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Oh my God.
I crouch next to her and shake her arm. “Abby, are you all right?”
Paco looks at me with those big eyes like he’s begging me to help her. It’s been a while since I took a CPR course and I’ve never had to use it, but I don’t think the basics have changed.
I check to make sure Abby is breathing, which, she’s not. Then I check the vein in her neck for a pulse and my own pulse goes wildly out of control.
I push up the sleeve of her sweater and check her wrist to make sure I haven’t made a mistake.
But I haven’t.
It looks as if I don’t have to worry about Abby holding the tuna salad sandwich incident over my head because Abby isn’t asleep.
She’s dead.
Chapter Four
“Lucy, are you sure?” Will asks.
“There’s no pulse, and she’s not breathing. So yeah, I’m pretty sure she’s dead.” I shudder. Poor Abby. What was she doing inside the rec center? Since I didn’t have my cell phone on me, the only thing I could do was run back to the food pavilion to get help.
Will notifies the cops, then he, Sarah and Brittany all follow me back inside the building.
Why Brittany has to tag along, I have no idea. It’s not like she’s going to be a big help or anything. She takes one step into the room and stops cold. “Oh my God,” she whimpers. “This is my classroom.”
“What do you mean, your classroom?” I ask.
“Didn’t I tell you? I just got my Pilates teaching certificate. I’m going to be leading the 8 p.m. class on Tuesday and Thursdays.” She closes one eye as she peers at Abby. “I’ve never seen a dead person before. I mean, other than at a wake.”
Neither have I.
Other than the puddle of blood by her head, Abby looks like she does on every other normal day that she walks into The Bistro for lunch. The whole thing is eerie. We stand there staring down at her like a bunch of rubberneckers.
I’m still holding Paco. His shivering has subsided, but he has to be traumatized. “Poor little guy,” I mutter, holding him tightly. “He must have been with Abby when she fell.”
“Is that what you think happened?” asks Sarah.
“I guess so. She must have been looking around then slipped and hit her head.”
Nobody else says anything until the cops show up. It’s Rusty Newton and, Thank God, Zeke Grant is with him. Rusty has been on the Whispering Bay police force since forever. He’s a good old boy and super sweet, but think Barney Fife from the old Andy Griffith show, and you’ll know why I’m happy that Zeke is here too.
“What happened?” Zeke asks in a quiet, authoritative voice.
I explain how I found Abby.
“Rusty,” Zeke says, “Tell Jenna to cancel the tours. And call Travis. I left him at the security tent, but I think we’re going to need him here.”
“Aye-aye, chief!” As morbid as this sounds, Rusty looks more excited than when I put the lemon poppy seed muffins on sale last week. Those are his favorite, and he stops by The Bistro every morning to get one along with his cup of coffee.
“I thought you’d be home with Mimi and the babies,” I say to Zeke while Rusty makes the call.
“I dropped by to make sure the security detail was running smoothly,” Zeke explains. “I have a new cop on the force with lots of experience, so I’m going to let him handle this.” He asks us all not to touch anything. Then he says his goodbyes.
Rusty walks around Abby making tsking sounds. After a few minutes, a new cop appears on the scene. This must be the infamous Travis Fontaine we’ve heard so much about.
He’s tall, with dark blond hair and green eyes like his father. He meets my gaze, but there’s none of his father’s friendliness or warmth. Instead, his eyes cut through me like razor blades. He looks at Abby then back at me. Any second now I expect fire to come snorting out his nose.
“Are you the one who found Miss Delgado?” he asks in a deep voice with a healthy dose of Texas. A little shiver of something runs up my spine. Attraction? No. That can’t be it. Must be leftover tension from finding poor Abby dead.
