Murder At The Bed & Breakfast (15 page)

Roger and Winston raced down the stairs. Winston ran over to Liz and sat in front of her, growling and snarling at Nancy who was laying prone on the golden floor. Roger aimed his pistol at Nancy and said, “Liz, tell me what happened.”

“She’s the one who killed Laura. She admitted it. She blames Laura for Don’s death. She told me when Laura told Don she’d decided to live with Renee and Bob, it was the last straw. She thinks it put Don over the edge, because he had his fatal heart not long after.”

“Liz, the Grubers called Seth. He should be here any minute. What’s with this room? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“It’s a room Nancy built, so she could hold séances in it and speak to Don. It’s pretty unbelievable. This room is probably worth more than all of the houses on this street put together. I have no idea if you can take gold leaf off of walls and sell it or whatever, but if you can, it would be worth a fortune.”

Nancy was sobbing and through her sobs she said, “Don loves this room. His spirit is here. You have to leave it like it is for him. He’ll be lost forever if it’s changed.”

“Mrs. Messinger,” Roger said, “I’m no expert in matters like this, but from what I’ve heard Don is elsewhere and not in this room. It isn’t going to make any difference to him what happens here, and the jail cell you’re going to soon be in is definitely not going to be covered in gold leaf.”

The sound of a siren neared, and they heard brakes screeching as the chief of police’s car came to a stop in front of the house. It was quiet for a moment, and then the fat police chief yelled from the top of the stairs, “This is Police Chief Seth Williams. Who’s down there?”

“It’s okay, Seth. This is Roger Langley. Liz and I are down here and we’re holding someone you need to arrest.”

“Liz, Roger, I’m comin’ down. Yer’ safe now. Seth’s here. Everything’s gonna be okay.” He waddled down the stairs, careful not to let the gravitational pull from the weight of his belly pull him forward and make him fall down the stairs.

When he got to the bottom he stopped and looked around in awe. “Ain’t never seen nothin’ like this.” He turned and saw Roger aiming a gun at Nancy. “Well, I’ll be durned. Don’t this beat all. Uptight, snippety, better than everyone else Nancy Messinger got caught with her tootsie in the candy jar. Can’t think of anyone I’d rather see in a cell than her. Always thought she was better than everyone else jes’ because ‘ol dead Don used to be the mayor of this here city. Soon’s my deputy gets here, we’ll take her in. Roger, what am I s’posed to charge her with?”

“First degree murder, attempted murder, and assault and battery. That ought to keep some lawyer busy for a while,” Roger said. He looked over at Liz who was sitting on the floor with Winston’s head in her lap. “Are you all right?”

“Barely, just barely. How did you know I was here?”

“Bob’s mother-in-law overheard what you and Renee were planning to do this morning and became worried. She called Bob, and he immediately called me. He’s on his way here. You probably better go upstairs and see how Renee’s doing. Seth and I have this covered.”

Liz walked up the stairs, carefully keeping a wide distance between Nancy and herself. As she left, she looked around the basement one more time in complete and total amazement. Winston followed her. She was half-way up the stairs when Roger said, “By the way, Liz, you promised me you would have your gun and Winston with you at all times. What happened?”

“Well, Roger. It’s kind of like this. I told Nancy I had to go to the bathroom, so I left my purse in the living room. Thought it might look strange if I took it into the bathroom with me. As for Winston, guilty as your voice implies. I knew Nancy wouldn’t let me bring him into her home, and I didn’t want him sitting in Renee’s car, so I decided to leave him at home. I know. I made a big mistake.”

“It was not only a big mistake, it was almost a fatal mistake. When this is over, we might have to have a little talk about telling each other the truth about things, like where one is going when one goes out.”

“You’re right, Roger, you’re absolutely right. Matter of fact, I had that same conversation with Renee this morning. I get it.” She walked up the rest of the stairs and into the living room where Renee was sitting on the floor, shaking her head.

“What happened? I don’t remember anything.”

Liz filled her in on what had happened from the time Nancy hit her on the head with the butt of her pistol to now. There was a knock on the door. “Who is it?” Liz asked.

“Deputy Sims. Seth told me to meet him here, and I see his car out in front of the house.”

Liz walked over to the door and opened it. “Everyone’s downstairs, Deputy, and everything’s under control,” she said looking at the pistol in his hand. “The basement is through that door that’s hanging by its hinges.”

“Renee, how do you feel?” Liz asked, walking back to where Renee was sitting on the floor.

“My head is throbbing. I need to call Bob and tell him what’s happened.”

“Don’t think that will be necessary. I believe that’s his car that just pulled up. He’s running up the sidewalk right now.” Liz walked over to the door and opened it as Bob ran in.

“Oh, Renee. Are you all right? What happened?” he said, sitting down beside her and putting his arms around her.

“Bob, it’s over.” She started sobbing. “I’m all right. Nancy was the one who murdered Laura. I’m so glad mom called you. I don’t know what would have happened if she hadn’t. No, that’s not true. I wouldn’t be here right now, nor would Liz. We’d be dead.”

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry this happened.”

“So am I, but it’s nothing you need to feel guilty about. It was a series of things that happened. Think about it. If Laura had opened that envelope instead of putting it in her coat pocket and forgetting about it, she’d still be alive. Plus, I wouldn’t have a lump the size of a golf ball on my head, and we wouldn’t have ruined Liz and Roger’s honeymoon.”

There was another knock on the door and Liz walked over and answered it. The older man standing in the doorway said, “I’m Jeff Gruber. Is everything all right?”

“Yes, it is now. Please come in.”

He took one look at Renee and hurried over to her. “Renee, what happened? You know I’m a retired doctor, let me take a look at that lump on your head.”

Jeff Gruber carefully felt it and assessed her vital signs as best he could without any medical equipment and said, “I think you’re going to be fine. It’s a nasty lump, but with the way your eyes are tracking I don’t think you even have a concussion. You’re lucky. What about Nancy?”

Renee told him what had happened. “I can’t say I’m surprised,” Jeff said. “She was always odd, and lately, had been even odder. I’m sorry for Laura. When you have some time I’d like to hear everything that led up to it. Where is everyone?”

“They’re down in the basement,” Renee said. “You might want to go down there and see where all the gold leaf went that she had delivered. I guess it’s quite a sight to see.”

“Renee, I’ll be back in a minute, but I want to see this, too,” Bob said and followed Jeff down the stairs.

A few minutes later, everyone came back up the stairs, Nancy in handcuffs with Deputy Sims walking behind her, his gun aimed at her back. Seth spoke, “Put her in the back of yer’ squad car and take her to the slammer. Ya’ got the wire screen in the car fer protection, and with her in handcuffs don’t think ya’ got a problem. I want to spend a minute with these fine folks. See ya’ in a few.”

He turned to Roger and the rest of the group. “Glad I was able to get here so fast and make sure all of ya’ was safe. I can see that ya’ are. Ya’ never have to worry with me around as police chief. Liz, Roger, probably oughta get a statement from ya’ when you have time. “You too,” he said, nodding towards Renee. “Man, weren’t that room the dangedest thing ya’ ever seen? Kinda kinky, know what I mean? There’s a lot I could do in that there room,” he said smirking as he walked out the door.

Liz and Roger looked at each other and simply shook their heads. The others had a look of bewilderment on their faces as they tried to digest what Seth had just said. “Roger,” Bob said, “am I missing something here? I thought you and Liz were the heroes. To hear that guy talk, he was.”

“Bob, let’s leave it that Seth is quite a complicated character. I think it’s time you get Renee home. Obviously, she can’t drive. We’ll bring her car over tomorrow. Think Liz needs to get home as well. It’s been a traumatic morning for all of us. Jeff, thank you. If you hadn’t looked in that basement window, I would have lost precious time trying to figure out where Liz and Nancy were. Since this is the scene of a crime, I imagine at some point Seth will remember to cordon it off with yellow tape, so don’t be surprised when someone shows up and does that. Okay, let’s go.”

They walked to their cars and waved to Jeff as they drove away. On the way back to the lodge, it was very apparent Winston knew exactly how much danger Liz had been in. He never stopped wagging his tail and covering Liz with wet sloppy dog kisses.

CHAPTER 32

“Roger, we have a couple of days left before both of us have to get back to work,” Liz said laughing. “Whoops! Maybe I should have said before we get back to work at our regular jobs. What we’ve gone through with Bob and Renee could definitely be considered work.”

“You were so tired last night I didn’t want to bother you, but I did hear from Jim. By the way, so much has happened, I almost forgot to tell you again how great that coq-au-vin was night before last. I know you’ve told me that cooking is therapy for you, so if you want to make it again in the next few days, that will be fine with me. We could both probably use a little comfort food.”

“Thanks, and of course I’ll make it again if you liked it that much. So, what did Jim say about Nick’s arrest, although we can rule him out as the killer given Nancy’s confession.”

“He was arrested the morning of the murder, the morning of our wedding day. Kind of sad. Jim said the report from Serenity Center was very favorable, and the probation officer assigned to his case by the judge is hoping that instead of a prison sentence for being involved in a drug bust, maybe he could go back to Serenity. I told him about Laura, and he was going to personally tell Nick, probably as a favor to you for the case you helped him solve. Who knows? Maybe now that Nick doesn’t have Laura as a reason to get clean, he’ll do it for himself, which is really the only reason anyone should do it.”

“I feel sorry for him. Any chance for a reconciliation is off the table, because there’s no one to reconcile with. I don’t know much about him, but I hope he has a family or some network that can give him support. He’s going to need it. Next time you talk to Jim, ask him if he’d let us know if Nick is going to go back to Serenity. If he is, I’ll call Mike and see if there’s anything I can do.”

“Rather you didn’t, Liz. Think you’ve done your bit for that family. Nick will have to do this on his own. Matter of fact, I’m going to overrule that one.”

“All right. I know you’ve been concerned about my safety. What about the Dear Reverend? He gets off completely, right? Actually, I guess there’s nothing he can be charged with other than secretly drinking vodka out of a coffee cup and being hypocritical.”

“Sweetheart, if being hypocritical was a crime, there would be so many people guilty of it the government would have to convert every inch of commercial property in the United States into prisons. In other words, if saying one thing and meaning another is hypocritical, some of us might not be any better than Reverend Jacobs,” he said scowling at her.

“All right, all right. I get your message. I assume you mean that I was being hypocritical when I said I’d have Winston with me at all times, and then I didn’t take him with me when I knew I was going to Nancy’s. I suppose that’s what you’re getting at.”

“Hypocritical, lying. Kind of one and the same thing in my mind. Neither one is a very good personality trait to have when you’re beginning a marriage which is based on love and trust.”

“No wonder you’re such a good lawyer. You do have a way with words. Okay. Message received. One last thing. We can also scratch Candy and Mitch off the suspect list. Poor guy. I wonder if he’ll ever get over Renee and recover from his depression.”

“I have no idea, but we need to take Renee’s car back to her today and go down to the station and give Seth a statement, but first I have a great idea. I never got a chance to carry you over the threshold of our bedroom. I’d kind of like to do that, being somewhat old-fashioned and all. Think I remember hearing it’s considered to be good luck for a long marriage.”

“Roger, why do I have a feeling you have an ulterior motive for doing that? I will tell you if you drop me, I will never forgive you.”

“Well, my love, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, so they say,” he said lifting her up and throwing her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. He winked at Winston as he walked down the hall with Liz over his shoulder who was laughing hysterically and yelling, “Roger, put me down.”

Winston sighed and closed his eyes.

Recipes!

There's a surprise following the recipes.

CASSOULET (CLASSIC FRENCH CASSEROLE DISH WITH BEANS, PORK CHOPS AND SAUSAGE)

Ingredients:

4 bone-in chicken thighs

1 tbsp. seasoning salt blend of choice

6 tbsp. olive oil, divided

2 boneless center-cut pork chops, cut into 8 pieces

6 oz. bacon

1 ½ medium onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and diced

¾ cup chicken broth

1 ½ tbsp. tomato paste

Bouquet garni – bay leaf, celery stalk cut in two pieces, sprig of thyme (tie in a bundle)

¼ tsp. ground black pepper

½ tsp. pepper

15 oz. can great northern beans, drained

15 oz. can cannellini beans, drained

½ lb. Polish sausage, cut in ½ inch diagonal pieces

6 tbsp. minced fresh parsley plus 2 tsp. minced fresh thyme