Do Not Disturb

Quinn admits to killing Derek. She considers her options: Turn herself in, or run. The idea of admitting to what she did tempts her, as she has bruises on her neck from Dereck’s assault. She wonders if a jury would sympathize with her. However, she reasons that Derek is well-liked and his family is well-connected, so turning herself in is not an option.



She goes upstairs to clean herself up. As she stops in her bedroom, she sees the bed made, which reminds her of Derek abusing her for not making it a certain way every day. Despite working at the bank full-time, she is also responsible for keeping the house meticulously clean and cooking, so as not to upset Derek. As she showers, she turns up the water to scald her as she remembers his abuse.

After showering, Quinn decides to cut her hair to try to change her appearance. Then, she packs a bag. She takes out a shoebox from the back of the closet where she has hidden her passport and money that she has been saving. She takes one last look around her apartment, realizing that she will never return, then leaves.

Quinn decides to drive to the Canadian border. Her older sister, Claudia, calls. Quinn is upset, thinking how Claudia is the only person she is going to truly miss. She considers telling Claudia about Derek, but knows that Claudia will try to convince her to come back. She has never told her about Derek’s abuse, knowing that Claudia would either not understand or get so angry she would do something to Derek. Instead, she pretends like nothing is wrong, telling Claudia that they can get dinner on Monday.

Quinn thinks back to meeting Derek. He came into her bank and asked to set up an account. He explained that his family owned one of the largest companies in Boston. Quinn was initially skeptical of Derek; however, after drinks and then dinner that Saturday, she fell in love with him.

After six months of dating, Derek proposed, then they got married six months after that. Quinn notes how perfect everything was until they got married, then Derek changed.

Quinn runs out of gas, so she stops at a small gas station. She decides to use her credit card one last time, taking as much money as she can from the ATM. She drops her phone into the back of a pickup truck, under a tarp, so that no one can track her.

As Quinn cashes out, she notices a man standing behind her, staring at her. She goes outside, then realizes that the man is following her. She quickens her pace to her car, then feels his hand grab her shoulder.

The man introduces himself as Billy Walsh. He tells Quinn that she used to babysit him. She doesn’t remember him, but the situation makes her extremely worried. Since she put her phone in Billy’s truck, he is local, which means the police will immediately find her phone. The fact that Billy recognizes her—after years without seeing her and with her hair cut off—means that she is more recognizable than she thought.

Billy asks for her number, but she dismisses him and gets back into her truck. As she starts to drive again, she realizes how cold and windy it has become, and knows a storm is coming.

As Quinn drives, she thinks about Claudia again. After their parents died, Claudia took over parental rights for Quinn. Throughout Quinn’s relationship with Derek, Claudia constantly tried to get her to leave him. However, Quinn would always reason that Claudia did not know just how powerful Derek was. He always threatened to take Quinn’s job and make sure she never worked again if she ever left him. Quinn again wonders if she should turn around and go back to Claudia for advice; however, she again decides against it.

After a few hours of driving, it gets dark and the weather gets worse. Quinn realizes that she is going to have to stop much sooner than she’d hoped. In the distance, she hears the sound of a siren.

A police car pulls up behind Quinn and flashes its lights. Quinn immediately panics, wondering if they have already found the body.

The officer asks for her license. He explains that she has a broken taillight. He lets her go without a ticket, but warns her about how dangerous it is—especially with the storm coming.

Quinn decides that it’s too risky to keep driving. She is likely to get pulled over again for her taillight—especially in the dark. She sees a sign for the Baxter Motel and decides to stay there for the night.

The motel is old and rundown. Quinn decides to drive her car around back to a diner called Rosalie’s Diner, hiding it from sight. She then goes into the lobby. After a few minutes, a man comes out and introduces himself as Nick Baxter. He tells her that he and his wife own the motel and there is only one other guest. He is surprised that Quinn is interested in staying. Nick asks her to fill out a form, and Quinn hesitates, only putting down the name “Kelly.” Nick takes the form back, telling her not to worry about it since she is only staying one night.

There are only three rooms on the second floor. Nick leads Quinn to number 203. Quinn sees that 202 is cracked open, and she gets the impression that someone is watching her. Nick tells her that Greta is staying there and that she has been living at the motel. Nick leaves her, telling her that he will bring back food for her.

Quinn looks out her window and sees an old, rundown house. There is the silhouette of a woman in the window, whom Quinn assumes is Rosalie. She waves, but the woman doesn’t wave back.

Quinn struggles with the television, which uses an antenna. She gets a picture long enough to see the news. She is relieved that there is still nothing about Derek’s body.



She thinks back to earlier in the day. She got off work early because of a conference and came home to find Derek already there. He initially seemed happy, then became enraged, insisting that she was there to meet a guy and cheat on him. When he started choking her, Quinn fought back.

Quinn realizes something for the first time: Derek seemed happy to see her at first and should not have been home. She deduces that he must have been meeting another woman there—which is why he was so angry when he realized it was Quinn. The thought only upsets her because she realizes that, if another woman was meeting Derek, they may find his body even sooner than Quinn thought.

Quinn realizes that she forgot to pack socks. She calls Nick, who suggests that she ask Greta for some. Quinn is hesitant, but Nick insists that she is nice.

She goes across the hall to room 202. After knocking, Greta lets her in. Greta is an old woman with gray hair and a slight European accent. Her room looks extremely lived in, with different bed sheets and mirrors all over the wall. She also has tarot cards laid out on the table. Greta tells Quinn that she was a fortune teller in a traveling circus for her entire life. When Quinn introduces herself as “Kelly,” Greta points out that she is using a fake name.

Quinn asks for socks, and Greta offers to find some for her. While she looks, Quinn mentions that room 201 is empty. Greta tells her that a woman named Christina Marsh was murdered there two years ago, so Nick always keeps it empty. She explains that the police suspected Nick—as no one forced themselves into the room—but she also insists that Nick didn’t do it. She starts to tell Quinn another reason why the police suspected Nick, then stops.

Quinn thanks Greta for the socks and offers to bring them back the next day, but Greta insists she keep them. Greta offers to read her fortune the next day. As Quinn leaves, Greta tells her to “be careful,” which unsettles Quinn.

Nick brings Quinn food. He is friendly, until Quinn mentions room 201. She asks him if someone really died there. He admits that a young woman did, and Nick found her body—she had been stabbed repeatedly. He tells her that the image still haunts him.

After that, Nick is dismissive, insisting that he needs to go home to Rosalie. Quinn asks if Rosalie will come to the hotel the next morning, but Nick tells her that she is ill.

Quinn tries to get the television to work again but fails. She thinks about Scott Dwyer coming to her home, then wonders what he will think of her once he finds the body. She thinks back to high school, when she and Scott dated. He was extremely nice to her, and it was clear that he was in love with her; however, she never really felt the same way. After she went away for school, they broke up.

Quinn decides to try to sleep. However, with everything going on, she is sure that it will be difficult.

Quinn repeatedly wakes up in the night from nightmares. One is of her first date with Derek, at a fancy French restaurant. However, after he leans in to kiss her, she stabs him in the chest, then watches him bleed out. She thinks of how, after she stabbed him in real life, she had a moment to call 911; instead, she let him die.

When Quinn finally wakes up, it is after nine o’clock. She looks in the mirror. She realizes how horrible her hair looks, while her face looks older and tired. Worst of all, though, she still looks like herself, which makes her nervous that she is still so recognizable.

Nick knocks on Quinn’s door with breakfast. She tells him that she is going to leave soon, but he points out that it snowed several feet overnight. Quinn insists that she needs to leave. Nick tells her that the plow will be there in the afternoon, but, seeing her panic, offers to help her shovel out her car. He tells her that he will get boots for her to wear from Rosalie, then meet her outside.

After Quinn checks the news and finds nothing on it about Derek, she begins to wonder if Derek is really dead. She tries to assure herself that he is, but then realizes that she never checked for sure. She angrily takes off her wedding ring and puts it in the bedside drawer next to a Bible.

In the hall, Greta has her door open. She points out Quinn’s socked feet, and Quinn tells her that she is getting boots from Nick. Greta warns her about taking anything from Rosalie, then mentions Christina Marsh. Quinn begins to wonder whether it was Rosalie who killed Christina, but Greta leaves her before she can ask.

Quinn and Nick try for over an hour to shovel out Quinn’s car. When Nick’s phone rings, Quinn can tell by his responses that Rosalie is angry he is outside with Quinn. He insists that he is just helping her.

When Nick hangs up, Quinn apologizes, but Nick insists that it’s okay. He tells her that his wife has multiple sclerosis. Her condition is getting progressively worse, leaving her unable to walk. He expresses his frustration that she gave up on her restaurant, focusing too much on what she can’t do.

When Quinn starts her car, it won’t move, as there is still too much snow around it. Frustrated, Quinn decides that she has to go back inside and wait for the plow to come.

Once they are inside, Quinn sees a bucket catching water from the leak in the ceiling. It is coming from room 201, and Nick tells her that he is going to have a plumber come look at it, as he can’t fix it. Quinn looks in the bucket and notes how strange it is that the water has an orangish tinge; she decides it must be rust.

Quinn goes back to her room. On the way, she looks at the door to room 201. There is a “Do Not Disturb” sign hanging on it. She hesitates, then decides to open it.

When Quinn tries the door, Greta tells her from behind that Nick always keeps it locked. Quinn apologizes, but Greta insists that Quinn is allowed to do whatever she wants, as it is not Greta’s hotel.

Greta invites Quinn inside her room for lunch. She serves her a delicious Hungarian stew. Quinn thinks of how happy it would make Derek if she could make it for him, then remembers that he is dead.

Quinn asks Greta about being in the circus. Greta insists that she has a “gift” and that it was good to put it to use. She asks Quinn if she is skeptical, and Quinn admits that she is. Greta asks to read her future anyway, commenting that Christina was skeptical, too, and died as a result. However, Quinn insists that she does not want to know.

Quinn stays in Greta’s room for over two hours, mostly talking about Greta’s past in the circus. Greta tells her that she had a husband, Bernie, who worked with her in the circus. However, he died of a heart condition.

Feeling more comfortable with Greta, Quinn agrees to let her read her future. Greta starts by talking about a man in Quinn’s past. She points out that Quinn is afraid of him. However, she then jumps up, panicked. She tells Quinn, “You go now. You…you are…danger” (104). Quinn asks if she meant to say “in danger,” but Greta is overwhelmed with fear. She insists that Quinn needs to leave.

Panicked, Quinn goes back to her room and packs her bag. She tries to knock on Greta’s door, but Greta doesn’t answer. She goes downstairs, deciding that she will wait in her car if she has to.

Nick stops Quinn in the foyer, seeing that she is panicked. She admits that she let Greta read her future. Nick points out that everything Greta does is fake. He tells her that she had a fight with her husband, and now she is running, then emphasizes the name “Kelly.” Quinn asks how he could tell those things, and Nick points out that she is very easy to read: She had a wedding ring on, but doesn’t anymore, and she is very obviously afraid of something.

Placated, Quinn decides that Nick is right about Greta. As she goes back to her room, she still can’t shake the feeling that it’s a bad decision to stay.

Back in her room, Quinn tries to sleep but keeps waking up after seeing Derek. She instead decides to read the Bible—the only book in the room. However, when she opens it, the words “Get out now, whore!” (111) are scribbled over the pages in red marker.

She looks out the window and can see Rosalie’s silhouette in the upstairs window of the house. She wonders if Rosalie wrote the message to her, but realizes it’s impossible if she can’t walk.

Quinn turns on the television. A news reporter talks about the storm. She then reports that the body of Derek Alexander was found the night before and that the police are trying to locate Quinn. Panicked, Quinn grabs her things to leave. However, when she gets to the stairs, she hears the voices of police officers below.

Quinn listens at the top of the stairs. The police show Nick a photo of Quinn and ask if he recognizes her. However, he tells them that he doesn’t. He explains that they have had no new guests in several days. Satisfied, the police leave.

Quinn goes back into her room, and a few minutes later Nick comes up. He tells her that he saw the bruises on her neck and knows that the guy “deserved” whatever happened to him. He also tells her that the plow came and that she will be able to leave soon.

Nick asks Quinn if she needs anything, then tells her that she should definitely keep Rosalie’s boots. Overwhelmed by Nick’s kindness—in stark contrast to Derek’s cruelty—Quinn begins to cry. Nick comforts her, then Quinn kisses him.

As soon as Quinn kisses him, Nick pulls away. He scolds her, insisting that he loves his wife. Quinn tries to apologize, but Nick tells her that she just needs to leave. He then leaves her alone in her room.

With Nick gone, Quinn is distraught with herself. She thinks of how she judged Derek for cheating on her, but now she tried to get Nick to cheat on his wife—who is extremely ill. She looks out the window and sees Rosalie’s silhouette still at the window. She realizes that Rosalie must have seen everything. She also sees Nick crossing the parking lot to the house, as the plow continues to work.

Quinn decides that her situation is hopeless. She will have no way of getting across the border, using her ID, or even driving her car. She realizes that she has to turn herself in. She grabs her bag and leaves, determined to go back home.

Quinn steps outside into the wind. As she starts to walk toward her car, she hears footsteps and then sees a dark figure coming toward her. A “raspy voice” says, “How could you do that?” (123), then the figure stabs her in the abdomen with a knife.