Blizzard Mystery

by Linnea West

  "If Dawn and Jake weren't technically divorced then that means that your marriage to Jake is not legal," I started out, trying to lead up to the question gently. "So now that Jake has died, wouldn't his money automatically go to Dawn?"

  Anna looked dumbstruck. Her mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out. Mandy looked horrified that I had dared to ask that question. She kept blinking so much that it looked like her eyes were spasming. She was loudly chewing a piece of gum she had managed to find somewhere.

  "I, I, I guess so," Anna finally stammered out. "I've lost everything then. My husband, our money, our things. What am I going to do?"

  Mandy moved across the room and put her arm around Anna's shoulders. She gave her a squeeze while she sent a glare my way. Anna looked like she was frozen in time and I was the evil sorceress who had done the freezing. My heart sank down to my toes as Anna's entire world crumbled around her.

  "I'm going to take Anna out to the living room to give her some time to think," Mandy said.

  I nodded as Mandy practically pushed Anna back through the door to the living room. That worked out fine for me because I had other things I needed to do with all of this new information.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  After a quick check-in with Lyle and Claudia to make sure they were doing alright in the dining room, I brought my flashlight upstairs where I knocked on the door to Dawn's room. I waited for a moment before knocking again. This time, I could hear footsteps coming towards the door.

  "Who is it?" Dawn's voice came muffled through the door.

  "It's me, Tessa," I said. "I came to ask you a few questions."

  I sensed some hesitation on the other side of the door, but after a moment, I heard the lock turn and the door cracked open. I gently pushed it and slid in. Dawn immediately slammed the door shut and locked it again.

  "I feel like whoever killed Jake might come after me next," she said. "Mostly because I think Anna was the one who killed him and we both heard her threaten me."

  I gently took Dawn's arm and walked her further into her room, guiding her to one of the two chairs. Her guest room was one of the smallest, but there was still a little seating area in a corner next to a window with two armchairs and a small table in between.

  "Okay Dawn," I said once we were settled into the old but surprisingly comfortable armchairs. "Start at the beginning and tell me why you think Anna is the killer."

  Dawn gave me a suspicious look, but launched into her reasoning. As she spoke, I could feel her sincerity. She seemed like she really believed everything she was saying.

  "I have a few different reasons," she said. "Did you know that Anna has a boyfriend? I overheard Jake telling her that he was tired of her seeing someone else. He sounded pretty angry about it, so there's your motive. Plus, she didn't know that they weren't legally married, so she probably thought she could get away with it and get everything. She probably thought she'd have all of the money and her boyfriend too. Pretty sweet deal, especially when you don't have to deal with that jerk anymore."

  Anna had told me that Jake knew about the boyfriend and was okay with it, but Dawn says she heard that he wasn't. At this point, it was she said, she said. I wasn't sure who to believe, but it did poke a hole in Anna's story.

  "The other thing is that she could have saved him," Dawn said. "What took her so long to get his medicine? He always kept it in that pouch and I have a hard time thinking that he didn't show her where it was when he got here. When we were together, he was always very careful to have his injectors somewhere nearby and he always showed me where they were."

  "So you think that Anna may have just been lying when she said she couldn't find them?" I asked. I hated to doubt Anna, but Dawn made a good point.

  "I don't just think so, I'm pretty sure she is," Dawn said. "And I know she seems extra sad, but remember, she does work in showbiz. Anna may be mostly a dancer, but she is also an actress."

  I mulled all of this over in my mind, being more confused than ever about all of this. I could think of one more person I should talk to, but I really didn't want to. Clark had accompanied Anna up to the honeymoon suite to help her find the medicine. He would be the best person to ask about what she had been doing up there. I thought briefly about having Mandy question him but as the unofficial lead investigator in this murder, I suppose I'd have to suck it up and be the one to ask him.

  "Anything else you want to say before I go?" I asked.

  "Yes, one more," she said. "I know you think I'm a scumbag for all of this. I know it seems terrible, but I'm still reeling from all of this. I loved Jake once, but I got tired of living with a jerk. He was critical of my appearance and the fact that he thought I didn't try hard enough to look 'Hollywood' for him. He scrutinized anything I spent money on. And he could be downright cruel. I felt trapped and I ended up gaining weight and all Jake could do was mock me."

  Dawn's mousy face scrunched up as she started to cry. I reached over and handed her a tissue from the box next to me.

  "In the end, he decided I wasn't good enough to be his wife," she said as she wiped her cheeks. "So he divorced me. But I got the last laugh because I never signed the papers. So his marriage to that bimbo is a total sham."

  Dawn laughed a shaky laugh that disgusted me. Obviously I don't condone Jake's behavior towards her, but to ruin his life like this was totally uncalled for. I felt like no one involved in this entire business was very likable.

  I left Dawn's room, hearing the bolt slide shut as I walked down the hallway. But instead of going downstairs with everyone else, I headed to my room. I needed a little time to think.

  My room was cold and even though I never made my bed, Mandy always made hers. And since my bed had been her bed last night, that meant my bed was nicely made. I smiled as I plopped down on top of it and wrapped myself in a nice fuzzy blanket that Mandy had neatly folded and placed on the foot of the bed.

  Solving this murder was completely draining the energy out of me. It wasn't even the lack of sleep and electricity either. It was the sheer fact that the world was full of gray. There were no good or bad people in this scenario that was playing out. Instead, there were people that were shades of gray. They all had some sort of sob story that was wrapped up in their own nasty behavior. Add that to the fact that Jake hadn't exactly been a nice person himself and I've got a mystery that I didn't really feel like solving.

  In fact at this point, I felt like the only reason I was all wrapped up in this was because I had to be. I was stuck here and someone had to figure out what had happened to Jake because the police couldn't get here to do it themselves. I would have washed my hands of it long ago if I could have.

  I set my flashlight on my nightstand, standing up so that the beam made a bright circle on the ceiling. Since I was here, I really just needed a few minutes to lay here by myself and think. As I lay back, the fatigue I had been ignoring all day washed over me and I decided that it would be okay to close my eyes, just for a little while.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  My eyes flew open. It was pitch black in my room. I looked over at my flashlight which I had purposely left on, but it was dark. I grabbed it and the metal was cool in my hand. I pushed the button, but nothing happened. I clicked it a few more times, but the batteries must have died while I was sleeping.

  My heart started pounding so hard it was almost coming out of my chest. I was sure I looked like one of those cartoon characters except my heart wasn't pounding because I was so in love. My heart was pounding because absolute terror was taking hold of me.

  I was alone and I was in the dark. The room felt like it was closing in on me. I tried to look out the window to help ground myself, but there was no light out there. Everything was obscured by the storm that was still raging. I felt like I was trapped in this room and that I would be trapped forever, never able to leave this dark, cramped space. Normally my room felt small and cozy, but when it was plunged into the darkness, it felt all-consuming and full of dange
r.

  Sweat was covering my body and I started to feel frantic. The dark was starting to consume me and I tried to take a deep breath so that I could think. I usually kept extra batteries and an extra flashlight under my bed. I needed to find it before I passed out from lack of oxygen.

  I rolled off my bed, collapsing onto the floor as I was gasping for breath. There was a small tote under my bed where I kept my extras and I reached into the dark abyss of under the bed and pulled it out. I ripped the top off of the bin, trying my hardest to slow down my breathing and stay somewhat calm.

  There was no extra flashlight in my bin and I remembered that I had added it to the assortment of flashlights we had handed out to everyone. That was okay, I just needed to replace the batteries in the flashlight I already had. There were four batteries in the bin, but I only needed two.

  I grabbed the top of the flashlight and screwed off the top, dumping the batteries onto my carpet. With sweaty, shaky hands, I grabbed two batteries and shoved them into the flashlight chamber. It took me a few times to line the top back on and screw it back on, but as soon as it tightened up, I started to feel a twinge of relief at the possibility of filling this dark space of light soon.

  I pushed the rubber button in, but nothing happened. The room stayed pitch black and any bit of relief rushed out of me once again. I shook the flashlight, pushing the button frantically in and out. These batteries must be dead also. I tried to calm myself, no need to panic.

  There were still two more batteries in the bin, so I took as big of a breath as I was able and set about replacing the batteries once again. My hands were so sweaty and shaky that I had to use my sweatshirt to help me get a grip so that I could twist open the flashlight. I spilled the old batteries out and once again shoved the two last batteries in. I tried to focus all of my attention on my task and ignore the fact that somehow the darkness seemed to somehow be getting darker and thicker.

  Once again, nothing happened when I pressed the button. I wanted to cry, but the fear overtaking me stopped the tears from falling. Any sadness was pushed back by the fear. It was consuming everything in me, even my other emotions.

  I was an idiot, plain and simple. These were old batteries and for some reason I had shoved them back in the bin instead of throwing them away. It was something I hadn't even considered that someday I would be in an emergency like this and those old batteries would be what pushed me over the edge into a heaving, shaking panic attack.

  The shaking that had started in my hands was traveling throughout my own body now. I couldn't stop trembling as the dark pushed in on me even more. I knew that I just had to find my way out of here and back down to the living room, but that seemed absolutely impossible right now. I brought my knees up and wrapped my arms around them, putting my forehead down.

  As I shakily tried to take deep breaths, a small sound caught my attention in the hall. I wasn't sure if I was hearing things simply because of the dark that was pressing in or if there was someone out there. I tried as hard as I could to breathe as quietly as possible.

  There was the sound again. Someone was coming down the hallway, I just knew it. I could tell that whoever was out there was trying their hardest to be quiet. But who was it? Why were they sneaking around?

  Suddenly, the doorknob on my room was rattled as whoever was on the other side was trying to open the door. I focused on it, sure that I was hallucinating this. I was focusing so hard that it actually was helping me calm down just enough to pull me back from the brink of a panic attack.

  But then the doorknob was rattled again. Someone was trying to get in here and I don't think the tiny lock on the doorknob would be enough to stop whoever was out there. Even though they were being as stealthy as possible, there was a determination out there that was seeping through the locked door.

  I opened my mouth and the most bloodcurdling scream I've ever heard erupted from deep inside of me. It almost seemed like it was coming from someone else. But I couldn't stop. It rolled out of me like the shrieking wind outside and a small piece of me hoped someone would hear it and know it was me and not the blizzard that was still raging outside.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  It seemed like I sat there for hours, my voice growing hoarse as I screamed. But soon enough, I could hear people coming down the hallway again. This time, they were thundering instead of sneaking and I had to assume it wasn't whoever had been coming for me before.

  "Tessa, are you in there?" came Mandy's voice as fists started to pound on my door. "Open up. The door is locked so we can't open it."

  I took as deep a breath as I could and walked over to the door, turning the doorknob just enough to unlock it. I stepped back and the door burst open revealing everyone who was staying at the bed and breakfast, all of them holding bright flashlights that filled my room with light.

  Suddenly, everything felt better. My room was back to feeling cozy rather than full of an overwhelming darkness that was pushing in on me. My father was suddenly standing in front of me with his arms out and I collapsed into them. Now the tears started to flow.

  For a while, everyone allowed me to work through the tears, murmuring to each other as they wondered what was happening. Then Mandy appeared at my father's side, putting her hand gently on my arm.

  "Tessa, what happened?" she asked gently.

  I took a deep breath and told them everything that had happened, from my falling asleep and waking up to the flashlight batteries being dead to whoever had tried to open my door.

  "Do you think it was the killer trying to get you?" Dawn asked, her dark eyes opening wide.

  "Don't be silly, I'm sure she was imagining it," Candy said. Clark gave her a slightly horrified look but for once I don't think she was trying to be mean. She looked genuinely scared, her red hair flying everywhere. By writing off my fears, she was trying to make herself feel better. And I really couldn't blame her.

  "Why don't we all move back downstairs and try to calm down a bit," my mother said from the back of the group. "We can get some coffee and snacks out for anyone who would like them."

  Almost as one, the group turned around and started back down the hallway, taking most of the light with them. Clark hesitated for a moment, but Candy grabbed his arm and pulled him along. He shot a guilty glance at me, but allowed himself to be pulled away.

  I was left in my room with my father and Mandy, one on either side of me. For a moment, we all stood in silence as I continued to slow down my breathing. I was almost back to what I would consider my normal state.

  "Are you alright?" my father asked once again. There was concern in his eyes that was apparent even in the low light. No matter how old I got, I was always his baby.

  "I'm fine," I said. "Can I ask you all to do one thing? Can you leave me a flashlight and go downstairs without me."

  "Are you sure?" Mandy asked. "That doesn't seem right."

  "I need to make sure I can be comfortable in my own room again," I said. "And I need to do that by myself."

  My father and Mandy glanced at each other and after a moment, Mandy handed over the flashlight she was holding. After another moment of hesitation, they both walked out my bedroom door and into the hallway, glancing back over their shoulders to make sure I was okay.

  "I'll be okay now that I have the flashlight," I said.

  I nodded at them both with a small smile on my face, hoping they would see that the fear had been pushed back down. As they left, I sat back down on my bed, taking a deep breath. I slowly moved the flashlight around the room, letting myself get reacquainted with all of the corners of my cozy room.

  Once I had looked around the entire space with the flashlight all while taking deep breaths, I was back to feeling like my calm self. I was ready to rejoin the world of downstairs but as I stood up, I wondered if I was ready to keep investigating. What if the killer had been the one coming down the hallway?

  For now, I just needed to rejoin the little world of the bed and breakfast. I gripped the flashlight
tightly as I left my room and started down the hallway but before I could get far, a glint caught my eye.

  The beam of light from the flashlight was hitting something on the floor and reflecting back. I hadn't noticed it before, so I had to assume that it hadn't been there for long. All of a sudden, I felt suspicious. I glanced around to make sure no one else was there, but I was all alone. I crept towards the glint and knelt down.

  There on the rug that ran down the middle of the hallway was a gold ring. I reached out to pick it up but just as I was about to touch it, I pulled back. What was I doing? This may be potential evidence. I couldn't just pick it up and contaminate it. I dashed into my room and grabbed a tissue.

  This time, I picked it up with the tissue, careful not to touch it with my skin. It was a thick gold ring that appeared to be a men's wedding band. I turned it around a few times, but it was just plain gold. Then I noticed that the inside appeared to have an inscription.

  I grasped the ring through the tissue in one hand and got the flashlight as close to it as I could so that I could read it. The inscription was really small and I was holding the ring so close to my face to try and read it that I actually held my breath, concerned that somehow breathing on the ring could transfer tiny bits of my DNA on it. I squinted until I could read the small, scrawling inscription.

  To my Jakers from your Anna Banana

  How in the world had Jake's wedding ring made it all the way up to our personal, family area of the B&B? He had certainly never been up here while he was alive or dead. I sat back on my heels and thought for a moment. Did this mean that whoever was up here trying to get into my room was the killer?

  The realization was washing over me that whoever killed Jake may have been trying to kill me just now. Usually in the crime movies that I watched that meant the detective was getting too close to figuring the case out. But I absolutely was not close to figuring it out. I had no idea who did it and every time I thought I was close, something else came up that totally contradicted it.