Page 38 of For Always
He walked around the truck just in time to extend his hand and help his wife of thirty-one years down. She was still as pretty as the day he’d bumped into her grocery cart at the supermarket. Still as bossy too.
“Now, I don’t know what’s going on, but Audrey never calls me at this hour and she certainly never screams so loud through the phone that my ear drums are still ringing,” Dessie said. “And you could have stayed in bed.”
“Wasn’t about to let you get on the road at this time of night by yourself,” Clyde told her.
Plus, he had a bad feeling about this. Truth be told, he’d had a bad feeling settling in the pit of his stomach since Dessie had called him yesterday morning to say that there’d been shots fired at the ranch and that the ambulance was taking Gabriella to the hospital. Things hadn’t been right since George and Verna were found in that burning truck. And Clyde was afraid they were gonna get much worse before long.
They walked through the front doors of the resort. Morena, one of the night clerks was at the front desk wearing a worried look to go with the black and yellow Westwind Resort uniform.
“Oh, Ms. Dessie. I’m so glad you’re here. They’re still upstairs in the room. They didn’t want anyone else wandering in there, but I’m supposed to tell you to come right up. Right away!” Morena exclaimed in one breath.
Dessie walked over to her and patted Morena’s shaking hand as she’d set it on the desk.
“Alright, take a deep breath. Go get yourself some water and calm down. I’m here and I’ll take care of everything,” Dessie promised.
She would try, Clyde thought as he walked to the bank of elevators to the left of the front desk area. There were only three floors to the resort, but it was a long building and had sixty guest rooms. Gabriella had some great ideas for expansion that Dessie was really excited about.
They stepped off the elevator on the third floor and walked down the hallway to the end. Only suites were on this floor. They had double the space of the standard rooms below and they each had walkout patios with gorgeous views of the hills.
“Oh my Lord,” Dessie mumbled as they walked.
“What?” Clyde asked while looking around because he thought she’d seen something.
“That’s Gabriella’s room,” she said just before they came to the open door and stepped inside.
It was a mess. A horrific mess. Black paint splashed all over the walls. The curtains were slashed, pillows on the bed left in tatters. The sheets had been drenched in paint, and the mirrors were cracked.
“Ms. Dessie! Ms. Dessie!” Audrey yelled when they walked further into the room.
The thin wisp of a girl came running and draped her arms around Dessie.
“I’m so glad you’re here. I don’t know what happened or what to do. Willie said he was delivering room service to the room down the hall and he heard a noise down this way. When he got here the door was open but nobody was in here. The patio door was open too and the room was like this,” Audrey said.
“Where’s Willie now?” Clyde asked as his booted feet crunched over broken glass from the bedside lamps when he walked across the floor.
“I’m right here, sir,” Willie replied. “There’s black paint in the soaker tub and the water was left running so it started to flood. We’ve got damage to the floor and a little to the room beneath. I got maintenance down there now.”
“Good job, Willie. Thanks for chipping in,” Dessie said. “Now, Audrey I need you to get your head on straight. We’ll have to call the sheriff out here and let him do his thing.”
“Don’t touch anything else,” Clyde told them. “In fact, let’s just clear out and let Alvarez get down here with his guys.”
“Some of Gabriella’s things were still in here. Naomi came to get her clothes yesterday, but she left some stuff. You want me to gather them before Sheriff Alvarez arrives?” Audrey asked.
“That’s not a good idea,” Clyde said.
Dessie immediately turned to him. “That’s her personal stuff, Clyde. We can’t let Alvarez and his deputies start pawing through her stuff.”
“It’s evidence,” Clyde told her. “Everything in this room is evidence now. We shouldn’t even be standing in here thinking about contaminating things. So let’s get on out. We’ll call over to the ranch house from downstairs.”
“No,” Dessie said as she walked ahead of him to the door. “Those two were shot at not even twenty-four hours ago. I’m not calling and waking them up out of their sleep to give them more bad news. We’ll wait until sun’s up and go out there personally.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Audrey said. “This is gonna upset them more.”
“Yeah, but they gotta know,” Clyde said. “They gotta be prepared.”
He didn’t finish his thoughts because he didn’t want Dessie to know that Alvarez was sniffing around Gabriella’s past to see what he could dig up. If he wasn’t already, the sheriff was going to be hot on her trail and Tyler’s for that matter, the moment he saw that room. All hell seemed to be breaking loose in Hobbs Creek, and Clyde wondered who, if any of them, would survive.
Chapter 11
