Freeing Reese (Tremont Lodge Series Book 3) (5 page)

Christmas hasn’t been this anticlimactic since my twelfth Christmas when I all I wanted was the new Nintendo gaming system that all my friends were receiving, and instead Blake and I received matching Shrek Etch a Sketches. Of course, Blake was thrilled. My grandparents actually made Shrek the theme for that Christmas. Blake wore that stupid ogre mask for months, even to bed. No wonder when he had his first sleepover, his best friend Abe woke us all up screaming in the middle of the night about a monster attacking him while he tried to sleep. I think Grandma had to throw out the sleeping bag Abe used because he’d wet the bed so badly. Poor kid was traumatized. It really never occurred to me how much my grandparents played favorite with Blake. Maybe I didn’t notice because I loved the kid so much, too. Who couldn’t love Blake? He never bothered anyone. He always did what he was told, and he made
America’s Funniest Home Videos
look tame.

I pick at my roll as I wait for my Christmas roast beef meal to arrive. Finn made these reservations days ago. I couldn’t disappoint him by telling him the truth of the matter is that I’d really like to order take-out pizza from the dormitory pizza parlor and fill up on pepperoni and mushrooms chased down with a couple of beers than have to dress up and pretend that nothing is going on at the lodge.

“What’s the matter, Reese? You haven’t said more than two words since you ate your salad,” says Finn.

I put down my roll. “Sorry, Finn. It’s just that there’s so much going on in head.”

“Ted?” he asks, grabbing hold of both of my hands from across the table.

“Well, yeah. Helen went to go see him, and she said he’s still in and out of consciousness. Do you know what that means, Finn?”

“Yeah, I can guess what you’re worried about, but don’t go jumping to conclusions. You don’t know. He might make a turn around.”

“But, Finn, what if…what if he doesn’t? What if he
dies?
Our relationship hasn’t exactly been spotless since I found out he’s my biological father. What if I never get the chance to ask him questions?”

“Like what, Reese? What do you want to know?”

“Everything! What was his childhood like? What did he think about being groomed to take over the lodge? What does he hope for the lodge in the future? What does…?” I look past Finn and stare at the snow falling outside the window.

“What does…?” Finn prompts.

“What does he think of me?”

“Oh, Reese. He loves you. How could he not? You’ve been nothing but willing to embrace the lodge from your first assignment cleaning rooms to running the lobby to working at the rec department—”

“But I failed at those jobs, Finn. And during the last conversation we had, he put me on administrative leave. That response doesn’t exactly scream,
I’m so proud of you, Reese.
”

“Is that what you need to hear?” he asks, stroking my hands with his thumb.

All I can do is shake my head
yes.

After lunch Finn takes me to the library. Maybe the hope for a peaceful day awaits after all. “Why here?” I ask.

“You’ll see. Close your eyes.” He takes my hands and leads me into the library. The smell of the wood fireplace hits me first, and it’s as if all of my stress the last 24 hours—heck, the last six months—melts away by the flames of the fire that is crackling at the front of the room. “Okay. Open your eyes.”

He removes his hand, and I blink open my eyes. “Finn!” I can hardly believe what I see. “You remembered! You did this for me?”

“Well, I’m not sure anyone else would get the references, but if you’d like me to go out in the lobby and ask, I can.” I slug him in the arm, but he can’t stop smiling, either.

A large television has been rolled into the room and sits to the right of the fireplace. On the bottom of the rolling cart is an old Nintendo, with wires connecting it to the back of the old television. A cooler with bottled beer sits on the other side of the fireplace with a big bowl of popcorn on the end table next to the couch. “You really did this all for me?” I ask again, too stunned to move any further into the room. Finn just smiles, his butterfly bobbing up and down as he shakes his head in a silent
yes.
“No one has ever done anything like this for me before.” I know my eyes are glistening because the fire looks hazy and smoky. “But…but…Finn!” I blink my eyes and point toward the front of the room where a pillow that’s been knocked to the floor is starting to burn, a single flame licking up toward the ceiling.

Finn beats the pillow against the fireplace hearth while I pull the beers out of the cooler and dump the ice onto the pillow. “Guess that was a close call,” I giggle. “What is
wrong
with me?” I ask. “Why on earth I am laughing?” But I can’t stop laughing, the kind of laughter that comes from the bottom of your soul and bubbles to the surface in side-splitting spasms of unbridled joy.

“Maybe because I almost burned the lodge down trying to recreate your twelfth Christmas,” he says, pulling me in close. “
That
would have been quite a news story coming out of the lodge. But it is nice seeing you smile again.”

Finn’s eyes ask for permission to kiss me, but I can’t wait for him to receive my answer, so I kiss him myself, falling deeper and deeper into his spell, into his world, and I never want to wake up. “I love you, Finn. I can’t believe you remembered that story.”

“I remember everything you say, Reese, whether you’re being sentimental or funny or a pain in the ass.”

“Hey!”

“And—I love all of you.” He lets go of me after another intoxicating kiss and walks toward the library door. “Did you know there’s a lock on the
inside
of this door?”

“I never knew that,” I laugh again.

He points to a large comforter thick blanket that is sitting on the couch. “Spread out the blanket. I’m going to tend to the fire so we don’t burn this lodge down for real this time.”

I pop open the top of two beers and pull the bowl of popcorn onto the blanket and hand a beer to Finn when he sprawls out on the blanket. “Merry Christmas, Finn,” I say, clinking my beer bottle against his.

“Merry Christmas, Reese.” The kissing starts soft and tender with his touches electrifying the few senses that haven’t yet activated. When I’m with Finn, there’s not much else that could cloud my world, even though the world’s pounding can be relentless.

When there is no more Finn to be had, I reach for the Nintendo remote and toss it in Finn’s direction. “I challenge you,” I say breathlessly, “A little old school
Super Mario Kart
.”

“And what’s at stake?” Finn asks, untucking his shirt from his jeans.

“Hmm…massage?”

“Are you sure we have to play the game? Can’t we just skip to that reward?”

“Sounding kind of sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

“Honey, I am sure of many things—one of which is beating your pants off in
Super Mario Kart.”

“You’re on.” No matter who crosses that finish line first, I’ve already won. Finn is the best Christmas present ever—even better than a twelve-year-old girl’s dream for a Nintendo.

A knock on the door to my room sends me shooting up in bed. Who knocks on the door at 8:00 AM the day after Christmas? Finn rolls over, oblivious to the sound at the door. Such a typical guy. I think women are just wired to respond to sleep interruptions better than guys. After all, who’s the one taking care of the kids in the middle of the night? I’d venture to guess the survey says
Mom.

I throw on my robe, step into my slippers, and open the door. Two police officers in full uniform, hat and all, are standing outside my door. “Reese Prentice?” one of them, the shorter man with a perfectly manicured goatee, asks.

“Yes,” I say, nervously, taking a step back inside my room. I can see Finn sitting up now in my peripheral vision.

“Hello. Sorry to bother you at this time of day.” He nods in the direction of Finn. “I am Officer Kanicki. This is Officer Folet.” The wiry officer smiles.

“Hi. What can I do for you?”

“We’d like to ask you a few questions if you don’t mind.”

“What’s this about, Officers?” asks Finn who is now standing next to me in sweatpants, a t-shirt, and with a good case of bedhead.

“Are you Finn, by chance?”

“Uh, yeah,” he says. I think Finn needs to drop the protective boyfriend act fast or Officer Kanicki is likely to get defensive. I can tell by his posture as he crosses his arms across his chest in a,
Question me once more, and you’re going down
posture.

It’s up to me to restart this interrogation. “Officers, please come in. We’d be happy to answer any questions you may have. If you’d excuse me for one moment, I’d like to throw on some more appropriate clothes. Have a seat. I’ll only be a second.”

When I come out of the bathroom wearing my yoga pants and a Michigan State sweatshirt, Finn is back to his animated self, discussing the chances of the Detroit Lions making the playoffs. Apparently, Officer Kanicki is a Bears fan. Of course he is. I sit on the desk across from the officers who sit on the new small couch I’d purchased for my room. Finn is sitting in my desk chair.

“So, Reese and Finn, I am sure you are wondering why we are here,” says Officer Folet. He smiles again, which has a way of putting me at ease. He must be the
good cop
when they act out the good cop/bad cop scenario. “We’ve spent the morning with Ted Oakley—”

“Oh no! What’s wrong with Ted? Helen told me he was doing better!”

“Yes, he does seem to be showing signs of improvement.”

“Thank God,” I say, taking a deep breath.

“The doctors are convinced that Mr. Oakley has been poisoned.”

“Poisoned?”
Finn and I ask at the same time.

“Ted has Parkinson’s,” I say. “I assumed he had complications from that and collapsed.”

“The doctors believe that the poison in Mr. Oakley’s body has exacerbated the condition,” says Officer Kanicki.

“You mean he’s not dying?” I ask.

“Not than I am aware of,” says Officer Folet.

“Did he ingest something funny?” I ask.

Officer Kanicki looks at me oddly. “Miss, I don’t think you understand. Someone poisoned, Ted Oakley. Someone was trying to
kill
him.”

“What?” I can’t wrap my head around what the officer is saying. Finn puts his hand on my back. “Who?” It comes out as barely a whisper.

“Well, you see, that’s why we’re here,” says Officer Folet. “We were hoping you could tell us about your relationship with Mr. Oakley.”

I feel my cheeks get warm. It’s one thing to tell someone I know about my complicated connection to Ted Oakley but to tell a complete stranger is a whole different matter. “I only met Ted this summer. I saw an ad at the university, Michigan State University, in the student center. It looked like fun to work at a lodge with a bunch of people my age.”

“Yes, that’s what Ted told us, too—but, you see, what I don’t understand,” says Mr. Bad Cop Kanicki, “is this—how does a girl who starts her summer cleaning hotel rooms get promoted to special events coordinator? And from what I gather having talked to a few other people, you’ve dabbled with supervisory responsibilities in the recreation department and the lobby. Can you explain that, Ms. Prentice, because Ted couldn’t—or wouldn’t.”

“He had some tests scheduled, Officer Kanicki,” says Officer Good Cop Folet. “He may have given us more information should he have been able to.”

“Yes, I’m sure he would have,” says Officer Kanicki, “but we’d love to piece this puzzle together sooner than later, Ms. Prentice. I’m sure you understand the seriousness of someone trying to murder Mr. Oakley?”

“Murder?”

“Ms. Prentice, we’ve gone over this before.”

Finn squeezes my shoulder. “I know, but it seems so surreal.”

“Just tell them, Reese. You have nothing to hide.” I glance quickly at Finn. He just doesn’t get it. Sure, I can tell them about the circumstances of my birth, but what about my mom? What about John? And the
accident
with her death at the lodge? How do I get around that?

I shake my head
yes
like I agree with Finn, though. I take a deep breath before I start talking. “I was raised by my grandparents, but I knew somehow I may have had a…a connection with Tremont Lodge.”

“Go on,” says Officer Folet.

“I wanted to take the job cleaning at the lodge because I was hoping to figure out that…that connection.”

“And did you?” asks Officer Folet.

“I did.” He smiles again as if to say,
You’re talking to your buddy, Officer Friendly. Tell me all your troubles, honey.
“Mr. Oakley is my biological father.” That gets their attention.

Officer Kanicki nearly drops his pen on the floor as he stumbles to regain control again to write down this new bombshell.

“I found out that I was conceived at a summer camp that Mr. Oakley and my mother attended. She was much younger than Mr. Oakley, and it would have been a bit scandalous for the heir to Tremont Lodge to have fathered a child out of wedlock with a teenager, so he…he—well, he ignored me for over twenty years, and I was raised by my mother’s boyfriend who quickly became my father figure when they married, until—”

“Until?” asks Officer Kanicki.

“Until my parents vacationed at the lodge when I was five, and my brother was a baby. There was an accidental shooting which caused my mother to die, and my assumed
dad
couldn’t handle it or whatever and left us alone in the hotel room until my grandparents could be notified, and they raised us.”

“Are you telling us that the man who raised you as his own, presumably, abandoned two young children in a hotel room and skipped town?” says Officer Kanicki, the gray in his goatee front and center as he leans closer to me.

“That’s what happened,” I say.

“That makes no sense,” he says.

And it doesn’t…if you don’t have the information about my mother allegedly trying to kill herself over my
father’s
infidelity, and how he tried to protect this secret as well as his own ass which might have been accused of her murder should her death have not been ruled as accidental by the coroner who Ted paid off, but the police have enough of my story. And I know Ted won’t divulge the rest of the story, either, nor Helen or Finn, for that matter.

Officer Kanicki scratches his goatee as if considering whether a firmer tactic will elicit more of the story, but he knows it won’t. “Then, when you came to the lodge this summer, I assume it was some sort of a reunion for the two of you?”

“Yes, in a sense, though really it wasn’t so much a reunion as an introduction. It was the first time I met my biological father.”

“Hmm…well, you must certainly have made quite the impression on your father for him to give you so many important responsibilities in such a short amount of time,” says Officer Folet.

“She did,” says Finn, protectively. “She’s a hard worker.”

“Ms. Prentice, we’ve talked to some of your co-workers. It seems you weren’t quite as successful at all of your responsibilities as Finn would lead us to believe.” I think about Jeremy and Luis and wonder what awful things they said about my ability to micromanage their respective departments…and then I think about Lawson and all that he might have told the police, too.

“It’s true. I am not equipped to single-handedly run all the departments at the lodge. I stepped down from a couple of my posts to focus on special events. It’s better suited to my interests and abilities.”

“Ms. Prentice, do you know that Mr. Oakley recently changed his will?”

“I…I don’t know anything about Ted’s will. Why would I?”

“Well, you and Lawson Oakley stand to inherit a great deal upon Mr. Oakley’s death.”

I suck in my breath and hold it for a few seconds before exhaling. “Do you think I had something to do with poisoning Ted?”

“We are just talking with people close to Mr. Oakley, that’s all,” says Officer Folet, smiling again—an obviously fake smile breaking his
good cop
façade.

“This is ridiculous,” says Finn. “Reese didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Mr. Oakley.”

“Finn, maybe you can tell us now about your relationship with Ms. Prentice,” says Officer Kanicki.

“Reese and I met this summer, and we’ve developed something special.” He grabs hold of my hand in a sign of solidarity.

“Is it true that the two of you are leaving Tremont Lodge in the spring?” asks Officer Kanicki.

“Yes.”

“And how do you plan on supporting yourself?” asks Officer Kanicki.

“I have a job performing on a cruise ship. I’m a singer.”

“Surely that gig doesn’t pay a lot, no?” asks Officer Folet.

“It’s enough, more than what I’m making at the lodge.”

“And what about you, Ms. Prentice?” Officer Kanicki has steely gray eyes which match his goatee.

“I don’t have a job yet, but I’m sure my experience at the lodge will lend itself to qualifying me to do something on the ship.”

“So, you were just going to
hope
you got a job and in the meanwhile, pay weekly rates to cruise as a guest? Sounds kind of costly,” says Officer Kanicki.

Finn shoots me a quick look as if to say,
Why haven’t you applied for a job yet?
I know he’s disappointed. I promised I’d get a job on the ship, and I meant it, too, when I told him. It’s just that things have been going so well at the lodge lately, and I kind of like it here. Of course, I want to be with Finn. That’s more important to me than anything else, but what if I hate it on the ship? Then what?

“I’m sure it will all work out,” I say.

“Well, just as a precaution, you two stay put at the lodge until we question a few more people. Please give us a call if you can think of anything that might be helpful in this case.” Officer Folet hands me his card. Since when did police officers start carrying business cards?

“Aren’t you even going to ask if anyone upset Ted recently?” I ask.

Officer Kanicki turns around just as his hand turns the knob of my door. “Besides you?” he asks.

“What?” I drop my phone which I’d grabbed off the desk. It echoes off the walls of the tiny room.

“You seem surprised, but from our discussions around the lodge, it is pretty clear that Mr. Oakley was quite disappointed with your performance as of late. Didn’t you recently get put on administrative leave?”

“Who told you that?” I say before I can pull back the venom that is pouring out of me like water overspilling the river banks after a big storm.

“Mr. Oakley told us.”

“I thought Ted didn’t tell you anything about me,” I say.

“No, not
Ted
Oakley but
Lawson
Oakley.”

“Lawson isn’t even really an Oakley. Did he tell you that, too?”

I can tell from the look that passes between the two officers that this bit of information is news to them, but they recover fast. “You sound a little bitter about the relationship between your biological father and a young man who isn’t even related to him, if what you say is true, yet is allowed to share the same last name.”

“I’m not bitter.” I bite the inside of my cheek because I’ve already said too much. They don’t need to go asking questions about the death of Lawson’s mother and the role my mother may or may not have played in her fall from the chair lift sixteen years ago. That—and I don’t want them to know how pissed off I am at Lawson for throwing accusations my direction that aren’t deserved.

“We’ll be in touch if we think of anything else,” says Finn, pulling open the door for the officers who leave without another word.

The minute they are gone, I start pulling clothes out of my closet and drawers. “I’m taking a shower,” I say to Finn.

“Hey, wait a second,” he says, pulling me gently by the arm until I am facing him. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to talk to Lawson and give him a piece of my mind for putting me on the radar of the police who obviously think I had something to do with poisoning Ted. Then I’m going to the hospital to see Ted before Lawson gets to him and let him know how much he means to me and that I would
never—never
hurt him.” I pound my fists into Finn’s chest as all of the emotion I’d tried to bury during the interrogation comes rushing to the surface.