“I began to,” he muttered. “I turned over his backpack and his tools went everywhere. Before I could search more carefully, I heard someone open the front door of the suite. I escaped out the bedroom door and down the hall.”
I glanced at Kevin, who stared wide-eyed and disbelieving at Raoul. Did she realize she was the person who had interrupted his search? Would she have been his next victim? I’d shuddered at the thought and Derek had wrapped his arm more tightly around me.
The police showed up within minutes of Raoul’s confession.
Shortly after Raoul and Colette were taken away, we got word that Peter had come out of his coma. It was the happiest news we could have received after Raoul’s devastating confession.
Everyone rushed to the hospital room where Peter lay sleeping. His skin was pale and he wore a massive bandage around his head. He looked beaten up. The doctors were keeping him overnight for observation.
He awoke finally and was pleased to see us gathered around him. He confessed that he had indeed found Colette’s locket clasped in Montgomery’s cold, dead hand. All he could think when he saw it was that it was pretty and shiny, so he grabbed it.
“I—I have a bit of a problem with taking things,” he said weakly. “It happens when I’m upset. And seeing Monty that way, well, it upset me, to say the least.”
“To say the least,” Kevin echoed.
“Did you take the cookbook, too?” I asked, changing the subject.
He gave me a pained look. “Yes, I took it that first night. I knew the instant Baxter opened Savannah’s gift that he’d been the one to steal it from the museum. So later that night, while everyone was drinking at the bar, I snuck back to his office and grabbed it and hid it in my knapsack.”
“Good,” Kevin said bluntly. “Among his many crimes, he was also a thief and a liar.”
“Yes,” Peter said. “I’m glad I took the book. However, I’m not proud of stealing the locket. To tell the truth, I didn’t even connect the locket to the killer. I just saw something shiny and took it.”
“Everyone here knows about the kleptomania,” Kevin said. “I told them already.”
“You told them?” he said, trying for as much outrage as he could manage, given that his head was wrapped in a bandage and he looked like he might pass out at any moment. “How could you?”
“I thought you were dead!” she cried. “We were trying to figure out who might’ve hurt you.”
He reached out and took her hand in his. She sat down on the bed and squeezed his hand with both of hers.
“All right,” he said with a wan smile. “You’re forgiven.”
“I told them about the dodgy fish, too.”
His eyes widened and he gazed around the room before he stared back at Kevin. “It seems you’ve given away all my secrets. Anything else you want to tell me?”
“Well, at least no one can ever blackmail you again,” she said, and burst into tears.
Peter pulled her close and held her. I had great hopes that the two of them would be back together soon. They were meant to be a couple.
I blinked away my own tears, relieved that at least one thing had ended happily last night. I finished brushing my hair and added a touch of lipstick. Then I slipped on jeans and a turtleneck and wandered out to the kitchen.
There on the bar was the book box I’d created for Baxter. Last night when we got home, Derek had searched the book for Raoul’s lab results, but didn’t find them until he opened the box itself and found the suede pouch. Inside was the folded sheet of paper Raoul had killed for. Derek planned to deliver it to the police sometime today.
Dalton would be leaving shortly to go back to London. Late last night, he had run out to an all-night copy service to make another copy of the cookbook pages; he planned to continue deciphering it once he was back home.
While Obedience Green’s cookbook had turned out not to be the inspiration for a major breakthrough in the field of cryptography and spying, it was exciting and significant enough to warrant more study. Dalton intended to contact the Gipping-on-Plym museum to arrange a study schedule as soon as they received the cookbook from Kevin.
I heard the muted voices before I’d even reached the coffeemaker.
“You’re really leaving me,” Savannah said. “I don’t know why I thought you might stay. Silly, I guess.”
Oh, dear, I thought. Poor Savannah. Was I going to be crying again soon? It was so early in the day. I peeked around the wall to see if it was safe to walk in.
“I’ll always be here,” Dalton said, and pressed his hand against her heart. “And here,” he added with a grin, smoothing his hand across her bald head. “I’ll be back as soon as I can get away.”
“You will,” she said, tugging his shirt until he was pressed up against her, “or I’ll hunt you down like a bloodhound.”
“How did you know that’s my favorite dog?”
She laughed and touched his cheek.