RESORT TO MURDER (4 page)

"What about you?" she asked Dyna. "What do
you do when you're not playing tennis?"

Dyna crossed her feet at the ankles and
stretched out her arms. "At the moment," she grinned, "I guess you
could say I'm at liberty. I just left my last job, in a pet store,
at the manager's suggestion. He wasn't crazy about the way I
lectured one of his customers for wearing a fur coat. Imagine,
though, coming into a pet store with dead animal skins on your
back! Also, I tended to send potential customers to the SPCA for
puppies or kittens instead of selling his purebreds.

"Before that I worked in a
paranormal book shop, which was kind of fun. My folks weren't too
crazy about it, but they thought at least it was an improvement
from when I studied witchcraft -
good
witchcraft you understand. The
only really true witchcraft.” Dyna's expression was reverent for a
moment, then turned rueful. "But I decided I didn't have it in me
to be a successful witch.

"Problem is, I guess, I
don't really
have
to do anything. Grandma Hall left me a trust fund, you see,
and I only take jobs to try to please my parents. They're very
busy, productive people. Dad's an engineer and Mom designs jewelry.
Maybe someday I'll find something that seems worth the effort.”
Dyna grinned, but didn't look convinced that that day would ever
come. Maggie wondered what life would be like without a central,
motivating passion. She had always delighted in the challenge of
math, and though teaching it was occasionally frustrating, she
loved that too. She felt sorry for her well-to-do
friend.

Dyna's grin faded and she said, "So you knew
that girl out there?"

Maggie let out a long sigh. "Yes. She was in
one of my geometry classes. A good kid.” She shifted the pillows
and sat up on the bed, leaning against them.

"Was she?"

"Yeah. Quiet, but not in a shy way. She just
wasn't a bouncy cheerleader type. She was more thoughtful,
introspective. And idealistic."

"Yeah?"

Maggie nodded. "I tutored her for a while,
after school. She was bright in other subjects, but had some
trouble with math. She wanted good grades to get into college. I
remember she talked about wanting to join the Peace Corps someday.
The only problem she had with it was that she hated the thought of
leaving her folks. I think they weren't too well off, and she felt
maybe she should get a good job and help them out. They moved from
Baltimore to this area just before her junior year.

"I met them a few times before that, when
one or the other of them would pick her up after the tutoring
session. Nice, decent people. I think life was a struggle for them,
but they did their best, and they were proud of her.” Maggie looked
out the window at a distant mountain peak. "Who knows what she
would have done with her life, if she'd been given the chance."

"Yeah," Dyna said, following Maggie's gaze
then turning back. "She sounds like a good kid. God, seventeen,
eighteen, is that what she was? How can someone die, like that, so
young? How do their parents handle something so awful?"

Maggie thought of her own parents. They had
wanted her to be with them this week at the beach. Had she been
selfish to say no, to do her own thing? Look how it had turned out.
They would be horrified to find out what she had run into, but what
had happened to her was nothing compared to Lori. What if they had
to receive the kind of news Lori's folks would be getting?

Guilt tweaked at her when she thought of the
worry that would come when they found out. She would have to call
and tell them. They would want her to leave, pack up, join everyone
at Bethany. And she could do that.

But then she thought of Lori's parents.
Their lives had been shattered. Their daughter had been murdered.
And by whom? Nobody seemed to know yet. And Maggie wondered just
how much would be done to find out. The sheriff had seemed more
concerned with other things. Maybe she could do more by
staying?

She looked back at Dyna. Dyna's expression
was angry, which seemed strangely out of place on her, as though
the muscles had to rearrange in ways they had never tried
before.

"Whoever killed her really deserves the
worst," Dyna said. "The chair. Hanging. Whatever we have here in
Maryland. I just hope that sheriff catches the creep soon. They
will, don't you think?"

Maggie wished she could agree and let it go
at that. But she never was one who could just go along with the
easy answer. It had caused her problems in the past, and she had a
feeling it was going to cause her more in the future. She shook her
head in disagreement.

"I'm not so sure about that."

***

CHAPTER 6

"How soon did they say they'd send up our
dinner?” Maggie asked, moving off the bed, stretching
restlessly.

As if in answer to her question she heard
the doors to the elevator down the hall open, and footsteps clicked
towards their room, accompanied by the muffled clatter of dishes
and cutlery. Dyna was up and across the room at the sound of the
first knock and a voice calling, "Room service!"

She opened the door to a heavy-set woman
with salt and pepper hair which echoed her black and white uniform.
The woman picked up a large silver-domed tray from a cart and
stepped into the room, walking slowly, but when Maggie moved
forward with an offer of help she shook her head with a laugh.

"Oh! No need. It's not all that heavy. I'm
just being careful so as not to spill the soup.” She set the tray
onto the table, and, with a practiced smoothness, pulled off the
silver dome, releasing enticing aromas.

"There! Haven't carried one of those in a
while. I've been moved up to supervisor the last few years. But
they're in such a mess down in the kitchen, what with that awful
thing happening to one of their girls....” She paused, taking a
breath. "I decided to bring this up myself, otherwise you young
ladies would be waiting a good long time, and you don't need that
after all you've already gone through.” She smiled, and looked at
them with a maternal eye.

"Thank you," Maggie said,
signing the bill and handing it to her, along with the tip. "That
was very kind of you.” Maggie
was
grateful, but not altogether pleased to find out
she and Dyna had acquired a kind of celebrity.

"Not at all.” The woman
nodded her own thanks and pushed the tip into a pocket pulled tight
over wide hips. "And if you need anything while you're with us you
can ask for me: Burnelle. I'll try to take special care of you
while you're here. That is, if you
are
staying on, I mean, after what's
happened?"

Maggie knew how she felt, but didn't know
about Dyna. She looked over at her, eyebrows raised
questioningly.

Dyna shrugged. "If you're staying, I will
too. I've got nothing to hurry back to, and I've got a feeling
hotel security will be super-tight now. We'll probably be safer
here than back in the streets of Baltimore."

Maggie wasn't so sure about that, but she
thought she would stay for at least a couple days, maybe more. She
didn't know if it was just stubbornness to stick with her original
plan of vacationing on her own, or something else. She turned back
to Burnelle.

"I guess we won't go rushing off just
yet."

"Well, I'm glad. We hate to see you going
away with only bad memories of our Highview. But it surely was a
terrible thing. That poor, sweet girl. I wondered, what did the
sheriff have to say about who done it?"

Dyna was already digging hungrily into her
dinner and answered between chews and swallows.

"Not much. But... I
gathered they didn't have a lot to go on.
I
think... it was probably some
psycho lurking in the woods there."

"Oh! My!” Burnelle shook
her head. "And to think it could have been
any
one, or more than one of our
girls. They seem to be always wandering around back there, smoking
their cigarettes. And of course, flirtin' with that tennis fellow,
the good-looking one. Though some said there was something going on
between him and that poor girl who was killed, and I wondered....
Well, never mind that. That's just idle gossip, and I don't believe
in gossip. Did they find footprints, or some kind of evidence?” She
pronounced it ev
ee
-dence.

"No," Maggie said. I don't think they really
have much so far. Umm, is there a corkscrew or something for this?”
She held up the wine bottle whose cork was deeply imbedded.

Burnelle took the bottle from her and pulled
a corkscrew from her apron pocket. She deftly worked in the screw
and pulled out the cork. Then she reached over for the two stemmed
glasses on the tray, and poured out wine for each of them.

"I don't usually approve of young ladies and
alcohol," she said, her lips pursed primly as she poured, "but I
appreciate the strains you have been under. We'll consider this
something of a tonic, to help you sleep better tonight.” Burnelle
nodded with a tolerant smile as she said this, and Maggie reached
for her glass with mixed feelings.

She knew she had agreed to the wine when
Dyna suggested it exactly for the "tonic" reason. Her nerves were
jangled and a few sips of wine would help. She certainly didn't
want it for celebrating. But now she felt she had just received a
disapproving, motherly raised eyebrow and felt annoyance rising.
This was the kind of thing she had come here to get away from. She
caught Dyna looking at her, laughter dancing in her eyes above the
chicken sandwich she held to her mouth, and her irritation changed
to an overwhelming urge to laugh. She looked away from Dyna and
sucked at her cheeks for control.

"Well, thank you, uh, Burnelle. And we'll,
ah, certainly remember to call you if we need anything."

Burnelle smiled and nodded, and, wiping her
hands on the sides of her uniform dress, moved towards the
door.

"Yes, you do that. Be sure you do. Now, I'd
better get back downstairs and see what needs doing. Lord knows,
most of the people around here have just gone to pieces. Someone
has to see that the things that need doing get done. Enjoy your
dinner."

Maggie called, "Thanks," as Burnelle edged
out the door, and Dyna raised her wine glass as a farewell salute,
laughter shaking her by now. Maggie shushed her, and tried to pull
her arm down, but broke down herself once Burnelle was out of sight
and earshot.

"Have some tonic, Miss Maggie," Dyna said.
"It'll help those heart palpitations and keep away the vapors."

"Oh, hush," Maggie said, laughing, and took
a long, delicious swallow from her glass. She then launched into
her food with a healthier appetite than she would have
expected.

Maggie was just finishing the last of her
wine, enjoying the soothing warmth it gave her as it trickled down,
when she was startled by a brisk knock on the door.

"Yes?" she called.

"Miss Olenski? It's Kathryn Crawford, the
hotel manager. May I come in?"

Maggie jumped up and opened the door to see
another large woman, this one wearing a beige linen suit and chunky
heels, her dark brown hair pulled up into a business-like bun. She
walked into the room with an air of authority and smiled a tight,
cool smile, her arms moving stiffly at her side. She stopped and
clasped her hands together, facing Maggie.

"I just want to say how sorry we all are at
Highview that you had to be involved in this extremely sad
incident.” She looked over to Dyna, including her.

"Thank you," Maggie answered. The woman had
been courteous, but her cool manner inspired a cool response. "It
was more than an incident, though," she said. "It was a
murder."

Ms. Crawford's eyelids flickered. "Yes, of
course. Very unfortunate. And unnecessary. I don't know how many
times I've warned our young girls not to go off alone into the
woods. But some of them are foolishly headstrong, I'm afraid."

Maggie wouldn't have described Lori as
either foolish or headstrong, but she said nothing.

"I see you've had your dinner. I was going
to suggest you dine downstairs, on us, after what you've gone
through, but since you've had room service, I'll just see that
there's no charge."

"Thank you. That's very kind."

Ms. Crawford nodded and walked to the door.
"I hope you'll continue your stay with us?"

"Yes, I think we both plan to stay."

The woman smiled. "Good. We'll do our best
to make the rest of your holiday pleasant. Good day.” She nodded,
and swept out the door.

Maggie looked over at Dyna. "Well, I guess
we just had a complimentary dinner," she said.

"Mmm. Seems to me, she could have easily
made it a free vacation, what with all you just went through, and
her not wanting you to bad-mouth the place back home and all."

Maggie nodded. "She
probably is pretty stressed out herself right now.” She shrugged
and looked back at the closed door. "But then again, maybe she
didn't really
want
us to stay.

Dyna soon left to go to her own room for a
shower, and Maggie decided to take a warm, oil-scented bath. It was
a luxury she seldom had time for, but when she did, she often found
that as well as unwinding tense muscles, it helped to untangle
jumbled thoughts. She filled the tub and slipped in with a sigh,
leaning her head back against a thick towel propped on the
edge.

Another thing that helped her relax, besides
passing the time on long car rides, was number games. Maggie stared
at the beige, square tiles that covered the walls above her as she
lay back in the tub. She lazily counted the rows up and the rows
across, multiplied, and got the total number. As the steam floated
above her head she estimated the size of the squares and calculated
the area of wall that was covered. Still soaking comfortably, she
next began to figure the amount of adhesive that would be needed to
cover that area if it were spread at a thickness of 1/8 inch. When
the tiles began to steam up and her eyes to droop, she knew she had
had enough.