A History of Murder

by Lynn Bohart

  I sat up against the headboard, making Mickey and Minnie shift under the throw I kept on the bed.

  “Mom, I don’t think anything is on fire.” And then I heard sirens. “Um…wait a minute.”

  I got out of bed and threw on my robe. Carrying the phone, I left my apartment and hurried into the hallway, leaving Mickey and Minnie behind. As the sirens grew louder, I heard cries of alarm from upstairs. Doors opened and guests began pouring down the stairs.

  “There’s a fire!” a woman from Gig Harbor yelled. Her face was twisted in fear, and her husband was following close on her heels.

  “Where?” I called out.

  “The bakery,” the man replied, pointing behind him.

  I forgot my mother for the moment and rushed into the breakfast room to look out the window. The entire front of the carriage house was ablaze.

  “Oh, my God!”

  I whirled around, slamming into a small crowd that had gathered behind me, making me fight my way through them to the front door. When I threw it open, a fire truck had just pulled down the drive. I ran out, waving them to the north side of the building. “Around the back. The bakery!”

  The driver waved to me and pulled around the main building to the back of the property. Meanwhile, April appeared at my side.

  “What happened?” she asked, her eyes intense with fear.

  “I don’t know. But let’s get back there.”

  We ran back inside and out the patio door. The guests were huddled on the back deck watching flames lick up the front of the bakery. As we watched in horror, fire caught the old boards of the carriage barn with a whoosh, and suddenly the entire side of the building was engulfed in flames.

  As burning embers sparkled like fireflies in the early morning darkness, I reached out and grabbed April’s hand. “Oh, April, I’m so sorry.”

  I turned to look at my dearest friend, and my heart nearly broke at the tears in her eyes.

  ÷

  Three hours later we were seated on the deck wrapped in robes and jackets. I had called David. He sat forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees, watching the firemen work. Next to him were Angela and Detective Abrams. Lucy, Angela’s big harlequin Great Dane was lying next to her chair, with Mickey and Minnie cuddled up next to her. There was no friendly banter. We just watched and waited.

  By now the fire was out, and not only had the firemen extinguished the flames, they had protected the inn. Smoke continued to billow from the broken windows of the bakery, and firemen wandered through the debris, evaluating hotspots. April had left the group and was in the main kitchen making an early breakfast for the guests, unable to watch anymore as her prized bakery was destroyed.

  “I can’t believe this,” I said despondently.

  “It’s an old building, Mom,” Angela said. “I mean, most of it is over a hundred years old. A single match could have set it off. Thank goodness no one was over there at the time.”

  “The question is how?” Sean said.

  He stood next to Angela’s chair, his fingers buried in his pockets. I hadn’t seen him since we’d saved Dana Finkle’s life back in February. I’d almost forgotten what a commanding presence he had.

  “The bigger question is why?” David added.

  I jerked around to look at the two of them. “You think this was deliberate?”

  They merely shared a look and shrugged. “Buildings don’t normally just catch on fire. Something has to start the fire,” Sean replied. “Either it was an accident, or someone set it. Do you know whether any of the appliances were left on?”

  “I don’t know. But I doubt it. April is rather obsessive about that sort of thing,” I said.

  “Have you seen anyone hanging around here lately? Anyone that shouldn’t be here?” David asked.

  I hesitated, thinking of the candle-wielding ghost. Sean picked up on it. “What?”

  Would I have to tell them?

  “Mom, what is it?” Angela asked.

  I let out an exasperated sigh. “We saw someone in the attic over the bakery the other night, walking back and forth with a candle.”

  “A candle?!” Sean said. “What happened?”

  “They went to check it out themselves,” David replied for me. “Isn’t that right, Julia? Instead of calling us,” he said, emphasizing the last part.

  “Um…yes,” I replied. “But we checked the doors first and no one had broken in. So we figured it was…” I stopped and sighed. “We’d heard a story. One of the families that lived here years ago had seen someone walking back and forth up there with a candle. But when they went to check, no one was there.”

  “And you thought it was one of your ghosts,” David said.

  We were interrupted by the sight of our Mercer Island Fire chief, Chief Paul Rampart. He crossed the drive and climbed the steps to the deck. His face was covered in soot, and his solemn expression made my stomach clench.

  “Can I offer you some coffee?” I asked him, standing up.

  “No, thanks.” He lowered himself onto a bench, allowing me to sit back down. He took a big sigh before beginning. “The fire is pretty much out, and the good news is that it didn’t destroy the entire building. Just the front third,” he said. “Some of the furniture stored in the back wasn’t destroyed, neither were some of the appliances in the bakery, although everything was damaged by smoke and water. But you might be able to save a few things. Talk to your insurance folks.” He sighed again and then glanced down at the clipboard in his hands. “The bad news is that it’s likely a case of arson.”

  “What?” I said with a gasp.

  David sat up straighter. “What did you find?”

  “Probable use of an accelerant,” he replied. “Looks like gasoline.” He turned to gesture to the front of the building. “All along the base of the bakery.”

  I felt lightheaded. “Why…why would someone burn down our bakery?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. That’s what these guys are for,” he said, nodding to Sean and David. “But here’s what else I know. From the looks of the doors, whoever it was tried to break in, but you have steel doors, which stopped them.”

  “Why wouldn’t they have just broken a window?” Angela asked.

  The chief turned toward the smoldering building again. “Most of the windows face the back of the inn here. Perhaps they were afraid they’d be seen. After all, many of the guest rooms look out on the front of the bakery. The only other window is on the side of the building, and it’s pretty high up. Perhaps they couldn’t get to it.”

  “What else do you know?” David asked.

  The chief turned back. “Whoever did this was an amateur. They used the accelerant only on the front of the building, which is the newest part of the construction. So you have pressure treated wood, glass, brick and some steel. That slowed the progress of the fire. If they’d used the accelerant anywhere else, this old building would have gone up like a tinder box. That, and the fact it was still early on a nice summer evening. People stayed out on the lake late, so someone called it in right away.”

  I sighed and dropped my head. David put a hand on my back. “You okay, Julia?”

  I nodded. “I just want to know why.”

  The chief stood up. “We’re going to do a walk-through. You guys want to join me?” he asked the detectives.

  “Yeah, thanks, Paul,” David said. He stood up. “I’ll stop in before I leave,” he said to me.

  “I have to get to the office, Mom,” Angela said. “Will you be okay?”

  “Yes, yes. You go ahead,” I said, giving her a hug. “Thanks for coming, honey. I have to go tell April about the…about the…” I stopped, as a sob started to close my throat. I swallowed. “I have to talk to April.”

  Angela reached out and stroked my cheek. “It’ll be okay, Mom. You can rebuild. I can help. We’ll all help,” she said, glancing at Detective Abrams.

  David leaned down and kissed my cheek, and then the two men followed the chief a
cross the drive, while I went inside. I met April in the kitchen, where she was just filling a large aluminum pan with scrambled eggs.

  “The guests have gone back to bed,” she said. She finished emptying out the big fry pan and put it in the sink. “So we can just heat this up later.” She turned to me, her face tired and drawn. “I know you have something to tell me, but I don’t think I want to hear it.”

  I grabbed a half empty carton of eggs and the carton of milk and put them back into the big refrigerator. “You’re going to have to hear it sooner or later.”

  She grabbed a hand towel and wiped off the counter. Then she wiped her hands on a clean towel and joined me at the table. “Okay, let me have it.”

  I watched her for a moment and then reached out and grabbed her hand. “The fire wasn’t an accident. It was arson. Someone did it on purpose.”

  She stared at me. When a tear appeared, I squeezed her hand.

  “I’m so sorry, April. The chief said some of the appliances weren’t affected, though, and I’m sure the insurance will replace everything else. We’ll start over. And we will find out who did this.”

  “Don’t you know, Julia?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Her body slumped. “C’mon, Julia. Don’t you think it’s a little coincidental that as soon as you start asking around about that stupid secret room we found in the attic, the entire building goes up in flames?”

  She was right. The thought had crossed my mind. I just didn’t want to believe it.

  “So you think this is my fault?” I said in a quiet voice.

  April sighed and put her other hand over mine. “No. That’s not what I meant. I don’t blame you. But I think it’s connected. I didn’t want to say anything earlier, but when I went to bed last night I had trouble getting to sleep. Something kept playing through my mind.” She got up to get a glass of orange juice. “Want some?”

  I nodded. “Thanks. But hold on.” I got up and grabbed plates. “Let’s get something to eat. I’m starving.”

  I served up eggs and sausage for both of us and came back to the table. She joined me with two glasses of orange juice.

  She smiled. “Thanks.”

  “Okay, continue,” I prompted her. “Why couldn’t you get to sleep?”

  She swallowed a bite before answering. “I kept hearing that babbling sound I heard the first day I went up to the attic with you. It kind of drove me nuts. If I got up and walked around, it would stop. And then as soon as I lay down, it would start up again. And then I heard the words, ‘watch out.’”

  “What did that mean?”

  “I don’t know. The words came in between the babbling,” she said. “I heard those words several times. But I had no idea what they meant. That’s why I didn’t call you.”

  “And now you think it was a warning.”

  “Yes. And I didn’t pay attention,” she said, staring at her plate.

  “What could you have done, April? You couldn’t have known that what you heard wasn’t from forty years ago. You had no way of knowing it was in the present.”

  “Yes, but what good is this talent I have if I don’t know how to use it? If I’d known how to interpret that message last night, I might have saved the bakery.”

  “Or gotten yourself killed.” That stopped her. She just stared at me a moment and then got up to make herself some tea. “You know I’m right,” I said, as I watched her fill a mug with water.

  She was standing next to the microwave. “Yes. But now what?”

  “Now, we get David back. He and Sean are going through the building with the fire chief right now. Since the fire was arson, it’s a crime the police will have to investigate immediately. And if the arson is connected to the baby we found, or the hidden room, or anything else we’ve dug up, they’ll finally have to pay attention. We’ll have reinforcements.”

  “Do you think it could’ve been Emily Foster? You said she was distraught when she realized you’d found the hidden room.”

  “I don’t know. It’s hard to imagine her coming all the way down from Camano Island, especially when she knows we’d already found the room. I mean, what would be the point? To be honest, it could just as easily have been Frank Miller. There is something that man doesn’t want us to find.”

  My mind flashed to the box we were planning to steal and what we might find in it. Could whatever was in that box be a motive for Miller to try and warn us off by starting a fire?

  “And you think whatever he’s trying to hide was in the bakery?”

  “No. But maybe burning the barn down is just a way to get us to back off. I think he’s capable of doing just about anything in order to scare someone away or get what he wants. And he worked here once, remember? He knows the property. ”

  She took the mug of hot water out of the microwave and dropped in a tea bag. “All I know is, finding that room has turned our lives upside down.”

  I looked at her. “And you wish we’d never found it.”

  “Don’t you?”

  I had to think about that. The truth was that by now I thrived on solving these mysteries. But I realized the toll it was taking on my friends.

  “I think fate had a hand in this,” I said. “We didn’t have a choice in finding the room, and now we don’t have a choice in solving the mysteries it held.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  The sun was just coming up over the Cascade Mountains by the time David and Sean left us to return to the police station. They promised to begin an investigation right away. A couple of firemen were left behind to watch for flare-ups in the smoldering remains of the barn.

  I called José and Crystal to ask them to come in early so that April and I could spend the next few hours making calls to cancel bakery orders, talk to our accountant and the insurance company, and research demolition companies. Neighbors stopped by to see if everyone was okay, including Ben, Goldie and Caroline from across the street. I noticed, sadly, that Caroline had left Amelia behind. Perhaps she’d changed her mind about feeling glad that Amelia had a friend in Chloe. I was disappointed, but I couldn’t blame her. After all, you can’t really ask a dead girl to come over for a play date or even to join you at a birthday party. And the realization made me feel sorry for both Amelia and Chloe.

  By late that afternoon, José was allowed into the back of the warehouse where he was able to access our inventory sheets from the file cabinet. He began identifying pieces of furniture and collectibles that might be salvageable versus those that would have to be trashed. Crystal watched the front desk, while I met with the insurance agent. After he left, I went to join José in the barn.

  I stopped in the driveway and stared at the remains, which looked like something out of a disaster movie. Much of the front façade had been left standing, though badly burned. But the front third of the roof had fallen in, taking the floor of the attic with it. That left a gaping hole between the front façade and the back two-thirds of the building, which was left mostly untouched. It was heartbreaking, and I had to take a deep breath to prevent a sob escaping my throat.

  Gritting my teeth, I forged ahead and met José in the back of the warehouse. He and I were evaluating a 17th century writing desk covered in ashes when my phone rang. It was Jake Dooley.

  “I heard about your fire,” he said. “It was on the news. What happened?”

  “It looks like arson,” I replied. I explained the sequence of events.

  “But no one was hurt,” he said.

  “No.” I turned to look at the debris around me. “But it was a close call.”

  “God, I’m so sorry, Mrs. Applegate. It might have been my fault.”

  I came to attention at that and moved outside for some privacy. “What do you mean?”

  “I had a close call of my own last night,” he said. “I ran into Frank Miller.”

  “Inside the bar?”

  “No. It was just before I went inside. I was getting gas next door. He pulled in next to me.”

&nb
sp; David had returned and was coming across the drive. He glanced my way, and I gave him a brief wave. “What happened?” I asked, turning away from David.

  “He went ballistic on me. He thought I was spying on him.”

  “Well, actually, you were spying on him.”

  He chuckled. “I know, but he didn’t know that. I had a disguise in the car; I just didn’t have it on yet. But that guy has a serious temper. He actually pushed me up against my car and threatened me.”

  “What do you mean threatened you?”

  “He poked his finger into my chest and said ‘if you and those old women don’t back off, I might have to do something I might regret.’”

  “Oh, dear,” I said, dropping onto a nearby bench. A light breeze off the lake stirred up the smell of smoke from the remains of the fire, making me glance in that direction again. “Do you think he might have been responsible for our fire?”

  “I don’t know,” he replied. “But I wouldn’t put it past him. And the timing seems about right.”

  David’s voice drifted across the drive from where he was talking to one of his officers. They had come back to interview each of us to determine if the incident with the candle had anything to do with the fire. He also had talked with our closest neighbors to ask if they had seen any strangers in the area over the last few days. Now, he was going to walk the property looking for clues. Right now they were taking pictures of what was left of the barn.

  “So, what do you want to do about tomorrow night?” I asked.

  “I think we go for it. I heard the bartender talking when I was in the bar last night. Miller was supposed to be leaving town when I saw him. He’ll be gone for the next couple of days.”

  “That’s convenient,” I said.

  “Oh, you mean because then he can’t be blamed for the fire,” Jake said.

  “Right. Except Blair and I know for a fact that he gets others to do his dirty work for him. Are you going back there tonight?”

  “Absolutely. I think I’ve got their routine down, but there are a couple of things I want to check. I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”