Snowmen In Paradise (Book 2 Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries) (18 page)

“It appears I
was wrong about Mr. Pitman’s whereabouts,” the woman explained. “One of our employees called in sick, so he’s in the main lobby, helping out at the ice-cream counter.”

“Okay, thanks
. I’ll find him there.”

Tj headed back toward the
front of the building. She realized that striking up a conversation at the ice-cream counter would be a lot easier than trying to explain why she was requesting an audience in his office.

“H
ey, Tj. What can I get you?” Albert asked as Tj walked up to the counter.

Tj considered her options
. “A chocolate cone.”

Albert began to scoop the dark brown ice cream.

“I’m surprised you’re working the counter. It seems like you must be slammed in the lodge.”

“We are
. My niece Polly,” he said, mentioning his eldest sister’s daughter, who lived with them and helped out at the inn, “was supposed to work today, but she’s had a bit of a setback.” Tj noticed that the light in Albert’s eyes had been replaced with anger, and the muscles around his mouth clenched, as if he could barely contain his emotion. “We decided to send her home to stay with her mom for a spell.”

“I hope everything
’s okay.”

“It is now.”
The light returned to Albert’s eyes. “That’ll be four dollars.”

Tj handed Albert a five
-dollar bill. “I guess things must have calmed down a bit now that Travis isn’t around to cause a ruckus.”

“They have at that.”
Albert’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“It’s a shame what happened,” Tj tried.

“Oh, I don’t know.” Albert handed her back her change. “Seems to me the boy got what he deserved.”

“Yeah, I guess
.” Tj shrugged. “I heard he was drugged before he was stabbed. Seems like more than one person decided to get payback for their rage.”

“Drugged?”
Albert paled.

“I don’t suppose you remember who served him his drink?”

“No.” Albert cleared his throat. “Can’t say that I do. It’s been busy, so everyone has been covering for everyone else. You don’t think one of my servers did it?”

Tj
shook her head, trying to act nonchalant in spite of the fact that Albert was seriously stressing over the direction of the conversation. “I’m pretty sure Boggs believes that Chelsea Hanson is the guilty party. I guess you heard they arrested her.”

“Yeah
.” Albert looked toward the crowd forming behind her. “I heard.”

“Seems odd to me that Travis ended up in his room,” Tj continued
. “Not much of a chance Chelsea could have moved him unless she had help from someone at the resort.”

“
Will that do it for yah?” Albert looked anxious for her to move on.

Tj turned around and looked at the line
. “It seems you might need to bring in some more help.”

“Tried to
, but a couple of our regulars quit when they heard they might not get paid on time.”

“Why wouldn’t they get paid?”

“You must have heard about the fire at the admin building?”

“Of course.”

“All kinds of sensitive paperwork was destroyed, including personnel and payroll records,” Albert informed her. “There’s been talk that the next payroll might be delayed while they sort everything out.”

“Have you heard how
the fire started?”

“No
. There’s a rumor that there was arson involved, but I haven’t seen an official report. I just can’t imagine who would do such a thing. There are a lot of people who are going to be hurting if they can’t get the payroll out on time.”

“The whole thing seems really odd
, given everything else that’s happened. I can’t help but wonder if the fire wasn’t in some way related to Travis Davidson’s murder.”

“What?”
Albert looked genuinely shocked. “I don’t see how it could be.”

Tj shrugged. “
I hope everything turns out okay with the payroll situation.” She walked away, wanting to know a whole lot more but afraid to push her luck. It seemed apparent that Albert knew something that was causing him distress, but she couldn’t put her finger on what that something might be. Maybe she’d come back and snoop around when she had more time.

Tj was headed back toward the ski area when she ran into Kyle. “What are you doing here?”

“I was in town helping with the family events
, but I wanted to catch Connor’s run this afternoon.”

“He had fabulous times this morning.”

“I sort of figured you’d be with the team.”

“I wanted to question Albert Pitman
. I think he might be involved in this whole mess.”

“I don’t know
.” Kyle frowned. “I realize we put him on the list because he complained to Mayor Wallaby about the disruptions Travis was causing, but honestly, I never really figured him for the killer.”

“Yeah, me neither.”
Tj took another bite of her ice cream. “Initially, I just wanted to talk to him so I could cross him off the list and move on, but it feels like there might be something more going on.”

“Such as?”

“Albert has a niece, Polly, who lives with the Pitmans and helps out at the Inn. Albert mentioned that she was supposed to work today but that something happened at the last minute to make him send her home for a visit with her mother.”

“And this is important because
. . .”

“Sarah
told me that Chelsea mentioned that she wasn’t the first person Travis had sexually assaulted. Polly is a cute girl who lives at the Inn. I imagine she came into contact with Travis when he was in town.”

“So you think Travis assaulted
Polly, Albert sent her home to her mother, and then he killed Travis?”

Tj shrugged
. “I don’t know. I guess it’s far-fetched, but Albert’s entire demeanor changed when we talked about Polly. And then, when I said I hoped everything was going to be okay, he got this strange look on his face and said ‘it is now.’ The whole conversation made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

“Besides,” Tj added
, as they neared the base lodge, “Dylan told me Travis was drugged before he left the bar. When I mentioned that to Albert, he looked like he was going to pass out. He has access to the emergency door and the service elevator. I’m not saying he’s guilty of anything, but I do think he warrants further investigation.”

“
So what now?”

“I’m not sure
. I need to get to the mountain. I guess I’ll noodle on it for a while.”

“Should we fill Dyl
an in?” Kyle asked.

Tj hesitated
. “I don’t know. Maybe we should keep this to ourselves for now. If we tell Dylan, he’ll be obligated to talk to Albert, and I hate to pull him into this until after I have a chance to think about it a bit.”

“
Has anyone heard from Josh?”

“No
. Dennis has called him a million times, but he hasn’t answered or called back. He’s getting really worried.”

Kyle stopped walking and looked directly at her
. “I realize Dylan is a cop, and as a cop he has certain responsibilities, but in the time I’ve known him, he’s seemed like a pretty decent guy who’s open to working outside the limits of protocol. If you believe that Josh is innocent, then chances are he’s not on the run. If he’s not on the run and isn’t answering his phone, he could be in real trouble.”

“
You’re right. I’ll talk to Dylan later if I can track him down.”

“Congratulations.” Coach Parker came up and hugged Tj after the final heat, which had earned them enough points to take the first-place standing away from Beaver Creek.

“Thanks, although it’s the kids who should be congratulated
. They’ve made so much progress just this week.”

“I know
. I’ve been keeping an eye on them,” Parker informed her. “Especially Connor Harrington. I met with Sean Wright on Monday, and he’s seriously considering mentoring Harrington if he’s interested in breaking into the pro circuit. His new coach is onboard as well. One of his stipulations is that a few of us agree to work with him for the remainder of the year.”

Tj remembered the meeting she
’d witnessed between Sean Harris, Johnson, and Coach Parker in the bar on Monday afternoon.

“That would be fantastic
. I know Connor wants to go to college, but a chance to hit the pro circuit would be a huge opportunity.”

“
For both of us. I’ve been looking for someone to take on ever since Travis left.”

“I was sorry
to hear about what happened.” Coach Parker had been burned by Travis, but the two of them had been like father and son at one point. The fact that he’d been murdered must have hurt.

“Yeah
.” Parker looked genuinely sad. “Travis was a good kid. I don’t know what happened to him, and I admit to having been angry with him after how he treated everyone, but I can’t help but remember the good times as well. He was such a cocky kid. When we first started working together, he was full of raw talent but short on discipline. Sometimes I wonder if we did the right thing by coddling him all those years. I guess he didn’t have what it took to handle his success. It ended up turning him into something he might otherwise never have been. I know he’d been acting like a first-class ass recently, but he didn’t deserve this. During the past few days, I’ve found myself wishing I’d gone after him when he ran out of the bar. I almost did. I stood up to follow him, but I realized I’d be late picking up my daughter from dance, so I turned around and headed toward the parking lot instead. I can’t help but wonder if Travis would still be alive if I hadn’t had carpool duty that day. I hope they find whoever did this to him.”

“I’m sure they will.”

Tj checked Coach Parker off her list. The man seemed genuinely distraught, and it would be easy enough to verify that he had indeed picked up his daughter from her class. She needed to get going, but it would only take a few minutes to talk to Jeremy Young and Pete Quinn if they were in their shops.

“I had a visitor this afternoon,” Dylan said, jumping right in after ordering a sandwich to go with his beer. “He confessed to drugging Travis the day he was killed and attributed his decision to turn himself in to a conversation he had with you.”

“Albert Pitman,” Tj guessed.

“Good guess. How did you know?”

“I ran into him at lunch today
, and he mentioned that his niece had made an unplanned trip home to visit her mother due to some emotional turmoil. I knew Travis was staying at the Inn, and Chelsea told Sarah that she wasn’t the first girl he had sexually abused. I figured that Polly, who I know is a friend of Chelsea’s, must have been the girl she was referring to. I figure the rape of a family member is about as good a reason to kill someone as anything.”

“
An excellent theory that’s actually close to what really happened,” Dylan congratulated her. “Except that Polly wasn’t raped and Albert didn’t kill Travis.”

“Okay
.” Tj was intrigued. “Then what did happen?”

“As you might guess
, Travis has been a thorn in Albert’s side since the day he checked in. Not only has he disturbed the other guests but he’s been rude to his staff and, although he didn’t rape Polly, he did seem to take a disturbing sort of glee in harassing her. Albert complained to the mayor, who told him in no uncertain terms that Travis was in town for an important meeting and under no circumstances could he kick him out. I guess Mayor Wallaby offered to compensate Albert generously for the inconvenience, but he didn’t want Polly to go through any more grief, so he sent her to visit her mother.

“After Polly left,” Dylan continued, “Travis became even more obnoxious than he had been
before, so Albert once again complained to the mayor. I don’t know the actual details because Albert refused to supply them, but I guess the mayor has something he’s holding over Albert’s head, which created a situation in which Albert couldn’t simply kick Travis out. The more Albert thought about it, the madder he became at both Travis and Mayor Wallaby. He let his anger stew until he’d developed an uncontrollable urge to get even.”

Tj was itching to cut through the details and get on with the story
, but for once in her life she decided to hold her tongue and let Dylan finish uninterrupted.

“Albert decided that the
best way to get back at both Travis and Mayor Wallaby was to prevent Travis from attending the meeting that seemed to be so important to both men.”

“So he slipped something into his drink,” Kyle guessed.

“Exactly,” Dylan confirmed. “He figured he’d start to feel woozy and head up to his room. By the time Travis came to, he would have missed his important meeting and Albert would have gotten his revenge.”