by Maddy Hunter
“It might help narrow things down. A stranger targeting Lorraine might call on your landline because those numbers are still available in a public phone book. But if the call came through on her cell, it might indicate that the caller knew Lorraine well enough to have her cell number, which would have a whole other subset of implications. How long after she received the call did she leave your house?”
Ennis focused on a spot on the wall, struggling to remember. “Not long—fifteen, maybe twenty minutes? We both knew there was no way in hell she’d be able to travel with her mom suffering a broken hip. There wasn’t even any discussion. I told her I’d cancel our reservations, but she told me if I missed out on visiting a place that was at the top of my bucket list because of her mom’s mishap, she’d never be able to live with herself, and neither would her mom, so she encouraged me to go without her. I told her that if she didn’t go, I wasn’t going either, but she said it was dumb for me to play martyr since she’d probably be with her mother for the next couple of weeks and wouldn’t see me anyway. So she said I might as well hang out in Alaska with our friends. But she made me promise that if I fell in love with the place, we could plan another trip here next year.” He regarded us with desperate eyes. “How do I not blame myself for this? If I’d been more insistent and stayed home, Lorraine might not be missing now.”
“You don’t know that, Ennis.” I walked over to his chair and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “What happened to Lorraine might not have been within anyone’s power to control.”
“I should’ve gone with her to the hospital, but it didn’t even occur to me. We’ve had so many medical emergencies with our parents that we agreed on a specialization of labor. She takes care of her mom’s medical issues and I take care of my dad’s.” He exchanged a pained look with Etienne. “Can we call the police now?”
Etienne palmed his phone and flipped through his address book. “The chief will want to know a few basics. Lorraine’s cell number. Make and model of her car. License plate number. How they can gain entry to your house. Can you write that information down for me?”
As Etienne dialed, I grabbed a pen and pad of paper off the desk and handed them to Ennis. “Could you use a cup of coffee? Latte? Cappuccino? Macchiato? Frappuccino? Wouldn’t take me a minute to run down to the coffee bar.”
“Thanks, Emily. That’d be great. I’m not sure caffeine is going to help my nerves, but it can’t make me feel any worse.”
“What’s your preference?”
“Anything’s fine. Surprise me.”
I took the long way down to the ground floor to allow Ennis and Etienne the privacy they needed to make their call. Three flights of stairs and a maze of corridors later, I arrived at the conference room where we’d gathered with Lieutenant Kitchen earlier in the day, which seemed a lifetime ago now. Was it just me or was this tour shaping up to be one of those dreaded trips where we spent most of our time bouncing from one crisis to another?
I passed by the lounge, where I was happy to find Steele and Alison sitting side by side on a sofa, leaning into each other with casual ease, smiling flirtatiously. Thank goodness Steele had made a move. Maybe Grover would get the hint and back off now.
I arrived at the coffee bar as Goldie Kristiansen was leaving, her hand cradled around a tall plastic cup filled with a black raspberry-colored beverage. “That looks refreshing.” I nodded toward her drink, which was floating in what looked like ten pounds of ice.
She elevated it in a toast. “Iced passion black tea mango lemonade. Today’s special.”
“For you or Grover?”
“For me, of course. He can buy his own.” She laughed. “On second thought, maybe I should give it to him. ‘Passion’ being the operative word. Not that it’ll have any effect on him. That ship sailed ages ago.”
I forced an uncomfortable half-smile. Uh-oh. Too much information.
“But speaking of passion”—she nodded toward the lobby—“are the lovebirds still out there gazing deeply into each other’s eyes? What’s your take on the two of them? Is it young love or pure animal attraction? Grover and I were like that once. We could hardly keep our hands off each other. Don’t ask me what happened.”
“Speaking of animal attraction,” I said in an undertone as I herded her away from the high-traffic area around the counter to a more secluded spot. “Have you noticed that Grover seems to be a wee bit smitten with Alison?”
“I’d be surprised if the whole world hasn’t noticed. But he’s not smitten, Emily. God, no. He’s simply found a new audience to bore with all his useless trivia, so he’s taking advantage of the situation.”
“But that’s pretty unfair to Alison, don’t you think? She can’t afford to be deliberately rude to the guests, but when Grover monopolizes all her time, he’s preventing her from fulfilling her main purpose, which is to pay equal attention to all the guests. That’s what we’re paying her to do.”
Goldie lifted one shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. “She looks like she’d know how to handle an irritating Iowa senior who never shuts up. In the meantime, I’m grateful to have someone else listen to him for a change. It makes me feel as if I’m truly on holiday. Now, if you’ll excuse me”—she gestured toward the back of the hotel with her cup—“I have a date to meet Florence and Orphie for drinks and conversation at the pool before dinner, and I’m running late.”
Toasting me once more, she hurried down the corridor in her flowy kaftan and flipflops. I returned to the coffee bar and placed my order for a latte, which the barista delivered after serving a half-dozen customers ahead of me. “Sorry to keep you waiting,” she apologized as she handed me the drink. “I wouldn’t ordinarily have this much foot traffic, but the tram and main mountain trail are closed down because of the hiking accident last night, so guests suddenly have time to kill.”
“I know.” I lowered my voice. “It was one of the guests in my tour group who died.”
The young barista, whose nametag identified her as Gwen, clapped her hands over her mouth. “Oh, geez, I’m so sorry. I heard rumors that the victim was a guest at the resort, but management isn’t telling us much…other than to alert guests that the tram will be starting operations again in about an hour, just in time for the dinner crowd to catch a ride up to the restaurant.”
“Is the trail opening too?” If that happened, it would indicate that the forensics team had wrapped up their investigation, which might mean that Lieutenant Kitchen could be calling us with more conclusive information at any time.
“Haven’t heard anything about opening the trail. Just the tram and the restaurant.” Her eyes shifted left and right before focusing on me dead center, her expression one of breathless apprehension. “Do you know anything more than I do? I’ve worked here for three summers without anyone ever dying, fog or no fog.” Her voice grew more hushed. “Have you been following the explosion on social media today? The picture of Bigfoot taken right outside here on the mountain? Some of us have been talking in the break room; crazy as it might sound, we’re thinking the reason why management is keeping us in the dark is because there might be some connection between the dead hiker and…and the photo of Bigfoot. Have you heard any rumors about that?”
The girl was obviously worried, and justifiably so. But I wasn’t about to tell her that the person who first gave voice to the concept was my own mother. “I’m sure it might seem natural to suspect a connection between the two, but I don’t believe there’s any evidence to support the theory that Bigfoot, if he exists, is aggressive toward humans. The rap on him is that he’s a herbivore, which makes him a bit more shy and something of a wuss.”
She arched a ring-pierced eyebrow. “Well, I’m an ovo-lacto vegetarian, which is kinda like being the human version of a herbivore, but that doesn’t mean I won’t bop someone a good one if I feel threatened. My mom’s so worried about what’s happening here, she wants me back home i
n Anchorage with her until the police make a ruling about how the hiker died.”
Considering the disturbing headlines out of Anchorage, I wasn’t sure moving back there would be any better.
When I arrived back at the room, Ennis was still slumped in the armchair, looking even more dazed than he had before, while Etienne paced across the floor, talking on his cell. I handed the latte to Ennis, who seemed to perk up a little as he boosted himself up in the chair. “Thanks, Emily. I feel like I’ve been hit in the gut with a two-by-four.”
“Is Etienne still talking to the police chief?”
Ennis shook his head as he uncapped his drink. “Lieutenant Kitchen phoned when he was talking to Chief Burns, so he’s returning the call.”
“What did the chief have to say?” Etienne and Chief Burns played racquetball together, so they were buds.
“He took down all the information I gave him. He’s planning to get my house key from our next-door neighbor so he can have a look around the premises and check our landline for messages. And he wants to find a photo of Lorraine to share with the local news—maybe put out an all-points bulletin.”
“That sounds promising, huh?”
He stared at the foam floating on his latte. “You might not have paid any attention, Emily, but I was the recipient of an award the college handed out a couple of months ago. It’s an annual award for excellence and it comes with a pretty hefty cash stipend, a hundred thousand dollars, which the news agencies picked up on and made public. So Chief Burns is wondering if Lorraine’s disappearance might be connected to that. He says there’s a possibility someone might be holding her for ransom, which is the main reason he wants to check our phone messages.”
I didn’t know what to say. Lorraine Iversen from Windsor City, Iowa, being held for possible ransom? Windsor City was a place that hosted Senior Olympics at the mall, financed county-wide corn shucking contests during harvest, and sponsored the annual Hog Queen and her float in the Independence Day parade. Windsor City was not a place that turned out home-grown kidnappers. “Did Chief Burns recommend that you fly home?”
“I offered to do that, but he’s recommending that I sit tight until he has something concrete to offer me. He basically said there’s nothing I’d be able to do back home other than worry, so I might as well do my worrying here instead of the police station, which is pretty much the same advice Lorraine gave me before she went missing.”
Iowans were obviously of one mind about the sanctity of a person’s summer holiday.
Ennis sighed. “I’ll need to break the news to Florence, but I’m afraid how it’s going to hit her. Coupled with the problems she’s having with Thor, it could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Any way you look at it, it’s not going to be pretty.”
“Do you need moral support? If you think it might help, I could go with you.”
“Thanks for the offer, Emily, but I’ll try going it alone. If Florence gets too emotional, though, I might give you a call. Handling emotional outbursts isn’t my strong suit.” He nodded toward Etienne as he stood up. “Thank him again for all his help, would you? Having him spearhead the interaction helps me feel a lot more positive.”
Etienne ended his phone call just as I let Ennis out the door. Exhaling a sigh, he regarded me in frustration. “Lieutenant Kitchen extends his apologies, but at this time their evidence is too inconclusive to determine Delpha’s cause and manner of death, whether it was accidental or a deliberate act. The only thing they’re saying is that the circumstances are suspicious.”
“So where does that leave us?”
“It leaves us with an open case. The medical examiner has completed his autopsy, but they’re not going to make his findings available to the public until a later date, pending more investigation. In the meantime they’re holding Delpha’s body at the examiner’s office in Anchorage, and they won’t release it until her sister signs the authorization papers.”
“Have they been able to track her down yet?”
He shook his head. “She’s apparently as incommunicado as a human can be and still be on the planet.”
“So now what?”
“Now, we wait.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist and snuggled against his chest. “Incommunicado. Sounds heavenly, doesn’t it?”
“Maybe we should include a new destination on our brochure—Off the Grid: a place where guests can be free from the constant assault of information from cell phones, iPads, internet alerts, Twitter, and cable TV.”
I laughed. “Don’t expect anyone from Iowa to sign up. A day without electronics would be worse than condemning the entire gang to hell—although I bet they’d even consider hell if it offered free Wi-Fi.”
My phone chimed.
Etienne kissed the crown of my head and dropped his arms from around my back. “Perhaps we should consider taking the Off the Grid trip by ourselves.”
I dug my phone out of my shoulder bag and read the incoming text. “Well, good news for a change. Jackie says the two Toms are recovering nicely from their surgeries, Mildred is continuing to improve, and the remaining guests got through the rest of the day without having to be transported to the hospital.” I smiled with relief. “Isn’t that great? Five guests on Jackie’s tour aren’t in the hospital yet.” I typed an immediate reply.
“How did you respond?” asked Etienne as he began to unbutton his shirt.
“And I quote, ‘Excellent. Keep up the good work.’ ” I watched with fascination as he peeled off his shirt, unfastened his belt, and kicked off his shoes. “Are you taking a quick shower before dinner?” I checked the time. “Better hurry. We have to be downstairs in thirty minutes.”
His voice grew low, seductive. “That gives us plenty of time for what I have in mind.” He stepped out of his slacks, electrifying every nerve-ending in my body as he flashed a slow, suggestive smile.
“Right now?”
“Right now.”
As he backed me up to the edge of the bed, all reflective thought flew out of my head…except for one stickler. “Etienne? Would you tell me what you think?”
“I think you should stop talking.” Off flew my top.
“No, this is serious. Remember all the guys who visited the museum before dinner yesterday? Every one of them except George and Osmond left the museum early for parts unknown. Do you think that could be significant?”
He feathered a kiss along the slant of my cheek and whispered his mouth over my lips. “Shhh.”
“Don’t you find it suspicious?”
He covered my mouth with his own, his breath warm, his voice husky as he found the zipper of my capris and worked downward from there. “No.”
twelve
We loaded the bus at seven o’clock the next morning to begin the six-hour drive north to Denali National Park and Preserve, which boasts the tallest mountain in the United States. The peak, once known as Mt. McKinley, had its original name restored by our forty-fourth president, so it’s now simply called Denali, which, loosely translated, is Athabascan for “really tall mountain.”
Athabascans don’t waste time with flowery language.
They cut right to the chase.
Given Ennis Iversen’s concern with Lorraine, Etienne and I had checked the transportation options out of Denali and had discovered that if Ennis needed to fly back to Iowa in a hurry, we could book a flight for him on a private plane flying out of one of the area’s nine smaller airfields. He’d been relieved to know he’d have a quick escape route, but that hadn’t prevented him from dragging his feet and looking really strung out when he boarded the bus. I suspected he hadn’t slept a wink all night.
Florence was no longer schlepping Thor’s photographic equipment, but she didn’t seem to be taking much pleasure in her victory. With her bloodshot eyes and barely combed hair, she was looking as ragged as Ennis. He’d told her
about Lorraine’s disappearance before dinner last night, informing her first before he made the announcement to the rest of the group, and true to his prediction, the news had upset her so much that she’d been unable to eat a thing at supper. Chances were she hadn’t slept last night either, so maybe our six-hour ride would give both her and Ennis an opportunity to nap.
While Etienne and Steele posted themselves at the front and rear doors of the bus to help guests aboard, I hung out by the front door of the hotel with my clipboard, checking off names. Orphie hurried toward me weighed down with shopping bags that hung from her arms like shirts on a clothes rack.
I checked off her name. “Successful shopping trip in town yesterday, I see.”
“You bet it was. I bought something for everyone. I even bought a souvenir for Lorraine. I just hope she gets to see it.” She shook her head. “It rattles you to the bone when big city crime starts rearing its head right down the street from you.”
“Did you and Al ever get your phone calls coordinated?”
“He called me last night—from North Carolina, of all places.”
“No kidding? You never mentioned he was traveling south.”
“I didn’t know! It was a spur of the moment trip, actually. A developer contacted him about the possibility of having a hotel with an indoor water park built on the outskirts of town, so he offered to fly Al to North Carolina in his private jet so Al could tour the facility the developer built outside Asheville. It’s all so out of the blue. But we could only talk for about three minutes because his phone ran out of juice, so I only got the bare bones.”
“But we already have a water park.”
“That’s an outside facility. This one will be inside, so families will be able to use it all year-round. Think of the tourist dollars this could generate, Emily. Al is really going to make a name for himself if he can push this deal through.”