Love Is Murder Read Online Free PDF Page A

haven’t been used.”
    She opened the door and was startled when she saw lodge owner Grace and her sister, Beth, in the hallway. Had they been listening at the door? Lucy didn’t think so but she made no assumptions.
    “I don’t understand what’s going on,” Grace said. “Why did you and Patrick lock the door? What happened to Vanessa? Trevor is distraught—”
    “I thought you were going to stay with him.”
    “Angie and Heather are with him in the library,” Grace replied. “He didn’t want tea. I gave him scotch. Steve told me you had him call the sheriff. What happened to Vanessa?”
    “We don’t know exactly,” Lucy said, obfuscating.
    Patrick walked up behind her. “Vanessa is dead, and the sheriff needs to be notified about any unattended death. I can’t tell whether or not she died of natural causes. I don’t know her medical history. I need to talk to her husband first, and then hopefully the sheriff can contact her immediate family and doctor and see if there was some other contributing factor to her death.”
    “Oh.” Grace sighed and rubbed her face. “I’m sorry, it’s just so distressing that someone died here at the lodge. Steve is really upset.”
    Lucy said, “Steve said something strange. He said, ‘What more could go wrong?’ Do you know what he meant?”
    Grace shook her head, but Beth said, “Grace, we can’t keep it secret.” She put her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “There have been several mishaps since Leo died. One of our main generators broke down. It was under warranty, but it still required us to close for two weeks before it could be repaired. The root cellar was left open one night and most of our food was eaten by a bear. That cost us thousands, to repair the door and replace the stock. Steve had an accident last month, totaled his truck, and was lucky he wasn’t injured. That boy has been working himself too hard, trying to make this place into everything his father wanted.”
    “Leo was special,” Grace said. “He had a way about him.”
    Beth frowned. “He also left a lot of things undone, spent all his savings to keep the place up. We can’t simply avoid the seriousness of the situation. And with Steve’s illness—”
    “Beth, please!” Grace rubbed her temples. “It’s going to be fine.”
    “What about Steve’s illness?” Patrick asked.
    “He’s been forgetting things,” Beth said, ignoring Grace’s plea. She lowered her voice. “We think he forgot to secure the root cellar. But he won’t go back to the doctor, and we’re both worried sick about him.”
    Patrick said, “We need to move the body.”
    “Why?” Grace asked.
    Lucy said, “The warm house will accelerate the rate of decomposition, and the smell will spread. In addition, there are health issues to take into consideration, as all the bedrooms share ventilation.”
    “I didn’t think about that,” Grace said. “But where? How?”
    “I’m going to ask Alan and Kyle to help me move Vanessa’s body to the root cellar.”
    “But our food is down there!” Beth said.
    “Can you bring up as much food as you can store inside? Anything that isn’t canned or vacuum-sealed. Lucy and I will wrap the body securely, to minimize any contamination. And if you have any large plastic sheets, we could use them.”
    That would have dual purposes , Lucy thought. It would also preserve evidence on the body for the coroner and sheriff.
    Beth paled, and Grace said, “I’ll get it. The food we can’t fit in the lodge, we’ll bring to my house, Beth.”
    As they walked down the hall, Lucy overheard some of their conversation.
    “You need to sell this place, Grace.”
    “It would destroy Steve. I can’t.”
    Lucy hurried down to her room and retrieved her baggies—she had four that she hadn’t used—and returned to Vanessa’s room. “Let’s use these judiciously.”
    “The wine. I want to save the glass as well—but we can put it in a paper bag.”
    “That I don’t