by Mary Maxwell
“Mr. Turner?”
“You can’t prove any of it!” he said. “Because we didn’t do anything! The guy obviously slipped or something, hit his head on the bench and then…” He looked at his sister. “She found him out there. She saw the same things that I did.”
Dina flashed a brief grin. “We know what you did, Mr. Turner. We have surveillance video, fingerprints and—”
“No way!” he snapped. “You’re bluffing!”
“I’m not bluffing,” Dina said. “We have evidence. And we had a call to our confidential crime tip line. The person mentioned you by name and said you were involved in what happened in the gazebo.”
Jasper growled deep in his chest. “Was it you?” His eyes were fixed on his sister. “Did you throw me under the bus after your boyfriend choked and hit his head?”
Eloise began to cry. Her muffled sobs filled the room and a steady stream of tears poured down both cheeks. She didn’t answer Jasper. Instead, she dropped her chin to her chest and tried to stifle the weeping with both hands.
“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” asked Connie.
“I didn’t tell anyone…” Dina said, giving me a quick look. “…because I wanted to see where the evidence would take us.”
Jasper grunted. “Oh, yeah? And how’d that work out for you?”
“We found your fingerprints, Mr. Turner,” Dina answered. “On Alec Halstead’s medical alert bracelet.”
“Bull!” Jasper barked. “I never touched anybody’s medical whatever.”
“The evidence is undeniable,” Dina said calmly. “We have your prints from the national database; it’s a perfect match.”
“I told you not to take it off,” Eloise muttered. “I told you to let me call 911 and have—”
Jasper whirled in his chair, glaring angrily at his sister. “Shut your mouth, Wheezy! None of this would be happening if—”
“It was your idea, Jasper!” Tears continued to tumble down Eloise’s face, but her voice was becoming louder and more insistent. “You said it would work! You said he’d be grateful that I saved him! And you said nothing would go wrong.”
The utterance left everyone speechless for a moment. I shifted my gaze from Dina to Connie, wondering who would speak first. After the furious declaration, Eloise sat upright on the sofa with a blank expression on her face. Her chest heaved with each anxious breath as her fingers twined into a motionless bundle in her lap. Jasper’s mouth had fallen open at some point during his sister’s rant, and his eyes were filled with disbelief and dread.
“It was an accident,” he mumbled finally. “We never meant for the guy to…die, okay? It was supposed to be a harmless stunt, just a simple prank so my sister could get the dude’s medicine from his pocket or bag or whatever and give it to him.” He paused to gulp in some air and wipe his mouth with the back of one hand. “How were we supposed to know he didn’t have one of those pens with him? I mean, who does that? If you know that you’ve got some kind of really bad allergy, don’t you always make sure you’ve got one right there in case you need it?”
“Don’t blame the victim,” Dina said. “You and your sister are responsible for what happened.”
“It was a mistake!” Jasper suddenly cried. “Nothing bad was supposed to happen.”
Dina tightened her jaw. “Nothing bad, Mr. Turner? What do you call an innocent man losing his life?”
“But it wasn’t murder,” Jasper said. “We didn’t mean to kill the guy.”
The room became hushed and still. Connie slumped back into her chair, resigned to the fact that her cousin had just confessed to playing a role in Alec Halstead’s death. I turned slightly to one side. Eloise seemed to be deep in thought, her lips moving silently and both hands picking at the hem of her apron.
“Jasper?” she said finally in a hushed, halting voice. “Did you…do something else that I didn’t know about?”
Jasper shook his head, leaning so far forward in the chair that it seemed he might topple onto the floor. His head dropped down, his shoulders trembled and his fists were contracted with such force that the knuckles began to turn white.
“Mr. Turner?” Dina sounded authoritative and strong. “Would you tell us what happened, please?”
Jasper didn’t move.
“Mr. Turner?”
Once again, he ignored the prompt.
“I can tell you,” Eloise whispered. “It was my fault. I told Jasper that I’d met someone, a guy that I really liked. And then…” She swallowed hard and pulled in a deep breath. “And then, after Alec and I had a fight, I told Jasper that it was over. He was really concerned for me because—”
“Because you never choose the right type of guy,” Jasper blurted. “Never! And that’s why I suggested we do something to show that loser what a good person you are.”
“By triggering his allergies?” I asked.
Eloise turned and nodded at me. “Yes. But I didn’t…we didn’t know that he’d left the EpiPen in his SUV or that he didn’t drive to the hotel.”
Connie was muttering something from behind the desk, but I kept my attention focused squarely on Eloise.
“What was the plan?” I asked. “To make sure that he had an allergic reaction and then be his savior?”
She nodded. “The night I first met Alec, he told me a little about his allergies. It just came up in conversation because of something that was on the TV at the bar where we were drinking. After I found out he was divorced, I went and talked to his ex-wife to get more information about how bad Alec’s allergies were.”
“I told you not to go out the night you met him,” Jasper murmured. “And I had a bad feeling about the guy from the start, remember?”
“I really liked him,” Eloise continued. “I didn’t know about all of the other women. I just thought he was sweet and sexy and funny. The day that it happened, I was going to give him the shot, you know? A shot of the stuff that’s in the EpiPen so he would come out of the…” She stopped, frowning slightly. “I don’t even know what you call it,” she continued. “The allergy attack?”
“That’s good enough,” Dina said. “Alec Halstead suffered a severe allergic response when you gave him one of the peach cobblers that you fixed for the bachelorette party after Jasper changed the event order.”
“It’s what we agreed to,” he said. “Me and Wheezy.”
Eloise sighed. “He’s right. I never would’ve done it if…”
She didn’t bother to complete the remark; everyone in the room knew what she meant.
“Well, whatever your original plan,” Dina said, “I think it fell apart pretty quickly after Mr. Halstead ingested the peach cobbler.”
“How do you even know that I did that?” asked Eloise, suddenly defiant. “It could’ve been somebody else from the kitchen staff.”
Dina shook her head. “It was you, Eloise. We obtained video that a hotel guest was shooting on the terrace that afternoon. You can be seen carrying one of the white ceramic ramekins and a spoon across the patio and down the path toward the gazebo.”
Eloise scoffed. “Big deal. Maybe it was for me. Maybe I was hungry and needed—”
“Our lab techs found Mr. Halstead’s DNA on the spoon and ramekin,” Dina said. “They were both recovered from the hotel kitchen and processed in our lab. I just received the results as I was driving over here this evening.” She paused to let Eloise and Jasper process the news. Then she said, “And as for the other woman that you claimed to have seen hurrying away from the gazebo? That is partially true; the woman you described is currently a hotel guest and she remembered the same event, except that it happened two days before the incident with Mr. Halstead.”
“But I saw her with Alec!” Eloise blurted.
Dina shook her head. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. My associate interviewed the woman at length the morning after Mr. Halstead’s death. She and her husband took their children up to Boulder the day that Alec died. They didn’t even return to the Lod
ge until ten o’clock that night.”
“Maybe she’s lying!” Jasper suggested.
Dina didn’t even acknowledge him. She kept her gaze on Eloise as she asked what Alec Halstead had done to deserve such an untimely and unnecessary death. For a minute or two, Eloise didn’t respond; her mouth trembled and she kneaded the edge of her apron with an endless series of tucks and folds. But then, after finally placing both hands flat on her thighs, she turned to me and smiled.
“I like you, Katie,” she said. “Thank you for being so nice to me.”
I nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“This whole thing was a mistake,” Eloise finally said. “We were just going to talk, you know? Alec called me to say that he was performing at one of our birthday parties that night. So I took the peach cobbler to him, thinking it would be sort of a minor thing. But the reaction started within a few minutes. I asked him about the EpiPen, but he seemed really confused and…” She lifted her head, taking a long, slow breath. “And when he didn’t have the pen, I freaked out. I ran inside and dialed 911, but by the time I got outside…”
“He’d fallen and hit his head on the bench,” Dina said.
Eloise nodded.
“And then I heard her scream,” Jasper said softly. “I knew something was wrong.”
“I didn’t know what to do,” Eloise said in a faint whisper. “There was so much blood and he wasn’t breathing.” She stopped, brushed tears from one eye and looked at Connie. “I’m so sorry. We never meant for any of this to happen.”
“But now it has,” Connie said.
Jasper leaned forward in his chair. “She’s right, Connie. And it was all my idea. Eloise didn’t—”
“We’re both to blame!” Eloise cried. “I knew it was wrong, but I was blinded by how I felt. Alec told me that morning on the phone that he’d been seeing another woman. I didn’t want him to leave me for anybody else! I wanted him all for myself!”
CHAPTER 41
When I stepped outside a few minutes after Jasper and Eloise were escorted to the police station by Amanda Crane and Denny Santiago, the temperature had dropped sharply and the clouds had thinned to reveal an inky night sky dotted with dazzling specks of white. A man wearing a puffy down vest over a fleece jacket stood at the bottom of the front steps. For a fleeting moment, I thought it might be Christopher Edgerly, but then the stranger turned slightly and I noticed he was much older than the handsome British rogue. As I made my way down the stairs, I heard the door open behind me and a familiar voice call my name.
“Wait for me,” Dina said. “I wanted to thank you for staying for the duration, Katie.”
“I think you already did,” I said, smiling.
“Then let me do it again; thank you, thank you, thank you!”
The man in the puffy vest glanced from Dina to me and then back again. “Are you with the hotel?” he asked.
Dina shook her head. “I’m Detective Kincaid,” she said. “With the Crescent Creek Police Department. Can I help you with something?”
The man’s eyes narrowed. “You’re a detective?”
“I am indeed. Did you need someone with the hotel staff?”
He nodded. “I lost my room key somewhere out there.” One of his hands swept the shadowy distance in the parking lot. “I was hoping that maybe someone could help me find it.”
Dina smiled. “I’m sure they’ll be happy to help you, sir. Just go inside to the front desk and let them know.”
“Aha!” he exclaimed brightly. “That’s an excellent idea!”
After the man tottered up the stairs and inside, Dina began to snicker softly.
“What’re you laughing about?” I asked.
“That man,” she said. “He was smashed! That’s probably why he dropped his key in the first place.”
“I thought I smelled liquor,” I said. “But I didn’t want to make unwarranted accusations.”
Dina’s eyebrows went up. “Really? Did you think I was the one that had been drinking?”
I scowled at her. “Heavens no! I’ve been with you for the past two hours, Dina. When was there time to have anything to drink?”
“I know. I was just teasing.”
I smiled. “Good to see you’ve still got your sense of humor. It’s been a rough few days for you.”
“Comes with the territory,” she said.
“Well, as someone who hears all kinds of people talking,” I said, “please know that everyone in town appreciates how hard you work.”
A crooked grin appeared beneath her sleepy gaze. “Everyone?”
“Definitely,” I agreed. “I hear it at Sky High all the time. Like Evangeline Stansfield last week after you rescued her cat. She told everyone how you found Miss Pearl in the back of Albert Cornwell’s F-150.”
“That was a no big deal,” Dina said. “I was driving back to the office. She was in the middle of the street, dressed in a flannel nightgown and hiking boots. I’d seen something furry and gray flash across the street and jump into the pickup a couple of seconds before.”
I nodded. “I’ve seen the video,” I reported. “Blanche Speltzer put it on YouTube later that day.”
Dina’s reserved grin grew into a toothy smile. “Are you kidding me?”
“Nope. Last time I checked, it had been viewed over ten thousand times.”
“Evangeline Stansfield in her nightgown?”
“Yep. Blanche had her grandson add some music, so it’s actually pretty funny.”
“Well, I don’t see how—”
The doors behind us suddenly opened. When we both looked over our shoulders, the man in the puffy vest was coming outside with Darren Arnold, one of the hotel’s overnight front desk clerks.
“Pardon us,” Darren said, brandishing a large flashlight. “Mr. Isherwood and I are on a quest!”
Dina moved to the left and I stepped right. We waited silently until the pair was halfway to the parking lot.
“Should we follow?” Dina whispered.
“Why would we do that?” I asked. “Darren can handle it.”
“Okay,” Dina said. “I just don’t want anyone to start gossiping about how I shirked my responsibility in lending aid to a weary traveler.”
“That guy isn’t weary,” I joked. “He’s half in the bag.”
Dina laughed, sounding simultaneously amused and tired. “You crack me up, Katie. I’m really glad you moved back here from Chicago.”
“Well, thanks for that,” I said, digging in my purse for the car keys. “I feel the same.”
“You don’t miss the big city?”
I shrugged. “Now and then,” I admitted. “But I missed the mountains a whole lot more when I wasn’t here.”
She gave my shoulder a light punch. “I knew it! Trent told me it was the other way around; that you came back here because you felt obligated to carry on the family tradition at Sky High.”
“That’s part of it,” I said. “But the bigger reason was I missed Crescent Creek and the mountains and the people.”
“Even the grumpy ones?”
I smiled. “You talking about Deputy Chief Walsh?”
“Among others,” she answered. “But that can be our little secret.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “Now, you should probably get home so you can rest up for tomorrow.”
“Why?” she asked. “What do you know about tomorrow?”
“I don’t know anything, Dina. But the way things have been going lately, every day brings another new dilemma for you guys.”
She rolled her eyes. “Nature of the beast, Katie. I love this town and believe that we can make it a safer, better place for everyone.”
“Including Mrs. Stansfield and her cat?”
Dina managed a weary smile as she yawned. “Especially them,” she said. “They’re two of my favorite ladies, don’t you know?”
“So…what about Jasper and Eloise?”
She shrugged. “Bad choices can’t be undone.”
&nb
sp; “Who called the tip line?” I asked. “You mentioned that inside when we were talking.”
Dina smiled sadly. “It sounds like Eloise on the recording,” she said. “Like maybe she was overcome by guilt and wanted to let someone know the truth.”
“Will they be arraigned in the morning?”
She nodded. “Sometime tomorrow. I won’t know for sure until I get to the station.”
“Murder in the Second Degree?”
“Don’t you think?” She shook her head as a sad frown appeared. “It seems that in their minds the plan was a simple prank. But they demonstrated reckless disregard for Alec Halstead, creating a situation that put his life at risk.”
“All for love,” I said.
Dina whispered something and her gaze fell to the ground.
“What was that?”
“Oh, it’s something I heard once,” she said with a warm smile. “‘Let’s commit the perfect crime. I’ll steal your heart and you’ll steal mine.’”
“Sounds like a song or maybe a poem. Do you know who wrote it?”
She frowned. “Sorry, I don’t. It’s been years since I heard it. Every now and then something like this happens…” She glanced back at the front entrance of the hotel. “That’s when I think of it.”
“Yeah, and it’s strange. Somewhere in their twisted logic, Eloise and Jasper thought they’d come up with something clever. In the end, she didn’t get the boy. And he didn’t help his sister.”
“Bad choices,” Dina said. “And bad luck. They go together way too often for some folks.”
A gust of icy wind suddenly swirled around us. I pulled the collar of my coat tighter and Dina yawned again.
“Well, you should probably get home and into bed,” I suggested. “It’s been a long day.”
She nodded and gave me a quick hug. “Hmmmm, that sounds like a good idea for both of us, Katie. Thanks again for all your help.”
CHAPTER 42
It was six o’clock the next morning. Julia and I were in the Sky High kitchen, getting ready for another busy day. I watched as she filled a white porcelain mug with coffee before adding a splash of cream and a sprinkle of sugar.