by Laina Turner
“Then what?” I asked.
“We both had the garden salad, no dressing, and came back to the hotel. We both ran up to our rooms with the plan to meet in fifteen minutes and take a walk in the gardens to work off our dinner.”
Working off a garden salad? Really? Candy was making me feel very guilty for not walking off the big dinner I had last night, much less the bagel and cream cheese this morning and the Take Five bar that had just been screaming my name earlier. She probably never let carbs touch her lips, much less chocolate and alcohol.
We reached the atrium and Candy started to choke up, saying, “When I came down to meet with her, she was just lying here, and you know the rest.”
“So she had to ingest the poison sometime between going up to her room and coming back down.”
Candy nodded at Cooper. “She was fine when I left her. We both had the exact same thing to eat at the Salad Connection and I’m fine. So it couldn’t have been that.”
“Thanks, Candy. You can go back now,” Cooper said.
Candy nodded tearfully and headed down the hall.
“Nothing we do seems to give us any more information,” I said, frustrated. “Is it always like this?”
“It’s very slow and steady. You have to have patience in this business. We know that the poison is fast-acting, and since Hollie was fine when she went up to her room to change and when she made it down here she was in her workout clothes that she either ran into someone who gave her the poison after changing or it was in her room.”
“If it was in her room, the killer couldn’t be sure she would drink it,” I said.
“Exactly.”
“So all we have to do is find out who met her in that fifteen minutes and got her to drink something without Candy seeing them. So she must have known her killer.”
Cooper started to say something and then his phone rang. “Sands here,” he answered. “You do. Great. Okay, we’ll be right there.” He snapped his phone shut. “That was hotel security. They pulled the tapes from that floor for us to look at. Maybe we can see who Hollie ran into.”
A few minutes later we were sitting in the security office, waiting for them to cue up the tape from Hollie’s floor the night she was murdered. The police had had them up till now and had just returned copies to the hotel. Cooper had been anxious to see them.
“We have it cued up to when she got off the elevator,” the security guy, Jim his nametag said, told us. “Here you go. I’m going to go grab a cup of coffee. I’ll be back in a few if you need me.”
“Thanks, man. Go head and push PLAY, Pres. Let’s see what’s on there,” Cooper said.
I was excited, hoping this would be the break we were looking for. It was surreal to be watching Hollie as she got off the elevator and walked toward her room, knowing she was now dead. It almost felt a little creepy. We watched as she slid her key card through the reader on the door and opened it to walk through. A few minutes later she reappeared in her workout clothes and headed toward the elevator.
“Damn it. I was hoping…” Cooper trailed off as we both sat fixated on the screen. As the elevator door shut with Hollie on it to go back downstairs, her hotel room door opened. Someone, it looked like a woman dressed in a maid’s uniform, slipped out and headed in the opposite direction of the elevator to the stairwell.
“Figures we can’t see her face. If it is even a her,” I muttered. “Why can’t we catch a break?”
“She knew there were cameras and was bowing her head to avoid them,” Cooper said. “She planned this.”
“How do you even know it’s a she? It could be that creepy maintenance man wannabe dressed up in a maid’s uniform. Or maybe just one of the maids.”
“No. If it was regular maid service, the person wouldn’t be trying to dodge the cameras and I know it’s a female. Look at her ankles,” Cooper said pressing the rewind button for a few clicks and then pressing PLAY again.
“What am I looking at?” I asked, confused.
“Her ankles. Those are definitely female ankles, not male ankles.”
He was right. “I wouldn’t have thought to look at the ankles.”
“Stick with me, kid. I’ll teach you everything I know.”
“Sure,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Now what, master?”
“For starters, you can answer your phone. Your purse is vibrating against my leg.”
I looked to the floor and he was right, my Prada purse was buzzing. I felt around in the side pocket for my phone. Another number I didn’t recognize, but it was an 817 area code, so I knew it was local.
“Hello?”
“Is this Presley?”
“Yes.”
“Hi, it’s Jeff. From the Greenhouse?”
“Hi, Jeff,” I said, hoping he was calling because he had some helpful information for me. It would be nice to feel like we were making some sort of progress.
“I asked my grandfather if anyone had ordered tassel flowers recently and he said someone came in about a month ago wanting to buy some, and he said we didn’t sell them. He said it wasn’t a flower he worked with much and the order was small enough that it wasn’t really worth his time from a business standpoint so he turned the business away.”
“Did he remember what the person who came in asking looked like?” I asked, excited.
“He said it was a woman, young, early-to-mid-thirties, with red hair.”
“Did he happen to get her name?” I asked hopefully.
“I’m sorry but no. He said she didn’t offer it, and since he wasn’t going to grow them for her he didn’t ask.”
“That’s okay. I appreciate you asking him and letting me know.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, and then paused as if he had something else to say. I just sat on the other end of the phone waiting. An old HR trick I had perfected. It’s the natural tendency of a person to want to fill the silence by talking. When I interviewed people or conducted an investigation I always made sure to stay silent for a minute after the person stopped speaking to see if they would continue in an effort to not feel the uncomfortable silence. It would often push them to telling me things they had not intended on telling me. As usual, it worked.
“Listen, Presley. I was wondering if you might want to have a drink with me sometime?”
I was startled. I hadn’t been expecting that. Now I regretted using that little trick because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “Jeff, I’m flattered, and would love to take you up on it, but I’m involved with someone.”
“Figures. The good ones are always taken,” he joked.
“Thanks again for calling and letting me know what your grandfather said. I really do appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. Call me if you need anything else.”
“Thanks, Jeff,” I said and hung up. I looked back to Cooper. “That was Jeff. From Thompson’s greenhouse. He said he talked to his grandfather and someone did inquire about tassel flowers. Same description as Izzy and Maddie gave me. Youngish, redhead, but not much more than that.”
“Did she give them a reason for wanting the tassel flowers?”
“I didn’t think to ask. Want me to call him back?”
“If you don’t think it will give him the wrong impression. Don’t think I couldn’t tell he was asking you out.”
I stuck my tongue out at him and dialed the phone. “Jeff. It’s Presley again. Sorry to bother you, but did the woman tell your grandfather why she wanted to flowers? Sure. I’ll wait.” I covered the phone with my hand. “He’s going to go ask.”
Cooper nodded.
“Really. Is that normal? Okay. Thanks again.” I dropped the phone back in my purse. “Jeff asked and said his grandfather didn’t ask and she didn’t offer why. She was annoyed he didn’t want to grow the flowers and left immediately after he said no.”
“We need to find out who she is,” he said. “Let’s finish watching the tape. However, we need to switch to the next computer where Jim has cued up the secu
rity camera that sweeps the lobby.”
“That’s confusing.”
“That’s why I asked him to set it up for us.”
I pressed PLAY, and we watched as Hollie got off the elevator and walked over to the bench where she was to meet Candy.
“Okay. She has a bottle of water in her hand. It’s from her room, do you think the person who snuck in her room tampered with it?”
“That would be my guess. There she is sitting down on the bench to the right of the fireplace.”
We watched the screen intently a couple more minutes. “Cooper! Did you see that?”
“I did, I did.” Behind where Hollie was sitting, a panel slid open and we saw someone’s hand slide out and switch water bottles. Just a split second later Hollie grabbed her bottle and took a drink. A short few minutes after that, she slumped to the floor as if she had just fallen asleep, which we knew wasn’t the case.
“Did we really just witness that?” I said.
“Yes, we did. We need to find out who has access to those panels.”
“What panels?” Jim the security guy asked, coming back into the room in time to overhear Cooper.
“The panels that flank the right side of the fireplace. Presley, rewind the tape and show him.”
Jim watched, and after he saw the hand come out, said, “I’ve never known anyone to hide in there, but I guess there’s always a first time. When this house was built, the fireplace went almost the entire length of the main floor. About twenty years ago updates were made and it was converted from a wood to a gas fireplace and a large portion was boxed in. Those are access panels where we store things like holiday decorations. Stuff we don’t use very often.”
“How would someone get in there?” Cooper asked.
“Either from that panel, or on the second floor there is an access door in the HVAC room. That would be the more difficult choice, but the better one if the person didn’t want to be seen.”
We had Jim back up the tape of the lobby two hours, and then we played it at double speed to see if we could see anyone crawling in there to wait and we didn’t.
“So whoever this person is either crawled in there more than twenty-four hours prior, or they more than likely used the second floor entrance,” I said.
“That would be my guess,” Cooper said.
“But it had to be someone who knew about the access panel, and how many people do you think would know that?”
“Not many,” Jim piped in. “The maintenance crew and security, although I don’t even think all of us here in security know about it. The newer guys wouldn’t. It rarely comes up.”
“So how would someone outside the hotel know about the panels?” I asked.
“Except for the people who were part of the construction crew who closed the fireplace off, I’m not sure,” said Jim. “It’s not like it’s this huge secret, but it’s not widely known either.”
“How are we going to figure out who that was then?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Cooper said. “But that’s our key to this right there,” he said tapping the screen.
Chapter 13
The morning found me once again headed out to see Izzy and Maddie, which wasn’t a bad thing. I was looking forward to it. Those ladies were a hoot. Cooper had asked me to go back to visit them and show them pictures of the contestants to see if there was anyone they recognized, and ask them if the red-haired girl had mentioned why she wanted tassel flowers. I was still curious about who Trish was, so this was a perfect opportunity to take Izzy up on her offer of a cup of coffee and a story.
I made it there only having to consult Bertha once and felt proud of myself. I had called the ladies last night to make sure they would be available, and when I pulled up, both of them popped out of the door. They must have been waiting for me, which made me feel good and less like I was bothering them.
“You made it,” Izzy said, walking over to me and giving me a hug like we were old friends, which she made me feel we were. Maddie was right behind her, and it soon became a three-way hug.
“Of course she made it, Izzy, this girl’s no dummy,” said Maddie.
“Thanks, but I admit I am sometimes directionally challenged,” I said, smiling.
“Well, come on in,” Izzy said, holding the door open for me so I could enter the greenhouse. “Follow me and I’ll take you back to our office. It’s small, but we can all sit down and have that coffee.”
“You owe me a story, remember?” I teased.
“What story are you going to bore her with this time, Izzy?” asked Maddie.
“When Presley first showed up here yesterday, I asked her if she was Trish. Now she wants to know who Trish is.”
“Ahh, that’s right. Do you take anything in your coffee, Presley?” Maddie asked as we walked into the office and she made her way to the coffee pot where three mugs were sitting there waiting to be filled.
“Black is fine unless you make super strong coffee, then I might need a little cream.”
“It isn’t always consistent. Izzy isn’t one for using measuring cups.”
“Eyeballing it is just fine, Maddie,” Izzy said, handing me a cup. “Take a sip of that and let me know if you need cream.
I did as she requested. “It’s fine, thanks,” I said, sitting down in the chair Izzy motioned to.
“What do you want first, Presley? What you came for or to hear about Trish?” Izzy asked.
“Well, Trish of course. I enjoy stories with my morning coffee.”
“It’s not all that interesting but okay. Trish is this woman who has been trying to buy our business and the property it’s on and she’s a persistent thing. Calls daily. Doesn’t seem to want to take no for answer. This has been going on for months. We’ve been waiting for her to show up the last few weeks, as she’s been calling more and more and is getting irate when we keep telling her we won’t sell.”
“Has she said she was going to come here?”
“A few times she’s threatened to, but so far she hasn’t shown up. It’s the weirdest thing,” said Izzy. “We’ve never had anyone interested like this in anything we have. Much less our land.”
“We love our place and it’s been in the family for years, but it’s not like it’s a super valuable piece of land. Real estate prices still haven’t bounced back from when they tanked a couple years ago,” Maddie added. “And it’s not like we’re the Clampetts sitting on an oil well.”
“Are you worried at all that she might be a problem?”
“More than just annoying? Nah,” replied Maddie. “I think she’s just a blowhard.”
“I disagree with Maddie. I think there must be some other reason she seems so adamant about buying this land,” said Izzy. “Or why be so bothersome?”
“Isn’t that a big surprise,” Maddie said sarcastically.
“I just think if she is trying this hard to buy land that isn’t worth much, there has to be an ulterior motive. It’s not like she drove by here and just decided she had to have it. There is plenty of land just like this around here that is available just like ours.”
“You have to admit, Maddie, that does make a little bit of sense,” I said. “I mean, why this place specifically?”
“Could be. I just think she’s a crazy lady but harmless. So what brings you back to see us?” Maddie said, changing the subject.
“I am hoping you might be able to help me. I brought some pictures for you look at to see if there is anyone you recognize. More specifically, recognize the person who wanted the tassel flowers.” I leaned over to my bag and pulled out a folder of pictures that Linda had Elaine print off for me and set it down on the table. I opened the folder and picked up the photos so I could show Izzy and Maddie one by one. I set the first one down, who happened to be Janine.
“She’s beautiful!” exclaimed Izzy.
“I know. They all are. And surprisingly enough, most of them seem pretty nice,” I joked. “But I tell you, it can make a girl insecure being a
round all these beauties,” I said, showing them some more pictures.
“You have nothing to worry about, Presley. You are more beautiful than they are,” said Maddie.
“Not quite, but thanks for saying that. I will always take flattery. Anyone you recognize?” I said, putting a couple more photos down.
“I’m sorry, but none of these pictures looks familiar. Just beautiful,” said Izzy, and Maddie nodded in agreement.
I ended the picture display with Linda and Harvey and neither of the ladies recognized them either. I realized I had left Elaine’s picture at the hotel. I remembered pulling it out, but I must not have put it back in the stack.
“Sorry we couldn’t help more,” Maddie said apologetically.
“It was a long shot, but at least I got to see you two again. Oh, another thing I meant to ask before, did the woman who wanted you to grow the tassel flowers say why?”
“Not that I recall. At least not to me,” said Izzy.
“Me either,” Maddie said, shaking her head.
“Such an odd request,” said Izzy. “They’re not very attractive.”
“Thanks for the coffee, but I should probably get back.”
“We understand. After all, you have a crime to solve,” Izzy said.
I stood up and noticed a small display case on the wall. It held a money clip and a man’s pinky ring. Izzy noticed me looking at it.
“That was our grandfather’s. He started the greenhouse by pawning these things. Then bought them back when he turned a profit. It was part of a larger set, but somehow over the years a few pieces went missing. I found these in an old box several years ago and thought they deserved a place of prominence. To remind us of how important his dream of the greenhouse was.”
“I agree, Izzy. The pieces are beautiful and have sentimental value. You ladies don’t have to walk me out. I know you have work to do.”
“Call us before you leave town,” said Izzy. “Let’s do this again!”
“Yes, let’s,” agreed Maddie. “We don’t have a lot of visitors out here.”