Of Merlot & Murder (A Tangled Vines Mystery) (22 page)

Wringing his hands, the man swallowed hard and nodded. “Yes. And we argued.”

“Argued about what?” Jim asked.

“About Grace.”

Jackson didn’t think it was possible, but the man’s condition seemed to deteriorate even further, and his eyes took on a distant look.

“I was ten years old when we left Georgia in the middle of the night. Mom said we had to leave because my biological father had found us, and that he was a loser with a violent nature. She was afraid of him. At least, that’s what she always said.”

He took another deep breath before continuing. “Anyway, a few months later Mom told me that both Grace and Walker Vanderhouse had been killed in a terrible accident. And she alluded to the fact that she thought my biological father might have had something to do with their deaths, that maybe it hadn’t been an accident at all.”

“But Grace wasn’t dead, was she, Toby?” Jim asked. “And you found that out at the festival. Is that what you argued with your mother about?”

Raymond nodded. “I’d heard Elise mention Grace’s name and knew there was no way it was a coincidence. I confronted Mom about it in the parking lot on Friday afternoon, but she said I must’ve
misunderstood. She wouldn’t even discuss it.”

Jackson remembered witnessing that argument from a distance, remembered Elise commenting on it before they’d headed out on the bike.

“And between that confrontation and going to her room right before her death, you tracked Grace down, right?” Jackson asked. “Because Grace told us Divia came to see her, wanted to talk to her. Your mother asked Grace to come to her motel room later that evening, and though she didn’t want to, Grace complied.”

Toby nodded. “I know. But Grace wasn’t there long, and when I saw her leave, I went down to Mom’s room to have it out with her.”

The man paused and rubbed his eyes as if trying to rub away the exhaustion residing there. When he looked up at Jackson, it was with incredible sadness for what had been lost. “Walker Vanderhouse was the only father I’d ever known, Jackson. My mother cleaned out the man’s bank accounts and spirited me away in the middle of the night, for God’s sake. Grace told me what happened to her dad after we left Georgia, how Walker had just given up. I wanted to know how my mother could’ve done such terrible things. She left Grace and her father without a penny, took me away from the only real family I’d ever had. I mean, what mother
does
that?”

“Toby, did you kill your mother?” Jackson asked flat out in a quiet tone. “Did the argument get out of hand? Is that what happened? Did you poison her?”

“
No!
” Toby shouted, a horrified look crossing his gaunt face. “We argued and when I went to leave, she grabbed the front of my jacket. I shoved her away from me and stormed out. That must be when I lost the button on my jacket, but I swear she was angry and shouting nasty things at me from the doorway but very much alive when I left the room.”

Jim got up and poured a cup of water from the dispenser in the corner. When he walked back to the table with it, Toby literally grabbed it from his hand before he could set it on the table and guzzled it down like a man dying of thirst.

“Look, Jackson,” he said at length. “My mother was a piece of work, granted, but she didn’t deserve to die that way. Nobody does. I didn’t kill her, or Grace, for that matter, but I’m pretty sure I know who did.”

twenty-two

Elise made her way
down to the Wine Barrel just before the noon hour and then had to wait while Madison concluded a sale for a couple of tourists. It seemed to take her forever, and Elise was chomping at the bit by the time she’d finished.

“So, where’re you girls off to for lunch?” Abigail asked when Madison pulled her purse out from under the counter and searched for her car keys.

Elise shrugged and was noncommittal. “Haven’t decided just yet, Gram. We’re going to head into town and stop whenever the urge strikes.”

“But don’t worry, Gram,” Madison began as Elise took her arm and herded her toward the door. “We won’t be too long. I’ll make certain of that,” she said over her shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah,” Elise whispered into her sister’s ear. “Keep it moving. We haven’t got all day.”

Madison jerked her arm out of Elise’s grasp the minute they were outside. “Oh my
God!
What’s the matter with you? I don’t need you tugging on me like I was some kind of wayward child, you know.”

Elise rolled her eyes as she climbed into the passenger side of Madison’s economical hybrid compact. “I thought you wanted to get out there and back with no dallying. You were the one bitching about it earlier.”

“No, I wasn’t.” Madison started the car and backed out of her space. “I was merely pointing out—quite correctly I might add—that you have no business snooping around another one of Jackson’s crime scenes.”

“Uh, since you’ve agreed to go with me, don’t you mean
we
have no business snooping around? Besides, this is different,” Elise argued, rubbing her forehead where her headache was beginning to return. “Lost Pines is a very public place, so what trouble can we possibly get into? Plus, it won’t be long before Jax releases the room, anyway. Then the Wilsons will have it cleaned and rented again in the blink of an eye. I just want a quick peak before they do.”

“But
why
do you want to go in there?” Madison asked with a tiny shudder. “I think it’s just plain creepy.”

Elise shook her head and glanced out the side window at the acres of grapevine rows they were passing. Hadn’t she asked herself that very question several times over the last day or so? She still didn’t have a decent answer. She only knew she needed to see it for some intangible reason that she couldn’t seem to shake.

“I don’t know, Maddy,” she said after a moment. “Something has
been nagging at me for the last few days, and I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Well, this trip had better take care of that nagging, big sister, because I’m only doing this once.”

They pulled into the parking lot at Lost Pines Motel twenty minutes later, and Madison parked directly in front of the room where Divia had been poisoned.

Elise turned to her sister before opening the car door. “Now listen, we need to get the key from Harriet, so let me do the talking. It’ll have to be handled very carefully.”

“Whatever, Secret Agent Girl,” Madison muttered as they both climbed from the vehicle and headed over to the motel office.

The little bell over the lobby door jingled cheerfully as they entered the building, signaling the arrival of potential customers. Harriet Wilson had been in the back room but hurried out to the front desk as soon as she heard the bell.

“Hey, Elise, Maddy,” she said and punctuated her greeting with a snap of her gum. “What brings you girls out this way in the middle of a Tuesday? Elise, this might be a record. Two days in a row?”

“Ha! That’s funny, Harriet. We’re actually on a mission and hoping you can help.”

Harriet leaned a hip against the counter, and her eyes lit up with interest. “Oh, yeah? What kind of mission?”

“Well, we’re looking to retrieve a couple missing items from Mr. Larson’s original room that might have been left behind.”

The woman gave her a doubtful look and chomped on her gum like a cow chewing a cud. “You mean down in 12, the room where his wife was murdered?”

Elise nodded. “He would’ve come himself, but he had to go into the station this morning.”

“I don’t know,” Harriet said with a skeptical frown. “I thought they let him move his things on Saturday after those CSI folks had swarmed through the room like locusts. I can’t imagine they left anything behind.”

“I figured as much.” Elise sighed and gave the woman a commiserative look. “But the thing is, he’s really tied up at the station with Jax, talking about the case and all. Poor man is still not himself after just losing his wife in such a horrible manner.”

“Oh my, yes.” Harriet shook her head with sadness. “And how do you think we feel that it happened right here at our little motel? We run a clean, safe establishment. Something like this could ruin it all for us.”

Oh yes. By all means, let’s make this about you and not the poor man losing his wife in a heinous crime.

“Anyway, we thought we’d just check it out. You can call Jax to clear it if you need to,” Elise said in hopes of getting the woman back on track.

She held her breath as she watched Harriet’s face. If the woman called Jackson, he would have Elise’s head on a platter by evening for even trying to gain access to his precious crime scene.

But after a long moment, Harriet shrugged. “I guess it don’t matter none. I talked to Jax yesterday about when we could get the room back, and he told me it’ll be any day now.” The woman waved a bejeweled hand in the air. “Good Lord, we’re gonna need to completely overhaul that room before we can use it again. Gonna cost us a pretty penny, that’s for sure.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head, sending her gaudy, dangly earrings swinging back and forth with wild abandon. “And even when we do, who’s gonna want to stay in a room where a woman’s been murdered, I ask you?”

Elise made a noise of agreement, but didn’t actually respond. Then again, with Harriet a response to her ramblings was rarely necessary. “So, is the room unlocked, or do I need a key?” she asked when the woman just stood there chewing her gum and blinking her fake eyelashes at them in a vacant, owlish way.

“Well, of course it’s locked!” Harriet bellowed and gave her a look that clearly said she thought Elise was the brainless one. “Don’t be goofy, Elise. It’s still
technically
a crime scene, after all. Hang on, and I’ll get you the key.”

Elise glanced over to where Madison stood with a disgusted look on her face.

“Not a word,” Elise warned her before she could speak. “Not one word.”

Though Madison kept her mouth shut, she shook her head, and Elise could feel her sister’s judgment hanging overhead like a black cloud.

Harriet finally came back with the room key, reminding Elise to bring it back the minute they were done. “I don’t want to get into hot water with Jackson for not keeping the room secured.”

“Don’t worry, Harriet,” Elise assured the woman as she and Madison headed out the door. “I promise we’ll be quick about it. I’ll bring the key back just as soon as we’ve had a quick look around for Mr. Larson’s things.”

“You’re taking the express elevator straight to hell for lying that way. You know that, right?” Madison commented as they left the office and walked back toward the room.

“Oh please, I didn’t actually lie,” Elise replied over her shoulder. Stopping at the drink machine in the breezeway, she dug a dollar’s worth of change from the bottom of her purse and selected a bottle of water. “Besides, Harriet doesn’t give a rip one way or the other. She just wants the room freed up so she can charge some unsuspecting traveler an arm and a leg for it as soon as possible.”

“You keep telling yourself that, sista,” Madison said with a smirk. “But you’re just skirting the issue. You gave her the
impression
that Garrett Larson sent you over here
and
that it was okay with Jax.”

“Come on, Maddy. You heard her. Jax is going to release the room any day now, anyway. What’s it gonna hurt?” Elise grabbed her water out of the dispensing slot and turned, giving Madison the stink-eye.

But her sister just shrugged. “Hell. Express elevator. I’m just sayin’.”

“Well, keep it to yourself. My headache is coming back with a vengeance, and you’re not helping.”

They walked the rest of the way to room twelve in silence. The yellow crime scene tape was still stretched across the door frame, and Elise was careful not to disturb it as she turned the key to unlock the door. She felt like some kind of circus contortionist trying to squeeze underneath the tape to enter the room, which had obviously been shut up tight since the murder and the subsequent scouring by the investigators. The air inside was stuffy and overly-warm, giving the room a slightly claustrophobic feel.

“Can’t you leave the door open?” Madison asked as Elise closed it behind her. “It smells like death in here.”

“Oh, for the love of mud, it does not. And no, we can’t leave the door open. We don’t want to draw attention to the fact that we’re in here when we shouldn’t be.”

Madison made a face. “Oh, right. Like us climbing into the room under the crime scene tape wouldn’t do that in the first place?”

Elise closed her eyes briefly and prayed for patience. “Let’s just look around and get this over with as quickly as we can, okay?”

“Fine,” Madison said in a huff as she stepped over the hole in the carpet where the CSIs had removed a piece for evidence. “But what exactly are we looking for, anyway?”

“I don’t know, Maddy,” Elise said with irritation. “Something,
anything
that might have been missed.” Setting her bottle of water down on the dresser, she began to search through her purse for her little pill box and the aspirin it held. She wasn’t going to be able to think clearly with a headache brewing.

She finally found it and set her purse next to the water as she opened the container. But before she could remove the much-needed pain medication, Madison startled her with a squeal. The little box went flying, along with her salvation of aspirin tablets.

“Maddy, for crying out loud, what’s wrong with you?”

“Sorry.” Madison gave her a sheepish look. “I thought I saw a mouse in the closet, but it was only a balled up nylon sock.” Turning, she disappeared into the bathroom.

With a shake of her head, Elise knelt down to collect the tablets that had rolled every which way. Several had gone under the credenza, and when she peered under it, she saw not only her wayward pills, but something else as well. Reaching all the way up to her shoulder under the piece of furniture, she felt around until she could locate and get hold of whatever was there.

Pulling her arm back out, she sat back on her haunches and opened her fist to get a look at her prize.

“There’s absolutely nothing here, El,” Madison said as she came out of the bathroom. “That rolled-up sock in the closet, but nothing else that I can see. What are you doing on the floor?”

Elise pressed her lips together and looked up at Madison with a grim look. “I dropped my pill box when you screeched over the sock mouse, and when I went to pick up the tablets that had flown everywhere, I found this.” Elise lifted her open palm.

“So what? It’s a button? What kind of clue is that? It could have been there for months.”

Elise shook her head. “No, sweetie. I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure that I know whose button this is. And if you think about it, you do, too.”

“What are you talking about?” Madison frowned. “How would I know who that belongs to? How do you, for that matter? You’re always making something out of nothing. For crying out loud, it’s just a
button
, El.”

Elise stood up and let out an exasperated sigh. “Take a good, close look at it, Maddy. It has a pretty distinctive design that we’ve both seen before. You even commented on it at dinner last Friday night.”

Madison blinked several times in confusion before taking the button out of Elise’s hand. She stepped closer to the window and the meager light coming in through the curtains. Elise clearly saw the moment when recognition dawned on her sister’s face.

“I’m sorry, Maddy, but that’s the button that was missing from Toby’s jacket when he got to the restaurant
…
just before Gram called to say his mother was dead.”

Madison looked up with shock and disbelief in her eyes. “You can’t be suggesting that Toby murdered his own mother, El. I mean, there has to be another explanation. He wouldn’t do something like that. I know he wouldn’t,” she insisted.

Elise’s heart went out to her sister; because she knew that Madison and Toby had become a bit more than friends. And it was hard to think of someone you were truly fond of as a cold-blooded killer.

“Give me another explanation that fits.” Elise ticked off the facts with her fingers as she continued. “Toby showed up late for dinner the night of the murder, he was distracted and flustered when he arrived, and he was missing a button from his jacket—that button. It puts him in this room sometime before Divia was killed but after the festival closed for the day, because he wasn’t wearing that jacket earlier out at the venue.”

When Madison didn’t respond but continued to stare down at the button in her hand, Elise put her arm around her sister. “I’m sorry, Maddy. I know you two had been hanging out during the festival this year, that you’d gotten closer, but this doesn’t look good.”

Slowly, Madison nodded. “I know, El. But I just can’t believe he would do something so monstrous.” She looked up with wide eyes. “To kill his own mother? I mean, Divia was hard on him and treated him poorly at times, but he always spoke of her with respect. And I
saw
his devastation when we got to the motel that night. Her death wrecked him. Now, this? I can’t reconcile it with what I’ve seen and know of him. We’ve gone out a couple of times. You know, just the two of us. I was really beginning to like him, and I’m telling you I would
know
if he had that kind of evil in him.”