Murder at Mistletoe Manor: A Mystery Novella Read online

  “The Windy Pines school principal? That old geezer with the walking stick? No way!” exclaimed Klarinda.

  “So, you like that Todd Healy, do you? You know, I went to school with his mother,” Myrtle said, nodding thoughtfully. “She had him really young. We were seniors in high school.”

  “Put in a good word for me the next time you see her,” said Klarinda.

  “Excuse me,” said Caroline Bradbury. She and Tessa Wycliffe were standing at the bottom of the stairs. Klarinda and Myrtle had been so caught up in their gossiping that they hadn’t even heard the women approaching. “Anybody home?” Caroline sneered, stomping up and hitting the small bell on Klarinda’s front counter four times in a row. “I hate to interrupt your hen-talk, ladies, but this little card you gave me says that it’s dinner time.” Caroline waved the card in their faces.

  “Oops. Sorry,” said Klarinda, doing a one eighty from happy to stunned in just under two seconds.

  “You should be,” said Caroline. “We were standing there for I don’t know how long, waiting for someone to help us, and you both just kept ignoring us! Seriously, I can’t wait to give this place a terrible review.”

  “Don’t mind my old friend,” giggled Tessa. “She’s a little mouthy when she drinks.” Tessa made a move to tuck her own mini bottle of vodka into her purse, but it fell to the floor. “Oopsie daisy,” she said, stumbling to pick it up.

  “Yes, the dining room is open. Follow me,” said Klarinda, doing her best to remedy the situation while Myrtle went off to call the snow plow guy. “Would you ladies like to be by the fireplace or the windows?”

  “Considering how cold it is in here, you’d better put us by the fireplace,” said Caroline.

  “Certainly,” said Klarinda, through a clenched smile, relieved that Myrtle had actually gotten the fires going. As she turned away and Kelsie stopped over at their table with a pitcher of water, Jacob Reese made his way into the dining room. He’d clearly been napping, by the look of his wrinkled shirt and bedhead. If possible, this look was even hotter. Klarinda caught her breath, and involuntarily sighed a little sigh of appreciation.

  “Hello, Jacob,” she said. “Could I seat you over here by the window?”

  “Sure,” he started to say, but then he, Tessa, and Caroline all spotted one another at the same moment.

  “What the heck? No way! No freakin’ way! Is that you, Jacob Reese?” shouted Tessa.

  “Is this some kind of Mount Hemlock Academy reunion?” asked Caroline, flaring her nostrils and looking around suspiciously.

  “Tessa,” said Jacob, somewhat brightly. “Caroline,” he added, gravely.

  “Join us at our table,” said Tessa, pulling out the chair from a nearby table and shoving it between herself and Caroline, and then patting it enthusiastically half a dozen times.

  Jacob hesitated.

  “Pretty, pretty please,” whined Tessa.

  “Are you okay with this?” Jacob asked Caroline.

  “Sure,” she said, barely looking at him. “You can sit anyplace you’d like in this whole stupid dining room. Why should I care where you sit?”

  “Okay,” Jacob said, sitting down between Tessa and Caroline.

  “Would you three like a larger table?” asked Klarinda, since the one they were squeezed around was really meant for just two.

  “Yes,” said Tessa. “We’ll take this one.” She plunked her purse and water glass down on the large table behind them and sighed. “This is all so strange. The three of us together here. What are the odds of all of us winning the same contest?”

  “Not very good,” said Caroline. She glared in Klarinda’s direction, still assuming that someone from Mistletoe Manor was behind all of this. Not wanting to get interrogated about it, Klarinda slinked out of the dining room, despite her overwhelming desire to stay and eavesdrop.

  When she stepped back out into the front hallway, Sara and Lannie were both waiting for her at the front desk.

  “I think she was here first,” Sara announced, nodding over at Lannie.

  “Hi, again,” said Lannie, waving from the corner.

  “Oh, yes. The woman with the service dog,” said Klarinda. “How may I help you?”

  “I’ll stay right here, if you don’t mind,” said Lannie, who was dressed in a bathrobe, trying to hide behind the coat rack by the front door.

  “Okay, but if the door opens, you’re going to get knocked over,” Klarinda warned her.

  “Fine,” Lannie said, taking a few steps toward the front counter. “I’ll stand up here in plain view, but let’s make this conversation quick! Somehow, probably because my husband makes my life so hard, I forgot to bring shampoo and conditioner. I figured I’d soldier through since it’s just one night. I figured I could use whatever you’ve supplied – you know, kind of go with the whole ‘I’m camping’ mentality,” she said, using her beloved air quotes. “But there’s not any shampoo or conditioner in my shower. I’m half frozen from that hideous walk up here, and I need to take a hot shower now before I catch a cold.”

  “I’m afraid we don’t supply the rooms with any toiletries other than soap,” said Klarinda.

  “Are you joking? What kind of a luxurious inn is this?” she cried, her fingers weakly scratching around ‘luxurious inn’ as tears welled up in her eyes.

  “You can borrow some of my shampoo and conditioner,” Sara said to Lannie.

  “Thanks, but you don’t need to do that,” Lannie said to Sara, and the two women locked eyes for the first time. A cloud of recognition passed over Lannie’s face.

  “Hey! I know you. I mean, you look really familiar.”

  “You do, too,” said Sara.

  “Did we go to grade school together?” asked Lannie.

  “Maybe. Are you from Indianapolis?” asked Sara.

  “No,” said Lannie. “I grew up in Miami. Did you happen to go to boarding school?”

  “Yes!” said Sara.

  “I knew I knew you! Are you Sara Johnson from Mount Hemlock Academy?”

  “I used to be Sara Johnson. I’m Sara Byers since I got married six years ago. I’m sorry I can’t remember your name, but I definitely remember you now.”

  “I’m Lannie Newcastle. You probably remember me as Alanna Winthorpe. I was a couple of grades below you. You were our floor’s ‘big sister’ when I was a sophomore. In the Carvington Dorm.”

  “Oh, yes. I remember you now.” Sara drew in a deep breath, her face turning white. “How could I have forgotten you? You were Avery Burtz’s roommate.”

  “Yes. Yes, I was,” said Lannie.

  There was a long moment of awkward silence.

  “Do you ever hear from Avery’s parents?” asked Sara.

  Lannie shook her head. “No. Not for years, anyway.”

  “It was such a tragedy. You must still be haunted by it,” said Sara.

  “No,” said Lannie, her voice barely audible. “I mean, yes. I mean, I try not to think about it much. It was so long ago. I’ve tried to put it behind me.”

  The two women stood frozen for a couple more awkward moments, before Klarinda decided it was proper to break back into the conversation.

  “How may I help you?” she asked Sara.

  “Something’s the matter with my toilet.”

  “Oh, dear,” said Klarinda. “Let me track down Myrtle. She’ll get it fixed for you in just a moment.”

  Sara sighed and she and Lannie exchanged a look that said they both were used to much nicer accommodations than what Mistletoe Manor was providing for them. Klarinda pretended not to notice.

  “We have communal restrooms down that hallway, for you to use until Myrtle gets around to fixing your toilet,” she said to Sara. “I’m so sorry about the inconvenience. And,” she added, reaching beneath the counter for her emergency supply, “here’s a travel sized shampoo and conditioner for you, Lannie. It turns out we did have a couple of spares.”

  Chapter 5

  “We’re going to have to get a plumb
er out here,” Myrtle said to Klarinda. “I’ve tried everything I know and I can’t get this blasted thing to work.”

  “It figures. Why is it so hard to get ahead in life?” Klarinda lamented.

  Myrtle laughed. “You crack me up, girlie. I’ll call Rod Showers. His rates are reasonable. And he’s a hottie!”

  “Myrtle, are you serious? He’s got to be seventy years old,” said Klarinda.

  “Easier to catch him,” said Myrtle, wiggling her eyebrows. She picked up the front desk phone, but Klarinda set it back down.

  “That can wait for a second. Are you ready for this?”

  “Ready for what?” asked Myrtle.

  “The plot thickens! They all know each other from boarding school.”

  “They do?”

  Klarinda nodded. “The five of them having dinner, anyway.”

  “Hmmph,” said Myrtle. “I see they’re all sitting together at the same table. Good thing you never got ahold of Addie. There wouldn’t have been enough work to go around tonight.” Myrtle lowered her glasses, then raised them back up, and then lowered them again. “Am I seeing things? Why’s that little blonde haired one wearing a bathrobe?”

  “Because she was going to take a shower, until she decided to go warm up by the fireplace,” said Klarinda, rolling her eyes, “and by then they’d all realized they knew each other from some fancy schmancy boarding school they all went to. Some of them didn’t realize it at first, like that super cute guy Jacob, and the tall, plain woman, Sara, but now they’ve all figured out their connection, and they’ve been in there getting drunk together ever since.”

  “This is turning out to be a very peculiar evening,” said Myrtle, picking up the phone.

  “You don’t know the half of it! Apparently Lannie, the one in the bathrobe, had a roommate who died, or something. I’m not really sure, but it sounded sinister. And I haven’t even told you about the envelope Todd delivered,” Klarinda continued, but then she trailed off, wondering whether she really wanted to talk about it. Her gut told her that receiving so much money in an unmarked envelope was bad news. But her brain was spending it faster than her gut could keep up.

  “You know, I recently prayed for something exciting to happen around here,” Myrtle remarked. “I guess my prayers have been answered.”

  The sound of heavy footsteps on the stairs made Klarinda and Myrtle look up. Benji McKellar was making her way down to them, still dressed in her wrinkled, rusty orange outfit, her hair a snarled nest piled on top of her head. Christopher Murdock was a few steps behind her, now dressed in jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt with a picture of a woolly mammoth on it.

  “Is the dining room right through there?” Christopher asked Klarinda and Myrtle, nodding toward the open doorway down the hall.

  “That’s right,” said Klarinda. “I’ll show you to a table.”

  “I’m here to eat, too,” said Benji.

  “Great! Follow me,” said Klarinda. She fully expected these two to turn out to be part of the Mount Hemlock Alumni as well, so she wasn’t surprised to hear the entire table begin shouting things like, “Hell, no! Is that you, Murdock?” and “Chris freakin’ Murdock. No way, man!”

  Naturally, Christopher Murdock found himself a place at the table.

  “Are those your friends, too?” Klarinda asked Benji. The young woman stood back hesitantly, seeming to be overwhelmed by the raucous good time happening at the table in front of them. Then she shook her head.

  “I’m not with them. You can just seat me wherever,” she said.

  “Do you want this table by the window? It’s a little quieter over here,” said Klarinda.

  “Sure. This is fine,” she said, glumly.

  “Kelsie will be your waitress. She’ll be right over with some water,” she said, leaving Benji with a menu.

  On her way out of the dining room, as Klarinda passed by the large table holding the rest of the guests, she couldn’t help but notice that Caroline’s chilliness toward Jacob had passed. She was running her hand down his arm and laughing at something he’d just said. They were all gloating about the Ivy League colleges they’d attended and how successful they ended up being, except for Christopher, who was getting good-naturedly picked on for having only attended some state school.

  “You mind staying up here for a bit?” Klarinda said to Myrtle, when she returned to the front counter where Myrtle was waiting on hold for the plumber to answer the phone. “It’s time for turndown service,” she added.

  “Go right ahead. I’ll be here anyway,” said Myrtle. Klarinda scooped up a handful of mints and an armful of toilet paper, and made her way upstairs with the master key to make her nightly rounds.

  She started with Alanna’s room, the red suite at the top of the stairs. Wet clothes were discarded in a sloppy heap on the bathroom floor. A small piece of high-end luggage was parked beside the bed, still primly zipped shut since she’d gone straight for the inn-supplied robe. Pumpernickel was fast asleep in the center of the bed, behaving herself much better than her mother. This room had its own little kitchen in it. Klarinda noticed a water glass and open bottle of anti-anxiety medication sitting beside the sink.

  She switched on the lamp, turned down the covers of the bed, but skipped the mint, erring on the side of keeping the dog from getting sick.

  Next up was the small hallway with the blue and yellow rooms. Tessa’s room was room number two, the blue room. As soon as she opened the door, Klarinda was overwhelmed with the stench of alcohol and cigarettes. She marched over to the window, despite the blizzard going on outside, and opened it as wide as it would go. “Do you know how hard it is to get the smell of cigarettes out of curtains, rugs, mattresses,” she muttered under her breath. The inn had a strict No Smoking policy that was clearly advertised on its website, not to mention the No Smoking sign on the door, and the table toppers on the desk, bathroom counter top, and bedside table. Yet there were people who still didn’t listen. She shook her head in disgust, flipped back the covers, and tossed a mint on Tessa’s pillow. “I hope she chokes on it,” she added.

  Next up was Caroline Bradbury’s room. The yellow room. “I think yellow’s pretty,” Klarinda said to herself, stepping around the Louis Vuitton trunk. It was shocking how quickly this room had gotten trashed. Clothes were all over the bed, the sink was full of strands of blonde hair and globs of lotion and toothpaste, and the television was blaring. The room smelled heavily of perfume. The ceiling fan was going, and a curling iron had been left plugged in, half an inch away from the drapes. Klarinda unplugged it and set it in a safer location. “Good thing I have insurance, with guests like these,” she whispered.

  Somehow Caroline had managed to use up nearly an entire roll of toilet paper already. Klarinda left her a spare roll, and went to flip back the bed covers, when she noticed the white envelope resting on the bedside table, sticking out from a fashion magazine. She went over and picked it up, and pulled the card from the envelope. Unfortunately, there were no clear identifying marks indicating where it had come from. She sniffed it and was surprised to discover it smelled kind of musty. Like a basement.

  She put it back where she’d found it, deposited the mint onto the pillow, and moved on to room number four, the green room. Home for the night of the gorgeous Mr. Jacob Reese.

  He hadn’t settled in at all yet. The room was tidy and looked exactly the same as it had looked before he’d arrived, with the exception of a small wrinkly dent on one side of the bed where he must have rested before dinner. The room smelled faintly of some kind of sexy men’s cologne. Klarinda sucked in a long, deep breath of it, just as she noticed his invitation sticking out from his open jacket pocket. She tiptoed over to the door and peeked out the peephole, making sure she was still alone up here. Then she grabbed the invitation and took a quick look. It was exactly like Caroline’s. She sniffed it. Musty smell and all. She put it back where she’d found it, took one last look, and moved on.

  Across from Jacob’s room was
the gray room where Christopher Murdock’s was staying. He’d certainly made himself comfortable. The closet was filled with his clothes and shoes, and the glass by the bathroom sink held his toothbrush and toothpaste. Sensing that she was taking too much time, and possibly crossing over into a slightly creepy territory she prided herself on not venturing into (a tricky row to hoe, as an innkeeper), Klarinda picked up her pace. She deposited a mint on Christopher’s pillow, and was about to pop into Benji’s room when Rod Showers, the plumber, appeared at the top of the stairs with Myrtle right behind him.

  “I hear you’ve got some toilet trouble,” he announced.

  “Yes. Thanks for coming over so late, Rod. And in this storm! I should have called you weeks ago, but we don’t use that room very often, so it’s easy to let these things go. Right down this hallway,” said Klarinda, leading the way.

  “You’re busy. I’ll stay with him,” Myrtle whispered, shooing Klarinda away.

  “He’s all yours,” Klarinda whispered back.

  She returned to Benji’s room. It was neat and orderly, and looked pretty much exactly as it had looked before she’d arrived. Klarinda always found it interesting how some people truly settled in and lived in their room, even if only for one night, while others preferred to live out of their suitcases.

  “What’s your story?” Klarinda whispered, looking around for some kind of clue. How had this little frumpster wound up mixed in (or should she say, left out) with this mix of rich, spoiled, prep school alumni? She had told Klarinda that she’d also received an invitation, but why would she have, if she wasn’t part of their group?

  Klarinda stuck her head out into the hallway and listened. Myrtle and the plumber were chattering away in the purple room’s bathroom. Otherwise, the second floor seemed to be empty, with no sign of Benji or anyone else. Klarinda clicked the door shut and darted over to Benji’s backpack. She was about to unzip it when she heard the sounds of the doorknob rattling, and a key scraping into the lock. She shot straight up and was flipping the covers back and placing a mint on the pillow when the door swung open.