Once the lights came on, Jenna walked around the room, photographing everything. “No signs of a struggle. If this was murder, then she knew her attacker.”
“I can’t see any defensive wounds, no blood in the water.” Kane frowned. “Nothing to point to an intruder at all.”
Jenna shrugged. “I’ll call Wolfe. I hope he’ll be able to come back. The service road was cleared at six, but I doubt his van will make it up here. Has he fitted a snowplow attachment to his truck?” She pulled out her phone.
“Yeah, we’ve all fitted them now.” Kane leaned against the wall. “It’s a must-have in winter these days.”
One of the maintenance crew popped his head around the door and waved at Jenna.
“The elevators are working.”
Jenna waved back. “Thanks. You can go. We’ll catch up with you later.” She called Wolfe using the satellite sleeve. She put her phone on speaker and explained the situation.
“I’m a little busy at the moment.” Wolfe cleared his throat. “Dave has a forensics kit with him. Collect samples of the bathwater. Bag the victim’s hands and hand it over to Emily. She’ll do a preliminary examination in situ. Then lay clean bedsheets on the floor and lif
t out the body. Wrap it well. If Kane doesn’t have a body bag in his kit, see if you can find some plastic, wrap it up, and take it outside. Store it in one of the sheds until I can get there.”
Frowning and a little confused, Jenna cleared her throat. Wolfe never made excuses. “Is something wrong?”
“Wrong? No but the road to the hospital is under a five-foot snowdrift. A snowplow is stuck under there somewhere and there’s no one available to pull it out until daylight—and Sandy is in labor. Jake is driving her to the morgue so I can deliver the twins. They should be here soon.”
Horrified, Jenna stared at Kane and caught his shocked expression. “The morgue? You have to be joking?”
“Nope, it’s going to be fine. I’m all set up in the visitors’ room. I’m not taking her in with the corpses. I’m not that insensitive, Jenna.” Wolfe let out a long sigh. “It’s me and here or Jake at home on his own, and as he often pukes at the first sight of blood, I’m a little skeptical of him being able to deliver twins. Leaving Sandy to cope on her own is nonnegotiable. I’m confident Emily can handle the body, and with you, Kane, and Rio to process the scene, you won’t need me until the morning. There’s no way I’m driving up the mountain tonight. The snow is thick on the ground everywhere. The snowplow on Main is running twenty-four hours. If it’s an emergency, maybe you can get one to clear the back road in the morning?” Footsteps on tile came through the earpiece. “I have to go. I can hear Jake’s truck pulling in.” He disconnected.
Trying to take in the enormity of the situation, Jenna stared at the screen of her phone and slowly looked at Kane’s astonished expression. “Well, gather the troops, but there’s no way I’m hauling a corpse out into a shed. The back road was cleared at six and you have a snowplow attachment on the truck. How do you feel about a trek down the mountain tonight, with a dead body in the Beast?”
“Not overly enthusiastic.” Kane rubbed his chin considering. “Emily will want to come with us and we can’t leave Julie here on her own and there’s no way Shane will want her exposed to a murder victim. I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t take her with us.”
Jenna pushed both hands through her hair and paced up and down. “Julie would be safe in her room. Rio is right next door. He can stay awake until we return.”
“Maybe, but I figure you’ll want to stay until the babies are born and that could take hours.” Kane frowned. “Then we’ll have to hope we can get back up the mountain. We can’t possibly expect Rio to catch a killer on his own.”
Mind spinning with all the complications, Jenna shook her head. “We know the time of death. I’ll ask the manager to make the CCTV footage of this floor available for us at once. We’ll be able to see who murdered her.”
“Then get Rio to go look at it now.” Kane headed for the door. “I’ll go, grab the forensics kit, and speak to the girls. I’ll need to make sure Julie will be safe while we’re away.”
Jenna eyed him with suspicion. “Hang on. What exactly do you mean by that?” She stopped pacing and glared at him. “Don’t you dare arm her. Not on my watch.”
“Not a handgun, no, but I will leave her my stun gun.” Kane had his combat face on again. “I taught her how to use it and you know darn well Shane has had them both on the practice range for years. They don’t own guns, but they sure as hell know how to use one safely. With an unpredictable murderer running around the lodge, I’m making a responsible decision to keep her safe.” The nerve in his cheek twitched. “She’s eighteen, Jenna, and I wouldn’t consider it if I didn’t believe her to be responsible.”
Jenna took out her phone and found Rio’s number. “Okay, but it’s on your head.” She watched him head toward the elevator. “Rio, where are you?”
“In the lobby. I took the girls back to their room and came back down to keep order. People are pretty riled up. The manager put on free hot chocolate for everyone, and things are settling down.” The noise around Rio was making it hard to hear him. “What caused the blackout?”
Jenna explained and asked Rio to check the CCTV footage. “Let me know what you find. Once we’re finished here, we’ll take the body down the mountain. Emily will be with us, so I’ll need you to stay in close contact with Julie. She won’t appreciate it if she thinks we’re watching over her, so be subtle, right?”
“Sure thing. My brother and sister are the same.” Rio chuckled. “They’re probably running riot while I’m not home. The housekeeper is more like a grandma to them. They respect her, so they should be fine. It’s not like they can go out right now and get into trouble.”
Jenna smiled. “Okay, get at it. With luck, you may crack the case tonight.” She disconnected and, tucking away her phone, peeled the sheets from the bed and took them into the bathroom. Her gaze moved over the poor woman in the tub. “Who did this to you?”
She headed back to the bedroom and collected the laptop and phone. Setting the laptop on the table in the sitting room, she opened it and smiled. It wasn’t password protected. She easily accessed Kitty Pandora’s social network and scanned the pages and comments. Nothing nasty there or of interest. Next, she opened the phone and it came straight on. Jenna couldn’t believe her luck and ran through all the recent messages, photographs, and calls. Most of the images were of the convention, selfies with various people. The information could be gold, and with everyone trapped in the hotel, she wouldn’t have to look far to question them. She heard footsteps and a rattle in the hallway, and Kane and Emily came into the room pushing a gurney. “Where did you find that?”
“There’s a first-aid room and a paramedic on staff. We borrowed it to move the body down to the Beast.” Kane tossed Jenna evidence bags. “I’ll handle the body with Em. Did you find anything of interest?”
Jenna nodded. “Yeah, I’ll bag everything and we can go over it later.” She looked at Emily. “Are you good to go?”
“Yeah, I’ve worked alongside Dad so many times, I know the drill.” Emily followed Kane into the bathroom and then paused. “Any news about the babies?”