Heather Horrocks - Who-Dun-Him Inn 01 - Snowed Inn (28 page)

Lonny smiled at me gently. “I’ll check on you tomorrow.”

They’d only been gone a few minutes when a scream reverberated throughout the Inn. The sound came from upstairs. A woman.

My heart raced. The last time I heard a scream, I found a body.

We ran up the stairs, like a herd of lemmings. When the scream came again, we traced it to the Jessica Fletcher room. Alexis’s room.

Martha and Garrett came out of their rooms, Garrett buttoning his shirt and Martha looking as though she were napping.

Inside her suite, Alexis stood sobbing against the wall, staring at her bed. I didn’t want to, but I looked, too. It was neatly made. I should have known, as I made it neatly myself.

But I didn’t leave a large, green-handled knife, pinning a note to the pillow.

Kevin’s knife was back.

Chapter Twenty

The deputies photographed, inspected, and confiscated the knife, pillowcase and pillow, and then, surprisingly, spent some time tossing Alexis’s room. Did that mean they thought the murderer left something else behind?

Martha put her arms around Alexis, who melted into the older woman’s embrace. Apparently, whatever problems there were between them before disappeared in this crisis. Xavier offered to stay with them.

The authors, clearly shaken, convened in the parlor, where the talk revolved around the knife and why Kevin would put it there. Again, the discussion of motivation. The authors agreed this pretty much put to rest Garrett’s theory of a psychopathic drifter lurking in the mountains. But, for once, most of them agreed that Kevin and his knife appearing at the same time seemed overly coincidental.

It could only have been Kevin, who was now in the dining room with the deputies.

But the authors continued to propose all sorts of theories, each wilder than the one before.

Bonnie wondered if someone else could have stuck the knife in the pillow? But who? And why?

Dr. Ray wondered if perhaps Alexis knew something— perhaps something even she didn’t realize she knew— and the killer intended for this stunt to scare her into silence? Did she even realize what she wasn’t supposed to say? Or had she already said it when she told me about BJ’s conversation in the library?

But my thoughts returned to Kevin. He was the one who ran from the library, carrying the knife, and he cut Alexis before. Though he adamantly denied cutting the phone lines, it was painfully obvious he lied about it. And he used the same knife on Calabria as well as Lonny. It was the only explanation that made any sense.

That meant BJ was no longer a suspect, either. Unless… the thought suddenly occurred to me that perhaps BJ was in on it with Kevin. But why? What could she gain by Calabria’s death? I remembered her displays of grief and love for Calabria in the arboretum.

I left and went to the basement to make sure Zach was safe and give him a hug. Clark Harmon and Grandma volunteered earlier to play cards with him, and they were seated at the corner café table.

“Thanks,” I told them.

“Not a problem,” Clark answered.

Zach laid his cards down. “I’m out.”

“Now that’s a problem.” Clark frowned and shook his head in mock frustration. “Come on, kid. Gimme a break here.”

Zach laughed. My baby was being well taken care of.

“What’d Kevin say?” I asked Paul as soon as he came down from Kevin’s room.

Paul motioned for us to go into the library, away from the guests. First, he shut the door and led us over by the window seat, in case anyone came in from the direction of the arboretum; then he lowered his voice and told us. “He gave a lame story about trying to get in the house yesterday. He said he climbed the outside staircase and tried to pry the window up with his knife. Then a horrible-looking woman jumped at the window, startling him, and he dropped the knife and fell down the roof into the snow.”

I sat in my window seat. “Wow. He ought to write fiction.”

“Vicki, I’ve told you to wear makeup when you jump out at men.”

“So not funny, Liz,” I replied. “Hey, wait, Clark said something about a man dropping at his feet when he first arrived here. Maybe his story is true.”

Paul shook his head. “The deputies want to take him to town now, but he begged me to let him talk with Bobbi Jo. He pretended to be shocked at the news of Calabria’s death, and said he needs to comfort her. I think he’s hoping she’ll come home with him. Though where he’s going, there won’t be any conjugal visitation.”

“Why don’t you let him talk with her?” Liz asked, excitedly. “If she sweet-talks him, maybe she can extract some info. And I can make sure whatever you do will be admissible in court.”

“Perhaps.” Paul glanced toward the arboretum and lowered his voice even more. “I just learned the details of Calabria’s will. He left a generous bequest to a writing organization, ten thousand to some employees, and millions to his two children.”

“And?” I asked as his voice let me know there was more.

“One other person will also be very wealthy.”

“And that person just gained a motive,” Liz said. “Who?”

“BJ Killian, also known as BJ Higgins. He left her three million smackeroos.”

“Wow,” I said. “So she could be in on it with Kevin. Did the note on the pillow offer any clues?”

A slow smile indicated he wasn’t going to tell us that. He stood up tall and straightened his duty belt as he switched from brother to cop. “Vicki, take cookies in to the guests so you can listen in on what’s being said. Liz, come help me convince BJ to talk with her husband.”

* * *

I tried not to groan when I carried the tray of cookies into the parlor and found Grandma sitting beside Dr. Ray. For a seventy-eight-year-old woman, she sure got around. It’s eight o’clock— do you know where your grandmother is?

I set the cookies on the table at the center of the main seating arrangement. They were wrapped in pretty pink cellophane and tied with raffia. The female guests didn’t waste any time digging in.

Garrett spoke harshly. “When do we get to leave?”

“Before there’s another murder, I hope.” Bonnie practically inhaled her cookie. Apparently, she reacted to stress just like I did.

I was surprised to find BJ here. She still had bags under her eyes, and looked sad. She asked, “Why would the murderer leave a note for Alexis?”

Bonnie took a second cookie. “I want to know what it said.”

Me, too. How could I convince Paul to tell me?

BJ continued. “Alexis wasn’t even awake the night Gregorio was…” Her voice faded away. She sighed and shook herself. “Why would Kevin choose her bedroom?”

Garrett shrugged. “Maybe he just got the wrong room.”

Or perhaps Alexis knew something and the murderer was only trying to scare her into keeping her mouth shut. Something about BJ and Calabria’s argument in the library, perhaps? Could it be BJ was just doing a little damage control here?

“So you’ve switched theories?” Dr. Ray asked Garrett.

Garrett shrugged. “Anything is possible.”

Bonnie smiled. “I don’t think it was Vicki’s grandmother.”

“I don’t know,” I said, glancing at Grandma. “She can be pretty feisty.”

Grandma paused her knitting and pearling. “Feisty is good.”

“Yes,” Dr. Ray beamed. “It is.”

Bonnie said, “What if Alexis wasn’t really in her bedroom all night?”

Garrett said, “You saw how sick she was. She could barely walk, she had a migraine, and her hand was stabbed.”

I certainly couldn’t see the woman, squinting against the light that was so painful to her eyes, her hand cut and bandaged, climbing outside, using the staircase, in a snowstorm, and going to the carriage house to kill Calabria. Besides, the bloody clothes belonged to BJ.

“Alexis was in her room that evening,” Grandma said. “When I took up the medicine, she was following my advice: hot water on her feet in the bathtub, cold washcloth on her head.”

And that gave Alexis her alibi.

So the case against Kevin— or Kevin and his wife, BJ— was growing stronger by the minute. In this illogical mess, they seemed like the most logical suspects.

Did they have three million reasons to murder Calabria?

* * *

As I went down to pray with Zach and tuck him into bed, DeWayne offered to stay downstairs longer. I gratefully accepted.

I decided this would be as good a time as any to see if Paul and Liz needed help persuading BJ to talk with Kevin. I assumed they were still in her room, the Southern Sisters suite, on the third floor.

Kevin was visiting in the dining room with his two new best buds, Deputy Shannon and Lt. Josephson of the Summit County Sheriff’s Department. The authors were in the parlor playing the “What-if?” game and scarfing down a second round of warm cookies, chasing them with cold glasses of milk.

I jogged to the second floor and headed for the stairs leading to the third floor, when I heard something. I stopped and, instead of continuing up, listened. The sound was coming from Alexis’s room. I took a few steps closer. The door was already open an inch or so, and I clearly heard the sound of crying.

I knocked lightly. “Alexis? Are you all right?”

Holding a tissue to her puffy, red eyes, Alexis opened the door, squinting. The room was still darkened, probably for her ceaseless migraine.

Martha and Xavier were with her after the knife was found in her pillow, but gone now. I wasn’t sure if I’d be welcome after her discovery of our one-way mirror, but I couldn’t turn away now.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked softly.

“Come on in, if you can see. The light hurts my eyes,” she explained between sobs as she collapsed into a chair.

I inched forward in the dark. “Are you all right?”

Before she could answer, a man stood up in the darkened room, making me jump, and handed something to Alexis. “Thanks.”

Xavier was still here.

“Thank you.” She took Xavier’s hand.

I thanked him, too, wondering what was going on.

“You’re welcome,” he said simply. “Bye.”

Alexis replaced the item on the table. “I’m sorry I’m such a baby, but this is more than I can take. It was bad enough some maniac killed Gregorio. Now that maniac is after me. Why?”

She motioned to the chair Xavier just vacated. I sat and handed her the box of Kleenex tissues. “I wish I knew.”

“I don’t know if it’s retaliation for what I had you tell your brother or not. About hearing BJ and Calabria arguing.”

Except I hadn’t told him yet. There was too much going on, what with the screams and all. I nodded because I planned to tell him as soon as I saw him again. Had anyone else overheard?

“Do you think that might have been the reason for the attack?” She lowered her voice. “I’m scared. I think BJ’s after me. I’m not safe here.”

“Did you tell anyone else what you told me?”

She blew her nose noisily. “I’m not sure. I don’t think so, but I’ll try to remember.”

“It might help us catch this maniac.”

Alexis was silent for a moment. “I don’t remember.” She shook her head. “I called my son and talked with him. I miss him so much. You know. You have a son.” She shook her head and winced. “I’m afraid I might not ever see him again.”

“You will,” I reassured her, wishing I was as certain as I sounded. “The deputies already have Kevin in cuffs downstairs.”

“I’m so glad. I want this nightmare to be over. I can’t figure out why he stuck the knife in my pillow, though. Do you suppose he meant to put the knife in BJ’s pillow? And he got confused as to which room was hers?”

“Could be, I suppose.” I took a deep breath. “It makes sense that the murder was a crime of passion. Kevin is the only person who had that serious of a grudge against both Calabria and BJ.” He still seemed like the logical candidate for the maniac spot. Very likely with the aid of his lovely wife, BJ. I wished my thoughts didn’t keep pointing to her, but who else would have let him into the house? Did Kevin give BJ the knife? Or did he plunge it into Alexis’s pillow himself before being caught?

“I think BJ is in cahoots with him.” Alexis rubbed her forehead. “How else did he get inside the house?”

“I haven’t heard,” I said. “But the storm is still pretty bad.”

“We’re restricted while the killer goes around freely, slashing pillows with knives.” She shuddered and hugged herself.

“I’m sorry,” I said again. Why did I feel so much guilt for things that were not my fault? Was that a pioneer woman thing? A Mormon woman thing? Or just a woman thing, period? Men certainly aren’t burdened by guilt. It is definitely a feminine thing.

Alexis’s sobs slowed to an occasional hiccup. “I know Kevin killed Gregorio. And now I know BJ is in on it, because who else would let Kevin in? After all, lots of people were angry at Gregorio. But why would someone come after me? I haven’t cheated with anyone else’s spouse. I haven’t cheated anyone on their royalty checks. I just take care of my son and write books: happy romance novels with happy endings.” Her voice took on a wistful quality. “I can’t think of anything I’ve written that would make someone angry at me. And I’m not outselling the others. They have no reason to hate or envy me.”