Elisabeth Crabtree - Pink Flamingo Hotel 01 - Death by Pink Flamingo (8 page)

With a sick feeling, I watched as Luke stole a glance at me and pointed. As the
y spoke to each other, I went back to digging my nails into my palm while wondering whether Uncle Max’s lawyer did defense work and whether he was available right at the moment.

A tap
on my shoulder, however, diverted my attention away from my imminent arrest. Olivia stood behind me, worriedly gnawing at her bottom lip with her teeth. “Several of the guests have checked out.”

Not exactly surprised,
I nodded, quickly acknowledging her statement with a strange sort of detachment. Despite looking forward to this day for months and worrying obsessively about the hotel and whether I’d be able to keep it running, guests leaving in mass droves was, oddly enough, the least of my worries at the moment. The possibility of being arrested for a murder you didn’t commit tended to put things in perspective. “Olivia, what were you saying about my Uncle and Sylvia before …” I paused as I waved my hand around in a half-hearted attempt to encompass the whole of my existence, “all of this happened.”

She looked at me curiously. “
Hmm? Oh, I don’t remember now.” She glanced over her shoulder at the ringing telephone. “It’ll probably come to me later,” she said as she jogged toward the phone.

“Wow, that was
entertaining.”

I turned to see Blake
lying down on one of the red tufted velvet couches tucked away in the corner of the lobby. He lay there staring up at the ceiling, with beach sandals on one armrest, a wet head on the other and a large beach towel wrapped around his waist. He lifted his hands and laced them together behind his head.

“I thought you were at the beach.”

“Too hot, so I thought I would come back in. Good thing I did. I wouldn’t take Danielle seriously. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” He snorted in derision. “You didn’t kill Sylvia in the garden.”

“Well, I’m glad I have your vote of confidence
. Now if you don’t mind …”

“No, not in the garden.” He
dropped his feet to the floor and sat up. “And you definitely didn’t strangle her.” Standing, he patted his stomach. “I think I’ll go take a dip in the indoor pool. Excuse me,” he said as he brushed against me. “Oh, I can charge room service to my room, can’t I?”

I was just about to
answer, when I felt Ryan tap me on the shoulder. “Let’s talk in your office, shall we?”

CHAPTER EIGHT

“Now, Anna, don’t get excited.” Ryan rested his ankle on his knee and leaned back. An amused smile lit up his boyish face. “Danielle finally admitted to us that she was lying. Well, she didn’t actually say she was lying. Her statement finally shifted from her seeing you kill Sylvia last night to her just having a nightmare. She says that she just got confused.” He chuckled. “She’s a bit of a firecracker, that one. Just what did you do to set her off like that?”

I stopped my pacing
long enough to throw up my hands in frustration. “I have no idea.”

His
dark eyebrows lifted up. “Don’t you?” At my questioning look, he rubbed his hand over his chin. “Look, it’s no secret that she and Jesse have a bit of a thing going on since he returned to town. Luke told me that he spotted them in the bar down the street last week. Apparently, they were going at it pretty hot and heavy. Now, from what I understand, Jesse’s moved onto to you. Danielle’s not the type to take that well. I think she was rather shocked.”

I
sank down into the chair behind my desk. “She’s not the only one.”

Ryan’s
eyebrows rose in a questioning look.

“
Jesse and I … reconnected after the party last night. I think it was sort of a surprise to everyone.”

We glanced to the door as a knock sounded against the wood. Luke Casey poked his head inside.

“Everything check out?” Ryan asked.

Nodding, Luke dropped into the chair next to Ryan. “Have you told her
, yet?”

“Told me? Told me what?” I asked
warily.

Ryan grimaced slightly. “I was just about to.” Turning to me, he dropped his foot back to the floor and leaned forward, balancing his elbows on his knees. He gave me a pained look.
“Sylvia called me last night.”

I smothered a groan.

“She’s convinced that your uncle was murdered.”

“I know
,” I answered with a weak laugh. “It’s absolutely ridiculous. Those stairs—”

Luke
held up his hand. “I know, but there were some incidents that happened before your uncle passed away that worry me.”

“
What happened?”

“Right before Max died, he
claimed that a lot of strange things had been going on at the hotel,” Luke said. “Things were going missing. People were checking in, but not checking out.”

I felt my eyes widened.

“About two …” He glanced at his partner. “… or was it three days?”

“No, it was two,” Ryan
answered.

“Right
,” Luke said. “Two days before your uncle died, he called, claiming that he found a dead body in one of the rooms.”

“What?” I asked. “Who died?”

“That’s what we wanted to know,” Ryan said. “We showed up, but there was no body. No sign of trouble, nothing. Luke and I searched the entire hotel. There was nothing here, but Max swore up and down that he found a body.”

“Then someone must have moved it,” I
said, feeling a chill run up and down my arms.

“I don’t think so
,” Ryan said softly. He glanced at his partner. “I don’t think there was ever any corpse.”

“My uncle wouldn’t lie about something like that.”

“Come on, Anna,” Ryan chided gently, “you knew your uncle.”

I crossed my arms. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Ryan looked at me rather uncomfortably. “He was a bit … well, he wasn’t quite right.”

I shook my head. “He was a bit eccentric, I admit.”

“Eccentric?” Ryan asked in disbelief. “He refused to rent out any rooms on the fourth floor for twenty years because he thought it was haunted by the ghost of the former owner … and Trigger. He only opened it back up two years ago because a psychic told him they moved on to Miami. He refused to rent to men named Harry in July because of incident from ten years ago. He thought aliens existed.”

Feeling the need to defend my uncle, I shook my finger and said, “Hey, that’s completely possible.
There are billions of planets out there.”

“He thought they were living in the governor’s mansion and were trying to take over the world.”

I snapped my mouth shut and dropped my hand back in my lap.

Luke sat forward.
“Max was scared. I think he was telling the truth when he said he found a body.”

Ryan turned to his partner. “
We searched. There was no dead body.”

Luke threw a frustrated look
at Ryan. “I think someone may have been trying to gaslight him. Trying to make him crazy.”

“They didn’t have to try very hard,” Ryan said. He gave me an apologetic look
before looking down at the floor. “Sorry.”

“Wait,” I said turning to Luke. “Why would someone try to scare my uncle?”

“That’s why I wanted to talk to you,” Luke said. “Ever since your uncle died … I just feel that there was more to his death. Did your uncle have any enemies? Anyone who would want to harm him or frighten him?”

“No. Everyone loved
Uncle Max. I never heard anyone speak unkindly about him. He was one of the sweetest men I knew.”

“
Sylvia says that someone was pressuring Max into giving up the hotel,” Ryan said. “She’s convinced that the person is you, but I don’t think so.”

“Well,
at least someone doesn’t.”

“Did your uncle say anything to you about it?”
Luke asked.

“
No, I’m sorry. Not a word.” I shook my head helplessly. “Do you really think someone killed him? The safety inspector shut us down because of those stairs. He was surprised more people hadn’t fallen. Come on, those stairs were in bad shape.”

Luke leaned back. “Yes they
were, but … I don’t think his death was an accident.”

“If you thought he was murdered
,” I said feeling the stirring of anger welling up in me, “then why didn’t you investigate then? Why was his death ruled an accident?”

“Because
at the time, I believed it was,” Ryan said. “Look, I was the first person who arrived that night. Danielle told me that the day before your uncle fell to his death that a guest had accidently tripped going down those very same stairs. Luckily, the guy caught himself before he fell. Your uncle just wasn’t as lucky. I had no reason to believe that his death was anything but an unfortunate accident, but …” He glanced at Luke and sighed. “Since then, Sylvia has uncovered some rather suspicious things in the last couple of weeks.”

“What things?”

Ryan leaned forward and began listing off the things one by one with his fingers. “She found ripped up papers to a nursing home in Max’s bureau. An unfinished handwritten note dated a week before he died, telling someone that he wasn’t going to sell the hotel, but he’d consider their offer and let them know in a few days, and another note that Max started the night he died that began with, ‘If I should die in next few days…’”

“What else did the note say?”

“That was it. He apparently didn’t get a chance to finish it. Sylvia found it a few days ago stuck in the pages of a book he had been reading the night he died. Do you know who could have been trying to force him to sell?”

“No.” My mind flashed back to
Gabriel Carrera’s offer the night before. “Well, not anyone who’d want to kill for it. What did Sylvia say to you last night?”

Ryan made a face.
“She called me at home last night—woke me up from a dead sleep. I swear if it was anyone else but her …” He shook his head in amusement. “Anyway, she said that she was positive Max had been murdered and that she was going to set a trap for his killer.”

“Trap?
” I asked. “What sort of trap?”

“I don’t know. I told her not to be stupid and to go back to
sleep, but she wouldn’t listen. She just said that she was going to spring it sometime tonight.” He glanced at Luke. “I wonder if she’s really in Tallahassee. How much you want to bet she’s out there setting her plan in motion?”

“We need to find her
then, before she gets into trouble.” Luke stood up.

“Where are you going?” Ryan asked.

“To talk to Danielle again. Danielle and Sylvia are supposed to be pretty close. Who knows, this little scene today may be part of their plan. I got the feeling Danielle wasn’t being completely honest with us.”

“Good idea,” Ryan said. “T
ry her apartment. She said she was going to go home.”

“You want to
come with me?”

“I’ll catch up to you. I’m going to look around here for a bit.
Sylvia may be hiding out someplace.”

“No, she’s definitely gone,” I said quickly. “I saw her leave.”

“Well,” Ryan said, slapping his knees and standing up, “that doesn’t mean she won’t return at some point. Sylvia’s supposed to spring her trap tonight and I’d like to find her before she does.” He followed Luke out the door. “She’s probably still mad at me for telling her to stop being stupid and go back to bed. She hung up on me. She’s never hung up on me before.”

* * *

Closing the door to my office, I took a quick survey of the lobby. Virtually empty. Only a few guests on their way to the dining room, one bellhop, and Olivia at the desk were visible. “Where’s Jesse?”

Olivia capped her highlighter pen and closed her textbook.
“Is that the cute blond guy who was here earlier?” At my nod, she said, “Oh, he left a few minutes after you went into your office to talk to the police. Is Danielle coming back?”

“No, she is not.”

“Good,” Olivia admitted honestly. “She was horrible. Always late. Complaining. She never would clean the bathrooms. She barely cleaned anything. She was rude to the guests. I’d been waiting forever for someone to fire her.”

“If she was that bad, why didn’t Uncle
Max get rid of her?”

“
Sylvia wouldn’t let him. She likes her. Danielle spends a lot of time flattering her. She agrees with whatever Sylvia says, even when she’s wrong. I think that’s why Danielle’s being so mean to you. She knows Sylvia doesn’t like you and she figures that she can stay on Sylvia’s good side by attacking you.” Olivia’s face grew worried. “Sylvia’s going to be real mad when she finds out Danielle’s gone. There’s no telling what she’ll do.”

“
Somehow, I don’t think Sylvia’s going to care …” Realizing how that sounded, I quickly added, “I’m sure the stolen jewelry will upset her more than Danielle leaving.”

Olivia looked at me doubtfully before suddenly lifting up her hands to her head.
“Oh! I finally remembered what I wanted to tell you. This wasn’t the first time some jewelry here went missing.”

I frowned.
“There have been thefts here before?”

“Yep.
Some lady lost her diamond ring last year and another woman reported losing her gold watch a few months after that. She took it off when she went swimming, but when she got out of the pool, it was gone. Nothing could be done about it, though.”

“Was this reported to the police?”

“Yeah, I think so, but it didn’t do much good. There were so many guests that day and the lady with the ring couldn’t even remember when it was that she lost it. But the lady five months ago was different. She went nuts. I don’t blame her either. Her whole jewelry case went missing. She was so mad. I heard her tell Max that the necklace alone was worth fifty thousand! She made such a ruckus.” Olivia’s mouth twisted. “She made a ruckus all week. She was here for her son’s wedding. Oh, the bride was so pretty and the groom so handsome. They got married on the beach and had the reception in the ballroom
.
It would have been such a nice week if it wasn’t for her.”

“Well, I could understand her being upset. If my jewelry had been stolen—
”

Olivia shook her head. “That wasn’t why. She hated the bride.”

“Oh.”

“It was horrible. S
he complained the whole time. About everything. The room was too hot. The lobby was too cold. There was a lizard in the bathroom. Complain, complain, complain and that was even before she lost her jewelry case.”

“Did they ever find out who was responsible
for the theft?” I asked.

Olivia
frowned as she looked up at the ceiling. “Um, I think they ended up arresting the bride’s brother. He had just been released from prison. The lady came down from her room and accused him while he was giving a toast to the happy couple. They weren’t too happy afterward. A brawl broke out between the two families. It was sort of like th
e
Montagues and Capulets, only more annoying and less romantic. The bride and groom are divorced now, but it was a beautiful wedding.”