COZY MYSTERY: Murder At The Festival: A Cozy Mystery in the Mountains (Book 4) (4 page)

Victoria whirled around to find Byron standing at the door, his boots muddy.

“Byron. Jay’s a guest here. Be nice.”

“A guest? A guest?” Byron laughed. “This is a joke, right? You’re practicing, like, ten ways to make Byron Armstrong furious or something?”

“Don’t raise your voice to me,” Victoria warned.

“Why not? You raise it to me all the time!” Byron said. “You aren’t even listening to me.”

“Fine, I will. I will try and listen to what you have to say. I just won’t do a very good job if you yell.” Victoria said.

“Well, I have to yell if I come home to find this scumbag waiting for me,” Byron said. “You want to finish what you started, Jay? Is that it? Coz I’m up for it buddy.”

“Byron…”

“He started it, mom. Even then, I didn’t squeal because I thought… I don’t know what I was thinking. I should have just told Principal Sherman everything.”

“Byron, man, I just came here to say I was sorry,” Jay said. “I know I started it but…”

“Oh please. I know why you came here. You probably heard I didn’t tell and came here to beg me not to.” Byron said. “I know all about you, Jay. Your kind of scum hasn’t evolved after the neanderthal period.”

“Look, there’s no need to be nasty,” Jay said. “I know you had a thing for Margie.”

“A thing for Margie? Margie and I weren’t dating.”

“I saw you dancing that night.”

“I was dancing to cheer her up,” Byron said. “She came to me in tears about how she finally broke up with you. I told her good riddance.”

“So you were encouraging her to break up with me! I’ll get you for that!” Jay tried to charge at him, but Victoria put herself between the two boys.

“Bring it on, buddy, I’ll give you what you deserve.”

“Quiet!” Victoria said her voice acid. “Both of you should be ashamed!”

“Mom, get him out of here,” Byron said. “I won’t be able to control myself if I see him.”

“I’m leaving anyway,” Jay said. “But I’ll see you again, Byron.”

“If that’s a threat.” Victoria said, “Then you should know I’m capable of making some myself, Jay and all the lawyers in the world won’t protect you from me if you harm my son.”

Jay seemed to shrink at her words, and picking up his skateboard, he quickly walked out the door.

Byron kicked the door shut. But he had a smile on his face as he turned to Victoria. “Thanks, mom.” He said. “Nice to hear you defending me for a change.”

“You know I meant it, Byron. I wouldn’t let anybody harm you. Ever.”

“No matter what?” Byron asked.

“No matter what.” She said.

“I don’t like Jay much, you know,” Byron said. “I have good reasons not to.”

“I’m beginning to believe that,” Victoria said. “Tell me about them.”

Byron took a deep breath. Walking to the kitchen, he opened the fridge and poked around. “Maybe I could do it over a cup of milk and some cookies?”

“Unhealthy,” Victoria said. “How about a sandwich or some fruit?”

“Mom. Please? Rough day.”

“Alright, fine,” Victoria smiled and sat him down. “I’ll bake you some cookies if you like. We can do it together like we used to. You remember?”

“Do I?” Byron smiled. “You and I were the master and junior chef. I used to sneak up cookie dough and eat it when you weren’t looking.”

“I figured it out and started using egg substitute, you know,” Victoria smiled. “All so you wouldn’t get salmonella.”

“I loved your cinnamon nut cookies.” Byron rumbled around and got out almonds and eggs.

They spent the next fifteen minutes sifting the flour and creating the dough, then breaking it into unevenly shaped rounds before eventually popping it into the oven. Ten minutes later, the kitchen was fragrant with the smell of vanilla and cinnamon.

“Ahhh.” Byron put his nose up and sniffed. “Amazing.”

“You’ll miss this when you go to college,” Victoria said, putting her arms around his waist and squeezing. She felt him hesitate for a moment and looked up to see a strange expression in his eyes.

“What is it?” She asked. “Are you...”

“About Jay,” Byron smoothly changed the topic. “Mom, I want to tell you everything, but it’s a long story.”

“I’m all ears.” Victoria pulled out the tray of cookies and put it on the table to cool, smacking away Byron’s hand as he tried to grab one. “Not yet. Patience, young man.”

Byron gave an exaggerated shake of his hand, “Ow. Ok. So, the thing is, I never really noticed Margie; we didn’t have too many classes together. She was taking Biology courses. But then last year, she joined my computer club. All of a sudden, she and I were hanging out a lot more, and I realized she’s actually kind of cool.”

“Did you want to date her?”

“To be honest? Yes, I did. But she was with a guy, and I’m not the type to encourage cheating. You know that, right?”

“I do,” Victoria smiled. “I’ve brought you up well.”

“Yeah sure take all the credit.” Byron rolled his eyes. “Well, anyway, Margie was really cool. She was funny, and she found me funny. Even apart from the dating thing, I was fond of her as a friend, you know?”

“I never realized.” Victoria said sadly, “You never talked about her at home.”

“Yeah, well, you and Aunt Karen tease me about girls a lot these days,” Byron said. “I guess I just got shy. It’s safer to just talk about Joe or Mason with you guys.”

“I suppose it is.” Victoria made a mental note not to tease him about it again. “So, you wanted to date her and disliked Jay.”

“I mean… I wanted to date her, but that’s not why I disliked Jay, honestly.” Byron said. “I didn't like Jay because of the way he acted. He didn’t really care about her. Just about himself. I knew a lot more about her than he ever did. I actually cared for her, unlike him.”

Victoria sighed, wondering if Byron knew how jealous he sounded. “You can’t judge someone based on the little you see of their relationship.” She said.

“Yeah but Marge told me stuff too,” Byron said. “Stuff like how whenever she tried to talk to Jay about computers and stuff he’d tease her for being a nerd or if she told him she liked a particular band, he’d tell her that the band wasn’t cool and that only he listened to cool music.”

“Sounds… well, seems rude.” Victoria said. “Still, it’s typical insecure teenage boy stuff.”

“He was controlling,” Byron said.

“Did she say that Jay was controlling her?”

“Not really,” Byron said. “But he told her she shouldn’t speak to me or any other boys. That’s not normal, is it?”

No, Victoria agreed. But perhaps more of a sign of immaturity than malignancy.

Byron kept talking. “He kept badmouthing me to her and trying to get her to stop coming to the computer club because he didn’t want us spending time together. But she kept coming. She was fascinated with computers, partly I think because her dad used to be a computer engineer.”

“Did she ever give you signs that she was afraid of him?” Victoria asked. “Did he try and stop her talking to her other friends too?”

“Well… no.” Byron said. “Just me, I guess. Margie was kind of loud and cheerful, so she had tons of other friends.”

“A genuinely abusive relationship is generally marked by the person becoming isolated from all their friends over a period of time,” Victoria said. “They were together two years. Did she get more introverted? Did she stop speaking to her friends?”

Byron considered this. “No. She was still very extroverted. She was always hanging out with her friends. She hated being home alone so she was with Rebecca and Janie; they’re her two best friends. Also, she spent a lot of time with Jay and his friends, a mixed group of skateboarders.”

Victoria nodded. “How about physical abuse? Did you ever see her with bruises? Did she wear long sleeves on hot days or use extra makeup?”

“She hated to wear makeup, and I’ve never seen bruises on her,” Byron admitted. “Though…”

“Yes?”

“Last night, at the party, something happened,” Byron said. “She broke up with Jay last night, you know? She told him it just wasn’t working anymore. She told him that she’d started dating him because she felt like they could share everything and that these days, she had to censor herself all the time before talking to him.”

“Why did she feel that way?”

“She’d told me about it. I guess it was because he had bad grades and she didn’t. I think Jay was a little jealous. He knew she’d get into a college, and he would be left behind. I think...” Byron looked sorrowful. “I think I always hoped she and I would get into the same college together.”

“Did she ever talk to you about wanting to run away?” Victoria asked.

“No. Never,” Byron said. “We mostly just talked about laptops and stuff. She was fascinated with forensics. She told me that when she grew up, she’d work with the CSI. Plus, we talked about hackathons; we even entered one together but didn’t make the cut.”

“What’s a hackathon?”

“It’s like, collaborative computer programming,” Byron said. “She and I were working on this cool project together for class. A program to create music on the computer.”

“So she was happy here?” Victoria asked. “Her mother thought she never fitted in.”

“I mean, she wasn’t exactly as popular as a cheerleader or something, but she wasn’t a total loser like Jay,” Byron said.

“Ah.” There was that word again. Loser. So dismissive. So hurtful. Imagine being branded that at 17. Did it keep Jay up at night, the thought that he was worthless, a loser? Did it make him jealous and afraid of losing his girlfriend?

“I mean, the people Jay hung out with are like all failing class,” Byron said. “Margie wasn’t a straight-A student, but she was in the upper tiers. Their relationship was bound to implode eventually. I guess it was a good thing she broke up with him when she did.”

“Did he react badly that night?”

“He was ok,” Byron said. “He tried to hold her hand when she walked away, but she shook him off. If he’d taken a few more seconds to release it, I think I’d have been on him. The thing is, it’s way too suspicious, isn’t it? Margie breaks up with him, and then goes missing the very next day? Maybe even the same night? He has to be involved somehow.”

“Maybe she ran away because she was really upset about the breakup,” Victoria said.

“That’s not true. I think breaking up with him was a relief to her. Margie was happy, I tell you. Although…” Byron paused.

“What?”

“It could be nothing… but… the last few weeks, she did bring up death a lot.”

“Death?” Alarm bells started to ring in Victoria’s head.

“Yeah. Like, she told me about her father. About how he’d died of an insulin overdose, and how she sometimes wondered if it was suicide. She said she wished she had a way of being inside his brain, of seeing how his mind worked. She once asked me if I thought suicide was ever acceptable.”

“What did you say?”

“I told her it was a sin.” Byron shrugged. “A terrible way to waste life.”

“Do you think there’s a chance she was thinking of committing suicide?” Victoria asked.

“She couldn’t be,” Byron said. “It was just talk, wasn’t it? Was it? Should I have reported it?” He looked horrified at the thought. “I never even imagined she could have…”

The door slammed shut, and Vanilla gave a bark. Annie was back, and for now, their talk would have to cease.

Karen and Annie both walked in, with Karen whistling a merry tune.

“What’s this, what’s this? Cinnamon cookies!” Karen laughed. “You’ve been holding out on us! Come on Annie, let’s attack that plate.”

“Hold it, let it cool.” Victoria protested.

But Karen had already brought out glasses and poured the milk. The four were soon seated at the table chomping on the cookies. Victoria sneaked a few to Vanilla. Karen’s good cheer seemed to have swept Annie up so that she was looking much happier now, though she kept stealing glances at Byron.

“So, guess who’s getting an award from the Better Business Bureau in Edmonton next month,” Karen said with a big grin. “I’ll give you three guesses, and all three better be me.”

“Oh, Karen that’s beautiful!” Victoria smiled.

“It is kind of awesome,” Karen said with a big smile. “I should be a bit more humble, I know,b but this just makes me so proud. My program to give away excess inventory to organizations that needed it has been a hit. There’s even talk about me holding a lecture series.”

“I’m very proud,” Victoria said, rising up to give her a hug. “You’ve been working long hours, and it’s good to see that it’s paying off.”

“Come see the outfit I’m planning to wear? I just received news today, but I’m already planning it all out.”

Leaving the kids to do the dishes, the two wandered upstairs to Karen’s room.

The second floor was Karen’s workshop, where she made wild, fascinating jewelry out of colored glass. Some of it had been featured in local magazines, and a lot of the pieces were in the center of display stands at Larch’s boutiques. Karen’s room, however, was further upstairs, on the third floor, where their father had once lived.

Her room was decorated in sea-green and white, with large modern art canvases showing silhouetted men in anonymous cities covering each wall. The bed had a pile of clothes on it that she apparently hadn’t bothered to put away after doing her laundry.

Karen put these aside and brought out a few outfits, including a navy blue dress that Victoria thought would suit the occasion best.

“I saw Jay Cutler leaving the house when I was coming home,” Karen said as she wiggled into the dress. “Did he have any news about Margie?”

“No news about her yet.” Victoria sighed. “He’d come to talk to Byron.”

“Ah. Well, the bruises on his face matched the cuts on Byron’s knuckles. Anything serious between those two?”

“I hope not,” Victoria said. “Byron’s never been one to get into fights.”

“Not over Margie I hope,” Karen said. “I never liked her much.”

“She worked for you, right?”

“She did until I fired her,” Karen said. “She was terribly unreliable. We were lucky if she came in on time two days a week. I’d still be ok with it if she weren't also terribly clumsy. By the time she somehow managed to break yet another case of soda and get coke all over my floors, I’d had enough. I lost my temper a little bit. Anyway, I’m sad she chose to run away, but to be honest, I wasn’t surprised.”

“But Byron was,” Victoria said. “So was Jay. They both thought she had reason to stay.”

“Kids aren’t very good at figuring out the difference between people who are mysterious and profound, and those who are just flaky.” Karen laughed. “Especially when they’re interested in that person romantically.”

“Maybe so.”

“In any case, if Byron was becoming interested in her, it’s a good thing she’s gone,” Karen said.

“Karen!” Victoria turned to her sister, shocked. Typically so sensitive, every once in awhile, Karen could say something that actually made Victoria wonder how much she knew her sister. After all, once upon a time, she had thought she knew her father… before, that is, he had found out some of his secrets.

“I mean… I’m sorry for her, and she’s clearly going through some stuff if she’s chosen to run away.” Karen amended. “But I’m glad that she’s out of Byron’s life. Girls like that are a bad influence, and he’s at a stage where he ought to be focussing on his studies.”

“I still don’t...”

“It’s the mother, you know,” Karen said. “The mother’s fault. She knew Margie never liked Jonas, and he made no great secret about disliking her too. It was a recipe for disaster, really, with Michelle being away all the time.”

A little resentfully, Victoria said, “She’s a working mother. She can’t always be there for the kid, especially when that kid is now almost a grown up.”

“What are you getting defensive for? I’m not criticizing you. You’re wonderful with Byron and Annie.”

“It’s not that, Karen. I just feel that you're a little harsh on both Margie and her mom.”

“Well, like I said, I never liked either of them,” Karen said. “Now forget about them, how’s that hunk of a man of yours?”

“He’s not quite “my man,” Victoria said.

“And yet you knew exactly who I’m talking about.” Karen teased. “Weren’t you supposed to go on a date with him sometime this week?”

“Tomorrow,” Victoria smiled. “He said he’s making my dinner. We might go for a walk after.”

“Simple pleasures.” Karen sighed. “You’ve got to find out if he has a single friend. Maybe we could double date.”

“Last time I asked, you said you were too busy with work.” Victoria pointed out.

“I guess I’m burning out on work now,” Karen said. “Balance is a beautiful thing, and very hard to maintain. I seem to tip over into one bucket or another. I’m either completely immersed in work and ignoring the rest of you, or I’m constantly hanging out with you and deciding to chuck work.”

“I’ve noticed that,” Victoria said. “It’s that artistic temperament of yours.”

Karen shrugged. “At this point, I’ve stopped fighting it. How do you do it, Victoria? You’re a model of all that a woman should be. You even find time to clean the house.”

“Hardly!” Victoria snorted. “You should see how messy my room is half the time.”

“I snuck in to borrow your sweater the other day,” Karen said. “So I did see. Speaking of which- here’s the sweater.”

“Karen! That’s one of my favorites.”

“I know. You have excellent taste, by the way.”

As a teenager, Victoria would regularly have long arguments with Karen about her habit of stealing her clothes. As a grown-up, she just found it endearing. Grabbing the sweater she said, “If I find any spots on it, I’m going to steal your favorite shoes. Fair warning.”

“Noted.” Karen laughed.

The doorbell rang downstairs, and Karen gave Victoria a look. “Were we expecting someone?”

“Not that I remember,” Victoria said.

She headed down and saw that Byron had already opened the door and was in conversation with the Mayor.

“Calum,” Victoria said, putting a hand on Byron’s shoulder. “What a surprise to see you here.”

“Hello, Victoria,” Calum smiled. Today, he was dressed in a pinstripe suit with a light silver tie and a pale lavender shirt. He had this habit of looking as if he had just wandered off a magazine photo shoot.

She escorted him to the living room, and when it became apparent that he wanted a private talk, she shooed off the children.

“What did you want to talk about?” She asked once they were alone.

“I wanted to ask you, as a friend, if you’d like to investigate Margie’s disappearance,” Calum said.

“Finding missing people isn’t exactly my specialty,” Victoria said. “These days I’m all about baking and making good food.”

“Come on, Victoria, you have a background in tracking down leads, don’t you?” Calum asked. “I’ve read some of your true-crime books, you know. Why did you give up writing them?”

“I lost my partner,” Victoria said flatly. “He was always better at tracking things down anyway. My role was mostly to… think about things.”

“All I know is, I trust you. You’re someone who’s in the fabric of this town. I can’t hire an outsider, but I can rely on you to just talk to people. To get a feel for what went on. I can count on you to ask the right questions.”

“Why is the Mayor interested in the case of a runaway girl anyway?” Victoria said. “That’s one of the first questions I’ll ask.”

Calum’s cheeks went faintly red. He took a deep breath. “This is the first crime on my watch.” He said. “I don’t want anyone to say that I took a lackadaisical approach to it.”

“Crime?” Victoria raised an eyebrow. “Why are you so sure a crime’s been committed? As far as I know, Margie was eighteen, and she decided to move out or run away to a bigger city. That’s all.”

“Do you really feel that way?” Calum asked. “Are you sure there is absolutely nothing shady going on here? If so, I can’t persuade you. I won’t even try.”

Victoria couldn’t quite meet his eyes. Yes, by all accounts, the story seemed clear enough. Margie Thompson, not a fan of either parent, decided that enough was enough and ran away from home.

But the alarm bells had been ringing in Victoria’s mind for quite a while now. Her intuition told her that not everything was as it seemed. Why would Margie run away a month before she graduated? If she’d held on so long, surely it made more sense for her to hang on a month more. If nothing else, she’d find better jobs as a graduate than as a dropout.

Then, there was the breakup that Byron had witnessed. It might point to planning on Margie’s part, or it might speak to the fact that Margie had plans to date Byron. In any case, why break up the night before you were planning to run away? Why not just run away? That’d be the easier route, wouldn’t it?

Calum saw the look in her eyes and nodded. “So you think there’s something fishy too. I knew it! I had a big fight with Corporal Jager about the whole thing; he's so slow about it all. People are talking, and I can’t afford that.”

“Yes,” Victoria smiled.

“I mean…” Calum hastily said, “I don’t like the thought of her being out there, of something happening to her. I want to make sure. Doubly sure. I’ll help you any way I can, Victoria. I can even compensate you though I don’t have a huge budget…”

“No need.” Victoria waved it off. “All I’m doing is talking to people, right? I can do that.”

“Exactly,” Calum said with relief. “And if, while you’re talking, you happen to find out that something isn’t very normal… if your intuition becomes supported by facts… well, that’s to our advantage. Just do it as fast as possible. If someone did have bad intentions, then every second she’s missing is far too long.”

Victoria nodded. “Have you talked to either Michelle or Jonas about this?”

“Jonas doesn’t like me very much,” Calum said. “Especially after he created that scene the other night. Seems to think it’s my fault that he behaved like a prize donkey.”

“I saw the whole thing.” Victoria shook her head. “Calum… what do you know about Jonas? Anything at all?”

“I know he stays at home,” Calum said. “He works freelance as a graphic designer. Earns maybe a thousand or so dollars each month. It’s Michelle who actually supports them. She never mentioned this outright, but one of the reasons she moved to town was that the living expenses were lower than the city. With her uncle gone and the house being hers outright, there was no rent to pay.”

“I’ve been inside their house, I never got the sense that money was tight,” Victoria said.

“Yes, well, as you know, the tourists have been abandoning Larch Hot Springs since our streak of bad luck,” Calum said.

“Multiple murders in a few years, you mean?”

“That, and new fast food chains opening up in other towns near Banff,” Calum said. “I refuse to have those in our town. Anyway, Michelle’s Boutique is doing ok, but it isn't really enough to lead a lavish lifestyle.”

Something in his voice made Victoria wonder. “You’re good friends with Michelle?”

“Well, as Mayor, I make sure I’m good friends with all of my constituents.” He said.

Calum was nearing 50 now and had been married once before, to a woman who took off for a bigger city just one year after marrying him. Victoria wondered just how close his friends were, or maybe she was she being too cynical?

As if he read her thoughts, Calum said, “There’s nothing between Michelle and me, and I think she’s far too devoted to Jonas for her to even look at another man.”

Which, Victoria noted, wasn’t quite the same as saying that Calum didn’t like her.

“I just think men like Jonas are a waste of space,” Calum said. “A black spot on men everywhere. Yet girls can’t seem to resist them, while us nice guys are put in the corner.”

Eerily similar to Byron’s own opinion of Jay, Victoria thought to herself. “Don’t judge a relationship by its cover, Mayor. He must have some redeeming qualities. An artist like Jonas is probably good at giving her the emotional satisfaction she needs.”

Calum rolled his eyes as if he personally thought that he’d rather have a BMW than emotions.

“What about Michelle?” Victoria asked. “What can you tell me about her?”

“What’s to say? She’s a real woman. A good mother. She’s very broken up about Margie running away. Hasn’t left her house in a few days. Meanwhile, I saw Jonas at the store buying yet another crate of beer. If you are going to talk, I’d suggest you talk to people about him. I told Randolf he should investigate Jonas, but apparently they are buddies, so Randolf won’t.”