Assignment Vegas: The Case of the Athlete's Assassin: Jae Lovejoy Cozy Mystery Two (Jae Lovejoy Cozy Mysteries Book 2)

by Lucey Phillips

  He smiled and reached one hand back behind his head.

  “Yeah, my neck didn’t like that couch.”

  We said goodbye.

  | Twenty

  Just when I’d gotten into my room and taken my shoes off, my phone rang.

  “I can’t find Cecile and I’m freaking out,” McKenna said when I answered the phone. “I just got to my room and she’s not here. What if she ran out when housekeeping came in?”

  “Ok, well, it’s not like she can push an elevator button,” I said. “She’s got to be somewhere on your floor. You keep looking around your suite and call security. Maybe they can see her on the cameras. I’ll come help you look.”

  I slipped my shoes back on and trudged down the hall. I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, and the adrenaline of the backstage excitement had worn off. Hopefully, this wouldn’t take long.

  I stopped at Colin’s door and knocked. He didn’t answer. Maybe he was in the shower. I sent him a text telling him I was going to help McKenna find Cecile. Then I took the elevator to the fourteenth floor.

  McKenna must have been watching for me from the peephole. She opened the door to her suite and gestured for me to come inside before I even knocked.

  Inside, there were fresh vacuum marks on the carpet. But there was a disheveled look to the suite.

  “Where’s your mom?”

  “In the bedroom. On the phone with security,” McKenna said. “She went through every closet, every cupboard. She’s been turning this place upside down. Cecile would never run away. This is really weird.”

  “Well, dogs can get disoriented when they’re away from home. I can see how she might slip past someone who was, like pushing a cleaning or room service cart in here, you know?” I said. “She’s probably wandering around lost on this floor. There’s so many people coming and going, she might not be able to, like, smell home, or whatever dogs do.”

  “Ok,” McKenna said with an exaggerated nod. She walked past me and out the door.

  I caught the door before it fell closed behind McKenna and followed her into the hallway.

  “We should really wait for security,” I muttered, mostly to myself.

  I followed McKenna down the empty hallway. A chubby man wearing a white tank top and blue shorts with flamingos printed on them walked out of a hotel room.

  “Excuse me, have you seen my dog?” McKenna asked him while she held up her phone for him to see. Of course Cecile was the screensaver.

  The man shook his head and went back into his room, slamming the door. We heard the bolt click.

  McKenna charged down the hallway, making kissing noises and whispering Cecile’s name.

  She stopped in front of what looked like a utility closet and pulled on the locked doorknob. That’s when we heard a distinctive “yip.”

  “It’s her! Cecile?” McKenna shouted, running down the hallway toward the sound of the noise.

  I jogged behind her, but it was difficult to keep up. My injured leg was still achy. I pushed through the discomfort though, relieved that we would be done soon and I could finally fall into bed.

  McKenna ran to the end of the hallway, which stopped at Room 1499, “The Royal Suite.”

  “It’s open!” she said before rushing inside.

  That’s when I knew something was wrong. These doors were all weighted to fall closed unless they were propped open. And they locked automatically.

  I ran after her, catching the door and slipping inside just before it closed.

  I slammed into McKenna’s back and stumbled a couple steps sideways. When I regained my balance, I was beside McKenna.

  She was standing with her hands up, looking across the room. We were in a lavish suite with white furniture and rugs over sand-colored porcelain tile.

  “Huh. That was easy,” Poppy said with a smirk.

  She was wearing her Currents work uniform. She held Cecile in one arm and a bulky revolver in the other hand.

  “Poppy! What are you doing?” I asked. I was in disbelief. “You have a gun?”

  “Wow, good observation skills.” Poppy rolled her eyes. “ Such impressive journalism. Did you learn that at journalism college?”

  She flipped the hand holding the gun from side to side while she looked down at it.

  “Nice piece, huh? A guest just left it sitting on their dresser. I took it when I saw the serial numbers were filed off. People in possession of illegal guns usually don’t call the police to report them stolen. So yeah, it’s mine now.”

  The gun was way too big for Poppy’s hand. And, judging by the lazy way she held it with a loose wrist, I doubted she even knew how to use it. Of course, it could be fatal in her hands regardless of her skill level. Especially at point-blank range.

  Poppy continued, “You see crazy stuff like that in a casino. You see overdoses, mob stuff, drug deals, prostitution. There’s even been suicides in this hotel. Bet you didn’t know that.”

  Cecile whined and wriggled in Poppy’s arms. In my periphery, I could see McKenna’s chin trembling.

  “You know what I haven’t seen yet?” Poppy asked.

  We didn’t respond.

  “A murder-suicide,” she said tilting head to the side and narrowing her eyes at us, as if she were considering a decision. “The only questions is…”

  She pointed the gun at me.

  “Who wants to be the murder?”

  She pointed the gun at McKenna.

  “And who wants to be the suicide?”

  “Just let my dog go,” McKenna said with a sob.

  “This smelly piece of lint? Here,” Poppy said, dropping Cecile onto the couch beside her.

  The dog scrambled to the floor and ran to McKenna, who picked her up and hugged her to her chest.

  “Poppy, you need to stop right now,” I said. “We already called security. If you put the gun down now, you won’t be in that much trouble. If you hurt someone, your life is going to be ruined.”

  “That’s only if I get caught,” Poppy said. “If I do this right, my life changes forever. If I pull this off, I’ll be a star.”

  “No, It’s too late. They would have already seen you come in here,” I said.

  Poppy laughed. “I know this hotel better than security does. I know all the cameras’ blind spots. I know which security officers spend their time on social media instead of doing their jobs. And I know that every one of them is distracted at shift change. That’s when I can get away with anything.”

  She walked behind us and bolted the door.

  “And I know that people who stay in the Royal Suite refuse to mix with the riffraff on the guest elevators. They take private corridors and private elevators—elevators that are not on camera.”

  That was the first time I noticed a shiny panel with one glowing button beside a door near the balcony. Maybe Poppy would get away with this.

  “There’s no evidence I was ever near this room,” she said. “I didn’t want it to go down like this. I just wanted a chance. I wasn’t trying to kill you McKenna—I didn’t even want to hurt you, really. I just wanted a chance to perform.

  “But you wouldn’t take a day off—you refused to give me one single show.” Poppy’s voice trembled. “All I wanted was a chance. Just a chance to be in front of a real audience.

  “So let’s see,” Poppy continued, pacing in front of us now. “Who does the deed? The strung-out diva, or the weirdo loner reporter? I could see this playing out either way, really.”

  “Kinney? Kinney? Cecile?” Mariah called from the hallway.

  Poppy stepped toward McKenna and raised the barrel to her temple. “Don’t,” she whispered.

  Cecile pawed and twisted her body furiously in McKenna’s arms, but she didn’t bark or whine.

  “Kinney!” Mariah’s voice sounded farther away now.

  Poppy glared at the front door.

  Behind her, the private elevator door opened slowly and silently. A security guard stepped off. I recognized him from the desk
at the backstage entrance to the Dream Myst theater.

  Tears of relief filled my eyes. Poppy didn’t seem to notice McKenna’s facial expression change when she saw the man in a security uniform.

  Poppy lowered the gun to her shirt and began wiping the handle furiously.

  “I’m going to get my prints off of here,” Poppy said.

  McKenna and I glanced at each other, waiting for the security guard to make a move on Poppy.

  I looked at the man’s belt, wondering if he was armed. Even without a gun, he was a big man who could easily overtake Poppy.

  “Did you bring my gloves?” Poppy asked, her head still bent down as she worked on the gun. “Randy? Hello? You were supposed to bring the gloves.”

  The security guard pulled some brown fabric from his pocket. “Here baby,” he said.

  Poppy snatched them from his hand irritably. “Where the hell have you been?”

  “Couldn’t get off the phone with the lunatic mother,” he said sheepishly.

  “Does anyone know?” Poppy asked while she pushed her hands into the gloves.

  “Nah,” he said.

  “See McKenna? You and James aren’t the only ones with a secret workplace romance,” Poppy said as she slid one arm behind Randy. “It’s the taboo that makes it hot, you know? Breaking the rules?”

  She picked up the revolver and stepped close to McKenna. “I think our precious Olympian should be the one to do the deed, don’t you, Randy?”

  He folded his arms across his chest and grunted in agreement.

  “Her sanity’s been hanging on by a thread for years now. No one will be surprised when she finally snaps,” Poppy said.

  “Wha-what about Cecile?” McKenna said with a sniffle.

  Poppy huffed an irritated sigh. “Take the dog, Randy.”

  When Randy reached for Cecile, she snarled and latched her teeth onto his hand. He gasped in pain while Poppy turned to see what was happening.

  McKenna used the distraction to take a stride toward them and kick Poppy hard behind one knee. Her leg collapsed and she fell to the ground, dropping the gun. It skidded across the shiny tile.

  “Get it, Jae,” McKenna said. She kneeled onto Poppy’s back, pinning her to the ground while Randy continued to struggle with the dog.

  I ran to grab the gun, then picked up the phone and called for help. While I was asking the operator to send the police, Randy freed himself from Cecile’s little jaws and ran onto the elevator. Then he was gone.

  Cecile spent the next few minutes snarling at Poppy and barking in her ear.

  McKenna cried and told Cecile she was a good dog. She kept both knees pressed into Poppy’s back and one hand on her ponytail while Poppy twisted and reached behind her helplessly.

  Still holding the gun in one hand, I opened the door to the suite. Colin was at the far end of the hallway. When he saw me, he broke into a run.

  I held my free hand up. “It’s ok. We’re ok. McKenna saved us.”

  »·×·»

  Jacob smiled warmly at McKenna.

  “I didn’t know you had it in you,” he said, his eyes twinkling.

  “This girls’ a fighter,” Mariah said. She wrapped an arm around McKenna and squeezed.

  “Mom,” McKenna rolled her eyes. “Jae was there, too. She got the gun.”

  I shook my head. “This was all McKenna.”

  A uniformed officer approached Jacob. “Detective, just wanted to let you know they caught Randy trying to drive his car out of Currents’ parking garage.”

  Poppy had already been read her rights, handcuffed, and taken away in a flurry of wails and tears. When the officers walked her to the elevator, Cecile followed behind, barking and growling the entire time, until the elevator doors closed.

  “Do you think Randy helped Poppy with the other attacks, the car wreck and the photos?” I asked Jacob.

  “I’m sure he helped. If nothing else, he was in a perfect position to watch everyone coming and going and tell Poppy where you were,” Jacob said. “We’ll probably be able to give him a deal for testimony against her.”

  “Yeah, I guess he’s not too loyal, judging by the way he took off out of there,” Colin said.

  He casually draped an arm around my shoulder. “You want to get going? You have to be tired.”

  “I guess so. Our flight is early,” I said.

  McKenna looked from Colin, to Colin’s arm around my shoulder, to me, and winked.

  Mariah, McKenna, Colin and I all exchanged hugs and goodbyes. Jacob shook my hand and said he’ll be in touch with any new details about “the case.”

  When we got back to the eighth floor, Colin walked me to my door. “You’ll be ok tonight?”

  I wanted to tell him yes and hug him, but instead I nodded and looked down.

  Then Colin hugged me. He was warm and solid and gentle. And it was over long before I was ready.

  “So, Austin tomorrow?” he said.

  “Yep,” I smiled at him and opened my door. “Austin tomorrow.”

  | Author’s Note

  Thank you to Dj Hendrickson and Wendy Elswick for editing this book. Thank you to Deranged Doctor Design for cover design and Write Dream Repeat for formatting.

  Thank you to anyone who read this book. If you enjoyed it, please take a moment to leave a review.

  For more information about Lucey Phillips and other works by this author, please visit luceyphillips.com

  Next in the Jae Lovejoy Cozy Mystery Series . . .

  ROLLER DERBY is always a dangerous sport . . . but in Austin, it’s become deadly.

  Jae and Colin are still on the road—this time profiling the creative, independent-minded residents of Austin, Texas. And the Capital City Wreckers, a women’s roller derby team, will be the perfect subject for Jae’s story.

  But when a rival team’s sponsor is found dead during Wrecker’s practice, police suspicions quickly zero in on the captain of the Wreckers and her boyfriend. The last thing Jae wants is to get tangled up in another murder investigation. But she senses injustice here, and Jae knows she has to step in.

  Meanwhile, the vague nature of her relationship with Colin is tested. And Jae continues to look for the courage to tell her mother how she really feels.

  Can she bring finally bring order to her personal life, and also crack the case of the Roller Derby Rivals? Pick up the book and find out today!