Donna Andrews - Chesapeake Crimes - This Job Is Murder!

“Mr. Cervantes promised he’d lock up yesterday after I left,” Mrs. Rudy protested, peeking around Katie, trying to get a closer view.

It took Katie a moment to remember that Mr. Cervantes was Bobby.

“Yes, well, I’m sure he meant to,” Chad said. “However, someone knocked him out before he had the chance.”

Before he could continue, Mrs. Rudy shoved past Chad, took several steps into the room, stopped short, and, much to Katie’s surprise, burst into tears. She hadn’t thought the woman was all that fond of Bobby, or anyone on their staff, for that matter. She’d never known Mrs. Rudy to show any emotion other than anger or condescension. But there she was, crying over one of the hotel’s employees. Katie put a comforting arm around the weeping woman and escorted her out of the room. For the first time, Katie felt a sense of connection with her client. Perhaps she had judged her too harshly before. Mrs. Rudy might even be-

“That’s my husband,” Mrs. Rudy sobbed as she accepted Chad’s handkerchief.

Katie gasped, comprehension dawning. “Your husband?” As she stared through the open door, she could see the police officers around the body. One of them was on his radio, the other crouched near the victim. “How can you tell?”

“That’s Lou’s toupee. I’d recognize it anywhere.” Mrs. Rudy collapsed into one of the chairs and laid her head on the table.

Katie stared at the body. Now that she focused on the hair, she could tell it was a toupee. Could you identify a body through its hairpiece, she wondered? “Excuse me, officers,” she called out.

One of them stepped out of the room to speak with her. “Yes, ma’am?”

“Two things. First of all, Mrs. Rudy believes she can identify your victim. And we have a potential witness waiting in the AV room.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” He gestured to the other officer to come join them. “We’ve contacted Homicide and the detectives should be here soon. I’ll go secure the potential witness. My partner can escort Mrs. Rudy to ID the victim.”

Before Katie could direct him to the AV room, a scream rent the air. Katie winced as Isadora Amaya, one of her banquet servers, ran out the door toward her, screeching. Katie gathered the hysterical young woman in her arms.

“How the hell did she get in there? I thought we secured these doors,” the first officer complained.

“Back door to the server’s hallway,” Katie explained. “So they can get in and out to serve during functions.” She turned her focus to the woman. “I’m so sorry, Isa. Easy, just breathe deeply. Come with me, and let’s get some tea.”

She escorted Isa to the break area, fetched her a cup of hot, generously sugared tea, then flagged down another server to escort Isa to the meeting office. Then Katie headed back to the ballroom to find out if the victim was, in fact, Mrs. Rudy’s husband. If it was, she felt sorry for him. She felt sorry for any man married to that-

Katie bit her lip and chastised herself for being so harsh. Mrs. Rudy was a widow now, after all. Additional wails coming from inside the ballroom seemed to confirm that fact.

Mrs. Rudy staggered back out, being supported by a police officer. She plopped into a chair by the sign-in table and wiped away her tears with Chad’s handkerchief. “Yes, that’s Lou,” she said. “I’m sorry. I usually don’t lose control like this. It’s just, it’s been a bad time for Lou and me. In fact, we’re in the process of getting a divorce.” She sniffled. “Well, we were in the process.”

Katie felt a surge of sympathy for the woman. Perhaps this was the reason she had been so hard to work with.

Mrs. Rudy turned to Katie. “I hope you’re not charging me for the tea you gave that waitress, Ms. Hawkins.”

The sympathy dried up. “You won’t be charged.” And it’s a banquet server, not a waitress.

“I can’t imagine why Lou was here,” Mrs. Rudy continued. “He doesn’t normally attend my meetings. That’s one reason we’re getting divorced. He refuses to support me in the projects that are so important to me.”

Katie waited to see if the police officer was going to ask more questions, but he seemed to be just guarding the door, waiting for Homicide. That didn’t mean she couldn’t ask questions.

“So.” Katie tried to sound more sympathetic than interrogative. “What did Lou…Mr. Rudy…your husband do?”

“He was an artist,” she sniffled. “A talented leather worker. Made purses, belts, vests.”

Katie nodded, wondering how an artist ended up married to such a demanding, anal person. She heard the elevator ding and looked over to see two men walking down the hallway toward them. Both men were striking. The shorter man was burly and deeply tanned and the other…well, Greek god came to Katie’s mind. Blond hair, blue eyes, broad shoulders. She noticed Chad checking out the hottie as well. She sighed. She and her boss had such similar taste in men. Even worse, from Katie’s point of view, Chad was four for five out of the men they’d both been attracted to. But what could she expect when she took a job in Mount Vernon, the Greenwich Village of Baltimore?

The blond held up his badge. “Detective Wertz.” Nodding to the man next to him, he continued. “And this is Detective Garcia.”

Katie caught Detective Garcia leering at her. Well, she reasoned, at least he’d be available, since he was ogling her and not Chad. Not that Katie was interested. Garcia’s leer repulsed her.

Katie offered a hand to Detective Wertz. “I’m Katie Hawkins, director of the hotel’s executive meeting center. This is Chad Bentley, the hotel’s general manager, and Mrs. Glenda Rudy, my client.” She panicked when she wondered if she should have introduced her client first. “Mrs. Rudy is also the wife of the victim.”

Neither detective seemed to react to that, so she decided to press on. “I’m the one who found the body this morning, at about 5:45. Chad came in about two minutes later. Mrs. Rudy showed up about ten minutes after that. We also discovered that someone attacked our banquet captain, Bobby, sorry, Roberto Cervantes, last night. Chad found him bound and gagged in the AV room.”

“Have either of you touched the body or altered anything?” Detective Wertz asked.

“Well, we tried to keep everyone out. I only had taken two or three steps inside when I first spotted the body, and I quickly backed out of the room. But then Mrs. Rudy thought she recognized her husband and walked in a few feet. And one of our banquet servers came in the back door and ran screaming through the room. I’m not sure if she, um, we…contaminated the scene.”

“Do you have surveillance cameras for this area?” the detective asked, scanning the room.

“Only at the elevators,” Chad answered. “Downstairs in our lobby and restaurant we have more cameras, but not on the other floors. Our customers prefer more privacy.”

Katie admired Chad’s clever explanation. He made the lack of cameras sound like a benefit, rather than the hotel’s reluctance to shell out money for additional security cameras.

“Mr. Bentley, we’ll need copies of the visuals from all the cameras in the vicinity,” Wertz said. “Now, we’d appreciate it if you could take Detective Garcia to speak with the banquet captain.”

After the two men left, Wertz turned to Mrs. Rudy. “Ma’am, if you could wait here for a moment, I’ll need to talk to you.”

After her nod, he walked over to the police officer on guard. “What do we have?”

Katie strained to hear and caught the words “vomiting, poison, nasty.” She had to agree with the latter. The body appeared to have voided itself completely, which had accounted for the smell.