Murder in the Devil's Cauldron (18 page)

As she neared Storm Point, she mentally
reviewed the Lodge's menu. They had several pasta dishes she was
fond of. Fae was considering the one with peas and mushrooms, when
the memory of her encounter with the new manager reared its head.
She had automatically started slowing to make the turn into the
Lodge's driveway, but now, because she was tired and not in the
mood for walking on eggshells, she accelerated and kept going.
Right now she wanted good food and cheerful service. So she drove
the extra two miles to Ruby Cove. Ole and Lena's Café was the
perfect place to eat, relax and decompress.

When Diana was fourteen, she had overheard a
conversation she wasn't meant to hear. Her grandfather had died and
all the relatives had come to their house on Summit Avenue for the
post funeral tradition of feasting, catching up on each other's
lives and speaking well of the dead. After the food was demolished,
the kids were sent outside to play croquet and wander the grounds
while the adults settled down to the business of catching up on the
latest gossip.

Even though Diana was older than the other
kids by six years, she was sent outside with them. Partly because
her mother thought she was too young to hear all the juicy details,
but mostly to keep an eye on the younger kids. After about ten of
the most boring minutes of her life, she had gotten tired of
nine-year-old conversation and the accompanying moronic humor. As
the carriage house and greenhouse were locked and the worst they
could do was brain each other with the croquet mallets (which
wouldn't be much of a loss in her estimation), she went back inside
through the back door, raided the kitchen for more lemonade and
then headed for the dining room to see if any krumkake or lefse
were left.

What she really wanted to do was sneak into
the living room and listen to the family gossip. A couple of her
great aunts always let her pump them for stories and she knew they
would be airing out some of the family skeletons this afternoon,
but she hadn't figured out how to get within earshot and remain
invisible. She knew the moment they saw her, she'd get sent back
outside, so she decided to snag whatever goodies were left and go
upstairs and read. The adventures of Jane Eyre were infinitely
preferable to her insufferable cousins.

When Diana poked her head into the dining
room, she saw that while the lefse was gone, there were still
several rolls of krumkake just begging to be eaten. The problem was
that they were on the table near the living room in full view of
everyone there.

She looked speculatively towards the living
room and then back at the table. If she stood against the wall in
the dining room, she would be mostly out of sight and might have a
chance of snagging a few of the krumkake.

She got into position, then reached out
slowly and snagged the first one and put it in her jacket pocket,
hoping it wouldn't crumble too badly before she got to her room.
She waited, but when no one said anything, she repeated the
operation and got two more. Then, just as she was about to slip
back out the side door into the kitchen, she heard her aunt Nina's
voice ask, "Where's Diana?"

It was clear that Nina was already well on
her way to being well and truly soused. She was loud in any event,
but the volume increased in direct proportion to the alcohol she
was drinking. Right now she sounded as if she had finished off at
least one bottle of vodka and had started on the second.

Diana scurried into the kitchen, but left the
door open a crack so she could hear what they were talking
about.

"I sent her outside," her mother said. It
sounded as if they were in the dining room now and Diana hoped they
weren't about to come into the kitchen. Fortunately, it sounded as
if they were only getting more coffee and probably snagging the
last of the krumkake.

"Oh good," Nina said. "Does she know about
the money yet?"

Nothing could have dragged Diana away from
the door now. She knew her family had a lot of money, but this
sounded like something else.

"Not yet," her mother said. "We're going to
wait for awhile."

"Well, at least she'll have a way to get
someone
to marry her," Nina brayed. "It's amazing what a
guy'll overlook when there's that much money involved."

"Jesus Christ, Nina. What kind of a thing is
that to say? There's nothing wrong with Diana that a few years
won't cure."

"Oh come on, Sue. You know damn well she
looks like her great aunt Elizabeth who was homely up until the day
she died.
And
had a figure like a stumpy log. A few years
isn't going to change that. No guy is going to look at her for two
seconds and you know that. It's going to take some incentive if
she's going to catch anyone and ten million dollars of her own
might just do the trick."

"You're drunk, Nina," her mother said coldly.
"Diana may not be gorgeous, but she'll be an interesting woman when
she grows up. And might actually do something with her life instead
of turning into a useless fashion plate."

But the damage had been done. Diana had
pulled the krumkake out of her pocket and tossed them into the
garbage as she hurried out of the kitchen. Up in her room, she took
a good look at her reflection and realized that her aunt was right.
She
was
homely. And dumpy.

But her aunt was wrong about one thing, she
decided right then and there. No one was going to marry her for her
money. If they didn't care about her, they could damn well go
somewhere else.

She put herself on a strict diet and exercise
program the next day. As far as she was concerned, the best revenge
was success and she was damned if she was going to let anyone
compare her to a stumpy log.

When Diana finally came into her inheritance,
she used the money to finance a nose job and hired a personal
shopper to help her look elegant. Her favorite memory was running
into her Aunt Nina at a family get-together a few years later.
She'd gotten close to the old lush who, she was happy to see,
looked like an aging alligator.

"Still think I look like a stumpy log,
Nina?"

The look on her aunt's face was priceless.
The memory of that expression had brightened many of Diana's days
after that.

By the time she hit thirty, Diana had a
successful career as an architect and was a noted arts patron,
donating money regularly to the Walker, the Ordway and various
other artistic institutions. But the overheard conversation always
remained just beneath the surface and had a tendency to niggle at
her whenever she dated anyone for more than a few months. As the
men usually vanished once she mentioned a pre-nup, that fear had
been well and truly fed over the years.

That had changed when she met David Fowler,
who seemed to have as much money as she did. And, unlike the
others, he had unhesitatingly agreed to the pre-nup. "Of course,"
he'd said as if he thought it was as ordinary as asking for another
cup of coffee. "You'd be crazy not to. I have one, as well. It puts
that whole issue to bed." And then he'd leered at her in that
delicious way he had. "Which is exactly where I'd like to take
you."

So she'd finally felt safe enough to take the
plunge. But now she wasn't so sure.

Diana stood in the doorway of the bar and
looked at her husband of eleven days and then back at the slip in
her hand.

"I'm in Ruby Cove," it said. "555-4278, cabin
14. Viv."

It took forty-five minutes for the hair color
to set. While she waited, Viv flipped through the latest copy of
Cosmo and checked out some of the latest fashions, none of which
she could see herself wearing even for dinner in Minneapolis.
London maybe. But Minneapolis? Ya sure, you betcha, she thought
sourly. She'd had to resort to the magazine because, in addition to
no cell coverage, there was no television in the room.

Who on earth stayed here? she wondered. A TV
was practically a necessity right up there with soap and pillows.
What if people wanted to watch their favorite show or catch the
news? She couldn't see how this place could do any business. She
was surprised they even had phones if they were going to be so
chintzy with the amenities. Geez.

Thank goodness she'd brought a couple of
magazines just in case or she would have had to resort to staring
out the window and watching the locals drive through town on their
way to god knows where. Maybe she could get extra points for
counting the number of beaters with road rust. Viv rolled her eyes
at that cheery thought. She was definitely going to have to get
more magazines or she was going to end up feeling as if she was
having her fingernails pulled out one by one. Viv checked the time
and went into the shower to rinse out her hair.

She blew it dry and styled it to match the
picture and then looked at herself critically. She'd had to use
platinum blonde coloring to match the sample David had given her.
But her skin coloring belonged to a brunette. The new hair color
was much too pale to suit her. Fortunately, she'd only have to live
with it for a week or two.

Viv wrinkled her nose at her reflection. She
should have eaten before doing her hair. Now she'd have to do the
makeup because there was no way in hell she was going to go out in
public looking like a frickin' ghost.

Even if it wasn't perfect, anything would be
an improvement at this point. Especially if it would help her look
as if she was actually alive or not look so much like a blonde
Morticia. The idea gave her the giggles. Wouldn't
that
be a
fun new look. Just the thing to spiff up the scene in Minneapolis.
Viv had to sit down for a moment as the giggles threatened to take
over. But she finally got herself together and started applying the
makeup. With any luck she could at least look presentable enough to
eat in Ruby Cove.

Twenty minutes later she was as close as she
was going to get. It wasn't perfect, but part of the problem was
her real coloring. The way she needed to look was so different that
it was going to take a special blend to get the right effect. She
also needed to get used to what she saw when she looked in the
mirror so she didn't react oddly in public.

David had told her to do the hair before she
came up here, but she'd been concerned about the roots. Plus, she'd
been trying to ferret up some work and hadn't wanted to change her
look too soon. But the few possibilities for a short con hadn't
materialized and now she realized she should have done this a week
ago if only to get used to the look and get into the part.

Oh well… She was a quick study. She'd be
fine.

A few minutes later she was outside and
locking up. David had told her to get a cabin in the back, but they
had all been taken, so she figured this one would do. Although it
faced the highway, it was on the end and back far enough so the
traffic wasn't a problem. Besides, she figured it was close enough
to the back so he wouldn't get too pissy about it.

She walked towards the highway to see if she
could see the Café. The motel was at the far end of town and as she
looked down the road, she saw that Ole and Lena's was just two
buildings down and, from the looks of it, was open and going
strong.

As she walked over, she made a note to find
out what time they closed. Small towns were notorious for rolling
up the sidewalks long before anyone was even thinking about going
to bed. She wanted to make sure she didn't dash over for a badly
needed snack only to find out they'd closed hours earlier.

The place was still surprisingly busy when
Viv walked in, but she still managed to get a small booth by the
window. She looked around cautiously as she pretended to look at
the menu. It looked like most of the customers were locals, but
none of them was looking at her as if she had just grown two heads.
She hoped that meant she looked all right, after all.

She turned her attention to the menu and
discovered, joy of all joys, they had a pasta salad that sounded
absolutely heavenly. On top of that, they actually served a
half-way decent wine which she ordered when the waitress came over.
Maybe her luck had finally changed, Viv thought as gazed out the
window while she waited. She saw a sign for a bookstore a little
further down and wondered if they had any magazines. Then she
brightened. She'd be willing to bet they had at least a few romance
novels. That would get her through an evening or two with no
TV.

As Diana slid into the chair opposite him,
Fowler smiled and poured some of the wine into her glass.

"I'm sorry if I was a little testy earlier,"
he said, reaching across the table and caressing the back of her
hand. "I guess I'm a little more out of shape than I wanted to
admit and I was absolutely beat. Say you forgive me?"

"Do you feel better now?" She checked the
label on the wine and then took a sip, closing her eyes in obvious
ecstasy at the taste of the Merlot. "This is absolutely exquisite,"
she said as she opened her eyes.

"Nothing like a wonderful wine to make one
feel just a little better," he agreed as he took another sip.

"I'm glad," she said and handed him a pink
slip of paper. "This came for you when we were out. Any
thoughts?"

He read the message slip in horror. He'd
completely forgotten that Viv was supposed to call when she
arrived. He had made the arrangements thinking they'd be hiking the
Enchantment River today and Diana would never see the message.

"David?"