by Vikki Walton
“Yes, at first, we thought it was too dark, but we wanted to keep the integrity of the old house, so we left it as is. This house is the biggest on our block. I think it must have stood alone for a long time before the others were built up around it.” She turned back to face the hall and a strange sensation came over her of being watched. She looked to see if Carson felt it too, but he seemed focused on the back staircase. She opened the door.
He pulled a flashlight from his duty belt and shone the light inside. The landing was dark. Anne thought Stewart said he’d fixed that light. As Carson shone the light upward, he remarked, “Well, what have we here?”
Anne sidled up next to him on the small landing as he directed the flashlight upward. The light bulb had been removed. “What? Who would have done that?” He shone his light down the stairs. The stairs hadn’t been changed much over the decades since the home had been built. Wooden steps led down to the kitchen with a functional round metal handrail along the side. A large bulb attached at either end was the only form of any decoration. Carson shone the light back onto the landing. “Where does this door lead—the attic?”
Anne nodded her head. “Yes.” Carson opened the door and shone his light up the stairs. He spotted the switch and flipped on the light, which illuminated the stairs. He headed up the stairs with Anne trailing behind. The door slammed behind her and she grabbed Carson’s arm. “Don’t worry, Nancy, I got you covered. I won’t let any ghost get you.”
“I don’t appreciate your sarcasm.”
“My apologies, ma’am.”
For some reason, that made Anne even more angry. Still, she stuck as close as possible to him.
They reached the attic, which had once been one larger area, now stacked with boxes. Along the side were three cramped rooms that were probably former workers’ quarters. A separate room held a claw-foot tub. An unused wood burner sat at the corner of the larger room.
Anne thought it must have been miserable to have lived up here in the winter or the summer.
They moved over toward the stacks of boxes which sat under a lower set of eaves toward the back. Dust covered every surface and the area was dark. Carson shone his flashlight around and then moved back and did a cursory search of the smaller rooms. Back out in the main room, he pushed a couple of boxes to the side sending up a cloud of dust.
“Looks like everything is fine here. Possibly an animal got in up here and is making its home in the rafters. And that could be what people are hearing. I’d get Stewart to do some checking for that.”
He turned and walked toward the stairs back down to the second floor. Back on the main stairway, Anne told Carson about Hope locking the door.
“Interesting.”
Interesting. Is that all he can say?
As Anne followed she thought she heard a stifled sneeze. She swung around toward the empty hallway. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
She shook her head and quickly caught up with Carson who stood in front of Lil’s door. One by one, he knocked on the doors letting the ladies know that he would be asking them to come down to the living room. As they left, Anne motioned to Carson. “Let me show you where I found the note.”
“Let’s look later. I can’t go search their rooms without probable cause.”
“A woman being murdered is probable cause enough, isn’t it?” Anne stuck her hands on her hips.
Carson headed for the main stairs then turned and marched back to the servant staircase. “What did you say that voice told Marie?”
“Stop,” Anne replied.
“And she was getting ready to go down the stairs, correct?”
“Yes.”
He went on the landing and shone his light on the stairs. “A-ha.”
“What is it?” Anne looked to where he’d bent down and was shining his light on the wall.
“Look here.”
She crouched over his shoulder and squinted to where he pointed.
A nail jutted out of the wall. A bit of string was tied around it with a frayed end, as if someone had hurriedly hacked it off. The opposite side showed a hole where a nail had also been. “If Marie or anyone else would have stepped onto the next step, they would have fallen down the stairs. With the light out, no one would have noticed the string across the step.” He stood back up.
“I want you to lock that staircase to the back area. Don’t let anyone, and I mean anyone, go in there. Then take me to the nearest phone.”
While Carson talked to the judge to gain a search warrant, Anne went back into the kitchen where Kandi, Hope, and Stewart had gathered. Autumn had brought the items that Hope had requested and was waiting with the others.
“Kandi, could you take Mouser over to your house for the evening?” She turned to face Stewart. “Any luck on our noise problem? Carson said it might be some kind of animal maybe coming in and settling in the eaves.”
Stewart replied, “I haven’t been able to find anything. I looked at all the shutters outside. They all look secure, but I can’t get up to them with a ladder or look at them until after this blizzard has passed. But if you want I can go back up to the attic and take a look around. I also thought I’d check out the basement. Maybe it’s some air in the pipes that are causing the booming sound.”
“Good idea. I never thought of that and it makes sense. I think it can wait, though. For now, it would be good for you all to head over to Kandi’s,” Anne replied. The group got up and Anne gave Kandi a hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Now get on home before it turns into total whiteout conditions. She turned to Stewart. “You’ll watch over my girl, right?”
“You know I will.” An understanding passed between Stewart and Anne. If only Kandi could see how much that Stewart would do anything for her. He wore his love for her in flashing neon.
After the trio left, Carson appeared from out of the office. “Okay, the judge is granting a warrant. It’ll be a while for it to come, through. Do you have a fax machine?”
“No. But he can send it to the hotel information email. If that works. Then I can print it out for you.”
Carson rubbed his chin where a bit of stubble had appeared. “Hmmm. Not sure if that’s okay with protocol but I’ll call back and ask.” As Anne turned to leave, he grabbed her arm, “Be very careful and tell Hope to be the same. Don’t go anywhere in the house by yourself.”
“You’re scaring me.”
He dropped her arm. “Good. We have a person that we know killed at least one person and may have killed another. I don’t want a third on my watch.”
“What should we do now? This storm is really picking up,” Anne asked.
“I’m going to interview each of the women separately to see if any of them reveal any errors or slip and tell us some information. Let’s get them all down into the living area so they can’t compare stories.”
Anne rubbed her hands. “I should sit in with you.”
“I don’t think so. You’re not an officer of the law.” Carson shook his head.
“You’re not interrogating them, are you? I figure that you’re just asking them some background questions. If they are with you alone, they could easily say anything. They could accuse you of harassment, or something even worse. In this day and age people will do anything.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Admit it. You need me.”
Carson sighed. “Good point. However, this is only an interview. I want to see how they respond to some general questioning to get a baseline.”
“That’s all fine and dandy but you’re pretty scary looking in that uniform. I doubt you’re going to get much out of them. Why don’t you let me just ask some general stuff—how they met, the trip here, you know, stuff like that. Then if there’s anything in particular you want to ask, you can throw it in.”
Anne could see Carson thinking. “Okay.” He rubbed his chin again. “Let’s try it out with one person first and see how it works. Who do you recommend?”
“I think Taylor. She seems the
most forthcoming and could probably give us more insight into the friendships compared to the others, who seem a bit more tight-lipped.”
“All right. Let me gear down before we start.”
“Gear down?”
“I’m going to take off my duty belt. Do you have a safe?”
“Sorry, no,” Anne replied. “It’s on our list but we haven’t bought one yet. But I can lock this door.”
“Okay, go and tell Hope our plan. Then bring Taylor back. We’ll question her here in the office.”
Chapter Fourteen
Taylor walked into the office where Carson had pulled up the stool and the chair next to the desk. Anne noticed Carson had removed his uniform shirt and now wore a black long-sleeved T-shirt with the sheriff’s logo on the chest.
“Ms. Taylor,” Carson began, “we’d like to ask you some basic questions about the other ladies if you don’t mind. Is that okay with you?”
“Sure.” Taylor sat down in the chair opposite Anne, who pulled out a pad to make some notes. With the woman’s focus on Anne, it gave a more casual approach to the conversation and Carson had given his consent.
“I’m just trying to get a handle on the premise of the relationships within the group. Could you expound on it?”
Taylor turned to Anne who said, “He wants to know how you all became friends, and all decided to come here.” She winked at Taylor.
“Oh, gotcha.” Taylor straightened and then said, “Um, where do you want me to begin?”
Anne said, “I’ve already told him you all met in college. So maybe from that point.”
“We were such good friends. Like sisters.” Taylor sighed. “Then old Nelson came into the picture. It changed everything.”
“Go on.” Anne encouraged.
Carson glared at her. She’d forgotten his admonition to not speak into the silence. She grimaced.
“Edward Nelson is . . . was, a charmer. I’ll give him that. He could have had any woman in that college on his arm. And he usually did. He was known as a big-time player, but it didn’t stop more women from trying to tame him. But it was no use. He had his heart set on one woman and no one could keep him from winning his prize.”
“You mean Beth?” Anne asked.
Carson glared at her.
“Oh, no. Beth definitely had her sights on him, but he had eyes for one woman only.”
“Lil,” Both women said in unison.
Taylor glanced at Anne. “Yes, he fell head over heels for her. And Lil had fallen hard for him too.”
“Ahhh, now it’s becoming clear,” Anne interjected. “So, after he’d won her over, he lost the thrill of the chase and was done with her.”
Taylor laughed. “Oh, you’ve got it all wrong. He loved Lil. Still did, judging by his face when he saw her again. Lil was focused on becoming a doctor and she knew that a relationship would be a distraction. She tried to get him to wait on taking their relationship any further until after they’d graduated. But he wouldn’t have it. He got angry. He went off with other women. He made Lil’s life a living hell. He and his friends were always pranking her and calling her the Snow Queen. One of the pranks went wrong and Lil even got pretty badly injured.”
Anne thought back to the large scar on Lil’s arm.
“That was it. Lil applied to other universities. She ended up at Oxford College of Medicine. When Lil left, Liz became my roommate, so I still saw Beth and Edward. Of course, with Lil out of the picture, Beth really went to work on him. She knew he was weak. She made herself over to look as much like Lil as possible. Whatever she did worked. Beth got pregnant—most likely on purpose—and he married her. But that never stopped his wandering eye. Why she’s put up with his affairs all these years I’ll never understand.” Taylor took a deep breath. “So, you see, he didn’t dump Lil. She dumped him.”
Carson spoke, “Okay, so it seems interesting that all four of you decided to come together for a weekend after all these years. Can you provide some insight on that, Ms. Taylor?”
“Yes, that was strange. I’m guessing it was”— she tilted her head upwards—“yes, about six months ago. Out of the blue, Liz emailed. Said she’d been thinking about me and wondered how I was. We got to chatting and she asked about Lil, you know basic catching-up stuff. I asked about Beth and she said their son was off in college.” Taylor paused. “Anyway, she said we should keep in touch and try to get together. I agreed, and we started emailing back and forth and soon we began calling each other. Finally, she said that we should get back together if our schedules worked. She and Beth were thinking about flying into Colorado and wanted to know if I’d join them. That it would be like old times.”
Taylor looked down at her hands. Anne started to say something when she caught a slight shake of Carson’s head to remain quiet. Seconds passed, though it seemed much longer. “You know, I figured enough years had gone by that Beth and Lil could be together. I mean Beth had Edward, and Lil had married Brad and they have two wonderful kids. Of course, Brad passed away a few years ago after a terrible accident.” She looked up. “Some kid. Texting. Seriously injured Brad and the kid texting was killed instantly. I helped Lil with him until he passed.” She choked back a sob. “Insurance came through and Lil doesn’t have to work ever again. She’s always loved research though, so I doubt she’ll ever stop. I feel she only came on this trip because she felt she owed me that. How stupid could I be not to realize this was a bad idea? And now Edward dead and poor Marie.” Anne grabbed some tissues from a nearby box and handed them to her.
“Ms. Taylor.” Carson’s deep voice cut through the silence. “Do you believe that Marie was the intended victim? Can you walk me through your time arriving here, up to now?”
Taylor blew her nose and Anne handed her another batch of tissues which Taylor wadded into her hand, pulling at it. “You mean, do I think Liz was the intended victim? Why? Lil wouldn’t want to hurt her. I know Beth and Liz have a bit of a ‘frenemy’ type relationship, but they always have, ever since college. Liz has always been there for Beth, being supportive when Edward was being his usual jerk self. She’d tell me some of the things he did to Beth and Liz would say Beth should divorce him and be done with him. She would always tell me how she tolerated Edward because of Beth. They were like real sisters, they love each other, but they also get on each other’s nerves.”
She took in a deep breath. “No, I can’t see anyone wanting to hurt Liz, or Marie for that matter. She seemed nice enough.”
“What about Dr. Nelson?”
“Nelson?” Taylor turned to face Carson.
“Yes. Would any of the three want to kill Dr. Nelson?” Carson asked.
Taylor shook her head. “Well, I’m sure they thought about. But jokingly. You know, not for real. Plus, he had heart problems. The problems had grown worse over the last few months.”
“How do you know that?” He motioned to Anne to make notes.
“Liz told me when we would chat. He’s always had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.” Taylor shifted in her seat. “It’s inherited. He found out more about when he got into medical school and that’s partly why he went into cardiology.”
“So, he took nitroglycerin tablets?” Anne looked up from her writing.
“Oh, no. Anything like that would have made the symptoms worse.”
Carson responded, “That’s good to know, Ms. Taylor. Now, you all came here, and Ms. Freemont has told me that there was bit of conflict when everyone first arrived. Can you take it from that point up until now?” He sat back on the stool.
“Yes. I was really angry with Liz. She never told me the doc was coming. I’d asked Lil to come, and she wasn’t happy to see the pair either. I told her Beth might come and she was okay with that. Like I said, we were like sisters until old Nelson got involved.” She tore off a shred of tissue. “Beth was furious. Even while we were upstairs, I could hear her and Liz arguing.” She faced Anne. “As you know, I’m across the hall from them and Beth has never been known for having a
quiet voice. When she’s upset, everyone knows it.”
Anne shook her head, confirming that scene with Beth on the first day.
“Liz told me that Beth had invited him at the last minute, so she had no way to tell me. She apologized and said she’d understand if we left.” Taylor wiped her nose with the wadded tissue. “I went and talked with Lil and she agreed to stay, since he wouldn’t be around for most of the time. She said the past was the past. Ancient history. Whether that was true or not, I don’t know.”
“Please continue,” Carson encouraged.
Anne scowled at Carson. If she had to be quiet, he needed to follow the rules too. He saw her face but ignored her.
“Everything was good until Beth saw the doc talking to Lil. The green-eyed monster has nothing on her. She was livid. But Liz calmed her down and then we started the cordial class. When I went to the kitchen sink to wash my hands, that’s when I saw him.”
“When did he go to the gazebo?”
“Not a clue. I was upstairs when I think he went out there.”
“Do you know if anyone went out there with him?”
“Again, don’t know. I was upstairs.”
“Who was upstairs with you?’
“Lil was in her room changing out of the clothes from our earlier walk. I heard footsteps in the hall so either Beth or Liz were up there. I didn’t look out into the hall as I was also changing.”
Carson pulled out the sheet of paper with the words ‘Now it’s your turn to suffer’ written on it. “Do you recognize this handwriting?”
“Whoa. No. But that’s a nasty piece of work to be sure. Where did you find that?”
Carson signaled to Anne to not respond. “Ms. Taylor is there anything else that you think might be of any importance for us to know?”
Taylor hesitated and then shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. Yes, the doc was a womanizing jerk, but I just can’t imagine anyone actually killing him. I mean who would benefit from it?” Anne realized that this is what Carson was waiting for—someone to start thinking aloud. She held her breath, afraid to break any momentum from Taylor. “Beth definitely wanted out. Liz told me that. But she wouldn’t leave because she’d get pennies. With her son grown, she’d have no child support and her lifestyle, friends, everything would suffer.” She stopped.