The burnt orange sunrise

CHAPTER 15

“Eight ball in the side pocket,” Mitch announced as he proceeded to sink it. “That’s game.”

“Yet again,” Aaron grumbled sourly. “This means I must owe you… how much do I owe you now?”

“Well, you’d climbed your way up to a hundred sixty dollars. Double or nothing makes it three hundred twenty, unless my basic math skills went out the window when I got whacked on the head.” Actually, he felt fine, aside from the steady ache. “Mind you, that’s only if we’re playing for real money.”

“Oh, we are,” Aaron assured him, shooting a nervous glance over at Carly and Hannah, who were seated in charged silence together before a kerosene heater. The two women in Aaron Ackerman’s life were behaving very snappishly toward each other. Clearly, Aaron was concerned that a full-fledged bitchfest was about to break out.

Spence, seemingly unaware of the tension, sat there with them while he waited hungrily for Jory to bring out a fresh supply of sandwiches from the kitchen. Des was apparently asking her some follow-up questions while she made them. Mitch didn’t know what about. He did know that he sure could go for one or more sandwiches himself.

“I pay my honest debts,” Aaron insisted, opening his wallet.

“Whatever you say, Aaron.”

“But I’m afraid I’ll have to write you a check,” he apologized, beating a hasty retreat. “I don’t have nearly that much cash on me.”

Over at the bar, Teddy let out a mocking laugh.

“Have you got something on your mind, Teddy?” Aaron demanded.

“Hardly ever,” Teddy replied, sipping his Scotch. “And when I do it usually turns out to be a dreadful idea.”

“Therein lies the secret to your success, or lack thereof,” Aaron said unpleasantly. “How about one more game, Mitch? Double or nothing?”

“Rack ’em up.” Mitch moseyed over to the bar, where Isabella lay on her back with her paws in the air, yearning for a belly rub. Mitch complied, missing Clemmie and Quirt.

Over by the window, Jase continued to stare anxiously out at the dozens of trees that had come down. Which was all he’d been doing ever since Mitch had dragged him back in, per Des’s orders. Jase hadn’t wanted to come back in. There was much work to be done, and he’d been thrilled to be out there, doing some of it. Mitch had never seen anyone have quite so much fun plowing a parking lot before. But standing there now in his wool checked shirt, stocking cap pulled low over his eyebrows, Jase seemed caged and agitated. His right knee was jiggling.

“Your break, Mitch.” Aaron had finished racking the balls.

“Blue sky,” Jase said suddenly, hunched there at the window.

Mitch went and joined him for a look. In the western sky out beyond the Connecticut River, he could make out breaks in the clouds and actual patches of blue. At long last, the storm was passing. “We did it,” he exclaimed. “We survived.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” exulted Carly. “Maybe we can actually get out of this awful place. I want to be home”

“I’d settle for a hot shower,” Hannah said, shivering.

“What’s that?” Carly snapped at her. “What did you just say?”

“I’ve never been so cold in my whole life,” Hannah answered sharply. “I feel like every bone in my body is about to shatter. I will never be this cold again, I swear. As far as I’m concerned, this settles it.”

“Settles what?” asked Aaron, arching an eyebrow at her.

“I’m moving back to Los Angeles.”

“Oh, are you now?” Carly said, well aware that they were talking about something more than Hannah’s weather preferences.

“This is rather sudden, is it not?” Aaron was caught off guard, and flustered.

“I’m making the move.” Hannah’s voice was filled with resolve. “I’m packing my bags as fast as I can, gassing up my clunker and going.”

“What will you do for work out there?” Aaron’s own voice had taken on a rather unappealing whiny tone.

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Hannah replied. “I’ll sling beers at a bowling alley in Pacoima if I have to. Just as long as I’m warm. Anything is better than this.”

“Your mind’s objectively made up?” Aaron pressed her, as Carly glared right at him.

“All made up,” said Hannah, effectively slamming the door shut on whatever it was that the two of them had together.

“Hannah, I hope you won’t give up on your dream to make a film about Ada,” Mitch said. “You’ve got so much talent, and she’s such a great subject.”

“She’s also dead,” Hannah pointed out. “I needed on-camera face time with her, Mitch. She was the last of her generation. Her contemporaries are all dead and buried. With her gone, I have no one to put on film. Where’s my documentary?”

“Who says it has to be a documentary?”

Hannah widened her eyes at him. “I should write her life story as a bio-pic, is that what you’re saying?”

“Why not? She led one hell of a life, and it’s a great part for the right actress.”

“It’s an Oscar part, are you kidding me?” Hannah said excitedly. “Nicole Kidman could play the hell out of her, or Cate Blanchett or, God, Streep. There’s Ada young, Ada old. There’s triumph, tragedy… Wow, Mitch, you’ve really given me something to think about on my long drive west. Thanks.”

“No problem. And if all else fails, you’d make a great nurse.”

“Not a chance. I hate hospitals.”

“I’m staying right here,” Spence announced emphatically. “Not here as in Astrid’s Castle,” he explained, on their blank stares. “Here in New York.”

“What about your promotion to the Coast?” Hannah asked him.

“I’m turning it down.”

“Spence, what are you talking about?” she demanded. “That job is everything you’ve been working toward for years. You’re about to become a heavy hitter. What are you, crazy?”

“No, totally sane,” Spence said, grinning at her. “It just so happens my priorities have come into acute focus over the past twenty-four hours, and Panorama Studios isn’t one of them. But, listen, I’ll put in a good word for you before my name turns to total poop. If you decide to pitch them that idea about Ada, I mean.”

“That would be awfully nice of you, Spence,” she said gratefully.

“No problem. Friends help friends out.”

Mitch went back over to the pool table and broke, thinking about how bizarre this all seemed-Hannah and Spence sitting there chatting about their futures as if nothing unusual had just happened. As if no one had been murdered. As if no one’s future plans actually consisted of life in prison without chance of parole. Because somebody in this castle, in this very room, was a killer.

But who?

Mitch sank the nine ball with his break and went to work on the table as Teddy sat there at the bar, sipping his Scotch, lost in his thoughts.

Aaron was caught up in some thoughts of his own. “Spence, what were you and Des talking about upstairs?”

“Personal things.”

“What sort of personal things?”

“The sort that are none of your damned business,” Spence said to him abruptly. “That’s what makes them personal.”

Jase turned away from the window to look at Spence curiously. Actually, they were all looking at Spence curiously. Except for Isabella, who had fallen asleep.

“Spence, it so happens that this is my business,” Aaron informed him loftily. “It’s my family that’s dying here. It’s my castle.”

“Well, I’m not yours,” Spence shot back. “So shut the hell up before I take a swing at you, you pompous boob.”

“I’ve got twenty bucks on the blond guy,” Teddy jumped in eagerly.

“Teddy, you are not helping,” Carly chided him. “And neither are you, Acky. Calm down, and kindly lose your new lord-of-the-manor act before I take a swing at you myself.”

“You’re right, you’re right.” Aaron immediately backed down, chastened. “I apologize, Spence. I’m merely upset. I want to know what’s going on.”

“We all do, kiddo,” Teddy said.

“Nobody knows,” Carly said, swallowing. “Except for the person who did this, that is.”

“A condition which I find completely unacceptable,” Aaron said.

“It’s strictly a temporary condition,” Mitch assured him, dropping the eleven ball in a corner pocket. He still hadn’t yielded the shot to Aaron yet. If nothing else, this was turning into a very profitable winter storm. “Des will get to the bottom of this soon enough.”

“You sound awfully confident,” Aaron said.

“I am. I believe in her.”

“How will Des get to the bottom of this?” Teddy wondered.

“By being smarter than the average bear, that’s how,” Mitch replied. “She’ll lick this. And her reinforcements from the Major Crime Squad will be landing here before you know it. If they have to, they’ll analyze every single hair and fiber of clothing in Ada’s room until they find what they need. Which they will. Whoever did this can’t go anywhere. So just try to relax. Let the professionals handle it.”

“Mitch is totally right,” Spence said. “And speaking for myself, I am totally starved. I may have to eat my shoe if Jory doesn’t get in here soon with those sandwiches.”

“She should be back by now,” Jase said fretfully. “What’s taking her so long?”

“She’s talking to Des,” Mitch reminded him. “She’s okay, Jase.”

“What if she’s not?” Jase had started pacing around the taproom, scratching furiously at his beard.

“As long as she’s with Des, she’ll be perfectly safe,” Mitch said.

“No, she won’t!” Jase moaned. He was over by the fireplace now, wringing his hands, breathing heavily.

And they were all studying him in guarded silence.

“Why not, Jase?” Mitch asked.

Jase didn’t answer. Just paced in anxious silence, scratching at his beard so hard it was almost as if he wanted to tear it from his face.

“Jase, is there something you want to tell us?” Mitch pressed him gently. “Do you know something?”

“She knows.” He was over behind the bar now. “Des knows.”

“Knows what, Jase? What does Des know?”

“That… that…” Jase let out a strangled sob, then lunged suddenly for something that was stashed under the bar.

It was a handgun.

And he was pointing it at them, his eyes bright and wild.

“Oh, I don’t believe this,” Carly groaned.

“Y-You just shut up!” he stammered, aiming the gun right at her. “I know all about w-what you think of me. And you can just shut up. I… I run things now!”

“Sure, you do, Jase.” Mitch could feel his heart begin to race. And his mouth was very dry. “Just take it easy. We’re all friends here.”

“Bullshit!” Jase cried out. “We are not friends!”

“Is that thing loaded?” Aaron inquired. “Do we know for an actual fact that it’s loaded?”

“It sure is,” Teddy said. “No point in keeping it there if it’s not.”

Mitch frowned at Teddy. “You knew it was there?”

“Les bought it last year after he was held up in here by a pair of drunken louts from Rhode Island. It’s a Smith and Wesson, I believe he said. A thirty-eight.”

“You knew it was there?” Mitch repeated in disbelief. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“It’s no use, Mitch,” Teddy replied with a vague wave of his hand. “I’m no good at the responsibility thing.”

“And that’s supposed to make it okay?” Aaron roared at him. “The fact that you’re a nitwit?”

“Why are you yelling at me?” Teddy protested. “He’s the one with the gun.”

“God, shut up, shut up, shut up!” Jase screamed at them. “All of you just… shut… up!”

They went silent, all eyes on the emotionally fragile young caretaker who was standing there behind the bar with the loaded thirty-eight.

“What’s going on, Jase?” Mitch asked him, trying to keep his voice calm.

“I’m the boss of you now, that’s what,” Jase said toughly as he edged his way out from behind the bar, waving the gun at them as if it were something alive, something he could barely restrain. “And I’m tired of being pushed around.”

“Nobody’s pushing you, man,” Spence said. “Just chill out and put down the gun.”

“He’s right, Jase,” Mitch agreed. “Let’s not lose our cool here.”

“I’m not losing anything,” Jase argued. “Mitch, put your hands behind your head right now. Go on, do it.”

Mitch obliged him, making no sudden moves. He did not want to stampede him into firing that gun.

“Now take me to Jory,” Jase ordered him. “Jory needs me.”

“I can definitely do that, Jase,” Mitch said. “But are you absolutely sure this is what you want to do? Because once we walk out of this room together, there’s no going back.”

“Hell, yeah, I’m sure.” Jase gave him a hard shove toward the taproom doorway, jabbing him in the back with the nose of the thirty-eight. “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life. Let’s go.”