Avalanche (A Stone Mountain Mystery Book 3) Page 5
Too timid to steal from Stone Mountain and a rule follower, of course, Helen would think that way. Jessica just couldn’t picture Helen sneaking into the finance center in the middle of the night. “The cops can’t search anyone’s place without a warrant, and since they have no evidence, they can’t get a warrant without tripping someone up. I won’t have our group treated this way. The cops should be looking for an outsider.”
Eric lifted his chin and studied Jessica. “Since when do you care about anyone in the group?”
“Just because I don’t show it, doesn’t mean I don’t care. Look, we’re all upset about having to take a polygraph. I don’t think we should let them push us around.”
“But Turner will be angry if we refuse,” Helen said.
Jessica studied the dust on her palm, then wiped her hand on her jeans. “I’ll talk to him. Tell him no one feels right about this. Let me at least try, and if it doesn’t go well, we can always do what he wants.”
* * *
Jessica ignored the headache pounding its way from the base of her neck to her temples. It wasn’t even five o’clock yet, so too early to go home. The theft wasn’t directed at her personally, but the missing money would cause her problems. She punched the back of her office chair. The chair swiveled, and the armrest knocked her teacup onto the floor.
“Shit.”
She called Roy for what must have been the tenth time, and he didn’t answer. She tossed her cell at the wall, but it fell short and thumped onto the carpet. Roy had probably cut out early and headed to the bar to drink with his all-important buddies. To hell with him.
With the way Turner treated her, staying at home tomorrow seemed more appealing than coming to work. Maybe she should get back into the real estate business. She still had her license, and she got along well with the people in the local office. The flexible hours of an agent would mean she wouldn’t have to miss any ski time. Maybe she could even ski more.
If she was going to change her life, a drastic change should do the trick. She should dump Roy and change jobs, except she liked her job and had worked hard to get it. Roy, she could do without.
A knock on her office door caused an uncontrollable shiver to travel from her spine to her ribcage. After the day she’d had, it couldn’t be anything good. Ignoring that she was mad at him, she picked her cell off the floor and dialed Roy again, but the call forwarded to voicemail.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.”
She opened the door. Aiden Price stood in front of her, wearing his lift operator uniform. Jessica had met him during her first week at Stone Mountain. In her enthusiasm to get on the slopes, she’d forgotten her newly printed staff pass. Aiden had been at the lift station and given her a complimentary ticket, making her promise to show him her pass later. An overnight powder dump smothered the runs, and she would have missed the fresh tracks if she’d had to go home and get her pass. He’d said she looked so excited about skiing that he hadn’t had the heart to turn her away. They’d been friends, sort of, ever since.
Aiden’s toque sat crooked on his head, and his zipper stuck halfway to the top of his jacket as if he’d dressed in a hurry. He stood silently staring at her.
“What?” Jessica asked.
“Can I come in?”
She let him pass. “Man, you smell ripe.”
Aiden wiped sweat off his forehead. “I’ve been working hard all day. We’re short on ski patrol. I had to manage the lifts and take care of the junior patrollers.”
“What’s going on?”
“Why haven’t you been answering your phone?” Aiden asked.
“To understate things, I’ve had a busy day.”
“Have you talked to Roy today?”
“No. Why?”
“An avalanche hit the Dragon’s Bowl this morning. Roy’s missing.”
Jessica had seen the helicopter earlier. Her gut clenched. When he hadn’t returned her calls, she never guessed he might be hurt…or worse. And why hadn’t Turner told her? What a jerk.
“It’s possible he went into the Bowl alone this morning before the lifts opened,” Aiden said.
“I told him he shouldn’t be doing that alone. And usually, he lets me know before he goes. I don’t get why you think he was caught in an avalanche. There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“A guest saw someone going up the hill early this morning before the avalanche. Search and rescue found part of a backpack with a Canadian flag sewn on the flap. The same kind Roy had.”
Her heart raced. He couldn’t be buried. Not Roy. “Did they find anything else?”
“His ski pole.”
“Even if he was caught in the avalanche, he could be trekking down the mountain right now. You don’t know he’s hurt.” Jessica regretted every lousy thought she’d had about Roy. If only he would walk in and she could yell at him for not answering her messages, but not this.
“You look pale. Are you alright?”
“It’s been a bad day.”
“So I heard. Everyone’s talking about the theft. Funny Roy disappeared this morning.” Aiden shrugged. “Just sayin’.”
Kalin opened the door without knocking.
By the tears on her cheeks, the news was bad. Hope that Roy had been found alive crashed to the ground like a tree felled by a chainsaw, and the sharp branches stabbed tiny holes in Jessica’s heart.
* * *
Kalin entered her new home, surprised Chica wasn’t at the door to greet her. Talking to Jessica about Roy had exhausted her. She didn’t know how to support the woman when she wasn’t that fond of her. She tossed her jacket on the bench in the front hall.
“Chica?”
The thump of her tail came from Roy’s room. Kalin found her on his bed, chewing one of his socks.
“Bad girl.” Kalin rushed to the bed and shoved Chica to the floor. She tugged the ripped sock from Chica’s jaws, and her breath caught in her throat.
Chica scrunched into the corner and wagged her tail. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d yelled at her. She never yelled at her dog. Only, she was chewing something of Roy’s. Kalin crouched and rested her palm on Chica’s head. “I’m sorry.”
Chica licked Kalin’s nose. Unable to control herself, Kalin sobbed. She stroked Chica’s back, and Chica nuzzled her neck. Even after Kalin had been a jerk, the dog loved her.
How many times had she wished Roy wasn’t living with them, intruding on her new home with Ben? She’d taken him for granted. Kalin couldn’t stand being in Roy’s room. “Come on, let’s go upstairs.”
Her beloved dog followed, somehow knowing Kalin needed her. The hollowness of the house pressed in on her, and she crashed on the couch to wait for Ben.
A shout came from downstairs. “Kalin, it’s Nora.”
Nora, all of five-feet tall and carrying her son, burst into the room. Having a mind of its own, her short black hair stuck out at odd angles. And even after delivering a baby, she still weighed less than one hundred pounds. “I just heard. Why didn’t you call me? I would’ve come sooner.”
“I’m not thinking straight. So much happened today.” Kalin reached for eight-month-old Ethan and hugged him. Born while trapped in the forest by a fire with a Grizzly bear pacing nearby, Ethan had been given the middle name of Forest.
Nora draped her jacket over the back of the couch. One leg of her cargo pants stuck inside a sock. She put her arms around Kalin and Ethan in a group hug. “Any news?”
Kalin felt like a giraffe standing so close to Nora. At five-foot-ten, she could rest her chin on the top of Nora’s head. “Nothing. Did you hear about the theft, too?”
“The rumors are spreading. How could I not hear?”
Nora scampered to the kitchen and uncorked a bottle of white wine. “We need this.”
Kalin accepted a glass and took a long sip. The cold liquid iced her throat. “What a mess.”
“I hate to leave you right now, but Ian’s got a World Cup race at Lake Placid. I’m heading there tomorrow.”
“Pete’s taking him. And Susan will help out if he needs it.”
Kalin smiled at Nora for calling her dad Pete. Nora had only known since last spring that he was her father and hadn’t changed from calling him Pete to calling him Dad. Since she was already in her early twenties, maybe she’d always refer to him by his name. Ethan would be fine with his grandfather. Kalin just didn’t want Nora to leave. She needed her best friend right now. “I’m sort of surprised he’s still dating Susan.”
“I’m glad actually. I didn’t like her much at first, but she’s Ian’s mom, and Pete seems happy with her.”
“How long will you be gone?” Kalin asked.
“I’m not sure. I’m going to Toronto on my way back. We should know about Janet’s acquittal by then, and I want to be there for her. Either way.”
Janet was Nora’s birth mother and had spent eighteen years in prison for killing her own son. As it turned out, she might be innocent. Kalin hoped for Nora’s sake she was and the acquittal came through.
The front door opened and closed. Chica bolted from the room. Ben’s slow steps up the stairs didn’t bode well. He turned the corner to their living room and faced Kalin and Nora.
He didn’t need to say anything for Kalin to know he hadn’t found Roy.
“I gotta go,” Nora said. “I’ll call you from Lake Placid.” Nora lifted Ethan from Kalin’s arms, squeezed Ben’s shoulder as she passed him and trotted out of sight.
Kalin ran to Ben and buried herself against his chest.
CHAPTER SEVEN
On Tuesday morning, twenty-six hours after the avalanche, Kalin finished her video interview with the board of directors at White Peaks. She couldn’t believe she’d remained composed.
She’d asked them not to do a reference check until she had time to talk with her boss. When they asked her if she’d told Turner, she avoided a direct answer. She said only that she wanted to follow process and formally ask him for a reference.
Would Turner be good enough to give her a recommendation? He wasn’t known to support employees he perceived were going against him.
What was wrong with her? Her brother might be dead, and she was thinking about her career. She had faith Roy would be found. This was not the time to miss work. Her security manager was off the radar somewhere in Hawaii, so there was no getting him to come back early.
She arrived at the administration building just before ten a.m. and hustled to the finance center. Constable Miller and Paul Turner waited for her.
“Search and rescue will find Roy soon,” Miller said.
Not trusting her voice, Kalin nodded her thanks. She had a good relationship with Miller, and kindness right now would only make her cry. She cleared her throat. “Where’s your new partner?”
Miller glanced at Turner before answering Kalin. “Attending to other things.”
“Still a man of mystery, I see. So, where are we?”
“An officer checked if the combination could be read through the windows. The safe’s keypad can’t be seen from any angle, with or without binoculars.” Miller thumbed the latch on the window closest to the computer. “You might want to install higher quality locks.”
Disgusted with herself for not instructing her team to secure the room properly, Kalin entered a reminder into her phone to talk with Fred as soon as he returned from Hawaii. She relied on him for day-to-day security operations, but his strength didn’t lie in planning or improving existing processes. He needed direction, and his lack of strategic planning was one of the reasons she’d been promoted to director of security instead of him.
At least Turner hadn’t been at the resort last winter when keys had been a serious issue. She didn’t think he knew she’d been reprimanded by the previous president for not securing keys. She’d taken the blame for Fred and scored a few points with him.
“Did the thief enter through a window?” Kalin asked.
Miller turned away from the frosted pane and faced her. “We don’t believe so. There aren’t any marks in the snow, and without a ladder, a person couldn’t climb to the window.”
Even though on the same floor, the offices on the ski hill side of the building were at ground level, whereas the offices on the parking lot side were one level up. The shape of the building with the higher altitude wall built into the mountain meant employees often used the hallway as a shortcut from the parking lot to the mountain ops building, especially after a big dump of snow.
“Could the safe combination be read from the hallway?” Turner motioned to the door that reached halfway up the doorframe. Both halves were locked after office hours. The top half was designed to stay open during the day, allowing employees access to the cashier without needing to enter the room.
More than once, Kalin had seen staff chatting with Helen as she prepared daily floats. Roy often stopped to talk with her before his shift started. She seemed to make him happy. Kalin could hear his laugh echo off the walls and see him wink at Helen before he strutted along the hallway full of confidence. Why had Roy dated Jessica and not Helen?
She was hit with the awkward moment of realizing Miller and Turner were staring at her. “What?”
Turner curled his lip. “You moaned.”
“Oh. Sorry. What were you saying?”
“I asked if the safe combination could be read from the doorway,” Turner said.
Miller mimicked punching a keypad. “It’s possible. Even if they couldn’t see the entire pad, a person watching the cashier’s fingers could memorize the order the keys were tapped. I’d like to interview everyone again to find out if anyone noticed someone hanging around the finance center in the mornings while Helen opens the safe. And speaking of Helen, is she around today?”
Turner circled Miller. “She won’t be in until Friday. She asked for some personal time off. Why?”
Miller jutted his chin and slowly twisted, keeping his face toward Turner. “We haven’t taken her fingerprints yet. Do you have her home contact information?”
“Kalin can give that to you.” Turner cracked his knuckles. “Did you speak with the bank manager?”
“I did. No one from the bank called the resort on Saturday. The drop box wasn’t broken,” Miller said.
Kalin interrupted the male dance for power and asked, “So the call was just to get Helen to leave more money in the safe?”
“Looks that way.”
“So it’s irrelevant,” Turner said. “Let’s get back to the real point. Even if someone had the combination, they still needed a key. That limits the suspects to a small group.”
“Not necessarily. In November, Jessica Scott requested a replacement key. Your locksmith’s records show she lost hers and had a duplicate made.”
Kalin stared at the useless deadbolt. What else had Miller found out about the inner workings of Stone Mountain? “Let me guess, she broke protocol and didn’t have the locks changed.”
Miller nodded.
Turner ignored him and spoke to Kalin. “How is it possible Jessica could have a new key made without you knowing?”
The resort’s locksmith, Ted Brightman, was technically strong, but his thought process didn’t include sharing. If she didn’t ask him a specific question, he wouldn’t provide additional information. “I only review the key list quarterly.”
“Not the answer I was looking for.”
* * *
Jessica pressed her back into the corner of her office as if that would keep her standing. Roy had spent the night on the mountain, and with the fierce cold and wind, her hope diminished.
“I have a few more questions,” Constable Miller said.
Without moving from the wall, she kicked her office guest chair toward him and motioned for him to sit. She should’ve expected him to question her again. “Sure.”
“How long have you been the finance center manager?”
Jessica raised her chin and looked down her nose at him. She knew the gesture a
ccentuated her slim facial features. She’d chosen a red tailored sweater, with its low V-neck, and black jeans for the day. She’d even taken extra time to straighten her long hair. She needed a power look. Something that made her feel confident. “Since your girlfriend quit and moved to town.”
Miller actually laughed. “Fair enough. What was your relationship with Roy McCann?”
Jessica’s heart buzzed. If she’d been wearing her heart rate monitor she used while running, she bet the display would read one-hundred-forty beats per minute. She needed to sit and flopped into her chair. “He’s my boyfriend. You’re speaking in past tense. Has he been found?”
Miller shook his head. “I didn’t mean anything by it. Search and rescue are still looking for him. How long have you been dating?”
Jessica forced herself to breathe slowly. Deep breath in. Count to four. Deep breath out. Roy was okay. He had to be. “Since the summer. Why are you asking about Roy?”
Miller rested his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands together. “Was Roy in any trouble that you know of?”
Nice try with the soft and personal voice. Miller had no right to ask about her private life, no matter how politely he spoke. Jessica flung her straightened hair away from her face, but she could tell the gesture was wasted on Miller. She pushed her chair backward, but the wheel caught on a piece of torn carpet and stopped her before she’d moved a foot from him. “I don’t think so. I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
“Did you, at any time, give Roy the combination to the safe?”
When Aiden had come from running the lifts to tell her Roy was missing, he’d hinted he thought Roy stole the money, and now Miller was almost saying it outright. “I would never do that.”
“What about by accident? Could you have written it down somewhere he might have seen it, or could he have overheard you talking to anyone?”
Outside, a group of ski patrol clomped in ski boots toward the lift. They were probably replacing some of the search and rescue team who’d already been on the mountain too long. The lack of urgency in their movements frightened her.