Criminal Crumbs (8 page)

“How?” she asked me.

“I don’t know, but the author doesn’t know we have it, so there may be a way to make it useful. Is that it here?”

“As far as I can see,” she said.

“Then let’s move onto Hank’s cottage, Spruce.”

I’d expected it to be messy, but it was neat as a pin. We even went through the man’s luggage, which gave me the creeps, but in the end, there was nothing there, at least not that we could use.

“Should we even bother going through Pine Cottage?” Grace asked me. “The potential victim and the one person we’ve come close to ruling out both stayed there.”

“Just to be safe, let’s look,” I said.

There was nothing there, either, or it was too well hidden for us to find it.

I wasn’t sure how to use the falsified sales report to our advantage yet, but it was time to go back to the lodge and tell the others at least some of the things we’d discovered so far.

Chapter 14

“H
ow much of what we’ve
found are we going to tell the group?” Grace asked me as we neared the lodge’s front door.

“We definitely have to mention the footprints,” I said.

“What about the sales report?”

“Let’s keep that in reserve,” I said. “Is that okay with you?”

“Hey, you’re the boss of this investigation,” she replied.

“I don’t mean to be pushy about it,” I said. “I just think it makes sense to wait, but if you believe otherwise, that’s fine with me.”

“No, I trust your instincts, Suzanne. Let’s go in and see how people react to our news.”

We found everyone gathered around the fireplace when we went back inside. Nicole didn’t even wait for us to report. “What’s wrong? What did you find out there?”

“There were footprints in the snow outside the lodge when we got out there,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm.

“Sure, after you made them,” Georgia replied.

“Hardly. We found these before we took our first step off the porch,” Grace added.

“But we didn’t see any this morning,” Celia countered. “Suzanne, you and I both looked out the window.” She moved there to check again. “Oh. I see them now.”

“That’s because they made them,” Dina said.

“You’re going to have to trust us. Someone else was outside before we went out,” Grace said.

“Who would do that?” Nicole asked. “For what reason?”

“Maybe they were looking for something they accidently left behind in one of the cottages,” I said. I didn’t want to get into our theory that it might be Hank, coming back from his fall to exact punishment on whoever had made him tumble down the hillside.

“Like what?” Janelle asked.

“First, I’d like everyone to line up,” I said.

“Why on earth should we do that?” Georgia asked in clear protest.

“We want to see if anyone’s shoes are wet from the snow,” I answered.

She immediately tucked her feet under her chair. “That’s the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

“If you weren’t out skulking around in the snow, then you won’t mind showing us,” Grace said. “Only someone with something to hide would refuse to let us see their shoes.”

“Fine. Happy?” Georgia asked as she brought both of her feet out. Her shoes were bone dry, as were everyone else’s. It could mean one of three things, as far as I was concerned: none of them had ventured out before Grace and I had, meaning Hank might be in the lodge after all; whoever had done it had made sure to dry their shoes by the fire as soon as they got back; or there was indeed a stranger among us. I wasn’t sure which option I preferred to be the truth.

“There’s another theory,” Grace said, “but I’m guessing that none of you are going to like it.”

“Go on. We’re listening,” Nicole answered.

“We think it’s a possibility that Hank is hiding somewhere in the lodge,” she said.

I might have worded it differently, but it certainly had an immediate effect. Protests came from every direction until Nicole quieted everyone down. “Hold on. The least we can do is hear them out.”

That stopped the protests, so I could speak in peace again. “We couldn’t see any evidence of Hank’s body when we looked over the cliff, and the footprints started, or ended, as the case might be, at the side entrance. He might have managed to climb up somewhere else, because we didn’t see any evidence that he’d done it from where he went over. I’m not sure how likely it is that Hank would be able to recover from that fall, but if he did, he could be in the lodge, and I for one won’t be able to rest until we’ve searched the place thoroughly.”

I decided not to mention my theory that a stranger might be with us. There was no reason to drive tensions even higher unless I had some direct evidence to back that theory up.

There were nods of agreement from most of the others, but Janelle brought up something that we’d already considered ourselves. “If he survived the fall, why wouldn’t he just walk up and come in through the front door?”

I’d been hoping that someone would ask that particular question. “We think it’s possible that he might be looking for revenge on whoever tried to get rid of Nicole and shoved him over the edge instead.”

Clearly, no one was happy about that particular theory. “Let’s say for the sake of argument that you’re right. What should we do about it?” Nicole asked us.

I shrugged. “I’m not the one in charge here, but if I were, I’d start searching the lodge from top to bottom, and while I was at it, I’d lock every door we came across.”

“This place is massive,” Dina said in frustration. “It’s going to take forever.”

“Not if we split up,” I said. Grace and I weren’t finished with our search for clues yet, and this would be a perfect opportunity to keep snooping inside the lodge while everyone else was occupied elsewhere. “Nicole, you and Celia can start in the attic and then take the second floor. Dina, you, Georgia, and Janelle can start in the basement, and Grace and I will take the first floor, unless anyone has any objections.”

Nicole shook her head. “That sounds like a good plan. If Hank is indeed inside, the moment anyone sees him, scream at the top of your lungs, and the rest of us will come running. Is that agreed?”

Everyone nodded, and as they took the other levels, Grace and I made a cursory scan through the kitchen and pantry, and then we focused on the pile of bags we’d all gathered the night before.

“I feel funny searching through everyone else’s things,” Grace said as she picked a bag up at random.

“We have to do whatever we can to find out what’s really going on here,” I said as I grabbed a laptop bag.

“What if we get caught?” Grace asked me, clearly worried about the prospect.

“Then we plead ignorance and say that we were looking for our own things,” I said. “What’s this?” I’d glanced into the pocket of a laptop sleeve, and I’d found an official looking document. “Grace, come look at this.”

She took it from me, scanned it, and then she said, “Does Dina think that Nicole’s going to actually sign this?”

It was a waiver of liability absolving Dina for losing so much of Nicole’s money.

I kept digging, and I hit pay dirt again. Buried deeper in the case’s pocket were torn-up shreds of paper. I pieced several of them together on one of the nearby tables, with Grace helping me. It had to be one of the oddest jigsaw puzzles I’d ever done in my life.

“These are all Nicole’s signatures,” Grace said, frowning.

“Correction. I think they’re attempts at forgery,” I said.

“So if Nicole wasn’t going to sign it willingly, then Dina was going to do it for her. That’s ridiculous. Nicole would just deny that she’d ever signed it, and then where would Dina be?”

“What if Nicole wasn’t around to set the record straight, though?” I asked.

Grace nodded in understanding. “If she’d been the one who’d tried to push Nicole over the edge, then no one would challenge the signature.”

I took the waiver and the torn paper, and then I started to tuck them into my own bag for safekeeping. “That’s the first place she’ll look when she realizes that it’s all gone,” Grace said.

“What do you suggest we do with the evidence we’ve found, then?”

Grace moved over to the bulletin board and pulled on the glass door’s handle. It opened to her touch, and she stashed everything we’d just found, along with the faked sales report, under a stack of old menus on display. I studied the case after she was finished, and I couldn’t see where Grace had added anything to it at all. “That’s clever. It’s all hidden in plain sight.”

“I have my moments,” Grace said. “We’ve got some time left. Let’s keep looking.”

I grabbed another briefcase as she said, “There’s no reason to bother with that one. I recognize it; it belongs to Nicole.”

“Maybe so, but we still have to look at everything,” I told her. On first inspection, it looked to be a random assortment of the type of paperwork a supervisor might have, but the last sheet was different from the rest. “Now that’s interesting,” I said.

“What did you find this time? Doesn’t anyone store anything on their computers anymore? I haven’t seen so much paper in my life.”

“It appears to be an extension for the trust arrangement for Celia’s money,” I said.

“I’m not all that surprised you found something like that. Nicole has been worrying about her sister’s spending habits for quite a while,” Grace said.

“After talking to Celia earlier in the kitchen, I can say with certainty that there’s no way she’s going to ever sign anything like that, Grace. She wants her sister out of her finances. I don’t know if it’s wise or not, but that’s really none of our business. That’s between the two of them.”

“Put it back, Suzanne. It’s not a clue about the attempts on Nicole’s life. All Celia has to do is refuse to sign it, and it’s a moot point. We shouldn’t be snooping in her stuff.”

“Sorry,” I said as I put the paper back where it belonged. At least I hoped that I did. Would Nicole notice if I hadn’t gotten it exactly right? Chances are we were okay, given the random pattern of paperwork I’d found.

“There’s nothing else here,” I said finally as I put the last bag back in its place.

“That’s enough, don’t you think? With what we’ve found, we have reasons to suspect Dina, Georgia, and Janelle. That was our final grouping of suspects anyway.”

“I just wish we knew who fabricated that sales report,” I said.

A moment later, Nicole asked us from the doorway, “What exactly are the two of you up to, Grace? Suzanne, would either one of you care to answer me?”

The real question was how long had she been standing there, and exactly how much had she seen and heard before she’d spoken to us?