“Thank you,” I murmured. “I’m Halliday, by the way.” I held out my hand and she took it in her calloused palm, giving it a firm shake.
She tucked her fingers over her ear and nodded. “Nice to meet you. What can I do for you, Halliday?”
“I hear Joey Scarpetti talked to you about a room?”
Her expression turned worried and her eyes filled with watery tears. “Oooh, I can’t tell you how sorry I was to hear he was killed. Who would do such a thing to such a nice boy?”
I was confused. “But I thought he upset you?”
She flapped her winkled, work-worn hands at me. “Bah! That was nothing. I was frustrated because I couldn’t hear him and he was frustrated because he wanted answers. He apologized, and then he came all the way down to the laundry room to apologize again. He was a good boy who just got a little upset. We made up and it was fine.”
Sheesh, even the person he’d yelled at thought he was a nice boy. “What did he want to know about the rooms on the first floor?”
“He wanted to know if I’d ever seen anything suspicious going on. If I’d ever seen someone go into one of the rooms up there who didn’t belong.”
“Suspicious? Do you know what he meant? Did he say? Like, was it about a girlfriend? Wife? Friend?” I knew I was rambling, but this was the most information I’d gotten since I started sticking my nose in where it didn’t belong.
But Millie shook her head and bit her lip. “He didn’t say what it was about. He just said it was really important. He also didn’t say why he wanted to know, but he did say it was vital. That’s the word he used. Vital.”
“Do you remember when this conversation happened?”
Clarissa said it happened a couple of days ago—which meant if Joey were here at the lodge, looking into something nefarious, he hadn’t been wasting time before he talked to Millie.
“It happened just the other day. He asked about a specific room, but I couldn’t remember anything weird going on. Nothing suspicious, for sure.”
Zing! There went that internal alarm. “Which room was that?”
Then she gasped as though she realized something, wringing her hands. “Aw, no. No, no, no!”
“Millie, what is it?”
But the lurch of my stomach told me I already knew. Millie’s answer would only be confirmation.
Her hand went to her face, her expression stricken. “It was the Talbots’ room, Halliday. He asked about the Talbots’ room!”
Chapter 12
“And they found that camera in there, didn’t they? Oh, nooo. What have I done?”
My stomach took that plunge again, but I reached for her hand to soothe her. “Millie, you didn’t do anything. I promise you didn’t. But you just helped me and probably the police a ton. Please don’t fret.”
But her gray eyes were frantic and her bottom lip trembled. “He was such a nice boy!”
“He was, Millie, and you’ve done the right thing by telling me what you know.”
“When I heard he’d been…” She stopped and swallowed, her face pale. “When I heard he was dead and that they found a camera hidden in the Talbots’ room, I didn’t make the connection. If him askin’ around is what got him killed… Oh, I just couldn’t stand it!”
“It had nothing to do with you, Millie. I promise. He was asking about that specific room for a reason. And you did the right thing by doing your job and preserving the Talbots’ privacy.”
Millie seemed to accept that, but she gripped my hand anyway. “I’d better tell the police about this, huh?”
Patting her hand, I agreed. “I think that’s a great idea. I’ll text Officer Fitzsimmons for you. He’s a friend of mine.”
She gave me a hesitant look, her eyes searching mine. “Do you think he’s going to be mad?”
“Absolutely not. How were you to know what would happen? Listen, it’s okay. Let me bring you to your daughter, all right?”
Her hand went to her throat is clear dismay. “That poor boy!”
I hooked her arm through mine and led her through the crowd to her daughter, a pretty white-blonde like her daughters, who encompassed her mother in a hug when I explained why she was so upset.
Leaving the two of them together, I caught up with Hobbs who, by some miracle, had found an empty plaid winged-back chair by the back of the lobby where it was a bit quieter.
While people ran from place to place on the scavenger hunt, he patted his knee when he saw me. “Sit, take a load off, and tell me what you found, Crockett.”
I sat on his lap and shook my head in frustration. “Not much more than what we mostly already knew. Joey did want to know about the Talbots’ room. He wanted to know if Millie saw anyone suspicious go into their room. What I really want to know is, if he was asking around and the person who put the webcam in there heard about it, why would they leave it in there?”
“I have no idea. But if nothing else, it’s confirmation he asked about that specific room. Something we didn’t have before. It explains your uneasy feeling upon entry.”
It did explain that. It didn’t explain why the webcam was still there. Maybe the killer left and didn’t bother to remove it because their job here was done?
Strangely seductive music came from Hobbs’s phone, distracting me. He quickly looked around while he turned it down.
“What are you doing?”
“Listen, call me crazy, but for the sake of the investigation…I joined Uncensored Intimacies.”
“You did what?” I yelped, then lowered my voice to a whisper when I caught some odd looks. “Why did you do that?”
“Because what if you’re right and the woman in your vision is on this site? You might be able to identify her.”
I blanched. That was fair. I almost hoped I wouldn’t have to, but it was a good idea. “Okay, that makes sense, but aren’t all the videos anonymous? It’s not like her name’s going to be there. Not her real name, anyway, or her address.”
“That’s true, but maybe we’ll see something in the background that’ll give us a clue to the killer. Something in the environment around her that could help us find her. Not long ago I watched a documentary about how a bunch of people from all around the world who met up on the Internet caught a serial killer just by putting their heads together and finding clues about the surroundings of the guy. He was arrogant enough to put some of the videos he’d made online and the Internet sleuths helped catch him.”
“He made videos of his serial killings?” I was horrified. That was sick.
“Not exactly. It’s kind of a long-ish story. Suffice it to say, the Internet sleuths were able to catch him because they researched, of all things, a doorknob.”
That gave me a little hope, but then I wondered, “Who’s looking at the environment in one of those videos?”
He winked, his dark lashes sweeping his cheek. “Me. I’m pretty good at details like that. But first, we have to find her. You’d be surprised what you can find out from a doorknob or a piece of clothing, or a million things no one thinks about. Something else to note, I’ve read some reviews on this mess of a site…and some of them are revenge porn videos.”
Well, toad spit. “From people who can’t be prosecuted because it’s in Macedonia…”
“Exactly.”
Frowning, I fell back into the pool of the helpless. “There must be a zillion videos, Hobbs.”
“There are, but they have a search function to put in your…uh, preferences.”
My cheeks went red and hot. “Oh.”
It was all I could manage to say, but I was glad Hobbs had taken on the job of looking through the videos. Though, he’d probably need all night and the clock continued to tick.
Hobbs laughed. “Listen, I’m sort of new at this, too. So don’t internalize any crazy theories about me and a site the likes o’ this one, Crockett. I’m a gentleman. My mama wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s just something that came to mind in order to catch a possible killer.”
/> I patted his knee. “I get it. It’s a great idea, even if it makes my stomach a little queasy that the woman in my vision might be in a video.”
With those words, I stiffened and my heartbeat began to crash in my ears.
“Why are you doing this? Who are you?” someone screamed, the voice filled with raw agony. “You’re ruining my life!”
The voice was disembodied, female, a sound in an endless sea of black, and then there was movement as the picture became clearer.
The woman again, her burgundy hair covering the side of her face. She was at a desktop computer, crying, sobbing so hard her shoulders quaked. I wanted to reach out, console her, ease her tangible suffering.
Please! Please let me help you! my mind screamed.
But of course, she couldn’t hear me and I was rooted to the spot, in this dark place where there was nothing but a woman sitting at a computer, crying hysterically.
As it came even closer into focus, I saw a mug next to the computer. A purple mug that read #1 Teacher. My heart raced, beating under my skin, throbbing as though it would burst if it didn’t get out.
A teacher…was she a teacher?
Who are you? What’s your name? Please, please talk to me!
Out of the pitch black, a slicing sound echoed in my ears. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! Whatever it was, it thwacked the air in quick, sharp stabs.
Then I saw it, a quick glimpse, nothing more. What the heck…a sword?
A sword!
It was a sword, weaving in and out of the darkness, swishing, swirling, headed for the burgundy-haired woman’s neck. Closer and closer the sharp point gleamed, moving toward her.
Move! Run! Turn around!
At that exact moment, she turned her head, but her face was blocked by the enormous sword. It whizzed straight for her, hurtling in the dark, and then she screamed. Long, piercing, painful, until I thought my eardrums would burst.
“Hal! Hal, honey. It’s okay. I’m here.”
Hobbs. Hobbs was here. I was with Hobbs.
My heart snapped back to life, lurching me forward, but he had a hold on me, tight around my waist. I was still on his lap, safe in his arms.
Then I heard Saul, his gruff Maine accent drowning out the residual scream. “Migraine?” I heard him ask with sympathy in his tone.
“Yeah,” Hobbs acknowledged. “I’ve got her, though.”
I felt a rough hand caress across my cheek. “Poor kid. Let me know if I can help.”
Hobbs ran his hand over my back. “Thanks, Saul.”
I forced my eyes open to see Hobbs’s worried gaze on me, the activity of the room continuing around us. I attempted a smile to reassure him I was all right…but I wasn’t actually sure I was.
“Bad one?”
“Scary. A scary one.” I shivered at the memory.
“That’s two in one day, honey. Isn’t that a lot?”
Every nerve in my body felt raw, as though someone had run sandpaper over all of them. “Sort of. But to me, it means a sense of urgency. It’s a message from the universe.”
“Wanna talk about what the universe just told you?”
I patted his arm and answered in a hoarse voice, “Yes. Soon, but not now. Or rather, not here.”
Hobbs held up his phone, giving me a small smile. “Good news though. Saul sent us the list of people who’ve stayed in the hotel. You can find it in your email.”
“That is good news,” I whispered.
“Honey. You need a break. No more for tonight, okay? Whatever just happened was bad, and it’s taking a toll on you.”
I gripped his silly Christmas sweater with the Grinch on it and shook my head. “I can’t stop, Hobbs. That woman’s life is at stake. I can’t.”
His sigh was ragged. “But we don’t even know if that hasn’t already happened, Hal. I know you want to fix this, but you’re exhausted.”
Stubbornly, I refused to give in. Rising, I decided to go listen in on some more conversations as I went through the list of guests who’d stayed at the lodge. We’d gotten a little information eavesdropping once, why couldn’t I again?
“I’m not giving up, Cowboy. Either you’re with me till the end or you can go home and rest. I’m not quitting.”
My legs wobbled and my knees felt like soft butter, but by Goddess, I was going to finish this. As I turned to leave, Hobbs grabbed my hand.
“Hold on there, Cowgirl. You’re not going anywhere without me when there’s a maniac on the loose.”
I stopped amid all the cheerful people to look up at him, an eyebrow raised. “Why, because you’re the big bad man and I’m the helpless female?”
I was being petty again—that was also twice in one day. Shame on me.
“No. Because if you do something cool with your you-know-what, I wanna see. Now don’t be a party pooper. Let’s go see what else we can find and look over that list.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, and it broke the sour mood I was in. “Fine, but fair warning. I can do unspeakable things to your underwear. You’ll have a rash you’ll never forget.”
“Oooh. Revenge spells. I like it.”
Rolling my eyes, I gripped his hand to let him know I was over myself as we pushed our way back through the crowd in the lobby.
In a corner of the space beside the entry to the café, I saw Abel and Clarissa. For a split second, Abel looked angry, before he saw us and flipped a switch, turning back on his cheery smile.
As we approached them, I asked, “Everything okay, guys?”
Abel turned his charm all the way up, his lean face beaming. “We’re fine. Just a disagreement over some guest activities. Nothing we can’t work out.”
Clarissa smiled, but her eyes didn’t match her expression or the tightening of her jaw. “Everything’s fine. I have to get back to the scavenger hunt. Catch you guys later.”
She waved over her shoulder, her ponytail bouncing behind her head as she ran off.
“I, regrettably, have to do the same. Honestly, if one more guest complains about not being able to ski when we have a madman on the loose, I’m going to lock them outside and let ’em sleep there,” he said on a chuckle. “I’m off. See ya later!”
He followed after Clarissa, who’d disappeared into the crowd of people.
“See? Eternally sunshiney,” Hobbs muttered about Abel. “Did it look like they were arguing or was that just me?”
Wiping my clammy hands on my jeans, I shrugged. “I’m not sure, but Clarissa sure looked uncomfortable.”
And I was feeling poorly again.
Not the kind of poor as in flu-like poor. That feeling of dread I’d only been able to shake for a time before it came roaring back in a rush of fear.
That was when I got a text from Stiles.
Joey had a ton of cuts to his skin, aside from the puncture that killed him. Coroner has begun to wonder if the person who did this knows their way around a knife or a sword.
I froze on the spot, my throat going dry. The sword in my vision…
I tried to text him back, but another text came in just as fast.
Think we might have found a real suspect.
My intestines tied themselves in a knot. Who? I texted back.
Can’t talk now about details, but we found the murder weapon and Marcelle’s fingerprints were on it. Will call later. Stay safe, Kitten.
Hobbs looked over my shoulder. “What’s going on?”
I held up my phone and showed him the message about Marcelle. “Told ya we should never underestimate the little guys, Texas.”
Chapter 13
We’d decided to drive back to the house for the time being after getting Stiles’s text about Marcelle. If Marcelle was being questioned, maybe this was over.
That didn’t sit right with me, but what do I know?
As the lights of town sat in the rearview mirror, Hobbs suddenly said, “It’s not him. I’m tellin’ you, Cowgirl, he’s not our guy.”
I gripped the arm of the door because I mostl
y agreed with him. Yet…
“Then why are his fingerprints all over the murder weapon? And only his fingerprints, by the way.”
Hobbs hit the steering wheel with the heel of his hand. “He does work in the ski shop.”
“But the ski pole, aka murder weapon, wasn’t from the lodge’s ski shop,” I pointed out.
“There’s some kind of explanation, believe that. No way did that kid kill Joey Scarpetti.”
I glanced at him over the dashboard lights of his Jeep, his strong jaw set and determined. “Just because you don’t think he’s strong enough to have dragged Joey back to the lifts?”
But Hobbs shook his head with a firm bounce, his lips thinning. “It’s not just that. It’s his vibe, I guess. I don’t know. I can’t explain it, but it’s not Marcelle. And that’s another thing, who says Joey was dragged back to the lifts? Maybe he ran and whoever killed him, chased him.”
“His carotid was nicked, Hobbs Dainty. How’s he running anywhere?”
“Maybe it happened after he got to the lifts? He was pretty cut up, but that doesn’t mean the fatal blow was by the pear tree.”
Yep. That made complete sense. Gosh, my boyfriend was smart, wasn’t he? “That’s why you’re Tubbs and I’m Crockett. Crockett was more concerned with how he looked, Tubbs was the smart one. And you’re right. I never thought of that.”
“And I still don’t think Marcelle had anything to do with it.”
I tended to agree with him because Marcelle didn’t feel right, but why were his fingerprints on the ski pole—one that wasn’t the lodge’s property?
As we pulled into the driveway, the Christmas decorations couldn’t even make me smile. The front porch glowed with twinkling lights, draped over the bannisters and along the eaves.
The two rocking chairs I used to love to sit in with my grandmother, now with cheerful red and white throw pillows on them, almost always brought a happy memory of summers gone by, sitting and listening to the ocean roar and the seagulls cry, with glasses of lemonade as we whiled away an afternoon.
Carnage in a Pear Tree Page 11
