Mary Ellen Hughes - Maggie Olenski 01 - Resort to Murder

by Mary Ellen Hughes

  She put down her pencil and gazed out the windows at the pretty, flower-lined walkway. The sun had sunk more than halfway behind the mountain peaks, throwing the area into shadows. Small lights began to blink on, and a young couple strolled by, holding hands.

  Maggie smiled at the peaceful beauty of it, and, watching the couple, found herself trying to remember when her last date was. Did she come across as too smart for most men? Did she not let them do enough of the talking? Maggie shook her head firmly. She wasn’t going to let herself go down that path.

  “You don’t approve of the landscaping?”

  Maggie started and looked up. Rob Clayton stood beside her table wearing casual shirt and slacks, and a wry smile. “I told them,” he said, “don’t put the peonies next to the lariope, but would they listen?”

  Maggie smiled. “I think it all looks perfectly lovely. My thoughts had been wandering to something else.” She felt a twinge of embarrassment at that, and, annoyed with herself, immediately squelched it.

  “You looked like you could use someone to share your thoughts with. There’s nothing worse than eating alone in a room full of other people talking to each other, don’t you think?”

  “Absolutely. And I think it’d be great if you would join me. That is, if you haven’t eaten yet?”

  “As a matter of fact I have, except for dessert. So if you don’t mind seeing me pig out on pecan pie then I will join you. I hate eating alone too.” Rob pulled out the chair opposite her, and caught the waitress’s eye. She brought over his dessert and coffee, and very soon, Maggie’s order of baked salmon.

  Maggie pushed aside her “magic square” doodle, but purposely left it out in plain sight, thinking to herself with an inner smile that her mother would not approve. She couldn’t help wondering why Rob was alone. Surely an attractive man like him…. She stopped that thought. This was another chance for her to find out more about his connection with Lori and she needed to concentrate on that.

  “Hope I didn’t overwork you at the lesson today,” Rob said, as Maggie slid her fork into her entree.

  She shook her head. “I’m just so out of condition. The work-out was good for me. And I could definitely see my backhand improving. Now if I can remember what I learned I just might be able to play a decent game of tennis.”

  “You’ve got a decent game already. Now you can bring it up to a challenging one. And you’ll have more fun with it.”

  Maggie’s thoughts jumped to her encounter with Eric Semple after the lesson and the things he had said about Rob. Should she bring it up? She felt reluctant to spoil the pleasant mood. Maybe later.

  “This isn’t your first job as tennis director, is it?” she asked.

  “No, I’ve been at a few resorts like this. The last one was up in Pennsylvania. But when this became available I took it. It was a step up, and I like this area. Grew up not too far from here, as a matter of fact.

  “Really? So you have family nearby?”

  “Well, my mother. She owns a small business in Hagerstown.”

  “You said you started playing tennis at four. Was she a player?”

  Rob laughed. “No. Wherever I got my ability for the game, it wasn’t from her.”

  He didn’t mention his father, Maggie noticed. Not in the picture?

  “But there were courts nearby where we lived, in the park where Mom used to take me. The guy who was giving tennis lessons there took a shine to me, and I took a shine to the game. It just grew from there. Mom worked hard to get me private lessons and send me to tennis camps as I grew up, second jobs waitressing, and all. She sacrificed a lot.” Rob’s face had grown serious, and as if he realized it he suddenly grinned.

  “Enough about me, though. Tell me about you.”

  “There’s not much to tell,” Maggie said. She took a sip of water. “I’m from Baltimore. Or rather, just outside it. My folks have a bakery, and my brother Joe and I helped out in it. Since it was open six days a week, it took up a lot of our time. It probably taught us a lot, but the main thing I seemed to get out of it was a determination never to go into a business of my own. It can be all-consuming. You never get away from it.”

  “But you had all the cookies you could eat?”

  Maggie laughed. “That I did. And even though working behind the counter was often tedious, our customers were always in a good mood as they picked out their confection for the day. I remember one summer, though, a weight-loss center opened up right next door to us. A bad choice of location. They lasted one season, then packed up and moved somewhere else. We were apparently very bad for their client’s will power.”

  Rob grinned. “So you went into teaching instead of baking.”

  “I chose math, actually, then later decided to teach it. It’s been a good decision, so far.” She thought of Rob’s comfortable manner at the tennis lesson. “You have quite a knack for teaching, yourself. I learned a lot from you, and those two little boys whose lesson was right after mine certainly seemed to enjoy it.”

  “Tyler and Travis? Yeah.” He grinned. “They’re great kids.”

  “They’re how old - about ten? How do you manage to make something like tennis fun for kids that age? I would think they’d get bored with all the practice required.”

  “Ah, that’s the trick.” Rob put down the coffee cup he had raised halfway to his mouth and looked at Maggie, his face animated. “You make a game of every part of it, changing the game constantly while still repeating the motions they’re going through. They think they’re doing something different all the time. Like when they’re learning to serve….”

  Rob launched into a detailed description of some of the things he had the twins go through, his expression eager as he told of the successes of some of his strategies, and humorously self-deprecating as he told of the failures. “They keep me on my toes the whole time,” he assured her.

  Maggie listened with fascination - less with the subject than at the change she saw come over the speaker. A kind of glow of enthusiasm emanated from him. Rob had many sides to him, that she had noticed before, and this definitely was one of the nicer ones.

  “You seem to really enjoy working with kids,” she said when he finished.

  His smile became a bit embarrassed, and he looked down at his plate, scraping the last crumbs of his pecan pie together with his fork. “Yeah, I do.”

  Could someone like this ever actually beat up a girlfriend” Or maybe worse? Maggie struggled with the thought.

  “And I think I’m good at it,” Rob said. “In fact,” he paused and looked out the window as though deciding whether to say more, then turned back to Maggie. “I have a dream of having my own tennis camp for kids, someday.” He seemed to wait for her reaction before saying more.

  “Really? What a great idea,” Maggie said, meaning it sincerely on one level, but conscious of an uneasiness on another. There were still too many questions in her mind about this man.

  He seemed to grab at the enthusiasm in her voice, though, and launched into a description of what he had in mind. “Of course, this all depends on a lot of things - major things. Financial backing for one.”

  “I’ll bet you’ll work it out,” Maggie said. “When people want something badly enough, they usually find a way to get it.” She added with a smile, “I can’t help thinking of that old Chinese proverb, though. `Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.’”

  Rob laughed. “I know. Like, I might find myself someday surrounded by whining, screaming, snot-nosed kids, and wondering how the hell to get out of it all.”’

  “Something like that.”

  “Well, however it turns out, at least it couldn’t be much worse than working here has been sometimes.” He glanced around. “Strictly between you and me, of course.”

  Maggie’s eyebrows arched up.

  Rob nodded, his face grim. “Some of the things I’ve had to put up with. If it weren’t for the money….”

  Maggie had heard that same phrase once before –
from Holly. She knew it wasn’t highly unusual for employees to complain about their jobs. Any lunch time in the teachers’ lounge back at McHenry she was bound to hear a grumble or two. But something about the way this was said - `If it weren’t for the money.’ The tone and the expression on the face implied deeper problems than she could guess at.

  Maggie thought of the angry shouting she had heard just before her lesson that afternoon. It could have been a result of the problems Rob had to deal with here, or it could have risen from a nasty temper. She didn’t know which. She decided to try to find out.

  “I happened to talk to one of the maintenance workers today, a guy named Eric.”

  Rob’s face darkened. “He’s one of the things I’m talking about. The guy’s supposed to do certain jobs for me, but he’s completely undependable. He’s a real loser. Lies as easily as breathing. And worse. I’d keep away from him if I were you.”

  “Oh?” This was the second time Maggie had been told to keep her distance from Eric. But she wondered why Rob felt the need to label Eric a liar. Did he suspect Eric had been talking about him?

  “If it weren’t for his mother, he’d be out of here so fast… well, never mind. I won’t bore you with our staff problems.”

  “Oh, I don’t mind. I just found out a little while ago that Eric’s mother was Burnelle, the housekeeping supervisor. I could hardly believe it. So she is able to keep him working here, even though he’s incompetent?”

  “Yeah. Management seems to think a lot of her. I heard they brought her here from another hotel of theirs. Maybe they’re afraid they’ll lose her if they fire him and figure they can survive one low-level no-good for a while.”

  “Was he the one you were yelling at just before my lesson?”

  Rob eyebrows shot up in surprise, then he grinned at her. “You heard? Yeah, probably everyone within a half mile heard. The guy just…. Well, never mind.” He looked at her empty plate, then back up at her. “Ready for dessert? Coffee? Or maybe an after dinner drink?

  Maggie decided not to ask Rob about what Eric had said about Wimbledon. Not yet. She’d wait and see what Liz could find out for her. She shook her head to the food and drink suggestions.

  “This dinner was huge and as you see I polished it up. I think I’d better quit now.” Maggie pictured Lori’s notebook locked in her suitcase upstairs. She was eager to get back to it. “I have some things to do tonight before I turn in,” she said. “Thanks for the company. I enjoyed it.”

  He rose as she did and seemed on the verge of suggesting an extension to the evening, or at least leaving with her, but she walked off quickly before he had the chance. As she waited for the elevator she thought about her last comment. She had enjoyed it - dinner with someone whom she considered a possible murder suspect. Could he possibly know she considered him that? And was he, perhaps, purposely charming her? For now, she could only wonder.

  She jabbed at the elevator button a second time. Something seemed to be holding it up on two. As she gazed up at the elevator lights, an angry voice nearby caught her attention. Maggie turned and saw a fairly young woman whose air of cold disapproval and severe hair style aged her. She was reprimanding the night deskman, who cowered at her words.

  “When are you going to learn this phone system?” she scolded, like an angry schoolmarm. “I’ve gone over and over it with you. Yesterday you lost a call for me, and now you’ve lost a return call from the sheriff for my mother. She may not be able to reach him again.”

  “I’m sorry Miss Crawford.”

  Miss Crawford. So that must be Kathryn Crawford’s daughter, who Holly seemed to dislike. Maggie could see why. Not a pleasant person, at least where the hotel employees were concerned. She turned back to face the elevator, still hearing the woman going over the intricacies of the phone with exaggerated patience, as though speaking to one mentally challenged. The elevator doors opened and Maggie stepped in, punched in her floor button and waited as the doors slowly closed.

  So Kathryn Crawford had a return call from the sheriff, she thought, as the elevator hummed and glided smoothly upward. Did it have something to do with Lori’s murder? Why would the Highview manager be calling the sheriff this late in the evening? Maggie wished she could be a fly and perch on the woman’s office wall for a while. What interesting things might she learn?

  Back in her room Maggie retrieved Lori’s black book and curled up on the bed to read it. She thought of calling Dyna first, to see how she was feeling, but decided she’d either interrupt sleep or meditations. She turned to the section that dealt with Lori’s work at the Highview.

  “Made a real mess today - my first day on the job! I piled too many things on my tray, and it started tipping, and the coffee sloshed all over the scrambled eggs! Holly showed me how to do it better. She makes it all look so easy.”

  “Burnelle stopped me as I was leaving and said I did real well for a first day. That was so nice of her. That made me feel good, especially after getting the evil eye from Ms. Crawford anytime I passed by. I felt she was watching me, and that made me more nervous.”

  Lori described a few more problems with learning her job, and then things apparently smoothed out and she moved on to other concerns. She talked about working with the local blood drive, and encouraging her co-workers to donate.

  “Everyone was so great about it! Mostly I helped keep the paperwork straight. They kept me busy, but it was a lot of fun. Nobody fainted, which I heard was a kind of record!”

  Maggie remembered when Lori was back at McHenry High. She volunteered for a fundraising flea market to buy new uniforms for the band, even though she wasn’t in the band. When Maggie asked why she was doing it, Lori laughed and said she just liked helping out. Even at fifteen Lori showed a quiet kind of leadership, the kind that got things done without a lot of fanfare. Maggie sighed, and read on.

  Lori mentioned Eric in her jottings, and the fact that he was Burnelle’s son. Lori sensed he was unhappy with his job, that he disliked grounds’ maintenance. She wondered if he stayed on only for his mother’s sake.

  “I know Burnelle is only trying to do her best for him. But I think he’d be happier doing something else. Maybe he should go back to school? But there’s always the problem of money.”

  She mentioned meeting Rob Clayton.

  “Ran into that cute tennis instructor - literally. I was hurrying to work from the parking lot and ran right into him as I rounded the corner. He helped me pick up my things and carried them into the kitchen for me. I got teased by the girls about it - they think he’s pretty flirty. But I think he was just being nice.”

  As the pages filled, Lori began to use only initials for names.

  “H. and J. asked me to go out with them tonight after work. I said no. Hope I didn’t sound rude.”

  “B. got upset when H. didn’t sign out like she should have. Sometimes I think H. does things on purpose, just to see what B. will do. She doesn’t seem to like her. I don’t understand why.”

  Then: “Dragged out my science book. It’s amazing how much stuff I forgot. The girls think I’m weird looking through books like that, instead of something like a romance book. More teasing.”

  So that must be why she had the science book, Maggie said to herself. Was it the same one that was found with her body? “H.” Maggie thought, must refer to Holly. Was “B.” Burnelle?

  Maggie read through the next few pages, then came upon an entry that made her heart jump.

  “Saw R. again today. He seemed so down. All I can do is listen for now. Is that enough? I wish I could do more.”

  ***

  CHAPTER 13

  Maggie was dancing with Rob. She wore a gauzy, flowing gown, and they floated around the dance floor. Suddenly Rob became Eric Semple, grinning at her and holding onto her tightly as she tried to pull away. The music played faster, and she struggled to keep from stumbling. She looked around desperately for Rob, hoping for rescue, and finally saw him dancing with someone else off in the distance.
As they turned their faces towards her she saw the girl was Lori. They both threw back their heads, laughing, then whirled away, disappearing together….

  “No!” Maggie called, reaching out, then realized she was in her bed at the Highview. Her heart beat rapidly, and she took several deep breaths, gradually calming down. “Wow,” she said, running her hands through her hair and shaking her head to clear it. “Where did all that come from?” She rarely had upsetting dreams, and she was surprised at her reaction to this one. Was it because Lori had been in it? Or Rob?

  She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, determined not to let it bother her any more. It was probably brought on simply from something she ate. She had a busy morning ahead of her, and needed a clear head, not one distracted by silly dreams. And that’s all it was, a silly dream. But she couldn’t rid herself of the uneasy feeling the dream had forced on her, try as she might to think of other things, occupying herself with getting ready for her day.

  She had showered and dressed when she heard a knock on the door. A peek through the peep hole showed Burnelle standing there with a cleaning cart. Maggie opened the door.

  “Good morning,” Burnelle said. “If you’re leaving for breakfast, I could do your room. We’re still a little short handed, and I’m trying to help keep things on schedule.”