“That’s Patience’s necklace,” she cried and took a step back.
Jason seemed to come out of his daze. He blinked, shaking his head and yelling, “No. No, I didn’t.” But she could see that the chain was broken, as if it had been torn off Patience’s neck. She took another step back, the fire alarm blaring so loudly she couldn’t think.
Jason kept coming toward her, trying to tell her something, but she couldn’t hear him over the noise. He reached for her as she took another step back, banging into the stairs doorway. Pushing it open, she turned and began to run as quickly as she could down the stairs. She could hear Jason yelling behind her but was unable to make out his words. It sounded as if he were right on her heels.
His fingers dug into the flesh of her shoulder, twisting her around and throwing her against the wall. She hit her head hard. The lights in the stairwell dimmed and then she was falling, arms flailing. She landed, her breath knocked from her body from the jarring fall. She felt pain and then nothing as the lights blinked out.
WITH THE FIRE alarm blaring, Finn dropped what he had in his hands and ran for the stairs. All he could think of was Casey waking up and seeing him gone. His heart was pounding as the fire alarm blared in his ears.
He could hear deputies hollering for everyone to get out of the building. One tried to stop him, grabbing his arm and detaining him for a few lost moments before he broke free. He rushed for the main stairway. Taking the steps three at a time, he reached the landing, breathing hard.
Casey would have been awakened by the alarm. She’d been already dressed. How quickly would she have tried to get out of the building? Maybe she was already outside waiting for him.
He reached her bedroom door. It was locked. He pounded on the door, calling her name over the sound of the alarm as he dug out the passkey from his jeans pocket.
Flinging the door open, he rushed in. She was gone. He felt a wave of relief but still doubled-checked to make sure that she wasn’t in the bedroom before he ran for the open doorway.
The deputy who’d tried to stop him was blocking the doorway. The man grabbed his arm with one hand. The other hand was on the butt of his gun.
“Have you seen Casey?” he yelled to the officer, who only shook his head and motioned to Finn that the two of them were now leaving the building.
He broke free and ran back the way he’d come, down the stairs, only to collide with two deputies who escorted him out of the building with just enough force that he didn’t fight them.
As he stumbled out into dim daylight, he looked frantically for Casey as he pulled out his phone and tried to call her. It rang and rang before going to voice mail.
Several deputies were moving everyone back from the building. He saw Jen and Shirley and Jason. What he didn’t see was Casey. As he turned to go back toward the building, the marshal stepped out, a deputy on each side of him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
LEROY BARKED OUT orders quickly. He’d done a head count and realized the guests weren’t all there. Casey Crenshaw was missing from the small group. That was about when he spotted Finnegan James headed for him. Leroy knew that look. Trouble.
“See if everyone can be put up at the motel,” Leroy ordered Hepner. “I still want them all to stay in town temporarily until I can get to the bottom of this. If any of them resist, lock them in the back of your cruiser.” Hepner got right on his cell phone to make arrangements as he headed for the parking lot, passing Finnegan on his way.
“Fortunately, a busload of tourists are checking out now,” Hepner told him. “They’re going to get a few rooms ready.”
Another deputy, Henry Wilson, came out of the hotel directly behind Leroy. “There’s no one left in the building that we could find.”
Leroy considered sending him back in to look for Casey but changed his mind. “Check the other exits. Let me know if you find Casey Crenshaw,” he told the deputy as Finnegan reached him.
“Casey’s not here. That means she’s still in there,” Finnegan said. “I don’t know what’s going on because I don’t see or smell smoke, but I’m going back in there to look for her.” He started past him for the door.
Leroy put a firm hand in the middle of the man’s chest and shook his head. “No one is going back in there. Don’t make me arrest you. She could have come out another door. I have a deputy checking.”
But Finnegan was shaking his head. Leroy could see that there would be no keeping him out of the hotel short of cuffing him and throwing him in the back of a squad car.
“You don’t want to go back in there,” Leroy told him, but Finnegan only shook his head, shoving off the marshal’s hand. “You need to go with one of my deputies to the motel.”
“I’m not going anywhere as long as Casey’s missing. I checked her room. She must have headed out at the sound of the fire alarm, but something must have happened. I have no idea what’s going on, but I can tell it’s serious.” He put his face in Leroy’s. “I’m going in. There’s only one way you can stop me. Otherwise, we can cover the hotel faster if there are two of us.”
Leroy sighed. “You take the north wing. We meet back at the main stairway in ten minutes. No more.”
Finnegan gave a short nod. They went back inside and parted company. He could hear the man running
