Page 14 of Christmas at Sturcombe Bay
Alex snorted with derision. “You were very quick to make accusations, but now you don’t want to call the police?”
“Shelley, what happened?” Lisa’s voice was quiet and calm.
The girl drew in a ragged breath, but Lisa’s manner seemed to have reassured her. “I’d just been dropping off fresh towels in the empty rooms when he came out of his room and asked me to go and clean his bath. So I got the cleaning things out of the cupboard here. Then once I was in the bathroom, he . . . he grabbed me. He tried to kiss me, and he tore my shirt.” She was trying to tidy it, holding it closed with one hand.
Alex brushed past the man and went into his room. “The cleaning things are there in the bathroom,” he pointed out.
“Well, she . . . that was her excuse for coming into the room.”
“She wouldn’t be cleaning the bathrooms at this time of the afternoon unless specifically asked by a guest,” Lisa asserted.
“You claim she tried to steal your wallet.” Alex glanced around the room. “Where was it?”
“In my jacket pocket.”
“And where is your jacket?” His voice dripped sarcasm. “It’s not on the bed, nor on the chair, nor on the hanger on the back of the door.”
The man hesitated, his face reddening. “In the wardrobe.”
“And where were you?”
“I . . . I . . .”
“I think it’s fairly clear who’s telling the truth here,” Alex remarked, skewering the man with a cold glare.
Lisa nodded her agreement. “Shelley, do you want to call the police?”
“No, please.” She still looked agitated. “I’d rather not.”
“Okay, that’s your decision to make.” She turned on the man. “But you’d better leave. Pack and go now. I want you out of this hotel in half an hour.”
The man puffed himself up with indignation. “You can’t just evict me like that. Do you know who I am?”
“I know exactly who you are,” she responded coldly. “And I’m going to inform the president of your golf league that you won’t be welcome here ever again.”
“You can’t do that!”
“I can and I will.”
“Hmph!” With a final glare he turned back into his room and slammed the door.
Lisa laughed without humour. “Well, that seems to have sorted him out.”
“Thank you.” The young woman’s voice was shaking. “Will you really tell the golf league?”
“I most certainly will. Look, let’s go down to my office and get a coffee. It’s okay, there’s no one around, it’s a very quiet afternoon.”
As the young woman — Shelley — hesitated, Alex smiled at her. “Come on. You look as if you could do with a coffee, eh?”
“Okay.”
She smiled up at him, a dimple appearing in her cheek, and he felt his gut tightening. She really was very pretty, with an elfin face and large blue eyes, and silky blonde hair in feathery curls around her head.
Suddenly the temptation to shove through the door opposite and knock that sleazy git’s teeth down his throat was almost overwhelming. The thought shocked him — he usually had his emotions well under control. You couldn’t react erratically when you were at the controls of a fifty-million-dollar fighter jet, armed to the teeth.
Relaxing his fingers to uncurl his fist, he followed the two women down the stairs.
* * *
