The Inn at Holiday Bay: Letters in the Library

by Kathi Daley

  “Did you know what he meant?” Colt asked.

  “Not at first. But then I remembered a story Ben told me a very long time ago. He’d changed the names and some other identifying facts, but maybe a year after he made detective, he was handed a case in which a seventeen-year-old boy was shot and killed. He followed the clues and eventually found that the victim’s neighbor, a ten-year-old boy, had been the one to pull the trigger after he found out that the gunshot victim had tried to rape his twelve-year-old sister. Ben was really torn up when he found out that the killer he had been looking for was a ten-year-old who was just trying to protect his sister. I made a comment about the unlikelihood that the killer would be a child, and how it would be impossible to prepare for such a thing, and Ben responded that he knew of a case in which a seven-year-old girl shot and killed someone in a similar circumstance.”

  Colt frowned. “So you think Isabella killed Isaac Dumbarton?”

  “Maybe. I found notes that indicated that while Isaac had managed to talk a judge into ordering visitation during the summer, he took out his anger toward his ex-wife on Isabella, and there were reports of both verbal and physical abuse. What if Isaac had a gun and Isabella used it to protect herself? What if Karen knew what had happened and vowed to keep Isabella’s secret, but over a decade later, Ben looked into things and uncovered a hornet’s nest?”

  Colt didn’t answer right away. I could tell he was reviewing things in his head. “Okay. Let’s assume for a moment that Isabella shot and killed Dumbarton. I seem to remember that he was killed with his own gun, which makes this scenario more likely. Why would Mark and Ben go to Philadelphia to confront Theo if Isabella was the shooter?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I see there are a few holes in my theory. Even if Isabella shot Isaac and then told Karen about it, it doesn’t explain how Theo fits in to it. I guess he might know that Isabella killed Isaac, and he then killed Mark and Karen to protect her secret, but that doesn’t make sense either. Things work better if Theo is the shooter, but that doesn’t fit with Ben’s story about the seven-year-old unless he was referring to a different girl altogether.”

  “It seems that all the people who might know what actually happened are dead,” Colt mused.

  “Isabella isn’t dead. Do we know where she is now?”

  “No, but I’ll see if I can track her down.”

  After Colt left, I took Ramos for a walk along the bluff. My theory that Isabella was Isaac’s killer made sense to me, but it didn’t explain why Theo killed Mark and Karen, unless they both knew what Isabella had done and had helped her to cover it up. It was Mark who found Isaac’s body when he went over to his house to return a saw, but what if that wasn’t what had happened at all? What if Mark said he found the body on the floor and no one else was home to cover for Isabella? Was it possible that after over a decade Theo found out about the cover up and was out for revenge? But how had he? And why had Ben and Mark gone to see him in Philadelphia, if that was what they’d done?

  It was possible that Theo had found out what had happened and was threatening to go to the police. Perhaps Ben and Mark had gone to Philadelphia to talk him out of it. I guess if that was what had happened, the conversation must have taken a bad turn. But it was months later when Theo pushed Mark in front of the bus. Why had he waited so long, and what was Mark doing in Philadelphia again? Had Mark been there for another reason?

  Turning to Mark and Karen’s murder, there was another scenario that made more sense. It had Theo killing Isaac, and Ben figuring that out when he took a second look at the case. Maybe Mark and Ben went to Philadelphia to try to track Theo down but had been unsuccessful. Then Ben died in a terrible accident and could no longer help with the investigation. Maybe Mark went back to Philadelphia for a second look, Theo found out Mark was looking for him, and he pushed him in front of a bus. That still didn’t explain why he killed Karen too, unless he suspected that Mark had told her he was the shooter and he was afraid that she’d go to the police.

  Of course, that didn’t explain Karen’s secret. Unless Karen knew Theo had killed Isaac all along and hadn’t told anyone, including Mark, who found out later from Ben, who figured it out based on the available clues.

  I was starting to get a major headache. Eventually, I decided the only thing that made sense to do at this point was to wait to see if Colt was able to track down Isabella.

  By the time I got back to the cottage, Georgia was home. “How were the arts and crafts?”

  “So much fun.” Georgia beamed. “I wasn’t sure how it would go with so many kids to try to organize, but Nikki was really good with the kids, who seemed to adore her. They did whatever she asked them to do and everything went smoothly. Did you and Ramos have a nice walk?”

  “Cold but nice. I’ve enjoyed the snow, but now I think I am ready for some warmer weather.”

  Georgia opened the refrigerator and began taking out ingredients for dinner. “I agree; some warm weather would be welcome. I think we have a couple more months of cold, however. I ran into Velma while I was out and she mentioned that we are supposed to get more snow over the weekend. Probably not a major storm, but it will be cold nonetheless. Do you remember where we put the jar of olives we bought?”

  “I think they might be in the cupboard above the refrigerator. We could use more storage in this kitchen with all the cooking you do.”

  “Maybe we can figure out a way to add a pantry,” Georgia suggested. “We can ask Lonnie for ideas.”

  “Speaking of Lonnie, he told me that Lacy wants us to come to dinner on Sunday. She’s making ribs.”

  “Sounds good to me. I’ll call her to see if we can bring something to contribute. I have a really good recipe for honey baked beans. I made a pot and took them over to Tanner’s a while back and he said they were the best he’d ever had.”

  I smiled. I was sure Georgia’s beans were to die for, but I was equally certain that Tanner would have gone all gaga over anything Georgia brought over, even if it was a pot of soapy water. The man was about as smitten as I’d ever seen anyone. Although Georgia didn’t seem to notice. At least she didn’t admit to noticing. I suspected she had a clue as to how Tanner felt about her. Either that or love really was blind.

  Chapter 19

  After a restless night, I woke at three a.m. and a seemingly unimportant clue that I had come across and discarded suddenly seemed like the most important clue of all. I turned on my bedside lamp and tiptoed out to the dining table where I’d left Ben’s files. I grabbed the one covering Isaac Dumbarton’s death and took it back into the bedroom with me. Then I clicked on the gas fire and propped pillows behind me, opened the file to the back, and took out the incident report on the hit and run. On June 19 of the same year that Isaac Dumbarton was shot on July 10, an elderly man was hit by a moving vehicle and left for dead. The person driving the vehicle was never found, and based on what I could tell, the case was never solved.

  We suspected that Isabella might have shot Isaac in self-defense and that Karen knew about it, which was the secret she referred to in her diary, but what if the secret Karen kept was completely different? We knew that Isaac lived near the Stinson farm and we suspected that Karen and Isabella were friends. What if Theo, at seventeen, had been the one to run down the old man and leave him to die, and Karen and Isabella were in the car with him when it happened? It made sense that if Theo had caused the death of a pedestrian and did not plan to accept responsibility, he would have had to convince the girls not to tell either. If that was the secret Karen had kept, it could make sense for Theo to kill Mark to protect it if he somehow found out. It likewise made sense that he might have killed Karen if he felt she was going to back out on the pact she had made all those years ago.

  So how did this tie in with the death of Isaac Dumbarton? Because my gut told me that both things did tie together. Isaac might have found out what Theo had done. Maybe he noticed damage to his car. Isaac might even have threatened to go to the po
lice. Of course, in this scenario, it would make more sense if it had been Theo who had shot Isaac. But what if Isabella was home and Isaac went ballistic when he found out what Theo had done? What if things had gotten violent and Isabella had picked up the gun and threatened to use it if Isaac didn’t stop beating Theo? Maybe the gun went off and Isaac was killed. Now there would be two secrets to keep: that Theo had killed the elderly man and that Isabella had killed Isaac. Theo might even have used the fact that Isabella had killed Isaac to cement the promise Isabella and Karen had made not to tell what Theo had done. He, in turn, would have agreed not to tell what Isabella had done.

  This theory had a lot of ifs involved, but I felt that at least I had come up with a series of events that made sense. I hoped that Colt would find Isabella and we could confirm what we thought we knew once and for all.

  Chapter 20

  “The ribs were delicious,” I said to Lacy after everyone assembled had downed each and every one of them, along with the baked beans and potato salad Georgia had brought and the green salad and rolls Nikki had contributed.

  “The recipe has been handed down in my family for five generations. The secret is to start off with good-quality ribs and then cook them slowly. I usually do these in the summer when we can sit out on the deck, but I had a midwinter craving that could not be denied.”

  “Well, I am up for your doing ribs again when the weather warms up a bit. In fact, if outdoor seating is an option, we can have the meal at my place,” I offered.

  Lacy smiled. “I’d love that. Your view has to be the best in the area.”

  “Is there something I can do to help with the dessert?” I asked.

  “No. I made a cobbler. I just need to heat it up. I’m going to check on the kids before I bake it. Hopefully, Colt will be here in time to eat the plate of food I set aside for him and then join us for dessert.”

  I glanced at the clock. “He should be here soon. I’ll text him to see if I can get an estimate on his time of arrival.”

  Colt had been able to track down Isabella and had gone to talk to her in person. I was anxious to see how close we were with the two theories we’d worked out, assuming that she’d agreed to come clean. Colt texted back to let me know that he was less than a minute away, so I grabbed my jacket and headed out to the drive to meet him. Nikki and Georgia were in the den playing a game with the older kids, and Tanner and Lonnie were in the garage looking at the car he was restoring, so when Lacy had headed upstairs to check on the baby, I’d been left alone in the kitchen. I figured no one would miss me for a few minutes.

  Colt pulled up and I slipped into the passenger seat. “How did it go?”

  “It went fine, considering.”

  “Were we close? Did Theo kill the pedestrian and then make Karen and Isabella swear not to tell?”

  Colt nodded. “That much was spot-on, with the addition of the fact that Theo was drunk when he hit the man who was in a legal crosswalk. I wish I knew how Ben figured it out all those years later. It was a brilliant piece of detective work, but he didn’t leave adequate notes to explain how he did it.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. “My Ben was a smart man and an excellent detective. I’m not surprised in the least that he figured out that Theo hit the pedestrian while Isabella and Karen were in the car and then made them swear not to tell. I imagine that after he figured it out he told Mark, and then Mark and Ben went to Philadelphia to confront Theo, but he wasn’t around?”

  “Theo was around, and when they confronted him about the hit and run, he told them that it was Karen who shot his father and he had proof. He said if they ratted him out, he would rat Karen out, so they left without reporting anything to the police. I guess Ben’s death shook Mark up quite a bit. He tried to talk to Theo again to get him to confess to the hit and run, but instead of confessing, he pushed Mark in front of a bus.”

  “Wait. Karen shot Isaac? Why?”

  “Isaac figured out that Theo was responsible for the hit and run and confronted him. Theo’s response to the accusation was not to be remorseful but to mouth off to Isaac. That sent Isaac over the edge. He grabbed a bat and started hitting Theo with it. Isabella came in with Karen and tried to intercede on her half brother’s behalf. Isaac shoved Isabella, causing her to fall into a table and hit her head. Isaac went back to hitting Theo with the bat, so Karen picked up a gun that was sitting on the table and aimed it at Isaac. She screamed at Isaac to stop, and somehow the gun went off and Isaac was shot.”

  “Why was there a loaded gun on the table in the first place?” I asked.

  “Isabella wasn’t sure, but she suspected that Theo had been target shooting when he was called into the house by his father.”

  “And after Isaac was shot?” I asked.

  “Theo convinced Isabella and Karen to forget everything they knew. They wiped the prints off the gun, put it back on the table, and then Theo drove them over to another friend’s house where they all spent the night. Mark found the body the next day.”

  “So Theo, Isabella, and Karen kept not one but two secrets for over a decade, and then Ben decided to dig around in an old murder case and found something that blew everything wide open. How very tragic.”

  Colt nodded. “It was tragic. Mark was an innocent bystander and Karen was a child who found herself in an awful situation. There is an all-points bulletin out for Theo, and Isabella has been put into protective custody until he is caught. She is the only one alive, other than Theo, who knows what really happened.”

  I glanced back toward the house. “Thank you for helping me get my answers.”

  “They were my answers to find as well.”

  “Are you ready to go in and have some ribs?”

  Colt nodded. “I have been thinking about those ribs all day.”

  I opened the passenger door and got out. “We’ve eaten, but we saved you a plate. Lacy has cobbler for dessert too, so you’ll want to save some room for that.”

  Colt fell into step beside me. “All I’ve eaten the past two days is fast food, so I have plenty of room for whatever she serves up. But before we leave the subject of Karen’s death altogether, did you ever find the email you received that caused you to come to Holiday Bay?”

  I opened the back door and stepped into the kitchen. “No. I didn’t look for it. I might even have deleted it. Why do you ask?”

  Colt peeled off his jacket. “I’ve been thinking about what Velma said about Ben knowing Karen and you being sent that email. I know it seems random, but the more I think about it, the less inclined I am to believe that one thing isn’t connected to another.”

  “So you think that someone brought me here? Why would anyone do that?”

  Colt hung his jacket over the back of a chair. “I’m not saying that is definitely what happened, but I would like to take a look at the email if you can find it. Just to be sure.”

  I poured Colt a cup of coffee, then set it on the table. “Okay. I’ll look for it. But I’m not even sure I saved it.” I took the plate of food we’d left warming out of the oven and set it on the table, then took out a second plate with the salads and set that one next to the hot one. “If you do find reason to suspect that something is going on, please don’t mention it to anyone until we can look into it a bit. If I know Georgia, Nikki, Velma, and Lacy, they’ll worry, and at this point I have to believe there is nothing for them to be concerned about. I’m quite certain that I wasn’t ‘brought here.’ I needed a change, saw an email that appealed to me, and took a chance on a new start.”

  Colt picked up a rib and took a bite. “I hope that is what we find, but doing what I do, I can’t help but find patterns in random events.”

  I realized that I tended to do the same thing. I felt a tightening in my stomach, then pushed it away. Holiday Bay was my second chance at life, and I wasn’t going to let some coincidence ruin it for me. I knew in my heart that Holiday Bay hadn’t chosen me as much as I had chosen Holiday Bay, but more than anything else, I knew that H
oliday Bay and I were meant to share a life together. It was here, in my little cottage by the sea, that my soul would heal and my heart would find a way to open itself to love again.

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  Harper Hathaway glanced at the San Francisco skyline as it faded into the distance with the conviction that of all the Hathaway sisters, she was going to go down in family history as having made the biggest mess of her life. Not that making a mess of her life had been what she’d set out to do fourteen years ago, when she’d fled her hometown of Moosehead, Minnesota, feeling lost and alone in a sea of family and friends. She’d recently graduated high school and had been expected to come up with a plan as to what to do with her life, which at the time seemed pretty overwhelming. Despite a family who loved her, a boyfriend who wanted to marry her, and a grade point average that would have landed her a spot in almost any college in the country, she’d had absolutely no idea who or what she wanted to be. So, after weeks of sleepless nights and angst-filled days, she’d hitched her wagon to the first opportunity she stumbled upon and joined the Army after a recruiter made a cold call to a young woman who actually was looking for a life of meaningful adventure in addition to a career.

  Looking back, things had worked out all right. At least for a time. Yes, she’d missed her family, and those first years overseas were some of the hardest she’d ever known, but she seemed to have a skill set and personality type that fit well with the lifestyle presented to her, and she’d risen through the ranks at a speed that at times had left her downright dizzy. When time came to re-up after her first tour, she hadn’t even considered other options and happily signed on the dotted line. By the time her second contract was complete she was on the fast track to a career with Special Forces, but by the time she’d completed her third contract, she’d seen enough death and destruction to last her a lifetime. She knew in her heart she was ready to try something different and had considered going home to Moosehead, but then she met Eric Palmer, a scuba-diving instructor with a taste for treasure hunting, a bit of wanderlust, and big dreams for the future. Deciding to follow the man and his passion, she moved to San Diego, became a certified scuba diver herself, and followed Eric from one exotic locale to the next. Not only had they traveled the world in search of the ultimate dive site but they’d joined salvage operations along the way. For a brief period in time, she’d really had it all: an exciting life that challenged her both physically and intellectually, a fiancé on the same life path that she had grown to love, and a bright future limited only by what she could imagine. Then, six months ago, her perfect world came tumbling down when her fiancé was killed while diving on a wreck in Cozumel and she’d lost her will to continue down the path they’d chosen to walk together. So one hundred and sixty nine months, two weeks, and eight days after she’d left her home in pursuit of a new life, she found herself returning to Minnesota the same lost and lonely mess she was on the day she’d left.