Last Resort of Murder (A Lacy Steele Mystery Book 9) (11 page)

For the second night in a row, Lacy
fell across her bed in an exhausted heap. She was asleep instantly, despite the
fact that Kimber and Riley were still awake and talking. And like the night
before, she woke several hours later to the sound of baby Lucy crying. Unlike
the previous night, she didn’t feel magnanimous enough to offer to take her
niece. She hunkered down, squeezed her eyes closed, and hoped Riley wouldn’t
notice she was awake. No such luck.

“Lacy, can you take the baby?”

Lacy rolled over to see her sister
standing over her bouncing the baby back and forth. Whatever she was doing was
increasing Lucy’s ire because her wails were gaining in volume.

“Someone let that cat out,” Frannie
muttered.

With a suppressed sigh, Lacy rolled
out of bed and held her arms out for Lucy. Riley gladly handed her over and
took Lacy’s spot in bed, falling almost immediately into the sleep Lacy now
coveted. Having a baby wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. In commercials and
movies, they were always cuddly, clean, and laughing or sleeping. Only in real
life did they wail at odd hours and smell like sour milk. When she was in high
school, she’d had to carry a sack of flour around for a week to simulate what
it was like to have a baby. The experience had done nothing to dim her desire
to have children. All it had done was make her hungry for everything her
grandmother could have baked with the flour. This, though. This was the real
deal. Teenagers should have to spend 24 hours with a real, crying, wetting,
puking baby. The teen parent rate would plummet.

She grabbed Lucy’s blanket and
scuttled into the hallway, squinting her eyes against the shattering
brightness. Once again Lucy stopped crying as soon as they were out the door.

She
really hates that room,
Lacy thought and started to giggle at the
absurdity. Of course the baby didn’t hate the room. She was merely glad to be
moving with a new face to stare at. Once the laughter started, she couldn’t
stuff it back in again. She often got the giggles when she was overly tired.
Compressing her lips to muffle the sound made her snort, which made her laugh
harder. She hurried down the hall toward the den and serenity. Once she reached
it, she wasn’t laughing anymore. Not only that, but she couldn’t remember why
she had started laughing in the first place.

I’m
tired, so tired,
was all she could seem to think at the moment. She yawned
and looked down at the now content infant in her arms. If she was this
exhausted after two nights of getting up with the baby, how spent must Riley
be? It was a wonder her sister maintained even a shred of sanity.

Lacy sat and cozied into the chair
nearest the fire. Despite the simmering blaze, she felt none of the warmth from
the night before. Her chill had less to do with the temperature and more to do
with the deserted atmosphere of the resort. Had it felt so desolate last night?
She didn’t think so. Yesterday the inn had seemed cozy and full of promise. Now
a woman had been murdered and her killer was still on the loose. While it was
true that Jill had likely known her murderer and her death hadn’t been a random
attack, Lacy couldn’t help but feel exposed as she sat alone in the cavernous
room. Worse, she had added a baby to the mix. Knowing that her first priority
would be to shelter Lucy made her feel more vulnerable than if she were on her
own. What would she do if someone tried to attack her while she was holding an
infant? Should she put Lucy down and fight or hold her tighter and run away?
Which would be safer for Lucy?

Her mind wandered, puzzling over
all the ways she could land a few well-placed martial arts kicks to an
assailant without upending a sleeping baby. She was doing well against her
pretend attacker when she came to with a start. What was that noise? Slowly,
cautiously, she peeked around the edge of the chair. Was someone standing in
the shadows, watching her?

“Hello,” she called, but the
croaked whisper carried no weight in the too-large room. She swallowed and
tried again, louder this time. “Is someone there?”

The person, if it was a person,
didn’t move. Lacy stared. There was no one there, it was a trick of her
overheated imagination. She was just about to turn around in relief when the
form shifted slightly to the side. She froze again, hugging a sleeping Lucy to
her chest.

Fight
or flight? Fight or flight? Take Lucy or set her down and go inspect?
If the
person were a friend, he would step forward and identify himself. If he were a
foe, he would remain hidden and watching in the shadows.

“Hello, who is it?” Lacy tried
again. She was practically yelling this time. There was no way she hadn’t been
heard. If whoever it was didn’t step forward this time, she would know he was
up to no good.

The form shifted but made no move
to step forward.

Lacy stood and looked from Lucy to
the chair and back again. She couldn’t leave her baby niece lying there
helpless and alone. She couldn’t run away without passing by the mystery
person. There was only one thing to be done for it—she would have to
confront him. She was at a disadvantage, several really. She had no idea who
the person was. He was in shadow; she was in full light. Judging by what she
could see, he was tall; she was short. She wasn’t what anyone would call
athletic. Oh, and she was holding a baby. Still, at the very least she had to
make him think she wasn’t afraid. Maybe standing up to his menacing presence
would be enough to make him go away.

She wanted to run at him, arms
windmilling, but of course she couldn’t. Instead she cinched Lucy closer and
stomped toward him, keening a high note like Xena, warrior princess.

“Hee-ya!!” She had gained momentum
so that she was nearly jogging by the time she reached him, or as near as she
dared jog while holding such precious cargo. She reached out and
kicked—low so she wouldn’t overbalance. Her foot connected
with—nothing. Somewhere during her advance she had closed her eyes. She
opened them now and yelped. Her reflection stared back at her from a floor-to
ceiling window. A slight breeze emerged from the vent in the ceiling and the
curtains swayed subtly to the right.

“I have met the enemy, and he is
me,” she whispered, feeling stupid. A quick glance at Lucy showed her still
asleep and somehow it comforted Lacy that no one had seen her attack a curtain,
not even a baby.

Then someone cleared his throat.
She pivoted and saw Derek standing close behind her, too close. She took a step
back and bumped the wall.

“Can I help you with something, or
would you like to continue your argument with this curtain?” he asked. He was
wearing his uniform and nametag, so either he was starting his shift or ending
it.

“I have a baby.” Lacy hadn’t meant
it to come out sounding like a threat, but somehow it did.

“Are you licensed to use it?” Derek
asked. She couldn’t tell if he was trying to be self-effacing or charming.
Either way, the effect fell flat on her jangled nerves. What if Derek was the
killer? What if he killed her? Her eyes darted nervously from side to side. In
the distance, the resort was beginning to wake. Someone was behind the desk
now, well within shouting distance. She and Lucy were safe. Her heartbeat eased
its erratic rhythm.

“Actually, I did want to talk to
you.”

“It’s okay, I had to sign a
confidentiality agreement as part of my employment. Nothing I’ve seen here can
go on record anywhere,” he said. “And if I write a tell-all someday, the names
will be changed.”

“That’s good, I guess,” she said.
“Can we sit?” She motioned toward the chairs by the fire. He stood aside to
allow her to get by. They sat by the fire, and it felt warmer than before.
Whether the effect was the psychology of not being alone or because one of the
fire elves had come to add wood, Lacy couldn’t say. It occurred to her that
Derek might be one of the unseen fire tenders.

“Are you a fire elf?” she asked and
then, realizing he hadn’t been privy to her mental nickname, hastened to motion
toward the fire. “Do you keep this going through the night?”

“No, I’m more of a cave troll. I
toil behind the desk. The grounds staff is in charge of the fire.” He checked
his phone. “If that’s all, I should get back.”

Did he really think she had sat him
down to ask if he was the one who kept the fire going in the night? Judging by
her past behavior near him, he might. “Wait, I had more questions.”

He sat and, with effort, suppressed
a sigh. “I don’t change your sheets, either. I know that also happens as if by
magic, but we have a whole staff here who does these things.” He slowed his
words and gestured expansively, pointing around the resort.

“I wanted to ask you about Jill,”
she said, and the smug grin disappeared.

“What about her?”

“You dated her.”

“I didn’t.” He frowned and looked
toward the desk as if for a rescue. What was the signal for, “I’ve been
cornered by a deranged guest?” She was probably about to find out.

“People saw you.”

“What people?”

“People, the people,” she said. She
wouldn’t name names. If he were the killer, he would want to get rid of
witnesses, right? “Many people. All people.”

“I doubt all people saw me with
Jill,” he groused.

“So you admit you were with her?”

“We worked together. Occasionally
we hung out.”

“You kissed her. The people saw
you.”

“Look, because I kiss a woman
doesn’t make her my girlfriend. This isn’t the second grade.” He checked his
phone again.

“Are you waiting for a call?” she
asked, momentarily forgetting the resort’s no-phone policy.

“No, I’m seeing how late to work I
am now. They dock our pay if we don’t clock in on time,” he said.

“Do you always work this time?”

“I work whenever they need me.”

“But you were here early yesterday,
about the same time Jill was killed.”

He froze, his eyes set in mid-stare
at his phone. “Wait, what are you saying?”

“I’m not saying anything. I’m
asking. Did you go out with Jill?”

Now he shoved his phone impatiently
in his pocket. “Jill was hot, okay? We had a thing, but it wasn’t serious.”

“You seem to have been the only
person who liked her,” Lacy said.

“Who says I liked her? You don’t
have to like a woman to…”

She held up her hand to cut him
off. “Got it, thanks.”
Sleazebag says
what?
She smoothed her expression and regrouped. If it wasn’t a great love
story, then what would have been his motive for murder? “Some people told me
Jill was onto something and might be leaving the resort.”

“The people again, huh? Chatty
group, the people. Look, Jill was always hinting and saying that she was onto
something, the next big weight-loss thing. She was probably talking about that
drink Sven gave her. She wanted to bottle it and sell it in the US.”

“But it had strychnine in it,” Lacy
exclaimed.

“So? She knew and didn’t care. She
figured other people wouldn’t care either, if it got results. Sven found out
and got mad.”

“Because she was cutting him out of
the deal?”

“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask
him, if you can get a word in before the police arrest him.” The smirk was
back. Lacy didn’t like that smirk. She wanted to make it go away again.

“You knew the drink contained
poison. You could have dosed her with it.”

“Why would I do that?”

Why,
indeed?
She wondered as she studied him. She took a stab in the dark.
“Because she dumped you.”

The smirk disappeared and his face
darkened. “She didn’t dump me. We were barely going out.”

“But she did break things off,
right?”

“I guess, yeah, but it wasn’t a big
deal. It’s not like I thought she was going to be the mother of my children. She
probably couldn’t even have kids after taking so many ‘roids.”

“Why did she break things off?”

“She said she would be leaving the
resort as soon as her big break panned out.” He used air quotes when he said,
“big break.”

“You didn’t believe her.”

“She’d been saying the same thing
forever. Always with the big break. It would make her rich; it would make her
famous. She’d be like those trainers on TV; everyone would know her name. Blah,
blah, blah.”

“You never asked her what the big
break was?”

“Of course I did. She wouldn’t tell
me. She said it was a secret because, and I quote, ‘I’m still working out the
kinks.’”

“Do you think it had something to
do with Sven’s drink?”

“Personal opinion? Yes. I think
they were in it together, something went wrong, and he killed her.”

“What makes you think they were in
it together?”

“Because a couple of times I
overheard her talking on the phone about a prototype, and it wasn’t the way you
talk to someone who’s working under you. It was the way you talk to someone
who’s on your level, like a partner. She was…solicitous, and Jill was never
like that. It must have been important for her to be nice about it. But she
knew Sven was her supply connection. He wouldn’t tell her where or how he got
the drink. Without him, there would be no product.”

Things weren’t looking good for
Sven. But was Derek simply using him to throw suspicion off himself? Lacy
couldn’t tell. Lucy began to stir and whimper. Derek jumped.

“Holy Moses, is that a real baby?”

“You thought I was sitting here
with a fake baby this whole time like some sort of escaped mental patient?”
Lacy said. When he didn’t answer, she was relieved.

He stood. “I gotta get back.”

Lacy wanted to ask him more
questions, but Lucy was fully awake now and not in a mood to be patient. She
and Derek parted ways without a word, and she went to hand her niece over to
Riley.