The phone rang, and Maggie jumped. As she picked it up, the sound of her brother’s voice broke through her tension and brought on a smile. His tone, though, was not happy.
“Why are you still there Maggie?” he demanded.
“Hi Joe, how are you?”
“Don’t `Hi Joe’ me. Maggie, you promised you’d get out of there.”
“Don’t put words into my mouth, Joe. I never promised anything. I’ve had things to do here. I’ll leave when I’m finished.”
“Things to do? What? What are you talking about?”
“I think I’m getting close to finding out who killed Lori.”
“You’re getting close? What do you think you’re doing? You’re not the police.”
“I don’t see that the police are doing much at all. They seem to be waiting for some drifter to walk into their office and say `Hi, I’m the one who did it.’ Lori’s parents deserve better than that. How can they rest until they know the truth, until they get justice?”
“What about our parents, Maggie? Mom’s worried enough just thinking about you being off somewhere on your own. How do you think she’ll feel when she finds out about all this?”
“Someday Mom - and Dad - are going to have to face the fact that I’m all grown up. I’m sorry it’s been so hard for them.” The thought of Burnelle’s overprotectiveness flashed through Maggie’s mind, and she gritted her teeth. “Just please keep them out of this, for now. Look, Joe, if you’d do something for me, it’d be a big help, and I might be able to finish and come home soon.” Maggie knew if she dangled that carrot in front of Joe he’d jump for it.
She was right. “What can I do?” Joe asked.
“Go to a library, one that has old newspapers in their files, and look up something for me.” She explained what she needed. She could hear Joe scratching away with a pencil, taking it all down. She could also envision him leaping into the family car and screeching toward the library.
Good old Joe. Her dear baby brother who felt he had to look after her and would probably be up here dragging her out of her room if he thought it would work. She hoped he would find what she wanted, but in the meantime it would keep him out of her hair.
The phone rang again, and Maggie picked it up, half expecting to hear Joe’s voice. Instead it was Charles, from the front desk.
“Miss Olenski, I’m afraid I have some bad news. There’s been some damage done to your car.”
***
CHAPTER 19
Maggie burst from the elevator into the hotel lobby. She glanced around and caught sight of Dyna blinking at her with surprise from the magazine stand.
“Come on”, Maggie called as she hurried on by. Dyna dropped her copy of `People’ and ran to catch up with Maggie as she flew down the hallway to the side door. Once in the parking lot, they slowed and approached Maggie’s car apprehensively. Horror spread over both faces.
“Oh, Maggie. Your poor car!” Dyna cried. Maggie stared, unable to say anything, the pain of what she saw taking her breath away.
A huge rock lay on the back seat of Maggie’s car, having made its way through the back window which now had a gaping hole and spider webs of cracks and splinters. Several large and small shards of glass lay next to the rock and on the floor of the car.
“Who could have done it?” Dyna asked.
Charles came up next to them, having left his desk and followed quickly behind. He looked equally mournful, seeming to take this almost as personally as Maggie. “We have no idea,” he said, shaking his head. “A guest noticed it on his way in and reported it to us. I can’t say how sorry I am about this.”
Maggie nodded. Several thoughts and feelings coursed through her, not the least of which was a quickly growing anger at the person who had done this. She circled the car, looking at the damage from all angles.
“Nobody saw or heard anything when this happened?” she asked.
“Apparently not. We’ve asked around, but the kitchen staff was busy setting up for dinner, the maintenance crew had quit for the day, and that lone guest was the only one passing through, after the fact.
“Very convenient. Someone certainly knows exactly when to strike.”
“Let me make a few phone calls, Miss. The sheriff should be notified. And I’ll report it to management. This sort of thing should not happen at our hotel.” He paused, and Maggie knew they were all thinking of Lori. Another, more terrible incident that shouldn’t have happened there. Charles coughed, and continued.
“At least we can arrange for the repairs.”
“Thank you Charles. That’s very kind.”
Charles hurried off, and Maggie ran a finger along a deep scratch in the paint which ran nearly front to back along the driver’s side of her car. “This wasn’t from the guard rail. Whoever threw that rock took the time to scratch the car first.”
“But why?” Dyna asked.
“I think it’s all a grim message. They might as well have scratched the words into the paint: `Go home, Maggie. Get out of here.’”
“Maybe you should,” Dyna said softly.
Maggie just looked at her. “I must be getting close, Dyna. Someone is very worried.”
“Someone also has the advantage, Maggie. They know who you are, and where you are. But you don’t know who they are.”
“I mean for that to change.”
It wasn’t long before the sheriff’s car pulled up, quietly, with no lights flashing. This was no emergency. In fact, Maggie was surprised they would take the time to investigate it at all. But the deputy was all business, writing down all he could see and that she could tell him about the damage done to her car.
A small crowd had gathered by this time, attracted by the presence of the official car. Maggie caught a glimpse of Holly peering from the side door, wearing her uniform and holding an empty tray. Her face was distressed, but she didn’t come out to look closer, or to talk to Maggie.
The twins, Tyler and Travis showed up, in bathing suits with towels wrapped around their necks, stepping gingerly with their bare feet onto the gravel. Maggie went up to them, the deputy following.
“Hey, guys, did you happen to be around when this happened?”
Their eyes grew big. “It wasn’t us, honest! We were kicking the soccer ball around, but we headed back onto the grass and away from here. We didn’t break your window!”
“I know. It wasn’t your ball that broke it.” Maggie explained to the deputy that the boys had been near the parking lot as she left it. “Somebody hurled a heavy rock through the window. I just wondered if you saw anyone hanging around that looked like they might have that on their mind?”
The twins looked at each other and shrugged. “We didn’t see anyone like that.”
“After I left you, I heard one of you calling out that you saw Rob. Was he coming this way?”
“Rob? No, I thought I saw him going towards the pool, but when we got there we couldn’t find him. We were hot, so we decided to get our suits and go swim.”
Maggie was sure that Rob was probably the last person they would want to tattle on, but she could read in their faces that they were telling the truth.
The deputy said, “If you think of anything that would help us, let me know,” and handed them his card. They took it solemnly, as if it were their own personal Junior G. Man badge, and nodded in unison.
“We’re not going to find out who did it, for now,” Maggie said, as they walked back to her car. “But I am sure it was the same person who drove a blue van and tried to kill me out on the road, and the same person that killed Lori Basker.”
The deputy didn’t comment, but looked at her with a grim face. He entered something in his notebook, then flipped it closed. “I’ll need to go in and talk to the front desk person, and the guest who reported this. We’ll be in touch.” Before he turned to go, Maggie noticed him glance up in the direction of the hotel side door. Holly was gone, and Maggie saw the waiter, Chuck, standing in her place. To her surprise, he and th
e deputy seemed to lock eyes for a moment. Was she imagining it? If not, what did it mean?
“Maggie, now what?” Dyna stood at her side, agitated and nearly plucking at her sleeve.
The deputy had left, and the side doorway was now vacant. Maggie shook her head. “I don’t know.”
The crowd had wandered away, and Maggie and Dyna walked off toward the pool.
“It can’t be a coincidence that a rock was used for both this vandalism and for killing Lori.”
“Yeah, I was thinking about that,” Dyna said. “Another message?”
“Possibly. A convenient weapon, also. No fingerprints on the rough surface, no need to dispose of it, easy to find around here, I’m sure.”
“Would it take a lot of strength, do you think?”
“Not to heave it through my car window, I’d guess. The right distance, right angle, and the weight of the rock would do the rest. As for killing Lori, I don’t know. I think you’d need strength along with the element of surprise. But perhaps the anger the killer felt towards Lori would generate enough force.”
Dyna shivered. “How could anyone feel enough anger towards the kind of girl you described?”
“That’s the question. And what caused that anger.”
They came up to the pool and saw the twins dive in, pop up, then paddle to the side, all worries such as Maggie and Dyna had, obviously absent from their thoughts. Maggie envied them, remembering the hopes she had had for a peaceful vacation not too long ago.
“Miss?”
Maggie turned and saw Burnelle hurrying towards her from the hotel’s patio doors.
“Miss Crawford asked me to tell you the garage will be sending someone to get your car first thing in the morning. They promise it can be fixed in a few hours.”
Maggie looked toward the glass doors and saw Kathryn Crawford behind them, standing stiffly near the desk. Probably angry at another disruption in the smooth operation of her hotel, Maggie thought. And possibly angry at me, although I sure didn’t want this anymore than she did. She turned back to Burnelle. “That’ll be great. Thanks.”
“Such a shame,” Burnelle added, her expression concerned, “but at least no one was hurt.”
“Yes, but I’d like to know who did it.”
Burnelle was silent, her lips pressed together tightly as though trying to keep words from spilling out. She wrung her hands. Finally, as though coming to a decision, she blurted out, “That tennis fellow? I didn’t actually see him do anything, but I happened to see him leaving the parking lot just about that time. I didn’t know anything had happened to your car, so I didn’t think anything about it. I was just catching a breath of air away from the hot kitchen.
“I know he didn’t see me, and please don’t tell him I said anything. I, I’d hate to think of what he might do. And I really didn’t see him do anything. But he looked all flushed, and he was walking fast, brushing his hands together as though they had gotten dirty. I thought you should know.” Burnelle’s own face was flushed now, and she looked acutely uncomfortable. Before Maggie could say anything she spun around and rushed back into the hotel.
“Rob,” Dyna murmured, as they both stared after her.
Maggie didn’t say anything. Her eyes were on the door through which Burnelle had disappeared.
“I knew it. I knew it.” Dyna’s face lit up. “Remember Lori’s journal? You said she mentioned `R.’ Who else? It had to be him.”
Something caught Maggie’s eye and she looked to the right across the lawn to the path leading to the tennis courts. A tall, slim man - it could have been Rob, but she couldn’t tell from the distance and shadows - was walking away from them. Suddenly he stopped, and turned around, and appeared to be looking right at them.
That evening, Maggie sat waiting on a wooden bench just beyond the pool, overlooking the large expanse of lawn. She had chosen that bench because it had no shrubs or structures nearby where anyone could lurk, overhearing. The precaution, in light of recent events, was necessary. She sat waiting for Holly to meet her, on her break.
Holly had stopped at their table to refill the water glasses when Maggie and Dyna were having dinner and had whispered that she wanted to talk to her later. Maggie agreed and, after Holly had moved away, told Dyna she thought it might be about Eric Semple.
“On our excursion today after the funeral, we talked about a lot of things. But whenever I tried to probe more deeply about Eric, Holly clammed up. After what’s happened, I have a feeling she may be ready to open up.”
Dyna shook her head. “What could Eric’s connection be to all this?” She was obviously still focused on Rob as the only possible murderer.
“That’s what I need to find out. He’s been lurking around this whole business very suspiciously.”
“Maybe Rob is trying to make it look like Eric’s guilty, you know, to cover his own tracks. Or, maybe they’re somehow working together.”
Maggie had considered that, but remained unsure. Was she letting her own feelings get in the way of her objectivity? She hoped not. On the bench now, she looked at her watch: eight. That’s when Holly said she could take her break. The sky was still light, but a soft, sleepy light, with some dark clouds gathering off to the west, and Maggie heard an owl hooting somewhere in the trees.
She heard distant voices and the clanking of pots as the kitchen door opened. Soon she saw Holly’s small, slim form hurrying over the grass in her uniform and white sneakers, her dark hair a bouncing cloud around her head. She plopped down on the bench next to Maggie, immediately pulled out a cigarette, lit up, and drew on it.
“Sorry if I’m late. That new guy, Chuck - they hired him to replace Lori, you know? He said he’s waited tables before, but he’s been mixing up orders all night, and I’ve had to bail him out. Well, never mind. Burnelle saw me take off, and she’s probably set her stopwatch, so I better get down to business.”
Maggie waited quietly while Holly drew once more on her cigarette. Finally she glanced over at Maggie and began. “Well, I was thinking, ever since I got back today. About what you said, that this person who killed Lori’s got to be stopped, and how you almost got killed yourself yesterday. And then seeing what somebody did to your car. It all really got to me.
“I’ve been holding back. I don’t know why. Just being stupid, as usual. But I’m thinking it’s about time I used my head a little, you know? Anyway, you were asking about Eric, and I wasn’t giving you straight answers. He’s not such an okay guy. He’s a real low-life.”
Maggie wasn’t surprised, but she waited for Holly to go on.
“He’s been stealing from the hotel, big time. I guess I felt guilty ‘cause a lot of us knew about it but didn’t say anything.”
“What sort of things has he been stealing?”
“Oh, it started out with little things. I guess that’s why nobody said anything, ‘cause it just didn’t seem worth it, you know? Like, this is a big hotel, and who’s going to care if some garden clippers are missing, or there’s only nineteen instead of twenty holly bushes to plant. But then he moved up to bigger things. Electronic stuff he could sell, some things from the guests. He’d brag about how smart he was about it, only picking guests who seemed distracted or vague about how much cash they still had in their wallets, or where they might have left their jewelry.”
“Did many of you know about this?” Maggie asked.
“Not a lot. There were a few of us were friends with him at the beginning, when he first started working here. You know, going out for a beer once in a while. But then we began keeping our distance when he started bragging a lot about what he did. He knew we couldn’t say anything by then without getting ourselves into trouble, but it was getting too weird.”
Maggie controlled her growing excitement as she asked the next question. “Holly, did Lori know what Eric was doing?”
Holly frowned, thinking hard. She puffed at her cigarette one last time, then threw it down and ground it under her foot. She looked at Maggie. “
I remember once he came in the kitchen when things were slow and showed me a watch he had just grabbed from someone’s bag while they were soaking in the jacuzzi. Lori was there, in the kitchen. She didn’t say anything, but I remember the look on her face. Rick thought she was impressed, that’s how dumb he was. But she wasn’t impressed. She was upset.”
Maggie grabbed Holly’s arm. “What did you just call him? Rick?”
Holly looked at her, puzzled. “Yeah. That’s what most of us call him, I guess. Why?”
“Most of you? Did that include Lori? Did she call him Rick?”
“Lori? Yeah, she met him through us, so I guess she did. Yeah, she called him Rick.”
Maggie hurried up to her room, feeling both elated and frightened. She had found a motive. Eric Semple, who had means and opportunity, also had a motive. He could have killed Lori for his own protection. If Eric was the “R” Lori referred to in her journal, perhaps she had tried to talk him into giving up his life of thievery. And when she realized that wasn’t going to happen, he could have feared she would turn him in and killed her. He also could have overheard her, Maggie, talking about Lori’s diary, and tried to stop Maggie from getting to the sheriff with it.
Realizing all that, putting it all together, brought on much of the elation. But she was aware too, that part of her excitement came from the hope that this eliminated Rob from suspicion. She could admit that fully now, to herself. She had a strong attraction to Rob, and was almost sure he felt the same about her. They had much more to learn about each other, the relationship had a lot of growing to do, but now, perhaps, a major obstacle had been dissolved.
The fear she also felt, though, came from the fact of Lori’s murderer taking on flesh and blood. He was no longer just a shadowy figure in her mind. He was real. And he was here.
Maggie shivered and fit the key card into her door. She intended to call Dyna to come over, to talk it over with her. As she stepped into the room, however, her foot crunched a piece of paper on the floor. A note had been slipped under the door. Maggie picked it up and read the message which had been scrawled on hotel stationery:
Mary Ellen Hughes - Maggie Olenski 01 - Resort to Murder Page 14