Murder in March Page 12

  "I don't need to. I'm married. I never get to touch it," replied Terry. "And my daughter told me all about those flash drives."

  "Do you know what she wanted to print?" I asked.

  "She didn't say. She spent the few minutes of the journey griping about something or other. Never met such a miserable woman."

  "Sure you have. You know my sister," said Ronan.

  "Your sister is lovely," I admonished Ronan.

  "And that's no way to talk about my wife," said Terry and they both laughed again.

  "Did she mention anything about meeting up with anyone?" I asked.

  "No, I don't recall her saying anything. Actually, I got the impression she couldn't wait to get out of town. She was very pale, like she just had a fright." Terry stopped when my dad returned to the living room with a couple of large, empty bowls. He set them on the table, tossed in the bags of chips and rested against the doorjamb while Ronan set about opening the crate and passing the beers around. I declined but both Dad and Terry took a bottle.

  "Really? She said she didn't like it?" It wouldn't have surprised me if Esther had prepared a list of all the things she didn't like about Calendar and imparted that to Terry.

  "No." Terry took a key ring from his pocket and used the bottle opener to uncap his beer. "She was awfully pale and said something funny like, of all the sad losers she could run into, it would have to happen in this backwater town. What the hell did she mean by that?" he asked, frowning at me.

  "That's what I would like to know."

  Chapter Twelve

  Leaving my dad and his friends to their nickel-and-dime poker game, I sped over to the Maple Tree Hotel to meet Mark. The temperature had dropped from a sunny spring day to jacket and scarf weather. I was pleased I'd tossed a scarf in my car, especially now that it was knotted around my neck, but even so, I turned the heat up slightly.

  Terry's litany of Esther's complaints infiltrated all of my thoughts. Not that I was concerned she didn't like Calendar. Unless it was on the map in the way that Aspen, Nantucket, or the Hamptons were, Esther would have considered it beneath her. Apparently, her scathing comments about my "backwater" town were not confined entirely to the locale either. Instead of the expected insults, I focused on the "loser" she apparently bumped into. Someone from Esther's past had appeared, probably by chance, and it managed to cause enough of an impact that she was still thinking about it when she got into the taxi. But was it someone from her recent past? Or someone from a long time ago? And how, I wondered, had Esther wronged them? I couldn't help suspecting she probably had, given her reaction to the mystery person.

  "You look deep in thought." Mark rose to greet me as I entered the hotel's small bar.

  "I learned something interesting," I told him as I slipped off my jacket and scarf, depositing them over the arm of the chair. I dropped into the seat, suddenly weary, and sighed.

  "Let me get you a drink, then you can tell me what you discovered," he said. "Wine? Something stronger?"

  "Coffee," I said. "I already had one small glass and I'm driving."

  Mark signaled the waitress and asked for two coffees. "What's going on?" he asked as she left.

  "I tracked down Terry," I told him. "Actually, tracking isn't quite the right word. He came over to my dad's while I was there so I spoke to him. He told me Esther was complaining about running into someone. She called the person a 'sad loser'."

  "Sounds like Esther," said Mark. "What else did Terry have to say?"

  "Not much. He picked her up and she asked him to take her somewhere she could print from a flash drive."

  "Did she say what was on it?"

  I shook my head and leaned in, my thoughts racing faster than I could process them. "Terry said she spent the whole journey complaining. Here's what I'm thinking. Esther didn't know anyone in town except me, and you, of course, because you came with her. Nor did she have any expectation she would know anyone else here. But there was someone here, someone she knew from her past, and she wasn't pleased to see whoever it was and she met them sometime between arriving here and getting the taxi."

  "It must have been someone from the hotel then. I can't see how she could run into anyone else. Do you think that was the person who killed her?"

  "Maybe. She definitely didn't think much of whoever it was. Perhaps they had the same low opinion of her."

  "So, who is it?" Mark looked around. "An employee? A resident? A day guest?"

  "I don't know! But I think it must be the same person Janey overheard her arguing with in the employee stairwell." I leaned back as the waitress appeared with a small tray carrying our two coffees. She set it on the table, asked if we needed anything else, then left. "We need to find out."

  "We need to tell Detective Logan about this latest development."

  "I think Terry already told him."

  "Good point."

  "Have the day and night shifts changed yet?" I asked.

  "Yes, a little while ago. I saw your friend, Janey, arrive so I guess she switched shifts."

  "We need to speak to more people and find out who else interacted with Esther. Do you remember anyone you saw Esther speaking to since you checked in? If we can narrow down the list, we can also narrow down the suspects."

  "Let's see. Your friend checked us in and a bellhop took our luggage up. I walked with Esther to her room, and she yelled at the bellhop for getting there after us. She tipped him a dollar and told him he was lucky to get it."

  "A whole dollar? Wow."

  "You don't get rich by being generous," pointed out Mark. "I gave him a ten, just so you know. Anyway, I went to my room on the floor above and stayed there."

  "Hiding out?" I teased.

  "Yes." Mark winked, his blue-gray eyes lighting with amusement, and I laughed. "I stayed there until we were due to meet for lunch. When I got to the restaurant, Esther was already there so she could have spoken to anyone from the last time I saw her."

  "Okay, so far I've got Janey, the bellhop, and whoever seated her at the restaurant. Oh, and Derry, the waitress, but she can't be older than eighteen or nineteen. I think we can rule her out as someone from Esther’s past based on her age."

  "You saw Esther storm off after lunch. I did some work in my room, then Esther and I met again around three o’clock for a couple hours to look over your manuscript and discuss a few issues with other authors. We met again for dinner so I couldn't tell you what she did during the time between our meeting and then. We had a drink in the bar and I briefly considered drinking myself to death before I took a walk and didn't see her again that night."

  "Did she mention if she was seeing anybody or planning to go anywhere?"

  "No. She said she planned to read before bed."

  "What about the next day? Up until the time she got the taxi?"

  "We had breakfast separately. I made an excuse about having an early call, so I didn't see her. Actually, I don't recall seeing her until the afternoon when we met in the lobby. That was around two-thirty. Oh! I just remembered something. She had a large purse with her and I saw a plastic shopping bag inside. It looked heavy so perhaps she'd just gotten back."

  "Did she get to the lobby before you did?"

  Mark sipped his coffee. "Yes. She was already waiting, and she made it known she didn't like to wait."

  That didn't surprise me; Esther would have expected Mark to be waiting for her when she arrived, even if he didn't know what time that was. "So she could have spoken to anyone after returning here, and we don't know how she got back to the hotel." My face fell. There were too many gaps to fill in Esther's timeline and I didn't know how to begin to find the answers.

  "The lady at the taxi office said Esther was in a terrible mood. What did Terry say?”

  “He said she looked like she had a fright.”

  “If she were shocked from seeing someone she knew, someone she didn't expect to see, that narrows the time frame down a little more. Somewhere between lunch on the day we got here until she
took the taxi on the day she was murdered. She didn't seem upset at dinner that day so I think we can exclude the interim between lunch and dinner too," said Mark thoughtfully.

  "That now includes any of the breakfast staff. Maybe someone in housekeeping?"

  "And all of the guests."

  "We need to take a look at the hotel cameras," I told him. "You told Detective Logan the one in the lobby would have recorded your movements. Esther must show up on that one too."

  "How do we do that?"

  I pondered it silently. "How charming are you?" I asked.

  "If you have to ask, then I suppose not at all." Mark pulled a face.

  I giggled. "Okay, fine, can you be extra charming?"

  Mark nodded and his face became serious. "Yes, absolutely," he said, then winked.

  "Great. You're going to be extra charming to Janey and convince her to show you the tapes. You're going to tell her that you're helping an author research a story but you need to know how the hotel security cameras work." I didn’t like the idea of deceiving Janey anymore than I liked the idea of Mark charming her, but we did need to see the security tape.

  "Can't you ask your friend for a favor?"

  "We know each other but we're not really friends so asking for a favor wouldn't work. Plus, I can't think of a plausible reason to ask her. I'm only a virtual assistant, remember?" Never mind that I was pretty sure my flirting would have no effect on Janey.

  "Let's finish our coffees before we ask," said Mark, nodding. "If I horribly embarrass myself, you'll have to buy me a drink next time you come to the city."

  "If it's too awful, I'll even buy you dinner," I shot back.

  Mark held out his hand. "Deal," he said when I placed my hand in his. He closed his fingers around mine, fixed me with a look I couldn’t interpret though it left me breathless, and we shook.

  I sipped my coffee, thinking about my thriller heroine again. Would she be handling this case the same way we were? Probably, and also hacking the hotel's computers, identifying more suspects, sneaking into some of the rooms, and engaging in something dangerous, like hand-to-hand combat or making an escape with only seconds to spare. She would be daring and brave. The thought made me smile.

  "You're looking forward to this, aren't you?"

  I pulled myself out of the daydream. "I'm thinking about my main character and how excited she would be."

  "And you're not?"

  "I'm very curious. I believe we can uncover the information that could help us find the person who got Esther so rattled. Also," I decided, "we probably shouldn't talk about it in the hotel anymore. We don't know who's listening."

  Mark stilled. "That's a good point. So we see Janey, convince her to show us the cameras, find the bellhop who carried up our suitcases, as well as the other restaurant staff, and then discuss it elsewhere."

  "Let's hope the restaurant staff also had lunch duty too. Janey should know."

  Mark placed his coffee cup down. "Ready?"

  "Let's go."

  Janey was stationed at the lobby desk and reading, since it was quiet. She looked up as we approached and closed the book. "Hello again," she said cheerfully. "How can I help?"

  "It's an odd request actually," said Mark. He folded his arms on the desk and smiled at the receptionist. "I was just going through some of Ava's typing and she mentioned something about security cameras that puzzled me. One of my authors might have gotten it wrong and I thought you could help."

  "Well, sure. I'm not an expert but what do you need to know?"

  "This author wrote some curious things about their police detective checking cameras and rewinding and pausing from different angles... while tracking a suspect down... I’m afraid it's beyond me." Mark threw his hands in the air and laughed nonchalantly. "I wondered if you could show us how the cameras work if only so we could give some feedback to the writer?"

  "I'm really not supposed to..." Janey paused and glanced left and right until she felt assured no one else was around. She asked, "Is it Miranda Marchmont? I heard that Mrs. Drummond worked with her and she's the famous author whom she came down to meet!"

  "I can't say," said Mark, nodding emphatically.

  Next to him, I whispered, "Yes," and Janey's eyes widened.

  "Seriously?" she wanted to know. You're working with her too? That is so exciting! So, it's true? She does live in town?"

  Mark barely winced when I lightly kicked his ankle. "I can't confirm that either," he said.

  "I suppose it wouldn't hurt if I showed you how our security works. Our cameras really aren't state-of-the-art. We have them, well, you know, just in case."

  "Is this the only one watching the lobby?" asked Mark, lifting his chin to nod toward the camera fixed to the wall above.

  "Yes, and all the other exits too. We don't have them in the guest areas, naturally, for privacy."

  "What happens to the tapes?"

  "They're digital and the files get deleted after a week."

  "Can they be emailed? Or do they need to be put on a disk? Or are they only accessed from your computer?" Mark fired off, giving every appearance that he was fascinated.

  "All three, and Dina can access them from the computer in the manager's office too. We already emailed the tapes from the last couple of days to Detective Logan."

  "I'd like to see them too," said Mark. "You're an amazing help, Janey."

  "Thank you!" she beamed. "Don, our deputy manager, has the night off so Dina is here but she's dealing with something else so they won't know. Anyway, it's for a good cause. Come back here and I'll show you, but please don't tell anyone. I'm really not supposed to."

  "Our lips are sealed," I told her.

  Janey motioned for us to come around behind the desk so we did, standing on either side of her as she used her computer mouse to navigate to the camera. "This is the live feed," she told us, pointing to the screen. The image showed the empty lobby and our three figures, our backs to the camera. "If we want to access another time log, up to a week ago, we can type it in this field here and press enter. See? This is when you arrived." Janey tapped a time and date into the computer program.

  The image changed and this time, we watched Mark and Esther walking through the doors into the lobby, each of them towing a small suitcase. As they reached the desk, Esther swung her purse off her shoulder and it hit Mark, thwack, in the stomach. He grabbed hold of it before it fell to the floor, tipped his head back, and muttered something to the ceiling. I suppressed a giggle then thought Esther will never do that again.

  We continued to watch Janey hand over two key cards before the bellhop approached him. "Who's that?" I asked.

  "Jake Jackman," said Janey. "He usually works in the kitchen but he stands in as the bellhop when guests arrive."

  Mark and I exchanged a look. The knife could have come from the kitchen; Jake could have easily taken one and gone up to a guest room without raising any suspicion. Yet Esther barely seemed to notice him at all as she pushed her case in his direction.

  "Could you track a person's progress around a building? Say, if you wanted to follow Esther from the lobby?"

  "Our system isn't hi-tech enough. I think Detective Logan asked that question too and I told him, you just need to watch each camera. The screen can split like this," she said, moving the mouse and clicking. The screen split into multiple screens. "Okay, watch a minute, and... there you both are again." Janey pointed to another screen.

  "And how do you email this stuff?" asked Mark. "Is it simple or hard? Our author made it sound very simple."

  "Oh, it is. You just fill in this box with the date and time parameters if you want a portion or the whole thing and then type in an email address here. Oh, excuse me," she said as a bell began to ring from the room behind her. "I need to switch that off." She pushed back her chair and got to her feet. I stepped out of the way to let her pass. The moment she left the room, Mark leaned down, typed something quickly and hit enter. "Sorry to make you wait," said Janey as she retu
rned and took her seat again. "What else do you need to know?"

  "Do you know if Jake Jackman is on duty? Mrs. Drummond was rude to him and I think I should tip him a little extra," said Mark.

  "He's probably in the kitchen now but you can't go back there. You really don't need to supplement his tip. He's probably forgotten all about it by now."

  "I'd like to anyway, so if you see him please tell him," said Mark. "Thanks for so much for your help."

  "Hey, do you think Miranda will name one of her characters after me?" Janey laughed.

  "I don't know about that, but why don't I make sure you receive a personalized copy of her next book before it goes on sale?" Mark offered.

  Janey gasped. "I would love that! And I promise not to say a thing about the plot!"

  "Smooth," I said as we walked away. "Very smooth."

  "I hope you won't mind signing a book to her?"

  "Not one bit. What did you type into her computer?"

  "I sent the security feed to my email. There was no way Janey would let us sit there and watch every minute up until Esther's murder, but I figured we could divide it up and examine it on our own. I'll go get my laptop and then I can forward the email to you too."

  "Is this illegal?" I wondered.

  Mark shrugged. "I have no idea, but it's not like Detective Logan doesn't already have a copy. We're not tampering with evidence. We're just two extra sets of eyes."

  "I'm dubious that Sam Logan would see it the same way, but okay. Let's take a look."

  Mark left me in the lobby and jogged up the stairs. I watched him go, pleased at how eager he was to help. I didn't feel great about duping Janey but hopefully, she would never know. I had no idea how long it would take to look through the footage but I figured Mark was correct. Two more pairs of eyes speeding up the pace could only help.

  "Ava?"

  I looked up at the voice. "Detective Logan, what are you doing here?" I asked. My heart began to pound. Did he know what Mark and I had just done? Was he going to arrest us? "Were you looking for me?"

  "No, I'm here on business," he said. I looked behind him, noting the two officers with him. "Have you seen Mark Boudreaux?"