply the pressure that

 
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