The Inn at Holiday Bay: Boxes in the Basement Page 10

  “Colt told me the boxes you found were from a school project. Some kind of time capsule.”

  “That’s right. He was going to find out if any other boxes were missing from the school.”

  “There aren’t,” Lonnie said. “An inventory was completed, and those were the only missing boxes.”

  “I guess that’s good. It does seem there’s a strong link between the boxes and the fate of the first three girls. Did he ever find Darcy’s boyfriend?”

  “He did,” Lonnie confirmed. “He’d had a fight with Darcy earlier in the day and taken off for a few days to calm down. He doesn’t actually have an alibi because he took off alone and just drove around and stayed in cheap motel rooms for which he paid cash. I think Colt still has him as a suspect but doesn’t think he’s guilty.”

  Wilder was probably right. Adam as the killer didn’t fit if all the girls with boxes were the target of the same person.

  “Did he ever find the girl in the photo he was showing around? The one that was posted to social media shortly after Darcy left the bar?”

  Lonnie shook his head. “Not yet. He’s still looking, but so far, no one knows who she is.”

  “It seems like this should be easy to figure out if the same person targeted Karen, Darcy, Carrie, and Tracy,” Lacy said. “How many people could there be with motive to want to do harm to all of them?”

  Good question. My gut told me there was something we were missing. Something that would begin to make sense of something so senseless.

  Chapter 12

  Rufus apparently decided that sleeping on top of the covers was no longer good enough for him and had begun snuggling under the covers and curling up against my back. He was warm and provided a certain amount of comfort, so I didn’t mind as much as I would have thought I would just a short time ago, but now I was positioning myself to accommodate his needs, which, when I examined the fact that I was afraid to move at night, was kind of ridiculous.

  I rolled over, pulled up the sheet, and looked under the mountain of blankets on the bed. “Good morning, handsome. It’s time to get up.”

  Rufus yawned.

  “I know you like to snuggle up under the covers, but I have a crick in my neck from staying in one position all night. I think we may need to work out a different system than this one, where you sleep wherever you want and I sleep around you.”

  “Meow.”

  “Yes, it does smell like Georgia is up and has made coffee. Let’s get up before she starts breakfast. I was thinking we’d head over to Velma’s.”

  “Meow.”

  “If the place isn’t crowded, I’m sure she’ll make you eggs.”

  I flung the covers off and crawled out of my warm bed into the cold room. I used the remote to turn up the heat, then padded into the bathroom.

  ******

  Velma had been standing behind the counter, chatting with the only two customers, when we walked in. Now she said, “Morning, girls. How was your weekend?”

  We sat down at a nearby table. “It was really nice. I had dinner with Lonnie and Lacy and their six children last night. Six seems like so many, but they make it feel just right.”

  “I know the triplets came as quite a shock, but they were able to roll with the punches and built the sort of family most of us only dream of. Can I get you some coffee?”

  We both nodded.

  “How’s the remodel coming?” Velma asked as she handed us menus.

  “The demolition crew showed up in full force today. It’s both loud and dusty, but I’m excited to see the house begin to come together. With so many workers in the place all at once, life is about to get pretty hectic.”

  “Which is why we ducked out and came here for breakfast.” Georgia laughed.

  Velma turned toward the two women at the counter. “Abby here bought the house on the bluff. She’s going to fix it up and open it as an inn, which Georgia will run.”

  “Charlee Weaver,” a tall, thin woman with white hair pulled back in a bun and faded blue eyes introduced herself. “And this is Wanda Rigby.”

  “Great to meet you both.” I smiled in return.

  “I’m happy to hear someone’s going to fix up that old house,” said Wanda, a woman with short brown hair streaked with gray. “It’s been sitting empty as long as I can remember.”

  “I always have thought it would make a lovely inn,” Charlee added. “The view from the house must be spectacular.”

  “It is pretty nice,” I agreed.

  “Are the kids in the car?” Velma asked, after topping off Charlee and Wanda’s mugs from the coffeepot.

  “They are,” Georgia answered.

  “Well, bring them on in. I’ll give them some breakfast in the mudroom. Are the two of you ready to order?”

  “I’ll just have the special,” I said.

  Georgia seconded that, then went out to get the animals.

  “Abby here is a writer,” Velma informed Charlee and Wanda. “Mysteries and whatnot.”

  “What have you written?” Wanda asked.

  I named a few of my titles.

  “You’re Abagail Sullivan?”

  I nodded.

  “I’ve read several of your books. I really enjoy your women’s fiction. Please don’t tell me you’re going to stop writing now that you’re opening an inn.”

  “No, I’m not quitting. I’ll be writing while Georgia runs the inn. Do the two of you live here in Holiday Bay?”

  “For over forty years,” Charlee answered.

  “Charlee is a retired history teacher,” Velma supplied. “She taught at the high school for over thirty years. And Wanda was the school nurse for more than twenty years until she retired two years ago.”

  “So you both must have known Darcy Jared,” I said as Georgia returned with the animals.

  “Abby found boxes in the basement of her house that may solve Darcy’s murder,” Velma explained.

  “What sort of boxes?” Charlee asked.

  I told them what I’d found and what I believed they could indicate. “Lonnie and Lacy Parker and I looked at yearbook photos of the students and staff from the year the four girls were seniors and came up with twenty-two students and twelve staff who still live around here. Now that I think about it, both of your names are on that list. I’m not accusing anyone of anything. It was just the next step, because the boxes were from the time capsule project.”

  “Do you have that list with you?” Charlee asked.

  I opened my purse and pulled it out.

  She held out her hand and I gave it to her. “The eight students and two staff on the bottom of the list are people the Parkers weren’t sure still lived in this area but couldn’t say for sure.”

  “So you think one of the people on this list killed Darcy?” Wanda asked.

  “I don’t know anything for certain, and as I said, I’m not making accusations. The four boxes were part of a senior high school project. Three of the four girls whose time capsules ended up in my basement are either missing or dead. It can’t hurt to explore that link.”

  After a bit of further discussion, we determined that of the people Lonnie and Lacy were unsure of, three of the students were still in town. That left a total of thirty-seven people, twenty-five students—eleven male and fourteen female—and twelve staff—seven male and five female—all of whom still lived here.

  Velma frowned as she looked at the list. “I understand your reasoning, but I can’t believe anyone on this list would harm those girls. There has to be another explanation.”

  “And there may very well be,” I assured Velma. “This is just a theory. And it isn’t even grounded in anything more than a hunch.”

  “Have you talked to Colt about this?” Velma asked.

  “No. Not really. I haven’t spoken to him since the day I showed him the boxes.”

  “Is it your theory that the person who killed Darcy has been a friend to all four girls since high school?” Wanda asked.

  “Not necessar
ily. He or she may not have been friends with any of the four girls in high school. I do think they might be part of their circle of influence. Someone who was around but may not have been good friends with any of them. The person we’re looking for could have been a student or a teacher.”

  Charlee sat back and crossed her arms. “I taught at the high school for more than thirty years, so this is hitting close to home. I’m finding myself mentally reviewing every staff member and every student on the list and being revolted by the thought that any one of them could be a killer.”

  “I agree,” Wanda said. “I understand why someone who’s new to town and doesn’t know the people involved might come to the conclusion you have, but I don’t think you’ll find Darcy’s killer on this list. Besides, you think Darcy, Karen, and Carrie might all be victims of the same killer. From what I heard, Carrie took off of her own free will.”

  “She didn’t take off,” Velma said with conviction. “There’s a lot about this I’m unsure of, but the one thing I know is that that girl didn’t desert her baby.” Velma took a deep breath, obviously struggling with her emotions. After a moment, she looked at Georgia and me and continued. “Carrie had a tough life. She was brought up by an aunt when her mom died and her dad was sent to prison. She worked hard and did well in school. She worked for me in the summer and part time during the year. It was important to her to pay her own way. When she found out she was pregnant, she told the father, who immediately told her he wasn’t interested in her baby. Carrie didn’t panic as many young women in her situation would have; she hunkered down and did what it took to raise that baby on her own. She got a full-time job as a cashier at the market and volunteered at the day care center in exchange for babysitting. She never stopped attending church and had been dating Grayson Porter. Life always had been hard on her, but she was a fighter, a survivor. There’s no way in hell she’d throw in the towel and abandon everything she’d worked so hard for, and she would never have deserted that baby.”

  “Were there any suspects in her disappearance?” I asked.

  “The detective spoke to Grayson and a few of her friends, but when there wasn’t a record of the call she supposedly received from her friend, he was sure she ran away,” Charlee said.

  “What happened to the baby?” I asked.

  “She’s living with Carrie’s aunt,” Velma answered.

  “Did Grayson Porter go to the local high school?” I asked.

  “No,” Wanda said. “He moved to town shortly before he started dating Carrie.”

  Which probably meant he wasn’t a suspect unless my theory was totally wrong and the girls’ deaths weren’t related to the boxes in the basement or each other. “Other than Grayson and the baby, who did she hang out with?”

  No one spoke.

  “She must have had friends,” I encouraged.

  “She was awfully busy,” Velma said. “Between the baby, her job, and her volunteer work, she didn’t have time for socializing.”

  “I understand how a woman who writes mysteries and spends her time thinking up murder plots might become interested in the fate of girls whose belongings she found in the house she recently purchased,” Wanda said, “but I’m not sure there’s a single person responsible for everything. Karen Stinson died from a fall, didn’t she?”

  “Maybe,” I acknowledged. “From what I’ve been told, Karen liked to hike and ski. It makes sense she could have been out hiking and taken a fall. I understand she was a bit of a loner and would have been hiking alone. But Lacy told me her kids attended the preschool where Karen taught, and she frequently spoke to the kids about wilderness safety. It seems she would have been careful when out on her own.” A thought occurred to me. “Is the preschool where Karen worked also the day care center where Carrie volunteered?”

  “Yes, it’s the same,” Velma answered. “This is a small town. The place has day care for children from six months to five years and a preschool for those three to five.”

  “I know Darcy was single and worked in a bar, but just out of curiosity, did she have any connection to that facility?”

  “She picked up her niece and nephew most afternoons,” Wanda supplied. “Her sister Michelle has four children who all need transportation to or from one thing or another most days, so Darcy helped out when she could.”

  I frowned. I’d linked three of the four girls to the day care center. Should I try for a perfect four? “What about Tracy Edwards?” I asked. She was also single and had only recently returned to town after moving away after high school. “Did she have any connection to the preschool?”

  All three women said she most likely didn’t.

  Too bad; I’d been on a roll with that one for a minute.

  ******

  After we returned to the cottage, I went to the main house to check on the demolition crew’s progress. Talk about a loud and dusty chaos. Lonnie had requested three dumpsters to be delivered from the refuse company and two of them were already full.

  “Wow! It looks so different in here.”

  Lonnie was standing in the kitchen, which was now empty of cabinets and appliances. “Once we get those old doors out, it’s really going to open up the space. Have you decided on materials for the cabinets and countertops?”

  “I have it narrowed down to a few options. I’ll take another look at the samples and let you know so you can get everything ordered.”

  “If you don’t like any of the samples I picked out for you, there are more. A lot more, in fact. If you want to see something specific, just let me know.”

  “Thanks. It helps to look at an actual piece of wood rather than just photos of cabinets. As for the countertops, I’m thinking granite. I’d love to get a peek at some slabs so I can get a feel for how the grain runs throughout.”

  “I know a guy who has slabs. He has a warehouse in Portland. I’ll arrange for you to visit if you’d like.”

  “Thanks. I might do that. For now, I’ll take another look at the samples and try to narrow things down.” I walked to the back, where they were dismantling a bathroom to build the walk-in pantry. “The suite we’re building for Georgia will go on the other side of this wall?”

  “Right. I’m going to tap into the old plumbing for her bathroom. I’ll upgrade everything, of course, but the line to the main should be fine. As long as you’re here, let me ask what you want us to do with the stuff in the attic.”

  “Do you need to do something with it right now?”

  “No. The crew here can carry it down if you want to toss it, but it can stay where it is if you want to take your time. My plan is to demolish the whole place at once, then rebuild it one room at a time when I have my skilled laborers and subcontractors here.”

  “So this team is just here for the teardown?”

  “Pretty much. My journeymen are finishing up another job, but they should be ready to start once the grunt work is done.”

  “I think I’d like to leave the stuff in the attic alone until I have time to look through it. You never know when a treasure might be lurking in an old box marked dishes.”

  Lonnie laughed. “I like the way you think. We’ll do the teardown for the first three floors but leave the attic and basement untouched for the time being.”

  I nodded. “Great. By the way, I wanted to thank you again for dinner last night. You have a beautiful family."

  “They are pretty great. And Lacy was thrilled you wanted to spend time with us after your first visit. She’s already bugging me about having you and Georgia over soon.”

  “We’d enjoy that. I’d invite you to my cottage, but I’m not sure you’d all fit.”

  “Maybe when this grand lady is done, we can all have dinner in your fabulous new dining room on the awesome table Lacy is refinishing for you.”

  “Count on it.”

  I returned to the cottage and got out the samples Lonnie had given me, beginning to look through them again. For the cabinets, I wanted something with a country look and feel.
White? Perhaps. Or maybe a blue stain on darker wood? Or even gray? I should ask Georgia for her input. Ultimately it was my decision, but I’d noticed she had a good eye when it came to visualizing the way different colors and materials worked together.

  “What’s with the frown?” Georgia asked when she came in from walking Ramos.

  “I’m trying to pick materials for the kitchen. I know I want granite for the countertops, hardwood cabinets, and hardwood floors, but trying to decide what sort of wood to use for the floor and cabinets and what color granite to use for the countertops is proving to be more difficult than I thought it would be.”

  “Are you thinking of going with light or dark granite?”

  “I’m not sure. I guess it depends on whether the cabinets are light or dark.”

  Georgia sat down next to me. “It’s hard to get a feel from these small samples.”

  “Lonnie knows of a place in Portland where I can look at slabs. Do you want to take a drive?”

  “Sure. I’m up for it.”

  ******

  Later, when Georgia and I returned to the cottage, we turned on the gas fireplace and got into our pajamas. She snuggled on the sofa with Ramos and I snuggled in the big lounge chair with Rufus. It had been a successful day. I chose a dark gray granite with streaks of black for the countertops, with cabinets stained with a light gray finish. The floor would be a deep, rich walnut, the appliances stainless steel. I’d decided to go with glass-faced cabinets that would display the white plates and cobalt-blue serving pieces. Georgia helped me draw it out, and I felt the colors we’d chosen captured the country inn aspect as well as the feel of the sea.

  On the way back from Portland, we’d stopped at Lonnie and Lacy’s house so I could introduce Lacy to Georgia. As predicted, the two hit it off, and by the time we left, it almost seemed we’d all known one another for years. Lacy invited us to the football buffet she’d planned for a week from Sunday. There would be other friends at the gathering, and Georgia and I figured it would provide an opportunity for us to meet others in the community.