The marshal swore under his breath. Bombs along the outside support walls? This wasn’t the first time he’d seen something like this. He had an uncle who specialized in explosive demolition. Uncle Pete had dropped some huge buildings in some of the country’s largest cities. He was an expert, dropping them straight down. He did beautiful work, which his nephew had always admired. He’d seen his old newsreels and videos of his jobs and been amazed at how a huge building could just drop to its feet, crumbling into nothing but dust and debris.
“There’s a knack to it, kid,” Uncle Pete had said when Leroy had asked how it was done. “It has to implode from inside and all at the same time. One little foul-up, and you can take out half the block.”
He’d asked if it was scary planting the explosives.
Pete had laughed. “Not if you know what you’re doing and it’s not your day to die.”
“Your uncle’s an idiot,” his father had said. “He has a death wish. I suppose he didn’t tell you about the time they didn’t go off and he had to go back in, knowing that at any moment he could be blown to smithereens. Death wish. One of these days, his luck is going to run out.”
Apparently that might have been true. Uncle Pete had died in one of his buildings a few years ago. No one knew why he’d gone back inside right before the building blew.
Leroy turned to his deputy, working to keep his tone calm and in control. “When we get upstairs, you’re going to use some of those boards outside to board the doors into this place once everyone is out. Then I’m going to pull the fire alarm. I need you and the rest of the deputies to get everyone out of the building. No mention of bombs. Just get them out and yourselves a good distance away from the hotel. Get car keys from the guests and move them as well.” He wanted them all to be able to leave when this was over.
Hepner took off down the tunnel back the way they’d come. Leroy followed at a good pace. The hair stood straight up on his neck. He could feel his mortality with each step even as his mind whirled. Who’d done this? And when had these been set to go off? He recalled that the invitations for the reunion had mentioned the hotel was to be destroyed.
Before or after the reunion was over?
AS FINN CAME out into the lobby, he caught a glimpse of someone sneaking down the hallway toward the kitchen. Even in the dim light, he recognized Jason. What was the man up to?
He hurried after him. If he knew Jason, he was up to no good. But when he reached the kitchen, the man was nowhere to be seen. So where had he gone, and what was he doing sneaking around? Probably looking for booze.
Finn hurried down the hallway to the back stairs that led from the kitchen floor to the staff floor. As he pushed open the door to the stairway, he could hear footfalls on the steps. Jason going back to the staff floor?
Letting the door close, Finn turned back to the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and took out two bottles of water, one for him and one for Casey, then saw a carton of orange juice. Casey would be waking up soon since the sun would be rising. If she felt anything like he did, she’d need something to keep her going.
As he started to leave, he saw the blood on the outside of the refrigerator. It was just a smear. It startled him because it was so fresh. Jason? He saw another smear of fresh blood on the door. Jason hadn’t been bleeding badly, because there were no droplets on the floor.
But he had been bleeding.
For just a moment, he thought about following him up the back stairs to the staff wing, but Finn had been gone too long as it was. He didn’t want Casey waking up and finding him not there.
He turned with the orange juice and waters and headed for the hallway that would take him back to her when the fire alarm went off.
CASEY CAME AWAKE with a start. The fire alarm was blaring, reminding her of the drills her grandmother used to run with the staff before the hotel opened in the spring. She sat up, disoriented for a moment as if the years hadn’t passed.
But as she came fully awake, she remembered where she was and why. At the same time, she saw that Finn wasn’t in the bed next to her. The bathroom door was open. No Finn. She’d fallen asleep in a T-shirt and jeans. All she had to do was step into her sandals. From the window, she saw deputies escorting some of the others outside.
She told herself to hurry. Her heart was pounding. Was the hotel on fire? Hadn’t that always been a fear of her grandmother’s? Of Casey’s? If someone had pulled the alarm by mistake or as a joke, deputies wouldn’t be escorting people out of the building, she told herself as she grabbed her purse.
Unlocking the door and stepping out into the hallway, she looked over into Finn’s room. The door was open, and the room was empty. Maybe the deputies had already led him out. After locking the door behind her, she hurried down the hallway, headed for the back stairs.
But as she turned the corner, she almost collided with Jason.
“Casey?” He seemed confused and oblivious to the blaring fire alarm.
“We need to get out of here,” she yelled over the alarm.
His gaze seemed unfocused. She noticed he had a scrape on his temple. It was bleeding, and he had something in his hands that caught the light. With a start, she recognized the necklace
