Given the circumstances, the state of Tennessee might be willing to pony up the added expense, but she could manage it if they didn’t. Her profit margin would be wafer-thin, but that was a small price to pay for the safety of the people in her care.
Her budget allowed for three rooms, and the fairest way to divide them seemed to Faye to be two women in the first room, two in the second, and all three men in the third. Stephanie, Yvonna, and Ayesha would be flipping a coin to see who got the unpleasant assignment of sharing a room with the boss. The other two women would share the second room, and Jeremiah, Davion, and Richard would flip another coin to see who slept on the roll-out bed in the third room. Nobody would be comfortable, and Faye’s inner introvert was screaming at the loss of privacy, but this was what she could afford. If she were a killer, she’d go looking for someone vulnerable and alone, so she was actually doing everyone a favor by cramming them into such tight spaces. Her employees would survive the loss of these beautiful cabins, and so would Faye. She made the reservation and fowarded the details to Joe.
Faye, in particular, had no excuse for complaining. When the project was done, she’d go back to occupying an entire island with her family of four. She could certainly stand living in a crowd until then. She just wasn’t sure she could stand the stress of this one night, knowing that Frida’s killer was out there somewhere, perhaps close by.
Without thinking, she picked up her phone and dialed McDaniel’s number. When he answered, it took her a moment to clear her overstressed mind and realize why she’d called.
“I forgot to tell you something that Kali said. When I asked her if she saw who killed her mother, she said, ‘It was dark.’ That got me to thinking. I don’t know how tightly you’ve been able to establish a time for the attack, but it was just getting to be daylight when I found Frida. Unless the killer was working with a flashlight, there had to be a little light during the attack, so it had to happen between the first few minutes of sunup and the half-light when I found her. Maybe you’ve got astronomers or meteorologists or something who can tell you what time that was. I was too busy to look at my watch, so it’s not like I can give you the time to the minute.”
“I’ve got the time of your 911 call.”
“Back up from that call a few minutes and you’ll know when I heard the footsteps. The attack had to have happened after dawn and before that time. Maybe that will give you something to go on.”
“I’ll do that. I appreciate the thought you’re putting put into this.”
Faye didn’t answer right away. Then she let the silence hang longer than she’d intended.
“Faye? Is there something else?”
“I’ve found a hotel for my crew over near Beale Street. It’s far enough away from where Frida died that I can pretend that we’re safe. Tonight, though…” She drew a deep breath. “Tonight, we’re too close to the place where it happened and that scares me. Would you have somebody drive past our cabins now and then? Just to check things out?”
She didn’t say, “Since I think you followed me here to make sure I was safe, maybe you won’t mind doing me one more favor.” If he did indeed follow her, he knew it.
“There will be officers out all night, looking for the person who did this to Frida,” McDaniel said. “It will be no trouble at all for them to swing through the campground from time to time. Maybe get out of the car while they’re there. Walk around and check things out. That would make anybody lurking in the bushes think again, don’t you think? You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. Well, I’m okay when I’m not thinking of Frida. Or Kali. Or of Laneer and Sylvia and Jeremiah. Or of the person who did those terrible things. Which is to say, never.”
“Only a sociopath could rest easy after seeing what you saw this morning. But you should close your eyes and try to rest anyway. First, though, draw your drapes. There are going to be a lot of officers of the law driving around outside your window. I’ll make sure of it. I wouldn’t want their headlights to keep you up.”
By two a.m., Faye was not missing her privacy. She was thinking that maybe she never wanted to be alone again. She was wishing for the company of two or three lively young women. Stephanie, Ayesha, and Yvonna could have hopped on her bed to eat crackers and talk about their love lives for hours, and she would have been perfectly okay with that.
Heck. Why limit the companions at her imaginary slumber party to the women on her crew? At this time of a dark, scary night, Faye would have been happy for Richard, Davion, and Jeremiah to crowd in with them while they all ate crackers and talked about boyfriends and girlfriends and whatever else young adults talked about these days. Cell phone plans, maybe?
Faye would have been happy to see them all. A cabin that is delightfully isolated at noon can be a lonely place when the clock ticks past midnight.
With every hour that passed, the shadows in the corners of
