by Lynn Cahoon
“Bailey didn’t kill Dane.” Cliff took a step toward the woman. “Take that back.”
“You can’t make me. She hated him. She hated the power he had over you. What was that power, Cliff? Why did you always back down when it came to Dane? What did he have on you?” Carolyn got up in the man’s face, and Angie and Estebe stepped in between the two.
“You witch. You’d say anything. You never liked Bailey. You knew I wasn’t going to fall for your games as long as she was around.” Tears fell down his cheeks. “I swear, if you hurt her...”
“Look, things are getting a little heated here.” Estebe took Cliff by the arm and moved him away from Carolyn and toward the stairs. “We need to calm down and think. Bailey could still need our help.”
Cliff dropped his head and let Estebe lead him away.
“You are a complete chicken,” she taunted him. “No wonder she left. She was probably tired of taking care of you,” Carolyn called after him.
Angie saw him turn, but instead of anger in his eyes, she saw pain. Grief. Dismay. Cliff was starting to give up hope of ever finding Bailey, alive at least. She was about to say something when Steve walked into the hallway.
“My Lord. Carolyn, who are you screaming at and why?” Steve still had the towel and was drying his hair. He was dressed in an oversized Stanford sweatshirt and jeans. “What’s going on? Cliff? Are you all right?”
“I will be. How do you even work with that woman? She’s toxic,” Cliff muttered.
Steve glared at Carolyn before coming over and putting his arm around Cliff’s shoulders. “I’m sorry if she upset you. You know I need her expertise with the accounting. Let’s put this spat behind us and focus on the matter at hand, finding Bailey.”
“He’s right.” Felicia gave Steve a grateful smile. “This floor is cleared. We need to do the same with the rest of the house.”
As they started walking downstairs, Estebe motioned Steve and Carolyn to continue their descent. “Please go wait in the kitchen with the others. We have a system developed for the search, and adding the two of you would just confuse the process.”
Steve met Cliff’s gaze, and when he nodded his assent, he put his arm around Carolyn. He paused as he realized Estebe was following them. “I know where the kitchen is.”
“I’m sure you do, but I need to speak with my colleague for a minute.” Estebe motioned downward with his arm. “After you.”
“You can’t think that we had anything to do with this,” Carolyn started, but Steve put his hand on her arm.
“Let’s go down and make some coffee. That way we can be helpful too.” He smiled at her, and her shoulders dropped a bit.
Angie watched as they went downstairs. “I hope Matt can handle the four of them.”
“They wouldn’t hurt anyone.” Cliff ran his hand through his hair. “I know how stupid that sounds, but I trust them.”
“I hate to point out the obvious, but if one of them didn’t do it, then you’re on the hot seat.” Felicia stood next to her friend. “I know none of my friends would kill Dane or hurt Bailey. You need to be thinking of why they were targeted.”
“You don’t think I have been asking myself that for hours?” Cliff nodded to the bedrooms. “Let’s get this floor cleared. I can’t stand the thought of her being outside in the cold and we’re standing around talking.”
The second-floor clearing went faster. And before they knew it, they were at the stairs again. Estebe quickly checked in with Matt, and when he came out of the kitchen, he nodded to Angie.
A lot can be communicated in just a head nod, Angie thought as they divided up the rest of the house. Mostly for her, the physical gesture was Estebe’s confirmation that Matt was still in the kitchen and still safe. She hated the thought that he was in a room with a killer, but for all she knew, she might be working with one now. Just because Felicia trusted him didn’t mean she did.
They finished clearing all the rooms and gathered in the breakfast nook, which to Angie looked just like the dining room, only without the blood stains. Angie sank into a chair. “I can’t believe we haven’t found her yet. Maybe we should check the cars. Could she have driven out of here?”
“No way. Bailey’s a city girl. She doesn’t even like driving to town in the summer. The roads are too narrow according to her.” Cliff sat beside her. “But I guess we need to check the garage too. Three more areas to check. The pool house, the machine shed where the snowmobiles are kept, and the garage.”
“There’s six of us, let’s divide into twos. Cliff and I will take the snow shed.” Estebe gave orders like a four-star general. The good thing was when he talked, people tended to listen. It was probably his size that made them take notice, but it could be his demeanor too. He looked like someone who could make you do what he wanted. Good or bad. “Felicia and Hope, you take the pool.”
Angie watched as he figured out his mistake. There were only five of them.
Estebe took it in stride. “Angie, you go with the women, and we’ll not only clear the snow shed but also the garage.”
“Or I could do the pool by myself since it’s attached to the house, and Felicia and Hope can clear the garage,” Angie countered.
“You shouldn’t be alone. Matt...”
She cut him off. “Matt’s watching the suspects. He’s got a dangerous enough job without asking him to go with me just because I’m a girl.”
“Well, it’s not just that. You get into trouble when you’re alone,” Estebe admitted.
Angie shook her head. “That was not my fault. Not my circus, not my monkeys. And yet you’re all looking at me like I’m damaged goods.”
“We are not looking at you that way.” Felicia sighed. “Okay, let’s do Angie’s plan. But if there’s an axe-wielding psycho waiting in the pool for you when you get there, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“That only happens in cheap horror flicks.” Angie laughed as they headed to the pool door. The deck also had stairs leading down to the ground and to the garage and the storage shed. Several parkas were hung on hooks just inside the door as well as snow boots.
“Can’t guarantee I’ll have everyone’s size, but there’s a good selection.” Cliff went to a drawer and pulled out a pair of boots. He handed them to Estebe. “Size thirteen?”
“Yes.” Estebe looked down at his feet. “I can’t believe you guessed or even had these. No one carries my size in stores. I have to special order them.”
“Brothers from a different mother, dude. I recognize a kindred soul when I see one. Or when I see your feet, that is.” Cliff slapped Estebe on the back. “There should be a couple of parkas in your size too.”
“Well, you all go trudge through the snow. I’m heading into the pool area.” Angie held up her phone. “You have yours, Felicia?”
“I do.” She held it up and checked the power. “Fully charged. Be back here in ten minutes. No longer, or we’ll all go looking for whoever is missing. And you better have a good reason for being late.”
“Like being chased by an axe-wielding serial killer?” Angie joked.
Felicia met her gaze, her face serious. “Exactly like that.”
Chapter 7
As Angie made her way to the pool door, she felt a cold nose touch her hand. She looked down to see Dom grinning at her. She stopped walking and leaned down to rub his head. “Who let you out of the kitchen?”
When he didn’t answer, she wondered if she should go back inside and let Matt know she had him. She had ten minutes before Felicia would come looking for her. With the size of the pool area, it might take her that long to search the place by herself. She smiled down at her dog. Well, not by herself now. “Okay, boy, you can come sleuthing with me. Maybe this is what Sheriff Brown feels like when he finds out I’ve been investigating? You just stay out of trouble and don’t be a hero.”
He nodde
d his head happily. Angie figured the only words he’d understood had been that he could come with her. The dog was addicted to her company, she knew that. She just prayed that the serial killer joke had been just that. A joke.
She opened the door and felt the warm air flowing out at them. She’d expected to smell chorine, but instead, it was a floral fragrance that hovered around them as they stepped inside the pool area. They carefully took the several steps down to the pool deck, and Angie looked around. If she’d known it was this beautiful, she would have swum before she’d gotten ready for service. She’d make up for her bad decision just as soon as they found Bailey.
Dom watched as an automatic pool cleaner skimmed the top of the water. He took a step backward as he watched, then when it just kept coming closer, he let out two short warning barks and came over to Angie to sit on her feet, leaning up against her legs so she could protect him.
“It’s okay, big guy. The pool cleaner isn’t going to hurt you.” She leaned over the edge and took in the Olympic-sized pool. Being rich sure didn’t suck.
No body floated in the water. Neither had one sunk to the bottom. The clear pool water would have let her see a body, even if it was at the bottom of the diving area in the deepest water. The sparking water made her itch to touch it, so she knelt near the edge and touched the water. Surprisingly, the water was warm. Now she didn’t envy Cliff’s power bill. Of course, there were hot springs in the area. Maybe he’d been lucky enough to tap into one of those.
She was stalling and she knew it. She walked toward the dressing rooms to check them. Dom padded next to her. First room was filled with lockers and bins overflowing with clean towels and suits. Cliff took care of his guests. Bailey was nowhere in sight. Then she moved to the attached dressing rooms. Each one was totally separate from the others and had its own television. “People could watch movies in here.”
She opened closets and bathroom doors, clearing one by one until she had gone through the entire row. Coming outside, she was now at the other end of the pool. “One building cleared,” she told Dom.
She moved to the equipment room, which she assumed was filled with pool floats and other toys. Life jackets lined the walls. She covered every last inch of the booth. No Bailey. She left the side room and was just about to give up the search, when she saw what looked like a hidden hallway behind the equipment room. She turned the corner and found a door marked Staff Only. She jiggled the door handle, but it was locked. She turned to leave, when she heard a noise inside. Someone kicking something? “Bailey? Is that you?”
The noise sounded again. She got on her phone and called Felicia. “I think I found her. Come into the pool.”
She hung up, not waiting for an answer, and tucked the phone into her back pocket. She studied the door. In the restaurant, they locked their cleaning supplies in a closet but kept the key close by so that staff could get in easily. Maybe she wasn’t the only one who did that. She ran her hand around the door frame and touched a piece of metal. The key.
Angie brought the key down and gave Dom the command to sit. If there was just a rat or wild animal seeking warmth from the storm, she didn’t want him to attack. She unlocked the door. The closet was pitch black. Again, she heard the noise. She reached over and flipped on the overhead light.
Bailey sat on the concrete floor, tied up with what appeared to be nautical rope. She stared at Angie, clearly not expecting to see her.
“It’s okay, Bailey, you’re safe. We found you.” Angie moved into the closet and started to try to untie the knots. When she heard a noise behind her, she froze, hoping it was Felicia. Slowly, she turned and let out her breath.
Estebe grinned at her. “Leave it to you to win the scavenger hunt. Move out of there, and I’ll get those ropes off her.”
Angie squeezed Bailey’s shoulder as she stood and moved out of the small closet. “Estebe will get you out.”
“Bailey? Oh, Bailey, are you all right?” Cliff tried to squeeze into the closet as Angie was getting out. She grabbed his arm.
“Let Estebe get her out so we can see if she’s hurt,” she whispered.
Something in her tone must have gotten through the fear because he stepped back and nodded.
Angie watched from the doorway as Estebe took the gag off first. Bailey took in a deep breath, then started crying.
Estebe had his knife in hand to cut the ropes, but stopped moving and looked at her. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. “I’m just so happy you found me. I didn’t think anyone would.”
Estebe made short work of the ropes. Then he picked her up in his arms and carried her out to a pool lounger. When he checked her for injuries, Cliff stood back, holding Bailey’s hand. Finally, Estebe stepped back and nodded at Cliff, who leaned down and hugged Bailey for a long time.
Angie and the other searchers stepped over to the supply closet. “She’s not hurt?”
Estebe shook his head. “She has a head wound that needs cleaning. She probably was hit with something heavy to get her here. But why would someone go to the trouble to make her disappear?”
“Maybe they didn’t have time to kill her and had her set up for when they had more time.” Felicia pondered the question. “He must be strong to carry her this far. Maybe they thought they had killed her. If she was out from the head wound, the killer might have thought she was dead or close to it.”
“If they didn’t know any better.” Angie glanced at the dolly next to the pool house. She walked over and saw blood spots on the metal. “This is how the killer got her down here. So we can’t cross off the women from our list. Anyone could have gotten her down here. We need to find out where everyone was both on the night Dane was killed and last night. We should be able to narrow the attacker down. There’s only so many people in this house. And with Bailey being attacked, I’m pretty sure the people who left are off the suspect pool.”
“Yeah, that was stupid. If they’d just waited until the sheriff got back, there were tons of people in the house with possible motives. I heard one of the servers saying she’d slept with Dane the last time he was in town and he didn’t even remember her name now.” Felicia shook her head. “A woman scorned.”
Angie stepped toward Cliff and Bailey, who seemed to be a bit stronger. “Let’s get her to the kitchen and get some liquids in her.”
“I could use a shot of tequila,” Bailey said.
Angie smiled; the woman was feeling better. “Let’s start with some water. I don’t know how long you were tied up, but you might be dehydrated.”
“It seemed like forever. Cliff had fallen asleep, but I was still awake. I got up to go to the bathroom, and when I came back to the room, I heard a noise. I turned toward the bed, thinking I’d woken up Cliff, and I felt the pain at the back of my head. Then nothing until I woke up in there.” She glanced at the closet as they passed by. “It was weird. I thought I was dead.”
When they got back to the kitchen, Matt greeted Dom first. He reached down and rubbed his ears. “There you are, boy. He slipped out on me, and I was worried he was off chewing up something really expensive.”
Robbie laughed. “There’s nothing really expensive in this entire place. Just a cabin in the woods.”
Angie glanced at Felicia, who shrugged. She didn’t know what Robbie was used to, but she thought everything was expensive. Especially the antique wooden furniture that Dom might like to use as a chew toy. She decided the barb was aimed at Cliff and ignored it. “Bailey, sit here. Hope, grab the first aid kit.”
Hope pulled it out of a closet, but Estebe took it from her before she could give it to Angie.
“I’ll take this. I’ve seen Angie’s way of bandaging things.” He took two clean washcloths out of the drawer and ran warm water over one, then added hand soap. “No one seems surprised to see Bailey returned to the fold.”
“Why should we be?” Robbi
e muttered. “You went looking for her, you found her.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think the killer thought we’d find her alive,” Angie added. She grabbed a notebook out of her tote she’d left in the kitchen. “Let’s play a game.”
“Let’s not.” Steve stood and finished his coffee. “I’m heading to my room. I have work to do.”
“Actually, you’re not.” Cliff motioned back to the chair. Steve sat down. “I think Angie wants to ask us all some questions.”
“What? Like she’s some detective or something?” Suzie laughed. “You all watch too many movies. The guy who killed Dane is probably long gone by now.”
“Then why would someone attack Bailey and leave her for dead?” Cliff stared at Suzie, and she sat back down.
“You think one of us is the killer.” Her eyes widened as she looked around the room. “There’s no way. I mean, a lot of people hated Dane, but this group, you were his friends.”
“Friends that he was writing a less than favorable book about?” Cliff shook his head as Suzie blushed. “I know what he thought about me. He’d told me often enough that I was letting Bailey run my life. What he didn’t know was how much I loved her.”
Bailey smiled up at him as he took her hand. “I love you too.”
“Fine. If that’s settled, ask your questions.” Carolyn stared at her nails. “Steve has work.”
Angie wrote down everyone’s name. “Okay, let’s start with Saturday night. What happened after everyone left dinner?”
“Bailey and I went to our room,” Cliff said.
Angie nodded, then looked at Bailey. “And you?”
“He just told you we went to our room.” Bailey frowned. “Is this how you’re supposed to do an investigation? Asking stupid questions?”
“You were up last night when he was sleeping. What were you doing on Saturday?” Angie stared her down.
“Fine. I went outside and had a smoke with Dane about ten thirty, once Cliff was asleep,” Bailey admitted. “A smoke. I didn’t kill the guy.”