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Nicole jumped up to go after her, but Maggie put a hand across hers. “Let her go, Nicole. There’s no point in any of us getting hurt or freezing to death out there. The cops are on their way, right?”
Meadow said, “Apparently, they’re able to get on the roads. At least they’re trying to.”
Nicole stood up and walked to the lodge door, locking it.
“What are you doing?” asked Starr. She’d been quietly sitting by the fire, looking pale and drawn during the scene. Now she sat up a little, staring at Nicole.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m locking the door.”
Starr shook her head. “It’s getting dark out there. We don’t know that the police are on their way. Cora might try to retrace her steps and get back here to get warmed up.”
“Well, too bad about that,” said Nicole sarcastically. “She should have thought about that before she murdered two people.”
Posy shifted nervously. “Maybe we should allow her to come inside. If we don’t, we’re just as bad as she is.”
Nicole’s expression changed as she considered this. “True. But I don’t want her coming back in here and trying to kill one or more of us.”
Beatrice said, “Let’s take turns staying up this evening. Then, if she comes back, we let her in but maybe we figure out a way to confine her to a particular area of the lodge. The police are on their way, but they’re clearly taking their time in order to make it here safely. Maybe we should try to get some rest. Aside from whoever is on the first shift, of course.”
That was decided as the plan. Meadow offered to take the first shift. She busily worked on some hand-stitching by the light of the fire as the others pulled their bedding back out onto the floor and fell into light sleeps. Although it was dark outside, it was definitely not bedtime. But the stress caught up with the women and they tried to rest.
Beatrice didn’t think she’d be able to sleep much at all, which had been the theme to her entire stay at the retreat. Plus, she’d had that nap during the afternoon. But she somehow managed to drift into a restless sleep. She was waking at the slightest sound, though. Considering she was in a room packed with other people, there were plenty of sounds to wake her.
Then there was a more ominous one. The sound of the door to the lodge opening up. No one in the group had gone out on a night like this . . . no one but Cora.
Sure enough, Meadow was saying, “Come on in. Don’t be silly. You’ll die out there.”
And Cora, shivering and looking half-frozen, came slowly inside.
Beatrice stood up and walked over to Cora. Cora gave her a baleful look. Beatrice said quietly, “You’ll understand if Meadow and I make sure you don’t have any weapons on you.”
Cora gave a short, bitter laugh. “You think I came to a quilting retreat with weapons?”
“I’m not sure. But you certainly could have taken one from the kitchen while you were here,” said Beatrice.
Meadow nodded, her eyes wide.
They made sure Cora didn’t have anything in her pockets, then let her sit by the fire. She held out her hands to the flames.
Piper had woken up by this time. It was amazing that no one else in the room was stirring. It must be exhaustion, due to the stress of the whole situation. There was definitely nothing comfortable about the setup in the lodge.
Piper joined them at the fire, looking at Cora cautiously. “Everything okay?” she asked.
“For everyone else maybe,” said Cora in that same, bitter tone.
Beatrice ignored her. “Meadow, have you tried to call out again?”
That’s because, after the initial elation of Piper’s phone call and a bunch of successfully completed calls, they’d lost the cell phone connection again. The police didn’t know that Cora had confessed in front of all of them.
Cora narrowed her eyes.
Meadow glared at her. “Don’t you dare try anything.” She said to Beatrice, “I tried once, but didn’t get through. I’m trying not to use up my phone’s charge now, just in case.”
Beatrice said, “Mine still has plenty of power.” She walked back to her sleeping pallet, picking her way gingerly among the sleeping quilters. Having retrieved her phone, she joined them again.
And the call made it through. A dispatcher on the other end told her that a car in the previous team had wrecked their vehicle but that another had set out some time ago.
Beatrice hung up, breathing a relieved sigh. She nodded to the others. “They’re on their way.”
No sooner had she said the words than they heard the sound of engines and saw headlights approaching the building.
The police had quickly and efficiently taken charge. Everyone woke up with a start before relaxing and cheering at the sight of the emergency workers coming in. Starr was immediately examined and put into a waiting ambulance. Cora was immediately put into custody, after her rights were read to her. A forensic team descended on the conference room and Olive’s cabin. The police seemed confident that they’d find forensic evidence to back up the confession heard by the entire group.
The most exciting part of all was that they were all being transported back to the police station in a van to give statements and then be picked up by their families. They were told they could collect their vehicles later.
“What should we do about Lucy?” asked Beatrice. The golden retriever looked solemnly at her.
“You can throw her in the van, too,” said one of the officers.
Posy quickly said, “I’ll take her home with me until Starr is able to get back to the retreat.”
They all quickly gathered up their things and headed out into the darkness without looking back.
The police station wasn’t huge, and it was overwhelmed by the size of the group. But it had power, heat, and cell service.
Everyone was on their phones. Beatrice called Wyatt as soon as she’d gotten service. “Wyatt?”
“Beatrice! I’ve been so worried about you. Are you all right? Where are you?”
“It’s a long story. I’m at a local police station. But yes, I’m fine. They’re saying we can be picked up here. I’ve got to give a statement to the police first, but then I’ll be ready to come home—only if it’s safe for you to drive here.” She gave him the address. “But don’t come unless the roads are clear. I know it’s dark and the lack of light won’t help things.”
Wyatt said, “The roads are better now, at least over in our area. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
The station was full of chatter with the women calling their spouses and friends. Then a detective named Lieutenant Rogers asked Beatrice for a statement.
They were in a small room that was bare except for a table and a couple of chairs. He sat down with a laptop. “I’ve heard that you were the one who was trying to investigate what was happening.”
Beatrice said wryly, “Well, I was doing my best. If it’s any consolation, I tried very hard to make sure my efforts wouldn’t derail anything you needed to do. I didn’t mess with the crime scene or anything like that. I’m hoping you’ll be able to get some good evidence that will stand up in court.”
Rogers nodded. “I don’t think that’s going to pose a problem for us. Can you tell me what happened? And what you observed?”
So Beatrice walked him through the whole weekend. How Aspen had behaved and her impressions of her with the Sew and Sews. The fact that Cora had been very tense around her. How Beatrice had discovered Aspen’s body and her illegal activities online. And what had followed with Olive.
Rogers was quietly typing the entire time, only pausing to ask questions. And to give her a bit of a hard time about Aspen’s laptop.
“Sorry about that,” said Beatrice ruefully. “I did try to be careful by wearing my gloves. I wouldn’t ordinarily have interfered, but we weren’t at all sure when the police would be over and we seemed to have a killer in our midst.”
Rogers nodded. Obviously, he got it, even if he wasn’t delighted about it.
She then explained the situation with Cora’s mother. She paused. “It worries me a bit what will happen to Cora’s mom.”
“We’ve already been in touch with a social worker we often work with. She’s fantastic and knows all the ins and outs of dealing with this type of issue. I’m sure she’ll be able to help her mom with getting on Medicaid, looking at any life insurance policies to pay for long-term care, and that sort of thing. I have full confidence in her.”
Beatrice nodded.
“Was there anything else you wanted to add to your statement?” Rogers asked.
But it seemed that, finally, Beatrice was done. And she wasn’t only done with the retelling of the events of the weekend. She felt physically and mentally finished. That cloud of complete exhaustion rested on her again.
Rogers printed out the statement and got her to sign it. He collected all her information so that he could reach out and get back in touch again. Then she was free to go.
Minutes later, Wyatt arrived. His gaze jumped from one quilter to another until it rested on Beatrice. He rushed over and gave her a tight hug.
“I’ve been so worried about you,” he murmured into her hair.
She hugged him even tighter. “I’ve been worried about you, too. And me,” she said, laughing ruefully.
Piper came over to join them, having just finished giving her own statement. Miss Sissy, seeing her ride, came grumpily over, too.
Wyatt said, “Ash was getting ready to hop in the car with Will to come get you, but I told him to stay at home with the baby—that I could drive you over.”
“Good idea,” said Beatrice.
“Yes!” said Meadow, who’d overheard. “We don’t want anything to happen to Will.”
“Or to Ash,” said Beatrice with a wry smile.
“Right,” said Meadow, belatedly remembering her son.
“The roads are pretty good, but there’s no point in making them get out in this weather,” said Wyatt. “Meadow, I can take you back, too.”
Meadow said, “Unfortunately, I need to wait on Ramsay. He said he wanted to have a word with the police here.” She made a face. “Who knows when I’ll be able to leave.”
“What about you three?” Wyatt asked Posy, Savannah, and Georgia.
Posy said, “Oh thank you, Wyatt! But Cork is on his way. He should be here anytime now.”
Piper, Wyatt, Miss Sissy, and Beatrice were about to go when Beatrice paused. “I should probably say goodbye really quick to the Sew and Sews. Especially since I had to suspect all of them of murder.”
“We’ll wait for you in the car,” said Piper with a smile.
Miss Sissy growled, but didn’t stop her.
Beatrice walked over to where Nicole, Maggie, and Ivy stood. “I’m heading out now. Have all of you got rides coming?”
The women nodded. Maggie said, “My husband is on his way to get Nicole and me.”
Ivy made a small face. “And mine is coming to collect me. I’ll have to give him the bad news that Aspen is gone.”
Somehow, reflected Beatrice, Ivy didn’t look all that sorry to be giving him the news.
“It’s going to take a little longer for our rides to come than yours, of course,” said Nicole. “Considering that we live farther away.” She paused. “On a completely different note, I wanted to thank you for what you did.”
Beatrice gave her a smile. “Thanks. I’m sorry about having to drag everybody through questioning like that.”
Nicole smiled crookedly in response. “Yeah, it wasn’t much fun being a murder suspect. But I get why you had to do it.”
“And look at you,” said Maggie. “You were able to figure it out.”
Beatrice said, “Yes. But it doesn’t make what happened any easier. I’m sorry about everything. I can’t imagine losing two members of your guild.”
Nicole gave a short laugh. “Actually, we lost three. Cora is gone, too. But we’ll find a way to move forward. Do some recruitment for the guild or something.”
Maggie said sadly, “I’m still having a tough time believing Cora did all this. Especially that she killed Olive. I mean, she and Olive got along really great.”
“Yeah, but Cora was trying to protect her mom. Family comes first,” said Nicole.
The sisters smiled at each other.
Ivy said petulantly, “Well, I for one am just glad she’s locked up behind bars. We had a rough enough weekend without having Cora running around killing people. And now I’ve got to deal with things with my husband.”
“What are you going to do? About your marriage, I mean?” asked Nicole.
Ivy blew out a sigh. “I’m going to divorce him. I clearly can’t trust him. If he had an affair with Aspen, it could happen again with somebody else. There are other fish in the sea.”
Maggie was quiet at this. Beatrice wondered if she were thinking about her own marriage and the husband that Maggie had cheated on.
Maggie finally spoke, echoing her thoughts. “You’re right, Ivy. There are definitely other fish in the sea. I was thinking that on the drive here. There’s more to life than money. And life’s too short for me to be with the wrong guy. Plus, it’s unfair to him that I’m not really all that committed to him. We can both find other people.”
She didn’t sound all that sure, though.
Beatrice said, “Well, it was good to meet you all. Sorry that it had to be under these circumstances.”
Maggie made a shooing gesture at her. “You’re good, Beatrice. Thanks for figuring everything out. Now go catch up with your hubby and daughter.”
The women waved at her as she hurried out the door.
On the way out, Beatrice said to Posy, “Remember, I’ll be there to give you a hand at the shop.”
“Thanks! But give yourself time to relax first. We need to recover from our weekends,” said Posy with a twinkle in her eyes. Lucy, the golden retriever, stood next to her and Beatrice reached down to give the sweet dog a farewell rub.
Wyatt was careful not to ask too many questions. He knew it had been a very stressful weekend and figured the story would come out in its own time. Instead, he answered all of their questions on the way back—how the weather had been (icy, but it had melted in their area) and, most importantly, how the baby was.
“I can’t believe I missed his first snow,” said Piper ruefully.
Beatrice chuckled. “I don’t think he’ll remember the milestone. You can take lots of pictures next time.”
After finding out how everyone was doing at home, they fell into a companionable silence. Piper, perhaps in preparation of not getting much sleep at home, nodded off. Beatrice looked out the window into the darkness at the wintry landscape but the thankfully clear roads.
Once they’d safely dropped off Piper and watched Ash welcome her home with a huge hug (and a big hug from Will, too), they headed to Miss Sissy’s house.
“S’mores,” muttered the old woman.
Beatrice said, “I’m sorry the trip got so derailed. I know you were looking forward to having s’mores by the campfire.”
Wyatt quickly said, “Why don’t you come over tomorrow night? The weather is going to be clear, and I can fire up the grill. It might not be the same as cooking over a firepit, but I bet they’ll taste just as good.”
Miss Sissy grinned at Wyatt before practically skipping up her front walk and into her ramshackle house.
Finally, Wyatt drove them across the street to their cottage.
“Noo-noo and I have missed you,” said Wyatt, his eyes warm as they looked at Beatrice. “We were worried about you.”
“I was worried about me, too,” said Beatrice with a smile.
She didn’t know when she’d been so happy to be back home. The house was lit up with every light shining. Her corgi was beaming at her out the front picture window. And, when she got inside, Wyatt handed her a glass of wine and a plate of food he’d prepared before setting out to pick her up.
Later, sitting with Wyatt by a warm fire, wine in hand, she curled up beside him and felt the stress melt away.