Cocoa Crush

by Jessica Beck

  “Then something stronger it is,” Joan said.

  That was the last bit of their conversation I heard. While just about everyone else was occupied with comforting Candida, I crept off to the bedroom suites to see if I could find any evidence that might be able to help uncover who had killed Jason Martin right under our very noses.

  My cell phone battery was getting low from using it so much as a flashlight, so I was going to have to use it sparingly from now on, though it was going to inhibit my search. I decided that Jake and I had already searched Elizabeth and Jason’s suite, which suited me just fine. If I had to, I’d go back there at the end, but at the moment, I had no desire to go back into the room where the body was lying. I decided to take Bernard and Candida’s room first, since there was no telling when they might come back, given the woman’s earlier outburst. Not that I could blame her. I felt exactly the same way inside, and this was by no means my first body.

  The suite was immaculate, which didn’t surprise me, given Bernard’s neat attire. I suspected he would settle for nothing else. At least it made it easy to search their room. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary on first glance, with the exception of a locked briefcase someone had slid under the bed. I pulled it out to see if I could open it, but it was a mini fortress, made from steel instead of leather, with a combination lock that was well beyond my ability to open. What was so valuable that he had to treat it like gold? For all I knew it could have been gold, but not much of it, given the case’s weight. The briefcase itself was heavy, and I couldn’t detect a great deal of weight beyond that, so I figured it must be filled with paperwork, which could be valuable in and of itself. Not that it would do me any good. I put the case back where I’d found it, and then I went off to search Lara and Henry’s room. I just hoped I had better luck there.

  The suite the Jacksons had taken over was a mess, the polar opposite of what I’d found in Bernard’s bedroom. I started looking through their open suitcases, and I was about to give up when I found a large white envelope tucked away in the bottom of Lara’s bag. Pulling the documentation out, I read a bit of it when I realized that it was a notice of eviction from their home. They were being foreclosed on! Was Henry even aware of it, or had she hidden it from him? It certainly confirmed that they were in financial straits, but why bring it with them for the weekend? Was she honestly going to try to shame Jason into bailing them out? If that had been her intention, I couldn’t imagine the tactic working. Jason had seemed to me like a man mostly uninfluenced by pleas of the heart.

  The next suite I searched was the last one, Joan and Cheyenne’s area. One side of the room was neat as a pin, while the other had clothes strewn all about it. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that Joan was the slob, not Cheyenne, something that surprised me, based on what I knew of their personalities. I did a quick look around Joan’s space without finding anything significant, and then I studied Cheyenne’s area.

  There was nothing of significance that I could find there either, and I was about to give up when I walked into the bathroom to look around, just as I had the other suites.

  I was about to write that off as well when I realized that something was buried in the bottom of the trashcan, wrapped up in way too many tissues.

  It was a pregnancy test, and what was more, the plus sign indicating a positive result was quite apparent.

  Evidently one of the two women was pregnant, and given what I knew of their behavior, I had a suspicion that it was Cheyenne who had tested positive. Had she confronted Jason with the results, expecting him to leave Elizabeth? I could see her doing it, just as easily as I could imagine Jason laughing at her in response.

  A rebuff at a time like that would certainly give her a reason to kill him in a fit of rage.

  Now all I had to do was figure out how to show Jake without tipping my hand to the others.

  When I got back out into the main living space of the penthouse, I heard people yelling. It appeared that everyone was arguing with everyone else, and accusations were flying around like bats in a cave at dusk. Why was Jake letting them carry on like that? And then I realized that there was method to his madness. If he let them fight among themselves, there would be less chance that someone would notice my absence in the ruckus.

  My husband made his way over to me quickly, and as he did, he whispered, “Did you find anything we can use?”

  “Lara had a notice of foreclosure on their home, but that’s not the real bombshell. I found a positive pregnancy test in Joan and Cheyenne’s bathroom.”

  “Good work. Did you happen to keep it?” he asked.

  “It’s in my pocket. Why, do you want to see it?”

  “No, I just want to make sure we’ve got it,” he replied. “Let’s go ask Joan and Cheyenne about it. One of them might have a stronger motive than the others to have killed Jason.”

  “I’m not pregnant,” Joan said loudly just after Jake asked her in a gentle voice. “Frankly, I resent you accusing me of being in that state. Regardless of what you might think of me, my mother didn’t raise a tramp.”

  I wasn’t about to stand there debating moral codes with her. “That’s all we wanted to know,” I said soothingly. I looked at Jake, who wasn’t watching me at all. He was looking quickly around the dark room, and it only took me a second to realize what he was doing. “Where’s Cheyenne?” I asked aloud, wondering where she’d gotten herself off to.

  “That’s what I want to know,” Jake said softly to me. In a louder voice, he said, “Can I have your attention, please? Quiet!” The last bit had been shouted, and everyone suddenly did as my husband ordered. There was something in his tone that had a note of authority in it, and he’d once told me that it was his “cop’s voice,” something that had come with being on the force for so long. Once he had everyone’s attention, he asked, “Has anyone seen Cheyenne?”

  They all looked surprised by the question as they started looking all around the room.

  “She’s not here,” Bernard said, stating the obvious.

  “Where could she go, though?” Joan asked. “We’re all trapped here.”

  “Just because she’s not in this room doesn’t mean that she got away,” Jennifer said. “Don’t forget, there are twelve empty floors below us, and a lobby, too.”

  “Jennifer!” Elizabeth snapped at her best friend.

  “Relax, Elizabeth. If they don’t know it yet, they will shortly enough. It’s not important right now.”

  “Don’t forget the roof,” Henry said. “She could be up there, too. We need to go find her.”

  “We will, but we’re going to do this in an organized manner,” Jake said. “I’m assigning teams of two to branch out and see if we can locate her.”

  “Is she the killer?” Elizabeth asked softly. “I knew it in my heart the moment we found my husband’s body.”

  “We don’t know anything yet,” I said, though that clearly wasn’t quite the entire truth. “We just need to stick together.”

  “How can we stick together if we’re going to form search parties?” Lara asked. “Surely you’re not suggesting we go as a group from floor to floor.”

  “What’s wrong with that idea?” Jennifer asked. “When you think about it, it’s the only way we can keep tabs on each other.” She looked around the dim room as though she didn’t trust any of us, including me. I’d clearly fallen out of favor with my club, but I’d have to worry about that later. At the moment, we had a member of our party to locate. “What do you think, Jake?”

  “There are certainly merits to what you’re suggesting, but I’d feel better if we found her sooner rather than later,” he admitted.

  “Why is that?” Hazel asked.

  It was clear that Jake didn’t want to answer, and I couldn’t blame him. We didn’t want to give away what might be a piece of crucial information to the others if we didn’t have to. I had to wonder if Jake was thinking the same thing that I was. If Cheyenne had confronted Jason about her pregna
ncy, been rebuffed, and killed him in a fit of rage, she might do something to herself now. If she couldn’t break out of the building, she might do something a little more drastic to make sure that she never had to face the music for her actions.

  “It just makes sense,” I said without providing any real reasons to my friend. It was important that I backed up Jake’s call, and it helped that I actually agreed with him. I had a hunch that Cheyenne hadn’t trusted us when we’d said that we’d been locked in. “Jake and I will take the lobby,” I said to the group.

  “Lara and I will search the roof,” Henry volunteered.

  Jake nodded in agreement. “Okay. How do the rest of you want to team up?”

  “We’re not going anywhere,” Elizabeth said firmly. “That tramp’s whereabouts don’t matter one bit to me. Jennifer, Hazel, will you stay here with me?”

  It was clear that the women had been ready to join the search party, but Elizabeth’s pleas were hard to ignore. Again, I was a little hurt that she hadn’t asked me to stay as well, but I couldn’t let that bother me at the moment. “We aren’t going anywhere without you,” Jennifer assured her, shooting an apologetic look in my direction as she said it. At least they all weren’t against me.

  “Candida and I will start on the floor just below ours,” Bernard said matter-of-factly.

  “I’d rather go with someone else,” the former barista said.

  “Nonsense. Don’t be foolish. You are coming with me,” Bernard insisted.

  “I’ll go with you,” Joan said, stepping between Bernard and Candida.

  Candida nodded, and Bernard looked flummoxed by the rebellion. “Fine. Do whatever you please. I’ll go alone.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t allow that,” Jake said. “This has to be done on the buddy system.” He turned to Jennifer, Hazel, and Elizabeth. “Would one of you like to volunteer?”

  Jennifer glanced at Elizabeth for approval, who nodded once. “I’ll go with you, Bernard,” she said. I was glad that she’d been the one to agree. I doubted that Bernard would stand a chance if he tried to bully her around. Jennifer simply wouldn’t stand for it.

  “It’s all settled, then. Whoever finds Cheyenne needs to be gentle with her. We’re not trying to do anything but bring her back up here.”

  “Even if she’s the killer?” Bernard asked, his voice snapping out the question.

  “Why would you say something like that?” Lara asked him.

  “It’s obvious, isn’t it? She’s the only one of us who chose to run,” Bernard said. “Doesn’t that scream her guilt?”

  “I tried to leave earlier myself,” Candida said softly. “Just because she panicked doesn’t mean that she killed our host.”

  Bernard looked at her bitingly before he replied. “Why don’t you butt out and let the professionals analyze the situation?”

  Joan clearly didn’t like that. She’d taken Candida under her protection since Jake had asked her to comfort the woman, and she was taking the role seriously. Bernard had better watch himself. Joan was showing a maternal side to her personality that I hadn’t seen before. She was so protective of the woman she’d just met that I had to wonder how she would react if a real friend of hers was threatened. Could she have been the one to kill Jason when he’d rejected her friend? The more I thought I knew, the more confused I got.

  There was only one thing to do about that.

  It was time to start searching for the missing party guest and ask her directly.

  CHAPTER 16

  Those of us who were going to be actively searching for Cheyenne were all out in the hallway when Henry and Lara headed up the stairs. After a moment, the rest of us started working our way down.

  “Jake, I’m not sure about our plan after all,” I said quietly as we all reached the twelfth floor.

  “I know it’s not ideal, but what choice do we have?” he asked me as he held back a step.

  “The floors are all empty between here and the ground level, right?” I asked.

  “That’s what we’ve been told, but I haven’t seen that for myself,” he answered.

  “Then they’ll be easy enough to search, won’t they? I’m starting to think we should all stick together.” I lowered my voice as I added, “One of us is the killer, but what if it wasn’t Cheyenne? If it was someone else, we’re putting someone at risk pairing them up with a murderer.”

  “That’s a good point,” Jake said. “Excuse me, everyone,” he said louder. “We’ve had a change in plans.”

  “We’re not going to search at all now?” Joan asked. “We need to find Cheyenne.”

  “And we are, but I’m beginning to think we should all stick together after all,” Jake answered. “Actually, it was Jennifer’s idea, and I think it’s a good one. Let’s all go in and check out the twelfth floor together. If it’s empty, it shouldn’t take us long to work our way down through the building.” As Jake opened the door to the twelfth floor, I could see that it was indeed devoid of all furniture. Shoot, there weren’t even any walls. The floor was almost entirely empty except for a few boxes that would hardly be big enough to hide a soul.

  “I’m curious about something. Who told you that all of the floors were empty?” Candida asked Jake.

  “Lara Jackson,” I answered for him.

  “How did she know? Did she search them all herself? That’s odd, isn’t it? Did Henry go with her?”

  “Speaking of Henry and Lara, should someone go upstairs and get them, too?” Jennifer asked. “They’re the only ones searching not with us right now.”

  I just shrugged in response. They were a married couple, so I wasn’t too worried about them being together. Then again, if something happened to either one of them, I’d feel awful about it.

  Jake nodded. “You’re right. In for a penny and all that. I’ll go up and get them,” he said. “While I’m gone, the rest of you spread out and see if you can find any sign of Cheyenne on the eleventh floor.”

  I followed him into the hallway as everyone else started down the stairs. “I don’t like you being by yourself,” I said.

  “One of us needs to stay here with the group,” he replied. “You can go if you’d rather, but I’m armed, so if I run into trouble, I’ll be better suited to handle it. You don’t disagree with that, do you?”

  “Of course not,” I said. “I’m just not happy being away from you.”

  “I won’t be long. I promise,” he said as he smiled at me softly. “Just try to keep your eyes on everyone at once and leave the hunting to them.”

  “That sounds hard enough,” I admitted.

  “You can do it. I have faith in you.”

  It turned out that I didn’t have to do it after all, though.

  Lara Jackson came ripping down the stairs screaming for help before we could make it to the next floor!

  Evidently Cheyenne had gone up instead of down after all.

  CHAPTER 17

  I was glad we were all out in the stairwell. If we’d been searching another floor, I doubted that we would have heard Lara screaming. We rushed up to join her as a group while she came down the steps much too fast, tripping at the end. Thankfully Jake was there to catch her.

  Once he had her steadied on her feet again, Lara explained breathlessly, “Henry is up there with her! He poked his head out the door to make sure it was safe, and he spotted her standing on the edge of the building! He said that she was threatening to jump, so he told me to get you all as quickly as I could! He’s doing the best he can to stop her, but if she’s determined to jump, there’s nothing he’s going to be able to do about it.”

  I was in the lead, so I tore up the steps with Jake and the rest of the group close on my heels. When we got to the door, something was partially blocking it, and we had trouble moving it at first. Jake put his shoulder into it though, and it finally opened.

  I’d been hoping to see two people on the roof as we spilled out.

  But unfortunately, I just saw one.

  Hen
ry was standing near the edge looking down, and I felt a kick in my gut as I joined him there. It was colder than it had been before, and the icy rain made everything slick. It was still coming down, and I felt the sting of it on my face.

  As I looked down onto the ground below, I saw a body sprawled out on the sidewalk, and I knew that a fall from that high up was surely fatal. Even if we could get to Cheyenne’s body, there was nothing anybody would be able to do for her.

  “What happened?” Jake asked as he moved up as well, being very careful with every step.

  Henry was crying as he turned to us, and he stumbled a little when he realized that we were all there. Jake reached out a hand to steady him just in time, or we might have had three fatalities that day instead of two, which was still two more than I’d wanted to see. “She said she couldn’t live with the guilt,” he said through his sobs. “She told me that she killed Jason when he wouldn’t leave Elizabeth, and she was afraid we’d find out, so she ran up here to end it all. When Lara and I got here, Cheyenne was already standing on the edge in the rain trying to work up the nerve to jump. I told Lara to go get you while I tried to talk her into moving away from the edge. I knew that somebody needed to stay up here with her! I’ve never faced anything like that before. You’re the professional. I couldn’t stop her!” His sobs were wracking his entire body, and I worried that he might fall accidentally.

  “Why don’t we all go back to the penthouse where it’s safe and dry?” I suggested. It was bitterly cold, and the freezing rain just made it worse. I was chilled to the bone, and I couldn’t imagine how cold Henry must be.

  “I tried to stop her,” Henry kept repeating as we all walked him down. He had to be in shock, and I worried about his state of mind. I’d seen death close up before myself, and it was never easy, or pretty. The man would bear watching for a while to make sure that he didn’t lose it completely. As his wife moved closer and hugged him, he seemed to melt against her. “I did everything I could, Lara,” he said through his sobs.