EIGHTEEN
Cat was sleeping later that night when she smelled smoke. Springing from her bed, she grabbed the phone and called down to the front desk. Nobody answered, so she threw on a robe and rushed out of the employee quarters, following the smell.
“What the hell? That’s coming from the kitchen!” she gasped as she began to run across the field.
Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was about three in the morning. Nobody was supposed to be in the kitchen at that hour. She rushed over and used her universal card to open the door, discovering that something in the middle of the breakfast grill had been set on fire. She immediately grabbed the fire extinguisher and put it out, then stormed over to the phone to call Aiden, who was fast asleep in his condo.
“Cat? What’s up, baby? Did you decide you wanted to come home with me after all?” he asked, sleepy but hopeful.
“It’s lucky for you I didn’t go back tonight, Aiden, but I think you’d better come over here right away,” she commented dryly. “There’s been a bit of an incident. Nothing has been damaged from it, but the implications are pretty frightening.”
“Incident?” he repeated woodenly. “What do you mean?”
“Just get over here already.”
Cat didn’t budge from her position just outside of the kitchen door until she saw headlights, and then she hurried over to Aiden’s SUV. By that time, about fifteen minutes had gone by and she’d had plenty of time to allow her imagination to run rampant. Somebody was playing with fire, literally, and they could have easily destroyed at least one building. And a vital one, too. Without a kitchen, the guests would have to go elsewhere looking for meals.
When Aiden got out of the car to greet her, she was trembling.
“Hey, come on, what’s the story?” he asked, giving her a squeeze.
“I don’t really know,” she explained. “But somebody got into the kitchen and lit up a pile of bones and vegetable remnants in the middle of the breakfast grill. There’s no way it was any of the chefs attempting to get a jump on the upcoming meal. Come on, I’ll show you.”
The smell of smoke was still in the room, and she’d left the pile right where it had been so he could have a look. Aiden frowned as he took it in.
“I don’t think the intention was arson,” he pronounced decisively. “It seems more like whoever did this was going for a disturbance more than anything. I don’t know, though. Brynn can be a bitch, but I don’t think she’d do something like this. If we were to check in on her right this moment she’d probably be clocked out on some sleep medication or other. No. This has got to be something else.”
“First the magnet strips, and now this?” Cat pointed out.
“Not to mention one of the cars being sabotaged the other week,” he added, rubbing at his temples. “I’ve got back the report from the mechanic giving the car a clean bill of health but for one issue. Sugar in the gas tank.”
“How poetic,” Cat snorted. “So it sounds like there’s definitely a snake in our woodwork. The question is, who? A disgruntled wife who isn’t getting what she wants, some random troublemaker with no motive—or one of the members of the staff. You’ve only just hired almost all of us. You don’t know who you can really trust, and you don’t have a clue about our motives or mindsets after such a short amount of time.”
“Why are you lumping yourself into that group?” he grumbled.
“Because like it or not, you’ve known me just one month, and you don’t know if I could be capable of doing something like this as a result,” Cat sighed. “From a business point of view, it makes sense to distrust me too. I haven’t done anything wrong, and have no interest in doing so, but that doesn’t mean you should assume that without examining all the facts first.”
“Cat, there’s no way it was you,” he scoffed. “It doesn’t matter how long I’ve known you, it matters how well. And I feel confident when I discluded you from the others since I’ve known you on a much more intimate level than anyone of them.”
“Well good,” she chuckled. “Then you’ve ruled at least one of your suspects out. Now, all that’s left is the maids, laundry workers, cooks, lifeguards, divers, administrative staff, the Wilson family, the Cumen party of four, or one of the six people staying in Brynn’s cabin which is, I feel the need to point out, directly adjacent to the kitchen itself. You tell me how likely it is that Brynn had no involvement, and if you still insist she didn’t then I’m looking at a fool.”
“Now Cat, don’t bring out the claws just yet,” Aiden told her sternly. “I never said the trouble didn’t stem from that quarter, only that it didn’t seem like something Brynn would do herself. Hell, I’ve never seen the woman go anywhere near an oven and I’ve known her almost eight years. Then again, that mess sure doesn’t look professional.”
“We need to call in an investigator,” she insisted. “This all needs to be documented so we can find out what is really going on.”
“Yes, that’s so, but I’d like to do it as discreetly as possible,” Aiden agreed. “Why don’t you go back to bed for now? I’ve already got a man right here on the inside who can document this whole thing.”
“You’re sure?” Cat asked reluctantly. “I’d like to help out in any way possible.”
“I don’t want even you to find out who this guy is, sweetheart,” Aiden told her. “The less you know, the easier it will be to avoid any slip-ups that could spoil the surprise.”
“You sure do like masquerades,” Cat complained. “Remind me when we’re planning Halloween activities next year to suggest hosting a costume party in your honor.”
“Come on, Cat, this is business,” he sighed. “We need to take this whole thing seriously. How do we even know you’ve hit upon the culprit in your list at all? Maybe there’s a disgruntled neighbor who resents us being here. Maybe there’s just some psycho running around who likes to grill useless chicken parts in the middle of someone else’s kitchen. We have no clue, really. And since I’ve already got a detective nearby, doesn’t it make sense to have him check it out? I mean, especially since he followed Brynn here, and is already keeping an eye on her and her party. If they did do this, he’ll soon figure it out.”
“Fine,” Cat sighed. “But for the record, I’m perfectly capable of keeping a secret, you know. Even if you told me little Tommy Wilson was a midget detective in disguise I’d still be able to keep my cool. He isn’t, is he?”
“Of course not,” he chuckled, drawing her in for a hug. “Don’t look so worried, Cat. I’m not going to let anything happen to this place. Trust me, will you? We’ll get it all figured out.”
“See you in a couple of hours,” she said, nodding. They hugged each other, and then Cat turned and headed back across the field to the employee housing units. Still, try as she might sleep did not come to her, and she wondered what their second day of business would hold. With any luck, things might settle down, but considering what had gone on so far, she harbored a serious doubt.
When she opened her eyes later, she realized she’d slept late. Dragging herself out of bed, she showered and headed for the hotel, where for once things seemed to be moving fairly smoothly. Over the next few hours five new groups arrived, and Ellen was easily able to make keycards for them all. As a precaution, Aiden had insisted upon putting the new batch of cards inside the employee break room in locker fifteen, only allowing five or ten of the cards out to the front desk at a time. It meant Ellen had to disappear into the back room a bit more often than she would have liked, but that was a whole lot better than the alternative.
“Don’t look so worried, Cat,” Ellen told her when she came out to check on things for about the fifteenth time in the past hour. “Everything is great. There’s no need for you to stress out over things this early on, or how will you ever make it through the long haul, eh?”
That was easy for her to say, since she was clueless about what was troubling Cat at the moment. She hadn’t been the one to find out someone had lit up a pile garbage on the kitchen grill, and she was unconcerned that Aiden had yet to make any sort of appearance for the day. Maybe he and his detective friend were hot on the case, but the very fact that a case existed in the first place meant none of them were safe.
What if the fire-starter hadn’t gotten the reaction they were hoping to obtain, and the next time something much worse might happen instead? What if the next time they lit up the whole place? Cat worried that keeping the incident quiet might be a big mistake.