Candlelit Madness: A 1920s Historical Mystery Anthology including Violet Carlyle

by Beth Byers

  Mr. Tenamen was already nodding his head in agreement. “That makes sense. There are some… things that should be fixed before we have police snooping around here. I know two couples in bed together upstairs that will be very grateful if we give them a head start to go home to their legal spouses before the cops show up. Also, I still need to check with Benny and the cook to see if they know where Hastings is.”

  Maddenstone’s underbite was as bad as Edwina had ever seen it, as the housekeeper pondered the plan they were discussing. Finally, she gave a defeated sigh. “Well, I don’t suppose Mr. Spinosa is going to be any more dead than he is right now, if we wait just a little bit. Mr. Tenamen, you go take care of those guests who need a bit of discretion. I’ll make sure everything else in the hotel is in order.”

  Edwina blew out a pent-up breath and looked at the head housekeeper. “We just have to be sure no one touches or moves the body, okay? The police are going to want to examine it exactly the way it is now. Don’t clean anything. Leave it where it is.”

  Tenamen stood up, his face resigned as he smoothed his lapels. “Oh, I just know this is going to ruin the hotel. Who would want to stay somewhere a gangster has been shot dead outside his room?”

  She’d started by investigating a missing jewel, and now she was neck-deep in a cold-blooded murder. Edwina was grateful for the fact that both Mr. Tenamen and Mrs. Maddenstone were furiously springing into action, even as they tried to not draw attention to what they were doing. She had a chance to move around the hotel undetected, because the mangers were busy discreetly warning guests that they may want to relocate elsewhere for their intimate rendezvous. Mrs. Maddenstone had taken over the reception desk to be sure everything was in shipshape for the police investigation that was coming, and as Edwina quickly walked by she saw her boss going over the guestbook with a fountain pen and a puzzled expression on her face.

  Most of the staff had already left for the evening, including Mr. Garvey and all but one of the maids. With just the kitchen crew cleaning up after dinner service and a lone doorman in the front lobby, Edwina had the rare opportunity to search around a bit and see if she could come up with any clues to the two mysteries she now had in front of her, a stolen diamond worth a fortune and a dead gangster who was lying on the carpet upstairs.

  First things first. She took the elevator up to the fifth floor, just to be sure no one had disturbed the body, and was relieved to see it was in the exact same position it had been earlier. Spinosa’s hotel room door was still cracked open, the desk lamp still on. Edwina looked up and down the hallway, almost expecting someone to see her, before she carefully eased through the opening and into the dead man’s room.

  It was spotlessly clean, a testament to the training and standards that Mrs. Maddenstone enforced. The only evidence that Spinosa was an occupant was the single suitcase set on the floor near the doorway, and the light. The bed was still made, the towels unrumpled.

  Edwina did a quick walk around, careful not to touch anything, before squeezing back through the cracked open door. She tiptoed past the body, doing her best to ignore it. Even though she’d seen two dead men before, she had no desire to hang out with a third.

  Just as she pressed the button for the elevator it arrived with a loud ding, and the doorman and a flustered Mrs. Maddenstone stepped out.

  The housekeeper gave a small gasp and clutched at her neck, then let out a tremulous laugh. “Oh, my dear! You scared me. I thought there was no one here, except for… well… you know who.”

  “What are you doing here?” Edwina asked, and the housekeeper’s face took on a look of grim determination.

  “I’m going to be sure no one comes or goes out of this area. This is Johnny,” she said, gesturing to the doorman standing behind her, who nodded at Edwina. “He’s my nephew. He can be trusted, and he knows what’s going on. I’m not worried about Mr. Hastings returning and doing anything to the body, but just in the off chance someone else might come by, I thought I’d wait here.”

  “Are you sure you feel safe?” Edina asked

  Mrs. Maddenstone, bulldog to the last, reached into her handbag and pulled out a large butcher knife. “I think I’ll be fine, but just in case someone tries to mess with me, I’ve got this.”

  “And me,” Johnny protested. “I don’t think you’ll need the knife.”

  Maddenstone frowned. “Maybe not, but I like to always be prepared.”

  Leaving them on the fifth floor, Edwina set off to walk through the rest of the hotel. On the floors with guest rooms she just walked the hallway, peeking in cautiously if a door was open, and listening for any obvious arguments or screams. By the time she’d reach the main floor she was disgusted and frustrated. Nothing seemed out of order in the upscale hotel. Everything was exactly as it should be.

  Everything, it is, except for the body cooling on the stained carpet upstairs.

  Chapter 6

  Prowling around downstairs, Edwina saw Mr. Tenamen had returned to the reception desk. He ignored his, and wiped his sweaty brow again as he faced the front doors, his face grim.

  Probably thinking of what he’s going to say to the cops, Edwina thought. And maybe to the newspaper reporters, too.

  It didn’t take long for her to walk through the closed restaurant or the empty kitchen. As she’d expected, every chair and fork and dishwashing tub was exactly where they should be, cleaned and put away for the next morning shift.

  At the door to Maddenstone’s office she hesitated for just a moment. Somehow, it felt a bit disrespectful to go in without the housekeeper’s knowledge. The lady was obviously proud of her position at the hotel, and took a lot of pride in her job and how she ran a crew of workers. That sort of dedication deserved some respect.

  It’s a murder investigation. It’s a murder investigation, she said to herself, over and over, until she finally got the gumption to grip the brass doorknob and turn it.

  Edwina turned on the light, took a deep breath, and stepped over to the big desk. It only held a blotter, a jar of pencils, and a small pad of clean notepaper on top. She peeked in the trashcan, empty of course, and finally slid her hand under the central drawer.

  Sliding it out, she wasn’t surprised to find it was neat as a pin inside, with every paperclip and piece of chalk in its own little box. Edwina slid the things around a bit to see if anything was hidden underneath.

  Nothing.

  One by one, she opened each of the three drawers on the side. The first two were filled with training manuals, envelopes, and other office supplies. When she opened the one on the bottom, it only held one item.

  Maddenstone’s black handbag. Two straps, one rhinestone clasp, and who knows what inside.

  Edwina blew out a deep breath of frustration. It felt completely wrong to go through someone else’s personal belongings like this. Still, if it helped solve the mysteries she was working on, then it must be worth it.

  She undid the sparkling clasp and the purse popped open. Edwina dug around a bit inside. A pair of tan gloves, a bright red lipstick, a wallet, and a hair comb.

  At the bottom, nearly tucked into the lining, was a small piece of paper. She tugged on it and pulled it out, flipping it over so she could read the script.

  It was a pawn ticket, dated from two days before. There was only one thing listed on it. In the column for description, it just said ‘diamond’, and under the heading for price paid, it said ‘special’, and an illegible signature was scrawled next to it.

  She stared at the ticket and her heart sank.

  Somehow, it seemed Mrs. Maddenstone was tied into the whole terrible mess.

  Chapter 7

  With no more evidence found in the housekeeper’s office, Edwina headed toward the breakroom. As she went back out in the hallway, she could just hear the phone on the front desk ring, and Mr. Tenamen answering it in a solemn tone.

  That’s the detective calling back, she thought to herself. I’ve got one more place to search before they get here.r />
  With almost every employee gone, the breakroom was dark and deserted. She flipped on the light switch and looked at the chairs upended on the cleaned tables, the floor bare for the cleaning crew that would come in after midnight. She walked around the room, peeked in the cooler, then pulled the curtain aside to look out the windows.

  I’m missing something, she thought. The cops are going to be here any minute and then I’m going to have to give my true identity and tell them I’ve failed as a detective. I’d bet dollars to doughnuts the newspapers would love to print a story about how Edwina Winterwood was working undercover as a hotel maid, and how she’s wrapped up in a scandalous murder.

  She thought briefly of her parents and what their reaction would be. She hadn’t told them about her new profession, or the small office she’d rented. They’d gotten used to not asking much about how she spent her time, after learning that their finishing-school debutante daughter was happiest fixing and racing cars. They never understood her streak of wildness or how little she cared about what society thought. It had taken years for her mother to give up on Edwina being the perfect daughter, but once she did, Edwina had relished her new freedom.

  She tried to put that out of her mind and focus on the task at hand. What was she missing?

  Walking around the room, she paused by one of the radiators. It was a massive bit of coiled metal, warm as toast when she came within a few feet of it, but as soon as she stepped away, toward the next radiator on the wall, the heat stopped.

  As if it weren’t working.

  She put a cautious hand on it, and it was cool to the touch, at room temperature.

  Edwina glanced toward the door, making sure no one would see, and bent down. The radiator was an exact duplicate of the one that worked, except for an odd addition. At the very back, tucked into the darkness by the wall, was a small dark wheel. She narrowed her eyes, trying to understand what she was looking at. She’d been around radiators her whole life and had never seen anything like that before.

  Kneeling on the marmoleum floor, she wrapped her hands around the heavy iron and pulled gently. At first, nothing happened, but when she gave a determined yank one end of the radiator slowly, inexplicably began to swing away from the wall, the little wheel underneath helping it move.

  No wonder the radiator didn’t work. The whole thing was fake!

  Leaning around the edge of it, Edwina’s eyes widened. When she looked very closely she could just make out that the wainscoting behind it was a bit different than other in the room. It looked as though there was a miniscule gap between the panel insert in the decorative molding.

  As soon as she pushed on it, she knew why.

  The entire panel swung away from her, hinged at the top. The darkness behind it revealed long-kept secrets.

  A stack of cash wrapped with a stamped paper band, and a two black velvet jewelry boxes. Edwina gasped, and scooted forward a bit so she could put her hand onto the bottom of the dark space.

  It was cold, and rock hard. It was a metal base, with metal walls.

  Suddenly, Edwina knew exactly what had happened to the Torch. She knew who’d taken it, and how.

  And she knew she had to tell someone right away, or everyone was in danger.

  Realizing she hadn’t taken a breath since the panel had revealed its secrets, she gulped a bit for air and slowly let the panel drop. Moving backwards a bit, she was just about to stand up and push the fake radiator back into place, when she heard the breakroom door shut behind her.

  Leaping to her feet, she whirled around, her eyes wide in fear.

  “You!”

  “Yep, it’s me.” Benny shook his head, as if regretting what was going to happen. “Aren’t you the clever one? I can’t believe you found how to get into the safe.”

  “So, you do welding and such for the hotel, huh? Fixing everything in the hotel, huh? Well, that explains a lot, like how you had access to the safe, and how you torched the back open before you installed it. Let me guess. You installed a fake back to the safe, right?”

  Benny grinned roguishly and gave a noncommittal shrug. “Hey, if you’re friends with the night manager, you’d be surprised what they let you do. Especially if they get half of whatever dough I get when I’m done. They even let you take off part of the back of the safe before you install it, so it can stay locked in front and no one knows you can get in through the fake back.”

  “Behind the wall. Behind the radiator.” Edwina’s eyes were darting toward the door, considering. Benny was standing too close to the doorframe for her to run past him. She put her hands up in front of her, palms out.

  “Look, I don’t know what you did to Hastings, but this whole thing has nothing to do with me! Why did you kill Spinosa? Did he find out about the diamond? Did you kill Hastings, too?”

  Benny gave a short bark of laughter. “Kill Hastings? He beat feet the minute he saw me coming down the stairs with the gun! He’s probably halfway to Alaska by now. Look, it’s not my fault I got the wrong guy. In that dark hallway I thought Spinosa was Hastings. He had one that same sort of pinstriped suit, and he came back a day earlier than what he’d said he was going to. How was I to know he’d be wearing the same damn suit?”

  “So… you killed Spinosa by accident?”

  Benny’s grin was wide as he pulled a snub-nosed revolver out of his pocket. “That’s right, sweetheart, but some things work out for the best, don’t they? Now I don’t have to worry about him finding out about the Torch going missing from the safe. No one here’s gonna breathe a word of it to the press, and I get off scot-free.”

  “Look, Benny, I’m only a maid at the hotel” Edwina said in a soothing voice, “and I know better than to go blabbing around town about what’s happened here. If you just let me go I’ll be silent as the grave, I swear! You’ll never hear from me again. Just take your diamond and your loot and walk out of here. The cops are on their way.”

  Benny clucked his tongue and looked down. “I wish I believed that. I’m leaving, all right, but I’ve got something to take care of first.”

  He took one menacing step toward her, then two, as he raised the gun. “I’m sorry it had to be this way, sweetheart.”

  For a moment, it seemed as if time itself had slowed down, and Edwina had a moment of clarity she’d never experienced before. With a wild scream, she launched herself directly at Benny, hands outstretched for the pistol, ready to do whatever it took to save herself from being shot.

  The ferocious, sudden move seemed to shock Benny and he jerked back a bit, just as Edwina bit down viciously on his forearm, tasting blood. His scream was nearly inhuman as she grappled with him for the gun, her teeth sunk into his skin as hard as she could clamp them, her feet scrabbling against the floor to try to get any leverage against the killer.

  Her fingers were on the cold metal of the gun, her eyes locked on it.

  There was a gunshot, an acrid scent of burned gunpowder.

  And mercifully, wonderfully, a loud stampede of feet behind her.

  Still locked on his arm, she and Benny fell down in a tangle of limbs and the two policemen who had landed on top of them both.

  A brief struggle, and Edwina was gripped in an iron grasp around her waist and pulled backwards.

  “Quit biting him!” the cop commanded, and Edwina let up, gasping for air, her eyes wide. She could still taste the blood.

  In front of her, Benny was being flipped over onto his belly, his gun several feet away, and a large blond cop who had lost his hat was smugly clapping handcuffs onto Benny’s wrists. Benny thrashed and moaned in protest, finally calming down a bit when the policeman gripped him by the back of his neck.

  The arms around Edwina’s waist slowly let go, but a strong hand gripped her shoulder as the cop flipped a chair right-side up and pushed her into it.

  “Are you okay, miss?”

  Edwina focused on the face in front of her, and the clear blue eyes peering back. “What? Oh, yes. Yes, I’m fine…” she said,
trying to slow down her pounding heart. Grappling with Benny had taken every ounce of strength she had, and she felt weak in the knees.

  The policeman’s eyes crinkled in a grin. “I’m Officer Desmond. You don’t have rabies, do you? We might have to give that bad guy shots.”

  Edwina took a deep breath, then gave him a shaky smile. “No rabies, I promise.” She glanced over at Benny, now being hauled to his feet. “But I do have a suggestion. There’s a large yellow diamond that was stolen from this hotel, and that man took it. If I were you, I’d be sure to check his toolbox and belt, and his pockets, too.” She took a deep breath. “And the dead man on the fifth floor was shot by him, too.”

  Giving a low whistle of surprise, the policeman’s eyes widened. “Well, I guess it turns out we’ve got the right lady to talk to, don’t we? Now, can I get you a towel or something to get the blood off your face?”

  “Well, do you want to open it, or shall I?” Officer Desmond asked with a smile. He set Benny’s metal toolbox on the breakroom table with a loud clunk, and turned toward Edwina. “We searched his locker and turned out his pockets, but didn’t find anything. No car to search, since he takes the streetcar to work. I found this hidden behind his tool bench, and thought maybe we’ll get lucky. No reason for him to hide it, unless he’s got something in there he doesn’t want other people to find.”

  “Maybe,” Edwina said, blowing out a slow breath. Her hands were shaking a bit as she flipped up the two clasps on the front of the box. It opened with a complaining creak. At first glance, Edwina was disappointed. Just screwdrivers and an assortment of wrenches were visible, packed around an inner metal tray. With a grunt of effort, she lifted the handled tray out and set it on the table.