by B. J Daniels
He pushed that thought away as he stood at the window looking out at the darkness. He’d only taken the job here at the Crenshaw that summer because he’d put off applying anywhere else. When his father lost it, threatening to find him a job if he didn’t, he’d been desperate and had taken the first thing that came up on his computer.
There had been one opening left. It was the perfect job—cleaning hotel rooms and serving guests for tips. It was exactly the kind of summer job that would piss off his father. And it had.
He’d actually enjoyed the work, though, because he was good with the guests. He knew rich people. He’d grown up around them his whole life and knew what made them happy. He’d been great at it.
Megan had struggled, since she’d always been on the other end that made the demands—not satisfying them. She’d hated the job from day one.
He laughed to himself now as he remembered how she’d struggled even to make her first bed. “Have you really never made a bed in your entire life?” he’d asked, laughing.
“We have help for that.”
“Well, now you’re the help,” he’d said and showed her. Not that he had any experience, but he’d had a crush on one of his family’s younger housekeepers, and he used to love watching her make beds, especially the way she did the tight corners.
That poignant memory of that first day with Megan hurt more than he’d thought it would. For a while, they’d been close. She’d liked him; he was sure of it. Until she didn’t.
He stepped away from the window thinking he would try to get some sleep, since Patience had gone back to her room to pack. She was planning to leave. She’d had enough. Unless he could convince her to stay. He just needed to shut down his thoughts for a few hours. Otherwise, he would return to the night Megan died and those shadowy dark woods. If a tree fell in the woods, did it make a sound if you weren’t there to hear it? What about a rock to the back of a skull?
* * *
CASEY HAD AWAKENED early and, avoiding the kitchen, had finished up her grandmother’s tasks. Most of the items were small and would fit in the convertible. A couple of larger items she took down to Vi to have them shipped.
Basically, she was done once she found one more item that hadn’t been on the list. It was one of the first books her grandmother had ever read to her here at the hotel. She thought she’d seen it in one of the garden rooms. She headed there now, wishing she’d picked it up earlier. Unfortunately, her mind had been on other things at the time.
She was looking in one of the garden rooms on the ground level when she noticed that someone had been playing Scrabble. The board was laid out on a small table between two chairs. She wondered if it had been one of the last guests. She couldn’t imagine that any of the reunion staff had been down here playing.
Without thinking, she began picking up pieces to put the board away when she heard someone enter the room.
“I’m glad I found you,” Finn said as he joined her. She stopped what she’d been doing to smile at him. He returned that smile with an amazing one of his own. The man was so beautiful, inside and out, she thought with a rush of emotion.
“Are you winning?” he asked, grinning at her as he motioned to the Scrabble board. She rolled her eyes. “Speaking of words, you do realize that you sometimes make me feel tongue-tied around you? Like right now.” He closed the distance between them. The kiss was so natural and yet off the charts as he slowly drew her to him and lowered his mouth to hers. He deepened the kiss, filling her with a sense of promise that had her heart soaring.
“Who needs words,” she whispered as the kiss ended.
“They come in handy sometimes.” He began to pick up letters from the game board. She watched him, realizing he was writing something. As he finished, he turned the board toward her. He’d written I have fallen for you.
She laughed, her gaze locking with his as he kissed her again. The man was an incredible kisser—and not bad at all with words, but that came as no surprise. Was there anything he couldn’t do?
“Have lunch with me,” he said. His cell phone rang. He cursed under his breath. “Lunch. Two hours. Meet me here. We’ll go out the back door and avoid everyone.” She nodded, smiling. He checked the screen. “I have to take this. Later?”
“Later.” She watched him walk out of the garden room, his kisses still sending waves of pleasure through her. She was smiling to herself when she looked down again at what he’d spelled out on the Scrabble board.
Impulsively she scooped up the letters and put them in the pocket of her jean jacket. Her whole body seemed to be vibrating. I have fallen for you.
* * *
AFTER DEALING WITH the fallout from his disappearance and questions about his sanity for purchasing the Crenshaw Hotel in Buckhorn, Montana, Finn found Jason in the kitchen pouring himself a cup of coffee. He looked as if he hadn’t been sleeping well. Finn motioned him out into the hallway, wondering where everyone else was, but he didn’t ask.
“Has Devlin turned up?”
Jason blinked. “I haven’t seen him. When I checked his room yesterday, his stuff was all there.”
“What’s his room number?”
Jason frowned. “I can’t remember, but I can show you.”
They headed for the staff wing. Everything was quiet. Maybe too quiet, Finn thought. Jason found the room he believed was Devlin’s. Finn knocked. No answer. He knocked again, a little harder. Still no answer. He tried the knob.
The door swung open. Even from the hallway, Finn could see that Devlin had cleared out.
“He probably left,” Jason said. “He only came to the reunion because he thought he was going to get a deal on the hotel and land. I doubt his investors are happy with him. I’m sure he’s just taken off.”
Maybe, Finn thought. It was just that no one had seen him leave. Just like Claude. Both could have just decided they’d had enough and didn’t want anyone to give them a hard time for leaving. Finn knew he was probably looking for trouble where there wasn’t any. He hadn’t forgotten that someone had dressed up like Megan to move through the woods to try to scare them.
They checked. His car was gone. “Let me know if anyone else might have seen Devlin,” Finn said, wondering when he’d left. Last night during the Ouija board scene in the kitchen? Or sometime after that when most everyone had gone to the bar?
“Will do.” Jason took his coffee and headed for his room. Before the door closed, Finn saw the adult-size lump under the covers of the man’s bed. Patience?
He checked his watch and headed upstairs. He had wanted to give Casey as much time as she needed—not just for lunch but before she had to sign over the hotel to him. He hadn’t wanted to pressure her. But if Devlin was gone and she still wanted to sell and put this behind her, then he wanted to make that happen today.
Finn didn’t like this feeling he couldn’t shake. Something was wrong. He was having trouble believing that Claude and Devlin had cooked up the ghost stunt last night any more than they had their disappearing acts. It felt wrong. A clock was ticking down on the reunion. Whoever was behind whatever was going on, it didn’t feel over. He felt as if he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
* * *
CASEY HEARD A text come in on her cell phone. She checked it, her heart doing a little bump when she saw it was from Finn. She was thinking of their kisses earlier when she opened it and felt foolish.
Just wanted to let you know. I have the paperwork. All you have to do is sign on the dotted line and it’s a done deal. We can do this at lunch, if you want.
Once she signed, she no longer had an excuse to stay here. She could load up and head back to California. Or stay and what? Her deal with Finn could be closed by lunchtime. The reunion was almost over. Why would she stay? Like Finn said, bad timing when it came to the two of them.
She told herself that she’d been looking forward to the road t
rip. She’d seen it as a way to unwind before she had to get back to work. She couldn’t shake off something that had been bothering her. She felt ready for a change. It was so unlike her. Change had never come easily. But right now, she wanted an adventure. She wanted romance, kisses in the rain. Finn. This was his fault.
But even if she did decide to make a change, she still had to go back to the hotel for a period of time to make the transition easier for them. Was it the job, though, that she wanted to change?
Finn immediately came to mind, making her ache at the thought of leaving here and never seeing him again. As if conjuring him up, her phone rang.
“I’m starving,” he said without introduction. “I skipped breakfast, and I suspect you did, too, since I heard you take off early this morning. Ready for lunch?”
“Give me ten minutes.” She quickly disconnected and hurried to her room to freshen up. Just the sound of Finn’s voice sent a quiver of desire through her. I have fallen for you.
But where did they go from here? If anywhere?
Maybe the best thing to do would be to leave after lunch. It wouldn’t take her any time to pack her bag and just go. If she stayed...
She knew what she feared. If she stayed, she knew what was going to happen, what she wanted to happen. That meant risking her heart.
Eight minutes later, she was waiting in the garden room when she turned at the sound of footfalls and saw Finn. As always, her pulse did a jitterbug just under her skin.
He was wearing the black T-shirt and jeans like the first day she’d met him. Both fit him like an expensive glove. But it was his smile that was her undoing. She couldn’t leave. Not yet. “Hungry?”
“Always,” she said with a laugh. It really was so good to see him. They stepped out the side door and took the path toward town. She knew they could be seen from the hotel, but she didn’t look back.
It was one of those Montana presummer days that made people flock to the state in carloads. Not a cloud in the vast deep blue sky, the sun bright and warming, the air fresh and cool, it was the kind of day that Casey would always associate with Buckhorn, she thought as they neared town.
“I’ve been thinking that maybe I should contact the marshal,” Finn said. She must have looked as surprised as she felt because he hurried on. “First Claude supposedly leaves. Now Devlin is missing. Yesterday, his belongings were still in his room when Jason checked. But this morning, everything is gone, including his car.”
“Maybe he just decided to leave,” she suggested. “Or maybe he wants us to believe he did.”
Finn frowned. “You have his number? Would you mind trying it?”
She pulled out her phone, found Devlin in her contacts and listened to the call go through. It rang four times before it went to voice mail. “Devlin, when you get this, please call me. It’s important.” She disconnected. “I left it vague enough that—”
“That message should make him call. He’ll think you changed your mind about selling to me,” Finn said and smiled. “I’m probably worrying unnecessarily.”
“Well, you can quit worrying about me,” she said.
He shook his head. “Not happening.” He studied her. “You’re in danger here. If someone knows about the diary and is worried that you read it...” He rushed on as she tried not to flinch, but he’d seen her reaction. “The killer might think that Megan named them in the diary and that you know.”
She realized that she had to tell him. “The first night, someone left a message in my room. I know what you did. I didn’t know who until I saw the taco-salad grocery list. Jen said Jason had made it out.”
“Jason?” Finn swore. “Casey, maybe he’s just trying to get your attention. Or maybe Jason is the killer and wants to know if you read Megan’s diary. Unless he’s just spitballing and doesn’t know who took the diary. Is it possible he wrote that message on some of the other bathroom mirrors?”
She hadn’t thought of that. “Maybe he was just goofing around trying to scare me, trying to scare the others.” She shook her head. “That would be so like him.”
He shook his head. “Still, I don’t like this.” He raked a hand through his hair in obvious frustration before his gaze settled on her. “As much as I don’t want you to leave, I’m glad you’re getting out of here.”
Casey nodded as they headed down the main drag. The two of them had become close. Maybe too close, given that they were from two different worlds and about to return to them—as if from other planets.
The town was starting to come alive, signaling that summer wasn’t far off. There were more cars, campers and motor homes than yesterday. Every year the season began earlier, her grandmother had always told her. It used to start after Memorial Day and end just before Labor Day. The added tourists also signaled that it was time for her to return to California and put the hotel, this town, this life, behind her. Put Finn behind her, too?
They’d almost reached the café when Finn got a call. “Do you mind going on ahead of me?”
“Can I order you something?”
“Cheeseburger and fries and—”
“A chocolate milkshake,” she said, finishing for him.
He grinned and gave her a wink. “You’ve got my number, girl.”
Didn’t she, though, she thought as he took the call and she entered the café. She’d barely given the waitress their order when he came in looking excited.
“The inquiries I made about Megan’s car accident?” he said, keeping his voice down. The café was busy, but no one seemed to pay them much mind. The patrons must all be tourists. “My source found a connection between one of the young women and one of the Crenshaw Hotel staff that summer.”
She held her breath. Maybe it was possible to solve Megan’s murder.
“I thought it would be the family of the woman who was killed,” Finn hurried on before she could ask. “But it was one of the women who survived, the one who is now in a wheelchair because of her back injuries. Her older brother had met Claude when he toured the medical school.”
“Claude?” Casey felt surprise quickly turn into fear. “You think he took the job here that summer to kill Megan?”
“He could have just wanted to get a little justice, but then things went too far,” Finn said. “Or he could have told someone else about what Megan did and that person did what Claude couldn’t. I don’t know. Didn’t you say that you thought he and Megan had hooked up? Maybe she’d beguiled him, and he realized he couldn’t hurt her.”
“Claude swore she did a number on him. You saw how he was Friday night at the campfire. But that could have been an act for us so we weren’t surprised when he left.” Casey thought back to that summer. “Megan and Claude were hot and heavy until Megan broke up with him. He didn’t take it well.”
“Maybe Megan found out why he’d really come to the Crenshaw.”
She tried to imagine Claude as a killer and realized it wasn’t such a stretch. There was something cold and clinical about him. “You really think he was the one who murdered her?”
“I don’t know, but he knew who she was and what she’d done when he came here ten years ago. I doubt she knew that he had a connection to one of her friends she’d almost killed and had injured badly enough that she was in a wheelchair.”
“What if we’re right and Claude never really left because Megan isn’t the only score he wants to settle?”
“So where does Devlin fit in, if he does?” Finn said.
Their burgers came and they spent the rest of lunch talking about anything but the Crenshaw, the staff and Megan. Finn opened up to her, telling her more about himself, his life, his dreams. She shared, too. He was easy to talk to because he listened with an intensity that she appreciated. He admitted that most women he’d dated had only been interested in his money and what it could buy, even before he’d sold his business for a small fortune.
/> “I love what I do,” Casey said. “But, truthfully, I’m ready for a new adventure. I might take some time off when I get back and do some traveling.”
“Where do you want to go?” he asked, leaning toward her, anxious to hear.
“Italy, Spain, Greece.” She laughed, and he joined her. It was a warm, happy sound that filled her with joy.
“I’d love to take you to all of those places and more.”
She told herself it was just an offhand comment a man made to a woman. She wasn’t going to take it seriously. “I haven’t really been anywhere, but I’ve been happiest on the beach in California.”
He smiled across the table at her. She felt it to her core. “Sounds like it’s high time you did whatever you want. You’ll definitely be able to afford to with the profits from the hotel and land.”
As the waitress cleared away their dishes, Finn drew out an envelope. She didn’t have to ask what was in it. “You want to do this here?”
“As good a place as any,” she said, her voice cracking a little.
If he noticed, he didn’t say anything. The waitress produced a pen as she wiped down their table.
“Did you have your lawyer look them over?”
“I trust you. But I also emailed the preliminary forms you gave me earlier to the family lawyer. He didn’t have a problem.” She turned to the pages she needed to address and hesitated only for an instant before she began to sign. When she reached the last page, she signed with a flourish and slid the papers back across the table to him.
“I’ll text my bank and have the money transferred to your account right now.” He pulled out his phone. A moment later her own phone dinged to let her know the money was now there.
It was done. Casey waited to see how she felt. Relieved? Sad? Instead, it felt anticlimactic. She was now basically rich. Her plan had been to invest the money wisely. And she would—at least, most of it. But she would quit her job. She would travel. She would go on that adventure. So why did she feel like crying?
