by Robin Caroll
“I don’t think so.” Pam continued to click the keys. “It looks like someone accessed on-site.”
“At the office?”
She nodded, staring up at him. “Who would do that, and why?”
“I don’t know.” No one should’ve been in those files. “What did they do in there?” He sat on the arm of the couch.
Pam typed again, her eyes squinting at the screen. “Nothing was uploaded. Doesn’t look like anything was deleted.”
Then what was someone doing in the files? Just seeing what was on them?
“I can’t find a log where anything was messed with.” Pam readjusted herself, bringing her legs up on the couch and crossing them.
“Maybe it’s a glitch giving you the indicators that someone accessed it?”
“Maybe. Let me take it off the server in case there’s a glitch there. I’ll upload it back again tomorrow morning when I get to the office.” She typed as fast as usual. “There, it’s now off the server. I sent a copy to you too just in case the file is corrupted on my system. Now, let’s check out the video feed.”
He moved to sit beside her on the couch. The scent of her musky-smelling shampoo was such a contrast to the sweetness of Anna Belle’s perfume.
“Okay. Let me focus on just the camera in the hall outside of Anna Belle’s room.” She brought up a file folder and scrolled through the contents faster than Grayson could even read a line or two. “Now let’s center on Thursday only.” She clicked keys, and the screen filled with the image of the hallway.
Game’s On You used motion-activated cameras to send live feeds, with backup recordings, to the company’s server.
The monitor filled with the image of Georgia Vescot walking down the hall. She paused outside Anna Belle’s room for a moment, then moved on to the stairs. The screen froze for a moment as the motion activation ceased.
“That was seven forty on Thursday morning. Breakfast was at eight.” Pam adjusted the laptop to remove the glare.
Movement on the screen. Franklin Barron strode down the hall, his head down. Screen freeze again.
“Seven fifty-one.”
Hugh Istre came down the hall. He stopped and knocked on Anna Belle’s door. His lips moved, then he walked toward the stairs. Screen froze.
“Man, I wish we had sound. That was at seven fifty-six.”
Grayson nodded. He’d love to know what Hugh had said to Anna Belle. Probably just a reminder not to be late for breakfast, but interesting that he would take the time. Especially since they were competing for the same promotion.
Anna Belle filled the screen, wearing a pair of jeans and a light sweater, both of which clung to her every curve. She made a straight line for the stairs. The computer screen froze.
Pam cleared her throat. “That was at seven fifty-eight.”
Grayson stood, needing some space and a moment to himself. “I’ll grab our coffees.” He went into the kitchen and poured the fresh brew into the cups. He dumped three spoons of sugar into Pam’s, then added a splash of milk before stirring.
Seeing her—he couldn’t put a label on what he felt. He had already gone through the phase of missing her so much that he felt like he couldn’t breathe. Divorce did that. He’d walked through the house for days—even weeks, sensing her everywhere and missing her so much that he didn’t know if he could live without her. He survived and managed to start acknowledging the hurts she’d caused and he’d endured.
Those feelings of void were nothing like knowing she was dead. Gone. As much as he had adjusted to missing her, it was no comparison to knowing she was dead, then seeing her. He felt like he’d been gut punched.
“Grayson?”
“Coming.” He carried the coffee into the living room, setting both cups on the coffee table as he sat back down beside Pam. “What’s up?”
“Nothing but Nora putting the mask in Franklin’s room and Vic putting the doll in Hugh’s, just as planned.” She pointed to the computer. “But watch. This is at eight-fifty, just before Tim dismissed them to their rooms for their cards. Look.” She started the video.
Emmi Dubois moved down the hall, glancing over her shoulder. She had what looked like a pamphlet in her hand. She paused outside of Anna Belle’s room, glanced toward the stairs, then used a key and opened Anna Belle’s door. She disappeared into the room. The screen froze.
Pam met his gaze. “What was she doing there?”
“And what was in her hand?” Grayson asked.
Before Pam could answer, the screen filled with Emmi peeking out of Anna Belle’s door, then stepping into the hall and shutting the door behind her. She rushed to the stairs. The screen froze.
“That was just four minutes after she went in.”
“She didn’t have anything in her hand when she came out. She left whatever it was in Anna Belle’s room.” Excitement, with some dread, lanced Grayson.
“Let me see if I can blow it up enough to see what it is.” Pam pulled the Mac into her lap and ran her fingers over the built-in mouse pad. “Ugh. It’s not going to be easy. I can tell it’s a brochure of sorts, but that’s about it.” She set the laptop back on the coffee table. “I’ll come back and try to clean it up, but let’s finish going through the day first, okay?”
He took a sip of coffee and nodded. What had Emmi Dubois put in Anna Belle’s room?
The action moved on the screen as Pam restarted the feedback. Georgia and Franklin walked together down the hall to their respective rooms. Hugh and Anna Belle followed. All seemed to be talking with someone.
Man, he really wished they had sound.
Anna Belle stopped at her door. Hugh said something to her, and she smiled. One of her genuine, 1,000-watt smiles that could send Grayson to his knees at one time. He sucked in air, unable to stop himself. Even on camera, Anna Belle’s beauty was breathtaking.
Hugh nodded and headed to his room. The computer screen stopped.
“That was six after nine.” Pam’s voice came out soft, the tone she used when she was being nice to Grayson.
He nodded, struggling to stamp down the emotions clogging his throat. “Wait a minute.” He jumped up and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He scrolled through the voice mail receipts. “She called me at nine twelve.”
“Any idea what prompted the call?”
Grayson shook his head. She’d looked so beautiful. Almost … happy? And that’s when she’d decided to call him? He played the voice mail recording again, on speaker.
Anna Belle’s voice shattered the silence. “Grayson, it’s me. We need to talk.”
She didn’t sound happy there. So what changed in the space of six minutes?
“I have no idea why she called right then.” He wished he did. He wished he hadn’t lost his phone in the creek. He wished a lot of things.
“Me either.” She took a swig of coffee, then unpaused the feedback. “This is nine forty.”
A man, wearing an ornate Mardi Gras mask with elaborate purple and gold and green feathers exited Franklin’s room. He walked cautiously down the hall to Anna Belle’s. Even on video, his hesitation was noticeable. A pause. Then two. Finally, he knocked on Anna Belle’s door.
She opened it, then immediately began hitting him, kicking him. He basically pushed her into her room, and the camera couldn’t pick up any other details.
Seeing his plan play out and knowing how fearful she must have been in that exact moment, even if it was just for a few minutes—well, Grayson wondered again if maybe he shouldn’t have stayed as a police consultant instead of joining Colton in the business. But Anna Belle had encouraged him to try it. Do something different. Make more money. Be his own boss.
The irony of her dying during the course of one of his games wasn’t lost on him. Apparently it wasn’t on the police either.
“This is nine forty-four.”
Franklin and Anna Belle walked out of her room. She shut the door behind them, and they rushed to the stairs.
“Nine fifty.”
Vic snuck out of the hall closet and unlocked Georgia’s room, then disappeared through the back stairs.
“And at ten on the dot, just as you planned.”
Hugh headed out of his room with the voodoo doll in hand. He opened Georgia’s room and disappeared, then reappeared, shut the door, and headed back to his room. A moment later, he emerged again and headed down the stairs.
“And that’s all from the morning. They had lunch right after their campaign creation, then the video starts again at five after one.”
The four candidates again came up the stairs. Franklin and Anna Belle both wore smiles. Hugh and Georgia wore unreadable expressions. Disappointment? Anger? Frustration? Any or all could apply.
“Now check this out. This is at one fifteen.” Pam took another sip of coffee as Georgia left her room and marched to Anna Belle’s. Her stance and steps screamed anger. She paused outside the room, appearing to take in several deep breaths, when Emmi Dubois appeared at the top of the stairs. She said something to Georgia, who turned from Anna Belle’s door and went to Emmi. Together the two women descended the stairs and were out of the camera’s range.
“That is interesting. Tim and Emmi were instructed to follow the plan exactly.”
Pam nodded. “Nowhere does it say Emmi was supposed to lurk at the top of the stairs.”
“It was almost as if she knew Georgia would go to Anna Belle’s room for some reason.” But that didn’t make sense. None of them could know how each person would react. Not for sure. Grayson used his training and experience and usually made a very good outcome guess, but nothing was set in stone when it came to human behavior.
“Georgia would’ve found the doll in her room. Maybe she wanted to talk to Anna Belle about it?” Pam asked.
“Maybe.” He shook his head. “They didn’t like each other very much. I doubt Georgia would confide something in Anna Belle.” He considered what he remembered about Georgia’s psychological profile. “Accuse her, maybe.”
“Probably. So why would Emmi stop her?”
“That’s a very good question.” He lifted his cup and motioned toward the screen with it.
Pam restarted the playback. “This is nineteen after one.”
Franklin walked down the hall, directly to the stairs.
“And this is one twenty-three.”
Hugh strode down the hall. Anna Belle’s door opened just before he reached that part of the hallway. He turned to her, took a moment to look back down the hall and then to the stairs, then in a rush, pushed her up against her doorway.
Pam gasped as Hugh grabbed Anna Belle’s chin and held her head steady as he dipped his head to hers, capturing her into a kiss.
Grayson tensed. Every muscle in his gut clenched as Anna Belle’s hands grabbed Hugh’s long dreadlocks and pulled. His head jerked back. Anna Belle smiled, then stood on tiptoe to kiss him.
Something must have sounded, because they both lurched away from one another. Anna Belle rushed toward the stairs. Hugh grabbed her door and pulled it closed, then followed her.
Tim Dubois stood at the end of the hall, his hands balled into fists at his side. He backed into his room and shut the door. The computer screen went blank.
“I–I’m sorry, Gray.” Remorse filled Pam’s voice.
He shook his head. “No, it’s okay.” But it wasn’t. He knew Anna Belle had had an affair with Tim Dubois. She had thrown that fact in his face so many times he had stripes of scars from it. That was quite different than seeing her with Hugh. She’d always been aggressive, he knew that well, but… “We’re divorced, right?”
“Doesn’t mean it makes it any easier.”
He stood, grabbing both their cups. “Time for refills.” In the kitchen, he gripped the side of the island and ground his teeth. God, why? I can’t take much more. If only any of it made sense. Her cheating. The divorce. The ab—
“Grayson, we have a problem.”
“What?” He left the mugs and returned to the living room. What could be more of a problem than what he’d already seen?
“That accessing of the files I mentioned?”
“Yeah?” He sat beside Pam again.
“Look.” She tapped a line in a code. “I noticed a blip in the playback, so I tried to look at the code and found this.”
“I have no idea what that is.” He could use his computer, but that was the extent of his knowledge base about them.
But Pam was brilliant. “It’s a break in the recording.”
“What do you mean?”
“It means that the camera was activated and started recording again at two forty-one, stopping to record at two fifty-nine.”
“Okay, let’s see it.”
Pam nodded. “That’s just it. Those eighteen minutes are gone.”
“Gone?” That didn’t make sense. “I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t either until I looked at the logs. Whoever accessed the files removed that part.”
“I thought you said nothing had been deleted.”
Pam shook her head. “The files aren’t deleted, but they’ve been tampered with. Someone went in and deleted those eighteen minutes, and that’s all.”
“Wait, out of the entire time at the house, only those eighteen minutes are gone?”
Pam nodded.
“Are you sure?” Grayson forced himself to concentrate.
“Positive. I checked twice. The recording picks back up at three fifty-five when Anna Belle and Hugh return to their rooms and again at five after four when Georgia and Franklin do the same. There’s nothing in the system that shows anything is missing on the entire recording except that eighteen minutes.”
Grayson’s mind raced. “Eighteen minutes is plenty of time to sneak up to Anna Belle’s room and put the energy drink with the cherry juice in it on her desk.”
Pam nodded. “Plenty of time. Anna Belle and Hugh were in one escape room and Georgia and Franklin were in the other.”
Grayson nodded. “Where were Tim and Emmi?”
Pam shrugged. “I don’t know. I was in the control room monitoring the escape rooms. Vic was with me until I sent him to go unlock Georgia and Franklin’s room. Wynnona and Keely were in the room with us, watching the monitor observing Anna Belle and Hugh’s room. Stratton was off helping Colton with the next setup, I think.” She shook her head slowly. “I can’t say where Tim and Emmi were.”
Grayson couldn’t help but recognize the expression Tim had worn as he’d seen Anna Belle and Hugh. Grayson recognized it because it had stared back at him in the mirror.
“It’s back on track here at four fifteen.” Pam started the playback again.
Georgia, carrying the voodoo doll, marched to Anna Belle’s room. She lifted her hand and hit the door with the side of her fist. The door eased open. On the screen, Georgia stepped across the threshold.
“And this is at four seventeen.”
People ran toward Anna Belle’s room. Tim and Emmi from their room. Hugh and Franklin from down the hall. Vic and Pam rushed into view followed by Colton, Keely, and Wynnona. They crowded into the doorway and spilled into the hall. Colton pulled out his phone and stabbed the screen. Emmi pulled Georgia out into the hall.
“This is at four thirty-two.”
Stratton led two uniformed EMTs with a stretcher up the stairs. They rushed into Anna Belle’s room. Tim stepped into the hall and spoke with Colton.
Grayson found himself holding his breath. He knew what was happening in the room, that the paramedics were desperately trying to find a pulse and perform CPR.
They burst out of the room, pushing Anna Belle on the stretcher down the hall. They each took an end and disappeared down the stairs.
Grayson let out the breath he’d been holding.
It looked like Tim said something, and then he took off toward the stairs. Emmi almost had to run to catch up to him
. Everyone stood still for a moment, as if dazed, then Colton turned and spoke to Pam and Vic.
“He told us that he was going to the hospital and to clear out,” Pam volunteered.
The Game’s On You teams all scattered, leaving the Deets PR employees stunned. Finally, Hugh said something and headed to his room. Franklin turned and said something to Georgia, then they headed to their rooms.
“This is at four forty.”
Hugh, pushing an elite-style carry-on bag, walked down the hall and disappeared down the stairs.
“And at four fifty-three.”
Franklin knocked on Georgia’s door. She opened it, and together they descended the stairs.
“The rest is just us taking everything down. Like I said, Keely and Wynnona had already left. Stratton helped me and Vic, then we all went back to the office to unload.”
Grayson thought out loud. “So there’s really nothing unexpected or unplanned except Emmi putting something in Anna Belle’s room, Tim seeing Hugh and Anna Belle kiss, Emmi stopping Georgia from knocking on Anna Belle’s door, and those missing eighteen minutes.”
“Right. Let me work on that part of the video and see if I can make out what Emmi put in her room.”
Grayson nodded, but his mind was already racing ahead. As much as he’d like to blame one of Anna Belle’s competitors, the video didn’t show them putting anything in her room. Of course they hadn’t watched Wednesday’s video yet, which might very well have been when the tainted energy drink was put in there. Or maybe he was totally off in his assessment.
Either way, it was time to uncover the truth.
Anna Belle
Thursday afternoon
Her hands trembled as she dialed the phone. “He knows,” she whispered as soon as the call was answered.
“What? Wait a minute, Anna Belle.”
“Yes. He knows. I tried to call him, but he wouldn’t answer my call.”
“Who knows? What are you talking about?”
Tears burned her eyes. Maybe the stalker wasn’t back. Maybe it was Grayson. If he knew, and he clearly did…
“Anna Belle, who knows? Knows what?”