~ Maddie ~
When the alarm went off at nine a.m., I wanted to throw the clock across the room. I couldn’t go back to sleep because I had made arrangements to meet Jackson at the shop at ten a.m. to get the dogs.
Jenna and I take quick turns showering and sharing the mirror to make ourselves as presentable as possible after the abbreviated night’s sleep. We’re packed and heading down to get the car by 9:50 when Jenna realizes she left her phone charger in the room.
“I’ll go down and get the car and pull it around,” I say.
As I approach the elevators, which are set off in their own alcove, I hear low-pitched voices that sound like a man and a woman are having an argument.
“I don’t understand why we have to keep pretending, Tom. She’s dead. You’re not cheating on her.”
“Bella, come on. We have to give it a little more time. It looks bad enough that we arrived here together.”
I stop in my tracks. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It’s Tom and Bella. They’re not talking loudly, but it must be one of those situations where sound bounces off hard surfaces and carries better than they realize.
“I love you,” she says. “I just want us to be together.”
“I love you, too,” he says. “Right now, we need to be careful.”
After I saw the text from Bella, I knew Tom was lying about their relationship being platonic. If I had any doubt then, this confirms their affair.
Why would he lie?
Unless he and Bella played a part in Kellen’s death. Get her out of the way before the divorce was final so he could inherit her estate. I’ll have to let Jackson know first thing when I see him.
The elevator chimes and I debate whether I should wait for the next car and let them ride down by themselves. At the last minute, I decide to go for it and call, “Please hold the doors.”
They don’t, but I manage to hit the call button before the doors close completely and they open again. When I wheel my suitcase inside, the couple is standing a respectable distance apart. I act surprised to see him.
“Good morning, Tom. You’re up awfully early this morning.”
Bella scowls at me and slides on oversized Jackie O-type sunglasses.
“Hello, Maddie,” he murmurs.
I wait for him to introduce me to Bella, but he doesn’t. He also says nothing about our heart-to-heart last night. In fact, he doesn’t say anything else for the duration of the ride down to the lobby.
When the doors open, Bella shoulders past me out of the elevator, stepping around my suitcase. Tom looks sheepish as he gestures for me to exit before he does.
He won’t look me in the eyes and I hope he wonders what I overheard. He lags behind me as I make my way toward the lobby doors. I wonder if they’re leaving the hotel together, then I see Bella disappear into the restaurant.
Interesting choice to dine in the restaurant if they want to keep the actual nature of their relationship a secret and give it a little more time, as Tom put it earlier. Especially since the place was crawling with paparazzi yesterday.
Maybe Bella intends to draw attention to herself and Tom, by default.
When we arrived last night, the valet attendant wasn’t on duty. I was able to snag a parking space close to the building but just off to the side. As I wheel my bag outside and walk to the car I ponder what Bella’s urgency to bring their relationship out into the open means. Could it imply that they—or at least she—had nothing to do with Kellen’s death?
Maybe the fact that Tom is so concerned about appearances means he’s guilty… or it could mean he was having an affair and wants to show his late wife due respect.
Until I saw Bella’s text, he had me convinced he was genuinely a grieving widower. But after overhearing their conversation on top of the come-back-to-bed text, I wonder if he’s a better actor than Bella.
I’ll tell Jackson what I overheard and see if he can check into who filed for divorce. I’d love to know if Tom was lying about that, too. A hot, young girlfriend and his wife’s literary fortune would seem like double motivation to want Kellen out of the way.
Somehow, I have just enough time to fill Jenna in on what I overheard and make it into the office before Jackson texts me to say he’s outside.
I meet him out front. He’s holding a drink carrier with two to-go cups from the Briar Patch; in his other hand, he has a bag of something.
“Rough night?” he asks, entirely too cheerful for the low-firing cylinders I’m running on this morning.
I nod. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.” It suddenly dawns on me that the dogs aren’t with him.
“Where are Aggie and Homie?”
“They’re at my house. I realized you would probably be exhausted this morning. Maybe you could join them there since you won’t be able to sleep at your place with the alarm installer going in and out and testing your new system. From the looks of it, you could stand to catch a few more Zs.”
I scowl at him.
“Don’t hurt me. That’s not a comment on your appearance. You’re as lovely as ever. Besides, I come bearing gifts.”
He holds out the Briar Patch offerings.
“If there’s a scone in that bag, I might find it in my heart to forgive you for making such disparaging comments.”
“Darlin,’ I could never disparage you for the way you look. You are mighty fine, even on your sleepiest day.”
My mind races back to the kiss we shared last night. It seems like another lifetime ago. Despite how tired I am, my stomach flips and my heart performs an exhilarating two-step in my chest.
“Thank you, I think,” I say. “Do you have a moment to talk? I have some things I need to tell you.”
I give him a knowing look and he nods.
“Of course. I need to be at your place by eleven a.m. to meet the alarm company rep.” He glances at his watch. “I have a little bit of time. Want to take these to the park? We should be able to talk in relative privacy there.”
It’s a humid morning, but the summer heat hasn’t had time to fully bloom. It would probably be best if I stayed outside where the air is fresh.
“Let me tell Jenna and Alicia where we’ll be.”
A few minutes later, Jackson and I are settled on a bench in the park that’s situated in a place that people strolling would have to cross in front of us. In other words, they wouldn’t be able to lurk behind us and eavesdrop, if anyone were so inclined to do so.
As he pulls two cinnamon scones out of the paper bag and offers one to me, I fill him in on our visit to the suite.
He sighs and holds up a hand. “Please tell me you and your daughter did not trespass on a crime scene.”
I shrug and give him a look that I hope is adorably sheepish. “Define trespass?”
His face is stern. “Maddie. You know what trespassing means.”
“Well….Would it help if I told you I learned something that might help you with your investigation?”
As he takes a long sip of his coffee and I try to read his eyes but they’re inscrutable.
“Crossing an active police line is a felony,” he says. “You know that.”
My heart sinks. He’s right. I should’ve known better, but Kellen is my friend. The person who hurt her needs to be brought to justice.
“Does it help to know I was careful not to contaminate the scene?”
When he doesn’t answer, I say, “I had a theory I needed to test and I was there and—”
“Well, lucky for you we finished our investigation and despite the tape, it’s not considered an active crime scene any longer. Since there has been so much media hanging around the hotel, Omar asked me to leave the tape up for a couple more days to keep out the looky-loos.”
He raises his brows.
“Point taken,” I say, but relief is flooding through me as I tell him how I discovered the issues with both the front and balcony doors.
He puts his hands over his ears. “I’m going to pretend like I didn’t hear you say you broke into the murder suite.”
I smile at him. “Okay, that works for me.”
Finally, he smiles back and I tell him my theory that someone could’ve taken a chance and balcony hopped to gain entrance to Kellen’s suite. In this case, the snag was that Sabrina had said the rooms adjacent to the presidential suite had been unoccupied the evening Kellen was killed.
“I guess someone would’ve had to have been familiar with the layout of the hotel and would’ve had to have known which room was booked for Kellen. That’s stretching it pretty far. The only thing is, I can’t imagine how anyone would’ve gotten the beehive in that room without having access to the room. I mean, can you?”
Jackson narrows his eyes as he takes a long sip of his coffee. He looks like he’s pondering the situation. “That’s the million dollar question,” he says after lowering his cup.
“It is. But I have more for you.”
I tell him about finding Tom outside the suite where Kellen was killed, learning about the twist in Olivia’s lawsuit against Kellen, and Kellen’s crazed fan stalker.
“Those are all things you might want to check into,” I say. “But here’s what bothers me the most. Tom had me convinced that he and Bella were just friends. He said she drove him from Asheville because he was too upset to drive after learning Kellen was hurt. But I saw a text message from her asking him to come back to bed.”
Jackson raises his brows. “I should put you on the payroll.”
I smile. “Thanks, but I already have a full-time job. Two, if you count the writing. I won’t even charge you for letting me have a hand in solving my friend’s murder.”
He gazes at me for a long time, and I’m afraid he’s going to start spouting a litany of reasons why we need to stop discussing the case, when he finally says, “Have you heard of a place called Honey Mountain Farm?”
I shake my head.
“It’s just outside of Spartanburg, South Carolina. About an hour and a half away.”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because first thing this morning, I got a call from the forensics lab saying that on the beehive frame, underneath all those layers of dried-on honey the words Honey Mountain Farm was etched into the wood on the side of the frame.”
“Does that mean that’s where the frame came from?” I ask.
“I don’t know yet. But I thought I’d take a ride down there to have a look around. Would you like to come with me?”
“Of course I would. When are you going?”
“I need to head over to your house to meet the alarm company, but maybe we could go after they’re finished?”
Who needs sleep when there’s a possible break in the case?
“I’ll be ready.”