Elisabeth Crabtree - Pink Flamingo Hotel 01 - Death by Pink Flamingo (14 page)

“
If someone killed someone I loved, I’d be pretty angry too,” Luke said, his eyes boring into mine.

Wincing, I reached under the table and gripped Jesse’s
fingers, which were now biting into my flesh. “I know what you’re implying, Luke, but I didn’t kill her. I didn’t kill anyone.”

Luke leaned back and
crossed his arms. “If I suspected that you killed Danielle or Sylvia, you’d be at the station right now. I just want you to be honest with me.” He paused as Ryan walked into the dining room with a cell phone pressed to his ear, looking both confused and exasperated.

He stopped next to Luke and gave him a helpless look. “I don’t really know
… Do you know what time it is?” he asked the other person on the other end of the line. “Well, I’m not working on that case. Another detective’s been assigned … Oh, I see … Well, I don’t know if they’re holding a press conference. I don’t think they’ve decided yet …”

“Who is it?” Luke asked
sharply.

Ryan placed his hand over the end of the phone and whispered, “
The press.” He dropped his hand. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Um, well, I can tell you that Detective Flynn is who you’d want to ask … Oh, okay …”

Luke reached
up, took the phone away from Ryan, and gave the caller a quick, “No comment,” before turning it off and handing it back to his partner.

Ryan sat down. “Why is she calling me?”

“Because you fed her information,” Luke said. “She’s just going to keep coming back now. I told you not to talk to her.”

I
ran a hand across my eyes. The last thing I wanted to deal with tonight was the press. “Are you talking about Beatrix?”

Ryan and Luke shook their heads simultaneously.

“No, not her. Don’t worry, that,” Luke said, jerking his thumb toward the phone in Ryan’s hand, “has nothing to do with this case.”

“Beatrix is another one, though
,” Ryan said with a whistle. “She’s parked outside waiting to get in.”

“Wonderful,” I said glancing at
the cuckoo clock on the wall. “Can I go to bed now?”

“
Not yet,” Luke said. “Look, I’m just trying to find out what happened, Anna. I need you to be completely honest with me.”

“She has been,” Jesse said. “She’s told you all she knows.”

“Well, there’s a slight problem,” Luke said, glancing at his partner.

Ryan shook his head.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Ryan ran his hand t
hrough his brown hair and looked at me sadly. “You said that you overheard Danielle talking on her cell phone.”

“Yes
.”

“We’ve looked
everywhere, Anna,” Ryan said softly. “We can’t find her phone.”

“It should be in her purse
,” I said. “I saw her put it there before she went to the pool.”

Ryan leaned forward and looked at me in concern
“We have her purse but there’s no phone.”

“Where did you find
her purse?” Jesse asked.

“Underneath her clothes
,” Ryan said. “From what we can tell, she took off her sun dress, folded it up and laid it on top of her purse next to her flip-flops. She then took a swim.”

“Maybe the killer took it?” Jesse offered.

“How?” Ryan asked. “When would he have had time? When Blake went in for a swim, the killer ran out the back door. Blake interrupted him—”

“
That’s right,” Jesse said, moving his hand to the small of my back. “Blake interrupted him. So, why are you questioning her? You have a witness who can corroborate her statement. She was attacked. She doesn’t know where the phone is and it’s not her job to find it. The killer could have taken it right after killing Danielle, but before Anna showed up
.
Or even between the time Anna was thrown into the water and Blake appeared on the scene.”

“I see. He’s just murdered a woman—may have just tried to kill another—but instead of running, he stops to steal Danielle’s phone and then takes a moment to
neatly
fold her dress,” Luke said sarcastically.

“Who says he folded it
,” Jesse snapped. “Danielle could have folded it. All he would have needed to do is lift the dress up and put it back in place when he was finished going through her purse.”

Ryan leaned back and crossed his arms.
“Then he has nerves of steel. I think if I had just murdered a woman in cold blood, I wouldn’t be too worried about the condition of her clothes. I’d probably be a little clumsy. Her sundress was made of rather flimsy material. You can’t easily pick it up without the material sliding around and becoming unfolded.”

More angry and sarcastic than I
had ever seen him, Jesse leaned forward and said, “I don’t think it would be that hard to pick up a dress and set it back down. I don’t care what kind of material it was made out of.”

I sat back
and kept quiet as the men argued on the ease or difficulty, depending on what side they were on, of picking up a woman’s folded dress, searching through her purse and replacing everything neatly in only a few seconds while in fear of being caught.

When the argument turned heated and Jesse suddenly offered to demonstrate on how easy it was, I decided it was time to go to bed.
“I’ve had about as much as I can take of this,” I said standing up. “As fascinating as it is to listen to you men discuss the best sundress folding techniques, I’m far too tired to pay attention, so I’m going to my room.”

Luke held up his hand in attempt to stop me, but a vibration in his coat pocket redirected his attention. He
pulled out his cell phone, his lips quirking up slightly as he answered. “No comment,” he said without a hello. “What? … No, it is not a crime to interfere with a journalist’s investigation … No, you may not make a citizen’s arrest. Where are you?” He frowned as he pushed his chair back. “As God is my witness, Kat, if you go in there, I’m going to arrest you …” His handsome face darkened. “Don’t call me Scarlett! … Hello?” He made a guttural sound in his throat as he turned the phone off. “Sixty-seven counties in this state and I had to pick this one.” He shrugged into his coat. “I’ve got to go. Can you handle this without me?”

“Yeah, I’ll call if I need you,” Ryan said.

“It shouldn’t take long,” Luke said. “
I’ll be right back.”

“
Well, I won’t,” I declared to Ryan as soon as Luke stepped away from the table. “If you need me, you know where to find me.” I put my hand on Jesse’s shoulder and pushed him back down. “All by myself.”

“Hang on,” Ryan said softly
as he caught my wrist. I looked down into his bloodshot eyes and felt a twinge of sympathy. “Sylvia was a friend. I need to find out who did this for her. It’s very important,” he said as his voice broke slightly.

I reached
out, took his hand, and held it tightly. “Then check Danielle’s cell phone records. The killer called her. If he used his cell phone, the records will lead you right to him.”

“I will. Trust me, Anna, I will. But it’s going to take a little while before I get my hands on the record. I don’t even know who her cell phone provider is right now and I can’t just
put the investigation on pause until I figure it out.” Ryan cleared his throat. “Now, whoever killed her must have done it before she spoke to you about leaving for Tallahassee.”

“I thought she left you a note, darling?” Jesse asked.

“That’s right,” I said, still holding Ryan’s hand. “I didn’t actually speak to her.”

“Do you still have the note?” Ryan asked.

“No, I’m so sorry, Ryan.”

“
Do you have any idea who’d want to strangle Sylvia? Any idea at all?”

“Strangle
?” I blurted out in surprise. “Are you sure?”

Ryan gave me a curious look. “
Well, the coroner hasn’t made a final determination yet, but that’s what he thinks.” He cocked his head to the side. “You seem surprised.”

J
esse stood up and came to stand next to me. “I thought I saw blood on her nightgown when they brought her body out of the shed. I told Anna that I thought she had been stabbed or shot or something.”

“
Oh,” Ryan said. “No, Sylvia was stabbed by something, but the coroner thinks it was after she was already dead.” He looked wearily up at me. Squeezing my hand gently, he smiled. “You look like you’re about to fall down. Go on, go to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

I opened my eyes
. Sunlight streamed my bedroom window and hit me square in the eye.

It was m
orning.

Correction. A
fternoon
, I thought, glancing at the clock. To be precise, three o’clock in the afternoon. I pulled the covers over my head and groaned.
What a horrible night. Two horrible nights, in fact. And things had started out so promising at the beginning of the week.
I closed my eyes and at once began to drift off to sleep when the sound of water running and a door opening and closing reached my ear. I bolted out of bed and out into my living space.

Jesse
was at my kitchen sink, washing fruit. He looked over his shoulder at me and smiled. “I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up. Sleep well?”

I glanced at my door, wondering how he had gotten in.
I know I bolted the door shut when I went to sleep.
I thought about throwing him out, but since he apparently could come and go at will, whether I liked it or not, it didn’t seem worth the hassle. And since he hadn’t murdered me in my sleep, I decided to reward him by answering his question. “Not really. I kept dreaming of being arrested.”

He turned off the faucet and dried his hands. “Oh, I don’t think you need to worry about that.”

My eyes widened in surprise. “That’s quite the change in tune. When we first discovered Sylvia, you were convinced they’d arrest me on the spot. You practically had me convicted out there. I was envisioning my own execution.”

“That was yesterday.” He frowned. “Or the day before.” He rubbed his hand across his face. “I haven’t slept well, either. No, I don’t think you have to worry now. The killer did you a favor last night by trying to kill you.”

I looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Well, if I knew who he was, I’d send him a nice thank you card.”

“No, I’m serious. There’s no way Ryan’s going to believe you killed Sylvia or Danielle, not after he watched Blake and me drag you out of the pool. They also have Blake’s statement that he saw someone leave. The night before you would have been a suspect. More than likely their prime suspect. Now, you’re a victim. It’s wonderful!” He closed his eyes. “I was so worried for you. We got lucky last night.”

I grimaced. I didn’t feel quite as appreciative of my near death experience as he did, but he was right about one thing. Ryan didn’t seem to be in any hurry to arrest me last night. I pushed my hair out of my eyes. “How did you get in here?”

“I broke in,” he said matter-of-factly. “You really need better locks, Anna. Anyone can get into these rooms.” He picked up a plate off the counter and turned around. His eyes settled on me with an appreciative gleam.

Realizing that I was wearing nothing but a thin cotton t-shirt and panties, I dashed back to my room and threw on a robe. “I doubt it’s going to be a problem, since all our guests checked out this morning.” Belting the robe, I came back out and sat down at the small glass table near the kitchen.

He waved his hand at me as if he thought that was an insignificant detail before pushing the newspaper laying on the table out of the
way. “Don’t worry, once this passes, they’ll come back,” he said as he set a plate of fruit and a tuna sandwich down in front of me.

Starving, I took a bite of cantaloupe.
“Yes, but will I be here? I only have enough money to last maybe a month or two without guests.”

He looked up
in surprise. “I thought Max had a huge life insurance policy.”

“I
t wasn’t an unlimited fund. Most of it went to repairs. Like I said, there’s only so much left.”

He reached out and gripped my hand. “
It’s going to be okay, Anna. Your customers will return.”

Feeling sick at the prospect of losing the hotel, I pushed the plate away from me.
“I don’t know that I want them to.”

He lifted one eyebrow. “Most business people take the opposite approach.”

“My guests aren’t safe here.”

“
Nonsense, the guests are the only ones that are safe. Perfectly safe. The killer has only gone after staff, not the guests.”

My lips quirked up. Leave it to Jesse to find the silver lining.
“Fine. Then I don’t want staff here either,” I said, making a mental note to make sure everyone was gone by the end of the day. “What use is having them here if there aren’t any guests to take care of?”

“
Blake’s still here.”

“Somehow, I don’t think we could blast him out of here.”

“You’re probably right,” he said taking a sip of coffee. “I wonder if he’s our killer.”

I shook my head. “He saved me last night.”

“He may have felt he had no choice. He may have heard me coming and decided it was better to play the hero than be caught standing over you while you’re at the bottom of the pool.”

“Then who turned on the lights? When the killer attacked me, the lights were
off, but they came back on and a few seconds later, Blake was there.”

“Maybe he wanted to watch you drown. I don’t
know, but I don’t trust him. You said it yourself, he’s creepy.”

“No
doubt about that, but that doesn’t mean he’s a killer.”

“Why did you suddenly decide to make him hotel security?”

“I think he’s trying to blackmail me.”

He put down his coffee cup and looked at me in confusion. “What do you mean trying? Blackmailers don’t try. They do.”

“Well, I’m not hundred percent sure if that’s what he’s doing. He’s been dropping little hints. He hasn’t come right out and accused me or asked for hush money, but he knows something. He mentioned Felix last night. He was wondering what happened to him.” I picked up the tuna sandwich. “He mentioned you too,” I said casually before taking a bite.

“So he’s curious about Felix,” he said, seemingly not at all curious about what Blake had to say about him. “That was
pretty interesting last night about Sylvia. I just assumed that Felix was the murder weapon. Kind of macabre to stick it in her after strangling her.”

“I think that was Danielle’s special touch
,” I said, remembering the conversation I overheard between her and her partner-in-crime. “I’m sure she thought it was funny, but why?”

“
Probably to pin the blame on you.” Jesse’s eyebrows knitted together. “It’s like I said from the beginning, someone wants to frame you.”

“
And obviously that someone was Danielle. Whoever she was talking to on the phone didn’t seem too happy about that. I got the impression the killer was rather annoyed with her. It sounded like he definitely didn’t want Sylvia’s body found.”

“If you killed someone, would you want the body popping up? Think about the evidence that could be left behind.”

“Oh, I have been,” I said between mouthfuls of sandwich. “There’s no telling what evidence we left behind.”

“Relax, I was careful
and with any luck, the murderer wasn’t.” He wiped his mouth on his napkin. “I have to go. Why don’t we meet back here in an hour? Maybe if we put our heads together, we can figure out who Danielle was talking to.”

“That seems unlikely,” I said, standing up and heading for my room.

“Maybe not.” He threw his napkin down on the table. “There’s something I haven’t told you yet.”

I turned back around. “What?”

He grimaced. “I’ll tell you all about later.” He looked at his watch and stood up. “Right now, I’ve got an appointment in town.”

“With who?”

“A friend of Danielle’s. I’m hoping they can clue me in to her playmate.”

“Wait, I’ll come with you.”

He bit his lip. “I only got the meeting if I agreed to come alone.”

I raised my eyebrow.

“Yeah, she has those kinds of friends. I’ll be back in a little bit. Hopefully, with good news.” He started for the door, but then stopped suddenly. He turned around and looked at me. Then he quickly closed the distance between us, kissing me passionately. It seemed like we stood there forever when he suddenly released me and left the room.

* * *

After a long hot shower, I got dressed and went down stairs. It was time to talk to the troops. I should have done it this morning, but I was completely and utterly unconscious for the better part of the day. The only thing that I remembered after I left Ryan and Jesse downstairs was stumbling up to my room and collapsing on my bed.

Feeling at least refreshed if not perky, I made my way to the front desk where Olivia was sitting.

As soon as she saw me, she launched into a litany of questions. Some of her questions concerned Danielle and Sylvia, to whom she offered the requisite amount of shock and horror, but to my surprise, most of her questions were about Blake.

“Did he really jump into the pool and save you?” she asked in awe.

“Absolutely. I don’t think I’d be alive if it wasn’t for him.”

She grinned. “I knew it. I always knew
that deep down he was a good guy. Despite what everyone used to say about him, I knew he was perfect.”

Recognizing a teenage crush
developing when I saw one, I felt obliged to put up some resistance to Blake’s hero status. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far. There are still some things about Blake that are rather disturbing.”

“
But he saved you,” she said with all the ferocity of the newly in love. “If only he had gotten there before that monster killed poor Sylvia and Danielle. Were their heads really cut off?”

“What? No! Who told you that?”

“Everyone’s talking about it. My parents put up such a fuss when I told them I was coming to work today. I finally had to tell them that I was eighteen, and I was going to go into work and they couldn’t stop me. They’re the ones who taught me responsibility and all.”

I bet they’re
regretting that now.

“H
e’s so hot. Don’t you love his long hair? I just think it’s so cool. Have you seen him this morning?” she asked, her voice still carrying that note of awe that was starting to worry me more and more.

“
He’s probably still asleep.”

“
He was here a few minutes ago. I couldn’t get anything out of him. He is sooo modest.”

“He wasn’t last night,” I muttered under my breath.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.
I just remembered that I should gather everyone together and talk about what happened last night.”

“Oh, Lizzie already had that talk with us.”

“What did she say?”

Olivia screwed up her face. “She didn’t know much. Just that
Sylvia and Danielle were dead, Blake’s a hero and that we were just going to have to power through this bump in the road. She sounded like my soccer coach whenever we start losing. She finally left a few minutes ago to go home and get some sleep. She told me that if you need her to call her at home. Otherwise, she’ll be in at her regular time tonight.”

Bless Lizzie. If the hotel survived this, I was definitely going to have to look at
giving her a raise.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Olivia
said, reaching into the desk drawer. “Lizzie left a note for you. She said the people in 303, 315 and 118 checked out this morning. They were all really upset about the bodies and all.”

“I’m not surprised. I think almost everyone has
checked out today, haven’t they?”

“Oh, no, I’ve been taking in guests
all
day long.”

“What?”

“Yeah, it’s like the whole town’s here. Seems everyone’s really curious as to what’s going on.”

I rushed around the desk and looked at the register. Never underestimate a teenager’s ability to overemphasize the facts. “Olivia, two couples and a handful of reporters does not make the whole town.”

“Yes, but they’re really demanding, so it kind of seems like a lot. They’ve been here asking questions all morning.”

“Hmm, I’m surprised they weren’t at my door waiting for me.”

“Well … I told them a little fib. I told them you were in 107, so they’re camped out down there.”

I smiled my gratitude. “Thank you, Olivia.” I started to turn away when a sudden
thought occurred to me. “Why did they each rent a room?”

Olivia beamed proudly. “You have Blake to thank for that.”

“How so?”

“He told them they could either rent a room or get out. So, they each took a room.”

My eyebrow quirked up.
Blake was full of surprises.

“Well, you best hide, before they find out you’re not in 107,” she said, handing me the note Lizzie left.