He looked at Ashley’s anxious face and understood her frustration. He realized her words were full of good intent. But she was still fairly young, and couldn’t understand the bitterness in his heart. He replied with all the patience he could muster.
“Thank you for all of your help. I understand that you are here to do your best. I’m the one who asked you to come up here, and I bear responsibility for you being in danger now. That bothers me to no end. I needed your help to answer questions and help me solve the case, but it’s too dangerous now. You both need to go home. I can’t protect you here anymore. I will make sure we put a watch on you for a while back in Comfortville too, just in case.”
Ashley started to speak, but Miller shut her down.
“You have friends and families. People who love you. Trust me. This is not worth it. I know. I lost my only daughter a few years ago in a tragic accident. Go home.”
Ashley and Sean noticed his face was contorted with grief. They say the wound never heals when you lose someone you deeply love. You go on, but you’re merely stitched up. In her mind’s eye she caught an image of her parent’s faces and how they would struggle each day if anything happened to her. She put her hand on Miller’s.
“What I was going to say is that I understand,” she said quietly. “We’ll go. I can’t wait to get back home. I’ve had enough.”
Miller just looked at her, his eyes moist with tears. “I’ve had enough too.”
Sean softly interjected. “It’s too late to leave tonight,” he said. “Where could we stay?”
“I’ll make arrangements at another place,” Miller said. “Just don’t go out anywhere. And when you leave tomorrow, I’ll send an escort.”
“Thank you,” they mumbled.
Ashley looked at the men in their business suits. “What about them?”
“I’ll take then in for questioning. I can’t guarantee I can hold them though.”
There wasn’t much else to say. Or for them to do but try and get some sleep.
***
They were taken to a chain hotel in town with twenty-four-hour security. As soon as they got to their room, Sean lay on the bed and fell asleep immediately. Ashley sat in the chair at the end of the bed and listened to his breathing. Her heart ached with a sadness she hadn’t felt before. Although she was just in her thirties, she felt very old. She longed to hear her parents arguing in their funny way about silly things, and to hear their comedic riffs on nearly every subject she brought up. Like everyone, they had known trouble in their lives too, but not the pain of losing a child. She realized they would not be the same people now if they had. She felt exhausted, but couldn’t sleep. Before they left town, what could she put together about what had happened up here?
Ben is dead, the actor playing Falstaff has been poisoned but is alive, and Harley is still missing, she thought. They’ve got Grant, and the driver Steve and the two other guilty men from the mountain. But Justin has escaped. And there are suits running around the town who are obviously guilty, but they haven’t been arrested yet. And so far, none of this has tied in to who is in control of what’s going on. This is the hardest case I’ve ever worked on.
She lay in the chair, her mind twisting and turning as she re-traced their steps and tried to think where the missing pieces of the puzzle were.
What had they missed when they visited the water site? She focused on the tour guide Justin. She had never met him before that day, but he seemed familiar. He kept popping into her mind. Nagging her. Where had she seen him before?
Soon her mind and body were drained and everything shut off. Just before she fell asleep, she glanced at the time. Three-forty-five in the morning.
How will I get up at six-thirty to leave? she thought. The night was so still that it seemed as if time didn’t move. As if it would be dark forever. Here, up north in a sleepy little town now infamous worldwide, everything was about to be revealed.
Just before she succumbed to sleep, a quote from Macbeth came to Ashley’s mind. “The instruments of darkness tell us truths.”
***
Sean was up and quietly getting dressed in the morning when Ashley opened her eyes. She was groggy and disoriented. It was as if she had dreamed about everything last night, not that it actually happened. A quick look around their sterile room brought her back to reality.
“This place is really ugly,” she moaned.
“Morning to you too,” Sean said. “I was going to get coffee first, then come back and surprise you with it.”
“Thanks. I’ll have it super strong and black.”
“I’m sure the coffee here won’t be that good,” he said. “There’s a little artisanal coffee shop around the corner. I’ll go there. Be right back.” As soon as he got to the door, Ashley called out to him.
“Wait, did you just say ‘artisanal’?”
He grinned. “Guess I did. Wow. The foodie in you is rubbing off on me.”
“Sean, even I don’t say artisanal,” she said.
“Yeah, well, the hipsters are never far away. You want a muffin too?”
“Its millennials now, not hipsters, and yes, muffins, as in plural. Or a muffin and a donut. You know what’s good. Something delicious and full of sugar to go with my caffeine. I need to wake up fast.”
He gave her the thumbs up as he exited. “Yes dear, says the dutiful married man.”
She smiled as he closed the door. Hopefully they would always be this comfortable with one another. Her phone rang. It was her mom. She tried to sound awake and cheery.
“Hi Mom, what’s up?” Ashley asked.
“Oh not much dear. Just wanted to hear your voice. You were supposed to call and let us know when you were coming home. Tell Sean everything is good at the bakery. But his assistant is getting tired. And I’m home today getting a well-deserved rest,” April said.
“Sorry I haven’t called. We’re coming home today. Long story. We’ll talk to you and Dad about it when we get back,” Ashley said.
“Oh, the plays weren’t very good? You know, it’s awfully hard to do Shakespeare well. Every play I’ve taken your father to, he’s fallen asleep,” April said.
Ashley chuckled half-heartedly. “Every Shakespeare play, or just every play?”
“I guess you know the answer, “April said.
“How are the cats?”
“As cute as can be. And still driving us nuts.”
“You mean Charlie is driving you nuts,” Ashley said.
“Well actually, Susie has picked up his bad habits and is starting to yowl early in the morning too. Your father says she’s ‘mirroring’ him.”
“Or he’s just strong-armed her into helping him get his way with you,” Ashley joked.
“Speak of the devil, here’s Charlie now. Want to say hi to your mamma?”
Ashley heard a loud yowl in the background.
“Mom, hang up and video chat with me. I’d like to see all of you.”
“Okay dear, I’ll get right back to you.”
As soon as her mom dialed back with video, Ashley saw an excited Charlie running around in the background. She smiled into the screen and called “Charlie!” He came running up and put his nose to the camera and yowled so loudly it sounded amplified.
“That’s one excited cat,” April said.
“I miss you too Charles,” Ashley said.
Charlie jumped up on the side table in back of her parents’ living room, then onto the couch, then back on the table. On the second go round, he knocked over two picture frames. April dashed to pick them up.
“My goodness! Such adoration! He certainly misses you,” April said.
“Hope he didn’t break the glass in the frames,” Ashley said.
“Oh no dear. They’re okay. Look, this is the one you made for us in middle school. You’re dad found it in a box in the garage and we just put it on the table because it’s so cute. You put it in a plastic frame and painted the edges. It’s you and your friends on the soccer tea
m,” April said.
She held the photo up to the screen.
Ashley smiled at the photo. It was a group of girls from her team back then, all looking at the camera. “I remember that. What a gawky stage.”
Back in those days, Ashley still had braces and was on the chubby side. Her friend Lara was the tallest of the bunch. She also had braces. On the left side of the picture were two girls who Ashley hadn’t seen in a very long time.
“Is that Shauna King?” she asked her mom.
“Yes, I just ran into her mom the other day. Shauna got married last year by the ocean,” April said. “But I don’t recognize this girl.” She pointed to the far left of the soccer photo.
Ashley peered at the picture. It was Harley. She stared at her for a long time.
April finally spoke. “Ashley? Who is it? Do you recognize her? I don’t remember her coming around to the house.”
Ashley squinted hard at the photo.
“She looks like this woman here in Shauna’s wedding photo, all grown up,” April said. She held up a newspaper clipping of a wedding photo from the local Heatherton paper.
In the bridesmaid group, there was Harley—tall, rangy and with dark-blond hair.
Then Ashley gasped.
“Honey, what is it?” April said. “You’re in a trance over these photos.”
Ashley pointed to a man who stood to the right of the groom. “Who’s that?”
April peered at the photo. “Looks like one of the groomsmen to me.”
“I mean that guy, there.” She singled out one man in the group. Then she pointed back to Harley. “Doesn’t he look like her?”
The man she referred to was tall, rangy and had the same dark-blond hair and hazel eyes. Even his smile looked like Harley’s.
“Oh, I see. Yes, they do look a lot alike. Almost like—”
“Twins!” Ashley exclaimed. “Fraternal twins!”
“Well, come to think of it, Shauna’s mom mentioned something about her brother, and I—”
“Mom, try to find out if they are twins! And scan and email that photo to me, please! ASAP!”
April looked confusingly at her daughter. “Okay, honey, but it would help if you told me what this is—”
“Mom. I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go. I will explain, but there’s no time now,” Ashley said.
Just then, Sean stepped into the room with their coffee and pastries.
April was still on screen. Charlie, meanwhile, howled in the background.
“Honey, is there something wrong?” April asked.
“Nothing. This is actually good news. But I really have to go. Sean came back with breakfast and I have to eat. I haven’t had coffee yet. You know how I am without my coffee. Give Dad my love. See you soon,” Ashley said.
“Bye dear! And hi and bye, Sean!” April yelled.
Charlie let out another yowl and pawed the screen.
“Bye, Charlie. See you soon!” Ashley said.
She closed down video chat and stared at Sean.
“We can’t leave today. We have to get over to the police station now!” Ashley said.
“What’s going on Ash?” Sean asked.
“I know who’s behind the murders! I’ll explain in the car. Let’s go before someone else gets hurt!”
Chapter Seventeen
Ashley told Sean everything she suspected as they drove to the station. The cop dutifully followed them. Detective Miller was in a meeting, so they waited in the lobby.
As soon as they were permitted entry to Miller’s office, Ashley ran in ready to blurt everything out.
“Detective! I know who killed—” she started to say.
Miller held his hand up and shouted. “Wait a minute! Call coming in from the search party!”
He took the call and listened quietly, then grunted. “Okay. Bring him in.” Miller then hung up the phone and stared at the floor for a moment. His voice was barely a whisper.
Ashley desperately wanted to speak, but Miller cut her off again.
“They were tracking your phone call from Harley and stumbled upon Justin’s body up on the mountain. His head was laying on a rock, like he fell on it. But the initial examination shows a blow to the top of the head. Looks like he was murdered. They’re bringing him down now. We’ll run the autopsy and confirm everything.”
He let out a long sigh. “Now we’ll never get the answers we needed from him to help solve this case.”
“That guide Justin that they just found, he’s Harley’s twin!” Ashley blurted out.
Miller stared at her as if she was crazy. “What?”
“Detective, sit down a minute please.”
As soon as he was seated, Ashley sat across from him and explained.
“Harley was obviously working for the PWCS Company. I heard that she never had much of a career as an actress and probably never made much money, so this was an opportunity for her. I don’t know anything about her brother, but she clearly recruited him to help her. And you know how twins are, always sticking together. It seems they were the only ones in the family that were close. She needed as much information as possible for her bosses. He took the job as a guide so he could spy on everyone who went up on the mountain—like the investigators, mechanics, city council members, and especially the activists that wanted to shut down the operations. She worked as an actress in the plays so she could keep her eye out and ears open about what was being said in town. They obviously relayed all the information to the top honchos so they could stay one step ahead of what everyone was complaining about. No one would ever know about their convoluted life as they had little ties with any family back home, and only sporadic communication with so called ‘friends.’ Physically, they were both tall and lean with short blond hair, but since he was on the mountain most of the day, and she was down below, most people wouldn’t make the connection that they were related. I saw the resemblance as soon as I saw the photo my mom had of her on my soccer team years ago, and the recent one of her at another teammates’ wedding. Her coloring, her body type, her height, it matched a groomsman in the wedding photo. They’re fraternal twins!”
“This sounds way out there, Ashley. I’m sorry. It’s tough to swallow. Why wouldn’t anyone up here have knowledge of them being related?” Miller said.
“Because they didn’t socialize together. They kept apart while they did their jobs. Probably only met at night somewhere private to go over details of their work. And he was never around the theater, so he was never brought in for questioning over Ben’s murder,” Ashley said.
Miller sat quietly trying to grasp everything she was saying.
“Look, you’ll have your answers as soon as you do an autopsy, Detective. The results should be an identification of a Justin Dickson. You have Harley’s fingerprints from when you questioned her, right? All their family DNA will pop up on the data base.”
“That would explain all the phone calls to you,” Miller said.
“She was trying to throw us off, keep us from suspecting her and her brother, and lead us to cast blame elsewhere. She hadn’t been kidnapped. She tried everything to throw us off her scent. When I first talked to her, she tried to dissuade me from coming up here to see the plays. She had heard of my sleuthing through the grapevine in Comfortville and didn’t want me snooping around. She was probably the one who sent Grant to scare us. And I’m sure it was Justin making the phone calls pretending to be the one who abducted her and also warning us to not come up.”
“And he probably was the one who called and pretended to be Ben to spook you,” Miller said.
“Right,” Ashley said. “She didn’t want Sean and I to get involved. Because she didn’t want to hurt us. I think she still had some sentimental memories of our times together as kids in Comfortville.”
“And her last phone call to you?” he asked.
Ashley lowered her voice. “I think she was hoping to give her brother some extra time to get away. I have a feeling she was very protective of
him. They only had each other in life. She probably found him dead on the mountain. That must have been what triggered her confession.”
“What about her admission that she killed Ben?” Miller asked.
“Ben must’ve been on to her. And that she was working for PWCS. Maybe he found out Justin was her brother and working as a guide for the company during the day. Ben had to be killed before he exposed the company’s plan. She was in the play Romeo and Juliet and could have easily poisoned Ben during the rehearsal.”
Miller sat there a moment in silence. Sean fidgeted by the door.
“Depending on the timing, this could mean that it wasn’t Harley that attempted to poison the actor, Townsend, who played Falstaff. I think it was the businessman who ran out of the theater that night. Townsend must have seen or heard something too, like Ben did. Maybe he figured out the corruption with PWCS. In any case, a decision was made to get rid of him. You’ll get more answers when you question him.”
Miller sat in silence.
Ashley cleared her throat. “What happened when you questioned those suits from the diner?”
“They didn’t say much. They denied that they are involved in any way. I had no grounds to hold them,” Miller answered.
“What about threatening us?” she asked.
“They denied that too,” Miller said.
“So you let them go? She asked.
“Look Ashley, they may or may not be involved. You’ve accused them. As have Ben Colton’s parents. But I need grounds to arrest them. I simply can’t throw them behind bars on the basis that they are running around in suits, and show up wherever you are, looking suspicious.”
Ashley Crane Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 71