2 Murder in the Winter

by Steve Demaree

  “That will be all, Mr. McArthur. But please don’t leave the inn.”

  “I wouldn’t think of it. How do you think we did?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Well, I think you did great. Sounded like a real cop. And that guy who fell over in his food was so good, if I hadn’t known everyone here was an actor, I would’ve thought he was really dead.”

  “Mr. McArthur, I don’t know what in the world you’re talking about.”

  “I assume this little charade had something to do with tryouts for Longworth’s next play. See, as you know, I came in late, so I didn’t have time to find out what my lines were.”

  “Mr. McArthur, let me assure you that I’m no actor. I’m Lt. Dekker of the Hilldale Police Department, and this is Sgt. Murdock. The man who fell over into his dessert is quite dead. He may or may not be an actor, but, believe me, he wasn’t acting.”

  “You’re not kidding, are you?”

  “I’m as serious as I can be.”

  With that revelation McArthur turned quite pale.

  When he regained his composure, I dismissed him and told him to return to his room.

  I looked at Lou and shook my head.

  “What’s with that guy?”

  “Well, he’s an actor. Maybe he thought all of us were acting, or maybe he’s playing his part of the murderer quite well.”

  I wanted to question the other guests. We were down to Arthur Plankton and Isabel Dukenfield. I sent Lou to get Plankton.

  +++

  I sat in my chair wondering what was taking Lou so long to return with the next suspect. I was about ready to send out a search party when my grim-faced partner returned.

  He was out of breath, so I spoke first.

  “So, where’s Plankton?”

  He braced his hands against the table, wheezed a little longer, then responded.

  “Beats me. I knocked on his door, but he didn’t answer. When he didn’t respond to my second knock, I located Longworth, who reluctantly gave me a key. I motioned for Longworth to stay put and climbed the stairs to search for our missing man. He wasn’t in his room. I checked everywhere, including the shower. I found George, and he has organized a search party. We’ve already checked all the exits. There were no footprints outside of any of the doors.”

  I motioned for Lou to sit down while I pondered the situation. Was Plankton our murderer, or our second victim? I knew that eventually we’d find out.

  The sergeant and I talked for a couple of minutes and decided to interrogate Isabel Dukenfield, instead of waiting for Plankton. Lou left to locate her. A few minutes later, he returned, again out of breath, but this time giving me the peace sign. I had never known him to voice an opinion for or against the war, so the peace sign was out of character for him. I waited an eternity for my friend to breathe normally, and then found out the peace sign was no peace sign. He meant our missing person total had grown to two. The little old lady was nowhere to be found.

  “This place is beginning to resemble the Bates Motel. Guests check in, but they don’t check out.”

  “I thought that was the Roach Motel. Anyway, maybe that has something to do with the message I received this morning, ‘Ford Theater and the Bates Motel.’”

  “Does that mean that one of our missing persons can be found in the auditorium and the other one is the guilty party?”

  “Well, neither one of them is in the shower spewing chocolate syrup all over the place, so I guess the auditorium is the next place to look.”

  I caught my partner’s reference to chocolate syrup and wondered how many other people knew that Alfred Hitchcock used chocolate syrup to simulate blood in the shower scene in Psycho. Right then, it didn’t matter. As far as we knew, no one had been stabbed. Nor had our first victim been shot like Lincoln.

  We didn’t know what to think. I wondered if our changing circumstances meant that our case was growing easier, or harder. We were rapidly running out of suspects with no confession in sight.

  6

  As we pondered how to proceed, Lou informed me that George and his men were searching the common areas first. Even with all the seats in the auditorium, it was easier to search the four rooms in the common areas than to search all the empty sleeping rooms. I say four rooms, because there was no need to search the sitting room or the dining room. There were no walls and both were within sight of Officer Davis’s post at the front door.

  A few minutes later someone knocked at the conference room door. I tossed aside any thoughts to the murderer giving himself or herself up, or that one of the two guests we were trying to locate had arrived to make our job easier. Lou opened the door and invited a police officer inside.

  “Lieutenant, we’ve found Plankton. He was in the pool, sir.”

  “Taking a little swim?”

  The officer smiled, nervously.

  “With his clothes on. He’s dead, sir.”

  Lou and I accompanied the officer to the indoor pool and saw the body lying at the bottom. I informed George that Mrs. Dukenfield was also missing, and asked him to disperse his team to look for her. As we spoke, two officers stripped to dive into the pool to retrieve Plankton’s body. Before they finished, I dashed to the phone to call Frank Harris. Upon recognizing my voice, he spoke.

  “Cy, the body just arrived, and they’re preparing it for me now. You didn’t expect anything this soon, did you?”

  “No, I was just curious as to whether or not two autopsies take twice as long as one.”

  “Don’t tell me you found another body.”

  “No, someone else found it. You want to run out here and check it out. This one was found in the pool. With his clothes on.”

  “Okay, I’ll be right out. Of course you realize this’ll hold me up from getting you the autopsy results.”

  “No problem, Frank. I don’t expect anything before morning, anyway. And by the way, one of the other guests is missing. If you take your time I might have a third body for you before you get here.”

  +++

  I questioned Officer Davis. No one had gone up or down the front stairs since he arrived. At least, no one except police officers. From his post at the front door, he couldn’t see whether or not someone left his or her room and escaped down the back hall. If he’d been looking up the stairs, which he admitted he hadn’t done the entire time, it would’ve been impossible for someone to have darted by, hurried down the hall, and walked down the back stairs. But since Officer Davis was more concerned about the front door, and paid little attention to the second floor, someone could’ve retreated via the back stairs. Regardless of whether or not Officer Davis had focused his attention on the stairs, someone could’ve crawled down the corridor and not been seen by him. To his credit, Officer Davis admitted to spending part of his time in a comfortable chair near the front door. He was certain no one had left through that door, but couldn’t confirm anything else.

  Knowing that Frank Harris couldn’t make good time driving the road to Precipice Point on a wintry night, Lou and I caught up with George and some officers in the library.

  No Professor Plum. No candlestick. No Isabel Dukenfield. The room contained an elongated table, long enough to seat twenty people. At one end of the room, we saw computers, something I knew nothing about. Neither Lou nor I had ever used a computer, despite friends and colleagues urging us to do so. Easy chairs stood in three of the four corners of the room. Well, not exactly in the corners. Chairs were far enough removed from the corners that even a well-fed person like me could squeeze behind them without inhaling, in order to peruse the books that lined the mahogany bookcases that surrounded the room. Books were divided into categories. Engraved plates were affixed to eye-level shelves to help someone like me identify the subject of each section of books. There were classics, mysteries, and oversized books resplendent with pictures, but most of the shelves contained the works of great playwrights. Lou hovered near the classics, but there was nothing there for me. Someone had forgotten to incl
ude books containing The Far Side cartoons. After scanning the room and realizing there was no body in the bookcase, and no one hiding under the table, we scratched the library from our list and strolled to the auditorium nearby.

  Once inside the auditorium, we dispersed. Not wanting to tackle the stage or the balcony, I selected two officers to check out those seats. I walked the aisles, looking for hands or feet sticking out from under a seat, or for blood running downhill to the orchestra pit. By the time we’d concluded that no one other than Hilldale’s finest inhabited the auditorium at that moment, I looked at my watch. Lou and I would wait in the sitting room until Frank Harris arrived. No one had mastered the art of sitting quite like the two of us. The others were to continue the search of all downstairs rooms, except for the staff’s quarters. Lou and I would search those rooms provided we hadn’t found the old lady by the time we’d searched all the guest rooms upstairs.

  +++

  We waited for Frank so that we could guide him to the latest victim. At least it was the latest victim of which we were aware. The first murder deprived us of our late night snack, but judging by our evening meal, we weren’t deprived. Just malnourished. But I was prepared for just such an occasion. I had not stashed all of my Hershey Almond bars in my room. I had some in my coat pocket and was about to lower that total by one almond and a miniscule bit of chocolate. I was sure more almonds and chocolate would succumb to my hunger before Frank returned. I looked over at Lou just as he attempted to guzzle another round of M&Ms and laughed when one escaped to the nether reaches of the couch. He thought for a moment, and then decided to leave it for the next person on a treasure hunt. Unless he ran out of candy before Frank arrived. I heard two vehicles pull up before I had polished off my first candy bar. Too bad our medical examiner was so punctual. Evidently he wanted to get to the body before rigor did.

  Lou and I met Frank at the door.

  “Well, Cy, have you and Lou been here waiting patiently ever since you phoned?”

  “You know it, Frank.”

  He laughed.

  “Well, it looks like you were hit by a small piece of chocolate while you waited,” he said as he pointed to the edge of my mouth.

  I looked over and noticed Officer Davis smiling at my expense. I would get even with him later. I turned with a response to Frank’s retort.

  “All this searching wore us out. Lou and I needed something to give us enough strength to go on looking for bodies.”

  “Take your time looking. My wife wants to see me before spring.”

  We were on our way to the pool when George intercepted us. His men had finished the first floor and found a second conference room, but found nobody and no body. He told his men they could rest in the sitting room until Lou and I returned. I had the only passkey that would open each door in the inn, and I didn’t want to ask Longworth for a second key. I wanted to know what cards I held before I encountered him again.

  It was 11:00 o’clock before Frank left with the second body. I told him to go on and we’d call with information about the third body shortly after he returned to the morgue.

  +++

  Lou and I offered to search the few rooms in our wing, allowing George Michaelson and his boys to rest a while longer. I knew George had already put in a full day before I called him, so he, for one, would relish the time off his feet.

  We had to check every room, and that meant every room. I decided to get a certain room over with first. I knocked on the door, and became quickly disappointed. Not only was Heloise Humphert in her room, she was coherent. Well, as coherent as she is any other time. When she discovered it was me, she yanked the door open and grinned.

  “Oh, Cyrus, I knew you’d come. I told Twinkle Toes you’d come, and you didn’t disappoint me.”

  “Miss Humphert, I don’t have time for you or Muffy right now. The woman who sat next to you at dinner has disappeared. We have to find her.”

  “If I disappear, Cyrus, will you come looking for me?”

  “Of course, it would be my job to find you, but you can’t disappear now. I’m too busy with other things. You must stay in your room.”

  I failed to mention how much time would elapse before I went looking for her, but she didn’t need to know everything.

  “But Cyrus, Twinkle Toes has to do her business.”

  “Your room has a balcony. Let her go out there.”

  “But I think she has to go the other way now.”

  “How about if I find a rope, then we can tie it around her neck and drop her to the ground? As I lower her, I’ll yank the rope a few times to see if she’s still there.”

  “Cyrus, you’ve offended Twinkle Toes. See how crestfallen she looks.”

  In a weak moment I agreed to send Lou to take Twinkle Toes for a walk. That would even things for his letting Heloise Humphert know which room was mine. I reminded him that dogs respond better if you walk them near the edge of a cliff in the dark. He let me know that wouldn’t happen unless the leash was a lot longer than he thought it was. As it turned out, my partner merely opened the side door, stepped out a few feet, and informed the dog she had two minutes.

  +++

  Lou and I had finished checking all the front rooms when George raced up the steps. From his hurried manner, I expected at least two more bodies.

  “Cy, it’s Frank. He needs to talk to you.”

  Reluctantly, I took George’s phone.

  “Frank, so nice of you to call to let us know you got home okay.”

  “I wish I could go home. Cy, I was right when I told you I might have a surprise for you. We’ve got a problem here.”

  “What’s the matter? Your chainsaw quit working?”

  “No, it’s about the victim. The first one.”

  “You mean he isn’t dead?”

  “Oh, he’s dead all right.”

  “Then what’s the problem.”

  “This guy isn’t who you think he is.”

  “You mean he isn’t Myles Mycroft?”

  “I don’t know about that. He doesn’t have any I.D. on him.”

  “Then, I don’t understand. I don’t really know anything about him other than his name is supposed to be Myles Mycroft. Come to think of it, the name does sound made up.”

  “What I mean is the guy’s wearing makeup.”

  “You mean he’s a fairy?”

  “I don’t know about that. I mean he’s wearing actor’s makeup. Actually, it’s more like fake skin, false teeth, and hair that isn’t his own.”

  “I know lots of people who wear hair and teeth that aren’t their own, but that doesn’t make them fairies.”

  “Forget the fairy stuff, will you, Cy. I mean, was there some reason this guy’s disguised?”

  “Maybe he’s an actor. But why would he wear makeup unless this whole thing’s a play?”

  I thought for a moment, wondering if maybe this was a play, and Lou and I were the suckers sent here by someone from the department, who would see that we remember this moment from now on. I remembered that Tony McArthur acted like everything was part of a play.

  “Come clean, Frank. Is he really dead, or is all this a joke?”

  “It’s no joke, at least not to the dead guy over there. I’ll see what I can find out, and when I get all the makeup off him, we’ll see if you or anyone else can identify him. By the way, I think the second guy was made up, too.”

  Could it be that my next-door neighbor, the one who needed a new face more than anyone, was the only one other than Lou and me who came wearing no disguise? I pondered what Frank’s comments meant. The guy was dead. Both guys were dead. I scratched them off the suspect list. But the list was dwindling. The only guest we had left, other than my next-door neighbor, was missing. Could that missing old lady be responsible for murdering two men, and whether she did or not, where was she?

  +++

  I stopped my woolgathering when I noticed a passel of policemen looking at me. All would rather have been home in a nice warm bed th
an hunting for murder suspects.

  “Okay, men, there’s only one passkey. We’ve checked the entire inn, except for guest rooms and employees’ quarters. It’s almost midnight. Let’s check the rooms in the back. To save time, I’ll walk down the hall and open each door. As I unlock a door, one of you will check out each room. Remember to check the shower and under the bed. We should have this knocked out in no time.”

  Since we didn’t interrupt those checking the food for poisons and the three men guarding the front door, I soon found myself with no officer beside me. I unlocked a door and stepped inside. The room was nicely furnished, and quite different from my own, both in color scheme and type of furniture. I knew little about decorating, but I knew enough to know that Longworth had spared no expense decorating any of the rooms. I had finished checking the room and was closing and locking the door when one of the men ran up to me.

  “Lieutenant, did you say that no one is staying in any of these rooms?”

  “That’s right, Son.”

  “Well, while there was no one in the room I checked, I believe someone is staying in it. There’s a suitcase, clothes hanging up, and personal items scattered in the bathroom.”

  “Let me see the room.”

  The young officer led me to the room in question. While the bed was made, it was obvious someone had been staying in the room. At least, someone’s belongings were in there. All that I could tell was that it was a man. I wondered who it could be, since Mr. Longworth told us none of the back rooms were occupied. Could someone have been using the room without his knowledge? Could it have been the murderer, who may not even be registered? If so, how could he have gotten in?

  By 12:30, we’d finished checking all the rooms off the middle and back hallway. There was no one in any of the rooms, and none of the other rooms contained evidence that they had been occupied recently.

  +++

  All of us were tired from working so late. I made a decision. I would open rooms for each of them to get some rest. Each room contained an alarm clock. I told each man to set the alarm for 6:00, except for those who would relieve the men guarding the doors. George arranged a schedule where, every two hours, each man would be relieved from guard duty, in order to get some rest. We would reconvene by the front desk at 6:30.