The Travelling Detective: Boxed Set

by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

"Well, why don’t you find out before you ask any more questions?"

  Sally knew when she was being dismissed and she thankfully left. She never wanted to go through that again. How did Elizabeth ask her questions so smoothly and get the answers so effortlessly?

  Sally hurried to her class. She was no further ahead than before the break except she knew that Michael and Sylvia had been in the same class. Big deal. By now Elizabeth probably would have had most of it figured out.

  Chapter 14

  Elizabeth wondered how best to approach Alison and Rick. She couldn’t outright ask them what their real names were and if they had lived here over two years ago. She couldn’t even think of a reason to go knocking on their door.

  With Chevy on his leash Elizabeth went to her vehicle and took out his ball. Immediately Chevy began jumping and whining. He loved his ball and would spend a whole day chasing it and bringing it back for her to throw again if she let him. She looked up and down the street. No cars were coming.

  She threw the ball across the road and when Chevy headed after it, she let the leash slip out of her hand. She raced after him before he could find the ball and bring it back. It took him a while to locate the ball in the shrubbery and when he did, Elizabeth picked them both up and went to the front door. She rang the bell.

  Alison opened the door.

  "I’m sorry," Elizabeth said quickly. "I accidentally threw Chevy’s ball too far and he got away from me and ran into your yard. I’m afraid he dug up some of your dirt trying to find it."

  "That’s okay." Alison smiled at Chevy and rubbed his head.

  Elizabeth felt a bit ashamed. She had lied to this woman who was now petting her dog.

  "Would you like to come in for a drink?" Alison asked.

  Elizabeth pretended to hesitate not wanting to make it look like this was exactly what she had wanted in the first place. "Okay," she said, and stepped into the foyer. She removed her shoes and told Chevy to stay by the door.

  "Oh, he can come in," Alison said. "I like dogs."

  Elizabeth felt the shame return. How could someone who liked dogs be a killer? There had to be another explanation. But how was she going to find out what it was?

  "Would you like a glass of wine or a cup of coffee?" Alison asked.

  Wine this early? "Actually neither, thank you. I don’t drink coffee and I’m not that fond of wine."

  Rick entered the room. "I thought I heard voices," he said, with a smile.

  "Elizabeth came to apologize because her dog dug in our dirt looking for his ball," Alison explained. She turned back to Elizabeth. "Well, we have juice or pop or water."

  "I’ll have a pop," Elizabeth said.

  Alison headed to the kitchen and Rick followed leaving Elizabeth and Chevy standing in the living room. Why did he leave also? Were they having a quick discussion, deciding what to say to her? Don’t be silly, she chided herself. Why would they think she was here for any other reason but on a friendly visit?

  Alison returned with a glass of ginger ale and a cup of coffee. She handed the glass to Elizabeth then indicated for her to sit on the couch. Chevy laid at her feet. Alison sat down across from her on a chair. There was an awkward moment of silence.

  Now what did she do? Elizabeth wondered. Jump right in and begin to ask questions? Make small talk? And where was Rick? Listening at the door or had he gone somewhere?

  "How is your article coming?" Alison asked.

  "Very good," Elizabeth replied, taking a sip of her drink. "I’ve been to most of the tourist attractions on my list. But it’s the out-of-the-way places that I really like to find. Do you know of any hidden gems that only the locals go to?"

  "If I told you that then they wouldn’t be a hidden gems, would they?" Alison smiled. "They would be quickly overrun with tourists."

  "You have a point there," Elizabeth acknowledged. Well, there went that conversation. "It must be so romantic living in Whistler," she gushed. She had to try something. "You must love being here."

  "It’s no different than living any other place," Alison shrugged. "And sometimes it can be very aggravating in the winter. Too many people so that the streets are crowded, the restaurants are crowded, the road in and out is crowded. And if we get a heavy snow fall…."

  Did she hear right? Did Alison just admit that they had lived here before? "Didn’t you tell me that you’ve only been here a few months?"

  "Yes, this time. We moved away a couple of years ago but we missed living here so much we decided to come back this spring."

  Okay, they weren’t hiding that but what about their name changes? If they were in a witness protection plan it wasn’t working very well since Cynthia had recognized them.

  “Did you live in this house before?"

  "Oh, no," Alison laughed. "we lived on Fitzsimmons Road North."

  So, Cynthia had been right. But did that mean that they had something to do with the young woman’s death? It was a stretch considering Alison wasn’t hiding anything.

  "Do you and Rick ski much here?"

  Alison’s face lit up. "Skiing is the main reason we are here. This winter our children are coming to spend Christmas with us and to ski."

  Elizabeth didn’t know what to do next. Alison sure didn’t sound like a woman who would be involved in killing someone.

  "How well do you know Cynthia?"

  Alison shook her head. "We nod to each other and say ‘Hi’ occasionally. That day you met her was the first time she’s been over here and I’ve never been in her house."

  Rick entered the room, a light jacket slung over his arm.

  Alison looked at him, then stood. "I’m sorry to cut this short, but we’ve got things to do."

  "Right," Elizabeth said, standing and heading to the door. "It was nice talking with you and thanks for the drink."

  Just before Alison closed the door Elizabeth heard Rick say. "Why was she asking all those questions?"

  * * *

  Sally had lunch with the usual class group but her mind wasn’t on the conversation about what everyone was going to do for the weekend. She didn’t even feel like spending some time talking with Reggie. As soon she had finished her sandwich she hurried to the bed and breakfast.

  Bonnie’s car was still there. She went directly to Bonnie’s room on the second floor. She knocked on the door. No answer. She tried louder in case Bonnie was asleep. Still no response. Sally tried the knob. It was locked. She looked around, then went to find Beverly, who was watering the flowers beside the pool.

  "Hi Beverly," Sally said, getting right to the point. "I’m looking for Bonnie. Have you seen her?"

  Beverly thought a few moments, then shook her head. "Not since last night."

  "So she didn’t come down for breakfast this morning?" Sally felt her stomach tighten.

  "No." She looked at Sally quizzically. "Is something wrong?"

  Was there? She really didn’t know for sure. "She didn’t come to class and I just tried her room. There was no answer." Sally took a deep breath. "I think she is missing."

  "Missing? Why do you think that?"

  Why indeed? There was the warning of the Angel cards but this time Sally kept her mouth shut about them. There was Bonnie’s belief that her cousin had been murdered, but if that was true, what were the odds of the murderer being here again this year. She stopped. Did she believe that Bonnie was dead, had been murdered? No, of course not.

  "Can we check her room?"

  "That would be invading her privacy," Beverly said. "And we have no reason to. She may have gone home to Vancouver for a day or two."

  “Her car is still here.”

  “Maybe her husband came up and she spent the night with him at a hotel.”

  Bonnie had said that she and her husband were going through a divorce. But he could have come to Whistler to talk with her and they could have spent the night together. It wasn’t as if she and Bonnie were such good friends that Bonnie would feel the need to tell her about it.

  "Woul
dn’t she have told you?" Sally asked.

  Beverly shook her head. "You’ll be surprised how many people take off for a few days of hiking or exploring north to Lillooet or Gold Bridge without telling me. They figure they’ve paid for their room so they don’t owe me an itinerary of their plans."

  Sally went to her own room. There were probably many good reasons for Bonnie to have left the bed and breakfast. However, she found she couldn’t concentrate on her assignment so to take her mind off it she went down to the pool and began to swim. Although the pool was small Sally swam laps until Elizabeth appeared in her bathing suit.

  Sally climbed out and they went over to the lounge chairs. As Sally dried herself off she told Elizabeth about Bonnie.

  "So you think she may be with her husband?" Elizabeth asked, stretching out on the chair to get a little sun.

  "Well, Beverly suggested it," Sally said. "I don’t know what to think really. She didn’t mention anything last night and I’m sure she would have wanted to be in class today in case someone had news for her about her cousin."

  "Yes," Elizabeth nodded. "She’s quite wound up about proving that Sylvia was murdered. I think it would take something very serious to make her leave. Did you talk with that Michael?"

  "Yes. He was a little suspicious about why I was asking about her and I really made a fool of myself trying to explain about the Angel cards and their warning."

  "Did he remember Sylvia?"

  "Yes, he did and he did tell Bonnie that, but after that he clammed up with me."

  Elizabeth shrugged and grinned. "Some people are like that in this business."

  "But he acted like I was accusing him of having something to do with her disappearance."

  "Don’t take it personally. Maybe he has something to hide and he was scared you would worm it out of him."

  "Like that would happen with the way I ask questions."

  Elizabeth laughed.

  "We could go try her room again," Sally said. "She may be a heavy sleeper and didn’t hear me knocking."

  "Okay," Elizabeth said standing.

  Carrying their towels they entered the bed and breakfast and headed up to Bonnie’s room. Sally knocked. They waited but no one answered. Sally knocked again, louder. Suddenly, the door across the hall was yanked open and Daryl stood in the doorway.

  "What are you doing?" he demanded. "I’m trying to work in here."

  "We’re looking for Bonnie," Sally said. "Have you seen her?"

  "No, and it was such a pleasant day at class without her talking about her Angel cards."

  "Did you see her at all between class yesterday and now?" Elizabeth asked.

  "What are you, the police?" Daryl asked.

  "No, we’re just friends who are concerned," Sally said.

  "Well, be concerned somewhere else. I don’t have time for distractions." Daryl stepped back in his room and shut the door.

  "You were right about him being serious about his writing," Elizabeth said.

  * * *

  When Bonnie didn’t show up for breakfast the next morning, Sally really began to worry. "Have you seen Bonnie this morning?" she asked Beverly when she delivered their plates.

  "No." Beverly shook her head. "But I’m not going into her room, either," she added forestalling Sally’s next question.

  "How long are you going to wait?" Sally asked her.

  "Our policy is to give our guests three days and if they haven’t returned or we haven’t heard from them we let the police know."

  "And then what?"

  "Well, if the police decide to set up a search, they usually check the room first for any clues as to where they might have gone."

  "So no one is going to even start looking for her until Sunday," Elizabeth said.

  "That’s right."

  Two more guests had entered the dining room and Beverly left to make their breakfast.

  "Something must have happened to her," Sally said to Elizabeth, as they ate their crepes and strawberries covered in whipped cream.

  "I agree, but what?" Elizabeth said, taking a large bite of crepe.

  Sally shrugged. "I don’t know, but with her claiming her cousin was murdered and now disappearing herself, it scares me."

  "If something happened to her because of her spreading the word about Sylvia, then that would suggest that the murderer, if there is one, is still here."

  "So what we have to do is find out who she and Sylvia both met while here," Sally said.

  Elizabeth grinned. "You’re beginning to sound like a detective."

  Sally smiled. "I totally understand how you get drawn into the puzzle. Once you start asking questions, you really want to find the answers to them."

  "Maybe you will find out something at the retreat. She might have called Kat Mac and let her know where she is."

  "You’re right," Sally said. "I think I’m just making too much of her missing a day."

  Elizabeth stood. "I’ve got some work to do so I’ll see you later."

  On the way to the retreat Sally saw the gardener in front of his house. He was cleaning the water in the pond. She looked but didn’t see his daughter.

  "Morning," she said, realizing that she didn’t know his name.

  "Hi," he smiled. "Last day of the week for you. What do you think of the retreat now?"

  Sally thought about what she had learned this past week. Some of it had been helpful but a lot of it had been over her head.

  "I know more about the genre than when I first came. I’ve learned when the first science fiction story was written and about the men and women writers whose stories have made it so popular."

  "Would you recommend me taking it?"

  Sally hesitated. "That really depends on what you want to learn. If it’s the history of science fiction and fantasy and who the best writers were, then yes. We are only now getting into what should be in the story, which is what I really came to learn. I don’t know how much information we are going to receive and I’m not sure what’s on for next week."

  "Didn’t you receive an outline for the course?"

  "A partial one. Kat Mac, our instructor didn’t want us coming in with any preconceived ideas about what she was going to teach. She wanted our minds clear and open."

  "A good idea," he nodded.

  Sally waved goodbye and headed to the retreat. The visit with him had taken her thoughts off Bonnie for a short time but within a couple of steps her mind was going over everything she knew about the woman.

  Once at the parking lot Sally scanned the crowd for Bonnie. She didn’t see her. She went up to Lisa and Kirk.

  "Have you seen Bonnie this morning?" she asked.

  Both shook their heads.

  "She wasn’t here yesterday, either," Lisa said. "Do you think something has happened to her, like her cards predicted?"

  "I don’t know," Sally said. "Maybe she will show up in class."

  Surely by now someone would have heard something from her. Maybe Kat Mac knew something. After all, if Bonnie had dropped out of the retreat, she would have told their instructor, wouldn’t she?

  Bonnie hadn’t appeared by the start of the class and Kat Mac didn’t say anything about her leaving the class. Maybe she thought it was no one’s business. Sally decided she would ask at the break.

  Part way through the lecture there is a knock at the classroom door. Kat Mac opened it and Sally could see a police officer standing there before Kat Mac quickly stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind her. Sally’s breath caught. What did he want? Did it have something to do with Bonnie? Surely not. She looked around the room and could see that several others had seen the officer also. They waited, staring at the door until it opened.

  Kat Mac entered. She walked slowly to the front of the class. It was a few moments before she could speak.

  "I’m afraid that Bonnie was killed in an accident last night," she said.

  Sally gasped and the rest of the classroom buzzed with reaction.

  "The
cards were right," Lisa said.

  "What kind of accident?" Kirk asked.

  "Where?" Daryl asked.

  Sally couldn’t speak. She was suddenly very cold. Bonnie had been so certain her cousin had been murdered and now she herself was dead. This couldn’t be right.

  Kat Mac held up her hands. When it was quiet she said. "The police aren’t sure exactly what happened. Someone found her lying in the street and called the police. It looks like she may have been run over. They’ve sent her body to Vancouver for an autopsy."

  There was silence in the class as everyone digested what they had just heard. After a couple of false starts, Kat Mac called an early break. They all went outside. Some lit their cigarettes and wandered away. Daryl, Henry, and Luke stood in a group. Near them Lisa, Kirk, Russ, and Reggie were huddled in a circle. Sally joined them.

  "Do you think her death had anything to do with her cousin’s?" Kirk asked Sally. "After all, it seemed she was here to find out who had killed her cousin."

  Before Sally could answer Daryl stepped over and said. "Her cousin’s death was an accident."

  "How do you know?" Lisa asked.

  "Because I looked it up on the Internet," Daryl said. "She fell down some steps and died of head injuries."

  "So why did Bonnie think she was murdered?" Russ asked.

  "Because she wanted to disrupt the class and hide the fact that she wasn’t doing any work." Daryl turned back to Luke and Henry and they walked away.

  Sally wasn’t going to say anything about what she knew. Bonnie’s reasoning had seemed too farfetched and Sally didn’t want to have to explain it.

  At the end of the break they filed silently back into the class room. Kat Mac was waiting.

  "I think we’ll cut short today’s lecture and resume on Monday when we are more able to concentrate. Have a good weekend."

  As Sally stood she heard Daryl mutter. "Again we’re losing valuable teaching time because of a dabbler."

  She gathered up her material and hurried to the bed and breakfast hoping Elizabeth was there. She had to tell her what happened. This was just too frightening.

  Chapter 15