Chapter 46 MOTIVATED
Chapter forty-six
MOTIVATED
Before I join the others back in Cameron’s room, I text Leah to ask if she was called back for fingerprints too.
I doubt she was, since I just talked to her earlier and she hadn’t heard a peep, but I send the message anyway and then step through the doorway.
I expect to find Val and Ollie but instead see Cameron standing alone in the kitchenette.
“Where is everyone? I thought I heard voices.”
“It was just a delivery guy. I got a few things for tonight.” I walk over to see what he is talking about, and stop short at the pile of board games, snacks, and drinks that cover every inch of the small countertop behind him.
“I just put some Dr. Peppers in the fridge for you, so they aren’t cold yet, but I’m sure room service can bring us up some ice if you want one right away. ”
I look back and forth between him and the pile, using all my energy not to burst out into hysterical tears since I am sure Val and Ollie will be here any minute.
“What’s wrong?” He steps forward but keeps his hands at his sides.
I look up at him and frown. “Why do you have to be so wonderful?”
He reels for a moment, then smiles down at me.
“You said that you needed a distraction, so I wanted to give that to you. Although I should have asked earlier during our favorites game if you even liked board games. I love them, personally, but Jalen despises them. I think it’s because I was always better than him, and he didn’t like losing to his kid brother. ”
I laugh and cross my arms over my chest so that I can keep them firmly to myself. Thank goodness Val and Ollie are coming soon, because it gets harder by the minute to keep my hands off him.
“I take it that you do like board games, then?” he asks.
“I love them,” I say. “But twister might be awkward for four grown adults.”
He chuckles. “That one was a substitution, and I didn’t notice in time to cancel it. I’ve already been close enough to Ollie on the mat at the fight gym to know that it’s not something I ever want to do for fun.”
Laughter rocks my shoulders as there is another knock at the door.
“Speaking of the smelly devil,” Cameron says, pushing my laugh to a snort.
I cover my face in embarrassment, but he smiles so brightly that it compresses all the air inside my lungs and effectively stops the laughter altogether. Cameron opens the door wide to welcome Val and Ollie inside, but both of our smiles fall as we take in Ollie’s disheveled appearance.
“Hey,” Val says, knowingly. “Thanks for having us.”
“Of course,” Cameron says, trying to hide his horror.
Ollie’s curly hair is a greasy, tangled mess, and the sweats that he wears are covered in stains. I walk over to hug Val, and when I turn to Ollie to offer him one as well, the overwhelming stench of alcohol stings my nose.
“Hey, Drew, it’s nice to see you,” he says, as he wraps one of his arms limply around me.
“You too. Come in, Cameron got some games and food for us.”
“I don’t suppose you have a mini bar in here, do you?” When we all stiffen, he says, “Just kidding. I know what you all are thinking, I can see it in your faces, but I’m okay. I just needed a few hours of oblivion after everything that happened last night.”
He walks unsteadily to the dining room and plops himself down in a chair, resting both forearms on the table to keep himself upright. Cameron meets my eyes with a vacant stare.
“What game should we play first?” I ask, taking over when it’s clear that Cameron needs a moment. “Monopoly? Or maybe we can warm up with a few rounds of Uno?”
“Uno sounds great,” Val says, and pulls out the chair next to Ollie to sit down.
I grab the deck of cards and tuck a few bags of chips and a dip under my arm to bring down to the table with me. “Cameron, can you get everyone some water, please?”
My voice snaps him out of his daze, and he nods. “Yeah, of course.”
Val plays some upbeat music on her phone, and the tension lightens as soon as the cards are dealt.
“Val, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” I say, after playing a draw two against Cameron, much to his chagrin.
She puts down a regular number card. “Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
“During our introductions at Ravenwood, you said that you were testing a hypothesis. What did you mean?”
She smiles at my question, but before she can answer, Ollie calls out Uno as he lays down a reverse card, making it Val’s turn again. She promptly plays a draw four against Cameron, and he presses his lips together as his turn is skipped again and he has to pick up more cards from the deck.
“My manager has been on my back about going to conventions to sign autographs in cosplay,” Val says. “I have a hard time around strangers, though, so I can’t imagine anything I’d rather do less. I agreed to work on getting comfortable around people, and this retreat was my first attempt.”
I laugh. “I’m guessing it didn’t help the cause, did it?”
“No,” she says. “Not at all.”
It’s my turn, and I only have a draw two card in the color Val picked.
With how excited Ollie looks, I am pretty sure his last card also matches the current color, so I act like I don’t have a card to play and start drawing from the deck.
After picking up four cards, I nod to Ollie, pretending that none of them matched.
Ollie slams down his last card on the pile, and we all cheer for him with over-the-top enthusiasm.
I worry that we may be taking it too far and he will think we are patronizing him, but he beams under the attention, and we all let out a collective breath.
As Cameron shuffles the cards for another round, I check my phone for updates, finding one from Leah and Monika.
I open Monika’s first and bring my phone down to my lap to conceal it, because smiling up at me are pictures of Ollie from the winery website and Val from her Patreon. I type back a quick confirmation that they are who they claim to be, then move on to the text from Leah.
Leah: Yes, actually. I just got back from giving my print to the Jersey police. I guess it’s all instant. I was free to go back home within fifteen minutes.
Relief washes over me that Leah is in the clear, even though I’m not exactly sure what that means for my odds of getting out of this.
I shoot a text to Monika with the news, just as a new picture is sent in the family group chat of Scott holding his son on his chest. I gasp, and everyone turns towards me.
“Sorry, my brother’s baby was just born, and he sent me the cutest picture.”
I study it for a few more seconds before turning the phone around to show the others. They all ooh and ahh over how cute my nephew is, until Val and Ollie both frown in unison.
“What, did the screen go black?” I turn the phone back around towards me.
“No, you just got a text from Leah. You aren’t talking to her, are you?”
“Well, kind of,” I say, defensively. “We’ve texted a few times. Why? Do you guys suspect her or something?”
The question is out before I can stop myself, and I prepare for Ollie to go back down into a spiral, but he perks up at the chance to talk about the case. “I suspect Leah and Judith equally, but only because I know for certain that none of us four in this room did it.”
“I think Judith seems more likely than Leah, though,” I argue gently. I look to Cameron for support, but he remains tight-lipped.
“Maybe,” Ollie says. “But Val got a bad vibe from Leah, and I trust her judgment implicitly. Even though she’s making a big mistake sticking around with me after last night.”
Val gives his shoulder a gentle squeeze, and he pulls her hand up to his mouth to kiss it.
“Really?” I try to think back to what could have given her a bad vibe about Leah, but come up short.
“Yeah. Something was off about her for sure,” Val confirms. “I am still thinking that there has to be some connection with Nash, though.”
Ollie stiffens as Cameron snaps his head up from sorting his hand of new cards. “You know about Nash?”
Ollie’s already mottled red cheeks deepen with new spots. “She came across some stuff about him when she googled the house and your family before she came. I should have kept my mouth shut, but I was pretty wasted. You know how that goes.”
Cameron nods and surprises me by engaging in the conversation. “What specifically makes you feel worried about Nash? I had someone check to make sure that he was still in his cell, if that eases any of your concerns.”
“I don’t think that it was Nash himself who did it,” Val says calmly. “But from what it seems like he was tied up in, I wouldn’t be surprised if he used an accomplice to try and get you back.”
“By hurting Delaney?” Cameron asks. “There are about a thousand people that he could have targeted instead if he really wanted to get back at me.”
“Maybe the killer was after you, and he got her by accident,” Ollie offers.
“I doubt that a person, even someone who has never met me, would mistake me for five-foot-three, blonde-haired Delaney,” Cameron argues.
“It was dark outside, and it was in the middle of a storm,” Val points out.
“Even then, it’s not a slight height difference.
I have a whole foot on her, and I am a man, so .
. .” Cameron retorts with a chuckle. “I stand by the fact that if he wanted to get back at me, there were much easier ways than to sneak into Ravenwood. I live out in the open. He could have gotten me at the gym, or to and from work, or even my apartment, because I am sure that my address can be found through public records by someone who is that motivated.”
I nod in agreement with Cameron because it doesn’t make sense for someone to try to get back at him through Delaney, and the retreat wasn’t cheap, either.
“Did you hear that Nash apparently got married last month?” Ollie asks.
Cameron’s eyes widen in disbelief. “I hadn’t heard that.”
“Why would someone marry a convicted felon?” I ask, horrified.
Val frowns deeply. “You’d be surprised.” We all turn to look at her, so she quickly clarifies. “I just mean that it’s probably more common than you think. Imagine if someone you loved and thought was your soulmate got caught up with the wrong crowd. Would you just dump them and move on?”
“I can safely say that I’ve never once imagined myself in that scenario,” I say.
“But I guess if we’re talking soulmates .
. .” I tilt my head sideways at Cameron to see what he makes of Val’s oddly defensive stance.
He looks back at me with an emotion that I cannot place, but I have to turn away under the intensity of it.
“I still don’t like the fact that he’s so close by,” Ollie says. “Why wasn’t he tried and jailed in New York, since that’s where he was living at the time?”
“He played for Brooklyn Football Club, but maintained his residence here in the off-season,” Cameron says. “Which is where his criminal enterprise mostly took place. That’s why he was tried here.”
It’s quiet as we stew over the information, and I decide now is as good a time as ever to ask Val if she was fingerprinted.
“Yes, last night, actually,” she answers. “I asked that they take it right then and there, because I wasn’t planning on staying, and I live in a remote area, so I wanted it to be done and over with. So much for that.”
It hits me then that, if they do have a print to compare, they now have Judith, Leah, and Val’s to cross-reference, which means that I am officially the only one they are missing, and they will probably be coming for me to demand that I provide it.
I try to be fully present as we chat a bit more about the case and get through another round of Uno, but just as Ollie gets up to survey the game selection for what to pick next, and Cameron cracks open a Dr Pepper for me from the fridge, a keycard beeps behind us.
The hotel room door swings open to expose our secret meet-up to none other than Jalen, who, for the first time, is completely unable to mask his emotions, and goes from looking regretful to furious in two seconds flat.