Frosted (7 page)

“The car.” Adam handed the waiter his credit card. “We’re going.”

#

Scarlet drove the Jeep in the thick fog, her wipers on intermittent to help visibility, defrost on max. Adam sat in the back, his head against the window. She almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
The guy needed to grow up, but she understood how upsetting it could be to find out the people you trusted the most might be using you. Lying to you.

It reminded her of her conversation with her brother yesterday, when he didn’t joke back to her. He was hiding something. Maybe not lying, but definitely keeping something from her. She was about to ask Krista if she’d noticed anything odd about John’s behavior over the last month or so, when her partner said, “If Dave is responsible for this as a publicity stunt, it was a bust, so why hire someone to break into the suite?”

“And why toss his apartment?” Scarlet added.

“Remember the day you were assigned as my trainer?” Krista asked.

“I’ll never forget. I think I told you to keep your mouth shut.” Scarlet almost smiled. “I didn’t want to be a trainer.”

“You scared me. But I was determined to stick it out. I wanted to be a cop, a good cop, so badly, and you were one of the best. You’d made detective after just five years. You had a reputation—”

Scarlet snorted. “Hardly.”

“You did. Mostly good—yeah, sure, you were intimidating, opinionated and bitchy, and some of the guys hated you, but that’s because you didn’t take their bullshit. You never made a big deal about being a female cop—you were a cop first and last, never playing the game.”

“We all had to play the game. It’s part of the old boys’ network. I just decided to take it head on because I don’t play politics well.”

“I wanted to do that, too. But anyway, after telling me to keep my mouth shut, you gave me the best advice I’ve ever received. You said, ‘Trust your gut.’ I’d always heard about how cops developed instincts after years of training and being on the job, but I was a rookie practically right out of the academy, and you told me to trust my gut. And I have—it’s saved my ass, it’s saved your ass, and so far, it’s never been wrong.”

“And what’s your gut saying now?”

“This isn’t a publicity scam. This is real. Dave is up to something, but I don’t think he’s the one behind the notes or the champagne or tossing Adam’s apartment.”

“Whoever trashed Adam’s apartment was looking for something.”

“And why not search while he was in South Africa for ten days?”

“Because whatever they’re looking for wasn’t in the apartment until Adam came back.”

“Bingo.”

Scarlet loved talking things out with Krista. “And the apprentice has become the master,” she teased.

Krista laughed. “You were a good instructor, Obi-Wan.”

“Adam said he didn’t bring anything back from South Africa—just clothes, right?”

Krista turned in her seat, “Adam, do you have those clothes here with you?”

He blinked. “What?”

“You weren’t listening to our conversation?”

“Not really. I was thinking.”

Deep thinking, Scarlet thought.

“The clothes you bought in South Africa—did you bring them here with you?”

“I guess—why?”

“This all started when you returned from that shoot. Scarlet and I think the break-in might have to do with something that happened overseas, something you bought, or borrowed, or were given.”

“Oh.”

“Oh?”

He shrugged. “You can check everything out. I don’t care.”

Scarlet rounded the last turn and the lodge came into view, a welcome beacon on a cold, foggy night.

A second later, the lights went out. The lodge was black. The only lights were Scarlet’s headlamps cutting a surreal path in the misty night.

“Shit,” she muttered. She stopped the Jeep just short of the roundabout and drew her gun. “You got him, Krista?”

Krista had her own gun in hand. “Yes.”

Scarlet left the keys in the ignition and the Jeep running as she got out. Krista slid into the driver’s seat and locked the car.

Scarlet kept away from the Jeep lights, her boots sinking into the snow as she stayed off the path in case someone was lurking.

Damn, damn, damn.

Her feet were already freezing. She stopped for a moment, her back against a redwood tree, listening and waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dark. Who was in the lodge? The wedding party was still at the restaurant. If Mr. Oliver, the asshole manager, was right that meant the only guests left in the lodge were Dave and Trina.

Plus there was the staff—Mr. Oliver, the night manager, Chad, Vince, those who worked in the restaurant and housekeeping. Maybe eight, ten employees.

But there were other places to stay in the area, such as the motel five miles down the mountain. The ski lodge they’d been to earlier had a hotel attached. There were private residences throughout the mountain and the small town of Bear Springs where Adam’s car was being fixed. Plenty of places for someone to stay, waiting for the right time to make their move on Adam.

Trust your gut.
The advice Scarlet had given Krista as a rookie cop was advice she also lived by, and her gut said it was no coincidence that the power had gone out as soon as she’d driven within sight of the lodge. Someone had been waiting for them.

She looked back at the Jeep. No one was approaching the vehicle. No one had come out of the lodge or the storage shed—which was more than a shed because it housed all the ATVs and snow plow equipment for the facility. It was like a small warehouse. If all had gone well, they would have driven up to the door and left the Jeep to be taken to the garage by the valet. The two of them would have been easily able to protect Adam. But it was dark, and someone may have thought they’d have the element of surprise. And some people looked at a female P.I. —especially one who was slender and petite like Krista—and thought they could take her out. Most people wouldn’t assume that they’d both been cops, that they’d been trained, that Scarlet was a marksman or Krista had a black belt.

With the lights out, that gave Scarlet’s group the disadvantage if they entered the lodge, because they could be jumped from the entrance or behind.

What if they assumed she wouldn’t wait for the valet, but drive all three of them into the garage? Why cut the lights in the lodge? To force them to stay out here? A lot of assumptions. And nothing felt logical.

Scarlet’s feet weren’t getting any warmer or dryer standing in the snow. She peered around the redwood and saw no one. Staying as close to the trees as she could, she trudged as quickly as possible toward the lodge. But instead of going up the front steps, she walked around to the back. The wide deck circled the lodge and had several access points. In the rear of the lodge, the restaurant and bar opened up onto the deck, but would the bar even be open tonight when all the guests were at the other restaurant?

As she rounded the back, the glow of several heat lamps illuminated the deck, making the trees and snow-covered mountain even darker.

Cautiously, she trekked up the mountainside, sinking into the snow and getting icy chunks in her boots. She stayed low until she reached the stairs that led to the deck, and then shook the snow out as best she could and walked up the stairs.

No one was on the deck.

Scarlet stayed close to the building as she crept over to the doors. The wall was made of glass, and anyone waiting for her would most certainly see her from the glow of lamps. But she didn’t really have a choice, so she picked up speed and pushed open the doors.

Inside, it was quiet. She walked away from the windows, toward the bar area where a fire burned in a huge stone fireplace. Movement in the bar had her shifting her gun to her left.

“Hey!” a voice said.

She couldn’t make out the figure. “Who are you?”

“Vince. I’m working the bar tonight. What’s going on?”

Vince, the flirty bellhop who’d carried her bags.

“You tell me.” She pointed her gun down and away from him.

“The power went out. It happens sometimes.”

“Isn’t there a back-up generator?”

He shrugged. “I guess.”

No help whatsoever. Scarlet glanced around. She didn’t see anyone else in the lobby. “Is there really no one here?”

“The wedding party is at the restaurant up the road. They’ll be back by eleven and asked us to keep the bar open until midnight.”

“What I meant was, is it true that only the wedding people and Adam Brock’s group are in the lodge this weekend?”

“Oh—yeah. We only have thirty-eight rooms, plus the three suites on the penthouse level. The wedding booked everything but the penthouse.”

“What staff is here?”

“Uh, most everyone. Because of the wedding. There are rooms over the garage for staff.”

“But here—in the lodge.”

“Mr. Oliver. Me. Janice in the kitchen until ten.”

Scarlet had seen no movement in the lobby. She left Vince in the bar and walked along the edge of the room, up the three stairs to the lobby level. The power hadn’t come back on. Why wasn’t Vince checking on it? Was Mr. Oliver doing it?

She called Krista. “Vince the bell hop is in the bar. I don’t see anyone else here.”

“No one has approached us.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Maybe we should just leave the car here and go inside, secure Adam in his room.”

“Hold up a minute.” She had an idea. She pocketed her phone and ran across the lobby to the staircase. She tried to use her card key to unlock the door.

It didn’t work.

Well, shit. The power goes out and the electronic keys don’t work. If someone was planning an ambush, it wasn’t in the stairwell.

She went back to the main doors. She opened them slowly, looked around.

Movement to her left had her both ducking and pushing open the door, using it as a shield in case someone had a weapon.

The movement startled whoever was standing on the veranda. He turned and ran in the opposite direction. Scarlet pursued. The guy leaped over the edge of the railing and down into the snow bank. He wore black, and as she reached the edge she lost visual as he disappeared among the trees.

“Shit, shit, shit!”

She wanted to follow him, but visibility sucked in the light snowfall. Now, his tracks would be visible, but she didn’t know if they would be in the morning.

She needed a flashlight and better shoes. And back-up. It would be foolish to track that bastard at night by herself, especially when she didn’t know the area well.

Frustrated, she walked back to the car.

Krista rolled down the window and said, “I saw someone run toward the garage.”

“He jumped off the porch. I didn’t want to follow when I don’t know where the hell he’s going, but I want to track him.”

“Let’s get Adam upstairs and secured first.”

“With the power out, the elevator and the card keys don’t work. Pull over to the side under the awning. We’ll hunt down Mr. Oliver and get the power back on.”

No sooner had Scarlet spoken when all the lights in the lodge turned on.

“And that concludes the evening’s power outage,” Krista said, glancing around. “Now it’s time to find out what the hell’s going on.”

Chapter Six

They settled Adam into the suite with Trina and Dave and instructed them all to stay put. After changing into heavy-duty boots, Scarlet and Krista went downstairs in search of Mr. Oliver.

They found him behind the front desk. His cheeks looked flushed and his tie was askew. Clearly, the power outage had rattled him.

“What happened?” Krista asked him. “The power was out for fifteen minutes.”

“I don’t really know.” He looked older than Scarlet had remembered and had a tremor in his voice. “I was in my room working on the books when the lights went out. I waited a minute—we have an automatic back-up generator. It’s not uncommon for the power to go out on occasion. But the back-up didn’t go on. I first went to the control room to check the fuses and the first thing I noticed was that the back-up generator switch had been turned off. We only do that during maintenance of the system. But that means that if the power goes out, the generator doesn’t know and won’t turn on.”

“So someone knows how your system works.”

He straightened his tie and seemed to get back some of his composure. “It’s a standard system,” he said stiffly.

“But it means,” Krista added, “that someone intentionally turned it off.”

“How many people work here, Mr. Oliver?” Scarlet asked.

“We have six full-time employees who live here. More during our peak season, in both summer and winter. My parents bought this lodge forty years ago. They couldn’t run it anymore, so I took over.”

He owned the place? And had been so rude? Scarlet didn’t get that.

“But you don’t like it,” Scarlet said.

“My parents were extroverts,” he said. “They liked people. I’m happier working with numbers. But I’m an only child. There was no one else to take over, and I can’t sell it—not with both of them still alive. It would break their hearts.”

Scarlet didn’t want to like Mr. Oliver, but she didn’t hate him anymore.

“How could the power go back on like that?”

“The main power breaker, which is outside the lodge. There’s a small cement shed, between here and the garage. Telephone systems, power systems, Internet—all power for this building, the garage and the storage locker goes through the power shed.”

“Staff—six here now?” Scarlet asked.

“We brought in three extra for the wedding. Chad Hopkins, the valet who is also helping Vince with maintenance and physical labor. Nicole Martinez, the niece of our head housekeeper. She’s worked here every summer for the past three years while she’s in college, and we needed someone for the wedding party to help Joelle with clean-up duties. And Connie Adair, to help Janice in the kitchen.

“Do you know Chad and Connie well?” Krista asked.

“No—I don’t know either of them. They’re both new. Both were recommended by the employment agency we use for extra staffing.” He looked both worried and agitated. “Is this power outage connected to why Mr. Brock hired you? Is there something I need to be made aware of?”

Krista said, “I told you earlier that someone had broken into his suite using a card key. Mr. Brock believes he’s being stalked, and we agree—but we don’t think it’s a fan. We’re investigating every possible option.”

Scarlet added, “I came in through the back during the power outage, walked through the lobby and went out the front—someone bolted when they saw me and jumped off the porch to the south. That’s the direction of the garage. Does all your staff stay above the garage?”

“Everyone except myself and Diana Martinez, our head housekeeper. I have a suite on this floor, and Diana has a small cabin down the road. It used to be where my parents lived, before they grew too infirm and moved into town. Diana has been with us for twenty-two years.”

Scarlet glanced at Krista, and she nodded. Scarlet said, “We’d like to talk to Diana.”

“She works from six a.m. until five p.m. I’m not going to call her now—I would wake her.”

“Would you please give her permission to speak with us tomorrow morning?”

He hesitated then said, “This wedding is very important for us. With the economy, we’ve really been struggling—we’re a specialty resort. Small, specialized service. But everyone wants bargains. Having someone like the McKinleys here and Mr. Brock—it helps us. If anyone thinks that there’s a danger here ...”

“We’ll do everything we can to ensure that no one but Mr. Brock is aware of the situation,” Krista said. “If we can have your cooperation, it would help us find out who’s responsible.” She added, “Mr. Brock’s apartment in L.A. was broken into. The police are investigating. We think that whoever broke into his apartment is involved with whoever is following him here. They may be one and the same. Was any of your staff off either Thursday or today?”

He shook his head. “Everyone, even the temporary employees, have been here since Wednesday. The wedding party started to arrive Thursday morning, and we needed all hands.”

They thanked Mr. Oliver for his time and walked away from the registration desk.

“We need to track whoever ran,” Scarlet said. “Even if we don’t confront him, we should know where he went.”

“Two people,” Krista said. “One in L.A. and one who’s here.”

“Someone who knows this place well.”

“Could be a temp employee. Could be a regular employee.”

“What are the chances that they’d know Adam was coming here this weekend?”

“Dave,” Krista said.

“We need to ask him how he picked this place. And why. But first—let’s track that sneaky bastard and see where he went after he fled.”

Scarlet didn’t give Krista a chance to argue. She led the way outside. The snow was heavier than before and they couldn’t even see their Jeep parked at one end of the roundabout. Krista followed Scarlet to the edge of the wide porch and they shined their lights to the ground below. The flashlight beams barely penetrated the falling snow, and they could hardly make out where he’d jumped off.

“If we wait until morning,” Scarlet said, “the tracks will be buried.”

“Your call,” Krista said.

“We go. My feet are already frozen. My guess is whoever messed with the generator went to the garage, either to hide or to go to their room. That narrows it down, doesn’t it?”

“I like the sand so much more than the snow,” Krista said, but followed Scarlet to the stairs. They stayed on the path that went around the lodge and toward the garage. The path was shoveled every morning, but snow and slush had accumulated over the course of the evening. Scarlet didn’t have to retrace the steps from the ledge to the path—it was clear that someone had come from the side of the lodge and entered the path in the middle, with deep impressions leading away from the woods to the path. The path itself was well-used, staff coming and going over the course of the day. But the snow all around the path from that point on was pristine.

They entered the garage, which appeared to have been converted from an old, over-sized barn. The cars were packed in tight, at least eighteen vehicles. Not many more could fit. Wide stairs on both sides of the main doors went up to the left and right. Scarlet motioned for Krista to take the right and she would take the left. They ended up meeting at the top on a balcony that looked down into the main garage. A long hall down the center had six doors on each side. They were numbered one through twelve, evens on the right, odds on the left.

Scarlet felt the floor in front of each door. Most were damp, most had snow boots outside the door.

But only one was very wet with no boots outside the door. Either he’d left or didn’t want anyone to know he was inside.

Room nine.

Scarlet knocked.

No one answered. Hiding? Or not there?

Scarlet put her hand on the doorknob.

“Don’t,” Krista said. “We’ll get permission from Mr. Oliver. And we have no proof that whoever you saw running from the lodge is in this room. It’s circumstantial.”

Krista was right, but Scarlet was certain the culprit was here.

Reluctantly, she walked back down the hall.

As soon as they stepped outside, they heard loud voices and laughter by the lodge. The two lodge vans had returned with the wedding party, and several cars were heading toward the garage.

“The happy couple is back,” Scarlet muttered.

They walked back along the path. Scarlet was cold and ticked off.

The minimal staff was busy in the lobby helping the wedding party and guests with whatever they needed, and Mr. Oliver ignored them.

“We’ll talk to him first thing in the morning,” Krista said. “I know you’re frustrated—I am too. But we know one thing we didn’t know before.”

Scarlet was too frustrated to try and guess, because she felt like they were nowhere.

“What?” she said.

“We know that whoever is after Adam is here at the lodge and most likely an employee. They’re not going to leave without what they came for.”

“Why do you think that? He must know we suspect something by now. If I was a bad guy, I’d bolt before I was caught.”

“And that’s why our prisons are overcrowded,” Krista said.

“Because criminals aren’t as smart as we are.”

“Exactly.”

“We need to find out what this guy wants from Adam, and fast, before someone gets hurt,” Scarlet said.