Virginia Smith - Murder at Eagle Summit

“How about the jewelry?” asked Officer Lawrence. “Is it all there?”

Liz’s fingers hovered over the brooch on her blouse as she inspected the tangle of necklaces, earrings and bracelets. She didn’t wear much jewelry, and didn’t own any expensive pieces. A couple of pieces from her grandmother had sentimental value, but there was certainly nothing a thief would want.

“I don’t understand.” She looked at the officers. “There doesn’t seem to be anything missing.”

“Well, count yourself lucky.” Officer Franklin’s smile flashed on and off again. He turned on his heel and headed back toward the living room.

Looking at the disaster all around her, Liz didn’t feel very lucky.

Officer Lawrence offered a more genuine smile. “It might have been kids looking for cash. We’ll dust for prints and see if we can find anything. In the meantime, here’s my card. If you discover anything missing, you be sure to let us know, okay?”

Throat tight, Liz nodded. She followed the woman back into the living room, where her friends rushed forward to enfold her in a group hug.

“You don’t have to stay here,” Caitlin whispered. “You can come home with me tonight.”

Jazzy’s head nodded against hers. “Tomorrow we’ll come back and help you clean up. And we’ll get new locks for your door and windows.”

Liz returned the pressure of their embrace. She had never been more grateful for her friends.

From his vantage point on the other side of the parking lot, Jason slumped low behind the steering wheel and watched the shadowy figures moving back and forth through the window. Dark sheets of rain shrouded his car and protected him from the cops’ sight.

He fingered his cell phone. Duke wasn’t gonna like this. But putting off the call only postponed the inevitable. He dialed the number.

The call was answered on the second ring. “Did you get it?”

“It wasn’t there.”

The sound of soft swearing greeted his news.

“You’re sure you aren’t mistaken.”

Jason’s teeth snapped together at the implication that he couldn’t handle a simple job. When he could reply in an even tone, he said, “I’m sure. I know everything that girl has in her apartment. It ain’t there.”

The silence on the line went on longer than Jason’s patience. “You want me to nab her?”

“No.”

The answer was quick, too quick. Was Duke thinking about taking him off the job? Jason couldn’t afford that. His take on this job was gonna pay off some pressing gambling debts.

“It won’t be like before.” He gulped, remembering Duke’s blistering tirade when he’d roughed up an old guy last week. Duke had been furious with Jason, but who knew the guy would come home early and catch him? At least he got the goods, and was well away before the cops arrived. “Let me talk to her nice. I’ll bump into her in a restaurant or something, pour on the charm. I’ll get it out of her.”

“I don’t want to risk you being seen. Again.” The last word dripped derision. “Besides, I don’t think that will be necessary. Our friend says he can get Miss Carmichael out here, and he’s confident she’ll bring it with her.”

“But that’ll take months.” Jason did whine then. He needed money now. “I’m sure I can—”

“Don’t do another thing. You just get yourself on a plane.”

“The job’s still mine, though, right? You ain’t gonna take me off of it after I put in so much time?”

The low chuckle could have been insulting, or it could have been meant to comfort him. Jason gnawed his lower lip. He didn’t want to tick the guy off.

“Don’t worry, my friend. I’ve got several little tasks lined up to keep you busy until Miss Carmichael gets here. Just come home.”

The line went quiet.

Jason straightened in the seat and reached for the ignition. As he started the rental car’s engine, a shadow walked across the apartment window. Too unclear to identify, but it could have been her. He shifted into Drive, and when the car started to roll forward, he touched a finger to his forehead in a farewell gesture.

“I’ll be seeing you, girlie.”

Six Weeks Later

“What are you doing on your day off tomorrow?”

Deputy Tim Richards picked up his Coke and took a pull on the straw before he answered. “Skiing with the wedding party.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember.” His lunch buddy, Deputy Adam Goins, unwrapped a cheeseburger as he answered. “This weekend’s the wedding thing.”

“Uh-huh. The others are out on the slopes right now without me, in fact.” Tim glanced through the fast-food restaurant’s windows. High above their cruisers, an American flag flapped wildly in a strong breeze. The vivid colors stood out starkly against a totally white sky that held the promise of powder soon to come. In fact, a few wind-whipped flakes were already stabbing at the glass. “That’s all right. I wouldn’t want to be out there today, but tomorrow’s going to be great.”

Adam’s silent laugh shook his shoulders. “You sound like me. If there isn’t a clear blue sky, no wind and at least six inches of fresh powder, I’d rather stay home. I’m not surprised you’ve become a snow snob, now that you’ve been in Park City a while. You’ve lived here three years, right?”

“Right. But I’ve lived in Utah all my life.”

Born and raised not forty minutes from here, Tim hadn’t even left his hometown for college. He’d attended the University of Utah, down in the Salt Lake valley, and roomed with his childhood friend, Ryan, the groom-to-be.

“Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. So you’re off until, when? Monday?”

“Sunday. The wedding’s Saturday night.”

Tim bit into a couple of fries. Ryan and Debbie had decided to get married up here in Park City, instead of down in Salt Lake where they lived. Some romantic idea of Debbie’s, probably, to get married at a ski lodge. Tim figured it must be costing Debbie’s family a bundle. Nothing in Park City came cheap.

Of course, they were probably getting the musicians for free.

He took another drink from the straw, but his throat felt suddenly clogged. It wasn’t the fries. It was the thought of the musicians. Or rather, one musician.

Liz would arrive late tonight. After three long years, he would see her tomorrow.

If he choked on the mere thought of her now, how would he act when he actually saw her?

Snow swirled around Jason as he glided down the slope. The place was practically deserted. The lifts would stop running at four, in ten more minutes. Most everybody had already headed down the mountain toward the lodge. Big flakes slapped at his goggles and gathered in the creases on the front of his ski suit. He could barely make out the trees on the other side of the run. A miserable day to be out on the slopes, but he had a meeting to attend. One he couldn’t miss.

He glanced backward to make sure nobody was coming around on his left, then zipped into the thick evergreens lining the west side of the slope. The wind wasn’t nearly as bad here, and he was shielded from the worst of the heavily falling snow. Weird place to hold a meeting, if you asked him. But nobody did. Just told him where to be and when to be there. Jason made it a practice to do as he was told.

A snowboarder in a dark jacket waited at the appointed spot, one foot planted in the soft snow and the other still attached to the binding of his board. Jason glided to a stop nearby. At first he thought it might be Duke, but when the guy pushed his goggles up on his hat, he realized it was someone new. Jason’s pulse kicked up a notch or two. Was he finally going to meet Duke’s mysterious boss?

“Hey, how’s it going?” The man clipped his words short.

Jason replied with a guarded nod. “Some day out there, huh?”

A sound from behind made him turn in time to see a skier zigzag through the trees toward them. Jason admired the way the man maneuvered in the close area, the precision with which the edges of his skis carved through the deep snow. He zoomed up to them, planted his ski poles and raised his goggles like the first guy.

About time Duke got here.

“I see you two have met.” Cold blue eyes slid from Jason toward the stranger.

“Not proper like. I didn’t catch your name.” Jason kept his tone deferential, just in case.

The man stiffened, and his eyelids narrowed.

Duke pulled off his knit hat and slapped it against his thigh. Dislodged snow flew through the air. “I don’t think names will be necessary.”

Jason had taken off his glove, ready to thrust his hand toward the man by way of introduction. Instead, he shoved it back on and grabbed the handle of his pole.

“I don’t have long.” The stranger pulled back the cinched wristband of his jacket to look at his watch. “They’re going to wonder where I’ve gone. So say whatever you brought me here to say and let’s go before we’re spotted.”

Jason studied the man with interest. So Duke had invited him to the meeting, not the other way around. He wasn’t the boss, then. Duke had mentioned another guy who was in on this job, a new guy. Someone who insisted he could get the Carmichael chick out to Utah.

Duke pulled the hat back on and settled it over his ears. “I just wanted to touch base with you both. Make sure we all understand the plan.”

“I don’t need to understand any plan. I’ve done my part.”

Jason dipped his head to look at the snow between his ski tips. This guy had nerve, he’d give him that. Jason wouldn’t dare talk to Duke in that tone.

But when he risked an upward glance, he saw that Duke’s face remained impassive. “She arrives tonight?”

The man nodded. “As arranged.”

“And you’re sure she’ll have it with her?”

The other man gave an impatient grunt. “I don’t see why I have to repeat myself. I’ve assured you she’ll have it.”

A flash of indignation set Jason’s teeth against each other. The guy’s tone spoke volumes about the relationship between these two. The newcomer sounded like a man talking to his partner. Duke apparently accepted him as such, while he kept Jason at arm’s length, handing out orders with no explanation and expecting unquestioning obedience. Like Jason was some kind of flunky or something.

Duke smiled. “Good. I think that’s all we need from you, then. You can go.”

Disgust curled one corner of the man’s mouth. “You brought me out here for that?”

“Unless you’d like to stay and hear the rest of the plan. I’m sure we can find another part for you to play. I rather thought you preferred not to dirty your hands with the details, though.”

Jason had a hard time keeping a straight face at the speed with which the guy snapped his goggles over his eyes and zipped away, pushing his board across the snow with his unbound boot. Within seconds he was lost from view in the blinding snow beyond the mass of trees.

A gust of wind whistled through the pine needles and rattled the branches above them. A mound of snow fell on Jason’s skis. He used the tip of his pole to scrape it off.

“So my part of the plan,” he said, “is to go through her room tomorrow when she leaves. You got a passkey for me?”

“I have a passkey.” Duke pulled the glove off his right hand and shoved it under his left arm. “And I have something else, another little thing to take care of.”

Jason stabbed the pole into the soft snow. Duke always had a “little thing” he wanted Jason to take care of. Next thing you knew, Duke would be ordering Jason to pick up his dry cleaning or something.