Free Shadow of Reality by Donna Fletcher Crow

her? It was all just playacting. But this extended role-playing got hold of you so. Sometimes it was hard to separate reality from fantasy.
    She took a deep breath and yanked the bath door open. Weak laughter accompanied her relief at finding the tub empty. With a firm vow to be more sensible in the future, she went out to meet Richard.
    “No luck?” he asked.
    “I’ll have to admit I considered that lucky.”
    “Is that first night still bothering you?”
    “No, of course not.” Then she thought of Richard’s open honesty to her. “Well, some. Shall we just say I’m a little shy when it comes to meeting bodies in bathtubs?”
    One of the uneven floorboards caught her foot, and she started to stumble, but Richard caught her arm. “Thanks,” she said, “I have all the bumps memorized at our end of the hall.” She was now on firm footing, but Richard still held her arm.
    And he continued to hold it even when the small alcove at the end of the dim hall proved empty and they had turned to search the other direction.
    “We were talking about children,” Elizabeth prompted.
    Richard nodded. “Yes, we were.” He was quiet so long Elizabeth thought the conversation must be over. Then he said, “I think the thing I always looked forward to most was teaching them things. By the time I get students in college, most of them are either all confused or overconfident. The joy of having a fresh, inquiring, young mind to guide, to show the world to—” he stopped.
    “It isn’t too late, you know. You can still have children. You’ll meet somebody.”
    The pressure of his hand increased on her arm. “I thought I had.” The infinite sadness in his voice made her choke.
    Then another team came around the corner from the south corridor. “Any luck?” they called.
    Richard replied to them, “We searched that direction. Didn’t find anything.”
    “Let’s go downstairs.” The team went into a huddle.
    “We should check that hall, maybe they missed something,” someone suggested.
    “Isn’t there an attic to this place?”
    “Look for trapdoors.”
    Elizabeth and Richard walked on until she noticed something in the wainscoting. “Look! They just said trapdoors, and here one is—now I remember noticing it earlier.”
    Richard tapped at the section of paneling surrounded by a narrow molding. A hollow sound answered him. “You’re right. It probably goes to a crawl space that leads to heating pipes, wiring, plumbing—whatever servicemen might need to get to.” He took a key out of his pocket and pried at the molding. The panel wrenched loose from the wall.
    Elizabeth bent over and peered into the black space. “If this really were a house in England I’d say that was a priest hole. What a perfect place to hide a body.”
    “Don’t suppose you packed a flashlight?”
    “No. And it’s sure to be filthy in there—with us both wearing white.” She thought for a moment. “Oh, there are candles in those sconces on the wall by the fireplace. I’ll be right back.” She sped down the corridor toward their rooms, then turned and called back, “Don’t leave that spot—we found it, I want the points.”
    In a few minutes, she was back. Richard held the flickering flame in the hole. Even with the little they could see from the tiny light, it didn’t take long for their disappointment to register. There was no body curled in the doorway, and the presence of cobwebs hanging from the pipes made clear the futility of crawling behind the walls in either direction.
    Richard puffed out the candle and pushed the paneling back into place. “Well, so much for that brilliant idea.”
    “But there must be others. I’ll bet every corridor has one of those for repair access.”
    “Right, keep watching for them, and we’ll check ‘em out.”
    They turned off the main passage into their own, which still was largely unoccupied. Elizabeth looked around thoughtfully. “They said no guests’ rooms, but empty ones ought