It was a good thing I’d set the coffee aside. I might have spilled it in my lap. “Why are you hiding under the stairs?”
Mandy gave an exasperated you-should-know-this-already wheeze. “She could be a murderer. If she thinks I know, she might kill me, too.”
Oh good Lord. “If she came back, she’s not likely the killer, but you should hang up with me and call the police.”
“Aren’t you with the police now?”
Technically, I guess I was. “Fine. Hang up with me, and I’ll send someone over.”
The pause on Mandy’s end was long enough that I almost thought she’d done as I asked and I missed it. “Can I stay in the closet until they come?” she finally said. “I’m really not cut out for this. It’s more fun to read about it than to live it.”
She had that right. And given how many times people I’d thought wouldn’t try to hurt me had tried to kill me, I was in no position to throw stones. I wasn’t even in a position to throw marshmallows. “It’s probably smart to stay put. I’ll let the police know where to find you.”
Mandy thanked me and disconnected. As soon as Erik—who now had a weaker voice than someone with laryngitis—had someone on the way to Mandy, I called my mom and asked her to meet me down at the station once she finished her run.
I reached the station at the same time as the cruiser bringing Alice Benjamin.
The woman was in her early forties, with short cropped hair and a lean runner’s build. She had maybe an inch or two in height on me.
Elise held out an arm in the universal this-way gesture, but Alice stopped outside the front door. “Can’t you even tell me why I’m here? I got to town like twenty minutes ago. Do you have some sort of strange laws about speeding? Because that’s the only thing I’ve had time to do here.”
I hung back. Chief McTavish had made my role clear, and Elise was a capable officer.
She moved a little closer to Alice, making it clear in a gentle way that she needed to comply. “I know this is confusing, and I apologize for any inconvenience this is causing you. If you’ll just come with me, we’ll explain everything.”
Alice gave a dramatic shrug and marched in the door, dragging her rolling luggage bag behind her.
First impression—she didn’t strike me as someone who’d killed a man only a few days ago. What I’d told Mandy was true. If she had, I couldn’t come up with a reason for her to return to The Sunburnt Arms. Unless she hoped it would make her seem less guilty. That was a possibility I couldn’t discount yet, but it was an awfully daring move on her part if it turned out to be true.
Erik waited in the lobby. He’d aged ten years since I saw him two days ago. His nose was Rudolph-red, and he looked like he should be wrapped up in a blanket, with a thermometer sticking out of his mouth, rather than here, trying to coherently interview a potential murder suspect.
Elise’s thank-goodness-you’re-here smile confirmed it. Erik should not have still been trying to work.
Alice Benjamin looked at him like he might have swine flu or some other equally virulent strain. She declined to shake his hand.
She tucked her jacket around her as if it would protect her from his germs. “It’s not personal, Sergeant. I’m a biologist. I understand what that illness is doing to your body and how easily you could transfer it to me.”
Erik signaled me to follow along—at least he knew enough not to try to conduct the interview alone—but Elise grabbed my elbow before I could.
“For what it’s worth,” she said quietly, “she seemed genuinely confused about why she needed to come with me.”
I thanked her and hurried after them. Alice Benjamin wasn’t projecting guilt. But my mom was right—often the simplest solution was the correct one. Vilsack’s blood was in the room that she was supposed to occupy.
I took the seat next to Erik, but shifted it a little further away. Alice wasn’t the only one who didn’t want his germs.
My mom wasn’t here, but I could hear her prompting me to put Alice at ease.
I rested one hand on the table and kept the other in my lap. Erik had already introduced me as a consultant with the department, so at least I didn’t have to worry about explaining who I was and why I was here.
“I’m sure we can clear this up quickly. I’d imagine you want to settle into your room. We just have a couple of questions for you about where you’ve been the past couple of days. Your reservation for The Sunburnt Arms was for Thursday night.”
Alice glanced at the door to the room like she expected someone to jump through it and shout You’ve been punked! “You dragged me down here because I missed my original check-in. You must not have any real crime around here if you’ve criminalized rescheduling your hotel reservation.” Her forehead crinkled. “Besides, I called the B&B where I was supposed to be staying and told them I’d pay for the missed nights so long as they held my room. The desk clerk I talked to said that was no problem.”
I waited for Erik to jump in with a follow-up question, but he looked like he’d much rather put his head down on the table and fall asleep. So clearly he was only going to be a figurehead in this chat. “And what time was that? That you talked to the desk clerk.”
Alice shook her head like she couldn’t figure out why it would matter. “I don’t know. A little after 5:00 I guess, once the tow truck driver got to me and told me all the garages in the area were closed for the night.”
A chair dance wouldn’t have been professional, so I held it in. Assuming Alice told the truth, we could continue to narrow our timeline for when Vilsack might have been attacked. We now knew it was sometime after 5:00 pm. Honestly, though, that wasn’t a huge improvement from knowing it was after 4:00 pm when Mandy checked my mom in and then went back to her rooms for the evening.
I slid a pad of paper to Alice across the desk. “If you could write down the tow truck company you used and the hotel you stayed at, so we can verify, I’d appreciate it.”
Alice accepted the paper and pen, but she stared at them for a second. “Why do you need to verify where I was? What’s going on?”
Erik wasn’t giving me any guidance at all, so the decision appeared to be up to me whether this was the right time or not. I hadn’t been the lead on anything in an official capacity before.
Don’t reveal anything you don’t have to, both my parents had taught me. I’d skip the word murder.
“There was an incident at the bed-and-breakfast the night you were supposed to check in.” I pulled the DMV photo of Vilsack from the file Erik had thankfully remembered to grab. I slid it across the table to her. “Do you know this man?”
She shook her head. The action was so simple and natural that I believed her.
She chewed on her bottom lip. “Is it not safe to stay there?”
Crap. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to sink Mandy’s business more than Vilsack’s murder had.
“It’s safe,” Erik said, in a voice that we wouldn’t have been able to hear in a room with any sort of ambient noise. “What brought you to Fair Haven?”
Her bottom lip disappeared completely between her teeth. She released it. “Business.”
