Murder Games (27 page)

Molly looked at them closely.
“Wait a minute; I thought you said you couldn’t find the ruby after Drew dropped it.”

Grace shook her head. “
Drew never had it. Kyle replaced the ruby at the last second.” She smiled at Kyle. “I knew you picked up that piece of gravestone for a reason. You switched it out for the ruby, didn’t you?”

Kyle sighed before reaching into the inside of his coat pocket.
His eyebrows drew down as he began checking each pocket. “It’s gone.”

“Very funny, Kyle.”

“No, I’m serious.” He opened his coat and looked at his pocket. After turning it inside out, he unbuttoned his suit jacket and checked the inside of that pocket, as well.

Grace, noticing
a red stain on his shirt gasped. “You’re bleeding.”

Kyle looked down
in bewilderment. “No, I’m not.” He opened his jacket wider to reveal a bloody handprint staining his crisp white shirt.

They looked at each other before turning back to the window. “Where’s
Austin?” Grace asked.

EPILOGUE

Grace stood in
the center of the glass gazebo and waited patiently as Kyle spread out the blanket they were about to use as a picnic tablecloth on the floor. It was the last day of their vacation and Kyle had gotten the idea to come back to the maze one last time before they left. Deciding to make an afternoon of it, they had packed a lunch and were now preparing to settle down and enjoy it before they went exploring again.

Once the blanket was spread out, Grace dropped to her knees next to Kyle and unpacked their lunch.
She glanced out one of the windows. The hedge around the graveyard had been removed and now yellow police tape stood in its place. Definitely not an improvement, Grace thought with a shiver. “Are you sure it’s okay to be here?”

“It’s fine. The police have
already removed Erica’s body. Besides, we’re outside the yellow tape.” He unwrapped his sandwich and took a bite. They ate in silence for a while before each lying down on the blanket. Kyle put his hands behind his head. “How’s Molly doing?”

“Good.
Austin left her a note apologizing for his behavior. I think he may have actually liked her.”

“Did he happen to tell her his real name?”

Grace shook her head. “Unfortunately, no. He signed the note, Fortune Hunter.”

“From what Deputy Rhodes told me
, they spoke to the real Professor Waverly this morning. Apparently, his wallet was stolen last year at a party in Boston. That wasn’t the only thing stolen that night. Someone walked off with several thousands of dollars in jewels, too.”

“
So, he’s a jewel thief. Poor Molly, I think she was rather taken with him.” Grace raised her head. For a moment there, she thought she heard something off in the distance. A voice in the wind. A chill raced up her spine as she focused in on the faint sound.

Kyle
tucked a strand of her hair back around her ear, drawing her attention back to him. “You know it’s a shame.”

“What is?”

“We should have won that trophy.”

Grace grinned. Kyle had done nothing
but complain since the mystery game breakfast that morning. Despite the activity of the night before, the hotel had gathered all of the remaining game participants from each of the games together to hand out prizes. It was a rather subdued affair with very few in attendance, since many of the games had been cancelled early, and the hosts and most of the participants of the Murder Manor game had been arrested for a sundry of crimes. Withholding evidence, unlawful imprisonment, and desecration of graves being just a couple of the most serious listed during their arraignment. Of course, none of which compared to Drew Yates’ offenses, which casted a pall over the Mystery Game obligatory award breakfast.

Grace had almost
begged off herself, but in the end, decided that a free breakfast was still a free breakfast. “Are you still upset about that? Laura won fair and square. She’s the only one who figured out that Rose had killed Ivy and why. Besides, she made bail just in time. Who knows what she would have done if they hadn’t given it to her.”

“Oh big deal. I could have figured that out if you hadn’t have told me.
I think we should come back next year. I want to check out that Haunted Theater. I bet it’s a lot of fun.”

“Didn’t Ivy say this was the last year for the mystery games
?”

“It’s an institution. They can’t get rid of it.” He
rolled over onto his stomach and froze.

“They’ve only been doing this for five years. I’d hardly call that an institution.”

“Grace . . .”

“Besides if you want to go play ghost detective
, we should go back home. There’s a haunted house there—”

“G
race.” He sat back on his knees. “Now, don’t get upset.”

“Why? What’s going on?” Grace asked instantly on alert. She looked over her shoulder
, but saw nothing that would upset her.

“You see when you went missing . . . I was really worried and I did something you may not be too happy about.”

Grace shook her head wondering what he could have possibly done, but then she heard the sound of voices approaching. She jumped to her feet and raced to the window. She could see them now, walking down the path with Becky in the front.

“What did you do, Kyle?”

Kyle nervously ran a hand through his hair. “I was scared, Grace. After I hung up with the police, I began to panic. All sorts of thoughts were racing through my mind. For a moment there, I thought that I might have to offer a reward. I tried to reach my father, but when I couldn’t get ahold of him, I called the only other person I knew that had a lot of money.”

Grace raced to the door and threw it open as
Becky and the others came nearer to the glass gazebo.

“I don’t care how old they are, I’m not paying
for them, Madison,” Franklin Straker said gruffly, as he stomped through the snow.

“Daddy,” Louisa Straker said with a whine, “
don’t call Allen, Madison. You know he changed his last name to ours when we got married. He’s a Straker now.”

Allen dashed around his wife’s side to stand next to his father-in-law. “It was difficult to tell from the picture
, but the toys look to be in mint condition. They are definitely worth far more than the hotel is offering. Five times more.”

Becky’s eyes lit up. “Well, uh, that was just a ballpark estimate. I’m not an expert
, and of course, we’d have to have the toys appraised. Just to let you know, we do have another interested party—a young lady who had participated in one of our games inquired about the same toys this morning—and these toys are very important to the hotel. After all, they’ve been with us so long, I’m not sure we can part with them easily. I’d have to talk to the owners, but if you really want them, then we’d probably be able to come to some sort of mutually satisfactory agreement.”

Straker glared at Allen. “This is why you are no longer in charge of the business.”

“But Daddy,” Allen said, “you were talking about how we should invest our money better.”

“Don’t call me
daddy, and I meant we should start investing in proven money makers not a bunch of moldy old toys.” Straker started to say something else when he caught sight of Grace and Kyle standing in the doorway of the glass gazebo. “Ah, there you are, Holliday. I told Drake not to worry. You're always disappearing from the office for long stretches of time.”

Grace’s mouth fell open. “When did I ever disappear from work?”

“I’ve had four office meetings in the last week and you haven’t been to a one of them. We’ll talk about your work habits in my office on Monday. Right now, I don’t have time for it. Madison’s uncovered the find of the century while you’ve been off gallivanting around.” Straker turned to Becky. “Now look here, I wasn’t born yesterday. A handful of broken down toys isn’t going to be worth a small fortune to anyone, but the certifiably insane,” he said pointedly, looking at his son-in-law, “and I’ve taken the check book away from him.”

Grace and Kyle stood there in silence for a few seconds as the
ir voices began to fade.

Kyle leaned against the doorjamb and crossed his arms. “Do you think he knows that Allen fired you last year?”

“I’m surprised he even realized I was gone.” Grace turned around and held out her hand to Kyle. “Well, it looks like play time’s over.”

A sudden idea forming in his
mind, Kyle took her hand in his and smiled as he led her towards the manor.

“What’s that look for?”

“Mr. Straker said something about investing in proven money makers.”

“So?”

Kyle grinned mischievously. “I think I might have a business proposal for Mr. Straker.”

“Oh no,” Grace said with growing horror, “you’re not thinking . . .”

“Why yes I am. I think Mattingly and Drake Private Investigations is about to expand.”

The End

Thank you for reading
Murder Games
! I hope you enjoyed my book. If you did enjoy it and if you have time, please consider posting a review at www.amazon.com or visiting my blog at www.elisabethcrabtree.wordpress.com. I would love to hear from you.

.