“Take the right,” she ordered. “Lights on.” When they appeared, she adjusted her eyes to the change, sidestepped left. “Captain Bayliss,” she called out. “This is Lieutenant Dallas. I have a warrant. I need you to make your location known.”
Her voice echoed off the high ceilings, off the sand-colored walls.
“Bad feeling,” she muttered. “Very bad feeling.” Sweeping with her weapon, she followed the tracking water. She saw Bayliss’s suitcase open on the bed, a jacket tossed carelessly beside it.
She glanced toward Roarke, watched him check a room-sized closet, did the same herself on the other side, then moved along the wet to a door.
She signaled again, waiting until he’d joined her. With her free hand, she turned the knob, then shoving it open went in under Roarke’s arm.
Music blared. It gave her a jolt to hear Mavis’s voice screeching out into the opulent bathroom. All white and gold, the room almost hurt the eyes with its sheer white walls, gilt pools of mirrors, twin sinks large enough to bathe in.
Under the music she heard the rumble of a motor. She crossed the floor, damp and gleaming white, to the leg of the L-shaped room.
The tub was waist high and white as the Alps, but for the wet river of blood that ran down the side, just below a single hand. Red dripped onto the badge tossed on the floor.
“Damn it. Goddamn it.” She
leaped to the tub and saw immediately it was far too late for the MTs.
Bayliss lay on the lounging level, his head pillowed on a silver cushion, his body strapped down with long ribbons of adhesive.
His eyes stared up at her, wide and horrified, and already filmed over with death.
Glinting on the floor of the tub were credits. She knew there would be thirty.
“I wasn’t fast enough. Somebody wanted him dead more than I wanted him alive.”
Roarke lifted a hand to the base of her neck, rubbed once. “You’ll want your field kit.”
“Yeah.” Her assent was a sound of disgust. “Whoever did this is gone, but be careful anyway.” She reached for her communicator. “I have to contact the locals. Protocol. Then I’m calling it in. Meanwhile, you’re drafted as aide. Seal up before you come back in, and don’t—”
“Touch anything,” he finished. “Hell of a way to die,” he added. “He’d have been kept alive, aware, strapped down there while the water level rose. The room’s soundproofed. No one would have heard him screaming.”
“The killer heard him,” Eve said and, turning away, opened transmission.
She recorded the scene and did a preliminary sweep before the local police arrived. Knowing she had to balance authority with diplomacy, she requested rather than ordered the sheriff to send his men out to knock on doors.
“Not many people around here just now,” Sheriff Reese told her. “Come June, it’ll be a different story.”
“I realize that. Maybe we’ll get lucky. Sheriff, this is your turf, but the victim comes from mine. The killer, too. As this murder links to my ongoing investigation, it falls under my authority. But I need all the help I can get. And your cooperation.”
“You’ll have it, Lieutenant.” He studied her for a moment. “Some people might think we’re in the boondocks here, but we’re not boobs. Don’t get your city crimes too much, but we know how to handle them when we do.”
“I appreciate it.” She passed him her Seal-It. “Did you know Captain Bayliss?”
“Sure.” Reese sprayed his shoes, his hands. “He and his wife were regulars. They spent the month of August here most every year, and about a weekend a month rest of the year. Popped in now and again otherwise. Had parties, spent some money in the village. Didn’t have much to do with the locals but were friendly enough. Didn’t cause any trouble.”
She started upstairs with him. “Did Bayliss make a habit of coming here alone?”
“Not really. He’d come down on a Friday night now and again—once, twice a year—stay till Sunday. Went out on his boat, did some fishing. The wife didn’t care for fishing. You notify her?”
“My information is that she’s in Paris. She’ll be contacted. Bayliss ever bring anybody here other than his wife?”
“Can’t say he did. Some do, men bring a buddy or a side piece, you’ll pardon the expression. Women do the same. Bayliss stuck with his wife. Never heard of him bringing any . . . entertainment with him.”
She nodded, walked to the tub with him. Reese stared down, blew out a breath. “Jesus, that’s a sorry sight. I don’t mind saying I’m glad this is yours, Lieutenant.” Reese scratched his head. “If he was trying to make it look like suicide, why’d he leave the man strapped in there?”
“He wasn’t trying to mock a self-termination. He just needed the blood on the badge. It’s pattern. I’ve got the scene recorded, and now that you’ve officially witnessed it, I’m going to drain the tub, examine the body.”