Last Pen Standing

by Vivian Conroy

  “Yes. I wonder… She wasn’t wearing any bracelets earlier that night. I got a good look at her when she welcomed us and got into the family portrait. She was wearing elbow-length gloves but no bracelets. Here, wait. There we have her again. Look! She is wearing a bracelet.”

  Jonas pulled the tablet from Delta’s hands and swiped through the pictures. “You’re right. And it’s the same one Isabel was wearing earlier. Isabel passed it to Rosalyn for some reason.”

  “So if Rosalyn had it and then later Vera White…” Jonas tapped the tablet on his upper leg. “What does that mean? She never said she had it.”

  “No, and the police didn’t find her fingerprints on it because she was wearing gloves. She wouldn’t have left prints on the murder weapon either.”

  Jonas held her gaze. “You think Rosalyn might have killed Vera White?”

  “Why not? She didn’t tell the police she had handled the bracelet. She acted like she was so concerned when Isabel was arrested, but she said nothing about her having had the bracelet later on the party night. And consider this. What if she found out that Ray had informed the White brothers that they might take over the hotel and his loan from Vera was the cause of all of this? Rosalyn can be very emotional when it comes to the hotel.”

  “And Vera pulled the bracelet from her arm during a struggle or something?” Jonas frowned hard. “Wouldn’t Rosalyn have noticed that and taken it back, knowing it could implicate Isabel?”

  “Maybe she stabbed Vera on impulse and then ran off right away, afraid someone would come in and see her.”

  “It’s a possibility, of course. West should see if there is any indication the weapon was handled with gloves on. Some gloves leave fibers on a surface.”

  Delta leaned back and closed her eyes. “I’m going to ask Rosalyn about her fiancé as soon as I can. I have a feeling it’s important somehow. She and Ray, the feud between them.”

  Jonas said, “Just as long as you don’t get yourself into trouble.”

  Delta heard him speak in the distance as if he were fading away. She wanted to say something else, but her head sagged to the side, and she drifted off into sleep.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “I can’t recommend anyone sleeping on an air mattress,” Delta messaged to the Paper Posse the next morning. She pushed her back against the car seat to stretch her stiff muscles. Beside her, Jonas seemed to be fresh and eager to start the day. “Well, at least not if you’re not lying down on it in a proper fashion. I’m exhausted. But the show must go on. Who has got something to give?”

  Rattlesnake Rita chimed in first, reporting that a volunteer at the museum had told her she had seen the dead woman’s best friend, Amanda White, with a man in a flashy sports car. “If she thinks those two were friends,” Rita wrote, “she never paid any kind of attention. But the sports car might be important.”

  “We know who it belongs to,” Delta replied, “and we tracked the owner of your moose car as well. But what it all means…”

  Calamity Jane wrote, “The Tundish Trader had a fascinating headline this morning: Dead woman’s stationery jackpot. Apparently, the sheriff found cash money inside the woman’s notebooks.”

  “How did LeDuc find out about that?” Delta exclaimed.

  Jonas, who was driving, threw her a quick look. “What editor found out about what?”

  “The Tundish Trader has a headline suggesting they know about the cash found in the notebooks. Someone at the sheriff’s station must have leaked it to them.”

  “I guess it caused some excitement and it got out.” Jonas looked disapproving but resigned. “You can’t prevent that in a small town. People walk in and out of the police station to report a missing chicken or a stolen wallet, especially in this busy tourist season, and then they overhear the deputies talking.”

  “I wonder what Herb White will think about that. Maybe we can ask him at the hotel.” Delta checked her watch. “He should still be at breakfast.”

  At the Lodge, they found Herb White in the breakfast room with his brother, Ralph, beleaguered by three reporters who all tried to hold their microphones to his face. The logos on their shirts revealed they were with various local TV or radio stations. The revelations about a “stationery jackpot” seemed to have convinced them there was a story there to fill a slot in their news programs.

  “I didn’t know anything about it,” they could hear Herb say, holding up his hands in a gesture to ward them off. “I had no idea my wife had money of her own. I don’t know where it comes from or what she wanted with it. It must all be a misunderstanding.”

  Jonas hitched a brow and looked at Delta. “Cash purposely hidden in notebooks a misunderstanding?”

  Ralph White barked to the reporters, “Leave us alone. We’re trying to have a peaceful breakfast. We’re not going to say anymore. Just go away now.”

  He gestured to a waiter who rushed over with a silver coffeepot, apparently intending to refill his cup. But Ralph held a hand over his cup, snapping, “Can you send these people away? They’re harassing us.”

  The waiter seemed reluctant to intervene, but Rosalyn breezed in and immediately headed for the reporters. “Please leave,” she said in a crisp tone. “You’re not guests, you have no right to be here.”

  “How about a statement on the hotel’s takeover position?” one of them asked. They immediately shoved their microphones forward and waited eagerly, firing off questions in quick succession. “Who is the unknown party who made you the offer? How much money is involved? Are you seriously considering it? What would it mean for the hotel? Will there be dismissals? Will the name stay the same?”

  Rosalyn repeated “No comment” a couple of times before adding an exasperated “Now leave, before I call the police.”

  As she reached into her jacket pocket for her cell phone, the reporters retreated into the lobby.

  Rosalyn smoothed back her hair, which was sleek and parted in the middle today. She looked tense.

  Delta went over to her. “Could I talk to you for a moment? Not here, but in private?”

  Rosalyn seemed to want to say no, but then her eyes landed on Jonas and she waved them along into the lobby.

  At the reception desk, the reporters were badgering the clerk about the hotel takeover. One of them asked, “Do you know how much money is involved?”

  “I really don’t…” the clerk fumbled.

  Rosalyn snapped, “Get out of here now! Or I will call the police.”

  The reporters looked at each other and walked out of the door, halting just two steps away from it to talk to Fred Halliday, who was sauntering up with an oar in his hand.

  Rosalyn groaned but seemed to conclude that she couldn’t prevent him from talking to the reporters if he wanted. She waved Delta and Jonas along into her office.

  As soon as the door was shut, Delta said, “Is there any truth to these takeover rumors? I understood the hotel has been in the hands of the Taylor family for many generations. I can imagine it’s a heritage you wouldn’t want to turn over.”

  Jonas added, “Did the takeover offer come from the White brothers? If their plans for the Lodge are as tacky as their slogans to promote their dolphin-spotting business, I shudder to think of what the Lodge will become.”

  Rosalyn eyed him coldly. “Why would you care about the Lodge? Or are you worried they might fire you and hire on new staff, against lower pay?”

  Before Jonas could respond, Rosalyn focused on Delta and spat, “You said earlier you came here to look into the murder to clear Finn. Finn is free now, so your job is done.” It sounded like she wasn’t happy about him being free.

  Rosalyn’s head-on approach put Delta in fighting mode as well. She said sweetly, “Isabel is still considered a suspect because of her fingerprints on the bracelet. I’m surprised you didn’t make a statement to clear her. I thought you genuinely cared f
or her.”

  “Of course I do.” Rosalyn looked unbalanced for a moment, trying to work out what Delta was referring to. “And what statement do you mean?”

  “That it was you who last had the bracelet before Vera White ended up with it in the bar. We saw it in photos from the party.”

  Jonas added, “West has those photos as well. He will notice and understand what it means.”

  Delta doubted that the sheriff was going through all the photos in as much detail as they had, but she kept her mouth shut.

  “What do you mean?” Rosalyn asked Jonas. Her voice was icy; her eyes, calculating. Her hands resting on the desk lay very still, as if her whole being was focused on the conversation.

  Delta wondered if they were sitting across from a murderer who was dead set on escaping justice.

  She said, “You handled the bracelet before it came to Vera. Did she pull it off your arm in a struggle? You must have had some reason not to tell the police. It would have cleared Isabel.”

  “Not necessarily.” Rosalyn stared up at the ceiling for a moment.

  Delta wanted to know what she meant by those cryptic words, but Jonas said, “I have to bring it to the sheriff’s attention. You were wearing gloves that night, so you didn’t leave fingerprints on the bracelet.”

  Rosalyn’s eyes shot sparks at Jonas. Delta was sure she would just keep her mouth shut. Then Rosalyn seemed to come to a decision. “All right, so I did handle the bracelet. Isabel had told me before that the clasp wasn’t working well anymore. During the party, I saw it lying on the floor. It had come loose and fallen from her arm. I picked it up and put it on my own arm. I took a bit of flexible wire from a flower arrangement on one of the standing tables to secure the clasp so it wouldn’t come open again. Isabel has always been rather careless with her things. I wanted to tell her off about having lost it. At an appropriate moment, of course.”

  “And then?” Delta asked.

  “Vera White”—Rosalyn hesitated—“approached me. She wanted money to keep silent about her affair with Ray and money she had supposedly lent him. I don’t much care about Ray’s reputation, but I do care about my family. A married woman conducting an affair, staying at our hotel, money involved. I didn’t want her to talk about it or maybe even turn to the press with it. The tabloids have always liked to write about Ray. I had no money at hand, and therefore, I gave her the bracelet. I figured that since Isabel had lost it in the first place, nobody would be able to determine later what had happened to it. Vera took it and left. I haven’t seen her since. I certainly don’t know who stabbed her.”

  Jonas laughed softly. “A likely story.”

  “It’s all Ray’s fault. If he had never played around with her and used his charm to get money out of her, money he couldn’t repay…”

  “Are you sure he did?” Delta asked. “He denies it. Both the affair and the loan.”

  “Ray is…” Rosalyn fell silent. She stared at the desk with a bitter expression.

  Remembering Rosalyn’s happy expression in the family photos when her fiancé had still been there, Delta felt for her, but still she was determined to get to the bottom of the breach and Ray’s possible part in it. She asked, “Did Ray cause the breach with your fiancé? He wrote to you from France to end the relationship, and Ray was in France at the time.”

  Rosalyn looked at her, startled, it seemed, at the mention of this personal detail.

  “The Trader wrote about someone missing from the family photos,” Delta explained. “And I found out online that Ray was in France at the same time as your ex. It seemed like an odd coincidence.”

  Rosalyn flinched when the Trader’s report was mentioned, but she controlled herself again quickly. Only the way she clenched her hands together betrayed the hidden hurt over what had happened. “Yes. If you have to know, Ray gave him money to stop seeing me. At the time, Ray’s career was booming, and he was afraid Daddy would want him back here for the hotel in case I got married, got pregnant, and wanted to leave the business. So he made sure I never got around to marrying.”

  Rosalyn banged the desk with her fist. “And now that his career has ended and he’s got no place to go, he’s back here wanting the hotel. First, he ruined my engagement, so he wouldn’t need to come home, and now he’s back to throw me out of the hotel that cost me everything I cared for. Bastard. Bastard.” Her voice cracked on the latter word, and she clenched her jaw as if fighting tears.

  Delta held her breath. If this was true, Ray Taylor was a terribly selfish and callous man. Someone who only cared for his own success, safety…

  Someone who might be willing to kill?

  Rosalyn took a deep breath, leaning her hands on the desk again as if to steady them. “Now you know everything.”

  “Do we?” Jonas said. “Has someone really offered to buy the hotel?”

  “I’m not sure. Father knows more, I guess, but he’s not telling me.” Rosalyn’s expression contorted. “Why would he? I’m only the manager. It’s not like I have a right to know.”

  * * *

  “She’s pretty bitter,” Jonas observed as they stood outside the hotel.

  Delta released her breath slowly. Inside, there had been so much tension that she hadn’t noticed how stiff she was holding herself, not allowing her body to relax for a single moment. She pulled back her shoulders and stretched. “I guess she has every reason to be. Ray used her to take care of the hotel when he didn’t want to, and now that his career is over, he’s ready to step in and leave Rosalyn empty-handed.”

  Jonas frowned at her. “That’s her story. We haven’t heard his. We don’t know if any of what she told us is true.”

  Delta tilted her head. “You’re suddenly supporting Ray Taylor?”

  Jonas scoffed. “I’m not supporting him. I’m just saying we don’t know what really happened when Rosalyn’s fiancé broke it off with her. Maybe she just couldn’t accept it was over and she invented this story of Ray having come between them to make it easier on herself.”

  “An outward cause for the breach instead of having to ask herself what had gone wrong between the two of them?”

  “Exactly.”

  A jazzy tune filled the air, and Jonas dug into his pocket, extracting his phone. “Sorry, have to take this call. Hello?”

  He turned his back on her and walked a few paces away, holding the phone to his ear. “And you’re sure about that? OK. That’s very helpful. Thanks.”

  Delta was at his side the moment he turned back. “Helpful? In the case?”

  “My PI friend. It turns out Herb White knew about the impending divorce. He’d been to the bank to ask if he could get a loan to ensure his business stayed on its feet if he had to pay off his wife.”

  “So he did know she was going to leave him.” Delta pursed her lips. “And he realized it would mean parting with a lot of money.”

  “Money he couldn’t afford to lose.” Jonas pointed his phone at her to underline his conclusion. “The bank turned him down. So if the divorce had gone through and Herb had had to pay up…”

  “He might have lost the business.”

  “In any case, he would have been in trouble, looking foolish to his brother Ralph, business relations, etc. He had every reason to prevent the divorce.”

  “But with murder?” Delta asked softly.

  Jonas held her gaze. “Well, now he’s the poor widower everyone feels sorry for. And he doesn’t have to pay Vera a dime.”

  Delta nodded slowly. “The murder happened in the bar. Vera was walking around with that gold bracelet in her hand. She was also pretty drunk. When she came into our workshop, she was already acting rather giggly and unstable on her legs. Later in the night, she must really have been…maybe talkative? Telling Herb she was getting ready to walk away?”

  “Or he simply asked what she was doing with the bracelet, and something
she said or how she acted put him onto the blackmail. He picked up the ice pick and stabbed her, thinking the police would suspect someone else of having killed her. There were enough people around to provide plenty of potential suspects.”

  Jonas tapped the phone in the palm of his free hand. “It could fit, but we do have a problem.”

  “How to prove it,” Delta said at once.

  “Herb White is a clever man. He knows the police don’t suspect him. All he has to do is sit tight and not make a mistake, and he will get away with it.”

  “Then we have to force him into making a mistake,” Delta said.

  Jonas looked her over. “How do you mean?”

  “We have to make sure he learns that there is something that could give him away. Evidence that might point in his direction. And that we are looking for it to clear Finn and Hazel. Then he will get desperate, try to ensure that we don’t find what we’re looking for, and we can catch him red-handed.”

  Jonas looked doubtful. “How can we let him learn something?”

  Delta looked around her. “What room is he in? What does he do around the hotel? Is there a place he often goes? Somewhere we can be sure to find him?”

  Jonas shrugged. “I heard that he’s a secret smoker. The hotel has a strict no-smoking policy so he has to do it outside. Halliday mentioned to me that there were cigarette butts lying on the wooden plateau overlooking the lake.” He gestured toward the place where Delta had overheard Vera and Amanda fighting.

  “That’s perfect.” Delta clapped her hands together. “Sound carries far when you’re outside. The plateau is higher, and there’s a path leading down to the lake running away from it. We can stand there and discuss the evidence while Herb is up there smoking.”

  “And then?” Jonas asked. His eyes betrayed that he still wasn’t convinced it could work.

  “Herb also knows his wife went to the birding hut alone. By now there is talk about her and possible affairs. So we can say we are sure she hid something at the birding hut. He will think it has to do with the divorce and will come to look for it.”