Criminal Crumbs

by Jessica Beck

  “I’ve got an idea,” I told them when I approached.

  “Did you find anything?” Grace asked me.

  “No.”

  “Then what good is having an idea?” Celia asked me harshly.

  “It all hinges on you, as a matter of fact,” I said, doing my best to pump up her ego. “If you can pull it off, we have a chance of catching the killer red-handed.” I knew that playing to her ego was a way of getting her to cooperate, and I felt a little guilty about manipulating her when she was so vulnerable, but what choice did I have? Jake liked to watch poker on television sometimes in the evening to relax after I went to bed, and I’d stayed up and watched enough of it to realize something. Sometimes, even when you don’t have very good cards, you can still bluff your way to a win.

  And that was exactly what I was about to propose.

  “What do you say, Celia? Are you up for it?”

  “I’ll do whatever you ask me to,” she said.

  “Are you willing to lie to everyone else, even to your own sister?” I asked as the most important follow-up question that I could.

  “I don’t want to do that,” she said, pouting a little.

  “What if it were for her own good?”

  Celia seemed to think about that, and then she finally nodded in agreement. “If it might help keep her safe, then I’ll do it. Tell me what you have in mind.”

  “Yes, I’d like to know that as well,” Grace said.

  “As far as the rest of the party is concerned, Hank is still alive. Not only that, but we’re going to tell them that we saw clear evidence that he is somewhere on the grounds and intent on exacting revenge.”

  They were both caught off guard by my suggestion, but Grace instantly smiled as she nodded slightly in agreement. “It’s brilliant, if we can pull it off.”

  “I don’t understand,” Celia said. “How does this help us find out who killed him?”

  “If they think Hank is still alive and that he poses a threat to whoever pushed him, someone might get careless enough to make a mistake. All we need is a thin wedge to split this wide open. If we tell everyone the truth about what we found, we’ve managed to lose one of the few advantages we have—the element of surprise.” I looked at Celia, who was now nodding, albeit reluctantly. “What do you say? We can’t do it without you.”

  “My first reaction is to say no, but the more I think about it, it’s the last thing I can do for Hank, so even if it means lying to my sister, I’m on board.”

  “It’s agreed, then,” I said. “We tell them we saw evidence, maybe footprints, that made their way along the trail we just covered, and maybe we even found something of Hank’s that couldn’t have been there otherwise.”

  I looked at Celia, who was studying the body. “Hey, are you okay? If you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to. Maybe we can come up with something else.”

  She took a deep breath and then let it out before she spoke. “No, you’re right. Neither one of you knew Hank very well, but he always carried a red bandana with him. It was a way to remind him of his late grandfather, and I found it endearing. If we take his bandana and plant it somewhere to show that he was there, we can ‘prove’ that he never died. The only question is who is going to retrieve it.”

  “I’ll do it,” I said, moving over to Hank’s body before I had a chance to change my mind.

  Only it wasn’t there.

  I patted his pockets down twice, and then Celia frowned. “I’m an idiot.”

  “Why? Wasn’t he carrying one after all?” I asked her.

  “It’s what caught our attention in the first place,” she said as she moved to the tree where we’d seen something flapping in the breeze when we’d first arrived.

  Hank had used his bandana as a signal, the very thing that had led us to his body, and the item we were going to use to shake up his real killer.

  I collected the small cloth square, and then I asked her, “Was there anything else Hank was known for?”

  “Won’t the bandana do? I thought it was perfect,” Celia said with a frown.

  “It is. As a matter of fact, it’s too good to waste just yet. We need something else to show that he made it out of this in one piece.”

  Celia frowned, and finally, it was Grace who spoke next. “How about his button?”

  “That’s perfect,” Celia said.

  “Button? What button? How can that do us any good?”

  Grace walked hesitantly to the body, and then she reached down and unpinned a button he’d been wearing on his sweatshirt. I’d missed it completely on my quick inventory earlier, but I didn’t beat myself up about it. After all, I’d wanted to make the search as quick as possible.

  It was a circular button the size of a quarter, and inside, it had the letters printed, TUIT.

  “I don’t understand,” I said as I frowned at the button.

  “Hank used to say that was most people’s downfall. They always said they’d do something, but they never made time to actually accomplish their tasks.”

  Grace shrugged. “It’s understandable that you don’t see it, Suzanne. I had to ask him about it myself on the first day we met. It’s a round tuit. Around to it. He told me that he always knew that someday he’d get a round tuit, and he always laughed every time he told the joke. I’m willing to bet there’s not another one of these within a hundred miles. Everyone will know that it was his.”

  “Good enough,” I said. “We’re going to take this back as proof that he’s still alive. There’s just one thing left to do. Where do we say we found it?”

  “How about on the front steps of the main lodge?” Celia suggested.

  “I don’t know how we’d explain the fact that no one else saw it there first,” I explained. “It has to be in plain sight, but not in easy reach.”

  I was still considering possibilities when Celia countered, “We could say we found it on the sign for the resort.”

  “So, our story would be that he didn’t lose it by accident but that he planted it so someone could find it,” I said.

  “What’s wrong? Is that no good?” Celia asked.

  “On the contrary. I think it’s perfect. Grace, do you have an opinion?”

  “I like it, too,” she said. “It could be read as a warning to the killer, that Hank is going to get around to unmasking them, and soon.”

  “Only he can’t,” Celia said, getting a little weepy again.

  “That’s why we’re going to do it for him,” I said. “Now let’s get going. It’s going to be getting dark soon, and I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t want to be on this path when night falls.”

  “Lead the way,” Grace said, but Celia didn’t make any move to follow us.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked her gently as she stood over the body.

  “We can’t just leave him like this,” she said. “I know we can’t drag him back up the path we crossed, but this just doesn’t feel right to me.”

  “I know, but what can we do?” I asked her. “There’s no way to protect him now.” And no need, I added to myself silently.

  “Shouldn’t we at least say something over him?” she asked.

  Grace saved the day. She looked at me, nodded solemnly, and then she took each of our hands in hers. As we stood there, she said, “Hank, you may be gone, but you will be missed. You may have sacrificed yourself to save someone else, but it won’t be in vain. You may leave nothing but a memory behind, but it will be a good one, a last act of courage trying to protect someone else.” She stopped, and we stood there a few moments before she spoke again, this time directly to Celia. “Is that what you had in mind?”

  “It was beautiful,” Celia said. “Thank you.”

  I mouthed the same sentiment to Grace myself. She’d done beautifully, but I would have expected nothing less from
her. My best friend had a way with words, while I had a way with dough. Both assets were valuable, but at that moment, I would have traded every donut I’d ever made in my life for the ability to say something so powerfully.

  Chapter 18

  We found the other group standing in front of the gazebo. “Did you have any luck?” Nicole asked us as we approached them.

  “Hank wasn’t where we saw him yesterday,” I said as I shrugged. It was even true, since Hank had managed to crawl a little before he’d died.

  Nicole looked perplexed. “Then why doesn’t he show himself?”

  “I don’t know, but we found this,” Grace said as she approached the others. “It was stuck to the sign for the resort.” She handed the TUIT button to Nicole, who passed it to Georgia.

  Janelle took it in turn, studied it, and then started to hand it back to Nicole. “I still don’t get why he valued this thing so much.”

  “Hank loved wordplay and puzzles, basically anything that took a little creativity and cleverness to get,” Celia said as she stepped up and took it before Nicole could. “He cherished this. He’d have sooner gone out without wearing pants than this button. The fact that we found it says volumes. I just wish I knew why he was hiding.”

  “It’s pretty clear, isn’t it?” Georgia asked.

  “Not to me it isn’t,” Celia said. “Explain it.”

  “Hank is the only one of us who knows who tried to push Nicole off that cliff. I’ve got a hunch he’s waiting for the right time to spring, and then whoever did it had better watch out. After what he must have been through, he’s not going to be very happy with the person who pushed him.”

  “His fall was an accident,” Nicole said. “He was trying to save me, remember?”

  “Do you think he still won’t be upset just because he wasn’t the original intended victim?” Georgia asked her.

  “I take it you didn’t have any luck finding Dina,” I said, doing my best to change the subject.

  “It’s a mystery. She’s vanished,” Janelle said.

  “I keep telling you, that’s impossible,” Georgia answered testily.

  “Then where is she?” Janelle asked. “We’ve looked everywhere.”

  “Have you tried calling out her name?” I asked.

  They all frowned, so I called out, “Dina! Dina! Where are you?”

  “I’m in the maze,” we all heard her say. “Is that you, Suzanne?”

  “It is,” I said as I glanced at the others. They hadn’t even checked the maze in all the time that we’d been gone?

  “We were going to look there next,” Nicole said almost apologetically.

  “But we got distracted by Georgia’s constant complaining,” Janelle replied.

  “Hey, I can’t be the only one who’s cold and hungry,” she answered.

  “Are you okay?” I asked Dina loudly, ignoring the squabbling coworkers.

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Only I tried to get back out, and I’m afraid I’m a little lost.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be right there,” I said as I headed for the maze.

  “You’re not going in there alone,” Grace said.

  “We can’t all go,” Georgia added. “Why don’t you two go retrieve Dina, and the rest of us will go back to the lodge and see about dinner?”

  “Are you actually offering to cook?” Janelle asked her. “We both know that you could burn water.”

  “I can do a little better than that, but I was thinking more along the lines of seeing what wouldn’t need too much prep work. You’re the mom of the group. Surely you can cook something edible for the rest of us.”

  “Just stay out of my way,” Janelle said. I wasn’t at all sure when she’d gotten so assertive, but it was working for her. Even Georgia seemed to be grudgingly respectful of her attitude.

  Nicole hesitated before following the rest of them. “Celia, are you coming with us?”

  “If you don’t mind, I thought I’d go with Grace and Suzanne,” she said softly.

  “We don’t have to stay with the same groups we were in before,” Nicole replied.

  “I know. I’m just not ready to deal with the two of them yet,” she said as she pointed to Georgia and Janelle.

  “At least you were spared some of it,” Nicole said, adding a gentle smile. “I’ll see you inside.”

  “Okay,” Celia answered, and then she turned to us. “Do we need to look at the map again?”

  I tapped my forehead. “That won’t be necessary. It’s all up here.”

  “Then we’re in serious trouble,” Grace said with a grin. “You know, you really could have gone back with your sister, Celia.”

  “I can see her any time,” she said. “Besides, you two are a lot more fun to be around at the moment than she is.”

  “I won’t argue with that, but then again, no one tried to kill either one of us,” I said as I started toward the maze. “Dina, how about talking loudly so we can get a fix on exactly where you are?”

  From inside the maze, she asked, “What should I talk about?”

  “Anything will do. What interests you?”

  “I could talk about investing,” she volunteered.

  It might put me to sleep before I found her, but if it was truly what she knew best, who was I to stop her? “Okay, that’s fine. I have to warn you, though. Your advice will be falling on deaf ears as far as I’m concerned. I keep my life savings in a coffee can under my bed. I’d put it somewhere safer, but I can’t imagine anyone being interested in my three hundred eleven dollars, can you?”

  “You’d be amazed by what that little bit could do for you, if you invested it wisely,” she said. The woman had nerve, I had to give her that. She’d recently lost what must have been a great deal of Nicole’s money in the stock market, and here she was trying to give us financial advice. I had a hunch that my money was safer right where it was. Sure, it wouldn’t grow any, but it wouldn’t vanish, either. As far as I was concerned, that was a victory.

  “How would you go about it?” I asked her.

  “Well, first we’d put you in the market. With that amount, I believe I’d go for more aggressive stocks in hopes of quick growth.”

  Grace shook her head as she looked at me, and then she asked aloud, “Doesn’t the prospect of fast growth also mean that it’s by definition high risk?”

  “What’s life without taking chances every now and then?” Dina asked. “Besides, it’s not nearly as risky as you might think.”

  Tell that to Nicole, I felt like saying, but I didn’t think that would do me any good with the investment counselor. I knew that many people swore by their investments, but the one time I’d bought a little stock, it had unfailingly dropped from the moment of my initial purchase until it was virtually worthless. All in all, I preferred to hold onto what little I had.

  “Do you have any ideas about what I should do with my inheritance?” Celia asked her. “I’m about to come into a fairly healthy amount. No one thinks I can be prudent with it, so I’d love nothing more than to prove them all wrong.”

  You could almost hear Dina salivating at the news. “We need to talk, dear girl. I have a few things in mind for you, but trust me, I’m going to make you rich.”

  I touched Celia’s shoulder, and then I shook my head, indicating that I thought it was a very poor idea to take financial advice from this woman.

  Celia grinned at me, and then she said softly, “I’m not letting her anywhere near my money. I’m just trying to keep her talking so we can find her and get out of here. I’m getting cold, too,” she added, shivering a little from the chill in the air. The sky was definitely beginning to darken, and I knew that before long, we’d never be able to get Dina out of there.

  Her voice sounded closer, though.

  “I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you sing the alphabet so
ng,” I suggested. It really didn’t matter what she said or even sang, but I was tired of her pitches, so I wanted an alternative to home in on.

  “That sounds a bit silly to me,” she said.

  “Then I don’t care what you sing. Just give us something to help us find you.”

  Surprising me with her choice, she began to sing an old-time hymn, one that I hadn’t heard in years. To my amazement, Dina had a fairly decent voice. Using it to guide us, we soon found her.

  “That was nice, Dina,” Grace said. “You can really sing.”

  “Thanks. I used to sing in my grandmother’s church choir when I was younger. I don’t know what made me think of that song. I haven’t sung it in years.”

  Grace looked at me, a little mortified. “Suzanne, I was so intent on finding Dina that I lost track of how we got in here. Are we lost, too?”

  I grinned at her. “No worries. I kept track.”

  “How?”

  “In my mind,” I said with a smile.

  “Then we’re doomed. We’re all doomed,” she answered with a grin of her own.

  I only led us down one false path before we made our way out of the maze. Considering the circumstances, I thought that was pretty good.

  Once we were all free of the maze, we headed back to the lodge. There still weren’t any electric lights on in the massive stone building, but I could see flickering lights and shadows being thrown off from the fireplace within. No one would go cold tonight, and based on what I’d seen in the pantry on my previous raids, no one should go hungry, either. I fingered the bandana in my pocket, still safely tucked away. I wasn’t sure how I would use it, but I knew that having it might come in handy, so I wasn’t about to reveal its presence without coming up with a very good way to scare the killer into making a mistake.

  “Did you ever find Hank?” Dina asked me, pulling me from my thoughts.

  “When we got there, he was gone,” I said. That was true as well, since in my world, being gone could mean that someone just left or that they’d died, taking a rather more serious leave of the rest of us.