For Letter or Worse

by Vivian Conroy

  “Oh?” Delta widened her eyes. “Someone who…wanted to harm your business maybe?”

  “Actually, no.” Lydia studied her French-manicured fingernails. “Someone who was a bit worried for her own position, I suppose.” She looked up at Delta with wide blue eyes. “Have you met Una Edel?”

  “Yes, at Lena Laroy’s birthday party. Una Edel is Drake’s second-in-command, I understand?”

  “That’s what she likes to call herself. I doubt he needs her quite that much. She is not a real designer like we are. Take those models…” Lydia gestured around her. “She can’t build them. She can barely draw with a computer program. She’s efficient, I suppose, and she has about taken over Drake’s agenda for him and so on, but the design end of things is really not her forte. Which is why she was worried Clara or I might replace her.”

  “I heard she was worried about Sally Drake replacing her too.”

  Lydia laughed, her head back. “Sally Drake was an art expert from LA. What did she know about design? Yes, Drake was fond of his little sister and wanted to protect her, but even he had to acknowledge she didn’t know anything about his core business.” She studied Delta. “You were at the birthday party, you say. What did you think?”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I’ve been hearing all kinds of rumors. The police don’t show up at a party for nothing.”

  “We really didn’t see much. We were in our tent, doing a 3-D card–making workshop.”

  “Too bad. I might have found a way to work with you for little money.”

  Delta blinked her eyes. “Sorry?”

  “I could make a deal with you to do changes to your store on a budget—in exchange for some information about the party.”

  “What kind of information?”

  Lydia pursed her lips. “The kind of information that Drake wouldn’t like to see out and about?”

  Delta clutched the mug. It wasn’t that hot anymore, but it felt like it burned her fingers. “I don’t follow.”

  “You have a nice business here, and you want to pull in more customers. We could give you a facelift that will stun the town. But it costs money. I’m prepared to strike a very good deal with you in exchange for something that will help me when I go to Drake with a new proposal.”

  “New proposal?” Delta repeated.

  “Yes. About a possible partnership.”

  Delta put the mug on the desk. “I really have to be going. Hazel is waiting for me. Thanks for your time.”

  She got up and turned to the door. Her heart pounded. Was this woman really suggesting she’d blackmail the Drakes? A low-price renovation for Wanted in exchange for information she could use against Calvin Drake?

  With the knob in her hand, she heard Lydia’s chair squeak. Footsteps clicked behind her. For a moment, Delta imagined a hand on her shoulder and a threatening whisper to keep her mouth shut. But Lydia simply said, “Nice to have met you. Goodbye.”

  Delta raced down the steps and jerked open the front door. Outside, she took a deep breath. She was eager to get to Wanted and tell Hazel about this very odd conversation.

  She almost bumped into someone and realized it was Clara. The woman readjusted the strap of her purse and said, “Um, about your design, I haven’t quite—”

  “Never mind. Take your time. We’re in no rush.” Delta breezed past her and raced across the street.

  When she looked over her shoulder, she saw Clara standing in the doorway of the building, with Lydia’s blond head shimmering behind her. Were they talking about her? Or would Lydia not say a word about her attempt to shake her down?

  What an odd couple of women. Apparently eager to do a lot for their business.

  Maybe even…kill?

  Chapter Fourteen

  “You must have misunderstood.” Hazel nodded firmly. “She hardly knows you and wouldn’t make such an offer out of the blue. Or maybe she was joking just to see if you would take the bait. I can’t imagine her being serious. I mean…” She considered a moment. “No, really…”

  “It was the weirdest experience I’ve had in a long time, and I’m going nowhere near those two again.” Delta shivered. “They give me the creeps. Did you hear anything worthwhile?”

  “Not really. I kept an eye on the handyman at Mine Forever. You know, the fake caterer? He seems to be about done.” Hazel sighed. “I would love to know what he wants from Lena. But he’s not going to tell us, I bet.”

  “Speaking of Lena, do you think she’s still roaming about, or would she have gone back to the villa? Part of me is sorry for her, especially now that I know Drake lied about Zara, but…she does seem a bit dishonest. What was she looking for among my things?”

  Delta pulled out the sketchbook and studied her case file. “Oh, boy.”

  “What?”

  “I put up a question asking if Zara already knew Drake before she came to work at the villa as a dog walker because the two of them met at the Lodge. If that confirmed Lena’s suspicions, she might be after Zara now to get the truth out of her.” Delta sighed. “She thinks the two are having an affair, while actually, Zara is Drake’s daughter.”

  “That’s their own fault, I guess. If they had simply told her, it wouldn’t have turned out this way.” Hazel cut open a parcel with new pens and started to stack them. “I don’t understand all the secrecy.”

  “Drake wanted to give his daughter a chance to get to know him without any pressure. That wasn’t a bad idea. But he shouldn’t have taken her side all of the time and gotten Lena suspicious.”

  “Zara can take care of herself, I suppose,” Hazel said. “If Lena does quiz her about it, she has to stand her ground. What do you think? Should I put this jar with pens up there or down here?”

  Delta cast a quick look. “Higher is better. Through the glass you can see the different patterns on them. I love the ones with the gold glitter, but I already have so many pens I never use, I have to resist buying them.” She checked her watch. “Once we close the shop, I wonder if you’d like to go to the Lodge Hotel for dinner. Then we don’t have to cook, and I wanted to talk to Ray, if he’s there. Jonas dismissed Coldard’s story about the Athena Barrows murder case like it doesn’t matter at all regarding the present problem, but I want to know a bit more about the Taylor relative who featured in it. The one who died in Italy of pneumonia. Or something else.”

  Hazel grimaced. “If he was suspected of murder, the Taylors won’t want to be reminded of him.”

  “He was never charged, let alone convicted. So why not discuss it casually? Tragic case, etc. How about it?”

  “Fine with me. But I don’t want to be there when you ask Ray about it. I want to avoid him in general. I’m tired of the rumors that I’m interested in him. I’m not.”

  Delta thought the denial was a bit emphatic but nodded her agreement right away.

  They closed up for the day and left to take the car to the Lodge Hotel.

  * * *

  Guests dressed up for dinner were having drinks in the lobby, and the receptionist handed out keycards to new arrivals whose suitcases cluttered the way through. “They need an old-fashioned bellboy to take up the lot,” Hazel whispered to Delta while they passed.

  The dining room was to their left, and Hazel and Delta wanted to go in, when Delta saw Ray on the other side of the lobby, talking to his sister Isabel. Delta said, “You go in and find a table, have a look at the menu, and order drinks if you want to. I’d love a mineral water with some fresh lemon juice. I’ll talk to Ray and come back to you as soon as I can.”

  Hazel nodded and entered the room. Delta crossed to Ray and Isabel. Isabel saw her first and flashed a smile. “Hello, Delta. What are you doing here? It isn’t crafting night, is it?”

  “No, I actually wanted to talk to Ray for a minute, if that’s okay.”

  “Sure,�
�� Ray said. He nodded at Isabel. “I’ll get on it and let you know.” He made an inviting gesture to Delta toward the doors in the back of the lobby leading out into the garden behind the hotel. “We’ll have a bit more privacy there.”

  A bit was the right assessment, as several hotel guests were in the garden, stretching their legs before dinner, having a drink, or quickly smoking a cigarette. The elegant lamps spread a warm yellow glow, and in the sky, a pale sliver of moon sat among a haze of cloud.

  Ray moved closer to Delta. “It’s chilly out here.”

  Delta gestured across her coat. “I’m dressed up warm. I wanted to ask you a quick question about something I heard. A bit of town history that is already way in the past. But it has to do with the Lodge, so—”

  “You might be better off asking Rosalyn. She knows lots of the Lodge’s history. I’m more into bringing in new guests and helping Isabel with the site, and so on.” Ray leaned over and added with a wink, “Rosalyn is beginning to see it might just be helpful to have a famous brother around.”

  “I’m glad to hear you’re getting along better.” Delta put her hands in her coat’s pockets. “I do hope you can help me, though. I doubt Rosalyn will want to, in this particular case.”

  “I can’t imagine she wouldn’t want to show off her knowledge of our hotel’s history.”

  “Athena Barrows.”

  “Ouch.” Ray halted and looked Delta over. “That is one name we like to avoid mentioning here. Although we can’t really, now that Marc LeDuc decided to drag it all up again.”

  “So, you do know something about it?”

  “As a matter of fact—but don’t tell anyone you got it from me—Rosalyn briefed us all about it this morning. Following Marc’s exposé on his site. She explained that there was no reason to think that our great uncle had anything to do with the young woman’s murder so—”

  “She briefed the entire hotel staff?”

  “Isabel, me, Finn, and the receptionists. The people most likely to get questions about it. Rosalyn isn’t dumb. She knew once she had seen Marc’s piece that guests might see it too and have questions about it.”

  “And what exactly did she tell you?”

  Ray shrugged. “What I just said.”

  “That’s not the answer you’d expect to give to interested guests. A bit more would be nice. This is almost like ‘no comment.’”

  “Rosalyn told Isabel and me a bit more, after the others had left.” Ray looked Delta over. “Do you want me to give you the details?” His brown eyes twinkled. “What do I get in exchange?”

  “This is serious. Athena Barrows was stabbed, like Sally Drake. Near the same villa.”

  “What of it? Do you think it could be the same killer? But our great uncle died.”

  “I’m just looking into a possible connection. Of any kind.”

  Ray exhaled. They continued to walk until they stood on the platform overlooking the lake. There was no one there. Everyone had gone in, apparently, for dinner. Delta couldn’t blame them, for the wind was sharp here, and the chill of an October evening invaded her bones.

  Ray said, “I’ve never heard much about our great uncle. Probably because he died young and abroad. Now with this murder business, I wonder if it also had to do with the rumors that he was in love with Athena Barrows. She was a married woman, of course.”

  “Unhappily married, I heard.”

  Ray pursed his lips. “Hard to judge. We may think she had to be unhappy because her husband was a lot older and the marriage was probably more the choice of others than her own. But in the past, marriages were often set up that way, and not everyone was unhappy. In fact, I sometimes wonder if falling in love isn’t just as silly. I mean, basing a commitment for life on a feeling that may pass…”

  Delta studied Ray’s serious expression. “You think marriage is a commitment for life?”

  “I’d like it to be. Call me old-fashioned. Or simply romantic.” He forced a laugh, but his eyes stayed pensive.

  “So maybe Athena and her husband weren’t that unhappy. Maybe she didn’t feel sorry she had married him. Still, she was murdered. By whom?”

  “That is a very good question. Suggestions have ranged from a thief wanting to steal from the boathouse, whom she caught red-handed before getting stabbed, to someone who knew her and wanted to get rid of her, using the opportunity where she was alone and couldn’t call for help.”

  Delta nodded. “What do you think? It seems you know more about it than you let on.”

  “After Rosalyn briefed us this morning, I was curious, and I looked online for information.”

  “Do you have a library card?” Delta asked, adding with a grin, “If you get one, you can check the newspapers’ online archives.”

  Ray grinned. “Good idea. But no, I looked online outside of those archives. Barrows was an influential man at the time, so I figured there had to be information about it. It was also part of a book some guy wrote about cold cases.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. I’m not going to tell Rosalyn about that, because the author seems to be a firm believer in the theory that our great uncle did it, and Rosalyn might get it into her head to sue him for slander.” He winked again at Delta. “Just kidding. That book is twenty years old, so Rosalyn need not worry about it making waves.”

  “You never know. With Marc LeDuc digging, things might get dragged up again. Has Marc talked to you?”

  “No, he knows he won’t get a thing from me. Or any other Taylor. He might have tried his luck with one of the clerks or boating instructors. But I doubt they know much about the distant past.”

  Delta nodded. “I see. Well, seems to be a dead end then. This book, though, about the cold cases, do you remember the title and author?”

  Ray gestured to the hotel. “We have it in our collection.”

  “What?” Delta stared at him.

  “Yes, well, that’s purely coincidental. Three years ago, Rosalyn bought a huge number of secondhand books to put on the shelves in the lobby, the billiard room, selected guest rooms. She likes big, leather-bound volumes with a bit of clout, so she didn’t buy them through a bookshop, where she might be saddled with paperbacks, but through a guy who’s a local historian and book collector.”

  “Coldard?” Delta asked.

  “Yes, do you know him?”

  “Only by name. So, Rosalyn has been to Coldard’s house? Did she talk about Athena Barrows with him?”

  “I don’t think so. Those books came to the Lodge three years ago, and I can’t imagine Rosalyn packed them up herself. Must have had some staff members do it.”

  “But the book about cold cases, mentioning Athena Barrows and your great uncle, was among those books?”

  “Yes. Once I saw a picture of it online, it struck me as vaguely familiar. Then I recalled I had seen it in our very own billiard room. So, I need not go far to look into it. I can get it for you, and you can borrow it to look at.”

  “That would be great. Thanks.”

  Ray frowned at her. “I really wish you wouldn’t be digging into these murders. Either that old affair or Sally Drake’s death. It’s really none of your business and… Well, Calvin Drake strikes me as a man who doesn’t like interference. Better leave this one to the police.” He held Delta’s gaze. “Or did Jonas put you up to it?”

  Delta felt her cheeks grow warm. “I was there when it happened and… It’s so odd. And I don’t like loose ends. I’d be happy if you can lend me the book. Now we’d better go back inside. I’m freezing.” She quickly walked ahead of him back to the hotel, hoping he wouldn’t push the point about not getting involved in the murder case. She already was, and she couldn’t let go.

  * * *

  “What’s that?” Hazel asked when Delta came to her table with the book Ray had fetched for her.

  “Just somethi
ng I want to look into. Nothing to worry about tonight. What’s on the menu?”

  “We’re lucky. They’re having a dessert buffet tonight.” Hazel nodded in the direction of a long table decked out in white cloth. “In half an hour, when the first guests are ready to tuck in, that will hold the best sweet treats in the region.”

  “Oh, let’s get started quickly then. What do you suggest for the first course?”

  They enjoyed pumpkin soup and a main course of cheese baked in a rosemary and chopped-nuts crust with potatoes from the oven and broccoli. But their eyes were on the table where the staff put out cheesecakes and chocolate cake, ice cream in several flavors, whipped cream and fresh fruit, pudding and macarons.

  “My mouth is watering,” Hazel whispered. “I can’t wait to try it all.”

  Ray appeared beside their table. He smiled at Hazel and said to Delta, “Can I whisk you away for a few minutes?”

  “What for?” Delta was a bit worried the raspberry cheesecake would be all gone before she could try some and didn’t want to leave the room.

  “Come on. It’s a surprise.”

  Delta rose reluctantly and gestured at Hazel. “You go ahead and get some dessert, if you want to.” Then at least her friend wouldn’t miss out.

  She followed Ray out of the dining room, curious despite her annoyance at what he could have for her. In the lobby at the reception desk, an elderly lady stood waiting. Her neat blond bob swung around her ears when she turned to them. Her eyes lit, and her face broke into a wide smile. “Delta!”

  “Gran!” Delta ran and locked her grandmother into her arms. She inhaled the scent of her favorite French perfume and closed her eyes a moment. It was like she was coming home to Gran’s house for the holidays, feeling so warm and loved.

  Growing up with two much-older brothers, one a professional athlete who had been on the road a lot, Delta had often stayed with her grandmother when she was a child and had developed a close bond with her. Over the years, Gran had always supported her dreams of drawing and crafting and, on her thirtieth birthday, even donated her the money needed to buy into Wanted. Everything Delta now had here in Tundish, she had because of her grandmother.