A Sleuth Is Born

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A Sleuth Is Born Page 18

by Pepper Frost


  “What did I miss? I heard over the radio that the FBI has dispatched a helicopter near here. That can’t be related to anything happening here, though, right?” He was quick to add the last bit, looking clumsily over his shoulder to be sure Foxy was out of earshot.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Pat said. “Foxy dropped his cover. He’s thrown you under the bus, too. No collar for you!”

  “Who cares about that? As far as I’m concerned, they can handle it,” said McGregor with a shrug.

  “I, for one, feel protected and served,” snarked Bea. “Just kidding. You’re smart not to get all territorial. What matters is solving the crime. Speaking of which, your timing is perfect. Now that Foxy’s gone, we can restart my big reveal. Aseem, can we start over?

  “Shame our other pals can’t be here,” Bea snickered. “I was looking forward to seeing their faces! Too bad, but I’m still getting my big ballroom scene. Aseem, maybe we should dim the lights a bit? Grab a pastry and take a seat, everybody!”

  Chapter 28

  Bea was holding court in the ballroom. Perry had joined the group, but the audience for her big moment was sparse. Lee, Harry, Walter, James, Frank, and Foxy were all missing, leaving nearly half the chairs empty—and the chairs they’d set out only covered a small fraction of the ballroom’s large footprint. Bea’s audience was just Rex and Max, their girlfriends, Pat, Perry, Aseem, Angela, and Officer McGregor. Nothing could dampen Bea’s enthusiasm, though. Her posture inexplicably straight as a rod, she seemed to have gained an inch or two of height, and was strutting across the stage using her cane to point at the big screen.

  “Perry, I’m glad you’re here, since it was the cheating you and I spotted that really got my investigation going in a big way,” Bea said pompously. Officer McGregor looked confused. Angela tipped her chin down and covered her mouth with her hand, suppressing a giggle. “That work we did together was crucial to cracking the case. Bravo.”

  Perry nodded solemnly.

  Bea then proceeded to explain how she and Perry detected cheating at the tables. “Right away, on the first night, we noticed betting patterns that helped one player chip up fast. And it seemed like certain stacks grew during the breaks—like someone had a supply of extra chips and was adding them to those stacks. At first I thought it was my imagination, but then Perry and I decided to look at the video footage.”

  Rex and Max looked at each other anxiously.

  “Don’t worry you two,” Bea said, laughing. “Nobody ever suspected you two. It wasn’t any of us three, it wasn’t Foxy, and it wasn’t either of the two dead guys.”

  “The cheaters just happen to be the people who skipped out last night,” Pat chimed in supportively. “Quite a co-inky-dink!”

  “That’s correct, Pat,” said Bea with a forced smile. “But I must ask you to hold your comments until the end of the presentation. There will be time for audience questions at the end.”

  Bea continued, explaining that another clue was the failure of the video set-up. “By the second night, I was sure someone had interfered with the video. After all, we knew it was set up right. Aseem here is a technology genius.” As she mentioned Aseem’s name, she waved her hand in his direction in the manner of a game show model. Then she stared at Angela to be sure she was paying attention.

  “Once the second night’s video was lost, Aseem came up with the brilliant idea of the second camera—the one attached to this video screen, which no one else knew about. It captured exactly who stole the safe.

  “But I’m getting ahead of myself. Because long before we got to the second night of missing video, we already suspected a scam was afoot—a big one!”

  Bea paused for a moment for dramatic effect. She took a few contemplative paces around her cane, then turned back to her audience.

  “From the moment you all arrived, there were clues. Everything about the tournaments seemed rigged. Perry spotted trouble right away. The bag of cash Lee stored in the safe—the total of our $50,000 apiece buy-ins—looked off. She had wrapped the stacks and taped them up into bricks, so we couldn’t count it. She said she was keeping things under tight control. But Perry took one look at the sack of bricks and was sure it didn’t total up to the $500K total of our ten buy-ins. He thought they contained about half that amount. Naturally, he would spot the difference, since he runs a casino for his day job.”

  A few of the people in Bea’s little audience gasped. “That’s right,” she continued. “It looked darn fishy right from the get-go. But we couldn’t be sure there wasn’t an honest explanation. Maybe one or two of the players had wired her the money, and Lee decided she didn’t need to bring it here as cash. Or perhaps she’d told one of her long-time players they could pay another way—say, with bitcoins. Unorthodox, questionable, for sure—but, hey, not much about this tournament is normal. I’m sure it’s obvious now, though,” Bea said, tilting her head towards the open control room door, “Lee was planning to rip us paying players off from the start.

  “Perry and I figured, if it turned out some buy-ins really were missing, then some players had to be counting on winning without anteing up. Because that’s the only way they’d never have to put any money in—if they knew for sure they’d win. Hence,” she said, pausing and raising her index finger for dramatic effect, “the coordinated cheating. And hence the benefit of getting the best player at the table, Eddie, out of the game.”

  “But Bea,” interjected Angela, “Weren’t you the best player at the table?”

  “Very flattering, Angela. I doubt that’s true,” Bea said with false modesty. “Even if it were true, they had no way of knowing it. Eddie was the player they thought they had to worry about. They’d all heard he was training for the World Series of Poker. And he was proving their fears right by dominating the first night’s game.”

  Aseem then clicked to a slide of the website Angela found, which showed the warning about the ingredients in the flour. “As you can see,” continued Bea, “this would not be a good choice of flour to keep Eddie safe. More like the opposite.”

  “So it may have been intentional on Lee’s part—not accidental,” Angela added.

  “Yes. Didn’t she make a point on insisting the flour be used for a snack during the first night’s tournament? Perhaps she was only planning to bump Eddie from the tournament, not bump him off entirely, though,” Bea said, cackling inappropriately.

  “I’d like a copy of that screenshot and the link,” piped up Officer McGregor. “Brilliant find, Angela.”

  “At the start of day two, we learn that Eddie dies. Did someone murder him? Or did he die of a complication of the first reaction—Angie, what’s that called again?”

  “You mean a biphasic reaction? That’s a secondary attack related to the first one, with no additional exposure,” Angela said. “That’s what the doctors thought happened, at least at first.”

  “But my peeps in the hospital thought different! They thought someone deliberately exposed Eddie again!” blurted Pat. “Shoot, I’m sorry, Bea. I couldn’t help myself.”

  “That’s OK, Pat. That information from your peeps—combined with a little luck—got us on the trail of a murderer!” Bea said, adopting a deep, melodramatic tone. “Someone might have gone to finish Eddie off—but who? Aseem, it’s time to show everyone the face of our suspect.”

  “Is that… Walter?” said Rex.

  “Indeed,” said Bea, looking at Officer McGregor. “His last name is Wells. Walter Wells. At least that’s what he said his name was. We had a hard time finding anyone matching his name and description online. Whoever he is, that picture shows him leaving the Inn before dawn on the morning Eddie died.”

  “Huh. He seemed like a nice enough guy,” said Max.

  “Foxy’s got Aseem’s tracker and the FBI is now on the chase, Officer McGregor,” said Angela. “But is there anything else we need to do to be sure he doesn’t escape?”

  “The FBI will have put all local police on alert. They’ll take care of
apprehending the suspect. I’ll do my part by gathering all the evidence you have to offer,” replied McGregor, settling back down in his chair with a second coffee and pastry.

  Bea smirked. “Yes, let us continue to do our fair share. Aseem, why don’t you show the slide showing the connecting suites?

  “Aseem helped us look at the card key log, which showed no one had reentered their room before breakfast that morning. We thought that meant no one left here for Eddie’s hospital room. But then I had the brainstorm that broke the case wide open!” said Bea.

  “The secret was the adjoining rooms. Any one of these three—Foxy, Walter, and James—would have access to his room without a key, as long as a neighbor was there to let him in. To figure out which guy went out that night, we had to get a little lucky.”

  Bea went on to explain how she and Pat found Cash’s phone and his photos while looking for their reviews troll. “Billy Ray’s annoyance with that nasty blog inadvertently helped us find the most important piece of evidence.”

  Officer McGregor stood up. “Bea, amazing work. I’ve seen all I need to see. Aseem, I assume you’ll be sending me a copy of all of your video and these slides? Angela, will you help me with the rest of the evidence?”

  “Of course,” said Angela.

  “Amazing work?” said Bea. “Aren’t you going to tell me to keep my nose out of police work in the future? To leave the detecting to detectives?”

  “Listen, we’re shorthanded around here. And it’s not like we get a lot of violent crimes in wine country. In the future, if you want to help us find stolen grapes or solve our lost pet cases, knock yourself out,” McGregor said absently, surveying the remaining pastries. “Mind if I take these to go?” He bundled a mix of croissants and scones into a napkin and headed out the door.

  “I hope he thinks to show Walter’s picture to the smoothie place near the hospital,” Pat said. “There might be a witness there. Maybe even a record of what he bought. Heck, maybe even video.”

  “I’ll suggest it when I pass the other evidence along,” said Angela.

  Rex, Max, and their twin companions got up from their seats and started making their way to the door, too. As they prepared to leave, Connie and Bijou walked in. “Is it OK if I just grab some coffee? I was hoping it would be OK, even though I’m not really part of the group.” She looked tired, and her eyes were puffy from crying.

  “Of course it’s OK. And of course you’re part of the group,” said Angela, putting her arm around Connie’s shoulders to welcome her, then reaching down to pet her canine friend.

  “I’m very glad you’re here, Connie. I’m glad you’re all here. Rex, Max, ladies, please sit back down for just one more moment. Because I haven’t even gotten to the best part!” said Bea triumphantly. “Aseem, you ready?”

  With a loud clunk, Aseem unhooked a metal fastener behind the right edge of the enormous display. As he pulled that side of the monitor away from the wall, the massive hinges that held it, invisible from the front, squeaked in protest. After a few moments of tugging, Aseem revealed what was hiding behind the hefty display: a second, smaller safe.

  After a few clicks on the number pad, a scan of his retina, and a press of his fingerprint, Aseem was able to open the safe, revealing its amazing contents: a canvas sack just like the one in the stolen safe, filled with several brick-like packages, each heavily wrapped in plastic and layers and layers of tape.

  “And that, my friends, is the best news of the day: That’s our money! And we’re going to roll back the clock, pretend the tournament never happened, and take all of it back. Well, most of it, anyway.”

  Rex, Max, and Connie’s mouths were agape. Beaming with pride, Bea explained how the money hadn’t spent a single night in the safe their crooked opponents had stolen.

  “Once Perry noticed the cash was off, we thought we’d better keep our money safe. So we made up a decoy bag and stuck it in the big safe and put the real money in this one. When the videos started failing, we were sure we’d done the right thing. No one was the wiser. Thanks to Aseem, the screen that was showing our Yule log was hiding our money the whole time!

  “Now we’ve got some decisions to make,” said Bea. “$5,000 of what we each paid in was for Lee’s charity. But I think it’s safe to say that must be a scam, am I right, Angela?”

  “Yes, Bea,” said Angela, with a sigh. “You were right all along.” Angela then explained that she’d looked into the charity’s tax filings. With the help of some basic accounting tips from the internet, she’d been able to determine easily that the charity was a sham.

  “Naturally, it’s terrible news that Lee has been ripping people off in the name of charity,” said Bea. “But at least she’s not getting away with it this time. My proposition to the three of you is that we take the charity money and donate it to a real cause. Lee said you all used to have your holiday event in Paradise. How about we donate to one of the organizations helping those poor folks whose homes burned down?”

  “I think that’s a great idea,” said Connie. “In fact, I don’t want a refund of Billy Ray’s buy-in, either. Donate it all to help those people in Paradise.”

  Rex and Max said they’d like to do the same.

  “Fantastic!” said Bea. “I’ll do the same with my money, too. Now there’s one bit of accounting—our fees for rentals and staffing of the Inn were also coming out of our buy-ins. But Angela, I think we can agree to do the event at cost, and donate our profit. What do you think?”

  “I love that plan,” said Angela. “And tomorrow is Christmas. What a perfect way to celebrate it.”

  Bea stepped down from the stage while Aseem locked the cash back up. Hugs and handshakes were exchanged, as Bea and Angela thanked Rex, Max, and Connie for their generosity.

  “All things considered, Angela, we really enjoyed our stay at your inn,” said Rex.

  “We were thinking we’d like to host a chic little holiday party of our own here next year. With plenty of time to plan, we’re sure you’d come up with something even more spectacular,” added Max.

  “That’s very flattering. Thank you,” said Angela. “But I think we’ll stick with our mission of hosting Betty Snickerdoodle’s fans from now on. I’m sure you agree, don’t you, Bea?”

  Chapter 29

  “I’m so grateful. And so impressed.” Angela was standing next to Aseem as he stood near the top of the stepladder, taking down the damaged camera outside the control room.

  “Don’t be too impressed,” Aseem said with a laugh. “I never did figure out how those jerks foiled this camera’s recordings.”

  “That reminds me. You never showed us how the thieves broke into the control room. Was that captured on your other video?”

  “Not really. The video shows Walter and James going in with the dolly and backing out with the safe on it. But they got inside in nothing flat, and the door wasn’t damaged. Honestly, I’m stumped.”

  “I suppose it doesn’t matter, since the safe was a decoy, anyway.”

  “That was a stroke of genius by Bea and Perry, no doubt.”

  “I don’t have to tell you how much Bea loves outsmarting jerks like that.”

  “Yeah. It’s contagious!” Aseem chuckled. His head was starting to feel a little better, and he was able to enjoy the memory of his own role in putting Cash in his place and helping bring down the poker crooks.

  The two of them worked together to take down the fancy decorations they’d put up around the ballroom, replacing them with the more homespun ones Angela had originally selected to create the feel of Betty Snickerdoodle’s wine-country home.

  “It’s a relief to put these three days behind us,” Angela said. “Lessons were learned. I suspect I’ve got plenty more ahead of me.”

  Aseem had moved the stepladder beside the French doors, near the corner where he’d hung the mistletoe. He was standing on the second rung of the ladder, reaching up to take down the pretty green ball of leaves.

  “Wait—leave it,
” Angela said impulsively, as she moved beside the ladder and touched Aseem’s knee. He paused for a moment and stepped off the ladder.

  “Angel,” he said, placing his hands on her shoulders and looking into her eyes. “I want you to trust me, because I’ve thought about this a lot. I want to be part of your success.”

  “That’s what I want, too,” Angela said. “So why do I think there’s a ‘but’ coming?”

  “The time is now for everything you have planned for the Inn and your grand vision for Betty, Inc. Let me help you bring it to life. I want to—but you have to agree, that will mean the timing’s not right for us—except for working together. It’s hard enough to build a business without complicating things right out of the gate.”

  “I guess this is what they mean about not having it all,” Angela said, eyes downcast to hide the tears that were starting to well up.

  “I have no doubt you’ll have everything you want eventually,” Aseem said, with a soft laugh. He felt relieved. Once he’d said the words aloud, he felt certain he was doing the right thing.

  Angela hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. “I hope it’s still OK for me to hug you.”

  “Of course it is. We’re still friends—even if you are my boss. Merry Christmas, Angel,” said Aseem.

  “If this is my present, I’m not sure I like it,” Angela said. “But Merry Christmas to you, too, my dear friend.”

  §

  The internet tube in Bea’s suite lit up and its boop tones sounded. Bea and Pat were in the middle of discussing the plan for the night—for their Christmas Eve celebration. Angela had invited both of them to her mom’s house in Sacramento for dinner and holiday cheer, and they were very much looking forward to it.

  “Kitchen calling,” said the tube’s sweet voice.

  “Bea, can you come to the kitchen as soon as possible?” Angela said. “There’s something I want to show you. Bring Pat, too.”

 

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