“I don’t know, don’t think anyone was seen in the hallways for Kara’s...Anyway, cops asked us already. But, nothing seems to make a difference. I’m quitting once we get the heck through this.” Uh oh, I sure hope I didn’t contribute to his decision.
“Zack, you know I’m attending the resort management conference. I work in management for a resort, and this is not common at all. Give it some time before you give up a good job.” I tried to keep emotion from my voice and be levelheaded when I really wanted to shake him out of his funk.
“Yeah, uh hum.” But his eyes were still vacant and he kept swallowing. He didn’t even look my way, just kept his slow placement of items on the buffet table.
I guess everyone handles the stress of being confined with a killer who’s struck twice on the loose differently. At least Zack wasn’t pushing pandemonium and spreading haunted tales.
Chapter Fifteen
Before the last lunch of the conference, I took a few minutes to call my Aunt Regina and update her that the roads weren’t open yet and I was safe. Okay, maybe that last part was a little white lie, but I wasn’t going to have her worrying and getting my dad into the mix. I really just wanted to hear her voice. She was the closest thing to a mother I currently had, and I needed her.
My call to Aunt Regina was short, which was a good thing since a commotion in the lobby had gotten progressively louder and more raucous.
I made my way down the grand staircase enough to take in the noise I had noticed all the way on the second floor. It didn’t look good. A crowd of about thirty people had gathered, voices raised, facing the local police. Detective Larson, Johan, was between them and the front desk with five regular beat cops in uniform. I searched the crowd but thankfully Porsche wasn’t present.
“You can’t keep us here to be killed off. I’m checking out and you’re not stopping me.” A red-faced man with his luggage and coat across his arm yelled.
Johan visibly squared his shoulders, “Hear me out, folks. Maybe I can’t force you to stay here...” He was channeling his inner drill sergeant.
The noise increased as everybody was attempting to be heard and the group seemed to surge forward. A stab of pure fear rose from my feet to my brain as if it were contagious and I’d contracted it. I wanted to run in a sheer panic, but I held tight to the railing and stayed rooted on the stairs observing.
Johan jumped up onto the check-in desk, “Listen to me, right now.” But the crowd was getting out of control. The five patrolmen put whistles in their mouths and let loose an ear-shattering shriek until everyone, myself included, covered their ears.
When the shrill whistles ceased, quiet was restored. Everyone stared at Johan or wiggled fingers in their ears.
“You have to remain calm. If anyone leaves, I can guarantee you the killer will follow you out, perhaps even check into the same hotel you run to in your blind panic. You won’t have gained any safety, but you’ll have opened the doors for the killer to get away with murder.” He let that sink in for a moment, or maybe he was taking several deep breaths and trying not to wet himself. Because I sure would have. I couldn’t tell which, he had a great poker face.
“We have taken extra precautions, we’ll now have representatives, some are patrolmen, and some are citizens we have recruited, in all the guest hallways and they will have a list of who is staying in each room. You will show your identification to this person who will ensure you are entering your room. This will start at three this afternoon, so everyone has time to retrieve and carry their identification on them.”
It was at least something to keep the guests safe. Although the zealot exodus troops muttered and groused about the inconvenience, it seemed to have worked. The near-riot was averted. I took a shaky breath and tried to stop my knees from quivering. That was close, too close.
The crowd was finally disbanding and going in all directions. Johan glanced up and saw me on the stairs. He waved me down.
He met me at the bottom of the stairs. “You okay?” I nodded. I reminded myself that most resort managers never had to face such a mob. The chances I would deal with such a situation in my career were small, infinitesimal even. But then again, I didn’t think I would see it this weekend.
“I’d like to meet with your irregulars along with Porsche and yourself by four o’clock in the Alpine meeting room. Please let everybody know. I’ll talk to Porsche.”
“Where is she, I thought she would be with you.” My voice was squeaky like I hadn’t used it in days.
“I’ve been too busy so far today, she is waiting for me to join her for lunch.” His eyes bore into mine. “I didn’t want her to see me face them down.” I gulped. I could understand that and I was glad Porsche was spared the fear I experienced. I nodded.
“I’m going with you to make the announcement for the conference about needing identification to enter rooms.” He escorted me up the stairs and into the conference.
Entering the conference luncheon room was like entering a different reality. The attendees had gotten their lunches and were seated listening to the speaker. All was calm and the heavy doors had kept any noise from the lobby away from this little pocket of calm. I fully understood the need to keep people busy and their minds off the situation after this stark contrast between guests with nothing to do but panic and the conference attendees who were kept occupied.
I settled into the seat Tammy had saved for me. Johan was at the podium whispering in the speaker’s ear. The speaker stepped back and motioned for him to step up to the microphone. He gave the same explanation to the group, and although there was some grumbling, most people seemed to be relieved at the extra measures.
I know I sure as blazes was happy the police were able to scare up enough people to monitor the halls. That was something like twelve people to oversee the different floors and wings throughout the large square layout that surrounded a central courtyard.
I got a plate of some food and forced myself to eat. My fork shook in my hands until I calmed down fully. Tammy eyed me, and her mouth flattened into a grim line.
“Can you join me to meet with the good detective at four o’clock? He wants to chat with everyone I’ve used to gather information.”
Her eyes grew round as dollar coins, “I’ll be there, dear.” She swallowed then added, “What’s got you shook up? Was there another....?”
“Oh no, no not that. There was an angry crowd in the lobby trying to leave. It could have easily gotten ugly, but Detective Larson got it under control.”
Her mouth formed an O and her eyes seemed to get even bigger. “I hadn’t thought of that possibility.” Yeah, neither had I.
The afternoon session wouldn’t start until fifteen minutes later to allow everyone to go to their rooms and get the required identification before the deadline.
It was harder and harder for me to sit in sessions with my mind going over suspects. There must be something we were missing somewhere. Surely there is something from Leona’s murder to incriminate the killer. I just couldn’t seem to make any concrete connections.
I saw Kylie as I made my way to the last session of the conference. I stepped up next to her.
“Can you meet with Detective Larson at four in the Alpine room? He wants to talk to those of us helping out.” I whispered.
She nodded okay and looked at her watch.
“Let Zack know please.”
“Sure, and I got your message about the maids. Guess we should see what Larson says first.”
“Yeah, I guess.” I was non-committal. I was hoping he didn’t sideline the Resort Irregulars. We had to pull out the stops to get the killer.
For the first time I began to wonder if the killer would get away with these murders. Once the roads opened, the mad rush to vacate the hotel would begin.
Forensics and the fine details took longer than on TV and small towns probably had to send some things to a larger and better equipped city forensics lab for testing, likely Denver in this case. Not that there wa
s much from Kara’s room, but even if evidence was left at Leona’s murder, the testing may be completed too late and everyone scattered.
The session was going around me and it seemed participants were giving the workshop their attention. Except moi. Of course, who knew what was really taking place behind those attentive looks on the exterior? This was one of the added-on sessions to make up for being stuck here and it was twice as long as the usual. It droned on, and on.
My mind drifted to Leona. Why kill her? She had argued with Kara and was even a suspect to a degree. Did Kara and Leona have something in common? Perhaps they both knew something worth killing over. Or could they both be involved in something illegal? I was going over the same scenarios and I only came up with more questions than answers.
The session finally ended, and we made our way to the large room where we congregated in the mornings and for lunch. There were some final announcements and then handouts for everyone on next year’s event which would be held at Allegretto Vineyard Resort in Paso Robles California, plus an evaluation of the conference. They reminded us to only judge the conference and not include the events in the resort that were out of their control. I was keeping a copy of next year’s handout. I never heard of this resort, but I would love to see a vineyard resort operation.
The conference had kept me sane during this cloistered experience. I sure couldn’t handle the cloistered nun life – not that I ever considered it because of the whole celibate thing. I was a bit unsure how I would handle full days without the conference to occupy my mind. How had Porsche been handling her days other than the painting and wine activity? Good question. She didn’t mention taking part in many activities.
I had a half hour before meeting with Johan so I ran down to the activity board to see what was happening tonight that might interest me. Mask making was happening for the gathering tomorrow night. Apparently, the kids hadn’t made enough for everyone. There was a pool shooting competition and another cooking class. Bingo and other reliable standard offerings.
Oh... they were having a Vegas themed night with poker and craps table tonight. Winners would get credit in the gift shop. I suspected that they did these gambling nights often enough to have the equipment on site. That might be a good diversion and perhaps still hear some gossip. It was also another good leisure activity to note for my home resort.
I was reluctant to meet with Johan but dragged myself to the Alpine conference room anyway. The room still had some glasses on the tables from the conference attendees. He was standing and Porsche sat, quiet and reserved watching him. I sat next to her and we hugged.
Kylie, Zack, and Tammy joined us, and I nodded to Johan. I guess Porsche never got around to recruiting any irregulars, she was too preoccupied. Only half lighting was on, so it was softer on the eyes. I could practically smell the anxiety in the air. I briefly introduced Tammy and how we met. I included the gossip she had provided from Bingo night as a reminder.
“Thank you all for joining me. The death of Leona Dolman has been determined officially to be a homicide. I don’t think that comes as a surprise, most folks already assumed it. The problem I have is two-fold.” He raked a hand through his short sandy hair as he stood with feet shoulder-width apart.
“We don’t have much evidence. The crime scenes aren’t yielding anything that will be useful in the next day or two. Once the roads open and folks scatter to the four winds the chances of an arrest diminish significantly.” He began to pace.
“My problem is in using civilians, all of you. We have gotten more immediate leads through your reporting of gossip.” He stopped pacing and stared at us, “However, it puts all of you at greater risk if the killer figures out what you’re doing. This person has killed twice now and will likely be feeling the walls closing in on him with the monitors in each guest hallway.”
Kylie raised her hand and Johan nodded for her to speak. We all looked at her. “I just wanted to be clear. You’re wondering whether we should continue, right? “
Our heads all turned to Johan for his answer.
“It isn’t that simple...” He began but Tammy interrupted him.
“But it is that simple. We want to help. We know we aren’t trained like yourself. We know we have to appear like anybody else flapping our lips with gossip and not stand out, or as the invisible staff who’re just doing their jobs.” She looked around at each of us then back at Johan.
“At this point, it might seem even more suspicious to overtly avoid those situations. But we’ll be quietly and carefully listening and partaking in gossip like the others and funneling what we learn to you. I think your dilemma is how much you need us.” Tammy raised her eyebrows in either challenge to deny it or waiting for him acknowledge how well she had hit the nail on the head.
I never fully appreciated the expression pregnant pause until that moment where we waited in such anticipation for what Johan would say that I swear none of us breathed for a full minute or more. His face didn’t give any hint at the thoughts that were no doubt flying through his mind. Finally, he spoke.
“The fact of the matter is I do need your help to resolve this as soon as possible with the time constraints bearing down on me. But I can’t stress enough how dangerous this has turned out to be. I contend we have a desperate person on our hands to have risked a second murder under these close quarters.” He scowled at each of us. Gee, make up your mind.
“I had a thought earlier in the day to question the maids to see who of our suspects was alone in their rooms both nights.” I offered up. Not brilliant by any stretch, but it was something at least. I was running out of ideas how to uncover anything new.
“I’ll get with the manager and question them again. Last time I spoke with them I was looking for anything suspicious or someone near the renovation room where the nail gun was acquired. This time I have specific names to ask about.” His eyes bore into mine. I swallowed. What? What did I do now?
“I keep thinking somebody had to have seen something.” I shook my head. “Oh...what about around Leona’s room, did anybody hear anything at all?” I didn’t want to mention, again, that I knew Wade was a few doors down.
“Wade and his wife are not far on her floor. I interviewed them first thing. Apparently, the noise of hotel rooms interrupts their sleep so they both took sleeping pills and claim they didn’t hear anything. I spoke to two others on the floor as well and nothing. They didn’t even hear knocking on a door in the night.”
I squirmed in my chair. The idea of a ghost wasn’t too much of a stretch at this point. How could two murders happen without anybody seeing or hearing anything? It isn’t natural.
Okay, I dismissed the idea of a murderous ghost who could walk through walls as soon as it popped up in my head. A ghost wouldn’t leave sweater yarn and buttons. A ghost might be the one being that Kara hadn’t gone out of her way to alienate.
“I don’t suppose there were any fingerprints by chance?” My voice was barely above a whisper.
“Her room was wiped clean, not even Leona’s prints were found.” Well crap, that would’ve been too easy. Wouldn’t want that.
Chapter Sixteen
The Resort Irregulars were still operational, and we left the meeting with Johan feeling resolute to search out gossip without calling attention to ourselves. Kylie and Zack still had extra shifts to cover, Tammy was going to divide her time between Bingo and the bar. Porsche was joining me for the Vegas night and we would meet up with Tammy later in the bar.
But first, we had enough time for dinner. We still had to eat in the midst of all this, even without much of an appetite. I hadn’t eaten much today as it was. We waited and finally got into the Ranchhand. I was getting tired of eating out and was looking forward to some home cooking when I got home. Aunt Regina’s chicken, bacon, and spinach crepes sounded great right about now. I settled for the chicken potpie instead and a glass of their Riesling that I had tried last night. Hard to believe that was just last night. Porsche had filet mignon
. As soon as we gave our orders, I tackled the elephant in the room.
“What’s wrong? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so quiet?” I couldn’t keep the concern from my voice.
“Nothing. Nothing’s wrong.” She didn’t make eye contact but looked around the restaurant. The whistling and bubbly Porsche had left for parts unknown and I was sitting with subdued Porsche.
“Liar face. You forget I know, I can tell. Remember, best friend over here. You know I’ll just bug the crap out of you like you do me. Might as well tell everything now.”
She finally looked at me and I could see sadness in her eyes. “It’s finally hitting me how much I’ve grown to care for Johan and how I’ll be leaving when the roads open.” Her eyes filled with unshed tears. I hurt for my friend, but I didn’t know how to help. They were good for each other, but the distance and timing were huge obstacles.
“I can’t believe I join you and get snowed in with a killer and fall for a cop. All I wanted was some wicked fun with a ski instructor or something.” She attempted a smile, it made her look even sadder.
“Let’s have a really nice dinner with no talk of guys at all. They are a forbidden topic while we eat. You’re having some wine or a cocktail with dinner and relaxing.” I was adamant that for a short while she should get her mind off the first guy I knew of in her adult life that she had opened her heart to yet the timing was all wrong.
We added O’batzten, which is a Camembert cheese with cream cheese and beer seasoned with onions and paprika spread over bread for an appetizer to our order, so we could really take our time. It arrived quickly along with my wine and her rum and coke made with German River’s Rum.
“How about you treat yourself after dinner and go to the spa? I can hit up the Vegas night. With less competition maybe I’ll have a chance to win.” I suggested.
“Actually, we haven’t spent much friend time together, how about we go to the spa together in the morning. We can set an appointment now.” That sounded perfect, I needed a break from the murders too.
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