by Linnea West
"It's okay," I said. "I locked my bedroom door."
"Like that plywood door would keep out a determined killer?" Mandy said with a giggle.
She started laughing harder, which made me laugh too. Soon we had dissolved in girlish giggles, the likes of which hadn't hit us since we had been actual girls, probably having a slumber party just like this one. Every time we thought the giggle fit was over, one of us would start up again until finally a knock came on the door.
"Girls, it's been over a decade since I've had to do this," my mother's voice came through. "But despite the fact that you are full-fledged adults, I'm here to tell you that you need to go to sleep."
All three of us had a good laugh and finally Mandy and I were able to settle down. Mandy's breath started to get slower and more even and I knew she had fallen asleep.
But as I lay there in the dark, I just couldn't get to sleep. I kept running through all of the things I knew about the case in my head and tried to fit the pieces together. So far, it was like trying to do a puzzle where you only had the edge pieces. I could see that everything was going to go together, but I had no idea what joined them up in the middle.
Chapter Thirteen
At some point I must have fallen asleep because I was awakened by a knock on my bedroom door. I grabbed my phone off of my nightstand and it said that it was 2:14 in the morning. I sat up straight in bed and Mandy rolled over to face me, her eyes wide.
"Who could that be?" she whispered through her teeth at me.
I shrugged but even in my half-asleep state I figured that if it was the killer, he or she wouldn't have bothered to knock on the door.
The two flashlights were sitting on the nightstand and I gave one to Mandy as I stood up out of bed. We both hit the rubber buttons to turn on the flashlights and I crept to the door. Mandy focused her beam of light on the doorknob.
"Who's there?" I asked quietly.
"It's Dawn," came a voice. "Please let me in. I'm starting to get freaked out."
I looked back at Mandy who simply nodded her head. If Dawn had come here to attack us or something, she would have a hard time getting both of us without us putting up a fight. I unlocked the door and opened it up just wide enough for Dawn to sneak in.
"Sit down," I said firmly as I pulled my desk chair out.
She listened and plopped herself down. I walked backwards until I sat down on the bed. Dawn didn't seem like she was here for anything bad but I didn't want to turn my back on her. Mandy scooted herself over until she was sitting next to me on the edge of the bed.
"You said to tell you if I thought of anything that might be relevant," Dawn said. "And I couldn't sleep tonight, so I was thinking over everything and I realized that something that was common knowledge for me is something that I don't think you are aware of at all."
I glanced at Mandy as I tried to wake up a little more and figure out what Dawn was saying. There was something she knew that we didn't, but she was taking an awfully long time to get to the point.
"Okay, well tell us then," Mandy said impatiently. Mandy didn't like when people beat around the bush. She was much happier when they would be straight to the point and stick to the facts.
"Well, you know Lyle?" Dawn asked, like we would say we didn't. Mandy scowled at her until she continued talking. "Lyle is actually Jake's father."
The world froze around me as once again Dawn dropped this fact on us like a bomb. I wondered how many other secrets she knew that she was still keeping from us. Lyle was Jake's father? We knew why Dawn was here, but why was Lyle here during Jake's honeymoon?
"Did Jake know that?" I asked, realizing immediately that my sleep-addled mind should have thought before it let the words come tumbling out of my mouth. Obviously if Dawn knew, she would have found that out from Jake himself, probably when they were married.
"Yes," Dawn said slowly, giving me an odd look. I kept my straight face, hoping to trick her into thinking I had a line of questioning in mind after that. "But I don't think Anna knew that. At least, she didn't appear to know Lyle at all."
"Were Jake and Lyle on good terms?" I asked.
"Not really, at least they weren't when we were married," Dawn said. "Jake was a rising star and Lyle was desperate to hold on and ride his coattails. Lyle was always bugging Jake to fire his manager and let Lyle take over even though he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. After a while, Jake cut off all contact with him."
I let that soak in for a moment. Mandy was staring out the window, taking it in also. Dawn had a smug look on her face, seeming very proud that she had dropped this important information on us. She just kept smiling as I tried to collect my thoughts.
"I just thought you should know," she finally said. She stood up from the desk chair and grabbed her flashlight as she headed towards the door.
"Wait a minute, how did you get in here?" I asked. I was almost positive my father said he was going to lock the door between the B&B and our family area.
"Oh, about that," Dawn said, shuffling her feet. I could see her cheeks flushing red even in the darkness of my bedroom. "I sort of picked the lock."
"What? Why?" Mandy screeched from beside me before slapping her hand over her mouth.
"I just thought you'd want to know about this right away," Dawn said. "And I knew that I wouldn't be able to get to sleep until I told you."
"Okay, I'll follow you out and re-lock the door," I said.
Dawn stood up and left the room. I grabbed my flashlight and followed her, feeling annoyed about the entire situation. The information was, of course, very valuable but she did not have to pick the lock to bang on my door in the middle of the night with it.
She seemed to almost be floating. I guess telling us that information made her feel lighter. Hopefully she'd be able to sleep now instead of waking people up in the early morning. Dawn turned to give me a smile as she was passing through the living room, but I just couldn't bring myself to return it.
I held the door open between the B&B and our family area. Dawn stepped through and turned back towards me. She still had a smile plastered on her face and in my tired stupor, I kind of wanted to slap it off.
"Go to your room," I said. "I'll stand here until I see you get inside."
"Good night," she tittered.
I simply grunted in return, too annoyed to wish her good night. She floated down the hallway and let herself into her room with a little wave back towards me.
As soon as her door closed, I shut the door and locked it again. I halfway thought about shoving a chair under the doorknob, but I didn't think it would be necessary. Would there really be a second person who would try to pick the lock tonight?
Back in my room, Mandy was still awake, but just barely. She was sitting up against some pillows, waiting for me to return and as I came in, her eyes were just shutting before she jerked awake.
"Tessa," she said, startled by my sudden appearance. "I'm so glad you are back. I just couldn't go back to sleep until I knew you were back here and safe."
"You can go to sleep Mandy," I said. "We can talk more in the morning."
Mandy nodded and pushed her pillow back down so that it was flat on the bed. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was completely out. I have to admit that I was a little bit jealous because I don't think I'll be able to sleep much at all tonight.
I went through the suspect list in my head, trying to quickly put some pieces in place so that I could get myself to sleep. The least likely was my father, who was only still on the list because we didn't know exactly what was put in Jake's dinner and therefore we couldn't rule him out.
Next I had the two women in Jake's life: Anna and Dawn. Anna had a boyfriend back home that she says Jake knew about and approved of, but we can't prove that. Dawn was married to Jake before and came as a surprise to talk to him about their divorce settlement.
The last suspect was Lyle. Before, I had him as a suspect simply because he had carried out some dinner plates, but now I knew h
e was Jake's estranged father. It wasn't a motive, but it was a relationship that meant a motive could easily come out of it.
As I sat and thought about the suspects, I looked out the window. Normally, I loved to watch the moon outside, but tonight the storm was still raging on and the moon was completely covered by clouds. It was trying hard to glow through the snow storm but couldn't quite break through.
Moving back home was a different experience, especially because it meant moving into a tiny library room and not my former bedroom. But I felt generally safe here, even though I had once been attacked here. I was surrounded by family and even the small size of my tiny room felt cozy, not restricting. After the attack, the sense of safety had come back without much delay.
But tonight I felt like I was on edge. Dawn's middle of the night appearance had rocked my sense of safety, even though she hadn't come to do anything bad. Knowing that someone could make their way through some of our defenses like the door from the B&B was scary because at this point we didn't know who the killer was and there was no escaping it.
I sat up in bed and the feelings about Peter that I had pushed down before were pushing on the door of my mind. This time, I let them in and as the tears started to quietly flow, my fear was pushed out and replaced by bittersweet memories of Peter.
Chapter Fourteen
I did manage to fall asleep eventually, hoping to wake up to a sunrise. Instead, I woke up to more whipping wind and snow. One glance at my alarm clock told me that the power was still out. Mandy woke up as I groaned over the lack of electricity and the need for coffee.
We both got up and quickly got dressed in the freezing cold morning. The furnace had now been off for a while so the entire house was rapidly cooling down. Both Mandy and I layered ourselves up with sweatshirts and wool socks and we headed downstairs.
My parents were already in the kitchen cooking breakfast. Thankfully our old house had a gas stove, so we were still able to cook up a breakfast to warm us up. They also had a kettle of water going to make a large pot of coffee in an old metal coffee urn we didn't bring out often.
We moved into the living room and I was glad to see that there was already a fire roaring in the fireplace. Anna and Claudia were both sitting on opposite ends of the sofa with a book and Cheryl, Linda, Joe, and Dave were working on a puzzle at the table in the corner.
After a polite wave to everyone, I quickly exited to the hallway, trying to decide on my strategy for solving this murder. The only idea I could come up with was to do a more thorough investigation. After we ate breakfast, I decided I would announce that I would be searching each room. I could get Tank to guard everyone in the living room while Mandy and I did a quick walk-through of all of the bedrooms.
As I tried to figure out how to introduce that idea to everyone, Mandy came out into the hallway with a steaming cup of coffee. She was chomping on a piece of gum that she had probably sniffed out like a hunting dog. That girl could find a piece of gum in a haystack.
"Here you go Non-Sleeping Beauty," she said with a sly smile. I wasn't sure how she knew I hadn't slept since she had snored away with no problem. I caught a glimpse in the mirror in the entryway and realized that I had giant bags under my eyes that gave away my restless night.
I moved over to the set of chairs next to the bay window and Mandy followed my lead. I set my coffee cup on the little table and pulled out two blankets from a basket between the chairs, tossing one to Mandy. One way my parents had made the B&B extra cozy was by having blankets everywhere. Anytime they went past a basket of fleece blankets on sale at the store, they would pick through and find any that would fit with the colors and patterns of the B&B. They were comfortable and easy to wash after they've been used.
Mandy's blanket was a very light pink and I looked over to see her all wrapped up looking like a little fluffy, pink cloud. I wrapped mine around my shoulders and then wrapped my hands around my hot cup of coffee.
"So what do you think about what happened last night?" Mandy said quietly before taking a sip of her coffee.
"I think it really makes Lyle into a bigger suspect," I said. "I mean, we have four suspects and now three of them have close relationships and suspicious circumstances. Anna has a boyfriend, Dawn wanted more money, and Lyle and Jake were estranged. It has just complicated things more."
"You're right," Mandy said. "It was helpful and also extremely complicating all at once. So what is our next step?"
"I think we need to search for more clues," I said. "I was just thinking that after breakfast, you and I should go search the guest rooms while Tank guards everyone to make sure no one tries to hide any clues."
Mandy sucked her breath in through her teeth as she scowled. I took a sip of the liquid energy in my cup, understanding what she meant without her having to explain. It would be a hard sell to some of the guests, but it was the necessary next step.
I should also try to get in contact with Max again. Obviously, the police or ambulance hadn't been able to make it here yet and I was starting to understand that we may be on our own for a while here. I needed to step up my investigation game because the police weren't going to be able to help me.
We sat together looking out at the blowing snow while I drained my coffee cup. Mandy sipped hers slowly, trying not to give me a discouraging look. She was always a bit aghast at my eating habits and that included my bottomless appetite for coffee.
Once both of our cups were empty, I figured breakfast must be almost done. Mandy and I popped into the kitchen just in time to see my dad scooping a final load of bacon onto a serving plate.
"Oh thank goodness," he said. "I need your help to get breakfast on the table. Mandy, can you start bringing out food? And Tessa, could you run upstairs and get the rest of the guests to come down?"
Mandy grabbed a bowl of scrambled eggs and pushed back through the swinging door and I followed close behind. I walked through the dining room and dashed up the stairs, trying to remember who was up and who must still be sleeping. As I got to the top, I figured I may as well start knocking on all of the doors.
I put my hand up to knock on the first door and as I started to hit the door, it swung open suddenly and I just about fell right into a very surprised Dawn. Her eyes were open wide and she jumped back a bit. After regaining my composure, I remembered why I was there.
"Good morning," I said. "It is time for breakfast. Maybe you could help me wake everyone up?"
"Umm, sure," Dawn said, a smile curling up onto her face. "I'll start down at that end with Lyle's room."
I nodded and scooted my way down to the other end. As I knocked on the next door, I quickly realized that I was knocking on Candy's door. My lack of sleep did not want to deal with her, but I couldn't do anything about that now.
The door slowly opened and a bleary eyed Candy peeked through the slit. Her red hair was sticking up in all directions and she was still in pajamas. When she saw that I was standing there staring at her, she rubbed her eyes a few times as if she might still be sleeping.
"It's time for breakfast," I said. "Get dressed and come downstairs before the food gets cold."
Candy simply scowled at me and slammed the door shut again. I sneered at the shut door and moved on. I did remember that the other two rooms down this way were taken by Cheryl and Joe, and Linda and Dave. They were already downstairs, so I moved down to the other end of the hallway where I realized that Dawn was nowhere to be found. As I moved to the end, the last door opened up and Lyle gruffly pushed Dawn out into the hallway.
"You saw my room, now get out," Lyle was snarling.
"I just wanted to see how your room was different," Dawn said with a shrug. "You let me in so I thought it was okay."
"I didn't really let you in," Lyle said. He shut his door behind him and quickly locked it. "You knocked and I thought it was Claudia. We've been keeping the door locked and I figured she was knocking for me to let her in. I shouted that it was open and you just barged right in."
"Well I'm out now," Dawn said. She was standing with her arms crossed, her chest puffed out proudly.
I stood and looked between the two of them. Lyle was obviously upset, but I couldn't read Dawn's expression. It seemed to be a cross between amusement and satisfaction. The tension seemed to be getting thicker, so I quickly cut through it.
"Breakfast is ready," I said. "Why don't you two head downstairs and I'll go get Tank and Clark."
Lyle barely even acknowledged me before he strode past me down the hallway, leaving Dawn behind. She shrugged at me, as if she wasn't sure what Lyle's problem was. Then she followed him down the stairs.
I didn't want to deal with Clark, so I simply stuck my head through the doorway into our family area and gave a shout.
"Clark, Tank, wake up," I yelled. "Time for breakfast."
After a moment, a sleepy groan came drifting down the hallway into our living room.
"Okay," Tank said. "We will get up."
I was satisfied with that so I headed back down the stairs. Mandy had almost finished setting the table, so I helped her carry the last few things in. Once the table was set, I sat down. The exhaustion was hitting me hard now and I was glad when Mandy came back with another cup of coffee for me.
The guests slowly filtered in and sat down as I tried not to gulp down the hot liquid that was sustaining me. The downside was that I don't think I would be able to take a nap because I won't be able to sleep well until I know I am not stuck here with a killer. Hopefully searching the rooms would bring some clarity to this investigation and answer some questions. Until then, I will just be trying not to fall asleep in my breakfast.
Chapter Fifteen
Eventually everyone had made an appearance at the breakfast table and we quietly ate. It was funny looking around at everyone. It was getting colder in the house, so everyone was bundled up but instead it looked like everyone had gained a good ten pounds since the night before because of all the extra layers.
Once breakfast was done, I nodded at Tank. When he had come down to breakfast, I had quickly whispered my plan to him and he agreed to once again stand guard. Tank stood up and stationed himself in the doorway.
