by Kathi Daley
“I guess I’ll try the beef-dip sandwich,” Trish said. “I haven’t had one in ages.”
Georgia went up to the counter, wrote down the order for our table, and slipped it to Velma. Then she grabbed three glasses, filled them with water, and brought them to us. The sole waitress on shift that day waved at Georgia to acknowledge that she’d noticed that she had taken care of things herself. That was one of the things I loved about Holiday Bay: Folks pitched in when necessary and no one seemed to mind.
“So, how many people are you trying to meet during this family roots trip of yours?” I asked after we’d all settled in to wait for our food.
“I have seven on my list. I live in Philadelphia, but both my mother’s family, as well as my father’s, are from New England. I know most of the aunts, uncles, and cousins who are still alive, of course. This trip is to find additional information on the ones who came before. I have my lineage traced back to Nicolas Chesterton on my mother’s side. As far as I can tell, he came to the colonies in the mid-1600s. He lived in Jamestown and had seven sons. In fact, one of the most interesting things I found was that the Chesterton line consisted mostly of sons until William Chesterton, who had three daughters.”
“William Chesterton had brothers whose offspring carried on the Chesterton name?” Georgia asked.
Trish nodded. “He had two brothers.”
She went on to name the brothers and their offspring. While I found it fascinating, Trish was throwing way too many names around for me to make sense of them, so I let my attention wander. Georgia seemed better able to keep up with all the names, but I felt like I would need a list to keep track. One of the bits of information Trish had stored in her memory that I did find fascinating was that one of the uncles many times removed had been named John. John had eleven sons, all of whom were named John too. I wondered how that might work, but Trish informed me that all the sons had different middle names, so she assumed that the sons went by those.
After we finished lunch, we headed back to the mansion so Trish could pick up her car. She had plans to visit both the newspaper and the museum, and Georgia and I had a whole hive of worker bees coming by to help put the finishing touches on the float for the Easter parade, so we didn’t tag along. Lonnie had built a masterpiece with the help of his artistic wife, Lacy and our neighbors, Tanner Peyton and his sister, Nikki. He’d been working for weeks on a replica of the inn, all fixed up and ready to receive guests. In addition to those helpers, we were expecting Chief of Police Colt Wilder, Velma, when she was finished at the diner for the day, and Velma’s friend, Charlee Weaver.
I suggested to Georgia that she grill some burgers and buy a couple of bags of chips to serve to everyone when they arrived. Of course, once Georgia got hold of the idea, burgers on the grill translated into ribs and chicken, baked Texan beans, potato, green, and fruit salads, and fresh, flaky grilled bread. I’m not sure how Georgia got all that food prepared so quickly, but by the time Colt rolled onto the drive on his motorcycle, the meat was on the grill and everything else was ready to eat.
“I’m not sure I would have gone with quite so much food,” Colt said later that afternoon after everyone had arrived. “I’m afraid we’ll all end up in a food coma and no one will have the energy to work on the float.”
“I agree, but you know Georgia; when I suggested hamburgers and potato chips, she almost had a heart attack. I think we’ll be fine, though. There isn’t a lot left to do on the float. We finished the structure as well as the basic landscaping last weekend. We wanted to add an Easter feel to the inn and garden, so we plan to build a large Easter Bunny who will sit on a chair in the gazebo, and then we’ll add Easter eggs to the lawn. I think Lacy and Georgia have everything made; it just needs to be assembled.”
Colt yawned. “That’s good. After the long day I’ve had, I could use an early night.”
“Long day?” I asked.
“I spent a good part of the day moving my furniture into my new house. I still have to move the small stuff and most of the boxes, but I got a good start. I hoped to finish up tomorrow, but I got a call about human remains that were found in an unmarked grave about two hours north of here. It was late to make the drive today, so I am heading out in the morning. Local law enforcement have the remains in their morgue, so there wasn’t a lot of urgency to making the trip today.
“Why are you responding to a call so far north?”
“I think the body could be connected to a case I looked in to a while back when the victim turned out to be alive.”
I raised a brow. “Alive?”
“It’s kind of a long story,” Colt warned.
“I have time.”
He took a sip of his beer and then sat down on one of the patio chairs we’d set out. I sat down next to him.
“About three years ago, I received a call in the middle of the night from a woman named Erica Kurtzpatrick. She claimed to have witnessed her neighbor, Peter Slavin, stab his wife, Lora, in the throat. I responded to the call, but when I knocked on the Slavins’ door, no one answered. Because I had reason to believe that a murder may have been committed on the property, I let myself in. A quick tour of the interior of the home didn’t provide evidence to support the vicious attack the neighbor swore she had witnessed, and while I carefully searched the whole place, I was unable to find even a drop of blood.”
“Was there evidence of a struggle?” I asked.
“No. Likewise, there was no evidence of forced entry, and it didn’t appear as if anything had been disturbed. It was the early hours of the morning by that point, so I waited to see if Peter Slavin would return to the house. When he hadn’t come back by the morning, I tracked him down through his employer, who informed me that he had been attending a conference in Atlanta for several days. I called Slavin and confirmed that he had been at the conference all week. I asked him about the whereabouts of his wife and he said she had been out of town visiting a friend while he was in Atlanta. I called the cell number he provided and Mrs. Slavin answered. I informed her about the reason for my call and she agreed to a brief interview via video chat to confirm that she was indeed alive and kicking.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I had zero evidence of foul play in the house and the supposed victim looked to be very much alive, so I dropped the case.”
“And the neighbor?”
“I shared with her the information I had tracked down, including that I had spoken to Mrs. Slavin. Despite the evidence that she was very much alive, Erica Kurtzpatrick swore that she wasn’t crazy and had seen what she said she had.”
“Did you consider that while the wife was alive, the neighbor might have seen someone else being murdered?”
“It did cross my mind, but the evidence didn’t support that conclusion.”
“Okay, so why do you think the body that was found today is related to that case?”
“This body was that of a female wrapped in a large blue area rug. The victim had been stabbed in the throat and the victim wore pink nylon pajamas. When I spoke to Erica Kurtzpatrick three years ago, she told me that she saw her neighbor, Peter Slavin, walk into the dining room where his wife, Lora, was standing and stabbed her in the throat. When I took the report, Erica told me that she’d noticed that Lora was wearing the same pink nylon pajamas she’d seen her in on other occasions, and when I explained that I had searched the place and hadn’t found a body or even any blood, she told me that Lora had a large blue area rug in the dining room and that, based on what she saw, Lora would have been standing on that rug when she was stabbed. She reasoned that the rug would have soaked up any blood that would have resulted from the stab wound and that it was likely that Peter had disposed of the rug at the same time he disposed of the body.”
I raised a brow. “So how were you able to speak to Mrs. Slavin if she had, in fact, been murdered?”
“That is exactly the question I hope to answer.”
Books by Kathi Daley
Co
me for the murder, stay for the romance.
Zoe Donovan Cozy Mystery:
Halloween Hijinks
The Trouble With Turkeys
Christmas Crazy
Cupid’s Curse
Big Bunny Bump-off
Beach Blanket Barbie
Maui Madness
Derby Divas
Haunted Hamlet
Turkeys, Tuxes, and Tabbies
Christmas Cozy
Alaskan Alliance
Matrimony Meltdown
Soul Surrender
Heavenly Honeymoon
Hopscotch Homicide
Ghostly Graveyard
Santa Sleuth
Shamrock Shenanigans
Kitten Kaboodle
Costume Catastrophe
Candy Cane Caper
Holiday Hangover
Easter Escapade
Camp Carter
Trick or Treason
Reindeer Roundup
Hippity Hoppity Homicide
Firework Fiasco
Henderson House
Holiday Hostage
Lunacy Lake
Celtic Christmas – Coming 2019
Zimmerman Academy The New Normal
Zimmerman Academy New Beginnings
Ashton Falls Cozy Cookbook
Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries:
Pumpkins in Paradise
Snowmen in Paradise
Bikinis in Paradise
Christmas in Paradise
Puppies in Paradise
Halloween in Paradise
Treasure in Paradise
Fireworks in Paradise
Beaches in Paradise
Thanksgiving in Paradise – Fall 2019
Whales and Tails Cozy Mystery:
Romeow and Juliet
The Mad Catter
Grimm’s Furry Tail
Much Ado About Felines
Legend of Tabby Hollow
Cat of Christmas Past
A Tale of Two Tabbies
The Great Catsby
Count Catula
The Cat of Christmas Present
A Winter’s Tail
The Taming of the Tabby
Frankencat
The Cat of Christmas Future
Farewell to Felines
A Whisker in Time
The Catsgiving Feast
A Whale of a Tail – July 2019
Writers’ Retreat Mystery:
First Case
Second Look
Third Strike
Fourth Victim
Fifth Night
Sixth Cabin
Seventh Chapter
Eighth Witness
Ninth Grave
Rescue Alaska Mystery:
Finding Justice
Finding Answers
Finding Courage
Finding Christmas
Finding Shelter – Fall 2019
A Tess and Tilly Mystery:
The Christmas Letter
The Valentine Mystery
The Mother’s Day Mishap
The Halloween House
The Thanksgiving Trip
The Saint Paddy’s Promise
The Halloween Haunting – Fall 2019
The Inn at Holiday Bay:
Boxes in the Basement
Letters in the Library
Message in the Mantel
Answers in the Attic – June 2019
Family Ties:
The Hathaway Sisters
Harper
Harlow
Hayden – Summer 2019
Haunting by the Sea:
Homecoming by the Sea
Secrets by the Sea
Missing by the Sea
Betrayal by the Sea
Thanksgiving by the Sea – Fall 2019
Christmas by the Sea – December 2019
Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mystery:
Murder at Dolphin Bay
Murder at Sunrise Beach
Murder at the Witching Hour
Murder at Christmas
Murder at Turtle Cove
Murder at Water’s Edge
Murder at Midnight
Murder at Pope Investigations – Summer 2019
Seacliff High Mystery:
The Secret
The Curse
The Relic
The Conspiracy
The Grudge
The Shadow
The Haunting
Road to Christmas Romance:
Road to Christmas Past
USA Today best-selling author Kathi Daley lives in beautiful Lake Tahoe with her husband Ken. When she isn’t writing, she likes spending time hiking the miles of desolate trails surrounding her home. She has authored more than seventy-five books in eight series, including Zoe Donovan Cozy Mysteries, Whales and Tails Island Mysteries, Sand and Sea Hawaiian Mysteries, Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Series, Writers’ Retreat Southern Seashore Mysteries, Rescue Alaska Paranormal Mysteries, and Seacliff High Teen Mysteries. Find out more about her books at www.kathidaley.com
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