Authors: Elisabeth Crabtree
Murder Games (7 page)
Ivy
beamed. “Thank you. It’s an old family recipe.”
“Yeah, the Hershey family’s recipe,” Rupert said
softly under his breath.
Ivy spared a second to glare at him before saying, “I doubt that the woman worked at the hotel.
If she did, management would have made some announcement by now.”
“Good,” Grace said
over a mouthful of the best chocolate pie she had ever eaten.
Rupert looked up sharply. “You
seem relieved? Why? What do you know?”
Grace shrugged. “I overheard you and Bec
ky talk about a missing actress and I just thought the woman in the pond might have been her.”
“One of the actresses is missing?”
Sabrina asked worriedly.
Ivy patted
Sabrina’s hand. “Relax. I’m sure it’s not Erica.” She looked at Grace over the rim of her coffee cup. “Can’t be Erica. She wouldn’t be caught dead near the pond, because she was afraid of water.”
Rupert nodded. “Yep, definitely not Erica
. The dead woman was a blonde.”
“So
was Erica,” Ivy said, “but I’m sure it wasn’t her.”
“
Erica wasn’t a blonde,” Rupert said. “She had brown hair.”
Ivy scowled.
“No, she didn’t. She was a honey blonde.”
“What is a honey blonde
?” Rupert snapped. “You’re either a blonde or you’re not. Besides, Erica had a tattoo of a butterfly on her wrist and this woman didn’t.”
“
Erica did not have a tattoo on her wrist,” Ivy said testily.
“Yes, she did,” he insisted
, “she showed it to me.”
Ivy glared at him over the table.
“It wasn’t a butterfly. It was a ladybug, and it was on her ankle.”
Rupert sucked in a breath
. “What difference does it make? The woman in the pond didn’t have any tattoos.”
“Oh, how would you know?”
Ivy huffed.
Rupert crossed his arms.
“I know things.”
Ivy took a deep steadying breath. “Regardless, it wasn’t Erica.”
“I never said it was.” Rupert rubbed a hand over his scraggly beard. “The woman’s name was Belinda Forest.”
“
Where did you hear that?” Ivy asked.
“I hear
things. People talk to me,” he said defensively. “I heard she checked in yesterday and nobody’s seen her since. According to Billy, there are only two people unaccounted for. One was a woman—this Belinda Forrest—and the other was her boyfriend. So, ergo—”
Ivy raised an eyebrow.
“Ergo?”
“So,
ergo
, the woman in the pond is Belinda Forrest.” Clearly proud of his deductive skills, he leaned backed and nodded. “Now she’s dead.” He shook his finger in Ivy’s face. “How much do you want to bet the boyfriend killed her and is on the run?”
Sabrina turned frightened eyes to the kitchen window.
“On the run?”
Glaring at Rupert,
Ivy slammed her cup onto the table. “If you knew who it was, then why didn’t you say so? We’ve been speculating about it for the last ten minutes.”
“No one asked me.”
Ivy gave him a dirty look. She picked up her cup and brought it to her lips. “Belinda Forrest?” She set the cup down without taking a drink. “Why does that name sound familiar?”
“You’re thinking of Linda Fox,” Rupert said.
“I know who Linda Fox is, and no, I’m not thinking of her. I know I’ve heard that name before.” Ivy shook her head. “Well, I’m sure it’ll come to me sooner or later.”
“I’m surprised the police have released the woman’s name so soon,” Grace said.
“T
his isn’t coming from the police.” Rupert reached over and slid the tablet back to his side of the table. “I got that information from a reliable source.” He pushed the tablet over to Grace. “See for yourself.”
Grace swiped her finger across the screen. An image of the pond appeared. She scrolled down a little more.
“It says here that someone saw a man and two women arguing near the pond at about three o’clock last night. Apparently, the argument almost became physical.”
“
Let me see that.” Ivy reached over and slid the tablet back to her side of the table. Pursing her lips, she read the message. “Billy? That’s your reliable source?”
“What’s wrong with Billy?” Rupert asked defensively.
“Plenty,” Ivy said.
Grace gestured toward the tablet.
“According to this, he almost had to break them apart.”
Ivy snorted delicately. “Billy was probably hiding in the bushes praying no one would notice him. I
wouldn’t believe a thing he says.”
Rupert glared at Ivy.
“He’s a very important witness.”
“To what?”
Ivy asked hotly.
“He
witnessed three people arguing and then the very next day, a dead body turns up.”
“Big deal.”
Ivy looked down at the tablet. “He has no idea if that poor soul in the pond was one of the ladies he saw.”
“If he goes to the police
, he might be able to identify the body,” Sabrina said. “If she is one of the ladies, he may even be able to identify the killer.”
“Unlikely,” Ivy replied.
Rupert shook his head. “He wouldn’t be able to identify them. They were bundled up, head to toe.”
“Billy
’s just looking for attention.” Ivy took a sip from her cup.
“Did he say what they were fighting about?” Grace asked.
“He thinks one of them said something about tickets to the Haunted Theater.” Rupert shrugged his broad shoulders. “He couldn’t hear them that well. He was too far away.”
“Then how does he know they were fighting?” Ivy asked.
“You can tell when people are fighting,” Rupert spat back. “You don’t have to hear them arguing to know. I’m sure he could tell by their body language.”
Ivy rolled her eyes. “Some witness.”
She snapped her fingers. “Cousin! I knew that name sounded familiar.”
“You don’t
have any cousins named Belinda,” Rupert said.
Smiling, Ivy patted Rupert’s hand. “Thank you,” she said sarcastically. “What would I do without you to remind me of such things?” Her face turned cold. “I wasn’t talking about my cousin. I was talking about Erica’s. Erica has a cousin named Belinda Forrest. Poor Erica. No wonder she didn’t show.
Although I didn’t get the impression they were too terribly close to one another.” Ivy took another sip of her drink. She set the cup down and reached for a cookie. “I heard that they cancelled the Haunted Theater murder mystery, and they’re saying they may cancel the others, too. Bad publicity and all.”
“That’s not the reason why they cancelled the theater game,” Rupert said.
“They may cancel this one, too,” Ivy said sadly.
Rupert made a face. “Why? That’s
the great thing about this mystery event. We’re so far removed from the others, they shouldn’t have to cancel it. Besides, we’ve already begun and it’ll be over with by tomorrow night. It would just be a waste if they end it now.”
“Why did they cancel the Haunted Theater?” Grace asked.
“They cancelled it because this Belinda person and her boyfriend had tickets for it.” Rupert leaned forward. “I heard that the boyfriend had gotten the murderer role,” he said in a hushed whisper. “That’s probably what they were arguing about at three o’clock last night.”
Sabrina
looked pained. “This isn’t real, is it? It’s just part of the game, right? You all are making this up, aren’t you?”
* * *
“My real name is Austin Waverly. I’m a history professor at Yale,” the former Hunter said.
Kyle sat down on the floor next to
Austin. Loosening his tie, he leaned back against the wrought iron railing that wrapped around the second level of the library. “So, you finally made it. They called your name earlier today.”
“Yeah, I know,”
Austin said ruefully. “When I didn’t show up at the gate in time to leave, they went to plan B and deleted the character I was supposed to play. They apparently have several variations of the same game.”
Which explains why Fortune Hunter wasn’t mentioned as a character in any of the information the hotel provided,
Kyle thought. “If they had already deleted your character, I’m surprised they let you back in. None of us knew who you were.”
Austin
gave him a small smile. “Can you keep a secret?”
Kyle
nodded.
“
Technically, I’m not really playing. I called from the train and told Becky I was running late, but she said that I was out of luck, so I called Rupert and begged him to let me in.”
“For someone who wants to be here that
badly, you really aren’t participating much.”
Austin
looked uncomfortable.
Kyle frowned.
Before the creepy butler showed up at the gate earlier in the day, Kyle had never heard of him. “How did you even know to call Rupert?”
“I
know Rupert,” Austin admitted wryly.
“You’re one of the actors?” Kyle guessed.
Austin laughed. “No. The only acting I’ve ever done was at a school play in third grade. I got sick and passed out during the first act.”
“Then how do you know him?”
“I’ve done this before.”
“Done what? The mystery game?
” Kyle leaned his head back and smiled. “Let me guess. You played my character, didn’t you?”
Austin
looked at Kyle in surprise. “Right before Christmas. How did you know?”
Kyle chuckled.
“Grace thought your name was William.”
“That’
s because I forgot who I was supposed to be playing when I introduced myself to her. Anyway, I begged Rupert to let me stay. I’m paying him a bit under the table for the privilege.”
“
Why?” Kyle asked. “Do you love murder mystery games that much?”
“I’m not really here to play the game.”
“Then why are you here?” Laura asked.
Startled, both men turned to see Laura peering over
the edge of the staircase at them.
CHAPTER Six
“Eight,
” Jerry said, “Caroline has a headache.”
Rupert scowled. “Fine, eight of us.
So, I figure we’ll break into groups and begin a search for her diary.”
Jerry, excited by the prospect, eagerly raised his hand. “I’ll take the attic.
Anyone want to join me?” He wiggled his eyebrows at Sabrina suggestively.
Sabrina shrugged. “
Sure, why not?”
“Attic’s off limits,” Rupert said. At Jerry
disappointed expression, Rupert immediately caved. “There’s nothing up there,” he grumbled, “but if you want to see it, I’ll take you on a very
brief
tour.”
Austin raised his hand
. “I’ll take the cellar.”
“
Me too,” Molly piped up quickly.
“
Cellar is definitely off limits,” Rupert gruffly. “And I’m not taking anyone on a tour down there.”
Grace hid a smile at Molly’s disappointment.
“All right,” Jerry said trying to keep his enthusiasm up. “Can we search this floor?”
Rupert shrugged. “Sure. You can search the second floor as well.
Naturally, the guest bedrooms are out of bounds. But there is a nursery and a few linen closets upstairs that someone could search. Then, there’s the door to the upper part of the library, as well. Of course, you’re also free to search your own rooms.”
“
Hunter and I will take this floor,” Laura said as she pointed to Austin, who did a double take.
Molly raised her hand
. “So, will I.”
Rupert
nodded approvingly before casting his eyes toward Grace and Kyle. “I guess that just leaves you two to search the second floor and the top floor of the library.”
Kyle leered down at Grace.
“Oh, Rose, baby, I’ve been wanting to get you upstairs for the longest time.”
Grace smiled.
“And just what if I don’t want to go with you, Mr. Cheatum?”
“Uh oh,” Jerry said, “trouble in paradise.”
“Not at all. Mr. Cheatum and I have really nothing to say to one another. Not since he helped my mother steal from my trust fund.” Grace turned and started up the staircases to the sound of several audible gasps from below.
Kyle brought his hand up to his heart. “Rose, darling, you’ve got me all wrong. Don’t think of it as stealing
. Think of it as misappropriating.”
Grace looked over her shoulder. “That’s the
same thing.”
“Yes,
but stealing just sounds worse,” he said, taking the stairs two at a time to reach her. He glanced back down at Jerry and Sabrina starting up the steps. Whispering he asked, “What was with Sabrina and Laura?”
“Just family drama,” she whispered back. Once
they reached the landing, they approached the first door on their right. Finding a small closet filled with nothing but sheets and pillows, they shut the door and continued down the hallway, systematically checking each door they came across. Finding them all locked, they approached the last door at the end of the corridor. “I have a feeling this isn’t going to take very long.”
“We haven’t gotten to the upper part of the library yet and there must be a thousand books up there.”
He reached over and slipped a hand around her waist. “Of course, we can always search my room.”
Grace laid her hand across his. “We’re here to play—”
“That’s what I’m trying to do.”
S
miling, she reached forward and gripped the door handle, slightly surprised to feel the handle turn. She pushed the door open, stuck her hand out, and flipped the light switch on.
They walked into an old-fashioned nursery decorated in soft yellows and blues.
“Oh, this is pretty,” Grace said. She reached forward and picked up a stuffed bunny off the child’s bed. She plucked at one floppy ear and smiled.
Unable to wait any longer, Kyle shut the door. “Guess what I found out about
our new arrival?”
Before Grace could even form a word, Kyle launched into what
he learned from Austin.
“If he’s not going to play the game, then why is he even here?”
Grace placed the bunny down on the bed.
“I have no idea.” He moved
to the hand painted armoire. “Laura couldn’t even pry it out of him. I think if I had just five more minutes with him, he would have told me.” He opened the doors and searched through the shelves. Finding only quilts, pillows, and a few board games, he shut the doors. “What about you? Find out anything interesting?”
“I found out the woman in the pond was one of the Haunted Theater’s guests
.” She quickly filled him in on what she had discovered from Rupert and Ivy. “I also found out their names really are Rupert and Ivy, and I’m pretty sure they’re married and have been for quite some time.” Noticing several photographs on the wall next to the bay window, Grace walked around the bed and over to the wall. “If not, they do an excellent impression of an old married couple.” She stopped in front of a set of five old photographs hanging on the wall. “Wow, these look like they were taken in the late eighteen hundreds.”
“Well, at least we know that Erica isn’t the body in the pond. I wonder if they’ve caught the woman’s boyfriend
, yet. Did Rupert know the guy’s name?” When Grace didn’t answer, he looked over his shoulder. Grace was still standing in front of the wall staring at the pictures. “What’s wrong?”
Grace pointed to a picture of two little girls standing next to a
n injured young cowboy. One of the cowboy’s legs appeared to be wrapped in bandages. He seemed to be leaning away from the two little preteen girls who were gripping him tightly.
Kyle came up behind her and leaned over her shoulder.
“The girls look familiar. I think I saw their paintings downstairs in the dining room.”
“The cowboy looks familiar, too,” Grace said with a sinking feeling.
Grace felt Kyle press against her back. He laid his hands on top of her shoulders. “Yeah, he does. I can’t place where I know him from.” He tilted his head. “He looks like he’d rather be anywhere else.”
Grace bit her lip.
“It can’t be him.”
“
Can’t be who?”
Shaking off the feeling, Grace turned around and
wrapped her arms around his waist. “No one. It’s just my imagination. Have you found the diary, yet?”
Kyle nodded toward a bookcase full of toys. “I don’t think it’s in here.”
Grace glanced around him. Seeing
a rocking horse next to the bookcase, she gasped. She pushed him to the side and dropped to her knees in front of the horse. “It’s a Dappled Grey Victorian bow rocker,” she said in awe. “I wonder if it’s a genuine Victorian heirloom. It’s in perfect condition.” Still a toy designer at heart, Grace automatically began checking the horse’s condition. “Oh no.” She clucked her tongue as she ran her hand across the horse’s chest and the child like scrawl etched into the wood. She bent her head down. “Not so perfect. Some little boy named Timmy wrote his name on the horse’s chest. Still, I bet it’s worth a fortune.”
Smiling, Kyle walked up to the
bookcase. “You can take the girl out of the toy store, but you can’t…” Kyle picked up a toy and held it out. “Why does this look familiar?”
Grace looked up and gasped.
“That’s Marty the Martian King. The first toy produced by the Straker Toy Company in 1910.” She jumped to her feet and grabbed the doll out of his hand. “It looks brand new,” she said reverently.
Kyle
looked at her in bemusement. “Why are you so amazed? There were hundreds of these dolls in the attic at Straker’s,” he said, referring to the Straker Toy Company in New York and their former place of employment.
“
Those were replicas. This is one of the originals. You can tell because his eyes pop off.” She carefully removed one of the glass eyes and held it out for his inspection. A rusty two-inch sharp tack protruded from the back of the eye. “The government had us add the safety features in the fifties. You can’t find the originals anywhere. I know, because Allen has been on a quest to find them for years,” she said, referring to Allen Madison, her main competition at the toy company and now the company’s current Vice President. She popped the eye back into place. “He used to spend three hours a day hunting on toy forums and auction house websites.”
Kyle glanced back at the bookcase. He picked up a
fourteen-inch dog with a cowboy hat and a six-shooter. “Is this—” He stopped speaking when Grace snatched the doll out of his hand.
“A Ranger Ricky doll
! Oh, dear Lord, it’s like Christmas all over again.” Grinning from ear to ear, Grace gathered the dolls against her chest. “Quick, take a picture of me with the dolls. I want to send it to Allen.”
Kyle reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
“Wait.” She walked over to the bookcase and posed. “Just in case there’s something else here that he would want.”
Kyle stood back and took Grace’s picture.
“Got it?” she asked.
Kyle smiled. “Yeah, this is real pretty of you.” He turned the phone for her to see.
Grace nodded impatiently. “Have you sent it to him, yet?”
He shook his head as he searched
his phone for Allen’s information. “Allen and I haven’t exactly kept in touch since he fired us.”
“
Send it as an attachment. His email address is I Heart Betsy Wetsy at gmail dot com.”
“That man has serious issues,” Kyle said with a sigh as he punched in the address.
Grace carefully placed the dolls back onto the shelves. “Okay, we have to work fast before Allen has a chance to act. If I know him, he’ll start trying to track us down the moment he sees that picture. So, we need to get to the hotel and see if we can buy these from them before he contacts them first. How much money do you have?”
Kyle looked at her
incredulously. “You want to buy these old things?”
“It’s not just for me.
It’s for both of us. Did you send it?”
Kyle pocketed his phone. “Done.
How does this help both of us?”
“
We can get our jobs back, that’s how. Allen would do anything to get his hands on these toys. Oh, I wish I were there to see his expression. I bet his head is going to explode.”
A sudden
crash reverberated through the house.
“If that was Allen, I think we can write off returning to our
old jobs,” Kyle said.
* * *
“What on Earth was that?” Jerry asked from the attic doorway. Rupert pushed him out of the way and ran down the back staircase.
Grace, inches away from the
front staircase, paused long enough to shrug before racing down the steps after Kyle.
Laura was standing in the foyer looking around.
“What happened?”
“We have no idea,” Kyle said. “Do you have any idea where it came from?”
Laura shrugged. “Where’s Sabrina, I mean Hazel?”
“Right here.
” Sabrina leaned out over the upstairs railing and looked down.
Jerry stopped at the bottom of the steps. “
Has anyone seen my wife?”
When everyone shook their heads, h
e suddenly pivoted around and ran back up the stairs.
“Where are you going, Jerry?”
Sabrina asked walking down the stairs.
“
I’m just going to check on Caroline,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”
“
Where’s Molly?” Grace asked as Ivy and Rupert entered the foyer from the back hallway.
“I don’t know
,” Ivy said. “She was here a few minutes ago.” She glanced up at the giant chandelier hanging over their heads and breathed a sigh of relief. “For a second there, I thought it might have crashed down and killed someone.” She looked toward the dining room. “Did the china cabinet fall? I thought I heard the sound of breaking glass.”
“What
’s going on?” Caroline asked from somewhere above their heads. Grace backed up and looked up to see Caroline staring down at her from the second floor balcony, her stylish pink cashmere sweater and winter white pants, having been replaced by black flannel pajamas and black satin slippers. Jerry was standing next to her. “See, I told you this would be exciting.”
Rupert shook his head. “This isn’t part of the game.”
“Oh sure, right,” Jerry said with a smirk.