“Hey, would you mind taking over for a minute? I’m gonna go run over to the lobby.” She released the hose’s lever. But unlike she’d expected, water continued to spray from the nozzle. The handle was stuck in an upturned position.
Ryan, who didn’t seem to hear her, hopped down into the pool holding the grinder. As though just then realizing how hot it was, he stretched his arms and brought his shirt over his head, tossing it to the ground.
Abigail’s body quaked. She stared at Ryan’s bare torso, unable to turn away. His skin was tan and oh-so-smooth. The masculine stubble of dark chest hair covered the lower portion of his mid-section. He was really well built—had large muscles on both his back and chest. His arms were long and lean. She remembered the way they’d felt around her body. The thought of it made her even hotter than she already was.
As she stepped forward, the hose slipped from her hand. Water shot upward, splashing her in the face. She dove for it, but it bounced in the air as her hands hit the ground. Ryan raced toward the hose and caught it, spraying himself with water in the process. After fighting with it for about a minute, he twisted the hose, managing to temporarily stop the water from flowing. Holding it tightly, he grabbed the handle and forced the lever back into position.
Staring at her supervisor’s soaking-wet body, Abigail froze. Ryan was staring at her, too, and it appeared as though his blue irises were about to pop out of his head. Looking down, she saw that her T-shirt and jeans were completely soaked through.
Abigail scanned the cleaning supplies, hoping to find a towel. When she didn’t see one, she said, “We should check the closet and see if we can find some—”
“What the hell were you thinking?” Ryan demanded.
“What the…what do you mean what the—”
“You can’t put a lot of pressure on the handle. This is an old hose, Abigail, and it’s a piece of crap. You should have listened to me—I showed you how to hold it earlier.”
Abigail held a hand against her wet shirt. “You were the one who insisted I hold it after I told you it had a problem and you—”
“Of all the idiotic things to—”
“While you went off to take that break, and I was—”
They both stopped shouting as a scream as loud as anything sounded from across the property. Abigail looked across the way. It had come from the old wing.
Ryan’s eyes followed the cry. He hurried across the lawn, and she followed him, moving her legs as fast as she could. They approached the entrance and both exchanged a look, Ryan’s eyes indicating that he would go first. Abigail followed him as he stepped through the darkened doorway.
The first floor hallway was quiet. It was warm, as they probably didn’t have the air turned on in that part of the hotel yet. They came toward the staircase and exchanged another glance. Ryan darted up the stairs, Abigail running behind him.
When she reached the second floor, Abigail saw nothing at first, but quickly realized that the door to one of the rooms was open. As she came toward it, she smelled something sickening, which reminded her of pickled vegetables, or sewage. She peeked inside the room and stopped in her tracks. Julia was there, standing over a woman whose eyes were shut and had a stone-blue complexion. The woman clearly wasn’t moving, and she had a large black stain in the center of her shirt.
Ryan put out his arm, preventing Abigail from taking another step. But the damage had already been done.
The woman at Julia’s feet was dead.
Chapter 9
Abigail held a shaky hand over her mouth. She tried not to breathe in the stench around her as she stared at the woman on the floor, studying her ghostly skin and bloodstained shirt. Blood that was now dry and very black. She’d been wearing a tank top and jeans when she was killed. Her appearance indicated that she’d been young, though it was difficult to tell, as the color was completely gone from her face.
Trying not to scream as she gazed into Julia’s stunned expression, Abigail stumbled back. She collided against the person behind her. She felt herself on the verge of collapsing as two strong hands grasped her shoulders. Ryan took her into his arms. His hand stroked her back.
“We have to call the police,” she said, jolting to her senses a moment later. As she slipped from his hold, she saw that Shane had entered the room. He was wearing an expression that indicated he was as horrified as Julia.
“Let me see your phone,” Abigail said as she came toward him.
“I’ve got it,” Shane replied. He whipped his phone out of his pocket and went into the hall.
“Julia, what happened?” Ryan asked.
“I–I don’t know,” Julia stammered. “I was going to clean the bathroom and I noticed this odor behind the door. The body was on the floor, just lying there, like…like…”
“Out in the open? You didn’t touch anything?” His eyes circled the room.
Julia waved her arms. “No—that wasn’t exactly my first inclination!”
“I don’t understand,” Abigail interjected. “They weren’t using this part of the hotel for a while, but they are planning on using it after the reopening. How is it that no one walking around back here found this body before you did?”
Julia replied, “It beats the crap out of me!”
“Let’s take this into the hall, ladies.” When neither Julia nor Abigail moved, Ryan stopped pacing and sighed loudly, shoving his hands into his pockets.
Abigail stared at the victim’s chalk-white face. “It doesn’t make sense that no one would have found the body until now. This woman obviously died of a gunshot wound. Someone close by would have heard the shot.”
“Not necessarily.” It more-or-less felt as though Ryan was speaking to himself as he said, “The hotel was shut down for over two months. And almost all of the local businesses around here close before ten.”
Thinking that he’d been awfully quick to deliver that response, Abigail shot him a curious glance. The three of them looked up as Shane came back into the room.
“The police are on their way,” Shane said. Getting beside Julia, he slipped an arm around her waist and eased her into the hall. Abigail and Ryan followed.
“Two murders in the same building!” Julia exclaimed. “Someone obviously has this place bull’s-eyed!”
Shane rubbed Julia’s shaking arms. “It’s definitely out there, but the other so-called murder turned out to be nothing but a suicide.” When the group turned their gazes on him, he said, “I was asked not to say anything, but the cops discovered narcotics among the victim’s belongings. Apparently the guy was taking drugs the night he stayed at the hotel and he jumped out the window. The marks on his neck were self-inflicted. It wasn’t strangulation, like they originally thought.”
“The neck sounds like an awfully strange place to find marks on a person,” Ryan said, “particularly when he supposedly put them there himself.”
“I’m only quoting the authorities,” Shane said defensively.
“Uh-huh. And where’s Becker?” Flashing a look in Shane’s direction, Ryan said, “I should think you would have notified him immediately about something like this.”
“Away at meetings all day with regional management,” Shane replied. He drew a short breath. “Look, the three of you ought to go home. There’s no reason why you should have to be subjected to this any more than you already have.”
Julia opened her arms. “Um…hello! I’m not going anywhere. I’m a witness. The cops are going to want to talk to me about what I saw in there.”
“You didn’t see anything, Julia.” Abigail looked from Ryan to Shane. “You’re only a witness if you saw the actual murder take place. Isn’t that right, you guys?”
Ryan shifted his lips. “Not exactly—”
“At least let’s wait outside. Honey, you’re shaking like a leaf.” Shane led Julia down the stairs. Ryan and Abigail followed them outside, and the group stopped in front of the building.
“I’m going to get you a bottle of water from
the vending machine,” Shane said after Julia had taken a seat on the bench. “I’ll be right back, okay?” He disappeared around the corner.
“Are you all right?” Abigail asked, placing a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “I’m still pretty baffled here. So the police are sticking to their story, that the other murder was a suicide? Do you think it’s possible that this girl—”
“Died of natural causes?” Julia shook her head. “I seriously doubt it, considering the gaping bullet wound in her chest.”
“She was dressed in casual clothes,” Abigail chimed in. “It doesn’t look as though she was here on a business trip.”
“Who do you think she was?” Ryan looked from Abigail to Julia.
Julia shrugged. “I have no idea, but there’s no way that two deaths taking place in this hotel are a coincidence. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that they were both murders. Still, New Hampshire has one of the lowest crime rates in the country. Just what would this woman have been after? An exceptionally rare breed of moose?”
Abigail’s father had been murdered in the state of New Hampshire. Throw in the fact that murders were uncommon in their town, and she definitely wasn’t convinced that there wasn’t a connection between her dad’s shooting and whatever was going on behind the scenes at the hotel. Ryan’s strange behavior, his reaction to the ledgers, and the fact that he’d had Barrows’s business card only seemed to strengthen her growing suspicions.
“No, it definitely isn’t a coincidence,” Ryan muttered. Barely whispering, he added, “But I doubt the woman was any sort of criminal.”
Abigail looked at him. “Well, the person who shot her certainly is.”
“There’s definitely a connection here. And I’m going to figure out what that connection is.” Julia stood. Turning toward the building, she started for the entrance.
Ryan grabbed her arm. “Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme, Julia? This really seems like something we ought to let the cops handle. They were already looking for a killer in this building not too long ago, so it’s probably best if we let them pick up where they left off.” He shot Abigail a glance, as if to say that that went for her, too.
“Speaking of extreme things,” Julia said with a sudden glimmer in her eyes, “what happened to the two of you? Your hose spin out of control?”
Abigail’s face burned. She’d forgotten all about her wet clothes. Ryan, who was only wearing his jeans, looked even more ridiculous than she did.
“Right this way, officers. The room is just up these stairs.” Shane stopped beside the group as three policemen entered the building. Turning toward Ryan and Abigail, he said, “Thanks for staying with her, you guys. Julia’s lucky to have such good friends.” Handing Julia a bottle of water, he said, “You two should go home and get some rest. We’ve all had a crazy afternoon and Julia doesn’t need any extra excitement while she’s giving her statement.”
“Of course.” Abigail gave Julia a hug. She assured her that she was only a phone call away if she needed her, and said she’d send her a text message later.
She started down the path, expecting to hear footsteps behind her. But when she turned around, Ryan was staring at the building, standing only a few feet away from Julia and Shane. His eyes were fixed on the broken window. There was a dark expression in his eyes.
A sinking feeling grew in the pit of Abigail’s stomach. First the papers in the filing cabinet, and now Ryan’s reaction to finding the body. God knew the afternoon had been traumatic for all of them, but that didn’t explain Ryan’s quick responses to the questions she’d posed. He’d seemed prepared, and now, looking up at the room with the broken window, he appeared to be deeply contemplative.
Abigail wondered just how much Ryan was connected to whatever was going on at that hotel. And she wondered how she was going to handle it once she knew the truth.
Chapter 10
Ryan yawned as he entered the hotel lobby. His head was pounding, and it had been doing so ever since he’d seen that woman’s dead body in the old wing. Consequently, he hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep last night.
He’d been willing to overlook the first murder. Beggars couldn’t be choosers and God knew even the fact that his best friend’s father owned most of the local businesses couldn’t undo the damage he had done to his reputation. But after discovering the ledger, which was disturbingly similar to the one he’d discovered at the Red Fox, and now learning that a second murder had taken place on the premises, he was finding it next-to-impossible not to imagine that there wasn’t something seriously wrong going on at the Washington Valley Hotel.
Something had struck him yesterday as he’d stared at that broken window. Perhaps it was seeing the way the glass had been shattered or mulling over the fact that two assumedly unsuspecting people—a man and woman, apparently, had been killed. Or maybe it was the fact that this, too, had “more than likely been a suicide,” according to the officers who’d spoken to Julia. But whatever it was, his job offer probably hadn’t been as lucky a break as he’d been led to believe. He’d been given a job at Washington Valley because the criminal whose ledger he’d discovered wanted to keep an eye on him. Ryan wondered just how many individuals were “keeping an eye on him.”
Shane Dempsey had seemed especially anxious yesterday afternoon. Making excuses about everything they’d seen and insisting on being the one to notify the authorities. Then there was Sheldon, who’d gotten not one but three personal calls during his afternoon shift. And Beatrice, the housekeeping manager, who had been giving Ryan funny looks ever since the middle of last week. Though, paranoid as he may have become, Ryan found it about as likely that a little old woman from Poland was involved in this series of crimes as Abigail MacKenzie was.
Thinking about Abigail seeing that dead woman’s body, the terror in her eyes, Ryan swallowed something wicked. Julia’s scream had probably been heard in the next county, but he still wished he somehow could have spared Abigail from having to see such a horrific sight. That woman had probably been dead over a week. Abigail clearly hadn’t taken seeing such a thing well, which only made him feel even worse about the way he’d shouted at her moments before she’d seen it.
As he reflected back on the recent episodes the two of them had been having, Ryan swore under his breath. He could kill Alec for letting him think he’d had sex with Abigail. His friend had always been a piece of work, but this time he’d crossed the line. True enough, he himself had been spending too much time with Abigail, even going so far as to reveal his plans of putting himself through medical school to her. But what Alec had done was just low.
That conversation he’d had with Abigail was bothering him, too. Abigail had asked him why he wanted to be a doctor. And to his own surprise, Ryan hadn’t answered her question with the response she’d spoon-fed him. As she’d suggested, there really wasn’t much more to his aspirations than a boy’s dream. That, and the fact that his father never got off his case about school, something that was pretty ironic considering what a drunk and a screwup Paul Newberry was. But if he was being really honest with himself, Ryan knew there was another reason he was seeking a career in medicine. He just couldn’t believe he’d come so close to telling Abigail what it was.
Ryan checked the schedule and was relieved to learn that he’d be alone for the next hour. He checked his e-mails and then went to the break room for coffee. When he came back to the desk, he was surprised to find Kimberly beside him.
Mulling over what she might be doing there, he observed the way the glint of the sun shined against his ex-girlfriend’s long, silky hair. Fond memories of running his fingers through that golden softness still swam in his mind. He wanted nothing more than to forget about them.
Grinding his teeth, he said, “Shouldn’t you be helping out in the east wing?”
“I heard about what happened yesterday. Not that anyone’s been talking about much of anything else around here. That must have been awful for you to see that guy just lying there. Are you all r
ight?” Kim asked, placing her hand against his arm.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” Ryan answered, not pulling away as quickly as he would have liked to.
“No big deal? Ryan, you saw a dead guy, I’d say that’s a pretty big deal! And I know that I’m completely to blame.”
“You?” He searched her eyes. “How exactly could you be involved in this?”
Kimberly looked at him through watery eyes. “If I hadn’t been so public about our relationship you never would have been let go from the Red Fox. And neither of us would have to be working in a place where there are”—she rubbed her bare arms—“murders taking place.”
It sounded as though she meant what she was saying. But Ryan would have had to have been incredibly naïve to believe that was the case. Kimberly had once told him he was her hero, said she could tell him things she’d never told anyone. All the while she’d been sleeping with another man.
“I appreciate your concern,” he said. “But I can take care of myself.”
“Ryan,” Kimberly said in that sweet tone that drove him out of his mind. “Just because we’re not together anymore, it doesn’t mean I don’t still care about you.” She wrapped her arms around him, drawing him close.
Surprised by Kim’s boldness but not quite angry enough to put a stop to it, Ryan allowed her to press her body against his. Soon he found himself wrapping his arms around her as well. She’d hurt him. Badly. But, he had always felt good when he was holding her. He needed this, needed to feel her smooth skin. Leaning in close, he pressed a kiss to Kim’s cheek.
“Oh!” a soft voice exclaimed. “I didn’t realize anyone else was in here.” Dropping the papers she was holding onto the desk, Abigail walked briskly down the hall.
Ryan followed her with his eyes. He cursed under his breath as she disappeared from his vision.
Kimberly drew back a moment later. A smile formed on her face. “I’ll see you later, all right?”
As she made her way to the back door, Ryan slapped the back of his neck. What the hell was wrong with him? He had given into the urge that he’d been fighting for months, knowing full well that it was lethal to indulge in it. But what was even more perplexing, the part he didn’t understand for the life of him, was the way he’d felt when Abigail saw it.
Dangerous Secret [The Pinnacles of Power Prequel] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 8
