Murdering the Roses (A Heavenly Highland Inn Cozy Mystery) (5 page)

Vicky
knew it was terrible for business to have the police presence but she was secretly glad that they were there. It still lurked in the back of her mind that there was a slim possibility that the murderer really could be one of the guests at the inn. She didn't believe it could be one of the employees, but a lot of people did come and go at the inn. Even if it wasn't a guest, there were plenty of places for a murderer to hide out in such a vast building. At least she hoped that with all the police presence the culprit would have been scared off. As Vicky walked the halls on the second and third floors she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. She checked all the empty rooms to be sure that no one was hiding out inside.

Then she decided to head for the staf
f quarters, where she knew the sheriff should be done searching Bob's room. A few other staff members also shared the building, including the chef Henry, and three of the maids who chose to take advantage of the discounted rent and be very close to work. As she expected, the sheriff was finished with the search in Bob's room, but as Vicky walked down the hallway towards the maid's quarters, she was surprised to find that Henry's door was ajar. It was not just open, but it looked as if it had been forced open.

How had the police overlooked this?
Vicky had not seen Henry all morning, so when she pushed gently on the door she wasn't sure what she would find. She hoped that it wouldn't be anything as devastating as what she had found in the garden. What she found was that Henry's room had been ransacked. Everything was torn from the walls and there was broken glass on the floor. Vicky knew she should call for one of the officers who would still be nearby, but she was drawn into the scene, her heart pounding. She just kept hoping that Henry was safe.

Vicky
stepped further in, more carefully, as she knew that the sheriff would want to be notified about a new crime scene and that she could be treading on evidence. As she did, she felt a little uneasy. Something seemed off, beyond the mess, and she just couldn't place what it was. She drew a shaky breath and noticed that the mattress on the bed was pushed aside. Someone had even run a knife through the mattress. The sight of the torn mattress made her even more nervous. Whoever had done this was certainly armed.

Again
Vicky felt as if she should be noticing something. Then it struck her, the room was silent. But she could hear something. It sounded distinctly like breathing. Then she heard the squeak of the closet door swinging open. Before she could spin all the way around to face whoever was leaping out of the closet, something hard and heavy struck her on the back of the head. She slumped forward into the broken glass and other rubble on the floor, the pain searing through her before she completely blacked out. One image burned into her mind as she slipped into darkness.

“Have you seen
Vicky?” Aunt Ida asked as she walked through the kitchen. Henry shook his head, his cheeks flush with annoyance. He was angrily chopping vegetables with a large knife.

“No
, but I certainly talked to enough police officers this morning. As if I would ever murder someone,” he shook his head with disgust. Aunt Ida fixed him with a steady gaze.

“Well, where were you last night Henry?” she asked as any good detective would.

“I was here!” Henry scoffed. “I had to go to the market and buy fresh vegetables since that buffoon,” he paused a moment and sighed. “Forgive me for speaking ill of the dead, but he murdered all the vegetables in the garden! So I had to work late to get breakfast prepared for this morning.”

“Oh I see,” Aunt Ida nodded and glanced around the kitchen. His alibi would be easy enough to prove as there was a surveillance camera leading in and out of the kitchen. As long as he was seen walking into the kitchen before midnight and not walking out before midnight, then he was in the clear. She of course wouldn't be convinced until she saw the video for herself. But that wasn't what she was concerned about at the moment.

“Can you believe all of this?” Sarah asked as she walked into the kitchen from the other direction. “We're going to lose a lot of business over this,” she sighed and shook her head as the numbers swam through her mind. “And then I have to wonder, are we really safe here?” she asked in a more fearful voice.

“Bob brought this here,” Henry said sharply as he laid the knife down on the cutting board. “He owed people money and was associating with the wrong sort of people. We've never had any trouble here, before he came,” he scowled.

“Now Henry,” Aunt Ida said in a chastising tone. “The poor man is dead, I don't think being angry at him is going to make it any worse for him.”

Henry sighed and nodded as he swept the vegetables into a large metal bowl.

“Sarah, have you seen Vicky?” Aunt Ida asked as she stepped closer to her niece.

“I thought she was with you?”
Sarah asked with surprise.

“Oh I'm sure she's just off investigating,” Ida shrugged as if it was nothing to be worried about, but she was worried. She hadn't been able to find
Vicky for some time, and they had planned to meet back up.

“I wonder where she could be,”
Sarah said as she walked towards the large kitchen window. “It's not like her to just disappear, especially with all of this going on.”

“I checked her apartment, but she wasn't there,” Aunt Ida explained, her voice beginning to show her concern. “I'm afraid she might have taken my advice to investigate this crime ourselves a little too seriously.”

“I'd say so,” Sarah frowned with exasperation. “Aunt Ida, you two should not be meddling in this. A horrible crime has been committed here, and we don't even have any idea who might have done it. The murderer could still be somewhere close by. This is a job for the police to do, not for the two of you to get in the middle of.” Sometimes she felt as if she was mothering her Aunt.

Ida hung her head. “I know,” she murmured and then glanced up at
Sarah. “But with the wedding coming up, we just thought it would be best to figure all this out as fast as we could.”

Sarah
was still staring out the window, which overlooked the staff quarters, when she saw Vicky stumbling out of one of the rooms.

“There she is!”
Sarah called out, and then gasped in horror when she saw a trickle of blood trailing down her sister's forehead. “Oh no she's hurt!”

Aunt Ida and
Sarah ran out of the kitchen. Sarah called back over her shoulder for Henry to call for some of the remaining police officers. Most had left as they had collected all the evidence they could, but Mitchell had insisted that a few officers remain to put the guests and staff at ease. As the two women ran to Vicky she was leaning against the front wall of the building to keep herself steady. Her vision was swimming and she was having a hard time standing upright. She had a few flecks of glass stuck to her cheek from collapsing on the floor. Her head hurt terribly, and she recalled being struck on the back of the head, but mostly she was confused. Had she really seen what she thought she saw?

“I need to see the sheriff,” she said, her voice slightly slurred as she was still recovering from the blow. Two officers came running up to them, their hands on their holstered weapons.

“Are you okay?” one asked as he looked at the blood on Vicky's forehead. It was just from a small cut, likely from glass.

“Someone attacked me,”
Vicky breathed out, every word making her head hurt more. “He was hiding, and he attacked me, but he's gone now,” she pointed in the direction of Henry's room. The officers went quickly to search it.

“Let's get you inside,” Aunt Ida said nervously as she glanced around. It was still possible that the culprit was lingering nearby. 

“What happened?” Sarah demanded as she eased her sister into the kitchen and sat her down at the table.

“The killer,”
Vicky explained breathlessly. “He was here, he was in Henry's room!”

“What?” Henry asked as he hurried over to
Vicky with a wet rag to staunch the bleeding from the cut on her forehead. He knocked the knife off of the counter. It clattered into the metal sink, making them all jump with surprise at the sharp sound. “Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yes, he was hiding in your closet,”
Vicky said and winced at how much it hurt to talk. “I need to talk to the sheriff, I saw something important.”

“He's on his way,”
Sarah assured her. Once the cut had been cleaned, Henry headed for the freezer and gathered some ice. He walked over with a bag of ice wrapped in a towel for the knot on the back of her head. Aunt Ida was looking at the wound on the back of Vicky's head closely.

“She's got quite a bump,”
Aunt Ida declared with anger in her voice. “But it looks like she will be okay.”

“We'll let the paramedics decide that,”
Sarah said firmly, she wasn't taking any chances.

“Paramedics, no,”
Vicky shook her head groggily. “Really I'm fine.”

"You certainly
are not fine," Mitchell corrected from the door of the kitchen. He walked towards Vicky with a deep frown. "What happened?" he asked in a whisper when he noticed the small cut on her forehead.

"It's just from glass,"
Vicky said swiftly. "Henry's room was broken into. So I went in to have a look…"

"Why?" Mitchell demanded, his eyes full of concern. "Why would you walk in instead of calling me?"

Vicky lowered her eyes as she realized now how stupid she was to go in.

"I just figured I might be able to find something," she said quietly. “I was worried that Henry was hurt.”

"Then what happened?" Mitchell asked her in a more gentle tone as he noted the fear that rose in her eyes.

"Yes, fill us in," the s
heriff requested as he walked in behind Mitchell. "Please do tell us all why you felt the need to contaminate a crime scene instead of allowing the good officers of the law do their job?" his eyes were flashing as he glared at Vicky. "You're lucky you're able to talk to us at all young lady."

Vicky
frowned at his strong tone. She wasn't a big fan of the sheriff as he always seemed to be angry about something, but in this case she couldn't really argue with him. She had been quite reckless.

"He was hiding in Henry's closet," she said softly, trying to prevent her head from throbbing with each word she spoke. The paramedics had arrived right behind the police and they were evaluating the bump on the back of
Vicky's head.

"So you saw his face?" the sheriff asked hopefully.

"No," Vicky sighed with disappointment as she knew that would have been the most helpful. "I tried to look at him, but he hit me before I could see his face."

"Then how do you know it's a he?" the sheriff demanded. "You must have seen something,” he insisted. “Think about it.”

"I did," Vicky said firmly as she tried to gather her thoughts. "It struck me as very strange. I saw his arm, which was definitely a man's arm, and he had the same tattoo as Bob!"

"A tattoo?" the sheriff shook his head slightly. "You're probably just confused
Vicky. You might have mixed two memories together. Bob is dead, and I highly doubt whoever killed him would just happen to have the exact same tattoo. I think you need some rest."

With that he turned and strode out of the kitchen. "I'm going to search the contaminated crime scene," he called back over his shoulder.

One of the paramedics patted Vicky's hand gently. "This looks like it will be fine with some ice," she said with a compassionate smile. "But we can always take you in to check for a concussion."

"No thank you,"
Vicky said firmly. "I'm feeling much better, I think I just need some water and a chance to clear my head."

Aunt Ida hurried to get her a glass of water, while
Sarah and Henry spoke quietly about what the killer might have been looking for in his room.

Once Mitchell was sure that the sheriff was gone, he turned back to
Vicky. He lowered his voice and leaned in close to her.

"Listen, I'm not supposed to tell you this,
but I think you need to know, because I want you to realize what you're up against here," he said, his voice heavy with concern.

"What is it?"
Vicky asked curiously as the pain began to subside beneath the ice she was holding against her head.

"We checked into Bob thoroughly and it looks like he was recently in jail for bu
rglary," he frowned as he added, "with a deadly weapon."

Vicky
's eyes widened at that revelation. "I had no idea," she said as she shook her head. "He said he had fallen on some hard times, and he just needed an income. I didn't realize that those hard times, were actually him doing hard time."

"Yes, it was a longer s
entence but it got reduced. He had just got out of jail before he came here. Also we've questioned his brother, but he has an alibi for last night, so we don't think it could be him. We're back to square one on suspects, which means anyone could be the killer," he sighed as he looked deeply into Vicky's eyes. "Look, I know that maybe you didn't enjoy our date too much…"