You have to tell them. You can’t endanger yourself like this.
I opened my mouth to do exactly that.
“Detective Crowley’s here,” Brian said, before I could tell him about the ring. “He wants to talk to you about your interview with Dr. Briggs. Cats out of the bag, Charlie. I think you’re in trouble this time.”
“Since when am I not in trouble?” I asked.
13
“Clearly, we have a bigger issue on our hands than Detective Crowley’s ire,” Gamma said, her sharp gaze directed at Brian. “Wouldn’t you say that’s the case, Brian?”
Whenever my grandmother spoke directly to him, he came over shy. She was the most decorated spy in NSIB history, after all, and Brian loved the agency and his job. He was often torn between wanting to report her for her secret weapon’s stash and showing her respect.
“It complicates things.”
“But you admit Grandpa will have to see sense now,” Gamma pressed on.
We sat at one of the tables in the dining room, the cozy atmosphere completed by an electric fire in the fireplace. The same ambience with none of the heat. A necessity in Gossip when it was hot, but you needed a little comfort.
The table we sat at bore its usual glossy sheen, but we had removed the small vase of flowers in the middle and replaced it with Kyle Turner’s wedding ring.
“It feels like we’re at the Council of Elrond,” I said.
“You read far too many fantasy novels, Charlotte.” Gamma patted me on the arm but kept her hawk-eyed gaze on Smulder.
He hadn’t given her a response to her last comment. “What did Detective Crowley say to you?”
“That we ought not to stick our noses where they don’t belong.” Gamma didn’t usually entertain changes of subject. “We’re not in trouble for it, so don’t get too excited. I know you’d love nothing more than to lock Charlie in this inn again.”
“Only to keep her safe. It’s not malicious.”
“Did I say it was malicious? Don’t get ahead of yourself, Brian,” Gamma replied calmly. “We have a serious matter to deal with. The death of Jordan Ames has caused a withdrawal of Grandpa, and that has left a vacuum of control. Charlotte’s old friend has paid her a visit but hasn’t acted on his true purpose.”
His true purpose being to kill me, of course.
“We need to figure out why. And we need to inform Grandpa of this occurrence.”
“What difference will it make?” I asked. “He’ll put everyone in place again, right?”
“He can’t.” That had come from Smulder. “Not yet. Detective Crowley hasn’t finished examining the crime scene. Apparently, there’s been some issue with processing the crime scene. Red tape. And as long as it’s a crime scene, we can’t risk being seen here.”
“Why?” Gamma challenged. “Charlotte’s friend clearly knows Grandpa’s friends are present. Why else would he suddenly make an appearance? He knows they’ve left the inn unguarded.”
“I’ll tell him,” Smulder said, at last. “But I can’t make any promises.”
“Great.” I flapped my hands. “Exactly what I wanted. Another month indoors. Honestly, just let Grandpa’s friends go on vacation or something. The sooner I face my friend in person, the better.”
“Irrational,” Gamma said, “but equally true.”
“I’ll talk to him.” Smulder grunted it out. “But I need to take the ring.”
“By all means.” I waved a hand. “I don’t want that thing anywhere near me.” It gave me the shivers looking at it.
Smulder took the ring gingerly and left us along.
I sagged in my chair.
“Posture, Charlotte,” Gamma said. “Even when odds seem insurmountable. You must face evil and ire with a stiff back.”
I straightened, though I didn’t want to. “What now?” I asked. “We’re no closer to finding out the truth than we were, and Grandpa’s going to close the noose fast.”
“Poor choice of words given the circumstances.”
“Sorry. I meant he won’t let us go anywhere.”
“Then we won’t go anywhere,” Gamma said. “We have the evidence we need in this inn. We only have to wait for my contact to get back to me and we’ll know more.” But the words sounded empty. We were stuck, and I would have to spend the night anticipating an attack from Kyle.
“You’ll be sleeping in my bedroom tonight,” Gamma said, reading my mind as she was wont to do. “We’ll take the night in shifts. If he comes knocking, he’ll have my pump-action shotgun for a welcome party.”
I could always count on my grandmother to have my back.
It was bound to be a long night.
14
The following morning…
A long night of nothing.
Kyle hadn’t showed up, though Gamma and I had dutifully taken turns staying awake in case he made his appearance. Somehow that made it more annoying—it was the waiting that was the worst. The not knowing.
“You OK, Charlie?” Lauren asked from the stove. She’d decided on bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy for breakfast this morning.
“Just tired,” I said, trying for a smile though it didn’t quite reach my eyes. “How are you?”
“Worried,” Lauren replied.
“About?”
“The inn. Georgina. You. Things have been different around here ever since Jordan passed. I’m afraid of what it might mean for the Gossip Inn. People in town have been talking a lot about what happened.”
“Not the ‘Murder Inn’ stuff again.”
Lauren pulled a face and nodded. “Exactly.”
“Don’t worry about it too much,” I said. “Everything will work out in the end.” Because Gamma and I would make sure it did. Not Kyle nor Jacinta Redgrave at The Gossip Rag nor Jessie Belle-Blue would stop us from keeping the inn open and the guests happy.
Lauren finished off the last of the eggs and we plated up, sliding them onto grand silver platters that I carried through to the inn’s dining room. There were fewer guests this morning—a lot of them had checked out after the murder, and many others had called ahead to cancel their stays at the inn, as well.
I picked up my usual pot of coffee and started making my rounds, trying to bring more energy and happiness that I did on any other day. The guests didn’t notice. I wound toward the Wart table and found only one of the sisters seated there, eating eggs and bacon.
This time, it was Josephine, the sister with the severe bob. She didn’t so much as glance up at me when I stopped next to her table.
Josephine cut her bacon into perfect squares, stopping only to scratch her neck. The front of her throat and her collar bone area were covered in angry red spots.
“Good morning, Miss Wart,” I said.
“I’m trying to eat my breakfast,” she replied, without looking at me. “What do you want?”
“I wondered if you’d like a refill?” Or a prescription for cortisone cream? “How are you this morning? You seem to have an irritation on your neck.”
“No coffee! I’d like to be left alone now, thank you.”
“Of course.” I backed away to a safe distance and continued studying her.
The scratching grew more frantic, but Josephine was determined to finish her breakfast. She inserted one of the perfectly cut squares of bacon between her lips and chewed rhythmically. Like a cow in the field.
Itchy red neck. Necklace?
My eyes widened.
What were the chances that Josephine happened to have irritated skin on and around her neck after her sister, Kayla, had told us that her sister had stolen her necklace?
But what does the necklace have to do with the murder?
It was linked to Jordan. That had to mean something.
I did a last round in the dining room, ensuring everyone was catered to, then placed my pot of coffee on the sideboard and slipped into the kitchen. Lauren was occupied with icing cupcakes and didn’t notice me slip by and out into the hallway.
On the first floor, I found the Lavender Room where Josephine was staying and slipped my set of keys from my apron—provided to me so I could clean the rooms in the inn. I slipped an ornate key into the equally fancy lock and gave a satisfied smile when the latch clacked.
I’m in.
But I had to be quick about this.
Burying my misgivings about whether the necklace was relevant or not, I started my search of Josephine’s room. I found the necklace and Josephine’s journal under her bed. Not exactly the smartest hiding place, but I wasn’t complaining.
The necklace was… weird. A collection of silver chain links ending in a pendant that had once held a circular gem but was now empty. A niggling suspicion started in the back of my mind, but I set it aside for now and opened Josephine’s journal instead.
Dear Diary,
I can’t stand the way my sister has been acting lately. She’s completely obsessed with this disgusting little man with ginger hair. He works in the kitten foster center at the inn and has somehow managed to worm his way into her good graces.
He’s given her a necklace. Cheap looking thing with a stupid pendant without a gem! It’s got some silver ball in the very center of it.
I quit reading, my eyes widening. A silver ball? Like the pea-sized pill we’d found at the crime scene?
He’s too poor for her, but she won’t see sense. And I find it alarming that she would fall in love with someone she’s known for two days. You’d swear he’d cast a spell on her or something.
Anyway, I’ll talk to her about it, but I don’t hold out much hope.
That entry had been written on the day before Jordan’s body had been found.
Could it be that Josephine’s conversation with Kayla had gone poorly, and she’d decided to get rid of Jordan rather than watching her sister continue dating him or seeing him? But what about the necklace and the pill?
Shoot, if only Gamma’s contact had told us what the contents were. Could it be that the liquid had seeped onto the necklace and that was what was giving Josephine a rash? Assuming that the pill had been the silver ball Josephine had mentioned.
I studied the necklace—the hole in its center was about the right size.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” I murmured, then glanced at the bedroom door. Closed. And I doubted Miss Bacon Squares would be done with her breakfast any time soon.
I turned the page in the journal. The next entry was dated just this morning.
That darn necklace has given me a rash! And Kayla has accused me of stealing it. Her behavior hasn’t improved even though that man is out of the way.
The entry was sharp and to the point, written in angry slashes and stabs of Josephine’s pen. Josephine had definitely stolen the necklace, but was she the one who had used the pill to poison Jordan?
The insinuation in her diary was that she didn’t know about the necklaces hidden purpose. Shoot, did I even know what the necklace’s hidden purpose was.
And Jordan had given this necklace to Kayla. Where had he gotten it from in the first place? And how had a portion of it wound up at the crime scene?
I had to show everything to my grandmother. And then… it was time I had a little chat with Josephine Wart.
15
By the time I had debriefed my grandmother on my findings, Josephine had vacated her table in the dining room. Lauren was busy with the washing up and insisted that I take a break and a stroll around the inn’s grounds because I was ‘giving her a hernia just seeing the stress on my face.’
That suited me fine.
Gamma and I linked arms and proceeded upstairs. Neither Kayla nor Josephine was in their rooms.
While I’d left the diary in its place under the bed—after taking photos for evidence, of course—I had removed the necklace. It was a crucial clue, and Gamma was certain that the pea-sized pill would fit the gap in its pendant.
“Let’s try the yard,” Gamma said. “They ought to be somewhere in the grounds. I doubt they’ve gone far.”
“How can you be sure?”
“They haven’t gone out much since the murder,” Gamma replied. “I’ve been keeping an eye on guest movements for your sake.”
Because we couldn’t be sure who was a double agent. Any of the guests might’ve been working for Kyle.
“They don’t talk to each other much,” Gamma said, “but they do spend an awful lot of time out in the garden or under the trees near the creek.”
My grandmother and I affected a relaxed attitude and wound down the stairs and out into the sunlight. Inside, I was a mess of emotion. I hadn’t talked properly to my boyfriend in days, and he didn’t seem that interested in engaging in conversation with me either. He was angry, and I would give him his space until he was ready to talk.
Besides, it gave me more time to figure out what on earth was going on at the Gossip Inn.
“There.” Gamma nodded toward the trees around the side of the inn.
Josephine and Kayla Wart squared off under them, not too far away from the inn’s greenhouse—Smulder wasn’t inside, at least, and his work boots had been abandoned in the soil outside it.
The twin sisters gesticulated and yelled at one another.
Gamma and I marched across the lawn toward them.
“—done is for your safety! Why can’t you appreciate that?” Josephine thundered.
“Oh please, Jo, do you think I’m dumb? I know that you’re always interfering in my life because you’re jealous of me.”
“Jealous? Jealous?” Josephine was incredulous. “Of what? Your wanton lack of respect for everyone and everything? Your flighty behavior and—?”
“You’re jealous because people like me better than you.”
“You little—” Josephine grabbed a handful of her sister’s ridiculous tower of leaning hair and tugged.
Kayla let out a terrific shriek and grasped at her roots. “Let go! Let go of me! You evil—”
“Let’s break this up, Charlotte,” Gamma whispered.
We separated, and I made for Kayla while my grandmother slipped in behind Josephine. Gamma pinched two fingers over Josephine’s wrist, and the woman squealed and instantly let go of Kayla.
I fastened my hands around Kayla’s upper arms and held her in place, in case she decided she wanted to strike back at her twin.
“Ow!” Josephine yowled, holding her wrist. “What did you do to me? I’ll sue, I’ll—”
“Don’t be absurd,” Gamma replied. “You’re causing a scene, and I merely hit a pressure point to prevent you from further harming your sister.”
“Thank you,” Kayla sniffled.
I released her since she didn’t seem liable to dive at her sister.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“She stole my necklace,” Kayla said. “The one I told you about? She’s just admitted she stole it and accused me of stealing it back.”
“Whatever! I didn’t steal anything.”
“Oh yeah?” Kayla glared at her twin sister. “Then, what, it just magically drifted off my bedside table and into your room.”
“No! But… it, I found it in the library.”
Gamma and I exchanged one of our looks. “In the library?” Gamma asked. “When?”
“Sometime in the afternoon on Tuesday,” Josephine replied, dismissively. “I assumed my sister had come to her senses since it was lying on the floor, abandoned and broken.”
“Broken!” Kayla started forward, and I grabbed hold of her again.
“Yes. Its middle piece was missing. But it was still quite pretty, so I took it. I only did it because I wanted to see if it would look good on me.” Josephine scratched her neck.
So, the murderer had taken the necklace from Kayla’s room and down to the library, where they’d removed the hidden pill and gone up to the attic to lay in wait for Jordan? Something wasn’t adding up here.
“I can’t believe you’ve done this!” Kayla yowled. “You’ve ruined everything. That was my only
memory of Jordan and it’s gone.”
“Slow down,” I said, trying to deescalate the situation.
“Yes.” Gamma slipped an arm around Josephine’s shoulder, seemingly in placation but really it was to keep her from acting out. “Why don’t you tell us what happened on the night of Jordan’s murder? When last did you two see him and each other?”
“On the night? Tuesday night?” Kayla frowned. “Why does that matter?”
“We were together,” Josephine said, rolling her eyes at her sister. “We spend every evening in my room reading. Or we used to before that man went and died. Now, Kayla won’t even look at me.”
“That’s because you never understood our relationship! It was delicate. Layered!”
“Relationships can’t be delicate or layered. They’re not doilies.”
“I’ll just—” Kayla jerked against my grasp, trying to lunge at her sister.
“Stop it, both of you,” Gamma commanded. “Now, you’re telling us that you were together all night on Tuesday?”
“Yes, of course. We were together from dinner until after… the police arrived at the inn,” Josephine said.
And Jordan had been safely in the foster center before dinner. I knew that because I was the one who dropped off his meals in the evening, and he’d been there. The twin sisters had an alibi, not that I’d expected anything less because of the suspicious circumstances of Jordan’s death.
But it was one avenue we could rule a line under.
If not Kayla and Josephine, then who?
And why had Jordan had the necklace containing the pill?
16
The following morning…
“I’m always sad when we have no one to cook for,” Lauren sighed, wiping her hands off on her apron.
The guests, including Kayla and Josephine Wart, had left the inn. Everyone was gone, and we had absolutely no bookings for the next two weeks. The guests had either canceled or not showed up. The Gossip Inn’s checkered recent past had finally caught up to it.
Chocolate Chills (A Mission Inn-possible Cozy Mystery Book 6) Page 6
