by Annie Adams
“Oh, what a relief.” K.C. clapped her hands. “Did you hear that ladies? Jill’s going to be fine. I told you it was all part of the game.”
Eva suggested everyone go outside by the pool to relax and celebrate the good news. “The guys should be back in an hour or so, and then we can talk about solving the mystery. And…we have another surprise activity to do after they get back,” she said.
I rolled my eyes at K.C.
“Pam—Eva—could I talk to you two for just a teensy moment?” K.C. asked as she gathered them together with outstretched arms.
“We have had such fun with all these…traditions. I’m just kind of wondering, what will the next activity be?”
“We kinda wanted to keep it a surprise,” Pam said.
K.C.’s mouth pursed into something between a grin and a sneer. “How fun. But you see, I don’t know if I brought the right equipment or attire.” She raised her sunglasses to the top of her head and winked at me, as if Eva or Pam couldn’t see her.
Eva smiled. “We’re just doing some team races, no special equipment needed. Guys and girls names will be drawn out of a hat, and they’ll be partnered up. I went to a party once where we did this and it was really fun.”
“I see, just games. ‘Cause I didn’t bring any outdoor gear like my rock climbing shoes—or my harness.”
“You’re so funny, K.C., I never know when you’re serious or just kidding around. I almost thought you really had rock climbing shoes,” Pam said.
“Oh, she really does,” I said quietly.
“No, just little party games. We thought we’d do it here for all the people who stuck around,” Eva said.
“Oh. Well, in that case, I think it sounds loads of fun. Thanks for explaining.”
Pam and Eva left.
“K.C.!” I said through clenched teeth. “Why did you encourage them by saying it would be fun?”
“Because I think it will be. It’s not the same as the traditions. This one has everyone participating. Don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud. Just go with the flow.”
“Fine. Why don’t you go hang out at the pool with the others. I’ll go upstairs and change.”
“You’ll come right back to the pool?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“What about Alex?”
“Maybe he’s changing right now. If I see him I’ll tell him to come and swim.”
She dropped her eyelids, squinting in a serious, I’m-watching-you kind of look. “I want a full accounting of what’s really going on.” She moved her arm across her body and put her upright hand next to her mouth as she spoke an aside, “Especially if you see him while he’s changing. Ha! But really, you’ve got to clue me in.”
“What do you mean? We’re playing a mystery game. I’m just going with the flow.”
“Very funny. That does it, I’m coming with you.” She flipped her sunglasses down onto her nose like a visor on a helmet.
“If you do that, it will make everyone suspicious. If this really is a game, I want to win it. You and I can split the prize. Frankly, I don’t know why they aren’t more interested.” I nodded my head toward the pool.
“Maybe they don’t need the money. No one has complained about traveling out here or paying for their rooms. To hear some of them talk, I wonder if I shouldn’t be borrowing money from them instead of a bank.”
She held both of her hands up. “Ooh, except one of them.” She made a familiar grin, and did her signature pause. She had some juicy gossip to share.
I gave a tiny shrug and studied a nearby floral arrangement on the food table.
“It’s sad, really. A girl with that much money having to declare bankruptcy.” Her head leaned forward, and I imagined her eyebrows were elevated and expectant, but I couldn’t see them as they were blocked by the inch-wide daisies encircling her sunglasses.
I made a move to grab an orange from a bowl on the table. “I think I’ll take this up to Alex. He didn’t eat any breakfast.”
“I bet you can’t guess who it is. And don’t think I didn’t catch that little fib you just made.”
“Wh…hat are you talking about?”
“Alex ate breakfast, I saw him.”
“I—meant he didn’t eat enough for breakfast.”
“I know my onions. You’re just trying to go up there and get an edge on the investigation.”
I pointed at her over the top of the orange. “There is no investigation. A game, maybe, but we are not investigators. I don’t want to get in any more trouble with my fiancé.”
“Oh, alright. But we’d better keep an eye out for the competition.” She looked left, then right. “I know someone that would do just about anything to get that prize money.”
I decided to give in. The longer I resisted listening to her gossip, the longer it would take me to get upstairs and find out what was really going on. Not to investigate mind you, but just to get a lay of the land.
“Who is it we need to look out for?” I said, resigned.
“Candee.”
“Which one is Candee?”
Her fists flew to her hips. “Oh, for Pete’s sake! You don’t know by now?”
I looked at her with palms up. “They all look similar to me.”
“You know, that’s your problem. Maybe you wouldn’t feel so threatened by all of these girls if you just got to know them—noticed their individual differences.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She must have been mistaken.
“Candee is the lovely blonde who wears the flashy jewelry with her jogging outfit.”
Maybe K.C. had misheard her gossip. Candee didn’t look like she was wanting for money. And the things I’d overheard her saying made it sound like she was loaded.
“The word is, she’s bankrupt—it’s true. She’s been married twice, she’s got another fiancé at home—”
“He didn’t come with her?”
“Nope.” She made a resounding pop with her lips at the end of the word.
“Who was the guy she spent all that time with yesterday? He looked like a close friend,” I said. “They talked pretty close to each other. And danced closely too. In fact, anytime I saw them together they were right up next to each other.”
“The word is, he’s got plenty of money. Her fiancé, I mean.”
“Hmm.” I was itching to get upstairs.
“Probably this guy has money too. And her previous husbands did, until they all mysteriously died.” She slid her sunglasses down her nose and cast a long glance over the top of them. “She of course, inherited all the money from each of them.” She propped her glasses back on her nose. “Well, toodaloo, there’s a swimming pool with my name on it outside.”
At that, she turned and bee-lined it toward the massive French doors.
“Oh, and Boss, I’ll be ready any time for an update on the sitch upstairs,” she said, with her hand on the door handle. She turned back toward the pool and then once again turned back to look at me. “Oh, one more thing…”
“Yes…?”
“What about Alex?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you working with him or me?”
“Both of you.”
“I don’t mean to be crass, but…what about the money?”
“We’ll split it equally.”
She nodded. “Okay.” She turned toward the doors and then immediately turned right back. “Listen to me. What am I talking about—money? I’m lucky to be here, having fun. I don’t need any money. But I do want to win. Very badly,” she said with the intensity of a Bond supervillain.
She must have noticed the nervous look on my face. She shrugged. “It’s who I am.”
Chapter Nine
I stood at the top of the stairs in the grand foyer at the front of the lodge realizing I didn’t know where Jill’s room was. It didn’t feel right to go around listening in at each door. But it felt just about criminal to go around trying doors to see if they were locked. I opted for li
stening in. On the way to my room, of course.
I put my ear to every door leading to the room I shared with Alex and K.C. with no results. At one of the rooms, it sounded like there was a conversation going on, but after more careful listening, I determined it to be a talk show. Someone had left their TV on.
I gave up and went toward my room. In the middle of the hallway, just in front of my door, a cold blast of air passed over me. I looked up at the ceiling for the air conditioning vent, but there wasn’t one. I rubbed my arms up and down to combat the full body shivers to no effect.
As I turned the knob, a voice whispered in my ear.
“Leave.”
My heart pounded in my chest and I fumbled with the knob. Finally it turned. I slid through the opening, slammed the door shut and locked the deadbolt.
I leaned back against the door to catch my breath. Alex sat on the bed with a guilty expression. His hand was just retreating from the phone receiver on the night stand.
“Hey, babe,” he said a little too sweetly. “Everything okay?”
I took a deep breath and blew it out.
“Is the boogie man out in the hall?”
I looked back at the door. I hadn’t really heard someone telling me to leave, had I? It must have been someone’s TV.
“It was…no. I just…got spooked. Anyway, you just made me very happy.”
His fake smile turned suspicious. “Why is that?”
“By the guilty look on your face, I think you aren’t so good at being undercover. What if I’d been a drug lord walking in on you?”
“This makes you happy?”
“It means you won’t be gone for months at a time if you’re no good at it, right?”
“Ah. I see. Too bad your logic is flawed. I’m great under the covers.” He stood up and grabbed my hand. “Come on, I’ll show you.” He pulled me toward him and we landed on the bed.
“I said cover, not covers.”
“I must have misunderstood. But now that we’re here…”
“What about Jill? How are you thinking about sex at a time like this?”
“I’m thinking about it at any time. Especially one like this, when we’re both here, alone in our hotel room, while we’re supposed to be on vacation…”
“Mmm, sorry. I have to know what’s happening with Jill.”
Alex was great at his job and he took tragedies very seriously. Obviously he wouldn’t be like this if Jill were in a coma or needing an ambulance. I wouldn’t have found him in our room, as he would have been taking care of her and connecting with the proper authorities.
“Alright. But I’m not going to tell you.”
I frowned at him.
“I’ll show you.”
He led me by the hand, out of our room and down the hall in the opposite direction from which I had come. It was probably a strange time to feel cozy and affectionate, but it felt so sweet to have him holding my hand to take me anywhere.
We turned a corner and went to the furthest room, at the end of a different hallway than we had used before. Once in front of the room, I could see a narrow set of stairs to the right, just past an ice machine, leading downstairs.
“This is a long way away from our room. This place just gets bigger and bigger.”
Alex pulled a key from his back pocket and opened the door. He made a sweeping gesture with his hand and said, “You first, milady.”
I looked back at him like he was crazy. “We’re just going to walk in on her?”
He nodded casually.
“But…”
He gave my back a gentle nudge, so I went in. Game or not, I was suddenly very nervous, maybe even spooked. The invasion of privacy, the supposed sleeping woman and the overall mysterious attitude from Alex gave me the willies.
I turned around and put my face into his chest. “I changed my mind. I don’t want to know anything. Let’s just go back to the room.”
He shrugged. “I’m not in the mood anymore.” His smile was so big, it must have been painful the way his face had to stretch to accommodate it.
I sighed. “You’re going to make me go in there?”
He lifted his eyebrows.
My shoulders slumped and I reluctantly turned around.
My legs were weak. It took superhuman strength for every step. Okay, so I exaggerate, but for some reason, I was really spooked. It felt like I was in the lobby of a haunted house, just at the moment when it’s finally your turn to go inside, when you want to chicken out, except that you’ve paid a fortune to have the spaghetti scared out of you.
I reached down and grabbed the waistband of my pants.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m pulling up my big-girl panties.”
“Oh brother. As long as they aren’t granny panties.”
“Why do you care? You’re not in the mood. Remember?”
“A man has his limits.”
“Well, the elastic in these soft, cotton-blend, full-coverage comfort-fits don’t.”
“Why do you torture me?”
I walked into the bedroom area fully expecting to see a sleeping Jill. What I did not expect to see was an empty bed. A made, empty bed. The room was almost pristine, as if no one had even stayed there.
“Where is she?” I looked around, checking the bathroom and the closet.
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“She wasn’t here when you came up with Kourtnee?”
“Nope.”
“I don’t believe this. I mean I believed the others, I guess, but I didn’t expect this.”
“What about the others? Who?”
“K.C. at first, and then everyone else downstairs.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s the mystery that Mike and Christie were talking about at the luncheon yesterday. I wasn’t completely sure, but K.C. convinced us Jill’s overdose or whatever it was, is all part of the mystery.”
“Hmm.” He didn’t sound convinced or unconvinced.
“I’ve seen this before,” I said, as I reached out and stepped toward a silver flask on the nightstand.
“Uh-uh-uh. No touching. Fingerprints.”
“Oh yeah.” I withdrew my hand and felt my cheeks heat up with embarrassment. Such a rookie maneuver. I should know better. “I saw Jill with this flask yesterday. Multiple times. And what are these pills?”
I crouched down in front of the nightstand, making sure not to touch anything. I was at eye level with the pill bottle.
“This prescription is for Kourtnee.” I looked back at Alex. He held his hand out to help me stand.
“Did Kourtnee see this?” I asked.
“Yeah…”
“What did she have to say?”
“She says she didn’t give them to her.”
“Do you believe her?”
He gave a noncommittal shrug. “She brought me up here and unlocked the door. As soon as she walked in, she freaked out. She said there was no way Jill could have left in the state she was in.”
“Which was—?”
“Unconscious,” a woman’s voice said.
I startled and turned to see who the new voice had come from. Kourtnee stood near the door opening, wearing a large backpack.
“Kourtnee, how are you feeling? You doing okay?” I asked. Hopefully, she wasn’t feeling angry that I’d just insinuated she might be a liar.
“I’m freaked out.” She looked at the bed and then at Alex. “I swear she was there, in the bed, passed out. She couldn’t have got up and made the bed, taken all of her stuff and left, all in the time it took me to come and tell you guys.” She looked as stunned as if it had just happened.
Alex walked over to the nightstand. He pointed to the bottle of pills. “You’re sure you didn’t give her these?”
She took off the large pack and set it on the floor. The contents clinked around noisily.
“Yeah, but…” She went to pick up the bottle, but Alex held his hand up to stop her.
; “We’re just going to leave them here for now,” he said.
Kourtnee ran her hands over her eyes and then through her hair as if trying to wring the stress out through the back of her head. “I don’t understand,” she muttered.
"It's okay, Kourtnee," I said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She let out a heavy sigh. "No one's going to believe me."
"Did you see anyone else nearby when you left this room?" Alex asked.
"No," Kourtnee said, her voice weary.
Alex darted a quick glance at me. I wasn't sure if it was significant or if he just happened to look up.
"I was in the bathroom getting ready, and I thought I would check and see if Jill wanted to come downstairs with me. I hadn't heard her at all this morning, and it was late enough I thought she would be awake."
"Did you go to bed at the same time as her last night?" Alex asked.
"I don't know. I was so tired and probably more wasted than I thought. Once I fell asleep, I was out like the dead." She paused and her eyes grew wide. "I shouldn't talk like that, I mean, I don't think she's dead or anything, but—to tell you the truth, I was a little worried she might be when I found her."
"Did you touch or move anything once you saw that she was unconscious?" I asked.
"No, like I told him," she said with an annoyed edge to her voice, "I came downstairs and told you guys."
Alex cleared his throat. "Well, I think we should go down and tell everyone what we've found. I'll call the Sheriff and tell them what's been going on."
"Why would you do that?" I asked.
Alex looked at me strangely. He started speaking slowly, like people do to someone who speaks a foreign language.
"Because...there's a missing...person—"
"No, you don't understand. This is all part of the game."
"What game?" Kourtnee said.
"The mystery. Remember? Mike and Christie promised a mystery with a $10,000 prize. This has got to be it. Why else would someone who had obviously passed out just disappear into thin air? And with a made bed, no less. I think she was faking it, she had her stuff packed up and hidden in the closet, and once she knew that someone had seen her, her work was done. She probably made the bed out of habit, and took off down those back stairs I just saw."