Murder to Go (The Heights Bed and Breakfast Cozy Mystery Series Book 1)

by Susan D. Baker

  Sarah cried out in dismay, and Carolyn looked at Karl.

  “The lab is testing the food now,” Babs went on. “I’ll need to question whoever made the lunchboxes.”

  Karl stepped forward. “I did. You can question me all about it. I would never poison anybody.”

  Babs shrugged. “Either way, you’re our primary suspect at this point. You’re the only person who had access to their lunchboxes.”

  “He couldn’t have killed anybody,” Carolyn told her. “Karl’s the most sensitive, gentle-hearted person on the planet.”

  “Killers can be nice people too,” Babs replied. “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I made exceptions for nice people.”

  “That’s taking it a little too far, don’t you think?” Carolyn asked. “Can’t you see he isn’t a killer?”

  Babs studied Karl. “I have to follow the trail of evidence, and right now, the trail is leading me right back here.”

  “Are you sure there isn’t some mistake?” Sarah asked. “Is there any other way that they might have died?”

  “Not very likely,” Babs replied.

  A chirping noise interrupted her. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and read the screen. “Here we are. The tests revealed high levels of amatoxin. It was hidden in the mayonnaise of the sandwiches.” She put her phone away. “I’ll have to ask you to come down to the station for further questioning.”

  “Amatoxin? How could Karl get a hold of something like that?” Carolyn demanded.

  “It is a compound found in poisonous mushrooms,” Karl explained. “But I never....”

  Babs held up her hand. “Save it for the interview, but you are exactly right. You can find the mushrooms pretty much anywhere around the Grey Fox Lake area. You can explain everything during questioning.”

  Carolyn took a step forward. She just managed to stop herself from moving between the detective and her husband. “But Karl wouldn’t have killed those people. He would never do anything to jeopardize The Heights.”

  Babs took Karl by the elbow. “If he’s as innocent as you say, we’ll clear him in our investigation. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to take him down to the station.”

  Carolyn, David, and Sarah watched in horror as Babs led Karl out of the room. Karl stumbled after her as meekly as a newborn lamb.

  Carolyn bit her lip.

  David broke the silence after the door closed in their faces. “Now what are we going to do?”

  Carolyn turned to her daughter. “What do you know about these people—the ones in the room across the hall from Kat Coeur d’Alene?”

  Sarah shook her head. “I’m not sure I remember who they were.”

  “Can you check the registry?” Carolyn asked.

  Sarah led the way to the reception desk and bent over her ledger. “Here it is. The man is Paul Tenboom, and the woman is Monica Rorschach.”

  “Tenboom?” Carolyn asked. “I hope that isn’t Porky Tenboom?”

  “Who’s that?” David asked.

  “He’s just the most hated food blogger in the country,” Carolyn exclaimed. “He’s ruined more lives and driven more people out of business than any other blogger on the Internet.”

  “That just goes to show how much I know about the blogging scene,” David returned. “I never heard of him before.”

  Carolyn blushed. “Call it the nature of the business. I know all my competitors, but Porky must have had a million enemies. He would give a restaurant a bad review just for shock value. He didn’t care whose feelings he hurt, or who hated him.”

  “What a jerk,” David remarked.

  “You had to admire him, though,” Carolyn replied. “I get a lot of help from a lot of different people. I get guests posts so I don’t have to write every day, and I get contributions from sponsors. Porky always stayed independent. He valued his integrity more than anything.”

  “Now he’s dead,” David reminded her. “One of his million angry reviewees must have caught up with him at last.”

  Carolyn closed her eyes. “Oh no. Why did it have to be Porky?”

  “The police will clear Dad,” Sarah exclaimed. “You don’t have to worry about him.”

  Carolyn shook her head. “I hate to think about what your father wrote in the comments after Porky gave our restaurant a rotten review? He couldn’t sleep for days after it. Your father hated Porky Tenboom with a passion. Your father wrote back such a scathing response. I hope he doesn’t say too much during the interrogation. I think I could have handled being questioned by the police better than your father. He was always sensitive about that sort of thing.”

  Sarah closed her eyes. “Don’t talk like that, Mom.”

  “I’m just thinking out loud,” Carolyn told her. “Maybe Porky found out your father was cooking here. He could have come up to Grey Fox Lake to review him and The Heights. I hate to think what Porky would have written about it.”

  “Don’t forget he was staying in the same room with a woman,” Sarah countered. “Look here. They booked their rooms separately at two different billing addresses. It looks to me like Porky came up here for recreation, not business.”

  “Let’s take a peak in his room,” Carolyn suggested. “We might find something.”

  “Do you think that’s a good idea?” Sarah asked. “The police might want to search it before they let us in.”

  “They haven’t searched it yet,” Carolyn pointed out. “That room is your property, and you’re running a business here. If they object, you can always say you had to clean it for the next guest. They can’t stop you from accessing a room in your own building.”

  “But we might destroy material evidence,” Sarah pointed out. “What if we destroyed the evidence that could prove Dad was innocent?”

  “Your father hasn’t been accused of the crime yet,” Carolyn reminded her. “And anyway, we’re only going to look around. The crime lab already looked over the spot by the lake where Kat found Porky and Monica. They would have searched their room by now if they were going to.”

  Sarah hesitated. Then she grabbed her keys. “All right, but let’s make it quick. I don’t want to get caught in there if that detective comes snooping around.”

  She led the way to the room and unlocked the door. She peered inside. “I’m not going in there. I don’t care what you say.”

  Carolyn stepped forward. “You don’t have to. I’ll do it. You keep a lookout for that detective. If she comes, jangle your keys to warn me.”

  Sarah shivered. “I don’t like this.”

  “I'll be quick,” Carolyn assured her and walked inside. Two suitcases lay open on the dresser, and a laptop computer sat on the table. Carolyn opened up the laptop and pushed a button on the keyboard. The computer screen lit up.

  Sarah gasped from the door. “Mom!”

  “What?” Carolyn asked.

  “Don’t do that,” Sarah exclaimed.

  “Why not?” Carolyn asked. “I’m not going to erase it, and he isn’t coming back. He’s dead.”

  “But this is a crime scene,” Sarah pointed out.

  Carolyn looked around. “No crime took place here. Besides, that detective would have told us if the police wanted us to stay out of the room. They would have secured the place with yellow police tape,” Carolyn explained. “Oh, here’s the log-in page. Argh! It’s asking for a password. This is a dead end.”

  She crossed the room to the suitcases and poked through the contents.

  “Well, well, well,” Carolyn exclaimed giving her daughter a knowing smile. “Porky was definitely not here on business.”

  Sarah looked around. “What did you find?”

  “This is Porky’s toiletries bag,” Carolyn replied. “There’s a wedding band in the front pocket. It looks like our friend Porky was hiding the fact that he was married. I wonder if his wife knew about his weekend companion?”

  “She could be a suspect in his murder,” Sarah remarked.

  “I’ll have to tell that Gillespie about this,” C
arolyn decided. “Anything to draw suspicion away from your father.”

  Sarah glanced down the hall and opened the door wider. “Let’s get out of here. Being in their room gives me the creeps.”

  Carolyn joined her in the hall. “You should pack up their stuff and store it down in the front office. If the cops want to look through Porky and Monica’s personal affects, they can do it somewhere else. You shouldn’t leave the room standing vacant any longer than you have to.”

  Sarah glanced over her shoulder at the room. “I don’t think I could sell the room to anybody now. Two dead people stayed in there.”

  “They weren’t dead when they stayed in the room,” Carolyn countered. “By the way, did they both pay up front for their stay?”

  “Mother.” Sarah gasped.

  Carolyn followed her daughter downstairs, away from the room. “What will you do about dinner tonight? Your father won’t be back in time to cook it.”

  David stepped forward. “I’ll take over. It’s my chance to step into the kitchen and do things my own way.”

  Carolyn examined him. “You cook? I didn’t know that.”

  “Before you and Karl arrived I cooked all the meals,” David returned. “You might be impressed by what I can come up with.”

  “I hope so,” Carolyn replied.

  Her phone vibrated in her pocket.

  “I have to go pickup your father from the police station,” she told Sarah. “I’ll be back in a little while.”

  “Good,” Sarah remarked. “He’ll be back in time for dinner.”

  “I will have everything ready for you two when you get back,” David called out to Carolyn as he rushed into the kitchen.

  “Are you sure we shouldn’t order a pizza?” Carolyn asked. Sarah smirked and shook her head as she pushed open the door to the kitchen.

  Chapter 3

  Carolyn glanced over at Karl who hadn’t said a word since they left the police station.

  “How are you doing?”

  Karl stared out the window and didn’t answer. Carolyn sighed and turned onto Lake Street heading back to The Heights.

  “David is going to have dinner ready when we get back.”

  Karl muttered to himself and crossed his arms over his chest.

  Carolyn patted him on the knee. “Don’t worry, darling. I’m working to figure out who killed Porky. Then we can go on with our lives like this never happened.”

  Karl didn’t look at her. “I don’t want you getting involved. You keep out of the investigation.”

  Carolyn’s eyes flew open. “What’s the matter? I thought you would want all the help you could get. You don’t want a murder charge hanging over your head. I understand you’re upset, but you don’t have to take it out on me.”

  Karl smacked his lips. “How could this happen to me? I used to be a respected member of this community. I owned a restaurant in this town for decades. I had home here. I could walk down the streets of Evergreen Cove and hold my head high. No one could fault me for anything.”

  “That’s true,” Carolyn agreed.

  “But look at me now,” Karl spat. “I have to go around with my hat in my hand and beg my struggling daughter to keep a roof over my head. If I hadn’t put our home up as collateral to expand the restaurant, none of this would have happened.”

  Carolyn shook her head. “You can’t blame yourself for the restaurant failing. No one could have foreseen that tourism would slow down. That was going to be a lean year for the restaurant either way. You know, I was excited you were trying to make a better life for us.”

  “Better life?” he shot back. “You trusted me and I let you down. Now I’m a suspect in a murder case. I had no idea what was going on when the detectives asked me about Paul Tenboom. Then I realized they were asking me about Porky. I hadn’t thought about him in years. He gave my restaurant a rotten review, but he did that to everyone. After he wrote that review of my restaurant, I would have loved to see his obituary in the paper, but that was such a long time ago.”

  “I know,” Carolyn replied. “Back then, I would have posted a link to his obit on my blog.”

  Karl snickered.

  Carolyn pulled into The Heights parking lot. She and Karl got out of the car, and Karl started toward the B & B. Carolyn hurried up to him, took him by the hand, and held him back. “Wait a minute. Talk to me for a minute before you go inside.”

  Karl frowned. “What do you want to talk about?”

  Carolyn drew closer to him. “I just want to spend a moment with you before we dive back into the fray.” She gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “I missed you last night.”

  Karl looked away. “We seem to be spending a lot of time apart these days.”

  “I wish we could spend more time together,” Carolyn remarked. “You work the same amount here at The Heights that you used to work at the restaurant and my blog has been taking off.”

  “When the restaurant was open,” Karl murmured. “We would at least be together. You were waiting on tables and I was in the kitchen cooking. We saw each other every day and night. We talked to each other all the time. We don’t do that anymore.”

  “Yes, I remember,” Carolyn recalled. “I think you are romanticizing our time at the restaurant. You would shout at me about dishes that were cooling on the pass. I would yell at you when you wouldn’t tell me specials that were 86’d. It wasn’t quality time. We didn't get to spend any time, just the two of us alone, enjoying each other's company.”

  Karl gazed across the parking lot at the B & B. “Maybe we shouldn’t be staying here. Maybe we should go somewhere else.”

  “Where would we go?” Carolyn asked. “They have space for us here.”

  “I don’t want to depend on anyone,” Karl replied. “But I don’t have a choice. I can’t support you. We have to take advantage of our daughter and son-in-law's hospitality.”

  “How many meals did we serve David in the restaurant while he was dating Sarah in college? I think Sarah stills blames you for putting all that weight on him.” Carolyn quipped, “We’re family. I don’t want to leave. I like staying here with Sarah. I thought you felt the same way.”

  “It doesn’t matter how I feel about it,” Karl returned. “We’re stuck here whether we want to or not.”

  Without waiting for her to reply, Karl headed into the B & B. As soon as he got inside, he started toward the kitchen. “I better get dinner started.”

  “David’s cooking dinner tonight,” Carolyn told him.

  “Right,” Karl murmured. He got as far as the service window before David ran out of the kitchen with an apron tied around his waist. “I’m making dinner tonight, Karl. You’re taking the night off.”

  Karl puffed himself up. “Let me take care of dinner. It will only take me a few minutes to get started.”

  David waved his hand. “I’m cooking dinner tonight. Go to the apartment and relax,” David suggested. “You’re a suspect in a murder case, and the guests are uncomfortable with the idea of you making them food, no matter how good it is.”

  Sarah approached from the reception desk. “Don’t worry, David. The guests are just over-reacting,” Sarah insisted. “Dad, you can get back in the kitchen tomorrow. The guests will forget everything when they smell you cooking breakfast.”

  David shook his head.

  “Your dad is not going back into the kitchen,” David protested. “I think it is time for your parents to find somewhere else to stay. If I had put my foot down before we faced these allegations, we wouldn’t be in this position. Your parents have been a drain on The Heights for months.”

  Carolyn couldn’t hold her tongue any longer. “We have not been a drain on the B & B and we never have been. I’ll have you know, David, my blog has been very profitable. I’ve been contributing to The Heights ever since we moved in here.”

  “You’re lying,” David glared at her.

  “You can ask my daughter if you don’t believe me,” Carolyn demanded.

  D
avid turned to Sarah.

  She dropped her eyes and fiddled with her fingers.

  “How long have you been doing this?” Karl bellowed. “I have been staying up at nights worrying about paying back David and now you’re telling me you have been doing it the whole time. This is humiliating.”

  Carolyn faced her husband. “I kept it secret from you because I knew how you would react. It’s bad enough we had to ask our daughter to take us in, but I knew you would be outraged if you knew your wife was taking care of things.”

  “I’ve always done my part around here,” Karl shot back. “I’ve worked in the kitchen from morning ‘til night since the very first day we moved in.”

  “I thought it was great that you were back in the kitchen. It was helping them out and you seemed happier,” Carolyn told him. “But we cost the B & B more than you save them in the kitchen. I couldn’t let our stay drain their finances. They have a hard enough time making the business work. I covered all the costs of us being here but I didn’t see any harm in keeping it from you. I told Sarah not to tell David. I didn’t know how much David resented us being here. Maybe I should have been honest with everyone from the start.”

  Karl puffed out his cheeks and waved his arms around, but words failed him.

  David smacked his lips. “Why did you keep it a secret? Why did you let me make such an idiot out of myself?”

  Carolyn cast a sidelong glance at her husband. “I make a lot more money with my blog than Karl ever did with our restaurant. That restaurant was his pride and joy, but we never made much profit. If you want us to leave, I have enough money saved up to rent a place in town.”

  Sarah gasped. “You don’t need to stay here? I didn’t know you had enough money to do that.”

  “It’s a bit too late now, don’t you think,” David chimed in. “That would have been helpful before your husband murdered two guests.”

  “I know you never really liked me, David. I’m grateful that you agreed to let us stay when we had nowhere to go. If you really want us to leave, we will.” Carolyn placed her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “I didn’t want to leave. I really love living with you, this is the closest we’ve been since you were young. I don’t want to lose that now.”