A Deadly Serious Gardening Contest (A Heavenly Highland Inn Cozy Mystery Book 7)

by Cindy Bell

  “Excuse me, Vicky?” Linda asked from the open door of the restaurant. She frowned. “Am I missing a staff meeting?”

  “No, it's nothing like that,” Vicky assured her. “We're just discussing why the police are here.”

  “Oh,” Linda nodded. She didn't seem very interested in what was happening outside. “I just have a quick question,” she said.

  “What is it?” Vicky asked. She turned her full attention on the woman.

  “I was taking out the garbage in one of the rooms, and I found two used red wine glasses in the trash can. There was nothing else in the trash so should I throw those out, or take them out and wash them? I know every inn does things differently,” she frowned nervously.

  “We better be safe and throw them away,” Vicky said with a slight frown. “Who would throw wine glasses out? What room is it? Maybe room service didn't get up there fast enough to retrieve them.”

  “It was the Thomsons’ room,” Linda replied.

  “Really?” Vicky raised an eyebrow. “And you're sure that there were two wine glasses?”

  “I'm sure,” Linda nodded. “Do you mind if I wash them and take them home, I always need extra glasses?”

  “Sure, go ahead,” Vicky nodded. As Linda started to leave the room, Vicky called after her. “Please be careful,” she turned back to the rest of the staff. “That goes for all of you. We don't know exactly what is happening here, and until we do, I want you to exercise extreme caution.”

  “Yes, ma'am,” Chef Henry said with a frown. “I'll start by getting those officers some snacks and coffee. That should keep me off the suspect list.”

  Vicky cringed at his words. “All right everyone, back to work,” Vicky said. “Please cooperate with the police and be reassuring to the guests. Let's keep the details of the crime to ourselves for as long as possible. If you notice anyone very upset please report it to Sarah or me as soon as you can.”

  The staff members nodded before retreating to continue with their duties.

  After the staff had dispersed, Vicky was still trying to get things straight in her mind. The two wine glasses in the Thomsons' room really bugged her, because Lauren had made such a fuss about not drinking which had led to a heated moment with Vaughn. So, if the wine glasses didn't belong to Vaughn and Lauren, they must have belonged to Vaughn or even Vaughn and someone else.

  Vicky couldn't think of who else that would be. She hadn't noticed Vaughn flirting with anyone. Her staff were strictly ordered not to fraternize with guests, especially married ones. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes. Her head was still spinning from finding Roxanne's body. She stepped out by the pool to clear her head. There were a few officers still conducting interviews but the majority of them had already left.

  Vicky wondered if Mitchell was still around. He hadn't said goodbye, so she guessed that he was. Then she thought about Roxanne again. She recalled the last time she had seen her. She had been embarrassed because she had the wrong room key. Vicky drew a sharp breath as she recalled it had been Lauren's room key. Vicky had believed Roxanne when she said that she had picked it up by mistake, but now she wondered. Could she have taken it on purpose? If so, why? Surely it wasn't to sabotage Lauren, that would be a very low move. Was it to share a glass of wine with Vaughn? That seemed odd to her, too, but she thought it was worth exploring.

  She went on a hunt for Mitchell. It didn't take her long to find him. He was crouched down beside the shed, studying the ground. The body had already been taken away, likely rushed by Sheriff McDonnell's command.

  “Mitchell, I'm glad that you're still here,” Vicky said quickly as she walked up to him. “I need to tell you about something.”

  “I hope it's a lead,” he said with a frown as he continued to scrutinize the ground. “Because the one I've got, you're not going to like.”

  “Well, hear me out,” Vicky said swiftly and launched into telling him everything she could about what she had discovered that she thought might be related to the murder. “Last night, when I saw Roxanne for the last time, she was trying to open the door to her room with the wrong key.”

  “Oh? That's odd,” Mitchell agreed. “Maybe they just got mixed up?”

  “That's what I thought, but guess whose room key it was?” she raised an eyebrow.

  “Whose?” he asked impatiently.

  “Lauren and Vaughn Thomsons',” she replied with a shake of her head.

  “Okay,” Mitchell nodded. “That's a little odd, but not incredibly so.”

  “There is one other thing,” Vicky said with narrowed eyes. “Apparently someone in the Thomsons' room tried to throw out two wine glasses.”

  “Why would they throw wine glasses out?” Mitchell asked with confusion.

  “That’s one question,” Vicky nodded. “I also think we need to ask why there were two wine glasses when Lauren doesn't drink,” she smiled faintly.

  “Oh, so you think Vaughn was in the room with someone else?” Mitchell asked and started to piece things together. “Maybe even Roxanne?”

  “I thought maybe it could have been. I don't know what the two of them would be doing sharing wine and it could mean nothing but I thought I had better let you know, just in case.”

  “I'm glad you did,” he agreed with a frown. “Maybe Vaughn threw them out to hide them from Lauren.”

  “Maybe,” Vicky said.

  “There's one way to know for sure who drank from the wine glasses. We can check for fingerprints on the glasses to see who was in the room,” Mitchell stated.

  “Uh oh,” Vicky bit into her bottom lip.

  “Uh oh, what?” Mitchell asked with a furrowed brow. “You have the wine glasses don't you?”

  “I told the housekeeper that she could take them home but she was going to wash them first,” Vicky cringed. “Maybe we can still catch her.”

  “I hope so,” Mitchell said as he took off towards the kitchen with Vicky following closely after him. When they reached the kitchen, Linda was there, with a sink full of hot, soapy water.

  “Linda,” Vicky said out of breath. “Do you still have those wine glasses from the Thomsons' room?”

  “Of course I do,” Linda nodded and looked warily over at Mitchell.

  “Give them to me,” Mitchell said urgently.

  “Okay, okay,” Linda frowned. She dug her hands into the hot soapy water and pulled out two wine glasses. “Do you want to keep them?” she asked.

  “There's not going to be anything left on those,” Mitchell frowned.

  “I'm sorry, Mitchell, I hadn't put two and two together yet, when I told Linda that she could wash them,” Vicky frowned.

  “Did I do something wrong?” Linda asked, obviously worried.

  “No, it's not your fault,” Vicky said quickly. “But tell me, did you notice anything else odd about the room? Did it seem like someone else might have been in there?”

  Linda thought about it for a moment, with hot water and soap dripping from her fingertips. Then she shook her head.

  “No sorry, I didn't notice anything but the wine glasses.”

  “Without that, I can't do a search of the room,” Mitchell frowned.

  “Sure you can,” Vicky argued. “Why don’t you get a warrant?”

  “There’s no chance of that when it involves the future District Attorney. There's no way that Sheriff McDonnell is going to let me barge in there without more evidence. Not only that, but after the fight I keep hearing about, and Lauren's history with Roxanne, she's currently our prime suspect. Maybe Roxanne and Vaughn were having an affair, and Lauren caught them in the act?”

  “In the bed he shares with his wife,” Vicky frowned. “That’s pretty low.”

  “Very low,” Mitchell said as his cell phone began to ring. Vicky grimaced as she knew the tone belonged to Sheriff McDonnell.

  “You better go,” she said with a sigh.

  “I'll keep you up to date, you do the same,” he requested and tapped lightly at his phone.

 
“Right up to date,” she assured him. As he stepped out of the kitchen, Vicky lingered for a moment.

  “Linda, do you happen to know if Roxanne was ever in the Thomsons' room?” she asked.

  “Actually,” Linda wiped her hands on a towel and turned to look at Vicky. “When I was checking out some of the guest rooms I noticed that Roxanne was in the hallway. I noticed her, because she looked like she didn't want to be seen.”

  “What was she doing?” Vicky asked anxiously.

  “She was just standing there, as if she had no place else to be, tapping a room key against her thigh. I thought it was a little strange because she was standing much closer to the Thomsons' room, than she was her own. I asked if she needed anything, but she said no.”

  “I see,” Vicky nodded. She thought it was very strange, too. So, if Roxanne had known that she had the wrong key the entire time, why did she want it? Why was she trying to get into the Thomsons' room?

  Chapter Six

  Vicky walked out across the gardens. She could see that the remaining contestants were working hard in their gardens. Vicky couldn't tell if they knew what had happened, but none of the three were willing to stop creating their gardens. Margaret dropped her pitchfork on the sidewalk causing Vicky to jump. The sight of the gardening tool made her flash back to Roxanne's body. She looked back up at Margaret, alarmed. Margaret didn't seem to notice. She fished a candy bar out of her pocket and began unwrapping it. Vicky noticed the bright blue and silver colors of the packaging glistening from the sun, it wasn’t a brand she was familiar with.

  “This is my last one,” Margaret said when she noticed Vicky staring at the candy bar.

  “Oh, that's okay,” Vicky managed a smile. She turned back to the other contestants. Lauren was crouched down in her garden. Vicky watched Lauren for a long moment. She was pushing mulch around the base of some of her plants. Was Lauren really capable of killing someone? Certainly she had proven that she was violent the day before. If she had been anyone but Vaughn Thomson's wife, she would probably already be in handcuffs. Instead, she was free to work on her garden while the crime was quietly investigated.

  Roxanne's garden looked so abandoned compared to the other three. Vicky's mind became sharp as she realized that the best place to look for an explanation about Roxanne's behavior, would be her room. She hurried back into the inn. Sarah was fielding questions from guests in the lobby. She looked a little frazzled as she tried to explain that the police presence did not mean that they were in danger. Vicky snatched the manager’s key from behind the counter.

  “Do you need my help?” Vicky asked in a whisper when Sarah met her eyes.

  “No, I'll be okay,” Sarah promised. Then she turned back to answering the questions from the guests.

  Vicky rode the elevator up to Roxanne's room. She inserted the key to open the door. Inside there was plenty of evidence that a police search had taken place. There was fingerprint dust everywhere. The bedding had been stripped. Even Roxanne's suitcase had been raided. Vicky stood in the middle of the room for a moment, taking it all in. She wanted to know exactly what Roxanne was doing sneaking into the Thomsons' room. If she was having an affair with Vaughn, Vicky was willing to bet that there was some evidence of her having the affair with her nemesis’ husband. Vicky sorted through Roxanne's suitcase first, but she only found what would be expected. She frowned as she knew that if the police had found anything they would have kept it as evidence.

  The only way that any evidence of the affair could still be around was if Roxanne had done a really good job of hiding it. She searched under the mattress, then under the bed. As she was climbing back out from under the bed, she noticed that the bedside table was slightly out of place, as if it had been slid forward a few inches. She pulled it out all of the way and a book fell to the floor that had been wedged between it and the wall.

  “Yes!” Vicky said and picked up the book. It was a diary. She sat down on the edge of Roxanne's bed and began flipping through the diary. It was filled with thoughts about life and a lot about her gardening. Vicky searched for the last entry in the diary.

  Vicky noticed right away that the handwriting had changed from relaxed and loopy to sharp and pressured. She frowned as she read over the last entry which described Roxanne’s mounting hatred of Lauren.

  I know that she's copying my idea. I knew it from the moment I heard she was in the contest. Last year she swore to me that she would ruin me, all because I had the same color marigolds in my garden. I think she is going to try to humiliate me and accuse me of stealing her plans. There's only one way I can know for sure. I have to get into her room, and get into her notebooks. If I can see what she has planned out, then I'll know what she is up to. I wish I could just enjoy the contest, instead I'm going to have to play spy.

  “So, she did try to sneak into the room,” Vicky said softly. “But not for an affair. She tried to sneak in because she wanted to find out what Lauren was planning for her garden.” She glanced down at the last few lines of text at the bottom of the page. They seemed to be added on as an afterthought.

  I don't know what to do. I've seen too much now. I don't think I can ever look at Lauren the same way. The poor woman has more troubles than a gardening contest.

  Vicky raised an eyebrow at the last remarks. Her stomach flipped with nervousness. What had Roxanne seen that could cause her to go from hating Lauren to feeling pity for her? She wasn't sure what to think, but she was certain it had to be something that Roxanne had seen in that room. If she wasn't having an affair with Vaughn, then who had the other wine glass belonged to? Vicky doubted that he would have invited Roxanne in for a drink, especially if he caught her trying to sneak into his room. Goosebumps rose up along Vicky's arms as she realized that whatever Roxanne might have seen in that room could have been the reason that she had been murdered.

  “I've seen too much, now,” Vicky repeated in a whisper. She heard footsteps out in the hallway. Quickly, she tucked the book back behind the bedside table, and pushed the piece of furniture back into position against the wall. She was standing up when Vaughn Thomson filled the doorway of the room.

  “Vicky, what are you doing in here?” he asked.

  Vicky cleared her throat. “Just checking on things to see if housekeeping can come in and clean up yet.”

  “Oh,” he nodded a little. “Well, I was looking for you. There's only a few hours left in the contest. I'm going to help Lauren a little with her garden. I was wondering if you could bring drinks out onto the patio for all of us.”

  Vicky nodded. “No problem,” she replied with a smile.

  Vicky knew that Vaughn could have easily asked anyone in the restaurant. He hadn't been looking for her at all. He was just trying to come up with an excuse for visiting Roxanne's room. As Vaughn left, Vicky understood what Mitchell had said about the man just rubbing him up the wrong way. If Lauren was the killer then he was obviously interested in protecting her. But no one had been there to protect Roxanne.

  Vicky pulled out her phone and placed a call to the restaurant, asking them to bring drinks out to the contestants and their guests. Then she tucked her phone away. She felt as if she was missing something. With her mind trying to work through all of the random evidence that was piling up, Vicky decided that she needed to find more proof to make sense of it. She walked down the hall to the Thomsons' room.

  Vaughn had said that they would both be working on Lauren's garden. She was guessing that she was going to have plenty of time to look around. Vicky knocked lightly on the door of their room, and waited. When she received no response, she knocked again, only harder just to be certain. If she was caught breaking into the future District Attorney's room, she would have a lot to answer for. She still didn't hear anything.

  Assuming that they were not in the room Vicky used the key to open the door. When she pushed it all the way open she braced herself for the possibility that someone might still be inside. Instead what she found was an impeccable room, wit
h everything put neatly away. Vicky walked over to the bedside table where there were some papers piled up. She began sorting carefully through them so that she would be able to put them back exactly the way she found them. Some were notes for Lauren's garden. Mixed in were a few campaign schedules. Nothing incriminating.

  Vicky walked around the bed to the other side. She saw a candy wrapper on the floor but then her attention shifted as she noticed Lauren's suitcase on the floor next to it. She crouched down to open it and have a look inside. Just as she did, she heard the click of the lock on the door being released. Her heart dropped as she realized that someone was opening the door. She was too scared to think straight. She dove under the bed and flattened herself against the floor.

  “I was out there to support you,” Vaughn said as he stepped into the room.

  “You were sipping drinks and flirting with the waitress,” Lauren argued. “Is it too much to ask you not do it in public? It's very embarrassing.”

  “You think being friendly is flirting,” Vaughn accused. “How embarrassing do you think it was for me, when you stomped off throwing a tantrum?”

  “I do not throw tantrums,” Lauren hissed in return.

  “Lauren, you've been miserable since we got here. I thought all of this would make you happy,” Vaughn exclaimed, obviously frustrated. Vicky heard what sounded like a choking sound. For an instant she wondered if one was assaulting the other, but then she realized it was Lauren trying not to cry. Vicky lay as still and quiet as she could under the bed. She didn't dare to breathe too deeply.

  “I can't believe this, I just can't believe it,” she heard Lauren say, her voice trembling as she spoke. “This was supposed to be my year, Vaughn. Now everything is ruined. There's no way that the contest will go on with all of this happening.”