A Fright to the Death (11 page)

Vi strode into the hall just as we were finishing with the dogs. They were still damp and filled the hall with that distinct wet dog odor.

“Here you are! We’ve been looking for you. Lunch is set up in the dining room.”

“Oh good, I’m starving,” Seth said.

“You just ate!” I said.

“That was just a snack. What’s for lunch?”

Vi waved her arm in the direction of the dining area and Seth disappeared down the hall.

I stood there holding the leashes and wondering what to do with the guys.

“I just had something to eat—you go ahead and I’ll guard the dogs. As long as that cat doesn’t show up again, I should be fine.”

“Thanks, Vi. I’ll be quick and then we can get them out to the cottage. Holly said it’s ready.”

She nodded and knelt to talk to Baxter and Tuffy.

Everyone crowded around Dad in the dining room, congratulating him and thanking him for fixing the generator. He glowed with all the attention.

I filled a plate with pasta salad and half of a sandwich and sat at an empty table. Mac came to the door and scanned the room—his face lit up when he saw me. He wore the blue snowman sweater and pink plaid Bermuda shorts. As he walked toward me, conversations dwindled.

I tried to control the smile that spread across my face, but couldn’t.

He twirled for the knitters and took a bow. Everyone clapped and went back to their discussions.

“I asked Holly to put my jeans in the wash, but it’ll be a little while,” he said.

“If anyone can pull off that look—and I’m not saying it’s possible—you can.” I laughed when I noticed his white socks and boots.

“Baxter isn’t getting any treats from me for a while. I’m just glad the soup was cold.”

“Go get some food,” I said. “Maybe not the bouillabaisse . . .”

He nodded and returned a few minutes later with a loaded plate.

“Your dad is the hero of the hour, I see.” He tilted his head toward Dad, who stood in the center of the young-knitter contingent. He moved on from talk of generators to teaching them his ten-code vocabulary gleaned through his police scanner hobby.

I nodded. “He doesn’t usually get so many accolades for his repair work. Now I know why Vi volunteered to stay with the dogs—she probably couldn’t stand it.” I scanned the room. “Where’s your mom?”

“She had some secret knitting project to work on. She’s still upstairs.” He spread mustard on his sandwich from the little pots of condiments. “I’m thinking about taking one of the snowmobiles out to the road and calling the police. I don’t like the idea of Clarissa out there in the shed,” Mac said.

I shivered.

Mom and Seth came to our table, and Mom sat next to Mac.

Seth glanced at Mac’s shorts and blinked. He wisely stayed mute.

“We don’t have another workshop until three. Your father wants to check out the cottage to be sure everything is working before it starts getting dark.” She narrowed her eyes at the fawning knitters. She lowered her voice. “He doesn’t trust that everything will be in working order.”

“I’ll come and help Seth with the dogs,” I said.

“Do you need help with your suitcase, Mrs. Fortune?” Mac asked.

Mom smiled and put her hand on his arm. “I keep telling you, you need to call me Rose. And yes, I could use some help—it’s slippery out there. Thank you.”

After lunch, Mom and Mac went to get the suitcase and we met them in the hall where Vi was waiting with the dogs.

Tuffy began vibrating when he saw Seth walking toward him. Baxter stood and wagged his tail. He pushed his head against my leg when I approached. They sensed that something was happening and Tuffy began a little tap dance on the tile.

Baxter’s ears drooped when he saw Mac walking toward him. Either he was a fashion critic, or he was picking up on Mac’s irritation.

Seth grabbed his backpack from the floor. Tuffy dropped his ears and curled his tail downward. He brightened and hopped straight into the air when Seth pulled out the leash.
I grabbed Baxter’s short lead and we all ventured out into the cold. I ruefully noted that now that the heat was back on I seemed to be spending a lot of time outside.

The path had been cleared as promised. Dad opened the door with the key Jessica had given him. Inside we found a cozy living room and small kitchen. Holly had started a fire in the fireplace and the whole room glowed. I sighed.

Wally had some explaining to do. Mac and I could have stayed here all this time and it would have been almost as wonderful as Mexico. Except for the murder.

The dogs ran ahead into the bedrooms, sniffing every inch. Baxter’s deep bark sounded from the bedroom on the right. I went to investigate with Seth close on my heels.

The room was decorated in deep blues and greens. Baxter sat in the middle of the small Persian rug and looked at us expectantly. When we didn’t respond, he barked again, turned a circle and lay down.

“Do you think he likes the room?”

Seth shrugged. “I’m not sure what he’s trying to say.”

Tuffy joined Baxter and curled up next to him.

Seth and I went back out into the living room.

“The dogs seem to have picked that room,” I said. “I guess you two will have to take the other one.”

Dad lugged Mom’s suitcase into the second bedroom. “Wow, fancy.” His voice floated out into the living room.

“This place is great,” Dad said as he came out of the bedroom.

Vi sniffed. “It’s not as castle-y as the hotel. I’ll bet there aren’t any ghosts, either.”

“Most normal people would consider that a good thing, Vi,” Dad said.

“Well, normal people think they have to visit the dentist twice a year,” Vi said. “Doesn’t make them right.”

Vi had as much as declared war with that remark. She must have been really irked that Dad was getting so much attention. Dad was a mostly retired dentist and Vi had floated this theory that dentists were “in cahoots” with an unnamed dental overlord to whip up a frenzy of fear of gum disease. She trotted out the theory whenever she was feeling particularly prickly.

“We’ll let you get settled,” I said. I pulled Vi back outside and Mac followed, pushing her from behind as he swung the door shut before Dad could retaliate.

“Do you have to do that?” I asked.

Vi shrugged and grinned. “Keeps him on his toes.”

Kirk was outside again with his snowblower—we could see the plume of snow in the parking lot.

“I’m going to go talk to Kirk about taking a snowmobile down the road,” Mac said. “Your Dad gave me the keys.”

“We’ll come, too,” Vi said. “I need to talk to him about my yarn bombing. I really want those knitting needles.”

She hooked her arms through ours and dragged us toward the noisy parking lot.

We saw Kirk inside one of those drivable snow throwers slowly working his way along the sidewalk toward the parked cars. Vi waved her arms to attract Kirk’s attention. After a few minutes, Kirk finally noticed us and shut the engine off.

I took a moment to enjoy the silence and then followed Mac and Vi as they crunched through the snow to Kirk.

Mac raised a hand in greeting. “I have the keys to the snowmobiles.” Mac held them out to demonstrate. “I was hoping you and I could ride out to the road to see if we can move the tree—”

Kirk started shaking his head even before Mac finished explaining his plan.

“This is the biggest snowblower we have. It’s almost a
mile down the road to the turnoff. It could take days to try to dig our way toward the road through this. I’m not even sure I can deal with the sidewalk. We have a truck service that comes to do the heavy plowing—now I know why he hasn’t shown up yet.”

“With the phones out and the tree down, we’re stuck here unless we can find some help,” Mac said. “We can at least go evaluate the situation.”

“Yeah, okay,” Kirk said. “Let me just finish up here.”

Vi stepped forward, heedless of Kirk’s put-upon attitude.

“I’ve got a doozy of a yarn bombing planned,” she said. “But I really need a ladder . . . and someone to climb on it.”

Kirk nodded. “When I’m done helping the detective clear the tree, I’d love to do some more yarn bombing.” The sarcastic tone was either too subtle for Vi or she chose to ignore it.

“You’re the best!” Vi slugged him in the arm.

Kirk cranked up the snowblower again and steered it toward the parking lot.

We turned and waded back through the snow toward the hotel.

Inside, we stomped our boots and hung our coats on the hooks.

“I’ll catch up with you later,” Mac said and dropped a kiss on my forehead. “I need to get my jeans back before we take the snowmobiles out.” He took the hallway that led toward the stairway to the basement.

I followed Vi up the wide staircase toward our room. She wanted to get her knitting organized for the next workshop and I felt like I needed my own notebook to keep track of all of the suspects in this murder. I hoped she would pack her bag and head down to the lounge.

“So, who should we interview while Mac is off riding around on snowmobiles?” Vi said.

I stopped and turned to look at her.

“We aren’t going to interview anyone. Mac will get the police involved and then it will be up to them to figure this out.”

Vi put her hands on her hips just like my mother always did when she was ready to dig in her heels.

“That’s exactly why we need to interrogate people
now
,” Vi said. “As soon as the police arrive, we won’t have any authority to ask questions.”

My mouth dropped open and I quickly closed it. “Vi, we don’t have any authority now.”

She grabbed my arm and began hustling me toward our room, shushing me the whole time. As we got to the turn in the hallway, she glanced around and said, “You and I know that, but the rest of them don’t. They’ll tell us their story because they think you and Mac are investigating. We don’t have much time.”

I followed her toward our room, and we both stopped when we saw the door was open. I held my finger to my lips and Vi nodded once. Someone was humming and banging around in there. We approached the room slowly and peeked around the corner of the door.

Holly Raeburn hummed to herself and pulled the sheets smooth on Vi’s bed.

“Oh, it’s you,” Vi said.

Holly whirled around, her hand to her neck, eyes wide.

“You startled me,” she said, and smoothed her skirt.

“Hi, Holly,” Vi said. “We didn’t mean to scare you. We just came up during the break between lunch and the next workshop.”

“I’m sorry, I should have finished with the rooms by now.” She began gathering her cleaning supplies. “I can get out of your way.”

“No, it’s fine, you should stay,” Vi said. She nudged me
hard in the ribs. “I’m sure setting up the cottage has put you behind schedule. We don’t mind.”

I looked at Vi while rubbing my side.

She tilted her head toward Holly, who had turned back to the bed and was smoothing the bedspread.

Vi pushed me in Holly’s direction. “Holly, do you mind if I ask a few questions about last night?” I said while glowering at Vi.

Holly stopped fluffing the pillows but didn’t turn around.

“Sure, I heard you were asking people what they were doing when Ms. Carlisle . . . died.” She resumed her pillow fluffing with increased vigor.

“Come sit by the window, Holly,” Vi said. She gestured to the chairs.

Holly set the pillows down and crossed the room to where Vi had already taken the chair with its back to the window. I joined them and we sat in silence for a moment. Holly was quiet. But her eyes held an intensity that was hard to ignore.

Vi took a breath to speak and I held up my hand.

“Detective McKenzie and I are police officers. He works in homicide for Ottawa County and we’re investigating until we can reach the Kalamazoo Police. We’ve been asking everyone where they were last night between six thirty and nine,” I said.

“I’m their assistant,” Vi said. She hooked her thumb in my direction. “Kind of like a deputy.”

I sighed and closed my eyes for a moment. It wouldn’t help to argue in front of Holly so I let it slide.

Holly glanced at both of us and cleared her throat. “I finished up with my usual cleaning at around five thirty and went to the kitchen to grab some dinner.” She looked at the ceiling while talking as if trying to envision her movements from the night before. “Jessica—Ms. Garrett—had said I
didn’t need to do the turndown service, so I was planning to go to my room for a little while after I ate and then check with Wallace to see if there was anything else I needed to do.”

Vi and I nodded to encourage her.

“On my way to my room, I ran into Ms. Carlisle. She wanted me to do the turndown service even though Ms. Garrett had said not to and the fact that I am the only housekeeping staff in the building. She had already yelled at me earlier in the day about her room not being tidied, so I didn’t argue with her and said I would start that at seven o’clock.”

I felt my cheeks grow hot when I remembered overhearing Clarissa berating Holly earlier in the day when Mac and I were going down to dinner.

“I went downstairs to my room and saw Kirk.” She blushed and twirled her dark hair around her finger. “He was just coming in from outside and we talked for a couple of minutes in the hall. Ms. Garrett came down and asked Kirk if the generators were working, because she was worried about losing power with the storm that was predicted. It happens pretty routinely out here.”