Death Checks Inn (Aspen Valley Inn 1) (10 page)

“You were
watching me tonight?” Lacey asked

“Yes, I thought I would take some time to do a
thorough search while you were gone. But you came back sooner than I thought and instead I overheard you talking about those damn pictures so now I have to get them!” Tricia explained.

Lacey was confused
, “What were you searching for? Who are you?” she asked.

“I guess I can tell
you. I was making sure my Johnnie hadn’t left anything that identified me while he was here. Then you came home and I decided to wait until you fell asleep to get out of here. Good thing, because then I heard you talking about the pictures you found.” Tricia could barely contain her hate.

“Your Johnnie?” Lacey questioned.

“Enough!” Tricia spat, “Give me the pictures or I’ll just kill you now and destroy the laptop. Your choice!”

“Okay, okay
. “ Lacey said and took the laptop and began loading up the file.

“Oh, how
sweet. You even named it after your boyfriend.” Tricia mocked, “I guess it’s fitting since he will be the one to find you tomorrow.”

She said this last sentence almost casually but Lacey knew she was someone very serious and very dangerous. She just couldn’t figure out the connections, why did this woman want to kill her?

Tricia deftly deleted the picture file after looking through the four pictures with obvious frustration.

“I told him to let me handle it. Not to come here, but he was worried about his Mama.
My dear boy. He deserved so much more than I could give him,” Tricia said.

“Mama? Y
ou are John Braverman’s mother?” Lacey asked weakly.

“Come on,
” ordered Tricia, “I’ll tell you the whole story while you change.”

She turned off the laptop and replaced it carefully just where it had been on the desk. Then she gestured with the gun while pulling Lacey to her feet. She led her back into the bedroom.

As they entered the bedroom, Tricia turned on the overhead light and leaned against the doorframe. She kept the gun steadily pointed at Lacey.

“Get changed into your bathing suit. I know a pretty girl like you must have a couple of pretty ones. Choose your
favorite; it will be the last thing you will ever wear,” she said in a matter of fact tone.

Lacey was afraid not to follow these instruction. She opened a dresser drawer and pulled out a blue one piece, trying not to think of the last comment.

“I get it; you are going to kill me. But at least you can tell me what this is all about,” she pleaded.

“Fine, I guess I can tell the story. It’s not as if you will be able to tell anyone
,” Tricia spoke quietly.

As Lacey changed from her usual tank top and boxer
nightclothes, Tricia told her an almost unbelievable story. Almost unbelievable but obviously true since she was going to die because of it.

Tricia admitted to killing Adam Mason.

Heather had said that they had never had children but that was only the truth, as Heather knew it. Before marrying Heather, the love of his life, Adam had a brief dalliance with a pretty waitress, Tricia.

Tricia had borne him a
son, John Braverman. Braverman was a married name that Tricia had long abandoned.

Adam had no money and no desire to ruin his relationship with Heather.
He wanted nothing to do with Tricia.

Tricia had
monitored the couple, almost stalking them for years.

As she told the
story, her mouth twisted in bitterness. Tricia thought it was justified karma that Adam had died so young and left Heather all alone.

However, she hadn’t quit watching Heather.

It seemed to have given her some kind of pleasure to watch the woman go through her life alone. She continued to watch Heather and that was how Tricia had discovered the secret.

Heather wasn’t going through her life alone. The supposedly
dead Adam met for regular trysts with his wife. No, he had not died in the car accident.

Heather and Adam had waited patiently for the years to pass until Adam could be declared legally dead.

Heather continued going to her boring job as an admissions clerk, seeing her husband in secret.

Then the time limit was over and Heather collected the millions in insurance money.

Heather “retired” and she and Adam began living out their bucket list. Heather would travel alone to each wished for adventure and then Adam would secretly join her and they would enjoy everything together.

Europe, a cruise and then climbing Pikes Peak.

However, for this adventure, Tricia was waiting for them. She was tired of watching them get away with everything, laughing and loving their way through wonderful adventures.

In a weak
moment, she had told her son, John, about her plan to corner Adam and make him share the wealth. Not for herself but for her newly married son. John deserved some of that money.

John was worried about the confrontation and arranged his honeymoon here at the Inn to make sure his mother was okay. Such a good son
, Tricia had added wistfully.

John suspected what had happened but didn’t want to think that his mother had actually murdered someone.
However, murder she had.

Tricia had waited in the shadows of the Inn until everyone went to bed following the grand opening reception. She had watched the couple long enough to know the pattern.

Sure enough, Heather had crept downstairs and let Adam into the Inn. Hand in hand, they had quietly giggled up to her room. Making their plans to meet up the next day and complete one more adventure.

In the early hours of the
morning, Adam was sneakily making his getaway from the Inn.

Tricia had met him at the top of the stairs, not far from his lover’s door.

He was shocked to see her but laughed at her demand that he share the money or be revealed as the lying cheater he was. He laughed and that was the last straw.

Tricia had grabbed up the antique railroad spike in desperation and plunged it into his
cold heart. He fell to the bottom of the staircase. Even the fall was amazingly quiet she mused while telling her story.

When she ran to the
bottom, he was dying.

But even that brought no
satisfaction; his last words were for his wife, Heather.

“Tell her I love her,”
he had gasped.

Tricia
had cleaned up, wiped her fingerprints from the spike and quickly left.

Just in time, she added, because lights were coming on and the body was discovered.

She wished she could have stayed to
see Heather‘s stricken face but the description John had given her was almost as good.

John suspected she had done something. He wanted to believe his mother when she told him that it was that witch, Heather.

That should have been the end of it but her hatred had gotten the better of her. She had waylaid Heather on the trail to Pike’s Peak the next day and tried to ruin her
love for Adam. Nothing she said changed the fact that Heather would grieve for her Adam for the rest of her life. So Tricia had made sure that was a short amount of time. She did however, share Adam’s last words.

She whispered
them into Heather’s ear as she pushed her into the rocky abyss below.

No evidence, no connections, even her own son wasn’t sure she had done anything.

That was until; Tricia had overheard the conversation about the pictures. It was supposed to be a simple clean up, remove any evidence that could connect John to Adam. 

Now
she was going to have to kill one more person. Lacey would have to die.

This would have to
be an accident. She couldn’t afford another suspicious death. When it was done, she would disappear and no one would ever know the whole story.

They
might wonder but they would never know.

“Oh my god!”
thought Lacey. She would have never figured out this convoluted tale. But that would not help her now. She knew too much to be allowed to live.

“What are you going to do with
me?” she asked Tricia.

“You haven’t figured it out
?” countered Tricia, “You know those hot tub spas are very dangerous. People should never get into one alone. I read once that a few people drown in those every year. This year there will be one more!” she actually laughed. “Let’s go! Put those nightclothes into the hamper. Got to tie up all the loose ends.”

Lacey looked into the not quite sane eyes of her captor. She had one more card to play.

“It won’t work,” she said, “I already emailed the pictures to Wyatt.”

“Oh, really?” s
aid Tricia holding up Lacey’s smart phone, “I looked through your latest messages and emails and I already deleted the pictures you sent yourself.”

Tricia led her at gunpoint downstairs and over to the alarm system.

“Disarm it!” Tricia yelled, “And don’t try to pull anything or I will shoot you right here! I’ve got nothing to lose; I’ve already killed two people.”

Lacey did as she was told. She didn’t know how she was going to get out of this.
They headed to the French doors leading to the sanctuary.

Tricia leaned into the guest bathroom and pulled a big fluffy towel off the rack. Damn, thought Lacey, crazy as she was, she thought of every detail.

As they entered the dark walled in patio, Tricia pushed her in the back to hurry her up.

She made Lacey lift the protective cover off the spa,
and then ordered her to get in. Lacey slowly climbed into the warm bubbling water. A small splash hit the water right next to her.

“
Oh darn, look! Your cell phone fell into the water and was destroyed.” cooed Tricia, “Just in case you had any more tricks up your sleeve.”

Hopelessly Lacey looked up at Tric
ia.

“Please
,” she said, “you don’t have to do this.”

“Oh,
but I do,” Tricia said almost regretfully.

She suddenly leaned forward and
forcefully pushed Lacey’s head under the steaming

For a second Lacey was so surprised she just gulped
water.

Then her survival instinct kicked in and she tried to fight.
She tried to fight but Tricia was unbelievably strong and had the advantage of surprise.

Lacey tried valiantly to
scratch her attacker and at least get some skin under her fingernails, create some sign of struggle so they would know this was no accident. But she couldn’t get a hold of anything.

She was drowning. S
he thought of Charlotte. Would Charlotte know that she would not get into the spa by herself? No, unfortunately, Lacey had not always used caution. It was believable that she would think nothing of a moonlit soak in the spa.

Then
just as she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, she thought of Wyatt. She would not know the deepening of the love the blooming between them. Sadly, she thought he would lose another woman that he cares about. Poor Wyatt was her last conscious thought as she gave in to the inevitable and sank beneath the surface.

Abruptly, Lacey felt herself pulled to the surface. Hungrily she gasped to pull in as much air as she could to her starving lungs.

Strong hands held her upright, face above the surface of the water. Wyatt, she thought with relief.

Then the voices above her head penetrated her
oxygen-deprived senses.

She heard John Braverman say
, “Mama! Enough! You can’t do this!” 

Tricia began weeping
.

T
hen she heard Wyatt’s voice, “That’s right, drop the gun and turn around!”

Wiping water from her
eyes, Lacey focused on the scene around her. John Braverman was still holding on to her. Wyatt was holding a gun on Tricia Moore and Charlotte was standing right behind him with a worried expression on her face.

Tricia,
sobbing dropped the gun and allowed Wyatt to handcuff her. John Braverman and Charlotte helped pull the weak and dazed Lacey from the spa.

Charlotte said
quietly. “I’ve got her.”

She wrapped
Lacey in the towel that Tricia had made sure they brought with them.

Lacey was aware that other officers were arriving as Charlotte led her shakily into the dining room to sit down at the wide
worktable.

Charlotte ran
to get blankets from the linen closet in the hallway. She made a hot cup of tea and then sat with her arm around Lacey while the chaos around them settled into quiet.