“You know, it was the strangest thing. She got an anonymous phone call here at the office. Someone said her house was on fire.”
“Oh, my,” Jessica said, and felt the skin on her neck starting to crawl.
“As it turns out, the call was on the up and up. If it hadn’t come, her house would have burned down. She said most of the damage was confined to the kitchen.”
And then Dolby gasped and suddenly bolted from his chair. His hairpiece slid forward over his left eye as he made a grab for Jessica. But he was a couple of seconds too late.
She slid out of her chair in a faint.
* * *
Smelling salts stunk. Enough so that wherever Jessica had gone when she fainted, she came back in a rush.
“Easy now,” someone said.
She looked up, noting that Mr. Dolby had more natural hair up his nose than he had on his head.
“Don’t move just yet. Take a couple of deep breaths and relax. When you feel able, we’ll help you up.”
One of the maids was cradling Jessica’s head in her lap while another mopped at her face with a very wet cloth that smelled of disinfectant.
At least I will be clean when I die. “What happened?”
“You fainted.”
She covered her face with her hands.
“Bat barf.”
Dolby patted her arm. “Now, now, you’re going to be fine. I appreciate the fact that you came in this morning to finish payroll, but I think you came back too soon. We’ve called for an ambulance. They’re going to take you—”
She pushed them aside and sat up with a jerk, then clutched her head with both hands, reeling as the room began to spin. Someone pushed her head between her knees and she found herself looking at a dried raisin that was stuck in the carpet. It was a fitting analogy to the way she felt.
“I’m not going back to the hospital,” she said. “I don’t need a hospital.” All I need is a new brain. Mine broke.
The sound of sirens could be heard coming up the road leading to the lodge.
Jessica groaned. “Send them back.”
Her request was too late. Paramedics came in on the run, followed by a couple of curious cops who’d been on their way to the lodge to interrogate the hired help about the missing bride and had decided to follow the ambulance instead.
When Stone Richardson followed the medics inside, it had been in the line of duty. A “just in case he was needed” decision that soon brought him up short. At first, he didn’t recognize the woman on the floor. But then she looked up, and he saw past the new haircut to the face beneath and found himself on the floor at her side.
His gruff voice and gentle touch were nearly her undoing.
“Damn it, Jessie, what have you done to yourself now?”
Jessica’s hand went to her hair, then she paused, uncertain as to which disaster he was referring—her hairdo, or the fact that she was about to go for another ambulance ride.
“She fainted,” Dolby said.
Jessica eyed the paramedic, who was fastening a pressure cuff on her arm. She refused to lie down. “I’m fine. They shouldn’t have called you, and I am not going back to the hospital.”
Stone heard what she said, but he had his own opinion of what she needed. She was pale and near tears, and the thought of Jessie unconscious and helpless did things to his heart he didn’t want to consider.
“You will if they say so,” he said, angry with himself and the emotions he kept feeling whenever Jessie was around.
Stone’s bossy attitude was more than Jessica was ready to accept. She gave him a sidelong glance. “Don’t you have someplace else to be?”
“No.”
Disgusted at being the center of so much unwanted attention, she closed her eyes and slumped forward, laying her head on her knees in a gesture of defeat.
Jeff Dolby patted his hair, making certain it was still in place, then touched Jessica’s shoulder in a comforting gesture.
“We can muddle along without you. I suggest you take off as much time as you need to recover from your injury. If need be, I’ll call in a temp.”
She groaned. Just after she’d started working at the lodge, she’d come down with a virulent flu bug that had taken its toll on the whole staff. Then the temp agency had sent a man who’d reorganized her entire filing system and crashed the computer. Fixing Dolby with a crushing stare, she gave him fair warning.
“If they send Lester Cushing, I quit.”
Dolby looked taken aback and then nodded nervously. “Don’t worry. I’ll see to it personally. You just get well. That’s all that matters.”
The paramedic began gathering up his things. “Miss Hanson, your vitals are normal, but I think you should see a doctor just the same. You can’t be too careful about head injuries.”
“I’ll call Dr. Howell when I get home,” she said. “I just need to go get my purse and keys.”
Restraining her intent, Stone pointed at one of the maids who was standing nearby.
“Would you please go to Miss Hanson’s office and get her purse?”
Jessica started to argue, when he silenced her with a look.
“Look, Jessie. I suggest you use what’s left of that hardheaded brain of yours. You just passed out. You are not going to be driving anywhere. I’ll take you home.”
Jessica slumped again, this time muttering the most disgusting slur she could summon on short notice.
“Tick teeth.”
Stone grinned. “Yeah, well, the same to you, lady.”
Startled, she looked up in time to see him wink. She felt herself blushing and looked away in disgust. I am immune to his charms. I am immune to his charms. The mantra did not work.
While Jessie was stewing quietly, Stone stood up. His partner, Jack Stryker, made no attempt to hide a grin.
“Stuff it,” Stone said as they walked to the other side of the room.
Jack whistled softly between his teeth and shrugged. “I didn’t say a thing.”
“You didn’t have to,” Stone said. “I saw that smirk.”
“I take it we’re going to delay the investigation of Randi Howell’s disappearance.”
A faint flush spread across Stone’s cheeks. “Look, Jessie is a good friend, okay?”
Jack’s
