S'more Murders by Maya Corrigan

Author:Maya Corrigan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-05-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

On her way home from Homer’s antique shop, Val stopped off at the Bayport police station. Otto’s business card with the message on the back had been burning a hole in her pocket all day. If the chief wasn’t in the building, she’d leave the card at the reception desk with a note of explanation.

She was glad the chief was in his office and willing to see her. She sat across the desk from him, in a hard metal chair designed to discourage long visits.

He took a sheet of paper from a folder on his desk. “I was gone all day and just saw the report that someone assaulted you last night. The officer described it as a purse-snatching with minor injuries to the victim.”

She rubbed the bruise on the back of her right leg. Tender to the touch, but not otherwise painful. “I agree about the minor injuries, though being stuffed in my car’s trunk freaked me out. I don’t think the thief was after cash.”

“What then?”

“The booklets for the role-playing mystery game Otto created for his guests. I picked them up from the yacht.”

The chief rested his folded arms on the desk in an I’m-listening pose. “Why would anyone want them?”

“Otto modified a Titanic mystery game that he’d downloaded. He customized the plot and the roles, using the game to accuse his guests of crimes and failings he suspected they had in reality. Those guests might not want their faults to become public.”

Val recounted what she’d learned from her visit with Cheyenne and the trip to the antique shop. The chief took notes as she talked.

He twirled his pen when she finished. “Otto suspected Trey of stealing and Homer of fencing stolen items. He had no proof, so he taunted them through his mystery game?”

“Yes, and he intended to humiliate Homer’s wife. She’s fond of alcohol, like the character she was supposed to play in the game. Otto might have ferreted out the other guests’ secrets and planned to expose them. Maybe one of them put an end to his game and him.” She could tell she hadn’t yet convinced the chief that the game had been a factor in Otto’s death. “I found evidence on the yacht that Otto had set up a private meeting with one guest in the middle of dinner. Maybe they had a confrontation.”

The chief sat up straighter in his chair. “What evidence?”

She turned her jacket upside down over his desk and shook it until Otto’s business card fell out of the pocket. “This card dropped out of one of the booklets. I don’t know which one.”

The chief leaned over the note. “Meet me, swim platform 8:45. Hmm. We’ll check if this is Otto’s writing and if there are any fingerprints on the card.”

“Bethany and I handled it before we knew it had a note on the back. We may have smudged any prints that were on it.”

The chief grunted. “Even so, the note may be useful. Exactly what’s in those booklets?”

“The goal was to identify the person responsible for a young woman’s death.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.