Death Checks Inn (Aspen Valley Inn 1) (8 page)

They looked up as
Miranda and John Braverman entered the dining room.

Lacey jumped up to go finish breakfast.

When she came back in with piping hot wedges of frittata arranged, attractively on three plates with the bright colorful fruit salad side dish she was aware of tension in the room.

Apparently,
Wyatt had been asking the Braverman’s if they could possibly stay for a day or two more in case there were more questions for the couple. John Braverman was angry and irritation marred his wife’s beautiful blond countenance.

Wyatt spoke in soothing tones but John pushed back his chair and
said, “You can’t keep us here! We are leaving tomorrow morning and there is nothing you can do about it.”

He took
Miranda by the hand and they abruptly left the room.

A minute later, Joan and Suzy breezed in, unaware of the previous conversation.

“I’m starving! What smells so good?” asked Suzy.

They saw the two plates
on the table and assuming they were for them sat down and began hungrily attacking the food.

Lacey hurried back into the kitchen to get coffee and juice for her guests.

Wyatt followed her in and said, “Sorry about that.” 

She studied his serious face and reminded him that it was true they could not make anyone stay here at the Inn.

She wanted to ask if he really thought the couple had anything to do with the murders but knew he probably wouldn’t be able to answer that.

For that matter, Joan and Suzy were supposed to check out this morning. Would he want to keep them here too? She could tell by his evasive expression when she asked that he did indeed want to keep everyone in place.
Unless he was arresting everyone, they would most likely be leaving.

In addition,
until their departure she was supposed to be providing a wonderful experience. Ha- that would only be true if this was one of those haunted Halloween events! Hmmm… she thought that was a good idea, she would file that away as an option for another time.

She was sure that once the realness of
these last few days passed she would be ready for a pretend mystery gathering.

The morning passed uneventfully. Wyatt had left for work right after breakfast.

Lacey tended to the usual daily housekeeping duties.

Charlotte came mid- morning to help. They both worked on a thank you packet for their first guests. They added a free weekend stay at the Inn along with the usual discount coupons for tourist attractions and a nice framed picture of the guests smiling gaily
with the beautiful sunset behind them in the sanctuary. Lacey felt that they had to give a murder free stay in an effort to make up for the drama this week had brought.

They split up the list of opening night guests and began calling each to thank them for attending. Lacey tried not to smile when Charlotte made sure Cody Westerfield was on her list.

Lacey spoke at length with both Lucinda Wright and Mandy Grainger. She wanted to offer tours of Lucy’s Llama’s to her guests and she profusely thanked Mandy for the delicious meal she had delivered.

Someday when the Inn was on
its feet, she would like to hire the woman to provide special occasion meals for her guests.

If grand opening week
was, anything to go by she had a lot of making up to do to get the word out that the Inn was a wonderful destination.

Handy Man Dan came in around noon to install the security system. Lacey had never thought she would need such an elaborate system at her
quiet, country Inn, but that had sure changed. Dan did his best to flirt equally with both her and Charlotte. He was cute in an endearing puppy kind of way but neither of them could be seriously interested.

Joan and Suzy came downstairs with their backpacks ready to check out. Lacey apologized for the disruption and horror of their stay but they brushed her apology aside.

“Think of the great stories we have to tell when we get back to school,” Suzy said cheerfully.

Joan added that they would definitely be back.

Lacey thought to herself how wonderful it was to be that young and able to put a positive spin on the worst of life, even murder. She walked them to the front door. As she closed the door on the two of them, they waved happily. Then they got into the shuttle she had called for them.

Suzy called
out, “We left you something, check the sanctuary!” 

Lacey called Charlotte and they went out to the sanctuary together. They looked around and didn’t see anything out of place. Wondering what
on earth they were talking about they went back inside.

As they entered the reception
hall, they were surprised by the sight of Miranda and John standing at the foot of the stairs with their luggage at their feet.

John spoke brusquely
, “We’re sorry, but we are ready to get back to Omaha. That discussion with the cop was the final touch. We don’t blame you, but frankly, the honeymoon is over.”

Lacey did her best to talk them out of
leaving, even offering several complimentary tours to tempt them to stay.

“No, thank
you. We really want to just go home. Will you call a shuttle for us please? And John, let’s at least go do that rock thing the girls told us about before we leave,” said the beautiful Miranda.

Lacey went to the phone and called another shuttle. Her curiosity got the better of her and gesturing to
Charlotte, they followed the couple out to the sanctuary.

John looked around and then led
Miranda over to the border area just inside the wall that was filled with river rock of different shapes and sizes. He pointed to one that had writing on it.

Lacey hurried over and took the rock from
the pile. Turning it so all could read the words written in bold magic marker,

“We had a killer time~ the date and Joan and Suzy” was written on the rock with a saucy smiley face.

She laughed
aloud at the unique monument the girls had made to mark their stay.

John asked for a marker as
Miranda picked out a smooth oval stone.

Charlotte ran inside and came back with a black marker.

After huddling together for a moment, Miranda scrawled a message on the rock and handed it to Lacey.

“True love never dies
” was inscribed with a heart containing their initials on the grey stone.

She placed it
carefully into the pile of stones that rimmed the wall.

As they went back inside they heard the
beep beep
of the horn of the shuttle vehicle waiting in the driveway. They shook hands and then they were off.

Charlotte and Lacey stood at the doorway.

Dan joined them and said, “Hey, that rock thing was cool, wasn’t it?”

Charlotte and
Lacey laughed aloud.

Yes, thought
Lacey, if nothing else had been gained by this disastrous week then at least they had begun a wonderful tradition for the future guests of the Inn.

Charlotte patted her on the back as if to say Amen.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning the guest rooms and tidying up the common areas of the Inn.

Lacey went to check the Inn’s website and was surprised to see several inquiries about reservation availability.

She called Charlotte over to look at a particularly interesting request. A Wiccan group wanted to book all the guests rooms next month for a four-day Moon Goddess celebration. Charlotte was confused.

Lacey explained to her that Wicca was an earthy witchcraft type religion that was gaining popularity after years in obscurity. She felt they were harmless but hoped that their interest wasn’t solely based on the two deaths that had probably been reported in the news.

There was a family reunion requesting dates for July and another honeymoon couple requesting a week in
August. All in all these requests seemed a positive omen to Lacey.

As she confirmed each of the
requests, she felt more normal than she had for the last three days.

The bell rang on the front deck. Tricia Moore stood there peering into the glass
oval in the front door.

Lacey let her in and Tricia looked around brightly
.

“So all of your guests have gone?”
she asked bluntly.

Lacey wondered how this news could have already spread but such was the nature of small town gossip mills.

Charlotte offered to bring them tea out in the sanctuary.

Lacey led her guest out to
a wrought iron table. The stucco walls did a great job of blocking the wind and that together with the mild June temperature made it quite pleasant.

Charlotte brought out tall glasses of iced tea and joined them at the table.

Tricia did not even try to hide her interest in the goings on at the Inn. She asked a lot of questions about both Adam and Heather’s death and seemed almost too interested in Wyatt’s opinion about the investigation.

Lacey put her off with vague murmurings about not really knowing anything. Charlotte turned the conversation to Tricia and her background.

Tricia said she had lived many places, Omaha, Fort Morgan and just a few months ago, Denver. She really enjoyed the welcome of a small community after the coldness of a large city. She had worked as a day care provider in Omaha but found that she really enjoyed her work at the Elkville café.

Her face clouded when asked about husband or children and Charlotte decided to leave that subject alone.
Everyone had his or her own story and their own pain,

Charlotte
, more than anyone, could attest to that.

Tricia glanced at her
watch, exclaimed that she would be late for the dinner shift at the café, and hurried out to her car.

As
Charlotte and Lacey waved from the front deck, a pickup truck pulled into the driveway.

Cody Westerfield jumped down from the cab carrying a large white box. While he only had eyes for
Charlotte, Lacey greeted him and asked him to come in and have some tea.

“I can’t stay,” he said, “I just wanted to bring this by as a welcome to the neighborhood gift.”

He looked at both of them for a moment, handed the box to Charlotte and then with a wave headed back to the still running pickup truck.

Charlotte carried the box into the Inn and they opened it to inspect the contents. A card on top explained that the box contained eight of the finest
free-range bison sirloin steaks that could be bought. Grass fed and raised nearby at the C bar W ranch. Wow. Lacey thought.

This would make a very special
meal, a meal that sure needed two couples. Herself and Wyatt and maybe even though Charlotte would do her best to get out of it, Charlotte and Cody.

She placed the box into the large freezer with a promise to herself to get that dinner arranged soon.

The next visitor was Wyatt.

Lacey hurried to greet him at the door.

“Do you know anything?”
she asked.

She had called him when all of her guests had departed. He had not been happy about it.

He followed her into the kitchen. Charlotte sat across from the two of them at the big worktable.

He told them that his department had been in contact with both the
Boulder police department and the Omaha homicide division. Each of her guests would be welcomed by their local police and given firm instructions that they were not to leave the area.

They were all
persons of interest and needed to make themselves available for further questioning.

Wyatt voiced his relief that these potential suspects were no longer staying with her at the Inn.

He frowned as he told them that the Topeka police department had been more than happy to reopen the Adam Mason case. They even had a list of people that Adam had owed a lot of money to. They were checking out the list and really felt that a couple of them were very capable of finishing him off if they discovered that he had not died years ago.

“Are there any answers about Heather?”
Lacey asked.

He reminded her that
even though the death was suspicious there was nothing that undeniably pointed to a homicide. Maybe she
had
killed the husband she grieved for all these years and then filled with remorse jumped off the mountainside.

Either
way he expected to have some real answers by next week. He stood up intending to get back to work.

Lacey walked him to the door.

They hugged and she had to ask, “Does this mean you won’t be staying here tonight?”

With a devilish
glint, he leaned closer, “Well, I was going to catch up on some work and check on my house but I could easily be talked into coming over here.”