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Fear gripped his insides. He lowered his arms and opened his eyes. The room was in chaos. People had toppled chairs and flowers to get out of the way of the falling chandelier. He sat up, his gaze scanning the room, searching for Olivia. She wasn’t visible. His pulse skyrocketed.
Movement behind him caught Cole’s attention a moment before Olivia dropped to his side. Her cheeks were flushed, bright blue eyes flooded with concern. She grabbed his hand. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.” Cole didn’t give a fig about himself. He stood, bringing Olivia with him. His gaze dropped to her heels, climbed over her shapely legs and up her body, searching for any signs of injury. No blood. She appeared unharmed. Thank you, Lord.
Only then did he quickly take an assessment of his own injuries. Nothing serious. A few minor cuts and bruises. Cole knew tomorrow he’d be sore, but that was nothing compared to what could have happened.
The chandelier was a heap of wires and shattered crystals in the center of the ballroom. A long wire stretched from the top all the way to the ceiling. Glass crunched under Cole’s boots as he shifted his weight to search the room for anyone who was injured. Several people stood along the edges of the ballroom. “Anyone hurt?”
People shook their heads. He took that as confirmation that no one had been seriously injured by the falling chandelier. Cole snagged his cell phone from his pocket and took photos. “Did anyone see what happened?”
“It just fell.” Olivia stared at the heap in the center of the dance floor. Anger heated her voice. “You could’ve been killed!”
“I’m certain that was the plan.” He shot off a text to Eli with some of the photographs before drawing closer to get a better look at the busted chandelier. The hum from a motor reached his ears. Most large light fixtures in professional spaces were attached to a pulley system, which allowed them to be raised and lowered with ease for maintenance or cleaning. Where was the control mechanism?
A silver-haired woman burst into the ballroom. Martha Waterford. The owner of Oak Gardens. Olivia had introduced Cole to Martha earlier in the day. The older woman’s eyes widened into shocked circles. She gasped. “What happened?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.” Cole gestured to the wire hanging from the ceiling. “Is the chandelier on a pulley system?”
“It is.” Martha’s mouth gaped open. “We had it serviced a few days ago. It was fine.”
“Where’s the control mechanism?”
She pointed to a section of the ballroom draped in black curtains. “Over there. On the wall.” Cole headed to inspect it, Martha and Olivia following right behind. The older woman puffed as she struggled to keep up. “But the box is locked. Only certain people have the key.”
Cole yanked the drapery aside to reveal the wall. A small box near the door hung open, the key used to open it still hanging from the lock. Martha shoved him aside and reached for the key, but he put up an arm to block her. “Don’t touch anything. The police will be here soon, and they’ll want to investigate.”
“The police…” Martha pressed a hand against her heart. “Someone did this on purpose?”
“It would seem so. Chandeliers like yours have safety mechanisms to prevent them from falling. Someone bypassed all of them.”
The older woman blinked and then resolve hardened her expression. “You’re right.” She pushed off Cole’s hand. “I won’t touch the key, but I want to see if I can tell who it belongs to.” Martha bent at the waist and peered at the silver round disk dangling from the key chain. Her mouth tightened. “This is the key used by our maintenance crew. It’s kept in a secure place behind the front desk.”
“How many people have access to it?”
She blew out a breath. “The cabinet is locked, but several people have keys. Both of my secretaries, myself, the cleaning crew supervisor, the security manager, our head chef?—”
“Randy Higgins has access to this key?” Cole stiffened. The chef had been personable and treated Olivia with the same deference he afforded Cole. But Susan warned there was a darker side to Randy. Cole might have been wrong to remove him from the suspect list so quickly.
Martha’s brow furrowed. “Do you have reason to believe Randy has something to do with this?”
Yes. But Cole didn’t think it was a good idea to list the reasons at the moment. Every second counted and soon Martha might refuse to answer his questions to protect her company name. He pointed to the security camera discreetly hung from the corner of the ceiling. “I need to see your security footage.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible.” Martha blew out a breath. “Our system went down last night. The company has been informed, and they’re sending a repair crew this afternoon.”
Several police officers entered the ballroom. Martha excused herself and left to speak to them. Cole watched her go, frustration building until he wanted to punch the wall. But that wouldn’t get him anywhere. Instead, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. His anger was a contained beast. The last time he’d let it out, it’d caused the death of his parents. Cole did everything in his power to keep control.
Olivia touched his arm. “The stalker warned me in his letter that you’d get hurt if I didn’t fire you. He attempted to make good on that threat.”
“Yes. This was a planned attack.” Cole envisioned it all in his mind. “He disabled the security system. Then he stole the key and deactivated the chandelier’s safety mechanisms sometime before we arrived today. After that, it was a simple matter of lying in wait behind these black curtains until the perfect moment presented itself.”
“Randy is the only person I can think of who has access to both the security system and the chandelier’s pulley system.”
Cole nodded. Yet something about this situation didn’t feel right. He couldn’t put his finger on what though. He scanned the area behind the curtains, looking for anything that might lead to the stalker’s identity. The carpet was clean. No help.
He ducked behind the curtains and peeked into the room. Perfect visibility. “I didn’t even sense someone was back here.” Cole mentally berated himself for being so careless. He’d been caught up in watching Olivia, distracted by the way she chewed on her bottom lip while thinking, the soft waves of her hair, and the beautiful curves of her face. All the while a killer watched them from the safety of his hiding place. It was humiliating. More importantly, it’d nearly cost Cole his life.
How could he have let this happen? He wasn’t some naïve schoolboy with his first crush. He was a trained law enforcement officer, for crying out loud. “I should’ve been paying closer attention.”
