A Sneeze to Die For

by Teresa Trent

  Ed shook his head in disgust. “She has me working like a dog, Nora. What’s the big deal. It’s just an anniversary, right?”

  “It is a big deal and you know it, and you’re lucky Tatty didn’t hear you say that. I’m just sorry I’m so busy with the hotel right now. The timing of the Meow Meetup convention couldn’t have been worse.”

  Ed took a noble stance. “Don’t you worry about us. We’ll be fine. We don’t mind being ignored by you big hotel tycoon types. We’re small potatoes. We get that.”

  Nora recalled when she left the house that morning that Tatty had knocked herself out for the extra guests that were here for the convention. She had laid out a sumptuous spread of blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs, crisp bacon, and sliced melon. “Do you still have some of the buffet left over?”

  “We sure do. Tatty made a bunch of dishes. I could have told her those two skinny city people wouldn’t have eaten all that food.”

  “I’m starved. Sounds great,” Rick said extending his hand. “I’m Rick Stephenson, and I guess I’ll be staying here.”

  Ed gazed at him suspiciously, “Are you a cat crazy too?”

  Rick laughed. “No, no. I knew Alan Shaw. I’ve come to find out about what happened to him.”

  Ed leaned closer and lowered his voice. “We’d all like to know that. Are you some kind of cop? Nora hangs out way too much with the fuzz.”

  “Worse. I’m an investigative reporter.”

  Ed smiled with excitement as he came down the ladder. “Ah, you are hot on the trail of a story. One thing America can always count on is our media to uncover the true story, or at least their version of it.”

  “It could be a very big story. I’ve already been playing with ideas for the headline. Murder in the Piney Woods or maybe Hotel Homicide.” Rick said causing Nora’s blood pressure to rise. What would a headline like that do to the hotel?

  “Maybe you could even include the bloody photos taken when your Mr. Shaw lay sprawled on top of the elevator.” Ed added.

  “Yes sir.” He surveyed Ed’s work, “Your decorations are going to look great.”

  “Should be. Tatty practically bought out the Dollar Store. You get together with a woman and then she has to go and celebrate the day she fell for your line, over and over again. What a waste of valuable tv time.”

  “Ed you’ve never told us about how you and Tatty met. Was it here in Piney Woods?” Nora asked.

  “Oh no. We met at the big daddy of them all. Woodstock in upstate New York. I can remember it like it was yesterday. 1969. We were mixed in with all those kids. We were just kids ourselves.”

  “How romantic,” Nora said with a sparkle in her eye. Rick picked up on her reaction and a smile spread across his face.

  “Oh, yes. We were rocking and rolling with Jimmy Hendricks and Janis Joplin. It was a wonderful time. Very cool.”

  “You met her there? How did it happen? Did she gaze at you across the crowd of muddy, love-bead wearing hippies?” Rick asked. Nora felt Rick standing very close to her, intently listening to Ed’s story. How long would it be until he asked him about the seamier, more sensational side of Woodstock. Who knew what manner of crimes were committed with so many people under the influence? An investigative reporter sees the crime first and the humanity second.

  “We met there for the first time. She was there with some friends from college. I was there with my buddy Bonzo. It was a wild scene. When I met Tatty, she was trying to deal with some girl who was having a terrible fight with her boyfriend. Tatty was going to drive her home, but I just couldn’t lose this beautiful girl I had just met. It was like heaven opened up and gave me my Tatty. I tried to convince her to stay. She had those beautiful brown eyes and her laugh …” His eyes widened slightly as he spoke of his wife of fifty years. “My God, her laugh was amazing. I knew right then and there I was in love.”

  “So then, you convinced her not to help that girl?”

  “I was sure as hell working on it. I could be pretty persuasive at that age believe it or not. It ended up not mattering. Her boyfriend came back, and they kissed and made up.”

  “What was the fight about?” Rick asked.

  “He wanted her to do something she didn’t want to do. It might’ve been a festival of free love, but everybody has their rights. If she didn’t want to do the Hootchie-Koochie with him in the back of his Volkswagen bus, then she sure didn’t have to.”

  Rick nodded. “That’s what the 60s were all about, anyway. Women were getting their freedom from restrictive societal roles that had been around for decades.”

  “Yeah man.” Ed said wistfully. “I sure miss those bra burnings.”

  “Ed. What are you talking about out there?” Tatty said through the open screen door.

  “Ugh. Just how beautiful the porch is now that we’ve added your decorations, my love.” Ed answered with a wry smile.

  A few minutes later, Tatty had Rick set up with a heaping plate of eggs, bacon and blueberry muffins.

  “I’m so glad you came back with the menus and a new boarder. I didn’t know what I was going to do with all these leftovers.” She spread out her arm, Vanna White style, “I try to serve fresh every day.”

  Through a mouthful of food Rick asked, “Ed was telling us how you met at Woodstock.”

  A knowing look came into Tatty’s eyes. “That viejo loco. It was a long, long time ago. We ended up here in Piney Woods. Meeting that day was just the beginning. Love goes through many years and phases you know. I don’t even know who those two kids were anymore.”

  By Tatty’s definition Tuck and Nora were just getting to know each other. Everyone at every age has this experience just in different degrees. Tatty and Ed were in one place and Nora and Tuck were in another.

  Rick gazed at Nora. “You said you had a sister? Is she as beautiful as you are?”

  “Even more so. We’re a different kind of family. We’re sort of …” Nora stuttered.

  “Illegitimate. Born on the wrong side of the sheets,” Ed said, once again, the king of tact.

  Rick sat back and clapped his hands. “It seems the more questions I ask, the better your story gets, Nora Alexander.”

  Nora retrieved her phone and pulled up her picture gallery. “Here’s a picture of the two of us at a hotel reunion last summer.

  Rick looked at the phone and his eyebrows furrowed as he stared at Nora and her African-American sister, two stunningly beautiful women. “Could you possibly be half-sisters?”

  “You are sharp. We didn’t know about each other until we were adults. Our father was one of the town’s biggest benefactors.”

  “Yeah, he spread his love around everywhere,” Ed added stating the obvious.

  “Since our father died, we’re all in business together. Our brother Cory oversees our father’s business, Brockwell Industries.”

  “Ed Jr. works there. Brockwell Industries saved Piney Woods from becoming just another dying small town filled with resale shops and antique stores,” Tatty said.

  Nora nodded. “Yes, and we’ll keep Brockwell industries until we decide to sell it.”

  “So, you not only have looks that could stop a train, but you’re rich? Somebody pinch me.”

  Nora laughed. “We’re not rich. Keep in mind our income from the warehousing operation is in the hands of a man who has a gambling problem. Not only that, but Corey seems to have had a clandestine meeting with my uncle who hates him. I wish I knew what was going on there.”

  “Okay. So now we have this guy meeting with your uncle. What’s the big deal with that?”

  “My uncle hates Cory. He hated his father, and he feels no differently about his son.”

  “You uncle hates your brother. Got it. And has just returned from a long sabbatical … somewhere for some reason. Hmmm.” Rick leaned back as his eyes rose to the ceiling as if imagining th
e fate of Corey Brockwell.

  “If he’s been gone a while, have you ever thought he was in some sort of gambling rehab?” Rick asked.

  “Gambling rehab? They have a rehab for gamblers?” Nora asked.

  “Gambling is an addiction just like anything else. I’m sure there’s some sort of twelve step program for that,” Tatty said.

  Nora scowled. “Yeah right. Like Corey is ever going to admit he’s a prisoner to anything except for the property settlement in our father’s will.”

  “If Adam Brockwell had been alive he probably would have hired someone to go to rehab for his son …” Ed laughed.

  “I still want to know why Wiley and Corey would be meeting?” Nora asked.

  Tatty began to gather up the dishes and carry them to the kitchen. She glanced over and Ed giving him a nonverbal signal to help her, but he seemed oblivious.

  “Come on Ed,” Tatty said as she nudged Ed. He jumped as if being wakened out of a sound sleep, grunted and picked up a plate.

  Nora sat back and crossed her arms. “I guess worrying about it won’t help a thing.”

  “Nope. Let me get settled in and then we can have that interview about Alan Shaw’s murder. I have a Pulitzer out there with my name on it.”

  Once again Nora had to squelch a worry. She glanced at her watch. “I’d better get back.”

  Chapter 21

  W

  When Nora returned to the Tunie she headed directly to the kitchen. “Have you seen Wiley?”

  After such a big breakfast, Rick Stephenson had chosen to stay at the bed-and-breakfast, get unpacked and sort through some emails. Caesar, whose face was dusted with flour turned with a smile.

  “He texted me. He says he is on his way. Says he has a new wholesaler for us.” There had been a complete transformation in the man. He was no longer pacing and was happily working around the kitchen.

  As far as Nora knew there was only one wholesaler that would deliver to the area, and that was Moore Foods. Had Wiley dropped out of circulation because he drove somewhere out of town to solve the problem?

  Dominic spoke up from the front desk. “Nora there is something wonky with the ice machine on the second floor. Do you think you could go and check that out? Some of the guests were complaining. I need to try to remember to set up my recorders on that floor. It could be poltergeists at work.”

  “Wonky? Just what does wonky mean?”

  “I don’t know. What’s that got to do with anything? I’ve been trapped at the front desk, so I couldn’t get up there. I figured this is management duty.”

  Nora shrugged. Why was it that whenever Dominic didn’t want to do something, he labeled it management duty?

  “Sure, I’ll look at it.”

  Nora couldn’t get Wiley off her mind as she trudged up the stairs to the second-floor ice machine. The old silver-gray dinosaur had come with the Tunie. Hopefully they wouldn’t have to replace it. Just one more outlay of cash they didn’t have. If she had to buy a hotel, why didn’t she buy a brand-new one? Why did she have to go and buy a hotel that was falling down around her?

  Nora opened the creaking stairway door onto the second floor and marched over to the ice machine.

  Just as she rounded the corner from the elevator she could hear a conversation between a man and a woman.

  “It was just so wonderful to see you again … when you told me you were going to be a sheriff in some godless western town, I had no idea it would be this one. You know I still think of you. Think of those nights in college …”

  Nora was pretty sure the sulky tones from around the corner were coming from Sasha Calleigh. Her voice practically dripped sexy.

  “I was pretty surprised to see you. I mean, you had a cat in college but weren’t you studying fashion design or something?”

  “Or something. Cats are where it’s at, but enough about me. How about the two of us get together tonight and … relive old times.”

  “Um … I don’t know.”

  Nora had recognized the second voice right away. Had Tuck known Sasha in college? From the sounds of their conversation there was a possibility he knew her very well and the feeling that was creeping into Nora was not a good one.

  Nora cleared her throat and rounded the corner. Sasha was leaning very close to Tuck, her finger tracing a line on the seam of his shirt collar. She looked like a cat going in for the kill. Tuck immediately jumped back pulling Sasha’s hand away.

  “Nora.”

  “That’s my name. Really glad you haven’t forgotten it yet.”

  A mischievous look came into Sasha’s eyes. “Am I to assume that the two of you are some kind of backcountry item? Where did you meet? The tobacco spitting contest?”

  “Sasha.” Tuck scolded and then his tone changed as he turned toward a Nora whose flushed face betrayed her anger. “This is my girlfriend, Nora Alexander.”

  “Well, I knew you did a lot around here, but had no idea you were Tuck’s latest.” The words sounded complimentary but the look in her deep brown eyes displayed something else. Something that made Nora feel small. She didn’t need this and started to push past them.

  “I have work to do.”

  “Oh, rooms to clean?” Once again Sasha had deflated what she had left of her dignity.

  “No, actually. I have to …” Nora’s chin rose, “fix the ice machine.”

  Sasha stifled a giggle with a well-manicured hand.

  “Nora,” Tuck called after her. “We’ll talk about this tonight.”

  “Sure,” Nora answered.

  As if to add to her humiliation, the carpet she crossed to the ice machine slurped with every step. Opening the closet door, she pulled out a mop and bucket. She would have to grab the shop-vac from downstairs to finish the job. If she didn’t get on it now, the carpet would begin to stink with mold. Nora began to mop up the residue and then checked behind the ice machine. Assessing the problem, she immediately knew they would not have to buy a new ice machine anytime soon. Most of these things worked much better when you kept them plugged in. After she returned the plug to the socket, the ice machine responded with a soft whir as it began to fill with water. She would have to remember to tell Dominic that his poltergeist had unplugged the ice machine.

  As she straightened up, Tuck had moved to stand directly behind her. “Really, Nora it isn’t what it looks like. And as long as we’re on the subject, what about you and this reporter?” Tuck tried to say something else, but he was interrupted when his phone went off. He read the screen and then looked up.

  “I have to get this. I have to head off to Lubbock for a meeting, but save me some time tonight, and we’ll talk about this.”

  Nora slammed the mop into the bucket, hearing Sasha’s laughter behind her.

  Nora stomped down the stairway hoping that the sounds of her footfalls would be louder than the sobs that were now coming out of her. How could he do this to her? She stopped at the door to the lobby on the main floor and wiped her eyes, ran her fingers through her hair and stood tall. When she entered the lobby, Camille Martin-Ortega was standing at the check-in desk. Dominic, upon spotting her, motioned her over.

  “Thank goodness you’re back. Miss Ortega here …”

  “Martin–Ortega.”

  Dominic cleared his throat and tried it again. “Yeah. Right. Ms. Martin-Ortega said she discussed with you a discount for the convention guests?”

  Just what Nora needed right now. “We discussed it, but we didn’t settle it.” Nora’s tone was abrupt and all business.

  The Meow Meetup organizer held up a small tablet. On the screen was Alan Shaw’s article slamming the Tunie. “I believe this is all that I need to solidify our agreement. Lucky for you, most of our guests still haven’t seen this, but you can bet they will be reading it shortly. I plan to print out this article and included with their exit p
ackets. You can also bet that we will never be returning to your hotel.”

  Still rolling off the anger brewing inside of her from catching Tuck, there was no way she was letting this woman cheat her out of the original booking price. She had worked too hard to set up this convention, and there was no way she was giving into this petty two-named woman.

  “Fine. I don’t think we would enter into negotiations with you for your next convention, anyway. As for a discount, I still need to discuss that with my partner.”

  “Take all the time you want as long as it’s by this afternoon. I will be busy all day with the arrival of our show cat, Catpurnicus anyway. You did bring in the extras we requested? The fresh caught tuna, the scratching post and the calming lavender?”

  This “show cat” required more attention than a rock star prima donna.

  “Yes. Our staff is ready for Catpurnicus.”

  “Good. The owner is picking him up at the local kennel right now. I do not understand why a cat of this stature can’t just stay here at the hotel, but now I’m sure that a true four-star hotel would have handled this much more efficiently.” Ms. Martin-Ortega efficiently fastened the covering over her tablet with a short snap and slipped it back into her bag.

  After the Meow Meetup organizer left, Nora threw her hands in the air and let out a rumbling sound. “If it isn’t one thing it’s another. When will things start going right around here?”

  Dominic stepped back slightly his eyebrows raised. “Would you like to go on break? I mean, I know you just got here, sugar, but maybe a break would be good for you right now.”

  “I don’t need a break. I just got back from breakfast.”

  “Okay. I think you do. There are negative forces at work in you. Maybe I should run the thermal camera to see if you have any cold spots or a negative entity. Did you go somewhere where you might have picked up something? You know I have my suspicions about that ballroom.”

  “We call it the conference room now, and anyway I wasn’t here. I dropped a guest over at Tatty and Ed’s. An investigative reporter is here to check out what happened to Alan Shaw.”