The Inn at Holiday Bay: Haunting in the Hallway

by Kathi Daley

  “I suppose we could look it up easily enough. Do you know the name of the fraternity?”

  “No. All I know is that he attended Bronte University in Rhode Island and graduated in 2010. Brian disappeared in the fall of 2009 when Wesley was a senior.”

  Georgia logged onto her computer. “Give me a minute, and I’ll see what I can find.”

  “Do we have any of those pumpkin muffins left?”

  “In the pantry. There are macadamia nut muffins as well.” She continued to type while I tried to make a choice. “I think I found something.” Georgia typed in some commands and pulled up a photo. “According to this, Wesley belonged to Beta Alpha Delta. He was president during his senior year, and get this, Oswald Hamilton was in charge of recruitment that year too.”

  “I wasn’t aware that Oz went to the same university as Wesley. I suppose it makes sense, though. They were the same age, and the Hamilton family might have ties to the school in some way. It is an expensive private college.” I scooted in close to Georgia. She turned the computer so we both could see the screen. “It looks like Wesley’s friend, Aston, was also a member of the same fraternity, as was Harris Covington.”

  “Who is Harris Covington?” Georgia asked.

  “The son of Bradford Covington, owner of Covington Properties.”

  “The hotel and resort chain?”

  “Yes.”

  “It looks like the fraternity catered to the sons of some of the richest men in the country. The Hamilton’s are wealthy, but I wouldn’t call them that rich,” Georgia pointed out. “At least not Bradford Covington rich.”

  “That’s true. I’m actually sort of surprised to find Wesley and Oz among the others. Perhaps there is more to the story of who is sought out for membership in the fraternity and who is likely to be turned away.”

  Georgia pointed at the screen. “See this guy standing in the background?”

  I leaned in closer. The shot had been taken outdoors, in what looked to be a quad. The fraternity members were posed in a group, but a few people were milling around in the background. The man Georgia was pointing to did look sort of familiar, but I couldn’t place him from the photo. “Can you zoom in on him and maybe enlarge the photo a bit?”

  Georgia did as I asked.

  I leaned in even closer. “You know, that sort of looks like Ryan.”

  Georgia frowned and leaned her head in next to mine. “It does look like Ryan.” She sat back and looked at me. “But it can’t be him. Right?”

  “I suppose it could. He was in town to interview for the position of bank president, so I have to assume he has a higher education. The subject of where he went to college never came up, but I suppose it is possible he attended Bronte.”

  “If that is Ryan and he did attend the same college as the man he came here to replace, that can’t be a coincidence. Could it?”

  “I doubt it. Pull up a student roster. If he attended the college, his name should be on it.”

  Georgia did as I suggested.

  “Well, I’ll be darned. What would be the odds that Ryan went to the same school as Wesley at the same time and have him not be involved in one or both of the murders?”

  Chapter 20

  Luckily, Colt was in his office when I stopped by later that morning. He said he had news and I shared that I did as well, and he gestured for me to go first. Georgia had sent the photo to my phone. I wouldn’t be able to zoom in the way she had with her computer, so she’d printed a copy of the zoomed-in image. Ryan had told the other guests he was in town to interview for the position of bank president, and it had occurred to us that if Wesley owned most of the stock in the bank, firing him probably wasn’t an option. After some discussion, we’d settled on the theory that if Ryan was in town to interview for a post that had been advertised by the board, it must have the authority to fire the acting president with cause. But what if that theory was wrong? What if the board, or someone on it, was fed up with Wesley’s ways and had found a way to get him out of the equation for good? What if this same someone headhunted Ryan so that the minute Wesley was out of the way, there’d be someone ready to take over? What if Ryan was in on the whole thing? Dang, I hoped not. He had seemed so nice. I was looking forward to sharing the town I’d come to love with him.

  As I told Colt the story and then showed him the photo, his expression tightened. I had a feeling that his news wasn’t going to make things better.

  “You aren’t entirely surprised by this,” I said as soon as I finished sharing most of the information I’d gathered.

  “No. Not entirely. While I was in Rhode Island, I managed to speak to several staff members at the university, as well as a couple of alumni who’d attended at the same time Wesley did. By the time my trip had come to an end, I’d pretty much decided that both Brian Coswell and Wesley’s deaths were tied to the university. I wasn’t sure how exactly, but that seemed to be the direction the investigation was heading. Now I’m not so sure. It does look as if Wesley, or someone else at the fraternity, was being pressured to accept Coswell as a pledge despite the fact that he didn’t fit its profile, so they killed the poor kid to prevent it from happening. Coswell’s father is not only a wealthy alum but a regular donor to the university as well. There is even a hall on campus named after him. I spoke to one of the administrators, who unofficially shared with me that there was some unwritten understanding that all the Coswell’s sons would be offered admittance to the college, which they did qualify and pay for, and would be offered membership in Beta Alpha Delta as well. With the two older sons, it wasn’t a problem. They fit the profile for the fraternity to a T. Then Brian came along. He had the smarts to excel academically at the university, but he lacked the appearance and social skills to make it as a Beta Alpha Delta. According to one of the fraternity brothers I spoke with, who wished to remain anonymous, Wesley and some of the others were furious that they were being strong-armed into accepting him into the fold. They initially refused. Then the university president came back at them with a list of infractions he’d overlooked to that point and threatened to shut the frat down. My source revealed that it was actually Oswald who came up with the idea of scaring the kid away by requiring him to go through an initiation rite so horrific that he would be the one to quit and they would be off the hook. The frat didn’t want to put all their pledges through the same hazing, so they told Brian that he’d been invited to a private initiation for pledges who had family members who were brothers.”

  “So, what happened? Did they outright kill Brian or was the hazing so bad that that was what killed him?”

  “My source didn’t know. He wasn’t part of the hazing. He was a junior at the time, and as far as he knew, only seniors were involved in whatever went down.”

  I leaned forward and rested my forearms on the desk in front of me. “Okay, so this poor kid heads out for what he believes will be an orientation or initiation of some sort and winds up dead by the end of the night. We know he ended up in Wesley’s grave, so whoever decided to bury him there must have known about the gravesite. I suppose that could have been Wesley, but it also could have been Oz or even Ashton, who was also in the photo.”

  He crossed his arms across his chest. “I think the key to figuring out who killed Coswell is to figure out who killed Wesley. We know that Oz had a lot to gain with the death of his cousin. He also was a member of the fraternity and a senior. Being a Hamilton, he would have known about the gravesite, so he could have been the one who decided to bury Coswell there. Coincidentally, he was also a member of the board of trustees of the Bank of Holiday Bay, even before he inherited the stock. He could have convinced someone like Ryan that he was acting on behalf of the entire board when he headhunted him for Wesley’s replacement.”

  “Of course, Ryan could have been in on the whole thing. It didn’t look like he belonged to the fraternity based on the photo, but he was a student at the university.’

  “He was, and he may very well have been involved,�
� Colt said.

  I sat for a minute to let my mind process everything. There were too many variables to nail down a single suspect yet. We needed something unique and specific. “What about the car that was in the bank parking lot the evening Wesley went missing? The dark sedan with the partial plate I found in Georgia’s photos?”

  “There are a lot of dark blue or black sedans with license plates beginning with W and ending in 10. We don’t even know how many digits are between them, although based on the placement, I am guessing three.”

  “Do you have a list?”

  Colt nodded.

  “If you want, I can take it home and look for anything that stands out. I can’t guarantee anything will stand out, but maybe I’ll remember seeing a specific set of numbers and letters somewhere.”

  Colt slipped the list into the copier. “It couldn’t hurt to get another set of eyes on it.”

  “It’s really sad that one of the reasons we are having such a hard time pinning down Wesley’s killer is because there are so many people with reasons to want him dead. In fact, I don’t think I’ve spoken to a single person who has shown genuine remorse that he was murdered.”

  “I’ve had the same experience. Even the people I spoke to at the university seemed indifferent to the fact that this particular alum had been murdered. The man was arrogant and self-involved to the point of being a narcissist.”

  My thoughts returned to Ryan. “Have you spoken to Ryan?” I asked. “It would be interesting to see exactly who he’d spoken to prior to applying for the job at the bank.”

  “I tried calling him, but he didn’t answer. I left a message, letting him know I needed to speak to him, but he hasn’t called back.”

  I stood up slowly. “I’ll let you get back to work. I’m free later, though, if you want to go to dinner or something. Georgia has plans with Tanner, and the inn is totally empty, so I’m on my own this evening.”

  “I’d like to have dinner. I’ll text you later, and we can work out the details.”

  I left Colt’s office and headed to the post office to pick up a package that I’d been notified needed a signature. They’d tried delivering it to the house, but I’d been out so I’d said I’d come by to pick it up. I hadn’t ordered anything valuable enough to require a signature, so I couldn’t imagine what it might be. Maybe my sister, Annie, had sent me something. We’d been estranged when I moved to Holiday Bay, but she’d come for the inn’s grand opening this summer, and while we’d spent very little time together, I knew in my heart that our relationship was on the mend. When she’d left, she’d mentioned having some things of our grandmother’s that she wanted me to have. Maybe she’d finally gotten around to sending them.

  The package was about the size of a bread box and fairly heavy. There wasn’t a return address, but the postmark was from San Francisco, so it appeared my hunch about the sender was correct. I signed the form required, carried the box to the car, and continued on to the bank. I’d managed to get the form the teller had given me for direct deposit of royalties from my first publisher all filled out and signed, so I wanted to drop it off before I forgot about it.

  “Good morning, Martha,” I said to the teller. “I have that form you gave me for direct deposits.”

  “Wonderful. I think you will find that a lot easier than collecting up and bringing in all those little checks.”

  “I agree. When I moved to Holiday Bay, I’d made arrangements for direct deposit for all my major sources of income, but I still have a few small ones still hanging out there.”

  “Would you like to make a deposit today?”

  “A withdrawal.” I handed her the form. I turned slightly and noticed a group of men and women in a conference room just down the hallway from the lobby. “It looks like you have something important going on.”

  “The board is meeting. There are two open seats, so the existing board members are speaking to the candidates before voting on whether to add them or not.”

  “So that is how the board is populated, by a vote from existing board members?”

  “That’s the way they’ve done it ever since I’ve been here. The board doesn’t have a big turnover, so replacements aren’t needed all that often. Having two open seats is sort of a big deal.”

  “I know that Oswald Hamilton was a board member even before he inherited Wesley’s stock, and I also know he is a stockholder. Are all the board members stockholders?”

  “I’m not certain. I don’t think that being a stockholder is a requirement, but it might be. I suppose there are folks you could ask if you were really interested.”

  I accepted the cash Martha had counted out. “I haven’t seen Nick around for a while. Is he taking a vacation?”

  “Actually, he took a leave of absence and went to visit his brother. I guess he decided that enough was enough with all the changes. He was especially upset about what Mr. Hamilton was doing to poor Sam. Those of us who work here know that his son really didn’t miss those payments. I’m not sure how he did it, but young Mr. Hamilton found a way to falsify his payment history. The man was a real snake.”

  “Do you think Sam might have killed Wesley in retaliation?”

  Martha paused. “I don’t think that Sam is the sort to kill a man, but I guess you never know what someone will do when their baby is threatened, and he does have all those knives, and he certainly knows how to use them.”

  “I suppose that is true enough.” I slipped the cash in my wallet. “I hope Nick comes back. He has a lot of years invested in the bank, and in the community.”

  “I hope so too, darlin’. I hope so too.”

  From the bank, I headed out into the parking area. As I walked toward my car, I saw a black sedan with a license number reading WIZ 10 in the space reserved for the bank president. I pulled out the list of license plates Colt had given me. Bingo. It seemed I’d found the killer.

  Chapter 21

  “So the license plate on the vehicle you suspect was being driven by the individual speaking to Wesley in the bank parking lot on the night he disappeared belongs to his cousin, Oswald?” Georgia asked as she got ready for her date with Tanner that night.

  “Yes and no. The plate is registered to Wizard Financial, which is an investment firm owned by Oswald Hamilton. Colt eventually would have figured it out, I’m sure, once he’d had time to dig into the long list of names. If Oswald Hamilton’s name had been on the list instead of the firm’s, it would have registered with Colt right away.”

  “Has he arrested Oswald?”

  “Not that I know of. When I last spoke to him, he was heading over to the bank to talk to him. I suppose even if Colt can prove that Oswald and Wesley spoke on the night he disappeared, that still wouldn’t prove that Oswald killed either Wesley or Brian Coswell. He does make sense as the killer, however. He had the most to gain by Wesley’s death, he was a brother in the fraternity Brian was trying to pledge when he died, and it looks like he may have been the last person to see Wesley alive.”

  Georgia held a red dress up in front of herself as she stood before the mirror. “It does seem like you have your guy. Now Colt just has to prove it.” She tossed the dress onto the bed and went back to the closet.

  “Yeah. That will be the hard part. But Colt is a smart guy. He’ll figure it out.”

  Georgia plucked a dark forest green dress from her closet and held it up the same way she had the other five dresses she’d chosen and discarded.

  “I like the green,” I said.

  “It is a nice shade, and I haven’t worn it in ages. I guess I’ll go with it.”

  “Are you and Tanner going somewhere special? You don’t usually put this much time into picking a dress.”

  “We are having dinner at the steakhouse. I’m sure any of the dresses I’ve selected and discarded will be fine. I’m not sure why I’m so nervous. Tanner and I are friends. We have dinner all the time. I’m sure tonight is no big deal.”

  “You’ve noticed a shift.”
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br />   “Shift?” Georgia began hunting around in her closet for shoes.

  “A shift from being friends to being something more. You might not be willing to admit it even to yourself, but deep down, you know in your heart that you and Tanner are on the verge of leaving the friend zone.”

  Georgia crossed the room and sat on the bed. “You think so?”

  “That’s how it looks to me.”

  Georgia fell back onto the bed, covering her eyes with her arm.

  “Tanner is a nice guy,” I added. “You enjoy spending time with him, and he appears to enjoy spending time with you. So feelings between the two of you have changed and developed over the past ten months. That’s natural. I don’t see why you are fighting the natural progression of things.”

  Georgia removed the arm from her eyes and looked at me. “I’m fighting the natural progression? What about you and Colt?”

  “That’s different.”

  Georgia sat up. “No. It isn’t. I have feelings for Tanner, and you have feelings for Colt, but we’ve both been through a lot. We’re scared to let anyone in. I’m not saying that is a healthy way to approach the men in our lives, but it is natural that we might feel that way.”

  I took Georgia’s hand in mine. “You’re right. I’m sorry for pushing. You’ll let Tanner in if and when you are ready, and I’ll do the same with Colt.”

  A look of panic crossed Georgia’s face, followed by a slight lifting of the corners of her lips. “I think I am ready. I’ve been struggling with this for a while now, but I think one of the reasons I’m so nervous tonight is because I do know somewhere inside that this is the night I take that step out of the friend zone.” She looked directly at me. “Am I nuts?”

  “Not at all. I know this will sound like a cliché, but just follow your heart and let it take you where it leads.”

  After Georgia left, I headed over to the inn to make sure it was locked up. Lonnie and his crew had left, and Gaylord had called to let Georgia know he wouldn’t be returning until the next day, so I was totally alone on the property. That didn’t happen very often. When I’d first arrived at the house on the bluff, I’d welcomed the quiet, but now I found it sort of unnerving to be way out here on the bluff all by myself. Of course, I did have Ramos and Molly trotting along beside me. Rufus hadn’t made an appearance when I’d left the cottage, but he often didn’t.