TWO

  

A large sign with an eagle stretching out one wing pointed the way to the resort. Steve turned down the road. The truck and trailer plodded up the hill. The road leading to the main part of the resort resembled a race track. Around and around we went.

I bobbed and weaved my head to see between the trees standing straight and tall like soldiers at attention. I strained my eyes, searching for any sign of movement in the woods lining the roadway. Where was Marsha? We should’ve seen her by now unless she got another ride, or was no longer in the area. I called again. It went straight to voicemail.

“This is one long driveway.” Steve maneuvered around a turn and then another.

On the left side was a small day spa. A huge banner announced weekend specials for retreat attendees. Some of the women would spend part of their “scrapbooking” money there. Not that I blamed them. If I had time, I’d find a way to add a massage into my weekend. I did have a partner. Marsha had one also: Lydia.

I found Lydia’s cell phone number and punched it in. Come on, answer.

The trailer jostled as Steve went around a sharp curve. I feared our scrapbook supplies would end up in the parking lot of the small day spa. I held onto the leather handle above the passenger side door.

“Lydia Clement.”

“This is Faith Hunter. I’m a vendor for Scrap This.”

“I know who you are.” She sounded brusque. “What do you need?”

“Have you heard from Marsha Smith?”

“Is she not at the retreat?” Her voice tightened.

“I don’t know. We’re heading there right now, but—”

“Then why are you asking about her?”

I explained about the abandoned car and no sighting of Marsha.

Lydia sucked in a breath. “I’ll get a hold of her.”

“I tried calling her cell. No answer.”

“You go to the resort.” Something clanked in the background. “I’ll call the manager and tell him to let you in. You’re in charge until I arrive.”

“In charge?” I didn’t like the sound of that.

“Someone has to be until I get here.” She hung up the phone.

I guess that settled it. The road continued on as far as my eyes could see. I dropped my phone onto my lap. “Lydia will go hunt for her partner. She wants me to handle the retreat until she gets there.

“Hopefully, we get there soon. I’m starting to think we missed a turn. We’re not going to have a lot of time to set up the store,” Steve said.

“The spa had a welcome croppers sign. We’re on the right track.”

“I wished we arrived yesterday. I was cleared to take an extra day off,” Steve said.

I shook my head. “Lydia said the resort wouldn’t let us set up until this morning as they had another event taking place Thursday night. There’s no way I was going to let all this merchandise sit in a parking lot all night.”

“The trailer’s secured. I doubt someone would’ve hotwired the truck.”

“Doubt and reality are two separate things.”

I fidgeted in the seat. Another reason had weighed on my mind—sleeping arrangements. I had insisted on two rooms. Steve wouldn’t push me into anything I wasn’t comfortable with, but he was a little confused and hurt. Steve usually understood not wanting to spend the night together at home, as my grandmothers were old-fashioned and believed a wedding should happen first. Out of their eyesight, he wasn’t quite sure why I stuck to the rules, and why I was becoming more conservative with my affections the longer we dated.

I wasn’t rethinking our relationship. But the debate in my head over whether to tell him about Adam, my once-upon-a-time husband who accused me of murder, grew louder and more insistent each day. The longer I waited the harder it was to explain, and I pondered if it was already too late.

I didn’t want to lose Steve, but adding sex into our relationship right now would complicate it more.

“There it is!” I flailed my arm at the windshield. A huge building quadrant off into three sections stretched across five acres.

“Thanks. I would’ve missed it.” Steve rolled his soulful brown eyes.

We pulled into the equally massive, and strangely arranged, parking lot. The parking lot stretched in a rectangle shape from one end of the resort to the other. The designs of the spaces were in an erratic tic-tac-toe pattern, some faced east and west, others north and south. Concrete dividers separated the east-west facing spaces from their counterparts.

I didn’t envy Steve getting through this maze. “The crop is located in the conference center section.”

“Next time bring less stuff.” Steve drove our store through the parking lot obstacle course.

Bold white letters proclaimed what each segmented area contained: fitness and pool, hotel, and conference center. Two vans and a car filled the unloading zone in front of the conference center. I judged the metal awning over the area. I knew the truck would go under it, but I wasn’t quite sure about the trailer. It had a few inches on the extended cab four-by-four truck.

Steve placed the truck in park and studied the lot. “Now what? There’s no way I can turn this thing around with all these dividers everywhere.”

“We can unload here. The trailer might not fit.”

“It’ll make it under,” Steve said. “We got a lot of product to unload and the closer we are the less time it’ll take.”

“We can’t do anything until the doors are open. I’ll go find the manager and you sweet talk them into moving.” I opened the door and slid out.

Two women—one wearing a pink t-shirt and white capri pants, and the other in denim shorts and a t-shirt with a multi-colored peace sigs—looked over at me.

“Are you guys lost?” The woman with the peace sign on her shirt pointed at our truck. “Or is the conference center having some issues with the plumbing?”

The other woman groaned. “That explains why we can’t get in.”

“No. We’re here for the scrapbooking convention,” I said. “I’m Faith, one of the vendors for the weekend. Scrap This.”

“I’m Ellie. And this is Pauline.” She motioned toward the other woman. “We’re the embossers. We’re waiting for the doors to open.”

“I’m going to find the manager to let us in. One of the organizers broke down this morning so they’re running late.”

“Ladies, I was wondering if you’d mind giving up your spot for a moment.” Steve lounged very attractively against the side of the truck. The women looked over my shoulder, plastered smiles on their faces, and thrust out their chests. “I have to unload this beast.”

His body was braced against the passenger door. Ever so casual and sexy. The sun gleamed off his shaved head and the sunglasses covering his eyes. His muscular arms were crossed across his equally muscular chest. The stance tightened the bright red t-shirt with white swirly letters encouraging croppers to Scrap This, and showed off the fact there was no body fat anywhere on the man’s stomach.

Not too many men, hot or otherwise, showed up at cropping events. Usually the only men “attending” were ones keeping nursing babies in rooms, or trying to entertain toddlers in meltdown mode while mom scrapped. When they made an appearance in the crop room, their frantic gazes scattered around the room in a desperate search for the mother of their children.

Ellie batted her eyes at him. “We’d love to, but there’s no way we can lug our machines across the parking lot.”

“How about I unload it and place it by the door?” Steve smiled at her.

Pauline and Ellie looked down at the sidewalk and then at each other. Ellie bit her lip and raised her eyebrows. Pauline shook her head no.

“After we unload, I’ll have Steve help you get your items from your van.” I hoped I made an offer they couldn’t refuse. “He can use our handcart to transport your embossing machine.”

Pauline grinned and pointed over my shoulder. She fluffed her hair around her shoulders and sent a welcoming beam of a smile toward Bob. “If you can get him to help too, you have a deal. We have our cropping totes that also need brought in.”

Bob had parked in front of the hotel portion of the resort and motioned for me to come over. Sadly for Pauline, her plan to catch Bob’s eye wouldn’t work as Steve was more his type.

“Sure. He’ll help,” I said.

Pauline high-fived her friend. “I’ll move ours. You can move the tote gal’s van.”

Ellie dangled a set of keys. “She left her keys in case her vehicle needed to be moved. Considerate girl.”

I made a mental note to show my appreciation by buying something from the tote gal. I jogged toward Bob, cutting through the parking lot as I didn’t want to misjudge a jump over one of the dividers separating one parking lot from the other. Hopefully, whatever favor he wanted was a large enough request, he wouldn’t be annoyed at me for filling up his dance card.

A woman screamed.

An engine hummed. I paused and turned. A beige car bore down on me. My breath locked in my throat. I felt like a deer during hunting season, did I feint left or right to get out of the way?

Strong arms wrapped around my waist and made the decision for me. My rescuer met the hard asphalt and I came in contact with his muscled body. The car whizzed right past us, the breeze it created pushing my hair off my face.

The man’s grip relaxed from around me.

Feet pounded toward us.

“Are you two okay?” Bob’s voice came from the vicinity of the hotel.

I eased off my rescuer to get a look at who risked life and limb to get me out of the way. Steve. Not a surprise. Placing a hand on his chest, I leaned down to kiss my knight. I froze.

His eyes were closed. He wasn’t moving.

Tears rushed into my eyes. I gently shook his shoulder. The sleeve of his shirt had ridden up, exposing the feet of the anime angel tattooed on Steve’s arm. It was an image he preferred keeping private. I tugged down the sleeve and shook his arm. “Steve?” No response. “Steve!”

He remained quiet. Still. Fear gripped me. My body shook.

“He’s not okay!” I sent a panicked look at Bob.

“The car’s going to hit her!” Ellie screamed.

A woman charged toward the resort. She had her head lowered, fists clenched, and her eyes fixed straight at the door.

The car that almost ran me and Steve over swung around at the end of the row of parked cars and raced for the only exit out of the parking lot. It zigzagged through the area, squealing tires as it made sharp turns around cement shoulders and planters. Burnt rubber filled the air.

“Look out!” Bob ran toward the woman in the path of the hit-and-run vehicle, waving his hands frantically over his head.

I hated leaving Steve unprotected but I had to try and help the woman. I had a better chance of reaching her than Bob. Launching to my feet, I raced forward. I gestured widely, hoping to get the attention of either the oblivious brunette woman or the driver of the car.

The woman finally shook herself from her anger. Sun glinted off the car, sending sparkles of color through the air right before impact. Surprise flashed across her face. Her body hit the windshield, flipping off and landing on the asphalt on the driver’s side of the car.

The vehicle made a sharp turn. Then it drove over the injured woman. The tires squished the woman’s feet and calves to the pavement.

Two hotel employees rushed out.

Phone. Take pictures. My brain and body went into action. Bending over, keeping my upper body low, I moved forward so the driver didn’t see me in the rearview mirror. I snapped pictures, focusing on the license plate.

The car continued onto the road, making a sharp turn as a woman stepped out from between a grove of trees. The woman jerked back, tumbling to the ground and items in her oversized bag spilled onto the grass. The driver was getting away.

“Get the license plate!”

The woman sitting, legs outstretched on the asphalt, stared after the car. She scrambled to her feet and raced toward the hit-and-run victim.

Pauline and Ellie huddled together, crying.

“I’ll take care of the injured woman,” Bob said. “Go back to Steve.”

I ran back.

“Paramedics are on the way.” An employee scooted over so I had the prime space beside Steve.

I knelt and touched his shoulder. “Steve. You okay?”

I wanted—needed—him to say something. Tears slipped down my cheeks.

Steve groaned. I restrained myself from flattening my body on top of him and placing kisses all over his face. I didn’t want to add to his injuries.

“Steve?”

He opened one eye and peered at me in confusion. “Faith? Why are people screaming?”

“The car...”

Grimacing, he pushed himself into a sitting position. “It almost hit you. Are you all right?”

I nodded as Steve reached out and cupped my cheek in his hand. “You got me out of the way. You hit your head kind of hard. You were out for a little bit.”

Steve frowned. “What’s going on over there?”

“The car hit a woman walking toward the conference center.”

“Is she okay?” He scrambled to his feet.

I popped up to make sure I became Steve’s support if he needed it. “I don’t know.”

“Did anyone get the car’s information?” Steve wrapped an arm around me.

“I might have.” I scrolled through the pictures on my phone. None of them showed the entire license plate. One had a partial plate, the last two digits, but I didn’t think it’d do much good. I hadn’t taken time to aim the camera, and there was some kind of coating over the license plate. “Darn it. None of them came out.”

“Let’s ask around.” Steve scanned the parking lot filled with employees and croppers. “Someone had to have gotten a description.”

“There weren’t many people around. Me. You. Bob. Ellie. Pauline. The employees didn’t come out until after. And her.” I pointed at the disheveled blonde woman helping Bob tend to the victim. “She was near the entrance when the car got out of the lot.”

“You go talk to her. I’ll speak with the other ladies.” Steve limped toward Ellie and Pauline. The friends had their arms wrapped around each other.

Steve’s insistence on getting involved in a criminal matter was new for me. Usually, he lectured me about staying out of police business. Either the knock to his head had him behaving contrary to his usual self, or the lack of police presence had the prosecutor in him needing to secure the scene and get information so the criminal faced justice.

“Did anyone see what car she arrived in?” Bob called out. “There’s no ID on her.”

“No,” Ellie said.

Pauline shook her head.

Cars entered into the parking lot. An employee directed the traffic away from Bob, the blonde, and the injured woman.

While Steve questioned the few witnesses, I set about collecting and noting any potential evidence. Bob would get information from the blonde woman.

Sirens filled the air. An ambulance and police were nearing the resort. I quickly prayed for the injured woman and Steve. He appeared all right, but it never hurt to send up a request for aid.

Using my cell phone, I photographed where I’d been standing and then of the woman and Bob. If the paramedics came first, I doubted they’d wait on the police arriving to get an overview of the accident scene before they transported her to the hospital.

Placing a hand on a parked car, I leaned over and peered under it. Something was under there. I knelt down. A plastic prescription bottle had rolled to a stop by the back tire. I snapped a picture before zooming in to look at the label.

No name, just a warning stating “Causes drowsiness. Be careful when operating a motor vehicle or other machinery.”

I shimmied under the car, focusing my phone on the bottle. I snapped a picture. With the flash I could see a partial name: Ma. I crawled out as I didn’t want to move the bottle by accident as I tried to read the full name.

“What are you doing?” An angry male voice asked.

I had a bad feeling about this. I looked up.

A large man glared down at me. His sunglasses were clipped to a lanyard which held a police badge. A tablet was tucked against his side.

Definitely not good. I stood and dusted small bits of gravel and dust from my clothes. “There’s a pill bottle under the car.”

“Unless it’s yours, or you’re a police officer, I don’t understand why you’re trying to retrieve it.”

I didn’t think the detective really wanted an answer to the question so I remained silent.

Paramedics attended to the victim. One began chest compressions while the other put an oxygen mask on her. My body grew cold even though the sun beat down. The paramedic stopped compressions and nodded at his partner. The woman was placed on a stretcher.

I released a small breath of relief. She was okay. For now.

Bob headed over to us. “Is there a problem?”

The detective directed his gaze to Bob. Anger flowed across the detective’s face. He pointed at me then the car. “Did you have anything to do with this Roget? A private investigator’s license isn’t the same as a police badge.”

“We were trying to help, Detective Bell.”

Detective Bell held up a hand and silenced him. “Save it, Roget. I’m tired of you and your kind worming your way into investigations. I thought with your brother gone, I wouldn’t have to deal with you anymore.”

His kind? What did that mean? “Do you have a problem with people in general or just Bob?”

“I have a problem with people who tamper with a crime scene.” Detective Bell crossed his arms and scowled.

The man had a scarier expression than Ted.

“I was trying to help. A car almost ran me over. If it wasn’t for my boyfriend yanking me to safety, I’d have been hit. And then the car continued speeding and ran over that poor woman.” I pointed at the stretcher being loaded into an ambulance.

“And with your expertise in criminal matters, you decided you should investigate the scene and gather up evidence.” He glared at Bob. “Let me guess, one of your students.”

“No, she’s a friend,” Bob said, avoiding my eyes.

Student? Did Bob teach classes on private investigating? Maybe…no, what I was thinking. There was no way I wanted to do this for a living, and no way Ted’s head wouldn’t explode over this. Or Steve. Or my grandmothers’ for that matter.

“Miss…” The detective waited on me to supply my name.

“Hunter. Faith Hunter.”

“All right, Miss Hunter, can you tell me what you saw?” Detective Bell poised a stylus over the screen of a tablet.

“Like I said, I was going over to talk to Bob and this car sped through the parking lot. I would’ve been struck if my boyfriend hadn’t—”

In the background, one of the paramedics leapt into the back of the ambulance and began chest compressions again on the victim.

“His name?” Bell’s stylus flew over the mid-size screen as he typed away. “Miss Hunter, his name.”

I tore my attention away from the ambulance. “Steve Davis. He pulled me to safety and got injured in the process.”

“Good thing he was looking out for you.” Bell focused on his tablet. “Color of car? Make? Model? License plate?”

“It was beige. A gold color. Four door. Sedan-ish.”

Bell’s gaze left the screen for a moment to settle a “you got to be kidding” look on me. “Ford? Chevrolet?”

I shrugged. “I’m not a car person.”

“Roget? Can you fill in any details?”

“Four door. Shorter body with a good size trunk.”

Bell nodded. “That gives me a little more to go on. Anything else?”

“The car hit the victim head on. She rolled off the hood.”

“Did you get a look at the driver?” Hope gleamed in Bell’s eyes.

“No. I faced the passenger side of the car. All I remember is the look on the woman’s face when the car struck her.” I wrapped my arms around myself.

“Can you describe it to me?” Bell shifted closer to me, his voice soft. He placed a gentle hand under my elbow. “I know this was a traumatic event to witness, but it might help.”

I replayed the moment in my mind, blinking back tears. “Surprised. Like she couldn’t believe it was happening. She was so wrapped up in something in her head, she never saw or heard us or the car until it was too late.”

Bob frowned. “Surprised how?”

“I don’t know.” I felt so inadequate. I wanted to give the detective the information he needed to find the driver, but knew almost nothing. “The blonde woman by the ambulance was at the corner when the car sped out.”

Bell nodded, the stylus jumping around the screen. “I’ll talk to her next.”

“Detective Bell!” An officer standing near the resort door waved at him.

“There was no identification on the victim,” Bob said. “Do you know who she is?”

“Stay out of this case, Roget. The only one asking questions will be me. I expect both of you to mind your business.” Detective Bell knocked into Bob as he headed toward the resort. “Excuse me.”

“He did that on purpose.” I took a step after the rude detective.

Bob caught hold of my hand and pulled me back. “Leave it, Faith. He has a problem with me—”

“Because you’re—”

“About a year ago, I solved a case he’d been working on for two months. I tried sharing the information I had with him but he ignored it. I gave it to another officer and that detective got the credit for solving it.”

“Ouch.”

“Even more so when the guy who used the information is now your supervisor.”

“Maybe he should listen to people more.”

A smile tugged at Bob’s mouth. “I’m surprised that’s the advice you’d give. According to Ted—”

I held up my hand. “I know. I know. Listening isn’t a skill I have.”

“You’re going to need to improve that skill real fast.” Bob led me to a quieter spot in the parking lot. “I need you to keep an ear out for anything weird going on this weekend.”

“Weird as in...” I trailed off.

“I don’t know. That’s the problem I’m hoping you can help me with. I don’t know what would be out of the ordinary at a crop.”

I stared at the ambulance. “You think she was run over deliberately? Is the woman in there the identity thief?”

“The woman I’m looking for isn’t known for being dangerous, but the people looking for her are,” Bob said.

“So, the hit-and run might not be an accident but an attempted murder.”

“I’ll know more once I find out who she is. No one knows.”

“Or Detective Bell doesn’t want you to know,” I said.

“That’s in the realm of possibility.”

“It’s a good thing we have our own evidence since Detective Bell most likely won’t share.”

“Our own evidence?” Bob frowned.

I turned my phone around and scrolled through the pictures. “See? I have location photos of where Steve was almost hit and where the woman was run down. And this is the pill bottle I saw under the car. I couldn’t get a picture of the entire name on it.”

“May I get a closer look?” Bob held out his hand.

“Sure.” I handed over the phone.

He looked my phone over, smiled, then tapped it to his. With a couple of taps on my cell phone’s screen, the pictures were deleted.

“Hey!” I snatched my phone back. “Those pictures were my property.”

“Those photos were trouble for you.” Bob pocketed his cell phone. “I want you to just listen and take notes, not chase down a criminal. Let me handle that part. The car accident might not have anything to do with my case.”

“But it might.”

“True. But, I can’t leave the women at the retreat exposed to an identity thief while I go find out. And, if I tracked her here, so might’ve the other people looking for her.”

A knot in my throat made it hard to speak. “That wouldn’t be good.”

“No. When one is stealing identities, it’s best to make sure it doesn’t belong to a criminal.”

“I’ll do whatever I can.”

“Not whatever. Listen. Watch. Report to me. Don’t engage them.” Bob borrowed my phone and programmed in his number.

Steve approached us, looking pale.

There was no way I’d say more with Steve standing nearby. The last thing Steve needed was worrying about me getting involved in something I shouldn’t. I’d put the man through enough anxiety during the last year with my sleuthing.

Steve draped an arm around my shoulders. “What’s going on over here?”

I knew Steve wouldn’t believe me if I said “nothing” so I went with the partial truth, a new habit of mine. “Bob is telling me I’m not an investigator and should leave the car accident to him and the police.”

“I agree with him.” Steve grimaced and closed his eyes. “That detective isn’t going to give you the leeway Detective Roget does.”

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“The lights are getting to me.”

The lights on the cruisers spun, flashing red in a constant pattern. He flinched and averted his gaze to the ground.

I wrapped an arm around his waist. “Let’s go. You should go rest for a little bit.”

“No, I’m fine.” Steve tried stepping away from me but I tightened my grip. “We still need to set up the store. It’s too much for you to do alone.”

“Bob will help me. Right?” I fixed a pleading gaze on Bob.

“Absolutely. I just need to make a few calls and I’ll meet you inside.”

I watched the ambulance pull out of the parking lot. Sirens silent, which probably meant the victim had died. A shudder raced through me. “She died. We can’t let the person get away with it.”

Bell turned and fixed a hard gaze on me.

Steve tucked me into his side. “On second thought, I might not be as fine as I thought. I’d like you to help me to my room. Maybe if you’re watching over me, it’ll keep you out of trouble.” I leaned into him, needing his support as much as he needed mine.