Mrs Lillywhite Investigates Box Set

by Emily Queen

  That got Benny’s attention, and his face screwed up into a pained, pensive expression. “I can’t see why she would kill Miss DeVant after…” he trailed off as usual, further irritating an already frustrated Vera.

  “After what, Benny?” Rosemary asked, reaching out to touch him lightly on the arm. The action seemed to rouse him from his reverie.

  “Well, the night Cecily died, I heard the two of them talking. I heard Miss DeVant tell Gloria she would help her if she could. Wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but Gloria didn’t sound angry. She sounded sad. You know, she sends most of her money home to her family in Greece. I think she has a sister who goes to the doctor a lot. Gloria’s a nice girl,” Benny said, his cheeks pinking.

  “Benny, why didn’t you tell us this before?” Rosemary wanted to know.

  Benny blushed. “Why?” he asked. “Is it important? You never asked about Gloria.”

  Rosemary sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day. “No, we didn’t, I suppose. We just assumed that because she was also a victim, she couldn’t have been the murderer.” Her mind began to race, and the pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place.

  “It seems as though nearly everyone has been lying about their alibi. Charlotte said she was in her room, but really, she was with Benjamin. Benjamin says he was with Geneviève, but now we know for certain that was also a lie. Richard Wright says he was in his room, and while I doubt that’s entirely truthful given his tendency to wander around at all hours of the night, I don’t believe he’s capable of murder. Then there’s you, Benny, who said you were in your cabin all night when really, you were on the beach walking Alfie. Gloria was supposedly on the beach with Walter and—oh!” She stopped abruptly and wished there was a chair behind her to sink into.

  “What is it?” Vera asked.

  Rosemary explained, “It was windy that night. So windy that it would have been cold on the beach. Not so cold that Benny here would have neglected little Alfie, but windy enough so that a fire wouldn’t have stayed lit. Walter and Gloria weren’t on the beach that night. Something has always struck me funny about their conversation, and now I know why. They were both lying, which means they both have something to hide.”

  Benny still appeared doubtful, but he was starting to worry. “They said they were on the beach?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Rosemary hedged.

  “That spot I told you about, it’s Walter’s. He likes to take the ladies there to…um…well, you know.” What Benny was implying, both Rosemary and Vera understood. “He’s always seemed awful keen to know Miss DeVant’s plans for the hotel after she retired—”

  The conversation was interrupted by the insistent tapping of a finger on Rosemary’s shoulder. She whirled around and came face to face with Mrs. Haversham, one of the old biddies who liked to plant themselves in the lounge and watch all the comings and goings.

  “Mrs. Lillywhite, we couldn’t help overhearing your conversation—” Of course you could have, Rosemary thought to herself. “But that lovely little maid of yours, Anna, went off with that man named Walter. I believe he planned to show her his staff cabin if you know what I mean.” Again, Rosemary understood the insinuation. “We thought it a bit untoward, but it really wasn’t our place to pass judgment.” Which you certainly did, Rosemary thought, though this time she was grateful. “If he’s done something wrong, I’d hate to see that sweet girl in any kind of trouble.”

  “How long ago?” Vera demanded.

  “Perhaps a half, maybe three-quarters of an hour ago.”

  Vera turned to Rosemary, the realization that Anna was alone and possibly poised to lose her innocence to a deranged killer dawning on both of them at the same time.

  “We need to let someone know what we’re doing,” Rosemary said. “Either Max or Freddie or Des. Otherwise, they’ll kill us if we haven’t got ourselves killed first.”

  “I’ll go get them, you take Benny with you,” Vera suggested. She strode to the lift, pressed the button, and when nothing happened directed a panicked look at Benny. “We don’t have time for this,” she said when he raised his hands in a gesture that indicated there wasn’t much he could do.

  Mrs. Haversham spoke up. “I’ll go find your brother and his friends, you run along.” How long it might take her to climb the stairs ran through Rosemary’s mind, but they were out of options. She made up her mind and stalked across the lobby.

  “Benny, are you coming?” Rosemary asked, turning and waving her hand to hurry him along.

  He hesitated. “Where did Margaret go? She asked me to check on things upstairs…I don’t want to leave without doing my duty.” he said, looking around.

  “Everything is fine upstairs; maybe Margaret went up to find out for herself.” Vera brushed off his concern.

  “Still, Cecily said never to leave the lobby unattended.”

  “Benny, come on!” Rosemary pleaded.

  Appearing to make up his mind, the porter followed Rosemary out onto the flagstones and towards the beach.

  Chapter 23

  Rosemary and Vera ran as fast as they could down the path towards the beach, Benny huffing and puffing behind them. Veering off in the direction of the staff cabins, Rosemary urged him forward. “Hurry up, Benny. Which cabin is Walter’s?”

  “Down—down there,” he pointed, and Rosemary kicked off her shoes, picking up the pace at the thought of what Walter might be doing to Anna at that very moment.

  “Anna!” Rosemary cried, “Anna!” She was getting desperate, her heart threatening to beat out of her chest.

  Benny finally caught up to her, and Vera and pointed to the correct cabin. All the windows were dark, but Benny banged his fist on the door anyway. When no sound could be heard from inside, he cast a sideways glance at the women, shook his head, bellowed, and kicked open the door.

  “They’re not here!” Rosemary exclaimed after a quick search proved the cabin empty. Back outside, the three engaged in a short conversation, unconcerned that their voices carried across the night air. “We have to find them now!”

  “Calm down, Rosie,” Vera said. “He isn’t going to hurt her.”

  “You don’t know that! If he killed Cecily and attacked Gloria, someone he supposedly cared about, we can’t be certain about his state of mind.”

  Vera glanced at the cabin. “We don’t have proof he killed Cecily, either. If only we had time to search for the murder weapon. He’s probably got it stashed away in there, or somewhere close by.”

  “We’ll have to worry about that later. For now…” Rosemary trailed off when she realized Benny had taken off down the beach. “Benny!” she hollered after him.

  “He’ll have taken her to his spot. Come on!” Benny urged.

  Rosemary slapped her hand to her forehead. “Of course!” she said and took off after him. With Vera bringing up the rear, they caught up to the slower-moving Benny quickly.

  “Wait,” Vera hissed when they were close enough to see flames flickering from behind the ring of boulders. “The only thing we have on our side is the element of surprise. Go quietly.” Because it was good advice, Rose waited until Benny’s breathing was less labored, then directed him to take to the shadows.

  Raised voices caused the hair on Rosemary’s arms to lift as she crept slowly forward.

  “Don’t you dare move a muscle!” The voice carrying across the sea air proved to be neither Anna’s nor Walter’s. Wedging herself between two of the boulders she knew would allow her a view of the fire ring without betraying her presence, Rosemary chanced a peek.

  Her mouth dropped open in surprise when she saw Margaret standing next to the fire brandishing a knife, her eyes wild and her face a mask of anger. Isle of Love, my left eye, thought Rosemary. More like the Isle of Crazy Women Wielding Knives.

  Margaret glared daggers at the two figures across the fire.

  Now that Rosemary had a decent vantage point, she could see Anna pressed against the very boulder she’d declared w
ould be a lovely spot from which to watch the sunset. The kimono Anna had borrowed from Vera was now wrinkled but still intact, though the girl’s makeup was smudged and her hair a disheveled mess. The frightened expression on her face made Rosemary want to jump up from her hiding spot and rip Margaret to pieces.

  “We have to get her out of there,” Rosemary whispered.

  “There’s a way around. See that clump of scrub brush?” Benny pointed towards a shadowed space that none of the group had noticed the first time they’d explored the area.

  “I’ll go that way,” Vera said, her mouth set in a thin line. “Benny, you go around the front, cover her flank in case she tries to lunge.” She pointed towards the water’s edge, which, with the tide out, had receded enough to allow access, just as Frederick had postulated. “Wait for my signal, and then take her down,” she instructed Benny, then nodded at Rosemary and began to hedge her way towards the path while Margaret continued to spit venom.

  The receptionist snarled at Walter and spat, “How dare you bring her here? To our special spot.”

  Rosemary would have laughed, had the situation not been so dire, at the notion that Margaret believed she was the only woman Walter had ever seduced in this place.

  With an almost audible click sounding on Rosemary’s head, the rest of the puzzle fell into place. Or almost all of them.

  “Margaret, please,” Walter pleaded, “she means nothing to me. You’re the one I want.” Despite his panic, he sounded insincere.

  Margaret, however, only seemed to hear the words rather than the emotion behind them and softened infinitesimally. Rosemary could see Vera getting closer to where Anna was huddled while Benny got into position and felt a surge of hope shoot through her.

  It fizzled into nothing about ten seconds later when Gloria came careening down the path and inserted herself into the fight between Walter and Margaret.

  “You killed Miss DeVant!” she screeched at Walter, whose face turned even whiter in the flickering light of the fire. “And you attacked me, didn’t you?” she demanded. Rosemary realized too late that the conversation between herself, Vera, and Benny back at the staff cabins had reached Gloria’s ears.

  “She’s the one holding the knife, and you think I’m the murderer?” Despite the gravity of the situation, Walter stared at Gloria as if she’d lost her faculties and let out a short bark of a laugh. “But you’re the one put in charge of the hotel. Boggles the mind.”

  “Stop talking to her,” Margaret said, coming even further unhinged. “Of course, Walter wasn’t the one who attacked you, Gloria. That was me. You should have listened when I told you to stay away from him!”

  That startled Gloria, who turned her attention to Margaret. Rosemary hunkered further down between the boulders, still hidden from view. Gloria was the only one who could see her, and with her attention focused elsewhere, she had no reason to expose Rosemary’s presence. While the argument raged on, Rose waited for an opening to disarm Margaret and hoped Vera had managed to get close enough to rescue Anna before things got any further out of control.

  “What are you talking about, Margaret?” Gloria asked. “Were you and Walter involved with each other? I had no idea.”

  “I sent you those letters!” Margaret screeched. “I told you to leave me what’s mine and that you’d pay if you didn’t listen!”

  Rosemary groaned internally. This whole time, she’d been chasing a dead end. The so-called blackmail notes had nothing to do with the money, or with Cecily or her death—at least not directly. They were merely the ravings of a scorned lover. It seemed Geneviève and Benjamin weren’t the only love-crazed couple who deserved one another. Walter and Margaret were cut from the same cloth.

  “You’re insane, the both of you!” Gloria said, voicing Rosemary’s thoughts out loud.

  Walter tried once more to backtrack. “I ended things with Margaret a month ago!” he tried to put even more distance between them, but Margaret inched closer. “And what happened to Miss DeVant was an accident!”

  “You accidentally picked up a doorstop and bashed her over the head with it?” Gloria retorted. “How stupid do you think I am? I suppose all the time you spend chasing girls who are too young to realize what a cad you are has made you think we’re all idiots!”

  “No, that’s not what happened at all,” he said, rushing to defend himself. “I didn’t know Cecily was in the supply cupboard at all. Charlotte kept leaving the door open, and I assumed she’d done it again. I was annoyed with her, so I gave the door a hard shove on my way past. It hit Cecily and knocked her down. When I saw her lying on the floor, I knew I’d be fired, so I panicked and closed the door. She’s dead, and it’s my fault, but I didn’t mean to kill her.”

  Benny finally hit his limit just as Vera whistled out her signal, popped up behind Walter, and tackled him to the ground. “She was my friend!” he yelled, “and you killed her over your stupid job!”

  It looked as though Benny was going to return the favor until Rosemary stood up from where she was crouched and yelled, “Benny, stop, he’s not worth it! It won’t bring Cecily back!”

  “Yes, Benny,” Margaret growled. “you should listen to your meddlesome friend. Besides, Walter didn’t kill Cecily. I did.”

  The puzzle pieces Rosemary had been juggling to fit together finally clicked into place. “Walter knocked Cecily out, but you came along behind him and finished her off. Why, Margaret? Why would you kill someone who’d treated you with kindness?”

  “I did it for Walter.” She turned to him, and in the flickering firelight, he shivered at the madness he saw on her face. “I did it for you. Did you know Cecily owned this place? I heard her laughing about Mr. Wright and his attempts to purchase the hotel. The stupid man, she said, had no idea he was already talking to the owner, and she had no intention of selling. Not ever.”

  “That’s no reason to kill her,” Walter said. “I don’t understand.”

  “Don’t you?” Margaret’s voice shrilled. “With her alive, you’d never get promoted to manager. She wasn’t going to retire, and she wasn’t going to sell. With her out of the way, you can have her job, and her salary, and we can get married.”

  From the horrified look on Walter’s face, the prospect of marriage was more frightening than knowing someone had killed in his name. Still, his apparent innocence did little to assuage Benny’s fury, but Walter made no attempt at defense when the young porter swung a fist.

  Vera had taken the opportunity to try and rescue Anna, but Margaret caught sight of her and deftly grabbed hold of Anna’s hair with one hand, the knife still held firmly in the other. “Sit back down,” she spat at Vera who, with a glance at Rosemary, did as she was told.

  Rose watched as Margaret hauled Anna closer to where Benny was still pummeling Walter. “Stop,” she said, kicking at Benny. “Leave him alone, or you’ll have another body on your hands.” She pulled at Anna’s hair, causing the girl to cry out. “Shut up,” Margaret said, and wrapped her arm around Anna’s throat in a chokehold, squeezing tightly enough to make her gasp for air.

  It was a standoff, with Rosemary too afraid to approach, Vera pressed against the boulder, and Benny holding Walter down. Gloria looked around as though she wasn’t quite sure how she’d got herself into this mess and began to back away.

  “Don’t move,” Margaret said, squeezing even tighter when Benny released Walter and prepared to lunge at her. That stopped Benny in his tracks, and he mimicked Gloria by backing off.

  “What do you want from us?” Rosemary asked, a plea in her voice. “Let her go, and we’ll let you go.” To that, Benny grunted, and Rosemary shot him a quelling look. Anna’s face had begun turning purple. Time was running out.

  Margaret considered her options, but when Anna went slack in her arms, she realized she’d taken too long to decide. Unable to hold onto the dead weight of Anna’s body and the knife at the same time, she let the girl fall and took a few steps back, pointing the blade in Benny’s direction. />
  Anna crumpled, landing face down in the sand, and didn’t move. Rage welled up in Rosemary’s throat; rage and sadness, but there was no way for her to get to Anna while Margaret still held all the power.

  “Put the knife down,” came a voice from behind Rosemary. She turned and was flooded with relief at the sight of Max, Frederick, and Desmond coming down the path from the hotel.

  Max pointed his gun at Margaret and pulled back the hammer. “Now.” She looked around, realized she’d brought a knife to a gunfight, and threw the weapon to the ground.

  Frederick rushed forward, and when he saw Anna’s prone figure in Vera’s kimono, turned white as a sheet. “No, no, no!” He dropped to his knees beside her, and in the lowering light, Rose could see how he might mistake their identities.

  He fell to his knees, calling out endearments he would never have let pass his lips if he thought Vera could hear them and reached to turn Anna over.

  A hand fell on his shoulder, and Freddie looked up at Vera’s smiling face.

  Freddie gave a start, then looked down at Anna as Rosemary shoved him aside to check for a pulse.

  “She’s alive.” Anna pulled in a breath and her eyelids fluttered as Rose tenderly brushed her hair back from her eyes.

  Freddie knew nothing of the rest, as Vera’s hand slid from his shoulder to cup his chin and urge him to stand. Words failed him as the woman he never knew he wanted moved close, then closer still. “Did you mean any of that?” she asked. “Those things you said, did you mean them?”

  “Every word.” His breath tickled her lips. Her breath quickened, and then she was in his arms, crushed so close that their bodies felt like one. “Vera,” he whispered and lowered his head for a kiss that nearly set his hair on fire.

  “Well, it’s about time,” Anna croaked through a throat raw from her ordeal.