41
The next couple of hours were filled with activity. The snowplow arrived and cleared the road and the parking lot. The police van took Clarissa’s body away. Mac and I spent an hour with Pete Harris sharing all of our evidence and he took Linda into custody.
By early evening, the inn had cleared out. The knitters couldn’t wait to load up their bags of yarn and knitting goodies. Lucille had won the yarn-bombing award for her piano cozy. She and Seth had spent well over an hour that afternoon covering the baby grand piano in a neon-colored knitted monstrosity. Lucille said she had called ahead to get the measurements and the piece fit the piano perfectly. I secretly thought the woman needed to get out more and resolved to be sure Mom and Vi invited her over more often. Tiny scarves for chess pieces were one thing, but this was truly impressive.
We had decided to stay one more night to give Vi a little more rest before packing and driving back home. Of course, we all had to pretend that it had nothing to do with her near-death experience.
The big surprise of the afternoon was Tina. She finally admitted to being in Clarissa’s room the night she died—the presence of actual police and a suspect in custody must have convinced her to tell her story. No one was more shocked than Jessica to learn that Tina was Clarissa’s half-sister. David Carlisle, Clarissa’s father, had had a relationship after his divorce but never claimed the child until he found out he had terminal cancer. He located Tina and promised he would leave her half his estate in his will. When he died, the will left everything to Clarissa. Tina suspected Clarissa had managed to destroy the new will. Tina had joined the knitter’s workshop to continue to put pressure on Clarissa to do the right thing and to get closer to Linda and Jessica in case she needed their help in obtaining her inheritance.
René and Jessica had gone to the police station to help Linda procure a lawyer. Unfortunately for her lawyer, she’d admitted that Clarissa taunted her about selling her favorite paintings to pay for the spa, and Linda hit her over the head with the Maglite. A good attorney might be able to get her a reduced sentence for that, arguing temporary insanity. But the calculated strangling and then the attempted murder of Vi would be harder to talk her way through.
Mac had warned René that he needed to tell Jessica the truth about his past, but agreed that maybe he should wait until Jessica felt less blindsided by her mother’s criminal activities and the news of a new cousin. Wally had taken over management duties until Jessica was ready to return to work.
“I don’t understand how the cable needle ended up in Clarissa’s room,” Mom said.
I shrugged. “Linda may have put it there to cast suspicion on the knitters, or even specifically Isabel, knowing that Isabel and Clarissa hated each other.”
Putting all the reports together, it sounded like Clarissa had had a busy evening before Linda hit her in the head. René had been there, Tina had been there, and I suspected Emmett had also paid a visit. Probably only Duchess knew how many visitors Clarissa had received. It was up to the Kalamazoo Police Department to sort out all the stories.
I had just rested my head on Mac’s shoulder and closed my eyes for a moment when I heard thump, thump, rattle, thump down the stairs. I sat forward, as did everyone else, and we watched the door.
“It’s the ghost,” Vi breathed.
“Good grief, Vi,” Dad said. “There’s no ghost.”
We heard rattle, smack, and shhh-ing noises. Mac stood up and took a step toward the door. A small box rolled into view. Duchess followed right behind and batted it into the room like a kitty hockey player. It didn’t slide as well on the carpet as it must have on the wood floor of the hallway. She turned her golden eyes toward Seth. Abandoning her toy, she prowled toward him, leaped into his lap, and settled in, purring.
Mac’s eyes had gotten big and he strode to the box, picked it up, and stuffed it into his jeans pocket.
Lucille cleared her throat and gave Mac a little nod. Mac humphed, grabbed my hand, and pulled me into the hallway. He held a finger to his lips as he led me toward the back of the hotel and the now vacant library.
“Mac, what are you doing?”
I thought I heard footsteps behind us.
He dragged me into the library and softly shut the door. He pulled out the little box. My palms broke out in a sweat and the roar in my ears made me dizzy. I wasn’t ready for a proposal. Mac took my hand and dropped the box into it.
“What’s this?” I said.
“Open it.” Mac stepped back to watch.
I eased the ribbon off the box and peered inside. My whole body relaxed when I saw what it contained. A beautiful pair of knitted seashell earrings nestled on blue tissue paper. There was a little pearl bead right in the center of each one.
“They’re gorgeous,” I breathed. “Where did you get them?”
“I had some help from Isabel. Apparently, she knits jewelry and I asked her for something with a beach theme.”
“Beach . . .”
I looked up, and Mac now held a printed airline ticket.
“Oh, Mac, you didn’t,” I said.
“I did.”
“You got another flight? How—cell service has been down for days. And the Wi-Fi is still not working.”
“I know it’s a shock, but some things can still be done without the Internet.” His eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled. “Also, I had some help from Pete.”
“When do we leave?” I asked.
He checked his watch. “In about an hour if you want to make the flight.”
I threw my arms around him and thanked him enthusiastically.
“You missed something,” he said. “There’s still something in the box.”
I pulled the tissue paper out of the box and saw a key sitting in the bottom. I met Mac’s eyes. “Is this to your house?”
“Clytemnestra Fortune,” he said, “I love you.”
“Wait! Stop,” I said. I remembered the look his mother had given him and the grumpy way he snatched the ring box off the floor.
“What?”
“Did your mother put you up to this?”
He pulled me closer. “Of course not.”
“It’s just, I know you’ve been arguing about something. And I saw her nod at you when you picked up the box . . .”
“Clyde.” He put his hand on my chin and tilted my head up so I had to look in his eyes. “I’ve been waiting for months to go away with you. And I want to spend as much time as possible with you when we get back. Nothing has changed.”
“Even if I don’t go back to the police force? Even if I use my psychic abilities?”
“What? Of course. The only reason I was arguing with my mother was because I wanted to wait to ask you to move in with me until I could do it the way I had planned.” He turned away from me. “I wanted it to be romantic. On the beach, with the moon shining on the ocean, in a place far away from here.”
“That sounds nice,” I said.
“But, we aren’t there. We’re here and it doesn’t matter because we’re together.”
“Well, then, yes. But I think I’ll need to give you a key to my place instead.”
He smiled and kissed me and from the other side of the door I heard, “I knew it!”
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