“A deputy told me that we’re not allowed to leave our rooms tonight. I told him I wanted to stay with you.” She hugged him harder. “I don’t know when we’ll be allowed to leave.”
“None of that matters,” she said, pulling back to look at him. “Who killed them?”
Finn thought any number of people, including the investors who’d trusted Devlin to make the deal on the hotel, but he only shook his head. Past her, through the window, he could see deputies searching the woods and the outbuildings, their flashlight beams flickering in and out of the trees as they moved.
“I was going to ask you to stay in my room tonight,” he said.
She smiled. “I’ve seen your room. Glad you decided to stay in mine.”
“I’m usually neat and organized.” She laughed in answer to that but quickly sobered. Tears filled her eyes. He wanted to tell her that everything was going to be all right, that the marshal would find out who had killed Claude and Devlin. But the law had never found out who had killed Megan. Wasn’t that why they were all here right now? Except for Casey. She’d come back only to sell the place and move on. But someone had other plans. He still didn’t know who that other person was, but he suspected now more than ever that it was the killer and Casey still wasn’t safe.
THE MARSHAL HAD just finished questioning Benjamin Travers when one of the deputies stuck his head in the door and motioned that he needed to speak to him outside the room.
Leroy knew bad news when he saw it coming. He excused himself and stepped out into the lobby. He figured it would be another body, Patience Riley’s. He’d put a BOLO out on Riley, figuring if she really had left, she’d be picked up soon. He’d been told that she’d left not too long ago, which meant she would still be in Montana.
“We found something.” The deputy held up the bag.
For a moment Leroy thought it was some kind of dead animal. “What is it?”
“A wig.”
He was about to say And you think this is important how? but he stopped himself short of doing that as he remembered what he’d been told about Megan’s ghost. Finn had said he’d found a strand of what appeared to be blond hair caught in a tree bough, but the hair had turned out to be from a wig.
“Let’s see if the lab techs can get any DNA or hair fibers from it,” the marshal said. Finn had said that everyone had just assumed Claude or Devlin was behind the ghost sighting. But if they were already dead...
Just then, Deputy Hepner came up from the basement carrying an evidence bag. Leroy swore under his breath as he braced himself for more bad news. With a start, he saw that the bag contained what appeared to be a human skull. His gaze shot to Hepner.
“There are more,” the deputy said. “Those tracks down in the basement that led up to the cellar door? I found what made them. It’s a cart that was in an old shed in the trees out back. I think that’s how the killer got the bodies into the basement. If I’m right, then there’s a tunnel from the outbuildings into the basement.”
Leroy saw himself in Hepner. It was one reason he’d been harder on him than the others. “Good work, Hepner.”
“Thank you, sir. If it’s all right with you, I’ll go back to the basement and see if I can find the tunnel.”
Leroy gave him a nod and turned back to the office and Benjamin Travers.
WHEN CASEY HAD reached her room, she’d quickly turned on all the lights. She’d felt foolish checking the closet and the bathroom, but she did it anyway.
Moving to the window, she’d hugged herself as she looked out on the familiar landscape. Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined what was waiting for her at the hotel when she’d arrived just days before—Finn included.
Just thinking of him steadied her as she waited for him to return. He’d gone across the hall to get a few things for the night. She tried to relax. Finn would be here with her tonight, even as she realized that there wasn’t much night left. She could see the sky lightening over the mountains to the east. As exhausted as she was, she doubted she’d be able to sleep.
She heard him enter the room and ran to him. He pulled her into his strong, hard body, and she leaned into him. “Something’s happening,” she said, her voice high and tight as she pulled away from him to motion toward the window. She had spotted the sudden movement in the woods. “You don’t think they found Patience, do you?”
“Jason said she left, but...” Jason had said he thought the others had left as well.
The horror of it hit her hard. She realized she’d never believed that any of the staff had killed Megan. Finn had, though. He’d been so sure that there was a killer in the hotel with them. That was why he’d been worried about her.
But she hadn’t taken it seriously. Or just hadn’t wanted to believe that anyone she knew could kill. Was this what the reunion had been about—just as Finn had feared? Someone had planned to kill them off one at a time?
“You were right,” she whispered.
Finn shook his head. “I wish I wasn’t.” He looked at her as if still worried.
She’d always been so proud of herself for needing almost no one. With Finn, she could let down the protective wall she’d built around herself. She could be not
