10
Mara dropped the shoe.
The room settled into a profound silence, marred only by the soothing harp music that played in the background. Then—screams, high pierced and terrified.
Like a cartoon character afraid of a mouse, Destiny jumped onto a chair and shrieked and pointed.
Xander stood in one smooth movement and stepped away.
Kellen tried to calm them down. “It’s a ring. It’s okay…”
Heads shook wildly.
Kellen got it. There was something about this ring. “What? Tell me. What?”
The screams died down. Shock quivered in the room.
Destiny visibly trembled, and her voice trembled, too. “That’s Priscilla’s ring.”
“Who’s Priscilla?” Kellen asked. Someone they knew, obviously. Then she remembered. “Wait. Priscilla, the assistant manager before me? The one who left without notice?”
Destiny nodded her head, up and down, up and down.
Xander went to the pitcher of lemon-infused water and poured glasses full. He put them on a tray and started around the room, offering them like fine wine.
“I never thought…” Mara took a glass and tossed it back like a shot. “That woman was such a—”
“Don’t speak ill of the dead,” Ellen warned.
“Right.” Mara gathered her thoughts. “She disappeared one day and we all thought… Well, her car was gone and her cottage was cleaned out, and we thought… But that’s her ring. Her toe ring. She always wore it, a Celtic knot with a purple topaz. She said it was her lucky ring.”
Destiny crouched down in the chair and covered her face with her hands.
“She hid it under the sole of her shoe. She must have done that when she knew she was in trouble.” Sheri Jean waved Xander away and turned to Kellen. “What did you say killed her?”
Kellen thought about those hands cut off at the wrists. “I don’t know. I’m not a coroner.”
“The question isn’t what killed her, but who.” Mara leaned down, wrapped the shoe in the towel and placed it on the table again. With the tweezers, she picked up the ring and placed it beside the shoe.
“Why do you think it’s murder?” Frances asked.
“Kellen said it was,” Mara answered. “She said it wasn’t a natural death, and I have to say I agree. Why would Priscilla hide her ring in her shoe if she wasn’t trying to send a message?”
“Definitely murder.” Kellen accepted a glass of water and sipped, a wonderful dampness in a mouth that had been dry for too long.
Destiny lifted her head out of her hands. “Was her other shoe out there?”
“I didn’t see it,” Kellen said. Because she hadn’t wanted to look. “But as gloomy and wet as it was, I didn’t spot this one, either.”
“I wonder if she hid any messages in the other shoe,” Destiny suggested.
Kellen had her phone pulled out before Destiny finished speaking. “I’m texting Lloyd Magnuson and Temo right now. If it’s out there, they’ll find it.”
“Good thought, Destiny,” Mara said.
“The killer can’t be one of us!” Ellen said. “It must be a stranger. A vagrant! There are always weird people floating through town.”
“It could be a guest.” Destiny took a glass, too. She tried to take a drink, but her teeth chattered on the edge. “Some of them are not nice people.”
Kellen’s phone chimed. She checked the message. “Temo’s got the other shoe. When Lloyd gets back with his car, it’ll go to the coroner with the other remains.”
“Shouldn’t we examine it?” Frances asked.
“It’s evidence in a murder investigation. I suspect we shouldn’t have messed with the first shoe.” Kellen saw the look on Frances’s face. “I know. I half want to look, too.”
“How did it happen?” Sheri Jean was working it out in her mind. “Priscilla came in, all smiles, volunteered to take the tour. I sent her off with the group. One lady said she got sick out there, that she was white and sweating. She dumped the group, went to her cottage and…”
“Someone was there and abducted her!” Ellen said.
“And packed up her bags and drove her car?” Sheri Jean scoffed.
“So she packed and got ready to leave, and he jumped her?” Ellen was on the trail now. “Forced her in the car, forced her to drive, took her somewhere and killed her?”
“Or she stopped in town on the way out and he grabbed her there,” Destiny whispered.
“Maybe it was your boyfriend, the one you left the door open for,” Frances taunted.
“It wasn’t!” Destiny straightened out of her hunch. “In September, he was in Seattle at community college. He didn’t come home until Christmas.”
“Flunked out,” Frances told Kellen.
Xander placed the tray with the extra glasses on the table within easy reach and sank back into his meditative pose.
“Where was the body found?” Mara asked.
“On the grounds above the beach.” Kellen would never forget the scattered bones, the shattered remains of a life. That image would never fade from her mind, and yet, how could she have survived a whole year—and forgotten?
“Maybe she washed in from somewhere else,” Destiny said hopefully.
“Or out of a cave,” Mara suggested.
“We cannot solve this crime.” Kellen stood, legs apart, arms folded over her chest, and spoke the way she had in the past when facing an impossible battle. “We’re not going to waste our time trying. Speculation will get us nowhere. None of us are experts. The body is in an advanced state of decomposition. In all likelihood, this will remain an unsolved murder.”
Mara and Sheri Jean agreed with her.
The others were uncertain, groping for a way to make this come out right.
“What horrible person would kill Priscilla?” Destiny’s voice wobbled. “Priscilla wasn’t happy. She was always trying to make up stuff about herself, trying to make herself interesting.”
“Then she’d forget and contradict herself.” Sheri Jean laughed shortly.
“She didn’t have anyone who loved her. No family. No friends. Then to be murdered…” Destiny jumped off the chair. “I hope the killer’s face is devoured by flesh-eating bacteria!”
“I hope the killer discovers his lover in bed with his best friend,” Ellen said.
Nervous laughter rippled around the room.
“And they both have the clap and he’s slept with both of them,” Daisy said.
Laughter died. They all stared at Daisy with wide eyes.
“You kids.” She shook her head. “I’m old. But not older than sex.”
Kellen broke the icy crust of shock that held them in place. “Everyone, we’ve got work to do, and that includes reassuring the guests, who will undoubtedly hear this news in the most lurid way.”
“I wish Mr. Gilfilen was here,” Ellen said.
“I do, too—” the understatement of the year “—but he left a solid security system in place.” What a lie.
Mara stepped in to support her. “You know Vincent Gilfilen. He’s totally without empathy, but he would never leave us unprotected. Now—my staff has the six Alaskan women coming in for a group spa experience, so, ladies and gentlemen, let’s get to work.”
“The guests will be talking to each of you, so let’s keep the gossip low-key,” Kellen said. “Be encouraging. The death was months ago, we’re horrified and grieved, but we go on as a family. Right? Because we will watch out for each other, won’t we?”
Fear bound the group like glue.
Xander came to his feet again in that don’t-touch-the-floor maneuver that made him look like a cobra rising from a basket. In his overly serene voice, he said, “The universe watches out for us, and we trust the universe to keep us safe.”
“The universe didn’t give a damn about Priscilla,” Frances said.
The employees separated reluctantly, moving toward their stations, arms clasped around their middles. Each of them glanced back as they left the room, and Kellen nodded encouragingly as they did.
Sheri Jean shooed her staff out the door, too.
The last to leave was Destiny. She came to Kellen. “I wouldn’t have left the door unlocked if I’d known a killer lurked close. Captain, I’m so sorry.” She wasn’t asking for her job back. She was apologizing and acknowledging her mistake.
“You understand now. This could happen at any time and to anyone.”
Destiny blew her nose.
Kellen threw caution to the wind. “Mr. Gilfilen will take me severely to task, and he’ll probably override me when he returns from vacation, but for the moment, you can stay.”
“I’ve got my job back?” Destiny’s red-rimmed eyes lit up. “Thank you. If I don’t make money, I won’t go to college next year. My mom works here as a housekeeper—she can’t afford the tuition, and I’m not smart enough to get a scholarship. But college is my only ticket out, and I promise I won’t screw up again.”
Kellen noted that Destiny hadn’t played the sob story card until she was reinstated. Bonus points to her.
To Kellen, Mara said softly, “I told you she was a good kid.” To Destiny, she said, “Mrs. Yazzie specifically requested you for her massage. I substituted a free pedicure, but she wasn’t happy. When she comes in, let her know you’re back and ready to work on her.”
“Okay!” Destiny started to leave but turned back. “What I want to know is—what did Priscilla see out on the tour that scared her so badly she tried to run away?”