by B. J Daniels
I know what you did
But even as she thought it, she knew that she wasn’t the same woman who’d arrived here. That woman had a plan to get out of here as fast as possible and take her lie with her. The woman she was now wanted to confess—to Finn.
She felt she owed him at least that. Admitting what she’d done with Megan’s diary wouldn’t help Finn find her killer, but it would let her leave here without the guilt she’d carried for years.
But first she would deal with at least one of the promises she’d made her grandmother.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AFTER FINISHING HER COFFEE, she pulled her grandmother’s list from the pocket of her jeans and unfolded the sheet of paper. Seeing her grandmother’s neat script hurt her heart. She missed Anna. Even after she’d quit coming to the hotel in the summers, they had remained close. Closer than she had ever been with her mother.
Casey tried to concentrate on the list. It was longer than she’d expected. She shook her head. What was she supposed to do with these items once she found them? She knew her grandmother wanted them kept in the family. But Casey lived on-site at the hotel. She had no place to store them.
For a moment, she felt overwhelmed with loss and grief and the weight of the one promise she’d meant to keep.
After a moment, she studied the list again, noting that her grandmother had suggested where a few of the items might be found in the huge hotel. So at least it wouldn’t be a case of looking for a needle in a haystack. But the list did make her wonder if the elderly woman had been in her right mind. Or was the list long and involved because Anna was determined to keep Casey in this hotel as long as possible? So long that she faced the past and her part in it? It wouldn’t have been unlike her.
She decided to start with one item that was supposedly in the tower. It had always been her and her grandmother’s favorite spot in the hotel. For a moment, she considered taking the elevator, but she decided to walk.
Taking the stairs, she quickly climbed. The last part of the stairwell to the tower was narrow and steep. She was glad when she finally pushed through the door, breaking out into the bright light of the circular tower with its walls of windows.
The glass was dusty, and the room needed to be cleaned, but she’d forgotten how wonderful the views were from here. She opened one of the small windows to let in some fresh air. A gust of warm breeze rushed in. She breathed in the sweet scent of a Montana spring morning.
Every breath was a reminder of what she’d done and what she was about to do. Her grandmother had wanted this place to stay in the family as it had for almost a century and a half, but she also knew how impossible that was for her granddaughter. As much as Casey loved the Crenshaw, it wasn’t something she wanted to take on. Especially after Megan’s murder.
She walked around the tower, admiring the different views and feeling her grandmother in the room. Anna had always had afternoon tea up here. “Everyone should get to spend time on the top of the world, don’t you think, Casey?”
She’d chuckled. “I doubt this is the top of the world.”
“It is for us, and that’s all that matters.”
Soon Anna’s top of the world would be nothing more than rubble to be hauled away. If she sold to Devlin. Who knew what Finn would do with it? Could she sell to him with the contingency that he must destroy it?
Either way, her grandmother’s Old Girl would be gone.
“I’m sorry, Gram.” Tears burned her eyes as she turned away from the view and saw other footprints in the dust on the floor. She wasn’t the only one who’d been up here recently. Finn. She could see where he’d walked around. She could imagine him standing at the windows, looking at the varying views.
The footprints ended at the large, overstuffed chair—her grandmother’s. The knitted throw still hung over one arm, and a book lay open facedown on the small table next to it, along with a cup that Casey knew had held tea.
The scene looked as if her grandmother had been interrupted and had stepped away to tend to hotel business but would return any moment. The feeling was so strong that Casey thought she could hear her grandmother’s tread on the stairs.
She turned, half expecting to see her, and felt the loss with an intensity that brought more tears to her eyes as Finn filled the doorway.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said.
Turning her back, she moved swiftly to her grandmother’s chair as she tried to hold back the tears. She picked up the book and, placing the bookmark between the last pages that had been read, closed it. There was a dark stain at the bottom of the cup from the tea that had never been finished. She snatched up the throw and held it to her chest and was rewarded with the scent of Anna’s rose perfume.
“The view from up here is incredible,” Finn said behind her. She heard him move to the windows to the west. “You can see snowcapped mountains miles from every window. I understand why it was your grandmother’s favorite room.” She knew he was giving her time to pull herself together. She took a breath, dashed her tears with her sleeve and turned to look at him.
He still had his back to her. “She mentioned it numerous times in her journal. She wrote about how she used to read books to you up here when you were little, how you had tea parties and invited your dolls.” Casey felt her heart bump in her chest. “You must have such wonderful memories.”
He turned to look at her and must have seen how close she was to breaking down. He switched to business as if knowing that would help her. “I have made all the arrangements for a contract to be drawn up the moment you accept my offer for the hotel and land.” She nodded, afraid her voice would crack if she tried to speak. “I also made a few calls on that other matter we discussed. If there’s a connection between that car accident and someone on the staff from that summer, my PI will find it.”
She stepped to the window next to him and tried to concentrate on the view to the north. From here, a person could see the entire town of Buckhorn nestled between the pine-covered mountains. A dark two-lane strip of pavement cut right through the middle and kept going.
“You can change your mind.”
She glanced at him, gave a shake of her head, knowing he meant selling the hotel. But it was the news he’d given her this morning that had shaken her. What if Megan’s murder could have been prevented if only Casey had looked in the diary? If only she hadn’t destroyed it? The killer could be in prison now and not possibly inside this hotel considering their next victim. “It’s just...difficult to let go.”
“I’m sure it is.” His look was so sympathetic that she knew if she didn’t drag her gaze away, she would start crying again. Her loss was so fresh, and being here in the place her grandmother had loved so much was wrenching at her heart. She turned away.
“You’re buying an old hotel on a whim, and I’m guessing you still don’t know what you’re going to do with it.”
“You’re right about that,” he said behind her. “What would you like for me to do with it?”
She swallowed. Did she really believe that she could put all of this behind her if the hotel was razed to nothing but dust? Would it help her sleep any better? “Whatever you want.”
Retrieving the tiny china tea set on the shelf behind her grandmother’s chair, she stepped past him, avoiding his gaze. She’d taken but a few steps when she remembered the cup she’d left behind. Her grandmother would have wanted her to return it to the kitchen.
She knew it was silly. The entire place might be gone in a matter of weeks, but she stopped to turn back. When she did, though, she collided with Finn. He caught her with one arm to steady her, and she saw that he had picked up the cup before leaving the room.
The gesture touched her so deeply, making her realize that he really had come to know her grandmother over the months he’d been staying here. She met his warm gaze and saw in those breath-stealing seconds th
at he also knew her more than she had wanted to admit. The intimacy of it made her skin dimple with goose bumps.
His gaze locked with hers. She felt heat rush to her center. Her knees went weak with a need that made her tremble inside. If he touched her now—
“Casey?” The grating female voice called up the stairs. “Hello? Are you up there?”
The last thing she wanted to do was answer Vi Mullen. Especially right now. But she also knew that the woman wouldn’t go away until she did. She could hear Vi starting to climb the stairs.
“I’m coming down!” Casey called and dragged her gaze from Finn, the moment gone. She still felt weak with need but also with relief. The last thing she needed to do was complicate this already-confounding situation. Not to mention that she was lying to him. That didn’t make her any better than Megan.
* * *
“I’VE BEEN LOOKING all over this place for you,” Vi said disagreeably as she glanced up the stairs as if searching for something. Or was it someone? Had she heard Casey and Finn talking up there?
Finn was nowhere to be seen, as if he’d guessed that she didn’t want Vi seeing them together. Or had that moment they’d had together affected him the way it had her, and he wanted some time before facing anyone?
“Well, now you’ve found me.” Casey could just imagine what this was about. She’d expected Vi would come by as soon as she’d heard she was in town. She guessed she was lucky it had taken the woman this long.
“Let’s go down to the main hall,” Casey said. “It’s not as dusty down there.” She would have preferred the stairs, the way she’d come up, but for the older woman she pushed the elevator button, and the two of them rode to the ground floor.
The woman had some papers she was holding and a determined look on her face. Casey hoped this wasn’t about trying to get the hotel on the historic register and stopping the sale. She motioned to one of the Victorian couches and excused herself to put the tea-party set away in her grandmother’s office.
When she returned and had taken a seat, Casey began. “Vi—”
“Coffee,” the woman interrupted.
“Coffee?” Casey realized it wasn’t an offer; it was a request. “I’ll see if there is some in the kitchen. Let me check.” She got up and walked down the staff hallway to the kitchen. Finn had apparently made another pot. There were also pastries with a note saying he’d picked them up at the bakery and to help yourself. She was touched by his efficiency and his thoughtfulness.
Casey felt her stomach growl as she poured herself and Vi a cup of coffee. She put the cups on a tray along with some pastries. She thought about bringing out a carafe for refills but was determined that, whatever Vi wanted, it wouldn’t take that long.
The woman’s eyes widened as Casey put a cup of coffee and a turnover in front of her. “Are these Bessie’s?” Vi asked and took a large bite. “Oh, they are. She does make the best pastries.”
Casey sat down and picked up her cup. She cut off a forkful of one of the turnovers. It was sweet, buttery and flaky, the berries inside bursting in her mouth. No one baked like Bessie.
“Aren’t they heavenly?” Vi said as she devoured hers and then slurped most of her coffee. “I can imagine how much you must miss Buckhorn and Bessie’s sweets and your grandmother. This old place has to remind you of her.” The woman shuddered. “It must be so hard for you, staying here all alone.”
“I’m not alone,” she said, as if Vi didn’t already know that.
“Oh, yes, that...that man who’s been staying here.” Another shudder conveyed what Vi thought of Finn. “He seems...dangerous, don’t you think?”
Vi had no idea what having such a man like Finn around was like—let alone a half-dozen murder suspects.
“I heard some other people have moved in as well,” Vi said. “More homeless?”
She hurriedly changed the subject. “I’m sure that’s not why you’re here.”
“I don’t want the hotel destroyed,” Vi said, putting down her cup a little too hard.
Casey shook her head. “Why?”
“Because it’s a local landmark. I can’t bear the idea of someone tearing it down. Half this town worked here at some point in their lives. All of us in town are a piece of it.”
The woman was right. A lot of the locals had been a part of the hotel, not to mention all the teens who’d worked at least a summer here. It had almost been a rite of passage to work at the Crenshaw. Now it was the end of an era.
Vi cleared her voice, finally getting to business. “I want to buy the hotel.” She tossed the papers in Casey’s direction.
Casey gathered them up, shocked. She’d wanted to sell the hotel and grounds for months. Where had Vi been all this time?
“What would you do with it?” Casey asked without looking at the papers.
“Does it really matter to you? Isn’t my keeping the Crenshaw better than razing it and building a truck stop?”
“I think a truck stop would be more useful,” she said honestly. Picking up the offer, she saw that it was ridiculously low. “This is generous of you, Vi, but I’m sorry—the hotel is already sold.”
“What? But Devlin told me—”
“I didn’t sell to Devlin.”
“You can’t have sold it that quickly. You have to give me a chance. At least consider my offer.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve already agreed to another offer.” She tried to hand back the paperwork, but Vi refused to take it.
“Think about what your grandmother would have wanted.”
After being in the tower, sensing her grandmother there, Casey felt too vulnerable to have this conversation right now. If there were any way to keep the hotel, to make it viable, she would know. She’d been in this business for years. Vi had no idea how to run a hotel or what was involved. It wouldn’t be a year and the place would be closed again. How long would Vi hold on to it before she sold the property just as Casey planned to do?
“Look at this place,” Vi said, taking in the huge main hall. “You can’t destroy it. It would break Anna’s heart.”
“Vi, the answer is no. The deal is done.” Which wasn’t quite true, but close enough. “I’m sorry. My grandmother knew I had to sell it.”
“Not to have it torn down.”
Casey shook her head. She needed to know that she’d taken care of things and not let the hotel limp on as something it wasn’t or couldn’t ever be again.
Vi pursed her lips, reached for her napkin and wiped her mouth. “You’re making a mistake. Your grandmother will be rolling over in her grave when the bulldozers start taking this place down.”
“My grandmother was cremated.”
“You know what I mean. I’m offering to save the hotel.”
“If there was a way to save it, I would do it myself.” Casey pushed to her feet.
“At least let me send Emery over to get the boards off the windows so you can enjoy it while you’re here,” Vi said in a change of subject that practically gave Casey whiplash.
“Not necessary.” Vi’s brother Emery had to be in his early sixties by now. He had no business up on a ladder. “Finn will handle it once he’s the legal owner.”
“Finn? You can’t mean that man who’s been living here as a squatter?” Vi cried. “He doesn’t have a penny to his name.”
“He must have rich friends,” Casey said, not about to reveal Finn’s identity to this busybody. Vi would find out soon enough. “But thanks for the offer,” she added, remembering her manners.
“Emery told me to mention that he was worried about the old boiler downstairs,” Vi said. “He was trained in boilers, you know. They can be dangerous, he told me. He wouldn’t mind checking—”
“I’m sure Finn will deal with it,” she said.
Vi’s face wrinkled in a frown. “Emery gave his life to this place,” she sai
d stubbornly.
Casey thought that was a bit overly dramatic. She remembered how her grandmother had kept the man on years after she should have. Casey had often found him napping in one of the rooms when he wasn’t hiding out in the maze of pipes and equipment under the hotel.
She suspected that some years he’d lived down there, even though her grandmother had forbidden it. But when she’d offered him a room in the staff quarters, he’d declined.
“I thought Emery retired to Arizona after my grandmother closed the hotel?” Casey asked.
“He did for a while, waiting for Anna to return and reopen the hotel. She’d told him she would hold his job for him.” Vi seemed nervous. Casey noticed how her hand shook as she picked up her cup and finished her coffee. “The new owner should hire him, just for his peace of mind. Emery could use the money. He’s been staying with us, but I know he wants to get a place of his own. Or he could stay in the hotel once it’s up and running again.”
So that was why she was pushing this. Emery was living with her and Axel. “I really doubt Finn will be running the place as a hotel. I would imagine he’ll raze it and build something else.”
Vi looked like she might cry. Did she really love this place that much? She did own an antiques barn. Maybe she had real feelings for old things.
“I’m sorry, Vi. It’s for the best.”
“Is it?” Her gaze swung to Casey, her look cold and brittle. “You have no idea what you’re about to do.” Vi stood awkwardly, clearly upset.
Casey began to load the tray with their empty plates and cups. All of this was hard enough without Vi trying to make her feel guilty. “I really need to get back to what I was doing.”
“Tina also worked at the hotel, you might remember. And Jen.” Vi suddenly shuddered, rubbed her arms with her hands as if feeling a draft. “This place is haunted, you know.” Vi looked as if she’d felt Megan’s ghost or one of the others said to cruise the place. “You can stop this before it’s too late,” she said as she picked up her purse to leave. “I’d hate to see the community turn against you. They loved your grandmother so much.”
