A Dead And Stormy Night Read online

  It was a sign of just how tired Danielle and I both were that we had missed it on our first round. I shut it, and made a note to check more thoroughly next time. The last thing I needed was to trigger my sister’s already frazzled nerves.

  Danielle stepped out of the kitchen. “That’s everything. I’m thinking of offering Catherine and Emily Jepsen breakfast in bed. I figured they’d get a kick out of it since they’re into British historical dramas. And it will give us a chance to let the adults know how the grounds look in the morning without the children nearby.”

  “They’re practically teenagers, Danielle.”

  She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter how old they are. If part of their vacation is spoiled, their parents should be the ones to break it to them.”

  “How much earlier do you need me here?”

  Danielle sighed and hugged me as if she really thought I might say no. “Granny’s gonna sleep on our futon tonight.”

  “Wouldn’t want her to blow away in the wind,” I teased.

  Danielle patted me on the shoulder and walked away without even cracking a smile.

  From any other boss, I would have taken it as a bad sign of my future with the company. With my little sister, I knew it was just stress.

  Hospitality and service businesses lived and died by referrals. If the Jepsen family had a good time at the Paradise, they might tell their friends. Who might come, have a good time, go home, and tell their friends. If even a few went on to become repeat customers, it could guarantee the bed and breakfast’s continued survival.

  The Jepsens were high stakes guests, but we had delighted guests like them before. We could do it again.

  My walk home was just as sloshy and miserable as I expected. Maybe a little more because Ash hadn’t come with me. Judging by the light in the upstairs library, she was planning to spend her dinner hour with her nose in a book.

  By the time I got to Granny’s, I was wet and exhausted. Coral was lounging in her favorite spot on Granny’s easy chair. Her orange ears perked up as she turned to glance at me. Then, apparently noticing the water, she put her head back down on the cushion and curled up tighter.

  “All right, I get it. No cuddles until I’m dry.”

  Forget about dinner. A shower and cuddles with my kitten were the only things I had energy for before sleep.

  Once I was in my pajamas and suitably dry, I crawled onto the couch and pulled my blanket over my body. Coral hopped over, settling her tiny body between the armrest and my head. I barely managed to stroke her fur before I drifted off to sleep.

  The next morning, I woke up to a loud pounding on the door. At first, I rolled over and closed my eyes, but then I remembered that Granny was still at Danielle and Andrew’s. If Ashley could hear the knocking from my room, she wouldn’t answer someone else’s door.

  “Coming!” I shouted, pushing myself into a sitting position and rubbing my eyes.

  Stumbling to the door, I pulled it open to find Andrew standing drenched and stone-faced on the other side.

  “We need you up at the big house,” he said. “One of the guests is dead.”

  Chapter Three

  For a second, Andy’s words didn’t want to register. I stood in the doorway staring at his face, but I couldn’t remember why he was there.

  He grabbed me by the shoulders. The warm rain water seeped through my pajama top.

  “Laura, did you hear me?” Andrew asked.

  I licked my lips and nodded, but the truth was that I felt numb. “What happened? Is the house okay? What about Danielle and Granny?” My heart was racing.

  “Everyone else is fine,” he said, giving me another squeeze. “Shaken, but fine. We could really use your help keeping things calm until I can get the police out.”

  I nodded. “I’ll be up in a minute.”

  Andrew went back to the house, and I dragged myself into the shower. Once I was clean, dressed, and armed with an umbrella, I set off for the Big House.

  I could have just gone outside and saved myself the trouble of showering. It was still mid-spring, but the air felt every bit as hot, thick, and heavy as summer air. The usual smell of the Paradise, a mix of sea air, grass, and flowers, had been obliterated by the scent of rainwater and mud.

  I went to the back porch. Danielle was slumped on the couch with her head in her hands. I couldn’t hear her, but I could tell from her shaking shoulders that she was crying. Ashley stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the porch looking like a lost puppy. Andrew was standing beside her rubbing her back. He looked up when he heard me come in.

  “Granny Margaret has Ben,” Andrew said. “They’re in with the younger Jepsen children.”

  “I have absolute faith in Ben’s powers of cuteness, but do you think that will distract them for very long?” I asked.

  Danielle ripped her hands away from her face, revealing her splotchy red complexion and tear-streaked face. “There’s nothing else we can do.”

  That didn’t make sense to me. If the Paradise had been my hotel, I would have given the Jepsen Family a lovely breakfast and heartfelt condolences while helping to book their return trip home. I mean, they couldn’t be planning on staying out the trip… could they?

  “When will the cops get here?” I asked, figuring it was better not to question Andy and Danielle’s logic.

  “That’s the hiccup. The storm washed the road out.” Andrew pulled away from Danielle and went to the utility drawer, pulling out the battery-operated radio. “And it took out the power. We’re running on the generator right now.”

  Ashley’s eyes widened in panic. “We knew about the power, but the road too? What if something… what if something happens?”

  “Cellphones?” I reached down to my pocket and realized I didn’t have mine.

  “I tried already. Their side isn’t working either.” Andrew didn’t look up when he spoke this time. He was too busy tuning the radio to the weather service.

  We were all quiet for a while as exactly how much trouble we were in became all too clear. There was nothing to fill the silence except for the static of Andy’s radio.

  Danielle lifted her head again. “What are we going to do?”

  I took Andrew’s place at my sister’s side. “We can take the boat. The sheriff’s department isn’t that far.”

  At least it wasn’t that far when I was riding in a temperature-controlled car. I could only imagine how long the trip would feel in our small boat. Still, I’d deal with it—and the sore arms that would inevitably follow—if it did something to take the edge of panic out of Danielle’s voice. I couldn’t stand to see her like that.

  “If the road is flooded, there’s no way the water level at the dock is the same,” Ashley said.

  Danielle didn’t look like she was ready to let go of the idea. “We could row it over the highway?”

  “That would only add more risk,” Andrew said. “And we don’t know that the highway is flooded. Just the road.”

  “Then what are we supposed to do?” Danielle snapped just a little too loudly. Her hand flew to her mouth.

  Ashley, Andrew, and I exchanged looks.

  Andrew was right. Even if we could get the boat from the dock to the parking lot, which was a big if considering the grounds had turned into a massive mud pit, we were just as likely to get run over as washed away on the highway.

  “I know we don’t want to hear this, but I think we’re on our own for the duration of the storm,” Andrew said. “Which means Mr. Jepsen will be with us for the duration too.”

  I glanced at Danielle out of the corner of my eyes, bracing for her reaction.

  “Okay…okay.” Danielle took a deep shuddering breath and nodded. “We should… I don’t even know what we should do. This isn’t a scenario I thought about when I wrote up the standard operating procedures.”

  “Well, let’s start with the basics,” Andrew said. “We’ve got one crisis and one major inconvenience—”

  “That’s an understatement,
” Ashley muttered under her breath.

  Andrew, who hadn’t heard her, continued. “The SOP is good for the crisis, so let’s fall back on it. That means first and foremost we focus on securing the property and assessing it for damage. Second is the comfort and wellbeing of the guests.”

  “Not their safety?” Ashley asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Danielle looked deeply offended by the notion that she would ignore the safety of her guests. I spoke up before she could rip my friend’s head off.

  “That’s covered in the SOP under property security and safety,” I said. “The first step is to make sure the generator keeps working. Between the fall hazards and the risk of food poisoning, the power is automatically the first issue we deal with.”

  The answer seemed to break the tension in the room. Danielle took a deep breath, slapped her hands on her knees, and climbed to her feet.

  “Andy should check on the grounding,” she said. “He’s the most familiar with the generator, and he’ll have the easiest time fighting the wind. I’ll work on breakfast for the Jepsens.”

  “You really think they’ll want to eat after… you know?” I pointed upstairs, then blinked.

  “Maybe not, but it will give us an excuse to keep them all in one place for what comes next.” Danielle clasped her hands together. “Laura… I need you to go into the room and make sure everything is okay.”

  “Me?” I asked, sure I hadn’t heard her correctly.

  “I know,” she said. “I’m sorry, but the storm might have broken a window or something. Someone needs to make sure and it has to be one of us.”

  I swallowed. Hard. “Okay. Sure. No problem.” I didn’t ask the most obvious question: why couldn’t Danielle check the room and let me cook breakfast? The Jepsens had had enough trauma. There was no reason to force my cooking on them too.

  Ashley flashed me a sympathetic smile. “I’ll go with you. If you do need to clean up glass or anything, another set of hands will probably come in handy.”

  Andrew grabbed his raincoat from the peg on the wall. “I should walk the grounds and check the trees too.”

  “In this?!” Danielle wrinkled her lips, giving a distinct look of disapproval. But in the next second her features had smoothed again. “No… you’re right. We don’t want a rogue branch taking out a window here or in the garden shed.”

  She was talking to Andrew’s back. Having seen what needed to be done, he’d just gone right out to do it.

  “Right, let’s get to work then,” Danielle said. And then she disappeared into the kitchen.

  “No problem, boss,” Ashley mumbled.

  “Give her a break,” I said. “This place means a lot to her. To all of us.”

  Ashley held up her hands defensively. “I don’t mean anything by it. Just trying to lighten the mood a little. You know? You used to love gallows humor.”

  “Yeah… you’re right.” I guess things were a little different before my family’s bed and breakfast had a bad habit of turning into the gallows.

  I motioned for Audrey to stay quiet and follow me into the kitchen. Danielle was already at the stove stirring an industrial-sized stockpot of gruel. Enough for everyone to have a hearty breakfast and a round of seconds, if their stomachs were up to it. She probably intended for the bubbling pot of citrus-berry compote beside her to entice anyone who turned their nose up at boiled oats.

  Danielle wasn’t alone. Emily and Jeremy Jepsen were sitting at the plain wooden table, the Brown Betty teapot on the table between them. He wore a blue polo shirt and khaki shorts that hung off his body despite being tightly cinched at his waist with a belt. Emily wore a breezy white button-down and jean shorts hemmed just to her mid-thigh. The two of them were dressed for an amazing vacation. If only life had cooperated…

  “Don’t mind us,” Emily said, flashing a weak attempt at a smile. “Just thought we’d scrounge up some tea.

  I nodded and forced a smile of my own, but with each step toward the bedroom, I felt myself going numb.

  The weekend wasn’t supposed to go this way. It was supposed to be a simple family vacation for the Jepsens. The sort where you spent way too much time together in far too idyllic a location, and ended up appreciating your preciously mundane reality all the more.

  The Jepsens would never have another vacation like that. They may never travel as a family again.

  No, one more time. The trip back home.

  On our way down the hall, we passed Tabitha Jepsen and Kenneth, the would-be suitor, in the reading room. Tabitha had her back to the door, arms folded across her chest, and her eyes focused on the window. Or rather on the raging storm beyond it. Poor Kenneth was pacing away the shine I’d just put on the wooden floors. They may as well have been on completely separate planets for how little they were communicating.

  “Hopefully Danielle is right and a meal does them good,” Ashley said as we started to climb the stairs.

  “Yeah… here’s hoping.” Somehow, I doubted it would.

  Chapter Four

  The Jepsen family had rented out the entire bed and breakfast for their vacation, and they were all keeping a wide distance from their rooms; the second floor was deserted when Ashley and I got up there.

  If not for the constant howl of the wind and rat-a-tat from rain pelting the roof, it would have been silent. Instead, we were left with an eerie stillness punctuated by an awful din.

  I stopped when we got to the guest suite at the end of the hall. Harold and Catherine Jepsen’s suite.

  “Let’s get this over with as soon as possible,” I said. “The younger kids are at the end of the hall, but if they come up to change or wash after eating that sticky compote, I don’t want them to see us coming out.”

  “Danielle put such young children so far away from their parents.” Ashley’s nose screwed up in disapproval.

  “The Jepsens insisted.”

  To be honest, it had seemed strange to me too. But it didn’t take long to learn not to argue with guests. Even when their ideas were sure to lead to disaster, it was better to let them find out and help pick up the pieces than to challenge them. Nobody liked to be lectured on their time off.

  I took a deep breath and twisted the doorknob, pushing the door open gently. A wave of acrid, slightly musty air slammed into my face.

  “Mercy alive, what is that smell?” Ashley pitched her nostrils closed with her fingertips.

  “No idea.” I did a quick scan to see what the source might be, and saw Harold Jepsen lying face down.

  His toiletry bag was lying on the floor a foot in front of him, the contents sprawled in a haphazard fashion that suggested it had fallen when he did. A wine glass was nearby too. Its contents were soaking into Danielle’s very expensive plush beige rug.

  I tiptoed into the room so as not to disturb anything.

  “Wow. He… he really is gone…” Ashley said.

  I looked back at her. The color had drained from her cheeks, making the slight perpetual stain from years of wearing ruby-red lipstick stand out all the more. She mumbled something softly. Whether a prayer or a poem, I couldn’t tell.

  “You sure you’re up for this, Ash?” I asked gently.

  She nodded. “It’s fine I’ve just… never actually been around one, you know?”

  I wished I could still say the same. “If it’s too much I can handle it alone.”

  “No way. I’m fine.” Ash flashed me a confident smile. “But let’s get this over with quickly, yeah?”

  I turned my attention back to the guest room. Other than the wine glass, the stain, the spilled toiletry bag, and the ruffled sheets, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the room. There were no broken fixtures or furnishings. The windows weren’t even leaking—no small feat in a storm this bad. It was as if Harold Jepsen had just dropped dead on the spot.

  Something didn’t feel right, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.

  “Doesn’t look like there’s much for us to do in here,” I said. “Bu
t we’re definitely going to have to deodorize when the storm is over. It smells like mouse pee in here.”

  I turned back to find Ashley staring at Harold Jepsen.

  “Mouse pee…” she mumbled. “Hemlock smells like mouse pee. The stuff is deadly. I learned about it in Alnwick. What do you think someone would look like if they were poisoned?”

  There were notes of mingled dread and excitement in her voice that I didn’t like. Mostly because I felt them myself.

  “Mouse pee smells like mouse pee too, Ash,” I insisted. “When the roads flood, it tends to flood their hiding places. They probably just came up here looking for ground that was high and dry.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure you’re right.” Ashley didn’t sound convinced.

  For the most part, I wasn’t either. “Everything looks normal except for… you know.”

  “It doesn’t feel like it.” Ashley reached up and rubbed the backs of her arms.

  The door swung open, and Danielle barreled through, a deep scowl on her face. “Tell me you’ve got some good news up here because Andy—ugh! What is that smell? Mouse pee?”

  Danielle’s eyes swept around the room, widening as they laser-focused on the ugly scene on the carpet.

  “The good news is there doesn’t seem to be anything else wrong with the room,” I said. “As soon as the storm clears and the cops come, it’s all fixable.”

  “The cops aren’t coming.” Danielle closed her eyes and sighed heavily. “Andy can’t get them on the landline or his cell. And he just heard on the radio that the storm is slowing down.”

  “W-what does that mean?” Ashley asked, looking between my sister and I helplessly.

  “It means we’re on our own for the next day or two,” I said. Of course, that was the best case scenario. “But at least it’s not likely to get any stronger.”

  “No, just dump the entire ocean on our roof.” Danielle hurried over to the window and looked up at the joint. “I hope there aren’t any leaks anywhere. That smell could be from the roof insulation. Or mice.”