When lunch arrived, they were still quiet. Jean ate, her appetite returned, but the others just stared at their plates.

“What are the police doing?” Gail asked.

Jean shook her head. “All the usual things, I suspect. But it’s a hotel gym, there’ll be a ton of fingerprints, so I don’t suspect that will be of very much use.” She broke off a piece of roll and buttered it. “Then there’s the fact that he talked to just about everyone at the reunion last night. I’ll bet the police are going to want to talk to everyone.”

“How do you know all this?” Norm stared at her from across the table. “You part-time police or something?”

“Well.” Jean finished her bite of roll and washed it down with the last of her wine. “The last two years, since I moved to Greyson, I seem to have become a dead-body whisperer. I’ve found three, well, now, four, so far.”

Gail’s hand slowly covered her mouth.

Fletcher put down his fork. “No shit! That’s…”

“Weird,” Norm finished for Fletcher. “How does that happen?”

With some reluctance, Jean gave them an abbreviated version of the murders. “So, that’s how I know what the police do.”

The waitress came by as Gail, Norm and Fletcher processed that information. “Can I take away some of these plates?”

Everyone nodded. She gathered up plates and stacked them. “Can I bring you all dessert? Crème Brulee is the day’s special.”

Jean was tempted. She hadn’t had crème brulee in years. “None for me, thank you.”

The others declined as well.

“I’ll bring the checks then.” She turned and left.

“Holy crap, Jean.” Fletcher wiped his mouth after he drank the last of his beer. “An amateur detective! Any idea whodunit?”

“No. Like I said last night, I never did hear what he’s doing now with any particulars. There’s no way to know who hated him enough to kill him.” Jean played with her empty wine glass and sighed. “Are you going back to the hotel? I could use a ride.”

“Sure. I’ve got a rental car.” Norm slid his chair back from the table. “Let’s pay up and get out of here. I think some pool time is in order.”

Jean nodded. Getting out into the clean sunshine seemed like exactly the right thing to do.

#

When they got back to the hotel, Jean noticed a message light flashing on her room phone. It was from the police. They wanted everyone to appear in the Twilight Room of the hotel to be interviewed. Jean slumped. She really wanted to go hang by the pool. Instead, she left and went down to the designated room. There were forty people there already. She checked in with the officer at a table just inside the door and went to sit down. Most of them hadn’t heard about the murder until this afternoon and while sad about Justin, annoyed that their plans had been interrupted.

“Wholly crap,” a guy Jean didn’t know said. “How long is this going to take. I didn’t even know the guy.”

“Then tell them that,” the woman sitting next to him said. “You’ll be out of here in no time.”

Jean had to agree, she thought as she took a seat in the row behind them. Most everyone was on their phones, checking email or something, Jean guessed. She watched as a woman came out from behind the screens set up at the back of the room. She looked annoyed as she went out. Gail checked in at the table and came to sit with Jean. Norm and Fletcher came in a couple of minutes later. They took the last chairs on the first row. Norm was one who pulled out his phone. Work, Jean thought. He said his job keeps him hopping.

“What do I tell them?” Gail asked. “I’ve never been questioned by the police before.”

Jean smiled to herself. She wished she could say the same thing. “Just tell them the answer to what they ask.”

Gail picked nervously at her cuticles. “I suppose.”

The man in front of Jean was called to the back. It went surprisingly quickly, Jean thought as people left and more were called in. It wouldn’t take long if the people didn’t know him and didn’t talk to him. She stood up as an officer called her name, and went to the back.

Behind the screen was the officer who called her, Detective Voberg, and another plainclothes officer.

“Ms. Hays,” Voberg said as she waved Jean to the chair on the other side of the table from her. “I’m sorry to bring you in again, but it just seemed prudent to do so since we were bringing in all the other unit members.” She indicated the plainclothes officer beside her. This is my partner, Detective Blackstone.”

“Detectives,” Jean said as she sat down. She took a deep breath and waited. Blackstone was a little overweight and, Jean thought, a bit unkempt. He wore a rumpled brown suit and a white shirt that needed a strong wash in bleach. His tie had what looked like spaghetti sauce on it. A polar opposite to his elegant partner.

“Walk us through the morning again, Ms. Hays,” Blackstone said.

Jean described everything she did and saw for the benefit of Blackstone, who took periodic notes.

“And you talked to him the previous night?” Blackstone asked.

“I did, but as I told Detective Voberg this morning, I never heard what he’s been doing since he retired from the Army.”

He nodded. “And how did you know him in Afghanistan?”

Good question, Jean thought. “I was a project manager. I worked with Supply quite often to get the materials we needed for our projects. I worked with him and a young airman, Gail Amendola.”

“Where’s this Amendola?”

“She’s outside, waiting her turn.”

“So, she came to the reunion, too?” Blackstone asked.

“Yes.”

“They ever have any trouble with each other?”

Jean shook her head. “Not that I ever heard. He was her supervisor. As far as I know they got along just fine.”

Blackstone nodded and jotted notes.

Jean sighed. At least there were a couple of new questions this time.

Blackstone looked up at her sigh and studied her. “Anything else you want to say?”

Jean had thought of something while she sat waiting. Would they be ticked off if she asked?

“I see you want to say something, Ms. Hays.” Detective Voberg gave her a little smile. “Go ahead.”

“Well, I was thinking.” Jean licked her lips. “Justin was barefoot and in his boxers. That seems to me that he was killed somewhere else and dropped in the sauna. But that doesn’t make any sense.” She watched as their faces went blank. “If Justin was in his room when he was killed, why not just leave him there and put a do not disturb sign on his door. It would be days before he’d be found. In the sauna, he was found, well, relatively right away.”

Blackstone took a note. “Interesting theory, Ms. Hays. Let’s leave the detecting to us. Okay?”

Pretty much the response she’d expected. “Yes, sir.”

He eyed her. “I mean it.”

Jean nodded. Same thing Nick always said. “I understand.”

Detective Voberg raised a well-groomed eyebrow. “You can go now.”

Jean stood up. “Good luck, detectives.” She left, gave Gail a little wave as she left and went up to her room. It was definitely time for the pool.

She found a lounge chair empty but in full sun. A waiter walked by. “Excuse me. Could I get a pinot grigio, a bottle of water, and an umbrella?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He moved off.

She set herself up on the lounge and began applying sun screen. It was the hottest part of the day and the sun was scorching. There was no need to get fried crisp. By the time she’d finished, the waiter brought her wine and water. Behind him trailed a man in hotel uniform with an umbrella. He set it up quickly, providing her with shade. She pulled two dollars from her tote bag and gave it to him. She gave the waiter two dollars as well. “Thank you both.” They nodded and left.

Jean lay back on the lounge and pulled her book out of her tote and opened it up to her book mark. She was four chapters in when Gail stopped by. “Hey.”

Jean looked up and smiled. “Hey yourself. I see you survived.”

Gail sat on the end of Jean’s lounge. “Yeah. I was really nervous, but the detectives were very nice.” She looked around. “You mind if I pull a lounge over beside you?”

“Nope, go ahead.”

It took a few minutes for her to find a lounge and get the same guy who brought Jean’s umbrella to bring it over. “Would you like an umbrella, too?”

“Yes. Thank you. That would be nice.” She put her bag down just as the waiter came by. “A drink, Miss?”

“Water,” she looked at the table beside Jean, “and a water glass with half merlot and half club soda, full of ice.”

He nodded and left.

“You know it’ll be a plastic glass. They don’t like actual glass around the pool, in case it breaks.”

“Makes sense.” Gail slathered on her sunscreen and sat down just as the two men came and set up her umbrella and brought her drink. “Thank you!” She pulled cash out and tipped the men. Then settled into her lounge. “Oh, this is nice. I don’t get to do this often enough.”

“So where are you stationed?” Jean asked.

“Right here at Nellis. It’s a really small base and to be honest, most of the supplies the base orders are for the hospital.”

“Really? I saw jets.”

“Yeah, there’s a flight line and it’s a training base. Pilots come and go all the time.”

“You think you’ll retire here?”

“No.” Gail shook her head. “It’s too dry and dusty. What’s it like where you are?”

“I live in the mountains so it’s not like here. But it’s still dry and dusty but there are ponderosa pine trees and year-round streams if you know where to find them. I do a lot of hiking. We even get some snow in the winter.”

“That sounds nice.”

“It is, but it’s kind of a depressed area. Not a lot of work. It’s popular with the retiree set.” Jean waved her hand. “Small town living.”

“Probably not a good fit for me, then. I’ll have to work for a while yet.”

Fletcher and Norm walked up. “You ladies mind if we spread our towels out here? We promise not to get in the way.”

“Sure,” Jean and Gail said at the same time. They both laughed. The guys spread out their towels and both jumped into the deep end of the pool. After a couple of laps, they came out and sat on their towels. The waiter came by and offered drinks which they ordered.

“That was grueling in there,” Norm said as the waiter left. “I don’t think that Blackstone guy liked me very much.”

Jean’s interest piqued. “How’s that?”

“He seemed hard-nosed. Wanted to know where I was last night. Where I was early this morning. What I knew about Justin.”

“Sounds like the usual questions,” Jean said.

“Maybe it was his tone of voice.” Norm flopped back onto his towel.

“What about you, Fletch,” Gail asked. “The detectives seem mean to you?”

“Nah.” Fletcher ran his hands through his wet hair, pulling it all back and pushing water out of it. “I had the same questions. I just told them what I knew.”

“They asked me about my relationship with him in Afghanistan.” Jean watched Fletch.

“Yeah, me too. I just told them that I did the unit security checks. Justin was the supervisor.” He shrugged. “That’s it.”

The waiter brought the men’s drinks, checked the lady’s drinks and left. Jean watched some kids playing in the shallow end of the pool, shouting ‘Marco, Polo, Marco, Polo’. It’d been a long time since her Jim had played that game with his friends.

Her attention was brought back when Norm said, “Who would have killed Justin? Does it make any sense to anyone?”

“Not to me,” Gail said. “I mean, I thought we’d left all of that behind us.”

Jean sat up. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, killing. Sheesh! The IEDs, the murders on the streets, all of it.” Gail flapped her hands helplessly. “It sucked there. Now it feels like it sucks here, too.”

“Jean,” Fletcher said. “They ask you about the body? Any thoughts on what happened?”

“No. They were keeping all of their information close to the vest. If they know or knew anything at all, they weren’t in the sharing mood.”

“Well I asked. Right out. How’d he die?”

Jean sat forward. “And?”

“They said they couldn’t release that information at this time.”

Jean chuckled. “Sounds about right.”

Fletcher leaned back on his elbows. “Well, I’d like to know.”

“Don’t we all,” Jean said. “Don’t we all.”

Next Chapter: Chapter Six