by Carly Winter
“Aye-aye, Captain,” Ruby said with a salute.
My phone rang again as I followed her back to the room. She moved through the door just as I whispered, “Hello?”
“Retreat! Retreat!” Ruby yelled, returning to the hallway. “Run for your life!”
My phone call forgotten, I shoved it into my pocket and sprinted down the hallway, then rounded the corner as I heard a door closed. I peeked around to find Nancy heading my way.
Panic gripped me as I looked for a place to hide. The elevator was to my left and Nancy was coming my way to my right. There was nowhere for me to go. I was trapped and Nancy would find me in seconds.
“The staircase! The staircase!” Ruby screamed. For once, her hysteria was actually useful.
I ran for the door and pushed it open into the cement staircase, then quietly closed it as I stared out the long, rectangular window. Seconds later, Nancy rounded the corner wearing a floral dress and a pair of strappy heels. Definitely dressed to impress… but impress who?
“What if she comes in here?” Ruby whispered. “What if she’s a health nut like you and always takes the stairs?”
In those heels? I doubted it, but Ruby had a valid point. With the assumption that Nancy was heading downstairs for coffee or breakfast, I ran up to the landing of the third floor and peered over the railing, ready to sprint to the top of the dang building if Nancy entered the stairwell.
Long moments passed and the door on the second floor remained closed. “Let’s go down to the lobby,” I said. “She must be headed there.”
“No. Let’s go check the elevator first and see what floor lights up. That wasn’t breakfast and coffee underwear. Trust me.”
I followed my ghost down to the second floor and out into the hallway. The elevator was traveling upward and stopped on the fourth floor. “We don’t know if that’s her for sure,” I said.
“We can make an educated guess, though, Bernie. She got on the elevator, and now it’s on the fourth floor. She’s visiting someone else.”
“What if she went down to the lobby and someone new is on the elevator?”
“Come on,” Ruby urged. “Humor a dead woman and let’s go up. Run your butt off on the stairs. Isn’t that what you always want to do anyway?”
I pushed open the door and sprinted up the stairs to the fourth floor. When I arrived completely winded, I made a promise to myself that I’d get back into shape. No more reruns of Magnum P.I. for me. Instead, I’d use the time to exercise.
“Give me a minute,” I gasped as I placed my hands on my knees and sucked in the stale stairway air in large gulps.
“Hurry up!” Ruby glanced out the window. “She’s probably walking down the hallway!”
I pulled open the door and stepped out to an exact replica of the second floor, except the carpet was rustic red instead of beige. In fact, it reminded me of the color of the Sedona dirt. As I rounded the corner, Nancy was indeed walking down the hall. She stopped in front of a room on the right and knocked, then ran a hand over her dress and fluffed her hair with her fingers.
A second later, a bright smile came over her face and she disappeared into the room. Leaning against the wall I took a deep breath and glanced at Ruby. “What do we do now?”
“She won’t be leaving for a while,” Ruby said. “Whoever is in that room is going to keep her busy.”
“How do you know?”
“That was sexy-time underwear, trust me.”
I didn’t want to think about Nancy or what exactly that meant. “What now?”
“I’m not setting foot in that room,” Ruby said, pointing to where Nancy had gone. “There are certain things even I don’t want to see. Let’s go back and check on Belinda, but we can take the elevator this time.”
As we waited for the doors to part, I listened for approaching footsteps. Unlike Ruby, I wasn’t certain about how Nancy was spending her time and I had to believe she’d recognize me if we ran into each other. We’d spent hours sitting across from each other in the sheriff’s hallway right after the murder.
When the doors finally opened, we stepped inside and rode down to the second floor.
“Something’s not right about Belinda,” Ruby said. “She was moaning and groaning, but I don’t think she’s awake.”
“Maybe she was dreaming.”
“That’s either one heck of a good dream or a nightmare,” Ruby replied. “I’ll feel better once I get another look around.”
I pressed my back against the wall as Ruby once again went into Belinda’s room. For a second, I considered calling Adam, but decided against it. I had no idea what Belinda was doing inside. She could be up and about and I didn’t want her to hear me, open her door and discover me standing right outside. I had faith she would also recognize me. Instead, I sent him a quick text.
Nancy’s up on the 4th floor visiting someone. Belinda’s still in bed. Ruby’s in Belinda’s room. We had a close call but we’re safe.
A moment later, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Adam had texted back.
What’s she doing on the 4th? Who’s she visiting?
Don’t know, I typed.
Ruby came through the door and stood directly in front of me. “Belinda’s still moaning in the bed. I took a good look around and found some pills in the bathroom. What’s flozitepman?”
“I have no idea.”
“Maybe it’s a cold medicine I’ve never heard of,” Ruby said.
“I’ll look it up. Do you remember how to spell it?”
“Heck no. I’m not even sure I said that right. Let me go back in and I’ll call out the letters to you.”
As Ruby yelled the letters, I typed them in with shaky fingers. Nothing was coming up. Either I was mistyping or she was misreading.
“Did you get it?” she asked, coming back to my side of the door again.
I shook my head and ground my jaw as I tried to hide my irritation. I wasn’t sure if the debacle was Ruby’s fault or mine, but the whole scenario had my frustration level matching my anxiety. On one hand, I wanted to scream. On the other, I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, or run from the building. Glancing over my shoulder, I studied the empty hallway, unable to shake the feeling that I was going to get caught. “Go back in there and spell it again. This time be louder, though.”
“Watch your tone, Bernie,” Ruby chided. “And for both our sakes, try to relax. You’re going to worry yourself to death right here on this horrid carpet.” I looked down at the light brown flooring. “See what I mean? It reminds me of the color of a filled diaper. You don’t want to die here.”
After ghosting through the door once again, Ruby called out the spelling, slower this time. I focused on the phone and whispered each letter as I typed it.
When I’d finished, it wasn’t flozitepman as Ruby had originally said, but flunitrazepam. And as I read the description, my blood turned cold and goosebumps crawled over my skin.
“What is it?” Ruby asked. “Is it horrible? The fact that you’re so pale makes me think it’s really bad.”
“It’s prescribed for severe insomnia. But it’s also a date-rape drug.”
“Date-rape drug!” Ruby exclaimed. “What the heck?”
We stared at each other for a moment. Why would Belinda and Nancy have a date-rape drug in their room?
“I’m so confused,” I whispered.
Ruby’s eyes widened as she glanced over my shoulder. “Let’s think about that later,” she said. “I think now is a good time to run.”
As I turned around, I found Art and Nancy striding toward me, both of their gazes fixed on me. There was no time to contemplate what the heck the two of them were doing together, and hiding wasn’t an option. My flight response, which had been humming along at just above neutral, shifted into high gear. A string of curses fell from my lips and I sprinted down the hall away from them, figuring at some point I’d find another staircase.
Heavy footsteps sounded behind me, as well as Ruby’s screams. “Faste
r, Bernie! Make like the wind!”
I peeked back to find Art gaining on me. Dang, the man was fast. I had a pretty good head start and he had covered the space in record time.
Rounding the corner, I searched for the stairwell and hoped I could reach it and maybe lock myself in. My chest heaved and burned as I forced myself to run faster.
A thump sounded behind me and I looked over my shoulder. Art had come around the corner and hit the wall, which slowed him down a little bit.
I sprinted as fast as I could and noted the elevators up on my right, which I hoped meant a staircase. If not, Art would have me trapped at the end of the hallway with nowhere for me to go but out the window that probably didn’t open.
When I saw the door, tears sprung to my eyes. I burst through it. Art had gained on me once again and I didn’t have time to see if I could lock him out. My only hope was reaching the lobby where people were bustling about. He wouldn’t do anything in the presence of a group of witnesses, right?
My footsteps pounded down the concrete stairs almost as loud as my heart. Glancing up, I spotted Art above me. Then he did something right out of an action flick. He threw himself over the railing and landed just a few inches behind me. I screamed when his fingers gripped my shoulders and pulled me down on the concrete landing.
Ruby shrieked and cursed while I struggled to free myself. “Get away from my granddaughter, you ugly son of a cow face!”
Within seconds, Art straddled me and had my arms pinned against the floor. “Why are you running?” he asked as I fought to catch my breath. “Why are you outside Nancy’s room?”
“Name, rank, and serial number only!” Ruby screamed, her ghostly hands slapping Art’s head from behind.
I wasn’t about to explain that my dead grandmother was spying on Belinda and Nancy. “Get off me!” I yelled.
Art cuffed a hand over my mouth so hard, my ears rang for a long moment. “Quiet. What’s your name again?”
“Don’t say a word!” Ruby yelled. She obviously didn’t realize I couldn’t even if I wanted to with Art’s hand blocking my mouth. I tried to bite him, but he had my jaw clamped so tight, I couldn’t move it.
“Fine,” he said. “We’ll go back to Nancy’s room and have a chat. I’m going to let you up. If you so much as breathe too heavily, I’ll drag your scrawny butt up to the top of the stairwell and toss you to the bottom. Do you understand me?”
I nodded and a nervous giggle escaped. Scrawny? For some reason, it made me laugh, which was dumb since he’d just threatened my life. But I’d been feeling so chunky lately, the description brought a little levity to the fact that I could very well die.
“Let’s go,” Art ordered. “And remember what I told you.”
Chapter Eighteen
“You’re lucky I’m not alive, or I’d have you singing soprano,” Ruby yelled as we walked back to Nancy’s room. “Kick him where it hurts, Bernie! Then run!”
Art gripped my arm so tightly, I bit back the pain. I had no doubt there’d be a bruise. Even if I could wrench away from him and land a swift foot to his nether region, I didn’t have the confidence that I could outrun him. He’d proven he could catch me, and being dropped four stories in a stairwell wasn’t exactly the way I wanted to go.
“You need some self-defense classes,” Ruby said. “Let’s put that on the to-do list.”
When we arrived at Nancy and Belinda’s hotel room, Art knocked quietly. The door flew open seconds later and Nancy glared at me.
“What’s her story?” she asked, stepping aside.
“I’m not sure yet, but we aren’t leaving any loose ends.”
He pushed me toward the table and motioned for me to sit. Two matching queen beds with brown and red comforters sat in the middle of the room, separated by a nightstand. Belinda lay in the bed closest to the window, completely unaware of everything going on around her. As Nancy and Art conferred by the door, I slipped out my phone and quickly hit redial, then shoved it into my back pocket. When I heard Adam’s tinny voice, I coughed to cover the sound. Art and Nancy glared at me, then she marched over and placed her palms flat on the table, staring down at me mob movie style.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Art chased me down and threatened to drop me down a four-story stairwell if I didn’t allow him to bring me to your room, Nancy,” I said, hoping Adam had stayed on the line. “You tell me what I’m doing here.”
Nancy glanced over her shoulder. “We should’ve let her go. We have everything we need.”
“I told you, we can’t leave any loose ends,” Art growled. “We’re so close to this being over.”
I studied the room. Based on the pile of towels in the corner and the garbage overflowing in the canister, housekeeping hadn’t paid a visit in a while. And why was Belinda asleep with all these people in the room?
There was only one answer I could think of: Nancy had been drugging her.
But why?
“How long have you known Art?” I asked Nancy. “It seems like you’ve been acquainted for a lot longer than you’ve been in Sedona.”
Nancy turned back to me and smiled. “That’s really none of your business, and honestly, the less you know the better.”
“I see you’re drugging your friend with the date-rape drug you have,” I ventured.
Her face paled and she narrowed her gaze. “How do you know?”
“Well, she’s out cold and I saw the flunitrazepam on the bathroom sink when I walked in.” Not true, but it sounded far more plausible than telling her my ghost had found it. “It was an educated guess.”
Where the heck was Adam? Had he hung up and not heard any of this conversation? Would I meet my end by being tossed over the stairwell railing?
“She knows too much,” Nancy said.
“I figured,” Art snapped. “Like I said, loose ends.”
Crud. I had to keep them talking and pray Adam would arrive soon, because I honestly knew very little. If Adam was still listening, the whole case could be unraveled and hopefully I wouldn’t die.
So… what did I know with certainty? Nancy knew Art. They had a familiarity about them and as Ruby had pointed out, the woman had gotten prettied up to meet him, as though they had some kind of romantic attachment.
Belinda had been drugged. I considered all the times someone had mentioned Belinda had been drunk and was pretty sure she’d been under the influence of the flunitrazepam, not a glass of wine or two.
But why?
“Everything’s in order,” Nancy said, grinning at Art. “Do what you have to do and let’s get out of here. Los Angeles is screaming for me to come home.”
“And Sedona is screaming at you to get the heck out of dodge, buttercup,” Ruby said standing nose to nose with the woman. “If I were alive, I’d bloody that condescending smile of yours.”
“What’s that smell?” Nancy muttered. Ruby brought her fists up and ghost-boxed her face.
“And if you touch my granddaughter, I won’t rest until every ghost left on this planet is terrorizing you,” Ruby continued. “I’ll find a poltergeist who wants to live under your bed and licks your toes while you try to sleep.”
As Nancy sat down in the chair across from me, Art chuckled and placed a kiss on her head. “Patience, honey. We don’t want to move too fast and draw attention to ourselves.”
“Just get me out of this horrid town.”
Both stared at me and Art shook his head. “How is this going to work? We can pull the drug overdose on Belinda, but I’m not sure about her.”
“Oh! I know!” Nancy exclaimed. “We’ll drug her, then put them in bed together! A lovers’ suicide! Or drug overdose. It doesn’t matter what the cops think as long as we’re in Bora Bora by the time they untangle this web we’ve weaved.”
“Why are you killing your best friend?” I asked.
“For her money, of course,” Nancy said. “Don’t be stupid, dear.”
“You killed Harold then?” I
asked, remembering the drawing of the cliffs Adam had made. Nancy had been at the lower left side while Harold had been at the upper left. She’d have to make it past Jack and Belinda to get to Harold without being seen.
“No. Have you ever heard the term, brains and brawn?”
I nodded and glanced over at Art. With his build, he definitely met the definition of brawn.
“In this case, I’m the brains,” Nancy said, a sweet smile crossing her face.
I wasn’t too sure about that. Art seemed to be calling the shots, but I wouldn’t argue her perceived role.
Art and Trevor had been on the upper right side of the cliff. Art’s athletic ability he’d so gallantly displayed while chasing me down would have allowed him to cross the rocky terrain with ease. He’d fought Harold with the brute strength that had left my body bruised.
“She knows enough,” Art said. “Quit talking, Nancy.”
“Don’t tell me what to do!” Nancy stood and glared at him, her hands on her hips. “I’m the one in charge here! I’m the one who has worked for years to make this plan come together!”
The plan? I fully appreciated she wanted Belinda’s money, but I didn’t understand how this whole strategy was organized. How did she plan on making a grab for Belinda’s bank accounts when the woman on the bed couldn’t keep her eyes open?
“Hey, Bernie!” Ruby said. I glanced over to find her standing beside the bed, right next to Belinda. Her worry over my safety had been overshadowed by whatever had caught her attention. “Over here on the nightstand is a bunch of papers Belinda signed. It looks like she’s made Nasty Nancy a co-signer on all her bank accounts.”
And there it was. She’d drugged Belinda and hoped to have her deemed unfit, but when O’Malley hadn’t jumped on board with that idea, she’d forced Belinda to sign, then kept her so out of it, she couldn’t stay awake long enough to fight it, legally or otherwise.