AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay, perfect. Roxie just told me that Kayla and her boyfriend back in Vermont called it quits when he was inebriated and totaled his car when they were together. Did Kayla tell you about that?”
“Roxie did. She said Kayla and her boyfriend were out celebrating her birthday.”
“Right. Well, Roxie said Kayla gets kind of upset during that time. We’re supposed to go to her birthday party the day after the other siblings’ surprise party. You know theirs are in just a couple of days. But I wanted to warn you she might be less than…cheerful for her own birthday party.”
“I believe that’s why Roxie told me, worried I’d be offended or something.” He’d noticed how stressed Kayla was on other occasions when they’d gotten together for meals and she seemed lost in her thoughts, worried about work, which was why he figured she hadn’t really needed his company at the time. He was glad she wanted to be with him tonight.
“Did you ask her about going with you to the cabin?”
“I will tonight.”
Nicole let out her breath in a frustrated sigh. “You are procrastinating, Brother. If she doesn’t want to go because she’s worried about work commitments, at least you’ll know right up front. I know you’re worried she’ll say no and you’re putting off asking her. If she can’t make it, then Blake and I can go with you to the cabin to lift your spirits. So what are we working on?” Nicole asked, setting the other cases aside.
No way did he want to be at the cabin with his sister and her mate. They could take the cabin over instead if they wanted. Besides, someone needed to take care of the cases they were working on.
“We don’t have anything too rigorous.” Though if they did, he was handling it.
Nicole laughed. “For now, I can manage. When I’ve had nights of very little sleep after the babies are born, that will be another story. I may not make a whole lot of sense or be a whole lot of help.”
Chapter 7
When Kayla and Roxie arrived at the guest’s room at the lodge to check the safe, they opened it and found a set of keys with a metal skull hanging from the ring. “Well, the person will be missing his car keys, so whoever had the room couldn’t have gotten far if his car is in the parking lot,” Kayla said, looking them over.
Roxie had checked on the guest and gave her a rundown. “He didn’t officially check out this morning. The housekeeping service cleaned the room for the next guest, and the guest’s bags were all gone, so we assume he just let the charges on his card stand. Looks like he has a house key on the ring,” Roxie said, eyeing them. “Those with the numbers on them look like safe deposit box keys.”
“Well, he will want them back or he’ll have to pay the bank to have the lock replaced on the safe deposit box, which gets expensive. Also it looks like a mailbox key, don’t you think? Do you want me to check for the car in the parking lot while you look up the room reservation to see if you can find a way to notify him?” Kayla asked.
“Yeah, let’s do this. See? Sometimes management issues can be intriguing.”
“But not for the poor person who left his keys behind.”
“True,” Roxie said. “I’ll tell the guest staying in that room his safe is ready to use.”
“Okay.” Kayla headed outside and began using the key fob all over the parking lot, targeting one row after another, but it appeared the owner’s vehicle wasn’t parked there. Maybe he got a ride to the airport then? She returned to the lodge and met up with Roxie at the front desk. “No vehicle in our lot. What if a couple of people were staying in the room and they both had a set of car keys? So they left, but the one forgot about his keys in the safe?”
“Sounds possible. If he didn’t have a car here, it seems strange that the person would lock up his keys in the safe. If it was because of the safe deposit keys, who would know where he banked, and how would they get access to the safe deposit boxes anyway? I checked for the person who registered for the room and called the phone number he had given us, but it went to voicemail.” Then her phone rang, and she looked at the ID and smiled.
“Hi, this is Roxie Wolff, manager at the Timberline Ski Lodge, and we found your keys in the safe this morning.” She smiled at Kayla but then frowned. “They’re not yours? You didn’t use the safe at all. Ohh-kay. It must have been the previousguest then. Sorry for troubling you.” She smiled. “I’m so glad you had an enjoyable stay and hope to see you again soon.” Then they ended the call. “Not his keys.” She looked through the registrations online. “Okay, the guy who reserved the room before him used one of those third-party registrations. It can take forever to track the guest down then. He didn’t register a vehicle in the lot either. Not that we have in the system.”
“Tonight at dinner, I can ask if Nate could look into it,” Kayla said. “If not him, then Nicole.”
“That’s what I was thinking too. Maybe, in the meantime, the guest will realize he left his set of keys behind and contact us to see if we have them.”
“That would work too.” Kayla saw Blake was working on management issues, checking out security tapes. She took a breath of relief. “If you’re here for the time being, Blake, do I have time to work on promo stuff?”
Blake smiled at her. “Yes, to your heart’s content. Landon is here too.”
Nowthat’swhat Kayla loved to hear.
The rest of the morning and afternoon, Kayla was busy working on what she loved doing most, though she loved a good mystery and had tried her hand at locating the owner of the keys, just like each of her siblings had done—without success.
“Have a great dinner,” Roxie said to her as Kayla was getting ready to go. “Enjoy a wolf run withNate. You know, anytime he wants to run with you at our house, you two can do it.”
“Thanks. I love our wolf runs, and I don’t expect him to want to drive out to see us just for that. Who are you having dinner with?” Kayla asked.
“Both brothers and their mates. I have to check in on how our sisters-in-law are doing.”
“Oh, good. I need to do that too with Gabrielle. I just saw Nicole.”
