“Mom,” I whispered across the table. “What’s up with Isabel and Mavis?” I tilted my head in the direction of their table.

Mom swiveled slowly in her chair; she did discreet the way Vi did blatant.

She turned back toward me and shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess Isabel wanted to get to know the other knitters.”

I watched them for a moment. “She looks miserable. I don’t think she’s even talking to them, and Mavis is glowering at her.”

Mom sighed. “Mavis can be difficult.”

I snorted. I thought that was one of her larger understatements. Mac turned to see what had me making strange noises. I shook my head at him to signal that I’d tell him later.

He turned back toward Lucille and I thought about how our table was burdened with its own set of tensions.

The rest of breakfast was a quiet affair. Gone were the giggles and loud exclamations from the young knitters, Mavis and Selma sat off by themselves, and Vi had stopped speculating on the murder in light of our wager. And there was something going on between Mac and his mother. I was glad when Seth asked me to help him with the dogs, and Mac said he needed to go check in with the police again.

34

Seth and I stood by the back door zipping coats and pulling on mittens and I sensed that the heightened tension had permeated the whole building. I caught a glimpse of Jessica’s angry face as she shut her office door—René sat inside looking like he was visiting the principal’s office.

I sighed.

Seth looked at me and then leaned his shoulder into mine and pushed—his version of a hug. I opened the door and it flew out of my hand as wind struck it full force. I took a deep breath and plunged into the cold. We hurried along the path to the cottage, heads down, holding our hoods up to block the wind.

The dogs wagged tails and barked when we entered the cottage. Baxter pushed his head against my leg and stayed attached to me while I looked for his leash. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as he smiled up at me in adoration. I’m sure he didn’t understand why I kept leaving him. I thought that Seth would be a good replacement, but Baxter and I had bonded last summer and I missed him almost as much as he missed me. After a moment of petting on my part and slobbering on his, I grabbed his leash. Both dogs danced around making it nearly impossible to clip the leather straps to their collars. Finally, they stood ready by the door, tails wagging. Then Seth opened the door and another gust hit us. The dogs hesitated and glanced up at us with an “are you kidding me?” look. With forceful encouragement, they stepped outside and quickly did their business. Tuffy waited for Seth to clear a path for him onto the grass and then rushed back to Seth’s legs and cowered. Baxter didn’t even seem interested in chasing snowballs.

“I hope we can get out of here soon,” I said as we ushered them back into the cottage.

They gratefully allowed us to dry them off and then they raced into the kitchen for a treat.

“It’s not so bad,” Seth said. “Wally said there’s no more snow expected, just this wind and then a couple of days of sunshine.”

“It seems like the whole hotel is going stir-crazy,” I said as I broke off a piece of chicken jerky for Baxter.

Tuffy, ever alert to possible poisoning by his caretakers, carefully sniffed the entire treat before accepting it from me.

“Have you guys figured out who’s been stashing cell phones?”

“Not yet,” I said. “Mac talked to the police about it and they’ve been working the same case from another angle. He didn’t tell me any more than that.”

“If the murder is connected to the cell phones, it kind of lets the knitters off the hook, doesn’t it?”

“Don’t tell Vi’s pendulum,” I said. “She’s also stalking the cat to see what she knows. Apparently, the cat is smarter than most of the humans at the castle—she’s successfully avoided capture.”

“She’s probably just scared,” Seth said. He sat on the floor near Tuffy and the little dog crawled quickly into his lap. Baxter glanced at me as if he thought maybe he could sit on my lap.

“Not a chance, dude,” I said to him. He dropped his head and leaned against Seth.

“Someone would have made a lot of money on those phones,” Seth said. “I wonder if he or she has realized that we were there yet.”

A cold shiver ran down my spine. I had known there was a murderer among us. Someone who might be sharing a meal, or cleaning a room, or knitting a scarf for a chess queen. But, I hadn’t allowed the thought that we might all be in danger to really sink in. I had assumed that Clarissa had been killed because she was unpleasant, but what if she was killed because she knew too much? What if she died because she had discovered the cell phones?

I left Seth with the dogs and braved the weather to get back to the hotel. I thought Mom’s tarot reading would be a good time to do some more rummaging in Clarissa’s room. Now that we knew she had been blackmailing at least one person, I began to wonder if we had missed something in our earlier searches. We’d been looking for any clues that might have been left by the killer. Maybe there were clues left by Clarissa. She had made enemies since she moved to the castle, but maybe she had also truly threatened someone. If we could find other evidence of blackmail, we might be able to narrow down our suspect list.

I found Mac in the front reception area. He hung up the landline and smiled when he saw me.

“Everything okay?” he said.

“The dogs are happy, if that’s what you mean.”

“It sounds like they’ll get that tree moved today,” Mac said. “The power lines have been dealt with and they have a tree removal service working on it. Now that the snow has stopped, they should be able to clear the road so people can get home.”

I felt a tightening in my gut. I knew they could pursue the murder investigation after people had left, but I felt very strongly that we needed to wrap this up before the group scattered.

“I think we should check Clarissa’s room and her office again,” I said.

Mac leaned back against the front desk. “Okay, what do you hope to find?”

“Clarissa came here six months ago and stirred everything up. I wonder if we should be looking into her activities a bit more. It seems everyone had a reason to want her dead, but maybe she had information or plans that were particularly threatening to someone here.”

“Your mother seems to be holding the entire hotel in thrall in the lounge right now.”

I smiled. “Just what I was thinking.”

We quietly approached the door to the lounge and peeked inside. Mac was right; the entire group watched Mom lay out her cards. Emmett, René, Linda, and Jessica were all there, as well as all of the knitters—even Selma. They focused on Mom’s hands as she shuffled and cut the cards. We went to the back hall and peered around like a couple of kids skipping out of school.

With most of the hotel staff occupied in the lounge, it seemed a good time to rummage in the office. Mac and I split the room and searched quickly through the small desk and file cabinet. Nothing. It was all bills and invoices for supplies for the inn. A stack of glossy flyers sat on the corner of the desk touting the benefits of deep-tissue massage and regular facials. This must have been Clarissa’s promotional campaign. I thought again about the family and their conflicting wishes for the future of Carlisle castle.

With no new information, we climbed the stairs to the second floor and walked toward the turret room stairway. I had climbed this set of stairs enough that I hardly got dizzy anymore as we twisted up and up into the tower.

We entered the room again. This time there were no thumps from Vi, or howling winds from open windows. It was just a silent, still room with a silver wintry light lending a gray cast to the white furniture.