Who Glares Wins (Lexi Graves Mysteries) (37 page)

Elisabeth. I thought it over this morning
,
when I couldn't get back to sleep after Maddox left, leaving a half cold bed. I was now working from the theory that if Marissa was on her own, she might have gone somewhere she felt safe
.
I
now
knew she had
wheels,
after not returning her friend
,
Ally's
,
car as agreed.

"Do you know where this place is?" I asked.

Edward shook his head. "No, she just talked about it in passing. She never said where. Can you find this Beth? Perhaps she knows?"

"I think she's the same friend who reported Marissa missing. I'll ask her. In the meantime, keep this between us," I said. "If Marissa was scared off, I don't want her to be found by anyone
,
but me."

"I won't say a thing," Killjoy assured me. "Just find her and bring her back safe.
Please, Lexi. Just make sure she’s safe.
She’s… she’s…
"

I placed a hand on his arm. “I know.”

He gave me a small, tight smile.
I nodded, and bid a hasty retreat, taking the corridor to the rear service exit. I pressed the call button and waited. A couple minutes of quiet later
,
I pressed it again
,
but there was no wind and rattle sound
,
signifying the elevator was working.

I huffed, annoyed, and made my way through to the guest elevators a few minutes away. I rode the elevator with an elderly couple, who got off at the
second
floor, rolling upwards agonizingly slowly before I
arrive
d
at
the
third
floor. I hopped out, scanned the brass plates for the room numbers and followed the arrows
to the lower numbers where Greg
said he was working, wondering what he wanted to show me.

My stomach fluttered the closer I
got to room three-
eight.
So long as Greg
actually had some vital information for me, v
ery soon I
c
ould crack the case
,
and then I wouldn't have to pretend to be a temp anymore. I could go to the gym with Lily. I could have the lie
-
in I wanted.
Buy some new shoes with my bonus.
Maybe even take a couple days off.

The idea of that was enough
to make me feel
pretty pleased with myself when I stepped around the cleaning cart, pushed back the door
, which was ajar,
and stepped inside.

"Greg
?" I
said
, frowning at the closed curtains that
ensconced
the room
in darkness.

I turned, and tripped. "Not aga—
" I started to mutter, my hands
shooting out to soften my fall as I tipped forwards, my heel catching on something.
On
my knees
, my hands planted
firmly
in the carpet,
I could just make out the prone form of a body sprawled near the bed.

"What the hell?" I whispered, crawling forwards.

I hear
d the soft click of the door shut behind me, and started to turn,
the breeze
touching my face
,
signifying
movement
. T
hen there was only blinding pain as something incredibly heavy smashed into my skull. My knees crumpled and my arms shot out as I crashed
heavily
to the floor.

My eyelids fluttered
,
and then there was nothing.

When I came to, there was no one in the room. At least, I didn't think there was at first. I blinked a few times to adjust my eyes to the dark and groaned, pushing myself up. My head hurt like crazy and I raised a hand to it, feeling gingerly for injuries. Aside from a bump the size of a golf
ball
at
the side of my head
,
I seemed to have escaped
injury
.
I was definitely alive anyway. I felt for my heels. They were too.

"Great!" I muttered.
“Come to
offer
help and get knocked on the head!”
I scrabbled around for my purse, found the strap and pulled it towards me
. I
blinked again, for the first time noticing
the sprawled figure of Greg Conlan
slumped on the floor. Unl
ike me, Greg
wasn't moving. I suspected it was he
whom I’d
fallen over, disabling me for the assailant to strike. I looked around, my eyes adjusting to the gloom as my head throbbed. Whoever it was had long gone.

Duck
walking
towards Greg
, I reached two fingers to the pulse point on
his neck and grimaced. Greg
was cool to the touch and had probably stopped breathing some time ago. Maybe even before someone whacked me over the head.

Sucking in a ragged breath and trying to quell my panic, I had the horrible certainty that being in the same room as a murderer, and a corpse was very, very bad.

I staggered to my feet, feeling my way to the door. I tried the handle and sighed. The door was locked and it wasn't opening
without a keycard
. I looked around, squinting
through
the dark. The only other exit was the floor
-
to
-
ceiling sliding
doors
behind the drawn curtains. I crossed over and tugged at the sliding door, opening it a little further, giving me enough room to
slip through. I was on the thir
d
-
floor balco
ny, with what I guessed was at least a three
meter drop
to
the grass below. A tinny ring echoed somewhere in the building
,
telling me that an alarm had been activated
,
but
it wasn’t a fire alarm
. I had two options. One, I could wait to be discovered
;
then explain to security or the police what I was doing in a locked room with a head wound and a corpse. The second option was down.

It wasn't much of a
choice. I stepped inside. W
rapping my sleeve around my hand
,
I wiped the back of the room door and the h
andle,
edging
around Greg’s prone form
.

I vaguely recalled Greg
saying he had something to show me. I crawled frantically around him, and gulp
ed
, check
ing
his pockets. Nothing
but loose change
. Whatever it was had
disappeared
.

The alarm still rang
ominously
. I took a fortifying breath
,
and purse in hand, made for the balcony door. Pulling my sleeves over my hands, I wiped my fingerprints off the handle
on
each side and pulled the sliding door shut behind me, hearing the lock engage
,
cutting me off from the body
.

I estimated I probably had a minute or so before someone came to check in the room, assuming that was why the alarm still rang. I looked
on
either side of the balcony
,
but there was nothing to grab onto. No guttering. No trellis. I said a little prayer, hop
ing
someone
upstairs
could hear me
and was feeling generous
. Then
, leaning over, I dropped my purse to the ground
.
T
he sound of its fall
was
muffled by the grass. I swung first one leg over the railing
,
then the other, making sure my fingertips were covered the whole time. There would be no way to explain why my fingerprints were
found
in a guest room with a corpse.
I had no reason to be in guest rooms at all.

I kicked off my heels,
and
watched them land next to my purse.

Then, I took a deep breath.
Closed my eyes.
And jumped.

The fall seemed to last forever as the evening breeze rushed through my hair and
channeled
its way
under
my clothing. Then I was on the ground, trying
very hard
not to cry as my ankle jarred
up
on landing
as I rolled to a stop
. I grabbed my bag, slipped my shoes on
,
and hobbled along the side of the building, making my way towards the parking lot. Then I stopped. How long had I been out? It was still light, but the lot was half empty. I checked my watch. Gone six. Having my car peel out of here right now would look pretty suspicious.

Wincing
as my ankle protested
, I did an about
-
face and hurried back along the side of the building. There weren't any cameras here, given that
the area
was largely disused
,
and I scurried along until I reached the front. Straightening up, I tried not to hobble as I walked through the landscaped gardens to the street
,
and
once
there
,
hobbled quickly. At the next intersection
,
I tapped in the pin code of my cell phone
,
scrolled through the address book to Lily's name and pressed
“
call.
”

"Hey, you!" Lily said cheerfully when we connected.

"H
ey. I need some help!
"
I gasped.

Immediately, Lily’s tone sharpened.
"What's up?"

"I need you to come get me from the hotel
,
then take me to the hospital."

There was silence, then Lily's worried voice. "What happened?"

"Someone bashed me over the head and knocked me out."

"I knew I shouldn't have asked. I knew I should have just said sure."

"Can you come now? I'm waiting down the street.
It’s urgent.
"

I paused as a police car sped past me and turned into the front drive of the hotel.
Yep, someone definitely wanted that body discovered.

"On my way," said Lily.

I stayed in the shadows u
ntil I saw Lily's turquoise
Mini driving cautiously along the street twenty minutes later. I hobbled out, wav
ing
to her and she pulled over just l
ong enough for me to jump in. W
e took off, Lily pulling a U-turn in the quiet street. A moment later
,
another cop car sped past us
,
heading for the hotel.

"Jeez," she said. "What were you doing?"

"Snooping."

Lily shook her head. "That's some dangerous snooping."

"Tell me about it." I pulled the
visor
down and peered in the mirror while holding my hair back, angling my head. I heard Lily suck in a breath. The bump looked angry
,
but not bloody
,
which was a mercy. I wouldn't need to go to the hospital at any rate.
My grass stained knees could be treated at home too.

"Tell me what happened."

I glanced across at Lily
, heaving
a sigh. "I don't want to implicate you."

"Did you do something bad?"

"No. Someone else did something bad."

Lily raised her eyebrows and waited.

"I was supposed to meet someone who had information on the saboteur
,
but when I got there
,
he was lying on the floor. Just as I tried to take a look
,
someone whacked me on the head
, knocking
me out. When I woke up
,
he or she
w
as
gone
, the body was still there,
and the alarm was ringing."

"So the police cars we just saw..."

"Someone probably just discovered the body." Or was tipped off. I had the uncomfortable feeling I was supposed to have been discovered at the same time
.
I
t would
have
take
n
a hell of a lot of persuasion to get me out of that situation
,
even with nineteen serving family members
o
n the police force, and a cop boyfriend
,
and a boss with a past in national agencies. As it was, I'd left the scene of the crime
;
but given that I hadn't killed anyone, I wasn't too worried about that. I was worried that the murderer had probably seen me and set me up
to take the fall after
snatching
the evidence
Greg
claimed to have. T
he same person was behind the message on my wall. The same person who cut the lights in the conference center and scared the shit out
of
the guests.
The same person who wanted to see The Montgomery fail
.
A
nd I was just inches away. I cursed myself silently.