by Rayna Morgan
THREE-DAY WEEKENDS ARE MURDER
A Sister Sleuths Mystery
Book 4
Rayna Morgan
Copyright © 2017 by Rayna Morgan
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com
Acknowledgements
A huge thank you to all the readers who have embraced the sisters and the people in their lives. I appreciate each and every one of you.
To the beta readers who so willingly helped and provided feedback, thank you for your invaluable input. I appreciate you more than you know.
My husband reads every word of each book looking for inconsistencies, time line problems, mistakes I miss, or angles I fail to consider. Thank you, David, for your eagle eye and constant support.
For those of you who have taken the time to email me with your comments, thank you. As always, I’d love to hear from you about this book or any of my other books. Here’s my email address: [email protected]
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter One
Maddy shivered as she followed the walkway from the parking garage to the hotel. Glancing at the wind-whipped palms and blowing sand, she wrapped her sweater tightly around her body.
The few people on the beach, improperly dressed in shorts and sleeveless tops, fought gusts of wind while searching for seashells. Vendors on the promenade lowered the umbrellas on their carts.
But crummy weather wasn’t the only thing about to ruin a holiday in the small beach town.
* * *
Couples entered the hotel hand-in-hand. Others at the reception desk carried diaper bags and held the hands of toddlers. Everyone was in a festive mood looking forward to enjoying a three-day weekend at the beach.
Maddy was in the hallway at the Surf and Sand Hotel discussing artwork with the manager. He wanted new pictures in the atrium and restaurant as part of a remodel completed before tourist season.
Hotels were among her best clients as an interior design consultant at a local furniture store. This was her first crack at the popular, beachfront hotel and she was eager to please.
Maddy reached into her handbag and pulled out a card which she handed to the tall, lanky man standing next to her.
“I understand what you want, Mr. Wilson,” she assured him. She was unsure if she had his attention. His eyes darted from side to side surveying the activity. “I have several stunning paintings in mind that should add real pop to your Mexican restaurant. Let me know which ones you like from the samples I email to you. I’ll have them sent over so you can try them on the walls.”
“Let me give you my email address,” the manager replied. As he reached into his pocket, Maddy glanced over his shoulder into the hotel’s lounge and spotted the back of a well-groomed head. Strands of black hair mixed with the perfect blend of distinguished gray. It can’t be.
The man turned, bringing the familiar profile into view.
Crap. The last person on the planet I want to see.
Her stomach cramped at the sound of his deep, virile laugh. She didn’t recognize the second man sitting at the bar but there was no mistaking the silver fox in the pin-striped suit.
“Ms. Conley?” The manager’s question brought her attention back.
She took his card and forced her clenched jaw into a smile. “I’ll send the images later today. I appreciate the opportunity. I won't disappoint.”
As the manager walked toward the reception desk, Maddy made a beeline for the exit. Her hands turned to ice when the familiar pet name reached her ears.
“Hey, Babykins.”
Too late. Silently cursing, she stopped walking and turned around.
The silver fox waved at Maddy. “Wait up.” He pushed back his bar stool, shook hands with the other man, and strode toward her, flashing the smile that used to turn her insides to jelly.
“You look great!” He didn’t hesitate to throw his arms around her and plant a smooch on her cheek.
“Hi, yourself, Eric. You’re looking dapper, as always.”
She could fault her ex for a lot of things, but dressing wasn’t one of them. Any man would look good if they spent the money he does on clothes.
She pulled at a strand of her long brown hair. “What are you doing in Buena Viaje?” she asked. This town isn’t big enough for both of us.
“My firm is having a strategy-planning session for the partners. Since Monday’s a holiday, we chose a spot where the men’s families could join them for the weekend.”
“You’re a partner at the investment firm now?”
A self-satisfied grin spread across his face. “Always after the next best thing. You know me.”
Indeed I do, you cheating jerk. “Don’t tell me the beaches in Los Angeles are too crowded for you guys. Crowds never bother partygoers.”
He ignored the sarcasm. “Our brainstorming ends this afternoon. Have dinner with me.”
“You don’t have a significant other joining you for the weekend?”
“Nope. I’m still as single as the day you divorced me.”
A womanizer doesn’t understand what it means to be single.
“Sorry, I’m busy tonight,” she told him. And forever as far as you’re concerned.
She turned to leave but Eric grabbed her arm. “I’ll walk you to your car. It’ll give me a chance to talk you into having a drink with me later. I’d like to hear what you’ve been up to.”
You never cared when we were married.
She grasped his hand to remove it from her arm. The touch of his skin created an urgent need to get as far away from him as possible. She pointed over his shoulder to the place where he’d been sitting. “Don’t forget your file.”
“Oh, yeah. Hold on a minute.”
She waited until he was halfway to the bar before she pushed through the exit door and hurried to the garage.
He wouldn’t follow. He prided himself on never being the pursuer.
* * *
As Maddy followed the overpass onto the freeway, her hands trembled on the steering wheel.
It’s been five years. I’m over him. She shook her head.
She tried to convince herself that this reaction to her ex-spouse was universal, but the encounter left her with stabbing pains of loneliness. She headed for her sister’s house. Even though Lea was the younger sibling, Maddy often sought her advice. Lea had a way of helping someone sort out their feelings, and she would sympathize with
Maddy’s emotions.
Her sister understood why she’d married Eric, even knowing he cheated on his first wife to be with her. How could Maddy have been so stupid? At the time, she justified that his brazen self-assurance, good looks, and affluence would have been attractive to any young, single woman living on her own in a big city. His job as portfolio manager for an investment firm was exciting and extremely lucrative. Ten years Maddy’s senior, he had a worldliness which added to the allure.
But Eric’s career drained most of his time which left Maddy spending lonely nights eating take-out from neighborhood restaurants. When Eric began spending the minimal time he wasn’t at the office with his assistant, Maddy made the decision her family considered inevitable.
As part of their divorce, Eric cashed out her interest in their high-rise condominium. She abandoned the city for Buena Viaje, the beachside community an hour north where her sister and brother-in-law Paul lived.
She had run into Eric only two or three times since the divorce. On those occasions, one or the other of them had been with another person, allowing for nothing other than a brief exchange. This time though, their one-on-one conversation left her feeling vulnerable even surrounded by other people at the hotel.
* * *
Maddy rang the doorbell and walked into Lea’s house without waiting for a response. She greeted the two dogs—Lea and Paul’s four-legged family members since their teenage son had been a toddler.
“Hey, Gracie.” She patted the yellow and white Border collie’s head.
“Your turn, Spirit,” she called, then scratched behind the white golden retriever’s ears.
“I’m in the garden,” Lea hollered. “Pour yourself a cup of coffee and come out.”
Maddy smiled when she saw her sister on her knees in front of a planter surrounded by bags of potting soil. Damp strands hung from Lea’s braided red hair and dirt smudged her ivory complexion.
“Don’t laugh.” Lea pointed a trowel at her. “I know you’re the one who inherited Dad’s green thumb, but I never give up trying.”
“Your tenacious quality pays off in our sleuthing adventures, but it doesn’t hold true for your gardening.” Maddy took a seat and twisted some blond highlights in her long brown hair. “Take a break. You’ll never guess who I ran into at the hotel.”
Lea dropped the garden tool and joined her sister at the table. “Let me try.” She scooted to the edge of her chair, closed her eyes, and held a finger to her temple. “You ran into the person at the hotel means it’s someone from out of town. You stopped by here on your way back to work because you couldn’t wait to tell me. And—”she opened her eyes and scrutinized Maddy—“your face has a pink glow from blushing.” Her sister fell back in the chair and snapped her fingers. “It had to be Eric.”
“You’re wasted as a writer,” Maddy said referring to her sister’s work as a professional business writer. “You should take your detecting skills to the next level and become a private eye.”
“Our cases would have been easier, if most people were as transparent as you.” She pulled off her gardening gloves. “So what's the notorious Eric Larson up to?”
Maddy repeated her conversation with Eric. “He even had the gall to ask me out to dinner.”
Lea snorted. “That doesn’t surprise me. Why would he doubt you’d go out with him? He never accepted you leaving because he never believed he did anything to warrant your divorcing him.”
Maddy shrugged. “You could be right.”
“Are you going?”
“What do you think; I'm a bigger fool than I was to marry him in the first place? I thought that judgment was reserved for your husband. Paul disapproved of Eric during our entire eight years of marriage.”
“That’s not entirely correct,” Lea observed. “Paul only considered you foolish when you stayed married to Eric for two more years after you found out he was cheating.”
“I may have deserved what happened for tearing apart Eric’s first marriage, but Paul never liked Eric, even when we were dating.”
“I can’t deny that. He warned you that dating a married man would lead to an unhappy outcome.” Lea studied her sister. “You’re avoiding the issue. What’s the matter? Are you afraid to find you still have feelings for him?”
“You can’t be serious!” Maddy crossed her arms to display her annoyance. “You know my feelings for Tom.”
How could her sister even think such a thing? Maddy’s relationship with Lieutenant Tom Elliot may be new and fragile, but she would not jeopardize even the tiniest hint of something with him by entertaining old—not to mention dead—feelings for Eric.
Lea held up her hands as if to surrender. “I know your reluctance to take advice, but may I offer a suggestion?”
Maddy tilted her chin upward without answering.
“If you’re considering moving your relationship with Tom to the next level, maybe you should take this opportunity to prove to yourself that you’ve mastered your feelings and aren’t at the mercy of your emotions anymore with anyone.”
“And what if I find out I’m still the same immature, emotional basket-case?”
“You’re not the woman you were when you married Eric,” Lea assured her. “You’ve grown in so many ways. Besides changing where you live, you’ve changed from the inside out.”
Maddy relaxed and uncrossed her arms. “I guess you’re right. I have learned a lot about myself since leaving my whirlwind life with Eric.”
“You’ve become your own person,” Lea told her. “You need no one outside yourself for happiness, but you don’t believe it. Go find out for yourself.”
Maddy pulled out her cell phone. The number she tapped in wasn’t on speed dial, but ingrained in her memory.
The message she left was brief and blunt. “I’ll meet you for one drink. That’s it.”
“Satisfied?” Maddy asked as she dropped her phone in her pocket.
Lea smiled and nodded. “If you change your mind, Paul and I are going to an outdoor concert at the Castillo Adobe tonight. They’ve got a necklace on display that belonged to the original matriarch.”
“The woman who haunts the place?” Maddy scoffed. “I’ll pass. Listening to Eric’s lies will be fantasy enough.”
Chapter Two
Maddy went straight from work to meet Eric.
She considered going home to change into something sexier than her tailored suit, but chalked that up to an immature reaction to make him regret what he’d given up. It was better if he didn’t think she was trying to impress him in any way.
Before leaving her car, she applied a fresh layer of gloss, ran a comb through her long brown hair, and pinched her cheeks to highlight her bronzed complexion.
Working people and tourists getting a jump on the holiday weekend filled the lobby. Maddy followed the sound of clinking glasses and laughter. At the far end of the lounge, people hovered over appetizers displayed on a credenza. Muted lighting created a perfect atmosphere for stress-weary patrons seeking relaxation.
She scanned the room. Most of the chairs and cushioned sofas were occupied. The sound of waves lapping against the shoreline rippled through the open doors leading to an outdoor seating area. The patio took advantage of the hotel’s ocean side proximity to feature a view of the promenade and the pier.
She asked the bartender. He pointed to Eric seated at one of the coveted tables on the patio next to the fire pit. It figures. It was his favorite spot in a restaurant, one where he could watch the action while being the center of attention.
Papers covered the table in front of him. He didn’t look up, busy snapping pictures with his phone.
I should turn and go. A knot clogged her throat; she swallowed. Call with some excuse. Discomfort coursed through Maddy as her heart skipped an occasional beat. She forced one foot in front of the other.
I hate Lea for talking me into this meeting.
As she passed through the lounge, the spicy aroma of buffalo wings wakened her taste
buds, but her appetite was curbed when she spotted another man at Eric’s table.
Neither of the men bothered to stand, but Eric leaned over and pulled out a chair. “Hey, Babykins. You remember Wes, don’t you?”
Maddy nodded and forced herself to smile.
How many times did you hit on me behind my husband’s back?
The narcissistic man grinned as she took a seat. His slick hair and smarmy smile made Maddy wonder how people trusted him with their life-savings.
“How you doing, Maddy? Long time, no see.” He sat up and leaned toward her as Eric gathered up the papers and stuffed them in his briefcase.
“You look good,” Wes purred. “Turning heads, as always.”
“You haven’t changed either,” Maddy noted, “still dishing out insincere compliments.”
Eric winked at Wes. “That’s my girl.”
Maddy turned in his direction. “I’m not your anything, Eric.”
Wes laughed and punched Eric’s shoulder.
Maddy stood up. “You’re in the middle of something. I’ll come back later.”
Eric grabbed her arm. He pressed a button on his phone that made a swooshing sound. “That’s the last email I need to send. I’m all yours.”
He closed his phone and put it in his pocket. “If my weekend goes like I hope it will, I may be late getting into the office Tuesday morning. I'm sending my assistant something to work on.”
“That’s my cue to split,” Wes said. He threw a few bills on the table and looked at Eric. “I’m heading back to the city. Will I be seeing you, or are you going to act like the rest of the plebeians and spend the weekend at the beach?”
“I wasn’t planning on staying.” Eric jerked his head in Maddy’s direction. “But I’ll wait to see how things play out.”
“Good luck, buddy,” Wes said. He covered Maddy’s hand as he stood to leave. “Take care of yourself, Maddy.”
Maddy pulled back her hand. “Yeah, you too, Wes.”
Five minutes in and she was wishing she hadn’t come.
* * *
“What’s Wes doing at the partner’s brainstorming? Don’t tell me he’s a partner now.”
