The Inn at Holiday Bay Books 7 - 9

by Kathi Daley

  “You guys are both so awesome. And you have patched together a family. I really admire you for that.”

  I smiled and took my laptop out of my bag.

  Lacy glanced in my direction. “So, what did Colt manage to dig up?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t opened the file yet. Should we wait until after dinner?”

  “We can take a peek, and then take a break to eat when the gang gets back. Once dinner is over, we can really dig into it.”

  “Are you sure you want to do this tonight?”

  She nodded. “I’m sure. Lonnie has warned me about the danger in getting too emotionally involved in the whole thing, but if we can help Pamela find her answer, I think we should.”

  I turned the computer on. “Yeah, me too. Let’s start with the police report and then take it from there.”

  The police report gave us a bunch of information we already knew. It outlined the details relating to the emergency call from Pamela’s father letting the police know that he’d come home from picking his daughter up from a piano lesson, and had found his wife dead on the living room floor. There were diagrams showing the position of the body as well as the exact location in the home where the body was found. The photos of the crime scene were copies of the originals, so they were somewhat blurry and hard to make out in many instances.

  “Wait,” Lacy said after I’d disseminated the first part of the file. “You said that Pamela’s father found her mother dead on the floor after he returned home from picking Pamela up from a piano lesson. I thought the murder occurred on Christmas Eve.”

  I looked at the file. “It did.”

  “Why would anyone send their kid to a piano lesson on Christmas Eve, especially if they’d just returned home from a long trip?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to ask Pamela.”

  “What else is in the file?”

  I began to scan through. “The next section includes a bunch of interviews, which I guess we’ll need to really read through carefully. They seem pretty thorough. It looks like neighbors and friends were interviewed, as well as the staff who cared for Pamela when her parents were away. There is an interview with a woman named Emily Garwood. It looks like she was the nanny, and I do remember Pamela referring to Nanny Emmy when we spoke to her.”

  “It sounded as if Pamela and Nanny Emmy were close.”

  “I’m sure they were. Emily told the investigator that the Norwoods had returned home from their dig the day before the murder, so I guess that would be the twenty-third. The staff, including the housekeeper, cook, tutor, and nanny, were given time off over the holiday to spend with their own families. They had all had left the estate after being given their annual bonuses around three p.m. on the day before the murder, with the exception of the nanny, who didn’t leave until just after Pamela left for her lesson on the twenty-fourth.”

  “If the parents were home, I wondered why she stayed,” Lacy said.

  “I’m not sure. It looks as if Emily lived in the Norwood’s home full-time, so maybe she wasn’t ready to go wherever it was she’d planned to go over the holiday until the twenty-fourth.”

  “I guess that makes sense. Go on.”

  “Emily told the police that the Norwoods seemed happy to be home and that Pamela was ecstatic that they planned to spend a full month at the estate before heading back to their worksite, so all in all, it was a joyful home that she left on that Christmas Eve. The housekeeper, cook, and tutor all reported something very similar.”

  “So, what else do the interviews say?” Lacy asked.

  I quickly glanced through the file. There were pages and pages of documents. Going through every page was going to take some time. I was about to suggest looking for a summary of some sort when I heard Lonnie’s van pull into the driveway.

  “Sounds like the gang is back,” Lacy said. “I guess we’ll have dinner, and then we can pick up where we left off after we get the kids settled.”

  “That sounds like a good idea. Based on the sound of voices raised in excitement, I have a feeling they found the North Pole sign they were hoping for.”

  Dinner, as it was every time I ate with the Parker’s, was delicious. The kids were thrilled to pieces with the cookies Georgia had sent for them. Once everyone had been fed, bathed, and put into their pajamas, Lacy put the baby to bed while Lonnie settled the older five in the den with a popular Christmas cartoon.

  “That should buy us an hour,” Lonnie said after we’d all gathered back at the table.

  “There is a lot to get through,” I said. “I did find a summary page while the two of you were seeing to the kids. I guess we should review that and then maybe dig into the pages and pages of notes when we have more time.”

  “Okay,” Lacy agreed. “What does the summary page tell us that we don’t already know?”

  “I’m not sure it tells us anything we don’t already know. As I’ve already mentioned, the Norwoods were away from home much of the time with work that took them all over the world. According to one neighbor, they did spend chunks of time at home every three or four months, and when they were home, they seemed to be attentive toward Pamela. It’s noted that the Norwoods employed a full-time staff that acted as a family for Pamela when her parents were away. Prior to the murder, the Norwoods had been gone for five months, which was longer than usual. They returned home on December twenty-third, and planned to be home for a month.”

  “You mentioned before that the nanny was in the home until Pamela left for her piano lesson on the morning of the twenty-fourth,” Lonnie said. “It seems odd that anyone would be holding piano lessons on Christmas Eve.”

  “Lacy and I discussed the fact that it seemed odd that Pamela would be sent to a piano lesson on Christmas Eve, but the investigator didn’t leave any notes indicating that the odd timing of the lesson was a relevant fact.”

  “How long was the lesson?” Lonnie asked.

  “Two hours,” I answered. “The statement given to the police by the father states that on the morning of the twenty-fourth, his wife was in the office going over some notes she’d made but still needed to edit, so he paid the nanny and wished her Merry Christmas, and then he left to drive his daughter to her piano lesson. He then did some window shopping and took a drive to look at the holiday decorations in the area before he picked Pamela up from her piano lesson. When they got home, he found his wife dead on the living room floor, having been bludgeoned to death.”

  “So, how long was Mr. Norwood gone from the home?” Lonnie asked.

  “About three hours, if you include the drive time to and from town,” I answered.

  The group fell into silence. Eventually, Lonnie spoke. “Do the reports you have indicate time of death?”

  “The medical examiner determined that Mrs. Norwood had been dead for about two hours by the time he arrived at the estate to examine her,” I answered. “According to Mr. Norwood, he arrived home from picking up Pamela, saw that his wife had been murdered, and immediately called the police. That puts the ME with the body within an hour of him getting home and finding the body.”

  “So, if Mr. Norwood was indeed gone for three hours, he would have been in town during the window of time it was determined his wife had been killed,” Lacy said.

  “That’s true,” I answered. “I’m going to guess that the prosecutor was able to explain the inconsistency in the timeline. I’ll have to go through the notes a bit more thoroughly. I would imagine that he argued that Mr. Norwood was lying about his whereabouts during the two hours his daughter was at her lesson. He would have had plenty of time to drop Pamela off, drive home, kill his wife, and then return to town to pick up his daughter. Unless someone saw him during that two-hour window, he really couldn’t prove that he had gone for a drive rather than heading home to kill his wife.”

  “I get that Mr. Norwood really has no alibi for the time between when he dropped Pamela off at her piano lesson and when he picked her up, but if he had k
illed his wife while Pamela was at her lesson, why did he just leave the woman lying there in the middle of the floor?” Lacy asked. “He must have known that Pamela would be traumatized to find her mother dead on the floor that way. It seems like he would have either moved the body or made arrangements for Pamela to be elsewhere. Maybe with a friend.”

  “If he had arranged for Pamela to go to a friend’s house on Christmas Eve, wouldn’t that have made him look guilty?” Lonnie asked.

  “Not necessarily. If he killed his wife, all he had to do was say that he found her dead when he got home after dropping Pamela off at her lesson and made arrangements for her to be somewhere other than home until everything was cleaned up.”

  I leaned back and yawned. “There are a lot of variables to consider and a lot of information to go through here. I’m going to suggest we take a break for today. We’ll go and chat with Pamela tomorrow. Maybe she’ll have a different take on things. After we talk to her, we can sit down and try to come up with a plan to do the impossible and prove her father wasn’t the one who killed her mother, even though it is totally looking that way.”

  “If you’re going to visit Pamela, do it early,” Lonnie said. “The kids want to go to the inn for the sledding party tomorrow, and we have the Christmas pageant in the evening.” He looked at me. “Do you know what time the sledding group is going to assemble?”

  “I’m not sure. Jeremy just mentioned that he planned to take a group out to the sledding hill at the end of Johnson Lane, but he didn’t specify what time. I’ll have him call you. I’m pretty sure that Nikki, Annabelle, Christy, and Haley are all going as well, so they can help you with the kids.”

  “How did things go with Mylie and the new guest today?” Lacy asked.

  “They seemed to get along just fine. Riley is a good looking and charismatic guy. I know that Mylie thinks the fact that his job requires him to travel eliminates him from the soulmate competition, but she did go to dinner in town with him, and, in my opinion, the guy is great. When he first arrived, he was dressed totally wrong for the snow, and I could see that he was freezing and wanted to get inside, but Haley kept asking him all these questions, and he just stood there shivering and answered every single one.”

  “A man who likes kids will be a must if Mylie really wants to have kids,” Lacy pointed out.

  “That’s true. But Mylie is on a really tight timeline, and just because he is nice to kids, doesn’t mean he wants to have his own kids, at least not right away,” Lonnie countered.

  I logged off my computer and put it away. “Thank you both so much for dinner and for a lively conversation.” I looked at Lacy. “I’m going to call and set up a time to meet with Pamela, and then I’ll text you and let you know what time that is. When I spoke to her earlier, I mentioned that we’d like to come by in the morning, and she said any time after nine was fine, so maybe I’ll pick you up around nine-thirty, and we can meet with her at ten.”

  “That works for me.”

  I gave Lonnie and then Lacy a hug and headed out to my car. After I arrived back at the inn, I found Georgia talking to Mylie in the kitchen. Mylie was sitting at the kitchen counter watching Georgia assemble the breakfast casseroles she’d bake the following morning.

  “So, how’d your dinner date go?” I asked, sliding onto the stool next to Mylie.

  “It was really fun,” she grinned. “Riley is a great guy. He’s kind and attentive and has a wonderful sense of humor. He is enthusiastic and energetic, and he really seems to embrace whatever the world has to offer. He’s such a great person, but I’m afraid, as I expected, he is all wrong for me.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked. The guy seemed pretty darn perfect to me.

  “I’m sure. Riley seems determined to live a big life. He travels extensively, and he seems to know everyone. I couldn’t believe all the parties and events he’s attended in the past year. I’m looking for someone to settle down with. I want children and a white picket fence. Riley doesn’t even seem to have a home base. When he checks out from here, he’s flying to Prague, and then after Prague, he is off to Hungary. He really lives a fascinating life, and if world travel was my goal, then he’d be perfect. But there is no way a man who lives out of a suitcase a hundred percent of the time would ever be happy living the life I’ve imagined in my dreams.”

  “Yeah.” I had to agree with Mylie. “It does seem that the two of you want very different things.”

  “We do, which is why I turned down his invite to continue his sightseeing with him tomorrow. The last thing I need to do is fall in love with a man who doesn’t share my vision for the future.”

  “Mark Westgate is checking in tomorrow,” Georgia joined in. “He seems really great on paper, although I only spoke to him briefly, and I’ve never met him.”

  “I Googled him,” Mylie admitted. “He is very handsome, and I like the fact that he is on the board of several charitable organizations, but he does appear to be married to his job. I really doubt he is looking for a wife and kids at this point.”

  “Maybe not, but he is a bit older than the others, so maybe he is beginning to think along those lines,” Georgia said. “And then, of course, on Sunday, we have Andrew Madison checking in.”

  “He’s also a very good looking man, and I do like the fact that he seems settled and is in town to visit his aunt. I don’t have any family, but family is important to me,” Mylie said. “I know there is no way to know in advance if there will be a spark between us, but I am anxious to meet the guy. I suppose that if it doesn’t appear that one of the three guests is the soulmate the psychic predicted, I’ll need to come up with a plan to spend more time in the community.”

  “Or you could just let things unfold organically,” I said.

  Mylie shook her head. “I don’t have time to leave things to chance.”

  “Am I to assume that if you do meet Mr. Right, you’re willing to move?” I asked. “It’s not like you live in the same state as any of the men we have arriving at the inn over the holiday.”

  “I am willing to move,” Mylie answered. “My grandmother left me her house. It’s a fine house, and I could be comfortable there, but I’m not particularly attached to it. I don’t have a job to worry about quitting, and I really never had the time to make many friends. I could easily pack up and start over somewhere if the right opportunity came along.” She yawned and looked at her watch. “I guess I should head up. I don’t want to have bags under my eyes in the event I am introduced to Mr. Right tomorrow.”

  After Mylie went up to her room, I poured myself a glass of juice and pitched in to chop fruit and dice veggies.

  “So, how was dinner with the Parker’s?” Georgia asked.

  “It was fun. Lonnie and Lacy have gone all out with their decorations, and it is always fun to visit with the kids.”

  “Did you make any progress on Pamela’s case?”

  I sliced into a cantaloupe. “Not really. We went over a few things in the file, but most of the surface stuff is information we already had. It’s hard to really dig in and get any work done when there is dinner to serve and clean up and kids to get ready for bed, but I’m glad I went. I think Lonnie and Lacy are grateful that I’ve included them in the investigation.”

  “It is nice to be included. Maybe Pamela will be able to fill in some of the blanks when you meet with her tomorrow.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping. My brief perusal of the documents in the file didn’t lead to any real revelations, but, based on what I know at this minute, if I had to say if Mr. Norwood was guilty or innocent of killing his wife, I’d have to say guilty. I hope that we can find evidence to prove that theory wrong.”

  “Based on what you’ve told me, it does sound like the only reason Pamela has to believe that her father is innocent is his word that he was,” Georgia pointed out.

  “Yeah, and that’s not enough. It does seem like there could be something off in the timeline. The only way it works for him to be guilty is if Mr.
Norwood lied about where he was during Pamela’s piano lesson. Since there doesn’t seem to have been any witnesses to the man’s movements, I’m not sure that the timeline could be verified sixty years ago, and it certainly isn’t one that we will be able to verify all these years later.”

  “Not unless you can find someone who saw Mr. Norwood in town at the time he stated he was there,” Georgia pointed out.

  “If someone saw Mr. Norwood in town during the window of time when it was determined Mrs. Norwood died, it seems like they would have come forward during the trial,” I pointed out.

  “I guess that’s true. Unless the person who saw Mr. Norwood had a reason not to admit to being in town him or herself.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean? What sort of reason could anyone have not to tell what they knew if they did indeed know something?”

  “Maybe a man, who was supposed to be at work, was really at a hotel with his mistress and he saw Mr. Norwood walking down the street in front of the hotel during the time period the man swore he was in town window shopping but didn’t want to say so and out his own nefarious activities.”

  I lifted a brow. “Seems like a longshot, but I suppose it is possible. It does seem that finding a witness who saw Mr. Norwood in town during the hour it was determined that Mrs. Norwood most likely died, would go a long way toward proving his innocence. The woman died sixty-one years ago, so if the person who saw Mr. Norwood was an adult when the event occurred, he or she would be well into their eighties if they’re still alive.”

  “I guess that narrows down your pool of possible witnesses,” Georgia pointed out.

  While that was true, in my mind, finding someone who had lived in Holiday Bay in nineteen fifty-eight, and who was in town at the time to see Mr. Norwood and was still alive and living in the area, was going to be close to an impossible task. Still, impossible things happened every day, and it was the season for miracles.