“What. You didn’t expect me?”


    Gunther stood in the open door of my hotel room. I stepped back and let him in. Smiling, he walked past me and took off his coat.


    “You ready to go?”


    I nodded, shouldering my bag.


    “Just a moment.” He closed the door. Pausing, he looked around and seemed to be listening. Then he leaned over and squinted out the peephole.


    “Someone following you?” I set my bag down on the bed. I raised an eyebrow.


    Gunther cast me a warning glance and, biting his lip, and took one last look out the peephole. Then he turned his full attention on me. After a pause he finally spoke. “Eliza. Can I sit for a moment?”


    “Sure.” I waved him to the chair.


    He sat down slowly, pulling his hat off. I mirrored him and sat down on the bed, legs crossed.


    When he had settled deeply into the chair, Gunther looked me in the eye. “It’ll be dark soon. Before we go, I want to go over a few things.”


    “Okay. Shoot.”


    He nodded. Then he shot: “Tamara thinks Ms. Adams was murdered because she was looking for her brother. Looking into what happened. Why he went missing. Ms. Adams hired you too. Whoever killed Ms. Adams may try to kill you.”


    After a long pause, he said simply, “What do you think about that?”


    I sat very still on the bed, turned inward. After an equally long pause I sighed. “Checks out.”


    He nodded. “We will need to be careful. Tonight and going forward, if you’re still on board”


    “I’ll keep that in mind. I’m not looking for her brother, though. I’m trying to find out what happened to Pamela.”


    He shrugged. “You’re probably right. But I want to be clear about the risks”


    “Are you able to protect me?”


    He nodded, and opened the flap of his jacket. A gun was strapped to his ribcage. “The bullets are rubber, but they’re more than enough.”


    I chewed on that for a minute, than nodded to myself. “Well, we’re losing daylight.”


    “You’re in?”


    I stood up. “I’m not afraid. And you’ll keep an eye on me, right? You’ll use that thing. That’s why you’re working with me. You’re a bodyguard after all.”


    “Yeah.” He stood up. “I’ll do my damnedest.” He spun the cowboy hat slowly on one finger.”


    “Thanks.”


    “Sure.”


    “Gunther?”


    He looked down at me, over his shoulder. His hand was on the doorknob.


    “How was Pamela murdered?”


    The train car was empty except for us. We faced one another in a booth under a flickering light.


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    “You want to tell me why was Pamela flying over the country without her bodyguard?”


    Gunther looked darkly out the window. “I advised against it. But I guess she had reasons.”


    “What do you guess?”


    “Well, she needed me at home, performing another function.” Gunther blinked slowly. “I was taking calls.”


    “That’s odd. Anyone could have done that.”


    “Agreed.”


    “But the same can’t be said for saving her life.”


    “Yeah.” His shoulders sank.


    I turned to look out the window. We sped along the cliff tops. Out one window. Hillocks of stunted grass rose into view and fell like a green wave, revealed by the train’s exterior lighting. Out the other side, stars dotted the vastness above the Pacific Ocean.


    “Who called, by the way?”


    “While Ms. Adams was away? Just the regulars. The Adams family gives money to a variety of institutions.”


    “What do they say? More money, please?”


    He shrugged: “Not in so many words so eloquently phrased. But yeah.”


    “Anyone else call?”


    “Not a soul.”


    “Ok. What kind of institutions are we talking about?”


    “The Shoemaker Estate is one. They’re big on astro-geology. Another is St. Paul’s. There’s the Parks and Rec department. A few nursing homes. It’s a mixed bag..”


    “Ok, well it’s possible that Pamela wanted to appear at home, if you follow me.”


    “I do. But I don’t know. I think she told me to watch her landline because she expected somebody to call.”


    “Somebody in particular?”


    “Yeah.”


    “But you don’t know who.”


    “Maybe they got in touch with her another way. Maybe they found her.”


    “I don’t know, Gunther. That all seems like guessing to me.”


    Gunther shrugged. “Maybe. I tend to trust my gut. I’ve been wrong before, but I’m always near the mark.”


    The train braked with a dull grind that rattled the floor. Gunther held the table and leaned back in his chair while I looked out the window at the lights blurring past.


    “Here we are.” Gunther, ground his teeth.


    “And here Ms. Adams was, too. Right?” I waited for the rumbling to cease.


    “Yeah. Right about here.”


    The lights slowed. The doors hissed and we got up, walked onto the landing. There was a small crowd, hurriedly wrapping themselves against the cool night air. Gunther and I walked slowly, allowing the crowd to move past us to wait impatiently for the elevators. When we had some space to ourselves on the platform, Gunther stopped and turned around.


    “This is where she got off.”


    “What then?”


    “She walked this way, back toward the tracks.”


    The doors hissed shut and Gunther waited patiently while the train stirred and rolled away.


    “The next thing I know, she climbed down onto the tracks, scrambled across, and climbed up the other side. Right about here.” He pointed to a spot a little ways away, on the other side of the tracks.


    “How did you learn about that?”


    “A few people witnessed her climbing down. One tried to stop her by hollering and waving his arms.”


    I squinted into the darkness beyond the tracks.


    Gunther followed my gaze. “That’s the old platform. Back when this train was a steam engine. It’s all run down and not even the lights work. But I checked it out.”


    “And…”


    He shrugged. “It’s pretty empty. No place to hide. Nothing dangerous. It’s just a platform with a killer view of the Pacific Ocean.”


    “So what killed her?”


    “We have no idea. All I know is I came up to meet her, and I saw her across the tracks, just there.”


    I followed his finger to a place near the middle of the platform. I could picture her standing there, tights torn about the knee from climbing up and down the tracks, her hair blowing in the wind.


    “What happened?”


    “She fell. Hard onto the platform. It was like somebody had tackled her. As if an invisible weight crushed her. There was no warning. When the hotel staff called, I came right away. When I got close enough to see her… Her head was broken open. I didn’t need to check for a pulse. Paramedics arrived about same time as me.”


    As we stood there, another train blew past. This one didn’t stop at the island, but sped along with no regard for anyone. The wind ripped in our faces. People sat behind the fogged windows, basking in the glow of electric lights. Many colors flashed past us—clothing, hair, and luggage—like a whirlwind of confetti and they were gone. Darkness closed around us once again.