Cocoa Crush

by Jessica Beck

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Lara repeated as she stroked his hair. “You can’t blame yourself for what happened. Come on. Let’s get you inside before you catch your death.”

  It was the wrong word to use from an old-fashioned phrase, and the man seemed to collapse a little more in on himself when he heard it.

  We were all back in the penthouse soon enough, and I was happy that there was a small natural-gas fireplace there to warm the space up. At least it hadn’t been electric, which would have done us no good at all during the power outage. Henry instantly collapsed onto one of the couches, and as Lara covered him with a blanket, Candida offered to get him something to drink.

  Jake said softly, “Don’t give him a choice. Make it whisky,” he said. “He’s going to need it.”

  She nodded, and as she served him, Elizabeth asked, “What happened? Why is everyone so upset?”

  “Cheyenne confessed to killing Jason before she jumped off the roof. She’s dead,” Bernard reported matter-of-factly.

  “What? No. That can’t be,” Elizabeth said, sounding as though she were in shock herself now.

  “It’s all true,” Henry said, and then he collapsed again into his wife’s arms. I felt like some kind of voyeur watching them, but we were all trapped in a confining space. Besides, I knew that we should all be together at a time like this. The mystery of who had murdered Jason Martin might have been solved, but until we got out of our modern-day electronic prison, we needed to be there for each other.

  Elizabeth looked off into the distance for a few moments, so I walked up to where she was sitting. “Are you okay? I’m sorry this nightmare just won’t end for you.”

  It took a moment for her to register that I was even talking, and I was about to give up when she looked up, her gaze meeting mine. “Suzanne. I’m sorry.”

  “You have nothing to apologize to me for,” I said. “You’ve had a great shock tonight. Two of them, actually.”

  “I know, but that doesn’t mean that I still can’t be sorry. You deserve better treatment than that. I suppose I wanted to blame you for questioning my innocence, but I didn’t have any right to. You were just trying to find Jason’s killer.”

  “It’s all water under the bridge,” I said. “Do you know what I think? I believe it might do us all good to get some food in us. I know the rest of you didn’t eat much dinner, and I didn’t finish my meal, either. Is there any chance there’s anything in the kitchen that the caterers left behind? We can’t cook anything elaborate, but maybe there are snacks or something we can put together.”

  Elizabeth nodded as she stood. Hazel got up as well, and Jennifer joined us as Elizabeth said, “The range is natural gas, just like the fireplace. There are eggs and bacon in the fridge, and if we don’t cook them, they’ll just end up going bad anyway.”

  “If you don’t mind, I’d love to cook,” I volunteered.

  “We’ll help you,” Hazel said.

  I called out to Jake, “We’re going to make bacon and eggs. Interested?”

  “It’s a good idea. Is there any chance we can get some coffee, too?” he asked. It was clear that though my husband was a seasoned pro, he was still upset about the young woman’s death as well. It was doubly tragic since she’d been pregnant when she’d died, and there had been too many losses in such a short period of time.

  I smiled at him gently, and he managed to muster a bit of one in return for me as well. A great deal was communicated between us just then without a single word, and I went into the kitchen with my friends to make us all something to eat. Hopefully, before long the power would be restored and we would be free, but in the meantime, we could eat, keep warm, wait for the light of day, and take the first chance we had to get out of there once and for all.

  CHAPTER 18

  “That bacon smells great,” Hazel said as she hovered over the frying pan.

  “Feel free to turn the pieces over while I work on the eggs,” I said. I had decided to do a massive scramble so everyone could take as much or as little as they wanted.

  “What, no donuts?” Jennifer asked with a smile.

  “No donuts,” I affirmed. “Frankly, I’m just not in the mood to make them or to eat them.”

  “I get that,” she said softly. “What can I do to help?”

  “Let’s set up a buffet,” I told her. “If you can get out plates, silverware, glasses, and napkins, folks can pick them up when they start through the line.”

  “I’ve got an idea. I’m going to get Elizabeth to help me,” Jennifer said quietly. “She needs something to occupy her mind right now.”

  “I think that’s a good idea,” I said. “How is she doing?”

  “She’s in shock right now. Honestly, I think Henry is in worse shape than she is.”

  “I know she lost her husband, but he had to stand there helplessly while Cheyenne killed herself. That couldn’t have been easy,” I admitted.

  “He keeps blaming himself,” Jennifer said. “I’m worried about him.”

  “We won’t be here forever,” I told her. “Once we’re free, he can get all of the help he needs.”

  After the impromptu breakfast was ready, I called out to the folks still in the living room, “Dinner is served. Grab a plate and help yourself.”

  Jake held back until he and I were the only two that hadn’t been served yet. There was still a massive amount of food, and I wondered if we’d need it for later. I knew how power outages were. Sometimes they lasted just minutes or hours, but there were times they could last for days, and until we had electricity, we were stuck right where we were. “It looks great,” he said as he helped himself to bacon and eggs. We had English muffins that I’d warmed in the oven, so I took one of those after Jake did and added a good amount of bacon and eggs to my plate as well. There was orange juice and coffee, so after I found a place for us to sit together away from the others, I came back for our drinks.

  “This is really great,” Jake said after taking a bite of scrambled eggs.

  “It’s nothing special,” I said.

  “I beg to differ. It’s here, it’s hot, and it’s tasty,” he answered with a grin. “Everybody else seems to be enjoying it, too.”

  I looked around and saw that he was right. As I started to scan the room, I realized that someone was missing.

  As I put my plate down and stood, Jake asked me, “What’s wrong?”

  “Where’s Henry?” I asked him softly. I’d seen him earlier, but he was now gone.

  “I don’t see him. Let’s ask Lara,” he suggested.

  We found her searching the suites herself, and she was clearly startled when we ran into her. “Have either one of you seen my husband?” she asked us with a worried tone of voice.

  “No,” I said. “When was the last time you were with him?”

  “I had to go to the restroom a few minutes ago, and when I got back, he was gone. I’m really worried about him. I’ve never seen him like this. He’s falling apart.”

  “Don’t discount what you’ve been through. After all, you saw her on the ledge, too,” I reminded her. “You might not have seen her jump, but you were the next to the last person to see her before she died.”

  Lara frowned for a moment, and then she admitted, “That’s not technically true. I was standing behind Henry when he opened the door. There was something in the way that was wedged against it, so it didn’t open all the way up. He told me Cheyenne was on the ledge threatening to jump, but I never actually saw her.”

  That started a great many alarm bells ringing in my mind. “Did you at least hear their conversation?” I asked.

  “No. Like I said, the door was jammed,” Lara said. “Where could he be?”

  “Did you check all of the bathrooms?” I asked her.

  “No, just ours,” she admitted.

  “I’d go knock on every door if it were me,” I said.

  “I’ll do that. Thanks.”

  “What are you up to?” Jake asked me the moment Lar
a was gone.

  “We need to go back up on the roof,” I said. “There’s something I want to see.”

  “Care to share it with me?” he asked as he followed my lead.

  “I’d rather be sure first,” I admitted.

  “Okay, that’s good enough for me.”

  We managed to slip out without anyone noticing us, and after we climbed the stairs, I put my hand on the doorknob and told Jake, “Wait here for one second.”

  “Suzanne, you need to tell me what’s going on.”

  “I just want to check something out,” I said. “Keep the door partially closed.”

  He didn’t look happy about it, but he did as I asked. I walked out onto the roof. It had gotten much more slippery than when we’d been up there earlier, and I had to really watch my step as I moved toward the edge where Cheyenne had fallen.

  “Jake, can you hear me?” I asked in a normal voice.

  Nothing.

  “Jake?” I asked, raising my level just a smidge.

  “What?” he asked as he came out the door. “Is something wrong?”

  “Did you just hear me call your name?” I asked him.

  “I thought I heard something the first time, but the second time I was sure. What’s going on?” Then the light dawned in his eyes. “Henry was lying, wasn’t he? Cheyenne didn’t say a word to him when she saw him come out onto the roof. If she had, Lara would have heard it from where she was standing. Why would Henry lie about something like that?”

  “I can think of one reason,” I said as I looked around. If I was right, there had to be something within sight that might confirm my suspicion. I missed it at first, but after a moment, I saw something iced to the roof near the very edge. There was a massive duct of some kind close to it, and I had to wonder if it had pulled the paper into it before the freezing rain had a chance to accumulate. It was easy to crack the ice with the heel of my shoe, and as I pried it up, I heard a voice way too close to me saying, “I’ve been up here looking for that. I’ll take it, if you don’t mind.”

  And before I knew what was happening or could even react to his presence, I felt Henry’s arm go around my throat as he started shoving me toward the edge of the roof, and sudden death.

  All it would take were a few more steps, and I’d be on the ground below with Cheyenne.

  She hadn’t jumped any more than I would have.

  I was sure of it.

  Henry was the killer.

  The only question I had was, why?

  CHAPTER 19

  “I’m curious about one thing. What gave me away?” he asked as he pressed his mouth toward my ear. He was so close I could smell bacon on his breath. Before I could answer though, he barked at Jake, “If you want her to die, by all means, go ahead and shoot me.”

  I looked over to see that my husband had trained his weapon on Henry’s forehead. “Let my wife go, and I won’t shoot you,” Jake said, his voice calmer than I would have expected given the circumstances.

  “I’m sorry, but that’s just not going to happen. If you don’t throw your weapon over the side, and I mean right now, I’m jumping, and I’m taking Suzanne with me.”

  Henry’s grip was so tight across my throat that I knew that he was right. If he wanted to commit suicide, he would have no problem taking me with him over the edge.

  “Don’t throw your gun away, Jake. Go ahead and shoot him!” I knew if my husband sacrificed his weapon, our position would be worse than it was at the moment, if that was even possible.

  “Suzanne, I’m sorry. I can’t risk it,” he said sadly. Before I could stop him, he chucked his handgun away from us all. It didn’t fall off the edge, but it might as well have, given how far it skidded on the icy roof’s surface.

  “Why did you kill Cheyenne?” I asked Henry, trying to figure some way, any way, out of this. He might take me down with him, but I wasn’t going to go without a fight. If I could keep him talking, I might just be able to come up with something, a plan that would somehow save me. Even if I couldn’t, Jake was a smart man, and I had no doubt that he was trying to formulate something himself.

  “I needed someone to take the fall for Jason’s murder, and she seemed like the best candidate to me,” Henry admitted. “That woman was a real hothead, and I knew folks wouldn’t have any trouble believing that she killed her lover in a fit of rage after being rejected.”

  “How did you manage to get her up here in the first place?” Jake asked, distracting him a little to buy us both some time. I let one foot slip out a little from under me, and I felt my traction slip on the ice. If I’d had something to push against, I might be able to use it to my advantage, but what? There wasn’t much around us besides the duct he’d hidden behind, but Henry was between it and me, so I couldn’t use it at all. The only thing close to me was one of the banks of floodlights we’d seen lit up when we’d arrived. I wasn’t sure they would be strong enough to withstand that kind of pressure, and it might just make the situation even worse.

  Henry seemed almost pleased with himself as he explained, “I wrote her a note that said I had something of Jason’s that I knew she’d want, something Elizabeth would never want her to have. Cheyenne actually loved that idiot, if you can believe it. It was almost too easy to lure her up here. She was holding the note in her hand, and as I grabbed for it before I pushed her, she pulled her hand back to keep me from getting it and started to slip. I had to take advantage of the opportunity, and one little nudge was all that it took. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the note before you all showed up. Lara came back with you all sooner than I’d expected.”

  “You put something in front of the door to stop us, didn’t you?” Jake asked.

  “I was trying to slow you down a little, but it didn’t work,” he admitted. “Now that I’ve got the note though, no one will be able to prove a thing. I’ll ask you the same question one more time, Suzanne. What gave me away?”

  I didn’t see any harm in telling him. “You never mentioned her pregnancy. Cheyenne would have at least said something about it if she were leaving a verbal suicide note with you. The thing is, she told us earlier that she would have a part of Jason that no one could ever take from her. When I reflected on what she might have meant, I started to doubt that she would kill herself, but even if she did, she would have surely mentioned the baby to you.”

  “I honestly had no idea she was pregnant. I’ll have to change my story when I retell it later. I’ll explain it away by saying that I was so distraught at the time of her suicide, I wasn’t thinking straight.”

  “Do you honestly think there’s a chance you’re getting out of this alive?” I asked him. “You had one of the strongest motives of anyone, though you let us all believe that your wife was the one upset about the failed investments. Even if that weren’t true and no one suspected you, you might be able to kill me, but you’d never manage to shove Jake over the edge, too,” I added, trying to keep him talking. Besides, what could it hurt pointing out the logic of the situation? He wasn’t going to get away with the double murder now.

  Unfortunately, my explanation only served to motivate him in a different direction. “You’re right,” he said, his shoulders slumping a little. “I’m finished. It was a good run, but I can see that it’s nearing the end.”

  “Let her go, Henry,” Jake ordered him. “Don’t take her with you!”

  “Why would I do that? Do you think my soul will burn any hotter if I have three victims on my head instead of two? If your wife hadn’t meddled and dragged you up here, I would have gotten away with it. It’s only fitting that she go down with me.”

  Things were going from bad to worse in a hurry. I had to think of something to say, anything to take his mind off killing himself and taking me with him. “Did you write the note Joan found?” I asked him.

  “Yes, but it was obviously meant for Jason. I wanted him to suffer a little wondering which of his guests wanted to see him dead before I killed him. Jason ruined our lives, and I w
as going to make sure he paid for it. Then that simpering idiot Joan grabbed the note instead, so the threat was wasted on him. Lara demanded that I stand up to Jason, so I went to his suite the second I realized that he was alone. When I confronted him about our losses, he started laughing at me. He called me a gutless weasel! I started to leave, and that’s when I saw the bookend. I was in a haze as I grabbed it and hit him! He stopped laughing, that was for sure.”

  “But then you panicked,” I said, trying my best to brace myself if his grip loosened for a split second. If it did, I was determined to take advantage of it.

  “Anybody would have done the same thing in my situation,” Henry said. “That’s enough talking. Let’s get this over with. Say good-bye to your husband, Suzanne. You’re about to take a little trip with me.”

  My time was running out! I decided that no matter what, I wasn’t going to just give up! I dropped to my knees in one sudden motion, and just as I did, I saw Jake launch himself at Henry.

  He wasn’t holding back, and I was scared to death that his momentum would carry him over the side, along with the killer!

  Reaching out with one hand to grab the base of the lights, I used the other to snag my husband’s shirt as he zipped past me, a moment before he made impact with Henry Jackson.

  Almost immediately I felt the material slip in my hand, and Jake continued his deadly path to the edge of the precipice along with the murderer.

  Then, almost as though a miracle was happening, I managed to make one last grab for him. I missed his shirt, his belt, and even his pants, but I somehow managed to snag a shoe to stop him.

  Henry wasn’t so lucky.

  As he went over the edge, I saw Jake lunge for the man’s hand.

  He had it for a second, but it slipped out of his grip.

  I expected Henry to join his last victim on the pavement below, but he somehow managed to hang on to the edge.

  “I’ve got you,” Jake said a few seconds later as he pulled the killer back up on the roof with us. Apparently the man’s survival instincts were stronger than he thought, because he did his best to hang on instead of just letting go when he had the chance. I wondered about the wisdom of saving the double killer, but I knew that it was the right thing to do. It wasn’t up to us to act as judge and executioner. Let the courts deal with him.