Death at the Trade Show: Target Practice Mysteries 3 (15 page)

“I think so.” A gun was in his right hand, dangling by his side. “Did you seriously bring a gun? What did you think happened?”

“You never know.”

Orion leaned around Liam. “If you guys are okay, I’m going back to bed.”

Mary nodded, and I answered, “I think we’re fine. Liam, have you had that gun all week?”

He looked at me. “Never ask what a man has in his pants.”

My cheeks burned red. He chuckled and closed the door. A few seconds later, I heard another door softly close.

Mary scrambled up off the floor. “Holy cow, what a way to wake up.”

I figured she meant falling out of bed, but the way she was staring at the door made me wonder. Moo woke up and looked around. When he spotted me on the floor, he hopped off the bed and shoved his nose into my eye. I grabbed my phone off the floor and checked the time. “We’ve only been asleep for a few hours.”

“I am totally awake now.” She got up and went into the bathroom while I petted Moo.

He pawed at me and whined. When Mary returned from the bathroom, I told her, “I think Moo needs to go outside.” I had on the adorable Great Dane PJs that Mary had given me for Christmas, while she had on the set that I gave her covered in bows and arrows. I debated putting on real clothing, but exhaustion won, and I pulled on shoes and a jacket. “I’ll be back.”

“No, you’re not going alone.” Mary grabbed her jacket and shoes.

I hesitated. “Are you sure?”

She grabbed a key off the table. “We’re a team, and it’s the middle of the night. Plus, you can tell me why you and Liam were gone so long.”

We snuck out of the suite, carefully closing the door behind us. We went downstairs, past the closed bar, and let Moo outside while I caught her up. When we got upstairs, we made a quick trip over to the scratches for her to see them herself and take a few pictures. We snuck back into the suite, finishing Moo’s bathroom run in record time. Moo jumped back onto the bed, and we ditched our jackets and shoes. Crawling into bed, we flipped off the lights. The adrenaline was gone, and though I was exhausted, I couldn’t get comfortable.

I flipped the pillow again and rolled onto my side.

“Di?”

“Sorry, am I keeping you awake?”

“No, I want to tell you something.”

I flipped back toward her side of the bed. “Sure.”

Out of the darkness, Mary said, “I think I’m going to marry Orion.”

“Excuse me?” I sat straight up and turned on the lamp.

“Marry Orion.” She blinked at the light.

“I heard that part. Don’t you think this is a bit of a jump? You haven’t even been on a date. And he’s like ten years older than you.”

“I was mostly being dramatic to get your attention, but kinda not. My mom knew when she met my dad that she would marry him. I’m not totally convinced yet, but I think it’s worth exploring. Both of our grandfathers are pastors, and we love archery. Did you know that he set up our bows for us, and they’re perfect? A decade age difference isn’t that much. You and I are best friends, and we’re almost ten years apart.”

I was at a loss for words. She barely knew him. He was so much older. They lived hours apart. Being able to set up a bow wasn’t normally on the list of marriage qualities. Then I stopped. Who was I to judge? She wasn’t asking my permission, and why did I think she was? “Okay.”

“Okay?” She arched an eyebrow at me.

“Tell me more.”

“You’re not going to convince me I’m wrong?”

“Do you want me to?”

“Uh, no, I don’t, but… this is my plan. What I know so far about him is perfect. We’re both Christian, which is important. He values family. We work in the same industry and love the same lifestyle. We laugh at the same things. So far, so good.”

“That seems realistic so far. So you’re not thinking that you’ll get married tomorrow?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. That’s not how things work.” She rolled her eyes at me like I was the one jumping the gun. “I haven’t dated a lot. I’ve never had a real boyfriend. But Orion’s… really special. Even if we aren’t talking, just being around him makes me happy.”

I thought about Liam, how I felt just seeing him across the room. “I know just what you mean. Any more bombshells you wanna drop tonight?”

She chuckled. “No, I wanted to tell someone.”

“I’m glad you told me.” I turned off the lamp and settled onto my pillow.

“Don’t tell anyone. I know it sounds crazy… what I said.”

“Who would I tell?” I pulled the sheets up over my shoulders and settled in.

“Liam. You can’t tell Liam or anyone. I mean it.”

“Don’t worry.” I yawned widely in the dark. “I won’t. Besides, Liam and I have a whole mess of things we need to iron out before we go meddling in other people’s relationships.”

***

The next morning, I raced around the room, trying to get ready. When there was a knock on the door, I called out, “Come in.”

Liam opened the door. “Breakfast’s here. Whoa.”

Mary had pants on but was face down on the bed with her PJ top still on, her feet hanging off the end of the bed. I had managed to put on a shirt but had forgotten to change out of my PJ bottoms before putting on my boots. “We have a problem. I can’t get Moo out of bed.”

When I had tried to convince him, Moo had whined and moaned. We tried shoving him, but he went totally limp. Turns out that if a Great Dane doesn’t want to move off the middle of a rather soft king-size bed, you need more than two strong women to force him.

“Maybe the three of you should sleep in.”

I sat down and pulled off my boots. “No, no, we’ll be fine. Just moving a little slow.”

“Do you realize that you have makeup on only half your face?”

I felt my face. I had been putting on eye makeup when I realized I was still wearing pajama bottoms, so I went to get my pants and Mary and I bumped into each other. She had landed on the bed and was still there. I guess I never got back to my makeup.

“I…I… I’m so tired.” I felt a million years old.

“Go to bed. Sleep in. When you guys are ready, take the bus over or call Jack and have him pick you up.”

I got up and shut the blinds. “Are you sure?” I crawled into bed and pulled the covers over my shoulder.

Liam laughed, called to Moo, and closed the door behind them.

***

When I woke up later, I felt human again. Moo was moving around on the bed, jostling me awake.

Mary yawned, her arms peeking over the top of Moo’s back, then she sat up. “Jeez o pete, we’re late. We’re so, so, so late.”

“It’s okay. Liam said to sleep in.” I stretched at the edge of the bed.

“But Orion said they’re going to make time to hang out with us today. I don’t want to miss that.”

We bustled around the room, throwing on clothing, grabbing our stuff, and I finished the makeup I had started earlier. We burst out the door. I headed for the elevator, but Mary tugged me the opposite way. “Let’s check out the scratches again. It’ll only take a second.”

I checked my watch again and silently thanked Liam for feeding Moo and taking him out before they all left. Liam had left me a note, which was helpful because Moo did his darnedest to convince me that he needed breakfast when we woke up. The buses ran for another twenty-five minutes.

The scratches were gone, and in their place was a Wet Paint sign.

“Good thing we stopped by last night,” I said when Mary’s face fell.

The door behind us clicked open, and I turned to see that tall gal from Lex’s booth and the night we’d found Cash’s body. “Excuse us.” I grabbed Mary’s arm to go.

“No, wait. Can I pet your dog?”

I stopped and hesitated. “We really need to run. We have to catch a bus.”

She pulled the door shut behind her. “To the OIT Show, right? Me, too.” She fell into step next to me and smiled. “My name’s Andrea, but you can call me Dre. I’ve seen you guys around and have been dying to say hi and meet your dog. I love dogs.”

We introduced ourselves as we walked to the elevator. She knelt next to Moo, and he leaned on her with his eyes closed as she petted him. “Aren’t you just the handsomest dog ever? What’s his name?”

“Moo,” Mary said.

“Moo! How hilarious.” When the elevator dinged, she stood up and wiped her hand off on her pants while Mary and I exchanged a look.

“So is that your hotel room?” Mary smiled at Dre.

“No, the room belongs to my boss, Lex Luthorssen of Lex’s Hunting Solutions. He went in earlier today and needed me to grab some extra receipt books from his room.” She leaned over to scratch Moo’s head.

I made eye contact with Mary, and we nodded at each other. Lex’s room was directly over the murder site. How perfect was this?

Dre walked next to me as we exited the elevator. “You guys were there where they found the body? How awful was that?”

I shook my head as we stepped through the lobby to the entrance where we could see the bus pickup. “Just awful. Thankfully, Lex was there to comfort Hannah.”

“Hannah.” Dre’s eyes narrowed as she spit out the word. She looked at us then down at the ground. “I’m sorry. She’s a widow and all, but…” She raised her left hand to tuck some hair behind her ear, and a huge diamond ring caught the light.

“Wow, that’s a gorgeous ring.” I caught her hand to see it closer. “Oh, sorry.” I let go.

“No, no, please. This is the first time I get to show it off.” She held her hand out, and we oohed and aahed.

The bus pulled up, and we rushed out through the cold to hop aboard. Dre sat across the aisle from us and petted Moo as he stood between us.

She was looking at me, and it felt awkward just sitting there, so I asked her a more about the ring. “First day to show it off, eh? Does that mean you got engaged last night?”

She was eager to talk. “A few nights ago, but we were going to keep it quiet…” She trailed off and looked off into the distance before looking back at us. “Oh, who cares, everyone’s going to know. Lex and I are engaged!” She squealed loudly.

“Lex?” I squeaked. “I saw him with—”

She narrowed her eyes. “Hannah, right? That’s why I’m wearing the ring today.” She crossed her arms.

Mary shook her head. “I’m so confused.”

Dre fixed the ring on her finger. “We’ve been dating for a while but were keeping it secret because we work together. But the night before the show started, Lex asked me to marry him. We decided to wait until we got home and could tell the company first.”

The bus bumped along, empty except for the three of us and Moo, who laid down on the seat a row ahead of us. “Makes sense.”

“Totally. But Hannah has been all over Lex, even before Cash died. Yesterday she had this big meltdown in our booth, and Lex, being a gentleman and a bit naïve, offered to take her back to the hotel while I closed up. When I get back, I go to his room, and she’s crying on his shoulder with several of her buttons undone. I tell her to get away from my fiancé. Lex tells me to calm down, nothing was happening, but let me tell you what, Hannah changed after that. Those fake tears dried right up. And I got that room key away from her before she could blink.”

I raised my hand. “Hannah had a key to Lex’s room?”

Dre nodded. “Cash bought some stuff from Lex as part of the sponsorship deal, so Lex gave them the extra room key to go pick it up, but then Cash disappeared. Later—well you were there—we found him dead.”

Mary, who was sitting between me and the window, pushed me back a little so she could see Dre. “What happened after you told Hannah to give back the key and get away from Lex?”

“That little sneak changed tacks. She wanted a refund on the stuff that Cash had bought. Lex said he would cut her a check and give it to her. She wanted it right then, but it just wasn’t possible. Then I kicked her out of the room. Then Lex and I stayed up late discussing stuff and decided that keeping things secret wasn’t a good idea. I slept in this morning, but Lex took all the stuff that she had bought over to the show first thing this morning. Do you want to see a picture of when he proposed? His best friend knew and took pictures.”

We agreed, and she pulled out her phone. Flipping through the pictures, she told us the whole story. “This is in the bar. Then Lex said that we forgot something in the car. This is us going outside. Then when we got to the car, this is him throwing me a box. I couldn’t believe it when I opened it. I cried. And here he showed me that he got pictures of it.” She was beaming.

I couldn’t help smiling at her, though this pretty well removed Lex as a suspect. “Then what happened?”

“We talked about it and decided to not tell anyone yet. We came back, and everyone was leaving the bar because they heard a scream. We joined them, and you know the rest. We found Cash, and Lex helped Hannah until the police came. Then we talked to the police. How did you guys get out of talking to the police?”

“We boogeyed on out of there. When we arrived, they were already investigating what the big noise was. We had nothing to add,” I explained as the bus pulled up to the OIT Show.

We got out of the bus, and Dre wrapped me in a hug. “Thank you so much. It was so fun to tell someone the story. Please come with me to the booth. I want you to meet Lex.”