“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out,” Vi said. She flapped her hand as if it was already handled.
Mac sighed and held the door open for us.
He walked us back to our room in silence. We all seemed to be mulling over what we had discovered, which wasn’t much.
He gave me a quick kiss and said he’d see me for breakfast. It didn’t take long to fall asleep again and this time I didn’t dream at all.
22
After the ghost sighting, Saturday morning came too early. I rolled out of bed, and quietly opened the door. Mac and I had agreed to meet early again, before the knitters descended on the lounge. Wally approached Mac and me out of breath, but with a huge smile, as we walked downstairs.
“The phone lines are working!” he said.
“Fantastic,” Mac said. “Let’s call the police.”
We followed Wally out to the front desk. “I was going to call myself, but I thought you might want to talk to them.”
The old phone was ringing when we got to the counter. Wally pressed his lips together. “I plugged this old one in when the power went out. It’s been ringing off the hook—that’s how I knew it was working. Several of the guests received phone calls from family who were worried about them when the cell towers went down.”
Wally answered the phone, took a message, and hung up. He then took the phone off the hook and handed the receiver to Mac.
“Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll dial—we have to be quick before another call comes through.”
Mac nodded at him and Wally dialed.
From what I could glean by listening to his side of the conversation, it sounded like Mac was being put straight through to homicide. I began plotting how long we would likely have to stay after the police arrived.
Mac turned to Wally. “Let’s keep this between us for now,” he said. “I’m not sure how quickly they can get here with that tree blocking the road—there’s no need to raise everyone’s hopes.”
Wally nodded agreement. “I’ll just tell the rest of the guests when they come down that the phone is working in case they need to check in with family—it might limit the phone calls coming in,” Wally said.
We sat in the lounge while we waited for the dining room to open. The hours were later on the weekends and I was getting antsy without my caffeine.
“I’ll be glad when the police arrive and they can remove the body,” I said. “It’s creeping me out, knowing she’s outside in the shed.”
Mac nodded. “They’ll take over the investigation and maybe we can get out of here.”
“Should we write up what we know so far so we can turn it over to them?”
Mac pulled his notebook out of his back pocket and flipped it open. “It wouldn’t hurt.”
I scooted closer to him so we could read his notes together.
“Clarissa left the cocktail party at six thirty and we saw her arguing with Jessica in the hall.” Mac made a note.
“Isabel, Mavis, and Tina were all out of the dining room at some point before Clarissa’s body was found,” I said.
“And as far as staff members go, we can only rule out Wally.” Mac put a line through Wally’s name.
“By refusing to talk to us, Tina has guaranteed my suspicions. I don’t like it that she tried to cover up the fact she left the room.” I leaned back against the cushions. “It’s weird. How did she think she would get away with it? We were all there—someone was bound to remember that she had stepped out.”
“People don’t always make good choices.” Mac shook his head. “Maybe she’s scared. She hasn’t acted thrilled that we’re investigating.”
“I suppose.” I took Mac’s notebook and flipped a couple of pages. “Who had a motive?”
Mac ticked names off on his fingers. “Jessica and Linda had been fighting with Clarissa about the hotel. Mavis and Isabel hold a past tragedy against her. Holly was likely bullied and may have been afraid of losing her job.”
“What about Kirk?” I said. “He’s at the top of Dad’s list.”
“Incompetence isn’t a crime. We can’t forget René,” Mac added. “If Clarissa interfered with his plans for the restaurant.”
“At least we can give the police somewhere to start,” I said and handed his notebook back.
“They’ll probably want to do their own interviews,” Mac said. “I hope we can turn this over to them and head out before the weekend is over.”
“We probably can’t make it to Mexico at this point—where do you want to go?”
“Anywhere but here,” Mac mumbled as his mother waved from the doorway and headed in our direction.
“Hello, you two! Did you hear that the phones are back on?”
We nodded. “We just called the police to come and deal with Clarissa’s death,” Mac said.
“Oh. You won’t be working on it anymore?” Lucille said. “I’m surprised you can just walk away after all the time you’ve put into it so far.”