Chapter 64
When Sean returned to the dining room, the groups there were already at each other’s throats. Everyone was throwing around accusations, and Jennie was at the heart of it.
“The weapon that killed that woman was in the sheriff’s room!” Mrs. Grayson shouted. “The sheriff’s been lying to us the entire time!”
Mrs. Grayson’s outburst triggered a ripple of anger through the crowd, but Sean forced his way through and grabbed Jennie as fingers pointed and curses were spat from bitter mouths.
“What happened?” Sean asked.
Jennie stumbled over her words and then cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. It was my fault. I was talking to everyone, trying to tell them how hard you were working, and then it slipped out that I said I had found the knife.” She shut her eyes, shaking her head. “It was so stupid. I’m sorry?—”
“It’s okay,” Sean said.
Jennie looked up at Sean with tears in her eyes. “I don’t think it is.”
Before Sean could respond, he felt the presence of the others closing in. He looked around and found himself and Jennie circled by Judy Grayson, Julie, Ben, and Tim. The others, including Margaret Maynard and her son, and Jonathan Travis and Ray Cranton, were farther away.
“How do we know you’re not the killer?” Ben asked. “How do we know that you’re not the one to blame for all of this and you’ve just been spinning lies to save your own skin?”
“I need everyone to back up and cool down,” Sean answered.
“You should have done your job better, Sheriff,” Mrs. Grayson said. “If you had, then maybe none of this would have happened.”
“Everyone needs to return to their rooms and stay there until further notice,” Sean said.
“And who’s going to make us, huh?” Ben asked. “You?”
The dissent was contagious.
“He doesn’t even have jurisdiction,” Ben said. “This isn’t even his case. He can’t do anything!”
Whatever anger the group had toward one another had been set aside for a moment, and now they were fixated on Sean.
They had grown tired of being told what to do, of waiting for answers, and they were all prepared to take matters into their own hands.
Both Judy Grayson and Ben now gripped silverware. Judy took one step closer, and Sean instinctively placed his hand on his pistol at his hip. He didn’t want it to come to this. But it appeared there was no other choice.
Sean’s adrenaline was kicked into high gear. His heart was beating so fast that he was shaking. Except, so was the table next to him. And the chandeliers, and suddenly, Sean realized it wasn’t him that was trembling; it was the building.
But before any of that happened, there was a low rumbling.
“Is that an earthquake?” Judy asked.
“No,” Sean said.
As the trembling and noise worsened, Sean moved to the lobby, and everyone followed.
Sean stared at the double doors as the lights flickered around him.
The sounds were still muffled but growing louder, and the building’s tremors intensified.
The vibrations continued to build and build and build until, finally, a beam of orange sunlight shone through the top windows at the hotel’s entrance.
After another minute, Sean saw the tops of the snow machines, and then the road near the front door was cleared. The big machine backed up, and then a team of officers approached the door, stepping around the bloodstained snow.
It was Sheriff Johnson and his deputies.
And they had arrived just in the nick of time.