Chocolate Chills (A Mission Inn-possible Cozy Mystery Book 6)

by Rosie A. Point

  “Ah,” Gamma said. “That changes things. Makes them even more urgent.”

  “I agree.”

  “Charlotte, go give Lauren the mushrooms and tell her I need your help. You’ll be back in twenty minutes.”

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “The crime scene.”

  7

  “How are we going to do this?” I asked, standing next to my grandmother at the back of the inn. We were outside the kitten foster center, standing at the base of the steps that led up to the shaded porch.

  “The old-fashioned way,” Gamma said, and stretched her arms and legs. She’d changed out of her heels and into a pair of white tennis shoes. “Follow me, Charlotte.”

  My grandmother strode over to the trellis against the side of the inn, hooked her foot onto it, and started scaling the wall. Once she’d reached the top of it, she braced her feet against the brick wall, and leaped nimbly from the trellis onto the porch’s roof. She rose and beckoned for me to follow her.

  Let’s hope that trellis doesn’t give way. I’ve been a little liberal with my cupcake eating lately.

  I performed the same maneuvers as my Gamma, only pausing when the trellis creaked or trembled underneath my weight and joined her on the roof.

  “You made that look easy,” I whispered.

  “Everything’s easy with practice.”

  Truer words had never been spoken.

  “Now what?” I asked. “The library’s on the other side of the inn.”

  “We’ll go over the roof and through the attic window,” my grandmother said. “Bottom floor window is still bolted shut. Ready? Let’s move. Quiet and quickly, now. It’s broad daylight and we have eighteen minutes before Lauren will expect you back in the kitchen.”

  I followed Gamma over the roof of the inn, careful not to kick free any of the tiles. On the right side of the inn, my grandmother lowered herself off the edge by her fingertips and found the attic window. She disappeared from sight a second later, and for one heart-rending moment, I was sure she’d fallen into the flowerbeds far below.

  A soft whistle came—the signal for me to follow her—and I dropped over the edge and swung my legs through the attic’s open window. I dropped onto one knee, bracing my landing with a palm.

  “Simple,” Gamma said, with a triumphant smile. “Not as fun as the grapple gun, but still.”

  “If only Jessi could see you in action, she’d keep a more respectful tongue in her head.”

  “Don’t mention that woman’s name under my roof.” Gamma raised a palm.

  We fell silent, both scanning the attic for any clues that the police might’ve missed. The area where I’d found Jordan was empty now, the rope removed, though there was scarring on the rafter where it had been fastened.

  “I heard a thump,” I whispered. “But I’m not sure what it could’ve been.”

  “Were the windows open when you came up here?”

  I shut my eyes, forcing myself back to the moment I’d found Jordan. “No. I don’t think so.”

  “Could the noise have been the sound of a window closing?” Gamma turned, grabbed the window and brought it down. The thump was loud.

  “Maybe,” I said. “Maybe. But I can’t say for sure.”

  “Interesting. Let’s scour the room for evidence. Any clue that someone else was here would be a good start. There’s no way that Jordan could’ve done this without help, since there was no chair or anything of the sort near the body.”

  “Right.”

  Gamma and I split up, heading to opposite ends of the room in search of evidence. The attic was large, but I focused my search around the area where I’d found Jordan’s body. I shifted furniture aside, careful not to disturb the crime scene itself.

  A glint caught my eye, and I frowned, dropping into a crouch. “Georgina,” I whispered, beckoning to her. “There’s something wedged between the floorboards here.”

  “Ah.” She joined me, removing a pair of latex gloves from her pocket and a pair of tweezers.

  “You walk around with tweezers?”

  “Always be prepared for an emergency,” she replied, “eyebrow or otherwise.”

  Gamma snapped on the gloves, then bent next to me and worked the tweezers between the boards. She removed the shimmering object and held it aloft. “Wow. That’s interesting.”

  The object was cylindrical and silver, the size of a pea. It had a small indentation around its middle. Gamma dropped it into her palm, then carefully removed the top half. The inside of the shell was empty, but for a single drop of clear liquid.

  “What do you think?” I had my opinion, but I wanted to hear my grandmother’s first.

  “It’s a pill. Reminds me of something I was equipped with when I was working in the field. We’d take cyanide with us in casings like this, in case we were caught and interrogated. You can crush it between your teeth, but it looks like this one’s been opened.”

  “Is it made of metal?”

  “Not sure. Might be a biodegradable material I haven’t seen before,” Gamma mused. “But this is not a run-of-the-mill item. And it’s not from my collection.” She glanced up at the spot where Jordan’s body had been. “I suspect that if Jordan’s body hadn’t been stolen, the toxicology report would’ve come back showing he’d been poisoned.”

  “Someone with spy tech broke in and poisoned him, then strung up his body?”

  “That’s what it seems like to me,” Gamma said.

  “But who? If Kyle could get in here, why not simply poison me instead?”

  Gamma shook her head, brow wrinkling. “It doesn’t make a whit of sense, does it?”

  “No.”

  “Charlotte, did you notice anything odd about Jordan’s body?” Gamma asked. “Or the way it was hanging?”

  “No,” I said. “I’ll admit that I was shocked. I didn’t take note of anything other than that he was dead.”

  “What did his face look like?”

  “Pale, lifeless. Eyes were open.”

  “Open. Hmm.”

  “What are you thinking, Georgina?” I asked, nerves bubbling in my belly.

  “That I’m going to have to get this tested.” She gestured to the droplet of liquid caught in the shell. Carefully, she closed the pea-sized pill. “Once we have the results, we’ll know what we’re dealing with.”

  “But what’s next?” I asked. “We can’t just sit around and wait. We should break into the coroner’s office. Question people. Do something.”

  “Patience is a virtue, Charlotte.” Gamma offered me a worried smile. “But in this case, I think we should talk to the people who were closest to Jordan near the end. They might clue us into what he’d been up to. Who he’d been talking to. If Jordan had an enemy with technology on this scale, then we ought to find out who he’d been hanging around with in the last few days.”

  8

  That evening…

  The rest of the day had flown by. After lunch service, Gamma and I had taken the old map of the known exits and entrances to the inn and tried to ensure they were closed or barricaded in a non-intrusive manner.

  We couldn’t risk Kyle entering the inn and hiding out in it without our knowledge, and the realization that the strange pill hadn’t come from Gamma’s stash had us on edge.

  If not from her armory, then where? And who? And, most importantly, how? There was a frustrating lack of answers.

  After our search for hidden nooks and crannies, Gamma and I helped Lauren prep everything for dinner, served the guests, and then cleaned up and saw our chef safely on her way. We locked the inn, then gave each other the look.

  It was time.

  Hannah Greerson, the most likely suspect if we didn’t take the spy pill into account, was on duty at the inn tonight. The tiny newbie had offered to do night shifts because she was concerned for the kittens after Jordan’s passing.

  Gamma unlocked the door to the kitten foster center, and we moved in, determination in every movement.
<
br />   Hannah was in the incubation room, watching over the smallest kittens and holding her cellphone.

  “Good evening, Hannah.”

  She jumped a little and quickly stowed her cellphone. “Oh goodness, you scared me,” she said. “Hey Georgina, Charlotte.”

  “Hi,” I said. “Having a good evening.”

  “I guess,” she replied, and pulled a face. “I mean, a man died here yesterday. I’m kind of on edge.”

  “Yeah, it’s such a pity about Jordan,” I said pointedly.

  Hannah wasn’t a slow girl. She grimaced. “I know, I know. We didn’t exactly get on, but, in my defense, Jordan was so creepy.”

  “He was?” Gamma asked. “How so?”

  I opened the half-door, and we entered the incubation room.

  “I don’t want to talk trash about a dead guy,” Hannah said, slowly.

  “You can tell us,” I replied. “I know you wanted to lodge a complaint about him yesterday morning, and I didn’t have the time for it.”

  “Yeah, but does it matter now that he’s dead?”

  “Sure, it does,” I said. “Right, Georgina?”

  “Definitely. We need to know what happened so that we can ensure it doesn’t occur again. Safety is a big deal to us at the inn.”

  “Yeah.” Hannah worried her bottom lip with her teeth. “Yeah, I guess. OK. Well, it started right after you hired me. During my first shift, Jordan kept staring at me. He didn’t say a word, he’d just stare and I’m not the type of girl who keeps quiet about guys making me uncomfortable. I told him to quit it, or I’d punch him in the face.”

  “Punch him?” Georgina arched an eyebrow.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I grew up around like five brothers. Whenever they messed with me, punching was the way to get them to stop.” She shrugged, unapologetic.

  “What happened after you threatened him?” I asked.

  “Nothing. He smirked at me. Acted smug and friggin’ weird. I didn’t like it,” Hanna continued, “but what could I do? Report him for staring? He hadn’t done anything threatening. Technically.”

  “But things got worse?” I prompted.

  “Yeah.”

  “Worse how?” Gamma asked.

  Hannah seemed loathe to say, but she eventually rolled her eyes at herself. “I caught him setting up a camera to record me. That was just before he died.”

  “A camera!” I couldn’t hide my shock.

  “Yeah. He kept grinning at me like he thought it was a big joke that I’d caught him in the act. I was livid, and I threatened to tell you about it, Georgina. He didn’t seem to care about that, either. The worst thing is, he went and got himself killed and now the cops are asking me questions. Like when I left the inn last night. Apparently, no one saw me.”

  So, Hannah didn’t have an alibi. “Are you sure that Jordan was—you know, being weird? There’s no other explanation for how he acted?” I couldn’t picture Jordan behaving in that way. Ever since we’d met him, he’d been humble, albeit a loner.

  “I’m sure,” Hannah said.

  “I’m sorry you had to deal with that,” Gamma said. “If anything like that happens to you again, please report it to me immediately.”

  “I will. I’m sorry.”

  “No need to apologize.” My grandmother’s tone was brisk. “Can you point me in the direction of the camera?”

  “It was over there. In the corner of the room behind the incubator.”

  Hannah hung back while Gamma and I checked it out. We didn’t need to shift the incubator away from the wall, as there was enough of a gap. But there wasn’t a camera back there.

  “Nothing,” I said.

  “He must’ve taken it down.” Hannah shuttled her fingers through her short hair, fluffing it so it stood on end. “Look, I’m not lying. I saw him doing it.”

  “Did you see him take it down?” I asked.

  She shook her head.

  “No one’s calling you a liar,” Gamma said. “Did you notice anything else that might’ve been odd in the time before Jordan’s death? Was he talking to anyone in particular?”

  “He kept to himself.” Hannah’s reply came slowly, after a minute of reflection. “But I noticed him talking to a woman recently.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah, a guest. She came down to the center on her first day in the inn and introduced herself to me and him. After that, she came every day to talk with him. I swear, she was flirting with him, but I can’t fathom how anyone would want to flirt with… yeah, I shouldn’t say that. He’s dead, so… probably shouldn’t be mean. But he was a creep, in my defense.”

  “What was her name?” I asked.

  “Huh?”

  “The guest who kept coming to visit.”

  Hannah met my gaze, her expression equal parts curious and somber. “Kayla. Kayla Wart.”

  9

  “It checks out,” I said, as Gamma and I made our way up the stairs to the first floor of the inn. “On the morning after Jordan’s death, Kayla was alone at breakfast in the dining area. She was puffy-eyed and in a terrible mood.”

  “And her sister?” Gamma asked, prim and proper in a neat blouse and a pair of slacks, her hair done in curls.

  “Nowhere to be seen.”

  “Suspicious. There might be something going on between them. Something to do with Jordan.”

  “Only one way to find out, right?”

  “Correct.” Gamma took the lead as we moved down the inn’s cozy hallway, complete with the occasional painting or tapestry that had come from the old museum.

  The Gossip Inn was steeped in history, what with its creaking floorboards, Persian rugs, and nooks and crannies containing rickety tables and odd collections of trinkets that my grandmother had carefully placed on display. Every corner of the place seemed to whisper with secrets.

  I didn’t often dwell on how much I loved the inn’s atmosphere, unless I was partaking in my favorite cleaning duty, dusting. The thought of catching my ex and leaving this place tied my stomach in knots.

  “This is where they’re staying,” Gamma said, though she knew I’d cleaned these rooms this morning. Perhaps it was more to draw attention to what we’d find once we were inside the rooms. Would Kayla and Josephine be gossiping? Completely closed off from one another? “Lavender and Rose Rooms adjoining. Shared bathroom. Kayla’s in the Rose Room.” She straightened, checked her hair was neat, then knocked.

  Shuffling came from the other side of the door, and the ornate door handle depressed. Kayla opened the door a crack, looking out at us with red-rimmed eyes. “H-hello,” she said.

  “Hi,” I replied.

  “Good afternoon, Miss Wart.” Gamma took the lead. “I wanted to check in with you. Are you happy with your service at the Gossip Inn? I understand this has been a trying time for all the guests.”

  “I-I guess.”

  “My assistant, Charlotte, tells me you’ve been having a rather tough time of it the past day or so. And we haven’t seen your sister at meals?”

  Kayla’s expression darkened at the mention of her sister. “Yeah.”

  “Are you OK?” I asked. “You look upset.”

  Kayla opened her door a little more, providing a glimpse of the white and rose gold theme of the room beyond. Gamma had an eye for decorating, and the space was both classy and cozy.

  “I’m… no, not really. It’s terrible!” She cried the last words and ran toward the king-sized bed with its puffy sheets behind her. She threw herself onto it and buried her head in the pillows. Kayla sobbed, her entire body wracked with emotion.

  Gamma and I exchanged a glance.

  We entered the bedroom, and I shut the door carefully behind us.

  “Don’t cry, Kayla,” I said, and came over. I opened the drawer in the dressing table and removed a box of tissues—I cleaned these rooms every day, so I knew where we kept everything for the guests. “Here. Take this.”

  Kayla sniffled and sat up. She accepted a tissue from me and use
d it to dab the end of her nose. “This is so horrible,” she whispered. “I can’t believe it’s happened.”

  “What’s happened?” Gamma asked, her tone soothing.

  Kayla wiped the end of her nose on the tissue, then balled up the white square in her fist. “Everything’s going wrong. I—I lost the necklace.”

  “The necklace?”

  “Yes, the necklace Jordan gave me, and my sister won’t speak to me anymore because of him. And now Jordan’s dead, I—” Kayla burst into tears again, and this time, the shared glance between my grandmother and I was frustrated.

  “It’s OK,” I said, and patted her on the back. “It’s OK. Let it all out.”

  “How did you and Jordan meet?” Gamma asked. “Did you know each other long?”

  “No,” Kayla replied, her sniffles dying down again. “Only since we arrived at the inn, but we had a connection, you know? Whenever I went to see the kittens, we would talk, and I just—sometimes, you’ll meet someone, and you’ll know that it’s meant to be. That they’re your soul mate. That’s how it was with Jordan. He was my soul mate.” Kayla’s lips peeled back over gritted teeth. “But my sister.” She hissed out ‘sister.’ “She was angry with me for enjoying Jordan’s company. She thought I was crazy, and she told me I’d better stay away from him or she’ll make sure I never speak to him again. She thinks she owns me!”

  “Oh dear,” Gamma said.

  “Yeah. But I told her I’d never talk to her again if she said anything mean about Jordan because he and I were… we were meant to be. She laughed at me! She actually laughed at me! And now, she won’t talk to me anymore and Jordan’s dead and the necklace and—”

  “The necklace?” I prompted, because Kayla could burst into hysterical tears again.

  “Jordan gave me a necklace as a show of our love. It wasn’t much, but it was special.”

  “When did it go missing?” It had to be relevant, right? To the murder? Or maybe I was completely off-base. Everything in this case had me questioning motives and causes.

  “I took it off the night before Jordan… before he died.” A sob stifled behind her fist. “And the next morning when I went to put it on, it was gone. Someone took it right off my bedside table.”