A Grizzly Discovery (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) (Willow Bay Witches Book 5)

by Samantha Silver

  “I’m sorry. This is an active crime scene. Only current guests are being allowed inside, and they’re having to be escorted to their rooms.”

  “I’m a guest at the hotel!” I heard someone cry out.

  “You live three blocks from here, Jonathan,” Taylor replied, rolling his eyes, and I worked to hide a smile.

  “What’s going on?” Jason asked someone else nearby.

  “Apparently they found a body in the Inn.”

  “Seriously?” I replied, and the man nodded.

  “Yes. Though as far as I’m concerned it may well have been natural causes. God knows Elizabeth Armstrong has to be on borrowed time by now.”

  Elizabeth Armstrong was technically one of the owners of the Willow Bay Inn, and although her son ran the day-to-day operations these days, Elizabeth still lived there. She had to be pushing ninety-five, by now. I’d heard a rumor that her son was going to be retiring soon as well.

  I pulled Jason away from the crowd and we made our way further away from the Inn.

  “I don’t like this,” I said.

  “Yeah, me neither. I mean, it might be as that man said, that someone died of natural causes, but do you really believe that?”

  I shook my head. “Not for an instant. Not when the other four thieves are all staying at the Willow Bay Inn, not days after one of them was just murdered.”

  “Agreed,” Jason replied, nodding. “We have to confirm it though. I assume you’re not going to want to wait for the official announcement?”

  “Not a chance!” I replied. “Especially since, Willow Bay being a tourist town, they’re going to wait as long as possible before releasing the information about the victim. One tourist being mauled by a bear is one thing. A second tourist being brutally murdered in a local hotel just days later? That’s the sort of thing people have nightmares about here.”

  Jason grinned. “I thought you’d say that. So how are we going to get in to see the body?”

  I frowned for a minute while I thought about things. Not for the first time this week I felt a pang of guilt that I couldn’t tell Jason about my magical abilities, but this time there was also annoyance. It would be so easy to simply cast an invisibility spell and make our way inside the hotel. And yet, I knew I couldn’t do that. We were going to have to find a way in that didn’t involve magic.

  “Let’s go check and see if the back door is covered,” I suggested, and Jason nodded and followed me as we subtly made our way to the back of the building. Sure enough, there was a police officer there. However, I also noticed that in the loading dock, on the other side of the back of the building, was a large truck with “Cascadia Linens” written on the side. A couple of workers were taking large tubs of towels and sheets out of the truck; the hotel must have just received a large order of new linens.

  I pointed to it, and Jason nodded. We went back around to the front of the hotel, then around the other side of it, so we were hidden from the police officer guarding the back door by the truck. I peered around the edge of the truck and saw that there was a police officer inside the building; I could just see the edge of his jacket.

  “Shoot,” I whispered to Jason. “There’s another cop in there.”

  “Can he see the truck?”

  I shook my head no. “Not unless he turns the corner.”

  “Good,” Jason replied. “Follow me.”

  With a nimbleness that I absolutely could not match, Jason jumped up onto the truck’s ramp, then gave me a hand to help me up. He grabbed a handful of sheets from one of the tubs and moved them into another tub, then jumped into it. I looked at him, surprised.

  “Come on,” he said. “We have to be hidden in here before the workers come back.”

  I nodded quickly and followed him into the tub. I crouched down, and Jason did the same, covering us up with some of the sheets just seconds before I heard voices coming from inside the building.

  “How many more trips to do guys have to do?”

  “Oh, probably two more, then we’ll be out of your hair.”

  “Thanks.”

  My heart practically stopped beating as I heard footsteps coming toward us. What if they could tell something was wrong? What if we were caught? There was literally no way we could explain why we were in here. I didn’t even dare to breathe. Jason squeezed my hand in reassurance, and I squeezed back so hard I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a bruise there the next day.

  Suddenly, the cart we were in began to move.

  “Geez, this one weighs a ton. What are these sheets made of, bricks?” the man pushing it complained. I tried to make myself feel as light as possible.

  “Stop complaining, Tom,” the other guy replied. “Let’s just get this stuff to the laundry room and get out of here.”

  Tom grunted his disapproval, but the cart continued to roll. We made it around a few corners—Tom wasn’t a very good cart driver and we hit the wall a couple of times—but eventually the cart stopped, and I made sure to listen for the footsteps indicating that Tom and the other man had left. As soon as I was sure they were gone, Jason and I jumped out of the cart. We were now in the hotel’s laundry room; there were another six carts identical to ours nearby. Jason smoothed the top over so no one would notice anything was wrong while I looked out the door to make sure we could get out of the room without being seen.

  When Jason joined me, a minute later, we slipped out of the room and went down a hallway.

  “Where do you think the body is?” I asked.

  “My guess, if it’s one of the robbers, is somewhere on the ground floor. If they were killed in their rooms, the cops would only block off the floor they were on, not the whole hotel.”

  “Ok,” I replied. “Well, we’re on the ground floor now.”

  “Let’s try and make our way to the lobby,” Jason suggested, and I nodded. I had no idea where in the hotel we really were, but I figured it was safe to assume we were near the back. We walked down the hallway, trying to look as casual as possible, as if we were totally supposed to be there. I knew it wouldn’t pass muster with anyone official, but maybe Tom and the other worker wouldn’t bat an eyelid if they saw us.

  Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming from another direction. I glanced at Jason, my eyes widening. I didn’t know who it was, but I also didn’t want to find out. I saw a door a few feet further down the hall and rushed toward it, opening it and rushing inside, Jason following behind me. He closed the door carefully, making sure not to make a sound, and a couple of seconds later we heard the voices of Chief Gary and another man I didn’t recognize but must have also been a cop, going by the conversation.

  “The victim is one of the people you suspect of being behind the diamond heist, right Gary?”

  “Yes,” came Chief Gary’s reply. “At least, as far as we can gather, this is likely one of the suspects.”

  “You realize that if things get leaked to the media things are going to get out of hand very quickly in this town, don’t you?”

  “Of course. That’s why the only two people in this building, in the whole state even, who know about my suspicions are the two of us.”

  “Make sure it stays that way. I don’t want to see this state overrun by gold diggers hoping to find the diamond. Mind you, we don’t even know it’s here at all.”

  “I know. My gut tells me it is, though.”

  “How come you think this victim is one of the robbers?”

  Unfortunately, at that point, the voices faded away as the two of them continued down the hall, and I looked at Jason. It seemed as though we were right: one of the robbers was dead.

  14

  Jason and I gave Chief Gary and the other man a minute or two to continue moving past us, then we left the room we were hiding in—it turned out to be an extra pantry filled with huge containers of flour, sugar and other baking staples—and slipped back out.

  “Do we actually have a plan here?” I asked Jason. “We know it was one of the robbers, and I want to know wh
ich one it was, but are we just going to walk in there, look at the body and leave without anyone batting an eyelid?”

  “You think too much,” Jason teased. “Let’s just figure it out as we go.”

  “You sound like Sophie.”

  “I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.”

  Before I had a chance to reply, however, we reached the end of the hallway and a door with an eyehole. I looked through and found myself looking into the inn’s lobby. Everything was slightly distorted, as it always is when looking through a door’s eyehole.

  “What do you see?” Jason asked. I immediately knew this was the scene of the crime.

  “The body’s in there.”

  “Wow! In the lobby itself? That’s brazen.”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “I can see it there, but I can’t quite make out who it is. It’s definitely male, though. So that means it’s either Jack, Andrew or Kevin. There’s a handful of cops, and some other people. I guess the crime scene investigators, a medical examiner, that sort of thing.

  “Ok, here, move over, let me look,” Jason asked. He peered into the eyehole then shook his head.

  “Yeah, we’re not going to be able to tell who it is from here. Hold on,” he continued, pulling out his phone. I watched in a combination of awe and horror as he pressed his phone against the edge of the door and slowly opened it about an inch. Sliding his phone outside of the door, Jason took a few quick photos, then slipped his phone back inside and closed the door quietly.

  “Come with me,” he said, motioning back toward where we’d come from. I dutifully followed him back into the pantry closet, where Jason handed me his phone and I looked at the photos he’d taken. They were much clearer; there was absolutely no doubt as to whose body was lying there now.

  “It’s Jack,” I said. I couldn’t help but remember how he and Claire had argued just a few hours earlier. She had threatened him. Had she really made good on her threats?

  “Jack… he was one of the ones in the hotel room when you and Sophie were in there, right?”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “He also named himself the leader of their new attempt to find the diamond.”

  “Really?” Jason asked.

  “Yeah,” I replied, giving him the Cliff notes version of the conversation I’d overheard the day before. I had to pretend I was already in the library, sitting behind one of the large drawers of old maps when the group came in, and the lie made my heart ping with guilt.

  “Wow,” Jason breathed when I was finally finished. “You certainly have a ton of luck when it comes to being in the right place at the right time.”

  “I don’t know, right now I’m stuck in a hotel pantry with cops surrounding the building and no idea how we’re going to get out of here. This doesn’t feel like the right place.”

  “True, but at least we came in here on purpose.”

  “So you admit we have no idea how to get out of here.”

  Jason shrugged. “I figured getting in was enough of a challenge without also having to figure out how to get out.”

  I groaned. “We’re going to have to stay in this cupboard for like, a full day.”

  “That’s not too bad,” Jason grinned. “I can definitely think of one way to pass the time.”

  I laughed. “I think getting caught doing that in here might be the only way we could possibly get into even more trouble than we would just getting caught normally.”

  “Fine,” Jason replied. “But it would be fun, I promise you that!”

  I rolled my eyes. Men. “How about we find a way out of here so you can actually get into my pants somewhere where there’s no risk of anyone walking in on us.”

  “Now that’s what I call motivation,” Jason said, wrapping his arms around my waist. I couldn’t help but giggle with pleasure as he kissed my neck. “Ok. What parts of the hotel are free from cops?”

  “The sides,” I replied immediately. “Front and back are being guarded, and the front is especially bad since half of Willow Bay is probably out there by now trying to get as much gossip as possible.”

  “Ok. What kind of exits are out the sides?”

  “I guess windows?”

  “There we go. Problem solved.”

  “Yeah. Now we just have to find them.”

  Luckily for both of us, Jason and I managed to find one of the windows in a nearby room and sneak back out into the street without being seen. Our exit was a lot less dramatic than our entrance. We mingled with the crowd for a few minutes to listen to the idle gossip; it seemed most of the town had settled on the rumor that Elizabeth Armstrong died of a heart attack as being the correct one, and they were all now eulogizing the poor woman who I was sure was still inside the hotel, probably having an afternoon nap or something.

  We made our way to the Thai food place and ordered some take-out, then sat at one of the empty tables while it was being made and began to discuss the new case.

  “So I guess you’re thinking that whoever killed Jeremy Wallace also killed Jack?” Jason asked, and I nodded.

  “Yeah. I mean, it’s a pretty safe assumption, I think. Jack was the leader of the new group that was going to try and find the diamonds together, and it seemed pretty obvious to me when I was listening in to their conversation that if it wasn’t for him, they were all going to go about it alone.”

  “So Jack was the glue holding them together?”

  “Exactly. I think whoever killed Jeremy Wallace was a lone wolf to begin with. Otherwise, why not tell the rest of the group what they’d done? Just the fact that they went out and killed him to begin with shows that they weren’t exactly a team player.”

  “Yeah, something about that doesn’t make sense. After all, Jeremy was literally the only person on the planet who knew where that diamond was, if everyone else is to be believed. And seeing as all the thieves are still here, I think it’s safe to assume that the secret did die with him. Why kill him? Now they have to find the diamond on their own.”

  “That bothers me,” I admitted. “I honestly don’t have an explanation for that. Maybe killing Jeremy Wallace was an accident, and then they made it look like a bear attack to draw suspicion away from themselves. That’s the best I can come up with.”

  Jason nodded. “It’s not a bad theory. It’s certainly plausible. So which of the remaining robbers do you think did it? You’ve seen them interact with each other more than anyone else.”

  I rested my hand on my palm and thought about it for a while.

  “I think,” I started slowly, “Claire would be the most likely suspect. Yes, if I had to put money on it, I would bet you that she was the one who would be most likely.”

  “And why do you think that?” Jason prodded, interested.

  “Well, it’s just kind of, her general attitude. A feeling I have. Maybe not an instinct, but just kind of… the way she acts, it’s different to the others. For one thing, Claire was the first of the robbers that I’d met. She was out in town, she even managed to get me to show her on a map where Jeremy Wallace was killed and how to get there. She was asking questions. She had a cover story. She was open in making herself a part of the community, whereas all the others seemed pretty content to more or less hide away in the inn and be more subtle about things. And when they had that meeting, she seemed to be the least enthusiastic about joining forces. She also had an argument with Jack about it.”

  Jason raised an eyebrow. “I can see why you suspect her.”

  I shrugged. “But at the same time, I’m not sure.”

  I hated to admit it, but Jack being killed was actually going to help my case. Before he’d been killed, I was out of leads and out of ideas when it came to Jeremy Wallace’s killer. But now, I was going to have to find out when Jack died, and then I could possibly find out if any of the robbers had alibis. That way, I could narrow down the list of suspects, and if I found out who killed Jack, I might be able to find out who killed Jeremy Wallace as well.

  I felt a bit bad knowing
that someone’s death was going to benefit me, but there was nothing I could do about it. I just hoped I was going to be able to find out who killed both men for sure.

  15

  I ended up spending the night at Jason’s place; I woke up the next day and texted Sophie that I’d meet her at the vet clinic.

  I’ll make sure to make fun of you for still wearing the same clothes as yesterday Sophie texted back, and I made a mental note to ask Jason if I could keep a change of clothes at his place in the future just in case.

  Oh yeah, like you can talk, I texted back, mentally shaking my head at my own weak retort. In my defense, it was pretty early in the morning.

  Getting out of bed, I made my way to the kitchen, where Jason was making coffee and toast.

  “Mmmmm, don’t tell Betty, but that coffee smells amazing,” I said, closing my eyes.

  “I definitely won’t tell Betty, that lady scares me.”

  I laughed. “She’s like, sixty-something years old and weighs half what you do.”

  “And she’s the center of this town. Seriously, I think Betty MacMahon has more power in Willow Bay than even the mayor or Chief Gary.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” I said, nabbing a piece of toast from the plate and spreading butter on it. “Thanks for breakfast.”

  “Hey, it’s the least I could do for you after last night,” Jason said with a grin, and I felt a blush crawling up my face. “Want some eggs?”

  I shook my head. “No. I have to get going; I know Karen got everything set up yesterday but I still want to get in a bit early to make sure everything is fine with the new setup. I have a dog coming in for his yearly checkup first thing.”

  “Cool,” Jason said, grabbing a piece of toast for himself. “Text me later?”

  “Yeah,” I said, giving him a quick kiss, then grabbing my purse and heading for the door. Jason lived a little ways out from downtown, but this being Willow Bay, that meant it was still only a fifteen-minute walk from the vet clinic. I figured the fresh air would do me good; if I’d asked for a ride I knew Jason would have given me one.