Eleven

I slipped the Do Not Disturb sign over the door handle and locked the door with the master key.

Casey scanned the hallway. “Now I’m not going to get any sleep at all.”

I had to bite my tongue not to remind him that he was the night clerk and he wasn’t supposed to sleep. Of course, Oma and I knew that he napped. As long as he got his work done, we didn’t really mind. The reception entrance door was locked in the evening, forcing everyone to come and go from the lobby entrance, where we could keep an eye on latecomers and strangers who weren’t staying at the inn. Besides, Casey was like family. He had worked for Oma before I returned to Wagtail. A couple of times we thought he would move on. He even had some great scholarship offers, but Wagtail was in his soul, like it was in Holmes’s and mine. Oma and I feared that he might find a better job, or at least one that he could do in the daytime. We had agreed we wouldn’t stop him if something came along. We wanted what was best for him.

I accompanied Casey to the main lobby. He settled at a sofa in the Dogwood Room, which was open to the lobby and grand staircase. He had an excellent view of anyone arriving or leaving. Meanwhile, I let myself out the front door. Since we were still awake, I thought Trixie might need to go out.

Her nose to the sidewalk, she walked along to our dog potty area. I waited for her, looking around. The night was quiet. Stars sparkled and the moon still shone like a giant light. Mountain nights could be chilly in the summer, but tonight the air was gentle and summery. The scent of honeysuckle wafted to me.

It was so calm and peaceful that I wondered if I had overreacted. But if I were the person who had Seth’s keys and I didn’t want anyone to know that, would I have wiped the room down? Definitely not. If I had just stepped inside and dropped the keys on the chair, there would have been no need to worry about fingerprints. Of course, we were assuming that the smell meant the room had been cleaned, but we would know for sure tomorrow when Dave looked for fingerprints.

We were walking back toward the inn entrance when someone stepped out onto the front porch. The lights by the door illuminated Louisa. Her copper hair gleamed under the light. She glanced around quickly, as though afraid someone might be watching her. Apparently satisfied, she and Loki hurried toward the green and into the cover of night.

I slept with the French doors open that night. When I rose, I took a long, hot shower, and slipped on a black-and-white summer dress that I thought was both charming and professional. I braced myself for a busy day between the gala and news of Seth’s death hitting town. It didn’t take long for news to spread in Wagtail. Chances were good that most of the residents were learning about it over breakfast this morning.

Trixie, Twinkletoes, and I walked down the grand staircase just as Fagan, Loki, and Garbo bounded through the front door, preceding the WAG Ladies, who chattered nonstop.

“Good morning,” I said.

Addi gushed, “We are so in love with Fritz for rescuing the kittens. What an amazing story.”

Louisa added, “We just took a shift bottle-feeding them.”

“They are darling,” Oriana added. “I’m seriously considering adopting one when they’re ready!”

“How’s the mama cat doing?” I asked.

Brenda bobbed her head. “She’s weak, but the doctor assured us she would be fine. She’ll need a home when her kittens are bigger. Seems she had developed tapeworms from fleas, which sounds horrible to me, but there’s a treatment, and the vet thinks she should be okay.”

“Wonderful! I was very concerned about her last night.”

I spied Dave with Oma and Rose and headed for their table.

Shelley Dixon, our waitress, brought my hot tea before I even pulled out a chair. Trixie pranced at her feet. She knew who was in control of her breakfast. “Ham and eggs or a Florentine Havarti scramble?”

“I think I’ll have the scrambled eggs this morning. Thanks, Shelley. Trixie might like it, too, if there’s a dog version.”

She smiled. “No problem. And tuna for Miss Twinkletoes.” She hustled off.

Oma leaned toward me, her face grim and her voice low. “Seth did not die from a heart attack.”

Dave kept his voice down, too. “The EMTs took him to Doc Engelknecht’s last night. He found a spot on Seth’s back that looked like a bite.”

“A dog bite?” I asked. “Surely Fritz didn’t harm him.”

“No. It’s very small, like a bug bite. A tiny puncture. Engelknecht said it was so small he might have overlooked it except for the inflammation around it.”

“Like a spider bite?” asked Rose.

“Possibly. We have two types of poisonous spiders in our area, and while a bite might look something like that, they don’t usually kill anyone. Engelknecht says they’ll make you sick, but according to him, one bite wouldn’t normally incapacitate a person. Especially not a healthy adult.”

“They are sending him to the medical examiner, yes?” asked Oma.

Dave glanced at his watch. “He should be there now. The doc said he thinks we’ll have an answer soon. He asked for an expedited autopsy because of the strange nature of the arthropod bite.”

“Arthropod?” asked Oma. “What is that?”

“A six-legged bug like an insect or spider. You know Doc. He likes to talk fancy. He’s concerned that there’s some kind of bug in the woods that might bite other people like hikers.”

“I was in the woods last night when I collected the kittens.” I nearly spilled my tea at the thought.

The three of them looked at me in horror. “How do you feel?” asked Rose.

A shiver ran through me. “Fine.”

“Any bug bites?” asked Dave.

“I haven’t noticed any, but now you’re scaring me.”

“If anything happens, if you feel woozy or tired or if you have an itch somewhere, I want you to call Doc immediately,” said Dave.

Oma reached for my hand. “Do what Dave says, liebling. You promise?”

“I’m fine. Really, I am.” I forced a smile in spite of the fact that I now had an urge to scratch the side of my neck. I picked up my tea mug and held it so I wouldn’t be tempted.

Oma sipped her coffee. “I do not like this. I have lived here for many, many years, and I do not remember anyone dying from a bug bite.”

“I don’t, either,” added Rose. “We hike in the woods, and children have played in them for years without anything like this happening.”

Shelley delivered our breakfast. As I ate, I noticed the WAG Ladies were unusually subdued at their table.

“Bee stings can kill,” mused Oma. “Did it look like a bee sting?”

Dave shook his head. “Not to me.”

“When we took Fritz home, we found two more kittens,” I said.

Oma laughed, breaking the tension. “Your Trixie has a nose for dead bodies, and that big German shepherd sniffs out kittens.”

“Do you think they’re from the same litter?” asked Rose.

“We can’t know for sure, but we think he may have been carrying them from the woods to his home.”

“So Seth was probably tailing Fritz. A dog wouldn’t think much of running through trees and brush behind people’s houses,” said Dave. “That may explain what Seth was doing behind your house, Rose.”

“I had better get to the office,” said Oma. “People will be calling and want more information when they hear about him.”

“Could you wait just a moment?” I told them about seeing the light on in Seth’s room. “What I can’t figure out is how he locked the door.”

“I’d better go up there and have a look,” said Dave. “Just in case. It’s possible that whatever the person wanted in Seth’s room had nothing to do with his death, but it’s definitely odd that someone was in there.” He picked up his phone and asked for assistance with fingerprinting. “I just sent two people back to Snowball. We were up at first light combing Rose’s yard.”

“Can I go home?” asked Rose.

Dave gazed at her fondly. “Would you mind waiting until we get the initial autopsy findings?”

“Oh.” There was no mistaking her disappointment. “If you think that’s necessary. It’s lovely to be here at the inn, but it puts me off my schedule. I hope I’ll be able to go back and at least retrieve my gown for the gala.”

“I’ll make sure of it.” Dave nodded.

“I do not like the sound of this. Someone had something to hide.” Oma took a deep breath. “Holly, perhaps you can put out a notice to the Wagtail residents for me? That will cut down on the phone calls to find out what is going on.” Oma rose from her chair. “Dave, you will phone me as soon as you know something. Yes?”

“You will be the first to know, Liesel. I promise.”

As soon as Oma and Rose left, Dave said, “When you post on the Wagtail listserv, don’t give any details. I don’t know yet what happened or what might be important.”

“I’ll just say a visitor died last night. How’s that?”

“Perfect.”

Shelley brought refills of our tea and coffee. Sitting back, Dave sipped his and looked glum.

“Upset about Seth?” I asked.

“Informing the family is the worst part of my job. I hate it. There’s no kind way to say that someone’s loved one has died. You just have to come right out and tell them. And it’s the worst over the phone. I can’t see their reactions. They can’t see my face. I’m just a stranger calling them with the worst news they’ve ever gotten.”

“I don’t envy you that job.” I glanced toward the WAG Ladies. They were still there, enjoying their brunch. “The WAG Ladies all knew Seth. Do you suppose one of them was in his room last night?”

Dave observed them. “They’re not being very cooperative. I questioned them last night while you were searching for kittens. To hear them tell it, they were tethered together the whole evening. Not apart for a moment.” He shrugged. “Wouldn’t hurt to say hi.”

I knew perfectly well that he wasn’t being polite. He wanted to see how they were acting. The two of us rose and strolled over to the table where the WAG Ladies sat.

When we approached, a stillness fell over them, and it was as though a jolt of electricity ran through the women seated at the table.

Louisa stiffened, her eyes meeting Oriana’s. Brenda and Joanne made a point of looking down at their plates and moving crumbs around. Addi gazed at me apprehensively and rolled her lips inward like a child who had been caught misbehaving.

“Morning, ladies,” said Dave, ever so politely. “Apparently someone was in Seth’s room last night.”

He stopped right there. I would have blurted out more, but when I glanced at him, I realized that he was letting them stew a little.

But they didn’t respond. They were quiet as mice hiding from a cat. I couldn’t help wondering if one of them would break under the pressure. Didn’t they realize their silence was making them look bad? After all, at this point, they didn’t have any reason to think Seth had been murdered. Or did they?

It was Brenda who finally looked up at Dave and asked, “Surely you don’t think it was one of us who entered his room?”

“Was it?” Dave spoke softly, not in the least bit intimidating, although I suspected that his position as the investigating officer probably accomplished that.

Joanne looked up from her plate and held her head high. “Sergeant, none of us are in such dire financial straits that we would ransack the room of a dead man in search of riches. And from what I know of Seth, he probably didn’t have anything worth stealing anyway.”

“None of you noticed anyone hanging around or on the second floor who seemed out of place?”

Their silence was incriminating. They were friends. I got that. But if they had only acted more natural, they wouldn’t have given the impression that they knew something. I made a mental note that clamming up was worse than some kind of phony innocent denial.

“If anything should come to you, I hope you’ll let me know.” Dave glanced in my direction. “Holly, I’ll inform you when my fingerprinting experts arrive so you can let us into Seth’s room.”

He left me standing there with the WAG Ladies.

Oriana frowned. “I don’t understand. Why are they fingerprinting Seth’s room?”

I hesitated before saying, “Someone was in there last night, and we know it wasn’t Seth.”

Brenda squinted at me. “But he didn’t die in his room. Why would anyone care? He was already dead by then, wasn’t he?”

I tried to avoid getting in a tangle. “Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?”

I followed Dave’s style and waited for one of them to speak.

To my surprise, Addi burst into tears, scooted back her chair, and ran from the table. Louisa jumped to her feet and ran after her.

“What was that about?” I asked.

The three remaining WAG Ladies shifted uncomfortably.

Joanne slapped her palms on the table. “Will you look at the time? We’ve got to get moving.”

All of them made quick work of gathering their purses and beat a hasty exit.

Shelley came up behind me as I watched them scurry up the stairs. “They’re up to something.”