Page 86 of Dead Girl Running

My friends are mad at me.

I’m being haunted by a ghost or tormented by someone who knows my past, and I’m not sure which is worse.

Nils Brooks wants to kiss me.

Your stupid nephew thinks I’m a delicate flower. Or a quitter. I don’t know which is more insulting.

“As well as can be expected. Employees are jumping ship at an alarming rate. I hope you’re all right with this, but I’m approving every unexpected request for vacation and leave, and offering a bonus when they return.”

Annie’s voice grew somber. “You’re doing exactly the right thing. They’re nervous about the murders?”

“Add to that the weather.” Kellen glanced at the radar. “We’ve got another big storm coming in. It’s four in the afternoon and like midnight out there. You know. The darkness is difficult even without finding a corpse or two.”

“When I get back, I’ll send you on vacation whether you want it or not!”

“I wasn’t hinting!” Kellen remembered Birdie, and no matter what Kellen felt right now, Birdie needed time off. “But Birdie and I would like to go somewhere sunny.”

“I’m glad to hear you’ve relented at last. Do we have enough employees to keep the resort running?”

“Yes, but only because we have so few guests.”

“I never thought I would say that’s a good thing.” Pause. “Did Max make it?”

“Yes.” Kellen inserted a pause of her own. “He’s gone to acquaint himself with his security team, for what they’re worth.”

“What did you think of him?” Annie sounded anxious and nervous.

“I barely met him.” Already she’d spent too much time with him. “He seems fine. He knows the sheriff, and that’s good.”I knew him before, didn’t I?

“Max is a Renaissance man. He knows about security and resort management, and wineries and… Well, he’s very accomplished.”

“So you’ve said.”

“Am I overselling him?”

“A little.”And that makes me wonder why.

“I simply want you to feel as if you can trust him to do his job.”

That was a good reason why.“Thank you, Annie. I’m glad to turn security over to him.” In the background, Kellen heard a burst of noise, children’s voices shrieking in wild delight as they ran through. “You need to go and enjoyyourvacation. I’ll talk to you later!” She hung up before Annie could say goodbye, sat and looked at the telephone. She should be asking probing questions, asking for honesty.

Maybe later, when the murders were solved, the Librarian arrested, winter had ended, world peace had been declared…

She wanted to know, but she didn’t. Ignorance was comfortable, safe, without challenge. She was, in fact, tired of standing tall and facing all confrontations with her chin up. She wanted to slump for a while.

Although she and Max did sort of click. Until he thought she’d be glad to run away from her responsibilities. Damn him. Until that moment, he was doing so well.

That evening, she sat with all the lights in her cottage dimmed and watched out her bedroom loft window, watched to the west and the way leading up from the dock.

She saw nothing.

That meant nothing.

The smugglers could be out there with special lights and drones that allowed them to see in the dark, with guns and bombs and traps, and all to bring a few bloodstained relics to a greedy smuggler and his wealthy, grasping collector of illegal goods. Kellen thought about Afghanistan, the battles she had fought, the deaths and destruction she’d seen, and fury held her in its grasp. She hadn’t carried a rifle through the treacherous mountains so Americans at home could break the law and fund the very terrorists she’d fought.

Fate led Cecilia in a straight line from the hospital to stand in front of an Army Recruiting Station. She looked in the window at the two people in uniform seated at desks inside. She looked back in the direction of the hospital, looked around at the busy streets, the indifferent people. Danger stalked her here. She didn’t know what danger, but she knew something terrible had happened and she needed to get out of this town. What better way to disappear than into the massive organization called the US military?

Pushing open the door, she walked in. Her mind immediately assembled a catalog of data on the officers: