Criminal Crumbs

by Jessica Beck

  The restaurant sported half a dozen large tables, while the front contained a modest bar with a walk-through to the patio. I could see another pair of outdoor tables and chairs there.

  Grace said, “Nicole, this is Suzanne Hart. Suzanne, I’d like you to meet my boss, Nicole Thurman.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said, enfolding my hand in both of hers. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

  “Thanks,” I said, not quite sure how to respond to that.

  In a low voice, she said, “I really appreciate you helping me out. We’ll talk later, okay?”

  “Sounds good,” I replied as other women began to join us. Grace made the introductions in rapid-fire order. I had to admit, they were a nice-looking group of women, and I felt positively dowdy being among them. I took special note when she introduced Janelle Best and Georgia Collier. Georgia looked a little like a fox, with long, thin features and small eyes, while Janelle was fuller in both face and figure. Neither one of them looked like a potential murderer, but then again, it had been my experience in the past that I could never tell what a killer was supposed to look like.

  “Oh, and this is my sister, Celia,” Nicole said. As I shook her hand, I couldn’t help but compare her unfavorably to Nicole. Celia was washed out somehow, a faded image of her sister’s beauty, just a shade short of pretty. She carried more weight than any of the other women there, including me, and her hair was a shade of dirty blonde that lacked any kind of luster at all. Suddenly I didn’t feel quite so plain anymore.

  “Where’s Hank?” Grace asked Nicole.

  “Late, as usual,” she replied when we heard a commotion in the lobby. A man was speaking at the top of his voice, and most of the women looked hesitantly toward the restaurant door. “It appears that he made it after all.”

  A tall, heavyset man with thick brown hair joined us, a frown on his face. “What’s this nonsense about putting me in a cottage, Nicole?” he asked her as he walked toward us.

  “They’re the nicest accommodations in the resort,” she said, “but if you’d like to be moved to the main lodge, I’m sure that last-minute arrangements can be made. I should warn you that the rooms here are substantially smaller, though, and with no real housekeeping, you’ll have to take care of cleaning yourself.”

  “No, that’s fine. I’ll stay out in the boondocks, if that’s the way you set things up. You’re out there as well, I suppose?”

  Nicole nodded. “You’ve got one cottage, my sister and I have another, Grace and Suzanne have one, and Georgia and Janelle are sharing the last one. Given the short staff here at the resort, they felt that we’d all be happier with our own cottages.”

  Hank looked at Georgia and Janelle and grinned, though there was no humor in it at all. “Doubling up, are you?”

  “Nicole asked us if we wouldn’t mind, given the short staffing issues,” Janelle said. “We were happy to do it.”

  “It’s fine,” Georgia added.

  “Surprise!” a woman announced as she burst into the dining room.

  She hurried toward Nicole, who frowned for just a moment. “Dina, what are you doing here?”

  “I thought I’d take a chance on getting a room and driving up on my own,” the bottle blonde said. “You made it sound so lovely that I couldn’t resist. Surely there’s room for me here as well.” She looked around before adding, “This place is massive.”

  “I’m not sure that they can accommodate you,” Nicole said, and then she introduced the woman to us en masse. “This is Dina Harmon, everyone.”

  “Hello one and all,” Dina said. She had a big personality, and it was pretty clear that Nicole not only hadn’t been expecting her, but she wasn’t all that pleased by her presence.

  “Well, now that we’re all here, let’s get down to business, shall we?” Hank asked. Then he turned to me, Celia, and Dina. Evidently the others had ignored the plus-one part of the invitation. “If you ladies will excuse us, we have some business to attend to before we begin the other activities.”

  Nicole frowned again. “Activities? I hadn’t planned anything for us as a group.”

  “No worries on that front. I’ve already handled it,” Hank said, giving her a sharp-eyed look that dared her to defy him. He might not be able to fire her because of their recent relationship, but clearly he wasn’t above throwing his weight around as her direct supervisor.

  Nicole shrugged, and Grace looked at me apologetically. “Here, Suzanne. Take the packet. It’s got our keys in it.”

  “Sorry, but you’ll be needing that as well,” Hank said.

  Grace looked at him and smiled, but I knew it lacked any hint of sincerity. As she dug out my key, she whispered, “Sorry about this.”

  “No worries,” I said as I took it and, along with Celia and Dina, left them to it.

  I decided to linger in the main quarters before I went off in search of the Hemlock cottage. I found a bulletin board behind glass that displayed photographs there from the 1920s and ’30s, along with menus, activity sheets, and registers from past seasons offering up the names of movie stars, titans of industry and politics, and even a few authors. There was a bookshelf near the fireplace that offered titles across the decades, and I browsed through a few before returning them to their places. There was a fire gently burning away in the hearth, and I was watching the flames when someone nearby spoke to me. “You’re Grace’s friend, right?”

  Celia Thurman was studying me as though I were some kind of oddity. “That’s right, I am.”

  “Are you two together?” she asked me. What kind of question was that? Then I realized that she was asking me if we were a couple.

  “No, we’ve been best friends since we were kids. I’m married to the chief of police, and Grace is dating his lieutenant.” Celia didn’t seem all that interested in me after that, and I had to wonder if I’d already begun to bore her with my mundane life.

  “How nice for both of you,” she said.

  “Your sister seems really nice,” I said, watching her closely for some kind of reaction. “You’re lucky to have her.”

  Celia was about to say something sharp when she stopped herself. “Lucky. That describes me to a tee. Yes, I don’t know what I’d do without Nicole watching out for me.” There was definitely a hint of anger in her voice, no matter how she might try to disguise it.

  “I think Nicole is fabulous,” Dina said as she joined us.

  “You two aren’t even friends anymore, Dina, and you know it. What are you doing here?” Celia asked her.

  “What? That’s nonsense. What makes you say that?”

  “You can drop the act. Nicole trusted you with her savings, and you lost most of it before she fired you as her financial advisor.”

  “The market had a correction. There was nothing I could do about it,” Dina said, a slight crack appearing in her armor. “Besides, that was business. This is personal. Just because we had a slight hiccup in her account doesn’t mean that we stopped being good friends.”

  “Maybe according to you, but that’s not the way Nicole tells it.”

  “I’m sure you’re mistaken, Celia,” Dina said, trying her best to smile.

  “You make me weary,” Celia said as she stood and left us without another word, heading for the bar.

  “You’re not supposed to go in there,” Dina called out.

  Celia just waved a hand in the air and continued anyway.

  After a moment, Dina said, “She was always difficult, even as a child.”

  “Have you known them that long?” I asked her.

  “Oh, we’ve been friends forever. That’s why this little misunderstanding has troubled me so. I need the opportunity to make Nicole see that none of this was my fault, so I figured, what better way to talk her out of pursuing any legal action than to face her directly?”

  “She’s su
ing you?” I asked.

  “Nicole said it in the heat of the moment, but I’m sure that I’ll be able to smooth things over with her once I get the opportunity. So, what do you do for a living, Suzanne?”

  “I make donuts,” I said.

  She patted my shoulder gently. “Don’t worry. I’m sure something better will come along for you soon. Chin up, and all that.”

  “I happen to own the business, and I’m perfectly happy with how I make my living.”

  “I’m sure you are,” she said condescendingly. “I might see if Celia was able to get that drink after all. I’m a bit parched myself.”

  After she was gone, I felt sorry for Nicole. Her boss was a jerk, her sister a weight on her back, and her so-called friend had lost a good deal of her money. Not only that, but two of the women she’d beaten out for her job clearly resented her very presence. At least she had Grace on her side. I was more determined than ever to do what I could to figure out exactly what was going on.

  In the meantime, it was as good a time as any to check out the Hemlock cottage and see what it was like.

  At least that’s the direction I started off in.

  Chapter 5

  Mazes have intrigued me since I was a little girl. A farmer outside April Springs used to do a corn maze long before they became popular, and Grace and I had dragged my mother along every chance we got. After awhile, Momma grew tired and frustrated, and she’d tap one of the guides to lead her out, costing her a dollar that she always gladly paid. That was pure genius on the farmer’s part, in my mind. Not only did he charge admission, but most folks ended up paying to get out, too. Over the years, Grace and I had become rather adept at finding our way out, something that had helped me in our investigations, allowing me to escape from a killer once. I shivered a little at the memory, realizing once again how close I’d come to becoming his next victim. This was different, in many ways. While that maze, much like the ones from my childhood, had been impermanent by its very nature, this one was made from some kind of evergreen, dark and rich and lush, created to stand the test of time. As I neared the entrance, I saw that the sign announcing the maze had a hinged top, and glancing underneath it, I realized that the owners had outlined the way to beat the maze in a record amount of time. I dropped the top back down as though it had burned me. That was cheating, and if Grace and I tackled it later, I wanted to beat the maze honestly. Otherwise what was the point? It was like someone who read the last few pages of a mystery novel to see if they liked the outcome and only then decided to read the book from the beginning. If I lived forever, I would never understand that type of person. Live and let live, though. I knew that many people found my occupational choice more than slightly south of sane, but I wouldn’t trade my little donut shop for the world.

  I decided to leave the maze for later and walked over to the edge of the lake. Perhaps calling it a lake was a little too generous. Just how big did a body of water have to be to go from a pond to a lake? I decided to check it on my cellphone, as I’d recently learned how to do Internet searches on it, but alas, there was no service up on the mountaintop. Zero bars. That meant that I wouldn’t be talking to my husband, either, but then again, Jake would probably be too busy to chat anyway. I smiled a little as I put my phone away, imagining how Type-A-personality Hank would react to being completely out of touch with the rest of the world.

  In the end, I decided to call it a lake, since that’s what the brochure had named it. There were two structures near the water, a boathouse that I found was closed for the season upon closer examination and a gazebo that offered benches overlooking the water. I sat on one for a few minutes, and I was rewarded by seeing five ducks fly in and settle on its still surface. I could have stayed out there longer, but I was a bit chilly, so I decided to go over to Hemlock and see what it was like.

  As I walked toward the gravel path, I noticed that the land behind the cottages seemed to drop off the face of the earth, as though it was some kind of ending point for land. Skirting the gravel path, I took two steps toward the drop and found a forest far below me, dense woods growing at such a steep angle that I knew one misstep could be my last. There wasn’t even a guardrail there, not even a slim chain to warn walkers of imminent death below. How many guests had they lost over the years to its descent? Then I noticed intermittent holes in the ground along the path, and I realized that they must be replacing whatever had stood guard there before. It would be prudent to be careful walking along that gravel in the interim, though, especially at night.

  I was a little alarmed to see the door to our cottage standing slightly ajar. Pushing it open, I called out, “Grace? Are you there?”

  But it was empty.

  Perhaps someone in housekeeping had failed to latch it securely after they’d left. I shrugged it off to someone being in a hurry, and I looked around. The cabin was cozy, but it lacked the grandeur of the lodge, though the buildings had been constructed out of similar materials. For one thing, the windows seemed tiny in comparison, and they failed to let in much natural light. Two twin beds, a nightstand, and a dresser occupied one wall, while a desk and chair were along the other. I peeked into the small bathroom and found small white-and-black tiles covering the floor. It had the standard facilities there, even though the shower was rather small compared to my modern tastes. I was sure that it would be fine, and I wondered what had happened to Grace. Were they still meeting inside? I’d been meandering around for quite some time, and I’d half-expected to find her in the cottage by the time I got there, but there was no sign that she’d even been there.

  Being careful to latch the door and lock it behind me, I set off for Grace’s car to get our bags. When I got there, though, I was thwarted.

  It was locked, and Grace had the keys.

  I decided I couldn’t face running into Celia or Dina again, so I grabbed one of the chairs on the terrace or patio or veranda or whatever they called it and looked out onto the mountains below us. A mist was starting to climb up the valley floor, looking like spun sugar, and a breeze began to blow. It was time to go inside until I could get some warmer clothes on. If I ran into anyone else, I’d do my best to get along with them, but I was beginning to wonder if I’d done the right thing coming along with Grace on this trip.

  To my surprise, I nearly ran into my best friend as I walked in. “There you are,” she said. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “I decided to take the grand walking tour while you were tied up,” I said. I noticed that she had a pair of hooded sweatshirts in her hands. “What are those for?”

  “They’re part of this team-building exercise,” she said as she threw one to me.

  “Does this mean that I’m on the team, too?” I asked with a grin as I pulled it on over my light shirt and thin jacket. The warmth was most welcome.

  “Don’t feel too special. Everybody gets one,” Grace said.

  “Even Dina?”

  “That was odd, wasn’t it? I have no idea what that was all about.”

  “I can help you out there,” I said. After I brought Grace up to speed on what I’d learned so far from Celia and Dina, she smiled at me. “What’s so amusing?”

  “You can’t help yourself from detecting, can you?” she asked. “It looks as though we’ve just added another suspect to our list.”

  “As if we needed another one,” I said softly. “I’m beginning to feel sorry for Nicole.”

  “I know, right?” Grace asked. “She deserves better than this.”

  “Hopefully we’ll be able to tell her who she needs to watch out for by the time this three-day weekend is over,” I said.

  “I’ve got faith in us. Are you hungry?”

  “You know me,” I replied with a grin. “I can always eat.”

  “Good, because Hank has decided that we’ll all be living by his schedule while we’re here.”

  “What exact
ly does that mean?”

  “In bed by nine, and up by six,” she said with a groan. “Some retreat this is turning out to be.”

  “Look on the bright side,” I said.

  “What’s that?”

  “For me, it will be staying up late and sleeping in,” I answered, reminding her of my brutal hours running Donut Hearts.

  “At least somebody will be happy. So what do you say? Are you ready?”

  “I can’t wait,” I said as I followed Grace back into the dining room.

  The staff had set the tables in my absence, and I was surprised to find a nametag at every chair. “If I’m not sitting with you, I’m going home,” I told her.

  “Don’t worry. We’re together,” she replied and led us to our seats.

  I glanced around to see who would be joining us.

  I saw Nicole’s name and her sister’s at our table. I wondered if she’d arranged things that way, and I decided that, given the group, it was probably the best result I could hope for, as long as I didn’t have to make any more small talk with Celia.

  I looked around, but there wasn’t a waiter in sight. I didn’t even have water in my glass. I was about to say something when Hank stood. There was a wicked grin on his face, and I wondered what he was up to.

  I didn’t have long to find out.

  “As you all know, I believe that how we play games is a good indication of how we handle life, and this weekend is no exception. I’m sure most of you have noticed the absence of waitstaff. Don’t blame the resort. They’re acting on my instructions. This evening, you’re all going to have to sing for your supper.”

  “But I can’t sing,” Janelle Best complained.

  “Not literally,” Hank said, looking at her with open contempt. “I’m talking about solving riddles and puzzles before you’ve earned the right to eat. The prize is worth it. I’ve had the chef prepare a sumptuous meal. I just hope that at least some of you have the opportunity to enjoy it.”