Dead Girl Running

by Christina Dodd

  The rain was business as usual.

  In early November, US Army veteran Kellen Adams had accepted the position of assistant resort manager. Annie had warned her she had arrived at the beginning of what the locals called the Monsoon Season.

  Kellen had chuckled.

  But they weren’t kidding. In winter, on the Washington coast, wind blew. Rain fell. The sun rose late and set early. Every day was an endless gray. The holiday season had been busy and full of guests and lights and cheer, but when the decorations came down and January trudged on, their few guests came for discounted prices on meals and rooms. The resort used the downtime to paint, repair and clean, and Annie practically pushed the hospitality staff out the doors, telling them to go somewhere sunny and come back refreshed and ready to face the Valentine’s Day rush. Everyone snatched at their chance to vacation elsewhere, and they knew where to find deals. They were, after all, in the hospitality business. They had connections.

  Kellen told Annie she had nowhere to go, no relatives to visit and no desire to smell coconut-scented sunscreen. She stayed, reveling in the isolation, determined to learn everything Annie could teach her, and kept so busy she fell into bed at night and rose early in the morning. She loved the schedule; it left her little time to think, to remember—and to not remember.

  Then on that dark, cold, rainy morning of January 27, Annie followed her own advice. She and Leo prepared to fly to warm and sunny Bella Terra, California, to celebrate their family holidays at the original Di Luca family resort.

  Under the hotel portico, a group of elderly tourists climbed into a tour bus, so Annie rolled in her wheelchair through the rain toward the limousine.

  Her assistance dog, a black Lab named Hammett, trotted beside her.

  Kellen walked on the other side, holding an umbrella and protecting Annie from the windblown blasts of rain, her brain’s little quirk kicking in, her mind subconsciously scrolling through its catalog of data on the elderly woman:

  ANNIE DI LUCA:

  FEMALE, WHITE, ELDERLY, HEIGHT UNDETERMINED. TOO THIN. CURLY WHITE HAIR, GREAT CUT, BROWN EYES. WHEELCHAIR BOUND. RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS. RESORT MANAGER. BRILLIANT WITH STAFF AND GUESTS. KIND TO A FAULT. FRAIL. HUSBAND: NAPOLEONE (LEO) DI LUCA, MARRIED “SINCE THE EARTH’S CRUST COOLED.”

  “We’ll be back in two weeks,” Annie said. “After my last experience with an assistant, I was determined not to hire a replacement. But Leo insisted, and you know the only reason I relented was because you were a wounded veteran.”

  “I wasn’t that wounded.” Kellen rotated her shoulder.

  “Enough that the Army discharged you!”

  “Men were killed.” I was unconscious for two days. Had an MRI to discover the cause of my coma. Tricky things, land mines. Woke to find myself being discharged; I hadn’t realized the military could process paperwork that fast.

  “I’m sorry, dear, about the deaths. I know how you feel about your comrades in arms.”

  They reached the car where Mitchell Nyugen waited to drive the Di Lucas to the airstrip. Again her mind spun and Mitch’s info popped up, like a little index card:

  MITCHELL NYUGEN:

  MALE. VIETNAMESE AMERICAN, SECOND-GENERATION, 26, 5’9”, 160 LBS., EXCELLENT PHYSICAL CONDITION, NEEDS LITTLE SLEEP. NO AFFECTIONATE ATTACHMENTS. ARMY VETERAN, HONORABLE DISCHARGE. EXPERT LICENSED DRIVER—MILITARY VEHICLES + COMMERCIAL DRIVER’S LICENSE (CDL) (TRACTOR TRAILER). EMPLOYED 79 DAYS—DRIVER, MECHANIC, ELECTRONICS. FRIEND.

  Mitch was one of Kellen’s men. Skilled woodworkers, electricians, maintenance and handy workers didn’t have to come to Washington in the wettest, darkest, most miserable time of the year, so when Annie appealed to Kellen for a chauffeur, Kellen had in turn appealed to Mitch. Mitch, who had been driving long hours for a trucking company, leaped at the chance to work at the resort.

  He was the first of her people to arrive at Yearning Sands.

  Now he opened the door and Hammett hopped onto his cushion on the floor. Mitch dried the dog, then picked Annie up and deposited her on the seat.

  “Thank you, Mitch. When Leo comes out, will you help him with the bags?” she asked.

  “Of course, Mrs. Di Luca.” Mitch backed out of the car.

  “That boy is so formal,” Annie said to Kellen. “I’ve told him to call me Annie, and he won’t.”

  “He’s from the South. Houston. Things are more formal there. He still calls me captain.”

  “Half of the staff call you captain.” Annie patted the seat. “Won’t you come in and sit for a minute?”

  Kellen shed her rain poncho and handed Mitch the umbrella before easing inside. She took a second towel and dried Hammett some more, then scratched him under the chin. As she stroked his soft head, the anxiety she felt about taking charge of the resort faded.

  Mitch shut the door, encasing the two in quiet leather luxury, and walked around to put the wheelchair in the trunk.

  Annie shivered, and Hammett abandoned Kellen to snuggle closer to Annie’s legs.

  Annie took Kellen’s hand in her cold, fragile fingers. “Every day you’ve been a blessing. I never dreamed anyone could pick up the hospitality business so quickly.”

  Kellen couldn’t explain. She didn’t even understand herself how she could meet a person and forever after see them as a list of attributes, or view two timelines and mentally integrate them, or take four spreadsheets and shuffle them through the circuits of her brain and instantly come up with ways to improve operations. It was a gift.

  She touched the scar on her forehead. A gift that had come at a great price. “Business I understand,” Kellen said. “The guests and the staff are the challenge.”

  “You are very private.”

  For good reasons.

  “Yet you handled people when you were the officer in charge of moving men and goods around a war zone,” Annie said. “No one’s shooting at you here. This has to be easier.”

  “The people I managed in the Army had one thing in common—they were soldiers. We were united in one goal—to come out alive.”

  Annie laughed. Probably she thought Kellen was joking.

  “We—my military friends and I—are all of us grateful that you’ve welcomed us so generously.”

  “Leo says I take in strays.” Annie looked startled at her own insensitivity. “I’m not trying to say that you’re a…”

  “It’s all right. I understand. Since my discharge, I have been adrift. It’s difficult to go from being part of a close-knit military community to being…alone.”

  “I can promise, you’ll never be alone again.”

  Another odd statement from the normally diplomatic Annie. Perhaps leaving on vacation made her lose her usual delicacy. “The staff we left in place for you to manage is well trained. Everyone is up-to-date on their first aid certifications, and they can handle all the jobs—although some better than others. We have very few scheduled guests incoming, so hopefully difficulties will be few and far between.” With an expression of dismay, she knocked on the limousine’s rosewood interior. “Now, why did I say that? I’ve doomed you to difficulties.”

  Kellen shook her head. “I’m not superstitious.” I’m simply afraid of the darkness that stalks me in my own mind.

  “At least there are not too many children scheduled as guests,” Annie said. “That will make it easier for you.”

  “Wrong time of the year. Not many school vacations. But it doesn’t matter. I don’t mind children. I’ve just never learned how to handle them.” No point.

  Annie asked, “Who do you foresee as your greatest challenge?”

  Kellen promptly said, “Sheri Jean.”

  “Ah, yes. Sheri Jean.” Annie sighed softly. “The best way to handle Sheri Jean is to accord her the respect she deserves.”

  “As I always do.”

  “Her personality is split betwee
n her mother and her father, and the two halves are constantly at war. She terrorizes her staff, yet no one makes the guests more comfortable than Sheri Jean.”

  “She’s good at her job, but it’s hard to decipher when she’s going to take offense. Most of the time, I don’t know what I said, and I was raised by my aunt and uncle, and my aunt is a delicate flower.”

  “Really?” Annie’s eyes gleamed. “So you do have relatives?”

  Mistake. Uncomfortably, Kellen admitted, “My uncle and cousin are deceased. My aunt and I don’t communicate.”

  Annie’s kind face grew distressed. “I am sorry. Family can be a blessing and a trial. Like marriage.”

  Kellen’s strained smile faded. Why had Annie introduced the topic of marriage into the conversation? Kellen never wanted to talk about marriage.

  “When I hired you,” Annie confided, “Leo didn’t trust you.”

  Oh. This was about Leo. “I suspected he didn’t trust me when he demanded my records—” birth certificate, undergraduate degree from University of Nevada and business degree from Vanderbilt, honorable discharge from the Army “—be examined to see if they were original and investigated their authenticity.” He had uncovered no deception, of course, but even when he was satisfied, he had continued to watch Kellen like a hawk.

  “It was because of that girl. A nice young woman, but misguided.”

  Was Annie rambling? “What girl?”

  “The girl I hired first. Priscilla Carter.”

  Kellen had heard mutterings about Annie’s first attempt to hire an assistant manager. “The one who left without notice?”

  “She didn’t have to do that. We had already realized she was unsuited for the job and intended to help her find another position. We’re not without heart!” Annie’s cheeks flushed.

  “You’re lovely!” Kellen pressed those cold fingers.

  “Leo says I give too much. I don’t think that’s true, but I did hire Priscilla…” Annie stared out the side window at the wide spread of lawn and the ring of rhododendrons that tossed with each gust of the storm. “Priscilla imagined the resort would be her stepping-stone to a life as a rich man’s wife. Leo reprimanded her twice. I should have reprimanded her myself, but I’m a coward. Then she volunteered to take guests on a tour of the property—and left them out there on the cliffs. It’s one thing to make the resort look bad, but she abandoned elderly guests out there. No compassion!” Annie sounded so hurt.

  Kellen barely knew what to say. “She sounds like a piece of work.”

  “The guests said she fell ill, promised she’d send someone out after them. Sheri Jean didn’t realize the guests had been left until one called. They were worried about Priscilla! We were all worried about her until Leo discovered she had packed her bags, gotten in her car and headed south. She never even contacted us for her final paycheck.”

  “I promise I would never do that.” With a fair amount of humor, Kellen added, “I like my paychecks, and anyway, I don’t have a car.”

  Annie’s brow knit fretfully. “So I should worry when you buy one?”

  “Not even then.”

  “Thank heavens. I…I don’t know what I’d do if you disappeared, never to be found, and I hadn’t told…” Annie seemed to drift off.

  “Told…?” Annie’s rambling was so unlike her, Kellen was concerned.

  “Told him… He’s suffered so much. He’s fretted. He’s searched…”

  “Who? Who’s searched? For what?” Kellen leaned forward, her eyes fixed on Annie’s, and in her brain, a new slot lit up, empty of information and hungering to detail this new person.

  In a normal tone, Annie asked, “Do you have any final questions?”

  “Um, I…I don’t think so. Just, you know, what you were talking about before. Or who you were talking about.”

  Annie brushed her hair off her forehead. “I didn’t sleep well last night. So excited. To go to California, to see the family. But I want to make sure you feel comfortable in your role as resort manager.”

  Because Annie suddenly seemed to need reassurance, Kellen said, “With Mr. Gilfilen to handle security, with the tight staff and the small guest list, this is a great way to introduce me to handling the job of resort manager.”

  Annie fussed with the folds of her long black velvet skirt. “Yes, Vincent Gilfilen. He’s a difficult man, you know. Obstinate. A little odd.”

  “I do know that.”

  “He does things his own way. He’ll always do the right thing.” Annie avoided Kellen’s gaze. “You go along with whatever happens. It won’t be so bad.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” Kellen felt as if she’d missed something. Like the point.

  Annie leaned forward and affectionately took Kellen’s face between her palms. She looked into her eyes, and in a dreamy voice, she said, “I told Sarah and June about you. They could barely believe you’d come back.”

  “Came back?” Kellen pulled out of Annie’s clasp. “Came back from where?”

  Annie blinked as if trying to clear a fog from her brain. “What?”

  “What did you tell Sarah and June about me?” Sarah and June were Annie’s sisters-in-law and best friends. But Kellen didn’t know she’d been the topic of discussion and she didn’t like the sound of They could barely believe you’d come back. “Is this to do with the man you didn’t tell about me?”

  “What man?”

  “You said you didn’t know what you’d do if I disappeared and he hadn’t been told…” Kellen trailed off enticingly, exactly as Annie had done.

  “My head aches.” Annie closed her eyes and rubbed her neck. “I’m so old and creaky.” She opened her eyes. “Could you hand me a bottle of water?”

  Kellen realized Annie’s eyes were too bright. “Are you all right?” Kellen placed her hands over the top of Annie’s. “You feel warm.”

  Even with the heated seat, even with Hammett pressing close, Annie shivered. Yet she sounded sensible and prosaic when she said, “Don’t make trouble, dear. I just need water.”

  Kellen pulled a bottle out of the cooler, opened the top and pressed it into Annie’s hands.

  “I’ve looked forward to this celebration for months.” Annie took a small sip, then put the bottle in the cup holder. “It’s the Di Luca family Christmas, you know. We’re a large family and all so busy with the resorts and the wineries, this is the only time we can get together.”

  “I know.” Kellen got a throw out of the warmer and slid it around Annie’s shoulders. “But you feel as if you’re running a fever.”

  “I’m fine. Look, there’s my darling Napoleone headed our way with our overnight bags rolling behind him. The dear man will not let the staff do their job. He is so stubborn.”

  “Like someone else I know,” Kellen muttered.

  “Hmm?” Annie raised her eyebrows. “Dear, we can’t leave him standing out in this weather. I’m not the only one with creaky bones!” She offered her cheek.

  Kellen kissed it. It was warm, too. “Have fun.”

  “Believe me, we will. We Di Lucas always have a riotous good time.”

  Kellen slid across the seat and put her hand on the door handle.

  Annie stopped her. “When I was interviewing you, I asked what your goal was in coming to Yearning Sands. Do you remember what you said?”

  Kellen met her gaze. “I said I wanted a home.”

  “Do you feel as if you’ve found what you wanted?”

  Kellen’s mind produced the globe of the world and spun it like a top. She saw where she was now, on the far edge of the North American continent. She saw those places she feared and avoided: not Afghanistan, not Kuwait, but Maine, New York and Pennsylvania, black holes that swallowed every ray of light and joy. On that day five months ago when she was told she would be released from the Army with an honorable discharge, she had g
one looking for a position that would fit her unique talents. At first she had hesitated to come back to the United States. But her first job as a civilian had proved that nowhere in the world was safe. Yearning Sands had proved to be a shelter, and the terror that had once driven her to always glance behind had diminished. She had grown comfortable here in the job. “I could live here forever.”

  “We would like that. And your friends?” Annie gestured toward Mitch. “The ones we’ve hired. Are they happy?”

  “I can’t speak for them, but I think so. They came back from combat in need of employment and they found it here, where they could use their skills to make a living. That’s a great thing.”

  “I want to keep my staff for years. I like to make sure they’re happy.” Annie squeezed Kellen’s arm. “I’m so glad you told me you’ll stay. The resort needs you. I need you.”

  “Wow. That’s…great.” Kellen broke her hold, snatched up her yellow plastic poncho and leaped into the blustery weather. She pulled the poncho over her head and flagged Leo down.

  LEO DI LUCA:

  MALE, ELDERLY, FORMERLY 6’, NOW 5’10”. 190 LBS. SHOULDER-LENGTH GRAY HAIR, GANDALF EYEBROWS. MARRIED “SINCE THE EARTH’S CRUST COOLED.” RESORT OWNER. AMERICAN WITH STRONG ITALIAN ROOTS. SUSPICIOUS OF NEWCOMERS.

  He bent to hear Kellen when she said, “Keep an eye on Annie. I think she’s ill.”

  He sagged. “She won’t ever take it easy. The arthritis has weakened her immune system, and…” He gestured toward the car. “Thank you for letting me know. I’ll do everything I can to protect her.”

  Outside, the downpour increased. The wind blew. The tourist bus moved on. Some early guests arrived, and Russell, their doorman, welcomed them and carried their luggage inside.

  Kellen lifted her face to the cold, rainy sky. To be bound by the iron constraints of need and affection Annie put upon her…so foolish. She knew better. Yet…need. Being needed was her weakness.

  She could hear Gregory’s voice in her head, courting her, winning her. I need you, my darling Cecilia. I need your vitality, your warmth, your smiles, your youth.