A Candidate For Murder (Old Maids of Mercer Island Mysteries Book 2) (9 page)

She chortled. “No.” She pulled out her cellphone. “I called Ben and he’s waiting for me.”

After I locked the patio door behind her, I went into the kitchen, where the dogs greeted me, tongues hanging out of the mouths.

“Are the police gone?” April asked. She was dumping the dustpan filled with glass into a trash can.

“Yes. And I just said goodbye to Goldie.”

“Thank God! I was afraid we were going to lose the windows and maybe a guest or two.”

We both chuckled. “She means well,” I said. “But I’m kind of hoping they don’t ever give her that gun back.” I slumped into a chair. “How are you doing?”

“Okay,” she said, sitting down. “I just twisted my ankle. It’s not bad, but I’ll have to ice it. How are
you
?”

Tears sprouted, and I grabbed a paper napkin. “Not so good. Why would someone steal Ahab? He’s just a stupid bird.”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “But it seems a little coincidental, don’t you think?”

I looked over at her. Her dark eyes were glowing.

“You think it has something to do with Trudy’s murder? Or, Dana’s attempted murder, I should say?”

“All I know is that someone is working pretty hard to put you right in the middle of this whole thing.”

“I need a cup of tea,” I said, wiping my eyes and pulling myself out of the chair.

I made tea for both of us and grabbed the cookies, while April grabbed an ice pack from the freezer and held it to her ankle.

“Fill me in,” she said.

“Here, wait,” I said. I grabbed a short stool and brought it over. She carefully lifted her foot and placed it sideways on the stool and then draped the ice pack over her ankle. “There, how’s that?”

“Better,” she replied. “Now, what happened?”

I told her first about my mother’s phone call. “I think she connects with me mostly when something is wrong,” I said, after relating my mother’s message. “Anyway, she couldn’t tell me any more than you did, but I couldn’t go back to sleep. So I came out to have a cookie. I heard someone in the other room and went to check.”

I rubbed my throat, which was still sore. April watched me and then said, “And you tried to stop him?” I nodded. She shook her head. “You live a charmed life, Julia. You could have been seriously hurt.”

“I know, but I couldn’t just let him take Ahab. Unfortunately, he got him anyway.”

A wave of despair washed over me. I glanced down at the two little wiener dogs at my feet. They were focused on me like lasers. Not because they were worried about me. They thought I had food.

“But you’re good dogs, aren’t you?” I said, reaching down to give them each a pet.

Both dogs immediately climbed up on my leg. “That reminds me. Minnie may have taken a chunk out of the guy’s face,” I said.

“Really?” April said. “You should let the police know.”

“Yeah, I will. I think you two deserve a treat for your valiant efforts,” I said to the dogs.

I went to the cupboard and grabbed a bag of dog biscuits. Mickey immediately began turning circles again, and Minnie sprang up and down like a broken Jack in the Box. I couldn’t help but smile as I tossed them each a cookie. As I joined April at the table again, I glanced out the window. A light breeze rustled the leaves on the cherry tree, making the lights strung along the dock flicker.

“I don’t like thinking that people are lurking out there,” I said with a slight shiver.

April followed my gaze. “No. I agree. Will the police come back tomorrow to look for clues?”

“No. They made that quite clear. They said these types of crimes are usually random and are rarely solved. I suppose they don’t have the budget to worry about finding a parrot.”

April frowned. “That’s too bad. But
we
should check it out tomorrow, anyway. See if we can find anything in the trees. Maybe Jose´ can help.”

“Good idea. Listen,” I began, stirring my tea. “I have a confession to make.”

She turned her dark eyes in my direction. “Yes?”

“After you left this morning, Dana arrived and demanded that I help her find out who’s trying to kill her.”

“Really? And you said no, right?” I concentrated on adding sweetener to my tea. April watched me and then exhaled loudly. “Julia, you didn’t!”

I took a sip and then put my tea down. “It’s not all bad. I got something worthwhile in return. She agreed to drop out of the race.”

April’s whole face lit up. “So, you’ll be mayor?”

I shifted uncomfortably. “Well, no. I agreed to drop out, too. I never wanted to run a campaign, April. You know that. That was Graham’s thing, not mine. Besides, I’m going to talk Tony Morales into filing.”

April shrugged. “Well, I’m sorry you won’t be the belle of the ball, but I like that idea,” she said with relish. “Think he’ll do it?”

“God, I hope so. I kind of made it sound like it was no big deal. But the truth is, he’s very self-conscious, and I bet the idea of campaigning will turn him inside out.”

“Hey,” April grunted. “He’s a war vet. He’s had to do a lot worse. Have a little faith. By the way, where were you so late tonight? I heard the van come in well after midnight.”

We shared a moment of silence, and then I said, “Uh…picking up some stuff.”

She furrowed her brows. “Stuff? As in antiques?”

“Well…what we picked up is old,” I said, sipping more tea.

“What is it? Something we can sell?”

I swallowed. “Um…probably not,” I replied. “But what’s that saying? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure?” She looked at me curiously. “Let’s just say I hope you don’t have to use the van tomorrow.”

The next morning I woke up to black and blue marks around my neck. I contemplated masking the bruises with makeup, but decided to wear a turtleneck instead. I was more concerned with a bruise on my right elbow that I’d obtained when I hit the curb the night before. It hurt like the dickens.

April had gotten in ahead of me and had finished cleaning up the breakfast room, so I pulled down the destroyed garden picture and put it outside by the kitchen door. Then I wandered over to Ahab’s cage and glanced out the window, hoping against hope that I’d see him sitting on a branch only a few feet away. No such luck.

I helped April whip up some eggs for breakfast burritos for the guests. She said her ankle didn’t really hurt, but she had it wrapped with an Ace bandage. After breakfast, I called Roger Romero, who owned the alarm company.

“Oh, Julia, I’m so sorry,” he said. “An officer already stopped by to talk to me. Ahab was quite a character. I’m sure he’ll be missed.”

I felt a lump in my throat. “Yes, he will. I can’t believe our bad luck, though. The one day the alarm system was down.”

“Well, the keypad is in,” Roger said. “I’ll have it installed first thing this morning. And again, I’m so sorry. But at least no one was hurt.” He took a big sigh. “You know, Julia, I went into this business to prevent stuff like this.”

“That’s right. Your wife,” I said, remembering that his wife had been attacked when they’d lived in Portland.

“Yes,” he said, lowering his voice. “She still has nightmares. So, I swore – never again.” He paused again as if to compose himself. “Julia, I’m going to finish the repairs myself. I’ll be there within the half hour. And I’m going to make this up to you somehow.”

“Well, I have a hole in my ceiling you could fix,” I said.

“What?”

“Never mind. Let’s just get the alarm system fixed.”

“That’s the least I can do. I’ll see you soon.”

He hung up, and I tapped my finger on the desk, thinking. Who might have known the alarm system was down? I racked my brain, thinking back to the day Roger’s son, Peter, had come over to evaluate the problem. Crystal wasn’t there. She had weekends off. Jose´ was also off, but I’d mentioned it to both of them Monday morning. April had been gone most of the day, shopping. The weekend manager, Evian, and the weekend cleaning woman were there, however. The Brewsters and Mrs. Fenster had checked in that day, while two singles had checked out. In fact, when Peter came out to tell me a short in the keypad had fused it, and he’d have to order a new one, there had been a small army of people hovering around the front desk.

I sighed.
Damn!
Once again, half a dozen people had been aware of the fact the Inn’s alarm system was down. It was going to be hard to run a business if I continued to treat my guests and employees as potential suspects.

I made a mental note to get more information on the two single guests who had checked in Monday morning: an older man named Mr. Tooley, who was in town to visit his daughter, and Mr. Dalton, the young man who had come in late the night before.

I didn’t remember seeing Mr. Tooley in the group of concerned guests at the foot of the stairs the night before. And young Mr. Dalton had come in afterwards. He had time to run out with Ahab, stash him somewhere, and then turn around and come right back in. But why would he?

I spent an hour paying bills and then was just beginning to clean up the breakfast things when Mr. Tooley appeared. As he came into the breakfast room, I felt myself stiffen.

“Not much left, I’m afraid,” I said, wiping down the counter. “Just a few scones.”

He came up beside me to survey the remaining scones. I stood up straight and mentally calculated my height compared to his. I would fit right under his chin, just like the intruder. But this man had to be in his late fifties to early sixties, with stooped shoulders, gray hair and a slack jaw. He just didn’t seem the intruding kind of guy.

“I’m good with just a scone and some coffee,” he said without looking at me. “The family is going down to Pike Place Market for lunch.” He smiled as he put the scone on a paper plate and poured himself a cup of coffee. “Are you okay?” he said turning to me. “I heard about last night.”

My heart rate sped up, and I felt the adrenalin thrumming through my veins.

“Uh…yes, I’m fine. Sorry about the noise last night. It must have woken you up.”

He chuckled. “No, actually, I wear hearing aids,” he said, gesturing to his ears. “I take them out at night, so I didn’t hear anything.”

“How did you know about what happened?”

“Mrs. Fenster,” he said with a frown. “She knocked on my door at five o’clock this morning and asked me to tell you she’d left and you could just mail her the bill. I get up early. I like to Skype with my grandkids in Boston. She must have heard me.”

“Why didn’t she come tell me?”

“I think she was pretty upset. My guess is that this is her way of letting you know.”

I sighed. “Yes, she
was
upset,” I said. “No one was ever in danger, but I can understand that it could be unsettling.”

He glanced up at the wall. The buckshot holes were plainly visible. “A bit,” he said, laughing. “Sounds like I missed all the fun.”

“Some of it wasn’t so much fun,” I said. “The guy who broke in stole our parrot,” I said, turning to indicate Ahab’s empty cage. He followed my gesture.

“Oh, I’m sorry. He was cute. I thought my grandson would enjoy meeting him.” He shifted his gaze to me. “Was anyone hurt?”

“No,” I said, unconsciously reaching for my neck.

“I’m glad. You have such a nice place here. I’d hate to see your reputation tarnished. Hopefully Mrs. Fenster will be the only one to leave because of it. Well, I’ve got to get going. Have any suggestions for lunch downtown?”

I had been thinking and snapped to attention. “Um…there’s the Crab Pot, and Lowell’s is always good. Nice view of the water.”

“Thanks,” he said. He returned to his room carrying his scone and coffee.

I decided that Mr. Tooley wasn’t the guy. He was too relaxed to be lying; besides, he didn’t have any bite marks on his face. I went about my business and was at the front desk a half hour later when Mr. Dalton came downstairs, carrying his bags. My antenna went up.

“You slept in,” I said to him.

He was a husky kid and a good head taller than me. He was dressed in nice khakis, a shirt and sweater, with a heavy overcoat. He had a leather messenger bag slung over one shoulder, which probably carried his laptop.

“I slept in. I don’t have a session until 11:00,” he said, referring to the conference.

“I’m sorry but the breakfast is all put away.”

“That’s okay,” he said with a shrug. “Microsoft has a cafeteria. I’ll grab something there.” He stepped up to the counter and pulled out his wallet. “Actually, I think I’ll check out now. The conference ends at 3:00 this afternoon and my plane leaves at 5:00, so I’ll just head to the airport from there.”

As he reached out to hand me his room key, I was momentarily overpowered by his cologne. It was the same brand the intruder had worn. I stepped back in surprise.

“Um…of course,” I said with my heart racing.

Did this young kid steal Ahab and attack me? It seemed unlikely, and the cologne would only be circumstantial evidence. But I froze in place, unsure of what to do.

He looked at me questioningly. “Is something wrong?”

I snapped to attention. “No. Of course not. I’ll run you a receipt.” I stepped into my little office and pulled up his record. A moment later, I was handing him a receipt for the two-day stay.

“Thanks a lot,” he said, amiably. “By the way, did you get your parrot back?”

The question startled me. “No. No, we didn’t.”

“That’s too bad. He was funny. I used to have a talking parrot when I was young.” He put the receipt away and grabbed his bag. “His name was Jabberwocky. I loved that little guy.” He moved to the door and opened it. “Too bad I killed him.”