Elisabeth Crabtree - Pink Flamingo Hotel 01 - Death by Pink Flamingo (2 page)

I waved my hand. “It’s a long story.
No guest will see those rooms until I can afford to have you redecorate them like you did on the first three floors.” I smiled in pride at my friend. “The safety inspector had some nice things to say about the dining room. Said it was the nicest in town.”

Victoria
twirled a strand of hair around her finger. “Really? What did Sylvia say about the color we chose?”

“
You mean, whore house red?”

Victoria
laughed. “I take it she loved it.”

“She muttered something about Uncle
Max rolling in his grave and how we should start charging by the hour, before stalking off.” I glanced past Victoria. Sylvia was still standing at the window talking to someone, gesturing wildly toward me as she spoke. When she finally disappeared from the window, I focused back on Victoria with a weary shake of my head. “I just don’t get it. I don’t understand why she’s so angry with me. She was never very friendly to me before, but she was never so hateful towards me.”

Victoria
reached into her beach bag and pulled out a bottle of sunscreen. “You were your uncle’s favorite niece,” she said as she applied another layer to her shoulders. When she was done, she stood up, walked over to one of the pink lounge chairs and sat down. “She probably didn’t want to make Max mad. Now that he’s gone, her true colors have come out.”

“No, I don’t think that’s it,” I
said, moving to the lounge chair next to her. “Her true colors were never hidden. Uncle Max used to tell me that she was meaner than a snake and to watch out for her. No, I think she’s mad at me because she expected to inherit the entire hotel. You should have seen her when the will was read.”

Anna
loudly cleared her throat. “So, my birthday party tonight—”

I turned to see
Sylvia coming around the pool. “Anna, that idiot gardener up and qu—” She paused as her eyes focused on something in the distance. “Hey, you kids get away from there!” She reached over and picked up the hammer I left lying on the table before rushing around the pool and toward the beach.

Victoria
and I stood up and looked over the hedge as Sylvia ran down the walkway, brandishing the hammer over her head. The object of her ire appeared to be the group of teenage boys who were laughing at me earlier.

“What in the world?”
Victoria asked as Sylvia chased the boys across the boardwalk.

We watched as
all of them made a mad dash down the beach toward the ocean. It wasn’t until I caught sight of a flash of pink in one of the boy’s arms that I understood Sylvia’s reaction. “There goes Felix.”

CHAPTER TWO

Ryan Taylor, one of the Flamingo’s former bellhops, and now a detective on the Hatter’s Cove police force stood out in the hot afternoon sun. He swung his gaze from the iron flamingo and back to the irate woman in front of him. “Um, what happened?”

Sylvia
pointed the hammer at Felix. “Those kids came by and dug our flamingo up again. Then when I chased them, they threw it down on the ground. Look at its head. It’s all banged up now.”

I
tried to exchange a look with Victoria, but she was far more interested in exchanging looks with Ryan’s partner to notice me. I couldn’t exactly blame her. Ryan, as handsome as he was, and he was, with his boy-next-door good looks, dark brown hair and light grey eyes, sort of paled in comparison next to his partner, Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome himself.

“
I want those hoodlums arrested,” Sylvia said, obviously oblivious to the man’s finer attributes.

Ryan
pulled his light blue t-shirt away from his chest and blew out his breath. “Did you get a good look at them this time?”

“There were three or four
of them,” Sylvia said. “All teenagers and they were wearing bathing suits.”

The new detective’s eyebrows
rose. “Can you describe them in a little more detail?”

Finally noticing
Ryan’s partner, Sylvia gave him a once over. Her lips curled in distaste. “Who are you?”

Ryan held
out his hand. “Sorry, I should have made the introductions. This is my partner, Detective Luke Casey.”

Sylvia
eyed the new guy suspiciously. “I don’t know you. You’re new, aren’t you?”

Luke smiled reassuringly.
“I’m not that new. I’ve been here in Hatter’s Cove for four months. We met briefly after Mr. Hart’s accident. Remember?”

Sylvia
’s face twisted into a scowl. “You’ve only been a detective for four months?”

“
No, before I moved here, I was a detective in Miami.”

“
I didn’t ask for your life story,” she snapped.

Victoria
took that opportunity to pounce. She sidled up to the detective and smiled brightly. “I would love to hear more.”

Luke glanced down at Victoria, his eyes lighting up slightly before refocusing his attention on Sylvia. “Where are your security camera
s? Maybe one of them caught the kids taking it.”

I ducked my head and stifled a moan
. Security cameras were another source of contention between my partner and me. Sylvia had strong views about installing the cameras and was not shy about sharing her views.
Not shy at all
, I thought, as she launched into a mini tirade against prying into other people’s affairs.

“
I’m not a spy and I refuse to become one. As long as it’s not illegal, it’s no one’s business who stays here or what they do when they get here,” Sylvia said, hopefully, coming to the end of her rant.

Luke, his eyes still wide, said, “Well, it’s not about
spying. It’s more a question of security. Your guest’s and yours.”

“We’
re still considering the issue,” I said tactfully.

“We don’t need cameras
,” Sylvia said through gritted teeth. “Your Uncle Max didn’t think we needed them and I don’t either. I don’t want a bunch of wires lying about or nosy people,” she said, looking pointedly at Luke, “asking to see the tapes or whatever. The hotel has been in operation for almost a hundred years without them and everything has been fine. Besides, I know exactly what those little troublemakers look like. They were teenagers and they wore bathing suits.”

I glanced toward the beach. There had to have been a couple dozen teenagers out there this afternoon. Even more
were milling about on the boardwalk. Detective Casey must have thought the same thing. “Can you tell us anything more?” He asked gently. “Like how tall they were or—?”

“It’s not my job to figure out who they are. You’re the
detective. You figure it out.” Sylvia shook her finger in his face. “And don’t let them come back here. Now, I have to get ready for her birthday party,” she spat out in Victoria’s direction, “that someone in her infinite wisdom thought we should host right before reopening,” she said in my direction. “So you’re just going to have to handle this on your own,” she said, waving her hand dismissively toward Detective Casey. With that, she turned around and made a beeline for the hotel.

Luke snapped his notebook shut.
“Oh, she has a lovely personality.”

Victoria
nodded enthusiastically. Although I had a feeling that Victoria would nod enthusiastically at anything Luke Casey said.

“She takes some get
ting used to,” Ryan admitted with an amused look on his face. “Why don’t you go talk to the hot dog vendor on the boardwalk? He might know who the kids were.”

Victoria
took Luke’s arm. “I’d be happy to introduce you.”

“I
t’s all right. I’ve met him,” he said with a quizzical look on his face as he glanced down at her hand.

Without missing a beat,
Victoria said, “Well, then you can introduce me,” as she led him to the vendor.

Ryan smiled at me, his cheeks dimpling in the process. “Hi,
Anna, how have you been?”

“Oh, just peachy, Ryan
.” I bent over and hauled Felix up into my arms, cradling him like a baby. “I’m surprised they sent you. I was looking forward to seeing a bunch of officers in uniform swarming the place.”

Ryan chuckled. “I called off the swat team in the nick of time.” He grabbed Felix’s neck and pulled him out of my arms. “
Sylvia has my number on speed dial. She was almost arrested last year for bugging 911 over things like this. I told her to give me a call the next time something happens.” He looked the flamingo over before holding him out. “Where do you want him?”

“You don’t want to take him in for evidence?” I teased. “Dust him for fingerprints?”

“Maybe next time. Wasn’t he on a pedestal at one time?”

“
Part of it broke off during the last hurricane and Sylvia must have broken off the other half sometime during the last week.”

“
You really should consider putting him into concrete or something or you’re going to lose him.”

“
I hope not. He’s an institution. Besides, the kids never take him far,” I said, as I led him to the side of the hotel and a small little garden beside the indoor pool. I opened the iron gate and pointed to the corner of the garden near the wall and a palm tree. “Let’s put Felix there for now.”

Ryan sank the flamingo down into the gro
und, twisting it back and forth, as I looked over the iron fence toward the vast wasteland next to the hotel. A hurricane had taken out a good portion of the boardwalk and the businesses next to the hotel. Only remnants of what was once there remained. The Pink Flamingo was very lucky. We had gotten away with minimal damage compared with the other side, and what damage was there, Uncle Max had managed to fix before he died.
Now if only someone would come along and fix the eyesore next door
.

A movement to my right caught my eye. I looked through the
window and into the indoor pool area. Jesse Maddox was lying on one of the lounge chairs.

I did a double take.
Jesse Maddox? Here? It can’t be.
My heart began to beat faster. It had been nine long years since Jesse Maddox moved out of town without even a goodbye. Twelve, since he had proposed marriage on the beach during our freshman year of high school. Thirteen, since he proposed during study hall in junior high and sixteen since he proposed during recess. Jesse was always ahead of the class.

I shook my head
in disbelief.
It can’t be Jesse
. Suddenly, the man on the lounge chair sat up and all I could think as I looked at my ex-boyfriend and childhood sweetheart lounging by the pool was,
we’re not open, yet
.

“
What’s back here? Rocks?” Ryan asked as he tried to shove Felix into the ground. “I think I might need a shovel.”

“Yeah,
I’ll go get one,” I said, still rooted to the spot, unwilling to move away from the window. I turned back toward Jesse as Danielle Nelson, one of the Flamingo’s housekeepers walked into the room. She sauntered over to Jesse and dropped a towel into his lap before striking a seductive pose. She thrust out one hip and tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder as he rose to his feet.

Oh, he’s definitely grown up
, I thought, as he stood in front of Danielle.

I watched, transfixed at the window, as
Danielle took hotel courtesy to the next level. She wrapped her arms around Jesse’s neck and pulled him into a kiss. I sucked in my breath as a wave of jealously hit me hard. I wanted to turn away. I needed to.

“You think he’s deep enough?”
Ryan asked from somewhere at my feet.

“What?” I
asked, finally tearing myself away from the scene by the pool.

“Felix. Do you think I have him in deep enough?”

I cleared my throat. “Sure. That looks good.” I glanced back into the pool area. Danielle and Jesse were standing a few feet apart. Danielle didn’t seem happy. To my surprise, she reached up and slapped Jesse on the cheek before pushing him into the pool and angrily striding out into the hallway.

“Maybe you should cha
in him to the wall or something,” Ryan said.

“I’m sorry, what?”
I asked, swinging my attention back down.

Ryan patted Felix’s head before standing up and smiling. “Cement would probably work the best.”
He pulled his t-shirt away from his body as he glanced into the window. “That pool looks good. Well, it’s been great seeing you again, Anna, but I better collect my partner before Victoria eats him alive. If you have any more trouble, just give us a call,” he said, before walking out of the garden.

As soon as
Ryan disappeared around the corner, I turned back to the pool. I jumped back in surprise. Jesse was standing at the window looking out at me. He pushed his wet, sandy blond hair back away from his face and smiled shyly at me.

“Wh
at is it doing back here?” Sylvia stood at the edge of the garden near the gate. She placed her hands on her hips. “It’s always been out near the boardwalk. That’s the way your uncle wanted it.” She glanced over her shoulder at the young man standing behind her and shook her head in disgust.

I brought up my hand to shield my eyes from the sun. The man behind her was wearing one of our pink hotel shirts and khaki
shorts, but I had no clue as to who he was.

Sylvia nodded to the man behind her and with a frown said, “Go pick that flamingo up.”

I held up my hand, stopping the man in his tracks. “Sylvia, let’s just keep Felix where he is until we can find a more permanent solution for him. We can’t keep chasing those kids around town. Hopefully, they won’t find him back here.”

Sylvia
seemed ready to argue with me, but she must have thought better of it. Instead, she threw up her hands and turned away, muttering under her breath.

The
young man pulled his shoulder length, brown hair away from his face. “So, I’m going? Not going? What do you want me to do, lady?”

“I’m sorry
, who are you?”

“
Blake. I’m the new gardener.” He stuck his hands into the pockets of his khaki shorts. “Miss Sylvia hired me a few minutes ago,” he declared proudly. “So, do you want the flamingo moved or not?”

New gardene
r? What happened to the old one?
“Not right now, thank you.”

“Suit yourself,
” Blake said. With a half-hearted shrug, he turned away and disappeared around the corner of the building.

I glanced back at the window and looked into
an empty poolroom.

* * *

After searching the hotel for Jesse and coming up empty, I decided to look for Sylvia. I finally found her in the dining room, instructing a couple of our servers on the correct way to make a swan out of a napkin. She took one look at me, dropped the napkin she was holding onto the table and turned toward the kitchen.

“
Sylvia, we need to talk.”

“About what
?” she asked innocently, as she pushed open the kitchen door. She let it slam back as she walked through, catching me on the arm.

I groaned as my broken watch fell to the floor.
“What happened to the gardener?” I asked, bending to retrieve the piece of jewelry. Realizing it was beyond hope, I tossed it into the garbage can.

Sylvia
looked into the trash with a mixture of horror and disgust. “What are you doing?” She reached in and fished out the watch. She held it under my nose. “Didn’t your Uncle Max give this watch to you for Christmas last year?”