For three seconds nobody moved, then Dorian was past Marco and into the hallway. I was right behind him, my head still pounding, and my legs still unreliable. We went down the corridor toward my mother's room with Marco calling after us about the grounds team already moving, the gates already locked, nobody seen leaving.
When we got to her room, the door was open, the window was open, and curtains were pulled back, leaving cold air moving into the room. The bed was empty, and the ice pack melted into a damp patch on the pillow, her shoes gone from beside the bed.
Dorian went straight to the window.
"Ground floor," he said, more to himself than to me, leaning out, looking left and right along the stone, "she didn't fall, there's no—" he stopped, looked down at the flower bed below, and s
