Murder in March by Camilla Chafer

Author:Camilla Chafer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: whodunit, cozy mystery, romantic mystery, small town mystery, author mystery, standalone mystery, writer mystery
Publisher: Camilla Chafer

Chapter Twelve

Leaving my dad and his friends to their nickel-and-dime poker game, I sped over to the Maple Tree Hotel to meet Mark. The temperature had dropped from a sunny spring day to jacket and scarf weather. I was pleased I'd tossed a scarf in my car, especially now that it was knotted around my neck, but even so, I turned the heat up slightly.

Terry's litany of Esther's complaints infiltrated all of my thoughts. Not that I was concerned she didn't like Calendar. Unless it was on the map in the way that Aspen, Nantucket, or the Hamptons were, Esther would have considered it beneath her. Apparently, her scathing comments about my "backwater" town were not confined entirely to the locale either. Instead of the expected insults, I focused on the "loser" she apparently bumped into. Someone from Esther's past had appeared, probably by chance, and it managed to cause enough of an impact that she was still thinking about it when she got into the taxi. But was it someone from her recent past? Or someone from a long time ago? And how, I wondered, had Esther wronged them? I couldn't help suspecting she probably had, given her reaction to the mystery person.

"You look deep in thought." Mark rose to greet me as I entered the hotel's small bar.

"I learned something interesting," I told him as I slipped off my jacket and scarf, depositing them over the arm of the chair. I dropped into the seat, suddenly weary, and sighed.

"Let me get you a drink, then you can tell me what you discovered," he said. "Wine? Something stronger?"

"Coffee," I said. "I already had one small glass and I'm driving."

Mark signaled the waitress and asked for two coffees. "What's going on?" he asked as she left.

"I tracked down Terry," I told him. "Actually, tracking isn't quite the right word. He came over to my dad's while I was there so I spoke to him. He told me Esther was complaining about running into someone. She called the person a 'sad loser'."

"Sounds like Esther," said Mark. "What else did Terry have to say?"

"Not much. He picked her up and she asked him to take her somewhere she could print from a flash drive."

"Did she say what was on it?"

I shook my head and leaned in, my thoughts racing faster than I could process them. "Terry said she spent the whole journey complaining. Here's what I'm thinking. Esther didn't know anyone in town except me, and you, of course, because you came with her. Nor did she have any expectation she would know anyone else here. But there was someone here, someone she knew from her past, and she wasn't pleased to see whoever it was and she met them sometime between arriving here and getting the taxi."

"It must have been someone from the hotel then. I can't see how she could run into anyone else. Do you think that was the person who killed her?"

"Maybe. She definitely didn't think much of whoever it was.

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