Veiled (A Short Story) (2 page)

The wedding dress and veil disturbed Lacey on a deep level.
She’d bought some bridal magazines when she and Jack became engaged a few
months back, and she’d been overwhelmed at the selection of dresses. Enough
that she’d put the whole dress-shopping process out of her mind. This was not
the way she’d expected to be reminded of it again.

“Was she getting married?” Lacey asked. To her eyes, the
dress on the body was out of date. It had the styling of dresses a decade ago.

“Not that I know of,” said Mathews. He looked ready to
vomit. “She and Will have been divorced for about a year now, I’d say. She
works at The Anchor. Tends bar. She was a real sweetheart,” he said, his voice
cracking as he wiped at his eyes. He appeared to be in his late twenties and
could rival Terry for size and bulk. He made the smaller Garcia look like a
fifth grader.

Lacey’s heart broke for the man as she glanced at Terry.

Terry shook his head. “I don’t know her. I haven’t been here
long enough. When will the medical examiner arrive?” he asked Mathews.

The cop glanced at his watch. “Someone’s supposed to be here
any minute.”

“You’re on camera duty,” Terry said to Mathews, who nodded.
“Start in close and slowly work your way out, shooting everything.” He turned
to the other cop. “Garcia, I want you to canvas the guests. We need to know
what anyone heard or saw overnight. Hopefully the ME can give us a better
window of time once he gets here.”

“How old is she?” asked Lacey.

“Thirtyish,” answered Mathews. “I think she was in the same
high school class as my older sister.”

The same age as Lacey. Jack squeezed her shoulder. He knew
her penchant for identifying with victims she worked with. She couldn’t stop
herself from looking for things they shared in common.

Footsteps behind Lacey caught her attention. Jessica from
the front desk had returned with a man in tow. The short bald man strode with
confidence, but also with a heavy weight of concern on his face. He stopped at
the group and sized them up with a sweeping glance. Jessica hung back, her eyes
still wide from the shock of the morning. “Who’s in charge?” the bald man asked
with his gaze clearly on Terry.

“I’m Chief Schoenfeld.” Terry held out his hand. “Are you
the owner?”

“Manager. Paul Lott. The hotel owner lives in Seattle.” He
looked past Terry to the wet bride. Sorrow crossed his features. “Do you know
who she is? Is it one of the guests?”

“Mathews here believes it’s a local woman,” said Terry.
“Until I have that confirmed, I’d rather not share her name.”

Lacey hated that the woman was still lying in open view.
She’d blocked any hotel guest’s view with sheets and chairs, but the vulnerable
woman was still visible to their little group. Mathews was clicking away with a
digital camera, slowly backing up from the woman and taking shots of the
surrounding area.

“Paul, we’d like to start talking to your guests,” Terry
began.

The manager cringed. “Can’t you wait and see if they come
forward to say they saw something? Surely if they heard there was a death here,
they’d speak up if they noticed something suspicious.” He cracked his knuckles,
his attention jumping from the body to Terry and back.

Terry blinked. “No. We’re going to talk to everyone. Now.”
He tensed up. “You’ve got a possible murder on your grounds. This isn’t the
time to worry about the comfort of your guests.”

“I suppose—”

“No, you don’t suppose anything,” Terry snapped. “We’re
going to do this right. You got security cameras on the premises?”

Paul shook his head. “I’ve only got one inside, on the front-desk
area.”

“Does it point toward the doors, or a window with a view of
the outside?”

“It only shows the immediate desk area. The front entrance
is out of view.”

Terry glanced at the balconies. “How many units? And how
many were occupied last night?”

“We’ve got twenty suites. Fifteen were full.” Paul glanced
at Jessica, a question on his face. She nodded.

A tall, dark, slender man hustled around the pool, heading
toward their group. Lacey recognized him. “That’s your medical examiner,” she
said to Terry. “Dr. Pillai is from the county office.”

The dark man scanned the group and stopped on Lacey as a
grin crossed his face. “Dr. Campbell! I wasn’t expecting you.” He glanced at
her yoga pants, tank top, and hand clasped in Jack’s. “You’re not working, I
assume.”

“Nice to see you, David. No, we just happened to be staying
here.” Her teeth chattered. It wasn’t cold out, but she could have used a light
jacket. And some coffee. Jack stepped behind her and rubbed his hands on her
upper arms.

Terry scowled. “You two should go warm up. But don’t go far.
I want to talk to you as soon as I’m done with Dr. Pillai.” He glanced at the
hotel manager. “You got an office or empty room I can use to interview?”

Paul nodded. “Of course.”

“I want you to get me the names and room numbers of your
guests. I’ll also need a map of the building and grounds, and a list of
employees who worked in the last twenty-four hours.”

“You got it.” Paul gestured at Jessica, and they jogged back
to the office.

“Someone will be here in a few minutes to take her back to
the morgue,” Dr. Pillai said as he studied the woman. “Before you two go,
how was she found?”

Jack brought him up to date.

Dr. Pillai waved Mathews over. “Shoot here while I’m working.”
He pointed at the bodice of the woman’s dress. The medical examiner prodded at
her rib cage and made a quick slit in the white fabric below her ribs and a
second cut in her skin, and deftly slid a thermometer in to check her liver
temperature. Lacey saw Mathews’s grip on the camera shake and had a brief pang
of sympathy for the young cop who’d never seen a dead body.

Dr. Pillai noticed, too. “First time?”

Mathews silently nodded.

“You got good shots of her neck?” He pointed at the
bruising.

The cop nodded again.

The medical examiner shifted her limbs, testing. “Full rigor
still.” He pressed against the purpling of her calves. “Lividity is fixed. So
she lay somewhere on her back for a good six hours to put the color in her
calves. You said she was facedown in the tub?” He stared at the hot tub. “Crap.
That complicates things a bit. I’ll need the temperature on that tub. I wonder
how long she was in there.”

“That’s the big question,” Lacey said quietly to Jack.
“It’ll throw off any readings he gets from her liver temperature. I don’t know
how he’s going to get an accurate time of death.”

Dr. Pillai pressed his lips together. “I’ll see what I can
come up with. But she’s been dead somewhere around twelve hours with the rigor
where it’s at. And less than six in the hot tub since her lividity is fixed.”

“Around twelve hours,” repeated Terry. “I can get started
with that. It’s almost seven now, so she was on her back somewhere between
roughly seven p.m. and one a.m. and then moved here after that.”

“Keep in mind these are really rough estimates, okay? Help
me roll her to her side,” the medical examiner said to Mathews.

The young cop blanched and slowly set down his camera. The
two men shifted her to her side as Dr. Pillai scanned her back, his gloved hand
running down the back of her dress. “Nothing obvious from the back.”

The two men gently rolled her faceup again.

“Anything on her skull?” Lacey asked.

The medical examiner untangled the veil from the woman’s
dark hair and set it aside. He palpated her skull. “Feels solid. No soft areas
from a blow of some sort. I’ll know more when I have her on the table.”

“Was she choked to death?” Mathews asked.

“Looks like someone tried,” Dr. Pillai said noncommittally.
“But I’m not going to guess at her cause of death until I’ve fully examined
her.” He lifted an eyebrow at the cop. “And neither should you.”

Lacey wondered if the young cop got the message.
Don’t
spread rumors.

Lacey and Jack sat in the small meeting room with Terry,
recounting their morning. Paul, the hotel manager, had thoughtfully provided a
service of ice water, coffee, and tea.

Terry looked tense. Lacey didn’t blame him. Ten days on the
job and he had a dead bride at the local hotel. How much help did he have? She
hadn’t seen any other police besides the two uniformed cops from this morning.
In Portland, a murder scene would be crawling with official specialists and
detectives. A town this size, all the work fell on the general police. The
investigating
and
the evidence collection. If Terry felt they needed
help, he could ask the county or state police. But so far, he seemed to feel
things were manageable.

The boutique hotel stressed service and comfort for its
guests. Lacey didn’t know if there was another of its type on the Oregon Coast.
Its spa was supposed to be unparalleled in the Northwest. It was spendy,
catering to urban Portlanders and Seattleites. The coastal towns of Oregon
tended to be lower-income areas where people enjoyed a quieter life, but the
towns struggled to offer any stable industry outside of the seasonal tourism.

The Oregon Coast lacked the warm water and gorgeous weather
of the Southern California coast. The weather was frequently gray and stormy
most of the year. Even in the summer, blue days and toasty temperatures weren’t
reliable. Lacey had a friend whose husband was in pharmaceutical sales, and he
claimed his company sold the most antidepressants at the Oregon Coast.

But this weekend had been gorgeous. The water was as blue as
the sky. These were the days the tourism industry tried to capitalize on. No
doubt the manager of The Pacific Inn was cursing the events of the morning.
Murder wasn’t good for business.

“Was the cop correct that it’s Patty Marino? Did someone try
to reach her family?” Lacey asked.

Terry nodded. “Yes, two hotel employees who know Patty
backed up his identification. Patty Marino is divorced but still lives with her
ex-husband, so I sent Mathews up there. There’s no other family close-by.”

“What?” Jack snorted. “Why the hell would someone live with
an ex?”

“That’s what I asked,” sighed Terry. “Mathews says he heard
neither of them could afford to move out. So they deal with it. Sounds like the
ex-husband lost his job quite a while ago.”

Lacey knew she could never have shared a home with her
ex-husband. Her sympathy for the dead woman rose several notches. “That’s a
horrible situation. Was he home?”

“I haven’t heard yet.” Terry glanced at his watch.
“Hopefully it won’t be too long. I need help interviewing the guests. I’ve only
got Mathews and Garcia this weekend. I guess I should be thankful there were
only fifteen rooms occupied.” He looked to Lacey. “You’ve never stayed here
before?”

“No. I’d heard of it,” answered Lacey. “I’ve seen it written
up a few times in the newspaper. But Jack’s sister, Melody, was the one who
made our reservation and sent us out here. They do weddings up on the bluff
from the hotel. There’s a gazebo there that’s a prime spot for wedding photos
and the ceremony. And I want to say I heard the hotel went through a huge
remodel a few years ago with a new owner. Paul Lott would know.”

“I’m going to talk to him next.”

“It’s an amazing place. They know what you want before you
want it. It’s comparable to the exclusive boutique hotels in downtown Portland.
Or even New York.”

“New York? Seriously?” Terry wrinkled his nose.

Lacey glanced at Jack. “I’d say it ranks with the last place
we stayed in back East.”

“I agree,” said Jack. “Keurigs and fresh cookies in the
room. Luxury mattresses and bedding. Whoever remodeled it used high-quality
finishes and excellent craftsmen.”

“Now, you spotted the body at about six fifteen a.m.,
right?” Terry looked at his notepad.

“Yes,” Lacey answered. “I was on the deck, and Jack had just
joined me when we spotted the body. We didn’t see anyone else up and around.”

“When I got down there, she was facedown in the water,” Jack
added. “I grabbed her arm and pulled. I noticed then how stiff she was, but I
didn’t care. I just wanted her out. She had no pulse and she wasn’t breathing.
I administered chest compressions, hoping to get some of the water out of her
lungs or get her heart started, but it wasn’t working.”

“There wouldn’t be any water in her lungs if she didn’t
drown,” Lacey stated.

“It can’t just flow in?” Terry asked.

“No, she’d have to breathe it in. I was only a minute behind
him and calling 911 on my cell. Once we realized there was no reviving her, I
went to the front desk to notify hotel management.”

“Anyone else come out to the pool area?” Terry made a note
on his pad.

Lacey looked at Jack, who shook his head. “We didn’t see
anyone. I was surprised that no one even came out on their decks until they’d
already loaded her onto the gurney. People were sleeping in, I guess. The rooms
don’t let in much sound. I noticed we could barely hear the ocean last night.”

“How about wet footprints when you first got to the hot tub?
Or water outside near the tub?”

Jack closed his eyes and thought. “I don’t remember. I was
completely focused on her. At first I thought there were white towels in the
hot tub with her, but then I realized it was her dress and veil.”

“Did you two hear anything overnight?” Terry asked
hopefully.

Lacey figured he already knew the answer. “No. But we had
our windows and door closed. It wasn’t warm enough overnight to have them
open.”

There was a knock at the office door, and Paul Lott stuck
his head in. “Can I get you anything else, Chief?”

“Actually, I’m ready to talk to you, Paul. Is this a good
time?”

Paul stepped in the room. “Sure. I’ve got the desk manager
to cover the front.”

“Jessica hasn’t left, has she?” Terry asked.

“No. I told her to wait until she was questioned.”

“Good,” said Terry. “We’ll talk to her next. Have a seat.”

Lacey and Jack stood up.

“Wait a minute, guys.” Terry turned to Paul. “You have any
issues if they stick around for this? Jack used to be on the force with me in
Lakeview, and Dr. Campbell is from the main branch of the medical
examiner’s office. I wouldn’t mind having their insight on what happened this
morning.”

Paul set a notebook on the table and took a seat, looking
from Lacey to Jack. “I have no problem with that. I just want to help find out
who did that to the poor woman.”

Lacey met Jack’s gaze. What Terry was asking was unusual,
but not out of line. Jack shrugged and they both sat.

Lacey liked Paul Lott. The fiftyish man had sincerely
greeted them when they checked in yesterday. He didn’t use the
overenthusiastic-you’re-my-new-best-friend attitude that she couldn’t stand
from some service industries. She and Jack had an appointment for later today
to go over wedding possibilities with him.

There was no use keeping that appointment now. There was no
way Lacey was getting married here.

Terry focused on Paul. “How long have you worked here?”

Paul crossed his legs. “Three years. We’ve been open for
almost two years and spent the year before that in an extensive remodel. I was
hired away from a hotel in Seattle. The new owner of The Pacific Inn was a
regular guest of ours up there, and he liked how I ran things. He asked me to
commit for three years to his first venture into boutique hoteling and promised
to make it worth my while.”

“Your time here is up?”

Paul smiled. “My contract is being renegotiated. I have to
admit, I didn’t expect to like this sort of remoteness, but it’s grown on me.
If they want me to stay, I’ll consider it.”

“The hotel is doing well?”

“Better than well. This place was a disaster when the owner
bought it. The old hotel couldn’t keep a twenty-five percent occupancy rate
during the prime summer months. That’s crazy. We could see that the bare bones
of the hotel had something to offer. We tore it down to the studs and
redesigned everything. Thirty rooms became twenty suites. We added a spa and
luxury in-room dining. Our goal was to make it a place for destination
weddings. And you can’t find a better view of the ocean than from our bluff.”

Lacey silently agreed. The hotel’s perch along the craggy
cliff was storybook.

“We overhauled the grounds and the staff. Brought in master
gardeners to create stunning landscaping and stole exceptional employees from
other hotels. You should have seen the previous staff. They could care less
about providing service. They were here to get a paycheck for doing as little
work as possible. I tried to keep them on, but when I laid out how things were
going to be different around here, half left and the other half I had to
eventually let go.”

“All your staff is new?” Lacey asked in surprise. The
recession was still in full force on the coast. She found it hard to believe
the staff didn’t wise up and work hard to keep their jobs.

Paul looked at her. “I think one of the maids is original.
The rest I brought on.”

“Jessica from the front desk called you this morning,
correct?” Terry asked.

“Yes. She woke me. I could barely understand her, but she
said that someone had died on the hotel grounds. At the time, I thought she
meant a guest. But Patty Marino wasn’t registered as a guest.”

“Could she have been a friend of a guest?” Terry asked.

Paul flipped open the notebook he’d brought with him. He
removed a printout and ran his finger down the list, stopping occasionally. “I
see two suites that are registered to single male guests. All the other pairs
of guests share the same last name.” He looked up with a grin at Lacey and
Jack. “Except for suite eleven.”

Their room. Lacey tried not to roll her eyes.

Jack gave a wry smile. “That doesn’t mean someone couldn’t
have registered with the same last name while they weren’t married. I’m sure
that happens occasionally.”

“Of course. You can review the front-desk video to see if
Patty Marino checked in with someone.” Paul handed the printout to Terry. “This
also indicates the date and time people checked in. As for the two single male
names, I know one of them. Kenneth Johns comes out from Lake Oswego at least
once a month for a long weekend. He’s a writer. I can’t say I’ve ever seen him
with a woman while he’s here. Usually his only companion is his laptop. Or a
book.”

Terry nodded and took the piece of paper. “Did you bring the
hotel map? Me and my two guys have been over every square inch outside, but we
haven’t looked around much inside.”

Lacey did a mental head-slap. She’d assumed that Patty
Marino had been brought in from somewhere else, not possibly killed on the
grounds of the hotel and then dumped in the hot tub. Why had her thinking gone
that way without considering the obvious?
Because a smart killer
wouldn’t dump the body so close to the scene of the crime, she decided. Then
again, they couldn’t assume the killer was smart.

Terry’s cell phone rang, and he glanced at the screen. “It’s
Mathews.” He held the phone to his ear. “What’d you find out?”

Lacey and the two other men listened to the one-sided
conversation, which involved a lot of uh-huhs.

“What’s the word on their relationship?” Terry asked. After
another minute, he hung up and scribbled some quick notes.

“Mathews says the home was locked up tight,” Terry stated.
“The ex-husband and his truck are nowhere to be found. As far as the ex’s
relationship with Patty, the general consensus is surprise that they were able
to live together without killing each other.”

Terry shook his head. “It’s driving me crazy that I don’t
know these people or know every little thing about this town like I did in
Lakeview. Back home, I knew where the high-school kids like to go shoot cans
and where Old Man Lewis could be found every time he went on a bender.” He
thumped a fist on the table. “I’m feeling useless here.”

“You need to rely on your staff for that sort of stuff,”
Jack said. “Your expertise is that you know the right questions to ask and how
to put the evidence together. That’s the part that comes with experience. Don’t
beat yourself up about it.” Jack pointed at him. “It’ll interfere with your
thinking.”

“You’re right. I know you’re right.” Terry shuffled his
papers. “Where’s that map?”

Paul slid it across the table. Terry grabbed the paper and
scowled.

“I’m surprised you don’t have outdoor cameras,” Jack said.
“I would have thought that’d be a crucial part of providing security to your
guests. In fact, I assumed there
were
cameras.”

Paul nodded. “We’ve talked about it several times. But it’s
been such a quiet location, we hadn’t seen the need for the added expense.”

“It’s possible your killer knows you don’t have cameras.
Otherwise, I can’t imagine why someone would risk placing a body in such a
public area. Even if the cameras weren’t obvious, most people would assume they
were out of sight.” Jack looked at Terry. “Either you’ve got a really stupid
killer who doesn’t care about cameras or one who knew ahead of time there were
none around.”

Terry nodded slowly. “Exactly.”