Death Takes a Holiday (34 page)

Grace winced. “I’m just going to go to my room for a second. I’ll be right back.” She quickly shut the door behind her and raced through the vestibule and the observation car. She paused at the next vestibule, dreading having to walk past the open door. Taking a deep breath, she threw open the door and ran in.

Her peripheral vision saw the danger the moment she entered the vestibule, but she was too late to react. A foot hooked around her ankle causing her to fall forward and slam head first into the sleeping car door.

CHAPTER TWENTYSEVEN

Dazed, Grace raised her
head off the cold floor and looked up. Other than the shaft of light from the observation car and the moonlight from outside, the vestibule was dark. She rolled over to side and pressed a shaking hand to her head, trying to remember how she ended up on the floor.

A black boot near her face brought it all back to her. She
quickly sat up and crawled away from the boot until she felt the wall of the vestibule against her back. She looked over to the side at the open door just inches away. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath as she walked her back up the wall until she was standing against it.

She opened her eyes and glared at Tracy who was calmly leaning against the opposite wall with her hands behind her back. “I thought you were in the bathroom.”

“I know,” Tracy said pleasantly, “I left while you weren’t looking.”

Grace, angry with herself for being tricked, balled her hand into a fist.

“Where’s Jack?” Tracy asked. She sighed when Grace remained silent. “Grace, I’ve had a horrible weekend. I killed my weasel of a husband and those two blackmailing, sniveling jerks and I’m perfectly prepared to kill you, too.”

“That’s not exactly an incentive to make me talk,” Grace said sarcastically.

“Don’t make me ask you again,” Tracy said, pushing herself away from the wall.

Mirroring Tracy’s actions, Grace said, “Look, I’m pretty sure I can take you or at least take you with me,” she said
, indicating the open door with a nod of her head. “So back off, Tra—”

Tracy brought out a knife from behind her back.

Quickly calculating her odds of surviving a knife fight without a weapon, Grace held up her hands and backed up a step. “Whoa, hey, hey. There’s no need to get excited here. I’m willing to cooperate.”

“Where is Jack?”

“I don’t know.”

“You said—”

“I think he jumped off the train at the station.”

“You think?”

Grace shrugged. “I took a wild guess.”

Tracy’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“You looked right at me when you said that you knew who killed Robert. Where you just guessing then, too?”

“No, actually, I knew it was you.”

“How?”

Grace glanced toward the darkened sleeping car. “Why
are the lights out?”

“I turned them off. I wanted to make it cozy in here. I thought about turning off the observation car lights too
, but then decided that might attract some unwanted attention.”

“Speaking of attention,
you are taking an awfully big risk. Anyone of them could walk in here and find us. Why don’t we go back to Kyle and Steve’s room?”

Lifting a hand to her heart, Tracy smiled sweetly. “Why, thank you so much for thinking of me, that’s so sweet of you.” She dropped her hand to her side. “Just the same I think we’ll stay right where we are. I like the view,” she said, nodding to the open space next to Grace. “Now you were saying.”

“It’s freezing in here.”

“You complain more than Merry.”

Slightly affronted, Grace’s mouth dropped open. Recovering quickly, she took a step forward and opened the door to the sleeping car a few inches. “You’re going to get caught if we stay in here much longer.”

Tracy waved the knife in front of her face. “Oh no, don’t worry. I don’t have any intention of staying in here long. Now stop stalling. What gave me away?” she asked as she shifted the knife in her hand. “If you’re not going to talk, I might as well get rid of you now.” She placed a hand against the door and slammed it shut.

Sighing in defeat,
Grace dropped her hand from the door handle and backed up a step. The most she could hope to do now was to stall Tracy until someone came to look for them. “Several things gave you away, but it wasn’t until I realized that you and Victor were together that I knew it had to be you.”

“
How did you know Victor and I were in love?” Tracy asked suspiciously.

Grace shook her head. “I had the hardest time trying to figure out who you were with Christmas Eve. I kept bouncing back
and forth between Lucas, Parker and Victor. In the end, it couldn’t have been Lucas. Parker and Meredith both said Lucas was in his room right about the time the fire started. It couldn’t have been Parker because he was in the hallway in time to see both Lucas leave and Sara walk out of Victor’s room. Besides, I doubt Felicity really lets Parker get very far away. I thought for a few seconds it could have been Jack, but your fear of him seemed so genuine that I discounted him almost immediately. So, that left Victor. We know he was fooling around with another woman the night of the fire. Parker had seen Victor kissing a woman in his truck that evening. We also know that Victor wasn’t in his bed when the fire started. Sara had accidentally climbed into his bed on her way back from the bathroom. I think she would have noticed if Victor had been lying in bed with her. When Sara exited Victor’s room that night, Parker just assumed that she was the lady he had seen with Victor earlier, but she wasn’t. It was you
, wasn’t it?”

Tracy nodded.

“It was Victor you truly loved. Not Robert and especially not Lucas. No one on this train had anything nice to say about Victor, but you. You were the only one who cared about his death. No one else did. They would have all lined up and given Robert a medal or a pat on the back, but not you. Once I realized it was Victor with you in the guest house Christmas Eve, everything fell into place. You two were having an affair. That’s why you were in the guest house. That’s why Robert set the fire and that’s why Robert killed his father a week later.” She looked at Tracy thoughtfully. “You know, I’m surprised you’re not more loyal to Lucas. He did save you after your husband tried to kill you and Victor left you to burn.”

Tracy scowled. “Victo
r didn’t leave me to burn, as you so crudely put it. He didn’t want Lucas to find us together. He was a gentleman.”

“Oh, and here I thought he left you
, so he could kill his wife.” Grace shook her head. “You’re very lucky Robert didn’t try to kill you after he got rid of his father.”

T
racy laughed. “And lose half of the company. My grandmother inherits my share and I’m much easier to deal with than her. Robert was stuck with me. You probably won’t believe this, but we actually did try to save our marriage. I think it was working, too. This,” she said, indicating the train, “was supposed to be a romantic getaway where we could reconnect and recapture a little bit of the love we once had for each other. Or at least that’s what the brochure promised.” She bit her lip. “Didn’t exactly work as planned.”

“No, I guess the plan changed when you discovered Robert killed
Victor. You met with Jack before the train left the station, didn’t you?”

Tracy took a deep breath.
“How do you know that?”

“We found a broken glass with a red lipstick stain under the chair in his room.”

Tracy’s face darkened as she looked toward the sleeping car. “Is it still there?”

Grace reluctantly nodded.

“Good. It won’t be for long.” Tracy tilted her head. “Lots of women wear red lipstick. How did you know it was mine?”

“
Well, I didn’t know for certain until I started thinking about Jack’s tattoos an hour ago.”

“What
does his tattoo have to do with anything?” she asked in irritation.

“I overheard you give Jack’s description to the police— height, weight, scars—and I heard you say something about ‘Jack and the beanstalk’.
It really wasn’t until I was talking to Lucas about Jack’s new tattoos a little later that I realized you had made a mistake. You couldn’t have known about the Jack in the beanstalk tattoo unless you had seen Jack on the train and I heard you tell Robert you hadn’t seen Jack since before the fire. What did Jack say to you when you met him yesterday morning? Did he tell you that he saw Robert hiding in the bushes Christmas Eve? Is that when you began to suspect that he was the one who had tried to kill you and Victor?”

“No,
” Tracy said with a laugh. “I didn’t believe Jack. How could I? The man’s delusional,” she said with a scowl. “But then Robert lied to me about when he last saw Jack. And then during dinner, my fool of a husband, practically admitted to being on the staircase Christmas morning. See, Victor had told me that Jack supposedly overheard two people plotting to kill him. I remember him laughing. He thought it was just one of Jack’s fantasies.” She bit her lip. “But then Victor died a week later. Once I found out about his death, I begged Robert to make sure they tested his body for every possible poison and he assured me that they had. Then Felicity showed me the coroner’s report last night,” she said with a hateful sneer. “You know, I even believed him when he said it was some horrible mistake that Victor’s body was cremated.” She laughed bitterly. “I’m such an idiot. Last night’s dinner was a very eye-opening experience for me. That’s when I realized he killed Victor.”

“
And that’s when you decided to kill your husband to avenge your lover.”

“
You’re so melodramatic,” Tracy said snidely. “That’s not why I killed Robert. Well, not completely. It wasn’t until dinner last night that I realized that Jack was probably telling the truth when he told me Robert had been lurking about the yard Christmas Eve. He obviously was trying to catch me in the act. And if he was there spying on me then that meant he had to have been the one to set the fire. My loving husband not only tried to kill his father, Christmas Eve, but me, as well. Have you seen my arm, Grace? Would you like to?” She said pulling back her sleeve to reveal the severe burn scars covering every inch of her arm. “My husband did that to me. Do you know how many surgeries I’ve had to go through the last year? That I’ll still have to go through. Robert got what he deserved.”

“
Did Jack? He could have gone to prison for a murder he didn’t commit.”

“Look, I wasn’t happy about it
, but I wasn’t going to have an opportunity like this again. I knew that no matter what happened; Jack would be blamed. After all, he arranged for everyone to be on the train and he had a motive for wanting Robert dead. Several people saw them fighting that morning. It was perfect. There was even a nursery rhyme book in the lounge. I figured scattering those rhymes about the bodies would work as well as a signed confession.”

Grace nodded. She had to admit Tracy was right. Jack was the first person everyone suspected.

“I’m running out of time, Grace,” Tracy said, taking a threatening step toward her.

“Wait!” Grace looked past Tracy’s shoulder. She could just make out the lights of the hotel
in the distance. If she could keep Tracy talking until they got to the hotel, everything would be fine. “Something’s been bothering me. How did you knock everyone out?”

“How do you think? Sleeping pills.
When everyone was in the kitchen, chasing that rat, I dumped the pills into the chocolate and waited. It didn’t take long. It worked perfectly except . . .”

“Except?”

“Oscar saw me tamper with the hot chocolate.”

“Ah,” Grace said. “I knew he wasn’t telling us the truth. How much did you offer him?”

Tracy nodded. “Fifty thousand. I threw in another twenty if he would say he saw Jack commit the murder.” She made a face. “I hear he deviated from the script some, but . . . ,” she said with a small shrug, “that didn’t really bother me.”

“
So, why did you kill him?”

“
Because Oscar blabbed.” She took a deep breath. “Henry showed up at my door about twenty minutes before midnight. He said he had talked to Oscar and wanted the same deal, otherwise he would go to Wellington and tell him the truth.”

“What did you do?”

“I told him that I would think about it.” Her lips quirked up. “I thought about it and decided to kill them both. Luckily, Lucas left his door unlocked when he went to talk to you all in the dining car. I decided that his room would be the best place to kill Oscar. I figured that if something went wrong and no one believed Jack committed the murders then maybe they would believe Lucas did. So, I tricked Oscar into coming with me to Lucas’ room. Once inside, I hit him over the head with one of Lucas’ stupid snowboards then I grabbed Lucas’ gun and went to find Henry. I found him in Meredith’s room and that’s where I shot him. I then went back to my room and waited for someone to find their bodies. I didn’t count on Lucas being so helpful and trying to get rid of the bodies.” Tracy took another step to Grace. “Now, you said you had proof. Besides, the broken glass in Jack’s room and that nonsense with the tattoo, what else do you have?”

“Well . . .” Grace hedged trying to come up with something to delay the inevitable.

Tracy looked disgusted. “You don’t have anything, do you?”
Shaking her head, Tracy shifted the knife in her hand. “Well, Grace, it’s time to say good-bye. I’ll give you a choice. You can either jump or . . . ” she said, waving the knife in front of Grace’s face.

Grace’s
heart took off like a jackhammer. She took a step back and then another until her heels were hanging off the edge. She could feel the cold wind against her back as it caught her hair and whipped it around her head. She hastily pushed a hand through her hair to hold it out of her way. “Wait, think for a second. You’ll never get away with this.”