“The gas stove worked, after a fashion. The flame was very low.”
“Pressure giving out. It'll be gone in a day or so.”
“What will we do then?”
“We won't be here,” he assured her. “We're getting out of this town tomorrow.”
“There's no place to go.”
When they reached the fourth floor he paused to examine the keys he carried in his hand, and then flicked the light along the door numbers. The keys directed them away from the stairway toward the rear of the building. The first room he unlocked and kicked open proved to be a narrow one, holding but a single bed; the following two were replicas of the first. On the next try a large room having a double bed stood revealed in the gleam, and adjoining that a similarly large room with twin beds. He pulled her inside, locked the hall door, unlocked the connecting door between the rooms and locked the remaining outside doorway of the other bedroom.
“This is where we bunk,” he told her.
She watched him, saying nothing.
He waggled his thumb at the connecting door. “Which room do you want?”
Irma shook her head, not answering.