by Jessica Beck
“We are, as well,” Bernard added.
“I can’t say that I blame any of you,” Elizabeth said with a weakened voice. “You all have my blessing to leave.”
“Did someone say something about leaving?” Cheyenne asked as she and Joan came out of their suite. They both had their bags. “We were just thinking the same thing. This is no place to be trapped in a power outage.”
“We can’t go anywhere without Jason,” Jake explained. “He’s the only one who knows how to open the door when the power is out.”
“I’ll go get him,” Elizabeth said as she started toward the suites in the dim light.
“We’ll go with you,” Jennifer volunteered.
“It’s not necessary,” Elizabeth answered.
“Nonsense. We insist,” Hazel said, and then she turned to me. “Aren’t you coming, Suzanne?”
I wasn’t about to say no to that invitation. It was nice to be included in the group again. “I’m right behind you.”
“Very well, then. Let’s all go.” Elizabeth led us to their suite, and I noticed even in the dim light that this was much nicer than our accommodations, as luxurious as they were. Why did it not surprise me that Jason had reserved the best set of rooms for himself?
“What a surprise. He’s napping while the rest of us are in a panicked state of emergency,” she said with disdain as she pointed to the bed. “Jason. Jason! Wake up! Everyone is leaving.” He didn’t move, so Elizabeth walked over to the bed and shook his shoulder. “Jason!” Then her voice quivered a bit as she asked, “Does anyone have a light?”
I pulled out my cell phone, happy that for once, I had a strong battery in an emergency. I hit the proper button, and it lit up the corner of the room where Elizabeth was standing over her husband.
The first thing I noticed was her hand. It had quite a bit of blood on it, and it only took a second to confirm where it had come from.
Someone had taken advantage of Jason Martin while he’d been sleeping, and they’d struck him with something heavy from above while he’d been vulnerable.
I raced forward to check for a pulse, but it only took the touch of his skin to realize that he had been dead for some time.
The body was still warm to the touch, but there was not a single sign of life in him.
Our host was dead, and what was worse, until the power came back on, we were all going to be trapped in the middle of the crime scene with no way to get out.
And so was his killer.
I was about to go grab Jake when the other women realized what had just happened. In a split second, Hazel screamed, Elizabeth fainted, and Jennifer just managed to catch her before she tumbled to the floor.
I wanted to stop and comfort my friends, but I had to get my husband in there, and fast. On my way out the door, I couldn’t help myself from stopping in front of Hazel and grabbing her shoulders, giving them a firm shake to get her attention. “Hazel. Hazel!”
I knew in the movies that they often slapped people who were being hysterical, but I wasn’t about to hit my friend. Fortunately I didn’t have to.
“Is he…dead?” she asked me softly as she finally stopped screaming.
“Yes, I’m afraid so,” I whispered to her. “I know this is horrific, but you need to collect yourself right now. Elizabeth needs you.” I had a feeling that invoking a friend in distress would make an impact on her, and I was relieved to see that it worked. I could almost see Hazel coming to terms with what we’d all seen as she gathered her composure.
“I’ll be okay now. Thank you, Suzanne.”
“It was nothing,” I said as I headed for the door.
“How can you be so calm?” she asked me as Jake came rushing in, no doubt summoned by her very screams.
“I don’t know. In situations like this, somebody has to be,” I said with a shrug. The truth was that I was pretty good in an emergency. After it was over, I might fall apart, but I could be counted on when it mattered, and that was good enough for me.
“I heard someone scream. What is it? What’s wrong?” Jake asked. I noticed that though I hadn’t seen a holster while he’d been wearing his tux, and I hadn’t even seen it when he’d removed his jacket and leapt out of the elevator, he now had a small handgun out. That’s when I realized that he must have used his ankle holster, not that it mattered. I suddenly felt reassured that my husband was armed. As a general rule, I wasn’t fond of guns, but my husband was a trained specialist. In his hands, it was a tool like any other craftsman might use in their profession.
“Someone murdered Jason,” I said as I pointed to the bed.
That brought a new, soft wail from Elizabeth as Jake rushed over and checked for a pulse, discreetly putting his weapon away as he did.
“He’s gone. I already checked,” I said, but I knew that he had to confirm the fact for himself.
After a minute, Jake came back over to me. “Suzanne, you might want to get them out of here as quickly as you can.”
“Can we at least wash Elizabeth’s hands first?” I asked softly. They were both still bloody from where she’d touched her late husband’s shoulder and then clasped them together in a state of shock.
“Okay, but you need to do it in the other room,” Jake said. “This is a crime scene, and I need to secure it.”
“Jake, how are we going to get out of here now? Jason was the only one who knew how to open the door without the power on.”
“We can’t worry about that right now,” he said. “Get them out, Suzanne.”
I knew that tone of voice. There was no room for debate. “Ladies, let’s get Elizabeth out of here,” I said.
Elizabeth had somehow managed to pull herself together, but I noticed that she kept glancing back at her husband’s body as she stood there. It was almost as though she needed constant assurance that he was gone and this wasn’t just some kind of nightmare. “Is he really dead?”
“I’m so very sorry,” I said. “Jennifer. Hazel. I need your help.”
That was all it took. Jennifer, forever in charge of us during the book club, stepped up immediately. “Come on, Elizabeth. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
A sudden thought presented itself. I didn’t want to do it, but there was something that needed to be done before I could allow that. “I need to get a picture,” I said as I pulled out my phone.
“Can’t that wait until we’re out of the room?” Jennifer asked.
“We need a record of Elizabeth’s hands before we clean her up,” I said.
“You need to tell your husband that this is completely out of line,” Jennifer said. “This poor woman just lost her husband.”
It would have been easy to lay the blame at Jake’s feet, but the thought never even crossed my mind. “If you want to be angry with someone, be angry with me. You never know. It might just help protect Elizabeth later.” It was true, though it was equally valid that a single photo might end up condemning her. I took the photos despite their protests, much to Hazel and Jennifer’s unhappiness. Elizabeth didn’t even seem to notice what I was doing, but I was certain she’d be angry about it later as well. I’d mend fences after this mess was all over, but in the meantime, I needed to help my husband solve a man’s murder. No matter how unlikable he might have been, he still deserved at least that.
“Who would do such a thing?” Elizabeth asked us all, her voice filled with despair as she let them lead her out of the room. Once again, I was left on the outside of the group looking in, and I wondered if this would be the end of our little book club, no matter what the outcome of our investigation might bring.
My only question at the moment was, out of all of the attendees of tonight’s party, who didn’t have a motive?
Jason was clearly a man with many enemies, and unfortunately, it appeared that one of them had finally caught up with him.
CHAPTER 12
“I took some photos of Elizabeth’s hands before she could get cleaned up, just in case we need to see them later,” I told Ja
ke as soon as the women were gone.
“That’s good work, Suzanne. I was hoping you’d think of doing that.”
“Why didn’t you suggest it if it already occurred to you?” I asked him, trying not to stare at the body on the bed. It was difficult not to. As in life, Jason had found a way in death to be the center of attention, good or bad.
This time it was definitely bad.
“I didn’t want to interfere with you and your friendships with those women,” he admitted.
“That doesn’t matter right now. Jake, I need you to think like a cop, not a party guest. Now, what’s our first order of business?”
“The first thing we need to do is lock this door,” he said. It had a thumb lock on the inside, so at least he could secure it while we were inside. The outside might be another matter, but we’d worry about that later.
“What did they use to kill him?” I asked as I lit up as much of the room as I could with my phone.
Jake did the same, and in a few moments, he found something on the floor near the foot of the bed. Grabbing a washcloth from the bathroom, he returned and picked up a dull cut stone the size of a softball sporting a dull and irregular exterior. The inside was a different story altogether. It had a colorful purple interior that sported a series of sharply defined points, making a hollow opening inside that reflected light from a thousand different facets. Two sides of the stone had been cut smooth in a neat ninety-degree angle.
“What is this thing?” he asked.
“I’ve seen them before. It’s half of a bookend,” I said as I started toward the matching piece, still on the bookcase where the killer must have found its deadly twin.
“Don’t touch that!” Jake snapped.
“I wasn’t going to, but why shouldn’t I? It wasn’t the murder weapon.”
“No, but the killer may have touched it before he got the one he ended up using. Suzanne, you were right before. We have to treat this like a crime scene.”
“It’s going to be hard to learn anything without a forensics team,” I said.
“You’d be surprised. Even today, more cases are solved by good detective skills than a dozen crime labs.” I knew that it was a matter of pride with my husband. Jake believed there was a place for science, but nothing could substitute for a keen eye and a sharp mind.
“I believe you,” I said as someone started knocking on the suite’s door. “What should I do? I shouldn’t let them in, should I?”
“No,” Jake admitted as he looked quickly around the room. “We’re going to have to leave this for now and interview our suspects. Otherwise they aren’t going to give us a moment’s peace.”
“We?” I asked him a little incredulously. “You’re the pro, remember? I still have my amateur status, in case you’ve forgotten.”
“Suzanne, I’d take your interviewing skills over some of the partners I’ve had in the past any day. You have a way of getting people to open up to you that still surprises me.”
“It doesn’t hurt that your talent pool for assistance is a little limited at the moment either, does it?” I asked him, grinning to show that I wasn’t offended by the fact.
“That might be true, but I stand by my statement. You’ve got chops.”
The knocking was now a full-fledged pounding.
“I suppose we’d better answer that before they break the door down,” I said.
“I don’t guess we have much choice,” Jake replied.
I started for the door, but then he stopped me by putting a hand on my shoulder. “Why don’t you let me do that?”
“Be my guest,” I said.
Truth be told, I was only too happy to let him answer it.
“What?” Jake asked as he opened the door. Henry Jackson was in mid-pound and almost fell to the floor when the door was pulled away.
“Is it true? Is Jason really dead? I can’t believe it! I need to see it for myself!”
“I’m sorry, but this is an active crime scene,” Jake explained. “No one gets in.”
“Why shouldn’t I get to see my friend? She’s not a cop,” he said as he gestured to me. “As a matter of fact, neither are you. You told us earlier yourself that you’re retired. I have as much right to see him as you do. More, even. After all, the man was my friend for a great many years.”
“Just not lately though, right?” I asked him.
“That’s a low blow,” he said unhappily as he looked at me. “Lara was the one with a problem with him, not me.”
“So, are you saying that you don’t mind that he wiped out your life savings?” I asked him pointedly. There was no time for being delicate.
“Of course I minded, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. That’s what I’ve been telling Lara since it happened. Now let me in.”
“I’m afraid that’s not going to happen,” Jake said in a way that left no room for debate. “We’ll be out in a few minutes. Tell the others to stay right where they are. I don’t want anyone leaving the penthouse.”
“That won’t be too hard, will it?” Henry said with a frown. “After all, this is the only floor between here and the ground level with any walls at all.”
“What?” Jake asked. “I assumed every floor of this building was outfitted just like this one.”
Henry shook his head and smiled sadly. “That’s exactly what Jason wanted everyone to believe, but Lara got curious before we came upstairs, and she peeked in the second floor. Then the third. Then the fourth. And so on. They are all just empty spaces. It’s a sham. Jason just wanted to make people think that the building was completed.”
“Interesting. Do me a favor and let everyone know that we’ll be out soon,” Jake said as he closed the door in Henry’s face.
The man looked too stunned to do anything about it, not that he could have even if he’d wanted to. Jake was bigger, stronger, and quite a bit more determined.
“Is that true what he said about the other floors?” Jake asked me once the door was closed.
“I don’t know. They are all closed off at the stairwell, and I’ve been with you the entire time, remember? But the truth is, it wouldn’t surprise me. From what I’ve heard about Jason, it sounds as though it’s exactly what he’d do to appear prosperous. At least there’s no place for the killer to hide.”
“Except in plain sight, you mean,” Jake said. “It’s obviously one of us. The question is, which one?”
“You can start by eliminating my book club,” I said defensively without really giving it much thought.
“Suzanne, I know they are your friends, but Elizabeth has to be at the top of our list.”
“Granted she had her reasons and we have to at least consider her, but surely you don’t suspect Hazel or Jennifer.”
Jake was silent for longer than I would have liked, and when he finally did respond, it wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “Suzanne, if they thought that their friend’s life was threatened, we both know that either one of them might kill Jason to protect Elizabeth.”
“They wouldn’t do it, though!” I protested. “They didn’t!”
“But they could have, and that’s all we have to go on,” Jake answered calmly.
I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and then I said, “Okay. You’re right. Everyone’s on the list. Not us, though,” I said with a grim smile.
“No, not us. Are you ready to go out there and tackle the room?”
“It’s got to beat being here,” I said as I glanced over at Jason’s body one last time. I’d seen my share of corpses in the past, but it didn’t make it any easier, and as much as I’d disliked the man in life, I didn’t think he deserved the end he’d gotten. “Let’s go.”
“After you,” he said.
After I stepped into the hallway, I was surprised to see that Jake wasn’t on my heels after all. “Are you coming?” I asked him as he hesitated at the door.
“One second,” he said, running his hand along the top of the molding of the doorframe. He smiled fo
r a moment as he pulled a shiny, thick wire with a bend in it from the top edge, and I recognized it as a key for newer interior door-locks. As keys went, it wasn’t very impressive.
As Jake locked the door and then tried the handle, I asked him, “Is that really going to keep anyone out?”
“Only the honest ones,” he admitted, “but it’s still better than nothing.”
“Do you want me to go around and collect the other keys? I could use a stepladder.”
“No, I’ll do it myself. While I’m collecting keys, why don’t you go in and let everyone know that I’ll be right with them?”
“What exactly am I supposed to tell them?” I protested.
“If it were me, I’d say as little as possible,” he answered with the hint of a grin. I knew that Jake was unhappy about the murder, but there was also a part of him ready and waiting to leap into action. Investigating crime was too much a part of him to ever let go.
While Jake made his rounds collecting keys, I walked into the living room where everyone was milling about, chattering about what had just happened to one of our hosts.
I knew that this wasn’t going to be any fun, but it had to be done.
“What’s going on, Suzanne?” Jennifer asked me the second I walked into the room. I’d been expecting to be attacked as soon as I came in, just not by one of my friends.
“All I can tell you is that Jake is looking into what happened,” I said calmly.
“We know what happened. It’s no secret,” Elizabeth said. “Someone murdered my husband.”
“Believe me, he’s trying to be sensitive to that fact, but we still need to conduct an investigation,” I explained.
“Why? He may be qualified, but we all know that you certainly aren’t,” Elizabeth reminded me, as if I needed the nudge. I was all too aware of my lack of real qualifications, but to be fair, I had seen my share of success in the past. I wasn’t about to justify my involvement, though. It appeared that Elizabeth was starting to realize that just because we were friends, it didn’t necessarily mean that I’d show her any favoritism in our investigation, and she clearly wasn’t very happy about it.