After a moment spent considering if she should give him a sarcastic answer, Holly’s good sense won out. “Yeah, this is me,” she said rather than “No, I’m just popping in to rob the place.”
“Do you want to sit in the lounge while I change?”
Willis stopped halfway up the path to the front door and shook his head. “I’ll wait for you out here, if you don’t mind. It’s nice to get some sunshine on my head.”
After the terrible weather earlier in the day, Holly had to agree, even though it felt wrong not to force her guest inside and sit him down with a drink in his hand. “I’ll just be a minute.”
“No worries.”
As she changed into a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved T-shirt, Holly tried not to think about anything. If her mind was completely blank, then it would be a relief. Still, thoughts started to creep in around the edges.
If only you’d recognized the gunshot for what it was or stopped Phil at the driveway and ordered him to go home. The recriminating thoughts were both pointless and debilitating. Holly sank down onto her bed and brushed her hair with furious strokes to try to drive them away.
“All ready,” Holly said, pasting a cheery smile atop her depressed countenance as she walked out of the door to meet Willis. She had the sweats from Derek under her arm, then stopped as she realized that it would be politer to wash the clothes before returning them.
“What is it?”
Holly stared up at Willis, her mind turning blank with indecision. “I don’t know.” She sighed. “I’m having trouble getting my head to work under the circumstances.”
“If you don’t mind, I’d quite like to take a turn past Nina’s theater before we head back to the wedding.” Willis stared down the road, his hands on his hips. “I need to start processing what’s happened, and I think seeing her business would go some way toward that.”
“It’s a great idea, if you feel up to it right now. You could always leave it for another day, if you think that it might be overwhelming.”
“No.” Willis set his shoulders and looked down at Holly.
He must stand close to a half foot taller than her, making her feel like a petite china doll.
“I want to do it today so when I have to walk past there tomorrow morning, it’s not hanging over me like a specter.”
“Okay.” Holly suddenly realized she could put the clothes on and have them ready to hang out by the time they got back from their walk. Her brain was beginning to function again. “I’ll just pop inside for another minute, then I’ll be with you.”
With Derek’s sweats in the washing machine, Holly rejoined Willis and together they began the short walk back to Nina’s theater. The stink of smoke from the Phil’s burned motel next door hung in the air, growing stronger with every step.
“What a mess,” Holly said as they grew closer. “It’s hard to believe that yesterday a thriving business was standing here.”
After dousing the flames, the fire brigade had gone back through the wreckage and torn down the walls that were still standing. Although Holly understood it was to prevent the fire lying dormant inside a piece of timber to burst into life at a later date, the destruction was still hard to stomach. She was glad when they veered around the side and headed toward the brightly signposted theater instead.
“I watched so many good movies in here,” Holly said. “Back when I was dating Aidan, I think we ended up watching a new film almost every week.”
“I bet you saw some real stinkers, too, then,” Willis said with a sad smile. “Nina was always complaining how much more expensive it was to book in the blockbusters.”
Holly shrugged. “Just because they’re not breaking box office records doesn’t mean that they’re not great movies. She sold out a few months back with a film that must’ve been forty years old.”
“I suppose.” Willis moved forward and touched the edge of the sign reading ‘closed.’ “Nina always did have great taste.”
Holly was about to suggest that they turn about and retrace their steps when she heard a thump from the upstairs office. She frowned and withdrew a few paces, staring at the window.
“What was that?” Willis asked.
“I’m glad you heard it too,” Holly said. “I don’t know.” She tilted her head to one side and concentrated, trying to hear better. A few seconds later, she was rewarded with another thump.
“Do you think someone’s hurt?”
Holly moved to the side door and turned the handle. Locked. “I don’t know. It’d be weird if somebody was up there on a Sunday, wouldn’t it?” The doorway announced that it was the office for Isobel’s photography studio. “I wonder if Gwen’s managed to lock herself in there. She was in such a hurry to get away all day long, it’d be karma if it was.”
“Is anybody in there?” Willis yelled out at the top of his lungs. The bellow was enormous, though, Holly shouldn’t have been surprised given the size of his barrel chest.
She settled for turning the door handle again, then knocking on the wood, then the glass panel. She put her face up against the glass, squinting her eyes to try to make out anything beyond the netting that covered it on the inside. All she could see was the base of the stairs.
“If you’re okay, then answer me,” Willis called out. “Otherwise, I’m going to break the door down. Okay?”
This time the thumps were clearly audible and from the frantic banging, Holly could only surmise that they were in agreement with Willis’ suggestion. She stood well back as he took in a deep breath then ran at the door.
His shoulder hit just beneath the door handle with enough force that Holly could see it bend in and start to give, before the locking mechanism held it fast.
Willis stepped back, whistling a sharp breath through his teeth as he rubbed his impacted shoulder.
“Are you okay?” Holly asked, as he took a step back to give the door another hit.
This time, the wood began to splinter around the lock. The thumping from upstairs grew even more frantic, sounding like somebody stamping against the outer wall.
One more blow, and Willis burst in through the door, stumbling forward a few steps until he landed on the staircase. “Are you okay?” he called upstairs while Holly struggled past him and ran, leaping up two stairs with every footstep.
The door at the top was unlocked, thank goodness, and Holly twisted the handle and pushed through in one motion. Inside, a woman lay bound up on the floor, her feet kicking against the wall to make the sound. As Willis bounded up the stairs behind her, Holly dropped to her knees and pulled at the tape strapped across the woman’s mouth.
“Thank goodness you found me,” she called out. “I thought that I’d be here for days!”
“Who did this to you?” Holly called out while fumbling with the bindings.
At the same time, Willis leaned over and barked out, “Who are you?”
“My name’s Gwen Robertson,” the woman answered. “Somebody called Edin Reed tied me up. I saw her trying to set fire to the theater yesterday and she stole a whole lot of equipment out of our studio. We have to call the police. I think that she’s trying to kill the woman who owns the theater and she’s dressed up as me to do it!”
Chapter Seventeen
Holly nervously paced the length of the police station, hit the wall, turned, and paced the full length back.
“Won’t you take a seat?” Willis begged her after a few minutes. “You’re making me nervous.”
The door to the station banged open and Holly clutched a hand to her chest, thinking it might be the sergeant returning with the suspect in custody. She hoped the disappointment didn’t shine out too brightly from her face when Wendy and Meggie popped their heads into the waiting room.
“We heard that you might be down here,” Wendy said, stepping into the room and stopping Holly in her tracks as she offered up an enormous hug. “Has Matthewson caught up with the wicked woman yet?”
“No. We haven’t heard anything,” Holly s
aid, her frustration bubbling up with the words. “He just jumped into his car with PC Chandling and took off! I don’t even know which direction he was heading.”
“I’m sure that the sergeant will catch up with her,” Meggie said as she laid a reassuring hand on Holly’s shoulder. “And if he doesn’t bag her himself, I’m sure that another station will make the arrest before too long. It doesn’t seem like we’re dealing with a master criminal.”
“Enough of a master to pull the wool over our eyes for half a day. Not to mention, she managed to kill Nina in a marquee full of guests without anybody seeing anything!”
“That was luck and coincidence,” Wendy said. “Not the skillful thinking of a mastermind.” She turned to Willis who was seated in a waiting room chair, just like Holly should have been. “I’m so sorry for your loss, Willis. I know that you and Nina were close.”
He nodded, then stared intently down at the floor while his throat worked. Holly felt a rush of sympathy for the man. How awful to have lost somebody before you ever had the chance to take the relationship where you wanted it to go. That was unrequited love taken to the extreme.
“Did Crystal and Alec get away okay?” Holly suddenly thought to ask. Her sister and new brother-in-law had been planning on driving up north for their honeymoon. Although their plans weren’t set for where they’d stay each night, for a while there it hadn’t looked like they’d be leaving at all.
But Wendy soon put that fear to rest. “Yeah, they drove off in your car, drooping ribbons and all.” She slapped a hand against her forehead. “Oh, dear. I brought along the empty cans to tie up to the bumper but just plain forgot. They’ll be sitting in the corner of the marquee.”
Holly had to laugh at her friend’s expression. Wendy was overacting the remorse to the extreme. “I’m sure they’ll come in handy at another time,” she reassured her. “Why don’t you just pop them in your shed and haul them out the next time somebody announces their nuptials?”
“I’m weddinged out for the time being,” Wendy insisted. “After the disaster that was Sheila’s big day, I was hoping that Crystal and Alec would have a much smoother send off.” She shrugged. “Now, I guess I’ll just stick to funerals. At least they’re more predictable.”
“Predictability is overrated,” Meggie announced firmly. “Unlike coffee. If we’re all hanging around here until the sergeant phones with news, then I’m going on a caffeine run. What’s your pleasure?”
Holly gave her order, then changed her mind and decided to escort her friend along to the café. There’d be far too many coffees for her to handle by herself, and she hated getting one of those cup holders when they’d just be throwing it away.
“Is that the police car?” Meggie asked when they pulled out of the station exit. “If so, he’s back a lot sooner than I was expecting.”
The car whipped down the side road, ready to pull in around the back. “Was there somebody in the back seat?” Holly asked. “The sun was shining on the window, so I couldn’t see.”
“Nor me.” Meggie reversed direction and pushed back into the station. “It looks like Matthewson is back here in record time,” she told Wendy and Willis when they looked up, startled. “I hope he has some good news.”
The news was left to PC Chandling to pass on. The sergeant whisked his prisoner into the interview room, leaving the younger staff member to pass on the good news.
“We caught up to Erin Reed just past the bridge out of town. She’d pulled over to the side of the road to change a flat tire but didn’t have a replacement in the boot.”
The bad luck of that was astounding. Holly felt a twinge of sorrow that such a poorly planned out murder should have been so effective.
“Come on,” Meggie said after they’d milled around the station waiting room for another minute. “We’ve got our update. Time to leave here and get some hot drinks into us. We can come back for more news in a few hours, but you know as well as I do that there’ll be nothing to tell us for a good while yet.”
When the group walked back to the marquee, after a nice coffee and slice of cake at the Bean There, Done That café, PC Chandling caught up to them. He looked over his shoulder, ostensibly to check for traffic on the least busy street in Hanmer Springs, more likely to check that his boss wasn’t about.
“Hey, listen,” he said, turning back to the group, “I’d like to thank you for all your help today. No matter what the big man said, your wild theories did turn up the real killer in the end.”
“No, man.” Willis stepped forward and shook the PC’s hand. “It was our hearing that led us straight to who the killer was, and it was you and the sergeant who figured out where to go to arrest her. Everybody played their part.”
“Sure.” Chandling blushed as he accepted the return compliment. “Although we got lucky.”
“So did we,” Holly said, also stepping forward to shake the PC’s hand. “If we hadn’t been downstairs when the real Gwen started thumping, she might still be tied up in there.”
“You headed back to the wedding?”
“I think that’s well and truly over,” Holly said to Chandling. “But if you wanted to help us clear up, then we can always use an extra set of hands.”
“There seemed to be a lot of food left,” the PC said, falling into step beside the group as they headed on their way. “Unless Brian Masters has a use for it, I can take it down to the mission on my way back to the station.”
“That’d be great.” Holly looped her arm through his elbow. “And I think you missed out on a slice of wedding cake, didn’t you? I think we should at least sort you and the sergeant out on that front.”
Again, Chandling blushed. “That would be really good. I don’t buy nearly so many of your cupcakes as I want to. If I did, I’d be as big as a house.”
They walked into the marquee in good humor and Holly set aside some of the better condition cupcakes for the sergeant and the PC to snack on later. Next, she turned her attention to the plastic chairs, stacking them one on top of the other.
“Did you listen in to any of the interview?” she heard Wendy ask the PC as he worked alongside her taking down the decorations.
“Not at the station,” the constable said after a pause. “Though I did get an earful on the way back to town.”
“From Edin?” Holly asked. The name felt wrong in her mouth. Even after such a short acquaintance, her mind still linked the image with the name Gwen.
“Yeah. All about how she had to leave home when she was eighteen and had to live on a student benefit and work on the side to put herself through university.”
Holly snorted. “I had to do that too.”
The PC threw a grin her way. “Yeah. Same. We pretended to be very impressed with all her hardship though.”
“Did she say why she’d done it?” Willis asked. He’d gone very still while the PC was talking, frozen in place halfway through folding up a table.
“She said that the fire was spur of the moment. Apparently, Edin saw a can of kerosene by a go-cart and just picked it up. Before she thought too much about it, there was a trail splashed down the alleyway between the theater and the motel, and she was standing there with a lit match. When the wrong building burned to the ground, she thought that was all the sign she needed to get out of town.”
“That’s all the thought she gave burning down Phil’s livelihood?” Meggie seemed incensed.
“That’s what Edin said. Then, Gwen confronted her when she tried to get back to her car. Said she’d seen her light the fire and was going to tell on her to the police. Edin talked her into taking her back to the studio to talk things over, then hit her over the head and tied her up. She said it was fate that led her to the wedding reception. She saw the details and decided to dress up in one of the spare uniform jackets with the logo on it, to see if anybody noticed that she wasn’t the right person.”
“Hang on,” Willis held up a hand, his cheeks flushed bright red. “She had to get the gun off Phil at so
me point. When did that happen?”
The PC shrugged. “It didn’t come up, but I’m guessing that she saw her opportunity after the fire had been put out. The gun safe is immune to a lot of things, but a fire isn’t one of them.”
“And Edin just decided to shoot Nina because the woman wouldn’t give her what she wanted?” Holly’s mouth dropped open at the thought of such depravity. “How on Earth did she think she’d ever get away with it?”
“I don’t think she wanted to, at first,” Chandling said. He’d stopped all pretense of work and was now just holding court while the rest of them listened in horror. “Edin said that she was just waiting for the opportunity to take revenge. Since she already thought that the police would catch up to her for arson, she didn’t seem to believe that adding a murder charge would alter her future too much.”
“That woman is an abomination,” Willis said in a low voice. At first, Holly thought it was full of fury, then changed her mind when she saw his face. An expression of disbelief warred with regret.
“How about we stop thinking about Edin at all,” Holly said. “We should think of Nina instead. Do you remember when she decided that the best way to up the takings from the theater was to insist on a two-snack minimum, otherwise you had to stand at the back for the whole duration of the movie?”
Wendy offered up a nod and a soft laugh of recognition. “Or when she was organizing the fund-raising for the mission last year. She just got sick of all the red tape and walked up to harangue people before they could get into the pools.”
“Fair enough,” Meggie said with a smile. “If tourists have enough money to lay down for an hour or two in a fancy hot tub, then they should have spare change to help the folks who are down on their luck.”
They continued to discuss their memories of Nina as the group slowly packed up the marquee. Brian came in later and told them they were welcome to help themselves to any food left in the house. For the rest, Holly helped pack up the leftovers for the city mission and Chandling left with his arms straining from the weight of food. She was used to donating day-old cupcakes, when they were in good enough condition. To gift something on the same day was a much better treat.
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