Murder of a Royal Pain

“I did ring it.” Wally stared at her. “Several times.” His brown eyes were as hard and opaque as volcanic rock. “When you didn’t answer I got worried. Your car was in the driveway along with a strange vehicle, and there’s a murderer on the loose. So when I noticed that the door wasn’t completely shut, I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Oh.” Skye’s guilt ballooned. “I wonder why the doorbell didn’t work.” She tried to lighten the situation by joking, “Maybe my ghost is playing tricks on us again.”

Wally didn’t smile.

She tried distracting him. “I thought you wouldn’t be able to get away until tomorrow.”

“I offered the nurse a bonus and was able to arrange for an earlier flight. You weren’t here when I got into town, so I dropped my luggage at my place, checked in at the PD, and came back to see if you were home yet.” He took another swig of beer. “I missed you, and couldn’t wait another day to see you. Guess the feeling wasn’t mutual.”

“No. It is. Truly.” Her flush deepened to crimson. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what possessed me. It was nothing.” Kurt had a certain sexual magnetism, but she had wanted Wally for years. “I lo—” She cut herself off. Why couldn’t she tell him that she loved him? Was it because love had never worked for her before, and she still didn’t trust Wally not to leave her? “It’s just that I’m tired and I haven’t been feeling well and I . . .” She trailed off.

“I need to know that I can trust you.” Wally’s voice was ragged. “I can’t take another betrayal.” His ex-wife had left him without any warning, leaving a note and not much else behind.

“I promise I’ll never do that.” Skye flung herself into his lap, hoping Mrs. Griggs’s ghost wouldn’t blow up the house because she and Wally were touching. “Forgive me?”

For an instant Wally held himself rigid; then he wrapped his arms around her and whispered against her lips, “Always.”

His kiss was hard and searching, and in returning it, Skye tried to show him the love she was afraid to express in words. She pressed closer, tunneling her fingers through his thick black hair.

His hands moved to her hips, lifting and rearranging her so that she straddled him. She could feel his arousal through the wool of his trousers and the denim of her jeans, and it increased her hunger for him.

Lifting his mouth from hers, he stripped off her sweater and unhooked her bra. As he trailed kisses from her neck to her breasts, she heard music.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t celestial; “Hail to the Chief” blared from Wally’s pocket. Skye let out a tiny cry of frustration. Apparently his new cell phone worked inside her house. His old one hadn’t, and she’d never realized what a boon that had been.

She got off his lap and reclaimed her bra and sweater. As a little joke, she’d had Justin program “Hail to the Chief” as the ring tone for someone calling Wally from the police emergency line. She knew they wouldn’t be getting back to their lovemaking anytime soon.

While she got dressed, she heard Wally’s side of the conversation. “If she had a heart condition, why are you calling me about her death?” He listened intently, then stood. “Fine. I’ll be right there.” When he closed his phone, he said to Skye, “The high school’s night custodian was found dead by her son in your office. She had a heart condition, so it’s probably natural causes, but Reid is insisting it be treated as a suspicious death.”

“That’s horrible. I know—I mean, knew—Gloria, and I know her son, Cameron. He’s a custodian at the grade school.” Skye’s voice cracked. She had liked Gloria, a woman who had worked hard all her life. “They’re both really nice, sweet people.”

Wally murmured something soothing, then headed toward the door.

“Can I come with you?” Skye followed him. “Simon isn’t prone to flights of fancy, so if he thinks something more than a heart attack is involved, it probably is.”

Wally hesitated a fraction of a second, then agreed. “Sure.”

She wrinkled her brow. “Maybe it has something to do with Annette Paine’s death.”

“The connection being you?”

Skye nodded.

“I heard Quirk declared Annette’s death an accident. I take it you don’t agree.”

“I’ll fill you in on what’s been happening on that front on the way over.”

Once they were settled in Wally’s car, Skye turned in her seat and said, “The good news is, I don’t think Quirk had anything to do with Annette’s death. Even though he threatened Hope again, it’s probably a case of his bark being worse than his bite. The bad news is, there’s a better than fifty percent chance that the intended victim was me.”

“Why?” Wally shot her a concerned look before returning his gaze to the road.

Skye explained what she, Kurt, and Simon had figured out about the rope’s location, finishing with, “So, either the killer somehow knew that Annette would be dressed as a witch, would run down the hallway in my assigned position, and was prone to asthma attacks, or the trap was set for me instead.”