Accidental Catastrophe

by C T Mitchell

  Taylor’s gaze grew more puzzled when Miss Coco’s tail twitched anxiously. Then, slowly, Taylor looked into the dark interior of the bathroom.

  “Is there something in there, girl?”

  Finally, the cat sighed. We’re on the right track.

  Miss Coco’s ears relaxed as she pushed herself into a sitting position. Taylor’s frown deepened as she slowly climbed to her feet. Reaching cautiously into the bathroom, she switched on the light. The light cast a glare off the white tiles and pristine looking room. She looked around but nothing seemed out of order.

  “I don’t see anything,” she said to the cat.

  With slow, cautious steps, Miss Coco walked into the room. Taking her time, she walked over to where she’d seen the man spreading the clear stuff. She lowered her head and sniffed the clear goop. She growled and let out a sharp hiss, the chemical burning her sensitive nose.

  Ugh, that is horrible. What is it?

  She decided maybe it was poison. It was hardened now, slick like glass.

  “What on earth?” Taylor asked as she knelt once more. She drew her finger over the stuff and it came away clean. If she didn’t know it was there, she wouldn’t be able to see it. Standing on it wet from the shower would be dangerous.

  “It’s all over the place,” she said as she looked around. It would have been very easy for her to step on it and slip. A mewing sound came from Miss Coco, who had moved away from the slickness spread on the floor to the shower.

  “What else is there, princess?”

  Taylor knew to follow the cat’s cues and figure out what she was trying to tell her. She watched Miss Coco carefully to see if she had anything else to show her.

  Like with the clear stuff, Miss Coco sniffed the shower door. She wasn’t sure what she was looking at or for, but she was certain the man from earlier had done something. She meowed, looked at the door and then at Taylor, then back to the door.

  “Curious,” Taylor said as she reached forward and tugged the glass door open.

  Much to her horror, the top hinge gave way, causing the door to come off in her hand. Taylor took a startled step back, just missing the slick spots. Her eyes grew wide as she stared at the floor, the cat and then the shower door.

  “Someone was in here, weren’t they!”

  YES! Finally! I swear sometimes it’s like playing charades. Yes, someone was in here and they wanted to hurt you. At least I think they did. I think you might be getting to close to finding out the answers.

  “I think I am getting close to finding some answers, and someone isn’t happy about it.”

  Didn’t I just say that?

  Taylor scooped Miss Coco into her arms and hugged the cat tightly.

  Oomph. Too tight. You’re holding me too tight. Let me go. Put me down.

  Coco struggled in Taylor’s arms and jumped to the floor.

  “Thank you,” Taylor said quietly. “I’m pretty certain you just saved my life.”

  Taylor shivered. If she’d slipped when she got out of the shower and fell into the door, she could have gotten cut on the glass. She was assuming the person who did this knew that. She pushed the new mat someone had placed in front of the shower and found it painted with the clear substance too. Yes, her bathroom had been turned into a death trap.

  Now, she needed to show Mrs. McWilliams and figure out who came into her room. She was pleased when the owner picked up the phone.

  “Ma’am there’s something you need to see,” she said.

  When Mrs. McWilliams arrived at the room, Taylor took her into the bathroom and showed her the slickness and the door. She chalked it up to an old shower door and something about the housekeeper. The explanation didn’t really make any sense, and she looked unsettled, nodding slowly.

  Mrs. McWilliams said she would have known if someone came into the room while Taylor was at dinner because she was at the front desk with all the keys.

  Taylor didn’t want to suspect the kind old lady would actually be the one responsible but she couldn’t rule it out either. She could easily be lying. She thanked her for coming to check it out and the Inn keeper was glad Taylor had found it before anyone had been hurt.

  Mrs. McWilliams called her on-call carpenter, a man she called Mr. Daily, to come and fix it, leaving Taylor and Miss Coco to ponder the strange and unsettling situation.

  ***

  Later after Mrs. McWilliams and the carpenter left, Miss Coco meowed and let Taylor know her litter box needed to be cleaned. Rather than use a dirty litter box, the cat would simply sit and howl until it was cleaned.

  Taylor went and grabbed one of the trash bags from the bin and scooped it out.

  “How have you already gone so much?” Taylor asked. “We haven’t been here that long.”

  I didn’t go that much. You know I can’t use it if there’s anything in there.

  Maybe she’d just gotten used to the fact that Taylor cleaned it so often at home.

  After she cleaned it for her, Miss Coco went in to relieve herself and Taylor looked at some of the pamphlets on the table.

  “Hey Miss Coco, there’s a hidden beach near here that’s supposed to be good for looking at stars.”

  The cat didn’t respond to her as she was still doing her business.

  Taylor went into her room and pulled out a sweater. She had one for Miss Coco too, a fluffy pink thing, which the cat hated wearing, however it was quite cool in the evening and if they were walking by the water, she wanted her to be warm. Plus, if they walked, perhaps the cat would sleep instead of run in manic circles around the room all night.

  When the cat finally emerged from her litter box, Taylor was ready to put the sweater and leash on her before she could protest. The lodge was quiet when they walked out so she didn’t tell anyone where she was going.

  The map showed that the hidden beach was really close to the one she’d been on the day before. This one was just through a grove of trees she’d overlooked and past a rock escarpment. When they popped out on the rock overlooking the beach, she realized it was a pretty steep drop to the sand below so she looked around for a way to climb down.

  “The pamphlet didn’t mention a rock-climbing expedition,” she said to Coco looking down. The cat did not join her on the rock. Taylor wasn’t surprised, Coco had never been a fan of heights.

  “This is just beautiful,” she said as she sat on the rock and looked up at the stars and the moon, sitting above the ocean. It gave her such peace to sit in the silence. She’d brought her camera hoping to get some good evening shots. The ones she’d taken last time they ventured out didn’t look as good. The magazine she worked for sometimes let her put together her own spreads and since she loved taking pictures so much, she was happy to do it.

  She also used her phone to take some for her Instagram. Her goal was to one day have thousands of followers that loved her photos…. so far, she had around forty. A girl could dream.

  After a while, her sixth sense kicked in and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up like someone was watching her. Taylor looked around but couldn’t see anyone in the moonlight. Miss Coco had fallen asleep on the rock next to her and Taylor wasn’t even sure how long they’d been out there.

  Suddenly, Miss Coco shot up, her ears perked up and her eyes wide. Taylor knew she heard something and after her conversation with the old man in the restaurant earlier, Taylor was wary. She was suddenly aware she was on the edge of a dangerous rock. She stood and backed away from the edge slowly.

  Miss Coco started to growl and moved over to the edge of the woods where Taylor now definitely heard rustling. With a hiss, the cat dove into the tall grass and disappeared.

  “Miss Coco,” Taylor whispered.

  Another low growl and then a loud caterwauling had her rushing forward to make sure the cat wasn’t hurt. The rustling grew louder and then faster as if someone was running away. Taylor was pretty sure someone didn’t like her talking to others about the deaths, but how on earth would they know? She t
ried to remember who’d been around when the man from the lodge was talking to her but she didn’t think anyone was near.

  With his strange behavior relating to the dessert and his mother’s cooking, she wouldn’t put it past Scott to eavesdrop. A chill moved over Taylor’s body and she wanted to get back to the lodge as quick as she could.

  The cat reappeared and looked up at her.

  You let him get away. I tried to bite him but I’m tiny, woman. I could have used a little help.

  The cat meowed and held up its paw. Taylor bent down to pick her up and examine it but didn’t see any injury to the cat.

  I stepped on a stick. It poked me. I know you can see it, make it feel better.

  Miss Coco hissed at Taylor and they made their way back towards the lodge. Taylor’s heart rate was very fast and she was breathing quickly. If someone did want to do away with her, they could have done it very easy out there on the rock. If Miss Coco was the only witness it would be very hard to prove she didn’t jump. They made their way through the garden with the cat remaining on high alert the whole time. The hair on her back continued to stand up.

  Taylor tried to breathe through her almost panic attack of possibly almost being killed on a rock.

  “You’d solve my murder though, wouldn’t you princess,” Taylor said to the cat as they walked into the front door.

  Mrs. McWilliams was closing up and looked at her strangely.

  “Have a good night Miss Mitchell,” she said.

  “You too, ma’am,” Taylor said. Scott was nowhere to be seen, but Taylor didn’t shake the eerie feeling of being watched until she was back in her room with the door shut.

  To pass the time when they were back in the room waiting for their mission, Taylor did some research into the other dead man from the lodge. Mr. Johnathan whose last name was Sturgis had only been forty-two and an interview with his wife called it an unfortunate accident and she said she'd never enjoy poultry again.

  The article went on to say that usually Scott McWilliams would help his mother in the kitchen but he was away on a fishing trip and his mother hired part-time help to assist her cooking in the kitchen. There was no foul play suspected well except for the bad bird. Taylor scolded herself for the bad joke. That was something to ponder though. When the man got sick from the chicken, only Mrs. McWilliams was in the lodge.

  Now there were four possible scenarios. That both the McWilliams were killers, that only Mrs. McWilliams was a killer, the man died by freak accident and so did Mr. Rumple, or Scott was a killer but only murdered once. This was a tangled little web they’d found themselves in……and to think all she had wanted was a vacation!

  Taylor wasn’t sure what to believe but from what she knew of Mrs. McWilliams she just didn’t think it was possible she would kill someone on purpose. Chances were that she felt awful that the death had happened. No, if Taylor had to bet on it, she'd put her money on Scott but first she needed the proof of foul play.

  ***

  That night, once it was late enough that she didn’t think anyone would still be up, Taylor thought it would be a good idea to get a better look at the staircase. She took Miss Coco with her so she could help with the investigation.

  Miss Coco had a sixth sense for finding things most people could not. She would find the strangest, smallest clues to a crime when the forensic guys overlooked them.

  “That little abandoned bolt must have had a nut to secure it in place. Maybe there was another loose rod in the set,” Taylor said to Miss Coco as they walked down the hallway.

  As she and the cat reached the stairs, it took a minute for her eyes to adjust to the dark. She knew Miss Coco could see and was instantly on alert when she heard the cat let out a low growl. Taylor focused her eyes and noticed a shadow groping along the staircase as if searching for something.

  Miss Coco continued to growl, but Taylor was pretty sure she knew who it was and what was going on. She’d brought a flashlight with her to use once they got down to stair level and pulled it out of her pocket.

  “Is this what you’re looking for, Scott?” Taylor said, shining her torch in the young man’s eyes.

  “Turn that off, you dumb woman!” Scott shouted. He tried to shield his eyes from the brightness. “I’m looking for nothing that should interest you!”

  Taylor stepped down gingerly under Scott’s angry gaze. “That’s not a very nice thing to say about me, but I’m sure you’ll want this bolt.”

  Opening her hand, she put the light of the flashlight on the item and showed it to Scott.

  “See, Miss Coco here found it under the carpet of the third step. Isn’t that the one that Mr. Rumple tripped on?” She was happy to have that little detail from the journalist.

  Taylor moved down another step towards him. Scott didn’t move. “And now you want to find the other bolt and nut that you dropped when you saw us. Don’t you?”

  “What do you know anyway?” Scott argued loudly, while Miss Coco slipped down to the stair he was currently standing on. The cat moved swiftly and found the loose bolt and nut on the stair below.

  “In fact, it seems three rods have already been loosened. If anyone had stepped on those stairs during the night, they would have fallen and hurt themselves.”

  CHAPTER 6

  “What on earth!” Scott screamed when Miss Coco jumped to the young man’s hand and relieved him of two other nuts and bolts using her claws. The menacing talons went into the flesh with ease. Miss Coco was furious.

  How dare you. If you kill her, no one will feed me.

  She hissed jumping down to the stairs and prancing back and forth with her hair standing on end until Taylor grabbed her.

  “You better get out of my hotel,” Scott hollered at the same time his mother came out of their apartment on the ground floor and to the bottom of the stairs. She looked up at her son, bewildered.

  “Scott? What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?”

  She then set her eyes on Taylor. “Miss Mitchell, I’m sorry. Has Scott disturbed you?”

  Taylor’s heart went out to the woman. She was so friendly and probably had no clue her son was insane.

  Taylor shook her head. “No, Mrs. McWilliams, I was the one who disturbed your son while he was removing the nuts and bolts from the carpet rods.”

  “Nothing good comes from complaining, in your establishment, dear lady. Mr. Rumple lost his life because your son didn’t like him complaining about the menu. And I was probably next on Scott’s avenging list. I don’t like desserts and he took that to heart.”

  Mrs. McWilliams was clutching her chest and looking at Taylor with scared, wide eyes.

  “I guess this was your son’s idea of a fitting punishment! I had to fall down the stairs as Mr. Rumple did. But you should have taken into account, Scott, you could have hurt anyone walking down the stairs if I wasn’t the first one. You didn’t have the ability to call my room like you called Mr. Rumples, because my phone doesn’t work. I checked it the first day I checked in.”

  “I’m not speaking to you,” Scott said.

  “I think you’re also the one who came into my room and messed with my bathroom. You probably have a master key that your mom doesn’t know about it. I also think you followed me to the beach, but maybe that was just to be creepy.”

  “You have no proof of anything you’re saying,” Scott hissed.

  “That’s fine, but we will call the police,” Taylor said scooping Miss Coco up and walking towards her room.

  “I’ll do it, Miss Mitchell. Don’t trouble yourself.”

  Taylor looked at Scott sitting in the stairs, staring off into the distance. He knew he was caught.

  She didn’t think he’d hurt his mother since she was the person he’d been hurting everyone for, but then again, Norman Bates came to mind. Taylor decided she’d wait at the top of the stairs until the police came just in case.

  When the local police did show up, they wanted all of them to go to the station for ques
tioning.

  Miss Coco was prancing up and down the hallway proud of herself, but Taylor had to put her in their room because the police weren’t interested in taking the cat with them.

  I deserve tuna at least, the cat looked around the room for something to destroy so Taylor would know her displeasure when she returned. Maybe the toilet paper needs to be shredded.

  “I knew something was wrong with my son,” Mrs. McWilliams admitted to the detective who was questioning her at the local police station. “He’s been very protective of me since his father died, but I certainly never imagined that he would do away with the guests that complained or were not satisfied with the service.”

  Detective Samson nods. “Yes, ma’am, it’s usually the parents who are the last to know or to realize something is wrong with their kid.”

  Taylor was being questioned at the desk next to her so she heard everything she was saying. She had simply told the detective she saw the irregularity of the stairs when she checked in and after realizing Scott may have murdered the late guest she went and investigated them more thoroughly. She said it was just a coincidence that she was checking them out at the same time Scott was sabotaging them.

  After they left the police station they went back to the lodge. Taylor was happy she had helped but felt so sad for Mrs. McWilliams. The poor woman’s husband had died and now her son would probably be sent to prison.

  “I think I’m cursed Taylor,” she said as she looked out the window. The devastated mother had gone with the police and she’d driven separately, so Taylor was happy to give her a ride back to the beautiful lodge.

  “What do you mean?” Taylor asked.

  “After the whole chicken debacle with that airheaded assistant chef, I really thought I was going to be ruined. Somehow, I clawed back up to the top, you know. I made the lodge great again. Now, one of my own has killed in it. I don’t know that it will ever be the same.”

  “It will be,” Taylor assured her, “it’s just going to take some time.”