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Moving as quickly as she could, she rushed in the direction of the scream. When she got outside the cabin, she saw Cora bolt out, her face white and her eyes huge.
“What’s wrong?” asked Beatrice tersely.
Starr apparently heard the scream too and came rapidly out of the dining hall. “What’s going on?” she demanded.
Cora’s mouth trembled. “It’s Olive. She’s dead.”
Starr and Beatrice hurried into the cabin as Cora sank down on the porch of the small building as if not trusting her legs to hold her up.
“Let’s not touch anything but Olive,” said Beatrice quietly. “Just in case.”
Olive was in the bed, eyes open and staring sightlessly into space. A pillow lay partially on her chest.
“Oh no,” grated Starr.
Beatrice felt for a pulse, but knew it was futile. Olive was clearly gone.
“What happened?” asked Starr quietly. “She was just fine earlier. You saw her, too.”
Beatrice said, “Let’s leave the cabin. Can you lock it up behind you?”
“But her roommate won’t be able to get in.”
Beatrice shook her head. “Her roommate was Aspen, remember? We should block off the area to preserve it for the cops whenever they get here.”
Starr muttered, “If they can get here. The weather has gotten even worse.”
As they were moving away, Beatrice glanced around them. Everything seemed to be in order. But she wondered about the pillow that had been lying partially on top of Olive’s chest. Had someone smothered Olive?”
Once outside, Cora looked at them fearfully. “Could you wake her up?”
Beatrice shook her head. “She was gone.”
Cora gave a sob, then seemed to try to pull herself together.
There was yelling again, this time coming from the dining hall.
Starr hissed, “What’s going on?”
Maggie stepped out of the building and, spotting Starr, glared at her. “Now the power is out! What are we supposed to do with no power?”
It was just as Beatrice had feared. It didn’t take much ice to bring power lines down and they’d certainly had a lot of it.
Starr waved her hand at her. “I’ve got other problems right now.” She turned and, fishing in her pocket, pulled out a set of keys. She carefully locked the cabin door behind her and looked at Beatrice. In a low voice she said, “We’ve got to figure out what’s going on. Who knows how long it will take the police to get here?”
Beatrice nodded. “Should we talk with the Sew and Sews individually?” She glanced over at Cora, but the woman was still staring blankly out into the storm. “An office, maybe? Perhaps one with plenty of natural light, since we don’t have power now, apparently?”
Starr nodded. “My office. There are windows there and no one can listen in.” She paused. “I understand you have some experience doing this. However, I’m in charge of the conference center. I’ll allow you to take the lead on asking questions, but I must be involved in the process as a representative of the retreat.”
Considering Starr at first was even reluctant to allow Meadow to cook food for the group, it seemed like quite a concession. Beatrice nodded.
Starr muttered, “We should probably speak to Cora first.”
Cora, hearing her name, momentarily jerked back into reality. “What are we doing?”
“We’re going to chat with you in my office for a minute,” said Starr. “We need to gather all the information we can about what happened.”
“I don’t want to chat with you. I don’t want to chat with anybody,” said Cora. “I just want to go back to my cabin and lock the door. I want to get away from everybody.”
Beatrice said, “We know it’s hard. But we must figure out what’s going on. As soon as we’re done speaking with you, you can go to your cabin.” A frigid blast of air hit them and she added, “Plus, we want to get inside.”
Reluctantly, Cora followed Starr and Beatrice to Starr’s office. But first, they had to make their way through the lodge. There, the quilters had picked back up with playing Monopoly, and the game had become even more raucous in the interim. As they came in, Meadow asked cheerfully, “Come to cheer us on? Nicole has Boardwalk, but Savannah has hotels on all the green properties. It’s a nail-biter.”
She quickly grew solemn when she realized how grim the women looked. “Mercy, what’s happened?” asked Meadow.
Starr paused. Then she said slowly, “I’d like to announce what happened during another group meeting, but the dining hall doesn’t have enough light. I’m afraid there’s been another death.” There was an explosion of cries, and she hurried on, “It was Olive. I’m so sorry.”
Ivy, who’d been watching the game, croaked, “What? Are you sure? She was just here.”
Starr nodded. “We’re sure.” She held up her hand as Ivy and the other Sew and Sews started asking questions at once. “We just don’t have a lot more information than that. I want to let you know that we’re trying to get to the bottom of this. Beatrice has helped her local police department with cases previously. And I will be assisting her in her inquiries.”
Maggie said angrily, “How do we know Beatrice wasn’t involved?”
Meadow glared at her. “Beatrice didn’t even know these women!”
Maggie shrugged. “But for all we know, she could be some sort of homicidal maniac.”
The women all stared at Beatrice in her puffy jacket as if she might pull a hatchet out of her pocket at any moment.
“Ridiculous!” said Savannah severely. “Beatrice is the sanest person I know.”
The other Village Quilters murmured their assent. Piper said, “As her daughter, I can attest to that.”
“Then what about Starr?” said Maggie in a huffy voice. “She could be involved. How can we trust her?”
Starr said coldly, “I’ve never met Aspen in my life. Why on earth would I want to kill her?” She waved her hand again, more dismissively this time. “This is using up valuable time. As I stated, we’re going to start speaking with everyone now. We’ve got to gather information that could help keep us all safe.”
Beatrice nodded. “We’ll be speaking with the Village Quilters, too. Although none of us knew Aspen or Olive, we might have important information that can serve as clues to help us figure out what’s happened.”
Starr motioned Beatrice and Cora to follow her and they left the room, where the women’s voices were raised as they tried to absorb what was happening.
Starr’s office was in the back of the lodge, tucked away from busier areas. It was a plain, tidy room and, as promised, had plenty of natural light. But Starr was already thinking ahead to later in the day when the light would be waning. “Best to pull these out now,” she muttered as she grabbed a couple of battery-powered lanterns from a storage closet. She sighed. “I’m afraid it’s going to start getting cold in here soon, with the power out. But I don’t think we can commandeer the area in front of the fireplace. I’ll get some blankets in here later.”
Cora took a seat in front of Starr’s desk and Starr motioned Beatrice to sit behind her desk and shoved a notebook and a pen her way.
Cora looked wearily at the two women. “What is it you want to know?”
Beatrice gave her a sympathetic look. “I know this is tough. If you’re able to, I think it would be very helpful if we hear how you came to find Olive. Can you walk us through that? Were you looking for her for some reason?”
Cora nodded. Although she’d been rather gregarious the first time Beatrice had spoken with her, she now seemed almost removed, as if she had a filter in place as emotional protection. “I wanted to borrow a pair of earbuds from her. She’d mentioned earlier that she had an extra pair. I’d thought I could relax for a little while and listen to some podcasts.”
Starr raised her eyebrows. “Podcasts? With no wi-fi?”
“I’d downloaded them before I left home,” said Cora in a listless voice. “No wi-fi needed.”
Beatrice gave her a friendly smile. “That was smart. I wish I’d put a little more time into planning this trip.”
Cora gave a small smile in return. “I always like to have stuff downloaded for a road trip. You never know when you’re going to hit a pocket where you don’t have any reception. Anyway, I knocked on Olive’s door to get the earbuds. She didn’t answer. I thought that was weird because I’d just told her I was going to be coming by.”
Beatrice said, “When I’d seen Olive earlier, she wasn’t feeling very well. Maybe she’d decided to put her feet up for a few minutes.”
Starr’s eyes narrowed. “You think Olive might have had a natural death?”
“No,” said Beatrice. “But it’s interesting. Did she say anything to you about it, Cora?”
“She didn’t. Although she kept rubbing her temple as if her head hurt,” said Cora slowly. “It didn’t occur to me that she might have gone to lie down or anything, though. I thought maybe she was in the restroom, so I just waited for a while outside the cabin. Until I started getting really cold.”
“Which probably didn’t take long,” said Beatrice.
“Exactly. So I started knocking a little louder. Then I just decided to walk in.” She gave another small shrug. “You know the rest.”
Beatrice said, “Right. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to be helpful to know everyone’s movements prior to finding Olive. Could you help fill me in?”
Beatrice held her breath. She thought Cora might raise an objection to this, but instead she looked disinterested.
“Sure. It’s not all that interesting. I was in the dining hall for a while, having a snack and getting a hot drink. I tried to make a phone call without any luck. Olive was in there, and I mentioned the earbuds to her. She told me she had an extra pair that she could lend me.”
“But you didn’t immediately follow her there to get them?” asked Starr with a frown.
“No. Olive wanted to talk with somebody.”
Beatrice and Starr looked at each other. “Do you know who Olive wanted to speak with?”
“No. I didn’t ask. She seemed really preoccupied to me, so I just told her I’d grab them from her later. Then I walked back to the lodge and watched the Monopoly game. Later, I was ready to find something to do, so I went back out to find Olive.”
Starr said, “I guess the women playing the Monopoly game couldn’t have done it.”
Cora snorted. “Of course they could have. Everyone was getting up all the time. They’d get up to get coffee or to use the bathroom or head to the dining hall to get a quick snack. Everybody had opportunity.”
Beatrice said, “How well did you know Olive?”
“I knew her well. We all did. Olive was an integral member of the guild.” Cora stopped and seemed to swallow hard. After a moment, she said, “Unlike Aspen, she’s sure to be missed.”
Starr said, “You weren’t fond of Aspen.”
“No one was fond of Aspen. I firmly believe Aspen preferred it that way. The only thing any of us liked about Aspen was her quilting skills. It’s a pity you didn’t get the chance to see her at work. She’d have created something amazing this weekend. Other than that, yeah. Aspen was a pain. I think it bothered me the most that she seemed so spoiled and entitled. I had to work for everything I had,” said Cora.
“You had a tough upbringing?” asked Beatrice.
“It sure was. My dad left my mom when I was just a kid and never supported her. She had two jobs and neither one of them was easy. As soon as I was old enough, I had an after-school job to help pay for my education. Even then, I couldn’t pay off my student loans for ages. I thought things would get easier as I got older, but if anything, they’ve gotten tougher. Mom has memory impairment and lives with me. Everything has been hard.” She paused and then said in a bitter voice, “Someone like Aspen wouldn’t understand any of that.”
“But Olive would have?” asked Starr.
“Olive was great. She didn’t come from a rough background like me, but she was very empathetic. This shouldn’t have happened. If I’d realized we were in any sort of danger, I’d have made sure everyone stayed together.” Her sadness abruptly shifted to anger as she looked at Beatrice. “Who’s doing this? If you’re such a great sleuth, why can’t you figure this out?”
Starr frowned. “I think it’s far too early to be leveling criticism, don’t you?”
Cora pressed her lips together before saying, “I’m sorry. You’re right.”
Beatrice asked, “Did you feel like Olive was acting any differently than usual?”
“How do you mean?” Cora frowned.
Beatrice said, “Distracted. Worried. You mentioned that she was preoccupied.”
“Well, sure. But aren’t we all acting a little differently right now? It’s called stress. It makes all of us behave in unusual ways. Maybe Olive was even feeling guilty, you know? Maybe she was relieved Aspen was gone and felt guilty over her reaction.”
Starr raised her eyebrows. “But you don’t think she felt guilty because she murdered Aspen?”
“No.”
Starr pushed more. “If you had to pick someone who might have had something to do with these deaths, who do you think it would be?”
Cora pursed her lips for a moment, thinking.
Beatrice said, “The last time I spoke with you, you seemed to think that Ivy might be responsible.”
“Did I?” Cora frowned. “I don’t remember saying that.”
“You spoke about her motive a little.”
Cora said, “Oh, you mean because Aspen was having an affair with her husband. Yeah, that was a thing. But I don’t think I said Ivy murdered Aspen. I still find it hard to believe that one of our group did anything at all . . . to Olive, anyway. I suppose Maggie could have killed Aspen. Then, maybe, she could have murdered Olive to cover her tracks. I guess maybe Olive knew something—is that the assumption we’re operating under?”
Beatrice and Starr nodded. Beatrice asked, “Why do you think Maggie might have been involved?”
“Well, I wasn’t going to say anything after Aspen died because I figured it didn’t really matter or wasn’t pertinent. But now that Olive has died, I think you should know. Maggie has been playing around on her fabulously wealthy husband. Maybe Aspen found out and threatened to let Maggie’s husband know about the affair.”
Starr’s brow creased. “Why would Aspen do that?”
“Because that’s the kind of person Aspen was,” said Cora. “She liked to stir up trouble.”
Beatrice asked, “What would have happened if Maggie’s husband found out she was having an affair?”
“He’d have dropped her like a hot potato. Believe me, she’d be living a very different life than the privileged one she’s living now.”
Starr said, “That must have been very stressful for Maggie. Being worried her secret was going to come out.”
“Hey, we’re all dealing with stress. I’m stressed now, myself. Like I said, my mom has been having all sorts of issues and I’ve been very worried about her. But most of us don’t murder people when we’re stressed out. The difference here is that Maggie was worried about Aspen revealing her secret. Maybe she decided to hush her up permanently. Or maybe she didn’t. I’m no expert. I’d still like to learn that these murders were perpetrated by some sort of itinerant person who happened into the conference grounds.”
Starr looked rather wistful as if she too wished it were that simple.
Then Cora gave a shiver. “If you’re all done, I’m ready to get out of this office and warm up by the fire.”
Beatrice nodded and Cora quickly took her leave.