No One Else to Kill (Jim West Series) (20 page)

Bev reached over and rested her hand on my arm.

I smiled at her, and did my best to keep my eyes on her
eyes and not her legs.

“Did you hear that your friend Rick might be off the hot
seat?” I asked.

“Yes, he called me this morning, all elated.
 
He said that with all the attention she’ll
get with her gall bladder operation, that she’ll soak it for weeks.
 
Apparently, she loves being the center of
attention.”

I imagined the she whom Bev referred to was the sister
that had given Rick such grief over his running of the lodge.
 
The same one Rick’s daughter had alluded to
earlier.

“Now, if the sheriff can just catch the person that killed
Cross and Randi, all will be well with the world.”

“I thought that woman hung herself,” Bev said. She stared
at me waiting for a response.

I reached over and grabbed her hand in mine.
 
“Listen, I don’t know how quiet the police
intend to keep this, so let’s make this our little secret.”

“But I thought you found her hanging from the ceiling.”

“Yes, but it looks like someone strangled her first and
then strung her up.”

“Oh my God, that’s awful,” she said.
 
She pulled herself up into a sitting
position. “This is scary.
 
We have a
homicidal maniac at the lodge.”

“It’s not good, that’s for sure, but I don’t think he’s
picking random victims. I don’t think either of us have anything to fear.”

She looked at me.
 
I
figured she wanted to ask me if I was crazy.
 
Two people murdered in two days in a small lodge, and I’m saying we had
nothing to fear.

“I don’t think the murders were random,” I repeated, “and
my guess is that there won’t be anymore.”

“Will everyone be leaving?”

“By tomorrow this time,” I said.

“Is he going to get away with this?”

“I hope not.”

“Me, too.”

“I bet Rick would like for everyone to leave today.”

“I’m sure he would.
 
Can’t blame him, and I would guess that most of the guests would like to
leave today, too.”

“Are you still leaving tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

The conversation ended and we drove the remaining five
minutes in silence.
 
It dawned on me as
we drove into the lodge’s parking lot that despite my comments to Detective
Bruno that I would try to learn all I could, I had done all the talking with
Bev. I had given away information and learned nothing.
 
Maybe my investigative techniques weren’t
that great after all, or maybe it was just those legs.

“I don’t think the drinks are going to be free today, Jim,
but if you join me in the bar later, I’ll buy you one.
 
I owe you that for the lift.
 
Love your car.”

“That’s a deal,” I said while I held the door to the lodge
open for her.
 
She went toward the bar,
and I went to my room.

A note had been slid under the door to my room.
 
“Due to the unpleasant events of the last two
days, Management is offering a free dinner for all guests tonight….”
 
The note went on to describe the meal
offered, the times the dinner would be available, and another paragraph about
how sorry Management was.

“Should have
comped
us a night or two at the lodge,” I said out loud to myself.

For the second or third time since my phone call with Stu,
I considered jumping back into my Mustang and driving home. I even threw my
suitcase on the bed to start putting my few clothes into it, but rather than
start packing, I stared at it for a few seconds and put it back in the corner
of the room.
  
One more night, then I
will leave.

Someone knocked on the door to the room.

“Can I buy you a cup of coffee, or a beer, or something?
I’d like to talk to you, if you have the time.”
 
Colt
Bettes
stood on the other side of my
doorway.

“Sure,” I said. “What’s up?”

“I’m not sure.”

We walked down to the bar.
 
I don’t mind drinking coffee in the afternoon, or evening for that
matter, but this trip had me more in a beer mood.

Bev raised an eyebrow at me when she brought us our beers
but didn’t say anything.

“What can I do for you?” I asked after we beat around the
bush for a while.

“I understand Sean had a discussion with you somewhere out
in the forest behind the lodge.”

“Yes.”

“I realize you may think I’m prying, but what was the
discussion about?”

“It wasn’t about anything.
 
He found a dead elk and said it reminded him of
himself
.
 
About it being half there and yet not half
there.
 
Something
like
that.”

“He would say that, his being an empty shell, but that’s
not it.”

“Suppose you give me a hint.
 
I’m not sure what you’re looking for.”

“Did he say anything about how ashamed of himself he was?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“What are you getting at?”

“I’m just trying to figure something out.”

“Why did you want to have this conversation with me?” I
asked.

“He’s acting strange, no scratch that, different.
 
He’s acting different today.” He paused, but
I waited for him to start talking again. “He went up to the room where that
poor woman hung herself last night.
 
The
room is still sealed off, and there’s a deputy there.
 
Sean went right up to the doorway to the room
and stood there staring in. I guess the deputy got a little jumpy with him
standing there and asked him to leave.”

“Why did he go up there?”

“That’s the interesting part.
 
When the deputy asked him to leave, he said
he wanted to stay, that he wanted to know how he would’ve done it.”

“What?”

“I know.
 
The deputy
called his boss and a few minutes later two other deputies arrived and took
Sean to one of the empty rooms.”

“What did he tell them?”

“I don’t know exactly, but about twenty minutes later I
get a call in my room to come down to the lobby to take Sean off their hands,
just like he was a child.” He shook his head in slight disgust as he finished
his sentence.
 
“You know, simply because
a person has emotional or
adjustment issues doesn’t
mean he can’t be totally functional.
 
Hell, Sean lives by himself and takes care of himself.”

“That’s not why you wanted to talk to me, right?”

“No, of course not.
 
It has to do with what you said to him.”

“What was it that I supposedly said to him?”

For the first time since we sat down he grinned.

“Okay, sorry, I’m not being very clear. You know he came
to your aid last night.”

“He told me--”

“
Ahh
,” Colt interrupted, “tell
me about that conversation, and please don’t leave anything out.”

He was beginning to get under my skin, doctor or not.

“As I can recall, we didn’t have much of a conversation
about it.
 
He said that he got to the
room and I was already performing CPR.
 
He said he didn’t know what to do so he ran and got additional help.”

“Yeah, I know all that, but that’s not what I need.
 
What did he say about you and the dead
woman?”

“He said I appeared to be determined to keep her alive,
which I was.”

“But he didn’t get involved?”

“He went for help. That was important.”

“Yes, I know.
 
Something in your conversation with him has hit a nerve with him.”

“Not a bad one, I hope.”

“No, no, a good one, I think.
 
I’m trying to understand what you said that I
haven’t said a dozen times before.
 
Somewhere, I must have missed something.”

“Now you’ve got me confused.
 
I promise you I didn’t try to do any
counseling on Sean.
 
He was deep in
thought when I found him out there standing on that ledge.”

“Standing on a ledge?”

“Yes.
 
I thought he
was considering suicide.”

“He does now and then.”

“Well, this time he said he wasn’t.
 
The elk had him fixated.”

“I don’t want to discuss the elk.
 
Think, man, think, what else did you say?”

“Look, Colt, I know you mean well, but I need to head out
and check something on my car, so I’ll talk to you later.
 
Thanks for the beer.”

He looked at me bewildered. “Wait, wait, I don’t mean to
be pushy--”

“But you are.
 
Let
me think over the discussion I had with Sean, maybe something new will come to
mind.
 
If it does, I’ll be sure to let
you know what it was.”

I left him sitting there.
 
If he wanted to browbeat someone, he could do that to his patient.
 
Besides, Sean could tell about the
conversation as well as I could, and definitely had the upper hand in knowing
what had been significant to him.

A sheriff’s cruiser pulled into the parking lot and four
members of the hunting group piled out.
 
The cruiser sped off and the four walked abreast toward the lodge.
 
I met them on the steps.
 
Well, meeting them might be understating what
actually happened.

I realized when they were only a few paces away that they
were not going to make any room for me to get through them.
 
They had a tougher time than I had at the
sheriff’s office and were then driven unceremoniously back to the lodge in a
cramped sedan.
 
I empathized with them,
but I hated to have to skirt to the far side of the steps.

There’s a time to face down a bully or even a crowd of
bullies, but this wasn’t one of them.
 
I
move to my right.

“Guys,” I said with a half-smile and a nod.

I’m not sure if I didn’t move fast enough, or if Nesbitt
moved toward me a little as we past, but his left side clipped me and knocked
me into the far rail.
 
If it wasn’t for
the rail I’d have sprawled out onto the ground. Instinctively, my foot shot out
at his knee and ignominiously caught nothing but air.

No one noticed my futile attempt at exacting revenge, so
at least I avoided further embarrassment. I straightened back up and watched
them enter the lodge.
 
Good thing I don’t
carry a gun, I thought.
 
Popping off a
few knee caps would have given me a brief high, but the temporary satisfaction
would have resulted in longer term unwanted consequences.

I think at any age people can be quite dangerous in
groups.
 
It’s not just dogs that can
develop a pack mentality, and it can appear quickly. Alone against the four of
them, I couldn’t have done much anyway except satiate my pride by risking real
injury to myself, and I knew pride could cause a lot of unnecessary trouble.

I walked out to my car and leaned against it. I breathed
in the fresh mountain air and gave my blood pressure time to come back
down.
 
The air felt cooler now as the sun
started to dip behind the mountains, and I sensed we had a good chance of rain
coming in.
 
A car pulled up. New guests,
I wondered?
 
However, when the two people
in the car climbed out, I saw it was Vic and Geri. They didn’t appear to be in
good moods.

“I’m leaving tonight!
 
You can stay here or come with me.
 
I don’t really give a damn!” Vic snarled and marched off.

“I don’t know why you can’t wait until tomorrow!” Geri
yelled at her husband’s back.

He ignored her, disappearing inside the lodge. She leaned
over the top of the car, her head in her hands.
 
I thought she might be crying.

Only a few yards separated us.
  
“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Oh! You startled me, I didn’t see you there.”

I didn’t see any tears in her eyes. “Sorry, I just wanted
to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m okay.
 
I just
have a headache.”

“May I walk you inside?
 
I asked.

“No.”

I took that as a dismissal and started to walk away.