5 A Bad Egg (4 page)

“Even romance
novels?” I asked with a smile.

“You’d better
believe it. I keep a selection on hand, as many of our guests like to read a
little for guilty pleasure. The reason I know that is because they rarely take
the books with them when they leave us. As for Mr. Murphy’s telephone usage, I
keep chargers nearby that fit most every phone ever made, just in case one’s
needed. Knowing their habits and preferences is the
only
way to ensure that our guests get the treatment they’re paying
for. For them, privacy is a price they are willing to pay for good service.”

“But surely
they count on your discretion as well,” I said.

“Victoria,”
Moose said a little impatiently. “Cal is talking to us as a favor to me. You
understand that, don’t you?”

“I’m sorry,”
I said quickly. “I didn’t mean any offense by it.”

“I didn’t
take any, so don’t worry about it. If you’d asked me anything without having
your grandfather in tow, you wouldn’t even have gotten my name, rank, and
serial number out of me. It just so happens that I owe Moose a pretty huge
favor, and this won’t even begin to pay it back.”

“Cal, I wiped
that slate clean a long time ago,” Moose said mysteriously.

“You might
have, but I know I still owe you, and until we’re even, all you have to do is
ask.”

“Could I ask
you one more thing, then? Do you happen to know if Ms. Blackstone is in her
room right now?” Moose asked.

“She went for
a walk ten minutes ago, as a matter of fact,” Cal said. He pointed to a path
near the water and added, “If you head off that way, you’re sure to catch up
with her.”

“Thanks,
Cal,” Moose said. “We really are even now.”

“Not until I
say we are,” Cal said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m due to walk Jimikens for
Mrs. Nance. If I’m late, old Jim takes it out on me.”

After Cal was
gone and Moose and I started down the path that skirted the lake, I asked,
“What on earth did you ever do for Cal?”

“That’s
between us, young lady. What happened to you holding your tongue back there?”

I laughed.
“Come on, Moose. We both knew that wasn’t going to happen. He really laid it
all out there, didn’t he? It’s clear he feels beholden to you.”

“Cal just had
a bit of bad luck in the past.”

“Why do I
have the feeling that it’s not as simple as all of that?” I asked.

“I don’t have
any idea what you’re talking about,” Moose said as he added a quick wink. “Now,
do you have any ideas about how we should approach the grieving fiancée?”

“Well, it’s
going to be hard to commiserate with her, since she’s probably the only person
around here who’s all that sorry to see something happen to Gordon.”

“Maybe so,
but she must have seen
something
in
him to agree to marry the man,” Moose said.

“We can offer
our sympathies and go from there,” I said.

“I suppose
that it’s as good a plan as any,” my grandfather said.

We never had the
chance to implement it, though.

We were about
to round a corner when I heard a single voice speaking. It was a woman, and she
sounded extremely upset. “I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me. No, I don’t think
he was bluffing. He had something he said would bury me. Yes, I know. It was a
poor choice of words, but that’s what he told me. No, I can’t come back until I
find out. Good bye.”

I tried to
pull Moose back as the conversation ended, but we didn’t quite manage it. A
rather plain woman in her thirties came down the path, and before she spotted
us, there was a dark frown on her lips. She was well dressed, a little too nice
for a hike around the lake, and her hair was expensively styled. Before she
spotted us, I took a gamble and said to my grandfather, “I’m telling you, we’re
lost. I have no idea where she is.”

Jessie
Blackstone and I made eye contact, and I did my best to smile at her as I said,
“Are you by any chance Jessie? My grandfather and I had just about given up all
hope of finding you out here.”

“I’m Jessie
Blackstone,” she said a little warily. “Why were you looking for me?”

“We knew
Gordon,” Moose said. “We wanted to come by and offer you our condolences.”

“Thank you,”
she said automatically, though it did nothing to alleviate her scowl. “Excuse
me for being so abrupt, but who exactly are you?”

“Forgive me,”
I said as I stepped forward and offered her my hand. “I’m Victoria Nelson, and
this is my grandfather, Moose.”

She started
to reach out her hand automatically before she heard my name, but as I said it,
Jessie pulled it back as though we were a pair of vipers. “You own that awful
diner,” she said.

“I wouldn’t
call it awful,” Moose said, using his most charming smile. “We prefer to call
it quaint, if you don’t mind.”

“It’s where
that woman works, though,” she said.

“Which woman
are you referring to?” I asked, though I knew full well who she meant.

“Gordon’s
ex-wife, Ellen. She wouldn’t let him see his own children. Can you imagine
anyone being so cruel?”

“Hang on a
second,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. “You don’t know the entire
situation. Gordon left her high and dry to raise two kids all alone. You can’t
really blame her for not welcoming him back to town with open arms, can you?”

“I understand
that sometimes people have differences in a marriage, but when Gordon first
told me about his children, I could barely believe it. He assured me that when
he left, he did his best to stay in their lives, but she wouldn’t allow it.”

“Let me
guess.
You’re
the one who insisted
that he come back to Jasper Fork and fight for them, aren’t you?”

Jessie nodded
a little uncertainly. “It was the right thing to do. I could never have married
him without at least meeting his children. What kind of man doesn’t see his own
offspring?”

“Was trying
to get custody your idea as well?” Moose asked.

“He needed to
be a part of their lives, and we could afford to give them the very best
things,” Jessie said. “Don’t they deserve that much, after what they’d been
through?”

“They don’t
deserve losing their mother,” I said, and I could barely contain my feelings.
Ellen was the greatest mother in the world as far as I was concerned, putting
the welfare of her children above her own every step of the way.

“Of course
they don’t,” Jessie said, and I believed her. “It was never my intention for us
to seek full custody.”

“Ellen
believed otherwise,” I said.

Jessie
frowned. “I
told
Gordon that it was a
foolish strategy, but he believed that if we threatened to seek full custody,
Ellen would be more compliant about allowing us into their lives.”

“I don’t
suppose any of it matters now,” I said.

Jessie looked
off toward the lake. “No, I suppose that it doesn’t. Have the police found her
yet?”

“Ellen?”
Moose asked. “How did you know that they were looking for her?”

“Sheriff
Croft came here and spoke to me,” Jessie said. “Naturally, I told him about the
argument Gordon had last night in Ellen’s home, and he left in search of your
waitress.”

“Where were
you
when it happened?” I asked her.

Jessie looked
away again before she spoke. “I don’t suppose we should be talking about it,
since it’s part of an ongoing murder investigation.”

“What would
it hurt for you to give us your alibi?” Moose asked. “It might make things
easier for you if we could eliminate you as a suspect right off the bat.”

Jessie looked
startled by the thought that Moose and I would be involved in searching for
Gordon Murphy’s killer. “What possible business is it of yours?”

“My
grandfather and I have been known to help the police out from time to time,” I
said. I wasn’t exactly sure that Sheriff Croft would put it that way, but it
was still true.

“I didn’t
realize that either one of you had any official status,” Jessie said.

“It’s more of
an informal thing,” I said.

Jessie shook
her head. “Then I’ll deal with the sheriff directly. Now, if you’ll excuse me,
I’m afraid that this tragedy has taken quite a toll on me.”

As she headed
past us on the path, Moose and I turned to follow her. We took a dozen steps
nearly in tandem when Jessie whirled around and faced us. “Are you honestly
going to follow me?” There was real anger in her expression, and I was glad
that Moose was with me, despite the fact that I had at least twenty pounds on
this woman.

“It’s the
only way back to the inn,” I said.

She stared at
us for a few seconds more, shook her head, and then she stormed on, doing her
best to ignore us.

I touched
Moose’s arm to hold him back a little, but he just shrugged, so we walked on
together.

When Jessie
got back to open ground, her pace increased, and she was soon stomping off
toward the safety of her hotel.

“She’s a
little touchy about her alibi, isn’t she?” Moose asked. “I thought for a second
there that she was going to push us both off the path straight into the lake.”

“I understand
her being a little on edge,” I said. “After all, someone just killed her
fiancé.”

“Was it me,
or did she not seem too upset about who might have done it?” I asked.

“What do you
mean?”

“She didn’t
show much grief, as far as I’m concerned. She was angry, and more than a little
defensive, but not grieving. And what about that telephone call we overheard? I
wonder who she could have been talking to.”

“I don’t have
a clue,” Moose said as he scratched his chin. “We need to keep an eye on her.
I’m automatically suspicious of anyone who refuses to share their alibis with
us, aren’t you?”

“Not everyone
has one,” I said.

“No, but she
sidestepped the question the second she heard it. I’ve got a hunch that she’s
hiding something.”

“Do you think
she killed him?” I asked my grandfather.

“It’s
something we can’t rule out, but I have to wonder about something. If she
is
guilty, what made her get rid of him
right here and now? She’s really the only one who’s been a part of Gordon’s
life lately, so why kill him once he’s back in a town where he made a great
many enemies?”

“That’s the
answer to your question right there,” I said.

“I don’t
follow you,” Moose answered.

“What better
place to bump him off than someplace where there are half a dozen other viable
suspects? If she planned it that way, she’s absolutely brilliant.”

“And if she
didn’t?”

“Then she’s
pretty gutsy, or maybe she’s just an innocent bystander.” I hesitated, and then
I added, “The only time I bought her completely was when she was talking about
Ellen’s kids. I’ve got a hunch that she was sincere about that, and Gordon knew
it. His kids were a deal-breaker for her, and he must have really wanted her
money. Why else would he risk coming back here after all of these years not
knowing what he was going to face?”

“Knowing
Gordon, the potential profit had to outweigh the danger.”

I was about
to reply when I looked up and saw that Cal was walking toward us, along with a
pair of husky men wearing sharp-looking suits.

None of them were
smiling, and I had to wonder if this was more bad news for us.

Chapter 5

“I’m afraid
you two are going to have to leave the premises,” Cal said as he reached us
first. “We can’t have you walking the grounds upsetting our guests.”

“Who exactly
has been complaining about us?” Moose asked. He was clearly in no mood to
comply with exiting the property without a fight.

“This is
private property, sir,” one of the men said, clearly from the security team.
“We don’t need to provide any information other than that. Now, if you’ll tell
us what you’re driving, we’ll be happy to escort you to your vehicle.”

“What if we
came by for lunch?” I asked as I pointed to the restaurant.

“I’m sorry,
but that’s not going to work. We’re booked for the foreseeable future.”

Moose looked
at Cal, who seemed to shrug for just a second. It was clear that this wasn’t
his idea, but there was nothing he could do about it, especially since he’d
been the one who’d told us where we’d find Jessie in the first place. “We’re
truly sorry,” he said, though it was clear by his tone that he was doing his
best to match his companions’ tone.

“No worries,”
Moose said with a grin that was clearly artificial. At least it was clear to
me. “We’re off, then. No hard feelings.”

No one
responded to that, so my grandfather and I walked back to his truck with an
escort. As I started to get in the passenger side, I looked over at the
restaurant and saw one of the drapes flutter. Someone had been watching the
entire procession, and I had a good hunch who that might be. Well, at least
we’d given Jessie a show to go along with her meal.

As we pulled
out of the parking lot, I said, “Wow, that was fast, wasn’t it? They didn’t
waste any time getting rid of us.”

Moose just
shrugged. “When there’s that kind of money involved, I’m pretty sure the hotel
staff is ready to do just about anything that they’re called on to do.”

“Still, you
gave up pretty easily,” I said with a grin. “What happened, did their sheer
numbers intimidate you into backing down?”

“Yeah, that
was it entirely,” Moose said, matching my smile. “I knew that we weren’t going
to get anything else out of Jessie today, so it was important that no one had
to actually throw us off the property. This way we’re free to come back and
speak with her again later.”

“Do you
honestly think that’s going to happen?”

“You never
know,” Moose said. “Who should we tackle next?”