Valentine's Blizzard Murder

by Linnea West

  "One more thing," my dad said. "You asked about who was in the kitchen while I was cooking dinner. Everyone was. That was another strange thing about these last few days. The same people that have been doing all of the arguing have been so overly curious and concerned about what I was cooking that I can't keep them out of the kitchen. Every time I turn around in there, someone else is looking over my shoulder."

  Oh boy, well that doesn't really help. I thought maybe my dad would have noticed one person who really stuck out for being oddly involved in the kitchen, but of course that would be much too easy. So for now, we are stuck in a blizzard in the bed and breakfast with multiple people who could be the killer. I just hope we can get a little help from the police soon.

  Chapter Eleven

  The living room was quietly bustling. The fire in the fireplace was crackling and the two couples at the table in the corner were actually playing the board game now instead of just pretending. Quiet conversations floated around along with the sound of book pages turning and game pieces moving, everything set against the background noise of screeching wind from outside the windows.

  With the exception of Anna, who I assumed had gone to bed after we had talked to her, everyone was still there. I wondered if they were wanting to go to their rooms to get away from whoever was the killer, scared that they may be next. Of course that meant that unless the killer was Anna, they were probably sitting in the same room as the killer. But it provided a false sense of security to have everyone around and I can't say I blame them.

  Mandy was now sitting on the sofa with Clark and Candy, who were both looking incredibly uncomfortable. Good, they shouldn't be able to get comfortable. I tried not to laugh as Mandy winked at me, knowing full well what she was doing.

  I had one more person that I needed to talk to tonight and that was Dawn. She was sitting in the corner of the living room in an armchair, paging through one of the books from the bookshelf. I walked over and knelt down next to her.

  "Dawn, I'd like you to come with me into the kitchen please," I said.

  At first, I thought she may be ignoring me, but after a moment, she shut her book and nodded at me. We both stood up and went through the door to the kitchen with Mandy following close behind. We settled ourselves at the table and Mandy brought over a plate of cookies.

  "Would either of you like anything to drink?" Mandy asked, ever the perfect hostess despite the fact that we were actually in my house and I had totally neglected to ask. Both of us shook our heads.

  "Dawn, I had a few questions I wanted to ask you about Jake," I said. I thought back to how she held him as he died. It had been so intimate and comfortable that they couldn't have just been strangers.

  "Jake and I used to be married," Dawn said flatly.

  Mandy and I both turned and looked at each other wide-eyed. For a moment, I wondered if I hadn't heard her properly. Honestly, I figured that she was going to reveal that she was obsessed with him or that she was his agent or something. The fact that they had been married was something I had not seen coming.

  "Umm, okay," I said, taking a bite of cookie so I could think about where to go from there. By the time I finished chewing, I had thought of another question. "So why were you here?"

  "Honestly, I came because I wanted to talk to him about our divorce settlement," Dawn said. "I didn't like the terms and I think I deserved a little bit more. See, I've gotten myself into just a little bit of credit card debt because I was accustomed to a much better lifestyle than I can afford now. So I came to ask him for more."

  "So you crashed part of his honeymoon on Valentine's Day weekend to ask for more money?" Mandy asked. When she put it like that, it was pretty terrible.

  Dawn was scrunching her mouth around like there was something gross in there that she was trying to chew up. I had a feeling that she had gotten herself into one of those situations that sounds like a great plan, but turns out that it is awful. Like the time I tried one of those trendy pixie haircuts in my early twenties, somehow forgetting that my hair takes forever to grow out. Although my mistake was just my awkward hair and didn't have anything to do with someone dying.

  "I guess you could say that," Dawn said. "But I didn't bother Anna. In fact, Anna doesn't even know Jake and I had been married to each other. I didn't want to bother her, so I've been steering clear of her. But yesterday she was busy on her computer in the living room and I was able to talk to Jake a little bit."

  "And how did that go?" Mandy demanded. I tried not to look surprised, but I got the feeling that Mandy's disapproval of Dawn's plan meant that she wasn't going to play the good cop role.

  Dawn squirmed in her chair as I took another bite of cookie. I was trying not to munch on it, but it was hard not to while watching this scene play out.

  "It didn't go well," Dawn said. "He was upset that I was here and demanded I leave right away. I told him that I would try not to bother him, but that I had a room booked all weekend and I hoped we could talk it out like adults."

  "This is a tough question, but why did you and Jake get divorced?" Mandy asked. Her face had softened into the one that usually got people to spill their guts. She had one of those faces that people just want to talk to.

  "Jake's star was rising fast and he thought I was dragging it down," Dawn said. "I wasn't willing to change who I was to be what he thought I should be."

  I searched her face for any sign that she was upset about her divorce, but there was no sadness there. I can't say I blame her for potentially being happy to be rid of the jerk. Immediately, I felt a little guilty about thinking ill of the dead.

  "I have one more question for you," I said, pushing on. "I'm going to assume that you knew about Jake's allergy and the medicine he carried for it?"

  "Of course I did," Dawn said. "He walked me through what to do if he ever had an allergic reaction, but apparently he forgot to do that for his ditzy new wife."

  Mandy opened her mouth and I quickly nudged her arm. It appeared more likely that Anna knew what to do, but hadn't been able to do that. But until we knew for sure, I didn't want Mandy to drop any valuable information on a suspect.

  "Thanks Dawn," I said. "If you can think of anything else that has to do with Jake or his death, please let us know."

  Dawn nodded and quickly stood up, her chair sliding across the linoleum with a squeal. She marched her way back into the living room, leaving Mandy and I at the kitchen table. I put my hand out to grab another cookie, but paused mid-way, trying to remember how many I had eaten so far tonight. Mandy took that opportunity to grab the plate and move it over to the counter. It's great to have a best friend that will also function as your willpower.

  "Well, what did you think about all of that?" I asked Mandy. I might be good at finding clues, but Mandy was good at reading people and I needed to rely on her skills if this web of relationships got any more tangled.

  "I have to say that I did not think she would tell us she had been married to Jake," Mandy said. "She is pretty good at playing her feelings close to the vest. I do think it is obvious that she doesn't like Anna."

  "Well, I get the feeling that Anna is everything Dawn wasn't," I said. "Jake seemed pretty into playing the role of Hollywood star and Anna certainly has the looks and personality that he needed for the wife of a celebrity."

  Just another reason to dislike Jake. He was obviously a full-of-himself jerk, but if he really did throw away his marriage to Dawn just to marry someone more "Hollywood," that's pretty low.

  A glance at the battery powered clock on the wall told me that it was getting late. Mandy and I walked into the living room and once again, everyone seemed to be frozen in time where we had left them before. I decided to take charge.

  "Excuse me, could I get everyone's attention?" I asked. Slowly, everyone's eyes turned towards me as if they had all been in a daze.

  "It is getting late and I would like everyone to retire to their rooms," I said. "I will contact the police again and see if we have an estim
ate on what time they will be able to come, but until morning I'd like everyone to stay in their rooms."

  "We aren't prisoners," Lyle said. His face was turning pink and he started to splutter as he talked. "What gives you the right to lock us in our rooms?"

  "No one is locking you in your room except you," my father said, standing up from his armchair. He wasn't a big man, but his steady confidence was a force of nature. "We are simply asking everyone to stay in their rooms for their own safety. When the police get here, we will let everyone know and anyone who is still awake will be allowed to come back out. But until we figure out who did this, it would be best for everyone to stay in their room."

  Lyle's face was slowly darkening from pink to red, but Claudia put her hand on his arm and after a glance at her disapproving face, he kept his mouth shut.

  "We have a flashlight for each of you," my father continued on. "And we have lit the entryway and stairway. As soon as all of you guests are in your rooms, we will blow out the candles down here until morning when hopefully the storm will be winding down and the power will be back."

  "Thank you for working with us," my mother said. "Obviously we can't control the weather or the fact that the power is out, but we are trying our best to get through it."

  Slowly, the guests started to get up and head to their rooms. Dave and Joe collected their flashlights while their wives put the board game they had been playing away. Claudia and Dawn put their books back on the book shelf. Candy was in a whispered discussion with Clark and from what I could hear, he was staunchly refusing to sleep in her room, no matter how scared she was.

  "I just don't think it is right for me to stay there even if I am sleeping on the sofa," Clark whispered back. "Just make sure you lock your door and you can text me if you need to. Come on, I'll walk you up there and make sure your door is locked."

  I rolled my eyes at Candy. She loved to play the desperate card and she did it well, but it wasn't seeming to work this time. Score one for me, even if I was still mad at Clark. Honestly, if there hadn't been a murder tonight, I would have been furious with both of them, but right now I just couldn't expend that much mental energy to the dating situation so I was choosing to ignore it and focus on figuring out who had killed Jake.

  Soon enough, the living room was almost empty. Mandy, Tank, my father and I were the only ones left. My father started to bank the fire in the fireplace while Mandy started to blow out the candles in the entryway. I walked over to the window hoping to see some improvement in the storm, but the wind was still blowing the snow around so hard and fast that it looked like someone had hung a painted backdrop outside of our windows. There was no sign of the bird feeders or any of the trees that surrounded our house.

  The only thing worse than being stuck out there was being stuck in here, not knowing who the killer was and if they would strike again.

  Chapter Twelve

  As the light in the living room was slowly extinguished, I took out my flip phone and dialed Max's number. I crossed my fingers that the call would go through and was pleasantly surprised when it started to ring. After a few rings, Max picked up.

  "Hello Sweet Thing," Max said. "Everyone okay over there?"

  "Well besides the dead person and the fact that this entire thing keeps getting more and more complicated, yeah I guess we are okay," I said.

  "Sorry Tessa," Max said. He really did sound sorry. "I'm just going a little crazy being stuck at my house and not able to help anyone, especially you. I may have already tried to come help you and gotten my car stuck."

  "You didn't," I couldn't help but squeal. At least one of my boyfriends had my back.

  "I did," Max said with a chuckle. "I can't actually see it, but my car is stuck at the end of my driveway right now."

  I laughed and it felt good to not worry for just a moment. After I was done with my moment of lightness, I filled Max in on everything we had learned so far. I told him the people we had ruled out and the people who had actually touched dinner and the plates that were brought out. And I told him what we had learned about Anna and her boyfriend and Dawn being previously married to Jake.

  "Wow, you weren't kidding about it getting more complicated," Max said with a whistle. "I can call the dispatchers again and see if they have anyone headed your way yet."

  "Would you?" I asked. "Because I'm a little afraid that whoever did this may get upset if we start to figure it out. You have to admit, the way they killed Jake was pretty clever and I'm sure they think they'll get away with it, so me snooping around isn't going to help."

  "Let me try to give them a call and I will get back to you," Max said. "Unfortunately the weather radio I've been listening to says that this storm isn't going anywhere. It has basically parked itself on top of us and isn't moving on."

  "Thanks Max," I said.

  "And before I go, I'm going to try this again," Max said with a nervous chuckle. "I love you Tessa."

  I couldn't help but smile so big that my cheeks felt like they were going to crack. It was almost involuntary.

  "I love you too Max," I said, ignoring the goo-goo eyes Mandy was making at me from across the room. "Goodbye."

  I gently closed the phone and slid it back into the back pocket of my jeans. What did this all mean? I feel like I had gone from casually dating two guys to all of a sudden being exclusive with one. I didn't really know how I was feeling, but my head was spinning and I knew I couldn't think about it right now because someone in this bed and breakfast had killed Jake and I needed to figure out who it was before anything else could happen.

  "So, I couldn't help but overhear," Mandy said as she sidled up to my elbow. "Was that a giant step forward that you and Max just took in your relationship?"

  "Yes it was, but no I don't want to talk about it," I said before she could even open her mouth. I couldn't blame her because Mandy had been my best friend before Max and I had even started dating so she had been through all of our previous relationship with me. She knew everything about it and I knew she had been rooting for us to be officially back together for a while.

  "That's fine," Mandy said with a sly smile. "But you know where to find me when you want to talk about it. Mostly because I'll be sleeping in the bed next to you because of this stupid storm."

  I laughed and gave her a shove. It was nice to have someone who was even closer than a sister to talk to. And I definitely would talk through this entire confusing dating relationship thing with her, just not right now.

  "Let's head upstairs," I said, grabbing my flashlight. "I'd like to try to get a little sleep if I could."

  Mandy grabbed her flashlight and spun slowly around to make sure there were no candles left burning in the living room. In the entryway, we were joined by Tank and my father who had finished extinguishing all of the candles out there and together the four of us made our way up the stairs.

  The hallway that lead to the six guest rooms was eerily quiet. I knew everyone was probably in their rooms talking about exactly the same thing, but no one wanted to draw attention to their rooms. We walked down to the door that separated the guest hallway from our private, family space and stepped through to our cozy little part of the world.

  The living room was bathed in light from a camping lantern that my mother had put on the coffee table. Clark was sitting awkwardly on the couch with my mother who was busy knitting something or other. She had just taken up the hobby of knitting, but so far she could only make uneven scarves that for some reason were always in wild colors. The one she was working on now was orange and green and I briefly wondered if she had gone color blind.

  "Come on Clark," Tank said gruffly. "You are staying in my room on the fold out sofa."

  Tank marched off to his room, not waiting for Clark. Clark glanced at me and I quickly looked away, not wanting to show him how hurt I was. He jumped off of the couch and started off after Tank.

  "Girls, you should get to bed," my father said. "I might stay up just a little while longer."

>   I wanted to stay up with him, but Mandy looped her arm through mine and pulled me off to my bedroom. Once inside, I threw a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt at Mandy and we both got dressed. As I was tying my pajama pants, my phone buzzed on the nightstand.

  Bad news. Police are still swamped and keep getting police cars stuck in the snow. They've told me they will try to come soon, but probably won't make it to the B&B until morning at the earliest.

  I sighed, knowing it wasn't Max's fault. If he couldn't pull any strings, it really must be a really bad situation out there. I sent him a quick message back.

  Thank you for trying.

  Mandy looked confused, so I handed her my phone. She read the message and handed it back.

  "That's not good," she said. "But I know they must be trying."

  We climbed into bed and as uncomfortable as it was trying to share a twin sized bed with another person, I was kind of glad I was. It was so cold outside and it was starting to seep into the old house. The furnace hadn't been running for a few hours now and so there was nothing to try to keep the cold air out.

  This wasn't the first time we had shared a twin bed. Mandy used to come visit me when I was in college and she needed a weekend away from small town drama. When I lived in the dorms, we had even shared a lofted twin bed, which had been quite the experience. But having Mandy there next to me had been a nice reminder of home when I was far away.

  "Tessa," Mandy said, her voice quiet in the still darkness. "Do you really think we are in danger?"

  "I'm not sure," I said. "But I do know that whoever did this probably didn't think someone would figure out that it wasn't an accident. And now that we have told everyone that we think it was murder, they might come after us."

  I could hear her swallow and take an unsteady breath. I hadn't meant to scare her, but I also didn't want to lie to her. Mandy wasn't dumb. She had probably realized the potential for danger once we started all of this investigating.