Murder Games (13 page)

“Well, we have good news, Grace,”
Sabrina said. “Turns out the lady in the pond wasn’t murdered. It was just a horrible accident.”

“S
he had too much to drink and fell in,” Laura added.

“Where did you hear this?” Grace asked.

Sabrina pointed to Rupert who said, “It’s all over the hotel. Eddie over at the skating rink reported that a young lady had gotten angry when he told her that she wouldn’t be allowed to skate that night. She was too drunk, he said. She left screaming that he couldn’t stop her from skating if she wanted to. Then later on that night, a few guests reported seeing a woman stumbling around near the pond. They said it looked like she was carrying a pair of ice skates. Just a horrible accident.”

“Yeah, sad,” Jerry said, “but I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear that it was just an accident. I was kind of jumpy yesterday.”

“So was I,” Caroline admitted.

Sabrina
nodded her head. “Grace wasn’t the only one with nightmares last night.”

“I didn’t have a nightmare,” Grace
quickly corrected.

“What exactly happened last night?”
Austin asked.

Grace shrugged. “I have no idea. I just know that I was scared to death.
”

Laura laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Grace asked.

“You,” Laura answered. “I can’t believe you were so scared. It’s just so silly. You should have realized it was all
part of the show last night.”

“Do you kno
w something I don’t?” Grace asked coolly.

Laura pushed herself away from the table
and walked to the dining room door. “I have something to show you. Wait here.”

Austin made a face. “That sounded like an order.
”

Grace glanced back at
Austin. “What happened to you last night? Ivy and I tried to wake you up.”

Austin
blinked a few times. “I don’t remember that.”

“I’m not surprised,” Grace said
, “you were pretty out of it.”

Austin
pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. “I guess I took a bigger hit to the head than I thought last night. I feel like I’ve been hit by a semi.”

Molly tentatively reached out and rubbed his back.

“Have they released the woman’s name, yet?” Grace asked. “Was it Belinda Forrest?”

Rupert shook his head. “No,” he admitted reluctantly. “Turns out
, Billy was wrong on that front. Apparently, that Belinda woman must have had a fight with her boyfriend. She called the hotel this morning and asked for her luggage to be sent back home.”

“So, what’s on the agenda for today?” Jerry asked. “Shal
l we hunt for Ivy’s diary again?”

“Absolutely,”
Austin said weakly.

“Oh no, not again,”
Sabrina said. “If it’s that important, I’m sure it will show up. I say we wait. I want to explore the maze.”

Austin
brought his hands down. “I think we should all search the library. The diary’s probably there somewhere. We’ll collect everything that looks like a diary or a journal and go through them one by one. Who’s with me?”

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Molly eagerly volunteered.

“Eh,” Jerry said, “we looked for it in the library. It’s got to be somewhere else.”

“Maybe the attic,”
Austin said.

“The attic and the
cellar are off limits,” Rupert responded automatically.

Sabrina threw up her hands.
“Well, count me out. I want to do something fun.”

Grace was about to volunteer to help search when
Sabrina let out a little shriek.

Everyone turned to see the head and shoulders of a
battered old mannequin peering at them from the dining room door. A long mournful wail came from the vicinity of the mannequin, as it began to move away from the door. A few seconds later, Laura poked her head over the mannequin’s shoulder. “Look familiar, Rose?”

Grace shook her head.

“Oh, what about now?” Laura added a blonde wig to the mannequin’s head.

“I guess so. Maybe,” Grace said with a sigh. “Where did you find that thing?”

“Outside,” Laura said. “It was buried in a snow drift near the shed out back. We should have seen it last night. Our
killer
didn’t really do a good job burying it.”

“But why would someone try to scare Grace?” Sabrina asked.

“You mean Rose. I don’t think anyone tried to scare her.” Laura looked pointedly at Grace. “Who knows what the unstable mind will do.”

Grace briefly closed her eyes
, wondering if Laura was accusing her or her character of being unstable.

“
Of course, there’s the possibility that the killer may have been trying to deflect attention away from herself,” Laura smiled at Grace, “or
himself
, of course.”

Sabrina
glared at the ugly looking mannequin and then at her sister. “I thought it was bad enough when I saw it in the dark last night. It’s even worse in the daylight. I told you how it frightened me, Laura. Why did you drag that thing in here? Take it away.”

Grace frowned. “Where did you see it?”

“We found it in the attic last night when we were looking for Ivy’s diary,” Jerry said, munching on a piece of toast.

“The attic?” Austin asked. “I thought
the attic was locked.”

“It is,” Rupert said.

Austin pointed to the mannequin. “Then how did that thing get outside?”

Rupert
took the mannequin from Laura. “I don’t know, but it’s going back up there now,” he said, walking out of the dining room. He nearly collided with Kyle who was just walking in.

Kyle
motioned for Grace to follow him out in the foyer.

“Did you hear the news?” Grace asked when she reached his side.

He nodded before asking, “How do you feel?”

“Good. A bit silly,” Grace admitted ruefully. “I guess I let my imagination run away with me. I was so certain the woman in the pond had been killed and the murderer was here with us.” She chuckled. “Who knows what I saw last night. You were right. There may be another fake killer. Ivy said something about a plan B.”

“No, I wasn’t right.”

“Excuse me?”

He frowned. “I think you were right about everything. There is a murderer here and I think we all may be in danger.”

CHAPTER twelve

“I knew it.
”
Grace took Kyle’s hand and dragged him away from the dining room. “I knew I was right.” As soon as they were back in the library, she shut the door. “How am I right?”

Kyle reache
d into his suit coat pocket and pulled out several burnt scraps of paper. “I came back in here to wake you up and something in the fireplace caught my eye.” He laid the scraps on top of the desk.

Grace held her hair back with one hand while she leaned over the desk. There were four or five small scorched pieces of paper spread out in front of her.
“What are these from?”

“
Hang on, there’s more.” He walked over to the bookcase next to the fireplace and reached behind a set of old encyclopedias. “I hid the larger piece over here.” He returned to the desk with a charred red leather book. “It’s Laura’s notebook.”

“Are you sure?” she asked
, carefully lifting the edge of the book.

“Positive. I spent an hour last night being interrogated by her. Everything I said went into that book. I’d recognize it anywhere. I think whoever killed that woman in the pond and the woman you saw being dragged out of here last night
, tried to destroy Laura’s notebook.”

“
But why burn her notebook? Laura wrote down what the hotel worker told the police. But,” she said with a frown, “the police have the exact same information. Why would the killer care about her notes?”

Kyle smiled. “Maybe the killer is afraid that Laura is a better detective than whoever they put in charge of the investigation.”

“She probably is,” she admitted with a small shake of her head. “She’s definitely on to Rose.”

“I don’t think
the killer was after her notes. I think he was after these things.” He pointed to the bits of paper littering the desk.

Grace’s eyes narrowed as she tried to see what was so special about the
charred scraps he had found. “What are they?”

Kyle
reached into his pocket and pulled out the invitation he had received for Murder Manor. “Look, it’s the same border.” He laid the invitation next to the scraps. “The same size.”

“So what? Laura’s
invitation happened to be in her notebook. What does that prove?”

“I don’t think it’s
her
invitation. Look at this one.” He tapped at one of the scraps with his finger. “You can’t make out much, but it’s clearly not talking about Murder Manor.”

Grace squinte
d her eyes and tried to read the words on the paper. “Beware the ghost of the murdered ingénue,” she read out loud.

“This is the invitation to the Haunted Theater and look here,” he said
, bringing another scrap forward, “this is clearly part of a receipt. You can still see part of the name here.”

She looked down at where he was pointing and spelled each letter out loud, “B-e-l-i-n
.” A black mark obscured part of the word. She moved past the smudge and spelled out the rest of the letters, “r-r-e-s-t.”

“It’s got to be Belinda
Forrest.”

Grace
walked over to the fireplace. “According to Rupert, Belinda called the hotel this morning. He also told everyone that the woman in the pond had simply been a guest who went skating while drunk.”

“
I called Steve this morning and he said that rumors have been flying all over the hotel since the body was discovered yesterday afternoon. He’s heard everything from it was a hotel publicity stunt gone wrong; to it was the body of some girl who drowned over a hundred years ago.”

“Has he spoken to the police?”
she asked hopefully. She snapped her fingers. She’d completely forgotten that Steve’s former boss, Asa Wellington, a world famous private detective, was staying at the hotel, as well. “What about Asa?”

“
Wellington said that the police don’t know anything for certain at this point. They don’t know who she was, why she was at the pond, or even whether she was murdered. They’re waiting for the autopsy report.” He shook his head. “I don’t buy that story about Belinda calling the hotel. Frankly, anyone could call and pretend to be Belinda Forrest; it doesn’t make it true.”

“Maybe Steve can dig up some background information
on her for us.”

“He left with Sara and Wellington on the express train an hour ago.
They’re flying to Spain this afternoon.”

“Why?”
             

“He wouldn’t tell me. It’s classified,” he said rolling his eyes.
“He said I’m on my own, but hopefully, I’ve learned enough from him to handle one case without his help.”

Grace snorted.
“Yeah, we’ll try to muddle through. So, what do we have here? A burnt invitation to the Haunted Theater and Belinda Forrest’s receipt. According to Ivy, Erica is Belinda’s cousin. It’s possible Belinda was here at the manor before she died. She might have been the one who put the invitation and receipt in the fireplace.”

“
No, I found them in between the pages of Laura’s notebook, not lying under or around it.” He leaned back against the desk and crossed his arms. “That’s not the only thing I discovered this morning. I just came in from outside. Someone left last night after we went to sleep.”

“
How do you know that?”             

“The chains around the gate have been moved and you can tell the gate has been opened. The snow
has been pushed to the side. The killer must have hid the body you saw last night somewhere on the grounds, and then waited until we all went to sleep to bury it out in the maze.”

“Rupert
may have opened the gate.”

Kyle shook his head. “I asked him and he said he hasn’t been outside this morning.”

“Laura was. She found a mannequin out in the snow.”

“
I know. We went out together. I don’t think the mannequin is what you saw last night, by the way. The thing is old and rotting. I doubt someone could have dragged it down a flight of stairs without it falling apart.” He glanced back down at the receipt. “Kinda strange, isn’t it? Why would Laura have Belinda Forrest’s invitation and receipt?”

“
It’s possible she didn’t. If the killer did grab her notebook, he or she,” she said, remembering Laura’s admonishment from the night before, “may have just destroyed everything he or she had on him . . . or her about the murder.”

“Well, let’s go ask Laura. See what she says.”

“All right, but go find a plastic bag or something to put them in. We’ll take it to the police this afternoon. I think we have some kind of break at two o’clock. In the meantime, I’ll run upstairs and get cleaned up. Let’s meet back here in a half hour and talk to Laura. We’ll see if she knows anything about that receipt and invitation.”

*  *  *

Kyle ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “I have no idea.” He glanced up as Grace descended the staircase wearing a very beautiful, but considering the temperature, highly impractical lightweight blue knit sweater and thin black slacks.  He gave her a wan smile before turning back toward Laura.

Laura zipped up her puffy winter jacket.
“Mr. Cheatum, you out of anyone here should know. You are Ivy’s lawyer, after all.”

“Yeah, but—”

“No, just answer the question. Does the rule against perpetuities apply here or not?”

Jerry,
who was holding the door open, grinned. “Yeah, Kyle, does it apply or not?”

“Ugh.”
Sabrina looked heavenward as she wrapped her scarf around her neck. “He doesn’t know. Can we just go all ready?”

Laura pursed her lips together. “Fine. We have to go to the shed around back first.”

“Why do we need to go to the shed?” Sabrina asked. She grinned at Jerry as she passed by him on the way out the door.

“Ther
e’s something I need to pick up.” Laura slammed the door shut behind her.

Smiling, Grace walked up to Kyle’s side. “I see you began the interrogation without me? How did it go?”

“Oh, wonderful. I discovered nothing about the receipt or the Haunted Theater invitation, but I may have implicated myself in not only Ivy’s murder, but her late husband’s, as well.”

“Excellent.
At least that throws suspicion off me.” Grace pulled the curtain back and looked outside. “I wonder why Laura wanted to look in the shed. Did you check there last night?”

Kyle nodded.
“I didn’t find anything though. I think we can see the shed from the billiard room window,” he said, leading her through the foyer, past the stairs, and down the small narrow hallway to Murder Manor’s billiard room. A large pool table and an old fashioned bar built into the corner of the room took up most of the space, but just beyond the pool table were several windows, which looked out at the backyard and the shed.

Grace
walked over to one of the windows and watched as Sabrina kicked at the snow with her boot. The young woman jumped in place for a moment before peering into the shed. Jerry took that momentary lapse in concentration to throw a snowball at her back. The surprised girl screamed. Recovering quickly, she bent down and gathered the snow around her feet into a ball. Kyle and Grace watched in amusement as Sabrina chased Jerry around the shed. A few seconds later, Laura walked out of the shed carrying a shovel.

“Huh. That’s interesting,” Grace said.

“What is?” Molly asked from behind them. She stood at the door, partly in and out of the room.

Grace and Kyle exchanged
a look, neither entirely certain whether to confide in the young woman or not.

Molly
arched her eyebrow. “I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?”

“No, not at all.
” Kyle reached for a pool cue. “Want to play?”

Molly shook her head.
“I thought Austin might be in here. You haven’t seen him, have you?”

They both shook their head.

“Well, I’ll just leave you two alone.” She looked over her shoulder at Kyle and smiled. “Bye bye.”

“Molly, wait,” Kyle said
, suddenly coming to a decision. “Just how long have you worked for the Crystal Palace?”

Molly’s eyebrows drew down in confusion. “Me?” She gave them a confused half smile. “What makes you think I work
for the hotel?”

“Ma
ybe you don’t work for the hotel.” Kyle leaned against the pool table. “What do they do? Hire you guys out just for these performances?”

“I’
m not one of the actresses,” she insisted with a bemused smile. She looked over at Grace for help. “You believe me, right?”

Grace simply shrugged. “Well, I don’t really know.
What was your fiancé’s name again? Was it Maxwell Michaels or Mike Maxwell?”

Trying to hide a smile, Molly looked down at her feet.

“I think it’s about time we find out who’s who here,” Kyle said calmly. “Grace told me that she’s playing the murderer in this little game.”

“Hey,” Grace protested, “let’s not share that with everyone just yet.”

“She finally did it,” Molly blurted out before clapping her hands and giggling. “I was wondering when she was going to finally kill you off. I guess that means you’re dead now, Kyle. Don’t worry, you get to come back tonight for the after party. Then there’s the award ceremony tomorrow morning.”

Kyle picked up a cue ball and slid it across the table. “She hasn’t killed me, yet.”

Molly picked up a rack and gathered the balls together. “That’s not how it works. The moment she gets you alone and tells you she’s the killer, you’re dead. Out of the game.”

“You seem to know a lot about it,” Grace said.

Molly shrugged. “Well, I guess I can tell you both now. How did you guess I was one of the actresses?”

Kyle shrugged.
“You seem to know Austin. You were definitely lying about when you met him. He already told me he had played this game before, so it stands to reason you met him here. Which means you had to have been one of the actresses.”

Nodding, Molly handed him a pool cue. “I met him last month.
I’m sorry I lied to you last night, but I couldn’t say when and where I met him without giving myself away.” Picking up her own cue, she motioned to the table.

Kyle took a step back.
“Ladies first.”

“Okay
.” Molly leaned down and lined up her shot. “We get paid a little extra if we can last the whole game without anyone finding out we’re acting.”

“Whose
we
?” Grace asked. “I’m assuming you’re not including Ivy and Rupert when you say that.”

“
No, not them. Everyone already knows they are acting. I usually have a partner in these games, but she didn’t show,” Molly said as the red striped ball dropped into the pocket nearest Grace. “It’s just Rupert, Ivy, and me this time.” She lined up another shot.