Claws for Alarm

by Karen MacInerney

"How long had they been married?"

  "Forty years."

  "Wow," Tom said, almost reverently. "Does he walk on water, too?"

  I stifled a chuckle. "I don't know about that, but he does seem to be a nice man. We'll have to invite him over sometime once everything settles down."

  "You think he'll stay?" Tom asked.

  "I don't know. He's still got a place in Florida. I guess we'll find out if he comes back in the spring."

  "We'll see. In the meantime, though, we should probably figure out who brained Francine with a brick."

  "It wasn't me," Tom said.

  "I didn't think it was. But it was someone. And I'm afraid if we don't find out who, the wrong person's going to end up in jail."

  No sooner had the words left my mouth than John walked into the kitchen.

  "Uh-oh," I said at the look on his face. "What is it?"

  "They're taking Claudette in for questioning."

  "Oh, no," I breathed. "Did you tell them about our missing yogi?"

  "I did," he said. "But she hasn't been gone very long, and considering what happened earlier..." He shrugged.

  "What happened?" Tom asked.

  "Lovers' quarrel," I informed him.

  "Ah," he said delicately. I knew he and his wife, Lorraine, had had one or two of those over the years. He finished his coffee and stood up. "I should probably get back to the co-op."

  "Thanks for dropping the lobsters off... and say hi to Lorraine and the kids for me!"

  "Will do," he said on his way out the back door.

  "That certainly brought the conversation to a halt," John remarked as Tom hustled down the pathway to the dock.

  "Yeah. I wonder how things are going with Lorraine."

  John grimaced. "Not as well as they could be, I have a feeling. I'm more worried about Claudette, though."

  "Have you heard anything?" I asked.

  He shook his head. "Not a word."

  "Does she have an alibi for last night?"

  "She says she was home, asleep."

  "Eli was there, right?"

  "He was," John confirmed. "But she and Eli have been sleeping in different rooms lately."

  "Oh, no," I groaned. "More lovers' quarrels?"

  "No," John said. "Claudette's CPAP broke, and she snores. She's sleeping in the guest room and waiting for a replacement part."

  I sighed. "Figures. The one time she needs an alibi.” I thought of the light I'd seen the night before, not far from the inn. "Is there an estimated time of death?"

  "She was cold when I got there, so I'm guessing it was late last night."

  "I talked with her husband; evidently, she came home before she was murdered. He said he went to sleep before she did, and when he woke up, she was gone."

  "How upset did he seem?"

  "I'm not sure. He just looked... shell-shocked. I got the feeling he's going to have a hard time figuring out what to do each day without Francine telling him."

  "I'm sure he'll adjust," John said dryly.

  "They were married for forty years."

  "Think we'll still like each other after forty years?"

  "We've made it this far," I said, walking up to him and giving him a hug.

  "I like our odds." He put his chin on my head and gave me a squeeze. "I know dinner's lobster. What sides are you planning?"

  "Coleslaw, corn, and boiled potatoes."

  “Carbs, eh?”

  “No flour or sugar, at least.”

  "True. Sounds like it won't take long. Have time for a walk?"

  "Probably not," I said, "but it's a gorgeous day, and after everything that's happened, I could use a break; besides, I need to fill you in on what Tom told me."

  "That sounds ominous."

  "Did you know that Francine had plans for the lighthouse?" I asked as I grabbed a windbreaker from its hook by the door.

  "Matilda mentioned she'd asked about it," he said, "but that's all I know."

  "I'll fill you in while we walk," I said. I slipped on my shoes, and a minute later, we let ourselves out the back door of the inn.

  It was a beautiful day, with a cool wind off the water. The tide had come in, and the mingled scents of salt, beach roses, and balsam fir was like the best perfume in the world. As we headed toward the little trail that followed the coastline, I looked back with pride and gratitude at the inn. The gray-shingled building with blue shutters and overflowing window boxes looked like it belonged on a postcard; sometimes I still couldn't believe it was mine. I reached out and squeezed John's hand. He turned and grinned at me, the sun glancing off his sandy blond hair. Life had been good to me, I reflected.

  "Tell me what's going on," John said as we headed up the hill beside the inn. "But first, where are all the yoga folks?" The lawn behind the inn was empty of people in uncomfortable postures.

  "They must have gone out for a nature walk," I replied. "I remember Willow telling me that was on the schedule. It's a beautiful day for it. Maybe a walk in nature will help chill everyone out."

  "Here's hoping," he said. As we climbed the hill beside the inn, I told him what Tom had relayed to me.

  "So, we've got another would-be developer on the island," he said with a sigh.

  "And Murray's involved again. I'm wondering if that's what's going on with Catherine."

  "I'll find out soon enough, I'm sure."

  As we climbed over the crest of the hill, I spotted the Island Queen chugging toward the island.

  "Alex van der Berg is here to visit, by the way," I informed John. "I forgot to tell you."

  "The naturalist from the tour that was on the island a while back? Charlene's beau?" he asked.

  "The same," I replied.

  "Does he know about her dating track record?"

  "Why should he?" I asked. "It's not like she had anything to do with what happened to them.” I squinted at the boat, hoping Alex had indeed made it over to the island... and that things for at least one couple would go well.

  "Natalie.” John's tone of voice stopped me in my tracks.

  I turned to him. "What is it?"

  "I found Rainy," he said, pointing to a crumpled figure on the path in front of us.

  10

  My heart clenched in my chest as we hurried over to her. John put his fingers on her neck to look for a pulse, and I put a hand on her chest, hoping she was still breathing. To my relief, her chest rose almost imperceptibly. "She's alive."

  "She is, but she doesn't look good.” John was right; her color was pale.

  "Any sign of trauma?" I asked. In Rainy's right hand was a flashlight. Was she the person I'd seen out walking the cliffs last night? And if so, what had happened to her?

  "Nothing I can see, anyway," John answered. "Did you think to bring your phone?"

  "No," I confessed. "I'll run back and call... I don't know if they still have police on the island, but what we need most is a paramedic, I think."

  "I'll stay with her," John said, and I ran back to the inn. "Bring a blanket!" he called.

  "I will," I promised as I jogged down the path, hoping Rainy would be okay.

  The yoga group was filtering into the parlor when I burst into the inn a few minutes later, panting. "What's wrong?"

  "We found Rainy," I told her. "I'm going to call for a paramedic... I'll be right back."

  "Oh, no," Willow said. "What happened to her?"

  "I don't know, but she's unconscious. I have no idea how long she's been there."

  "I'm a paramedic," Sebastian announced.

  "Thank goodness," I said. I had the feeling time was of the essence for Rainy. "Let me grab my phone and a blanket and you can follow me up there."

  "I'm going too," Ravi announced.

  "Actually," I hedged, "I think it would be best not to have a crowd."

  "I'm her boyfriend!" he objected. "There's no way you're keeping me away from her."

  I sighed. "Just keep your distance, then. It may be a crime scene."

  Willow gave me a horr
ified look. "A crime scene?"

  "I don't know anything yet," I told her. "But considering what happened last night..."

  "I'll grab my kit," Sebastian said, and disappeared toward the guest rooms.

  "I'll meet you here in a minute," I told him, and hurried into the kitchen to retrieve my phone. I grabbed a blanket from the laundry room while I was there, and hurried back out to where the participants of the yoga retreat were buzzing like an angry beehive.

  By the time I got back to the parlor, there was an entire contingent of retreat participants clamoring to join us. I looked to Willow for help, but she just shrugged.

  "Let's go," I told Sebastian, who was there with a small black backpack. Together, we headed out the back door, with Willow, Ravi, Gage, and the Texas contingent in our wake.

  * * *

  "The police are on their way," I told John as Sebastian and I arrived, with half the yoga retreat following close behind.

  "Oh, Rainy," Ravi said breathlessly. He tried to push past me, but I held him back. "Let's let Sebastian take a look at her first," I advised him.

  "But..."

  "I'll need some room," Sebastian informed him in a no-nonsense tone of voice. As I watched, he squatted down next to Rainy and examined her. "She's cold," he said as he checked her pulse. "Can I have the blanket?"

  "Of course.” I draped it over her prone form as he continued to work.

  "What do you think?" John asked.

  Sebastian looked up at Ravi, who was literally wringing his hands as he stood nearby. "Do you know if she was on any medications?"

  Ravi shook his head. "I think she was on an antidepressant, but I don't know what kind."

  "Anyone else know?" Sebastian asked.

  Willow and Sequoia shook their heads. "She seemed healthy to us. She did take some supplements, but I don't know what kind."

  "We should check her room and see what medications are in there," he said, looking at me. "Regardless, they'll want to know what's in her system."

  "Are you thinking she might have overdosed?" I asked.

  "It's presenting as if that might be what's going on. Is someone on the way to take her to the hospital?"

  "The hospital... oh, God..." Ravi moaned. It looked like he was on the verge of hyperventilating; Sebastian had his hands full.

  "I called," I assured Sebastian as Willow moved next to Ravi and touched his arm, trying to calm him. I glanced at Kellie; she was examining her nails. As I watched, she leaned over and murmured something to Barbara Sue, who smirked and whispered a response. Nice.

  "If you'll go check her room, Sebastian and I will stay with her," John said, refocusing my attention on Rainy.

  "I'm on it," I told him. "Why don't you all come back with me?" I suggested to the group.

  "Yes," Willow said. "I'd like to run everyone through a few poses before dinner to clear some of our chakras; it's been an energetically challenging day."

  "I'm staying here," Ravi said in a petulant voice. He was still panting a bit.

  "Why don't you come back with us?" Sequoia suggested. "Rainy's in good hands, and it looks like you could use some self-care right about now."

  "But..."

  "We've got her taken care of," John said in an authoritative voice. "There's nothing you can do here. Sebastian and I will make sure she gets the medical attention she needs."

  "Besides," I said, "if you're sharing the room with Rainy, maybe you can help find her prescriptions for me."

  "I hadn't thought of that," he replied, blinking.

  "Come with us," Sequoia said, taking his arm and speaking gently. He resisted for a moment before following her, reminding me of a little lost lamb.

  I walked back to the inn with the group, wondering what had happened to Rainy. Had she tried to commit suicide? That certainly seemed to be the opinion of Kellie, who was talking in a stage whisper loud enough that the whole group could hear her.

  "I can't believe she OD'd," she was telling Blue and Barbara Sue. "I knew she was in to Ravi, but who tries to kill herself just because her boyfriend might like somebody else?"

  I glanced at Ravi, but he was still wringing his hands, looking like he was in another world.

  "Do you think that's what happened?" Barbara Sue asked in a gossipy tone.

  "Let's see what the doctor says," Blue suggested, echoing my own thoughts. "We don't even know what's wrong with her; it's a little early to start theorizing about what she did or didn't do."

  "I know she was jealous," Kellie said. "She told me I should be ashamed of myself because I was a married woman. Just for getting a massage!"

  "She did?" Barbara Jean asked, in a tone that reminded me of a middle-school girl trying to win the favor of the queen bee. Which I was sure Kellie had been... and still was. "That's crazy," Barbara Jean continued.

  "I know. Ashamed? For getting a massage? Please. If her boyfriend was happy with her, she wouldn't have to worry, anyway. I know my husband would never be with anyone else."

  "I thought the same thing about my husband," offered Virginia.

  Kelli looked at her. "What happened?"

  "He ran off with his college sweetheart," she said. "I always thought he was devoted to me."

  "You, too?" asked Andrew. "I just divorced six months ago for the same reason." He gave a wry chuckle. "And she always thought I was the one who was going to leave her."

  "Do you have kids?" Virginia asked.

  "Three," he told her. "The last one just went to college."

  "That's a tough transition," Virginia said. As they spoke, the two drifted to the back of the group. I glanced over my shoulder; Kellie didn't look at all fazed.

  "You know, Mike's been spending a lot of time at the office lately," Barbara Jean said. "Do you think maybe he could be having an affair?"

  Kellie's eyes darted to the side for a moment. "Of course not. He's devoted to you."

  "That's just what Virginia said," Barbara Jean said darkly.

  She had a point, I thought as I opened the back door to the inn. As the yoga retreat members filed in behind me, I headed for the skeleton key hidden in a drawer of the front desk. Relationships could be hard, I reflected. I hoped the problems with Ravi hadn't been enough to send Rainy over the edge.

  * * *

  Ravi followed me up the stairs, and together we entered Rainy’s room. There was a suitcase piled with brightly colored yoga clothes in one corner, and Ravi's smaller, zipped-up suitcase was tucked neatly next to the wardrobe; I couldn’t remember if it had been there earlier. Had Ravi spent the night here? I wondered. Or had he paid a visit to Kellie? The vanity on the sink looked like someone had shoplifted every sample from the Whole Foods beauty aisle and dumped them out on the counter. I didn't see any prescription bottles, but there were at least three supplement bottles mixed in with the creams and lip balms.

  "Do you know if she has any prescriptions?" I asked Ravi as I looked at the labels, which purported to contain turmeric, Gingko biloba, and a proprietary mood-lifting formula. Was it possible to OD on supplements?

  "I think so," he said. "They might be in her suitcase."

  I knelt next to the suitcase and checked the outer compartments. There was a pair of shoes, but no medications. The interior of the suitcase was a jumble of clothing, but again, no bottles. As I searched the suitcase, Ravi opened Rainy's nightstand drawer.

  "Here," he said, holding up an orange prescription bottle. "Klonopin. I think she took it for anxiety."

  "That might have caused issues," I said; I'd heard Klonopin was one of the drugs that people sometimes got addicted to. And with everything going on with Ravi, I was guessing anxiety had been an issue the last few days.

  "Do you know if she took any last night?"

  He shook his head, and looked away.

  "Ravi," I said. "Did you two argue again last night?"

  He darted his eyes at me, then burst into tears. "I hate myself," he said. "She loves me so much, and I'm... I'm just such a bad person." He swiped at
his eyes.

  "What happened?" I asked in my gentlest voice.

  "She asked about Kellie," he said. "And... I was honest. Big mistake."

  I wasn't sure the "big mistake" was being honest, but I said nothing.

  "I kissed her," he confessed. "I shouldn't have, but the moment was there, and then she just kind of went for it." He looked up at me, miserable. "I never should have agreed to give her that massage."

  "What happened when you told her?"

  "She took a pill," he confessed, nodding to the little orange bottle, "and then she took a flashlight and said she needed to go out for a while. Only... she never came back."

  "Are you sure it was just one pill?" And why hadn't he told me about it in the first place?

  "I don't know," he said. "I wasn't paying attention to that. I was too busy begging her to forgive me."

  "What time did she leave?" I asked.

  "Around eleven," he said. "We'd just... we'd argued, like I said. She said she had to think about things."

  "Why didn't you tell someone she hadn't come back when you got up this morning?" I asked.

  "I... I was embarrassed," he said. For a man of around twenty-five, he seemed more like a five-year-old in many ways. If Rainy survived, which I fervently hoped she did, she might be better off without him.

  "Can I see the bottle?" I asked. He handed it to me. Although the label said she'd had a thirty-day supply filled just last week, it looked like more than half the bottle was gone. I had a bad feeling about this.

  "We've got to get this to Sebastian. Any other prescriptions?" I asked.

  "Not that I know of," he said.

  "Honest?"

  He blinked. "Honest. I swear."

  I grabbed the supplements and the prescription bottle and headed for the door. "Let's go, then," I said.

  * * *

  Rainy was still unconscious when I got back to the hillside. I'd convinced Ravi to stay back at the inn; I wanted a chance to talk with John alone.

  "We found this," I said, handing Sebastian the bottle of Klonopin.

  He squinted at the bottle. "This stuff can be addictive," he said.

  "A lot of it seems to be gone. There were some supplements, too," I told him, handing him the bottles.