Cozy Mystery Box Set: Murder Mysteries in the Mountains

by Liz Turner

  “From the broken glass.” Simon nodded. “You know what we should do, Victoria?”

  “What?”

  “We should check his room,” Simon said. “We might just find a clue!”

  Chapter 11

  Victoria had to work hard to convince Simon that it wasn’t a good idea to go looking for clues. “That’s not our job, Simon.” She insisted.

  “Well, it’s not my job, but Victoria, you’re good at this. You could figure something out.”

  “The Mounties will be here soon.” She said. “Much as I’d love to go poking my nose in, I think it’s unethical to do anything that might hinder their investigations.”

  “Unethical. Huh.” Simon flapped a hand. “It’s my hotel; I can go into any room I want.”

  A few minutes more of this, and Victoria had got Simon back on track. Reluctantly, he agreed to go downstairs and take care of his other guests, as well as try to re-establish contact with the RCMP.

  As for Victoria, she headed downstairs and began preparing lunch.

  Cooking helped soothe her mind and get her thoughts in order. She wasn’t very used to creating three-course vegetarian meals. In fact, she would have preferred grilling a good steak, or serving some seared salmon.

  The last event she had catered had been a delight. It was a small wedding where the groom was heavily into "Do It Yourself". Victoria had made a subway-style counter for sandwiches, and a burrito-stop. The bride had insisted that the event was to be informal. Unable to resist throwing in something slightly fancier, Victoria had also convinced her to have a third table, set up with charcuterie (an assortment of cold cut meats) and various fresh cheese slices. The bride and groom were both very amiable people and easy to accommodate. The wedding had gone perfectly. It was held outdoors on top of a hill, and the weather had been perfect. The enthusiastic guests had lifted the bride and groom on their shoulders once the service was done, making them crowd surf as toe-tapping songs played in the background. There hadn’t been a face that wasn’t beaming, at that event and the food only made the smiles brighter. Happy customers were the aspect of her job that Victoria loved most.

  With writing, she had gotten plenty of admiration but given the dark quality of her books she had never been able to place happy smiles on other people’s faces. Of course, that hadn’t been her primary motivation, so she’d been happy doing what she did. But now, things had changed. Perhaps it was because of all the misery she had felt after Michael’s death, that she valued happiness even more. Each sunlit, golden day, she held close to her heart and counted as a treasure.

  As for days like this, well, she spent days like this focusing on the work that needed doing and getting through it.

  She had three main dishes planned. A salad of spinach with pomegranate and walnuts and a light vinaigrette dressing. A quiche that she’d made with tofu and spinach, and finally, zucchini noodles with a simple tomato-basil sauce and fresh mozzarella. Besides this, she placed slices of garlic bread, made with Karen’s freshly baked sourdough loaf. She took a deep breath, inhaling the tangy aroma of the bread, and felt her stomach grumble. She’d have to make herself some lunch soon. Hopefully, the guests would like her creations, though she didn’t fool herself that they could love it. Right now, they would probably shovel the food into their mouth without tasting it.

  It was a pity, too. Experimental flavors weren’t something one should have after death. That was a time the body and soul needed comfort food. The whole lot up there would probably be happier if she had given them tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, or perhaps macaroni with a bit of ham.

  Dessert was the only dish she could guarantee would become a favorite. She’d baked a succulent cranberry-nut cake early that morning and planned to accompany it with a drizzle of wild honey.

  Two servers helped carry the food to the conference room upstairs when everything was ready.

  Here, everyone was seated around a large table, looking utterly bored. Jim was fiddling on his mobile phone while Tess filed her nails. Clay had his feet up on the table and his hands behind his head, apparently asleep. Gray and Matt were talking to each other while throwing a pillow back and forth. Everyone straightened up as the food arrived. The optimistic expressions on their faces fell a little when Victoria announced the menu.

  “No meat? Trust Leo the health nut to create a boring menu.” Clay chuckled. “I’d go for a burger right now, to be honest.” He pulled his plate closer and took a forkful of the salad. After a few bites, he then looked up in surprise. “Hey, this isn’t as bad as I thought. In fact, it’s pretty tasty.”

  Victoria gave him a wan smile.

  The others took small bites and nodded along. Gray, who was eating his food almost reverentially, gave a sigh. “You know, this is exactly the kind of food he would have loved, Victoria. I think it’s almost a tribute to him.”

  Tess was fiddling with her food and pushed it aside. “I can’t eat.” She said. “Frankly, I don’t know how you can. All of you can’t have loved him very much.” But, Victoria noticed, she held on to her fork indicating she might just start eating soon.

  “Do you have to make it a competition, Tess?” Gray asked quietly

  .“What do you mean?” She snapped.

  “I mean, you loved Leo. We all know it.” Gray said. “There’s no need to go around declaring it all the time.”

  “I did love Leo,” she said defiantly. “I loved him more than all of you. He loved me too.”

  “We know you did,” Gray said. “As for him, Tess, he didn’t love us much. He changed after he became famous. Couldn’t you see it? Before that, I think he did genuinely care for us. Afterward, he only wanted us to be yes men. We were convenient to him, but he didn’t love us. The truth is, Leo had a big, hungry ego, which he filled by getting praise from others. He loved hearing about how he’d helped others. It fulfilled him. But there’s only so much gratefulness most of us could show.”

  “That’s not true!” Tess said angrily. “That’s not how Leo was!”

  “You deny it all the time,” Gray said. “But I know. I know everything. He used you, Tess, more than any of us.” There was sympathy in his eyes, but a tightness around his lips that indicated some irritation with Tess.

  Tess’ eyes began to well up. “You all gang up on me, all the time.” She said. “I hate you. All of you!”

  “You don’t hate us, Tess. I think you hide the fact that you hated Leo. You hide that even from yourself. I remember how bad I felt when I found out that he was playing with you; my respect for him died that night.” Gray said. “He played with your feelings, Tess, and I wish he hadn’t. His fame corrupted him. It changed him. He became power hungry and insecure. He was always looking for ways to keep us close to him. We’ve all come from backgrounds where people used us, but what Leo did was a much worse betrayal. We trusted him to be good to us. Instead, look what he did to you.”

  “No. You don’t know anything.” Tess said. She got up angrily. “He loved me! He…” She choked a little. “We’ve been… together for a long time. We were in a relationship, Gray! I was the love of his life!”

  “Then why did he hide it?” Gray asked. “Why did he make it a big secret? Why not admit to the world that you and he were in a relationship?”

  “Because he was crooked and hypocritical,” Clay said. “That’s why. He didn’t want people to know that he was in a relationship with someone he was mentoring. That might affect his book sales. That might make his legions of followers trust him a little less. After all, what kind of guru would he be?”

  Tess’ chin quivered, but she said. “That’s not true. That’s not why.” She said. “He loved me so much he had promised to marry me. He said I was the only one who loved him. That everyone else just wanted to sabotage him.”

  “Well, of course, he’d say that.” Clay laughed. “But you still can’t tell me why he wasn’t proud to admit that he dated you. He felt nothing but contempt for you, Tess.”

&nbs
p; “It was Deedee,” Tess said. “Deedee was the reason he didn’t reveal things about me. He cared about her feelings. He thought she would get angry.”

  “Deedee?” Clay laughed. “Tess. Get serious. Leo was far too narcissistic to care about Deedee’s feelings. He treated her like his personal slave. Have you ever seen him give her orders? And Deedee was always spineless; she could never say no to Leo. If he told her jump, she’d jump. If he told her to kill the man you love, she’d do it. She might only have been his niece but...”

  “Daughter,” Tess said.

  Clay’s eyes bugged out. “What?”

  “He never had a step-sister. He lied about that. Deedee was Leo’s daughter.”

  Clay’s fork dropped. He whistled. “Well well.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Jim said. “Why would he hide that?”

  “I don’t know, do I?” Tess said. “He clearly liked keeping secrets.”

  “He died for them, then,” Gray said gravely.

  “I don’t care,” Tess said. “I know you all hate him now. But don’t forget we owed him our lives, all of us. He saved us. He redeemed us. Where’s the gratitude we are supposed to feel?”

  “All we did was show him gratitude,” Clay said. “Tess, he held it over our heads all the time. It was constant. “I’ve done so much for you, so you should feel guilty if you disobey me.” Yes, he helped us but we also helped ourselves, and we also helped him.”

  “Jim, for example,” Gray said. “If it weren’t for Jim, Leo wouldn’t have been famous in the first place. Leo used Jim’s money to market his book and...”

  “I just feel… I wish I had done something last night.” Tess interrupted him. “I heard the yelling, but I didn’t do a thing.”

  “Yelling?” Gray looked surprised.

  “Didn’t any of you hear it?” Tess asked. “Leo was fighting with someone outside his room yesterday.”

  “What were you doing, peeking through the keyhole, hoping to catch a glimpse of something?” Clay laughed.

  Tess colored, and dropped her fork with a clatter. “Fine. I won’t tell you then. But I’ll tell you that I might just have enough evidence to send someone to jail. Now excuse me, I’m going to take a shower. The ingratitude here makes me feel unclean.”

  Chapter 12

  There was silence around the table as Tess left. The men looked at each other but immediately looked down at their plates. Victoria, standing in a corner, didn’t know what to say. A waiter came in, a tray full of beer bottles in one hand. Jim and Matt took one each while Gray and Clay refused. The waiter placed the tray on one end of the table, and said, “If you have any requests, let me know. Mr. Simon has instructed me to supply you with whatever you wish.”

  “How about some peace and quiet?” Matt said, with a laugh. The waiter, looking unamused, left, leaving silence in his wake.

  Clay broke the silence, finally, by asking, “Well, did anyone figure out why Leo had this little reunion in the first place?” He looked around the table, but the other men didn’t meet his eyes. Finally, Jim raised his head and looked at Clay.

  “You tell us, first,” Jim said. “How did you even know that Leo was going to be here, and why did you come?”

  Clay gave a low whistle. “Wow, Jim. I’m hurt. You almost sound suspicious.”

  “You’ll have to talk to the RCMP in any case.” Jim pointed out. “Do you think they’re going to take very kindly to everything when they find out… well, about the last time you and he talked?”

  “The RCMP?’ Clay asked. “Why would the police investigate a suicide? Or are you thinking it’s murder? Has Tess managed to brainwash you?”

  “It is murder,” Gray said quietly. “I think we all know it. We’re just fooling ourselves, saying otherwise.”

  “Speak for yourself; I don’t fool myself,” Matt said sourly.

  “It’s true, Matt. We don’t want to admit it because that might mean one of us killed him,” Gray said.

  Clay whirled around to face him. “Gray, big brother, have a care. Don’t just go around saying this stuff. People might take you seriously.”

  “Come on, Clay,” Gray said. “You knew Leo. Do you think he was the kind of man who would kill himself?”

  “Behind his narcissism, he was probably depressed,” Clay said. “ He was insecure about a lot of things. Like whether we loved him. That’s why he was constantly harping on about gratitude. He didn’t believe that we could love him. He was right, too. Once he started telling us how we were nothing without him; who could love him?”

  “It’s funny,” Matt said. “Considering he taught a lot of people how to be happy, you’d think that he would be happy himself.”

  “The message counts, not the messenger,” Clay said. “I picked up his book a while back, and it was all pretty solid advice. Too bad he didn’t follow it.”

  “It still doesn’t change the fact that it’s probably murder. Do none of you remember that Leo had a fear of heights?” Gray asked. “You can try and convince me that a man like Leo would kill himself. Even if he did, it would be a different method. The very last thing he would do would be to throw himself out of a window.”

  Clay sighed. “Well, that still doesn’t answer my question. Why this little reunion?”

  “We used to meet up off and on,” Jim said. “Those of us who still cared about him.”

  Clay laughed and took a sip of water. “Sure you did. You sound a lot like Tess, Jim. Oh, I loved Leo.” He spoke this last in a high, feminine voice, and ended with a cruel laugh. “She’s pathetic.”

  “You want to talk about pathetic?” Matt said, suddenly angry. “How’s this for pathetic, Clay. Imagine a man who’s so broke that he goes back to his greatest enemy to ask for money. Now that’s pathetic.”

  Clay flushed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I looked you up online,” Matt said. “Your little start-up in Brazil went belly up. I doubt you have a penny on you. How did you even afford to book a room here?”

  “Hey, lay off him, Matt,” Gray said, defending his brother. “He only came here to make things right with Leo. As a matter of fact, I told him Leo was going to be here. I told him that it was about time they made amends. Believe me I...”

  “Why would I?” Matt asked. He tugged on his goatee. “Tess is messy, but she’s genuine about what she feels. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a man like Clay who's out to pull other people down. He doesn’t care about their feelings as long as he gets what he wants. Look at poor Deedee.”

  Clay flung back his chair and stood up. His shoulders were back, and his face was dark with anger. “You want to stop talking about Deedee now, Matt.” He said softly. His voice sounded like the hiss of a snake.

  “Oh, sure, big man. Acting all protective now.” Matt mocked him. “Where were you when Deedee needed you, Clay? Where were you then? You skipped town and left her broken hearted. Instead of stepping up and being a...”

  Clay jumped across the table and caught Matt’s throat in his hands. With a primal yell, he started shaking Matt, who coughed and cried out in panic.

  Jim and Gray ran to help Matt, uttering little cries of shock. Victoria, unsure what to do, grabbed a jug of water and threw it over their heads.

  The commotion stopped, and four confused faces looked up at her.

  “Ah, Victoria,” Clay said with a little laugh, glancing up at her. “I forgot you were even here.”

  Casually, as if he had been doing nothing at all, Clay walked away from the other three men, shaking himself to get the water off his body. His hair plastered to his face, and his eyes were still shining with malice. He took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and uttered a little exclamation of disgust. “Well, there’s no way I can salvage these.” He said. Casually, he asked Victoria, “Do you smoke, by any chance?”

  Matt was still on the ground and shivering a little. Jim had a hand on his shoulder and was consoling him. Looking up now, Jim said, “Clay,
you better shut up and get out of here.”

  “It’s a public place,” Clay said. “I’ve got every right to be here.”

  Gray opened the door. “I think I’m going to agree with Jim here, Clay. You should take a shower. I suppose all of us need to get changed after getting drenched like that.” He gave Victoria a sideways look, and she shrugged.

  “I couldn’t think of what else to do.” She said. “But my dad always used this method to break up fighting dogs.”

  Clay gave a hoarse laugh. “A pack of dogs. That’s what we are, alright. Just hungry, salivating dogs, ready to fight for bones.”

  “Not everyone came here for money as you did, Clay,” Jim said quietly. “The rest of us came because we respected Leo.”

  “I came because I wanted to meet the others,” Gray said. “You’re the only people I considered family, and I missed you all.”

  “But there’s only one reason Leo had called us here,” Matt said. He stood up, and his eyes were bright with fury. “He wanted to tell you all the contents of his new will. I’m happy to tell you, Clay, that you have no part in it. No part, you hear? He made millions of dollars from his books, and you won’t see a penny.”

  Jim and Gray put a hand each on Matt’s shoulders, and slowly led him out. The three men walked back to their rooms, leaving Victoria alone with Clay. He sat back down in the chair, still dripping water, looking thoroughly disgusted.

  Chapter 13

  “I’d better call the maid and get her to clean this up,” Victoria said, moving toward the door.

  “Don’t leave,” Clay said, surprising her. His voice was harsh, but softened, “Please?” He said. “I don’t think I can stand to be alone.”

  Victoria gave him a pitying look. “Do you always play this role?” she asked. “The role of the outsider, of the rebel?”

  Clay looked up at her and laughed. “Role? A rebel is what I am. I’ve always been one.”