Death at the Trade Show: Target Practice Mysteries 3 (14 page)

“Did I hear my name?” Mary exited our room. She was combing her thick, wet black hair.

I flopped my feet onto the coffee table and slid down farther on the couch. “We were discussing the idea of staying in tonight, but I don’t want to ruin everyone’s plans.”

“If we stay in, I can start that article for Sarah. Is, uh”—she cleared her throat, and a pink flush rose in her cheeks—“Orion going?”

Orion popped his head out of the bedroom. “Going where?”

Liam stretched his hands overhead. “The three of us are debating staying in and having room service instead of going out.”

“Count me in on that.” Orion disappeared back into his room.

Mary went over to the small table and pulled out her computer and notebook. Within a minute, she was tapping away at the computer.

Moo crawled up on the couch next to me, his head on my lap. He had already eaten and would be thrilled with the idea of staying in. Liam grabbed the TV remote off the coffee table. After flipping through the stations, he settled on a show about huge fish. “I never see this show at home, but I swear every time I travel there’s a marathon running.”

***

After several more episodes of the fish show and the food had arrived, I was still exhausted but content. Elizabeth had gone to dinner with John, but the rest of us had stayed in and ordered room service. Moo was asleep in my lap. Orion had pulled over a chair and exchanged quips with Liam about the show. Mary had typed away at the table, occasionally asking me for clarifications when her notes got too messy. I was tempted to nap but didn’t want to miss a single second of the easy joking in the room. I was pleased in a way that I hadn’t felt in… ever? I couldn’t think of a time when I had been so at ease.

Mary closed the lid on her laptop. “First draft is done. I’ll give it a look over before I submit it. Are you still watching that show about fish in the Amazon?”

Orion peeled his eyes off the screen. “Nah, that was the last episode. Now he’s fishing for killer sting rays. Pull up a chair and learn about the evil that lurks beneath.”

Mary giggled and started to drag her chair over then stopped. “Oh drat! Di and I were supposed to do some investigating tonight.”

I waved a hand at her. “Don’t worry about it. I bet Sherlock and Watson took time off after a long day. Sit. Enjoy the show.”

“Didn’t Sherlock take cocaine or something?” Mary pulled her chair over next to Orion.

“I think that is out of the cards for us. Television shall be our drug. What is it, Moo?” He had woken up and was pawing at my leg. “Do you need to go outside?” Moo sprang from my lap and raced to the door. “I guess that answers that.”

Mary reluctantly stood up. “I’ll go with you.”

Liam stood. “No, no, you just finished working. I’ll go with Di.” He grabbed his coat and clipped the leash onto Moo’s harness while I grabbed my shoes and jacket.

Mary sat down. “So what is this show about?” she asked Orion.

Liam, Moo, and I slipped out the door. “Thanks for going with me to walk Moo.”

“He’s my dog.” He gave me a smile as we waited for the elevator.

“Only technically. I consider Moo my dog.” I hitched my chin defiantly.

“How about if he’s our dog? How was your day?”

As we rode down in the elevator and took Moo outside, I gave him a summary of our day, including the investigation. He listened and nodded at the right times and gave me every ounce of his attention. We walked in laps around the ground floor until I had shared every bit of information and Moo was dragging behind us. The police tape was gone from the crime scene, and I would have never guessed a man had died here two nights ago.

“What do you have left to investigate?” Liam asked.

“I’m not really sure. I really think Hannah did it, but we don’t know how or if she did it alone.”

We had turned the corner by the bar and headed for the front desk again when a voice called out. “Hey, guys.” The words were slurred and drawn out.

I turned and spotted Kandi wobbling out of the bar toward us. I nodded at her. “Hey, Kandi, how are you doing?”

She was thinner than last time I saw her. The ribs above her breasts created deep ripples like a washboard from her collar bone down. Her makeup wasn’t as heavy as before but was far sloppier. Her eyeliner was uneven, one cat’s eye going up while the other went down, and it was smeared on the left side. Foundation made orangey lines in the wrinkles of her neck. Clumps of black mascara were in the inside corners of her eyes. Her hands twitched and moved with a life of their own as she rambled.

“I’m doing just great. Ha-ha. But I would be better if Liam let me buy back Kandi-Covered products. You should do that, Liam, or Westmound, or whoever makes that decision. What do you think? That’d be great, huh?”

It all came out in one breath, the words tumbling out as one long word without pauses between them. She stopped to empty her sloshing glass all at once before continuing, “Hey, you guys should grab a drink with us. We’re hanging out and having a great time, and you could have a drink or buy me one, and we can discuss selling me Kandi-Covered. Wouldn’t that be fun?” She grabbed Liam’s hand and pulled. When he didn’t move, she slipped and stumbled back a couple of steps.

I moved in closer to Liam and tried to distract Kandi. “Sorry, Kandi. We have to get up early, plus we have Moo with us.”

“Moo! Hi buddy.” She leaned over and shoved her hand into his face before I could stop her. Moo danced out of her reach behind us.

Her behavior made me uneasy, but perhaps she had some information for us. “Hey, did you hear about Cash dying? Poor Hannah.”

Kandi stood up quickly and took a stumbling step to the left. “I did! Can you believe it? Cold worked with them and told me all about it. Cash was so in debt, he spent all of his money from selling his business on the show, which is totally the opposite of how it was supposed to work. You’re supposed to make money, not lose it. I heard that Cash got a huge loan to cover the upcoming season and get a better timeslot. I thought that was hilarious. Cash had no cash.”

She laughed at her own joke while my brain caught up with what my ear heard. She was talking so quickly. “I wish we had been here to see it. I’ve never seen a dead body, but we were at the concert. Cold filmed it, and I helped. We’re going to start doing all the stuff together, and I’ll be on screen and be the face of archery, and it’s going to be awesome. I’ll be at all your tournaments. I can cheer you on. Woohoo! Hey, are you sure you don’t want a drink? I’m so thirsty.”

She turned and tottered off to the bar, her ankles bending and twisting. It was surprising that she didn’t tip over.

“Whoa,” Liam said next to me.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “That was like a tornado. She appeared and disappeared so quickly, I barely caught my breath.”

Liam started walking again. “Is this how you investigate a murder? You walk around, and people give you all the information you want?”

“It’s smart luck. A lot of time, the best clues come from people that don’t realize they’re clues. Like Kandi telling us that Cash and Hannah were in debt because of the show. Hey, Becky’s working the front desk. You stay here. I’m gonna see if she has anything useful.”

“Sure thing, but have you seen the time?” He held out his wrist.

I grabbed his wrist in my hand, his warm skin soft under my fingers. After a few distracted seconds, I noticed the time. It was late. “Geez, so much for an early night and catching up on sleep. I’ll be quick.”

I bounced over to Becky with the biggest, friendliest smile. “How are you doing tonight, Becky?”

She looked up from her computer. “Hi. Doing much better. Things are pretty much back to normal.”

“I saw that the police tape was down. Is everything done?”

“So they say. They packed everything up earlier and said we were free to repaint.”

I leaned in closer. “Repaint what?”

“On the top floor, there were some scratches on the wall. I think that’s where… Uh, did you need anything?”

“Oh, no.” I stepped back and moved back to Liam. “Just wanted to say hi before we head to bed. Night.”

I sped back to Liam. I wondered if Watson had a sidekick that helped him when Sherlock was busy watching fish shows. If he didn’t, then he should, because Liam would make a great sidekick with his quiet manner and wicked smile. “We have a clue to investigate. To the top floor.”

We raced to the elevator. Liam pressed the button. “Then we can call it a night?”

“Absolutely. I’m about to tip over, but it was fun to walk Moo around some. And I’ve barely seen you since we got here.”

“I know, but this show is always crazy. Orion and I juggled some meetings. We are hoping that tomorrow afternoon we can walk around with you and Mary.”

“Really? That would be so fun.” We smiled at each other as the elevator stopped at the top floor.

“You might change your mind about that. Usually we get stopped by a ton of people that want to talk business, but at least you can learn a lot. And hanging with you guys is way more fun than sitting in meetings for the entire show. What did you want to see up here?”

I turned down the hallway the opposite way from our suite and walked toward the far corner directly above where we’d found the body several nights earlier. “It’s over here. Becky said the police are gone and they could repaint. They must have figured out where Cash was dropped from.”

We followed the hallway around, the half wall completely blocking my view of anything except the roof of the hotel. “Can you see over the wall?”

“A little. How could Hannah have gotten Cash over this?”

“That’s our question. We figure that she had help, if she did it.” I stopped in front of the corner, facing the half wall that Cash would need to be lifted over. To the right of the corner was smooth wall. I moved around to the left and found scratches. “Look.”

There was a long scratch in the pale-green paint parallel to the ground, exposing the white drywall underneath. I laid my arm alongside to measure and then ran from the tip of my fingers to my elbow. Using my arm again, I measured the height of the marks to be as far off the ground as they were long. Roughly in the middle, a second, fainter scratch ran perpendicular up the wall. It was not as deep as the lower scratch and slowly got shallower until it stopped. I snapped a picture with my phone. The paint on an area to the left was lighter and discolored. I looked around and saw nothing else.

“What are you looking for?” Liam whispered as he watched me inspect everything.

“What if Hannah did it alone and had something to help her lift Cash over the edge? These marks could show what she used to move him then push him over the wall. These marks”—I pointed at the parallel marks—“could be getting the body up next to the wall. These other ones could be raising the body.”

“Or luggage or a drunk guy falling.”

“Oh, don’t be a stick in the mud,” I teased him. He responded with a smile. “None of this is proof, and you’re right, it could be nothing. Or”—I turned to him and raised my eyebrows—“it could be proof of murder.” I ran my hand over the scratches again. Moo shoved his nose into my hand, and I rubbed his neck. “But what would make them? Something that rolled and lifted?”

“Scissor lift?”

“Are those the things at construction sites?” He nodded. “I guess so, but where would you get one?” I thought a bit longer but nothing came to mind. “Okay, you win. Bed time?”

We headed down the hallway while I stifled a yawn. I loved having Liam all to myself, though technically it was the three of us: Moo, Liam, and me. I hated to go to bed, but I was running on empty. Liam opened the door to the suite slowly and closed it quietly behind us. The lights were out except a table lamp and the TV. Mary and Orion were on the couch, which they had pulled around up close to the TV. They swiveled their heads to look at us over the top of the couch. Mary held an index finger to her pursed lips and pointed at Elizabeth’s closed door.

When I was closer, she whispered, “Elizabeth went to bed a while ago.”

She got up, and Liam and Orion carefully moved the couch back to its proper spot, and we all went to bed. I was asleep before Mary turned out her light.

CHAPTER EIGHT

A shove to the center of my back woke me up a split second before the blanket slipped off and the bed disappeared beneath me. I broke the fall onto the hotel room floor with my face. A second later, there was a thump from the other side of the room that vibrated the floor, then a groan. I was still trying to figure out what had happened when there was a single knock and the bedroom door creaked open.

“Is everything okay?” Liam asked in a whisper.

I sat up and ran a hand over the bedside table, knocking my phone onto the ground and a glass of water onto myself before turning on the lamp. In the doorway stood Liam, with Orion slightly behind him. They both were in baggy, lightweight gym shorts that hung past their knees and no shirts. Wow.

Mary squealed and snatched a pillow off the bed to cover herself. Moo was stretched out across the middle of the bed. His back paws hung over on my side, and his front paws were in front of Mary as she faced the door of the bedroom.

Liam chuckled, the tension draining from his face. “Did Moo shove you out of bed?”