Death at the Trade Show: Target Practice Mysteries 3 (3 page)

She smiled at it. “Welcome to the family, Di.”

I’d need to cross it off or hide it before tomorrow. Otherwise I would spend all week trying to explain who I was.

Becky handed out room keys, plastic cards that slid into the locks, in individual plastic sheaths with the number and Wi-Fi password written on the front. “If you walk to the end of the counter and make a left, you’ll see the elevator half way down the hall. The restaurants open at five a.m. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to call.”

We thanked her and gathered up our luggage to move to the elevators. I checked my watch. “Let me run Moo outside before we head in for the night.”

I briskly walked past the bar and pushed on the door. Moo set right to work sniffing and arranging himself to take care of business. I waved through the clear glass door at everyone where they were waiting for me. I urged Moo to hurry up, but instead he slowed down. He individually sniffed every piece of gravel before he finally finished up and came from the end of his leash back to my side.

After I unlocked the door, we scooted inside. Laughter bubbled out of the bar as I passed. As I got back to the group, I checked the time on my phone. It wasn’t too horribly late, but the hotel was virtually empty beyond the people milling about inside the bar.

Turning to Liam, Orion, and Mary, I remarked, “I thought there would be more people here.”

Orion checked his watch. “Not right now. The opening concert is going on for another hour or so. Normally we’d go, but with all the last-minute changes, we arrived too late. Plus, a lot of the attendees will arrive in the morning to save on hotel bills. Tomorrow night this place will be packed.”

I nodded. It made sense. A buzz of excitement started in my stomach. I hadn’t had much time this afternoon to contemplate how much fun this trip was going to be. Elizabeth pushed the up button on the elevator. I was just thinking about all the adventures we were going to have when a shrill scream pierced the air.

CHAPTER TWO

Liam and Orion gave each other an almost imperceptible head nod before they took off running in opposite directions. Liam ran straight down to the adjacent corner of hotel hallway, while Orion cut diagonally across the center of the hotel. I had a loose grip on Moo’s leash, and when he took off after Liam, it slipped through my fingers.

“Moo!” I took off at a run. Liam disappeared around a corner, hidden by the trees in planters. Moo galloped a few feet behind, while I trailed at a considerable distance and much slower. My beautiful boots were slippery not just on ice but also on carpeting. I carefully rounded the corner and spotted Liam leaping over the railing around the restaurant. Orion was already inside, standing next to a hotel employee. At their feet was a man lying down on the tile floor.

As I approached, Moo was already on his belly, trying to scoot underneath the railing. His front paw and chest were flat to the floor, while his rear end was high up in the air. I grabbed Moo’s leash and pulled him to my side.

A second employee appeared and used a walkie-talkie to request that someone call 9-1-1. Now that I was closer, I could see the pool of blood surrounding the man’s head. His face was turned away from me, and the back of his head was covered in blood. I thought of another head covered in blood that I had found in the dead of night at the Westmound Center a few months ago and reached out to Moo. I pulled him against my side, feeling the weight of him on me as he leaned against me. His body heat seeped through my pants and warmed me from the chill I had gotten when I saw the man on the ground.

Just like the last time, Liam was suddenly at my side, holding my arm. “Are you okay? Wanna sit down?”

I turned and gave him an awkward smile. “I feel fine, thank you. I guess after a few times, you get used to it.” Orion moved to join us, hopping over the railing.

Footsteps came trotting up behind us.

“Jiminy Christmas,” Mary said.

I turned at the sound of her voice. Her face was white, and her eyes locked onto the dead man on the ground.

Orion reached over and caught her as she swayed. “Hey there, kiddo. Look at me.”

She did, and her pale face flushed red. She recovered far faster than I had the first time I had seen a dead body. Her white teeth flashed as she stared up into his face. “Thanks, Orion. I was just so surprised and upset.”

He smiled back at her and patted her back.

A noise behind me pulled my attention back around. A group of people had emerged from the bar. Many carried pint glasses with amber liquid or margarita glasses. A small, beautiful blond lady led the group.

“What’s going on? We heard a scream.” Her eyes were round and shockingly blue, even from a dozen yards away. She blinked at us a few times, staring at us but not looking around.

The rest of the group trailing along behind her swung their heads around, looking up and back, searching for the source of the scream.

The male employee from the hotel stepped around the body and approached the group from the other side of the railing. A line of planters with tall, skinny plants was blocking the group’s view of the employees and the body on the ground.

The man raised his voice to be heard through the plants. “Go back to the bar. Everything is under control.”

The group surged forward to the end of the planters so they could see inside.

The blonde clapped her hands over her mouth as her head dipped to see the body on the floor. A strangled cry broke through her hands. “It’s Kenny. Why’s he here? What happened?”

A bald man with muscles visibly straining the sleeves on his polo shirt put an arm around her shoulder. He turned to the rest of the group. “It’s Cash.” A murmur of shock rose from the group. People alternately leaned in to see or stepped back in shock. The bald man turned back to the employee. “This is his wife. Do something. Did you try to help him?”

The blonde buried her face in the bald man’s shirt, her shoulders and body heaving as she screamed and sobbed, a margarita still held in one hand. Red liquid sloshed out of the glass and onto the bald man’s shirt.

The male employee softly replied, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing that can be done. The police are on their way.” He urged people to step back.

I turned to my group. Mary had her phone casually in front of her, but I could see that she was snapping pictures. I caught her eye, and she slipped it into her pocket. “We left Elizabeth with the luggage.” She grabbed my arm and dragged me back to the elevators, with Orion and Liam following.

I gave one last look over my shoulder at the group huddled by the restaurant—the pretty blonde, sobbing into the bald man’s chest, a few women, one especially tall woman that towered over the group, and a variety of men from young twenties to fifties or sixties in every kind of plaid shirt I could imagine. They appeared to be the people I’d spotted earlier in the bar. If it wasn’t such a busy week, it would be tempting to poke around and learn more about them.

Elizabeth was stranded with our luggage in front of the elevator. As we approached, she tapped her foot and pressed the call button. “It’s been a long day.”

Liam grabbed her briefcase as she reached down to grab it. “Sorry, Mom, we shouldn’t have run off like that. A guy died over there.”

The door to the elevator opened with a ding. Elizabeth turned to Liam in surprise as we shuffled in with the bags and the luggage cart. She pressed the top button. “Oh, the poor man. Heart attack?”

Orion snorted. “Not unless he had it on the way down.”

Elizabeth looked between him and Liam.

Liam clarified. “It looks like he fell onto the tile floor from pretty high up.”

She shook her head. “That’s sad. I didn’t realize. Do you boys need to help?”

We turned to the back of the elevator, which was all glass and allowed an unobstructed view of the scene. Someone had covered the body with a sheet. Mary was pressed to the back glass, taking pictures with her phone again. Moo shoved his nose into her hand, knocking the phone to the ground.

We lurched to a stop. Liam pushed the cart out into the open-air hallway. “They have it under control.”

The hallway ran between the solid half wall that reached my eye level and the long row of rooms. I walked over, stood on the tips of my toes, and could barely see over the edge.

Mary hopped up and down next to me. “Can you see anything?”

“Not really.” I tipped my head one way and tried to catch a glimpse of the floor, but all I could see was the endless rows of hallways of the lower floors.

“Girls,” Elizabeth called to us in a low voice. She was propping open a door near the corner. Our suite was roughly over the front desk and opposite corner from the death scene. Mary and I pushed away from the wall and briskly walked to the door.

“Thank you, Elizabeth.” I looked around the room. I had never been in a suite. There was a small, open room like a den with chairs, a table, a TV, and a couch. I let Moo off his leash, and he bounded through an open door into a bedroom.

“The boys are staying there, I’m next to them, here, and girls, you’re over there. Each room has your own bathroom. Now if you’ll excuse, I’m going to bed. We’ll need to be ready to leave at seven a.m.” She opened the door to her room and closed it behind her.

Moo came out of the boys’ bedroom, where a twin-sized bed was visible, and trotted over to our door as I opened it. He circled the room then hopped up in the middle of the huge king-size bed and started clawing the bedspread until it was a rumpled pile then flopped down on it.

A knock on the bedroom door heralded Liam’s arrival. “Here’s your luggage. Oh good, Moo has a place to sleep.”

I turned with a smile. “Mary and I shouldn’t take the king bed. We can trade with you and Orion.”

He snorted as he pushed the last bag into the room. “Nice try. See you in the morning.” And he pulled the door shut behind him.

Mary was already in the bathroom, the faucet running. I stepped over to the large windows and looked out with a yawn. Below, a police car with red and blue lights flashing pulled into the parking lot. I pulled the curtains shut and yawned again as I dragged my luggage over the side of the bed closer to the window and started laying out clothing. First, a quick and easy outfit so I could rush Moo outside first thing in the morning, as I had zero intentions of a Great Dane accident occurring during this trip.

Then I pulled out my outfit for tomorrow—something that was professional but stylish, easy to walk and sit in, layers for the inevitable point in the day when I am freezing, and I didn’t mind looking cute. With everything ready to go in the morning, I turned to the boxes with my riser and limbs.

I pulled out the limbs and found the one marked Bottom. I slid it into the riser, the dovetail set into the matching notch until it snapped into place, and did the same with the top limb. I got out the bowstring and slid it into place.

The bathroom door opened behind me. “Here, let me get you the bow stringer.” Mary brought it over to me and started assembling her bow. I uncoiled the bow stringer then used it to pull the limbs back so the string would securely lie in the grooves on each limb tip. Removing the stringer, I passed it to Mary while I checked that everything was seated correctly.

I drew back the bowstring to the corner of my chin. Without the finger tab for protection, the string pulled uncomfortably into the pads of my fingers. I slowly let down, removing my hand from the corner of my mouth to bring the draw hand slowly back to the bow. I would never dry fire a bow—shoot it without an arrow—it could damage the limbs, not to mention the horrible noise it would make and the welt I would get on my bow arm. Many a bow had been destroyed by a careless archer that shot it on instinct, forgetting there was no arrow.

I watched Mary pull back her bow and let it down. “Those limbs are so smooth.”

I nodded agreement. As you draw a bow, the draw weight increases. A smooth set of limbs can make all the difference.

Mary looked down the bowstring from one limb tip then the other, closing one eye. Then she centered the bowstring in the center of the riser. “Looks good. Let me check yours.”

She did the same to mine. “Good. We’ll need limb liners to make sure, but they look pretty darn perfect.”

I knew she was checking our bows for something, but I wasn’t totally sure what. She had been a high-level archer for years, while I was just returning to the sport. We carefully set our bows against the wall, the bowstring parallel to the floor, then I hurried into the bathroom to get ready for bed. Even the excitement of new equipment couldn’t keep me up much longer.

When I came out of the bathroom, in fluffy flannel pajamas, with a freshly washed face and minty teeth, Mary was cajoling Moo to get off the bed. “Please, Moo. Off?” She dragged out the words.

I chuckled. “Mary, you’re in charge. Don’t beg him; tell him.”

“Oh.” She stood up and pointed at the floor. “Off!”

He groaned, got up, and hopped off the bed.

We straightened out the comforter and crawled in, and Mary turned off the last light on her side of the bed. In the darkness, the bed sagged as Moo crawled into a space between us and settled in.

Despite my weariness, I struggled to relax. I fluffed a pillow, switched from the left to right side, then tucked the covers over my shoulder when a thought occurred to me. “Did you set an alarm?”