A Real Pickle

by Jessica Beck

  “Excellent,” the chauffeur said. “Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I’m heading off to bed. Tomorrow is going to be another brutal day, I’m afraid.”

  As we split up, Sarah asked petulantly, “What’s Victoria doing with the box? I thought that you were in charge of it, Jeffrey.”

  “I am,” he replied, “but it’s late, and I’m tired. We’ll go over it in the morning, but for tonight, it will remain in Victoria’s possession, per Curtis’s instructions.” Technically it was even true, since Moose and I were going to try to use the contents of the box to help solve his murder.

  “I wouldn’t mind seeing that particular letter myself,” Crane said softly.

  “I would never dream of showing it to you,” I said with a smile. “Nor would I ask to see yours, if you got one. They are personal in nature; that’s my interpretation of mine, at any rate. Good night all.”

  “Good night,” they said in an uneven chorus in return.

  “Guard your discoveries well,” Jeffrey said as I started to close the door to my room.

  “Do you think someone might try to steal them?” I asked, suddenly feeling a whole new level of paranoia.

  “No, not out from under your nose,” Jeffrey said. “On second thought, maybe I should keep them for you myself.”

  I wasn’t happy with the prospect of someone trying to get into my room to see what we’d found, but neither did I care for the idea that Jeffrey would be watching over them. “I’ll be careful.”

  “That’s all that I can ask,” he said.

  Once I had the large solid oak door closed and locked, I took the chair from a nearby desk and jammed it under the doorknob. Nobody was getting into my room tonight. As an extra precaution, I removed the contents of the box and stuffed everything into one of the pillowcases on the bed. As a substitute, I stuck a few paperback novels in their place that I’d brought along just in case I’d have time to read. There wasn’t much worry about that happening. The books gave the box a nice heft, and I put it prominently on the desk near my bed.

  I had one more thing I wanted to do before I turned in for the night. I pulled out my cellphone and dialed Greg using my speed dial. I might not be able to kiss my husband goodnight, but at least I’d get the opportunity to chat with him for a few minutes before I went to sleep.

  “I didn’t wake you, did I?” I asked Greg as he answered the phone on the seventh ring.

  “No, I was just watching a little television,” he said, and then I heard him stifle a yawn. I had a hunch that he’d nodded off, but I wasn’t about to say anything about it. “You’ve had yourself a big day, haven’t you, Victoria? How are the accommodations there?”

  “Do you remember that creepy old hotel we stayed in when we went to the beach the year we got married?” I asked him.

  “Are you talking about the one with the unpainted cinderblock walls and that nasty tub that we were both afraid to try?” he asked.

  “That’s the one.”

  There was a moment’s pause, and then Greg asked me, “Really? Is it that bad?”

  “On the contrary. Imagine the opposite of that, and that’s what this place is like,” I said as I laughed. As I looked around the room, I began to describe it to him. “Here goes. Picture dark hardwood floors that look to be a hundred years old and polished to a sheen, wainscoting surrounding the entire room, which happens to be bigger than our living room and dining room combined by the way, crown moldings, art on the walls suitable for any high-end gallery, a bed fit for royalty, and a beautiful bathroom with everything I could ever want.”

  “Wow, it sounds like you’re really roughing it,” he said. “Take some pictures with your phone so I can see them when you get home.”

  “I will,” I said. “How was the diner today without me?”

  “Well, it was touch and go for a while there, but we managed to pull through.”

  “How did Stephanie do?”

  Greg sighed. “Well, she’s not you, but she managed okay.”

  Was it evil of me to be happy with that report? I decided to give myself a break. After all, who wanted to be replaced so easily at what they did? “Don’t worry. I’m sure that she’ll be fine,” I said.

  “Probably, but you’re a tough act to follow. How’s the investigation going?”

  “It’s confusing, but I’m not all that surprised by it at this point. You know as well as I do that it takes some time to gather all of the facts.”

  “Has Sheriff Croft been by yet?”

  “No,” I said. “Why do you ask?”

  “He was at the diner just before we closed. I have a feeling that you’re going to be seeing him tomorrow. He made it a point to ask me if I’d heard from you, by the way.”

  “Was he looking for help?” I asked with a laugh.

  “He wasn’t in a great mood, so I’m guessing that it’s not going too well for him on his end.”

  “He’s in good company,” I said.

  “Would it help any if you ran down your suspects?” Greg asked.

  “Probably, but I doubt that I could get them all to stand still in the parking lot that long.”

  He laughed. “Victoria, has anyone told you that you have a warped sense of humor?”

  “Do you mean besides you?” I asked. It was so good speaking with my husband. I tried never to take it for granted that we worked together, but it really hit home when we were separated.

  “I do,” he said.

  “Then yes, a time or two. Are you sure you wouldn’t mind being my sounding board?”

  “Hey, that’s why I’m here,” Greg said.

  “Okay, here goes. We have a niece and nephew, a brother and sister named Sarah Harper and Tristan Wellborne. Sarah’s spoiled rotten, and Tristan is a wannabe artist who thinks he’s Picasso’s natural successor. After that, there’s Curtis’s sister, an imposing old gal named Charlotte who won’t tolerate being second-guessed about anything. Besides family, there’s a man who’s referred to only as Crane who was Curtis’s business manager.” I took a deep breath, and then I added, “And finally, we’ve got Jeffrey himself.”

  “The chauffeur made your list of suspects?” Greg asked. “How did that happen? I thought that he was one of the good guys.”

  “He still might be,” I said, “but he gambles, and what’s worse, he loses more than he wins.”

  “Does he stand to inherit from Curtis’s estate?”

  “He doesn’t need to. Evidently the stipend for being the executor of the estate pays a great deal of money. I’m having a hard time believing it, but Moose thinks that it’s a viable option.”

  “When it comes to motive, especially when greed is involved, I’d trust your grandfather’s gut if I were you.”

  “That’s why Jeffrey’s still on our list. Oh, by the way, we called in Renee to help Jeffrey go over the books. I thought Crane was going to have a fit when he found out.”

  “If anyone can get to the bottom of those finances, it’s Renee. That was a smart move to call her.”

  “Moose and I suggested it, but Jeffrey is the one in charge. He’s not very popular around here at the moment. Nobody can figure out why Curtis gave the executer’s post to Jeffrey instead of his longtime business manager and friend.”

  “I’m sure he had his reasons,” Greg said. “Is everyone on your list of suspects staying there at the house with you?”

  “There’s plenty of room,” I said. “This place is huge.”

  “Victoria, I hope you’re being careful. You’re vulnerable there; you know that, don’t you? As a matter of fact, both of you are.”

  “We’re watching each other’s backs,” I said. “There’s nobody but you that I’d rather have keeping an eye out for me than my grandfather.”

  “Keep him safe,” Greg said.

  “That might be a little tough, but I’ll do what I can,” I said. “Oh yeah, the power’s out here, too; did I mention that?”

  “You did not,” Greg answered, sounding a little ala
rmed. “What happened? Was it cut on purpose, do you think?”

  “Nothing as ominous as all that. We had a powerful storm move through, and evidently it’s not that odd to lose the electricity here. Did you get anything in town?”

  “We heard a few rumbles in the distance and it rained a little, but all in all, it wasn’t much to talk about.”

  “We must have gotten the brunt of it here,” I said.

  Greg paused, and then my husband said, “Double-lock your door if you can.”

  “It’s locked, and I have a chair jammed under the knob for good measure,” I said as I looked over at my makeshift dead bolt.

  “Good,” he said. “What’s on tap for tomorrow?”

  “Moose and I are going to look through the things we found when we searched Curtis’s room tonight by candlelight. Jeffrey was with us, and the three of us caught Charlotte in there snooping around.”

  “What excuse did you give her for your digging?” he asked.

  I never got a chance to tell him, though. My cellphone beeped twice, and I saw that the battery was nearly dead. “Greg, my phone’s dying. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Good—” was all that I heard when it finally died completely.

  I’d brought my charger with me, but a fat lot of good it was going to do. Without power, I was without a cellphone until I could charge it back up. It hadn’t been all that long ago that I hadn’t even had a cellphone, and I’d resisted the impulse to buy one, but now I felt vulnerable without one.

  I had a hunch that I was going to be in for a long night.

  To make matters worse, the storm picked up again, and as lightning flashed just outside my window, I decided that a candlelit bath would be a luxury that I didn’t need. I slipped into my jammies and crawled into the big bed, preparing myself for a long and restless night.

  Chapter 12

  I woke up sometime in the middle of the night in complete and utter darkness, and at first I thought that the storm must have been what had brought me fully awake.

  Then, as the lightning flashed outside, my room was lit up for one brief instant.

  And though I couldn’t see a face, I could clearly make out a figure standing just a few feet from my bed.

  Chapter 13

  I’m not all that proud of what happened next, but who could blame me? It wasn’t easy waking up and finding somebody in my room who didn’t belong there.

  So I screamed.

  The lightning died, and as the thunder boomed, I wondered if anyone had even heard me. I fumbled for the candle and the matchbook Humphries had given me, but the problem was that I’d been blinded by the intensity of the lightning flash. I heard a swooshing sound nearby as I knocked the candlestick over. At least it hadn’t been lit, so there was no danger of me starting a fire. I slid out of the bed, found the candle, and then I groped around on the nightstand until I found the matches. As I lit one, I half expected whoever was in there to blow it out. If they had, my earlier scream would have sounded like a whisper compared to the one I was about to let loose.

  The match flared for a moment, and then the flame steadied. I lit the candle, prepared for a fight.

  No one was there, though.

  I searched the room, including under the massive bed and behind the shower door, but I was alone. Worse yet, the chair was still jammed solidly under the bedroom doorknob.

  No one had gotten in that way.

  Was it possible that I’d just dreamed it?

  There was a knock coming from the hallway.

  “Who is it?” I asked.

  “It’s Moose,” my grandfather said. “Victoria, are you okay?”

  “Hang on a second,” I said. I struggled to pull the chair out from its place, and I had a tough time moving it because I’d wedged it under the knob so tightly.

  “Victoria,” Moose said again more urgently as he knocked again.

  I finally managed to unlock the door and I let him in.

  He had a candle of his own, and he was standing there in his pajamas and robe. “Did I hear you scream earlier?” he asked.

  “Someone was in my room,” I said.

  “Let me have a look,” Moose said urgently as he brushed past me.

  At least no one else had heard my scream. I locked the door behind him, and then I said, “Moose, I’ve already searched the place thoroughly.”

  “Then it won’t hurt if I have a look around myself,” he said. My grandfather checked every space there that was large enough to hide someone, including the back of the closet and under the chest of drawers. After he was satisfied, he said, “Sometimes after I eat a particularly spicy meal, I’ve been known to have nightmares that strangers are in the house,” he said.

  “This was no nightmare,” I told him. “I’m certain of it.”

  “Take it easy. I believe you. Was it a man or a woman?”

  “I couldn’t tell you. Whoever it was, their back was turned to me. It was eerily like what happened at the diner yesterday.”

  Moose frowned. “I know that you don’t want to hear this, but it could still just have been a nightmare,” he said. “Why wouldn’t you have bad dreams about what happened, Victoria? Someone came into our space and killed a friend of ours. I’ve had a few nightmares about that tonight myself, and I wasn’t even there when it happened.”

  “It was real enough,” I said as I looked around the room again. The light from one candle wasn’t all that much, but with Moose’s added to the illumination, I could see decently now.

  As I looked at the desk, I suddenly realized that I had proof.

  The box we’d used to collect clues from Curtis’s room was gone.

  Chapter 14

  “The box is gone, Moose,” I said calmly.

  He looked hard at me. “Where did you put it?”

  “It was right there on top of the desk when I went to sleep,” I said.

  Moose shook his head. “That’s really too bad. I had high hopes for what we found, and now it’s all gone.”

  “Not so fast,” I said as I reached for the pillowcase where I’d stuffed everything. I felt a little dread in the pit of my stomach as I grabbed it. How could the killer possibly know what I’d done with the actual contents? Then again, if the killer watched me hide everything through some kind of secret panel or hidden camera, we didn’t have a chance.

  Thankfully, it was all there.

  “I’ve got it,” I said.

  Moose’s grin was broad and wide. “That was brilliant, Victoria, just brilliant. What made you hide everything in a pillowcase?”

  “I figured that it couldn’t hurt,” I said.

  “I’m glad that you did. You outsmarted a murderer tonight, young lady.”

  “What if they come back when they find the two paperbacks I stashed in the box? There is no way that I’m getting back to sleep tonight.”

  “Bring everything with you. You’re bunking in my room tonight. You can have the bed. I don’t sleep as much as I used to, so I’ll stand guard duty.”

  “I don’t feel right putting you out like that,” I protested.

  “Sorry, but I’m going to have to insist. Come on, it will be fun.”

  I honestly wasn’t all that happy about spending what was left of the night by myself, so I really didn’t fight him that hard. “I’ll come with you, but only if we take shifts staying awake.”

  “Sold, as long as I get the first watch.”

  “I can live with that,” I said. I hesitated before I made a move to leave, though. “Moose, how did they get in?”

  “Humphries told us that this place was riddled with secret passageways, remember?”

  “Then what makes you think that your room is going to be any safer than this one?” I asked.

  “Because we’ll be ready for whoever it is the next time,” he said. My grandfather sounded a lot more confident than I felt, but really, I didn’t have much choice. We had to stay at the house since that’s where all of our suspects were, but there was no wa
y that I was spending another night alone. I would rather sleep a bit and then wake up in the morning a little cranky than wrestle with the killer.

  “Let’s go, Victoria.”

  “I’ve still got to pack my bag,” I said.

  “You can’t do that. We don’t want the killer to realize that you saw them.”

  “Moose, I screamed, remember? Nobody’s going to forget that.”

  “Maybe not,” my grandfather said, “but I’m betting they believe you’ll pass it all off as a bad dream come morning. After all, what proof is there that they were even here?”

  “I don’t know. That stolen box is a pretty big clue,” I replied.

  “Yes, you’re right. I hadn’t thought about that. Do you have any suggestions?”

  “We could always tell Jeffrey and the others that I misplaced it. We can even have them help us look for it in the morning if we decide that it’s a good idea.”

  “That might work if we get desperate,” Moose said. “I’m afraid that it’s going to make you look a little scatterbrained, though.”

  “If that’s the worst thing that happens to me in the next few days, I’ll consider myself lucky,” I said. “Besides, it could be helpful watching how everyone reacts to the news when I admit that I had a nightmare last night. It might make the killer complacent enough to make another mistake.”

  “What did they do wrong this time?” Moose asked me as we walked to his room.

  “They tried to play me for a fool,” I said, “and I’m not about to forget that.”

  I don’t know how I managed it, but I slept a bit more after all. I stretched as I got out of Moose’s bed, and I found him nodding off in one of the chairs.

  I touched his arm lightly, and he came straight awake.

  “Moose, it’s morning.”