Cadaver at the Con

by Winnie Reed

  “What’s wrong? You sound like something’s wrong.”

  Of all the times to burst out laughing, I chose that very moment. It seemed like the only reaction possible because, really, was this some sort of joke? Nobody would believe this was completely accidental, even though it was.

  “Deke? Do you gamble at all?”

  “Not habitually. Why?”

  A tan ball cap floated in the water, close to the head it used to cover. The water around it was red.

  “I was wondering if you could estimate the odds of my finding another dead body.”

  Chapter Six

  “That’s all I know.” I looked from one hotel manager to another, both of them staring down at me as I sat on a chaise lounge chair. “I came out to swim, found the pool closed, and saw the body floating there. That’s just before I went inside and flagged down an employee.”

  Neither of them knew what to do. That made three of us.

  “I don’t know what else to tell you,” I shrugged. “I didn’t have anything to do with it, if that’s what you’re wondering. I was on the phone with a friend when I came out here. He’ll tell you I was just as surprised as anybody.”

  “You should save that for the police, I think.” One of the two managers looked like she was around my age, and her swollen belly made me think she should be the one sitting down. This sort of stress couldn’t be good for her.

  The other manager, an older man, nodded. “Yes, they should be here any minute.” He was fretful, anxious, looking back to the water again and again. “To think, this happened out here without anyone knowing. I guess nobody staying upstairs noticed.”

  I looked up. The pool view rooms had a straight line of sight into the pool—or they would’ve, if it wasn’t for the glass ceiling over top. It was treated, of course, darkened so the people in the water during the day wouldn’t roast.

  So much for paying for a pool view. All you’d get would be a view of the lounge chairs and tinted glass.

  “Do you need anything?” the girl asked, biting her lip.

  I gave her belly a pointed look, then looked back up at her. “I should be asking you the same thing.”

  That got a smile. “I’m fine. It’s almost end of shift, though I don’t know now.”

  “Sorry I found the body when I did, then,” I whispered.

  She smiled again, though she tried not to.

  The humid air had sweat rolling down the back of my neck. I knew who the guy in the pool was, thanks to the cap floating next to him and the khakis he wore, and him being the reason I couldn’t take a swim was pretty much on-brand considering how he’d acted all day.

  Gee, I sure couldn’t imagine anybody wanting to kill someone like him.

  Though it still creeped me out, and I shivered in spite of the heavy, hot night. He’d been alive only hours earlier, breathing in my ear. He wasn’t breathing anymore.

  A kid wearing a nametag ran up to the managers. “They’re here. I told them not to walk through the hotel, like you said.” Moments later, a bunch of uniformed cops poured in from the pool’s parking lot entrance, along with paramedics and detectives wearing suits.

  Detectives. In Paradise City.

  “Oh, no,” I breathed as a familiar figure joined them, looking just as good as ever.

  He rolled his long sleeves up to his elbows, displaying impressive forearms. Joe Sullivan even had impressive forearms.

  What was not impressive, not even a little bit, was the look that washed over his face when he caught sight of me sitting alone on a chair. I wiggled my fingers in a half-hearted wave, bracing myself for what was about to come.

  He crossed the patio in short, clipped steps. Not the stride of a man about to pay a social call. I wished I’d had a minute to run a brush over my hair. Something. He always managed to catch me at my worst.

  “Why am I even surprised?” he sighed. “Let me guess. You found the body.”

  “Hello to you, too.”

  “Hi. Did you find the body or didn’t you?”

  Boy, was he in a mood. It wasn’t like I’d killed the guy. “I wish I could say I didn’t, but that would be a lie.”

  “Do you make it a habit?” He scratched his head, looking and sounding roughly the way I did whenever Lola pooped in the apartment or chewed on my shoes. “Is there a dead body detector? Like a metal detector, only for bodies? How do you manage to keep doing this?”

  “It’s only the second one I ever found,” I hissed, looking around to make sure nobody was listening. Of course, they were listening. And watching. There were dozens of guests standing just outside the glass doors leading into the hotel, trying to see around the cops keeping them from pouring into the pool area.

  “Here in Paradise City,” Joe hissed back. “And then there was the one down in Maryland. You have a talent.”

  “I didn’t find that one. It found me.” I shrugged. “It’s not my fault people die where I happen to be.”

  “You’ll be the death of me, that much I know for sure.” He loosened his tie, sighing as he looked over the length of the pool. “How he ended up here, with the gate locked and the lights off, I’d love to know.”

  “Hmm. Maybe we should ask a detective.” When his head snapped around so he could deliver a death glare, I smiled sweetly. “Do you know any?”

  “Okay, okay. Fine. I’ll try to overlook the fact that you happened to be the one to discover the guy.”

  “I also knew him.”

  “Stop. Just stop.” He closed his eyes, turning his face away.

  “Not personally. We didn’t go to school together. He’s not on my Christmas card list. I met him today, and he was a real jerk.”

  “Emma.”

  “He was! It’s not a bad word.”

  “I didn’t say it was a bad word.” He laughed, but just once. “I don’t know what to do with you. Sometimes I’m sure I’ll strangle you. Maybe a padded cell would do me good.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  He stepped between me and the other cops currently fishing the body from the water. “You don’t just blurt out that you knew the deceased.”

  “But I didn’t know him. I mean, I said I knew him, but that wasn’t quite true. I met him.”

  “No. What you said was, you met him today, and he was a real jerk. Do you hear yourself? Any cop worth his pension would be all over you for that. You never think before you speak.”

  “I do so!”

  “Then start doing more of it right now. Try again. Explain to me how you became acquainted with the deceased, and please don’t say anything I’ll regret repeating to my CO. Okay?”

  I nodded. It seemed a safer way to communicate. Then, I realized he was waiting for me to speak. What was the question again? I wished I could think straight when he looked at me the way he was, with those ridiculous jade eyes that seemed to glow in the dark.

  When I opened my mouth to speak, however, it wasn’t my voice that came out.

  Rather, it was my Aunt Nell’s voice that ran out from across the patio. “Emma! Oh, Emma, what happened?”

  “Wonderful,” I whispered, my eyes closing. This was just what I needed.

  “Emma, are you all right?” Trixie reached me first, throwing her arms around me. When one of the cops tried to hold her back from going in for another hug, she shot him a look so filthy it bordered on obscene. “I am this girl’s aunt, and I would like to make sure she’s well.”

  “I don’t think they’ll cause any trouble,” Joe assured the officer, who shrugged and turned away to guard against any more interlopers. Meanwhile, I had a serious doubt as to whether they’d cause trouble or not. They had a way of doing so even when they didn’t mean to.

  “And who is this?” Nell looked Joe up and down.

  I wished I could turn myself invisible and run away. Or just turn myself invisible and watch my aunties drive Joe to distraction.

  “Detective Sullivan,” I reminded her, even though every word was like acid tripping of
f my tongue. “You met him at the café.”

  A change came over her all of a sudden, like night turning to day. If she’d swooned right into his arms, it wouldn’t have surprised me a bit. “Oh, it’s you! I didn’t recognize you, Detective!” she crooned, hands over her chest.

  “Please, ma’am,” he murmured, side-eyeing his colleagues. “It’s nice to see you, but I’m here on official business.”

  That wasn’t enough for her. “You look different when you’re dressed, that’s what it is.”

  “Nell,” I grunted through clenched teeth. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Joe, but something told me his shoulders would be up around his ears.

  “In work clothes, I meant,” she added, waving a hand. “What did you think I meant?”

  “Maybe we should leave him alone and let him do his job,” I suggested. He’d never forgive me for this one. “He’s got a lot of work to do, and he’s with his colleagues.”

  “Of course, of course.” Nell stared at Joe. “So? Who was the man? What killed him?”

  “You forgot the part where we leave him alone,” I whispered. “He has to do his job, and we’re not helping.”

  “Hold it a second, Miss Harmon.” Oh, so that’s where we were again? There I was, thinking we’d gotten past the formalities. “I’m not finished with you yet.”

  “We’re not leaving Emma’s side. We have to protect her.” Trixie slid an arm through mine.

  It was so obvious, the way he wanted to explode in frustration. I had to give him credit for his patience as he stared down the immovable force that was my mother’s best friends. “Not worth the high blood pressure,” I murmured in a singsong tone.

  His shoulders lowered. “I can assure you, ma’am, that there’s nothing to protect her from. We’re the police. That’s our job, too. Protection.”

  “I’ll be okay.” I nodded to her and to Nell. “Really. It’s gonna be fine. Joe—Detective Sullivan, rather, just wants to get my version of what I found. And really, there’s not much to tell.”

  “Wait a minute.” Trixie picked up her glasses from their chain and slid them on. Not sunglasses this time, but her cat’s eyeglasses that helped her see things from far away. “Isn’t that the man you saw earlier today, Emma? The one you chased out of the ballroom during the book signing?”

  I couldn’t even bring myself to look at Joe. Mostly because I knew what he would look like when I did.

  “You chased him out of a ballroom during a book signing?” he asked in a tone far too soft for comfort. I would’ve felt better if he shouted it.

  “I didn’t chase anyone.” I looked him square in the eye. “I didn’t. He bullied somebody earlier today while we were waiting in line at the front desk, and I told him to get lost. I saw him again at the book signing and he was staring at Deidre Price like he wanted to eat her heart for lunch. And yes, by the way, I would’ve told you all about it if I had the chance, but…” I waved my arm in the general direction of Nell and Trixie.

  “You said he was bullying somebody?” Joe asked, his brows drawing together over those ridiculous eyes.

  “Yeah. He was being sort of threatening. She was about to cry, poor thing. I threatened to call for security if he didn’t leave her alone. So, he did. But then I saw him later on, and I was worried for the author he was staring at. Maybe he was a stalker or something. I have no idea. I wanted to know more about him.”

  “So, instead of calling security, the way you threatened, you followed him. What did you hope to find out?”

  “Like I said,” I growled, “I wanted to know why he was threatening the woman in line. And why he was staring at Deidre. He had a really creepy vibe about him.”

  “By all means, then,” he said, folding his arms. “Follow the guy who seems creepy instead of asking for help.”

  “I didn’t see anybody nearby. I’m sorry for wanting to be proactive.”

  Trixie nudged Nell. “I’m starting to understand why Sylvia doesn’t like her going anywhere by herself.”

  Joe chortled, then tried to hide it with a cough. It was too late, needless to say. “Do you know the name of the woman he harassed?”

  “Sure. Georgia Steel. She’s a writer.”

  He glanced at me, smirking, and for some reason I felt like I should defend her.

  “She swore that was her real name. Anyway, she was really upset by him. He wouldn’t let up with the harassment.”

  Our eyes met.

  And that’s when I understood what I’d just insinuated.

  The man had harassed her. Now, he was dead.

  Maybe Mom was right, and I shouldn’t go anywhere by myself.

  Chapter Seven

  “I wonder who he was.”

  “I think I might’ve seen him at the buffet.”

  “To think, there was a dead body in the pool and nobody knew it.”

  I stood in the middle of this conversation, packed into the elevator car. It made my skin crawl, being so close to so many people was bad enough, but listening to them talk about the body in the pool really put things over the top.

  I was never good in tight spaces.

  It would’ve been easy, telling them it was me who’d found the dead guy. Did I want to spend the weekend answering questions, though? Being stared at, cornered in the ladies’ room, accosted on the elevator? No, not really.

  My phone rang. “Sorry,” I whispered, cringing as I tried to fish it out of my pocket when I could barely draw a full breath for all the bodies pressing in around me. “I just… need to… shut this off…”

  And darn it, I should’ve known who’d be calling. I could either ignore my mother, or I could answer and run the risk of them hearing me getting yelled at. This had to be the slowest elevator ever. “Sorry, everybody, it’s my mom,” I whispered.

  Why did I think that explanation would make anything better? I was a grown woman, for heaven’s sake.

  “Mom, I’m in an elevator,” I hissed in a rush, hoping to get rid of her right away.

  Except she was already in a state and was screaming from the second I answered. “You found a dead body and I had to find out through your Aunt Nell about it because you didn’t call me last night to make sure I knew you were okay?” I was pretty sure it all came out in a single word, and at approximately the pitch of a dog whistle.

  Also, loud enough that everybody in the car heard it.

  Why in the world did this elevator crawl the way it did?

  I looked around, trying to smile. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think to call you right away. I… had people to talk to.”

  “Detective Joe! He was there, too. At least I know he has good sense and won’t let you get yourself into any further trouble, Emma Jane.”

  “I didn’t do anything. I’m not in trouble. And I’m around a bunch of people who don’t want to hear this conversation.”

  “I sorta do,” the girl next to me muttered just loud enough to hear.

  “Mom, I’ve gotta go. Everything’s fine. I’ll call you later.” I ended the call before she could shriek anything else, then looked around again. Exactly what I hadn’t wanted. “Um, can we pretend none of that happened? Because I don’t know anything about the man who drowned. I just happened to go to the pool for a swim. That’s all.”

  There was only a moment or two of stunned silence before they pounced.

  “You were there?”

  “What did you see?”

  “Who did you see?”

  “Did you talk to the cops?”

  “How did he die?”

  I didn’t know which way to look first, and I sure didn’t know what to say. “I… um… you see…”

  We finally arrived at the ground floor, and I’d never been so glad to see a pair of doors slide open.

  The only problem was, nobody moved.

  “Uh, we have to go now,” I whispered, nodding toward the lobby beyond the elevator car. “Ladies? Now, please? I’m not exactly claustrophobic, but I’m starting to feel lightheaded
.”

  There was a lot of grumbling, but finally they started to move.

  Of all the times for Mom to call. I didn’t have to answer, of course, but Nell or Trixie—or both of them—would’ve been tasked with finding me. I could just imagine being paged over the speaker system. Emma Harmon, your mother wants to speak to you.

  Talk about your unpleasant high school flashbacks. Mom was a detective’s wife and therefore aware of the trouble in the world. It couldn’t have been easy, having two daughters out there, knowing how quickly things could go wrong.

  Even in Cape Hope.

  Breakfast was scheduled to be served in the hotel’s main ballroom, the only room big enough to hold us. The lobby was still full and busy as ever when I crossed through, filled with everybody who hadn’t yet checked in at the hotel or registered for the event.

  How many of them had yet to find out about the body? I almost envied their ignorance. It could be bliss sometimes.

  All around me, groups of people clustered with their heads close. Probably talking about the death or murder or whatever the situation was. The energy was high, tense, and I could see why.

  There was a killer on the loose, unless the man in question had fallen into the pool and struck his head along the way.

  Granted, that wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. No matter how many times I’d turned this over in my head overnight—who could sleep after something like this?—I couldn’t imagine a scenario in which the man in question would accidentally wander out to a closed pool and accidentally trip and fall.

  And this was me. The Queen of Stupid Accidents. Even the thought of falling into the trench in front of Nate Patterson’s farmhouse made my tailbone ache.

  No, it seemed more likely that the man was murdered. Or at least shoved, causing him to fall.

  And that wasn’t even taking the man himself into account. He wasn’t the most pleasant person. I could imagine somebody like him having plenty of enemies. It didn’t strain my imagination much when I asked myself who might have a reason to want him dead.

  Then again, he might’ve been a decent person outside the situation I’d seen him in. Maybe he had a wife, kids, whatever. Maybe they were waiting for him at home.