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43
Greenbrier Resort
SUNDAY
When Kirra and Griffin stepped off the elevators on the third floor, they’d already tested and tweaked the four bugs Kirra had brought with her and set the receiver in their room upstairs to forward the transmissions to their cell phones. They saw no one. The maids had already finished their evening service. They walked to the door at the end of the hall directly beneath their own. Griffin said, “Where’s that master key card Booger sent you? I assume you’ve checked to see it works?”
“Yes. Of course it works. I tried it on our door upstairs.” She slid in the card, pressed down on the handle, and the door opened smoothly. Melissa Kay and Jared Talix’s honeymoon suite was an exact copy of their suite one floor above, down to the pre-Raphaelite paintings on the walls, same romantic themes but different painting, and a pale green bedspread on the king-size bed, not blue.
Griffin wasted no time. “The suite is about seven hundred square feet. I think three will do it.” They fastened one of the bugs, not much bigger than his watch battery, to the base of a living room lamp, one behind the nightstand by the bed, and one under the sink in the bathroom. “Now let’s check to see they’re all working.” He punched in the receive function on his cell phone. “They’re voice activated. Walk over to each of them and talk in a normal voice so we can be sure we’re transmitting properly. Why don’t you tell me about your dad’s paintings.”
Kirra said as she walked back into the bathroom, “Daddy loved boats, all sizes, from old fishing boats to fancy yachts, it didn’t matter, and he always took photos before he started to paint them because to him the details were vital, and the lighting could change so quickly. He liked to paint right on the shore of the Potomac, particularly at a curve near Cantor Point and that’s when—” Her voice fell off a cliff. She’d nearly spit out that her father had seen the Valadia. Would Grissom’s name have popped out of her mouth too? “Well, are we recording?”
“Loud and clear. Now let’s get out of here.” Griffin’s hand was outstretched to open the door when they heard voices in the hallway, a man’s low voice and a woman’s flirty laugh, coming closer. It was Melissa Kay.
Griffin grabbed Kirra’s hand and ran to the balcony door, unlocked, and slid it open. They eased onto the balcony, quietly slid the glass door closed, and pressed against the building at the far end of the balcony, out of sight.
Jared Talix said clearly, “We didn’t need dessert. You’re my dessert, babe. Come here.”
Melissa Kay laughed. “You wouldn’t even let me finish my clams. I’m still hungry.”
“Consider me your next course. We can order up room service later. Much later.”
Griffin looked over at Kirra standing beside him. She seemed more excited than afraid. He squeezed her hand. He knew Talix and Melissa Kay would soon be having wild sex on the bed, focused on each other, but even so, they couldn’t take the chance of trying to slip back into the living room and sneak out the door without being spotted. He would bet his mom’s apple strudel Melissa Kay had a gun with her and that she could shoot an acorn out of a squirrel’s mouth.
Kirra leaned up, whispered in his ear, “I’ll stand on the balcony railing with you holding me steady, then I’ll pull myself up to our balcony. I can twist a sheet and throw it down to you and you can climb up after me.”
He wished he could think of something else to try, but there was nothing else, except to stay where they were and hope they wouldn’t be seen until Melissa and Talix were asleep. That seemed even more dangerous. Would she be tall enough to get a good grip on the railings, and strong enough to pull herself up?
Melissa Kay called out, “Take off those clothes, Jared, I’ll be back in a minute.”
They heard her moving around in the bathroom. “Just a moment,” Griffin whispered, and pulled out his phone again. He heard the sound of running water in the bathroom, a woman humming an Adele song in the background.
Kirra said, “I think you’ll have to push me up a couple of feet so I can grab the bottom rails.” She was nearly bouncing in place, as excited as when she raced down the hundred-foot sand dunes on Lizard Island, Uncle Leo yelling at her to slow down.
Griffin said, “You don’t have to look like you’re having the time of your life.”
She whispered, “It’s my honeymoon, Griffin, of course I am.”
They both quickly realized they had a problem. He said, “I’ll go first. I’ll knot the sheet and toss it down to you and pull you up.”
She paused briefly, whispered, disappointed, “I think you may be right, the railing isn’t wide enough for you to balance on it and push me up at the same time.” She muttered something under her breath. “Fine, you go up first.”
He touched his hand to her shoulder. “I’ll send down a twisted sheet. Don’t move and don’t make a sound.”
Griffin climbed up on the railing next to the building wall, pressing his hand against the wall for balance. He stretched up and jumped, grabbed the rails of the balcony above them, took a firm grip. He pulled himself up high enough to swing his leg and hook his foot on the ledge. He climbed upward on the rails hand over hand until he was high enough for his leg to take his weight. He climbed up and over the top of the railing, opened the balcony door, and raced to the bed. He pulled off the bedspread, then the sheet. He twisted the sheet round and round and ran back to the balcony.
Kirra stood on top of the railing, her back against the building to keep her steady, waiting for the sheet to come down to her from the railing above. She heard Jared Talix call out, “Let me see if it’s warm enough to have our tequila on the balcony.”
There was no time, no time, only one choice. She looked down at the swimming pool below her and jumped.
