Beatrice and Douglas by Kelly Lucille

to look
innocent.
    “I’ll go check it out.  You two mind answering some
questions down here while I do?”
    “I thought we were.”
    Rather than respond, the sheriff pursed his lips, looked
them over one more time, and headed for the stairs.  It was the young one
who was going to ask them the rest of the questions apparently. He led them to
the breakfast room so they could sit down with coffee while they were grilled.
    It didn’t take very long to say ‘yes, they were working just
outside of town, and yes, they had been staying here for a few days and would
be here until the job ended.’  ‘No, they had no idea who might have broken
into their room and no, there was nothing valuable.’
    “You have separate rooms?”
    “Yes,” Beatrice and Douglas said in unison.
    “But you are together this morning.  Is there someone who
might not like the idea?”
    “We aren’t sneaking around, if that’s what you are
asking.”  Beatrice glared her displeasure at the man.  “It’s a new
development.”
    “So you have no idea who might have broken in?”
    Douglas grunted.  “Probably thieves looking for a
payday.”
    “Small town.  We don’t get this kind of crime here.”
    “You think this was a personal attack on one of us?”
    “Or both.  Yours was the only rooms targeted.”
    “We are the only ones staying here.  Why would they
target empty rooms?”
    “More importantly.  How did they know which rooms were
occupied?”  Beatrice had been watching the play between the deputy and
Douglas like it was a tennis match, but she threw that out there on the fly and
both men turned to look at her like they just remembered she was in the room.
    “That is an excellent question.”  The deputy seemed
surprised, whether from her interrupting man talk, or from the fact that it was
a good question.  She kept talking.“I don’t think you can tell
just by walking in the door.  No obvious empty key holders or boxes for
mail.  But it’s not a big place.  Maybe they just opened doors and
ignored the obviously empty rooms?”
    “An excellent point.”
    “Thanks.  I liked it.”
    The sheriff returned about then and they started all over again,
by which time Beatrice was ready to zone out anyway.  Clearly, this was
not getting solved any time soon.  They were allowed to check out their
rooms briefly before Mrs. Peal put them in an alternate choice.  Somehow
Douglas had maneuvered them in together when she wasn’t paying attention.
    “Are we cohabitating now?” she asked when she saw him
checking out the closet space.
    “Yes, thanks for asking me, what a delightful idea.”
    “I wasn’t asking you to move in with me, Douglas.  I
was asking if you were trying to do it without having a conversation.”
    “Either way, ‘yes’ works for me.”  He ignored her snort
and moved past her to check out the view.  You could see the mountains on
this side, rather than the ocean, but the view was still a nice one. “Which side
of the bed do you want?”
    “Really?  Seriously, if this is your idea of romance,
you suck at it.”  She dropped the small bags they had from their shopping
trips on the chair.  Luckily, they had both purchased underwear on their
outing since they weren’t able to get their clothes out of the rooms the
sheriff was processing.
    “Hey, I tried to buy you jewelry.”
    Beatrice laughed, then lay down on the bed beside where
Douglas was sprawled out.  They were both looking up at the ceiling. 
“We should get the delivery tomorrow,” she said thinking about work.
    “Yep.”
    “It’s probably going to be awkward with the guys. They are
all about the off-color jokes.  And they always know everything going on.”
    “They say anything to you and I’ll break their necks.”
    His tone was as serious as she had ever heard it.  She
turned to study him.  He felt her stare and shifted to his side, going up
on an elbow, studying her in turn.  “What?”
    “You’re going to have