“Fine.” With a hefty sigh, Hanna relented. Then she drew Liza in and kissed her again, harder than before, verging on passionate, which was something that—until right then—Liza hadn’t realised she’d been missing. It didn’t linger; it was sharp, intense, and almost hungry, but as Hanna pulled away Liza found herself wishing she wouldn’t, that she’d stay and … well, honestly, and not very much, because they were still outside a room that might have a murderer in it. But stay nonetheless. “I’ll be back soon,” Hanna said, and she ran off to find Mr Burgh.

After she was gone, Liza realised something upsetting. If they were wrong and the killer wasn’t waiting in the bedroom, Hanna was now wandering alone around the hotel while Liza was in the one place that was actually safe. And despite their relationship having settled into a pattern where Liza was the one doing reckless shit and Hanna was the one worrying, she had a sudden rush of panicked nausea at the thought she might have just sent her wife off into the arms of a multiple murderer.

And the fact that she’d said she’d be back soon didn’t help. That was the sort of thing people said before they got brutally slaughtered in every slasher movie ever.

“Are you okay?” The voice came from just inside their own damned bedroom door. It belonged—and Liza really felt she should have seen this one coming—to Ruby.

“Depends. Do you have a gun?”

A laugh, still pretty and musical. The taste of Hanna’s lips still on hers made Liza feel weirdly guilty. “No, but I’m working on it.”

“Why are you working on it?”

“Because this isn’t over. You’re the one who said so, remember? Vivien Ackroyd was murdered, and whoever killed her is coming for me next.”

Liza had no idea if that was true, and no idea if Ruby believed it was true. And no idea if those two things were at all related. “How do you know?”

“I’d rather not answer that question by shouting through a door,” replied Ruby through the door. Although not, to her credit, shouting.

“Well,”—Liza did her best to sound indignant—”you should have thought of that before you broke into my room.”

“Just come inside,” purred Ruby. Liza didn’t want to think of it as a purr, but a purr was the only way to describe it. “I won’t bite.”

There was a pause.

“Well?”

“Sorry.” It wouldn’t be quite true to say Liza snapped, but she certainly splintered a bit. “I was waiting for you to say, ‘Unless you want me to,’ or something.”

“Oh, credit me with some originality.”

“Sorry.”

“Of course … I am naked.”

Liza thunked her head back against the wall. “What?”

“I’m joking. Probably. You’ll have to come in and check.”