by Kathi Daley
“You don’t think Naomi actually killed Alvin, do you?” I asked.
“I don’t know. When I spoke to her this morning, she didn’t do or say anything that would lead me to believe she was guilty, but I’ve just met the woman, so I have no idea how good an actress she might be. In addition to the fact that Naomi appears to have called Alvin after going up to bed, which, of course, she didn’t mention when I spoke to her this morning, it seems a bit of a coincidence that both her roommate, Willa, and Alvin’s roommate, Lisa, were the two who were totally passed out.”
“Do you think they were drugged?”
“I think they might have been.”
I hated to admit it, but some sort of drug mixed into the drinks would explain a lot. Yes, everyone had been drinking heavily, but Lisa and Willa passed out fairly early, and I hadn’t noticed Willa even drinking wine at dinner on that first night, and she certainly hadn’t been drunk at that point. I felt my stomach knot. Poor Fiona was going to be devastated if her sister was the killer. I’d only just met the bride and groom-to-be, but based on what I knew about both, I had a feeling the future husband and wife were good people with good hearts and pure intentions.
Deciding to head over to the inn to give Georgia and Jeremy a heads up about the cause of death, I returned the dogs to the cottage, gave them fresh water, and headed next door. When I arrived, I found Georgia staring at the food she had piled on the counter. “Is there a problem?” I asked.
“Fiona just called. The group has decided to have dinner at the resort where they went for golf and spa treatments. She said they’d be back at the inn around ten.”
“I see. It would have been nice if they’d called before you started the dinner prep.”
“That’s what I said. Well, no, I guess that isn’t what I said. What I actually said was for her to have a good time and to remember the after-hours policy should they not return by ten. It’s not a catastrophe. Fiona assured me that she’s more than willing to pay for the dinner she ordered with us, but now I have ten Cornish game hens and a partially prepped meal, and no one to eat it.”
I picked up a piece of carrot and popped it into my mouth. “Colt is on his way over. I’m sure he’ll want to stay for dinner. I love game hen, and I’m sure Jeremy will eat one. We can call Tanner and Nikki, and ask them to come over for dinner, with you that would be six. Maybe I’ll call Lacy and see if she and Lonnie want to have dinner with us. If they can get a sitter that would be eight. Maybe Velma?”
Georgia smiled. “That sounds like a wonderful idea. If I wasn’t halfway into the prep, I’d just freeze the hens and try to recycle the rest, but at this point, the hens are seasoned and ready to go into the oven.”
“Okay, you keep working, and I’ll make the calls. By the way, I have news on the murder case. I spoke to Colt, and it seems that Alvin was injected with a drug that stopped his heart. He’s on the way over to look for the syringe.”
Georgia frowned. “Wow, that’s awful. Does he have a suspect?”
“Naomi actually,” I explained about the call.
“That is just too strange. Naomi seems a bit immature if you ask me, but I wouldn’t have pegged her as a killer. And she seems too small to have lugged a body very far once it was deceased.”
“Which is why Colt thinks the body was left in the shed and not moved. I’m going to run and call Lacy and Velma. I’ll call Nikki and Tanner as well, and then we can regroup.”
As it turned out, everyone on our guest list was thrilled to eat the food left unspoken for by Fiona’s group. Lacy and Lonnie preferred to eat earlier than the planned time of eight o’clock if possible since they had to get back and take over for the babysitter, so Georgia moved the timetable up and planned to serve the meal at six-thirty. Colt showed up just as Georgia and I were discussing what needed to be done to get the meal on the table an hour and a half earlier than scheduled. After I explained the change in this evening’s plans, Colt began his search in the shed, and when nothing was found, he headed upstairs and began looking through rooms, beginning with Naomi’s. I offered to help, but he indicated that he had a system, so I went downstairs to help Georgia. By the time I returned to the kitchen, Jeremy had come back from wherever he’d been and had headed down to his apartment to shower.
“I’m not sure if I’m hoping that he finds the syringe, or he doesn’t,” Georgia said. “I do want Alvin’s killer brought to justice, but I don’t want the remainder of the weekend to be ruined.”
“I hear you,” I agreed.
Colt came into the kitchen a short time later.
“So, did you find anything?”
He held up a plastic bag with a syringe inside. “It was just there in Naomi’s trashcan. It was wrapped up in a tissue, but otherwise, it was sitting there for anyone to find.”
“So what are you going to do? Arrest Naomi?” I asked.
He shook his head. “This was a little too easy for my taste. I’m going to take this back into town and test it for prints and contents.”
“Dinner is going to be at six-thirty. Lonnie and Lacy are coming, and wanted to eat earlier,” Georgia informed him.
“I should be back by then. If not, go ahead and start. I’ll eat when I get here.”
Jeremy returned to the kitchen shortly after Colt left.
“Did I hear Colt?” he asked.
“He just left, but he’ll be back,” I said.
“Did he find the syringe?”
“He did,” I answered Jeremy. “It was in the trashcan in Naomi’s room.”
“Seems sloppy,” he replied.
“I agree,” Georgia said. “Naomi doesn’t seem to have Fiona’s drive and ambition, but she appears to be intelligent. If she is the killer, I don’t see her just leaving evidence in her room. It sounds to me as if someone might be setting her up.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I had the same thought. Colt as well. But if not Naomi, who?”
No one spoke.
“Colt said that Naomi called Alvin at two-fifteen, which would have been after everyone other than Alvin said they’d already gone to their suites.”
“Maybe someone used Naomi’s phone,” Jeremy pointed out. “She could have left it downstairs, or perhaps someone took it when she wasn’t looking. It wouldn’t have been hard for one of the other members of the group to get ahold of it and then return it. If Naomi had left the phone downstairs or if she was sleeping when her phone was borrowed, she would never have known.”
“Who else, other than Willa, could have gotten into the suite?” Georgia asked.
“The killer is sophisticated enough to know which drug to use to stop a heart and how to administer it for maximum effect. I’d say someone with that sort of smarts might be able to jimmy a lock,” Jeremy pointed out.
“I guess all we can do at this point is to wait until Colt gets back and see what he has to say,” I responded.
Tanner and Nikki showed up at five-thirty. Nikki pitched in to help Georgia, who took a break to have a glass of wine with Tanner, who was sitting at the little table in the kitchen. I figured this was as good a time as any to show him the journal I’d brought from the Chadwick house. I was so sure it was a tell-all journal of some sort, but as it turned out, it wasn’t.
“It’s a log describing tasks, events, dates, those types of things,” Tanner informed us.
“Tasks, events, and dates?” I asked.
“I’d say the log was kept by whoever acted as house manager at the time the log was kept. I can see why you thought it was a journal since there are dates at the top of each page, but the text includes things such as notes about the dates the homeowner and his family will be in the area, the date they are to expect certain shipments, guests who are due to arrive other than family members, items in need of repair or maintenance. That sort of thing.”
“Why would a book like that end up on the shelf in the library?” I asked.
Tanner shrugged. “I have no idea. Maybe someone saw it lying around and ass
umed it was a book and placed it on the shelf.”
“Well, that’s disappointing,” I said. “Can you tell when the log was kept?”
Tanner glanced at the first couple of pages. “Not right offhand, but there might be something in the text that will mention a name or a year. The dates at the top of the pages only include the month and day.”
“I suppose even if the book isn’t a juicy journal as I’d hoped, there might be something useful contained within,” I said.
“Useful for what?” Tanner asked.
“Useful to solve the mystery,” I said.
“What mystery?” Tanner asked.
I shrugged. “I haven’t quite decided yet, but with houses as old as the Chadwick house, there is always a mystery to solve.”
Lonnie and Lacy arrived at six o’clock. Jeremy and Georgia were busy getting the meal ready to serve, but the rest of us had moved into the main living area. I showed Lonnie the blueprints Lacy found, but I’d taken to study, hoping they would tell a much more interesting story than the book I’d thought was a journal had. He unrolled the prints and frowned.
“I see what you are talking about,” he said. He pointed to the room behind the wall of the library. “The blueprints I have show this wall,” he ran a finger along the library wall, “as being an exterior wall, but it does look as if there is an enclosed space here. I’ve walked around the exterior of the home many times, and I went through all the rooms fairly well when I was calculating my bid for the renovation. If there is an enclosed space here, it’s well concealed.”
“But, could there be a room?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Sure. I guess. Every wall in the library is lined from floor to ceiling with bookshelves, but I suppose there could be a false wall that is actually a door. I’ll be removing all the books at some point to refinish the shelving, so I guess I can take a better look then.”
That sounded a lot like waiting to me, which I wasn’t a fan of.
“Maybe you could get permission for Abby, Georgia, and me to poke around a bit,” Lacy suggested.
“And me,” Nikki chimed in.
“And Nikki,” Lacy added.
“It would be helpful if I had someone to box up all those books ahead of the renovation in that room,” Lonnie said.
That sounded like work, but I decided if I had to combine boxing up books with sleuthing, I was in. I’m not sure why I have this need to know the details relating to every little thing, but the existence of a secret room was just too much of a mystery for me to ignore.
Chapter 11
Velma showed up just about the time Colt returned. Georgia set the food up buffet style, so we filled our plates and then gathered around the dining table. It seemed everyone was hungry since all conversation was stalled for at least five minutes. Eventually, Georgia asked the question on everyone’s mind.
“So were Naomi’s prints on the syringe?”
“No,” Colt answered. “The unit was wiped clean, but I was able to confirm that the drug residue inside the syringe matched the drug injected into Alvin’s neck.”
“Are you going to arrest Naomi when the others return?” Velma asked.
“No. I really don’t have enough to make an arrest, but I am going to talk to the group. I’m going to ask for two or three volunteers to help me with my interrogation.”
“I would, but I need to be at the diner by six tomorrow morning, so I shouldn’t stay late,” Velma said.
“I’m in,” I replied.
“Me too,” Jeremy said.
“And me,” Georgia joined in.
“I have to go home and take care of the puppies,” Tanner provided.
“And, of course, Lacy and I need to get back to relieve the sitter,” Lonnie reminded everyone.
“I can help,” Nikki said. “What do you want us to do?”
“I’m going to talk to the group, and I want those of you who stay behind to really watch everyone’s expression as I share my findings with the pre-wedding party. I’m going to say that the syringe was found in the trashcan and that a clear print was found. The person who put the syringe in the trashcan in Naomi’s room, whether it’s Naomi or someone else, should be concerned about this bit of news. I’m hoping the killer will panic at the thought of my having a print, and I hope this panic will cause him or her to react in some manner.”
“Like some sort of facial expression or body language indicating they might try to sneak away in the middle of the night,” Tanner offered.
“Exactly.”
Once Colt shared his plan, the group as a whole began to offer opinions as to what might actually be going on. Had Naomi killed Alvin? Was she being framed? If so, by whom? Based on what had been said about Alvin by the others, he was a bit of an outsider, who wasn’t particularly close to either Fiona or Carson. Even Lisa, who’d introduced him to the group, seemed to be wavering in her affections. Of course, not being close to or even liking the guy wasn’t a motive for murder. If one of the guests currently staying at the inn had killed the man, which is what Colt suspected, there must be something going on that none of us were aware of.
After dinner, Lacy and Lonnie left right away, and Tanner and Georgia took the dogs for a walk. Once they returned from the walk, Tanner headed home, and Georgia headed into the kitchen to help Jeremy with the dishes. Since Nikki planned to stay, she pitched in as well. Once Velma left, Colt and I bundled up and headed out to the back deck to sit next to the fire pit.
“Did you notice anything else while you were upstairs going through the rooms?” I asked. “Anything that might explain why someone wanted Alvin dead?”
“Not a thing.”
My eyes grew wide as something occurred to me. “You said you found the syringe in the trashcan in Naomi’s room.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Was there anything else in the trashcan?”
“No. Just the syringe, which was wrapped in some tissue.”
“I helped Georgia, Jeremy, and Nikki clean those rooms before Georgia and I went to the Chadwick house with Lacy. All the trashcans would have been emptied. Actually, they would have been emptied twice. Alvin disappeared Thursday night, the murder occurred early Friday morning, and you found the syringe Saturday after the rooms were cleaned.”
Colt raised a brow. “So the syringe was put in the trashcan at some point after the rooms were cleaned Saturday.”
“It must have been. There is no way we would have missed emptying the same trashcan two days in a row.”
“And the guests? Were any of them here at that point?”
I shook my head. “They all left for the resort before we even began cleaning. Unless someone came back, which I suppose is possible, it couldn’t have been one of the members of the pre-wedding group who disposed of the syringe.”
“Who was here after you and Georgia left with Lacy?” Colt asked.
“Just Jeremy, but he was outside. He’s trying to get the garden cleaned up and ready for planting once the temperatures level out. We can ask him, but I’m fairly certain he was outside all day.”
“And the inn? Would it have been left open?”
“No. Normally, we keep the front door open from seven a.m. to ten p.m., but if Jeremy was going to be out in the back and he knew no one was going to be around, he would have locked up. I guess we can ask him to verify that he did. As you know, the suite keys open the kitchen door, and the guests know that if the front door is locked, they can get in that way, so I suspect Jeremy would have secured the front door unless he was working in the front and had his eyes on the place. I guess we should ask him.”
Colt nodded. “Yes, lets.”
As it turned out, Jeremy had been working in the back and had locked the front door as I suspected. The back door hadn’t been locked, however, since he’d been going in and out, but he was certain that he would have noticed if someone had accessed the inn through the back door. I asked if he had eyes on the door the entire time, and he admitted that he
hadn’t.
Colt felt it was likely that if someone had snuck in and planted the syringe, they would have snuck in from the front of the house since Jeremy had eyes on the back. A thorough search revealed that the window in the parlor at the front of the house was unlocked. Could someone who was staying here have unlocked it before he or she left for the day? If so, had they unlocked it so they could get back in, which was unlikely since they all had keys, or had they unlocked it so someone else could get in? Of course, there was also the possibility that someone simply wanted to let in some fresh air and forgot to relock it. The weather had been gorgeous lately.
“Do you think there’s more than one person in on whatever is going on?” I asked.
“Perhaps. I’m going to dust the window for prints. I’ll need to take yours, Georgia’s, Jeremy’s, and Nikki’s since the four of you are frequently in the room, but if there are prints that don’t match any of yours, maybe we’ll have something.”
Colt called the central dispatch office and asked for someone to come out and dust for prints. Jeremy, Georgia, Nikki, and I provided prints to use as a comparison. Once that was done, Colt sent the officer and the prints back to town for analysis. Normally, he would have taken care of the prints himself, but he wanted to be sure to be here when the others returned, so none of the ten had time to sneak off to bed.
“It’s almost ten,” I said once the officer left. “Fiona said they’d be back at ten, so they should be here shortly.”
“It will be important that all of you watch the faces of the others but that none of you react,” Colt said. “I wouldn’t want to give away what is really going on by having someone read your expressions.”
The four of us agreed to try our best to maintain a neutral expression. When the limo pulled up, and the ten remaining guests piled out, I greeted them and then let them know that Colt had news and needed to speak to everyone. We had everyone sit at the dining table while Colt shared his news. Jeremy and I sat on one side of the table while Georgia and Nikki sat on the other side. We’d all agreed to watch the expressions of those across from us.
