by Jessica Beck
I glanced over at Nathan and saw that he was fighting another outburst, and who could really blame him?
Maggie Hoff sneered at Kevin for a moment, and then she looked at Jake triumphantly. “The police chief knows that’s not true. As a matter of fact, I showed him the proof of my innocence earlier today. I’m the one who ended the affair with Chester because I love my husband.” The last bit she said as she looked up and stared straight at Nathan.
“I wish with all of my heart that I could believe that,” he finally responded.
“You have to, dear. It’s the complete and utter truth,” she said.
“Don’t try to sell that junk here,” Shelly interjected. “For once in your life, be honest with yourself, if not the rest of us. Everybody here knows that you’re a liar and an adulterer. You don’t get to behave like a virtuous woman, Maggie.”
“You’re just jealous that Chester loved me and not you!” Maggie lashed out, the words thrusting at the lodge owner like knives.
Shelly just laughed, a reaction that I wasn’t expecting. “Love? You were nothing more than a cat toy for him, something to be played with and then discarded. Spin it all you’d like, but he dumped you, plain and simple. Anything else is just a lie you keep telling yourself so you can get to sleep at night.”
Maggie started to stand, her fists clenched in rage, but all it took from Jake was one command to put her in her place again.
“Don’t,” Jake said simply, but with enough force to drive his warning home.
“We’re not finished with this, you and I,” Maggie said fiercely to Shelly.
“Bring it on—any time, any place,” Shelly said icily. Up until that moment, I hadn’t thought her capable of murder, but now I wasn’t so sure. Sure, she had an alibi, but it was an unconfirmed one at this point. If Maggie had been murdered, my money would have been on Shelly, but it was her boyfriend who had died, not the other woman, so I still wasn’t sure who had done it.
“Nathan, how about you? Do you have anything to add to the conversation?” Jake asked.
The man threw his hands up in the air as he spoke. “As I said before, I didn’t know about the affair until Chester was already dead, and I wasn’t really positive about that until Maggie just admitted it, even after you told me about it yourself,” he said wearily. The day had taken more out of him than he had, and he looked really beaten down to me. “Believe it or not, and frankly, I don’t care one way or the other. I liked Chester, and I’m sad that he’s dead, even if he did sleep with my wife. I just want to get out of here and start my life over.”
“You don’t mean that,” Maggie said, her voice nearly pleading with her husband.
Nathan didn’t even glance in her direction.
“Well, I certainly didn’t do it,” Kevin said. “Our feud was so minor, it was laughable. I wouldn’t kill anyone over a million dollars, and I certainly wouldn’t do it over ten bucks. Besides, our dispute was resolved once and for all, so even that petty a motive was no longer a valid one for me.”
“What are you talking about?” Jake asked him.
Kevin looked truly surprised. “Didn’t Suzanne tell you, or haven’t you compared notes yet? I thought you two were working on this case together. No matter. I’ve got the proof right here.” Chester again pulled out his wallet and handed the signed bill to Jake. “I’m going to be needing that back.”
“Hang on a second,” I said, and then I took the bill from Jake and showed the signature to Shelly. “Does that look legit to you?”
She glanced at it and then looked at me. “That’s Chester’s signature. There’s no doubt about it in my mind.”
“How can you be so sure?” Grace asked. “After all, it could be a forgery.”
“But it’s not,” Kevin insisted.
“He’s right,” Shelly replied. “Chester had an odd way of signing his name, one that would be extremely tough to duplicate.”
“I told you,” Kevin said as he snatched it away and tucked it back into his wallet. “There, I’m free from suspicion now.”
“I don’t know about that,” Vince snapped.
“But I just showed you all the proof!” he protested petulantly.
Vince was clearly not all that impressed. “Just because it might be hard to forge his signature doesn’t mean that it was impossible. Those two things are worlds apart.”
“What do you want from me, a signed absolution from the murder victim?” Kevin asked.
“That would probably do it, so unless you’re able to produce it, you stay on my list,” he answered.
“Is that the way you feel, too?” Kevin asked Jake.
“I’m reserving comment until the end, remember?” he asked. “Now, who does that leave on our list who hasn’t spoken?”
“How about her? She hasn’t said anything,” Maggie said as she pointed to Shelly.
“I’m in the clear. I have an alibi,” the lodge owner said smugly.
“Unconfirmed as of yet,” Jake said curtly.
“Do you mean to tell me that I’m still a suspect? You’ve got to be kidding me,” Shelly said. “I never would have allowed this to happen if I’d known you felt that way.”
“All you had to do was ask,” Jake said.
It was Shelly’s turn to show some outrage. As she stood, the lodge owner said, “I’ll tell you one thing. I’m not going to sit in my own establishment and listen to this.”
“As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what you’re going to do,” Jake said. I glanced over and saw that he had his hand on his weapon. There was no mistaking his intent.
Shelly slumped back down in her chair, but she wasn’t very happy about it.
Jake wasn’t finished with her yet, though. “Are you going to tell them, or should I?”
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“I’m talking about his will,” Jake said.
Shelly shook her head. “That’s nothing. It’s barely even worth mentioning.”
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’d surely like to hear about it,” Vince said. “Come on, Shelly. We all told our stories, so don’t leave anything out of yours.”
She huffed a little before she spoke. “Chester left me everything he owned, but before everyone gets too excited, you should know that what he had left was extremely modest. I’m not getting rich by any means, and by the time I finish paying off all of his bills, I’ll be lucky if there’s enough left for me to buy a nice meal out.”
“Is that true?” I asked Jake.
“She gets it all,” he replied.
“How much?”
“That I don’t know yet. I was supposed to get an update an hour ago, but that’s going to be tough to do without my cell phone.”
“So then, that’s one more motive for you,” Maggie trumpeted.
“We’re not keeping score,” Shelly said.
“That’s where you’re wrong, because that’s exactly what he’s doing,” Grace replied as she pointed to Jake.
“I wouldn’t exactly put it that way,” Jake said.
“You don’t have to,” Grace replied. “I did it for you.”
“Are we through here?” Maggie asked curtly.
“There’s just one more thing I’d like to know,” Jake said. “Did any of you happen to send Chester a postcard?”
“What are you talking about now?” Shelly asked him incredulously. “What could that possibly matter?”
“What was on the card?” Vince asked. “Did someone say something incriminating?”
“I want to see it,” Maggie said as she spoke up.
Nathan just shook his head. He was slumped down in his chair, and I had to wonder where his thoughts were.
“It was a photograph of a fire,” Jake said.
There were denials all around, and my boyfriend just shrugged. “Okay, that’s all that I’ve got for you.” He glanced at his watch, and then he said, “It’s getting late, so I suggest that you all get a good night’s sleep
. I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to bring its own set of unique problems.”
“Because today was so much fun,” Vince said sarcastically.
“I need my own room,” Nathan told Shelly. “Do you have anything available? I can sleep out here on the couch if I need to.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Maggie said. “You’re staying with me.”
“No, I’m not,” he said gruffly to her, and then turned back to Shelly. “Do you?”
“I’ve got a key for one of my spare rooms right here,” she said.
“You still have to come to our room to get your things,” Maggie said triumphantly.
“There’s nothing there I need anymore,” Nathan said, and then he walked down the hallway and slipped into his new room.
Maggie stood there watching him and actually stamped her foot before she retired to her own space, and in short order, Vince and Kevin went to their respective rooms as well. Shelly headed for the upstairs to retreat to her own room when Jake spoke. “You have another empty room available, don’t you?”
“Yes, why?”
“I thought so. That’s where you should stay tonight,” Jake said.
“Nonsense. I’ll be in my own room if you need me.”
Jake let her take two steps toward the kitchen hallway before he said, “Don’t you realize that the killer knows that, too?”
Shelly faltered, and then she stopped dead in her tracks. After a moment, she went quietly to the desk, drew the last free key, and then she walked to her room, not speaking the entire time and slamming her door when she got into her temporary quarters.
“I don’t think she’s very happy with you,” Grace said with a smile.
“She’ll have to get in line,” Jake said, returning her grin with one of his own. “You two need to go get some sleep.”
“Aren’t you coming?” I asked him.
“Not tonight. I’m going to be out here on guard duty,” Jake said.
“But you’re exhausted. You need your sleep more than anyone does,” I said.
He just shrugged. “Tonight it can’t be helped.”
“Let me at least stay up with you, then,” I suggested.
“Suzanne, you need sleep, too.”
“Not as much as you do. Besides, I’ll be wide awake at one AM, and we both know it. At least let me relieve you then.”
“I’m not going to put you in danger like that,” Jake said.
I grinned at him as I said, “Well, we all know that it’s a little too late for that.”
“I’ll get up with her so there will be two of us,” Grace volunteered.
I turned to my best friend and said, “As much as I appreciate the offer, we both know that you’re not used to being up at that hour of the night.”
“So I’ll make an exception,” Grace said. “What do you say, Jake?”
He thought about it for a few seconds, and then he nodded. “Come relieve me at one and then we’ll talk.”
“Thanks,” I said. I kissed him on the cheek, and then Grace and I headed to our respective rooms. It was a pretty big concession for him to make, and I wasn’t going to let him down. I had to grab a few hours’ sleep before I was on again, and I meant to take full advantage of it.
I never got the chance to, though.
Before my time working guard duty could begin, the world exploded all around me and shattered every last one of all of our good intentions.
Chapter 23
The first thing that woke me was the smell of smoke.
As I was climbing out of bed, I heard a woman’s scream.
Not the best way in the world to wake up from a sound sleep.
I threw on my jeans and T-shirt, not even stopping long enough to put my tennis shoes on.
Maggie was in the hallway directly in front of my room when I ran outside. “What’s going on, Maggie?”
“The lodge is on fire!” she screamed. “Nathan, come on! Answer the door!” Maggie pleaded as she continued to bang on her husband’s door. She really must have loved him, because instead of escaping, she was staying behind to make sure that her husband was safe. I could certainly empathize with the idea of trying to save someone I loved.
“Have you seen Jake?” I asked frantically as I glanced toward the lobby and saw flames starting to lick their way up the walls toward us. I knew that he would never leave the others to fend for themselves. Was he somewhere that I couldn’t see, trying to fight the fire single-handedly?
“I don’t know, and I don’t care!” Maggie snapped. “I need my husband!”
Nathan’s door finally opened, and from his disheveled look, it was clear that he had just awoken, despite the smoke, the scream, and the banging on his door. “What’s going on, Maggie? Is that smoke I smell?”
“The lodge is on fire! Come on. We need to get out!”
“Let me grab my shoes first,” he said.
“Hurry. I don’t know how much time we’ve got!”
“We should make sure everyone else is awake before any of us leave,” I said as I started banging on the other doors, starting with Grace’s.
I knew that she was a sound sleeper, but this was ridiculous. When she finally answered, she was rubbing her eyes vigorously. “Suzanne, is there a fire?”
“The whole place is burning down!” I said.
“Where’s Jake?” she asked as she looked wildly around. That was just one more reason that I loved her so much. She knew more than anybody how much he meant to me.
“I don’t know. I can’t find him anywhere!”
“I’ll help you look,” she volunteered, despite the danger that she would be putting herself in.
“What’s all the shouting about?” Shelly asked as she came out of her room, clearly bewildered by what was happening to her business and her home.
“Can’t you smell the smoke? Your lobby’s on fire!”
“Has everyone gotten out?” Shelly asked.
“I don’t know. I’m still looking for Jake!” I said frantically.
“Come on. I’ll help,” she said, and then she turned to everyone else still there in the hallway. “Let’s go, people. Jake could be in trouble. He might need us.”
Grace nodded, but no one else in the group seemed all that eager to help us.
“That’s too bad, because he’s on his own now,” Vince said as he turned away from the growing flames and headed straight for the nearest exit. “It’s every man for himself as far as I’m concerned.”
“Kevin?” I asked. “How about you? Will you help us look?”
“Sorry,” he said as he joined Vince in the exodus, “but I have to get out of here. I’m terrified of fire.”
“Will you two help us?” Shelly asked Nathan and Maggie even as they started for the exit together.
“We can’t do anything to help him now,” Maggie said as she took her husband’s hand in hers. “We have to save ourselves. Come on, honey.”
In his groggy state of mind, Nathan allowed himself to be led away from the flames by his estranged wife.
Shelly did her best to smile when it was just down to the three of us. “It looks like we’re it.”
“You and Grace don’t have to help,” I told her. “You should both save yourselves.”
“Not until we find Jake,” Grace said firmly, and Shelly nodded in agreement. I suddenly had new respect for both women. I understood Grace’s reaction, but Shelly was going down with her lodge, and no one was going to die on her watch if she could help it.
“Let’s go, then,” I told them, and then we started toward the flames.
“Jake! Jake!” I kept searching through the flames for any sign of him, but I didn’t have any idea of where he might be. Was he somewhere else in the building, trapped under something, unable to move as the fire advanced toward him? Why wasn’t he answering? Was he unconscious from the smoke? Worse yet, was he already dead?
I drove all of those thoughts from my mind. I had to move forward with the belief that Jak
e was okay.
It was the only way that I didn’t die myself right then and there.
“You two go that way. I’m going to check the kitchen,” Shelly said.
I looked at the kitchen door and saw that it was blackened from the heat. “You can’t do that. It’s not safe in there.”
“I’ll be okay,” Shelly said, but as she opened the door, a wave of smoke and flame shot out, as though it had been contained, though just barely. Grace and I managed to grab Shelly before she fell. I don’t know how we did it, but we somehow managed to drag her down the hallway to the outside. It was pitch black out there now and the icy rain was coming down harder than it had yet, but it was a welcome relief from what I’d just experienced.
The group of survivors had been huddling under a nearby tree looking for some protection from the storm, but when we brought Shelly out, they broke away from their shelter and rushed to us. “What happened to her?” Maggie asked.
“She got hit with a wave of smoke and flame,” I said as I turned her over to the others and headed back inside.
Grace, coughing violently from the smoke, was right beside me.
“Where do you two idiots think you’re going?” Vince asked me incredulously.
“Jake’s still in there,” I answered resolutely.
“If you go back in there, you’ll both die,” Kevin pleaded.
“Maybe so, but if I live and he dies because I was afraid to go in after him, how will I ever be able to live with myself?”
Grace tried to go with me, but I couldn’t allow that.
“You need to stay here,” I ordered her.
“I can help,” she said even as the coughing fits now doubled her over.
I took her hands in mine when she straightened up and said, “Grace, I love you like a sister, but if you go in there with me, you’re just going to slow me down. I need to do this alone; do you understand me?”
“I can’t let you go,” she said, tears streaming down her face making tracks in the soot on her cheeks.
“You have to,” I said. “For Jake’s sake.”
