Broom and Gloom: Squeaky Clean Mysteries, Book 9 Page 18

  “I don’t suppose you have any guesses where she went?”

  “No idea. I just know that she’s obsessed with Trace. It wouldn’t surprise me if she went after him next. That girl is crazy. I think she was on drugs and maybe had some type of impulse control problem. Who knows?”

  “Really? Why do you think that?”

  “Just the way she acted.” She stared straight ahead for a moment, and I feared she might fall asleep midsentence. Finally, she spoke again. “I have a feeling someone who worked with Trace was selling the drugs to her. Maybe one of his security guards?”

  Interesting. That could shed some new light onto this whole situation. Was Quinton somehow involved in this? Had he been Georgia’s wingman, so to speak? If he was selling drugs to a woman who’d abducted another woman, they’d have every reason in the world to lie about what happened the day Dud died.

  “Is there anything else Georgia said that gave you any clue as to where she was staying or what she was planning next?”

  Skye shook her head again. “She brought me food once a day. But otherwise, she kept me locked up in a closet at that house. She said very little, though she did mutter under her breath quite a bit. I was thankful every day that she didn’t kill me.”

  “Why did she let you out today? Not to sound callous, but why not just leave you in the closet, where you were harder to find?”

  Skye shrugged, her eyelids drooping. “I have no idea. Unless her plan all along was for you to follow her. Maybe she was hoping you’d die in that fire as well. What’s the saying? She could kill two birds with one stone. Literally.”

  That thought wasn’t comforting. But if Georgia had been in OKC today, ruining Trace’s treasured guitar as Jono had said, then she could have swung by the conference center, as well. Maybe she was that conniving.

  “Anything else?”

  “Right before she left, she said she was finally going to put an end to all of this. I’m not sure how helpful that is. I’m assuming she meant that killing me would end it.”

  I shuddered at the eerie message.

  The detective hovered by the door, and I knew my time was up. I stood and patted Skye’s arm again. “If you need anything, let me know. Have you talked to Trace yet?”

  “No, not yet.”

  “I’ll be by to check on you soon.”

  She nodded, though her eyes looked sad. “I’m looking forward to seeing him as well.”

  As I stepped out the door, the detective stopped me. “You’re staying at the conference hotel, right?”

  I nodded.

  He handed me a key card. “I think you dropped this in the explosion. We found it outside the house.”

  “Thanks.” I took the key card and slipped it into my back pocket.

  On my way out of the hospital with Evie and Sherman, I ran into Trace.

  He grasped my arms, and concern was written all over his features. “I heard what happened. Are you okay?”

  I nodded. “I’m fine. Just a few cuts and scrapes and bruises. It’s all in a day’s work.”

  “I’m thanking my lucky stars that everyone is okay. My knees were knocking when I heard what happened.”

  “Thanks for sending Jono.”

  “He did show up?”

  I nodded. “He did. It was probably about twenty minutes after I called you.”

  Trace’s eyebrows knit together. “That’s weird. I called him, and he said he was in Oklahoma City. He should have at least been an hour and a half away.”

  That was interesting. Just where had Jono been that he’d arrived so quickly?

  Trace took another step toward the hospital. “You think they’ll let me see Skye?”

  “It can’t hurt to ask,” I told him. “I know she’d like to see you.”

  He leaned closer, staring at my face, his eyes narrowing with confusion.

  I frowned. “Oh, for goodness’ sakes! Yes, some very immature colleagues of mine decided to be funny today and draw a mustache on my upper lip, and no, I can’t get it all off.”

  He shrugged. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”

  “Sure you weren’t.” I narrowed my eyes at him this time.

  His eyes twinkled as he tipped his hat. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

  I nodded. “Sounds good.”

  As he walked away, Sherman turned to me. His eyes looked wide and starstruck. “Was that Trace Ryan?”

  I nodded. “The one and only.”

  His gaze volleyed from Evie back to me. “I want to hang out with you two all the time. I haven’t had this much excitement in years. Maybe ever.”

  Evie and I shared a smile before climbing into Sherman’s car, which had been refilled with gas. It was time to go back to the hotel. One worry was over: Skye had been found. But with Georgia still on the loose, not all my concerns had vanished.

  CHAPTER 27

  As soon as we got back to the hotel, I expected Evie and Sherman to rush back to their rooms and unwind. Instead, Evie turned to me. “I’m so glad we can finally talk. I didn’t feel like we could do it in front of that rookie cop who drove us back. Can we go to your room?” she asked me.

  I shrugged, all thoughts of a shower and a clean set of clothes vanishing. “Sure. What’s on your mind?”

  “We’ll talk in your room. I don’t know who to trust.”

  I slogged down the hall and pulled out my key card. I swiped it across the door, but nothing happened except that a red light flashed. “What?”

  I tried again and the same thing happened. Strange.

  “My card’s not working,” I muttered.

  “Weird. Maybe the fire melted something and messed up the encoding,” Sherman said. “Did you know it’s just an urban legend that those cards contain any other personal information? There’s actually an algorithm—”

  “Sherman,” Evie warned.

  He quieted.

  I stared at the card in my hands and shook my head. “It’s weird, because I don’t know how I lost it. I usually kept the card in my bag, which was in the car.”

  Out of curiosity, I searched through my bag and found . . . another key card. I swiped this one over my door, and the light turned green.

  I glanced over at Evie and Sherman. “Did either of you lose this card?” I held up the one the detective had handed me.

  They pulled out their own cards.

  “So, who does this belong to?” I asked.

  We all stared at each other a moment, something unspoken passing between us.

  I decided to voice my thought aloud, no matter how crazy it might sound. “What if someone else was at the crime scene who has a room at this hotel?”

  “What are you getting at?” Sherman asked.

  “What if Georgia is staying at the hotel? What if that’s one of the reasons she was able to sneak into my room?”

  “What makes you think she snuck into your room?” Evie asked.

  “Because I found daisy petals under my bed last night.” I explained to petals to them, and their interest in what I was saying seemed to grow.

  I glanced down the hallway. “We could see if there’s a door this card works on.”

  Sherman’s eyes widened. “You realize how long that would take? There are approximately one hundred rooms per floor, if my calculations are correct. There are also six floors to this hotel, bringing us to a grand total of—”

  “Six hundred rooms,” I finished. “I know, it’s a long shot.”

  “It’s more than a long shot,” Evie said. “Even if we had the time to check every room on every floor, don’t you think we’d be caught red-handed in the meantime?”

  I leaned against my door in thought. “But let’s think this through. Let’s say this is Georgia’s card. If she were here at the hotel, it would be because of me, right? And if she checked in here to keep an eye on me”—that was putting it nicely—“then she’d probably want a room that was close to mine. That makes sense, right?”

  They both nodded sluggish
ly.

  “So, I say we check a few down this hall. What could it hurt? If it doesn’t work, I’ll give the card to the detective and see if he can figure something out, especially given the nature of these crimes.”

  “Anytime I can try to avoid confronting a psychopath, I try to do that.” Evie crossed her arms.

  “That is a great life rule. I’d stick to it, whenever possible.” The humor faded from my voice. “If you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to. I’m not trying to drag either of you into something you want no part of. But I need answers for myself.”

  “Why?” Sherman said.

  I sighed. “Maybe it has something to do with Dr. Stone. He really put me in my place. I thought he believed in me, and all along he really wanted something else. Maybe I feel the need to prove to myself that I’m competent and capable.”

  “You shouldn’t feel like you have to prove yourself to anyone,” Evie reminded me.

  “I know.” I pointed to the faint outline of the mustache. “Believe me, any pride I had left is now gone. Long gone.”

  “I’m with you, Gabby,” Evie said. “At least, for this part, I am. I’m not going to risk going to jail or anything, though.”

  “Understood.” I glanced at Sherman. “You taking off?”

  He shook his head. “No, I meant it when I said this was the most fun I’d had in years. I’m here, and I’m in.”

  “Great.” I glanced down the hallway and saw the long row of rooms ahead of me. “Let’s get started. Sherman, can you keep a lookout? If someone is coming, can you let us know?”

  “Let you know how?”

  I shook my head, trying to come up with a great idea. Did I have to have all the great ideas? “I don’t know. You could whistle. Sing. Drop something.”

  “Just say hello to the person who’s approaching. We’ll hear you and know,” Evie said, her voice dry and her tone sure of herself.

  Her idea made the most sense. “Do what she said. I was being too creative, obviously.”

  He wandered down to the beginning of the hallway, right by the elevators. He leaned against the wall and pulled out his phone, making it look like he was checking his emails. Perfect!

  I decided to start on the far side of my room, the one closest to the outside exit. I figured the one beside me was my best bet. I held the card over the sensor and held my breath.

  The light turned red.

  Disappointment bit at me. But I kept going. I continued down the row, but every door was a red light. Could my theory have been wrong? There was no way I’d be able to check every room at this hotel. Sherman was right about that.

  But I’d hoped for some kind of answer. Maybe this was just another humbling moment in my life. Maybe I really did need to learn to leave things to the police instead of taking matters into my own hands. I would have thought I’d have learned that lesson by now, especially considering everything I’d been through.

  “There are the doors on the other side of your room, toward Sherman,” Evie said after we reached the end of the hallway.

  I nodded. “It can’t hurt to try, I guess. Sixty down. Five hundred and forty more to go.”

  I held up the card on the room on the other side of mine. Each door I’d tried had lessened my enthusiasm until I questioned myself. This had all been a whim. I should have given the card to the detective and told him it wasn’t mine.

  To my surprise, the light turned green.

  I looked at Evie, and both of our faces registered surprise. This hadn’t been a wild goose chase after all.

  “What now?” Evie whispered.

  I stared at the green light on the door handle, a tremble raking through me as I pictured what I might find on the other side. “Now I need to figure out if anyone is inside, I guess.”

  “What if it’s Georgia?”

  I didn’t have time to think too much. Instead, I rapped on the door and waited.

  No one answered.

  Evie nodded at me, so I swiped the card again. When the light turned green, I turned the handle. Slowly, I pushed the door open.

  Inside, the lights were out and the shades drawn. We stepped inside and closed the door before turning on the lights. I blinked as the room came into focus.

  From where I stood now, the suite looked just like mine. Except it was freezing cold. Colder than it would be simply if the heat had been turned off. It almost felt like the AC had been turned on.

  I crept through the front room, noting that there were no personal effects here anywhere. No suitcases or clothes or papers. It almost looked like no one had been here.

  The tension continued to grow between my shoulder blades as I approached the bedroom. Would Georgia be waiting there? Had she been camped out beside me this whole time, and I’d been clueless?

  The thought wasn’t comforting.

  Evie trailed behind me as I pushed open the door. I found the light switch and flipped it on.

  The room was empty.

  I nodded toward the bathroom. It was the last place we needed to check.

  With a touch of reservation, I pulled the door open.

  I sucked in a breath when I saw Georgia sprawled on the floor against the toilet.

  A gun lay beside her hands, and blood was all over this place.

  By all appearances, she was . . . dead.

  CHAPTER 28

  Evie rushed toward Georgia and put her hand at her neck. “She still has a pulse,” she said. “Call 911. Now.”

  I pulled out my phone just as someone knocked at the door.

  “Guys, it’s me. Sherman.”

  I darted across the room, let him in, and stuck my phone in his hand. “Talk to dispatch for me. Tell them we found a woman with a gunshot wound and she’s barely hanging on.”

  I grabbed the towel from the shelf and placed it over Georgia’s chest wound. It was improbable that we were going to be able to save her. She needed blood. A lot of blood, based on the amount on the floor. But maybe she’d hold on until the paramedics got here.

  I knew Georgia was not a good person, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to help.

  Lord, help her. Help us know what to do here!

  I kept the blanket over the wound, trying to stop her from losing any more blood. Beneath my hands I could feel the faint beat of her heart. Evie knelt on the other side of me and propped Georgia’s head up.

  I glanced down at Georgia’s face. Somehow, in the pallor of near death, Georgia didn’t look as scary. She looked like a young woman who’d run away from home and gotten really confused on how to live life. Her hair was dyed a dark brown. Her lips were purple.

  Beyond the putrid smell of blood, I also caught a whiff of something else. Body odor, maybe? Her jeans did look dingy. Surprisingly, however, I didn’t smell gasoline.

  What had she been doing here at the hotel?

  Had she gotten this room for the sole purpose of spying on me? The thought made me shudder. Who knew what else this woman had been up to. I didn’t even want to think about what she may have been plotting here with only a wall between us. The thought was terrifying.

  “The ambulance should be here any minute now,” Sherman said. He paused in the doorway, soaking the scene in for the first time. “It doesn’t make sense. Why would she shoot herself?”

  “Maybe she knew she couldn’t get away with everything she’d done and decided suicide was an easier option.” I glanced at the blood on the floor. Something didn’t settle in my gut. “Look at this, guys. The blood is already starting to coagulate.”

  “So?” Sherman said. “Blood can congeal in fifteen minutes.”

  “This blood has coagulated in full. In fifteen minutes, the outer edges might turn to gel. But this entire puddle is thick, and it’s already drying on the edges.”

  “The cooler temp in the room may have sped up the process,” Evie said.

  I shook my head. “The time line doesn’t add up. The earliest she could have gotten back to the hotel would maybe be a couple of ho
urs ago. The blood is solid, so it has been sitting for longer than that.”

  “So you think that someone tried to kill her?” Sherman asked.

  I pointed to the wall. “Look at this blood spatter. She was shot and she struggled. This transfer stain leads out the door. Look at the direction of this swipe.”

  “It’s like someone left and wiped their hand into the back spatter that spurted out from the entrance wound,” Evie uttered. “I think you’re onto something.”

  “By all appearances, it’s a suicide,” Sherman continued. “I found this letter tucked under a pillow while I was talking with 911.”

  “There’s no doubt that the woman was unstable,” I said, keeping my hand on her chest as air expelled from her chest, resulting in a small moan. I lowered my voice out of respect, not that I thought she could hear me. “There’s no doubt she was unbalanced. But she wouldn’t have killed herself without reaching out to Trace first.”

  “Uh, guys. Look at this.” Sherman held up a slip of paper he’d found on the floor.

  I took it from him. It was Jono’s business card. Interesting.

  Just then, the paramedics rushed in, and we were shoved out of the way. But we certainly had a lot to think about. Maybe too much.

  ***

  “So, how exactly did you discover Ms. Dalton in someone else’s hotel room again?” Detective Farmer asked after Georgia had been taken to the hospital.

  Detectives from all the different municipalities in Oklahoma were starting to know me on a first-name basis. Though I should be horrified, I was halfway flattered.

  “It’s a long story.” And the least of my worries at the moment. Couldn’t he see there were more urgent matters at hand?

  He crossed his arms, obviously not in a hurry. I sighed and launched into my explanation. When I finished, he continued to stare at me like I’d just lied.

  “So, you just thought you’d see what room here at the hotel that key card worked on?” he repeated.

  I sighed. “I know it sounds . . . unconventional. But I did what I thought was best for the case. I didn’t want to cry wolf and call you out here for nothing.”