Midnight Jewels

sinking his teeth into his prey.
    "Actually," Mercy said cautiously, "I was thinking of something less ambitious. We ought to call the manager's office immediately." She reached for the phone.
    "It's going to take more than a phone call to wake him," Croft muttered under his breath. "Hang on a minute while I pull on a pair of jeans."
    "What do you mean, it's going to take more than a phone call? Croft? Come back here. What's going on?" Mercy slammed down the receiver and hurried after him as he strode out of her room.
    "Never mind, I'll explain later," he told her through the open door of his own room. "Better put some clothes on if you're going to come downstairs with me."
    Belatedly Mercy remembered that all she had on was her cotton nightgown. It was prim enough with its high neck and long sleeves, but she felt quite naked standing there in the hall. Glancing around quickly she scurried back to her room. None of the other doors were being flung open by alarmed guests. Her frightened scream would have awakened anyone else who happened to be sleeping on this floor. It appeared she and Croft were the only guests with rooms upstairs.
    She was hastily sliding into her loafers when Croft appeared in the hall outside her room. He had thrown on a shirt and was still fastening his jeans as he spoke.
    "Ready?"
    She nodded quickly. "I'm ready."
    They hurried down the stairs and outside into the chilly night.
    "What do you think that man outside my window was doing, Croft?"
    "I don't know, but it looks like you were right to be wary of motel prowlers."
    Mercy nodded. "Good thing I put
Valley
into the safe."
    "By the way," Croft began as Mercy reached the screen door of the manager's office, "I meant to tell you in the morning that I—" He broke off abruptly as he realized the office door was wide open. "What the hell?"
    Mercy felt a new frisson of fear trickle along her nerve endings. "He must have broken in here first," she whispered, halting on the threshold. "Maybe he robbed the night clerk and then came looking for whatever he could find in the guest rooms."
    Croft was already pushing past her into the small lobby. He reached out for a light switch just as Mercy followed him over the threshold.
    "Damn."
    Mercy peered around Croft's shoulder, trying to see what he was looking at. "Oh, my God." The night clerk lay in an awkward sprawl on the floor, blood trickling from a head wound. "The poor man." Mercy eased herself around Croft and hurried toward the stricken clerk. She was almost bowled over by the alcohol fumes that permeated the room.
    "There was no need to bash the poor guy. He was already out for the count." Croft went down on one knee beside Mercy as she felt for a pulse.
    "What do you mean he was already out? Croft, what's going on here?" Mercy didn't wait for an answer. "We've got to call whatever passes for the local emergency medic service around here. He's alive, but he's obviously badly hurt." Her hand came away from the clerk's head, her fingers sticky with blood. She wiped them absently on her jeans as she stared in concern at the man.
    Croft watched the small action with a curious expression. "I take it you don't get sick at the sight of blood?"
    "Self-employed entrepreneurs can't afford to have queasy stomachs. Between the IRS and the banks, life is too precarious. Are you going to call the emergency number or shall I?"
    "Not much choice. We'll have to call someone in authority, I guess." He spoke reluctantly as he went to the phone. "There's a number for the local sheriff's office here in the front of the book. Better not move the clerk."
    "I won't."
    The phone was answered on the other end and Croft gave the necessary information in flat, economical sentences. "Yes, we'll wait."
    He wasn't watching Mercy as he spoke in an impatient tone. His attention was on the scene inside the small, inner office behind the desk. It was a scene shielded from Mercy's eyes became of the open door. After a moment's further conversation Croft hung up the phone and glanced at Mercy. "They won't be long. They're just a couple miles away near the ski resort."
    Mercy nodded as she continued to kneel beside the victim. "Who would do such a thing? This place is obviously run on a shoestring during the summer months. There couldn't have been much money on hand. There are only a few guests and I'll bet most of them paid for their lodging with a credit card, not cash. I wonder if whoever it was hit the coffee shop, too?"
    "And