Dilys had lied about knowing Phil. She might well have held back other information in an effort to protect herself. Sherry really needed to talk to her.
“At least we don’t have to worry about her leaving the hotel,” Dan said.
They all looked out the window. Sleet battered the glass. The second storm had blown in as predicted and showed no sign of letting up any time soon.
They started with the basement—storerooms, the break room and locker room, the health center, and the room that contained an indoor pool. Most of the doors were locked and they had to use the passkeys Joe Ruskin provided to open them. Dilys had a passkey, too, Sherri reminded herself. She could be anywhere.
“It’s too cold to spend much time down here.” Liss shivered in spite of the warm sweater she’d brought from home. Sherri had on her uniform jacket to ward off the chill.
“But this is where Phil was killed,” Dan said, joining them. The rest of the search party was right behind him. Over by the crime scene tape, Simon the bartender watched them, curious to know what they were up to, but too far away to overhear what they were saying.
“Why was Phil down here?” Margaret asked.
“To meet somebody?” Liss suggested.
“Why would he agree to meet anyone, particularly Dilys, in the basement?” Sherri wondered aloud. “I could see it if it were Phineas, but—”
“No, that won’t wash, either. They all had rooms. There’s no good reason for any guest to be down here. Not Phil. Not Phineas. Not even Dilys. Certainly not Eunice.”
Sherri sent a quelling look Liss’s way. “Who besides you heard Phil say that he was going to check out the pool?”
Liss’s brow knit as she tried to remember. “It was after Will MacHenry scurried off, so only Russ and Tory were still with me.”
“Will had gone? You’re certain?”
“Yes, I’m sure of it. And anyway, we all knew by then that it was Phil, not Phineas.”
“But Phineas thinks Will MacHenry is the killer,” Sherri confided. “He came right out and told me that I’d let a murderer escape when I allowed Will to accompany his father to the hospital.”
Dan weighed in. “Taking a swing at someone because he upset your elderly, ailing father is a far cry from killing him for it.”
“It would make more sense if Phil had been murdered by mistake for Phineas after Harvey MacHenry collapsed,” Pete said. “But he wasn’t.”
Margaret cleared her throat. “I hate to speak ill of anyone, but Will has had his…problems in the past.”
Once again, they all turned to look at her.
“What kind of problems?” Sherri wasn’t sure she wanted to know. She had too many suspects already.
“Oh, you know—brawling, drunk driving, resisting arrest. The usual kind of thing a young man with too much money and not enough sense will do. But all that was ages ago. He hasn’t been in a bit of trouble since that time he spent six months in the county jail.”
“Exactly how long ago are we talking about?” Sherri asked.
“Oh, let me see. It must be a good twenty years by now. The whole experience was probably good for him. What do they call it—scared straight?”
Sherri wondered if Phineas knew about that incident. She decided he did not. Otherwise it would have been featured in his before-supper speech.
Back on the main floor of the hotel, they opted to search in the west wing first: the lounge that overlooked the pool, the music room, the library, the game room, the gift shop, and the business center, where computers and printers—none of them working at the moment—were available to guests. On the other side of the lobby, in the east wing, they searched the offices, the restrooms, the restaurant, and the kitchen. No one they encountered had seen either Dilys or Phineas.
The mezzanine contained function rooms, including the small, private dining room that had been used for the Burns Night Supper, and a ballroom. It was eerily quiet on that level. No one had any reason to be there. The search went quickly and turned up nothing.
“How many guest rooms?” Sherri asked as they reconvened at the stairwell next to the elevators and headed up to the next level en masse. Without power, using the stairs was their only option. Lanterns and flashlights still provided the only illumination.
“One hundred and forty,” Dan said.
“That many?” Sherri repressed a groan. This was impossible. It would take forever to go through all the rooms, and for what? She had no proof of any wrongdoing. Besides, what was to say that their quarry wouldn’t go down another flight of stairs while they were climbing up this one?
“It’s not so bad,” Dan said. “We’re not using the rooms in either wing. Those sections are closed off from the rest of the hotel on the second and third floors to save on heat.”
“What about the tower rooms?” One at each corner contained a fourth-floor suite, and there were fourth and fifth-floor suites in the tower at the center of the hotel.
“Two of the corner towers are closed off, too. So we have fifty-six fewer rooms to search—only eighty-four doors to knock on.”
But Liss didn’t buy the math. “A killer isn’t likely to obey a KEEP OUT sign.”
“Suspect,” Sherri corrected her. She glanced at Dan. “Exactly how are those sections closed off?”
“Wooden pocket doors. Locked.”
“But they can be opened with a passkey, right? And Dilys is on the housekeeping staff, so she has a passkey. We’ll have to take a look at the rooms in those wings, too, if we don’t find Dilys and Phineas elsewhere first.” Sherri decided to leave them till last, though. If there was no heat in those areas, no one with any sense would try to hole up there.
Determined to be organized and thorough, even though she still wasn’t convinced that Liss’s theory was correct, Sherri checked to make sure that each of her searchers had a walkie-talkie before she gave them their assignments. “Margaret, I want you watching the stairwell at the east end. Joe, you take the west stairs. The rest of us will go door-to-door. If someone answers a knock, ask to come in. If no one’s there, go in with a passkey. Don’t forget to look in the bathrooms and closets of empty rooms.”
“What about under the bed?” Liss asked.
Sherri wondered if that was sarcasm. She decided it was not. Liss was a straightforward person and rarely managed to be subtle.
The hunt continued to be time-consuming and frustrating. A few people were in their rooms, but most were empty. Nowhere did anyone spot any sign of Dilys or Phineas, and no one they encountered recalled seeing either of them since well before lunch. The searchers moved on to the third floor.
Liss rapped on the door of Eunice MacMillan’s suite. She knew that Sherri had not abandoned her theory that Eunice had killed her husband, and she certainly hadn’t exonerated the woman of complicity in Phil’s scheme to defraud his insurance company. If Eunice wasn’t in, Liss decided, maybe she would take the opportunity to search the premises. After all, she had Joe Ruskin’s permission to enter any room in the hotel. She hardly needed Eunice’s okay, let alone a search warrant. At least she didn’t think she needed one. Sherri probably knew exactly what constituted illegal search and seizure. She wouldn’t approve of Liss’s plan. Then again, she didn’t have to know about it, not unless Liss found something. She was just about to stick her passkey in the lock when Eunice opened the door.
“Oh, it’s you,” Eunice said in voice icier than the storm outside. “What do you want?”
“I’d like to come in, Ms. MacMillan.”
“Why?”
“I have a few questions for you about Dilys Marcotte.”
Eunice jumped back as if she’d stuck her hand in a electrical socket. Her voice rose to a shriek. “Dilys Marcotte? What the hell does that little tramp have to do with anything! That conniving gold digger is long gone.”
“I’m afraid that’s not quite true,” Liss said. “Do you want to discuss this in the hall?”
Reluctantly, Eunice waved her in
side. The blanket abandoned on the sofa told Liss that Eunice had been huddling under it for warmth. Reluctant to go back downstairs where Sherri could get at her? Since she’d told Sherri that she wouldn’t answer any more questions until she’d consulted a lawyer, that seemed a logical conclusion.
Without waiting for an invitation, Liss plunked herself down in a comfortable armchair and waited for Eunice to sit. Instead, the other woman scooped up the blanket and flung it around her shoulders.
“What’s this nonsense about Dilys Marcotte?” she demanded.
“Dilys works at the hotel.”
Eunice’s expression was one of disbelief. “Surely not. I’d have recognized her.”
“Her appearance has changed in the last few years and she’s been careful to keep a low profile.” How much more, Liss wondered, should she tell Eunice? It had to be enough to provoke her into talking. Suddenly inspiration struck. “Dilys may have been the one who entered your suite while you were meeting with me before the Burns Night Supper.”
A fascinating sequence of emotions played across Eunice’s features, but chief among them was confusion. She’d lied about the brooch being stolen. Had she also made up the story about someone searching the suite?
“I’m told,” Liss said, repeating what she’d learned from Rhonda, “that it was your husband who caused Phineas to break his engagement to Dilys.”
Eunice tugged the blanket more tightly closed and settled herself on the sofa with her legs curled beneath her. “Dilys Marcotte,” she said, “was only after the trust fund.”
“Go on.”
“There’s not much to tell. Phil and Phineas inherited a trust fund from their father. It was split evenly between the two of them, and the principal was sufficient to allow both of them to live comfortably on the interest. However, the way it was set up, there was a big payout when each of them married. That, of course, reduced the principal. Phil and I benefitted from that provision. Phin’s engagement meant he’d get his share, after which the interest on what was left would be much less.” She shrugged. “Phil didn’t want to take a cut in pay, so to speak, so he started rumors about Dilys. Attacks on her moral character. Her associates. You know the sort of thing.”
“Lies?”
“I don’t know if the stories were true or not, and I don’t care. Phil came up with some photographs—Dilys leaving a motel room with another man. He said he’d hired a private detective to follow her. Whatever the truth of the matter, Phineas believed Phil’s story, and the pictures. That was all that counted. In fact, Phil’s plan worked even better than he’d hoped. After that, Phineas stopped trusting anyone and he vowed never to marry, which suited Phil very well.”
A shrink would have a field day with this family, Liss thought, and even a layperson like herself could see that Phineas had probably been taking out his bitterness on innocent bystanders in that speech at the Burns Night Supper.
“What happens to the trust fund now that Phil’s dead?” she asked.
“I inherit Phil’s share,” Eunice admitted.
Sherri would like that—more motive for Eunice. Time to leave, Liss decided. She thanked Eunice for her time and headed out, intending to go straight to Sherri. Perhaps her friend had picked the right suspect, after all. That trust fund gave Eunice an excellent reason to kill her husband.
Sherri had just come out of one of the rooms on the third floor when she recognized the man walking toward her. It was Phineas MacMillan. Surprise had her going completely blank for a moment. He seemed even more startled to see her.
“Ah, were you looking for your sister-in-law?” Sherri asked when she could string words together coherently. Eunice’s suite was just a few doors down. Liss was just leaving it.
“Oh, er…yes.” He didn’t sound very certain.
Liss saw them, recognized Phineas, and for once contained her impatience when Sherri sent her a warning look. She gave a little wave, then headed in the other direction, but she went no farther than the stairwell, where Margaret Boyd was standing guard.
Sherri pulled herself together and ignored the two women. “Could I talk to you a minute, Mr. MacMillan?”
He flashed her a bright, toothy smile at odds with his usual surly manner. “Certainly. How can I help you, Officer?”
She led him to the elevator foyer, furnished with two chairs nobody ever seemed to sit in and a table topped with a vase of artificial flowers. Liss and Margaret hadn’t moved. They stood by the exit, eyes glued on Sherri and Phineas. Sherri made a little shooing motion behind Phineas’s back, hoping they’d take the hint and make themselves scarce. Liss and her aunt obligingly strode off down the hall, heading away from the elevators. But they stayed in sight.
Once Phineas was seated, Sherri didn’t beat around the bush. “I’m relieved to see you safe and sound, Mr. MacMillan. I take it you didn’t find Dilys Marcotte?”
Although the emergency lights along the corridor shed very little light, Sherri thought she saw Phineas tense.
“What are you talking about? I haven’t seen Dilys in years.”
Sherri frowned. Richardson Bruce had told Phineas that she, Sherri, was looking for him. Hadn’t he also said that he’d told Phineas she was also looking for Dilys? Yes, she was sure of it. Bruce had said Phineas had been “some startled” by this news. And that was when he’d taken off, presumably to hunt for Dilys.
“Where have you been for the last couple of hours?” she asked.
“Wandering. Exploring this lovely old hotel.”
Just like his brother, Sherri thought. And look what had happened to Phil! “And you didn’t run into Dilys?”
“Do you mean to tell me that Dilys Marcotte is in this hotel?”
“No one told you she was here?”
“I should think I’d made that obvious. No, no one told me. And to tell you the truth, I’m having difficulty believing it. How could she be here without my noticing her? There aren’t that many of us here, you know.”
“She works at The Spruces, Mr. MacMillan. As a housekeeper. She was also one of the waitstaff at the cocktail party before the Burns Night Supper.”
He shook his head in denial. “I can’t believe this. Where is she? I—”
Sherri stopped him from rising by catching the sleeve of his sweater. “There’s something you’d better know before you go looking for her. It’s possible that Dilys is the one who killed your brother.”
“Nonsense!” But he appeared shaken by the suggestion. He made no further effort to leave.
“At the moment, we don’t know where she is. That being the case, it might be a good idea if you stayed close to other people.”
She didn’t need to say that he might be Dilys’s next target. He got the message. Uncharacteristically meek, he agreed. “I’ll go back down to the lobby. Or to the lounge,” he amended, making a weak attempt at humor. “I believe I could use a drink.”
Sherri walked him to the stairwell. MacMillan descended the first few steps, then turned back, frowning.
“Officer Willett, you say you don’t know where Dilys is now?”
“That’s right. We’ve been looking for her, but she’s staying out of sight. She could be anywhere in the hotel.”
“Or out of it. I know this sounds mad, given the current weather conditions, but I could have sworn I saw someone setting out across the back lawn on snowshoes not twenty minutes ago.”
Sherri watched Phineas until he was out of sight at the bend in the stair before she pulled out her walkie-talkie and ordered everyone back to the conference room.
When they’d exchanged information and Liss had taken her scolding for talking to Eunice on her own, she voiced an objection to Sherri’s report. “I don’t buy that idea that Dilys took off cross-country. It’s sleeting outside! In fact, I’m not sure I believe anything Phineas MacMillan said.”
“If Dilys did leave, there’s no way we can go after her,” Dan said, “but I don’t think we should jump to conclusions, either. We should fini
sh searching the hotel.”
“I think I know where she is,” Margaret said. Liss’s aunt was just full of surprises today. “After Sherri and Mr. MacMillan settled in for their little tête-à-tête by the elevators, I took a stroll down to the east end of the hall. I thought something looked a bit odd about the pocket doors, so I checked. They weren’t just unlocked, they were open by a good inch.”
Liss wondered how she’d missed that. Probably, she decided, because she’d been brooding about Eunice, thinking that, after all, she probably was a better suspect than Dilys Marcotte.
They reconvened in a truncated section of hallway blocked by the wooden barrier of the pocket doors. The doors themselves were swallowed by shadows. At first even the beam of Sherri’s powerful flashlight failed to provide enough illumination to tell if they were tightly closed or not. Liss had to advance all the way down the short corridor before she spotted the gap.
Sherri reached for the knobs on either side and gave a start of surprise when the doors slid apart at her merest touch. “If Dilys used her passkey to open these doors, she may have been in the east wing all along.”
“Hiding out?” Liss asked.
“Could be. Although, if that’s so, I’m surprised she didn’t take the precaution of locking up again after herself.”
“And what is she hiding from?” Margaret asked. “She has no reason to think you suspect her of anything, does she?”
“Maybe she overheard Richardson Bruce tell Phineas that I was looking for them both.” Sherri peered into the icy darkness of the closed-up wing.
Liss ran through the hotel’s floor plan in her mind. The kitchen and one section of the restaurant were on the first floor in this wing. She’d been in both rooms and didn’t remember seeing any stairs. If Dilys was in this part of the building, she was cornered. All they had to do was flush her out.
“We need more light,” Sherri said.
While they’d been searching, the sun had set. That happened far too early at that time of year. It wasn’t even five o’clock yet.
“And I need my coat.” Liss shivered in her woolly sweater. “It’s almost as cold in there as it is outdoors.”
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