by Ani Gonzalez
The group turned to look at him. He paused, holding his pizza slice in mid-air. "What happened? Did I offend the quinoa gods?"
Leslie leaned up to whisper something in his ear. His eyes widened.
Fiona handed Luanne her plate.
"Well, there's my Knight of Swords," Luanne muttered.
"You did a card spread?" Fiona asked, trying to remember what the Knight of Swords meant. Luanne had pulled it when she'd read Fiona's cards last week. Fiona had asked whether she should expand her scented candles line and the Knight of Swords had been read as a green light. The card stood for aggressively going after one's goals.
She glanced at Tristan again. He was leaning forward, listening to Leslie. His handsome face expressionless.
With his faded shirt and torn jeans, he didn't look like a man on a mission. There was no assertiveness in his demeanor.
"Appearances can be deceiving," Luanne said, giving Tristan a suspicious glance.
The young man caught her looking at him and gave her a dazzling smile. Fiona reminded herself she was taken. That smile could make a woman forget things.
"But it's a very pleasing appearance," Fiona muttered.
"They all are," Luanne said in her best know-it-all voice. "The knights, I mean. You seldom see a really bad-looking knight. It's a charisma card. Now, kings are a different kettle of fish. They tend to be homely."
Fiona scanned the room. Other than Tristan, the group was mostly women, and no one seemed to fit that description. "Did you get any kings in your reading?"
"Oh, no," Luanne said. "I'm speaking generally. I got the upright Five of Pentacles and reversed Queen of Pentacles at the hospital, which really freaked Stella out."
Stella asked for a reading at the hospital? After a car accident? She must have been really worried. Not many people woke up after a traumatic event asking for a Tarot reading.
"Pentacles mean money, no?" Fiona asked.
The Five of Pentacles meant financial ruin. It had been on her spread also, causing her to panic. Luckily, it had been reversed, which meant an end to bad times, not a beginning.
This time, it wasn't reversed.
Financial troubles would explain why everyone was so worried. Yes, their friend was in the hospital, but it was more than that. The nervousness of the Hexalife staff had a hard edge of self-interest to it.
No surprise, given how the Hexalife contract worked. As a newbie, Fiona had little skin in the game. The boxes of inventory in her back room had impressed Gavin, but they were not a big risk. She could move those candles in a month or so. No biggie.
But that changed fast. To get to the next level, she had to buy twice as much inventory and include one of the featured products, none of which were candles. She also had to give up some of her profit margin as a "research and development" contribution. She would only get it back as part of her membership reward at the end of the year, along with her share of company profits, but it still stung.
And the higher your level, the bigger your R&D contribution. True, the membership reward also went up, but they paid that later—one payment per quarter. You had to shell out money for inventory and advertising upfront. You could put that on a credit card or use one of the company's financial plans, but you were still in the red for most of the year.
Most of the members here were level twenty or more. They had more members below them and everyone paid hefty R&D fees. The end of the quarter was in two weeks and they wanted their money.
"Yes," Luanne whispered. "Pentacles mean money. Stella said their December payment was late. She blurted it out when she saw the Five of Pentacles." Luanne glanced at her colleague, who was still staring at the paper in her hand, her face pale. "That's when she decided she absolutely had to attend the meeting tonight. I tried to convince her to stay home with me and rest, but she would have none of it. I couldn't—"
She broke off and put a finger to her lips. Fiona paused and listened. Tristan and Leslie were arguing beside them.
"We should still be getting those accounts," Tristan hissed. "Look, I'm sorry about Violet, of course, but we need those numbers. We asked for them months ago." He dragged his fingers through his perfectly tousled hair. "Anyway, Bella was the one pulling stuff together. Violet's condition shouldn't matter." He craned his neck and looked around. "Where is Bella, anyway?"
"She's late," Leslie said, aiming a reproachful glance at him. "Understandable, as she's had a big shock."
"Really?" Tristan asked, gesturing toward Flora and Stella. "They were in the accident, weren't they? If they can make it to the meeting, then so can Bella."
"Gemma went to get her," Leslie explained, mentioning a member Fiona had not met yet. "It's more complicated than that." Leslie lowered her voice. "Some people think it may not have been an accident. They think someone may have crashed into Violet's car deliberately."
Tristan's eyes widened in surprise. He stared at Leslie, then he laughed.
It was more of a cackle than a laugh, an incongruous sound coming from such a handsome man. It echoed through the room, leaving silence in its wake. The group turned, a dozen pale faces staring up at this golden-haired Adonis.
Finally, the rough crowing sound died. Tristan drew in a breath and shook his head.
"Well, I'm not surprised," he said. "If those numbers are as bad as I suspect, I would do in Violet myself."
Jaws dropped. Leslie covered her face with her hands. They all stared at him in shock.
Tristan shrugged. "Hey, I'm just being honest here. I'm level twenty-five, up to my eyeballs in Hexalife debt, and my December payment was late, and it was half of what it used to be. If Bella's numbers don't come out right, I'm up the creek without a paddle." His gaze circled the room. "And so are a lot you."
Leslie's hands came down, revealing a stark white face. Stella gave a defeated sigh. Flora wrung her hands. Women exchanged pained glances.
Then Leslie's face lit up. She raised her hand in a tentative greeting. "Here are Gemma and Bella. We should be able to begin the meeting now."
A slim, middle-aged woman with carefully groomed gray hair and a loose gray kimono entered the conference room.
Alone.
She stood in the doorway, eyes wide. Her face was pale and her long, delicate fingers fiddled with a pair of silver glasses that hung from a chain around her neck. The fluorescent lights in the conference room made the glasses sparkle as they went round and round.
Sparkle. Spin. Sparkle, Spin.
Gemma drew in a shaky breath, gripping her glasses so tightly, it seemed they would break at any moment.
"Something...." She took another breath. "Something's wrong."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
SEAN SHOOK his head as he walked around the motel room, taking care not to disturb the scene. "It'll be a boring night, he said. Let's go have a beer, he said."
"How was I supposed to know?" Gavin replied, standing by the doorway putting on disposable gloves, as Sean had done.
Their boys' night out had been interrupted in dramatic fashion. Sean had barely gotten his beer order out when the emergency call had come through. They'd left the pub in a rush to meet their teams at the motel.
DeShawn and his guys had just left with an unconscious Bella Donna in a stretcher. Olivia was asking the Hexalife members questions about when they had last seen their treasurer. A second deputy was talking to the hotel staff.
And Sean was now inspecting the space, which like all the Monster Hunter Motel rooms, had a paranormal pop culture theme. There was a Dracula room, a Charmed room, a Supernatural room, and even a Stephen King suite. Bella had gotten the Scooby-Doo room. It had a painting of The Mystery Machine over the desk, pictures of Shaggy and Scooby on top of the queen beds, matching green and aqua comforters and pillows asking, "Where Are Yoooooouuuuuu????" and "Would you do it for a Scooby Snack?"
Oh, and a jar full of the afore mentioned Scooby Snacks. It was right next to the coffeepot.
The themed accommodations were
wildly popular with the tourists. The kind of people who vacationed in a haunted town loved this stuff, and the X-Files room usually had a waiting list.
But the cartoon theme felt incongruous right now, at least to Gavin. Sean, however, did not seem affected. He just ignored the various characters staring down at him as he examined the papers on the desk.
So far, the room had provided little information as to what had happened to Bella, and the other hotel guests had been even less helpful. Bella had told the breakfast server that she slept well the previous night and that she liked the Scooby-Doo decor. She stayed in most of the day, prepping for her meeting, and used the business center while housekeeping cleaned her room. She worked on the computer and printed some documents. She then ordered room service-a garlic tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich combo called the "Vampire's Worst Nightmare." After that, she took a nap.
And she didn't wake up.
Gemma went up to check on her, got no response when she knocked, and asked the hotel staff to open the door. They found Bella on one of the beds unconscious, but still breathing. Twelve minutes after they called 911, DeShawn entered the room, saw a bottle of pills on the bedside table, and got to work.
"You couldn't have known," Sean said, raising a paper to the light. "But someone had a hunch, namely my girlfriend. She snuck into the meeting because she did a reading for one of the Hexalife people, and it foretold there would be trouble tonight." He handed the paper to Gavin. "Money trouble."
Gavin examined the document. It was a balance sheet with several numbers crossed out and scribbled calculations on the margins. There was plenty of red ink, and most of the numbers were enclosed by brackets. The top of the sheet had a telephone number and a name.
The name was "Berenice."
"That's Violet's sister," Gavin said. "She showed up at the hospital yesterday. Bella must have called her."
"Makes sense," Sean said, putting the papers back on the desk. "She woke up, called Violet's sister, and then sat down to work out some numbers." He glanced back at the bed. A half-full glass of thick, green liquid was on the bedside table beside a photo of the Scooby gang. "And then she took a bunch of pills and went to sleep."
"She may have been confused about the pills," Gavin noted. "It may not have been intentional."
"Maybe," Sean said. He walked to the bedside table and pointed toward an open packet. "Is this what she drank it down with? Hexalife's Resplandescent Restorative Blend?"
"Apparently," Gavin replied, wondering if "resplandescent" was a real word or something the company had made up. "But Gemma told DeShawn that's just a chamomile and dandelion mix."
Sean peered at the glass. "Is it...sparkling?"
Gavin hid a smile. The liquid did look as if it contained a fair amount of glitter.
"A harmless additive," he said. "Or so we were told."
Sean shook his head. "I'll have Olivia take a sample. There was a pill bottle also"
Gavin nodded. "But no pharmacy label."
"Interesting," Sean said, glancing at Bella's bag, which lay on the floor, half-open.
"Your guys dropped that off this morning?" Gavin asked.
"I did it myself," Sean replied. "I wanted to check on her. We had no news on Violet or about the car that hit them, which Bella did not like. She was a little worried about that, but mostly okay." He glanced at the door. "The rest of the group was arriving for the meeting. The Gemma woman was one of the first, and she immediately took charge and took care of Bella. She took her to breakfast after our chat." He scanned the room again. "The second group wasn't checking-in until the afternoon, so she left her bag here. Maybe in that corner, near the door?" He walked over, kneeled, and inspected the carpet. "Yep, I see some dents."
Gavin did not have to reply. Sean was just thinking out loud, working his way through the facts.
"Gemma would get her room at three, so she would have picked up her bag then," Sean continued. He rubbed his chin with his fingers as he went through everyone's steps. "I'll ask Olivia to verify what Gemma did in the room."
Gavin recalled Bella's condition and did some quick calculations. "She'll probably say she found Bella asleep and retrieved her suitcase without waking her."
"Very likely," Sean admitted, walking over to the door connecting to the adjacent hotel guestroom. "The Tristan guy is right next door." Sean tried the knob, but the door was locked. He checked for a deadbolt, but found none.
"Did he see or hear anything?" Gavin asked.
"Olivia is taking his statement." Sean knocked on the door, getting a hollow sound in response. "She was looking forward to it. Apparently, he's a good-looking guy."
"DeShawn won't like that," Gavin replied.
Olivia and DeShawn were in a complicated on-and-off relationship. Gavin wasn't 100% sure, but he thought they were off right now, but they would probably be back on in a few days. It seemed to work for them.
"He'll deal," Sean said. He glanced back at the half-open entry door. "This hallway is full of Hexalife people. The only ones not staying here are Violet, Stella, and Flora."
"And Leslie," Gavin reminded him. "She lives in Banshee Creek."
Sean nodded. "That makes four." He sighed. "We'll have to make a chart."
Then Olivia was at the door, peeking in.
"Sir? There's someone here to see you. She says it's urgent." Olivia checked her notes. "Her name is Berenice Vonn. Says she's Violet Vonn's sister."
Sean and Gavin exchanged glances.
"Give me a minute," Sean said. "I'm almost done here."
Olivia nodded. "Oh, and Tristan asked for Bella's papers. He says they are company property and as a co-owner he's entitled to have them."
"Have the DA's office deal with him," Sean said. "I'll be out in a minute."
Olivia left, closing the door. Sean stood in front of the door, examining the room, pondering.
Gavin scanned the room—rumpled bed, coagulating drink, open suitcase. None of it appeared significant. Then again, he wasn't a detective. He was just a first responder.
"What are you thinking, Sean?" he asked.
The sheriff's eyes dropped to the open suitcase. He crossed his arms and stared at it through narrowed eyes. Gavin glanced at the case. He saw some gray and black clothes, black shoes, and a book on small business accounting.
What did Sean see that he didn't?
"I searched this last night," Sean said, pointing at the case. "The clothes were there, as were the shoes and the book." He turned toward the desk. "There were some papers there, too, although they didn't have many notes." He scratched his head. "Actually, I could have sworn there were more papers here. A lot more."
Gavin began to see where Sean was going. He focused on the glass filled with green liquid.
"And there were no pills in the bag," Sean said. "And no Hexalife powder."
Understanding dawned.
The door opened, and Olivia stepped in. "Oh, I almost forgot. We also found the van."
Sean's brows went up. "The vehicle that hit them? Where?"
"Middleburg." Her mouth turned up in a knowing smirk. "And you won't believe who owns it."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
"I FEEL like I'm in an Agatha Christie movie," Flora whispered in a hoarse voice. "We're getting picked off one by one."
Fiona hugged her cousin, not knowing what to say. Bella's misadventure had affected Flora and the rest of the Hexalife group deeply. Most of them had returned to their rooms, but Stella and Flora had remained in the conference room. Flora was supposed to share a room with Bella and Stella was supposed to share with Violet, but neither one wanted to claim their spot.
So they were still in the conference room, surrounded by boxes of cold pizza and stacks of warm soda. The motel had delivered two large plates full of iced cookies as a complimentary dessert. The cookies had cartoon monster faces made of frosting—cheerful but inappropriate. Fiona's mouth watered despite the somber atmosphere. She'd barely had one smallish slice of cheese p
izza and the cookies looked tempting, even the one that looked like a misshapen leprechaun. The Monster Hunter Motel had tried to embrace St. Patrick's Day, but their efforts had been less than successful.
"At least, we're not staying at the motel," Stella said, shuddering. "That will make it harder for the killer to get us."
Fiona stared at her in shock, covetous cookie thoughts instantly erased from her mind. "But it may have been—"
She broke off before she said "self-inflicted." She couldn't get the words out.
Stella shook her head. "That's not what the cards said, right, Luanne?"
Luanne winced and gave Fiona an apologetic shrug.
"But cards are symbols." Fiona tried to put this delicately. "They could be subject to interpretation."
"The Seven of Swords is self-explanatory," Stella said, her face twisting into a grimace. "Betrayal and revenge. That's what this is all about."
Flora winced. Fiona's arm tightened across her shoulders.
Stella reached for a blue-frosted monster cookie, seemingly unbothered.
"But it could be self-betrayal," Fiona noted, recalling what Luanne had explained during her own readings. "Or self-sabotage."
Stella shrugged and bit into a cookie. Fiona gave up and reached for the treat plate. The leprechaun had only one eye—probably it was winking awkwardly—and it looked like a creepy green cyclops.
Luanne glanced at Stella. "I think those cards communicated more to Stella than they did to me."
Stella stared at her cookie. Her face glum. "I knew the background, you see." Her gaze circled the room. "That's why I wanted to come to the meeting. I knew something would happen." She frowned. "I just didn't think it would this bad."
Luanne frowned. "But you've been receiving death threats for months. You were in a crash, and Violet is comatose. Of course, it could be this bad."
