Rocky Mountain Mayhem (13 page)

“Dry sauna for me,” Kate said. “My sinuses
will thank me.”

Suri led them out of the room and to the
right, through a door with a sign stating, “Shhh. Treatments in
progress.” The ladies lounge was a few steps down the hall, and
they went inside.

“This is where your massage therapist or
aesthetician will pick you up, should you schedule any treatments.
However, you are free to use the lounge at any time.”

The sharp scent of burning wood drew Vivian’s
attention to a crackling fireplace on the far wall. She imagined
herself in an overstuffed chaise, pampered skin wrapped in a cushy
robe and snuggled under one of the cozy blankets that adorned each
ottoman. She didn’t feel like leaving, but Suri opened the door,
leading them farther down the hall.

Lucy pointed toward an exit door. “Does this
lead up to the fitness area?”

“No, it leads out to the west side of the
hotel,” Suri said, pushing open a large, wooden door with an iron
scroll handle.

Warmth and humidity enveloped them within
seconds.

The cavernous, underground grotto was the
most impressive part of the spa. A waterfall cascaded from the rock
wall, splashing into a hot tub large enough for 50 people.
Candlelight flickered from wall sconces. Four lounge chairs
beckoned at water’s edge, behind which a table offered a tray of
rolled washcloths covered in ice, topped with sliced cucumbers. A
beverage station filled with ice water sweated in the humidity.

Lucy flicked a melting ice cube off a
cucumber slice and stuck it into her mouth.

“Those are for the bags under your eyes,
Lucy!” Vivian said, “not for your stomach!”

“I’m hungry and need a snack,” Lucy replied.
“I’ve had a stressful day, what with the flying-down-the-mountain,
near-death, brakes-failing, we-almost-died-two-hours-ago
drama.”

Suri looked at Lucy with wide eyes. “Is there
anything I can get you?”

“Yes,” Wendy answered for her. “Back to the
bar.”

“It would be my pleasure.”

Everyone’s new favorite words
.

THE girls golf clapped after the elevator
doors closed in the spa.

“It would be her pleasure,” Kate said. “I
love that!”

“I know,” Vivian said. “It’s so much better
than just plain ol’ ‘thank you.’ ”

“I vote we just head back up to the room, hit
the cooler and get Wonkita a snack,” Wendy said. “After all this,
I’m ready to see our room.”

Lucy’s nickname, Wonkita, started in high
school, compliments of the otherwise all-male drum line.

Vivian smacked the 8 button, where they got
off.

Kate slid the card into the reader and pushed
the door open.

“Damn, it smells good in here,” Vivian said.
“What is that?”

“Lavender and juniper, maybe?” Wendy said,
tossing her purse on the nightstand.

“It is caressing my nasal passages,” Kate
said, sniffing the air.

“Are we in a Danielle Steele novel?” Lucy
asked. “Caressing your nasal passages? Really?”

Vivian inhaled deeply. “Whatever it is, it is
definitely caressing my nasal passages.” She walked past the two
queen beds and built-in armoire hiding the TV and pushed back the
curtains at the sliding glass door. “Holy fuckbuckets. Would you
look at this view?”

“Kodak moment,” Lucy yelled, scrambling for
her camera.

Kate slid the door open. “I see myself
enjoying coffee out here every morning.”

“And we should definitely call for room
service,” Wendy said. “It would be their pleasure!”

“The sky is so blue!” Kate said, stepping
outside. “It’s not this blue at home.”

“That’s because you live in the big city,”
Lucy said. “Pollution.”

Vivian sat down and took a deep breath. The
few clouds cast fleeting shadows on the mountain, which was still
patchy with snow. The muddy ski runs zig-zagged through the trees
with their early bits of color. She heard a giggle from below and
saw a couple frolicking in the pool. The image of Rick and the SPS
popped into her head. She looked away and took a sip of her wine.
Get a room
!

Lucy came back inside and heaved Vivian’s
large orange suitcase onto the bed. She balanced her camera on top,
set the timer and ran into place. “Suck it in, girls!” Click!

They set to unpacking. This was the kind of
place where you wanted to empty the luggage and never leave.

“We’ll have to go find the bellman downstairs
and tip him,” Kate said, unzipping her bag. He had delivered their
luggage and backseat bar to the room while they were on their
tour.

By the time they were finished, the drawers
bulged and the armoire cabinets barely shut, but all their shit
fit.

Wendy set up the bar on the built-in chest of
drawers and cracked open a bottle of wine. She poured a bit for
everyone but Kate, who stuck with sparkling water, and they toasted
to “the majesty of the mountains.”

Lucy’s snack run in Boulder a couple of days
ago was coming in handy now as she got out the grapes,
Parmigiano-Reggiano, asiago and Colby jack cheeses and cracked
pepper water crackers. The girls took their munchies and wine out
on the balcony.

Vivian snubbed all that and brought out her
insisted-upon Easy Cheese and Ritz Crackers, which Wonkita was
extremely embarrassed to purchase.

“I still can’t believe you made me buy that,”
Lucy said, indicating the can of cheese.

“Don’t knock it,” Vivian answered. “Look at
the cute things I can make on my crackers.” She held up a squirty
cheese smiley face.

“Gross,” Wendy said. “Do you even know what’s
in that stuff?”

Vivian shoved the entire smiley cracker in
her mouth and shrugged. “Roo rares.”

The cracker gone, Vivian said, “Now this is
the life. I need to wake up to this view every morning. My oak
trees aren’t bad, but the neighbor’s fence is.”

“I hear ya,” Wendy said. “The refineries
aren’t exactly a scenic overlook, either. Smokestacks spewing fire
and god knows what else.”

“You can see a refinery from your house?”
Lucy asked.

“I can see
two
. Both from my front
windows.”

“Take a deep breath and revel in this while
you can,” Kate said.

She did.

They enjoyed their snackage, the wine and the
view. The couple they dubbed the newlyweds had moved and were
mackin’ down in one of the hot tubs nestled between the aspens.

“FIFTY PERCENT CHANCE!” Vivian screamed out,
but there was no stopping those two.

“Vivian!” Kate said.

“It’s true. Look at the statistics.”

In the hot tub next door, four women in their
30s woo-hooed the couple.

“Look, they’re here on a girls’ trip like
us,” Lucy said.

“Mmm mmm mmm, what do we have here?” Vivian
asked, standing up and looking over toward the fire pit. “Check out
that fine specimen.”

The girls followed her gaze and saw a trim
man wearing sunglasses, white oxford shirt and dark slacks.

“Cute,” Wendy said, pouring a little more
wine.

“I guess he’s getting a tour, too,” Kate
said.

He was with Matt, the host, who pointed at
chalets on either side of The Ridge.

“Is he taking notes?” Wendy asked, peering
over the railing. “Oh my god, I think he is.”

“I’m all about details, but that’s going a
little far,” Lucy said.

“Maybe he’s gay and getting Matt’s number,”
Vivian said.

“Shut up, Matt isn’t gay!” Lucy said.

“How do you know?”

“I know.”

Lucy reached for a cracker, missed and
instead knocked the entire packet off the railing. It landed
directly in front of Slacks and Matt.

Slacks looked up to their balcony as the
girls hastily retreated into their room.

“Did he see us?” Kate squealed.

Vivian stepped back out on the balcony and
peeked over the railing. Slacks had moved on and the crackers were
gone. “Now that’s service! Let’s drop something else!”

“No!” yelled Kate and Lucy at the same
time.

“What’s he doing now?” Wendy asked.

Vivian peeked again. “He’s getting something
out of his pants.”

“This is getting good!” Lucy said.

“Wait, wait. It’s just his phone.”

Vivian’s ringtone, which she had dubbed
“wannabe porno music,” went off.

“What a coincidence,” Lucy said. “He’s
calling someone and your phone is ringing.”

Vivian looked at her phone but didn’t
recognize the number. She hit receive.

“Hello?”

“Is this Vivian Taylor?” a deep voice
asked.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Ms. Taylor, this is Agent Wade Nelson with
the Denver FBI field office.”

I’M here at the hotel and need you to meet me
in the lobby as soon as possible. I was told you have some
evidence. Please bring that with you.”

“I’ll be right down,” Vivian said and hung up
the phone.

She turned to the girls. “That was the FBI
guy. He wants to meet me in the lobby and to bring the envelope and
picture.”

Wendy grabbed her purse. “Let’s go!”

“This is so exciting. An FBI agent! And he’s
cute!” Lucy said.

“If he’s anything like Agent Tucker, it’ll be
all business. They know their stuff.”

“Still…,” Kate said.

“In the books I read they’re always tall,
dark and handsome,” Wendy said. “Unfortunately, often they turn out
to be the bad guys.”

“Let’s not keep him waiting,” Lucy said,
heading to the door. “Maybe he’s only a bad boy in a good way.”

They joked about “bad” qualities down the
hall and into the elevator. Vivian started singing “Bad” by Michael
Jackson. The girls chimed in and were really getting going when the
elevator doors opened.

There stood the gorgeous guy they’d been
spying on from their balcony. He was 6 feet tall, athletic build,
mid- to late 30s with some serious, dark green eyes. Standing next
to him was a tall woman in her mid-40s, dark brown hair, fit,
wearing trim black slacks and a cotton-candy-pink blouse.

Vivian stepped out of the elevator first. He
glanced at the necklace before looking her in the eye. He stuck out
his hand.

“Ms. Taylor, I’m Agent Wade Nelson, and this
is Agent Gloria Cervantes.”

Vivian shook both their hands. “Hi, thanks
for coming. These are my friends, Wendy Schreiber, Kate Troutman
and Lucy McGuire.”

Kate couldn’t help but correct. “Actually, I
got married last year, and I just changed my last name to
Jameson.”

“Nice to meet you all. Let’s have a seat,”
Nelson said, and glanced at the bumblebee pendant again before
gesturing toward the great room. Vivian, self-conscious, touched
it.

He sat down in an oversized chair, with
Cervantes opposite. The girls lined up on an adjacent couch.

“Agent Tucker gave us some background,”
Cervantes said, “but let’s get the facts straight. Please start
from the beginning, how you met Craig to now.”

Vivian gave the lowdown in detail, from
meeting at a gas station up to the picture and brake incident. “I
thought he cared about me, but if so, why did he try to kill me?
Kill us? He’s obviously not the person I thought he was.”

“People often aren’t,” Nelson replied. “May I
see the picture?”

Vivian reached into her purse and pulled out
the plastic grocery bag containing the envelope from the Yellow
Aspen Hotel. “Here you go.”

Nelson snapped on a pair of latex gloves
before handling the envelope. He studied the picture. “And you’re
sure this was taken last night in Aspen?” He handed the picture to
Cervantes, who had put on reading glasses as well as gloves.

“Yes, absolutely. The only time I was by
myself last night was late on my walk of shhh… uh, my walk back to
the hotel. After...”

Nelson raised his eyebrows. Cervantes
coughed.

“Do I have to explain?”

“I get the gist,” Cervantes said, “but we
need to know who, when and where.”

Vivian sighed. It was a part of the night
she’d rather not remember. She divulged all. Well, almost all. The
FBI didn’t need every gory detail.

“Did you see anyone at all on your walk back
to the hotel?” Cervantes asked.

“No. I heard a noise near a trash can and
thought I was about to be bear food, so I hauled ass outta there. I
didn’t stop to look around.”

“Do you think Eric could have followed you?”
Nelson asked.

“I doubt it. He was snoring by the time I
walked out the door.” Vivian was starting to get irritated. She
knew who took the damned photo, and she wanted him caught.

Nelson put his hands up in defense. “Just
covering all the bases, Ms. Taylor. We’ll run this for prints and
see what turns up.”

“Thank you. Are y’all going to check out the
car? Because you may find evidence that indicates Craig was
involved.”

“We did a quick search for listening and
tracking devices and didn’t see anything,” Wendy said. “But we’re
not the experts so we certainly could have missed something.”

“I’ve already requested the car be pulled
from the valet,” Cervantes said. “We’ll look for devices, check out
the brakes and look for fingerprints, but I doubt we’ll find any
useful prints because of the repair. We will also conduct a
thorough inspection of the hotel and grounds before returning to
Denver tonight.”

Nelson pointed to the bumblebee on Vivian’s
chest. “Where did you get that?”

Vivian touched the pendant. “Craig gave it to
me for our three-month anniversary. It’s the mascot of the school
Audrey will attend next year. I keep waiting for it to turn my neck
green and some of the rhinestones to fall out.”

“Call me if Craig contacts you again or if
you see anything suspicious.” Nelson stood and handed each of the
girls his card but paused when he got to Wendy. She had to tug
twice to get the card from his grip.