“It’s going around the village,” I lied.
“The last I heard, Sara had dropped it.” Vienna kept her voice low. She restocked the cleaning cart as she continued, filling it with hand soap wrapped in monogrammed tissue paper, travel-sized bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and hand lotion, and individual grooming kits. “It’s weird, because a few weeks ago she had been talking about it twenty-four/seven. She asked for my help to talk to some of the other younger members of the housekeeping staff. She told me to keep it a secret. That’s why I didn’t say anything to you about it earlier. She said that if Jay caught wind that we were banding together to sue, we would lose our shot. She was secretly filming him, you know.”
“Wow, really?” I pretended this was news to me.
Vienna stepped farther into the supply closet. She hung her feather duster on a hook before continuing. “She told me to try to get him to make a move. She wanted me to be around him as much as possible so that she could catch him in the act. She wanted to trap him and record it.”
“Then what happened?”
“I don’t know. It was so weird. All of a sudden, she told me the lawsuit was off the table. That we couldn’t win. That we didn’t have a case. She told me that she would watch my back and keep an eye on me. She said not to worry about Jay. She would take care of him, but that we weren’t going to be able to sue him. I was bummed out. I thought we had a good shot. He was—is—constantly crossing the line.” She tugged on her ruffled green skirt, as if she half expected him to swoop in and try to grab her ass again.
I glanced to the courtyard to make sure he hadn’t snuck up on us. There was no sign of Jay, only Officer Downs, who stood near the garden gate. He reminded me of one of the queen’s soldiers with his straight spine and severe stare. “Did she say why she didn’t think you could win?”
“No. That’s the weirdest part. She was convinced. It was her idea to put together the suit. She’d been talking with lawyers, HR, other hotel management people, and then suddenly it was done.” Vienna snapped. “Poof. Over. She refused to talk about it and then she was killed. To tell you the truth, the whole thing creeps me out. I’ve been wondering if Jay found out. Maybe he threatened her and that’s why she dropped it? Do you think he could have killed her?”
I didn’t answer right away.
“If Jay wanted to put a stop to the lawsuit, that was a way to make it happen, right? I keep wondering if he threatened her and that’s why she had such a quick change of heart. It makes sense, doesn’t it?” She took off her apron, making sure to grab her earbuds from the front pocket. Then she tossed it in a hamper and locked the supply closet.
Vienna raised a good point. But then again, I wondered why she hadn’t mentioned anything about a potential lawsuit or Sara secretly filming Jay earlier, especially when I had told her how important it was for her to share her harassment experiences with Chief Meyers.
“She was acting really weird for a few days before she died,” Vienna continued.
“Weird how?”
“I don’t know how to explain it exactly—skittish, I guess. She was on edge. I thought she was stressed about getting everything ready for Maifest, but what if I was wrong? What if Jay had threatened to kill her? She kept looking over her shoulder, she was short with staff, she was super jumpy. I just wonder if there was more to it. If Jay threatened her after she brought the lawsuit forward, it would explain her behavior.” Vienna’s face turned ashen at the thought.
“That’s definitely a possibility,” I agreed. “Have you shared this with Chief Meyers?”
“She knows about the lawsuit.” Vienna didn’t expand. Instead she checked the handle to make sure the supply closet was locked and started to move toward the lobby. “I need to go clock out. I’ve worked a fourteen-hour day, and I’m wiped out. I just want to go home and binge Netflix.”
“Sure. Thanks for your input. It’s been very helpful.” I smiled.
“You don’t happen to have any jobs open at the brewery or know of anyone else in town hiring, do you?” Her eyes drifted toward the lobby. “I don’t want to hang around with Jay much longer, especially now that Sara is dead. I don’t trust him.”
“We’re not hiring at Nitro, but Der Keller is always looking for help. I’ll see what I can do, okay?”
“Cool. Thanks.” She walked along the paved pathway. I followed after her, aware of Officer Downs’s steely eyes watching my every move.
“Vienna, before you go, can I ask you one more thing?”
“Go ahead.” She folded her arms across her chest.
“It’s about Marianne, the guest staying here. Did you notice anything unusual about her?”
Vienna nodded and flared out one nostril. “Uh, yeah. Where do you want me to start? She’s super eccentric and pretty kooky, if you ask me. I caught her sneaking around the garden and hiding behind the vending machines more than once. She creeped me and the rest of the housekeeping staff out. Every time I’d turn a corner, she’d be lurking there, like she was spying on me or something. It was super weird.”
“Did you happen to confront her about that?”
“It’s not up to me to decide what guests do or don’t do. Jay has strict rules about allowing guests the run of the place. They’re not supposed to go in areas like this.” She pointed to the supplies. “Or the kitchen, but otherwise they’re free to go wherever they want, even if that means hiding behind the ice machine.”
Vienna sounded truthful, but what about the argument? I pressed her. “Did you and Marianne fight?”
“Fight? No. Why? I didn’t even know her.”
“I had heard that there was an argument between you and her earlier. It could be important. I’m not sure if you’ve been in the gossip loop, but the police are looking for her.”
“A fight? Me?” Vienna scrunched her face. “Are you sure you heard that right?”
“Yeah, that’s what I was told. I don’t care if you had a disagreement with her. That’s your business. It’s more about what you may have seen. She’s in some serious trouble.”
“I didn’t see anything. What I told you. She’s been sneaking around the entire weekend, like she’s Sherlock Holmes or something, but I didn’t have an argument with her. Whoever told you that is wrong.”
“Okay.” I dropped it and left her to clock out. The pink sunset had given way to a deep purple sky with a touch of haziness, much like our New England–style IPAs. Vienna’s revelation left me stumped. There were two possibilities. Jay was telling the truth and had worked out a deal with Sara to stop her from pursuing legal action. Or Vienna was correct in her suspicion that Jay had threatened Sara. Had Sara refused to drop the suit? Maybe she told Vienna that to throw Jay off her trail, when in reality she intended to go through with it. If that was the case, then Jay definitely had a strong motive to kill her.
The bigger question was how did Marianne work into the situation? Vienna had been adamant that they hadn’t been fighting. In fact she made it sound like they had very little interaction. Could she be lying? She seemed young and naive. So much so that I was considering brainstorming possible employment options with Garrett. She was in a bad situation at Hotel Vierter Stock with a boss who had no business exploiting her. Nitro was continuing to expand. Maybe we could hire her to clean the guest rooms and help with breakfast. That would free Kat for more marketing work, among other things, but I wasn’t about to pursue that angle until I had a solid sense of whether Vienna was as innocent as she appeared. There was another possibility that I couldn’t rule out, which was that Vienna could have killed Sara. The fact remained that Sara had threatened to fire Vienna. That was a very substantial motive for murder.
It felt like I was so close to figuring out who had killed Sara and at the same time miles away from any solution. My mind kept returning to Marianne. Had she been truthful since the beginning? What if she was right that Sara had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time? Could Marianne have been the intended target?
But then why would she have kidnapped Alex?
Nothing made sense.
More people than normal for a Sunday evening were out and about on the sidewalks and at outdoor cafés. The roadblock had kept the vast majority of tourists in town for another night. The mood was more subdued than last night. I wasn’t sure if it was due to the added police presence and the buzz of a continued search, or if tourists had imbibed late into the night at the Festhalle and were slightly hungover. Either way, it was good see my fellow business owners taking in extra cash.
Every table was taken at Der Keller’s patio, and a line snaked down Front Street. Shopkeepers had extended their hours, propping open their front doors and beckoning tourists with sidewalk sales and special pretzel and mustard tastings.
I took the back route to Nitro, passing the art gallery where ceramic pottery and watercolor paintings of the Enchantments and Blackbird Island were on display. Officer Downs’s heavy footsteps thudded behind me. His radio crackled every now and again, reminding me not only of his constant watchful eye but that an investigation to find Marianne and Forest was still going strong.
I wondered if Chief Meyers had made any headway in tracking them down. Was Marianne working with Forest, or was she in danger? Both seemed completely plausible. What didn’t make sense was kidnapping Alex. If she had really wanted to harm him, she had had the opportunity.
Did she actually think she was protecting him? Or was my initial read on her correct—that she was in desperate need of mental health help?
I couldn’t stop the questions and theories from cycling through my brain. I tried to push the thoughts away, but they kept returning, especially because I was acutely aware of Officer Downs breathing on the back of my neck.
I probably should have been concentrating on my own footing and where I was going, because as I rounded the corner toward Nitro, a hand reached out from the alleyway and grabbed me.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
THE HAND CLAMPED OVER my mouth as I tried to scream and break free. Adrenaline pulsed through my body. I struggled, trying to fight my way out from the forceful arms holding me. Where was Officer Downs? I thought he had been right behind me.
My assailant yanked my ponytail, dragging me farther away from the sidewalk.
Where was my police protection? How had Downs lost me?
I tried to wiggle free.
My muffled screams went unanswered.
The next thing I knew, my body was being slammed against the brick wall. Pain seared through my back and hips.
“I didn’t want to have to do this,” a vaguely familiar man’s voice shouted. “You should have stayed out of it.”
He released his grip on my head and mouth and clasped my wrists so tightly I thought they might snap from the pressure. I fought to turn around to face whoever had me in a neck lock.
“Bozeman?” I blinked hard. “What are you doing? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You know. Don’t pretend like you don’t.” He kept my wrists glued to the wall above my head with one hand. With the other, he yanked a large hunting knife from his pocket. “You scream, and I slit your throat. Got it?”
I nodded. “I’m not going to scream, but I swear I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I just saw you at the hotel, talking to Jay. Talking to Vienna. You’ve been asking questions all weekend. Too many questions.” I could smell stale alcohol on his breath. Was he drunk?
“No, no. You don’t understand. It doesn’t have anything to do with you.” I tried to reason with him. “I’ve been asking about Marianne. Like I told you earlier, she took my son. I’m trying to find her, that’s all.”
A brief look of remorse flashed on his face, but it quickly disappeared. “No, I heard you asking about Sara, too. I know that you’re working with the police.”
“I am. To find Marianne,” I insisted. The alleyway hit a dead end about twenty yards down from us. I could see the brick exterior of the building that housed the Nutcracker Shoppe on the first floor and a tapas bar upstairs. Trying to break free and running that way would get me nowhere. My only choice was to wrangle out of his clutches and make a break for the street. There were dozens of police officers patrolling the village, not to mention Officer Downs, who had been my shadow. How had no one seen Bozeman drag me into the alley? For the last two days, I had had constant protection, and now that I was actually in danger, they were nowhere to be found.
“She wasn’t supposed to die,” Bozeman spit out. “It was an accident. She wasn’t supposed to be in the room. What was she doing there?”
It didn’t sound like he wanted an answer.
“She shouldn’t have been in there. I blame Jay. I think she caught him again and ducked into the guest room to try to get a photo. She’d been doing that, you know? Taking covert photos of Jay harassing the women on staff.” His nails dug into my wrists.
“Yeah, I heard.” I bit my bottom lip, trying not to let him see that I was in pain. I had to stay in control.
“The room was supposed to be empty. I only took things from empty rooms.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself, not me. “It wasn’t a big deal. Nothing major. A few hundred bucks here and there. You don’t know how hard it is to earn a living in a town like this. These rich tourists come in, and they don’t even have any idea how much cash they have in their wallets. They aren’t going to miss a couple hundred bucks.”
So Bozeman had been responsible for the guest room thefts. I wondered if he had stolen Marianne’s files, too. And had he just broken into Eleanor’s room? That was brazen, given how many police officers were patrolling the hotel.
“The room should have been empty,” he repeated. His face blotched with color. His body swayed. I was sure he was drunk. The smell of alcohol permeated the alley and made me sick to my stomach.
I tried to formulate an escape. He had me pinned to the wall. My arms were getting tired from being over my head, and my wrists burned with pain. If I got out of this alive I would have some nasty bruises and cuts. A trickle of blood dripped down my right hand. Bozeman’s nails had cut through my skin. I guessed that I could get out of his clutches with a knee to the groin. The only issue was the hunting knife.
How quickly could I make my break?
And where the hell was Officer Downs?
“I didn’t mean to do it. You have to believe me. It was an accident. I went into the room. It was dark, and she startled me. I grabbed the first thing I could find—a lamp—and hit her. I guess I hit her too hard. I didn’t mean to kill her. I’m not a monster. I just reacted too fast. That’s all. Mom always said I didn’t know my own strength.” His voice broke.
“Bozeman, you need to tell the police. If you explain your side of the story, Chief Meyers may be able to offer you some leniency.” Maybe if I could reason with him, I could get out of this.
“No way. I’ll still go to jail.” He shifted his body weight and squeezed my wrists harder.
I winced. “Probably, but this is going to make it worse. As of now, you can confess to accidentally killing Sara. But killing me is going to be premeditated. Any chance of working a deal will be gone.”
His cheeks were drawn. The blotchiness spread to his thick neck.
“What’s your endgame here, Bozeman?” I asked, catching a glimpse of a flashlight on the sidewalk. “There are police officers throughout the village. You’re not going to get away with this, and you’re going to make things much, much worse for yourself. Let’s go find Chief Meyers together.”
“Why would you do that?”
Was it my imagination, or were those flashlights coming toward us?
I had to keep him calm. “Because that’s what we do for each other in Leavenworth. I can’t promise that everything’s going to be fine, but I can tell you that your chances of not spending the rest of your life in prison will be greatly improved if we go find the chief now.”
I could tell that
he was shifting. He looked younger, like Alex or the twins.
“Chief Meyers is going to arrest me.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “And won’t that be a relief? You won’t have to hold on to this any longer. You can work toward forgiveness. Forgiveness for yourself and forgiveness from Sara’s family.”
He dropped the knife and released my hands. “It was an accident.”
“I know.”
He crumpled on the pavement and broke down. “I didn’t mean to kill her. I can’t believe she’s dead. It was just a couple hundred bucks. A couple hundred bucks.”
I placed my hand on his shoulder.
He sobbed.
Everything happened in a blur. Light blinded me as Officer Downs and a troop of police rushed toward us.
“Hands in the air! Hands in the air!” Officer Downs shouted. His gun was drawn and pointed at Bozeman.
“Don’t shoot him!” I yelled in reply, removing my hand from Bozeman’s shoulder. There was no danger of him hurting me. He was hurting. I didn’t condone what he had done, but I did believe him that he hadn’t intended to kill Sara.
Downs kept his gun targeted at Bozeman while the other officers surrounded him and within seconds had him handcuffed and on his feet.
“You okay, Mrs. Krause?” Downs returned his gun to his holster and shined his flashlight in my face.
I shielded my eyes from the light. “I’m fine.”
“Let’s go,” Downs commanded. He directed the officers to remove Bozeman, and then took my arm.
As we departed the alley, I felt a sense of relief that one of the mysteries looming over the village had been solved. Bozeman had killed Sara. Not because of a lawsuit or anything to do with Marianne or Forest, but because she’d been in the room when he had snuck in to steal Marianne’s cash.
What a shame.
An innocent woman had been killed over a petty theft.
Bozeman was a big guy. It didn’t surprise me that he had overpowered Sara and not realized how hard he had hit her.
His admission cleared Marianne. She hadn’t been involved with the housekeeper’s death. Could that mean she was the one in real danger now?
The Cure For What Ales You Page 20