A Touch of the Grape: A Hemlock Falls Mystery (Hemlock Falls Mystery series) (24 page)

Quill was ready for that one. She dangled her car
keys. "Dropped my keys over here. I was just about to
come in. How's the meeting going?"

"Thought you was too honorable to mix with pee-ons."

Marge's feelings were hurt! Well, well. Quill decided,
magnanimously, to forgive her the "having it on" remark about her relationship with Myles. "Meg and I may have been a little hasty in our reading of the situation. May I join the meeting?"

"It's over." Marge eyed her up and down. " 'Cause I'm leavin' and they ain't gonna get a thing decided
without me. Tell you what, though. I'll drop by the Inn
tonight, about ten, we maybe can talk some."

"Okay."

She jerked her thumb backwards. "You gonna say
anything to them four twits, you tell them this. Your inn's the on'y real attraction goin'. Wine drinkers? Puh! Ain't enough of them to count on, and besides, what ever all them boozers gonna do with their kids and families if they do come up to drink themselves silly? None of those wieners in there have a clue that they need to do more than package sales, and that's the plain truth."

"We aren't set up for children either," Quill said doubtfully.

"Got a few ideas about that." She gave Quill a friendly blow to the arm. "See ya tonight."

Quill walked in on a clearly disgruntled group. Harvey was biting his nails. Paul Pfieffer looked as if he
had indigestion. Hugh looked glum. Even Thorne Smith
appeared slightly flapped. "Hi, everyone. I just met Marge outside. Sorry I missed the meeting."

"But we didn't invite you. Quill," Harvey said apologetically. "Pfieffer said we'd pissed you off."

"I did not use that phrase, Mr. Bozzel."

"We all seem to have misread the situation," Quill said. "But I'm certainly ready to listen now."

"Please sit down. Miss Quilliam," Paul Pfieffer said, "and we'll see if we can make some headway here."

It was almost a quarter after three when Quill got back to the Inn. She parked at the front entrance and hurried into the foyer. Dina broke into speech as soon as she came in the front door. "There's
tons
of messages. It is so cool."

"Really?" said Quill, pleased. "I'm running late for
tea with Freddie Patch and her friends, but I'll come and
get the messages after that. Unless there's a few that can't wait."

"You mean messages for you?"

"Yes, Dina. Messages for me."

"Most of them are for Sheriff McHale."

"He's not … never mind. Are there any at all for me?"

"Yeah. But you won't like it. At least you didn't last time and you wouldn't let them come."

"Let who come? What last time?"

"The
Geraldo
people. Please, please won't you let them do a story on the Murder Inn. It would be so—"

"If you say it, I'll scream. Are Freddie and her friends
in the gazebo?"

"I guess."

"That's where I'll be until just after four o'clock. Will you please tell Meg I have very good news? I'll talk to her as soon as I can. And were any of those messages bookings?"

"The
Geraldo
people wanted to book a ton of rooms."

"They can't," Quill said flatly. "Anyone else?"

"Nope."

"I'll be back in an hour."

She was back in less than five minutes. "They aren't there. And don't say who or I'll throttle you."

"You mean Freddie Patch and those other old ladies."

"I thought I asked you to keep an eye on them, Dina.
And don't call them old ladies."

"Sorry, sorry. I did watch them while they were here at the Inn! But I can't keep an eye on them if they're shopping. For that," Dina said with a rather malicious air, "I would have to quit my post. And I couldn't take
all these messages for Sher—I mean, Myles. They went into the village just after you left. The tall one that wears
those twinsets?"

"Mary Lennox."

"She said there were some really cute shops they should see, so they all went off."

Quill stared at her, unseeing. "They didn't receive any faxes, did they?"

"Faxes? No."

"Or any messages of any kind?"

"No. Honestly, Quill, I know you think that someone's knocking them off, but really, they just wanted to go shopping. And you know how some of these ladies are. Shop, shop, shop. Mall queens. It's easy to forget the time when you're hanging out shopping. I should know." Her face lit up. "See? I told you. Here they come."

Relief washed over Quill like a warm shower. Robin and Freddie bustled in the door. They carried large tote bags (recycled boating cushions, Freddie had told her. And it's free!) decorated with glued-on seashells.

"Yoo-hooo!" Robin said. "Are we very late? You have such a wonderful village, Quill! And we had the best time at that Esther's shop. You told us about her, remember. You're doing so much for us, we thought
we'd do something for you, so we went down and talked
to Esther about setting up a gift shop here, at the Inn. She was thrilled, wasn't she, Freddie?"

"Thrilled isn't the word. My, I'm thirsty! Are we too late for our nice tea?"

"Let me take those bags for you," Quill said. "Dina? Would you run these up to room 210? Why don't you both come into the dining room and we'll ask Meg to make another cream tea." Good grief, she thought, as she ushered them to their regular table, I sound like a nanny. She made an effort to take the maternal note out of her tones and lower her voice. "Where's Mary?"

Robin smiled. "At that cute little garden shop near the post office. She'll be along directly."

Quill, unaware that she'd been tense, found herself relaxing. "The
Garden Gate?
That's new. The mayor's wife was the driving force behind that. It's staffed with the Ladies Auxiliary. Mary can't get into any trouble there."

Dismayed, Freddie cried, "I'd forgotten all about that! Do you think we should go back for her?"

"The path through the park is public. And I don't
think Mr let's call him X …"

"Oh, do let's call him X," Freddie said. "It's much easier to handle this if we treat it as a game."

"Mr. X he shall be. It's unlikely he'd try to snatch a
woman of Mary's age and station off the streets of Hem
lock Falls. But just in case, let me give Davy Kiddermeister a call. I'll ask him to pick her up and bring her home after she's through talking to Adela." She excused
herself to ask Dina to make the call, stopped to ask Kath
leen to serve the tea in the dining room instead of the
gazebo, and returned to find Robin shrieking with laugh
ter.

"Can you see it? Mary being stopped and carried home by a policeman?"

"That young man needs something useful to occupy
him," Freddie said sternly. "What sort of progress has he made on these killings? None as far as I can see. Now, we …" She turned, beaming, to Quill. "We met your friend. The one that came in late last night? My land, what a gorgeous man. Now that's my idea of a lawman."

"If we were only twenty years younger," Robin said,
"there'd be a fight over him. Freddie, do you remember
that darling Cuban man we met in Florida on that buying
trip?"

"You go to Florida on buying trips?" Quill said.

"The five of us had a little clothing business while
we lived in New York," Robin explained. "It did pretty
well, actually."

"It did? Good heavens," Quill said sympathetically. "How did you all manage?"

"Oh, it did well enough for us to quit our day jobs, as they say," Robin said. A little smile played around her lips. "We did quite well, as a matter of fact."

"Let's not embarrass Quill with our reminiscences," Freddie said briskly. "And here's the tea. My." She bit into a cream scone with a blissful sigh, then mumbled, "I wish he were on this case."

"Myles? In a way we're both on this case, Freddie."

"Have you talked to Myles about the Plan?"

"Not yet." To her chagrin, Quill found herself saying, as though she were a TV cop, "We discuss our cases frequently, of course."

"There were others?" Freddie said. "You've solved other murders?"

"Mary told us there were," Robin said. "Honestly, Freddie, your memory."

"If I lose it altogether, who cares? I sure won't know it." This sent both of them into gales of laughter.

Quill shouted, "I'd like all three of you to gather all the correspondence you've had with Mr. Vinge so we can go over it together." She bit her lip and lowered her
voice. "There are a great many things we can learn from
the letters. As I told Myles this morning, this is a case that's going to be solved through forensics, not guesswork. For a start, we'll track his address and find him. We'll see if he has alibis for the times of the two murders. We'll send the letters off for fingerprinting, and see if there's any cross match with known criminals."

"My goodness," Freddie said, impressed. "Do you charge for being a detective, Quill?"

Robin sighed and rolled her eyes. "Of course she doesn't! Whoever heard of an amateur detective charging a fee?"

"You should charge," Freddie said through a mouth
ful of Devonshire cream. "That is, if you solve the case. Anyhow, we don't have those letters with us. We'll have
to call home and see if someone will put it in the mail for us."

"The sheriff's office here will call your local police— you're all from Trenton now, aren't you? If you can tell the police where to look, they'll collect the letters for you. They'll probably send the evidence by courier."

"We wouldn't want to put them to any trouble," Robin said doubtfully.

"Trouble? Robin, this is a murder case!"

"Oh, dear." Robin worked her lips. "I just hate the idea of having strange men go through my things."

Quill made a conscious effort to be calm and reassuring. "Then we'll have a policewoman do it."

"You know what, Freddie? We can call Mr. Kauffman. He lives just down the hall. He has keys."

"He waters your plants when you're gone, that sort of thing?"

"No live plants, dear. Plastic is much easier. It's just in case we forget something. Let's give Mr. Kauffman a call, Freddie."

"I think we should wait to see what Mary says. The
letters are in her apartment." She worked her fingers
nervously. "I wouldn't like to authorize anything like that without her consent."

"Where
is
she?" Robin added fretfully.

"Quill!" Dina appeared at the archway to the foyer, her face pale. "Could you come here a minute, please?"

"Sure. Will you two excuse me?"

Dina took her by the arm and pulled her out of earshot. "He says she's not there."

"Mary Lennox isn't at the Garden Gate?"

"Adela Henry said she took off for the Inn more than
half an hour ago. She should have been right behind Freddie and Robin."

"Oh, no!"

"Davy's calling the firemen and state troopers. And Myles, of course. Should we help them search?"

"She can't have gotten far. She can't. Maybe she's just lost."

"I'd like to help," Dina said quietly.

"Put the answer phone on. And for God's sake, let me know as soon as you hear anything."

"I will."

"Dina, have you seen Paul Pfieffer? He was out at the winery with me this afternoon and I haven't seen him since."

"Paul Pfieffer? You think he's behind this?"

"Just tell Myles I haven't seen him since about a
quarter to three. I'd better get back to Robin and Freddie.
This will be harder on them than it will on us."

The evening dragged on with no word. Meg and Doreen joined them at dinner, leaving Bjarne in charge of
the kitchen. They retired to the Tavern Bar and appropriated a large center table. Two events kept Freddie and Robin from sinking into tearful despair: Selena brought
back a disgraced Max, who once again had been harassing Mr. Peterson's hens ("I take him home. I bathe him. He is a monster! Next time, I as dog warden tell you, it is the last!"). On hearing of Mary's disappearance, she cast a very worried look at Quill, accepted a glass of wine, and taught them curses in Spanish. Curs
ing in a language not your own, she'd explained, did not
seem bad at all. She left, after she actually got Freddie to giggle. Marge stumped in at ten o'clock and kept them entertained with a series of disreputable stories about her rowdy girlhood.

But the periods in between were grim.

A small band of the searchers came in just after
12:30, Myles in the lead. His face was impassive. Davy
Kiddermeister, Andy Bishop, and Dina hung back. All
of them looked exhausted and dirty. Quill half-rose from
her chair. Myles smelled of smoke. He nodded in response to her terrified look. "We found her," he said.

Freddie started to shriek. Max sprang up from his
place by Quill's chair and began to bark. Robin sat help
lessly as tears ran down her face.