Murder, Wrapped Up

by K. J. Emrick

  I felt sorry for him, in a way. Sure, he’d been living a lie for years. He’d made some mistakes in his past, too, but he was trying to make up for all of that now. He was finally trying to do the right thing and now all of this was happening and threatening to derail his new start.

  “Try this,” I suggested. “Tell him the truth. If he loves you, he’ll understand.”

  He pursed his lips. “Not sure it’s that easy. I’m worried I’m gonna lose him, ya know?”

  Yes. I did know what he meant. Maybe I wasn’t the one to be giving him advice, considering the secrets I was keeping from James. Still, I didn’t think Alfonse should worry about losing Dan. Not after seeing them together in those photos.

  He wouldn’t have anything to worry about from me, either. His private life was none of my concern. All I wanted to know was who Officer Jason Bostwick’s killer was. Finding that person might be the only way I could keep myself out of Cutter’s jail cells. I knew it wasn’t me, but that didn’t mean Cutter wouldn’t try to throw me behind bars for the rest of my life just to make his cover up work.

  It wasn’t me. It wasn’t Alfonse.

  So then, who?

  And why was Senior Sergeant Cutter covering it up?

  Chapter Seven

  Here’s the fun fact about being your own boss that everyone misses. You have to do the work yourself.

  So. Accused of murder, haunted by my husband’s ghost and, oh yes, on the outs with my boyfriend, I had to spend the next few hours at the Pine Lake Inn doing my work, unless I want Rosie to fire me.

  Not that I think Rosie would really fire me. She’s my best friend in the world and she’d overlook me being away from the front desk of the Inn for a few hours. She’s done it plenty of times before, I’m sorry to say, but I suppose that’s what friends are for. Just like I overlook how she can be as clumsy and awkward as a teenage girl at her first prom.

  It’s been a little worse for her lately, but I decided to chalk that up to the Christmas holidays. Everybody gets a little giddy when they know there’s presents coming.

  Wondering what James got me for a gift almost took my mind off everything else going wrong.

  Got another gift on the way. My Kevin’s coming home for the holidays. A little sooner than expected, but I won’t complain. It’d be nice to see his sister again, too, but that’s not to be. Maybe next year. Which is the same thing I said last year. And the year before that.

  After leaving Alfonse’s place I came straight here, to think about Christmas and other stuff that didn’t have anything to do with murder. I was almost back in the holiday spirit after the long walk.

  Then I stepped through the front door.

  I spent the next thirty minutes trying not to stare at that wall like my husband’s ghost would pop out of it at any minute. I wonder if Ebenezer Scrooge ever had days like this.

  The Christmas tree lights twinkled, and the dining room hummed with voices form the last of the lunch crowd. The mood was festive. I kept reminding myself it was the season of peace and miracles.

  I said a silent prayer that a little more of that peace would find its way here to Lakeshore. A couple of miracles wouldn’t hurt, either.

  Me and Alfonse had talked at length about the secrets he’d been keeping, and about how surprised I was that he’d managed to hide them so well in a town like ours. Still, the truth was I had more than a few secrets of my own. Ones I didn’t want to share. I doubted that anyone, even my very best friend Rosie, would be in the mood to share a Christmas cracker with me if they found out I was seeing ghosts. Including my dead husband.

  Right.

  Just like I’d expected, the Inn was starting to empty out now that Christmas was just three days away. People wanted to be home at this time of year to be with family and friends and loved ones. That was part of the meaning of Christmas, after all. There was also that little baby born in a manger a couple thousand years back, but I’m betting he went home on his birthday too.

  So I spent the next few hours checking people out and wishing them Merry Christmas and making sure the staff cleaned and readied the empty rooms. The folks checking out of room seven had a minor complaint about knocking in the walls but they didn’t seem too upset by it.

  Guess I’d need to have another talk with my friend Jess about keeping quiet. She’d died in that room. After that she’d kind of claimed it as hers. Which was all well and good, but things that went bump in the night weren’t part of our brochure. I wanted to keep it that way.

  The same couple, Mister and Mrs. Honniver, leaned in close before they left to ask me if it was true I’d been arrested for murder. There was this little gleam in their eyes that spoke volumes. They wanted to know all the troubles in our little town, the unluckiest town in all of Tasmania. I smiled my best smile and told them it was all just a misunderstanding and if they looked in today’s paper they’d see that there was nothing at all in there about murder.

  Which was true. Guess I might actually owe one to Cutter for keeping this all hush hush. Imagine that.

  The Honnivers looked a little disappointed that I wasn’t a real murderer, but that didn’t keep them from making a return reservation for Valentine’s Day.

  Rosie found me when I was closing out another room in the computer. The couple had already left, but that still meant twenty minutes of computer work for me. Credit card billing, internal records, updating contact information. I loved my Inn, but she needed a lot of attention.

  I was just finishing up a few last keystrokes when Rosie came out from the dining room, fanning herself with the edges of her white apron. “Dell, I don’t feel so grand. I may end up going home, if that’s... oh my.”

  She swayed on her feet and leaned up against the registration desk for support. Her hand knocked over a wooden cup full of pens with the Inn’s name on them. They rolled off the edge and scattered on the floor.

  “Oh, no! Dell, I’m sorry, I just don’t know what came over me.”

  I could see perspiration on her forehead. “Rosie, you don’t look well. Don’t worry about a thing. Go on home, I’ll take care of everything.”

  “But the dinner for tonight, and the prep for the Christmas buffet...”

  “Rosie. Did you give your staff explicit directions on what needs doing, like always?”

  She managed to look a bit sheepish, but I knew she would never leave anything in her kitchen to chance. If I went back there right now I’d find a handwritten list detailing everything from oven temp to which direction to peel the skins off the potatoes.

  “Go home,” I told her again, coming around to give her a big hug. She sure did feel warm. “Take a day. Or two if you need it. That’ll still give you plenty of time to come back and help with the Christmas meal. Let that husband of yours take care of you and snuggle you until you feel better.”

  “Now there’s an idea to make me smile.” Rosie put the back of one hand up to her face. “Goodness. I am a touch warm. All right, if you’re sure ya have this.”

  “I do, Rosie. Let this be my turn to cover for you. You just get better.”

  With a wave of her hand she left, still fanning herself with her apron. I know her place is within walking distance, just like mine, but I had to wonder if maybe I should get one of the other staff to drive her home. I figured Rosie was a grown woman. If she didn’t feel up to walking she would’ve said so. Poor girl. First she’s knocking into things left and right and now she catches some kind of bug. I promised myself to go check on her later, even if I had my very own problems to worry about.

  Just another day in Lakeshore.

  That wonderful thought was just crossing my mind as someone came up to the registration desk and cleared his throat. Head down over my paperwork, I heard him say, “Excuse me, please. Any chance you have a room for me?”

  I dropped my pen. When I looked up, there he was. My son, Kevin Powers, smiling that smile that looked so much like my own.

  He laughed at me as I flew around the
counter and snugged my arms tight around him. Kevin was taller than me and had been since he was fifteen. Back then he’d been just a lanky teenager. Now he was as solid as Ayer’s Rock.

  “Took you long enough,” I told him. I took a step back and looked him over. His hair was darker than mine now that he’d let it grow out a bit. He hadn’t been gone for that long, starting his career with the Federal Police up in Hobart, but it had done him a world of good. It was like he’d left all of his stress behind when he threw his badge in Cutter’s face and left Lakeshore behind.

  “You know I was going to come back for Christmas anyway, Mom,” he said, taking off the shiny blue windbreaker. Underneath he had just a t-shirt, and I had to admit he’d grown up nice, even if it was his own mother saying so. “Me and Ellie would’ve been here tomorrow. You didn’t have to go and get arrested for murder to get me to come home.”

  “Wasn’t my first choice,” I promised.

  “It’s all rot, Mom. We’ll get it fixed. Don’t forget, the man arrested me once, too.”

  “I remember. Cutter’s got a powerful hate on for the Powers family.”

  “Too right.”

  “Well. I hated to call you back for this, Kevin, but I need the help.” It felt like I took some big weight off my shoulders when I admitted that. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “I’ve got a couple weeks before I officially start my new job, so you’ll be seeing plenty of me. Ellie, too.”

  My son’s girlfriend and him are good together. A match that few people manage to find in this life. I’d told her so, which I think meant a lot coming from the mother of her boyfriend. “You should’ve told me Ellie was coming for Christmas, you know. Doesn’t she have her own family to go home to?”

  “She does. We’re going to start trading off the holidays to make it fair.”

  My heart sank a little. Of course Kevin would go off and start his own life and I wouldn’t be able to see him every Christmas. That was the way of the world. Still made me sad to see time move on and take him away from me. “So. How is Ellie?”

  “Aces, like always. Which reminds me. How’s that man James you’ve been dating?”

  That took some of the enjoyment out of the moment for me. “Cross at me, I’m afraid.”

  Surprise shadowed Kevin’s face. “Serious? I thought you two would be Mister and Mrs. before much longer. What happened?”

  I rolled my eyes to the side. Kind of hard to look at him with that question hanging in the air. “It’s not polite to pry into your mother’s love life. You know that, right?”

  “You pried into mine.”

  “Heh. Fair enough,” I laughed. What was I supposed to say, though? Me and James had... well, not a fight exactly, but it was certainly one of our less comfortable conversations. He was mad at me, and all because seeing my husband’s ghost had thrown me for a loop.

  No. That wasn’t all of it. I’d been pushing him away. I guess I just figured he’d always be there for me no matter what. Sometimes a girl can take that for granted. That was on my head, not on James.

  I couldn’t exactly tell my son about that, though. For more reasons than one.

  Telling him I could see ghosts would be bad enough. Telling him his father was dead? Yeah. That was a conversation for another time to be sure.

  “I guess it’s just the holiday season,” I decided to say. “It reminds me of your father. It’s... almost like I’m seeing him everywhere.”

  He nodded, and hugged me again. “I can understand that. Not a day goes by I don’t think of him. More so when I look at that tree.”

  The one in the corner of the lobby, he meant. That scraggly fake pine tree that looked nothing like the majestic Monterey pines around town. The one that his father had bought for the Inn on that first Christmas after I took over the place. That was why I still kept it, if I was being honest, even if it did resemble the one in the Charlie Brown cartoon.

  It was one of my last links to my husband. Now that I knew he was dead, and not just run off, it suddenly meant that much more.

  So I held my son, and he held me, and we both missed a man who was gone.

  After, we moved to the common room, where my guests would usually sit down to watch television or play any of the board games I had stacked on the low shelves or just visit with each other while they were staying here at the Inn. It was an area open to everyone as a courtesy. With almost everyone who wasn’t staying through the holiday already checked out, we had the space to ourselves.

  I almost took us up to my room, but I was too afraid Jess’s ghost would be there, waiting to tell me something. Or maybe even my husband.

  Although, checking in with Jess to see if she had anything else to tell me wouldn’t be a bad idea. She was a smart one, my friend was.

  Talking here was fine with me, even if the chairs weren’t anywhere near as comfy as Alfonse Calico’s.

  “So I think I’m going to like the Federal police.” Kevin sat back, sipping at the coffee in his white ceramic cup. I’d asked for tea from the kitchen instead, iced with some lemon in it, and while we were waiting for the drinks to arrive Kevin had started telling me about his month-long experience with the Australian Federal Police. “It’s a good group of people up there. Dedicated. They care about the people of Australia. Nice change from working in Cutter’s follies down here, tell ya that much.”

  I really did try to keep the expression off my face. Really.

  “Yeah. Cutter.” His frown mirrored mine. “Can’t believe what he did to you. I’m at a complete loss. I know how much of a ratbag the man is, but still. And what’s this about a cover up?”

  “It’s not in any of the papers today,” I told him. I’d given him the basics on the phone when I called him but there was so much more to it. “Not the arrest. Not the murder. Nothing. I checked with a friend of mine up in Sydney and she hasn’t heard anything about it, either. James filed the story with his editor and it was intentionally left out.”

  “Did you ask James why?”

  I hesitated. “No.”

  “Mom! Seriously? This is kind of important. Is this fight between you and him that bad?”

  “No. Really, son, it’s not. I’m just being, well, silly.” I was having trouble deciding how to even be around James now, was what we were. All this time, wanting to see my husband Richard again, and now his ghost starts reaching out to me...

  I was just supposed to go back to kissing my boyfriend?

  “Nevermind that right now,” I told him, as much to move the conversation forward as to get off an awkward subject. Point is, me getting arrested for killing a Federal officer is being kept quiet. Somebody killed Bostwick, and Cutter’s covering it up, and I can’t figure why.”

  “Mom, that’s impossible. A police officer killed, and nobody has the story? Something like that can’t stay buried.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think Cutter plans on keeping it quiet forever. Just for now.”

  “Why?”

  “Can’t begin to tell you. Then there’s the next question. Who’s he keeping it quiet for?”

  “You mean, who is he making you the scapegoat for?”

  “Exactly.”

  Kevin set his coffee cup aside on the table next to his chair. “He can’t hope to make this stick. Seriously, Mom, what the devil is he playing at?” I saw the blood rising in his face. “I’ll kill him. I swear to God above, Mom, I’ll kill him myself. Let him keep that out of the papers.”

  “Kevin,” I said, lowering my tone.

  “Fine. I won’t kill him,” Kevin corrected himself. “I’ll just maim him. In the leg. Maybe both legs.”

  Hearing him want to defend me made me feel good inside. The threat of violence might be a little troubling but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t daydreamed about myself.

  While I was listening to him, something stirred in my brain. Something about what Cutter had planned for me. Something about the cover up...

  Oh, snap.

  Of cou
rse.

  I sat up straighter, putting my cup down next to his. “Kevin, I know you’re not officially part of the Federal police yet, and I know you don’t work for the Lakeshore PD anymore.”

  “Thank God,” he muttered.

  “But,” I continued, “I need to do a little bit of investigating. I could use your help.”

  “Of course. Ya have to ask?”

  “Thanks, Kevin. Oh. What about Ellie? Is she due in soon?”

  “Tomorrow.” There was a little twitch at the corner of his mouth when I mentioned Ellie’s name. A little smile. That’s how I knew he was in love. “We’ve got time. Where do we start?”

  “Easier if I show you,” I told him. “I can explain on the way. Um. Let me grab something upstairs real quick. Do you need to get settled into a room first? Got plenty for you to choose from.”

  I knew he sold his house when he moved out and he needed someplace to stay. I would always have an open room for my son whenever he wanted to stay with me. “I’m good for now,” he told me. “I’ve got bags in the car but I’d rather just get to proving you innocent and showing the town what a moron Cutter is.”

  That’s my boy. “All right. Wait for me here.”

  “Uh, sure, but where’re you off to?”

  “I have to go up to my room for a few seconds. Won’t be long. Just need to check on something.”

  What I wanted to do was see if maybe Jess was hanging around. Now that Kevin was here I felt like I could really make some headway in understanding this mystery, but it wouldn’t hurt to get all the help I could find. If I asked Jess about Bostwick’s murder, maybe she’d have some insight that I had missed. Near as I could figure my friend’s ghost never left the Inn. I’d never seen her around town. Not any other ghost either, that I was aware of. Still, Jess seemed to know a lot about what was going on in Lakeshore. Plus I’ve always trusted her advice. That’s what good friends were for.