Hudson: SEALs of Honor Book 27 Page 5

  He thought about it, then pulled out his phone, flicked through it to get to the pictures, then handed his cell to her.

  “Oh my goodness,” she gasped in horror. “Wait.” She stopped in her tracks. “He’s been shot.”

  “Yep,” Hudson said, “and that’s one of the two military-looking men who I saw at the elevators and again on the fourth floor.”

  She turned to look up at him. “Oh my,” she said. “Do you think the one killed the other?”

  “I don’t know what to think,” he said. “It’s easy to jump to that conclusion, but we don’t know that for sure.”

  “Has anybody found the other man?”

  “That’s the thing. I don’t know. And Dennis isn’t exactly forthcoming with information.” He also told her about the pyro he had caught and had dragged over to Dennis.

  “Wow,” she said, shaking her head, as they slowly moved down the street. But the atmosphere had taken on a different turn. Her mind spun with possibilities. And then a horrible one came to the forefront. “You don’t suppose that’s what it was all about, do you?”

  “All what was about?” he asked.

  “Do you think the explosion, the fire, or whatever, was to hide this guy’s death?”

  “It’s possible,” he said. “His murderer may have expected a bigger explosion or a bigger fire, so destroying the evidence of the body didn’t come to pass. So, because I was there and took that picture, we do know that a murder took place.”

  “The fire. … The building’s still burning, isn’t it?”

  “It is, but it’s under control at this point.”

  “But, if it wasn’t under control, wouldn’t it have made sense that it would have consumed that room too?”

  “It’s quite possible,” he said. “An awful lot of things go into a fire taking over like that. It depends on the building codes, the fire standards, the sprinkler systems, that sort of thing. In a newer facility like that hotel, they were pretty up-to-date. That stuff can keep a fire pretty localized.”

  “But maybe the killer didn’t know any of that.”

  “It’s possible,” he admitted. “We just don’t have any answers yet.”

  “Did you tell Dennis about him?”

  “Of course I did.” He hesitated and then brought up the second photo. The one of the old man. “Do you know this man?”

  She looked at it and sighed. “No, I don’t, but I feel sad already. The poor old guy. I presume this was a heart attack?”

  “I don’t know what it was,” he said. “I did check for a pulse, found no signs of life. But also no obvious sign of a cause of death either.”

  “Well, a heart attack under the circumstances would be completely plausible.”

  “Yes,” he said, “quite. As well as smoke inhalation too.”

  “But you’re not sure.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Just something off in your tone.”

  He laughed. “I’ll have to watch my tone then, won’t I?”

  “Won’t help as I know you pretty well anyway,” she said.

  “Too well apparently.”

  “Does it bother you?” she asked, after a moment.

  “Does what bother me?” he countered.

  She sighed. “Does it bother you that I know you so well that I can tell when something’s bothering you?”

  He thought for a moment, then shrugged. “No, I think that’s what happens when you’ve been friends as long as we have been.”

  “True,” she said. “Anyway, I’m sure they’ll find out what happened to him.”

  “They will. There’ll be an autopsy for sure,” he said. Just then his phone rang. He looked down at the strange number, and, when he answered it, it was Dennis.

  “Hey,” he said. “So what rooms did you see these two bodies in?” he asked.

  “I already told you.”

  “Yep, you did,” he said, “and, when the firemen went into the one room, they found no body.”

  Hudson froze in his tracks. “What?”

  “Yep, you heard me.”

  “And you also saw the photos,” he said.

  “Oh, I know. Believe me. I know. Right now everybody is trying to figure out what the hell’s going on. I have to admit that a few people are wondering what your game is.”

  “I’m not playing a game here,” he said quietly.

  She looked at him in surprise, not liking the way the conversation was going, and took the phone from his hand to put in on Speaker. “Dennis, what’s going on? You know this guy. He’s good. He wouldn’t have lied about something like this.”

  “Of course he wouldn’t have lied,” Dennis said carefully. “But the fact of the matter is, he showed us pictures of two dead men, supposedly from the hotel which was just attacked, and yet, once we finally get inside, and no dead body is in the one room.”

  “The military-looking guy, right?” Hudson asked Dennis.

  “Yeah.”

  “Then obviously somebody’s removed it,” she said. “Surely some first responder from a different team went in and got the body.”

  “No,” he said, “they didn’t.”

  “Which means,” Hudson said in a harsh voice, “somebody removed him before your guys got there.”

  “Well, that would make sense if that were the case, but we don’t know why anybody would have done that.”

  “Well, the only reason they would have done that is to avoid detection.”

  She winced and gently stroked his forearm. “Easy,” she said, “nobody’s accusing you of anything.”

  “Well, his tone of voice definitely puts me on edge,” Hudson said, loud enough for Dennis to hear. “Because the fact of the matter is, I am the one who saw those bodies. No, I didn’t carry them out. That wasn’t part of the plan at the time. There was nothing I could do for them, and the fact that they’ve gone missing is also not my fault.”

  She winced, hearing the anger in Hudson’s tone. “Dennis, you’re not actually thinking Hudson had something to do with this, are you?”

  “No, I’m not,” he said, quickly backtracking. “It’s just that we’re trying to figure out what’s going on with those two bodies in particular.”

  “What do you mean by in particular?” he said. “Did you find other bodies?”

  “One. A hotel staff employee.”

  “And where was it found?”

  “In the hotel stairwell. Looks like the blast caught him.”

  “I wonder about that,” he said.

  “What do you mean by that?” she asked him curiously.

  “I just wonder if he saw something that he shouldn’t have,” he muttered.

  “And that’s possible too,” Dennis added. “His neck was at an odd angle. Even though there was some fire damage, it’s obvious he had a broken neck.”

  “But that could have been from a fall down the stairs,” she argued.

  “It could have been. We’ll have to wait for the autopsy. But you also have to understand that broken necks and falls down stairs often happen with help from somebody else.”

  She gasped, as she realized the implication. “Oh, wow,” she said. “This town isn’t exactly what I thought it was.”

  Dennis laughed. “It’s exactly what you thought it was. It’s a lazy resort town. We get everybody in here, not just the people who live here year-round. So we get a lot of unsavory people coming to visit.”

  “True,” she said. “Does any of this have anything to do with the convention that’ll now be canceled?”

  “I’m not sure if it’s being canceled or not,” Dennis said. “I heard they’re scrambling to set it up over at one of the big town halls.”

  “Wow,” she said. “I mean, if that’s what they want, then why not? But what a logistics nightmare.”

  “I think it’s a case of what will work to make this happen. Handing back all that money will be painful for everybody. The hotel’ll try to get accommodations for them elsewhere. Half of
the hotel is still livable, but we don’t know if the fire warden will allow anybody to stay there.”

  “Right,” she said. “There’ll also be a full investigation. The last thing they want is several hundred people in the way.”

  “Exactly,” Dennis murmured. Finally there was silence on the other end.

  “Well, Dennis,” she said, “now that you know Hudson’s got nothing to do with this, we’re heading for dinner. You know you can always get a hold of us again.”

  “And I will,” he said, with more force than necessary. With that, he hung up.

  Hudson pocketed his phone and shook his head.

  “Does trouble always follow you?” she asked curiously. He glared at her. She smiled and said, “Yeah, I get it. I’m just teasing. This isn’t your fault.”

  “Nope, it sure isn’t,” he said. “And, yes, to a certain extent, trouble does follow me.”

  She laughed, and they continued walking. “Gosh, it’s a beautiful evening,” she murmured. “Hard to imagine that so much evil is around.”

  “It’s always there, just under the surface,” he said, “and, whenever it rears its ugly head, it’s all we can do to chop it off.”

  “I like that,” she said. “It’s a good analogy, I mean.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know about good, but it’s the way I feel.”

  “But that’s also why you do the work you do, isn’t it?” she murmured.

  “Absolutely.”

  “Then you’re doing what you need to do, and, when you’re ready to make a change, you’ll do something else in that realm of what you need to do. But, until then, you’ll keep lopping off heads.”

  He burst out laughing. “I’m not sure how that’ll look on a job application,” he said.

  “That’s okay,” she said, with a wiser tone than she would have thought possible. “There’ll always be a need for people like you.”

  “True,” he said, “but it’s hard to say what shape or form that will take in another five years or so.”

  She tucked her arm closer to his. “Do you think about her at all?” Her question came out of the blue and was such an abrupt change of topic that it shocked even her.

  His eyebrows shot up, as he looked at Avery. “Delilah?”

  “Yeah,” she said, with a shrug. “I mean, I do obviously. She’s family. But …” And her voice trailed off.

  “I do. I think of her often. I think of her with a lot of smiles. Remembering the good times. I’m sorry for her. For what she lost,” he said. “She deserved to have a lot more years ahead of her, and they were taken from her,” he murmured. “But I don’t think of her with that raw grief or sadness anymore.”

  “That’s a good thing,” she said. “I’m the same. I mean, we come to terms with it because we have to, and it just makes us feel that much better to know she’s in a better place and that we can move on, so that every time we hear her name mentioned it doesn’t bring us to tears.”

  “Exactly,” he said. “And I don’t know where she and I would have ended up over time. It’s easy to think we would have been a perfect match, but I don’t know. We were very different people back then. We were so young.”

  “I know, right?” she said. “And the thing is, that opportunity isn’t there anymore.”

  “Exactly.” He looked at her. “How’s your family doing with it all? Losing your sister was hard on everyone.”

  “They’ve adjusted, but, for my mother, it’ll always be a big hole in her heart.”

  “Understandable,” he said. “To a certain extent, that’s true for my heart too, and yours, but I also know that it’s done. I can’t change the past, and I can’t do anything but move forward.”

  She nodded. “But you’re not really though, are you? Moving forward, I mean.”

  “In what way?” he asked, exasperation in his voice.

  “Well, like you said, you haven’t had a serious relationship since.”

  “No, I haven’t, but you and me and Delilah grew up together. How many people do you know that you can say that about?” She gave him a head nod and a one-arm shrug. “Yet, at the same time,” he said, “I’ve certainly had relationships. I just haven’t found anybody special yet. And why all the inquisition?”

  “I’m just wondering if you’re ready to move on,” she said.

  “I am,” he said quietly. “I’ve thought about it a lot. I definitely am.”

  She squeezed his arm. “Good,” she said, “then I feel better about you.”

  “So now let’s turn the spotlight on you,” he said. “How come you haven’t moved on?”

  “I have,” she said. “Besides, I can’t get another sister.”

  He laughed. “Nope, you sure can’t.”

  As they got to the restaurant, she looked up and smiled. “It’s one of the best places in town for seafood.”

  “You don’t think of it when you’re up in a mountain resort,” he said. “And yet you know in a resort town they offer you the best of everything.”

  “They do, indeed.” They walked into the restaurant and waited to be seated. A romantic evening atmosphere had taken over with the ambient lights, the linen tablecloths, and the subtle whispers. “I feel like I’m not quite dressed right for this place,” he said drily.

  She nodded. “That’s how I felt the first time I came here too, but they’re not snobs.”

  “Are you sure?” As he looked at several other patrons, they were obviously dressed up and here for a nice evening out.

  “I’m sure,” she said. And moments later the maître d’ approached and took them to a very intimate table in the far corner.

  Hudson sat down and thanked him. “It’s a lovely spot.” He had just enough of a view of the garden to make him happy. As she took her place across from him, he asked, “How often have you been here?”

  “A couple times,” she said, “with a few dates who didn’t work out.”

  “Ah, right. We’re back to that whole what-are-we-doing-with-our-life thing.”

  “Well, you did mention something, and then we got interrupted,” she said delicately.

  He looked up and frowned. “What was that?”

  “Well, you asked why we’ve never gotten together.”

  “Yeah.” He crossed his arms, leaning forward on the table. “Why do you suppose we haven’t?”

  “Well, for the longest time, I figured it was because you just weren’t ready.”

  “Sure, way back when,” he said. “And, for the longest time, I figured it was because you were her sister.”

  She slowly nodded. “That makes sense too. I didn’t want you looking at me to only see her. But still, there’s got to be a reason why we continue to see each other.”

  “Maybe it’s because we like each other,” he said, with an arch of his brow.

  She grinned. “We do, and that’s why we’re having this conversation.”

  “If you say so,” he said, with a laugh. “I’m not exactly sure where we’re at and what we’re doing here.”

  “I know. Me either. So why did you come?” she challenged.

  “To see you,” he said instantly.

  She smiled. “See? That’s what I like—straight answers. So do you like me enough to take this to the next step? Or are we just friends?”

  He winced at that. “I friend-zoned you a long time ago, didn’t I?”

  She nodded slowly. “It’s not a term I hear all that often,” she said.

  “My boss actually used it,” he replied, staring around at the restaurant.

  “Interesting, but yes. I was the sister of the woman you loved. I was the, … the reminder of all you’d lost.”

  He tilted his head. “You were also the reminder of all that was good.”

  “But also having my sister die is not exactly a good way for me to be in your life.”

  “Except that we were all friends, long before we lost Delilah,” he said, with a little more force than necessary.

  “We were, an
d we still are,” she said quietly, “and I like that. I really do.”

  He seemed to take a deep breath and settled back a little. “Good,” he said, “because I was getting a little uncertain there for a moment.”

  She nodded at him. “Not at all. I just wouldn’t want to walk into a relationship feeling that you were using me as a replacement.”

  “Of course not,” he said. “That would be terrible. It’s also one of the reasons why I held off getting too friendly before.” He added, “I never wanted you to feel that way.”

  “And I appreciate that,” she said calmly. “So the question now is, if we’ve both dealt with the loss of Delilah, what’s holding us back?”

  “Fear,” he announced.

  She stopped and stared. “Big bad you is afraid of something?” she mocked.

  “Yep.”

  “And what is that?”

  “I’m afraid of losing the next person I love.”

  She winced. “Okay, that’s a very valid fear. I just don’t know how I could help you out with that one.”

  “There is no help,” he said. “I really must move forward in life and hope that lightning doesn’t strike twice.”

  “Also a good way to look at it,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry because what you went through is something most people never have to.”

  “Doesn’t matter if they have to or not,” he said, “because there are really no options in this world. We’re here for however long we’re here, and then we’re gone. And you just hope that, in the meantime, you get to enjoy a lot of your life and find love somewhere along the line.”

  “And live to enjoy it, at least for a little while,” she said quietly.

  He nodded. Just then the waitress came. She filled up their water glasses and passed over menus. With his menu in front of him, he looked over at Avery and asked, “So, what’s good?”

  “For you? Either a steak or the seafood we were talking about earlier—like the smoked salmon with the green veggies and the brown rice.”

  He nodded, put down the menu, and said, “The second choice is perfect.”

  When Avery gave the waitress her order and returned their menus to her, the waitress looked at the two of them and smiled. “You know what? That happens a lot with couples who have been together since forever.”