Fireside Homicide Cozy Mystery Bundle

by Willow Monroe

  “I’m sorry, I’ve just been exploring a little bit this morning,” she explained.

  “You couldn’t answer your phone?” he asked, his blue eyes flashing with a hint of anger now that he knew she was safe.

  Gemma pulled her phone out of her pocket and saw that she had several calls from him and Holly. “It looks like the sound got turned off somehow,” she explained. “I didn’t mean to make you worry.”

  Nick just shook his head but finally he took a deep breath and then began to smile. “Where were you exploring?”

  “In the library. In fact, I tried to get you a job.”

  “A job?”

  “Yeah, I was talking to Mrs. Northlake about writing her life story. During World War Two, she escaped from Austria and went to France right after the rest of her family disappeared. She met Winter Northlake when he was in France during the war. They married and he brought her here to live. I don’t think his parents liked it very much, but she had no choice. Doesn’t that sound like a fascinating story?” Gemma asked.

  Nick nodded. “It does. And I had no idea. Maybe we can both talk to her once all this is settled.”

  “I don’t know. She really seemed a bit reluctant to talk about it and when I suggested a book she got really nervous,” Gemma sounded doubtful. “So where are you headed besides looking for me?”

  “I heard they did the autopsy this morning. I was just going to check with Ross to see if I could run a second piece in the paper with a little more information,” Nick explained.

  “You’re a good man, Charlie Brown,” Gemma said, hugging her long-time friend and former fiancé. “Other reporters would be all over it, not caring whether they were leaking privileged information or not.”

  “That’s not the way I roll, Betty Boop,” Nick said, hugging her back. “Now, I think Holly was planning on having breakfast with you before the convention hall opened up again.”

  “Then I’d better get upstairs and get changed,” Gemma said.

  Just as she and Nick parted ways, she noticed Benjamin Northlake leaving his office. With a coffee cup in his hand, he headed away from her toward the restaurant. It suddenly dawned on her that if she could get a look at his calendar, she might be able to confirm that he had a meeting scheduled with General West. Maybe he’d even written down the subject of that meeting. That would help Ross and her own cause as well.

  She waited until he was out of sight. Heart pounding in her chest, she didn’t give herself time to think. Gemma stepped to the office door and turned the knob. It opened with just a little creak and she slipped inside. It was as dark as usual with only a couple of lamps to warm up the space but there was a fire in the fireplace.

  That big desk loomed in front of her, but it was a lot messier than it was the last time she’d seen it. It was covered with what looked like ledger pages, spreadsheets and a stack of unpaid bills. Several of them were stamped ‘Final Notice’. Interesting.

  Gemma reminded herself why she was there and that she probably didn’t have much time. After all, he was probably just going after coffee.

  But...

  If the Northlakes were having money problems - and she’d heard rumors that they were - that might be some information Ross could use as well. First, she checked every calendar she could find and there were a few. But the flip calendar on the desk was the only one missing a page from the previous day. Impulsively, Gemma grabbed the page after that, folded it and stuffed it into her pocket.

  Then she began quickly shuffling through the bills, trying to memorize everything she could. From what she could see, it looked like the restaurant and hotel were in the most trouble, although there were a few bills pertaining to golf course maintenance dated the previous summer. All marked unpaid.

  Gemma ran her finger down the ledger and tried to compare it with the spreadsheet. Her limited knowledge of accounting made it impossible to know what she was looking at.

  The slight creak of the door sounded like a gunshot to her ears.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Do you think she did it?” Vincent asked.

  “I wouldn’t put it past her. She was so dead set against the whole deal,” Benjamin answered as the two men entered the office.

  After hearing their voices, Gemma barely had enough sense or time to get out from behind that cluttered desk and cross the room to the sofa. And that’s where they found her.

  “May we help you?” Benjamin asked, frowning slightly.

  His voice was as cold as usual but even from where she stood in the gloomy room, Gemma could see the fire in his eyes. At that moment, she was sure he would have killed her if given the opportunity.

  “I seem to have lost one of my earrings.” Trying to sound bright and chipper, Gemma said the first thing that came into her head.

  Both men continued to stare at her and she wished she could just disappear through the floor. The brothers seemed like giants to her at that moment, and they were blocking her only escape route. Panic threatened to overtake her. She swallowed hard and kept talking.

  “I was thinking that maybe when they brought me in here yesterday, I lost it on the sofa or in the cushions,” Gemma said, suddenly feeling surprisingly calm. And then, as if to prove her story, she lifted up one of the cushions looked underneath.

  “My office is cleaned daily,” Benjamin said. “If you had lost an earring in here someone would have found it by now.”

  “Oh, okay. Well, if it does turn up, would you let me know?” she said with a bright smile as she tried to edge past them toward the door.

  Neither man moved at first. Vincent smiled down at her but it was like looking into the face of a snake. Waves of anger simply radiated off of Benjamin. At the last minute they stepped aside to let her pass.

  Out in the hall, she closed her eyes briefly and fought the urge to run. All she wanted to do was get as far away from that office as quickly as possible. She stepped onto the elevator and came face to face with Victoria Northlake.

  “Good morning, again,” Gemma said, wondering if this was the ‘she’ the brothers were discussing when they caught her in the office.

  Victoria merely nodded, her countenance as cold and rigid as her brother’s but there was something else there as well. Either she was on some medication or needed to be. Her dark eyes darted about wildly and she looked somewhat unkempt. Strands of limp brown hair had come loose from her customary chignon and sweat gleamed on her cheeks and chin in the dim lights.

  “Victoria, are you alright?” Gemma asked, unable to stop herself. The woman was obviously in distress.

  Victoria looked down at her hands. They were trembling. In fact, her whole body was shaking and it appeared to be getting worse by the minute. She took a deep, trembling breath.

  “Are you sick? Can I call someone?” Gemma asked.

  “They think I did it, you know,” Victoria sobbed.

  Gemma kept quiet.

  “My brothers think I killed him,” she repeated, almost as if she was talking to herself.

  “Why would you do that?” Gemma asked, keeping her tone low and quiet.

  Victoria shook her head, tears streaming down her face.

  “I didn’t want to go through with it. This is my home.”

  Gemma was beginning to put two and two together. Were they going to sell Northlake Manor to General West? Surely it would cost more than the cash he had in that briefcase. But if that had been a down payment...

  “How did your mother feel about it?” Gemma asked. Whatever ‘it’ was.

  “Mother knew nothing about it. They were going to just leave us to fend for ourselves and...” Victoria’s words were drowned out by tears.

  Gemma had a million questions but she was sure Victoria either wouldn’t or couldn’t answer them at this point. The elevator bumped to a stop and Gemma realized she hadn’t pushed the button for her floor. Instead they were all the way at the top of the building where Mrs. Northlake’s rooms were located, according to Nick. From what Nic
k had told her about the layout of the property, she knew that Mrs. Northlake shared the floor with Benjamin and Vincent.

  “Can I help you to your room?” Gemma asked, careful not to touch Victoria as they stepped out into the dark hall.

  Victoria looked at her as if she’d sprouted wings. “I don’t live up here.”

  “Oh,” Gemma said, looking around.

  From what she could see, this part of the building looked older and more run down than the rest of the hotel. The carpet was completely worn through in some places and even though there were sconces on the walls, the whole length of the hall was dark and foreboding. Then Gemma shivered, realizing it was colder up here as well. Over Victoria’s shoulder she could see a bare window with a view of the mountains beyond.

  “I live in a guest cottage off the golf course,” Victoria said, bringing Gemma’s attention back to her. “I’ve lived there since-.”

  Before she finished her sentence, a door behind her opened and Gemma whirled around to see Simone standing there.

  “Ms. Stone,” Simone said. She forced a smile, even though it was obvious she wasn’t happy to see Gemma here.

  “Mother, I can explain...” Victoria began.

  Mrs. Northlake held up her hand. “Ms. Stone, these are our private quarters. We would appreciate it if you would not intrude on them.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Gemma said, suddenly more frightened of the little old lady than she had been of either of her sons. “It was an accident. I was helping Victoria and...”

  “Victoria is a drama queen, as you young people say, and you’re not to believe a word that she says,” Simone said, shooting a withering glance at her daughter.

  Originally when Gemma had seen Victoria in action in the restaurant and at the front desk, she had felt bad for the people working under her. Now Gemma’s heart went out to the woman in her mid-fifties, who appeared to shrink under her mother’s gaze.

  “Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry to intrude,” Gemma said, backing toward the elevator. She didn’t even dare breathe until the doors closed and she started downward.

  The whole episode was unsettling, and now she didn’t know what to think. Maybe the whole family was crazy. Maybe they had conspired to kill the general. Gemma didn’t know, but she was glad when the elevator stopped at her floor.

  “Oh, here she is now,” Holly said into her phone when Gemma opened the door to their room moments later.

  Gemma flashed her an apologetic smile and crossed the room to look out of the French doors that she hadn’t noticed the night before. They opened onto a balcony. The view of the golf course and the rolling hills and mountains beyond was breathtaking. Even covered with snow it was a beautiful sight. Down below, they were grading the parking lot and she could see the city had already been working on the roads.

  The CID would be here in just a matter of hours.

  Behind her, Holly was still talking softly and Gemma could tell from the tone of her voice that she was talking to Mitch. Gemma hugged herself and wondered if Walter Shores and his magical walking stick was hiding out there somewhere, or perhaps he froze to death during the night. If he, indeed, was the killer, it was better than he deserved.

  “Thanks for letting me know where you were,” Holly said, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

  “I’m sorry. The sound was turned down on my phone and I didn’t hear the calls,” Gemma explained for the second time that morning.

  Holly held out her hand and Gemma handed over her phone. With a swipe and a few clicks, she changed a few settings and then handed it back with her usual sweet smile. “Now, you’ll FEEL me calling you even if you can’t hear it,” she said.

  “Got it,” Gemma said.

  “Now, I want to take you to breakfast this morning before the convention starts up again,” Holly said and then she took a deep breath. “Mitch wants me to talk to you about something.”

  “Do I have time for a shower?” Gemma asked.

  “Hurry,” Holly said, checking her watch.

  While Gemma showered and washed her hair, her thoughts ran in a dozen different directions. She tried to analyze the information she’d picked up that morning but it was too soon. It needed to simmer a little bit first in her subconscious. She knew this much about herself and her thought processes. The answer was there, she just couldn’t quite put all the pieces together yet.

  Dressing in a gray pin striped pantsuit with a white silk blouse, she added a bit of color to the outfit with a pink scarf. Her favorite high-heeled boots finished off the look. Make-up was easy since she rarely wore anything more than mascara and some lip gloss. Her hair was another matter altogether and, after drying it, Gemma finally gave up trying to control the wild curls and pulled them up in a high pony tail with a tortoiseshell clip, another gift from her mother.

  “Ready?” Holly asked, handing Gemma her purse.

  “Ready,” Gemma said, pulling the calendar page from her jeans and slipping it into her jacket pocket.

  They rode down to the restaurant in silence. Gemma wanted to talk to Holly about what she’d learned, hoping it would help her sort out her thoughts. But if Holly knew she’d been caught snooping in Benjamin’s office earlier, she would report straight to Ross. Still, if she could have lured Holly into that office, Holly would have been able to tell her what all the accounting gibberish meant.

  Gemma had a good idea though. Northlake Manor was drowning in debt and it looked like the brothers were trying to sell it to General West, or at least get him and his investors to bail them out. Perhaps that’s what the money in the briefcase was for. She didn’t think Victoria had the nerve to kill the general herself so, if she was involved, she’d paid to have it done.

  “I can almost hear those gears turning in that little head of yours,” Holly said.

  “Sorry, there were some new developments in the murder and I was just mulling them over,” Gemma said, smiling at her friend.

  “Such as?”

  “Well, for starters he wasn’t shot like everyone thought,” Gemma said.

  “I’m listening.”

  “He was stabbed - and it looks like it might have been a professional job.”

  “I understand he had made a few enemies. That guy with the books really hates him,” Holly said.

  The restaurant was fairly bustling this morning, but the hum of conversation was still subdued. The waitress seated them at a table right beside Conrad Bilker. Head down, he was practically shoveling food into his mouth. Seated at the table with him was a man in an ape-like suit, wearing a crossbow.

  “Why is he dressed like an ape or something?” Gemma whispered to Holly.

  Holly glanced at their table. “He’s supposed to be Chewbacca.”

  Gemma didn’t respond.

  “Star Wars. See the head?” Holly prompted.

  “Oh yeah, I get it now,” Gemma said to her friend.

  But it wasn’t the head of the costume with the long flowing brown hair that caught her attention. The two men laughed about some private joke and Chewbacca reached out and touched the crossbow. Alongside it was arrows and Gemma could hardly take her eyes off of them. Long, round arrows with a sharp tip.

  Gemma wondered just who was under all that hair.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Stop staring,” Holly hissed.

  Gemma finally tore her eyes away from the men and concentrated on ordering her breakfast. Did Ross know about the guy with the arrows? She hadn’t seen him there the day before. And was it significant that he was hanging around with Bilker?

  They ordered breakfast and Holly gave her a knowing look.

  “What?” Gemma asked, trying to look innocent.

  “Will you forget about trying to solve this mystery long enough to pay attention to something important that I need to talk to you about?”

  “Yes,” Gemma said. Folding her hands on the table in front of her, she forced herself to concentrate as she gazed across the table at her best friend. They’d known each other
since first grade. She wondered if their relationship was going to change once they were married and had families of their own. Oh, they were in business together and that was working beautifully, but Gemma knew Holly’s priorities were about to change.

  “Mitch wants me to start looking for a house,” Holly said.

  “What fun,” Gemma said, sliding her hands across the table to squeeze Holly’s.

  “He’s so busy, but I know what he’s looking for. He thought you might be willing to help me narrow it down to two or three and then he’ll look at those,” Holly explained.

  “Count me in,” Gemma said. “Are you going to start with a real estate agent or just start looking online?”

  “You’re going to hate this, but I’ve already talked to Katie Mack,” Holly said and then winced.

  “Oh, no. Not Katie Mack. She’s been badgering me to sell my parents’ house for months. But she’s so...so...” Gemma couldn’t even finish the sentence.

  “Cold. Cantankerous. Hateful. The list of negatives goes on and on,” Holly said, nodding her head in agreement. “But she handles all of the high end homes in the area and Mitch wants something to kind of show off his new status in the law firm.”

  “I understand,” Gemma said, her sigh letting Holly know that she had given in. “But...”

  “It’ll be fun. You said so yourself,” Holly reassured her. “And we can make fun of Katie behind her back.”

  Gemma giggled. “Like we used to do in school.”

  “Are we all done here?” Holly asked, drinking down the last of her coffee. She checked her watch. “We have time for a bathroom stop before heading to the convention hall.”

  “You go ahead,” Gemma said. “I want to do a couple of things first.”

  “Like?”

  Gemma grabbed a clean napkin and dug a pen out of her purse. “Just a quick autograph.”

  “What?”

  Gemma scooted out of her chair and crossed to the table where Bilker and Chewbacca were still deep in conversation. “Excuse me,” she said.