Claws for Alarm Read online

  “Thank you.” Val turned to me. “Want to see the patio while we wait?”

  “Right through there.” Purple Hair pointed out the back door. “We closed it off to guests for your walk-through.” She leaned forward a bit, her face eager. “Is Peyton coming?” she asked in a stage whisper.

  “I’m afraid not today,” Val said apologetically.

  “Oh.” She looked crestfallen. “Well, enjoy.” She lost interest in us pretty quickly after that, even when JJ squeaked at her for attention. I never trusted people who could ignore an adorable furry friend.

  I put JJ down to walk. I probably should have put the new leash Jillian had given me on him, just for appearances’ sake, but it hadn’t occurred to me until just now. We followed Val to the back door leading outside. I had to admit it was pretty breathtaking. The hotel sat slightly above the ocean, which made the views even better. And the way they’d set up the area made it feel more like a tropical paradise getaway than an island in New England. JJ’s nose and ears were on alert. He loved the ocean, so I assumed he was doing his usual sniffing routine. He tugged on the leash as he paced around, his nose going a mile a minute. I wrapped the leash around my hand a couple extra times so he didn’t try to bolt, and took a minute to enjoy the surroundings.

  Tiny white lights were strung up above the expansive patio, and they crawled up the partitions that were also set up for privacy reasons, or to separate parties, I assumed. There was a large fire pit for the main area, and I could see a couple of smaller ones set up around the perimeter as well. Their patio designer had positioned the furniture for maximum ocean view, and there was a gazebo out on the lawn that also had lights and flowery-looking decorations set up to make it inviting.

  There was also someone sitting in it. I squinted, trying to see through the morning sun glinting off the ocean. Val wasn’t paying attention—she was still looking around, probably imagining how many people she could fit out here, where the tables would go, what they would do if it rained. All those things that made me happy I wasn’t an event planner because I knew I’d miss a giant detail and screw the whole thing up.

  “I thought they said they closed this off from guests so we could do the walk-through,” I said to Val.

  “Hmm?” She didn’t even look at me as she furiously typed notes into her phone.

  “Over there.” I nudged her and pointed. “In the gazebo.”

  She finally glanced up. “I don’t know. Probably someone snuck out to enjoy their morning coffee. They’ll need to get out of the way, though.”

  My sister was funny when she got really focused. I walked over toward the gazebo. The figure sitting inside it was facing the water, head slightly tilted to the side. It was a woman, given the long hair. She must not have heard us out here, because she didn’t turn. Understandable, given the ocean waves crashing in the background. As I stepped closer, I recognized the strawberry blond hair. Jillian’s hair. She must’ve come out on her own to scope the place out.

  “Jillian?” I called out.

  No answer.

  Val joined me. “She’s here already? I thought they said she hadn’t come out yet?”

  “They said she hadn’t called Marianna. Maybe she came out just to get a feel for it.” We headed over to the gazebo, JJ tugging on his leash, straining against the harness to get there faster.

  Jillian hadn’t moved, despite Val’s and my conversation. I felt a tiny sense of misgiving starting in my belly and pushed it aside. “Jillian?” I called, stepping up to the gazebo, then stopped short.

  Val, still focused on her phone, bumped into me and looked up in annoyance. “What are you doing?” She peered around me, then gasped. The phone fell out of her hand. We both stared at Jillian, whose unseeing eyes stared out to sea, head tilted slightly to the right. A pink, glittery cat leash still hung from around her neck. It had loosened, making it easy to see the deep, red indentation left behind.

  Chapter 16

  I reacted first, shaking myself into action at the sound of JJ squeaking urgently. I knelt in front of Jillian, shaking her arm. “Jillian?”

  No response.

  “Jillian!” I shook harder. Her head tipped even more to the right, and her body slumped even farther. She had on yoga pants and a tank top. I noticed her feet were bare. That was so odd. Why was she here for a meeting in bare feet? And not wearing her usual fancy outfit?

  I risked a look at her face but had to look away when I saw how … dead she looked. A flash of silver caught my eye. I looked down and saw a tiny silver paw print charm on the bench next to her.

  And then Val started screaming.

  I stumbled away from the body, falling back on my hands. JJ’s leash slipped off my wrist. Before I could reach for it, he bolted into the gazebo and stopped at Jillian’s feet, sniffing, his tail swishing back and forth.

  I grabbed the leash and pulled him back to me, then took Val’s arm and dragged her away toward the patio area. I could see people starting to pour out of the building, pointing and staring. “Val. Be quiet,” I hissed at her, fumbling in my bag for my phone. My hands were shaking so bad I kept dropping it. I finally managed to grab it and press the emergency call button to report the body.

  The dispatcher tried to get me to stay on the phone, but I gave her the address and disconnected to focus on Val. She’d stopped screaming, thank goodness, but was now staring at the gazebo, her face completely devoid of color. More and more people were coming out of the building now to see what the ruckus was about. They shouldn’t be traipsing around. It was a crime scene.

  I called Craig Tomlin. Craig was my ex-boyfriend from high school. He was also a cop in Daybreak Harbor and had worked with Grandpa before he retired.

  He answered after three rings, sounding distracted. “Hey Maddie. What’s up?”

  “I’m at the Paradise Hotel. I need you.”

  “Um. Excuse me?” He sounded genuinely taken aback.

  I felt a hysterical giggle bubble up in my throat as I realized what that had sounded like, but choked it back. “Not like that. Someone’s dead.”

  I could feel him tense even over the phone. “What? Not funny, Maddie.”

  “I know it’s not funny,” I snapped. “I need you here. There’s a body. And not just any body. It’s Jillian Allen.”

  “I don’t know who that is. Did you call nine-one-one?”

  “I did. Now I’m calling you. Please come.” I thought of the leash hanging around Jillian’s neck, the angry red gash it had left on her perfect skin, and shivered.

  “I’m on my way.”

  I stuck the phone back in my pocket as Purple Hair from the front desk ran over to us. “What happened?”

  “You need to keep everyone inside. That woman is dead. The cops are on their way,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

  She gasped and stepped back, her hand flying to her mouth. “Dead?”

  This conversation could get redundant pretty quickly. Luckily the sound of sirens wailing snapped our attention away. JJ’s ears went flat. He hated sirens.

  I tapped Val’s arm. “I’m going to meet them,” I said.

  She nodded, not even looking at me. I figured she was in shock. Finding a body—especially this body—was shocking at best. Terrifying at worst.

  I turned back to Purple Hair. “Get everyone inside.”

  She snapped into action and climbed onto one of the couches, putting two fingers into her mouth in a piercing whistle. “Everyone inside please!” she shouted.

  I stepped into the lobby, then stopped and leaned against the wall. I felt like I couldn’t breathe and slid down to a sitting position, trying to suck air into my lungs. What had happened here? Who could have done this? Had it been a random act? Someone who tried to rob her, perhaps? Sometimes these fancy hotels were targets, because people knew the rich tourists stayed here.

  I finally caught my breath and rose unsteadily to my feet. I got to the front door just as three police cars and one ambulance pulled up to
it, lights flashing. They killed the sirens but left the lights on as cops piled out of all the cars and headed inside. The paramedics were in less of a hurry, climbing out of the ambulance and moving to the back to unload a gurney, their movements almost relaxed as if they did this too often to be bothered by it.

  In the midst of all the activity, a bright yellow blur caught my attention. The car roared around the corner from the side of the hotel and raced toward the road, taking the turn on two wheels. It was hardly noticeable despite all the other chaos going on, but the yellow Subaru was hard to miss.

  It was Stevie Warner’s car.

  I froze, my gaze following his car. Why was Stevie here? What business could he possibly have at the Paradise—aside from Jillian?

  A shout distracted me. The cops were trying to keep people from coming into the hotel and called directions to one another about where to station themselves. I didn’t see Craig, but I saw Sergeant Mick Ellory get out of the second car. Ellory was fairly new to the island and we’d gotten off to a rocky start when I’d first moved back to the island. We’d since gotten to a good place. It helped that he’d started seeing Katrina—after a rough divorce, I’d recently found out—and she demanded peace between us.

  He saw me right away and headed over. “Maddie. What’s going on? Someone’s deceased?”

  I nodded, swallowing hard. “Jillian Allen. The woman who came here from the rescue league in New Jersey.” Katrina would’ve told him about her for sure. “We came here for a meeting with her—”

  “Who’s we?” he interrupted.

  “Me and Val. We had a walk-through with the hotel. This is … where we were planning to have the event.” I trailed off.

  “And?”

  “She was in the gazebo. It looks like someone … strangled her.”

  “Did you touch anything?”

  “I touched her … wrist. To see if she…” I could feel my chest getting heavy with the weight of my discovery as it really started to sink in. “She was dead.”

  “Anyone else around?”

  I shook my head. “People started to come out, but I told the clerk to keep them inside.”

  “Good. Show me,” he said, nudging me in front of him.

  I went back inside, clutching JJ tightly. Ellory ushered me ahead of him through the lobby. I was aware that crowds were starting to gather—guests of the hotel, the staff, whoever happened to be around on this beautiful Sunday morning. It seemed so odd that such a beautiful day could bring such a terrible event.

  As we reached the door leading out back, Ellory paused and pulled out his radio. He placed his hand on my arm, asking me to wait. I did, letting my eyes roam the lobby area. There were a few small groups clustered, and one bigger crowd trying to get near the door and see what was going on. One of the cops had positioned himself there to keep everyone back. There were also people on the giant staircase in the middle of the hotel—a cool staircase that broke apart halfway up to wind around the elevator, which was in the center of the lobby, and rejoined at the top. There was one lone figure at the top that my eyes landed on. I did a double take.

  It looked a lot like Chad Novak, Peyton’s agent. I squinted for a better look. Like Jillian, he looked different dressed in casual clothes, but the hair was the same. It was definitely him. Ellory pulled me aside as the other cop cleared the way for the paramedics to come through with the gurney. The cop on the other side of the door opened it for them. They maneuvered the gurney through, the clanging sounds of metal sending a pall over the chattering group. This made everything real.

  “Ready?” Ellory put his hand on my elbow and led me outside into the fray. It was a totally different environment out here than when I’d left. I saw Val sitting on one of the patio couches. A cop sat with her but they weren’t talking. The other cops were over by the gazebo. The paramedics made their way across the grass.

  Ellory looked at me. “I called the coroner.”

  Great. I felt my stomach lurch at those words and looked away, sucking in the ocean air to try to combat the nausea. “I called Craig.”

  “I know. He’s on his way. Go sit with Val. I’ll be over in a second.”

  He headed toward the gazebo.

  I went over to Val. The cop with her nodded at me, then moved away, giving us some privacy. I sat down and put my arm around her. “How you holding up?”

  She looked at me, her eyes red and watery. “She’s dead. How can she be dead?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know, Val. I have no idea.”

  “My phone,” Val said suddenly. “I dropped it over there. At the gazebo.”

  “One of the officers will get it,” I said. I felt sorry for her. She looked positively beside herself. I couldn’t imagine the effect this would have on her. I had, unfortunately, had some experience with dead bodies myself.

  “I want to call Ethan,” she said, and the tears started again.

  “I’ll call him.” I wanted to call Grandpa and Lucas too. I handed JJ to her, hoping he would distract her. She buried her face in his orange fur. He was such a good comforter.

  I called Grandpa. Thankfully, he answered. “Morning, Doll,” he said. “I missed you this morning.”

  “I know. Are you home?”

  “I am. Just got out of the shower.”

  So he hadn’t heard anything on his scanner. “We have a problem.”

  I felt him snap to attention. “What’s wrong?”

  “Val and I are at the Paradise. We came for our meeting and found Jillian Allen dead.”

  Silence. “What happened to her?”

  I closed my eyes against the image of Jillian, head skewed to the side, that red indent in her neck. “It looks like she was strangled. The cops just got here.” I lowered my voice and turned away. “Can you come? And bring Ethan if he’s around?”

  “Yes. On my way.”

  “Is Lucas there?”

  “He took the dog out for a walk.”

  “Okay. I’ll call him.”

  We disconnected just as my phone started ringing. My mother.

  “Maddie? Where are you?” She sounded frantic.

  “At the hotel,” I said. “Where are you?”

  “At the hotel! I just got here but I can’t get in. There’s all kinds of commotion. What’s going on?”

  Shoot. I’d completely forgotten my mother had been coming for the meeting. “There was an … incident. You may want to just go home, Mom. I can catch up with you later.”

  “I will most certainly not go home,” she said indignantly. “What’s going on in there? Are you girls alright?”

  “Val and I are fine. Let me see if I can come get you.”

  “Actually, Craig just pulled up. I’ll come in with him.” She hung up on me.

  There was no changing my mother’s mind when she got like this—especially when she knew her girls were in some way involved in whatever was occurring. I let it go, figuring Craig would handle it, and was just about to call Lucas when Ellory appeared in front of me.

  He nodded at the cop, who jumped to his feet. “I’ll take them from here.”

  Chapter 17

  Ellory sat down across from us. “Val. Are you okay?” he asked.

  Val hiccuped back a sob, but nodded.

  “I’m sorry you had to see this,” he said. “Can you answer a few questions for me?” He looked at both of us.

  “Yes,” I said. Val managed another nod.

  “Tell me about this woman. Jillian…” Ellory trailed off, waiting for me to fill in the blank.

  “Allen,” I supplied, pausing as a waiter came up to the table with a tray. Someone must’ve asked them to bring us something to drink. The wide-eyed guy with shaking hands deposited a glass of iced tea with lemon for each of us then backed away. It struck me as so odd—we were sitting on this beautiful furniture drinking tea, overlooking the ocean. If there wasn’t a dead body currently being removed from the adorable gazebo, it would have been the perfect summer morning.

>   “Jillian Allen.” Ellory noted that in his little book. “Who is she again?”

  “She’s with the Shoreline Animal Rescue League in New Jersey,” I said. “She is—was—the executive director.”

  Ellory glanced up. “New Jersey?”

  I nodded. “They work with shelters and rescue places all along the East Coast, though. She called me a couple weeks ago and said she wanted to come see the café.”

  “That’s a long way to come to visit your café. They don’t have any in New Jersey?”

  I glanced up as Craig strode onto the patio, my mother in tow. She saw us and made a beeline. Ellory sighed but didn’t say anything. Most of the cops knew they didn’t have chance when it came to former chief Mancini’s family.

  “Girls! There you are. What on earth is going on?” My mother had clearly chosen her clothes with care for this meeting. She wore a dress that I would expect to see on her for one of my dad’s hospital functions, a slim black maxi that she’d enhanced with a colorful scarf of teals and purples. Her usually unruly curls were smoothed back into a neat bun, with just a few errant ones escaping around her face.

  “Mom.” Val looked relieved. She jumped up from her chair and let my mother hug her tight. “Jillian is dead. It was awful,” she said, and started to cry, burying her face in my mother’s shoulder. My mother glanced at me over Val’s head, the horror apparent on her face. Dead? She mouthed to me while she patted Val’s back. “Oh, honey,” she said into her hair. “I’m so, so sorry.”

  Ellory looked at me. “You still able to talk?”

  I nodded. I kind of wanted my mommy too, but I had the reputation of being more of the “steady Eddie” in a crisis, like my grandfather. I’d learned from him how to tune out the chaos and tune into the next right action, and that usually got me through—even when I was freaking out inside.

  I wished Lucas was here.

  “So you were about to tell me why a Jersey girl was up here doing animal rescue stuff.”

  I shifted uncomfortably in my chair and refocused. “She heard of us and wanted to help.” An image of Stevie’s yellow Subaru speeding through the parking lot flashed through my mind. There was no getting around it. They’d find out sooner or later. “She was also here because of a family situation. She’s related to Stevie Warner.”