Allison Brennan - Love Is Murder

Your mom would be proud of you today. God took her home way too soon, and I cursed Him for it. You needed your mom. I wanted you to have her in your life more than the ten years you had her. I needed her .

Damn, I’m going to cry now. I just want you to know that I’m proud of you, and I’m proud that you want to keep the Delarosa growing in the spirit that your mom and me always wanted. I won’t blame you if you decide you want something else, because I know a bit about wanderlust. I was in the navy for three years because I needed to get off the mountain. But the mountain called me home .

I have taken care of you and Grace. Grace means well, and she wants to please me, but she doesn’t love the Delarosa like we do. That’s why I changed my will to reflect that you and Grace need to agree to sell, and not until you’re twenty-one .

Steven John, you are a smarter young man than I was. If you sell, you sell free and clear. There is no debt, thanks to your grandfather. You remind me a lot of my dad. I was proud of him, too, but more than that I admired him .

I admire you even more .

You’ll do the right thing for you, for Grace, and for the mountain .

Until then, I’ve still been contributing to the nest egg, as your mom liked to call it. Sometimes a little less than I wanted, but always at least a token, every month since the day I married your mom. We joked about how we’d travel to Hawaii and Tahiti and Bora-Bora. Always someplace warm. Hell, I never wanted to go any of those places (except Hawaii, I’ll admit) but that nest egg will keep the Delarosa running during the lean years .

I hope you never have to read this letter. I’m going to tear it up when you’re twenty-one and write a new one. But in case I’m too stubborn or stupid to remember to say it, I want you to know, son, I love you .

Dad .

Lucy read the letter twice, tears in her eyes. No wonder Steve was so heartbroken over the debt …

Would Leo have told his son in a letter that wouldn’t be read until his death that the mountain was debt free and there was a nest egg to run the place “during the lean years”?

Did that sound like a man who had been running in the red for years?

Someone had lied.

Either Leo Delarosa lied about the nest egg-though Lucy couldn’t imagine why he’d do it in a letter that wouldn’t be read until he was dead-or the nest egg had been stolen.

Or it was hidden somewhere.

She scanned Leo Delarosa’s will. It appeared standard, and showed the amendment where Steve and Grace would have to agree to sell.

There was also another clause. The right of survivorship.

If Grace dies, Steve gets the mountain. If Steve dies, Grace gets everything.

Yet right now, there didn’t appear to be anything left to have.

“Ms. Kincaid?”

Lucy had forgotten she was on hold with the sheriff’s department.

“Yes, Sheriff Mackey.”

“Sorry to keep you waiting. I’ve been out in this godforsaken blizzard half the night. What can I do for you?”

“Did you speak to Steve Delarosa last night?”

“Yes, he told me one of the guests had died at the lodge. That you all thought she might have killed herself, or had an accident or something.”

“My brother Patrick was a San Diego detective. Vanessa Russell-Marsh was murdered.”

“That’s a one-eighty from Steve’s call.”

“Patrick didn’t want to alert the killer, but I work for the coroner’s office in Washington, DC, and I’m pretty certain that Mrs. Marsh was injected with something in her neck. And last night, my brother was drugged.”

“Is he all right?”

“He will be. But he’s out for the rest of the day, and I don’t know who drugged him or who killed Vanessa. We’re in trouble here and need you.”

“I wish I could help, but there’s no way I can get up to the lodge. The roads are all closed, we can’t even reopen until the snow stops.”

“What about cross-country skis? Snowmobiles? Something?”

“It’s treacherous from here, but-I have two deputies who know this county better than even Leo Delarosa.”

“You knew Steve’s dad?”

“Hell yeah, we went to school together. He was older than me, but we played on the same football team. Good man.”

“And Grace?”

“Well, I met her at their wedding. Pretty lady.”

“You don’t know anything else about her?”

“No, can’t say that I do. After Leo’s heart attack, he didn’t come into town as much.”

“Could you run her and her sister for me?”

“You know what you’re asking for?”

“Yes, I do.”

“What’s her sister’s name?”

“Beth Holbrook. Beth is probably short for Elizabeth.”

“Right-Steve mentioned Grace’s half-sister came to help at the lodge. Keeping the books, I think he said. She used to be a bank manager or something.”

Beth kept the books? That made sense-she knew that the lodge had been running in the red, and she seemed to have specific knowledge when she mentioned the problems to Lucy.

The sheriff continued. “Why would either of them want to kill a guest? It doesn’t make sense.”

It may not make sense to them now, but it would when they solved the crime. She simply said, “Someone killed her.”

Lucy had a couple of theories that made perfect sense.

Lucy checked on Patrick. He was still lethargic, but was no longer hallucinating. “What happened?” he asked.

“Someone drugged you. I think it was in the water bottle. Don’t eat or drink anything I don’t hand you personally.”

He tried to sit up, but groaned. “Why am I in your room?”

“Don’t you remember? You puked all over yours. I cleaned it up. You can thank me later.” She spoke lightly, but she was hugely relieved that Patrick was better.

She gave Patrick water from the tap. “Only tap water. I’m going to grab some food from the pantry.”

“I can’t eat.”

“You need to eat something. I’m going to look for chicken broth. In a can.”

“What have you learned?”

“First, I need to know who you spoke with when we weren’t together yesterday. You tipped someone off. That’s why they drugged your water.”

“I used to be a damn good cop, Lucy. I didn’t tip anyone off.”

“You act like a cop investigating a murder. Wouldn’t that be tip-off enough for the killer?”

Patrick still looked ill, and Lucy wanted him to rest. “I spoke to the sheriff,” she said. “The blizzard won’t be letting up soon. He can’t get the coroner here, but he’s working on sending two deputies. There’s no guarantee they’ll be here today.”

“So Steve did talk to the sheriff. Good.” He sipped some of the water Lucy had given him. “I spoke to Kyle and Alan after we moved Vanessa’s body to the root cellar. They were both a little unnerved. Neither seemed to be hiding anything. Kyle was very worried about his wife.”

“She was sitting up with Trevor most of the night in the library. She said she couldn’t sleep.” Lucy remembered the water by the door. “There was a puddle of water on the floor after I woke you up. In fact-it was after I went to the library. I was in there about fifteen minutes.”

“If it was my water that was drugged, they would have had to have done it before that. I took a leak and drank half the bottle after you woke me.”

“Where did you get the bottle?”

“It was in the bathroom when I-” He hesitated. “I’m not sure. I don’t remember it being there when we checked in Thursday night, but it was there last night when I went to bed. I didn’t think about it.”

“When were you out of your room yesterday?”