“Thanks.” His compliment made me smile wider.
“Was that Chief Meyers I saw leaving?” Taylor tapped the coaster on the tabletop.
“Yeah. She was just here.” I glanced toward the front window, which was thick with steam.
“Having a beer?”
“No. We have a guest who we’re worried about, so she came by to help.”
He puffed up his chest. “Is a guest giving you trouble? I’ll defend you, Sloan.”
“It’s nothing like that. Thank you, but a guest has gone missing.” I tried to smile, but I was distracted by the thought of Liv.
Taylor flipped the coaster over. “Missing?”
“We’re not entirely sure. She was here last night. You saw her. She was sitting at the bar alone when you ordered drinks. She didn’t show up for breakfast, and it didn’t look like her bed had been slept in. We’re probably being overly cautious, but you never know.”
“Where would she go?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I called Chief Meyers.”
“Oh, you called the chief.”
Taylor seemed oddly intrigued with Chief Meyers’s presence at the pub.
“You’re talking about that bottle blonde who was here drinking late last night, yeah?”
“That’s right. Did you see her after I left?” I leaned closer.
“I saw her here at the pub last night. She was pretty sauced. Stumbling all over the place. Knocked over someone’s drink.”
“When was this?” Liv had been slurring her words, but she hadn’t seemed out of control. Garrett would have said something if he had cut her off.
Taylor tried to wipe the grease spot on his nose but only managed to smear it onto his cheek. “Late. I don’t know. Closing time. She got into it with some guy and his wife. Then she knocked over the drink and stumbled outside.”
“You’re sure?”
“Pretty sure. She was hard to miss. Stumbling, slurring insults on her way outside. I didn’t know she was staying here.”
“But, do you know a specific time?” Now I was intrigued. Taylor may have been the last person to see Liv.
“Late. Maybe close to midnight. I came to get a pint after my shift and ended up running into some buddies. We stayed for a while. She made the rounds. She was tipsy from the start, but at closing she looked wasted.”
I couldn’t believe Garrett hadn’t noticed Liv. And I found it hard to believe he would have continued to serve her past her limit.
“I think I saw her walking toward Blackbird Island when I left. I saw somebody down that way. It could have been someone else, I guess. It was dark.”
“Thanks for the info. I’ll go get your beer and soup.” I stopped in midstride. “You don’t know her, by chance, do you?”
Taylor coughed twice and thumped his chest. “Sorry. Swallowed wrong. No. Don’t know her. Never seen her. Why do you ask?”
“I thought you said something about her looking familiar.”
He cleared his throat. “Oh yeah, true. She did kind of look familiar, but I don’t know her.”
I went to put in a call to Chief Meyers before getting Taylor’s lunch. She answered right away. “Any news, Sloan?”
“Maybe a lead.” I told her what Taylor had just reported.
“I’m on it. We’ll add Blackbird Island to our search perimeter. No one named Liv was admitted to the hospital, and no Jane Does either.”
“I guess that’s good news.”
Chief Meyers was silent. “My team has asked every hotel in town, and no one had availability last night. If Liv did end up at another hotel, she slept in a broom closet.”
I glanced at the clock. It was almost two. Liv had been missing for over twelve hours now.
“There’s more,” she continued. “We found the car. It’s been vandalized. It’s splattered with paint. Some choice words written on it.”
“What?”
“Yep. It looks like someone dumped a bucket of paint on it. We’re heading to Blackbird now. I’ll be in touch.” Chief Meyers hung up.
Who would have vandalized Liv’s car? Did that mean it was more likely that she was in trouble? I wasn’t sure what to think. Was it a good sign that Liv hadn’t been found yet, or as time churned on, were the odds of finding her getting worse?
By the time Taylor had finished his soup and a pint of our thick, decadent stout, the sound of sirens erupted outside. I cleaned up his dishes and went to the front windows for a better look. A police car with its lights flashing zoomed past Nitro and headed for Blackbird Island. Had they found Liv? And was she okay?
CHAPTER
SIX
MY ANSWER CAME WHEN CHIEF Meyers entered the bar thirty minutes later. Her face was long, and the slight shake of her head told me the news wasn’t going to be good. I braced myself on the counter.
“Sloan, Garrett, a word—in private.” She nodded toward the shiny, stainless steel fermenting tanks behind us.
Garrett placed his hand on my arm. “This doesn’t sound good.”
“I know,” I whispered, following him and the police chief to the brewery.
Once we were out of earshot of anyone in the tasting room, she frowned. “We found a body in the river.”
“What?” I felt sick. Garrett steadied me with a firm grip on my waist.
“Liv?” he asked.
Chief Meyers nodded. “We think so. We’re going to need to identify the body. Do you feel comfortable taking a look at a couple of pictures?”
Garrett released his grasp on me and stepped forward. I appreciated the gesture. Meyers showed him a few pictures on her phone. “That’s her,” he said, looking away.
“Can one of you come down and officially make an ID?” She put her phone back in her pocket and turned down the volume on the walkie-talkie clipped to her belt.
“I’ll do it,” Garrett volunteered.
The room felt as if it had shifted. Liv was dead. I had just seen her last night, and now her body had been found in the river?
“How?” I managed to ask.
“We’re not at liberty to divulge details at this point, but I will tell you it wasn’t an accident.”
Not an accident? The gray cement floors of the brewery suddenly looked wavy.
“We’re going to need access to her room and to shut it off from the public. We’ll be notifying next of kin.” Chief Meyers continued to speak, but her words were a blur. “I’ll be taking statements from anyone who interacted with her or saw her yesterday.”
“Of course.” Garrett reached for his keys. “I can go unlock the room for you right now.”
“It wasn’t locked.” My voice sounded off.
Chief Meyers surveyed me. “You good, Sloan?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be fine.” I tried to keep my emotions in check. “The room wasn’t locked when I went up there.”
“You’re sure?” The chief asked.
“Positive. You can check with Kat. Maybe she left it unlocked, but it wasn’t locked when I went up there.”
“So the victim had her key. Yet we didn’t find a key on her person. Interesting.” She tapped her index finger to her chin. “We’ll add a room key to the search list.”
I swallowed a lump forming in my throat. “Why would someone have wanted to hurt her?”
“That’s my job to figure out.” She tipped her head to me and went upstairs.
I took a moment to compose myself. If Chief Meyers believed that Liv’s death was no accident, what did that mean for us? Last night’s odd interactions and blowups took on a different meaning in light of this news. Could one of our guests have killed Liv, or was it a random act of violence?
Leavenworth was known for our alpenglow and safe streets. Kids biked and walked to school. Neighbors left pies for one another on their front porches. The only “thefts” we worried about were black bears lumbering down from the mountainside to swipe a pawful of boysenberry pie. I couldn’t fathom the idea that someone in the village could have kill
ed Liv. But if it wasn’t one of us, who could have killed her?
There was one person who immediately came to mind—Kevin. She had insulted him in front of his friends. He wasn’t the kind of guy to take that lightly. He was the kind of guy who was used to bullying people around. Could he have followed Liv last night? What if he went after her to confront her—or put her in her place—for shooting him down? Maybe things got heated. Could it have been a crime of passion? In the moment, he snapped, killed her, and tossed her body in the river?
A chill ran up my spine at the thought.
What about Jenny? I had overheard her threatening to do something drastic. Murder was certainly drastic. Still, I couldn’t imagine her having the strength to kill Liv. However, she could have vandalized Liv’s car. Maybe they were in on it together. Jenny trashed the car, while Kevin killed her.
I also couldn’t rule out Brad. I was sure that he and Liv had recognized each other. They had pretended not to—why? For Ali’s sake? Were they former lovers?
What had brought Liv to town? Who was she? If I could figure that out, there was a chance that might lead to whoever had killed her. She had certainly seemed distraught last night. If only I’d had an opportunity to speak with her longer. She had been on the verge of opening up. What was she going to tell me? She had said that whatever she wanted to get off her chest might make me think less of her. Could she have been involved in something dangerous? But what? Leavenworth was hardly known as a hub for big crime.
Most visitors traveled to Leavenworth for recreation and adventure—the holiday lights, Oktoberfest, a ski weekend getaway—Liv hadn’t come for any of those things. I had a sinking feeling that her reason for coming to the village was connected to her death.
I inhaled slowly through my nose, allowing the calming effect of a deep breath to help center me. “You have work to do, Sloan.” I tugged on the strings of my gray hoodie sweatshirt with our Nitro logo—a hop in the shape of an atom and the slogan DRINK BEER FROM HERE. It was a new marketing message we had been testing out. There had been a national trend of smaller breweries getting bought out by big corporate chains. We wanted our customers to know that when they bought a pint at Nitro, they were supporting locally brewed beers, sourced with ingredients from the region. Everything we used in each batch of our signature beers was grown in Leavenworth or the nearby Yakima Valley.
The tasting room was packed with the Saturday lunch and après ski crowd. The size of the line at the bar could also be due to the fact that news flowed faster than any keg in our tiny village. I spotted April Ablin pushing her way through to the front of the line.
Great. Just what I needed.
In an attempt to avoid April, I darted behind the bar and began taking orders. “Sorry, Kat, I didn’t realize you were slammed.”
Kat’s round face was flushed with color from running back and forth from the bar. She flexed her toned arms as she lifted a tray of full pint glasses. “We weren’t, and then I looked up and suddenly—boom.”
“You take those out, I’ll start working the line.” I jumped in to relieve Kat, ignoring April, who waved both hands in the air trying to get my attention. She could wait in line like everyone else. By the time she inched her way to the front of the bar, I had poured at least a dozen pints. “Hey, April, what’s your poison?”
“Sloan, please.” She smoothed the ruffles on her green-and-white-checkered skirt. “Beer is loaded with carbs. One moment on these lips, and it would be straight to my hips. I have to keep my girlish figure intact.”
I rolled my eyes.
She elbowed a guy trying to put in an order. “I’m not here for your beer. I’m here to talk about the…” She paused and looked around her. Then she mouthed the word “murder.”
How had she already heard?
“April, I can’t talk right now. If you want to order something, go for it. Otherwise, step aside.”
Her face scrunched into a scowl. “Sloan Krause, you’re not getting rid of me that fast. I have it on good authority that the woman they found in the river was staying here, and I want details. I need details. It is my responsibility to keep the village informed. I saw the police towing away a car that looked like a preschool art class had used it as a canvas. There’s something big going down in the village, and it is absolutely imperative that I have all of the details to keep everyone calm and reassured.”
More like to spread the gossip.
I motioned for the guy behind her to step forward. “What can I get you?”
“A pint of the stout.”
April waited for me to pour his drink. She folded her arms across her chest. “Look, Sloan, I’m not budging. You owe me. I thought we were supposed to be friends, and here you are withholding important information from me.”
If anyone was owed, it was me. I had recently helped April out of a tight spot. I didn’t owe her anything, but I also knew that if I didn’t give her something, she would never leave. I tucked the tip that the guy had given me into a stein on the counter and leaned closer to April.
“Chief Meyers is upstairs right now going through her things. That’s as much as we know. She was here last night and had intended to stay, but never showed up for breakfast. That’s when we called the chief.”
“What’s her name? Where was she from? Why was she in town?” April’s makeup made me wonder if she’d applied it in the dark. Her maroon lipstick clashed with her red hair. Her blush had been swept in round circles on both cheeks, and her bright green eyeliner squiggled in uneven lines beneath her eyes.
“Her name was Liv, and I don’t know the rest of your questions. She mentioned driving from Spokane, but Chief Meyers is looking into all of that.”
April clapped twice. “Excellent. I’ll head upstairs and have a one-on-one with her right now. She likes to keep me in the loop. She knows that I’m the village source. It would be a travesty if people came to their most trusted source only to discover that I wasn’t in the know.”
“Go for it.” I motioned to the back, knowing that there was no way that Chief Meyers would let April anywhere near Liv’s room.
April curtseyed and hurried off.
Good luck with that, I thought as I opened the tap handle to pour another pint. Garrett’s deep voice made me spill the foamy head of the beer.
“All set upstairs. Meyers said to tell you she’s going to want your official statement next.” He mopped the beer. “I told her everything I could remember.”
“Yeah, about that.” I asked him about what Taylor had said earlier. “Was Liv stumbling drunk last night?”
Garrett expertly filled tasting flights with samples of our entire line. “No. What?”
“He said that she was slurring her words and then stumbled out of here, making a big scene.”
“Not on my watch.” He labeled each beer on a small slip of paper and tucked it behind each of the tasting glasses. “She went upstairs when you left. I never saw her again. Ask Kat, maybe I missed something. I started brewing and when Kat came back she helped clean and close, but I came up a couple times to check on things, and I never saw Liv.”
“Weird.”
Jenny and Mel appeared at the bar. “What’s with the police cars outside?” They both had windburned cheeks and lift tags attached to their parkas.
“There’s been an accident at the river.” I didn’t elaborate, nor did I mention anything about a murder. I wanted to gauge their reactions. “Looks like you got up to the ski hill.”
“Yeah. We’re thinking of going back for night skiing later. The powder was amazing. So fresh.” Jenny adjusted her ski cap. “What’s the accident?”
“The police found a body in the river.”
Mel threw her hand over her mouth. “A body?”
“Unfortunately, yes. A woman’s body was recovered from the river earlier. The police have Blackbird Island closed at the moment and are here investigating as we speak.”
Jenny tugged on her lift ticket. “Here? Why are they he
re?”
“The woman was a guest. She was staying here. I think you met her last night. Liv.”
Her response was immediate. She yanked the lift ticket and ripped it from her zipper. “Oh my God. Oh my God. Liv, that witch who dissed Kev last night?”
I nodded.
Jenny’s eyes darted from me to her friend, then back again. “She’s dead. Oh my God, I gotta go.” With that, she turned and ran upstairs.
I looked to Mel. “I’m not sure we’ve officially met. I’m Sloan.”
“Mel.” She appeared distraught as she watched Jenny flee.
“Is everything okay?”
Mel removed the red fluffy ski hat. Her hair was flat on the top from being smashed under the knit hat. “Can I talk to you?”
“Absolutely.” I checked around us. The line had died down. “Do you want to talk here, or we can go to my office?”
“Your office would be great.”
I showed her into the brewery and unlocked the office door.
I moved a stack of brewing magazines and supply catalogues to make room for her to sit.
“What’s going on?”
Mel twisted uncomfortably in her chair. “I don’t want to betray my friendship with Jenny or anything, but I’m super worried that she did something drastic.”
“How so?”
“She was really upset last night. I think you were there when that woman—Liv?”
I nodded.
“Yeah, when Liv shot Kevin down. I was laughing internally about it. Kevin can be such an ass. I don’t know what Jenny sees in him. He treats her like dirt, but she keeps coming back for more. I’ve tried to talk to her about it, but she has total blinders when it comes to Kevin.”
I wasn’t sure why Mel was telling me this, but I stayed quiet and let her speak.
“Jenny was upset. I think she thought that if she defended Kevin, he would somehow see that as a sign of her loyalty and start paying more attention to her.” She gave a half laugh. “Right. Like that was going to happen. Kevin knows exactly what he’s doing with Jenny. He toys with her emotions to keep her on a short leash. It’s hard to watch.”
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