Keeping the Peace (27 page)

John said, “Or does she, and this is the beginning of some elaborate defense charade?”

“Good thinking, Chief,” said Cully. “How’d she get into that room?”

John looked at Noyes. “I’ve no idea! We’ve kept it locked up tight,” the innkeeper insisted nervously.

“Probably up through the fire escape,” offered his wife. “Or she may have gone up the main stairway when we were all busy elsewhere.”

“Mia, this is getting serious. Go back and monitor the radio,” John instructed. “This woman is armed, or at least we know she bought ammunition earlier today. Twenty-two caliber, as it turns out.”

“No shit!”

“Cully, you’re on duty,” John barked.

“Sorry, sir.” The young man lapsed into silence.

“Dad, she’s not going to kill herself.”

“Mia, please, monitor that radio. Get a call in to Becky and have her alert Steve and Jason. Spread them out. Cully and I will be here for a while. Tell her to call State Police and send up Joe Bernard.”

“Daddy, she would never leave a note like that if she were really planning to kill herself. She’s a crazed fan who should be locked up! She just wants attention.” Mia tossed her hair with such defiance that it hit Cully across the face. Then she stalked out of the building.

Caleb remarked, “Your daughter’s got a point, John. We’re either dealing with the murderer—the person who killed that promoter—or she’s a real nut. Either way, it could be dangerous. For herself or anybody.”

“Then let’s do something!” Bill Noyes exclaimed, his clenched fists waving in the air.

“Caleb, you come with me,” said John, ignoring Bill’s antics. “We’ll go up there and try to talk her out. I think we can tell pretty quickly where she’s coming from.”

Caleb nodded his affirmation and followed the police chief up the stairs.

Susan said abruptly, “Wait!”

Both men turned from the bottom step.

“Here.” Susan extended her hand to John. “The room is still locked from the outside. You’ll need this key.”

“Thanks, Susan,” John said gratefully to his cousin, and they continued up the stairs.

On the landing, Caleb said, “What do we do if we run into somebody in the hallway? Noyes isn’t going to like any negative publicity.”

“That’s not our concern, Caleb.” John was tired of publicity and its effect, negative or positive, on anything or anybody.

The men made their way to the upstairs hall, which John was thankful to find empty. He walked quietly to the room where Bruce Blake had been killed. It was not marked, but it had been locked from the outside with a padlock. John figured she must have crawled up the fire escape and in through a window. It would have been pretty easy to guess which room it was, especially if she had been the person who pulled the trigger in the first place.

John and Caleb took their places on either side of the door. John reached out and tapped. There was no response. John rapped harder, with his knuckles. They waited. Still no response.

Caleb called out in a kind voice, “Is there anyone there? Is the person who left the note to the innkeeper there? We don’t know your name. We want to help you.”

Finally a response came. “I’m here, and you can’t help me.”

“I don’t understand why you want to die,” Caleb said gently. “You sound like a young person, full of life. Would you explain to me?”

John knew the goal was to do anything to keep her talking.

“I caused Gabriel’s death.”

John’s heartbeat elevated, and he arched his eyebrows at Caleb.

“Do you think you shot Gabriel Strand?”

“No! No! I love Gabriel. I loved him so, so much. I just didn’t get here in time.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“I think he came here to find a place where we could be alone together. He didn’t tell anybody he was coming here before the concert. I e-mailed him to tell him I had something very important to tell him. He knew I’d find him. I always do. I’m always there, at every concert. He knew he could depend on me, and there was this other girl, and I know he got a room here so she couldn’t find us. Now he’s dead. He’s dead, and I will be soon.”

“Gabriel isn’t dead.” There was silence. Caleb repeated, “Gabriel Strand is alive. Did you hear me?”

The woman’s voice went flat. “You’re lying to me.”

This time, John spoke up. “We’re not lying. I’m John Giamo, Chief of Police here. Gabriel Strand is under my protection. What is your name?”

“You’re just lying to keep me from killing myself. I know he’s dead. I watched when they sneaked the body out through the fire escape.”

“That wasn’t Strand. Really, I promise you he’s alive. What’s your name?”

“Kayla.”

“Kayla, open the door, please.”

“Will you promise to take me to Gabriel?”

John and Caleb exchanged looks. John said, “We would have to make sure everyone was safe.”

The voice sounded hesitant. “Safe from what?”

John said quickly, “Kayla, come closer to the door. I can’t hear you very well. I need you to be able to understand me when I explain things to you.”

The two men in the hall could hear footsteps cross the room slowly. John continued, “Kayla, are you listening to me? Do you have a firearm, Kayla?”

“I do. Yes, I do. I’ve always carried it, in my purse. You can’t be too careful. People are untrustworthy. They backstab you. People try to hurt you. People try to hurt Gabriel.”

“Kayla, we won’t let anyone hurt you or Gabriel, do you understand me?”

“He doesn’t love me, does he? That’s why he won’t come to meet me. He doesn’t believe me. It’s because I’m too fat. I can’t believe it. We’ve been through so much together. I’m on a diet now. He doesn’t love me, does he?”

“I can’t answer that, Kayla,” John said gently.

She began to talk faster. “He was only wounded, wasn’t he? He wasn’t dead. He doesn’t love me, does he? He would have called for me. Did he call for me?”

Caleb opened his mouth to answer, but the girl rambled on, becoming more and more agitated. “This is his blood, but he wasn’t dead, was he? They were sneaking him out past my window that night, but he was still alive, wasn’t he? They thought nobody knew who was in that room, but I knew. I always know where he is. We’re connected. We are. Oh, oh, Gabriel. Why didn’t you just come to me? Why did you let that girl come between us? She’s not fat, is she? Why did you even talk to her? Now it’s brought about my end as well as yours.”

They heard a click, and then another. Both men knew it was the gun. She was preparing to fire.

“Kayla,” said Caleb gently, “when I fell in love with my wife, things didn’t go easily. We had plenty of problems getting together, but we’re married now, and we’re happy.” He was attempting to ingratiate himself, to make her identify with him. It would buy them time.

“Sorry to do this to you,” came the voice through the door. “I can’t live without Gabriel, and I can’t live being called a fool. A fat fool. My face will be all over the tabloids as the person who let Gabriel die.”

“Don’t worry about that now,” John said. “Just open the door, Kayla, so we can talk together about when you can see Gabriel.”

“Now you
are
lying to me,” said the girl. “And I don’t want to talk anymore.” The voice had changed its tone, and it scared John.

Caleb whispered, “Is it possible to enter this room from any other way?”

John shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“I’m going down to talk to Bill Noyes,” Caleb said.

John held Caleb’s arm and gestured for him to stay. Then he tried to jump-start the conversation with Kayla. “Don’t ruin your chances of a relationship with Gabriel,” he said desperately.

“Is he with that other girl? Is that why he won’t come here? Does he want to hear my news?”

John whispered, “You stay here, Caleb. You’re better at this than I am. My job is downstairs, anyway. I’m going to see whether we can get up there from the outside.”

Caleb nodded, and John walked quietly away down the hall. He heard Caleb as he kept the conversation going, saying truthfully, “Gabriel isn’t with any other girl.”

On the way back to the first floor, John struggled to organize the jumble in his mind. His instincts told him the girl probably didn’t intend to commit suicide, that it was just her unfathomable need for attention that motivated her along the path she had taken into the situation she occupied now. Still, he could not be sure enough to force the issue or to risk taking the conversation, however inane, to the level of an argument. He also doubted, but could not be sure, that she had shot Bruce Blake, thinking it was either Gabriel Strand or the girl she suspected of coming between them. And did she really have news, or was it a ploy? John’s money was still on Richard Seeley as the perpetrator, and he was anxious to be done with this crisis and find his suspect. With Cully on scene, he only had two men in the field. He couldn’t be sure Joe Bernard had joined the hunt. He reached the bottom of the stairway. Bill and Susan Noyes stood with Tim Cully in the lobby. John was exasperated to see Mia there as well, standing beside Cully, but he said nothing to her as he joined the group.

Instead, he addressed the innkeeper. “Bill, is there a way into that room from the outside, or at least a way to see inside?”

“Only up the fire escape. That’s undoubtedly how she got in. There’s two windows in that room. It’s one of the bigger rooms—a suite, actually. I’m sure she got in by the fire escape.”

“Actually, John,” Susan interjected, “you could stand in the pergola, and perhaps, if the sun isn’t glaring in the windows, you could see inside with binoculars. The windows in that room are pretty big.”

“That’s a good idea,” John said. He could depend on Susan to get to the practical heart of the matter. He turned to Cully. “You take the binoculars in my vehicle, take a two-way radio, and sneak into that pergola. Try to hide behind the lattice work or something, although I don’t think she’ll be looking out the window. I’m going back upstairs. I think we’re done fooling around. We’ll just surprise her and take our chances. Hurry up, Cully. You got two minutes to get out there.”

“Surprise her? How?” Bill Noyes asked, wringing his hands together.

“I’m going to kick the door down.”

“Kick the door down! John!”

“It’s all right,” John smiled wryly. “I’ve done it before.” He was back up the stairs two at a time.

John joined Caleb, who was still talking.

“…and I’m sure he’d be really upset if something were to happen to you. Like I said before, we can get by anything as long as we have the facts. Now, can you open the door? I’d just like to talk to you face to face.”

John held up the key and signaled to Caleb to keep talking.

“I’ve got a gun.”

“You have no reason to use that on me, now, do you?”

Silently, John unlocked and removed the padlock.

“No, no I don’t. I’m terribly sorry. I really am, but I must join Gabriel. I must see him. I’ve got to warn him.”

“Please, open the door now, and we can talk about the details.”

There was silence. John shifted his weight forward, but Caleb held up his hand and mouthed, “Wait.”

John stepped back and fidgeted. Now they heard the deadbolt on the door click. John saw the doorknob turn, and the door opened slowly.

There were no lights on in the room. The suite was located between the two rear wings of the old hotel, so even though it was still light outside, the gloom of evening had settled in the room, making it difficult to see. John walked in, trying not to betray his uncertainty. He could make out a figure standing in the shadows at the back of the room. “Kayla?”

He heard a rustle, but he could not see the figure move. “Kayla? I’m John Giamo. Do you mind if I turn on a light?”

“Please don’t,” the figure said.

John swallowed and flexed his hands. “I’m glad we can talk like this,” he said. “We can talk about things now. Can I sit down?”

“Please don’t. I’m not sure I should have let you in. I’m not sure what I’m going to do.”

“Well,” John said, trying to sound friendly, “just pretend that everything is exactly the way you would want it. What would you do then? Would you let me sit down? Would you talk to me? Picture that in your mind. What would we talk about?” As John spoke, he tried to get his bearings in the room. His eyes were adjusting to the light, or lack thereof, and he could see the girl in the corner. He had taken the required training pertaining to talking to potential suicides, although he had never had to use it. He thought Caleb would probably do a better job, being closer to the girl’s age, but he could hardly have sent Caleb in to face an armed person.

The figure in the shadows stood still. It was a girl with long brown hair, not much older than Mia. John peered more carefully through the gloom. She was skinny. Not a natural skinny like Gabriel Strand—or Michael, for that matter—but skinny to the point of unhealthiness. John could see that she was most likely anorexic. She seemed heavily made up. She wore leggings, a short skirt, and a skimpy T-shirt. Her skeletal arms hung at her sides. In her right hand, she had a small, .22 caliber hand gun. He could see her tremble, as if she might be cold. Except for that, she didn’t move. John held his position. Caleb stood stock still in the hallway.