Death Takes a Holiday (35 page)

“Actually, thanks to Lucas, I think the odds are in my favor,” Tracy said with a grimace before lunging
forward with the knife pointed at Grace’s chest.

Grace
’s foot slipped off the edge of the train as she tried to avoid the knife. Just as she felt herself falling backward, the door to the sleeping car swung open and slammed into Tracy’s face. Suddenly, a pair of strong hands reached out and pulled her back into the train.

Heart hammering wildly in her chest
, Grace fell back against the wall. “Am I glad to see you.”

Lucas
leaned over Tracy who had fallen, unconscious, to the floor. He reached forward and yanked the knife out of her limp hand.

Grace brought a trembling hand up to her face
and smiled. “You arrived just in time.”

“Oh, I’ve been out here since she turned the light
s out. I got suspicious when you didn’t return.”

Grace’s
mouth fell open. “You’ve been out here the whole time?” she asked slowly.

“
Well, not the whole time,” he said, reaching down and picking up a phone lying in the corner of the vestibule. “I managed to sneak this in when you opened the door. I hope it recorded everything.” Suddenly, Tracy and Grace’s voices could be heard playing back from the phone.

Grace angrily pushed her hair away from her face.
“Why didn’t you come in when she started waving the knife around?”

“Hey, I didn’t want to interrupt,
” Lucas said with a wicked grin, “I thought you were laying the groundwork. You know, setting the scene.”

EPILOGUE

Grace stepped onto
one of the balconies just outside the hotel’s grand ballroom. She smiled at a few of the other hotel guests before making her way to an unoccupied corner of the balcony.

The Crystal Palace
was absolutely beautiful. It was everything the brochure promised and more. The hotel itself was a monolithic, five-story palace, complete with gable roofs, towers, turrets, bay windows and enough balconies to make Juliet Capulet feel right at home.

The inside
was just as impressive as the outside. Large crystal chandeliers hung in the foyer over plush furnishings, gigantic flower arrangements and dark wooden staircases. And as Kyle had promised, her room was beautiful. She couldn’t decide whether she wanted to stay locked up in her room and live off of room service for the next few days or take part in one of the Palace’s many and varied activities.

In addition to the skiing, the hotel had numerous outdoor and indoor activities. She had her pick between various athletic activities
, such as skiing, skating, swimming, racquetball, or horseback riding, to name just a few, and the less athletic focused activities, such as board game tournaments, cooking classes, book clubs and shopping. She wasn’t quite sure where she wanted to begin.

She leaned forward and propped her elbows on the bannister. Far in the distance she could see the lights of the nearest town. She checked her watch
. Less than ten minutes until the New Year and the firework display.

A movement below her caught her eye. A group of people were congregating on the terrace below in anticipation of the light show. She looked beyond them and into the distance. Right beyond the terrace were a
myriad of snow-capped hedges cut into the shape of various animals. They stood as silent sentinels around a large gazebo decorated with dozens of brightly twinkling lights. Old-fashioned gas lamps illuminated several winding stone covered pathways, which all seemed to converge into one path leading into a gigantic maze at the back of the property. From the height of the balcony, Grace was standing on, she could just make out a charming three-story, pink, gingerbread Victorian, nestled in the center of the maze. A single light shone in its attic window.

S
he turned her attention to the left of the maze. There it was, she thought with a shiver. The Excursion sat facing the hotel. Grace could just make out the police still milling about. They had finally released her not more than thirty minutes before. Just long enough to put her hair up, throw on the royal purple velvet dress she bought in anticipation for this night and join the party at the hotel before the fireworks started. Some sort of macabre fascination within her kept drawing her eyes back to the Excursion. Some of the happiness she felt being at the hotel drained out of her. Nothing like being threatened at knifepoint to put a damper on things, she thought morosely.

Everything had been working so perfectly. Kyle, with Steve and Felicity’s unwitting help, tricked everyone into thinking Lucas was on top of the train. He then merrily led them on a wild goose chase through the train until reaching the lounge car, where he disabled the door to prevent anyone from searching it and discovering that Lucas wasn’t actually hiding behind his brother, like Steve thought.

Once everyone’s attention was focused on the lounge car, Grace was supposed to declare Lucas’ innocence, insist she knew who the real murderer was and rush back to Kyle’s room where Lucas was hiding. Then while Kyle kept the others occupied in the lounge car, Grace and Lucas could go about laying their trap. They just had to wait until Tracy took the bait. Unfortunately, Tracy had been one step ahead of them. Still, it worked out, Grace thought, watching the police lead Tracy away from the train.

She crossed her arms in front of herself, not sure if it was the cold or her memories of the last two days replaying in her mind that caused the sudden shiver to race up her spine. She glanced back at the charming little Victorian with its pink wood paneling. Just as she was making
plans to visit the house in the morning, the single light in the attic went off. A few seconds later the lights surrounding the house were extinguished as well, plunging the house into darkness. For some reason an eerie feeling began to take hold of her.

Shaking slightly, she rubbed her arms, wishing she had remembered to bring her velvet wrap outside with her.
A few seconds later another pair of hands hesitantly joined hers. She turned her head to see Kyle behind her. He looked at her questioningly. Everything was changing so fast now in their relationship. They had always been physically affectionate with one another. It seemed so easy, so natural when they were friends to reach out to one another for a hand to hold or a hug. Her face burned as she recalled some of the warnings she received from her ex-manager, Allen Madison, on appropriate office conduct. She had assured the office menace and bane of her professional existence that hers and Kyle’s relationship was purely platonic, despite how much either of them had wished differently. They were just very good friends, she had insisted, but . . . that was then.

She leaned back against Kyle’s strong chest and sighed as he wrapped his arms around her
.

“Wh
ere have you been?” she asked playing with the onyx cufflink at his sleeve.

“
In the dining room. Felicity was entertaining a bunch of reporters and hotel guests with her version of what happened on the train.” He chuckled. “Complete with a dramatic re-enactment of several key moments from the
train of death
.”

“Poor Parker,
” she said with a laugh, guessing that Parker would have been tasked with most of the re-enactment.

“Poor
’s right. He was way too wooden in his scenes and was completely incapable of improvising. He’s just not a natural entertainer.”

She turned her head slightly to look up at him. “You didn’t?”

“I was excellent,” he said proudly. “Everyone was very complementary. I even performed a few illusions, too.”

Grace lifted her head and sniffed delicately. No smoke, so it must have gone well.
“I wish I had been there.”

“Me too.
I even made Felicity disappear.”

Someone opened the French doors to the balcony. The music from inside increased.
Kyle began to sway back in forth with her in his arms. “Speaking of disappearances, guess who I found in the dining room?”

“Let me
see,” Grace said putting her finger to her lips, “Jack Horner.”

Kyle nodded. “Waiting for Felicity, just as he said he would. We
apparently had just missed him. He was jumping off the train at the same time we were jumping on. He said he saw us coming and went out the other door.”

“When did he get to the hotel?”

“He took the Express this morning.”

“
The moment I got to the hotel, I asked if Jack Horner checked in and they said he hadn’t.”

“Th
at’s because he checked himself in as Jack Sprat.” He hung his head. “Please don’t ask me who that is.”

Grace glanced back to the Excursion just in time to watch the police handcuff Lucas and lead him away from the train. Meredith stood a few feet behind with her arms crossed.

Grace
nodded to the Excursion. “Looks like Lucas is going away for a while, too.”

“T
he police weren’t too happy about his throwing Oscar’s body out the side door. Meredith is also unhappy about his placing Henry’s body under her bed. I think he’s more afraid of Meredith than the police.”

“I would be,
too,” she said ruefully. “I haven’t seen Wellington. Is he still with the cops?”

“Last I saw him, he was surrounded by police officers who were hanging on his every word. According to him, he knew all along that Tracy was the murderer. Funny, our names never came up.”

“
We’ll have to discuss it with him in the morning.”

He shook his head. “Can’t
. We have plans for the morning.”

“
Skiing?” she asked, glancing back to the house in the distance. She bit her lip. For a second, she could have sworn she saw someone on top of the roof. Another shiver raced up her spine.

Kyle moved back and unbuttoned his jacket. He swung it around and laid it on her shoulders before pulling her back against his chest.
“We’re going to catch a murderer.”

She turned her head in surprise.

“Someone’s going to die tomorrow.” He smiled at her expression. “Tonight kicks off the murder mystery extravaganza, remember?”

“I thought
that was just a ruse to get Steve on the train.”

“Well, it was
, in that Steve’s not a consultant, but they do have a murder mystery event every year. It’s supposed to be a lot of fun.” He leaned his head down next to hers. “Are you still game?”

Grace shook her head. “I’
d love to play, but what will your employer think about you doing something like that?”

“Steve won’t care and he’s not my employer.”

“I was referring to Wellington.”

Kyle placed a kiss on her neck. “
I’ve decided not to take the job,” he murmured against her skin.

Grace turned around to face him. S
he smiled brightly as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “Really, what made you change your mind?” she asked as the partygoers out on the balcony and in the ballroom began counting down to the New Year.

He smiled down
at her affectionately. “I’m perfectly happy where I am.” Cupping her chin, he leaned forward, only to step back and loosen his hold when the clear night sky suddenly erupted with a dozen fireworks going off at once.

Grace looked up a
t the dazzling display of pyrotechnics. Her eyes fell back to the Victorian. She could have sworn she saw a flash a light. She was just about to say something when she felt Kyle cup her chin and bring her face back around. She smiled up at him as he lowered his head. It can probably wait, she thought, as she ran her fingers through his hair.

The End

Murder Games
, book four in the Grace Holliday Mystery Series, will be released December 2013.