Elisabeth Crabtree - Pink Flamingo Hotel 01 - Death by Pink Flamingo (16 page)

I sat down on one of the green plastic chairs and explained my theory.
At the end, I ticked off the main points. “One: Uncle Max saw a body. Two: This Barney Hudson never checked out. Three: There’s a weird, smelly stain coming from the closet. Four—”

Jesse
stood up so swiftly I jumped in surprise. Before I knew it, he had the hammer and he was ripping out the walls.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

I crossed my legs on the
Formica table in the corner of the room and surveyed the damage. Taking my suggestion, Jesse started with the closet. That was where the stain seemed to be coming from, so it only made sense to start there.
Perfect sense
, I thought, until we uncovered no evidence of Barney Hudson.

Ever the optimist, Jesse moved to the bathroom.
He attacked the lime green tile with solid relentless strokes and in a matter of minutes, I could see into the shower all the way from my perch. Well, at least where the shower used to be. It didn’t take Jesse long to reduce it to mere rubble. I have to admit that my confidence was shaken a bit when there was still no sign of Barney Hudson.

Nevertheless,
never one to leave any project half done, I convinced Jesse to keep going while I supervised from the Formica table. After a few hours, he had totally decimated the room. The shag carpeting had been torn up and thrown out into the hallway. The plaster walls had been ripped down and it lay in heaps around the room. Even the mattress had been ripped into shreds. Unfortunately, all that destruction was for nothing.

Absolutely
nothing. Zero, zilch. No bones, no clues. Nothing but a few relics left over from the seventies: a ticket stub to an Elvis concert and a mood ring, which I immediately slipped on my finger.

While I sat on the table and tried to remember what red was supposed to signify, Jesse tossed the hammer into the corner and dropped to the floor in an undignified heap next to his discarded green t-shirt.
His chest rose and fell with every breath and a light sheen of perspiration coated his body. Plaster dust covered his sandy blond hair and the tops of his shoulders.
No doubt about it
, I thought watching him from my perch,
he was absolutely gorgeous.

“Well, it was just a theory,” I said when he looked around the room and back at me.

Jesse fell back against the plaster with a groan.

A knock
at the door caught my attention and I looked up at Blake who was standing in the entryway. He looked around nervously. “Redecorating?”

“What are you doing here, Blake?” Jesse asked from his prone position on the floor.

“I’m hotel security,” Blake said. “I hear someone tearing down the hotel, I come running.”

Jesse lifted his head off the floor and fixed Blake with a baleful glare. “I’ve been tearing down the hotel for the past hour
. Where have you been?”

“Trying to figure out where the noise
was coming from.” He stretched out his leg and stepped into a clear spot on the floor. “This is a big building, you know?” He hopped over another pile of plaster and came to stand next to my table. Leaning over, he whispered in my ear, “Can I talk to you? Privately?” He raised back and said a bit louder, “It’s about the noise. Some of the new guests walked out.”

“The reporters?” I asked hopefully.

“No, they’re still here,” Blake said. “I told them you were hiding out in the pool room outside. They’re camped around there now.”

“Wonderful!
Thank you!”

“All except Beatrix Allen.” He smiled shyly. “She wants to interview me. Do a whole series
of article about me.”

“
Really?” I asked. “What did you say?”

“I told her no.” He
motioned for me to follow him out to the balcony. “I’m not a hero.”

Jesse lifted his head up at
that, but didn’t say anything.

I stepped out on the balcony and took a nice deep breath of clean air. It felt good to get out of
that ugly oppressive room. “What’s up?” I asked as I leaned over the railing and looked toward the ocean.

He closed the door behind him and looked nervously over his shoulder. “I think you should
get out of town, right now.”

“What?
Why?”

He held out his hand. “Look, no games
, I’m serious. You need to get out of here and away from Jesse.” He gestured at Jesse who was still sitting in the middle of the floor, staring at us. When he noticed Blake and me staring back at him, he turned away slightly and shook the plaster dust off his hair. “I mean, look at him, he’s gone crazy.”

I shook my head in disgust. “No, Blake, he’s not the one who’s crazy. I am. That,” I said waving
at the mess in the room, “was all my idea.”

“He killed your Uncle Max,
” he said softly.

My heart skipped a beat. “What?” At his nod, I
asked breathlessly, “How do you know that?”

“It’s just a feeling.”

I sagged against the balcony railing in relief. “A feeling? So, you don’t know for sure. You’re just guessing, right?”
Please let him be guessing
, I prayed.

“Yeah, but I’m almost 99 percent sure.” He ran his hands through his
long hair. “I thought it was you. For the longest time, I thought you had killed Sylvia. I figured you two got into another fight over that stupid flamingo and you had accidently killed her. Then when I pulled you out of the pool, I realized you were in danger. It couldn’t have been you. He’s using you. I bet he killed Danielle too. They’ve been sniping at each other for days. I’ve seen them. I’ve heard them.”

“What have you heard?”

“I’ve heard them both mention something about necklaces, diamonds, and jewels, but whenever I got close, they would change the subject. He’s been in and out of here for more than a year. He doesn’t stay long, but I’ve seen him at the hotel and around town. He spent a lot of time with Danielle. I think she’s a thief and he’s her partner. I also think your uncle found out about them and threatened to call the cops. That’s why he died.”

“
If you truly believe that why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you go to the police?”

“Ah, come on, baby, I had no proof and the cops wouldn’t have believed me. Not even over someone like Danielle. They’d take her word over mine in a heartbeat.
I’m telling you, Anna, he’s dangerous. Think about it. Just what was he doing out there the other night when you found Sylvia’s body?”

I shook my head, unwilling to believe him.
All he had was a suspicion. Nothing concrete,
I reminded myself. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because … I don’t want to be a bad guy. I just want to be left
alone, but I don’t want to hurt anyone or see anyone get hurt. You need to leave this place before he kills you next.” He shook his head. “I sat back after your uncle died and didn’t say a word. I protected my own skin like I always do and now two more people are dead. They weren’t very nice people, but still …”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and frowned.
“Yeah, you’re good at protecting yourself, aren’t you?”

“Years of practice,” he said bitterly.

“You finally admit that you saw me and Jesse the night Sylvia died. Right?” At his reluctant nod, I added, “And you thought you could take advantage of the situation and blackmail me.” I angrily pushed my hair out of my face as a strong gust of wind hit me in the back of the head.

“Blackmail,” he said holding up his hands. “I haven’t asked for any money.”

“No, just for a place to stay and a job. That’s still blackmail. What if I had refused to give you either? What would you have done then?”

He shrugged
as if it was no big deal. “I figured you wouldn’t, not after I sent that picture to you. Besides, I wasn’t going to ask for much. I just needed a place to stay and you have all of these rooms. Look, I’m not proud of it, but I was desperate. Besides, at the time, I thought you were a killer.”

“Oh, that’s nice
,” I said with a scowl. “And Felix? How did he end up on my balcony?”

He frowned.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t lie. You put the flamingo back on my balcony to scare me.
You wrapped it up in a bunch of towels and tied a bright pink ribbon around him.”

“I swear, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Then why do you keep mentioning the flamingo?”

“
Because it’s missing and I thought you had killed Sylvia with it.” He sucked in his breath and pressed his hands to his head. “That’s what it was.”

“Wh
at?”

“Danielle was carrying around this bundle of towels through the hallways yesterday morning. I wo
uldn’t have thought anything about it, but she was acting all mysterious and hauling them around like they were a baby or something. When she got to the second floor, she laid it down and then wrapped it up with a pink ribbon.” He snorted. “Danielle and her little games.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Your boyfriend is still watching us. I’ll distract him while you run.”

“I need proof, Blake
. Some kind of evidence and so far, you haven’t given me anything.”
And there was no way I was going to take the word of someone I’ve known less than 72 hours over someone I loved and trusted for most of my childhood
, I thought angrily.

A rumble of thunder sounded above and I looked out at the ocean. A line of dark grey clouds hung over the sea.

“Don’t be stupid, baby. Leave now, while you still have a chance.”

I shook my head.

“Fine,” he said with an irritated shake of his head. “If you won’t protect yourself, then I will.”

“Oh, give me a break,” I said with a harsh laugh. “Drop the hero act. You just admitted to blackmailing me. Why should I trust you?”

He looked up and to the side, obviously trying to wrack his brain for an answer. When one didn’t spring to mind, he simply blew out his breath and scratched his head.

“This is my hotel, Blake. I’m not going anywhere.” I stepped back and opened the door. I carefully made my way across the room, stepping over debris and Jesse until I was at the door.

Jesse lifted up his head. “Where are you going?”

I paused at the door as I carefully considered my answer.
I trust Jesse,
I reminded myself
. Despite what Blake said.
However, as confident as I was in Jesse’s innocence when confronted with Blake’s accusations, a small kernel of doubt began to creep in again. Much like it did the night before.

Jesse is just as likely to be the killer as
Blake is,
I admitted to myself as I tried to rein in my emotions and think logically.
They both were here the night Sylvia died. They both showed up almost the same time last night. They both seem to know more than what they were saying. And neither one was too eager to call the police when they suspected I had killed Sylvia. Blake supposedly kept quiet so he could blackmail me. Jesse supposedly kept quiet to protect me. Which one is lying?

“
Anna?” Jesse asked, watching me carefully.

“Downstairs,” I said. “This is only the second day th
e hotel’s been back in business and I should probably check to see how everything’s going. I figure if I’m going to stay in business, I should probably do some damage control.”

I bit my bottom lip, not quite
sure how one did damage control in this particular situation.
Just how do you explain the murders of two people at your hotel? Not only that, but the fact that their killer was unknown and still at large. I could just see myself at the next Chamber of Commerce meeting. What murders? Everything’s fine here at the Pink Flamingo Hotel. Let me tell you about some of our wonderful amenities. Continental breakfast. A four-star dining experience. Two beautiful pools. Don’t mind the bodies. They’re just temporary.

Jesse rose to his feet, while I was going through a mini mental melt down by the door and walked over to me with a quizzical look on his face. He glanced over his shoulder at Blake before leaning forward and whispering, “Where are you really going?”

“Like I said, I’m going to actually do some work.”

“And?”

I guess there were something’s that never changed despite how long it had been since Jesse and I had been together. Growing up, he could always tell when I was keeping something hidden from him. I sighed in defeat. “Afterwards, I thought I might put in a call to Ryan.”

“Why?”

“See if he knows anything about Barney Hudson.”

He grabbed my arm as I started to turn away. “You will let me know what he
says.”

I nodded automatically, not quite
sure if he was asking me a question or giving me an order, before making my way down the corridor and to the elevator.

* * *

“Anna!” Victoria called out as I hurried to my office. I turned to find my best friend and Luke Casey standing by my dining room. Obviously, if Victoria’s heat seeking outfit was anything to go by, they were on a date. I smiled slightly to myself. Apparently, Victoria was bound and determined to help my business in any way she could, even if that meant eating every meal at my hotel.