Chapter 19

NINETEEN

Ronnie is at the registration desk talking to Roger.

He says, "I'm sorry. I left strict instructions to leave that room alone." He addresses Rebecca. "No one has been in there to my knowledge since you were here, Miss Marsh. No one has a key and I changed the code."

Ronnie turns to me. "Someone has cleaned the room. The bed is made. New towels. It smells strongly of disinfectant. Mom's toiletries are in the bathroom. Her bags are still there and her clothes are in the closet."

Rebecca asks, "Was there a champagne bottle on the dresser?" and Ronnie shakes her head. "Was there a champagne bucket?"

"No. Did you see one when you were looking for her, sis?"

Roger says, "I gave strict orders. No one was to go in the room. I guess one of the cleaning staff didn't get the word."

And there goes the champagne bottle and any other evidence of who was in the room.

I say, "Your night manager said she took a bottle of champagne to the room before midnight. If the café and restaurant were closed, where would the champagne have come from?"

"We keep a few amenities in a locked cabinet in the office."

"Would there be record of what was taken?"

"No."

"What time does Missy come on duty?"

"Eleven but she's always here by ten or ten thirty. Was she helpful?"

I dodge the question. "Missy told us she was working Thursday night and covering for another employee. Who was the employee?"

"We have another night manager who is out with a sick child. Like I told you. But she's been gone for a month and wouldn't know anything. Missy has been kind enough to work her nights. She's worked under me for a year now."

I'm sure she has. I give him the description Missy gave us of the drunk couple.

"It doesn't ring a bell. Sorry."

He would remember the acne if nothing else, so it probably wasn't a guest.

"Missy indicated it wasn't unusual to see drunks carried out the back door."

He hesitates before answering. "If she says she saw them, I believe her. I guess they may have come in for the restaurant. That's not our typical guest."

"The restaurant closes at eight. Right?"

"That's right. But Packer's is open until nine in the evening."

It was after that but this isn't going anywhere. "Would you still have the trash taken from the room?" I ask on a hunch.

"We might. I doubt it though. They pick up the trash bin on Saturday morning. The bin is out back if you want to look. There's no way of telling what came from each room unless it's something the guest has their name on."

Dumpster diving should be an Olympic event. I've done it numerous times. "Can we use the café a little longer?"

"Of course."

We go to the café and out a door leading to another deck. To my right I see a wooden enclosure for the trash bin. "I want to have a look." I go to the waste bin and pull myself up to look inside. Empty. Unless we want to go to the dump and rake through all the trash, that's it. Inside we get the same table. The writer dude is back. He looks up, sees me, gets his stuff together, and leaves in a huff. He's smarter than I give him credit for.

"So let's backtrack a little. Thursday night you have dinner with your mom, go to her room, sit on the veranda and talk. You go back to your room around…"

"Ten or ten thirty," Rebecca says.

"You saw no one suspicious. No one watching you during this time?"

Rebecca shakes her head.

"Your mom seemed to have something on her mind during that time but told you she would discuss it with you in the morning. She doesn't show. When you get the note from Roger, you go to your mom's room and she isn't there, but her clothes and other items are still there. You didn't see a champagne bottle. Have I got that right?" She nods. I tell Ronnie what Missy had to say about the note and Connie's story about finding a champagne bottle on the floor.

Ronnie addresses the question. "The room looked like Rebecca said. I didn't smell any liquor, just disinfectant."

"Connie was in your mom's room Friday before noon and then Roger declared it off limits. When were you in the room, Rebecca?" I ask.

"Maybe noon Friday. It would have been after Connie cleaned and found the note. I didn't see a bottle but it could have been in the waste-basket. I didn't look there. The room wasn't messed up like there had been a…you know."

"Like there had been a fight, you mean?" I ask, and she nods. It's too bad Victoria didn't tell Rebecca what was bothering her. But for now we have to find out who wrote the note. And hopefully find the guy who Missy saw helping a woman out of the back entrance. "Rebecca, you said your mom didn't drink much. Could she have gotten drunk?"

Ronnie answers, "I think Rebecca was comparing Mom's to Dad's drinking. He can put it away. But, no, she wouldn't have finished a bottle."

That's interesting. Maybe the champagne was a ploy to get Victoria to open her door to a stranger. There was no sign of a fight or a struggle so whoever took Victoria convinced her to come peacefully, or they knocked her out. There was no sign of blood on anything, but Ronnie said she smelled disinfectant. Maybe it was from Connie's cleaning. Whatever happened, it happened quickly. That leaves the question of the two bottles of champagne. Did her abductor bring a bottle? And then there's the drunk couple near the exit door. In my mind I can imagine Victoria opening the door to someone pretending to be a waiter. She's knocked silly and helped along to go to the stairs. A second person may have staged the room to look like Victoria had gotten drunk. Maybe I'm wrong on each count. I'm frustrated. This is going around in circles.

"We need to look at the surveillance camera footage. There must be cameras in a place this big."

Rebecca says, "I checked on Friday before I went home. The system was down Thursday night until 3:17 Friday morning. The last thing on Thursday night is before we went to Mom's room."

"I'm going to call Tony," I say. "Ronnie, ask Roger to get the times the camera was turned off and back on. And tell him not to erase anything."

Ronnie and Rebecca leave, and I go out onto the deck for privacy. When Tony answers it sounds like he's speaking with his cheeks stuffed like a chipmunk. "Wait one." I hear a paper bag being crumpled and imagine the office smells like Moe's famous cheeseburgers. The sound of someone sucking the bottom out of a paper cup ends. "Okay. Go."

"Hi, Sheriff. Can you check records for Missy or Melissa Milligan, Melissa with one ‘L'?" I don't feel bad about interrupting his munchies. His wife will thank me. His heart will thank me too. I hear keys clacking and Tony comes back on the line.

"Melissa Sue Milligan. Lives in Bellingham. I'm sending you her personal information. Looks like she's single. Next of kin is her mother, also in Bellingham. She has a DUI and a couple of other misdemeanors in another state, plus one arrest last year for aiding and abetting a fugitive."

"Can you send me the information for that arrest?"

"Do you need it now?"

"No hurry. Anytime in the next ten minutes will work."

I hear him chuckle. "What's up with her?"

"I just wanted to know why she said she's the mother of your child." I can hear him almost choke and sputter. "I'm just kidding, Sheriff." I hang up before it gets nasty.