Margot Durand Cozy Mystery Boxed Set: Books 4 - 6

by Danielle Collins

  She was about to ask when Stan let out a huffed breath. “I’m going to go join Lela and CeCe in the apartment. Please, try and get some sleep. Adam, you know how to log out?”

  Adam nodded and they both watched him go. Margot wondered if Adam had the same feeling about the Wilkinsons as she did--that they were hiding something.

  After a long, mostly sleepless night, Margot found the loud, booming voice of Detective Rexton to be more grating than it had been before. He stood in front of the breakfast crowd all but shouting at the fact that they were close but still hadn’t found the killer, then assuring them all that they would.

  He continued on and Margot resisted the urge to get up and walk out, but then suddenly he threatened everyone not to leave and turned his attention to CeCe, who had joined Margot’s table, bandages covering her palms and making work impossible.

  “I need a word, Miss Baxter,” Rexton said.

  CeCe looked to Margot then back to the detective and nodded, standing to follow him out of the room to the corner table he’d commandeered for his second round of questioning.

  “What do you think that was about?” she asked Adam.

  “Not sure. Could be that he’s got some follow-up questions.”

  “We both found the body. Wouldn’t he call me over as well?”

  “He may,” Adam said, munching on a crispy piece of bacon, “but he would probably do that separately.”

  Margot waited a few more minutes and then, after checking her watch, leaned over to Adam. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  He watched her as if she should ask him to join her but, when she didn’t, he leaned back and nodded, picking up his coffee.

  She slipped out of the lodge and made her way toward her cabin, being careful to slip into the tree line the closer she got. She checked her watch again and nodded, taking up a place behind a large tree trunk that afforded her a view of CeCe’s cabin.

  Sure enough, at almost ten o’clock exactly, someone slipped down the path wearing the uniform of a maid and carrying a bucket of cleaning supplies. Margot took in the uniform and noticed that the woman wore the wrong shoes. All of the maids at the resort were issued the same shoes, or at least Margot had observed that to be true for the women she’d encountered. This woman was wearing black tennis shoes rather than white.

  She paused at the door and, just when Margot thought she would go inside, leaving Margot to guess who it was, the woman turned and surveyed the area behind her.

  “Jenny,” Margo whispered. Her blonde ponytail swished as she turned back toward the door and slipped inside.

  So, Jenny was the one cleaning CeCe’s cabin. But why? What in the world did she gain by cleaning it, aside from access to the cabin? Was it possible she was the one terrorizing CeCe?

  But that didn’t fit. She was a guest at the resort—when she wasn’t playing a maid—and had nothing to gain by stalking CeCe. That was the crux of the situation; no one seemingly had anything to gain by CeCe’s pain. Unless that was the end in and of itself.

  Then again, there were much worse things that could have happened to her friend. The events surrounding her stalking seemed to revolve around forcing her to leave under the guise of her ex-husband being her stalker.

  Margot shook her head and left, knowing that it would take Jenny almost an hour to clean the cabin. Part of her wanted to send the police over to catch her in the act, but something told Margot that it wouldn’t do any good to stop her; that there had to be someone else behind it. Now she desperately needed to know more about Jenny.

  As Margot neared the lodge and was about to slip through the side door that led to the dining hall where she expected to find Adam still, Alice came out, tears flowing down her cheeks.

  “Alice, what’s the matter?”

  The girl sniffed, the sound loud and grating, trying to compose herself. “I-I’m sorry, M-Missus Durand. I’m fine.”

  “Clearly you’re not fine. What’s wrong?”

  As if all she needed was the permission to do so, the girl broke down into more tears and a sniffly explanation of what had happened. Most of what Margot could catch involved a few broken dishes and a lot of yelling from her superior in the kitchen.

  “I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said all of that. I just…sometimes I think I’m not good at anything.”

  “Oh, don't say that,” Margot said, wrapping a comforting arm around the girl. “I’m sure there are lots of things you’re good at.”

  “Sure, I can sing, but that doesn’t do me any good here at the lodge.” She let out a tired sigh and shook her head. “If it weren’t for Uncle Stan, I don’t know that I’d still be working here.”

  “Uncle?” Margot repeated.

  “Oops!” Her eyes widened. “I'm not supposed to call him that, seeing as he’s my boss and all. You’re just so easy to talk to.”

  Margot smiled at the girl. “So they offered you a job here?”

  “Yeah.” She wiped the tears from her cheek with her sleeve. “When Chris left, they had an opening and asked me to fill it.”

  Margot frowned. “Chris?”

  “Oh, yeah, sorry—I forgot you wouldn’t know who that is. He’s my cousin.”

  “Stan and Lela have a son?” Margot asked.

  “Yeah, but he’s a bit of a wild one. He’s been gone from the resort for a long time now. Had a falling out with my aunt and uncle.”

  “Over what?”

  “I don't know. Whatever parents and kids fight over, I guess. It totally ruined Lela for a while. Stan was just angry. But then they met CeCe. She’s really become like the daughter they never had. Rumor in our family is that they are going to have her inherit the resort.”

  Margot’s eyebrows shot up. Did CeCe know about this? Had she purposefully not told Margot or was it that she didn’t know it was a possibility? This, if nothing else, was a large motivation for her to be a target for the attacks.

  “Please don’t say anything,” Alice pleaded. “I’m also known as the blab in our family and I’ll have no end to problems if they know I told you.”

  “I understand,” she said, though in the back of her mind, the need for a conversation with the Wilkinsons increased in importance.

  “Thanks for this, Alice, and have you considered asking your aunt and uncle if you could offer some music at night after dinner?”

  Alice’s eyes lit up. “That sounds like a great idea. Thanks, Missus Durand.”

  “Call me Margot,” she said. “And good luck. Sometimes it takes us several years before we find things that we’re really good at.”

  The girl smiled back at her as Margot slipped into the dining room. Adam was gone so she made her way to the lodge area where the first thing she saw was CeCe, balling her eyes out in front of Detective Rexton.

  “What is going on?” Margot said, coming over to them and staring down at the detective.

  “He-he thinks that I had something to do with Darren’s death.”

  Margot gave the detective a withering look. “You can’t honestly think that. We found the body. Besides, she was in the kitchen all day with multiple witnesses. How could she have had the time to go out, overpower a man as big as Darren Stevens, and then make it back in time to walk with me to her cabin only to find him?”

  “Calm down, Missus Durand,” Rexton said, his natural frown deepening. “I’m not accusing her. We received an anonymous tip and I’m required to flesh it out.”

  “A tip?” Margot’s mind began to spin. Was the person responsible for terrorizing CeCe stepping up their approach by blaming her for something she didn’t do?

  “Yes. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re having a conversation.”

  “It’ll be all right, CeCe,” she said, squeezing her friend’s shoulder to convey her support. “We’ll get to the bottom of this. Besides, you have nothing to fear because you have nothing to hide.” It stood out to Margot that that wasn’t fully true, but in the moment, it was the best thing she could think to share. />
  CeCe nodded, wiping her tears, and Margot turned and walked directly to the other side of the room and up the steps. She had to talk with the Wilkinsons.

  Chapter 12

  Margot heard the footsteps behind her just as the door opened and Lela stood on the other side. Adam joined her the next instant and she was incredibly grateful that he’d seen her walking across the lodge and decided to join her. She needed him to hear what she had to ask the Wilkinsons.

  “Margot, Adam, what can I do for you?”

  “May we come in for a few minutes?” Margot asked, looking to Adam and then back to her. “I have a few questions that I think you can help me answer.”

  “I suppose so.” She nodded and turned to look at Stan where he stood by the large fireplace, his arm propped up with a cup of coffee in one hand.

  “What is it you want to know?”

  “Tell me about your son,” she said.

  It was no surprise to her that both Lela and Stan’s gazes snapped to hers. “Our…son?”

  “Yes, I think he is involved in all of this somehow.”

  “No.” Stan shook his head. “He couldn’t be. He-he couldn’t.”

  “Why do you say that?” Margot asked, catching Adam’s sideways glance at her. She had a feeling he was probably wondering why she hadn’t told him about this new development before now.

  “B-because, he’s banned from the resort.” Lela’s shoulders slumped, as any mother’s would when talking about a wayward son.

  “He’s not allowed back on the grounds and he knows it. We made it very clear.”

  Margot nodded. “I know, but I have a feeling he is back and somehow involved in what’s going on with CeCe.”

  “Why would you say that?” Lela’s hands trembled as they dropped to her lap.

  “I heard a rumor, and I’ll say I realize it was just that, that you have grown very fond of CeCe.”

  “You know that already,” Stan said, his tone indignant.

  “Yes, but I needed your confirmation of that. You see, I’ve been thinking about the reason behind all of these attacks on CeCe. I keep wondering why she is the target of this when there seems to be no reason.”

  “Her ex-husband Rick has to be behind all of this. I know that’s what CeCe was saying,” Lela said.

  “Unfortunately,” Adam broke in, “he’s no longer a possibility.”

  “He isn’t?” Stan looked concerned.

  “No.”

  “Which is what drew me back to this question again. Why CeCe? There is no reason for it. That is, until I heard the rumor that you two may be considering adding her into your will.”

  Lela gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. “Y-you think that Chris is behind all of this because of that?”

  “I do. It’s the only logical explanation. Who has the most to gain by CeCe being scared away from the resort?”

  “Chris,” Stan said, his voice barely above a whisper.

  “Exactly.”

  “Our appointment…” Lela looked at Stan. “Should we cancel it?”

  “What appointment?” Adam asked.

  “We’ve finally scheduled an appointment with our lawyer to have the will changed. It took a lot of heart searching to decide if it really was what we wanted to do. We love CeCe, but Chris is our son. We finally decided to do it, though.”

  Stan pulled over a laptop and pressed a few buttons. From Margot’s vantage point, she saw a program that looked a lot like the room entrance log. After tapping a few buttons, he nodded definitively.

  “Yes, it’s confirmed, our meeting is this afternoon at three. Doc Benson is coming up to meet with us.”

  “Doc Benson?” Adam asked.

  “He’s the doctor and a lawyer. He’s handled all of our legal dealings from when we first started the resort until now.”

  “Have you told anyone about this?”

  “No.” Stan shook his head. “We don’t often share our personal business. We just knew that CeCe would be the best option to pass down our legacy to. We only had Chris and when things went wrong with him…we thought we’d have to let the resort go. It would have been devastating to see our legacy disappear, but…”

  “Have you had contact with Chris recently?” Adam easily slipped into his detective mode.

  “No, not recently. We heard from him about a year ago. Had a big blow up—which was typical of our interactions—and I told him, again, that he was not welcome back at the resort. That was the last time we’d seen him.”

  “How well does he know this area?” Margot asked, thinking of the trail behind CeCe’s cabin.

  “He grew up here. He knows this area like the back of his hand.” Lela wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “You’ve got to understand, we love our son but there was no way we could allow him near us or this resort. He’d stolen money from the safe, took one of our resort cars and crashed it, and even terrorized some of our guests. This was years ago, of course, but still we hadn’t seen significant change in him when we met him a year ago so we knew we had to hold to our original decision of keeping him banned from the resort.”

  “No, I understand, it sounds like it was a difficult decision yet one you needed to make.”

  “Margot,” Stan said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, “What do you think is going on here?”

  Margot looked toward Adam and then back to the Wilkinsons. “I'm not sure, but I have a feeling Chris somehow found out about CeCe and your decision to make her your new beneficiary. I think he’s doing what he can to drive her from the resort.”

  “Doesn't that seem a little extreme?” Lela said.

  “It is unorthodox,” Margot agreed.

  “And yet, not unheard of. People come up with all sorts of plans that don't seem to make sense. It may not be logical, but I have a feeling he has a plan—if he is the one behind this.”

  “And if he’s not?”

  “Then there is someone else behind this.”

  “Oh my goodness,” Lela said, covering her mouth. “Do you think Chris is behind Darren’s death?”

  Margot swallowed. “I'm not sure.”

  The Wilkinsons leaned back, looking at one another. Stan reached out and grasped Lela’s hand, nodding at her. “Well, is there anything you can do? Should we bring Detective Rexton into this?”

  “I don’t know that we have enough information for him to make an arrest at this point. Not to mention the fact we don’t know where Chris is,” Adam said, “but I’ll have a conversation with him. Just to bring him into the loop so that, should we come across Chris, there is less to explain about the situation that’s playing out right now.”

  “If you think that’s best,” Stan said with resignation.

  “I do.” Adam stood up and Margot followed him.

  “I’m sorry,” Margot said, looking between the couple. “I know it’s not easy for you. We will get to the bottom of this, though.”

  The Wilkinsons nodded and Margot and Adam left, the somber tone following them.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” Adam asked.

  “I’m sorry.” Margot had been expecting this question. “I only just put it together myself. I talked with Alice and she mentioned Chris—the first time I’d heard of him. I understand why the Wilkinsons wouldn’t want to advertise their estranged son, but I had a feeling they’d considered him in part of this. Or maybe that I was just observing something I thought was there. Either way, I’m glad that it’s out in the open.”

  “So you really think he’s behind this?”

  They walked out of the lodge and stopped. “I don’t know. It just logically makes sense. He actually has a motive.”

  “Do you think he was involved with Darren Stevens’ death then?”

  It was a question Margot had been asking herself since she’d learned of Chris’s existence. “I think it’s too much of a coincidence.”

  “Then why hasn’t he just killed CeCe?” Adam asked, leaning in so they wouldn’t
be overheard.

  “I'm really not sure.” Then Margot remembered Jenny entering CeCe’s cabin. “Oh! We need to get to CeCe’s cabin before she does.”

  “Why?”

  As they made their way down the path to their cabins, Margot explained what she’d seen.

  “Why didn’t you tell me before? We could have caught her in the act.”

  “Yes,” Margot agreed, “but with this new information, I’m even more convinced that I think she is working in tandem with Chris. To apprehend her before the right time could send Chris into hiding and we’d never find him. We can find Jenny after this and talk with her, maybe we can convince her to give up Chris.” They reached CeCe’s cabin and Margot pulled out the extra key CeCe had given her. “At least this way we can discover what—if anything—Jenny planted in her cabin before CeCe sees it. Maybe save her some trauma.”

  Adam nodded and insisted he go in before Margot just in case. He pushed the door open and Margot took a step in, but ran into his back.

  “Oomph.” She stepped back. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “I think our plans have changed.”

  “What do you mean?” Margot asked, trying to peer around Adam.

  “I just found Jenny.”

  Adam shifted and Margot finally got a look around his shoulder to see Jenny sprawled on the floor. She was dead.

  “This Jenny character is not who she said she was.” Detective Rexton shook his head, pacing in the corner of the dining area he’d taken over as his command area. Dealing with two murders now, the vein in his head was standing out more vibrantly than Margot had ever seen it. Miraculously, after Adam had explained to him who he was and shown his credentials, the surly detective had begun to treat them both with more respect.

  Margot also wondered if desperation had anything to do with it. It had been several days since Darren’s body had been discovered and they still had no solid leads.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, looking from Rexton to Adam and then back again.

  “We ran a background check on her. She’s got prior arrests like you wouldn’t believe.”