Life at Christmas
Chapter 17
They were out in the middle of nowhere, back behind the inn. They were near the edge of the parking lot. The crate, she was told, was going to be first and he hadn't seen it since he buried it.
Right now Rick was using his pick axe and was making a mess. When he got tired Kate stepped in, digging out what he had loosened up until there wasn't anymore loose dirt to remove. She was done and had to wait for Rick to keep pounding away.
Then he hit something and had to put aside his pick axe, switch to a shovel, and help Kate. It took them two hours, according to Kate's phone but they had it out of the hole. "I was expecting a crate. Like really big crate." She used her hands to show a huge crate. "This thing is barely bigger than a pony keg."
"So where's the other one?" Kate was ready to get this over with. Her arms were tired and she was sweating inside of her heavy coat which was not good.
"You know we have to fill in this hole, right?" Rick asked.
"Must we? We don't even have enough dirt to fill it back in. The crate took up space we don't have the dirt for," Kate argued.
Rick gave in. "It's your inn."
"Yes, it is. Now where's the other one?" Kate asked him again and helped him carry the crate over to the other site.
"So one was on one side of the parking lot and this one is on the opposite side." Kate looked around trying to pinpoint where they were now.
"Just be thankful that they didn't put the parking lot over it or we'd be in trouble," Rick remarked.
"Well since you dug this one up once already to get me those bills this one should be easier," she said hopefully.
While it started out that way, it didn't last long. Then Rick stopped. "We need to stop and just dig. This isn't a crate. It's plastic Rubbermaid containers that are taped closed," he explained. If he put a pick through one of them he risked damaging several if not all of the bills that were inside.
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Kate put the Rubbermaid containers in pillow cases and carried them into her office while getting looks from Judith who was manning the night desk tonight. Only to see her come back with something bigger that was wrapped in a bed sheet.
They kept all of them in sheets and pillow cases and stacked them so that they could cover them all with a comforter. Then they were going to put up their live mini Christmas tree and make sure there was a pan under it for if or when the water flowed over the side.
They had to put Christmas decorations on the tree followed by wrapping empty boxes for Christmas presents. Finally Rick plugged in the lights in the tree and watched Kate collapse into her chair. "I am so tired," she groaned. She felt terrible and it wasn't just because her arms hurt. She'd been sweating under her heavy coat that was presently on the floor.
"Dead tired?" Rick teased her.
"Ha, ha. If I die here does that mean we haunt this place together?" Kate asked him.
"I don't even understand why I'm here let alone what would happen to you if you do. So how about you just make sure you don't," Rick said with a sharp nod.
"Just so long as I don't have to do that ever again. My job in New York City is far more dangerous than this one. And before you say it, yes I intend to be very careful once I'm back to that job, too." Kate told him.
Rick walked around behind her and rubbed her shoulders. "Forgive me if I worry."
Kate let him work on her shoulders. "You're forgiven." She was learning to love his hands. "So just how tired are you?" Then she saw what time it was. "Never mind, I have to get up and start my day in a couple of hours."
"Sounds like enough time to me." Rick spun Kate's chair around, got down on his knees, and began taking Kate's pants off her.
Kate even helped him get her shoes off and lifted her ass off the chair so he could pull her jeans and panties off of her. She spread her legs wide and watched as he put his head between her legs; she moaned at the first touch of his tongue.
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Kate didn't have her period dresses back yet since it was too soon so she was dressed in her normal clothes and high heels this time.
She was up front and telling her guests that she hoped they'd had a pleasant stay.
"I beat the ghost at checkers," one young boy proudly announced.
His mother apologized for him. "Ignore him. He's been talking about beating a ghost all last night and again this morning."
Kate bent down to his level. "So was it one game or two?"
"Just one." He had been hoping he would come back ever since he beat him the first time.
"Maybe you'll just have to talk your parents into coming back so you can challenge him again. I have it on good authority that he can't wait to challenge you to another game. He wasn't happy that you beat him," Kate said.
"MOM, DAD!" He was ready to stay and play another game now.
"We'll just have to see, but we do love your inn," his mom smiled.
"Maybe when it's warm enough to go fishing," his dad said.
"Don't forget to stop at the Old Steel Mill and take home a special Christmas memento. There's more out there than you will ever imagine," Kate said even though she had yet to go there herself.
They were gone. "Ghost, huh?" one of the women at the front desk teased Kate.
"He's a kid, what does he know? Imaginary friend, maybe," Kate suggested and hurried to the kitchen since she was starving. All of last night had taken a toll on her.
There was a tiny table with just one chair in the kitchen and Kate could easily imagine that Abigail sat here and ate many a meal.
It was called a Sister's Burger on the menu. It was basically an Angus Beef cheeseburger with her choice of cheese. They didn't do French fries but they did have potato skins, one of Kate's favorite things. Finding out that they didn't have a shake machine, she made a mental note to buy one. She could kill for a strawberry shake right about now.
However, as she looked around she wasn't sure just where it was going to go. Unless she gave up her little table and chair. Still it might be worth it.
Once lunch was over she went into her office to figure out how to order one and get it delivered. Then she needed to find out what to buy to make it work, all to get a strawberry shake. Her head chef was going to find something new to play with next year.
"How's your burger?" Curt asked her since he had a lull in making lunches for guests.
"You're hired," Kate said with a tired smile. "I might even give you a raise if you learn how to make a strawberry milkshake." She just gave him a clue at what was coming his way soon.
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Kate had her cup of coffee and was standing at the front desk greeting any early arrivals while listening to them either telling people that they were full that week or that yes, they had a room available.
"How are we doing?" Kate asked them when they both had a lull and there was no one at the front desk.
"100% this week but you already knew that. We're at 100% the first week next year. So far about 92% for the month of January. We go down to the 80s for the next several months until July, then we're back to already booked solid."
"That reminds me, what kind of fireworks are allowed in Holly?" Kate queried.
"They can't be too big but we can shoot fireworks that leave the ground. Abigail usually bought around $400 worth. All those fireworks tend to leave lots of little pieces of paper from the explosions all over the place. We fire them off right out in front of the fountain," Jen said.
"Fireworks. Local or do we go to New London?" Kate asked.
"Local always. Boy Scout stand," Melody piped up.
"Of course." If it was Boy Scouts it was looking like Abigail would do it. "How long before all these Christmas trees have to come down and go in the trash?" They were live trees that had been cut down so they would dry out and become a fire hazard.
"The trees go away in about two weeks and a lot of the Christmas lights and other things go back in the attic a week later. How's the electrical bill?" She was curious.
"Big!" Kate quickly replied. Her little apartment didn't use up a fraction of what this place used. She was going to have to do some research to see if it was excessive when compared with previous Decembers.
"My dad shows up here for one night tomorrow. Are we still full?" Kate asked, hoping for a cancellation.
"I'm afraid so. We just don't have any spare beds. Sorry." Melody wanted to help, she really did.
"I'll need a roll-away for the night of the 31st in my room, then. The best we have since I'll be sleeping on it." She was going to give her dad her bed and sleep on that thing.
"More coffee," Kate announced and headed for the kitchen.
Jen made a call. "Amelia, we need a really thick twin size mattress. Kate plans on letting her dad have her bed while she sleeps on a roll-away."
"Great, we owe you." She hung up. "She has one at home she's going to bring with her tomorrow when she drops Bailey off." So that solved that problem.
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Kate was back with her coffee. "My dad's showing up around lunch so I need a ride to go get him, too."
"Already taken care of," Jen assured her.
"I don't know what I'd do without you guys." Kate had never met people so friendly in her life. Most everyone in New York City kept to themselves and even those that saw anything at all did so with blinders on and told the police nothing.
"So long as you move out here you'll never have to find out," was the response she got.
"Not until I solve something first and I need my other job to do that," Kate explained…again.
"Does it involve your boyfriend?" Melody asked her and promptly got kicked in the shin. "Ow!" She stared at her for that.
"My what?" Kate asked them.
"Nothing," Jen answered quickly.
"The one you were watching Forbidden Planet with and eating popcorn, when it actually landed in someone's mouth." At first Melody was teasing and then was afraid she'd opened her big mouth just a little too much.
"Oh." Kate had chosen really late at night to take over the TV room to have her date with Rick. Apparently if wasn't late enough. "I plead the 5th." She sipped her coffee.
"What else did you see?" Kate prayed they hadn't seen Rick just up and vanish since that was what he'd done to beat her back to their room so they could have sex.
"Nothing."
"Uh-huh." Kate wasn't buying it. They had also done a lot of kissing along with a little bit of wandering hands. "So much for watching a movie alone around this place."
"Who was the night shift that night?" Kate was going to give them a piece of her mind.
"I have no idea," Jen told her, lying through her teeth.
"Me, neither." Melody lied through her teeth just as easily.
"Right. You two are off my Christmas card list and getting a lump of coal in your stocking next year," Kate informed them.
"Oh no, not that." Melody was willing to talk and promptly got kicked in the shin yet again. "Ow!" She glared at Jen for kicking the very same spot.
Kate glared at both of them and went into her office and closed the door. "Rick."
Rick had heard every word. "We were spotted."
"Okay, take the gloves off. Do anything and everything you can think of and can get away with to those two until they talk. Just don't hurt them."
Rick was in. "I thought you'd never ask. Spying on us was so not gentlemanly. Even if it was a woman."
"Don't screw up our getting reservations, either. Besides those two things anything goes." Kate said and watched as he walked up to her.
"So this is the other Kate Beckett?" Rick questioned her but didn't give her a chance to say anything because he kissed her. Then he lifted her up and put her on her desk. He spread her legs and stepped in-between them while still kissing her.
Kate was barely breathing when he broke from that kiss. "Wow. After that kiss we may be up all night making love."
"Since you're putting your father in the same room as us I'm betting tonight will be the last time."
"Please don't say last time." Kate cradled his face in her hands and looked him in the eye. "I'm in too deep for it to be our last time."
"Sorry. I am going to fight to come back here if by some miracle you manage to solve it," Rick vowed. Kate kissed him again. But he knew Abigail had tried and had gotten nowhere.
"I'll solve it. I have to solve it." It wasn't lost on her that she had yet another murder case to solve because her heart was involved.
Kate really didn't want to let go of him. But being the owner was her job and she needed to be out there. "Back to work, I suppose." Except she didn't let go of him.
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Kate had one night and one day left before Rick would just vanish for eleven months. He would still be there since he was trapped there. She just wouldn't see him, hear him, or touch him again until next December.
"Babe, did Kyra suddenly hate you for any reason? Did her parents talk her into doing something?" Kate didn't like talking about a woman that he had loved at one time, but she needed to understand her.
Rick pulled Kate in tighter to him as they lay in bed. Only Kate mattered to him now. "We hadn't talked for about two days. Her parents had seen to that. They had tried for weeks but finally she stopped talking to me completely," he explained.
"So her parents were here longer than just a few hours," Kate said thoughtfully.
"Oh, yes. They never confronted me and ordered me away, or tried to physically keep me away. That was beneath their station. People like them didn't do anything physical. They hired people for that. Cooks, cleaners, lawn maintenance. They even had people cleaning their clothes and even their own shoes."
"Both of her parents hated you but would never of actually hit you?" Kate verified.
He shook his head. "No, that would have been beneath them. They would never have done such a thing. Maybe use their money to hire someone but I never saw such a person."
Kate moved on to the students. "Okay, so did Kyra have any friends besides you? Other girls in the school? Did any of the other girls not like seeing you two together? Was one of them jealous of what she thought you two had?"
Rick closed his eyes and tried to think. "Her friends were Mary…Scott, I think. Sarah…Morgan. There was one that I saw her parents talking to from time to time. Catherine Towner. At first I never really understood why they would want to talk to her. Then it occurred to me that they might be trying to hire her as part of their household. As one of their servants, I assumed. She was a rather ordinary girl. Nothing special that I recall. I think they tried to get her to go after me instead of their daughter. She was forever bringing me drinks. Fruit drinks, actually. A few almost had me gagging from the taste. A cook she was not."
Kate tried to think this through. "And you felt ill some days?"
"I was a photographer, remember. Ethyl ether, acetic or sulfuric acid, pyrogallic acid. The chemicals had to be mixed by hand and all too often in the dark in a tight and confined space. The vapors from the chemicals could easily make you sick. Being sick was nothing new depending on how many pictures I took and when the last one was."
He reconsidered his chosen profession. "If only I knew then what I know now. I would have been a painter. Or maybe not. Most of the masters were never masters until they were dead. None of them really made much money.
"Maybe that was what drove me to be a thief. I succumbed to the lure of easy money."
"No, more likely it was the chemicals. Alcohol has the same affect. You're no longer thinking straight. Harder drugs like cocaine or heroin work even faster and harder. It's just that those drugs are all addictive and cause serious damage to your body and your mind." Kate wasn't willing to believe that he was a simple thief.
"Drugs." Kate had an idea. "Did you take photographs while Kyra's parents were here?" She was formulating a theory.
"A few, why?" Rick didn't see any connection.
"Just thinking. I really need to find your body. You're sure you're here somewhere?" Kate asked him again.
"It's the last place I remember being. Why else would I be trapped here?"
"I need information. I'm going to need to know everything you know. No matter how small or useless you think it is. Maybe my dad has found something useful."
Kate only had one day left.