Pelican Cove, for all of its wonderful features, has very, very slow elevators. We should have taken the steps. But, no, I decided we would take the elevator.
When we finally got to the second floor, we raced down the walkway to our room. James was standing outside the door.
“Nobody should see what I’m going to show you guys.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“James, what’s this all about?”
Maria looked at James, then at me, then back at James, obviously confused.
“Honest to God, pally, this is not suitable for children.”
“No kids here, James.”
He slid his key into the slot and slowly opened the door to our small room.
Immediately I could see the bed, covers torn off. Not even a sheet on the mattress, which led me to believe that the maids had done a half-assed job.
Clothes were strewn around the room. We weren’t the neatest guys in the world, but the room looked like a hurricane had hit it.
“James, somebody’s tossed our room.”
He was pale. With no comeback, my best friend was shaking his head.
“Over here, amigo.”
He motioned to the far side of the bed.
I walked toward him.
James was pointing, looking at me as if he couldn’t focus anywhere else, but still pointing.
Lying on the floor, faceup, was a man’s body, the side of his head bashed in. Eyes wide open, he stared at me, dark blood soaking into the carpet.
“Oh, my God.” Maria Sanko was frozen, her mouth hanging open, the color drained from her face.
“I checked.” James swallowed hard. “There’s no pulse. He’s not breathing.”
Grabbing the phone by the bed I dialed zero.
“We’ve got a dead body up here in three fifteen.”
“A what?”
“Dead body. Guy with his head bashed in.”
There was a long silence. Then, “What should I do?”
“Ma’am, somebody broke into our room, trashed it, and there’s a dead body on the floor. You work here. Has anything like this ever-” Well, of course, nothing like this had happened before.
“I’m sorry, my manager isn’t in and I-”
“Just call nine-one-one. They usually take care of everything.”
Maria had regained her composure and was standing by the sliding glass door, looking out at the pool and the ocean. James was sitting on the bed watching me.
“If you can stand it, look again, Skip.”
I walked back to the body. He was dressed in a green T-shirt and jeans. I forced myself to look up at the face, those glassy eyes staring through me. He had one of those three-day beards that I’ve tried to grow but it never worked.
“It looks like he bashed his head on this nightstand when he fell.”
James nodded. “Fell or was pushed.”
“Pretty nasty gash.”
“Recognize him?”
And then I did. From the Yellow Pages. It was Jim Weezle from AAAce Investigations. We had found half of the vanished team.