by Cindy Bell
“Ally, it’s okay.” Charlotte met her eyes. “I know that you need to tell him. It’s better now than later.” She glanced back over her shoulder at the mess in the room. “I wouldn’t want us to risk the investigation just to save our own skins. If we have to face the consequences, then we have to face the consequences.” She pulled the door shut.
“Mee-Maw, are you sure?” Ally searched her eyes.
“Answer it, Ally.” Charlotte nodded.
“Hi, Luke.” Ally’s voice wavered as she pressed the phone against her ear.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes, fine.” The concern in his voice inspired a new wave of guilt. “Well, not fine. Luke, I think you need to have another look at Martin’s room.”
“What makes you say that? The crime scene investigation team is already done with it.” His voice raised a few octaves. “Ally? Where are you?”
“I’m at the hotel.” She bit into her bottom lip. “Luke, you really need to see his room again.”
“I’m on my way. But why don’t you just be straight with me about what you found and how you found it?”
“It’s a wreck.” Ally heard the jangle of his keys and the roar of his engine. “I just wanted to have a look around, to see if I could learn anything more about Martin, anything that might help solve this. But when I went inside—”
“Went inside?” His tone sharpened. “How did you get inside?”
“The door was open.”
“Open?” Luke sighed. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, it was open. It hadn’t clicked shut, maybe the person was in a hurry.” Ally hoped he believed her. “Everything is dumped out everywhere. It looks like it’s been ransacked. I didn’t think that the police would have left it that way.” She watched as her grandmother began to pace back and forth.
“No, it was pretty neat the last time I saw it. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Don’t go anywhere.” The call abruptly ended.
Ally clutched her phone in her hand, then took a deep breath.
“You should go, Mee-Maw. I can talk with Luke. We don’t both need to be here.”
“No way, Ally, I can’t leave you to face this all alone.” Charlotte shook her head. “I’m the one who opened the door.”
“I’d rather talk with him alone, Mee-Maw. If you don’t mind.” Ally pursed her lips and squared her shoulders. “I think it will be better.”
“Digging in on this one, hmm?” Charlotte shook her head as she studied her. “I never should have involved you in this.”
“I was here first, remember?” Ally’s lips spread into a smile. “Let me talk this out with him. I’m sure he’ll understand why we did it, in fact, he’ll probably thank me for alerting him to the state of Martin’s hotel room. Nothing to worry about.” She shrugged.
Chapter 13
Ten minutes later, Ally stood in the same hallway, with Luke right in front of her.
“I have no idea why you would do something like this.” Luke crossed his arms as his eyes blazed with frustration. “How could you think that breaking into Martin’s room would benefit you or Jeff in any way?”
“I didn’t break in. The door was open.” Ally’s confidence faltered as he looked into her eyes.
“And you entered without permission.”
“We just peeked inside.”
“Okay.” Luke nodded slowly. “Go back to the cottage. I’ll be there soon.”
Ally walked away, relieved that they hadn’t had to use the keycard. It would have been much more complicated. When she stepped out into the parking lot, the sun had just begun to set. She took a moment to drink in the splash of color across the massive sky. Then she began the drive to the cottage.
As Ally paced through the living room, Peaches and Arnold paced right along with her. She texted with her grandmother, throwing out ideas of who might have tossed the hotel room. But none of their guesses led to anything solid. A heavy knock on the door jolted her out of the pattern she’d been tracing across the floor. Before she got to the door it swung open. Luke was standing there. He had obviously used his key.
“Hi beautiful.” He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a kiss.
“Hi.” She smiled as he pulled away, relieved that he seemed happy to see her.
“Hi buddy.” Arnold trotted over to greet him. “I checked the history of access to Martin’s hotel room.” He crouched on the floor to greet the pets. “It looks like it was accessed this morning.”
“After you had finished your search?”
“Yes, whoever it was, must have been the one that tossed the place. I wonder if they found what they were looking for.”
“I don’t know, but I doubt there’s any place left to look in that room.” Ally wiped a hand across her face as she felt the tension of the moment leave her body. “I thought that by going into Martin’s room, I might see something that could give me an idea of who might want him dead. I thought maybe it could give me some direction. But instead, it didn’t clarify anything. All it did was make me more confused.” She frowned.
“Actually, you proved to me that the motive in this crime might have something to do with something Martin had. Otherwise, why would anyone have tossed his room after his death? The goal wasn’t necessarily to kill Martin, but it might have been to get to something of his. Or maybe they needed to get something to cover up their involvement in the murder.” Luke ran his hand back through his hair. “Unfortunately, pinning down what that might be is a difficult task. Finding a direction with this case has been hard, mainly because there were so many witnesses to the crime.”
“I thought witnesses would be a good thing.” Ally gazed at him. “So many pairs of eyes had to see something.”
“Yes, they all saw something. Leanne saw things one way, Jill saw them another. Henry claims he didn’t know that he had the real knife, despite the fact that it weighs quite a bit more than the replica knife. Jeff claims that he had no idea who handed him the knife to give to Henry. Memory is a funny thing, Ally, and it’s very suggestible. I even had people tell me that Abraham was there the night of the play, though he claims he wasn’t. So, who do I believe?” Luke shrugged. “That’s why I focus on the evidence. People remember things in different ways, but physical things I can build a case on.”
“I don’t know how you do it, Luke. I get frustrated just thinking about it.” Ally shook her head. “The dead-ends are overwhelming.”
“They can be. It’s not always easy, that’s for sure. Trying to get people to remember accurately is the hardest part.” Luke slid his hand into his pocket as his cell phone rang. He silenced it, then met her eyes. “I have to go, I need to review the surveillance cameras from the hotel. Hopefully, that will turn something up.” He pulled her close for a kiss. As he backed away, he looked into her eyes. “Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
After Luke left, Ally settled on the couch. Seconds later, Peaches jumped up into her lap.
“Hi there, furball.” She smiled as she coasted her hand across the cat’s back. “Things have been so crazy lately, I’m sorry if I haven’t been giving you enough attention.”
Peaches purred and rubbed her cheek against Ally’s arm.
“Yes, you’re right, it’s important to take some time to relax and clear my mind.” Ally closed her eyes as she continued to pet Peaches. “Although, maybe I can’t trust my mind even if it’s clear. But if our memories can’t be trusted, then how are we ever going to know what happened?” She scratched under the cat’s chin.
Peaches stretched out in Ally’s lap. She dug her claws in just a little, then relaxed. When she met Ally’s eyes she seemed to smile.
“Exactly, if there was just a way to stretch out our brains, the way we stretch out our bodies, it might help.” Ally smiled as she snuggled her confidante close to her. “You’re always full of wonderful ideas.” She nuzzled her cheek against Peaches’ fur and sighed. As she began to truly relax an idea surfaced in her mind. “Maybe
there is a way to stretch our memories after all.” She picked up her phone to call Luke, just as she heard a light knock on the door.
Peaches jumped down from her lap, and Arnold trotted after her, as Ally walked to the door. Just before she reached it, she was surprised to see Luke push it open.
“I could use your help.” Luke stepped inside. “I feel like I’m missing something here. I reviewed the footage from the hotel surveillance camera from this morning around the time that the hotel room was accessed. Unfortunately, there aren’t any cameras directly on Martin’s room, or on that particular hallway. But there are many cameras in the lobby, so I was able to see who came and went.” He set down a sheet of paper on the kitchen table. “Leanne stumbled in about an hour before the room was accessed.”
“Yes, I took her back to the hotel this morning.” Ally narrowed her eyes. “But she was so out of it, I doubt she could have orchestrated a way into Martin’s room.”
“Unless that’s just the impression she was trying to give.” Luke made a note beside Leanne’s name that indicated she was drunk.
“Jill also showed up about fifteen minutes later.” Luke tapped her name on the list. “She went to the front desk, but didn’t speak to anyone. Then she went to the elevator a few minutes later, and I can’t find a time when she left the hotel. Which is surprising because I thought she lived locally and there isn’t a room under her name.”
“No, she wouldn’t need a room. She does live locally. She has a house in Blue River and travels with the group.” Ally frowned. “But that doesn’t explain what she was doing there, or why she didn’t come back out through the lobby. I’m sure that there are some other exits that she could have used throughout the hotel. But why come in through the front and leave through a different exit?”
“That is a very good question, and one that I hope I can find an answer to. First, I have to find Jill, however. I have some patrolmen out looking for her, but we haven’t been able to locate her.” He pointed to the next name on the list. “Trent enters the hotel around that time, but he does have a room there.”
“Oh yes, I saw him when I dropped off Leanne.” Ally scrunched up her nose. “It looked like he was making some kind of drug deal.”
“Drug deal?” A hint of a smile crossed Luke’s lips as he looked at her. “What made you think that?”
“I don’t know really, he was sneaking around with an employee of the hotel and it looked like they exchanged something.” Ally shrugged. “When Mee-Maw and I spoke with him later, he was all packed up so it looked like he was getting ready to leave. He said he had plans to go on a trip, but that he couldn’t anymore.”
“Hmm, that’s interesting.” Luke jotted a few notes next to his name. “I have asked everyone involved in the play to stay in the area during the investigation. That might be what ruined his plans.”
“That’s what he said.” Ally met his eyes. “I have an idea. It may sound a little crazy, but at this point I don’t think it could make things any worse.”
“What idea is that?” He gazed back at her.
“The truth is in the day this happened. It’s right there waiting for us to find it. If we can just bring it to the surface, we’ll have the missing piece that will make whoever did this very clear.” She raised an eyebrow as she looked at him.
“I’m game, but how are we going to do that?” He pulled out a chair at the table and sat down.
“We could recreate the night of the play, at least the last few minutes of it. We could get the main people that might know what happened to come out. Henry, Jeff, Leanne, Trent and Jill.” Ally tapped her fingertip on the name of each person.
“Everyone but Abraham.” Luke ran his hand across his forehead. “Who we don’t know for sure was even there.”
“We could invite him, but it might confuse things if he wasn’t there that night.” Ally shrugged. “What do you think? I know it’ll take a little arranging, but if we could do it tonight it would probably be best.”
“Yes, while everything is as fresh as it can be in their minds.” Luke looked up from the list to her. “I think it’s a good idea, Ally. It’s worth a try. At this point I am low on options. I’ll run it by the boss to get it approved and then reach out to these five. However, I can’t force them to participate.”
“I know you can’t, but hopefully if they want to find Martin’s killer they will want to. Maybe seeing who doesn’t show up, will tell us something.” Ally looked over the list again. “I can see Leanne, Jill, and Henry having a motive for killing Martin, and possibly Trent if he didn’t like the way Martin spoke to him, but that seems a bit weak. I can’t see Abraham or Jeff having a motive.”
“Maybe there is a history between Jeff and Martin that we don’t know about. I don’t know, I can’t be sure.” Luke held up his hands. “I’m not saying that he did it, I’m just saying we can’t rule him out. As for Abraham, I did find a connection with Martin in the past. He and Abraham had a business deal that went south. When Abraham owned his shop in the city, Martin was supposed to help him out with some advertising, endorsing his business, that cost Abraham quite a bit of money, but Martin bailed at the last minute and Abraham lost his investment. His shop came close to closing down that year. He was in so much debt. But it bounced back the next.” Luke shrugged. “Still, he might be holding a grudge about it. When I questioned Abraham about it, he claimed it was water under the bridge, but I’m not convinced. Who knows what he had to sacrifice or do to keep his shop open. I doubt that an antiques store rebounds that easily.”
“But we can’t even place him at the play.” Ally frowned. “We have nothing to link him to Martin’s murder.”
“Not yet. But I’m still digging.” Luke started towards the door. “I’ll meet you at the auditorium in an hour. We’ll walk through it with anyone that is willing to show up. I’m curious to see what comes up.” He paused at the door and turned back to look at her. “Thanks Ally, I always appreciate your insight.”
“Thank you, for trusting me.” Ally smiled at him.
As he pulled the door closed Arnold charged towards it with a snort.
“Oh, don’t worry, Arnold, he’ll be back.” Ally laughed and reached down to pet the pig. Then she pulled out her phone and called her grandmother. If they were going to pull this off, they had to get things moving quickly.
Chapter 14
An hour later Ally, Charlotte, Henry, and Jeff gathered together at the auditorium. Luke arrived moments later. He pulled Ally aside.
“I haven’t been able to reach Jill or Trent, and Leanne sounded too drunk to remember anything.” Luke frowned. “I sent a patrolman out to check on her.”
“I hope she gets some help.” Ally shook her head, though she wondered if perhaps Leanne’s drinking was an attempt at blocking out what she’d done. Jealousy could be a strong motive. She turned her attention to the others. “Let’s do this walk through as accurately as we can.” Ally looked between Henry and Jeff. “Thank you both for being here, I know that this can’t be easy for either of you.”
“It’s not.” Henry shoved his hands into his pockets. “I never wanted to be back here again.”
“I understand.” Ally frowned. “I really hope doing this will point us to the killer, so that we can at least have some closure about all of this.”
“I think it’s a great idea, Ally.” Charlotte clasped her hands behind her back. “It would have been better if Leanne, Trent and Jill were here, but I suppose there’s nothing we can do.” She met Luke’s eyes.
“No, there isn’t.” Luke looked over his shoulder for a moment. “I guess it will just be up to us now. What I’d like to do is recreate the last ten minutes before the scene. So, Jeff that should include you handing Henry the knife, and Henry you taking your bathroom break before going on stage. As we go through these motions, I want you to picture in as much detail what happened that night. Who did you walk past? Did anyone speak to you? Was there something strange that happened in that
short time?” He looked directly at Jeff. “I can’t stress enough how important it is for you to remember everything you can about the person who handed the knife to you. It’s a crucial part of this investigation.”
“It’s only crucial because you still believe I handed Henry the real knife, when I know for certain that I didn’t.” Jeff narrowed his eyes. “But I will do my best to remember.”
“Good. Based on what we’ve learned so far, Jill left the real blade in the props room.” Ally walked towards the door behind the stage and opened it. “As you can see, most things have been cleared out of this room. But Mee-Maw, you saw how messy it was, right?”
“Yes, I did.” Charlotte frowned as she looked over the cleaned-off table. “There were costumes mixed in with plates and dishes. It was a total mess. I don’t know how Jill found anything in there.”
“I still don’t understand why she would have left the real blade out instead of locking it up.” Henry scowled. “No matter how this turns out, really it’s her fault that any of this happened.”
“I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions about that.” Luke crossed his arms. “It’s important that our memories stay as clear as possible. It’s so easy to taint them, or remember things differently than how they happened. But sometimes recreating circumstances can make us remember aspects of our experiences that we didn’t remember before. So, just take your time, and try to relax.”
“Sure. Relax.” Jeff raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, Jeff you were backstage the whole time, right?” Charlotte guided him towards the entrance of the stage. “Did you stay in this area?”
“Yes. I was right here when I handed Henry the knife.” Jeff positioned himself beside the entrance of the stage. “Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around, and the person pressed the knife into my right hand.” He extended his hand to show the movement. “I turned back to the stage and handed it to Henry.”