Table of Contents
MURDER IN MOUNTAIN SPRINGS
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
MURDER IN MOUNTAIN SPRINGS
ALENE ANDERSON
SOUL MATE PUBLISHING
New York
MURDER IN MOUNTAIN SPRINGS
Copyright©2016
ALENE ANDERSON
Cover Design by Leah Kaye-Suttle
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, business establishments, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
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Published in the United States of America by
Soul Mate Publishing
P.O. Box 24
Macedon, New York, 14502
ISBN: 978-1-68291-058-0
www.SoulMatePublishing.com
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
To my daughter, Debbie,
and my granddaughter, Jenessa,
who were the inspiration for this book.
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge Debby, my editor at Soul Mate Publishing, who makes writing a joy.
Chapter 1
He arrived in a cloud of dust and a loud blast of music. Kate Harrington stared out the window of the Mountain Springs Lodge and after the dust cleared, she saw a black Jeep, roll bar crossing over the top with a set of large spotlights mounted on its shiny surface.
The rag top was pushed back and her eyes moved from the lights down to the driver. A light-gray cowboy hat set at a jaunty angle on dark hair and a cigarette hung from one side of the man’s mouth.
Was this the new customer she had made the reservation for a few days ago? Or was it someone passing through, stopping for a piece of Hank’s famous pie?
The stranger swung his tall body out of the vehicle, removing the cigarette from his mouth, then tossing it down and grinding it into the dirt with the toe of a scuffed cowboy boot. As he strode toward the lodge, she took in the Hawaiian print shirt tucked into worn hip-hugging jeans. He certainly didn’t look like someone who would want to spend time in the small town of Mountain Springs, Utah.
He seemed oblivious to the fact that he had left the music blaring loudly. Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” now filled the air and Kate couldn’t help but wonder if it was echoing back from the nearby mountains and down through the valley. He mounted the steps and entered the office where she stood behind the counter not believing for one minute that this was the man who had made a reservation the previous week.
As he stepped into the room, his brown eyes examined her quizzically across the short space causing her heart to quicken its beat.
“Hi, doll,” he said.
Two words, but she recognized the deep voice immediately.
“Mr. Soubrette? Mr. Jake Soubrette?” She tried to keep the surprise out of her voice.
His full lips curved in a slight smile. “That’s me.”
He wasn’t at all what she had expected. This man in his Hawaiian print shirt and cowboy hat, looking as though he hadn’t shaved in several days, certainly didn’t fit her picture of the voice making the reservation. That voice had been business-like and formal. The deep voice on the phone had sounded exactly like what he had said he was, an attorney taking a sabbatical.
Whatever. She shrugged. He was her first customer and she couldn’t afford to be picky. She had sunk all her divorce settlement into buying and remodeling the run down lodge. It had to be profitable. She had to make a good living for herself and Jennifer, her twelve-year-old daughter.
As the music continued to blare from outside, she swung the registration book around and handed him a pen. “Your cabin is all ready for you, if you’ll just sign in, please.”
He flipped through the blank pages of the register, a curious expression on his face. “Looks like I’m your first customer.”
“You are,” she admitted enthusiastically. “I just recently purchased the lodge. It had been closed for a couple of months due to the death of the owner. I had to do a lot of maintenance. The place was pretty rundown. But I’ve hired a great cook. Hank is famous in the area for his pies. I’m looking forward to a great season.”
Jake signed his name across the clean page in a large illegible scrawl and then below it, his address. Even upside down she could read it was an address in Los Angeles.
Bobbing his head from side to side with the beat of the music, he reached into his shirt pocket and took out a pack of cigarettes. Selecting one, he put it between his lips.
“I don’t allow smoking in here or in the cabins,” she said, pointing to the white sign with black letters. “But you’re welcome to smoke outside.”
His hand halted in midair, a lighter already flickering with a small yellow flame. “Aren’t you afraid you’ll lose customers with that kind of policy?”
“The previous owner said it wasn’t a problem. Men will put up with a lot when they’re pursuing their passion.”
His head was tipped down slightly toward the lighter, as though he was debating whether to light the cigarette or not. He glanced up and gave her a considering look as the lighter flamed out in his hand.
Kate’s heart thudded so loudly, she was sure he must have heard it. She should have used a different choice of words. Would he think she was flirting with him?
Her mouth was suddenly dry and she licked her lips in a nervous gesture. This was a first for her. She was not accustomed to battling the wishes of a man, especially not an alpha male like the one standing across the counter from her.
Slowly he stuck the lighter back into his pocket, but left the cigarette in his mouth, his eyes never leaving hers. She wished she knew what he was thinking. When his hand came out of his pocket this time, it held a money clip and she breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’ll want the cabin for an indefinite period. I’ll pay a month in advance and after that, we’ll take it from there.”
He peeled off several large bills and slapped them down on the open book. Picking them up, Kate counted them out, rang them up on the register, and handed him the receipt.
“Cabin Three,” she said as she took a set of keys off a board hanging behind her. “I’ll show you.”
He stepped back to allow her to precede him out the front door. A
s she passed him she was aware of his eyes moving up and down her body, as though measuring and assessing. Her cheeks heated with embarrassment.
Kate took a deep breath and headed briskly out the door, finding it hard not to look up at him. Jake was close behind her as she started up the short incline to the row of cabins behind the lodge. She should probably put him in the last cabin, she thought. Number Three might be too close for comfort with its proximity to the lodge. Too late now.
After unlocking the door, she stepped back to allow him a peek into the cabin. Even though his tall figure blocked her view, she knew what he was seeing. Wooden floors with colorful braided rugs scattered around the room, various pieces of rustic furniture, a couch, magazine rack, a small refrigerator, microwave, a table, and two chairs.
A large picture window gave a striking view of a nearby range of mountains and two doors were set into the opposite wall, one leading into the bathroom and the other into the bedroom.
“This is great, just great.”
The way he said it, made her wonder if it was the cabin he was talking about. Something in his eyes had her turning and heading back to the lodge before he could see the flush on her hot cheeks.
“You can park your Jeep here in front of the cabin,” she called back over her shoulder. “If you decide to stay longer than a month, I will need to know as soon as possible. I don’t want to rent out your cabin to someone else.”
It had been a year since her divorce and the idea of a man looking at her with interest in his eyes made her whole body tingle. Would any man make her feel that way, or just this particular one? You would think a man had never looked at her before. But it had been years. Being married to Walt had kept any admiring glances away from her direction, at least none she had noticed.
In all honesty, maybe it wasn’t only Walt. As the years passed and she had become aware of Walt’s true nature, she had felt herself falling into a depression. She had lost interest in her appearance, but not her interest in eating.
Since her divorce, she had dropped off weight. She had let her blond hair grow down past her shoulders and had it layered into a flattering style. She hadn’t felt downhearted since the metal doors at the state prison had swung shut behind her soon-to-be ex-husband.
“Oh, I almost forgot.”
She turned suddenly, and Jake bumped into her. A warm hand grasped her bare arm causing a tingling that seemed to arc through every fiber of her being. She could hardly breathe as for one moment she felt the length of his hard body against hers.
“Sorry about that.” He smiled as he dropped his hand and stepped back.
“I forgot to give you the key.” She reached into the pocket of her jean skirt and pulled out a short chain with a key and a small green tab on it with the words ‘Mountain Springs Lodge’ printed in black.
He held out his hand, palm up, and she dropped the key into it, glad she didn’t have to touch him. What was her problem? The loud rock music didn’t help. It stirred her in a strange, sexual way. She had to get a grip if she was going to be affected this way by every man who might stay at the lodge.
She remembered the previous owner’s widow had told her groups of men often came to the lodge in order to fish in the nearby lake in the summer and in the fall they came to hunt. If she wanted this new enterprise of hers to be successful, she needed to remain professional at all times. She would have only six or seven months each year to make the lodge productive since she would have to shut it down for the winter.
As she crossed the wooden porch that ran across the front of the lodge, she heard Jake say one word. “Doll.”
Something about the way he pronounced it made it sound almost like a caress. She hesitated before turning around. Should she tell him she preferred to be called Kate or should she just ignore it and hope he would eventually start calling her by her name.
Having him around was going to be absolutely unbearable if she continued to have these reactions. And if any of the other men heard the way he addressed her, they might begin to wonder about her. She would worry about that later. Right now she just wanted to be rid of him.
“Yes?” she finally said.
“I understand there is a stable nearby where I can rent a horse for riding up into the mountains.”
“There is. A lot of the hunters who come up here use their horses. I believe they have a good bunch.” She didn’t know if that was the right word to use when talking about horses. Maybe she should have called them a herd, or was that for cattle? He was from the city. Maybe he wouldn’t notice. “Just go up the hill on this road and you’ll see it on the right. You can’t miss it. Reynold’s Stable.”
“Do you ride?”
“A little.”
“Maybe we can go riding sometime.”
She stared. That was the last thing she wanted to do with this man. “I don’t think so. I imagine I’ll be pretty tied to the office.”
He narrowed his eyes as though displeased with her answer. Then he shrugged and climbed into the Jeep and she heard the engine fire up. She saw Jake light the cigarette, which had been hanging out of the corner of his mouth. Then he left the way he had arrived—in a cloud of dust and a loud blast of music.
“Well, who was that?”
Kate smiled at Hank as she entered the lodge.
“Jake Soubrette, my first customer,” she said brightly. “He’s an attorney on sabbatical from Los Angeles.”
“Sure likes his music loud,” he commented. “That’ll go over big with the locals.”
She laughed. “Maybe you could suggest he lower the volume while he’s driving around town.”
“Hey, don’t think that’s one of my chores,” he said. “I’m just the cook here, and a damn good one, if I do say so myself. How long is he stayin’?”
“He paid for a month, but he indicated he might want to stay longer.”
“Wonder where he’s off to. Didn’t even bother to unload his bags.”
“You don’t miss a thing, do you, Hank?” Kate teased.
“Comes from livin’ in a small town. Nothin’ else to do. Tried cuttin’ wood for a while to take down to Lava Cove for fireplaces, but every other man in town was out doin’ the same thing, so there was too much competition. I lucked out when you bought the lodge. Speakin’ of wood. Did I ever tell you about the time Doc asked me to trim the trees in front of his house?”
He didn’t wait for Kate to answer but continued, “Took me four hours, and he only wanted to pay me thirty dollars. But when I cut my hand and he had to stitch it up, it only took him a few minutes, and he charged me sixty dollars.”
“That doesn’t seem reasonable,” Kate agreed.
She couldn’t help but like Hank. He made her think of a cook on a trail ride. Tall and lanky, he had a way of dropping off the nouns and pronouns from the beginning of his sentences. He liked to have her come into the kitchen every morning so he could fix her breakfast and pass on the latest gossip. He seemed to know everything that was going on in Mountain Springs.
“Gotta go check on that apple pie I’m bakin’ for dinner. But if Doc ever comes into the lodge for a meal, you charge him double, ya hear.”
“Got it,” Kate said with a smile.
As Jake drove away from the lodge he thought of the background check he had done on Kate before he left Washington, D.C.
His information had shown a plump woman with short blond hair. She had in no way resembled the woman he had just met except for the hair color. The photos had shown one very sober-looking lady, one with her husband, a medium-sized man with thinning hair, and one with a young girl.
When he had walked into the lodge expecting to see the woman in the photo, he had been bowled over. For a minute he thought Kate must have a sister or some other relative working for her.
The woman who own
ed the lodge was slender and her hair was long, cut in different lengths, which had it curling around her face in an attractive style. Her eyes had lit with pleasure and she had given him a radiant smile when she agreed he was her first customer. If he had been attracted to her before, the smile had blown him away. Sincerity and happiness had shown in her beautiful green eyes.
The picture must have been taken when she was still married to Walt Potter. He knew Kate and Walt had been divorced for a year. Walt had gone to prison after being found guilty as an accessory to the murder of a Las Vegas stripper and she had divorced him. In a year, a person could change a lot if they had the motivation, which she obviously had. Her profile had shown a model wife and mother in a small Utah community. But after her husband’s trial, she had gone to court, taken her maiden name of Harrington back, sold their house, and invested the proceeds in the lodge.
He had to admire her for not giving up and sinking into depression the way his sister had after her divorce. It had been six years and his sister was still moaning about Jeff and his affair.
Jake had not been lucky with the women in his life. He had been on a mission in Afghanistan when his wife had run off with one of his friends and cleaned out their bank account on the way out of town. It had been devastating to return to the States and find out he no longer had a wife, a home, or a bank account.
The experience had made him bitter about relationships with women and his only thought from then on was to use them and then drop them when he became bored, and fortunately or unfortunately, depending on one’s point of view, that never seemed to take long.
He had spent the last few months in Washington, D.C, where he had soon earned a reputation as a playboy. Word quickly got around that any girl would be out of her mind to take him seriously.
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