Murder in Vail

by Moore,Judy

  One of the policemen waved his gun toward the bottom of the stairs. “Go on down.”

  Stephen kept his hands up and went down the stairs, across the foyer, and into the living room.

  When the others saw Stephen with his hands up, they immediately raised their hands too.

  “Is anyone else in the house?”

  Stephen spoke for the group. “No, just us.”

  The third officer, a policewoman, came down the stairs into the living room, her gun also drawn.

  “All right, everyone. I’m Sergeant Grant Evans, this is Officer Dan Christopher and Officer Jan Presley. We have a report of a murder in this house, so we are going to need to search everyone. Please stand up and move to the wall. Women to the left. Men to the right. Turn around and put your hands on the wall, feet apart.”

  Looking terrified, everyone did exactly what the policeman ordered them to do.

  Gun still drawn, Evans said, “If anyone has a weapon, tell us now.”

  “She has a butcher knife,” Glen blurted, pointing at Helga.

  “I have for protection,” Helga protested.

  “Where is it?” the policewoman asked her as she stood with her hands against the wall.

  “At my waist,” Helga responded.

  The policewoman carefully pulled the huge knife from Helga’s waistband. Her eyebrows went up when she saw the size of the knife.

  “I have a pair of scissors in my jacket pocket,” Lance told them. The policeman found the scissors and searched Lance for other weapons. Then he moved on to search Stephen and Glen.

  “Anything else? If you have a weapon, now is the time to give it to us.”

  Yvetteʼs heartrate went up. “I have a fingernail file in my pocket. They won’t let me take it on the plane, so I guess it’s a weapon.”

  The policewoman found the file, and then patted down an incredibly uncomfortable Yvette.

  “All right. You can put your hands down now and move away from the wall,” Sergeant Evans told them. “Stay where you are until we search the couch area.”

  The two other officers quickly moved the couches to search under them and pulled the cushions off, looking for weapons. When nothing was found, everybody was directed to move back onto the couches in front of the fireplace.

  “All right” Sergeant Evans said. “We need to clear a spot outside for the chopper to land. It can’t land in snow this deep.”

  Lance stepped forward. “I’m a helicopter pilot,” he told the policeman. “The highest ground is on the other side of the garage. I can show you where if you’d like.”

  Helga spoke up. “There are snow shovels in garage.”

  Evans told the female officer to watch the group while Lance took him and the other male officer to the garage.

  “No one is to leave this room for any reason,” the police sergeant told them. To the policewoman, he instructed, “Keep a close eye on them.”

  Everyone sat down on the couches, alarmed and stunned at the activity going on around them. Officer Presley at the door kept her hand on her holster. Yvette looked panic-stricken. With Lance out of the room, she took hold of Helga’s hand and squeezed it so hard, Helga had to pull her hand away.

  Lance led the two policemen to the garage, found the snow shovels leaning against the wall, and showed them the best landing spot. While one of the policemen began quickly shoveling snow, the other led Lance back to the living room and immediately left to go back to the garage. Yvette jumped up and hugged him.

  “They are really going at it with those snow shovels,” Lance said, sitting down next to Yvette and wrapping an arm around her. “They’re going to have that spot cleared fast.”

  The group fell silent, and everyone stared at each other nervously.

  Chapter Forty-five

  Sally’s family huddled together in the living room listening to the persistent whirling of helicopter blades approaching the house and then landing in the yard. Soon afterward, a loud commotion broke out in the garage, and they heard the sound of several voices approaching.

  “She’s up there,” they recognized Gwen’s voice say. “Down that hall, the first door on the right.”

  Still in her crumpled turquoise ski jacket, hair in knots, and a growing welt on her forehead, Gwen walked into the living room. A cheer went up, and she was immediately surrounded by her family. Glen hugged her and seemed on the verge of tears. The others waited in line to hug her and thank her, even Helga.

  “You do good,” Helga told her. “You surprise me. You very brave.”

  Gwen laughed and thanked her.

  Yvette was the first one to mention the bruise on her head. “What happened? That must have really hurt.”

  Gwen told them the entire story of her afternoon adventure—skiing too fast down the mountain, falling over the broken limb, arriving at the cabin and not being able to shovel her way out, holding on during the wild ATV ride, and catching a ride in the Coors truck to the police station.

  “That’s quite a day you had,” Stephen said, adding with a grin, “I’m having trouble picturing you doing all that.”

  Glen laughed. “Yes, that doesn’t sound like the typical Gwen day of lunch at the club and afternoon by the pool.”

  “This probably sounds weird,” Gwen told them, “but other than the fall and banging my head, I really enjoyed everything today. In some ways, it’s the best day I’ve had in years.”

  Lance gave her an inquisitive look. “We were going crazy looking for you,” he said. “Yvette and I used binoculars to search outside and saw blood in the snow. We thought it might be you, so Stephen, Glen, and I put on snowshoes and trudged out behind the ski shed to the spot where the blood was. It really scared us that it might be you, but it turned out to be a poacher.”

  “A poacher’s arm, anyway,” Stephen corrected. “Looked like he froze to death and then a mountain lion got him.”

  Gwen grimaced. “That’s awful. I’m glad I didn’t know there was a mountain lion out there.”

  Lance couldn’t hide his annoyance when he asked her, “But why did you decide to go? And without telling anybody? You should have told one of us. We were so worried.”

  Gwen didn’t answer right away, so Yvette spoke first. “I told you, Lance, Gwen was probably afraid to stay in the house and just wanted to get away from here.”

  Gwen shook her head. “No, that wasn’t it.” She added mysteriously. “I had my reasons.”

  Suddenly, the sound of several people talking came from the staircase and got louder as they approached the living room.

  No one was prepared for the next moment, except Gwen.

  Sally walked into the room.

  Chapter Forty-six

  Sally’s family stared in stunned silence, as if they were seeing an apparition.

  Lance’s mouth fell open. “Mom?” he cried. “You’re alive…”

  “Sally!” Helga began to weep.

  “Mom? Is it really you?” Stephen exclaimed.

  Sally scanned the room until she saw her daughter. She rushed toward her with open arms. “Gwen! You made it! I’m so proud of you.”

  “Oh, Mom,” Gwen said tearfully, hugging her mother tighter than she ever had. “You’re safe now.”

  Everyone in the family started to move toward Sally, but a police officer immediately stepped forward, took her by the arm, and led her to the other side of the living room away from the group. They all froze in their steps.

  A sandy-haired man in his forties dressed in a dark green ski jacket seemed to be in charge. He wore the tired expression of an overworked public servant, but his alert eyes looked like they didn’t miss much. He introduced himself as lead detective Rory Jackson and announced that all members of the household would be detained in the house until further not
ice.

  “Typically, we would conduct our interrogations at headquarters. But given the situation with the weather, we will stay here. Someone in this room is guilty of both murder and attempted murder, and no one is leaving here until we have completed our investigation.”

  The detective walked over and stood next to Sally. “Mrs. Braddock, we’re going to fly you down to Vail now. Several of our officers will remain here and will be questioning the rest of you and completing our forensic tests on the crime scenes.”

  “But wait!” Lance cried out. “Mom, how—? Gwen told us you were dead.”

  Sally glanced at her daughter. “When Gwen came in Christmas morning to wake me up and wish me Merry Christmas, I told her about the terrible thing that happened to me in the middle of the night. We hatched a little plan.”

  Gwen spoke up. “Mom told me someone came into her room during the night and tried to smother her with a pillow. She couldn’t tell who it was. We realized then that Rachel had been killed by mistake the night before.

  “Mom wanted to ski down the mountain to escape, but her wrist was so badly bruised during the attack that she didn’t think she’d be able to ski. So I decided to go for help. I took her as much food as I could and then locked her in her room so no one could get to her. I told all of you that she was dead.”

  No one spoke as the group absorbed the information. Then Glen said to his wife, “That was quite an acting job. You sure fooled me.”

  Yvette asked the question that was on everyone’s mind. “But how did you survive, Sally? Whoever tried to smother you thought you were dead.”

  Sally gave them a sad smile. “What the killer forgot is that I used to be a synchronized swimmer. One of the hardest parts about that sport is that you have to be able to hold your breath for a really long time. I practiced a lot and got to the point where I could hold my breath longer than anyone else on the team—for over two minutes. When I was being smothered and realized I couldn’t do anything else, I just stopped fighting and pretended I was dead.”

  Sally’s smile faded, and she peered glumly at the group. “I just can’t believe that someone in my family, someone I love, tried to kill me. For the money. For the damned money.”

  She dabbed at her eye with a tissue. “And Rachel. Poor, poor Rachel.”

  Detective Jackson stepped forward. “Mrs. Braddock, it’s time for you to go. You need to have a full examination by medical personnel. A detective at the station will finish taking your statement. And Mrs. Sherman,” he said, directing his attention to Gwen, “we’re going to fly you to the station as well.”

  He peered at Sally’s family across the room. “Everyone else, it’s going to be a long night, so I suggest you get comfortable. You’re not leaving this room unless one of our officers allows you to and accompanies you. Each of you will be interviewed when the time comes.”

  The helicopter pilot and another officer led Sally and Gwen out of the room for the flight to Vail. Sally heard the detective instructing the pilot about which crime scene personnel to bring back with him on the return flight.

  “After you drop them off up here,” he said, “you’ll transport the body of Rachel Braddock to the coroner’s office.”

  Chapter Forty-seven

  Sally and Gwen climbed into the helicopter and strapped themselves into their seats. After a couple of moments, they were in the air. Sally hadn’t been in a helicopter in nearly a decade, and it brought back happier memories of ski trips she’d taken with her husband.

  The sun had gone down, but the moon was almost full, so they gazed out at the lighted silhouettes of the mountain peaks below. Sally reached out and took her daughter’s hand.

  “You were so brave, Gwen. That trip down the mountain couldn’t have been easy in this weather. And it had been so long since you skied. I’m so proud of you.”

  Gwen squeezed her mother’s hand. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, Mom, but also one of the most exhilarating. I loved skiing down that mountain. You know me. I got going too fast and when I went around a curve, I hit a fallen limb and went flying. I don’t know how long I was out.”

  “That bump on your head looks like it must have hurt, poor thing.”

  Gwen automatically reached up and touched her forehead. “The EMT in Vail checked me out. He thinks I may have had a small concussion, but I’ll be fine.”

  Gwen recounted to her mother the story of the ATV trip with the teenage boys and catching the ride into Vail in the Coors truck.

  “You had quite an adventure!” Sally said. “I’m just sorry you had to go through all of that for me.”

  “Don’t be sorry, Mom,” Gwen said, turning toward her mother in the darkness. “I know I don’t always show it, but you know how much I love you and that I’d do anything for you.”

  Sally reached over and hugged her daughter. “Well, you certainly proved that today, Gwen. You really came through for me. I never would have agreed with your going if I hadn’t believed you could do it. I knew you had it in you.”

  Gwen leaned her head on her mother’s shoulder.

  “You know what surprises me most, Mom? I really enjoyed today. Other than hurting my head, I think it’s one of the best days I’ve ever had. It was so challenging. I really feel like I accomplished something important. That’s so satisfying.”

  “You did accomplish something very important, Gwen. You probably saved my life—and maybe others too. You are definitely my hero.”

  “Me? You’re the hero. I can’t believe the ordeal you survived.”

  Sally glanced out the window, a stoic expression on her face. “I guess I am fortunate that whoever tried to kill me chose the one way that I could do something about. I got lucky—if you can call it luck to have one of the people you’re closest to in the world try to murder you on Christmas Day. It doesn’t get much worse than that.”

  Gwen rubbed her mother’s arm gently. “Mom, let’s not think about that now. You’re safe, and that’s all that matters. Let’s just be thankful for that. We should be celebrating. Remember what you always told me, Mom? Count your blessings.”

  A small smile crept onto Sally’s lips and she nodded thoughtfully. “You’re right, Gwen. I am definitely counting my blessings tonight. We should celebrate. Maybe we can talk the police into letting us get some dinner when we get there.”

  “You must be hungry,” Gwen said. “I brought you as much food as I could, but it wasn’t much. Did you have enough?”

  “I was rationing it, so I still had quite a bit left. I knew if you had problems getting down the mountain, it could be days. But the muffins and bananas were great. The hard part was being really quiet when I ate.”

  “What did you do all day?”

  “I stayed in bed and tried to sleep. I didn’t want to get out of bed and take the chance of someone hearing my footsteps or a floor board squeaking. But one time, someone rattled the door and tried to get in. That scared me.”

  “That is scary! Thank goodness they couldn’t get in.”

  Sally sat back and watched the moonlight glimmer off the mountain peaks. She suddenly felt so happy just to be alive to enjoy the gorgeous scene.

  “I’m starving!” her daughter said, breaking her reverie.

  “I’ll bet you are after the day you had.”

  “All I ate all day was some beef jerky and a cup of hot chocolate.”

  “You? Beef jerky? I can’t imagine that.”

  Gwen laughed. “I know. There were so many times today when I’d think, ‘If my bridge club could see me now!’ But at the same time, it made me feel really good that I wasn’t back in Palm Beach with my friends. I felt more like me today, and it felt really good.”

  Sally and Gwen held hands as the lights of Vail began to appear out the window. In a matter of minutes, the helicopter lande
d at police headquarters.

  Chapter Forty-eight

  The mountaintop house was swarming with police. The helicopter made two more trips carrying crime scene technicians and more uniformed officers who began a full-scale search of the house. Sally’s family members sat quietly on the couch, bewildered and barely talking, as they watched all the activity around them.

  Crime technicians carrying large cases full of equipment scurried to the bedroom upstairs where the attack on Sally took place, as well as to the master suite where Rachel died. Uniformed police seemed to be searching every inch of the house. A hush fell over the living room as a black body bag containing Rachel’s body was carried on a stretcher through the foyer to the awaiting helicopter. Sitting on the edge of the couch, Stephen covered his eyes with his hands. He asked the detective if he could accompany the body to the coroner’s office but was promptly turned down.

  “That’s not right,” Lance complained. “Stephen should be able to go with his wife.”

  Lance’s frown deepened when he walked to the door of the foyer and saw three police officers walking down the upstairs hallway toward his bedroom. He immediately approached Detective Jackson.

  “Detective, I understand that you have your job to do and that searching the house is an important part of your investigation. I would just like to ask that your officers be careful with the contents of my room. I have several valuable collections in there that must not be damaged.”

  The detective studied Lance for several moments. Finally, he answered him with a frown. “I assure you, Mr. Braddock, that our officers are always under instructions to disturb as little as possible in their search. But search they will. This is a murder investigation, sir.”

  “Oh, yes, yes, of course, I understand that,” Lance responded quickly, “and there is no one more concerned than I that the guilty party be captured. I just want care taken with my valuables.”