Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“I’ve figured it out!” I yelled as I burst into our hotel room.

Ida Belle and Gertie, who were sitting at the table, both jumped and then realized what I’d said and both started talking at once.

“Who did it?”

“How did they get out of the room?”

“Was it Morgan? Those silent types are always a wild card.”

“My vote’s still for Brittany.”

I whistled and they both stopped talking.

“I didn’t figure out the who,” I said. “Just the how.”

First, I told them what Amanda had said.

“You were right,” Ida Belle said. “You never quite latched onto it being Tyler and now you know why. Assuming you believe Amanda.”

“I do.”

“So that’s two off the suspect list,” Gertie said. “I’m still betting on wild card Morgan, but tell us how the killer got out of a locked room. I’m dying to know.”

“I think I can tell you how they got in as well,” I said .

“You don’t think Justin let the killer in?” Ida Belle asked.

“The more I’ve thought about it, the less I think so,” I said. “Everyone agrees that Justin was beyond drunk, so if someone came after everyone had gone to bed and knocked, why didn’t anyone hear them? The amount of noise it would have taken to roust Justin from his half coma should have been heard by the others with rooms nearby.”

“Okay, but the key was inside,” Gertie said. “And Daniel checked the door to make sure it was locked. If it had just been him, I wouldn’t take his word for it, but the others heard Justin lock the door and saw Daniel check it. Do you think they’re all lying?”

“Not at all. I think the door was locked when they went to bed, but I think Justin just turned the key in the knob and left it there. I studied the locks before we left, trying to determine if they could be easily picked, and they really can’t be, especially by an amateur. But if the key is still in the lock on the other side, then all someone would have to do is use something thin and hard to push it out onto something they’d shoved under the door to collect it. Then simply pull that collection device under the door once the key landed and you have a way in.”

Ida Belle nodded. “That makes perfect sense. There was at least an inch of gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. Plenty of room to get something under there.”

“But it would have to be something stiff enough to shove under and remain in shape,” Gertie said. “And it would have to be something that didn’t make a loud noise when the key landed on it and also didn’t allow the key to bounce off. Assuming the killer didn’t haul in supplies, they would have had to use something from the house.”

“They did,” I said. “I think they used Petunia’s cookie sheet with a towel or dishrag on top. ”

“Petunia had been looking for her cookie sheet when we first arrived and said it was on the wrong shelf,” Ida Belle said.

“Exactly. And what is the likelihood that she’d put it in the wrong place when it’s probably been in the same location for decades?”

Gertie gave me an appreciative look. “Genius. Now tell me how they managed to get out of the room, lock the door, and leave the key between the nightstand and bed.”

I grinned. “They didn’t.”

They both looked confused.

“But there was no way to slide the key under the door and reach the location it was found in,” Gertie said.

“There wasn’t, and if it had been in the middle of the room, it would have been easy to figure out. But the reality is, the killer locked the door from the outside with the key and took it with them. Then the next day, when Daniel and Tyler broke down the door and they all rushed in, they simply dropped it between the nightstand and the bed as if it had been there all along.”

They both stared. Then Ida Belle started laughing.

“The simplest explanation is often the right one,” she said. “We’ve been complicating this when the answer was staring us right in the face.”

Gertie nodded. “But which one of them did it? They all rushed into the room.”

I pulled out my phone. “Let’s find out.”

Petunia answered on the first ring.

“I have a question for your excellent memory,” I said. “I need you to think hard on this one. After Daniel and Tyler broke down the door to Justin’s room, I know they all rushed to the bed except Tyler.”

“That’s right.”

“I assume Daniel was standing close to the nightstand because he checked Justin’s pulse. Did Brittany stand next to the nightstand on the other side of Daniel, farther away from it?”

“She stood away from the nightstand.”

“Great. Now, when the rest of the friends rushed in, who stood next to the nightstand?”

“Let me think…Tyler had stopped just inside the door after they got it open, and he only inched up to the end of the bed after Daniel said there was no pulse. Morgan was next to him at the corner. Amanda went in right after Brittany cried out and put her arm around her sister’s shoulders.”

“And Nicole?”

“She was on the other side of Daniel, next to the nightstand.”

And just like that, the how made perfect sense.

“Is that important?” Petunia asked.

“Yes. But I can’t explain now. I’ve got to sort this before Bryce railroads the wrong person again.”

“I did not see that one coming,” Ida Belle said.

“We don’t even have a motive for Nicole,” Gertie said. “Unless she did it for Brittany and Daniel. I know she circles them like a personal assistant, but murder seems a bit far to take friendships and a longtime crush. And what about the lipstick? And the earring?”

“Brittany had on Nicole’s bathrobe when you threw punch on her,” I said. “Nicole told me they’ve always borrowed each other’s stuff.”

“Like the earrings,” Ida Belle said. “You don’t think it was Brittany who left that lipstick stain, do you?”

“No. I think it was Nicole. I think she injected one of the chocolates Tyler brought her with peanut oil from the pantry and left it in Justin’s room earlier in the day, figuring he’d eat it that night. And I think she removed his EpiPen from the nightstand when she left the chocolate so that he couldn’t dose himself.”

Ida Belle nodded. “So she let herself into the room later to make sure he was gone, and to put the EpiPen back on the nightstand and take the chocolate wrapper with her. Then she found him struggling to breathe rather than dead and finished the job.”

“Exactly,” I said. “Then she took the key and locked the door behind her, knowing she’d be on hand to plant it when they entered the room the next day.”

“So it was Nicole who went out the window that night?” Gertie asked. “But she wasn’t wet.”

“She was wearing a robe,” Ida Belle said. “She could have ditched wet clothes.”

I nodded. “And she had a swim cap. She offered it to Brittany today.”

“But she came from upstairs,” Gertie said. “And we had every entrance to the house covered.”

“We had every entrance downstairs covered,” I said. “But she could have just as easily gone over rather than down. Something else that didn’t occur to me before and should have. The hallway bathroom was next to Justin’s room and the lattice runs all the way over to it. I don’t think she was planning on going out the window, but I think she prepared in case she did. And her gymnastics training would have given her the ability.”

“So she unlocked the bathroom window and wore her swim cap before she went in Justin’s room that night,” Ida Belle said and shook her head. “You have to admit, it was almost the perfect crime.”

“But why?” Gertie said. “There has to be more to it than avenging Brittany and Daniel. And she couldn’t have planned it before they got to the B and B because she didn’t know about the keys or the lattice or that Tyler would supply the chocolates.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “Something changed during their stay. And I don’t think it had anything to do with Brittany and Daniel’s situation. A murder of passion—which is what this appears to be—is personal. Deeply personal.”

“What do you think will happen now?” Ida Belle said. “Tyler’s attorney will have to be informed about the pillowcase and will insist on testing. If you’re right and Nicole’s DNA is on there, then that’s all they’d need for reasonable doubt in regard to Tyler, especially if the chocolate in Justin’s stomach was the same kind Tyler gave Nicole.”

“I wonder why Nicole didn’t take the pillowcase,” Gertie said. “Or at least swap it out with her own. She was meticulous about everything else.”

I nodded. “She might not have noticed. I doubt she turned the light on when she went into his room that night, and she certainly didn’t the night I went in after her. She probably wasn’t certain about where she lost the earring. All she knew was that Bryce hadn’t mentioned it so if she’d lost it in Justin’s room, it was still there.”

“And he still hasn’t mentioned it because Petunia has it,” Gertie said. “So as things currently stand, she thinks she got away with it.”

“But she knows Tyler is on the hook for it,” Ida Belle said. “Do you think she can live with that?”

I shrugged. “I would like to say no, but sometimes people still surprise me.”

“Is there anything we need to do?” Gertie asked.

I considered this, then shook my head. “No. The evidence will all come out and the prosecutor will either decide to pursue one or the other or dismiss the entire thing for lack of strong enough evidence against either of them. ”

“So she’ll get away with it,” Gertie said. “Justin may have deserved a karmic reckoning, but it really wasn’t her place to dish it out.”

“No,” I agreed. “But that’s where we are. And our goal here was to get Corndog and Petunia out of the hot seat. We’ve done that, so technically, our job is done.”

Ida Belle sighed. “This is a wholly unsatisfying end to it all. Except for the part where Corndog and Petunia are in the clear.”

“I like it better when there’s a chase or explosion and the bad guys are arrested or killed,” Gertie said. “Ties everything up in a nice, neat bow.”

“I’m afraid there will be no bow-tying on this one,” I said. “And it appears that the ‘bad guy’ was already dead when we started our investigation. That’s going to have to be enough.”

Ida Belle nodded. “We might as well pack to leave then.”

We got our things together and were preparing to head out when someone pounded on our room door.

“Ms. Redding! I need your help!”

I knew that voice!

I gave Ida Belle and Gertie a stunned look as I rushed to the door, threw it open, and stared at a clearly panicked Morgan.

“Nicole is on the roof of the hotel with a gun,” he said. “She’s going to kill herself. Please help.”