Winter Festival Murder Read online

  "Thank you," I finally said when I had reached the point of once again being able to talk. I dried the rest of my tears, but shoved the torn tissue in my pocket in case they started to flow again.

  Miss Jill checked her watch and started to get up from the bench.

  "Hold on," I said as I caught her by the wrist. "You never finished saying how you knew Gerald had been cheating."

  Miss Jill laughed the sort of laugh that people usually said sounded like bells before she plopped back down next to me.

  "Never get old, Tessa," she said. "Sometimes I stand up and only get a few steps before I forget what I was going to get. You're right, though. It isn't a very exciting story. Gerald found out that Hilda was the one who wrote the clues and while she tried to be protective of them, she liked to take a good stroll around when she was feeling stuck with a rhyme. Of course she would leave the clues on the table and I would find Gerald sneaking a peek at them while Hilda made her way through the nonfiction section at the back wall."

  "That's a much less exciting story than I thought it would be," I said with a laugh.

  "You still might find an exciting one though," Miss Jill said. "Hilda didn't write the clues this year. So how did Gerald figure it out? Not to speak ill of the dead, but he seemed a bit too busy hurtling through the medallion hunt to actually slow down and try to search it out the old fashioned way."

  That was true. How did he end up at the medallion hiding spot this time? I was getting the impression that he wouldn't have done what he was supposed to do and try to actually solve the clues. And I know Max wouldn't have left the clues out on a table for Gerald to find. I also know Max wouldn't have let anyone see him actually hide the medallion. This was a case of two steps forward, one step back.

  "You've certainly given me some things to think about and you need to get back to work," I said, standing up next to Miss Jill.

  "Yes, that's true," she said.

  We walked together until we got to the doors back into the adult library. Miss Jill put her hands on my shoulders and turned me to face her.

  "Tessa, I know what you are going through and I know how hard it is," she said. "If you ever need to talk or cry to someone who actually understands, please don't hesitate to call me. I don't have a cell phone, but I am listed in the phone book."

  I nodded at her, knowing I couldn't say anything to her without starting to cry again. She understood and gave me a quick hug before she disappeared into the double doors of the library.

  Once I was in the station wagon, I ran over everything I had learned. Trevor had actually been studying hard and his partial alibi checked out. Charlie's financial trouble was causing him to try and balance money and family. And Gerald had actually been a cheater, even if I wasn't sure what had happened this year.

  It had been an eventful day, but I thought back to yesterday when Max had said I missed a clue at the crime scene. It was driving me nuts to not know and while I briefly wondered if he was just lying to get my goat, I knew that he wouldn't do that to me.

  Then it came to me: I needed to talk to Trevor. No matter how hard I had searched, so far I hadn't found a reason not to trust him. I would have to get past my irrational dislike of the man child and see him for who he is now. Where he used to be an irresponsible layabout, Trevor was now a man who wanted to better his life. I couldn't argue with that.

  Trevor was also a man who not only worked closely with police, but also happened to be good friends with many of them also. I got out my phone and sent Trevor a message that I wanted to meet soon. Maybe he could clear things up for me a bit.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Trevor sat on the living room sofa in the B&B patiently watching the birds at the bird feeder. If he was suspicious of me inviting him here, he didn't show it at all. I sat in the armchair next to the sofa, studying him as if there would suddenly be a definite sign whether to trust him or not. No neon light flashed on proclaiming it, so I decided to go with my gut.

  "Let's cut to the chase, Trevor," I said. "Max told me that there is a clue I don't know about that they found at the crime scene. Do you know what it is?"

  Trevor turned and stared at me with his dumb, blank expression. I had a brief thought that I had a hard time believing he wanted to go to college, but I stopped and gave myself a reminder to play nice.

  "First, I'll remind you that I was technically a suspect for this murder," Trevor said. "So they haven't been telling me much of anything, even my friends."

  I slumped back into my chair before I realized I shouldn't let him see me be so disappointed. It's hard to keep the upper hand when you keep showing it to everyone. But I was more disappointed in myself for not realizing that.

  "But I do happen to know what the clue is," he said.

  My head snapped so hard to the side that I almost gave myself whiplash. Trevor was staring out the window, looking rather pleased with himself. He had a sly little smile on his face and I knew it wasn't because he thought the chickadees on the bird feeder were adorable.

  Normally, this sort of look would have prompted me to want to slap the smile off of his face, but it was a bit different this time. This time I was just happy that he seemed to have the information I needed.

  "Can you tell me what it is?" I asked. "It'll help me figure out who actually murdered Gerald and it will help clear your name also."

  Trevor blushed and looked away. He started to jiggle his legs. Instantly, I got annoyed with him. I was trying to help him and he apparently didn't want to give me information that I needed and that he had assured me he knew about?

  "Come on, I need to know what it is if I'm going to help," I said. It came out almost like a gruff growl and I realized I needed to rein myself in if I actually wanted to help him.

  "Okay, but it's a little embarrassing because they tried to use it to implicate me also," Trevor said. "The police found a piece of paper in the parking lot. It had gotten wet, so it was mostly unreadable, but they could see that it was from Shady Lake Bank and Trust and whoever it was addressed to owed a substantial amount of money that the bank wanted."

  Shady Lake Bank and Trust. That was the bank that Charlie's maxed out credit card had been issued from. Things were not looking good for him, but my gut still couldn't wrap my mind around him being the killer.

  Trevor stopped and stared down at his hands. He was starting to blush and the longer I looked at his face, the further up it spread. The annoyance that had been spreading was now being stuffed back down and now I couldn't help but feel bad for him. I wondered if I should ask him more about it, but while I debated that with myself, Trevor kept talking.

  "I have received a letter close to that before," Trevor said quietly. "My parents don't make the best money decisions and the bank has tried to come after me before. Thankfully I'm a bit more responsible than my mom and dad and I was able to bail them out. But that happened over a year ago and they've been trying really hard to do better with money."

  "So was it your letter?" I asked. I realized that I had neglected to offer Trevor a drink which meant that I had nothing to occupy my hands. I awkwardly folded them in my lap, hoping Trevor wouldn't notice my hosting faux pas.

  "At first, I thought it might have been," Trevor said. "I've studied in that parking lot before and I guess it would have been possible for something to fall out of my car door when I'd open it to throw some trash in a trash can or on a nicer day I would get out and take a stroll when I needed a mental break."

  "And you were nervous when the cops showed you the part of the letter?" I pushed gently.

  "Yeah, but not because I did it," he said, putting his hands up in defense. "I worried that they thought it was enough to tie me to the crime scene. Obviously it wasn't because they ended up letting me go. After, I went home and saw that my copy of the letter like that was still in one of my financial files in my apartment."

  I nodded. It was pretty thin to try and use the letter to implicate Trevor. I was also sure that the police had che
cked into Charlie's financial history and see that he most likely received a similar letter due to his situation.

  We sat in silence for a few minutes, neither of us sure what to say next. I didn't want to break Rich's trust and tell Trevor about Charlie's situation. Trevor understandably didn't want to talk about his financial situation, although I had to admit to myself that I was somewhat impressed that he was so financially competent. I think I've been closing my eyes to the responsible things Trevor actually does and focusing on his immature side which to his credit, has been shrinking with each passing year.

  "I should go," Trevor said, standing up from the couch. "Miss Jill is going to help me take a practice test today."

  "When are you going to be done with the practice tests and take a real one?" I asked as I followed him out to the entryway.

  "Well Miss Jill said I could have been ready months ago, but I'm not sure my confidence was ready until now," he admitted as he shrugged on his jacket.

  "Good luck," I said as he walked out the door. "You can do it."

  Trevor turned and waved, a shy smile dancing across his face. I hoped that he would tell Mandy soon because if I started to be approving of him, Mandy would want to know what happened and I really didn't want to lie to her about it. Hopefully Trevor would take his test and pass it so he could surprise Mandy with his plan to go to college.

  As I shut the door and headed back upstairs, I couldn't help but feel a bit discouraged. This was not looking good for Charlie. I'm not sure how I was going to help him, short of finding the actual killer.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Once again I found myself eating a snack with Miss Jill as we looked out at the snow-covered lake. This time, I had stopped to buy some donuts from the Donut Hut to bring with me to balance out the bad news. I had just gotten done telling Miss Jill all about the bank letter that the police had.

  "I agree that it really doesn't look good for Charlie," Miss Jill said before taking another bite of her pink frosted donut.

  I popped the last bite of my long john donut into my mouth and licked the snowflake shaped sprinkles off of my fingers. I felt a little bad about stopping for donuts because Mandy was normally the person I confided everything to, but I couldn't say anything about Trevor. She tried to talk about the case, but I shrugged it off. Mandy had looked so hurt as I paid for my donuts and left that it was hard for me not to cry in the station wagon as I drove the short distance to the library. I promised myself that I would text Mandy to hang out sometime soon so that we could catch up.

  "What do you think?" Miss Jill said. She looked at me with a blank expression so that I could answer without being influenced by her. I tried to search her face a little for a hint, but there was nothing there for me to go on.

  "I hate to say it, but I'm coming around to the fact that the police may be right this time," I said. "My gut says it wasn't Charlie, but everything I find out seems to point at him."

  "I will say, I'm all about listening to your gut," Miss Jill said. "I've found that your gut is usually the part of you that takes in all of the information and can process it without anything getting in the way."

  I nodded as I thought about it. Thinking with your head means that things you think are fact get in the way. Thinking with your heart means your emotions get in the way. But thinking with your gut doesn't involved facts or emotions. It runs fully on instinct.

  "I'm not sure what to do about it though," I said. "Sure my gut may think Charlie is innocent, but I just can't seem to find anything to actually help him."

  Miss Jill finished the last bite of her donut. Somehow she managed to make eating a donut look somewhat classy and I hoped that one day I could be like her. It would probably help if I didn't inhale sweets like my life depended on it.

  "I'm not sure what to tell you Tessa," Miss Jill said. "But I will say that if your gut is really telling you that Charlie is innocent, you need to keep trying."

  I agreed with her, but I couldn't help but feel frustrated. What else was I supposed to do? I kept looking for clues with little success and I'd even made Max mad in my pursuit of justice. I didn't want to be alienating loved ones and pushing my other responsibilities to the side over it.

  "Thank you for the donut," Miss Jill said as she stood up and threw her napkin away. "And I appreciate you coming to see me again. You know I'll always help you as much as I can, Tessa. I'm so glad you came back to the library after so long."

  I smiled at her as she was swallowed up by the swinging wooden doors that led into the adult library. There was one more donut left in the box and I couldn't help but take it out and take a bite while I enjoyed the view of the frozen lake. It was another long john, but this one said Winter in white icing on the top. I know that Mandy had put it in because she knew I loved seasonally decorated things, especially when they were things that were sweet and not at all good for me to eat.

  "Tessa, may I sit down here?"

  I turned and saw Donna standing next to the bench. I scooted myself over to the side of the bench again.

  "Sure thing," I said, trying to quickly chew and swallow the bite of donut in my mouth. "I'm sorry, but the only donut I have left is one I just took a big bite of."

  "Oh that's okay," Donna said, waving away my donut box. "I'm not hungry. I just saw you sitting all by yourself and I wanted to see how you were doing."

  "I'm just fine" I said as she sat down. "I should really be asking you how you are doing."

  Donna sighed as she stared out the window. I thought about taking another bite of that donut, but I knew that would be very rude. The closed box sat next to me and I knew that whenever I left the library, I'd be gobbling down that donut in the car.

  "I'm doing better than than before," Donna said. "Gerald's death was a big shock and I'm not sure I'll get over it for a while."

  "Speaking from experience, you won't," I said quietly. My conversation with Max slammed back into my mind as I found myself on the other side of the equation now. Visions of Peter were rushing through my head and I felt the sadness rushing over me.

  Donna's eyes got big and her mouth dropped open. She quietly stammered a few times before she actually put a few words together.

  "I'm sorry, Tessa," she said. Her face went slack and her entire body seemed to droop. "It was insensitive of me to not think before I spoke."

  "Oh no Donna, you don't have to apologize," I said, trying not to gulp for air through the grief. "I know what it is like to be lost in the fog of grief."

  Donna sniffed and I turned to see that she was starting to cry. I handed a napkin over to her and tried not to stare at her as she used it to dry her eyes and blow her nose. There have been times where I've been stuck in that loop of not wanting to cry in public, but not being able to stop. The worst part of it is when people sit and stare, even if they are not doing it in a bad way.

  "It is just a really weird time for me," Donna said. "Gerald was not a great partner or a great father. We weren't even together when he died, but I still feel like I lost a partner. I actually saw him that night before he died."

  This was something I hadn't heard before. I pushed the sadness down as much as possible so that I could focus on this conversation. My fists clenched anxiously, wondering if Donna was going to admit she was the killer. I shook my head slightly because that couldn't possibly be right.

  "I met up with him that evening, asking him to contribute to Bobby a little more financially," she continued. "Of course, he scoffed at that which I totally expected. He didn't want to be a father and when he was in a bad mood, he didn't want to do anything to help. And he was in a bad mood that night. I think this year was the first time that he didn't actually know where to look for the medallion."

  That would fit with what I knew about Gerald cheating by pre-reading the clues. This year he probably wasn't sure how to get a leg up on the competition with Hilda being gone. Max had been the one to write the clues this year and Gerald wasn't stupid enough to try and steal them fr
om a cop.

  "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drag down the mood," Donna said. "I actually should be going so that I can pick Bobby up at school."

  She stood up and whisked out of the library doors. As the cold draft whooshed in from the door as it closed, I grabbed the other donut and munched on it. Technically I hadn't gotten an alibi from Donna, but I mentally checked her off of my suspect list. She seemed too broken up about Gerald's death to have done it. That meant I only had two other suspects and Trevor left. And unfortunately, most things were still pointing towards Charlie.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  When I arrived back at the B&B, I took over desk duty. I felt a little guilty that my parents had taken on the brunt of the work while I was running around building snow sculptures and trying to play detective. I settled myself into the desk chair and prepared myself for a boring afternoon of podcasts and card games on the computer.

  I was just getting into a podcast episode about a serial killer when the front door slammed open and a cold wind blew into the entryway. Thankfully we kept a blanket on the back of the chair for this exact reason and I grabbed it to wrap around my shoulders.

  Lennie came blowing in along with a swirl of snow and started to take his jacket off. He looked grumpy as ever and once he took his jacket off, he turned to face me. His ever present scowl seemed even more pronounced today and I wondered if I dared say anything, but Lennie actually spoke first.

  "I haven't seen you around lately," Lennie said.

  "I've been a bit busy," I said. "You may have seen that I won second place in the snow sculpture competition."

  Lennie frowned and I briefly wondered if he had any friends in this entire world with that constant expression living on his face.

  "Yes, I saw that terrible picture of you with your eyes closed on the front page of the paper."

  I silently cursed Chelsea and wondered how in the world she had gotten that picture on the front page. In the picture, all of us winners were on stage with our trophies and everyone was smiling except me. I don't know what I was doing, but my eyes were closed and I looked like I had suddenly forgotten where I was. Chelsea must have somehow tricked them into running it.