Death Takes a Holiday by Elisabeth Crabtree Page A

wasn’t too terribly tall or too terribly muscular, but he exuded danger. He also exuded sex appeal, she thought, looking at him more closely. He had startling blue eyes set in a classically handsome face framed by long thick black hair. The wicked looking scar that ran across his chin only seemed to enhance his looks. “Baby—”
    “Don’t b aby me,” the woman said angrily as she passed by Grace’s door. “Just stay away from me, Lucas Kirby.”
    Grace entered her room just as the woman passed by.
    Lucas started to follow her when he abruptly turned to stare at Grace. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
    Grace stood up straighter. “I beg your pardon?”
    He looked over her shoulder. “This isn’t your room.”
    “Yes, it is,” she said coolly.
    He blinked. “Oh.” He looked over her shoulder again. “Are you here by yourself?”
    Concerned by his behavior, Grace quickly said, “No, I’m not,” as she backed further into the room. She grabbed the door and started to shut it when he suddenly reached out and pushed it back open.
    “Sorry,” he said with a grimace . “I didn’t mean to scare you. I was just surprised to see you here.” He backed up and gave her an apologetic shrug. “I hope you have a nice trip.”
    Grace nodded briefly before quickly closing and locking the door behind her. Well, Kyle did promise excitement this trip, she thought.
    She reached for the suitcase she had dropped earlier, surprised when it lifted easily in her hands and the contents spilled out on the floor.
    Sighing, she picked up the clothes, now scattered across the floor and laid them on the bed. A men’s shaving kit lay next to the chair. Picking it up, she walked towards the bathroom, wondering if this was her room or Kyle’s. She had just laid the kit on the sink when she froze. Blinking rapidly, she tried to clear her vision. Her shocked mind working furiously to make sense of the message written on the mirror.
     
    I hope you enjoyed this year because you won’t live to see the next one.
     

 
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Grace paced the floor of her room. She had to find Kyle. She didn’t know what was going on, but she quickly guessed that she wasn’t the intended target of that message.
    “ Someone needs to find my friend. He could be in danger.”
    The friendly conductor she had found in the observation car came out of the bathroom, smiling and carrying a small white washcloth, now smeared with red.
    Grace looked at the washcloth, dumfounded. “You washed it off?”
    He looked at her blankly. “No, ma’am, I found the washcloth in the sink. There wasn’t anything on the mirror.”
    Taken aback, Grace stared at the conductor for a few seconds before looking past his shoulder. He was right. The mirror was now clean. She shook her head in disbelief. She had only left the room for a few minutes when she went to find help. “We’ll need to keep the washcloth for evidence—”
    The conductor, Henry Cross, scoffed. His thick gray mustache quivered in amusement. “I’m sure it’s nothing but a practical joke, ma’am. We had a couple of jokesters on the last trip. Trust me, there’s nothing to worry about.”
    “My friend’ s been missing for twenty minutes.”
    “ Twenty minutes?” Henry asked. “That’s not enough time for someone to go missing. Besides we’re on a train, there’s nowhere for him to go. He’s probably enjoying himself in the lounge or having a bite to eat in the dining car. Just like you should. Now, you said yourself that you two don’t have any enemies, right?”
    “Yeah . . . Well, I have a couple, but they’re all in jail, right now.”
    He nry’s bushy gray eyebrows rose up to his hairline. He paused before slowly saying, “Well, there you go. Don’t worry, you’re perfectly safe. I’m telling you, it’s just someone’s idea of a joke. I’ve been a conductor for over twenty years and I could tell you some of the pranks I’ve seen people pull on each