Miz Scarlet and the Holiday Houseguests (A Scarlet Wilson Mystery #3)

by Barton, Sara M.

  “You, too.”

  Mozzie watched her go into Jenny’s room. I could see the little dog thinking about that. He listened to the sounds of the teenager climbing into bed and settling down in the unfamiliar room. The bedside lamp went off, leaving the room dark. A moment later, the small dog with the sweet disposition hopped down from the loveseat and followed, curiosity getting the better of him.

  “Is that you, Mozzie?” I heard Mickey ask a moment later. I waited a few minutes, watching the weather forecast on TV, just in case Mozzie changed his mind. When the news crew moved on to the sports report, I gave January a pat as I passed her on my way to the bathroom. Ten minutes later, tucked under my fluffy down comforter, Huck by my side, I drifted off to sleep, happy to know that Larry and Mickey were in no danger.

  I dreamed I was running in the snow, slipping and sliding down the blue trail up on White Oak Hill. Someone was chasing me, but I was afraid to look over my shoulder. I just wanted to get away from him.

  “Help me! Someone, help me! Please!”

  “Miz Scarlet!” I heard a voice calling my name. There were dogs barking. “Are you okay?”

  “Help me,” I cried again. More barking.

  “Wake up! You’re dreaming!” A terrified Michaela stood in the doorway of my bedroom. I had left a lamp on in the sitting room, and I could see her trembling.

  “What?”

  “You’re having a nightmare.”

  “Oh, Mickey!” I sat up in bed, turning on the light. “I’m so sorry. I hope I didn’t frighten you too much.”

  “No, just enough,” the teenager blurted out. “Boy, Miz Scarlet, you sure can scream!”

  “What’s going on?” demanded a voice at the bottom of the stairs. Larry pounded up the steps, two at a time. “What happened?”

  “Scarlet had a nightmare, Mom.”

  “She did?” Larry stepped into my bedroom. “You did? Do you normally have nightmares?”

  “Not that I know of,” I admitted sheepishly. “I’m really sorry I woke you both.”

  “What were you dreaming about?” she asked, sitting on the end of my bed. “It sounded unpleasant.”

  “It was. I was being chased on the trail by a maniac with a gun.”

  “Do you know why? Sometimes if you know what goes on in your nightmare, you can figure out what you were really dreaming about.”

  “Yes. It’s because I knew his secret and he didn’t want me to tell anyone.” I shivered at the memory of the dream. I could hear the killer’s voice, but I couldn’t see his face.

  “It must have been horrible because you were screaming bloody murder. I thought someone was in your room!” Mickey told me, the shock still clinging to her words.

  “And you were brave enough to check on Miz Scarlet anyway?” The proud mother put her arms around her daughter and gave her a bear hug. “You might just be a chip off the old block after all.”

  “What?” Mickey grinned shyly. “I had to go by her room to get to the stairs. It’s the only way out of here.”

  “That’s my baby,” Larry announced, planting a big kiss on Mickey’s cheek.

  “Yes, but now I’m wide awake. I’ll never get back to sleep.”

  “Come with me, little one. Mama Bear’s going to tell you a story.” The pair left me, returning to Jenny’s room. I lay awake, listening to the hushed sounds of a conversation. Even though I couldn’t understand the words spoken, I took comfort that there were two people in the next room.

  Why was I so terrified, even now? I knew it was a dream, but somehow it felt so real to me. I stared up at the ceiling as a thousand disjointed thoughts seemed to whirl around and converge in my head. Something was wrong, my brain kept insisting. I don’t know the man who was chasing me. He hated Larry, and in order to get to her, he had to go through me. Why?

  “You okay?” Larry asked quietly. She was back, watching me as she leaned against the door jamb.

  “The man in the dream...he wasn’t after me. He was after you.” I sat up again. “He wanted to destroy you.”

  “Oh, you’re just worried about me because I’ve been so stressed lately. You can just forget it, Miz Scarlet. I’ll be fine as soon as both my parents are here and I know they’re not going to kill each other. I probably shouldn’t have told you about their feud. I planted the idea in your head.”

  “No.” I looked her right in the eye. “My nightmare had nothing to do with your parents. Some guy wanted to kill me, but you were his real target. He hates you.”

  “Okay. I’ll play along.” The homicide investigator crossed her arms. “Let me pretend your dream was real. The first thing I’m going to ask you is how do you know it was me he wanted to harm?”

  “You made him really mad. You stopped him once before.”

  “Did I?” She gave me a weary smile. “And how did I do that?”

  “You put him in jail.”

  A guarded look fell over Larry’s face for a moment, like a heavy blanket, obscuring her true emotions, but then she shrugged. She seemed to hesitate, as if she was on the brink of telling me something, something important, but then the moment passed.

  “Well, if it’s any consolation, Miz Scarlet, I’ve put a lot of bad guys away in my years on the job. Not all of them wanted to kill me. A couple even proposed.”

  “Yes, but this guy hates your guts.”

  “Well, I’ll take that under advisement. In the meantime, I’m heading back down to my room. Sweet dreams.”

  “You, too.”

  Putting my head back down on the pillow, I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping to convince myself there was still time to get some more sleep. By the time my alarm went off, I had managed to get another two hours sleep.

  Feeling guilty about my nocturnal disturbance, I decided to serve Larry and Mickey a breakfast that would knock their socks off. Tiptoeing down the stairs just after six, I got the bacon cooking on a cookie sheet in the oven, mixed up some pancake batter while the coffee was brewing, and sliced up some bananas in a sauté pan with a little melted butter and some brown sugar. They were nicely caramelized when Mickey wandered into the kitchen.

  “What smells so good?” She peeked over my shoulder. “Bacon? My favorite!”

  Larry joined us a few minutes later, her long dark hair still damp from her shower. “I’ve got to get a mattress like that. Wow, it’s like sleeping on a cloud!”

  “Glad you liked it,” I grinned. “Will pancakes put a smile on your face?”

  “That, and an extra five pounds on my butt,” she laughed. “But I’ve learned to eat while the eating is good. Sometimes I don’t even have a chance to sit down for lunch.”

  “Well, grab a cup of coffee from the butler’s pantry and pull up a chair at the dining room table.”

  “Do I smell bacon?” Max hobbled into the kitchen. “The aroma is heavenly.”

  “I thought you were kosher,” Larry remarked.

  “I am,” he sighed, his shoulders slumping.

  “Will kosher turkey bacon work for you? I took the liberty of making you some, Max, just in case.”

  “Aren’t you a doll,” he grinned. He followed Larry to the dining room, with Mickey in tow.

  Bur and my mother arrived at quarter to seven, joining the others at the table. Lacey showed up soon after. She was dressed in a green plaid fleece top that had a snowman on the front, a pair of black leggings, and a necklace made of jingle bells.

  “Good morning all,” she declared, helping herself to bacon from the platter and a blueberry muffin. “What’s on the schedule today? Do I have a volunteer elf to help me? Say, young lady, you look like you have potential....”

  “What’s in it for me?” the teen shot back.

  “Are all your gifts wrapped yet?” my mother inquired. “Do you have bows on all your packages?”

  “No.”

  “Then that’s what’s in it for you. Wait till you see Lacey bought for this year’s wrapping paper. You won’t want to miss it.”

  “W
hat’s so special about your wrapping paper?” the teenager asked. I could see Mickey was intrigued.

  “Are you kidding?” my brother laughed. “When was the last time you saw a Chihuahua in a Santa hat? Or a fat squirrel with a candy cane? Or zombies chasing Santa?”

  “That sounds awesome. I can’t wait to see Grandpa’s face when I give him his present.”

  “Speaking of which....” Bur promised Mickey that she could ride with him to the airport later in the afternoon to retrieve her grandfather. They’d leave for Bradley International right after lunch.

  Michaela spent much of the morning behind closed doors in the living room with the Googins girls. I could hear lots of giggling and guffawing every time I walked by.

  Once I cleaned up after the breakfast crowd, I filled a Crockpot with the ingredients for minestrone soup, and set it on low to simmer for several hours, and then I got busy making beds and scrubbing toilets. When the rooms were all ready for their occupants, I vacuumed the hall carpet and stairs. I never heard my phone ring. It was only when I was winding the power cord around the machine that I heard that familiar ping. Kenny sent me a text message that made my heart sink. Sorry, babe. The closing for the house has been delayed until Saturday morning. I’ll call you later tonight. Love you. Darn it anyway, I groused to myself, so much for our plans to spend time together. With my luck, we’d have a blizzard on Saturday. I called Larry to let her know Kenny wasn’t available as back-up.

  “Ask Max if he can stay another night,” was the short reply. “Tell him I really need this.”

  “Right.” Hanging up, I went in search of her former partner. Knocking on the door of the Red Oak Room, I took a step back and waited. It swung open a moment later and I found myself facing a man who was tying his blue-and-gray striped tie.

  “What’s up?”

  “Can you stay one more night, Max?” I explained Kenny’s dilemma in New Jersey. He flipped the long end of the tie through the loop, adjusted it, and tightened it.

  “How do I look?” he wanted to know, not answering my question.

  “Handsome. Larry really needs you here,” I continued, wondering if he was ignoring me because he was trying to figure out a way to refuse. It turned out that I was hasty in my expectation of a rejection. Max was still Max, loyal to his former partner.

  “No problem. That goes without saying. Any chance I could get a cup of coffee for the road? I’ve got a meeting in an hour.”

  “Of course. Thanks.”

  “My pleasure, Miz Scarlet.” With a wink, he turned, grabbed his suit jacket and briefcase, and followed me down the hall to the elevator. As we rode the car down to the first floor, it dawned on me that Max, like Bur, had a crush on Larry. Maybe he hoped this stint as bodyguard would put him in her good graces and give him the opportunity to romance her. They weren’t partners now, so there was no longer a taboo on dating. Did Larry even have an inkling of how much Max adored her? For an attractive woman, my good friend was sometimes clueless on matters of the heart. Maybe she had been through too much in her lifetime to ever let her guard down again. Or maybe it was just that the job was so tough, she had lost her faith in humanity.

  By nine, Max was ready to head out the door on his way to New Haven for a shortened work day, carrying a thermal mug of hot black coffee for the hour-long ride. He paused by the door, promising to return by five, and then he asked what I was serving for dinner.

  “Roasted chicken with the works and grasshopper pie.”

  “Excellent. I’m looking forward to it. Do you want my credit card?”

  “Credit card?”

  Chapter Nine --

  “So you can charge me for the room and the meals, Scarlet.”

  “Don’t be silly. You’re here to keep Larry and Mickey safe.”

  “I can’t accept your hospitality without reciprocating in some fashion.”

  “I’ve closed the inn for the week, Max. This is all about family.”

  “In that case, how about some wine to go with dinner?”

  “Wine would be nice, Max. I’d like that.”

  “Great. I’ll pick up a couple bottles, and maybe some after-dinner liqueurs. What do the Googins girls like?” he wanted to know.

  “Amaretto, Bailey’s Irish Cream....” I gave him a grin. “And Lacey knocks back the occasional eggnog or peppermint schnapps.”

  “I’ll find something appropriate. What can I get for you?”

  “Oh, Max!”

  “I insist. I slept like a log last night. And that breakfast? The best....” Apparently, the bachelor was enjoying the inn experience. “I could really get to like this, Scarlet.”

  “I’m glad. Drive safely. We’re supposed to get four inches of snow today.”

  “Tell me about it. I’m not looking forward to I-91 on the trip back. It’s likely to be bumper-to-bumper if the snow starts to pile up. See you later, alligator.”

  “In a while, crocodile,” I replied automatically, remembering the hokey old phrase from my youth. It was so like Max to say something like that. He was just your ordinary good guy, I thought, with a big dose of decency coursing through his veins. As I shut the door on the cold wind blowing in from the north, I thought about Larry and Max. He would be good for her. He was probably the only guy around who could make her feel safe.

  Half an hour later, Mickey and I took the dogs for a walk in the neighborhood. The snow was already falling; the heavy flakes accumulated quickly, leaving the sidewalks slushy. The teenager took Mozzie’s leash tentatively, nervously. Dogs were still foreign to her, but I could tell she had an affinity for the canine members of the inn.

  “Why is he walking funny?” she asked me, as the King Charles Cavalier spaniel reluctantly trotted along, shaking a limb every few steps.

  “The ice from the sidewalk is getting stuck in the pads of his feet. That’s our cue to turn around and go back home.”

  “Poor thing. Should I pick him up?”

  “No. He needs to relieve himself. Heaven knows how bad things will get before the snow ends. We’ll just have to warm him up when we get back.”

  “How come January isn’t walking funny?”

  “Her coat is very short, so the ice doesn’t cling to her fur the same way. Huck, on the other hand, is less than thrilled,” I pointed out. It was true. The Yorkshire terrier was tearing up the sidewalk, desperate to get back to the house.

  Bur was waiting for us when we stepped into the foyer. “It’s about time!”

  “It’s about time for what?” I asked.

  “We’ve got to go pick up Leaping Larry the Lawnmower. He missed his connecting flight and now he’s stuck in Newark.”

  “What’s going on?” My mother joined us in the hallway, attracted by the commotion. Bur quickly explained.

  “Can’t he just take the train?” I asked, as I pulled off my jacket. “By the time you get down there and then drive back....”

  “No, he can’t. It’s Friday, so the traffic is crazy enough. Add to that the fact that this is the last weekend before Christmas. Some people are taking next week off as vacation time. All the planes and trains are fully booked. And now, on top of that, everyone else is trying to get out ahead of the storm that’s coming tomorrow.”

  “I thought we were only supposed to get a few inches of snow, Bur.”

  “We were...today. But the snow is changing to ice and there’s another front moving in tomorrow. The forecasters are saying it’s going to snow through Sunday. When it turns to ice, it’s going to be chaos. That’s why we’ve got to go now.” He was clearly impatient to hit the road.

  “Seriously?” Michaela seemed worried. “How’s Grandpa supposed to take me to Boston tomorrow? He promised.”

  “We’ll have to figure that out later, half-pint. Right now, grab your stuff and let’s get moving. We don’t want to get stuck in New Jersey for Christmas.”

  “Bur, you’ll be careful on the roads....” Laurel was apprehensive enough to tug on my brother’s sleeve. />
  “Not to worry, Mom. I’ve got this.” My brother leaned over and kissed her cheek, and then he squeezed her shoulder, hoping to reassure her. She didn’t look all that convinced. “We’ll be fine.”

  “And you’ll take good care of my car? You’ll return it in one piece?” I demanded, reluctant to hand over my keys. Was this trip really a good idea? I understood Big Larry’s urge to get while the getting was good. I just didn’t understand why Bur and Michaela had to drive all that way in the early hours of what could turn out to be a dangerous ice storm. How were the three of them supposed to make it back to Connecticut if the roads were too slick to drive on? “If he could wait until tomorrow, maybe Kenny could pick him up on his way here.”

  “There’s no guarantee Kenny’s going anywhere tomorrow, Scarlet, especially if the roads ice up. I’ve got to go. We’ll call you when we get to the airport.”

  “Please do,” said Laurel.

  My mother was apprehensive as she watched the car disappear down the road. I knew she wouldn’t be able to relax until she heard from them again. It was going to be a long afternoon.

  “Want a cup of tea?” I asked. “I’m having one.”

  “Please.”

  I headed off to the kitchen, returning a short time later with two steaming mugs. My mother sat in her favorite chair, working on a crossword puzzle. January was squeezed into the chair beside her, snoozing. Settling on the sofa, I flicked on the television and started channel surfing. I stayed away from the local stations, knowing that my mother would fret if she watched the live weather reports. The Food Network was doing a holiday special. I put my stocking feet up on the ottoman and sipped my tea as I watched six different variations of Christmas cookies made from a single recipe. Huck hopped up and curled into a ball at my side. Mozzie, the forlorn pooch who missed his mistress, parked himself in front of me, waiting for an invitation to join the party.

  “Come on, boy. No reason for you to feel left out.” I patted the sofa. “The more the merrier.”

  Mozzie cautiously climbed up onto the upholstered seat and sat on his haunches, gazing at his surroundings and waiting for divine inspiration to tell him what the most comfortable spot on the sofa would be. At last, after much thought, he decided that my lap made the perfect pillow, so he scrunched up next to me and flopped, displacing Huck. I picked up the smaller dog and placed him on the other side of me. Good thing the Yorkshire terrier was easygoing.