“I’m going to try. One of the execs is bringing her daughter and doesn’t want to be so far away when she’s swimming.”
“We have a lifeguard.”
“You’d feel the same if it was your kid.”
Aunt Polly pressed her lips together and didn’t say anything else.
An hour later Tessa finished shuffling reservations. She had a headache and crossed eyes, but she’d found a way to give TIP one of the Victorians closer to the recreation center.
She released control of the system and stretched.
“Done?” Polly asked.
“Done. I just have to move the courtesy fruit basket I put in the TIP president’s suite over to the Tofton House.”
Aunt Polly sniffed. “I’m not sure he deserves a fruit basket.”
“Rob McKinley is a good client,” Tessa said, keeping her tone mild. “And I’m sure he’ll appreciate the effort.”
“What does your grandfather think about TIP using Poppy Gold as their conference center?”
“He just laughed when I told him. Granddad doesn’t worry about rivals.”
Tessa drove to the El Dorado in one of Poppy Gold’s electric golf carts, hoping to get everything moved before their new guests arrived. It wasn’t a huge job. Rob had ordered bottles of a special California wine to be placed in each of the rooms, and she needed to retrieve the basket she’d put in his suite earlier.
Upstairs she collected the wine and left it on the front landing before climbing to the private third-floor suite Rob had used on each of his visits to Poppy Gold. She adjusted one of the chairs and made a face; the Joaquin Murrieta suite was lovely and she doubted he’d be as pleased with the new one.
Tessa was headed downstairs when the step abruptly collapsed beneath her right foot, pitching her forward against the railing. An ominous crack sounded, and an involuntary shriek escaped her as the balustrade lurched outward with the force of her fall.
For a moment she dangled in the air over the open landing, clinging to a length of the polished wood. The next thing she knew, she was sprawled on the floor below.
As soon as she could breathe again, she let loose a string of curses that would have made a longshoreman proud. She wasn’t seriously hurt, but she was going to be sore for a while.
This just wasn’t her day.
* * *
GABE WAS ELATED that his plan seemed to be working. Poppy Gold’s employee grapevine was excellent, and he’d heard that Tessa was arranging for the TIP executives to be moved to another location. He’d been certain she would jump through hoops to accommodate Rob’s request, and his confidence appeared to be justified.
The radio fastened to his belt let out a burst of static, followed by a report that Tessa needed Maintenance for repairs at the El Dorado Mansion. It was Polly Murphy, and she sounded unusually stressed. He called the dispatcher, saying he’d go. It was almost amusing to see Tessa’s expression each time he showed up.
“Tessa?” he called as he opened the front door.
“Up here.”
He found her on the floor in the upstairs hallway, toward the back of the house, clutching an elbow and glaring at the smashed fruit scattered around her.
“My God, what happened?”
She pointed, and he saw part of the stair railing hanging precariously over the scene. The rest was nearby, along with a number of the support posts.
“The step tipped, the railing broke and I went flying.”
“Hell.”
“My sentiments exactly.”
She started to get up, but he put a hand on her shoulder, only to see her wince.
“Stay down for a minute.” Gabe had advanced first-aid training and checked her quickly. Her elbow would be badly bruised, but she hadn’t hit her head, and her other injuries were remarkably minor considering the height of the fall. “It looks like nothing is broken.”
“Mostly my dignity is wounded, though my fanny isn’t too happy at the moment, either.”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “Yeah. Where did all the fruit come from?”
Tessa made a face and shifted, pulling a squashed orange from under her. “This was a courtesy basket for the president of Thomas International Products. I was taking it over to the Tofton House.”
“I heard they asked to be moved,” Gabe said casually. He wondered what, if anything, Tessa would say about the request. “It must have been hard to juggle the reservations with such short notice.”
“I managed. Though now I’ll need to find new rooms for the people I moved into this building. We can’t have anyone stay here with it looking like this.”
“I’m sure someone else can take care of shifting reservations.”
A stubborn expression crossed her face, but she didn’t say anything. He was helping her into a chair when a horrified exclamation came from behind them.
“Tessa.”
“I’m fine, Pop.”
Liam’s skin was ashen and Gabe gave him a reassuring look. “No need to worry. Tessa was just explaining she had a sore f—”
“Gabe,” she interrupted with a glare. Obviously she didn’t want him talking about her bruised tailbone with her father.
“Honestly, it’s all right,” Gabe assured. “All those peaches and grapes broke her fall.”
“I see.” The color began returning to Liam’s face. “That’s lucky.”
“Yeah. Why don’t you take Tessa to your office and call the building inspector, while I handle the mess and evaluate repairs?”
Tessa frowned. “Do you think this was connected to the earthquake? We’ve had guests in the Murrieta suite on Friday and Saturday, and I was up there earlier this morning.”
“You never know.”
She stood gingerly, and her father put an arm around her waist. Gabe’s attention was torn between his desire to check the stairs and keeping an eye on their cautious progress down the hallway. After all, the inspector would likely be looking for earthquake damage, while Gabe would be checking for any signs of sabotage. It might just be his suspicious nature, but it seemed odd that the private staircase would collapse the day Rob was supposed to arrive. Still, Tessa was moving very uncomfortably. A split second later, he strode after her and Liam.
Over her protests, he carried her downstairs and put her on the passenger seat of the electric golf cart he’d left near the house.
“Take it easy,” he urged, patting Liam’s arm. The man looked more rattled than his daughter. “Everything is fine unless you run over a jaywalking gopher.”
“That isn’t funny,” Tessa snapped, only to scrunch her nose. “Sorry. Maybe I broke something after all...like my funny bone.”
Gabe grinned as he went back inside. Tessa Connor had grit; few people could have taken a plunge like that without throwing a well-deserved scene. He took the steps up from the ground floor three at a time, any lingering humor fading. Rob had described the El Dorado and the staircase where Tessa had fallen led to the private suite normally assigned to his brother.
It bothered him.
A lot.
He checked the damage, recalling that Tessa had mentioned all the buildings had been reinforced a few years back. The Poppy Gold Victorians were old, but they were well maintained and regularly inspected.
What about the earthquake?
Tessa’s thoughts had gone there instantly, but Gabe had his doubts. The quake had been minor, unlikely to break wood or yank out nails. But if it was sabotage, was it necessarily intended for Rob? Industrial sabotage and assault were pretty far apart.
Regardless, he immediately called his brother to explain what had happened.
“Is Tessa okay?” Rob asked.
“Only banged up, though she’ll be sore for a few days. Just be careful. I can’t tell fo
r certain this was done deliberately, but if it was deliberate, you could have been the target. The only reason Tessa was up there again this morning was to move a fruit basket to your new room. Otherwise, you would have been the next one on that staircase. I understand it’s a private staircase to the suite that Housekeeping doesn’t even use.”
“It sounds as if Tessa was lucky.”
Something in his brother’s tone made Gabe frown. “Is there something you aren’t telling me?”
“Er...well, I’ve gotten a few letters the past week.”
A stillness went through Gabe, reminiscent of whenever he’d been in a critical moment of a mission. It was as if time slowed down, letting him think around different sides of a problem to determine the best move. “What kind of letters?”
“Anonymous letters with implied threats. I knew you’d overreact, and it isn’t as if I haven’t gotten them before. It’s nothing like Dad’s old hate file, which basically filled a whole room.”
“What about the postmarks?”
Rob hesitated before answering. “They’re from different towns in the San Joaquin Valley.”
“Within an easy drive of Glimmer Creek?”
“I suppose.”
Gabe cursed. “Go back to that FBI agent and show him everything. And call the police. At least the letters are concrete evidence.”
“I’m already at the airport. I’ll take care of it when I get back to Los Angeles. But there’s nothing to connect the letters to industrial espionage. Personal threats and illegal profiteering are a long way apart.”
“Agreed, but it’s a pretty big coincidence to get them from a location near Glimmer Creek.”
“Coincidences happen a lot more often than you think, big brother. And I don’t want to be paranoid. All we have is suspicion.”
Gabe eyed the break in the stair railing. “Nevertheless, keep your guard up. It’s best to be prepared, and we don’t want an innocent bystander to get caught into this, either.” He heard someone walking down the hallway. “I’ll have to talk to you later. Be careful.”
Gabe dropped the phone in his pocket as a young man appeared. “Hello.”
“I’m Stephen Seibert, the Glimmer Creek building inspector.” He seemed flustered, an expression that turned to horror when he saw the piece of railing that hung over the landing.
“I thought the buildings were safe,” he exclaimed. “The earthquake was minor, and I did an inspection.”
“It could have just gotten worse in the few days since the quake. House settling, that sort of thing.”
“Yes, of course.” Stephen’s eyes focused. He began examining the staircase from the bottom up, breaking his concentration only to bark, “Don’t touch that,” when he thought Gabe might shift the debris.
The reminder didn’t annoy Gabe, even though he hadn’t intended to touch anything except the scattered bits of fruit. The inspector was young, but he appeared to know what he was doing. He could be hoping to cover something up, such as a failure in his own procedures, except there was nothing in his face or gestures to suggest subterfuge. In all, he was fairly easy to read.
Unlike Tessa.
Gabe had received training on analyzing facial cues and body language. Certain expressions were involuntary, even when someone was trying to hide emotions. Still, Tessa’s complicated reactions could be nothing more than her attempt to conceal her dislike for him, Gabe thought wryly.
“What do you think?” he asked Stephen after gathering the fruit in the damaged basket, along with the note to his brother on Poppy Gold’s letterhead. It was a nasty reminder that it could have been Rob he’d found lying on the floor.
“It’s difficult to say. There are breaks in the wood at stress points, which might occur in a quake. I’d have to get seismology reports along with plat maps and the building plan to evaluate...” Stephen’s voice trailed and Gabe got the feeling there was something bothering him.
“Is that necessary for an accident?” Gabe asked casually.
Stephen seemed to shake himself. “I just want to be thorough.”
* * *
TESSA WAS STILL reassuring her father that she didn’t need to see a doctor when Great-Uncle Milt arrived.
“Hey, Uncle Milt,” she said without surprise. Milton Fullerton had been the Glimmer Creek police chief since before she was born. Her mother had always claimed he possessed a sense of responsibility the size of Texas, so it wasn’t unusual that he’d come to check on her.
“Hey, kiddo. I just found out your fall. How are you doing? That was a nasty drop.”
Tessa shot her great-uncle a warning glance as her father tensed. “I’m fine,” she returned firmly. “And the drop wasn’t that far. I fell against the railing. It swung out, and I dangled for a minute before it broke, too. Luckily my toes weren’t that far above the floor at that point.”
“I see. I went over and took a look. No sign of rot in the wood. Any ideas about what happened?”
“None. I went up to the Murrieta suite early this morning and would have sworn the steps were solid.” She frowned. “Though come to think of it, there might have been a creak that I haven’t heard before. I was distracted and should have checked it out.”
“You can’t blame yourself. It’s just strange that both the stair and railing gave way at the same time. But I suppose the structure could have been weakened with the earthquake and it took a couple of days to show up.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling her,” Liam asserted. “As soon as I get Tessa home and into bed, I’m checking all the buildings myself again.”
“I’m not going to bed—I have work to do,” Tessa asserted. “First at Old City Hall and then at my office.”
“It can wait.”
“No, it can’t. Besides, I’d feel like an idiot going to bed after something so minor.” Actually, she’d give anything to crawl into bed or a warm bath, but it was important for her father to believe she was back to normal.
“Tessa—”
“Pop,” she mimicked back. “It’s okay, though I’ll accept a ride to Old City Hall.”
“All right,” he agreed reluctantly. “But I’ll leave the cart for you to use. Better yet, call when you want to go back your office or somewhere else. I’ll come or send someone else.”
“Uh...fine.” She’d almost told him to be sure not to send Gabe McKinley. Her reservations about Gabe kept growing. He was attractive, resourceful, hardworking...and more cynical than anyone she’d ever met. Reading him was like trying to read a boulder.
“Are you really okay, kiddo?” Great-Uncle Milt asked softly, his blue eyes full of concern. He was a tall man, with a thick head of white hair and a youthful face that belied his age.
“Everybody needs to stop fussing. I just have a couple of bruises.”
“You got off darned easy.”
Tessa looked at her father, who was talking on the phone. “I realize that,” she replied quietly.
Great-Uncle Milt hugged her gently, and she sighed. He was the kind of man everyone depended upon, and she’d cried on his shoulder often in the week after her mother’s death. But ever since then, she’d tried to keep her grief hidden to avoid upsetting her father.
Pop had enough to handle without dealing with her heartbreak, too.
* * *
TWO HOURS LATER Gabe wasn’t surprised to hear Tessa had returned to work in her office, or that she’d personally juggled the reservations once again to move all guests from the El Dorado Mansion.
He’d gotten to work early, so he was able to sign out and head for the train depot. The sun was shining, the grass was green and the flowers were in full bloom. The place was like a Norman Rockwell painting, complete with a white bandstand. But he wasn’t sure anything had ever been that innocent. In all honesty, he didn’t know wha
t to make of Glimmer Creek, though he figured the usual unpleasantness was going on behind their doors.
He’d grown up in the city; small towns were almost as foreign as the remote locations the navy had sent him to over the years. They hadn’t been the sort of places to engender faith in humanity, mostly hot spots where people were doing terrible things to each other.
Gabe pushed the thought from his head. He couldn’t erase the things he’d seen, but he’d done a small amount of good during his career, no matter how foul the memories might be.
He ran up the steps and knocked on Tessa’s office door. “Come in,” she called.
A curious blend of emotions crossed her pale face when she saw him. “Hi, Gabe. Thanks for the help earlier.”
“No problem.”
He carefully closed the door behind him, and her eyebrows shot upward. “Something up?”
“My shift is over, and I wanted to ask a few questions about what happened. But I don’t want to risk your father coming in. He didn’t look good when he saw you’d fallen.”
“Pop worries about me.”
“Yeah. I wanted to ask if you went upstairs on the inside or the outside of the steps.”
She blinked in apparent surprise. “On the inside.”
“Makes sense,” he said absently. “People generally follow rules of the road, even when they aren’t driving. Even when they’re alone. Always stay to the right—road, sidewalk, staircase.”
“I’m also right-handed. I broke my ankle a few years ago and prefer holding the rail.” Tessa lifted her right hand, only to wince. Her elbow had swollen and was turning blue. “Guess I’ll be going up and down on the left for a while. But you already knew I hold the railing with my right hand, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. I noticed when we inspected after the earthquake.”
“That’s an odd thing to notice.”
“The navy taught me to be an observer.”
Tessa smiled enigmatically. “Is that so? What sort of work did you do?”
“I was in Special Forces, though it isn’t something I enjoy talking about,” he said. “But the reality is that anyone stationed in the Middle East needs to be vigilant about their surroundings. By the way, I hope nobody was staying in the El Dorado last night. I didn’t see anyone around after you fell.”
Undercover in Glimmer Creek Page 7