A Body to Die For (31 page)

I took her quickly through what I needed, telling her to look for a Carson T. Ballard, around thirty-eight and possibly living
in California, and a Harold Ballard, around thirty-six and living who knew where. And I told her I wanted to hear back by
the end of the day.

After that I called the front desk and asked Natalie when Rich would next be on the premises.

“Do you want another lesson with him?” she asked.

“No, I just want to chat with him. I thought I could catch him at the end of a lesson.”

“He was here this morning, and I think that’s it for him. Lemme check…. Wait, no. He’s back for a four-thirty. You could walk
over right before then or afterwards, I guess.”

“Thanks. Is Danny around, by the way?”

“I think she’s been over at the spa most of the day. But she should be stopping by later.”

“Would you tell her I’m back and would love to catch up with her at some point. Tell her I have some news.”

Next, and most important of all, I needed to find Piper. She had said she was leaving this weekend, and I hoped she hadn’t
moved things up. I called down to the spa, praying Josh wouldn’t answer. Some dude picked up and said that Piper was no longer
employed at the Cedar Inn and Spa. I quickly changed into my blue jeans and, using the west end door of the inn, hurried to
the barn.

As I pressed Piper’s buzzer, I had a bad vibe. Standing in the vestibule, I could see through the glass door into the first
floor of the barn, and everything looked so forlorn and empty. There was no answer to my first ring or my second or third.
Maybe I had missed her.

As I turned to go, I heard a noise behind me. Cordelia had appeared out of nowhere inside and was pushing open the door to
the vestibule.

She was out of her spa uniform, made up with red lipstick, and dressed in stretchy pants and a low-cut top that squished her
breasts, giving her what I’d heard the fashion department at
Gloss
refer to as butt cleavage. She looked dangerously like Anna Nicole Smith. Her eyes widened when she realized it was me who
was standing there.

“Can I help you?” she asked, her tone defensive.

“I was looking for Piper, actually,” I said.

“I think she’s gone. I mean, really gone. I saw her loading her car after lunch. She resigned from the spa, you know.”

“Okay, thanks.” I could have kicked myself. I should have gone looking for her
before
I left for Wallingford.

“You know, I hope you’re not holding me responsible for what happened last night,” Cordelia said in a snippy tone.

“Well, who do you think I
should
hold responsible?”

“I have no idea. If it’s any consolation, Danny chewed my ass off for leaving you alone.”

I was tempted to tell her you could hardly notice, but instead I pushed open the front door and stepped outside the barn,
letting the door swing shut behind me.

Instead of returning to the inn, I made my way around the back of the building toward the parking lot, on the fat chance that
Piper was still loading her car. There was no sign of her. But as I walked by a short row of cars at the end, I spotted a
yellow Volkswagen Beetle whose backseat was stuffed with wadded-up clothes, duffel bags, shopping bags, and junk that bore
a striking similarity to the mess that had lain on Piper’s floor earlier.

I jogged back to the front of the inn and entered the main entrance. Two guests were standing at the front desk, filling out
a registration form under instruction from Natalie. I waited off to the side, trying not to tap my foot. After Natalie had
called for the bellboy and he was leading the couple to the stairs, I stepped forward.

“Do you have any idea where Piper is?” I asked. “Cordelia said she left, but I think I spotted her car in the parking lot.”

“She’s here in the inn,” Natalie said, “Danny arranged for her to have a spare room.”

“Which one? I’ve got to talk to her.”

“Twenty-seven. It’s on the third floor.”

I took the stairs two at a time. The third floor was laid out exactly like the second, but the ceilings seemed lower and there
was a slightly oppressive feel up there. I found room 27 and knocked on the door. I recognized Piper’s voice when she called
out, “Who is it?”

“It’s Bailey. I need to talk to you.”

I heard a big sigh, followed by soft footsteps. When she flung open the door, she looked seriously pissed.

“What are you, some kind of stalker?” she asked. “Can’t you just leave me alone?” She was dressed in blue jeans and an apple
green jersey top, and her hair was spread out around her shoulders, brushfire style.

“It’s important. And it will only take a minute.”

“All right, but make it quick.” She stepped aside for me to enter, glancing up and down the hall before she shut the door.
The room was small, under the eaves, decorated in yellow and white. I assumed from the rumpled covers and Piper’s bare feet
that she had been lying on the bed before I arrived.

“What are you doing up here?”

“Danny said I could stay here since the room is empty. I’m leaving today, but I’m waiting for a girl I know in town to bring
me some money she owes me. I didn’t want to stay in that barn one more second.”

“How come you’re leaving today?”

“Maybe you haven’t heard,” she said, rocking back and forth with her arms across her chest. “There’s a killer on the premises.
And he prefers massage therapists.”

“But you’d said you were leaving this weekend. Why move it up?”

She turned her face to the side, looking off at nothing in particular, then back to me, shaking her head.

“This place is freaking me out. I don’t like the way Josh is acting toward me these days.”

“Is he being nasty to you?”

“No. That I could deal with. He’s being obnoxiously pleasant. I don’t know if he’s scared I might confess to the cops what
Anna and I were doing or if he thinks I suspect him of killing Anna and he wants to convince me he’s really the nicest guy
in the universe.”

“Are you thinking it
might
have been him?”

“I’ve told you a million times—I have no fucking idea who killed Anna.” She threw her head back in frustration and let out
a big sigh.

“All right, just calm down. I’m only trying to help Danny.”

“I know, but you’ve been up my grill all week long.”

“Well, then this probably won’t thrill you, but I’ve got one more question.”

“Oh, God,” she said, running her hands through her hair. She seemed as wired as someone on crack. “Now what?”

“I have this hunch that Anna had a date scheduled Friday night. A date that she made
after
she swapped nights with you. I think someone was supposed to meet her at the spa. And that may be the person who killed her.”

She started to wave her arm, rejecting my comment outright, but then her body went suddenly still, as if I’d shot her with
a tranquilizer dart. I could see her begin to turn over what I’d said in her mind.

“She never said anything to me,” Piper said softly.

“But you were just thinking something.”

She walked slowly to the bed and sat on the very end of it. “Her top,” she said finally, her voice flat.

“What do you mean?”

“I just now thought of it. She wore this new top to work that day. I saw her change out of it in the locker room. It was sort
of pinky brown and it had a drawstring at the top and it was really sexy. And I realize now that I had this thought about
it in the back of my head then, but it never really formed because she’d said earlier that she had no plans that night.”

“You mean that it was awfully sexy for someone who wasn’t planning to go out?”

“No. I mean, yes, but also that she had worn it to work. When she was just planning to go back to the barn at the end of the
day, she usually wore her spa uniform to work.”

“Okay,” I said, starting to pace. “Let’s say she had a date that night. A new guy—or a relatively new guy—was meeting her
at the spa. I know you said you weren’t aware of any new men in her life, but is there anything she said that might give us
a clue?”

She thought, her brow wrinkled in worry.

“I can’t think of anything,” she said. “Though now it makes me wonder about her wanting to change dates with me—you know,
dates for leaving the spa for good.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’ve been thinking. Is there any chance she could have started seeing Eric again?”

“N-o.
That
I would have been aware of. Like I told you, he was still in his wounded puppy dog mode.”

“One more name. Danny’s husband.”

“What?” she said incredulously. “You asked me that before and I told you no way. Have you seen that man’s body? Anna only
liked hard bodies. Whenever she had a flabby guy on the table, she called him a Poppin’ Fresh.”

“Okay. Look, I’ll get out of your hair now. I appreciate all your help. If you mull this over and anything comes to you, will
you call me at the inn and let me know?”

“Yeah, okay. Does this mean I shouldn’t be so freaked out about Josh?”

“I don’t have the answer to that.”

I heard the clack of the dead bolt the minute the door closed behind me, so I obviously hadn’t put her mind at ease. It was
almost five. I decided to see if I’d heard from the
Gloss
researcher before I made my way courtside. I walked down the stairs to the second floor, my footsteps hushed because of the
thick carpeting. As I turned to walk toward my room, I saw someone in a dark coat standing in front of my door. I stopped
in my tracks, and the person turned toward me.

It was Danny. And she was crying.

D
ANNY, WHAT’S THE
matter?” I called out, hurrying toward her.

“Can we go inside?” she said in a fractured whisper. “I don’t want anyone to hear.”

The irony of her words was lost on her—it felt in the silent corridor as if the inn had been shut down for the season—but
I quickly fished my key out of my bag and opened the door for us. While I turned on the table lamp, Danny dabbed at her eyes
with a sodden tissue.

“Here, come and sit,” I said, taking her by the arm and leading her to the couch. “Tell me what’s happened.”

“It’s George,” she said, tears running down her eyes again. “Bailey, I’m beginning to wonder if he might actually have done
it. Murdered Anna.”

I caught my breath. “Why, what’s happened?”

“I spoke to the lawyer. George has been so evasive lately, I don’t trust him to tell me everything. The lawyer let slip that
there were
dozens
of calls to Anna—to her cell phone and her room in the barn. George led me to believe that it was just a few calls—to discuss
these retreats he wanted to organize.”

“That’s odd. Piper mentioned to me that George had called Anna a few times. If he’d been really pestering her, I think she
would have said that.”

“It doesn’t appear as if he were even talking to her. Some of these calls were made during the hours when she was working,
and they may have just been hang-ups. It’s as if he simply called to hear her voice on her answering machine.”

“It sounds as if George might have been fixated on Anna. Does that seem possible to you?”

She lowered her head, bringing her two clenched hands to her mouth. It was at least thirty seconds before she pulled them
down and spoke.

“I snapped at you yesterday when you asked me about George, and I shouldn’t have. I was struggling with the fact that—that
you had touched on the truth. Just before George and I came east, I suspected him of having an affair with a neighbor. I found
some pictures of her in his desk. George denied the affair, but it was obvious something was wrong—he had the
pictures.
This woman was younger than me, more attractive, and I went to her home to talk to her. Not in an angry way. I don’t believe
anger ever accomplishes anything. I asked her to let him go, for the sake of my marriage. She denied the whole thing. She
said she’d seen him watching her and that she thought he was obsessed with her. At the time, I assumed she was just covering
up. Right after that, George confessed that he had spent some time with this woman but that it had never gone anywhere sexually
and that he would never let anything like that happen again. I thought things might have progressed further than he said,
but I wanted to save my marriage and so I let it go. Now, in light of this new development, I’m wondering if she was telling
the truth all along. The pictures showed her looking off to the side, from a distance. I think George took them without her
realization. He
was
obsessed with her. It’s just like what went on with Anna.”

“Did you ask George about the phone calls to Anna?”

“Yes, I confronted him right after I talked to the lawyer. He got all squirmy, just as he did in the other situation. He said
he was calling her about these retreats but that he often had a hard time getting through, so he’d try again and again. I
asked him to leave then. I told him to check into a motel and just stay away—from me and the inn. I don’t want him anywhere
near me.”