COZY MYSTERY: Murder At The Festival: A Cozy Mystery in the Mountains (Book 4) (9 page)

Almost instinctively, Victoria sprang up to protect Byron. “Whose car?” She asked Karen. “What are you talking about?”

“The… the Mounties are planning to arrest Jonas.” Karen said. “I was having lunch with Keeney when Randolf called. He did a UV test in Jonas’ car, and they found indications that there was a struggle. At least, they’ve found traces of blood that probably belonged to Margie.” Karen said.

Victoria breathed a sigh of relief. “So. It was him all along.”

“Randolf doesn’t know if it’s enough evidence to prosecute, though,” Karen said. “But they’ve taken him in for questioning.”

“Let’s go to the station,” Victoria said.

“Half the town’s there already,” Karen said. “I think they’re all waiting to find out.”

“But.. but… Jonas?” Byron asked. “He was fast asleep. Margie told me he usually takes pills and doesn’t wake up till late the next day.”

“He might have lied this time,” Karen said. “Speaking of pills, that’s something else that Michelle had told the Mounties early in the investigation. They didn’t think much of it then, but it’s significant now. She told the cops that her prescription sleeping pills were empty, but it was far too early for them to be empty. She said that she thought Jonas was using them too often. Jonas denies ever using them. He said he’s only taken it once or twice.”

“How do you know all this?” Victoria asked.

“Keeney was excited when he got the call. He asked me to drop him over. He was telling me this on the way.” Karen said. “I dropped him and came home as far as possible.”

“But it doesn’t make any sense,” Victoria said. “It makes no sense at all.”

“I guess we were wrong about Jay,” Byron said. “I don’t know. I was always very confused. One moment I would think maybe he did it. Then, I’d think he probably didn’t.”

“We still need to ask him questions, though,” Victoria said. “About why he was there that night.”

“I asked him,” Byron said. “I accused him of being at Margie’s house, of going to see her after the party and he called me a liar. He accused me of trying to frame him.”

“Frame him?” Victoria looked up at Byron.

“Mom, I know I lied to you, and I’m sorry I did. I was… I was stupid. But I’m not. I’m not evil. I wouldn’t frame someone. Not even if I hated them. Not even if I thought they did it.”

“No.” Victoria agreed. “You’d have to be a lot more selfish to frame someone.”

“Well, it’s almost over now,” Karen said. “The town will be glad that it was an outsider and not one of our own.”

“Yes.” Victoria nodded. “Jonas was an outsider. He wasn’t one of our own. No one 's going to believe him. No one who’s going to stand up to him.”

“No, he never did make himself popular.” Karen said.

“But what was his motive, Karen?” Victoria asked. “Why did he kill Margie?”

“Who knows?” Karen shrugged. “Margie had a strained relationship with him, didn’t she? Jonas is a bit of a rake, maybe she caught him with another woman, and he killed her before she could tell Michelle. After all, he didn’t want to lose his golden goose.”

“That’s…”

“Besides, when you think of it, all of us have alibis, more or less,” Karen said. “Jonas doesn’t. He’s the only one who chose to sit at home instead of attending the town fest. Who does that? He had sinister motives right from the start. Poor Margie, she didn’t deserve this.”

“That’s one thing we agree on,” Victoria said grimly. “Poor Margie didn’t deserve any of this.”

“So let’s do this,” Byron said. “Let’s go to the RCMP station together. Please, I really want to know what happens next. Will they arrest Jonas or not?”

“You do that,” Victoria said. “I’ve got a few questions I want to be answered. I’ll see you after.”

Mayor Calum’s smile was wiped out as soon as he opened the door. “Victoria.” He said. “At my house this time, instead of my office. Funny how you seem to pop up just everywhere.”

“Mayor Calum,” Victoria smiled. “Isn’t this an unusual time for you to be home? I’d have thought you would be first in line at the police station.”

“Well.. I…” He coughed. “I was on my way there, as a matter of fact.”

“Well, we can go together,” Victoria said.

“My car won’t be big enough for us.” Mayor Calum said with a smile. “Why don’t you go on, and I’ll follow?”

“Ah, your car. There's something interesting thing about that. What kind of car do you own again? A BMW, isn’t it?”

“It’s a Ferrari. Vintage.” Calum said with a smile.

“I’ve seen it. A very distinctive model. No one who saw you driving it could mistake whose car it is. A BMW M3 on the other hand… now that’s not so distinctive. Only teenage boys with a fondness for cars would remember it. Everyone else would just see a random block shaped car.”

Calum paled. “What are you going on about?”

“Byron was with Margie until 3:00 a.m. on the night of the fest,” Victoria said. “As a matter of fact, he passed a BMW M3 heading towards her house on his way back.”

“He’s lying,” Calum said. “It’s his word against mine.”

“Ah, but why should it be?” Victoria smiled. “You own a Ferrari, after all. Why would you drive a BMW M3? Where would you even get it from?”

Calum pulled at his collar. Sweat had broken out on his forehead.

“Byron accused Jay of driving that car to go see Margie and Jay denied it. To be more specific, Byron never mentioned the car, he only accused Jay of going to see Margie at 3:00 a.m. Which Jay denied, of course.” Victoria said. “Now, the funny thing is, I believe him. I believe him because he told me you’d grounded him and confiscated his car the week before. Funny, isn’t it? Why would an uncle do that? A father or mother, yes, but an uncle?”

“Jay’s dad died. I’m his father figure now.” Calum said. “I’m close enough that I can ground him when I see fit.”

“Yes, I remember that,” Victoria said. “So then I started thinking of your interest in the case, almost as if you had a hidden agenda from the outset.”

“What? No! I had no hidden agenda. What agenda could I possibly have in the murder of a young girl?”

“Well, none, unless you were romantically interested in the mother,” Victoria said.

He turned pink. His entire face breaking out in sweat. Victoria knew she’d caught him.

“You were with Michelle that night, weren’t you? You dropped her home at 3:00 a.m. Probably just minutes after Byron left.”

“So what?” Calum said. “Not that you can prove any of this, but so what? I dropped her, and I left. I didn’t murder Margie.”

“No. But she did.” Victoria said.

“What!” Calum put a hand to his heart. “You’re crazy! Michelle is devoted to her daughter! She’s been so upset since Margie ran away!”

“Is she? Has she?” Victoria asked. “I wonder.”

“You’re mad,” Calum said. “Get out of my house this instance. I won’t listen to a word against her.”

“Oh but you will,” Victoria said. “If only so that you understand what your duty is now.”

Calum hesitated, then sat down. “Ok.” He said. “Tell me your theory.”

“Michelle killed Margie and tried to frame Jonas after,” Victoria said. “That’s my theory.”

“Why? How? A mother could not just kill her own daughter!”

“Some mothers can,” Victoria said. “Michelle claimed to be close to Margie, but Margie herself told her friends that she had only ever been close to her real father Davis. Michelle admitted that to us too, that first night, when Jonas made a scene. He’s the only one who loved Margie really. As for Jonas, he tried hard to be a good father, but pity isn’t a good emotion. It dilutes love.”

“I’m listening, but I’m not convinced.”

“Margie had a favorite riddle,” Victoria said. “A puzzle that proves how easy it is to distort the truth. Three men go to a hotel and rent a room. They pay ten dollars each. The manager realizes he overcharged them five dollars and gives it to the bellboy to take to them. The bellboy realizes you can’t split five dollars evenly between three men, so he pockets three dollars and gives them each a dollar. Now each of these men has nine dollars, and the bellboy has two. Where did the last dollar go?

The average person is confused because they’re adding the wrong numbers. You think you’re adding three nine's and a two, so it feels as if a dollar is missing. When in fact, you should be adding two dollars to the three returned, and those to the twenty-five in the cashier’s possession. Math doesn’t lie, and neither do the clues in this case.”

“I’m still lost,” Calum said.

“There were variables here that confused me, but when I tied up the loose ends, everything pointed to simple facts. There were three people in that household. Jonas had taken sleeping pills. Margie was dead. Therefore, there’s one person and only one person who could have killed her. Michelle.”

Calum inhaled sharply.

“Which made me wonder why? It made sense when I thought of it. Michelle had planned this for a long time. She’s a mad woman. But she’s a smart lady. Initially, she pretended to over react and reported Margie missing numerous times, even when she knew that Margie had only gone overnight to a friend’s house. Jonas even accused her of overreacting in front of us that night, and we blamed him for being cruel. He was only being blunt. He knew his wife, and he knew when she was a fake. His mistake was in thinking that she was doing it for sympathy and that Margie would come home soon. Randolf thought the same way. After all, Margie had come back before.”

“If that’s all that had happened, we wouldn’t be here. Margie would have been presumed a runaway, and Michelle would have carried on with life. No body, no case. But then, you pushed me to keep looking, and I discovered that the Hot Springs were an ideal location to make a body disappear.”

“Oh my God,” Calum said.

“You pushed me to keep looking. Why, Calum?”

“Because… because I instinctively knew, something was wrong.” Calum said.

“Yes. I think you did. I believe that you always have been wondering, and you were hoping I’d discover something that would let you love Michelle with no guilt. I got side-tracked because I suspected your office of committing fraud, based on some things I found on Margie’s computer.”

“I have never committed fraud,” Calum said. “My predecessor has. Hanson was using this office to commit fraud. As soon as I uncovered that, I used my wits to hide it. He was dead already so what was the point in hitting the town with another scandal? Margie was an intern here, but she was a smart girl. Based on a few files I gave her, she figured out the fraud. She even confronted me with it but let it go when I explained my point to her.”

“Yes. Margie was a very smart girl. She wanted a career in forensics, you know. She would have made a great detective. Unfortunately, she was killed before she could solve her first case- the murder of her father.”

Calum gasped.

“Margie was obsessed with figuring out if her father had committed suicide,” Victoria said. “I think she took a leaf from Byron’s book. She was using her father’s old laptop. She tried to recover deleted files and find out if he’d ever searched for an overdose of insulin. I think Michelle knew what she was doing. I believe she knew that Margie would soon uncover the fact that Michelle had killed Davis to marry Jonas. She manipulated Jonas into the marriage. He admitted as much to me. Now that he was leaving it was the perfect time to get rid of all her baggage. You see, it made no sense to me why blood should be uncovered in Jonas’ car if he’d also given Margie a sleeping pill. Surely there could be no struggle then.” Victoria said. “Nothing Michelle said added up. Why didn’t she admit to coming home at 3:00 a.m.? Why did she lie and say that she’d come back at 1:00 a.m., and found Margie’s room empty the next day?”

“Because I had no other choice.” A voice said.

Calum and Victoria whirled around.

“She was here?” Victoria asked, horrified. “You fool, you couldn’t warn me that she was here?”

“I didn’t believe you.” Calum stuttered. “I thought it was all a big joke. Then, when what you were saying hit me, and I realized it had to be true. I was too paralyzed to think.”

“How easy will it be, to prove I did it?” Michelle asked, pointing a gun at them.

“Very easy,” Victoria said. “The detectives are bound to dust out Davis’ case. I’m sure you’ve left behind some clue; something that will give them a lead.”

“I did,” Michelle smiled. “Margie found an incriminating search history. Back then, the kind of software she used hadn’t even been invented. It’s funny how much progress computers make in ten years. Back then, I thought to delete the files meant that no one could touch me. But these kids… it’s Byron’s fault, really. He taught her how to do it. I knew Margie would figure out eventually that I’d killed her father. I knew she’d incriminate me. I never felt close to her, you know. Or she to me. She came out of my womb a stranger.”

“Evil,” Victoria said. “I hadn’t dreamed that evil like this is possible.”

“You call it evil, I call it practical,” Michelle said. “I gave birth to her. She had no gratitude towards me. She was just a brat and Calum here is a Catholic. He had no intention of marrying me unless Jonas died. So I had to make sure he would hang. Two birds, one stone. Only now, it’s all over.”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Calum said. “Come on, Michelle, there’s a way out of this. We can figure out something. We’ll keep you free.”

“Oh, Calum,” Michelle smiled. “You think I believe that? You’re so earnest. Refusing to continue an absolutely good way to make money because you thought it’s fraud.”

“Michelle,” Calum stepped up. “I love you. I’d do anything for you. I’d kill for you. I can prove it.”

“Can you?”

“Give me the gun, and I’ll kill Victoria.”

“But how can I trust you? What if you try to kill me instead.”

“Now!” Calum said to Victoria. “Get her!”

There was a bang as Michelle shot at Calum. She let out a scream of frustration as he dove to safety. Victoria tackled her and wrestled the gun away. Immediately, Calum was by her side to help.