BOOK TWO: Second Shooter

Whenever possible, I preferred to find a dead body in a public place. That made it easier to break in and investigate the crime scene later after the cops left for a doughnut break.

"Is the body still here?" I asked Katy, the manager of Pelican Bay's historic bed-and-breakfast.

She tucked a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear as she led me up the grand staircase of said bed-and-breakfast. I was taller than Katy by a good three inches, but with our matching blonde hair and facial structures, we'd pass as sisters. Her best friend status made her a true sister from another mother in my eyes.

"Sorry, Vonnie. They took him over an hour ago." She lifted a piece of thick yellow police tape in the hallway and ducked under it before raising it higher for me.

"Damn. Who knew they were so effective at the morgue?"

Katy nodded. "I heard they hired a new assistant."

She stopped in the hallway in front of room twenty-one and hesitated by the door, giving the area behind me one last glance. Everything on this side of the closed door seemed in place-no obvious blood stains or bullet holes, but behind that door a different image waited.

Of course, without a body, it would be hard to visualize the scene. Last month, seeing Mrs. Jones sprawled out on her kitchen floor helped when I solved my first big murder case and added a new nightmare to my replay list. Dead bodies-always a good time.

Laughter from the lobby stopped us both in our tracks. Katy's hand held the room key next to the door handle, but she hadn't swiped it across the reader yet. We might still need to run.

The main front door opened, and a blast of chilly air swept over us through the open hallway, bringing with it the faint scent of snow in a small town. The door closed, leaving behind a dash of cold, and Katy's shoulders relaxed.

She swiped the master key across the door reader and jerked on the golden handle, unlocking my future.

We stepped inside together and I let my gaze sweep the room. Blood droplets splattered the far wall. They'd dried a dark red color, appearing brown in the dim lighting.

"Be my lookout?" I asked as Katy propped open the door behind her and crossed to the window, taking in as much about the scene as she could.

Katy wasn't only my best friend, manager of the bed-and-breakfast, and dating the local billionaire. She'd also spent the last two years training me in all things surreptitious. I had her to thank for my career choice. With less than a thousand hours remaining before I became a full-fledged private investigator, the dream was so close my out-stretched fingertips were grazing it.

Moonlight lit up the edges of the room and cast funny shadows on the tightly made bedspread. Katy tucked the curtains closed, and I waited until she'd finished before flicking on the light. The bedside lamp flickered on and I pinched my lips shut so I didn't blurt something outrageous at my first view of the scene.

"Damnnn," said Katy as her gaze followed the splatter on the wall.

Damn indeed. "How many bullets did you say he took?"

She shook her head. "I didn't hear a certain answer. At least one since he's dead."

I inched closer to the room's back wall to get a better look. Red splatters fanned out as if someone had flicked a paint brush too close to the gray wall. I spun in a slow circle, keeping my eyes open for more, but didn't find any other blood evidence. Not even a drop on the carpet besides a small puddle to the left of Katy's feet. He likely fell downward rather than backward. People didn't normally fall backward after being shot. They normally twisted downward like this guy. At least that's what Joe Kenda taught me on the ID Channel.

"Dropped like a stone," Katy said as we stared at the spot.

"Uh-huh. And he was close to the back wall when it happened. As if they had backed him into the position." So there'd been an argument. Or at least a short period of warning before they'd shot him.

Was he facing his attacker or had his back turned?

"Did you see the body before they took him out?" I asked, inching toward the middle of the room.

She shook her head and peeked behind the closed curtain, watching the traffic on Main Street. "Nope, they had him bagged and tagged on the way out."

I'd have to wait until I visited the morgue to answer my questions. Good thing I had friends there.

"By the time I made it to the scene, the chief already had it locked down." Katy flicked the curtain and watched a car as it slowly drove down Main Street and stopped at the bakery a block away. "Sorry I couldn't get you in earlier than this."

The chief was the first on the scene? Odd. He wasn't known for his speedy police work.

"Don't worry about it, babe. You got me in. That's all I can ask for."

In January I helped the police solve the latest Pelican Bay murder, but they'd forgotten to call me in on this case less than a month later. Weird.

I'd have to solve this murder as well, so next time they'd remember my outstanding skills. With Katy keeping my workspace safe, I stepped around the bed and headed for the other side of the room. There wasn't much to see. Nothing but a standard hotel room. Everything said classic room-except for the blood stains.

"You got me a great rental across from the beach and a dead body. You're my best friend," I said before checking behind the flat-screen television. I'd recently taken over her lease and couldn't wait to move in.

Katy tipped her head. "Aww. Thank you."

Someone left the bathroom light on and I used the toe of my shoe to swing it open. The town's only detective, Anderson, would have my ass if I left a fingerprint at the scene. He already had it out for me after a small misunderstanding regarding a piece of missing evidence from my first murder.

I leaned into the bathroom without stepping in to keep talking to Katy. "The room barely looks stayed in." He hadn't even touched the freebie bathroom supplies, and everyone swiped those first.

Katy held on to the curtain but took a step closer as if she'd be able to see into the bathroom from her perch. She couldn't. "He'd only just checked in. Less than an hour earlier, and he didn't have any bags on him. I marked him as suspicious but didn't have time to investigate."

Interesting.

"Any trouble before the shots? Arguments?"

She shook her head as I inched my way into the bathroom. "Not that I heard. The witness, Trish from the diner, said she heard someone yell and then gunshots."

"Trish was here? Why?" She lived in Pelican Bay so why spend the money to rent a room a few blocks from her house?

Katy shrugged. "She comes every so often with a laptop. Says she's writing a book and needs the change of environment. I don't question the creative process."

Double interesting.

A clean, antiseptic stench came from the bathroom, but with no other evidence of cleaning supplies in the space, I had to believe it was from Katy's cleaning crew.

I peeked my head out of the bathroom. "So this was a meeting room and not a sleeping room."

"Probably." She ducked, and I saw her eyes widen from across the room. "It's a freaking man hunt out there. I didn't know the town had this many cop cars, but they're circling every ten minutes."