Death at the Summit Read Online Free Page A

hair was held back in a chignon, but out of habit she tucked a non-existent strand of hair behind her ear. “But you should have known I would need you earlier, regardless of what time we agreed on.”
    Mary, Mouse, Indy, Minx, Tiger, Moo, and I had already grabbed breakfast together, and were ready to work, but after rooming with Jess for four years in college, being friends for over a decade, and working together for the past two months, I had to admit she was right. I should have predicted her last-minute freak-out. “You’re right, but we’re here now. What do you need?”
    “Minx and Indy, can you put up these signs? Here’s a map—I noted where each sign goes. Tiger and Mouse, head over to check-in with Bruce. The buses from the hotel should be arriving any minute. Mary and Di, go to man the center’s table. Once your job is done, go to the center’s table so Di can send you out on your next job. Di, do you have the tablets?” Jess started to look more relaxed as she bossed us around.
    “Yes, I grabbed them from my office this morning. The ones assigned to the ranges are there already. The rest will be with me.” I handed Jess her tablet. I had put together a system so each person in the system could hit a button indicating where they were, what they were doing or if they needed help. I hoped it would simplify communication between the center staff.
    Mary and I headed to the far wall, where the seventy-meter target mats normally stood. I was awed by all the different exhibits. Most had colorful walls of advertising, many had set up their own cushioned flooring, and some even had tables and chairs.
    Moo’s freedom was restricted today, with all the people and activity. He was in his harness with a leash, but I had put a Christmas sweatshirt over the top of it. The arms were chopped off to not interfere with his walking, and there was a hole for the leash to attach to the harness. I settled him onto his bed between the tables, in front of the huge Westmound Center display panel. He circled three times, lay down, and set to work trying to bite the harness. The nylon straps were just beyond the reach of his teeth, but that didn’t prevent him from trying over and over before flopping onto his other side and trying again. I reached over and scratched his ears until he settled in and fell asleep.
    The room was filling with people moving to their tables. The opening speech was supposed to be soon, then we could start doing whatever it was we were supposed to do on range day of the Westmound Summit.
    I turned to Mary. “Have you been to one of these before?”
    Mary dragged her attention back to me, “Yeah. Two years ago, I went to write up articles for Westmound to send out to employees that were unable to attend the event. Last year, though, I couldn’t attend, and they hired Cold to film it instead.”
    “What exactly happens today? I mean, I know that this is a brand summit for Westmound. They want consistency within the entire brand along with all the companies having a basic understanding of new products, but why have everyone come to one location? Couldn’t they just send out an e-mail?”
    “It’s much more than that. They have a party, give out bonuses and awards for performance and general information, but that’s the next few days at the hotel conference. Today is range day: it is all about playing with the new products, networking, and shooting.”
    I thought about it for a second, but it still felt like I was missing some angle. “So they all get together to shoot?”
    Mary laughed. “I bet they would; people in this industry really love what they do. Let me give you a better example. Andersson Archery has a new entry-level competitive recurve bow. So someone from there might go over to Bucky Sights, Knight Products and Quaker Stabilizers and put together a solid entry level competition bow from all Westmound products. Then go to the short range that Bruce is running to see how it shoots.