Whispering Pines Mysteries Box Set 3

by Shawn McGuire

  “You know what I mean by alone,” Tripp pressed as I unzipped the bag.

  Meeka shook herself, trotted halfway out into the main room, and stopped dead when she saw both cells were full. She snorted and then returned to my office to snuggle onto her cushion in the corner.

  “Look,” I told Tripp, “I understand why you’re concerned. I’m a little freaked out too. All this person has done is leave cards, though. In the meantime, I have an actual crime to investigate.”

  “I don’t like—”

  Before he could finish the statement, two of Mr. Powell’s employees walked in. A man in a John Deere work jacket with a pink and orange scarf around his neck called Schmitty, and Elsa, a woman with shoulders broader than her partner’s and wearing heavy-duty overalls. I couldn’t help staring at Schmitty’s scarf.

  “My little girl is learning how to knit,” he said, offering no further explanation.

  “What do you need us to do?” Elsa asked.

  “Nothing, really,” I said. “I just need someone to be in the building with these two. In case a fire breaks out or they need to use the restroom. Stuff like that.”

  “Fire?” Lindsey called from his cell, a note of panic in his voice.

  “You’re going to pay us for this?” Elsa asked, ignoring Lindsey. When I nodded, she dropped into Reed’s desk chair, crossed her arms like she was here for the long haul, and stared at the two detainees in the cells.

  I gave them Reed’s set of keys, went over a few instructions, and showed them where everything was. I pointed at Reed’s walkie-talkie sitting in the charger on his desk. “The unit is set to channel six. Leave it there, please. Use it to call me for any reason. Laurel says she’ll send food over when you’re ready. Just give a call over to The Inn.”

  Tripp handed them the deck of playing cards he and Gino used last night and walked with me and Meeka out the front door. “What I was about to say, before Schmitty and Elsa walked in, was I don’t want you wandering around alone.”

  I didn’t care for his directive and couldn’t worry about his fears right now. I had Silence’s attacker to catch. “Then maybe say it in a way that doesn’t sound like you’re trying to tell me what to do.”

  “That’s not what I’m doing.” His tone hadn’t changed, though. “I’m worried about you, is that okay?”

  “It is. As long as you’re not trying to interfere with my job. I’ll be interviewing the people at The Inn. I won’t be alone.”

  “Except for walking back to the station later.”

  “I’ll be fine.” I took my keys from my pocket. “Do you want to use the Cherokee?”

  “No. I’ll walk home.”

  Now, he was pouting. I didn’t have time for that so turned to walk away.

  “Jayne.” He held a hand out to me, which I grudgingly took. “Please be careful.”

  I squeezed his hand and held on to it. “I’m always careful. And I’m always fine unless someone starts putting the thought in my head that I might not be. Go home, get some sleep, and call me if you hear any news about Silence.”

  I could feel him watching me as I walked away. First the mysterious someone inside the un-church, and now Tripp. I was getting a little tired of being watched today.

  At The Inn, I went through the instructions for what I wanted Jagger’s and Emery’s replacements to do. I thanked the guys for their time, sent them on their way, and went to Kendra’s room first.

  “This is unacceptable,” she hissed the second I walked in. “I need a change of clothes and my makeup. I had to use body lotion from that tiny bottle in the bathroom on my face. Do you know what that will do to my pores?”

  “You’ll be fine for one night,” I told her as thoughts of my sister Rosalyn entered my head. “In case you’ve forgotten, you are being held on public disturbance charges. Possibly aggravated assault. If Silence doesn’t make it, murder charges. If you cooperate with me and help me figure out what happened, you can be out of here this morning.” Maybe into a jail cell, but out of here. To ensure her cooperation, I needed to endear myself to her. “I think you look good without the makeup, by the way.”

  She placed the tips of her fingers to her face. “You think so?”

  I nodded and watched as Meeka began investigating beneath all the furniture and in every corner of the room. “What’s your natural hair color?”

  Her hands went to her fried, unnaturally blonde hair next. “What makes you think—”

  My arched, knowing eyebrow silenced her. “Consider going natural. I think it would look a lot better on you.” Time to move on to who stabbed Silence. I pulled out my voice recorder and hit start. “What happened at the pub last night? How did it go from everyone having fun and celebrating Thanksgiving to this?”

  Kendra inspected the ends of her hair frowning as though she’d never noticed all the splits before. “I have no idea how that woman ended up stabbed. I mean, obviously, I know how she got stabbed, I just don’t know who did it.”

  “You don’t sound surprised, though.”

  “That she got stabbed?” She tossed her hair behind her shoulder. “Well, she was flirting with every guy in the place. You’re going to do that, you’re going to upset a jealous girlfriend at some point.”

  “Did she upset you?”

  “Not really.” Kendra stared out the window at the pentacle garden.

  Jagger had told me this morning that Kendra kept demanding someone get her things from the hotel. If it was Tripp and me being held, I’d ask about him. She seemed to have forgotten about her boyfriend.

  “Why are you all here, Kendra?”

  “In this hotel? You put us here.”

  I blinked at her and sighed. “No. In Whispering Pines. Before he and Chaz left, Marcel told me that Gavin had plans of some kind. It seems he doesn’t think I know what I’m doing.”

  “Yeah, Gavin never thinks women can do anything.”

  “Marcel thought he might be planning some sort of vigilante takeover of the village to get me booted out?”

  “That’s what he kept saying, but I think it’s more that he was bored. He lost his job at the foundry in Oshkosh.”

  Beneath the desk, Meeka started sneezing. She backed out, pawed at her nose, and moved on. Hopefully it was just dust irritating her. “That’s where you live? Oshkosh?”

  She nodded as I wrote that in my notebook. “Why did he get fired?”

  “What makes you think he got fired? Maybe they cut jobs.”

  “Did they cut jobs?”

  “No, they fired him. Something about him trying to get their union rep kicked out and himself voted in.”

  “Sounds like Gavin has a problem with authority.”

  She shrugged and inspected her hair ends again, this time grasping the two sides of a split and pulling them apart. I could see my mother’s hand curling into a claw over that.

  “How long ago did he lose his job?”

  “Couple months, but he’s been jumping from job to job for a year or so. He can’t seem to find a good fit.” She pulled apart another split. “I guess he tried to get into the police academy a couple years ago, but he couldn’t pass the physical. And they said he had a combative personality. I guess that really threw him for a loop. He says he always wanted to be a cop.”

  “You sound unsure of all these events.” When she tilted her head to the side, like Meeka did when she was confused by something, I tried a different route. “How long have you been with Gavin?”

  “Oh, not that long. Two months, twelve days. I’m thinking this isn’t really working for me. Might just ghost him.”

  “Ghost him?”

  “Yeah, take off and never see him again.”

  “I know what ghosting is. Don’t you think that’s kind of rude? Everyone deserves to know why a relationship isn’t working anymore.”

  Would it have been easier for me to walk away from Jonah without a word? Maybe. But in our situation, the relationship ended when I turned down his marriage propos
al in Paris. Talk about your never-ending plane ride home.

  I pulled us back to the reason I was here. “Gavin claims he didn’t stab Silence.”

  “Silence? Is that the woman’s name?” Kendra’s eyes sparkled with amusement.

  With little emotion and never taking my eyes from Kendra’s, I said, “I won’t go into detail, but I will say there is a legitimate reason for why she is the way she is. She only communicates through writing.”

  “Dang, that’s rough.” The sparkle left her eyes, and a faraway look took over Kendra’s face. “That’s true of all of us, isn’t it? That we are the way we are for a reason?”

  I didn’t respond. Instead, I took Silence’s words of advice and waited for Kendra to fill the quiet. While I waited, Meeka pulled a sock from between the bed and the nightstand.

  “Eww.” Kendra made a face. “That’s not mine. Anyway, Gavin didn’t stab her. It was his knife, I saw that, but he didn’t do it. I know because I was right by his side trying to calm him down.”

  “What was he upset about?”

  “I couldn’t even say. He had a few beers; that never helps. He was trying to attract an audience. He wanted to preach to the people here—that’s what he said, preach to the people—about how they needed help. That black woman—”

  “Tavie Smith?”

  Kendra shrugged. “I don’t know her name. The one who was praying with those younger women. She told Gavin that the village needed help from a higher power, whatever that means, not a mob. A lot of the villagers agreed with her, and that kind of set him off.”

  Sundstrom’s job was to hustle me out the door so Lindsey could “preach to the people.” When they didn’t want to hear his sermon, he picked a fight with the woman who was stealing his audience.

  “How did Silence end up stabbed then?” I asked more to myself than Kendra. “Maybe Tavie was the intended victim.”

  “Don’t think so. She was behind the other three.” Kendra squinted, remembering the scene. “It’s like they were protecting her. Then each other. They kept shifting positions, it was weird. Either way, Gavin didn’t do it. I was holding his right hand in my left. Sometimes the skin-on-skin contact calms him down.”

  Bile rose in my throat at the visuals that statement presented.

  Kendra continued, “He keeps his knife on his right hip. He never let go of my hand.”

  “Was anyone standing in front of you?”

  She closed one eye as she thought this time. “Nope. Just Silence and her friends.”

  “Then whoever took the knife from Gavin had to be standing behind you.”

  “That makes sense.”

  “Do you know who was behind you?”

  “I didn’t look. I was focusing on that girl with the super-short hair. She was feisty. I thought she was going to take a swing at Gavin.”

  She had to mean Melinda. “Too bad I don’t have pictures.”

  “Ask Cheryl,” Kendra suggested absently, inspecting her hair again. “She’s always taking pictures. Always. My cheeks were getting sore from all the smiling.”

  I stood and softly whistled for Meeka to quit investigating the corner of the room that had so intrigued her. The crew generally did a good job cleaning these rooms, Laurel didn’t stand for anything being done halfway, but I made a note to tell her they should do an extra thorough job on this one when Kendra checked out. I didn’t want to know what had been in that corner or under the desk.

  “Thanks for your time, Kendra. I’ll need your contact information in case I have any more questions.”

  She gave me her cell phone number and an address in Oshkosh. “Best to call me. I’m not going to be at this address much longer.”

  “You’re moving?”

  She shrugged and pointed at the address I’d written in my notebook. “That’s Gavin’s place. My mom has been begging me to come home. I think I might do that.”

  “Where does your mom live?”

  “Madison. She works for the school district. She might be able to get me a job there.”

  I scribbled down the address and phone number of Melt Your Cares. “This is my mother’s day spa in Madison. She can help you with your hair.”

  Which would likely mean cutting off a good ten inches.

  Kendra clasped a hank of her hair protectively in both hands. “It is a little dry. A good deep conditioning would probably perk it right back up.”

  I gave her the arched eyebrow again.

  Her hands dropped to her side. “I know. It’s fried.” She took the paper from me. “Thanks.”

  Next stop, Cheryl. I needed to see those pictures.

  Chapter 15

  Cheryl’s room was directly across the hall from Kendra’s. I checked that my rent-a-guards had all they needed—they were working their way through generous breakfast trays Laurel sent up from downstairs so were in good shape—and then knocked on Cheryl’s door and announced myself. From the other side, I heard, “Hang on. Gotta put some clothes on.”

  What did that mean? Considering these four were brought here directly from Grapes, Grains, and Grub last night, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

  “It’s hot in this room,” she complained as she opened the door. “No, I wasn’t naked, if that’s what you were wondering.”

  The thought had occurred to me.

  The room was a disaster. The sheets were in a tangle at the foot of the bed. Extra pillows had been tossed on the floor. Towels were draped over nearly every surface in the bathroom. I was afraid to think what it would look like if she had luggage.

  I crossed the room to the window. “These do open, you know.”

  “Really? I didn’t even check. Every hotel I’ve ever stayed in, the windows are bolted shut.” She watched as I cracked the window open an inch. Thirty-some degree lake-scented air immediately started cooling the room. “Well, how stupid do I feel?”

  I pointed at the thermostat on the wall. “That’s adjustable too.”

  Her eyes shifted from me to the thermostat and back. “Alrighty. Now that we’ve established I’m an idiot, what can I do for you, Sheriff?”

  She made it sound like I was there for a social call. “I thought we’d have a chat about what happened at the pub last night.”

  “You mean the stabbing?”

  “Unless something else happened you wanted to tell me about.”

  She shook her head. “Nothing I know of. How is that girl? The one who got stabbed?”

  “The last I heard, not good. Her intestine was nicked, which they repaired, but they’re very worried about infection.” To her credit, Cheryl looked genuinely sad about this. “I noticed that you and Darryl separated from the group at one point last night.”

  “Yeah, we were having a discussion, if you know what I mean.” She put emphasis on the word discussion. “Seems rude to keep calling her that girl. What’s her name?”

  “Silence.” Then, before she could ask, “Yes, her name is Silence.”

  “She’s really pretty. Darryl has a weakness for pretty girls. He doesn’t actually do anything, far as I know, but he seems to forget I’m around when a pretty girl gives him attention for more than two seconds.”

  “And Silence was definitely giving him attention.”

  “Weirdest way of flirting I’ve ever seen. Her name also describes her personality?”

  “Long story, not mine to tell, but she doesn’t speak. That’s all you and Darryl were talking about? Anything else going on that was upsetting you?”

  She dropped onto the unmade bed and lay on her stomach. After wedging a pillow beneath her ample bosom, she swung her feet crisscross in the air and explained, “I thought this was going to be a getaway weekend. I’d heard from some friends that Whispering Pines is a pretty great place to hang out, so when Darryl told me this is where we were coming, I got real excited. Then he tells me three other couples are coming too.” She rolled her eyes. “No big deal. Couples weekends can be fun. Then he says we were going hunting.”


  Her feet dropped to the mattress, and she buried her face in the pillow and screamed.

  “I take it hunting isn’t your thing.”

  “I’m vegetarian. Darryl knows how anti-hunting I am. Anyway, I didn’t find this out until I saw him at the storage unit grabbing our tent and sleeping bags. Camping in the cold while hunting. About as far from a romantic couple’s weekend as we could possibly get.”

  “It was more than that, though, wasn’t it? Gavin is the leader?”

  “He is, and yes, this was all his plan. He wanted to go hunting, I guess. Darryl doesn’t really know Gavin, but Marcel does. I think Darryl mostly wanted to hang out with his brother and get to know his new boyfriend.”

  “Chaz?”

  She nodded happily. “I really like him.”

  “Hunting was Gavin’s way to get the guys here. If it was supposed to be a guys’ hunting weekend, why did you, Kendra, and Didi come?”

  “Lars is Gavin’s best friend. Honestly, the two of them are worse than girls. They talk every day, multiple times per day, and don’t do anything without each other. Didi is super jealous of all the time they spend together and wouldn’t let Lars come this weekend without her. So I guess Kendra and I are here to keep Didi busy. Except, she can’t stand being away from Lars. As in, she gets weird when he’s away for more than two minutes—pacing, wringing her hands, repeatedly asking when we think he’ll be back, that kind of thing.” She stared blankly as though witnessing that scene in her mind. After a second, she shook her head and rejoined our conversation. “Kendra tells me Gavin isn’t happy, because his plan for the weekend wasn’t coming together the way he wanted it to.”

  “His plan? What exactly is his plan?”

  Across the room, Meeka had pushed all of the pillows into a pile. Then she burrowed beneath them and poked her nose out. It seemed housekeeping did a good job with this room. There was nothing for her to investigate.

  “I have no idea what Gavin’s plan was.” Cheryl lifted a foot and let it drop to the mattress over and over. “Like I said, Darryl doesn’t actually know him. I guess Gavin insisted Chaz had to come along, even though Chaz’s idea of a fun night is an intense game of chess. So Chaz tells Marcel they have to come. Then Marcel tells Darryl he should come since Darryl has hunted before and Marcel has never even fired a gun.” She held her hands palms in the air. “I guess friendships have to start somewhere, but this is a really convoluted group. You know?”