The Inn at Holiday Bay: Note in the Nutcracker

by Kathi Daley

  I sat down at the table next to Bud and Beth Trenton. I’d never gotten around to speaking to them yesterday, and of all our guests, I wanted to be sure that they had a perfect stay.

  “Good morning and happy Christmas Eve,” I said to the couple.

  “Good morning to you as well,” they both responded.

  “Have you enjoyed your visit to Holiday Bay so far?”

  “We have,” Beth answered for both she and her husband. “It is a difficult time for us, but your lovely inn and the quaint and magical town that feels like an authentic Christmas village are helping quite a lot.”

  “I’m so happy to hear that. Getting through that first holiday after the loss of a loved one can be challenging.”

  “Georgia mentioned that you had your own loss to deal with,” Beth said.

  I nodded. “Yes. I lost my husband and infant son two years ago. The journey back from that very dark place has been a long one, but I can honestly say that with time, it does get easier. Maybe not better, but definitely easier.”

  “Bud and I are just hoping to get through the holiday with the ability to remember the reason for the season. At one point, I wasn’t sure that was possible, but after spending time with this wonderful temporary family you’ve put together, I think we are going to be just fine.”

  I spoke to the couple for a few more minutes and then turned my attention to Mylie and Riley. Eventually, I remembered I had gifts to find, so I excused myself to return the cottage. I was pretty sure I would be able to track down a pair of ice skates, but a kitten? I guess I just needed to put my faith in a Christmas miracle.

  Luckily, the very first store I called had skates in Annabelle’s size. I asked them to hold them and promised to be right down. I quickly called Tanner and Velma about a kitten, neither knew of anyone with kittens offhand, but both promised to make a few calls of their own and call me back. I’d decided to set Pamela’s mystery aside until the twenty-sixth, but it was while I was chatting with the owner of the local emporium that I realized why it was that Pamela had remembered opening the doll from her nanny not once, but twice.

  “Sure, I remember those dolls,” the woman who owned the store and at eighty, still sat on a stool behind the counter, said after I described the doll with real hair and handcrafted clothes Pamela had described to me during our drive yesterday. “Before I owned this store, it was owned by my father,” she informed me. “I would work the counter every summer and every Christmas from the time I was thirteen. The doll with the red velvet coat and real fur trim you described was magical. She had long black hair that was real hair mind you. It was so shiny and pretty. The doll really was unique and special. And it was extremely expensive. I remember that I’d wanted one horribly, but my father said that even though we owned a store that sold them, we couldn’t afford one. I was devastated.”

  “So, if the doll was as perfect and magical as you’ve described, you must have sold a lot of them,” I said.

  “No. As I mentioned, the doll was really expensive. I’m sure it sold well in high-end boutiques in the city, but here in rural Holiday Bay, not so much. My dad only had two in stock, and even though everyone fell in love with the doll, no one from around here could afford one, so I thought the two we had might go unsold. Actually, I spent a lot of time praying they would remain unsold since I hoped my father would allow me to have one if no one else bought them. But then just before Christmas, a woman came in and bought both dolls. I was totally crushed. And honestly, sort of mad. I asked her why she needed two dolls, and she told me that she wanted one for the little girl she took care of and one for her niece.”

  Nanny Emmy I realized.

  “I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you to have one of the dolls, but I bet your dad was happy to sell them.”

  She smiled. “And how. They really were an extravagance, and now that I am an adult, I do realize that we really couldn’t afford one at the time.”

  I paid for the skates and then headed out to the car. I sat for a minute and thought about the fact that Nanny Emmy had bought two dolls, and Pamela had remembered opening two packages, containing identical dolls. I considered this for a few minutes before a theory began to form. A theory that seemed to support the idea that it had been Nanny Emmy who killed Mrs. Norwood after she’d tried to take the child from the woman who’d actually raised her.

  Chapter 15

  Just about the time I was considering my options relating to the murder of Pamela’s mother, Velma called and let me know that she’d found out that a neighbor had one kitten left from a litter she’d been looking for homes for. She was leaving to go out of town for ten days and planned to drop the kitten off at the local shelter on her way, but if I wanted the ten-week-old ball of fur, she would drop it off at Velma’s, and I could pick it up there. I told Velma to tell the woman that I would take the kitten. If Christy didn’t want it, I’d simply give it a home myself. There was no way I was letting that baby spend Christmas in a shelter. Then I called Christy from my car, and she told me she absolutely was interested in the kitten. Velma had closed the diner today, so I arranged to meet her at her home, where I could pick up the long-haired darling.

  “Merry Christmas.” Velma hugged me.

  “Same to you,” I said as she stepped aside and ushered me in. “This,” she said, picking up a long-haired gray and white kitten, “is Cookie, or whatever you decide to rename her.”

  I reached out and took the kitten in my arms. “She is adorable. Haley is going to love her.”

  “She is a cutie,” Velma agreed. “I was surprised that she hadn’t found a home before this. Suzy has been trying to find someone to adopt her for the past two weeks. I suppose that Santa knew to save her for Haley.”

  I had to chuckle at that. “I guess he did.” I cuddled the kitten to my chest, and she began to purr. Gosh, she was cute. I hugged the kitten one more time and then set her on the floor. I looked around the room for the first time. “Your decorations are lovely.”

  “I didn’t do a lot. Just this room and only after Royce told me he’d decided to come to Holiday Bay for the holiday. I get busy at the diner during the holidays and don’t always bother to haul everything down from the attic, but I do think things turned out nice. Can I get you a cup of coffee?”

  “Sure. I’d like that, and I have a few minutes. When I set out this morning, I had a kitten and ice skates to find, but luck was on my side, and I found both in record time.”

  “I guess that is how you know that the errands you set out to accomplish were meant to be. I bet the kids are excited about Santa coming.”

  “They are. It seems like the adults are pretty excited as well.” I accepted a Christmas mug from Velma. “Heck, I’m excited. It was really nice to have the inn full with smiling faces this morning.”

  “Did Pamela decide to come for dinner this evening?” Velma asked. “I know you mentioned that you planned to ask her.”

  “She is coming. In fact, I am going to pick her up in a few hours, and she’s going to spend the afternoon with us. She’s coming for dinner tomorrow as well.”

  “That’s good. I hated to think about the poor dear being alone. Did you ever figure out what happened with her mother?”

  I nodded. “Actually it was your snow globe that helped us find proof that her father was miles away from his home when his wife was murdered, which, in my mind and in Pamela’s, clears his name. Colt is going to work on getting it officially cleared, although, given the fact that he has passed away, I’m not sure how important that is.”

  “I suppose it might be important to Pamela.”

  “Yes, I suppose it might be.”

  “So, if the father didn’t kill the mother, who did?” Velma asked.

  I hesitated. This was a question I was not sure I wanted to answer. “Actually, if you have a minute, I want to run something past you.”

  She leaned forward, crossing her forearms on the table. “Okay, shoot.”

  “The defense at
torney for Mr. Norwood presented an argument during the trial that perhaps the nanny was the killer. Both Pamela and Mr. Norwood had stated that the nanny was still at the house when they left for her piano lesson, and it was also determined that whoever killed Mrs. Norwood had access to the house since there were no signs of forced entry. At first, it made no sense to me that this woman would kill her employer, but then I found out that the Norwoods planned to send Pamela to boarding school after the Christmas break, and had laid off the household staff. Pamela didn’t know this, and it seems she still doesn’t. But if it is true, and it looks as if it might be, then the fact that the Norwoods planned to take the child away from the nanny who’d raised her from the time she was an infant, seems to give her motive. Maybe not for premeditated murder, but for a murder committed during an ill-fated attempt to change Mrs. Norwood’s mind.”

  Velma raised a brow. “Wow. That would be a tough truth for Pamela to stomach. It seems that she loved the nanny even more than she loved her parents. She is, after all, the one to have raised her when she was young, and she was the one to take her in after her mother’s death and her father’s conviction.”

  I ran my hands through my hair in a move of frustration. “I know. When I heard the theory, it felt right to me that the nanny was the killer, but I didn’t want it to be true. So much, in fact, that I didn’t mention it to Pamela. I think that learning that Nanny Emmy was the one who killed her mother will be harder for her to accept than the idea that her father did it. And there are a lot of unanswered questions if Nanny Emmy was indeed the killer. Although I did find out one thing that, in my mind, seems to point to her.”

  She leaned back in her chair. “And what is that?”

  “When I was at the emporium buying Annabelle’s skates, the woman who owns it was there.”

  “Gertie. She’s been a fixture in that place since I was a child.”

  “Yes, Gertie. Anyway, I described the doll that Pamela described to me. The doll with real hair, a velvet coat with real fur trim, and lifelike features that Nanny Emmy had given her that Christmas. The story of the doll presented a bit of a mystery since Pamela remembered opening a package with the doll in it twice. She told me that she has a clear memory of Nanny Emmy giving her the doll before she left for her lesson and of opening the package at that time, but she also has a memory of finding the still wrapped package on her bed after she returned home and found her mother dead on the floor, but before her father took her away from the house for the last time. The discrepancy didn’t really make sense, but then Gertie told me that she remembered selling both of the dolls her father had in stock that year to the same person. The woman who bought them told her she was buying one for the little girl she took care of and one for her niece.”

  “So, you think that Pamela ended up with both dolls.”

  “The prosecutor found out that Emily never left town as she planned, but instead checked into a motel after leaving the Norwood’s house. At first, I wondered why, but if Mr. Norwood had left with Pamela and Emily had seen it as her chance to try to reason with Mrs. Norwood, she may have acted on that opportunity and ended up killing her. Perhaps this caused Nanny Emmy to miss her flight, or perhaps she knew that Pamela was going to need her, so she stuck around. Either way, her knowing Mrs. Norwood was dead explains the change of plans. If the doll Pamela had already opened was damaged in some way, or if it had ended up as part of the crime scene, which would explain the long black hair found near Mrs. Norwood’s body, maybe the nanny had taken the damaged doll, and left the one she’d purchased for her niece behind.”

  “That does make sense,” Velma admitted.

  “So, what do I do? Do I tell Pamela that the woman who was more like a mother to her than her own mother actually killed her mother, and allowed her father to go to prison for a crime she committed, or do I find a way to bow out of the whole thing before I have to tell her anything.”

  Velma slowly shook her head. “I have no idea.”

  Chapter 16

  After I got the kitten, who Christy was thrilled with, settled in the cottage, I headed out to pick up Pamela. I had to admit I was really excited to see Haley’s face when her kitty was presented to her the following morning. I had a cat dish and food and water dishes ready to set up in Christy and Haley’s room once the kitten had been presented. What fun would it be to get such an adorable gift on Christmas morning?

  I still wasn’t sure what I was going to tell Pamela, or more accurately, not tell Pamela when I picked her up. Based on the compelling yet inconclusive evidence I’d uncovered, I really did think it was likely Nanny Emmy killed her mother. Nanny Emmy had passed away, so she couldn’t be prosecuted for the crime, but she did have children, and possibly grandchildren, who would be affected if the truth came out. Not to mention the emotional damage I suspected it would do to Pamela.

  “Merry Christmas,” Pamela said after answering my knock.

  “And to you as well, are you ready?” I tried for a cheery voice, but it came out sort of flat.

  She frowned. “What is it?”

  “It’s nothing,” I lied. “I guess this has just been a busy morning.”

  “No.” She looked me in the eye. “That’s not it. You’ve found my father’s killer.”

  I took a breath and blew it out slowly. The woman was good at reading body language, I had to give her that. “Can we talk for a minute? Before we head to the inn, I mean.”

  She stepped aside. “Certainly. Come in.”

  I stepped into the house and then followed the woman to the seating area. We both sat down. I really had no idea what I was going to say at this point, but I knew I had to say something.

  “So, did you figure it out?” she asked.

  “Perhaps.” I paused and then continued. “It’s just that I’m not sure that it will be in anyone’s best interest to reveal what I’ve found at this point.”

  She frowned. “Why not?”

  I took a deep breath and forged ahead. “Your goal was to prove your dad’s innocence and to clear his name. We’ve done that. At least unofficially at this point. Maybe we should just leave well enough alone and enjoy the holiday.”

  She still looked confused. After a moment, it appeared as if a light went on in her eyes. “You’re afraid that I will be hurt by the truth.”

  “I am,” I answered.

  She appeared to consider the situation. “If the killer was not my dad, and it didn’t appear that anyone had broken in, it must have been either someone my mother knew or one of the staff.”

  I nodded again.

  “Based on the fact you don’t want to say who you suspect, I am assuming you suspect one of the staff over one of my parents’ friends or archeology colleagues. But why would a member of the staff want to hurt my mother?”

  “Did you know that your parents planned to send you to boarding school after the Christmas break? Did you know that they actually laid everyone off when they passed out the bonuses?”

  Her brow furrowed. “I didn’t know that. Why would they do that?”

  “I don’t know. But I did find information that seems to indicate it is true.”

  A tear rolled down her cheek. She put a hand to her mouth as she seemed to realize what it was I hadn’t said. “Nanny Emmy would have been devastated. She loved me, and I loved her.” She looked up as the tears continued to flow. She took several quick breaths as if to steady herself. “Yes,” she said. “I think you may be right. It might very well be best to let sleeping dogs lie.”

  Chapter 17

  New Year’s Eve

  “That kitten is crazy,” Georgia laughed as the little dynamo ran around the cottage attacking everything and everyone she could find. Christy and Haley were having breakfast with her in-laws, so Georgia and I were kitten sitting.

  “She has added an element of slapstick comedy to the group,” I agreed. “Poor Ramos wasn’t sure what to do with her at first, but he seems to have gotten used to the little girl climbing up his leg
and hanging on for a piggyback ride.”

  “Ramos has gotten used to her,” Georgia agreed, “but I don’t think Rufus likes her at all. In fact, I think he is going to be very happy when Christy, Haley, and Princess leave on Thursday.”

  “I have to agree with that,” I said. “However, while Rufus might be happy to have them gone, I’m really going to miss them.”

  “Me too. But they are already talking about a visit in February, and to be honest, with Noah living here in Holiday Bay, I have a feeling the mother, daughter, and kitten trio will make the move permanent by the end of the new year.”

  I had to agree with Georgia on that one. It did seem that Christy and Noah were heading toward a relationship well beyond friendship.

  “You know,” I said, “I think I’m really looking forward to having the inn empty for a couple of weeks. At first, I was disappointed that we had no reservations until the end of January, but it has been a hectic couple of weeks, and I think it will be nice to have some peace and quiet to regroup.”

  “I agree. Especially since I will be starting my new job doing the cooking show in January, and I feel like I need to get my plan together for that.”

  “And we are booked solid from the end of January through Valentine’s Day,” I added. “We will need the downtime to regroup and prepare.”

  “So, have we done it?” Georgia chuckled. “Have we actually convinced ourselves that having almost three weeks with no reservations is a good thing?”

  I smiled in response. “You know, I think we have. But we still have tonight and tomorrow to get through. Who do we have arriving?”

  “A photojournalist named Willa is checking into the suite vacated by the Trenton’s for just two nights, and that young couple from Oregon checked into the suite vacated by Mark Westgate late last evening,” Georgia answered. “Christy and Haley, as well as Mylie and Riley, are still here, and the room Andrew was staying in is unoccupied. I have to admit I am a bit surprised that things did not work out for Mylie and Andrew. He seemed perfect on paper, but I guess that love can’t be calculated or planned, it just has to happen.”