Vineyard Quilt: Pattern Of Betrayal Part 14

"Define unusual."

Julie shrugged. "Strange behavior. Anyone sneaking around. Weird noises."

Shirley shook her head. "I'm seeing the same things you are, I suppose. Poor Susan is putting on a brave face but looks like she's about to have a nervous breakdown any minute. Kenneth is having the time of his life despite his wife's anxiety, and Liam locks himself in his room every chance he gets. I wonder what he does in there," she mused.

Julie wasn't ready to let Liam's secret slip. He seemed like an honest enough guy in spite of his little white lie about his name. She would keep his true ident.i.ty a secret for now.

"Carrie seems sweet enough," Shirley continued. "Sadie and Joyce are both nice as pie."

"Dare I ask your thoughts on Gregory?"

Shirley pressed her lips together. "My mama always said if you couldn't say something kind about a body, don't say anything at all."

"But?"

"That man is cranky," Shirley said. "All the time."

Truer words were never spoken. But Shirley wasn't saying anything that Julie didn't already know.

"Just continue to keep an eye out for anything unusual, will you please?" Julie asked.

Shirley nodded, her hair glinting like molten lava beneath the ceiling lights. "You bet."

Julie left the tearoom and went straight to her office. She had a little time before bed to look for the journal again and possibly do a little more online research to find out something about Carrie.

Or maybe I should just corner the timid blonde and question her outright. Julie shook her head as Detective Frost's earlier words floated through her suspicious mind: "Crime will do that to you."

Julie flipped on the light in her office and gasped. Stunned, she stared at the mess before her.

The room had been ruthlessly ransacked. Books lay scattered all over the floor. Her desk drawers were pulled out, their contents dumped to the side like trash. Even her trash can had been dumped and its contents obviously rifled through.

She shivered. Who could have done this? And when?

Julie refused to believe it could be one of her staff. With the exception of Hannah, they had all been here long before she had. And Julie had known Hannah for years. No, it had to be one of the guests. But who? And when could they possibly have found the time?

Thinking about it more, Julie had to admit that it had been a distracting evening. Perhaps someone did it during the drama at dinner. The ambulance could have attracted someone from the outside. Regardless of the answer, one thing was certain: She had to call the police again.

Reluctantly, Julie picked up her phone and dialed the all-too-familiar non-emergency number.

Dispatch promised to send someone right out.

Julie hung up with a sigh. Her fingers itched to clean up the mess, but that would have to wait. The police needed to see the room in all of its chaotic glory.

"Holy cow!" Hannah exclaimed behind her. "What happened in here?"

"I can only a.s.sume someone was looking for something." Julie brushed past Hannah and walked the short distance down the hall to the library and peered inside.

Everything in the room appeared to be in proper order.

"That's quite a deduction," Hannah drawled.

Julie shot her an annoyed look as she headed back to her office. "I don't know what they could possibly be after. Everyone already knows that the journal is missing."

"Maybe whoever took it hid it in here and came back for it," Hannah suggested.

"Why would they tear everything apart trying to find it? They would know exactly where they put it."

"True," Hannah said. "Whoever did this either wanted something else or hadn't heard the book was stolen."

Julie nodded.

Shirley's voice drifted into the office as her footsteps drew closer. "Right this way, officer." She poked her head in the door. "Julie, did you call the pol-my stars! What happened in here?"

"That's what I'm hoping the police can help me figure out."

Shirley stepped sideways to let the uniformed officer squeeze by. "But are you OK, dear?"

"I'm fine, Shirley. Thanks."

"When did you discover the room in this state?" the officer asked. He was young-almost too young-with light brown hair and tawny eyes like a hawk's. Had it not been for those keen eyes, she might have turned him around on the spot and sent him back to his car.

Where are they getting these babies to investigate crimes?

"I came in here about fifteen minutes ago," she replied. "And this is what I found."

"What were you doing at the time?"

"Preparing to finish some work before I went to bed."

"I see." The officer wrote something in the little notebook he held-the same kind Detective Frost carried around. "What sort of work?"

Julie felt her patience slip a notch. This weekend had been nothing but drama from beginning to end. "The usual stuff."

She was waiting for him to ask her to explain that answer when an all-too-familiar voice sounded from the hall. "If you wanted to see me again, you didn't have to go to such lengths."

"Detective Frost." Julie forced a polite smile to her lips. "So nice to see you this evening. What's it been-four hours?"

Frost stepped into the office. "Anything missing?"

"I haven't checked. I didn't want to disturb any clues or fingerprints."

"Any idea who could have done this?" Frost scanned the room. Julie was sure he didn't miss a single detail.

"I don't think it was the same person who stole the journal."

"Really? And what makes you so sure of that?"

Julie shrugged. "Why would the thief do this if they already had the journal?"

"Hmmm. And there's nothing else of great importance in here?" He raised his eyebrows in that infuriating way he had.

"Accounting records, registration papers, that sort of thing."

"What about a checkbook or business credit cards?"

"That's all locked in the safe," Julie said.

Frost shot her a skeptical look.

"It's locked." She pointed to the closed door of the tiny wall vault. "May I?"

He fished in his pocket and then held out a pair of latex gloves to her.

Julie pulled the gloves on as she picked her way across the office, trying her best not to step on anything that looked important. These were Millie's paper records scattered across the floor, and she wanted to return them to their proper homes as soon as possible. And without footprints.

She nimbly ran through the combination and opened the safe. She had been careful to make sure that it was shut after the detective left that afternoon. "Yep, everything is still here."

"If there's nothing missing, we can write it up as vandalism or an attempted robbery. But it's not officially a burglary if nothing has been stolen."

Of course not.

"It'll take me a while to get everything back in order." Julie cringed at the thought. It was going to take hours.

"Take some pictures," Frost told the uniformed officer. "Then dust the safe." He pulled a small kit from his jacket pocket and handed it to the officer. Then he turned back to Julie. "Walk around; see if anything seems to be missing or out of place."

She looked pointedly at the mess that was once her neat and orderly office.

"You know what I mean," he said.

Julie studied the debris on the floor, trying to match it to her memory of the ledgers and books that had once been up on the shelves.

"Why did you call for an ambulance earlier?" Frost asked.

"One of the guests had a problem at dinner." It was the safest answer she could come up with.

"That's some problem if you needed an ambulance." Frost eyed her steadily.

"How did you know-?"

He shot her that patronizing smile again. "I make it my business to know. So, what happened?"

"We're still waiting on word from the hospital," Julie said. "But Joyce Fillmore had some sort of an attack while she was eating."

"One of the older ladies?" he asked.

"The tall one."

"Heart attack?"

"Maybe. Or a food allergy. Her friend said she was allergic to peanuts."

He took out his notebook and scribbled something on it. "Was your staff aware of this allergy?"

Julie crossed her arms and stared him down. "Of course we were." Of course Hannah was.

"Let me know what you find out." After the officer was finished taking pictures, Frost walked around the room looking for heaven only knew what. He used his pen to pull the curtain away from the window and peer out. Her office overlooked the back garden; though, whenever she was in the office, she didn't have much time for admiring the view. "When you first came in here, was there a window open?"

"No."

He let the curtain fall back into place. "Is it possible that the culprit came in through the hallway?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Do you keep your office door locked?"

"Not ordinarily," she said. "Only when I'm leaving the inn."

"Did you leave the inn today?" he asked, still poking around the room, peering under things and behind things, never once looking at her while he spoke.

"No."

"So, it's feasible that any one of your guests or staff could have come in here and done this."

"Why do I feel like I'm the one being charged here?"

This time Frost looked at her, his smile genuinely apologetic. "It's been a long day, Miss Ellis."

"Tell me about it," she muttered.

"What was that?" he asked.

"I said, I'm sorry to hear that."

He smiled as if he knew that wasn't what she'd said at all. "We'll write up the report. In the meantime, you can feel free to clean this up."

She nodded.

"And one more thing, Miss Ellis."

Julie turned to face him.

"You should lock your office door whether you're here or not."

"Locking a door in Straussberg!" Shirley exclaimed. "Why, whoever heard of such a thing?"

"It seems to be my only recourse now," Julie said. Though, with the journal missing and her office a mess, it seemed a bit like closing the barn door after the horses had gotten out.

After leaving her office, Julie had walked to the tearoom to see if Shirley was still at the inn. She should have gone home long ago, but Julie was glad she'd remained for a while longer.