Inside Out: A Heather's Forge Cozy Mystery, Book 5

by N. L. Cameron

  Smitty leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “I told you. I don’t know anything about that. I never cut any keys for the Calliwell Museum, and I never gave Freddy anything. You can take that to the bank.”

  In the middle of the interview, Levi entered the observation room. He stood at my side, and we listened to Sheriff Mills question Smitty. So far, the sheriff seemed to be doing a pretty good job. I never thought much of his skills before, but I couldn’t find any fault with him now.

  “We know you and Freddy were friends,” Sheriff Mills went on. “Maybe he asked you to help him take care of his mother. Maybe you felt bad that he had such a hard slog in life. Maybe you just came up with the idea to give him a little push with your job at the hardware store. I don’t know. I’m just shooting out possibilities here.”

  “Just cuz I was friends with Freddy doesn’t mean I used my job at the hardware store to help him steal things.” Smitty’s voice rose a notch. “You can’t accuse me of anything. You’ve got no evidence.”

  “Well, as a matter of fact,” the sheriff replied, “we have quite a bit of very good evidence that you used your job at the hardware store to cut keys for Freddy. The only real question is whether you had anything to do with his death. What do you think, Smitty? Wouldn’t you rather be accused of theft and conspiracy than capital murder? I know I would.”

  Smitty’s tough veneer crumbled. “All right, all right. I helped him steal stuff, but I never killed him. He was a friend of mine. He was a hard-luck case. It wasn’t so tough to pass him a few keys now and then, just to keep the wolf from his mother’s door. That’s all I did. I never killed him, for chrissake.”

  Sheriff Mills stood up. “You know what, Smitty? I believe you. I still have to nail you for copying the keys and accessory to theft. We’ll see what we can do about clearing you on suspicion of murder.”

  He walked out of the room and left Smitty slumped and broken in his chair. Sheriff Mills entered the observation room. “Oh, good. You’re both here, so I don’t have to go hunting you up. I don’t believe Smitty had anything to do with the museum heist beyond providing Freddy with the keys, and I don’t think he killed his friend, either.”

  “Neither do I,” I replied.

  Sheriff Mills nodded. “Well, we’re no closer to finding our killer. I’m knocking off investigating for the day. I’ve got enough paperwork to keep me busy for the rest of the day, so you two can go back to your regularly scheduled activities.”

  “No problem, Sheriff,” Levi replied. “You did good work in there.”

  Sheriff Mills whipped around. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” Levi clapped him on the shoulder. “You got him to confess, and you did it all by yourself. You’re getting better.”

  Sheriff Mills brightened up. “Thanks, man.”

  We walked him out to his office. He’d admitted to us he couldn’t cope with all these crimes, a heavy responsibility that weighed him down. Admitting that to a lawman like Levi must have cost Sheriff Mills a lot. Now, he walked with his shoulders back. He didn’t hesitate to look either of us in the eye now.

  He shook hands with Levi in his office. “I’ll let you know if anything comes up, but it’s paperwork for me for the rest of the day.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Levi replied. “Allie and I are going back to the inn to stick our heads in the ground. Aren’t we, Allie?”

  “Absolutely,” I replied.

  Just then, another set of footsteps came down the hall from the direction of the cells. We all turned around to see Lincoln Washington stride into the office. Six foot six and tattooed from neck to toe, Lincoln spent more time in the drunk tank than anybody in Heather’s Forge.

  Sheriff Mills blew up. “What do you think you’re doing? Who let you out?”

  “No one let me out,” Lincoln replied. “The cell wasn’t locked. It’s never locked. Everybody knows that.”

  “It was too locked!” Sheriff Mills fired back. “It’s always locked. You get back in there this instant. Not locked! We always lock ‘em in.”

  A light bulb came on in my head. “Sheriff, Lincoln must have figured out the cell doors can be forced open in the right way. Laura Lane told me about it. She and Lincoln have spent enough time in this jail to figure it out.”

  “What’s this?” he thundered. “What’s this about cell doors being forced open?”

  “It’s true,” I replied. “You can open the door without a key. There must be a few other people in town who know the secret.”

  Sheriff Mills stormed off down the hall. He pushed Lincoln ahead of him. “This is preposterous! Get in there, you. I’ll teach you not to break out of my jail.”

  He shoved Lincoln back into the cell and turned the key to lock the door. Lincoln retreated to the back wall with a gentle smirk touching his lips. “Simmer down, Sheriff.”

  Sheriff Mills pointed at the man’s chest. “You want me to believe this door can open? You show me right now. Show me how you got out just now.”

  “How do I know you’re not going to taser me for trying to escape?” Lincoln asked.

  Sheriff Mills drew far enough back to give Lincoln room to approach the door. “There. Now let’s see you do it.”

  Lincoln stepped close to the door, circled one of the bars in his meaty grip, and gave the heavy door a quick upward yank. The lock popped, and the door swung open.

  Sheriff Mills cursed under his breath. “Son of a blazing cricket! Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”

  “I never really got a chance,” I told him. “Something always came up, and I wasn’t sure if Laura made up the whole thing. Now I see it’s true. She could have killed Freddy. They were in the cells at the same time.”

  Sheriff Mills sliced a finger at the big inmate. “Lincoln could have killed Freddy. He was in the next cell at the same time, too.”

  “I never killed that kid,” Lincoln muttered. “I should have, but I didn’t. That kid needed a good bonk on the head to straighten him out.”

  The three of us stared at the big man in astonishment. He didn’t like Freddy, and he had the ways and means to kill him when no one was looking. Then again, how could someone in the cells drug Deputy Rufus Leonard so no one saw them sneak into Freddy’s cell?

  Sheriff Mills threw up both hands and stomped off back to his office. He hurled himself into his pathetic old desk chair, all his former enthusiasm gone. “I just don’t know what this office is coming to anymore. How could this happen? How could a prisoner wind up dead right under my nose? How could all these crooks know my jail isn’t secure when I didn’t know it myself?”

  Levi took my arm and steered me out of the office. He paused in the parking lot. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

  I glanced back at the station. “Isn’t there anything we can do to help him?”

  “You already did it. You told him a secret no one else would tell him. Let him take care of it and leave him to his own problems.”

  “I don’t like just walking away,” I mused.

  “You’re not the sheriff. This is his responsibility. You can be a consultant, or you can be a nosey old cat lady from the back of beyond. You can’t do this job for him. He’s responsible for everything that goes on in that jail. If the doors aren’t secure, it’s for him to fix it, not you. Come on. You’re going home.”

  He got me walking toward my car, but I dragged my feet. “I’m not sure home is the best place for me, either.”

  “Why not?”

  “Some of the guests have got the idea I should give them tours around all the sites where I supposedly solved those murders. They want me to create some kind of scavenger hunt so they can relive every detail of the cases.”

  He stopped in his tracks to stare at me. “Get out!”

  I bit back a smile. “You have to admit it’s a good idea. I just don’t want to turn into a glorified tour guide.”

  “I never would have believed it. I never thought a murder investigation could be
that interesting to anybody.”

  “It’s interesting because someone else already solved it. They already hiked up the mountain to find Nathaniel’s old greenhouse. They roped me into showing them Harold Hart’s jacuzzi and Dale Thresher’s archery range. What else is there? I don’t want to show my face at the inn when I don’t have another activity lined up for them.”

  “That’s easy,” he told me. “Just send them over to the museum and tell them to make a complete inventory of the stock.”

  “The museum is still closed. Camille said it was still cordoned off.”

  “Not anymore,” he replied. “I bumped into Samuel Jenkins, the director. He just reopened today.”

  I clapped my hands. “Oh, that’s perfect. The museum will keep them busy for weeks.”

  “They won’t be here for weeks.”

  I laughed. “You might be surprised.”

  Chapter 5

  Back at the inn, I had to manage a few dissatisfied customers before I got some time to myself again. I went into my apartment to take a break and remembered the Bible. I pulled it and the photo album out from under my bed and settled down in the sunshine streaming through the window.

  In this light, I definitely made out the distinct name Beatrice Garrett written into the family register. Something next to the name looked like another word written in, but hard lines scored it out so I couldn’t read it.

  Why would anybody scratch something out of a Bible family register? If it was important enough to write it there in the first place, it should stay there. Who would have Beatrice Garrett written into their family register in the first place?

  I got a magnifying glass to study the other names written in the register. One name stuck out clear as day. Ashfield Calliwell. I knew that name. Ashfield Calliwell was the original founders of Heather’s Forge. What was my aunt Beatrice’s name doing in a family register with him?

  Now that I got a better look at the photo album, I found a lot of pictures of her, mostly when she was young and beautiful. I took pictures of everything on my phone and went back to the tunnels to return them. I didn’t want whoever stashed these books in that shed to discover them missing.

  I waited until the usual sounds of revelry came from the dining room. Everybody at work in the inn would be busy in there, so no one would notice me sneak off to the basement one more time.

  I skipped out of my apartment and saw the coast was clear. I made a dive to get past the dining room unseen when who should come around the corner from the bathrooms but Tanya. “Allie!” she cried.

  I pulled up short with a sinking heart. “How are you, Tanya? How are the guys getting along with their plans to overthrow the government?”

  She burst out laughing. “Oh, they’re getting along pretty well with it, I’d say. We’ve been looking for you. We need you to show us what to do for our investigation.”

  She started to drag me to the dining room, but I dug my heels in. “I can’t do it now. I’m… I’m in the middle of a project.”

  “Nonsense.” She shoved me into a chair across from her friends. That’s when I noticed Pixie sitting on Gina’s lap. Gina petted the cat while she regaled her friends and me with exclamations about their experiences solving all the mysteries of Heather’s Forge.

  “We can’t get enough of all this mystery stuff,” she breathed. “That handsome handyman of yours told us the museum reopened. Now, we need you to tell us exactly what we’re looking for over there. What was stolen? How did they get in and out of the museum without getting caught? We want to know everything.”

  In the middle of this speech, that handsome handyman himself strolled into the dining room. His eyebrows flew up when he heard what she said. I cringed. “I don’t think I should tell you that. The investigation is still going on.”

  “What could be the problem?” Gina asked. “They wouldn’t reopen the museum if it wasn’t okay. Just tell us what the thief stole.”

  What could it hurt? Everybody in Heather’s Forge knew what the thief stole. Why shouldn’t I tell these kind-hearted women? “All right. They took a carved statue of the god Anubis in canine form recumbent on a stone pedestal. They took a small amulet of the god Horus in falcon form. They took a scarab, a papyrus scroll, and a small china box with a rose on the lid from Lady Caliwell’s collection.”

  “Oh, how beautiful!” Tanya gushed. “I can’t wait to see it.”

  “You won’t be able to see it,” I told her. “You can see all the other things on display at the museum, but the box isn’t on display anymore.”

  “Why not?”

  I shrugged. What could I say? I couldn’t exactly tell them the museum gifted the box to Sally Wright in consolation for losing her son. “It just isn’t.”

  “Never mind,” Rose interrupted. “We can see the other stuff. What else can you tell us about the museum heist, Allie?”

  “Well, a footprint was found outside the Clovis section. We don’t know if it came from the thief.”

  I buttoned my lip before I could say any more. Levi’s eyes drilled into me from across the room. He listened to every word I said. He must be thinking what a blabbermouth I was. I couldn’t keep the details of a case to myself to save my life.

  The four women whipped out notebooks and started jotting notes. For the first time since they arrived at the Barrell Inn, they started to resemble their husbands with their schematics and their reference tabs.

  “You mentioned Nathaniel Rowe had more than one growing location in these mountains,” Gina remarked. “We found the greenhouse. Can you tell us where he had the others?”

  “Not really,” I hedged. “He had them hidden in tunnels and caves. You would have to use GPS to find them. I don’t have those coordinates, but the Sheriff’s Office will have them recorded.”

  “You told us in the van you and Levi got caught in one of them,” Tanya added.

  My cheeks burned. Now I was really in hot water. “We didn’t exactly find them. Nathaniel… well, to tell the truth, he captured me when I found the greenhouse. He took me into the tunnels to stop me reporting him. He was going to kill me and—”

  A loud gasp from Rose and a shriek from Gina interrupted me. “No! He couldn’t! How did you get out?”

  “Well, it was a combination of things…” I began.

  Rose flipped over a page of her notebook and started writing like a mad fiend. “This is incredible. It’s like something out of a film script or something.”

  “It’s not really,” I replied. “Levi found me, and we got lost in the tunnels. Pixie led us out.”

  “Pixie! The cat!” They all hooted to the rafters.

  Tanya leaned over Gina’s lap and stroked the cat’s silky black head. “What a clever pussycat you are, Pixie!”

  “How did she do it?” Rose asked. “How did she find you and lead you out of danger? What a heroic thing to do! I’d love to take her home with me. A cat like that is a real treasure.”

  They talked so fast I didn’t have to answer any difficult questions about what went on in my cat’s head.

  All at once, Gina turned to me. “You have to show us these tunnels. We want to see where it all happened.”

  I couldn’t look at Levi while I lied point blank about this. “I don’t know how to get into the tunnels.”

  “There must be a way,” Tanya remarked. “There must be maps to the entrances. Maybe Mr. Jenkins at the museum knows. We should ask him. He probably knows all about the tunnels.”

  I was sure he did. I definitely didn’t want these start-up investigators knowing I was on my way to the tunnels when they shanghaied me into this dining room. Now I had Detective Stokes staring at me from across the room and making sure I didn’t slip up.

  I took this opportunity to stand up. “I better go. You guys let me know if Mr. Jenkins tells you anything about the tunnels. I’ll see you later.”

  I raced out of the dining room, but I had to wait another long time to be sure Levi left before I made another trip t
o the tunnels to return the Bible and photo album. I waited longer than I needed to until I saw the light come on in his apartment above the barn.

  By that time, the guests had retired to their rooms and Camille and the kitchen staff worked behind closed doors where they couldn’t see me. I listened behind my own door, but no one remained downstairs. I ran for the basement and disappeared down the ladder to safety.

  I’d gotten so good at navigating the tunnels that I didn’t have to check every detail of my sketches anymore. I followed the same tunnels to the garden shed and put the Bible and the album back where I found them.

  I took a closer look at the veil, the shoes, and the rings. Someone had definitely gotten married. Who could it be? The story nagged me to learn the details. I still couldn’t believe my old-maid Aunt Bea got married in secret. That was stretching it a little too far. Maybe she almost got married, and someone stuffed the evidence here to hide it.

  While I squatted down, inspecting the stuff in the wooden crate, I noticed something against the back wall. The crate sat under a rickety wooden shelf, and the wall behind the shelf fell away into a sort of hole in the ground. I trained my flashlight down there and saw steps carved out of stone. They plunged into a small cave, but I couldn’t see far enough into it to know what was down there.

  I scooted forward to get a better look when the distinct sound of a slamming door startled me out of my wits. I jumped to my feet and looked through the window to see the tall, straight form of a man on his way to the shed from the cottage across the clearing. I made a mad, desperate dive for the gate and raced up the tunnel out of sight. I didn’t stop running until I got far enough that I couldn’t see the gate anymore.

  Who was he? Who lived in that cottage in the mountains? Did he have anything to do with my aunt? I would never know because I would never tell him I knew about that Bible.

  I listened hard for any sound of someone coming down the tunnel after me, but I didn’t hear anything. I took my time getting back to the inn. I made a few more notes and explored a few more tunnels on the way to complete my map.