Unquiet Spirits Read online

  "There's the sign!" Kit announced. "Turn right at the top of the hill."

  The well-traveled gravel road was more what Bart had been expecting for most of the drive. Barely wide enough for two large vehicles to pass on, it wound through the heavily treed forest. Finally, a little over a mile along, they came to a fork in the road. Bart followed the arrow on the large Spirit Lake Resort sign. To his left, through the trees, he could see two entrances to what seemed to be a huge empty parking lot.

  "Looks as if Spirit Lake guests can have all the privacy they want this week."

  "Not funny, Bart. We've been closed for renovations since Christmas. I think Johanna said the grand opening was Canada Day weekend. That's July first. Of course, they always get a lot of Americans over the fourth."

  "How many staff do you figure are on site now?'

  "There should be just Johanna and Paavo at the lodge. Maybe Elsa. The summer staff, mostly students, will be arriving in a week or so. They'll be doing some painting in the guest cabins and sprucing up the place generally."

  On the right was a wide green lawn. "Is that a putting green I see?"

  "That was new last summer," Kit said. "It looks better than I expected."

  They came around a curve and got their first glimpse of the lodge.

  "Oh," Kit exclaimed. "The photos didn't do the renovations justice! I couldn't imagine the cedar shakes on the tower roof but it looks great. Isn't the whole thing perfect, Bart?"

  He had to admit the large sprawling wood and glass building in front of him with its odd little tower above the central part of the structure was perfect. Ungainly, but perfect for its surroundings. The walls were of reddish brown cedar planks; the high-pitched cedar shake roof was a slightly lighter shade of brown.

  From the number of windows and balconies he assumed that the long two-story wing on the left housed the guestrooms. The stubbier two-story wing on the right probably contained the restaurant. The main entrance under the four-story tower was a gleaming expanse of glass.

  He was glad to see several pickup trucks and an electrician's van parked in the circular drive. At least, the lodge wasn't completely deserted.

  The minute he stopped the SUV in front of the wide open brass-fitted glass doors, Kit leapt out onto the interlocked brick walk, and turned slowly, looking around her with a big smile on her face. Maybe coming here was a good idea. She looked happier than she had for almost a year.

  Chapter Four

  As Kit waited for Bart to get out of the truck, she drank in the clean fresh air. A flash of yellow appeared in one of the lilac shrubs that flanked the entranceway. The tiny warbler perched on an upper branch and began to sing its heart out. A flood of happy memories came over her. She could almost hear Laila's infectious laugh.

  She sensed someone approaching from the edge of the maple trees on the far side of the main lodge building. However, when she turned with a smile to greet whoever it was, there was no one there. She must have seen another bird out of the corner of her eye. She felt a little foolish but Bart hadn't noticed. Maybe she was just getting a bit spooked by everything

  Bart, however, seemed more interested in the noise of vigorous hammering and the squealing of an electric drill inside the lodge. He gestured toward the open doors.

  "Well, are you going in?"

  She hurried inside ahead of him.

  There was no one in the lobby but she could hear Johanna's voice over the sound of hammering that echoed through the empty rooms. It seemed to be coming from the bar.

  "...so you'll have to get the fixture I ordered. I'm sorry you have to drive to North Bay to get it but that's the one I want and you promised me.... Kat!"

  Johanna stopped her tirade and swooped down on Kit, pulling her into an enthusiastic hug. Kit remembered well being crushed against that impressive bosom and inhaling Johanna's lavender scent. She hadn't changed a bit. Perhaps her blonde hair was more generously streaked with white but she was still as strong and vital as ever.

  "And this is?"

  "My good friend, Bart Thornton," Kit told her. "You met his father, Will, when you visited me in Florida. Bart was away."

  "Hello, Bart. We spoke on the telephone yesterday," Johanna said. "I was so sorry not to meet you when I was in Florida. You are so important to my Kat. You will stay with us, of course."

  "Thank you, Mrs. Seppanen. I'd hoped to. I didn't realize you were closed to guests," Bart said.

  "You will call me Johanna," she asserted firmly. "And we're never closed to family. I'm grateful you didn't let Kat come alone after her horrible experience in December.

  "Come. Let's get you settled. I have the first guest cabin prepared." She stopped and leveled an assessing stare at Bart. "You will share the cabin? It has two bedrooms."

  "Yes," Bart responded instantly.

  "Oh, no," Kit said at the same time.

  "We still haven't caught the person who tried to harm Kit," Bart explained. "I intend to stay right with her until we do."

  "You can have the cabin, Bart." Kit was beginning to feel her authority slipping away. This was her resort! And her life. "Is anyone using the tower suite, Johanna?"

  Johanna opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it again. She merely shook her head slowly.

  "Good. I've been looking forward to staying there again. I'll be perfectly safe."

  "There's a small problem with... It is not ready." Johanna had apparently made up her mind. "The guest cabin is. Come."

  Johanna reached behind the desk for an envelope with Kit's name on it. "The key. We'll get a second one for Bart when you come back for dinner."

  If she were to be honest with herself, she was glad Bart insisted on sharing the cabin. The near miss last night had shaken her more than she wanted to admit. Anyway, she didn't have a hope of winning this battle with both Bart and Johanna determined to have their way. She might as well give in graciously.

  "Fine, Johanna," she said with a broad smile. "That will be handy for my morning swim."

  Johanna was already on her way outside. She stopped short when she saw Kit's silver truck.

  "So this is the SUV you mentioned. You were right. It will be so useful once the resort is open." She beamed at her and gave her a quick hug. "It is the most beautiful truck I ever saw. I will drive it myself when the resort reopens."

  She pointed out a single lane of pavement that led down toward the beach. "You will be in the first cabin. The one nearest the beach," she said. "You can drive down and park behind the building. I'll let you get settled in on your own while I finish explaining the rules to that contractor. We'll eat at seven?"

  "Sounds good," Bart answered for both of them.

  "Come for drinks in my suite at six. Kat knows where it is. I'll let Elsa know you're here. Paavo, of course, has been cooking all day. Bring a good appetite." With that she turned on her heel and hurried back into the lodge. "Come as you are. It's just family tonight."

  And they were alone again.

  "You drive, Bart. I'll walk down to the cabin and take a look around."

  Bart hesitated, then said, "Don't wander off without me. As soon as I get our luggage into the cabin, I'm looking forward to having you show me around."

  As she watched the SUV head off down the road, Kit felt herself begin to relax. The hot afternoon sunshine on the back of her head and on her shoulders felt wonderful. For the first time in months, she realized, she had no pain anywhere. Striding along, swinging her arms and breathing in the country air made her feel totally alive again.

  Keeping her relationship with Bart on an even keel wasn't going to be easy, but the drive up had proved it was not impossible. Maybe enjoying the isolation and quiet of the resort would ease the tension between them.

  She turned a corner and got her first glimpse of the long sandy beach. Boats of all kinds--windsurfers, canoes, pedal boats, kayaks--were pulled high up on the sand. At the dock there were a couple of runabouts used for waterskiing, a skiff and even a little Fly
ing Junior. The Three B's had all learned to sail in that kind of sloop.

  They had all become too sophisticated spending their time on powerboats and yachts. Sailing would be good for Bart. And he could use the relaxation. He hadn't cracked one joke in almost two days!

  Bart appeared at the cabin door as she approached.

  "I put the luggage in the living room," he said, holding the door open for her. "I thought I'd let you decide which bedroom you wanted."

  "Oh, I like this," she said once inside the living room. The large bright room was furnished with a good-sized sleeper sofa, two armchairs and a large desk. One wall was taken up with a wood-burning fireplace constructed of large irregular chunks of the pink and blue-gray granite they had noticed on the drive up. The sofa was upholstered in blue corduroy and the chairs in green. Both colors were present in the flowered drapes on the sliding glass doors that opened onto the beach. A large painting of tangled scarlet poppies hung over the sofa.

  Bart went directly to the sliding glass doors that gave them a sweeping view of the beach to check the lock and security bar.

  To the right of the living room through an archway was a little kitchen, which contained a stove, refrigerator and a small table with two chairs. They wouldn't have to have all their meals at the lodge.

  Bart joined her. "Have you learned to cook yet, Kittle?"

  "Enough to get by. But I was counting on you having picked up some gourmet skills in France. You must have learned something between parties." She couldn't resist the little dig.

  "Not in the kitchen." His wicked grin teased her. "But I can make a sandwich. Of course, my specialty is treating a woman like a goddess and preparing burnt offerings for her."

  She laughed. "Luckily, Paavo is a great cook, as I recall."

  "Which bedroom?" he asked, picking up her luggage.

  The two bedrooms were identical, each containing two double beds.

  "You'd better choose, Bart," Kit said in a phony feeble voice. "After all, you're the studly bodyguard. I'm merely the helpless, ineffectual damsel in distress."

  "You'd better believe it, little lady," Bart lurched over to her in a really bad imitation of the Duke's gait. "I'll keep you safe." Then in his own voice, "I'll take the room closer to the front door. But, seeing we also have the patio doors to contend with, I'll probably sleep on the sofa tonight."

  She was relieved he hadn't suggested sleeping in the second bed in her room as he had last night. She wasn't sure what her reaction to that would be.

  He carried her suitcases into the second bedroom, then paused to pose in front of the mirror. He sucked in his stomach and flexed his biceps at his reflection. "Studly, you say? Ah, yes. How about unique?"

  "You're full of it, Thornton. I know where I can get one exactly like you. Maybe a couple more scars on him, but the same general pattern." She grinned.

  That grin at his clowning was the real Kit. She was going to be all right. Or she would be once they caught the person who was determined to end her life.

  "I'd like to see the layout of the resort, Kittle. And you can point out all the exciting and healthy ways we are going to entertain ourselves over the next little while. Speaking of that, how long are we staying?"

  "Depends on the 'cheerful business proposal'... whatever that is. And I guess whatever it is that's spooking Johanna. She has always seemed invincible to me. I didn't think anything frightened her but I think she's upset about something," Kit replied, opening the front door and waving him out it.

  "See how security conscious I am? I'm not going out the sliding doors because they can only be unlocked from the inside and I don't want to leave the place open. This one has a proper lock."

  She looked so proud of herself that he didn't have the heart to tell her that a child could jimmy that lock. He was going to have to make some serious changes in the security around here.

  About fifty feet from the cabin, the gravel path ended at the pale yellow sand beach.

  "Come on. Take off your shoes."

  Kit was leaning over to untie the laces of her deck shoes. As she rolled up the cuffs of her jeans, the denim pulled tight across her nicely rounded bottom. Bart forced himself to look away to take off his own shoes.

  "I need to get my blood moving," Kit said, jogging on the spot. Bart didn't tell her that being around her had his blood moving just fine, thank you. "Let's jog right to the far end of the beach and work our way back more slowly. I've been looking forward to pounding my feet on this hot, packed sand."

  Bart figured the beach stretched a good half-mile in length. As they jogged along at a leisurely pace past the lodge, Bart had time to look around him. Facing south as it did, the lodge would get the sun all day long. At this hour, the slanting rays of the afternoon sun reddened the cedar planking and made the windows reflect like mirrors. The building stood out like a jewel against the darkening wooded hills behind it.

  Beyond the east end of the beach ahead of them, there appeared to be a bit of a swampy area, perhaps the inlet of a small river or creek. And behind them, where the guest cabins were located, the land curved and rose abruptly to a jagged cliff.

  Kit had spoken of the lake as a small one, but it appeared to be a good size. He could see several islands spread out across the expanse of water. He didn't know how much of the lake was hidden by the cliffs behind the cabins.

  They were almost at the end of the groomed sand when Kit took his hand. "Let's look at the boats," she said, leading him onto a long floating dock.

  His eyes were caught immediately by a little white sailboat moored off to the side of the dock. "A Flying Junior!" he breathed. "I haven't seen one of those for years."

  Kit was beaming up at him. She had loved those sailing days as much as he had. This seemed so right... to be standing there with Kit's smaller hand in his, looking out at the sailboat.

  "I wish we could be Bart and the Brat again," she said wistfully. "We had the world by the tail."

  "We still could," he said. The adult world he and Kit would share would be a bigger, even more vivid and exciting one. Somehow he had to find a way to convince her that it was possible for them. "All we need is common sense and a lot of caution." And a hell of a lot of self-restraint.

  He held up their joined hands. "Hey, I've been touching you for a couple of minutes and it hasn't exploded into a wrestling match."

  The devilish glint in Kit's blue eyes almost did him in.

  "I don't know," she said. "I've been contemplating flipping you to the mat and trying out my step-over-toe-hold on you. But I might be smarter to wait until I've perfected it."

  "Whenever you're ready, Crusher."

  Kit slipped her hand from his and he didn't resist.

  "Maybe sailing would be a safer sport for us. Let's see if we can get a sail in tomorrow."

  "Tomorrow. Yes." He had to get focused. "I want your permission to do an evaluation of the resort's security system, Kit. I expect it will need some serious beefing up."

  "My permission? Who are you, sir, and what have you done with Bart?" In spite of his oblique reference to the danger she was in, Kit's laugh was easy. Perhaps she was beginning to realize that he was there to relieve her stress, not add to it. "Go ahead. It's something that needed to be done anyway."

  "Let's both try to get business over with in the morning. I sure would like to see if I can handle a Junior."

  "I may still have to wrestle you to the ground," Kit threatened. "I, the owner of this establishment, will be the one on the tiller."

  She looked at her watch. "We're going to have to skip the staff cabins and the other outbuildings if we want to unpack and freshen up before dinner."

  "I really wanted to get a mental picture of the lay of the land today." He had the uneasy feeling that there was something about this place he was missing. And that it was important to Kit's safety.

  "We'll make time for a stroll around the rest of the property after dinner. This far north, the sun doesn't set until almost ten o'clo
ck this time of year."

  He had to be content with that.

  Kit seemed to be as anxious as he was not to spend too much time in the intimate confines of the cabin. They unpacked quickly, showered and changed into fresh casual clothes. Kit's dark gray T-shirt turned her blue eyes almost silvery. He could so easily get lost in those eyes.

  "We can check out the staff cabins before dinner if we hurry," Kit suggested. "Then we can take the back way to the lodge. It's shorter."

  The unoccupied staff cabins were in a well lit wooded section on the far side of the lodge building. They did a fast tour of that area then Kit took Bart along the gravel path by the beach to the tiered deck, which surrounded the swimming pool.

  "Why on earth do you have a chlorinated pool not a hundred yards from a whole lake of fresh water?" Bart asked.

  "Blame it on Aunt Elsa," Kit told him. "When Johanna gave me the list of major renovations for the resort three years ago, the swimming pool was Elsa's only request. She refuses to swim with the 'slimy fishes.' I figured if I could have all the rooms redone, every bit of plumbing replaced and new windows everywhere for Johanna and have Paavo's kitchen modernized, I could have a pool built for Elsa."

  "Nice deck," was Bart's only comment.

  The elevators were just inside the back doors next to a door labeled "Stairs."

  "Johanna's apartment is in the tower?" Bart asked.

  "Oh, no. It's over the dining room and bar wing. The elevators service the whole second floor. It's easier to show you than explain." They got into the elevator and she pointed out the four buttons. "'Basement'--that's storage, laundry and furnace room. This is obviously 'Lobby.' The second floor is where we get off. The third floor is the tower suite where I wanted to stay and fourth is my favorite room--the library at the top of the tower."

  They stepped into a small area with three doors leading off it. "As you can see through the window, this door opens into the corridor of guest rooms. This one," she knocked on a door with a little brass "Private" sign attached, "is Johanna's suite."

  The door opened immediately.

  "Wonderful! You are right on time," Johanna, resplendent in a long silk Chinese-red tunic with two gold dragons emblazoned on its front panels, pulled Kit into a fragrant hug. "It's good to have you here, child.