Wine, Dine and Christmas Crimes, Maria Swan [best short novels of all time .TXT] 📗

grey suit that looked slept in magically appeared from behind the large shiny built-in counter that had been unoccupied on my two previous visits.

“May I help you?” Now that he came closer I could see his name tag pinned on the chest pocket.

And like an idiot I said, “Where is Walter?” That got me a second look.

“He isn’t well. I’m covering for him.”

“We are meeting with Detective Ross,” Brenda said.

That would be Adam, huh, wondered if his partner was there.

“They are all up.” The doorman pointed his thumb to the sky or in this case to the ceiling of the lobby. I understood. “You can take elevator #2, and it will take you directly to the 28th floor. I will let Detective Ross know you’re on your way...Miss...?”

“Baker. Both, we are both Baker.” I think Brenda enjoyed watching the poor man’s confusion. Compared to Gold Buttons, this guy was a true professional. We headed toward the elevators, and only then did I get it. We were taking the direct line to the 28th floor. The pool access was on that floor. Suddenly the morning didn’t feel so bright anymore.

“Where do you think Kassandra got all that info related to this girl’s death?” I asked Brenda who seemed focused on studying the floor numbers on the elevator control board.

“No thirteenth floor,” she said.

“Yeah, the fourteenth is really the thirteenth. The listing happens to be on the thirteenth floor, so that causes confusion. Well, not my problem.”

“How accurate is Kassandra’s info related to this woman’s death?” Apparently she had heard my question.

I shrugged. “Not sure. She was wrong about D—Dale Wolf. He had been questioned as a person of interest, not arrested as she said. You know, now that you mention it, I bet she gets all that stuff from social media. It only started after she was housebound.”

The elevator came to a stop, and the door opened with a swoosh. Hmm, something felt—different. Sure the floor had the same tile, and the arrow pointing to the pool access looked the same, but as we moved toward the rounded wall, voices could be heard. Chirpier than the ones I heard that day when curiosity had brought me here. And other noises mixed with the human sounds. Could this be a lively event instead of a police investigation? Brenda and I headed that way as if it had been our plan all along. It wasn’t.

We cleared the corner to find ourselves in a massive space that could have been designed as a multi-function room. I imagined meetings or even larger events being held there since a small kitchen could be seen at the same end as the plain bar that was obviously there for hosted parties. On the opposite side was a wall of windows with a million-dollar view of Camelback Mountain in the distance. I found myself searching for what Eve had told me to be a second access to the pool. It would have to be close to the bar if it was designed for pool service. Eve was right, there were two openings at the end of the bar—one was the door to the pool and the second one, I couldn’t tell what it was. A sign said, Authorized Personnel Only. About a dozen people were in the room, authorized or not. I stood taking all that in when Adam, AKA Detective Ross, came from the kitchen side, a polite smile on his face and a folder under his arm.

“Hello, Miss Baker, your assistant is on her way up. Glad you could join us.” He turned to me and gave me a nod.

“What’s going on?” I pointed to the various groups of busy people, some sitting around a table, others walking here and there and seeming to be checking out stuff. At least it appeared that way from my perch.

“There you are.” Leta’s innate grouchiness carried in her voice as usual. It was all a show. In reality she was a down-to-earth, high energy woman who ran a smooth operation. “Good to see you wearing the new uniform,” she said to Brenda. Then she winked at me. “Hi, Tootsie, chasing thrills in all the wrong places as usual I see.”

At that point I became invisible as Detective Ross walked the women toward the intriguing door of authorized personnel only. Authorized or not, I tagged along. And what a disappointment. No vaults, no secret passages. It was a closet-sized place with a commercial ice cube machine, a trash can, a stack of cardboard boxes, and a thing that reminded me of the door to the large wood oven our small-town baker, a cousin from my mother’s side, used to bake the daily bread in. Except that’s not what this was. It was a garbage chute. Only the second one I’d ever seen and the first one in a high-rise.

“Just out of curiosity,” I said, “if I was to...let’s say, accidentally drop my shoe into that, would it drop all the way to the bottom? I mean, to the ground floor?”

“No. There is a chute on every floor, this one lands four floors down where the cleaning crew keeps their supplies. They separate the glass bottles from the rest.” Detective Ross explained. He turned to Leta. “Do you remember approximately what time you were here?”

She nodded. “It was before Monica delivered the hors d’oeuvre, I’ll say, around six thirty. Maybe a little later. What time did you get here that night?” she asked me.

“I must have been at the service entrance around seven thirty more or less, and you arrived a few minutes later, why?”

“And you didn’t see anyone or anything up here, correct?” The detective only had eyes and ears for Leta.

“No, I did notice some lights on. Like the bar, that side of the room had dim lights. But I went directly to the ice machine and filled the large bucket, and I won’t lie. I couldn’t resist. I opened the chute and even looked down. Couldn’t see anything but