Banana Split (26 page)

“I can’t believe you’re asking me to do this again,” Jim suddenly said, his deeper tones carrying much easier than his companion’s. “It didn’t do any good the last time.”

Again? Last time?

Bets spoke again, but Sadie couldn’t hear anything more than perhaps a pleading in her tone of voice. As Sadie listened, though, the voice came closer. Bets must be pacing around the room. As Bets came closer to the window, Sadie was able to hear what she was saying.

“She used to work in a dental office, Jim. She’d be good at managing the desk, and we both know you need the help.”

“I need a housekeeper, not a desk girl.”

“Mandi’s overqualified for housekeeping,” Bets said. “Can’t the new girl do housekeeping?”

Mandi?

“Don’t you mean she
won’t
do housekeeping?” he asked. “She’ll live off you but won’t lower herself to being a maid?”

“She’d do a good job,” Bets said in a pouty tone.

Silence.

“Jim, please,” Bets said softly.

“Even if I offered her the job, she’d only take it because it would mean she could stay close to him,” Jim countered. “Too close. It won’t solve your problem, Bets, just like it didn’t last time. You know I want to help you, but this won’t fix it.”

It was all coming together. Bets had come to Jim for help with Noelani; now she had another woman to get out of her house. Was it a coincidence that with Noelani gone, Bets thought she had somewhere for Mandi to go?

“We just need some time together, alone,” Bets said. Her voice started moving away again, and Sadie leaned toward the window in hopes of hearing it as long as possible. “I’m sure that . . .”

Biscuits,
Sadie thought when Bets’s voice turned back to soft murmuring tones.

“I’ll tell you what,” Jim said, interrupting her a few seconds later. “Why don’t
you
move into the motel? That will send a message he might actually listen to.”

“Jim,” she said, back in range. From the tone of Bets’s voice, Sadie wondered if that was an offer he’d made before.

“Look,” Jim said, sounding frustrated. “I’ve got a charter in ten minutes, and the boat’s not ready yet thanks to some busybody hijacking my morning about your husband’s
last
girlfriend.”

It had been so long since someone had called Sadie a busybody that she almost forgot it was an insult. Bets said something Sadie couldn’t hear.

“She said she’s trying to figure out what happened to Noelani,” he said. “I checked out the video from last night, and she talked to Ashley and then Kiki this morning. I told Kiki she’s not allowed to say a word.”

Bets murmured something.

“Of course not, and I told her to leave, but not before I figured out she didn’t know anything. She’s just fishing.”

Bets spoke again, but her voice was coming closer, and Sadie strained to hear what she was saying.

“—want everything about that woman to go away.”

Was she talking about Sadie or Noelani?

“What if she’s undercover or something?” Bets asked.

“She’s not,” Jim said confidently.

The silence in the office increased Sadie’s tension, and she leaned forward until her ear touched the cool stone of the building. Why would Bets worry about the police asking questions unless she had something to hide?

“I just want to forget any of it happened,” she said again.

“She thinks someone knocked off Noelani,” Jim said.

“What?” Bets asked, the panic in her voice taking Sadie off guard. “Why would she think that?”

“We didn’t get to that part,” Jim said.

“Why can’t she just go away?” Bets said, a hint of emotion in her voice.

“She’ll be gone soon,” Jim said. “Checkout is at eleven.”

“I wasn’t talking about her,” Bets said. “I meant Noelani. What does it take to get her out of my life?”

Silence fell, and Sadie didn’t dare breathe for fear of being overheard.

“I’d be careful who you say that kind of thing to,” Jim said. “And maybe you should—”

A hand clamped around Sadie’s arm, and she jumped and gasped simultaneously, hitting her head against the windowsill in the process. There was no way Jim and Bets hadn’t heard her. She didn’t get a chance to see who’d grabbed her before she was pulled around the corner. The hand on her arm released her as she stumbled to a stop, and she turned to look into Kiki’s face for a quick second before the girl slid a card into the lock of the room they were closest to. She pushed open the door, pulled Sadie inside with her, and closed the door.

“Wait here for five minutes, then leave. Check out as soon as you can. Jim will only make this harder for both of us if you stick around. I’ll call you when I can, and I’ll tell you what I know.”

Sadie opened her mouth to reply, but Kiki had already darted out the door, letting it slowly close behind her and leaving Sadie alone in a darkened motel room.

Chapter 28

Sadie followed Kiki’s advice and waited exactly five minutes—which was about how long it took for her heart rate and breathing to return to normal. After peering outside and making sure the coast was clear, Sadie left the room and hurried to her own door. Only when she got there, she realized she’d left her key inside her room when she’d gone after Bets.

Biscuits!

There was nothing to do but get a new key, so she headed toward the office, hoping Jim wouldn’t be there. She let out a breath when she walked in to find him talking to Kiki behind the counter. Didn’t he have a charter?

They both went quiet when Sadie entered. Jim glared at her; Kiki’s jaw tightened. The door to his office was open, showing the room was empty. Bets must have left while Sadie was waiting those five minutes.

“I locked myself out of my room,” Sadie said. “Could I get a new key?”

“Do you have your ID?” Jim asked, crossing his arms over his chest and looking smug.

“No, I left my bag—and my key—inside the room.”

“We can’t issue a new key without ID.”

Kiki looked from him to Sadie in surprise but took a step backward, physically distancing herself from the confrontation.

“You know who I am,” Sadie said evenly.

He shrugged. “It’s policy. Sorry. We can’t issue a new key without ID to prove you’re the registered guest on record.”

Sadie narrowed her eyes at him and looked at Kiki, who was looking at something on the desk. The girl tucked her hair behind her ear with forced casualness. She would be no help. Sadie took a deep breath, and when she spoke again, her voice was sincerely humble. “Please let me into my room, Mr. Bartley.”

“Like I said, without ID, I can’t issue a key.” He couldn’t have looked more pleased with himself.

“Look,” Sadie said, leveling him with an annoyed stare. He knew she’d been listening in on his conversation with Bets. That was the only explanation. He knew and he was punishing her for it. “Just let me get my things, and I’ll get out of your hair.”

Jim made an exaggerated effort to look at his watch. “Oh, look at the time. I’ve got a charter. I’ll see you this afternoon.”

Sadie’s blood began to boil. “You’re seriously going to keep me out of my own room? Checkout is at eleven. I’ll . . . I’ll call the police.”

“Go for it,” he said. “But they’ll have to wait for me to get back from the charter to tell my side of it.” He turned to Kiki. “You are not authorized to let her into her room or to make her a new key. Tell the police they have to wait for me
if
she calls them, but I bet she doesn’t want them to know she’s been asking about Noelani. We’ll figure this out when I get back.”

He headed for the main door. Sadie was taken off guard by his assessment of her not wanting to call the police, which was dead-on. But she had to get in her room; her phone and computer were in there. The only thing she could think to do was follow him out. He walked fast, and she had to almost jog to keep up with him, her slippahs slapping the sidewalk. “You can’t do this!” she yelled at him.

“Sure I can,” he said over his shoulder. “I own the motel. What’s more, any employee you talk to for any reason will be fired—that’s what I was explaining to Kiki just now. She’ll be passing that message on to the employee who takes over for her at two o’clock. I’d hate to fire them over something stupid
you
do. Gainful employment can be hard to find around here.”

Sadie stopped walking, realizing that a power struggle with him would never work. When he noticed she wasn’t following him, he faced her, looking pleased with himself.

“You must be really afraid of what I’m going to find out,” she said.

His eyes narrowed, but he raised his chin in defiance.

“Go ahead,” she said, growling low in her throat and shooing him toward the gate. “Go do your little charter and then come back and see what’s happened while you were gone.” She turned on her heel, heading back toward the office.

She wanted to look back—she really, really wanted to—but she didn’t. Instead she marched past the main office and stopped at her room, looking at the lock. She’d read up about apps that could copy the IP address of an electronic lock and disable it long enough for her to get inside, but she’d never tried it. Her phone was in the room anyway. She sighed. Even if this was a traditional lock, she’d left both her pick gun and her manual pick set at the condo, which she had locked up tight, anxious about her safety. The keys to the condo were in her bag. She was locked out of everything.

“This is ridiculous,” she muttered. She found herself staring at the main office and took a deep breath to center her thoughts. Gayle’s flight landed in an hour; how would she know where to go? Sadie had assumed she’d be able to communicate with her when she got in.

“Ridiculous,” Sadie muttered again as she tried to figure out the back way Bets had used to get to the church. However, she got all turned around and eventually had to go back to the motel, out front, and walk to the church the same way she had the night before. She needed to call Gayle and leave a message for her to meet her at the motel. And she needed to call Pete to find out if she could call the police about what Jim had just done without having to divulge what she was doing there. Would they really make her wait until Jim got back before they would let her get her things? The sun was up, and the heat was rising with every minute. Surely Pastor Darryl would let her use the phone to call Gayle and Pete, though it was an overseas call.

Sadie had just reached the parking lot of the church when she saw a little boy slip inside the double doors of the church. A familiar little boy.

Charlie?

The surprise of seeing him caused her to jolt to a stop and forget all about stupid-head Jim Bartley—well, almost. It wasn’t yet ten in the morning, and her day had been hijacked for the second time.

Chapter 29

Sadie hurried across the parking lot and carefully opened the front doors of the church so as not to make a sound. She tiptoed across the threshold onto the white marbled floor of the foyer, quickly surmising she was alone. Everything was white—floor, walls, ceiling—except for the colored light that shined through a stained glass window set high above the door. The way the light played on the marble was beautiful, but Sadie didn’t have time to fully appreciate it. She didn’t hear the slap of slippahs in the hallway, so she moved toward the double doors directly across the foyer area, assuming they led into the chapel area. She pulled the door open carefully.