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“How was she when she answered the door? Was she flustered? Or was she calm?” Sasha asked Hatty and John.
John searched his memory. “I can’t say. I was so concerned about Hatty’s burn. I didn’t notice Ms. Galeton’s demeanor.”
“She seemed a little breathless,” Hatty recalled. “Nothing dramatic, though. I certainly never would have guessed she’d just murdered her host.”
“But why did she kill Grady?” Joy demanded. “She’s the only one who knew the lemon twists were poisoned. Why let him drink that?”
“She did more than let him,” Sasha said. “Remember who opened the jar of candied lemon peels and put one in Grady’s drink?”
“It was Bethany,” Joy breathed.
“Right. It was Bethany. She killed Grady so he couldn’t reveal that Rex was Rowan’s father.”
After Sasha’s pronouncement, a heavy silence blanketed the room. Chance fisted his hands and pounded the table. All eyes turned to Bethany.
“I’ve heard enough,” Officer Duncan said, approaching the table.
From the corner of her eye, Sasha saw movement. It was the activity she’d been poised and waiting to respond to. Bethany shoved back her chair and braced her hands against the table, prepared to push off.
“No,” Sasha said. “I am not running through that snow again.” She yanked her lethally sharp hair stick out of her bun and drove the point into the purlicue of Bethany’s left hand, stabbing through the webbing between her thumb and index finger and pinning her to the table. Bethany yelped.
“Holy Mother!” Tessa said.
“I have got to get myself one of those pins,” Aroostine exclaimed.
“You and me both,” Naya agreed.
Maisy bobbed her head. “I always thought it was cute with that blue stone. Didn’t realize it was so utilitarian.”
“That hurts!” Bethany moaned while Officer Duncan grabbed her other hand and snapped the metal handcuff on it.
Bodhi removed the hairpin from Bethany’s hand and examined the wound. “It’s not as bad as it looks,” he reassured her as he pressed a cloth napkin around it. “Apply pressure until the bleeding stops. Then we’ll clean it out with an antiseptic soap. You should be good as new. Right, Dr. Graham?” he said, confirming his diagnosis with someone whose patients were ordinarily alive.
“She might want to consider a tetanus shot. After all, you don’t know where that pin’s been.”
Sasha laughed, wiped it with the napkin, thought about sticking it back in her hair, and then thought better of it. She’d find a bottle of rubbing alcohol or something to sterilize it first. After all, she didn’t know where Bethany’s hand had been.
“How could you?” Chance bellowed while the police officer gently pulled Bethany’s injured hand behind her back and cuffed her.
She snarled. “How couldI? How stupidareyou? First, you hand Rowan’s DNA over to Rex despite my objection. Then you think you’ll protect me by taking the fall for something you didn’t do?” She shook her head. It wasn’t a confession. But it was confirmation that Rowan was Rex’s child, and that was enough.
Officer Duncan surveyed the room. “The rest of you can go back to bed—assuming you can sleep after this. I don’t know what your plans are going forward. But no one from the Stoddard group leaves town without first giving my office your contact information.”
Daniel cleared his throat. “What about us?”
Duncan shrugged. “I’d like to get statements from everyone. But I understand that, unlike this crew, most of you folks are local. So we’ll get to you, eventually.”
Rex’s party guests looked at one another. Finally, Tessa threw up her palms. “I think we’re stuck here until Monday, anyway. Aren’t we?”
“I have the contact information for your driver,” John volunteered. “Of course, you’re all welcome to stay the entire weekend, but if you’d rather cut your holiday short, we can contact the van driver and have him come get you in the morning.”
“I think that’s probably best,” Leeza said. “Does anyone disagree?”
“I can’t wait to get away from you people,” Joy blurted.
Annette and Brian exchanged a look.
“We’ll probably stay. We need to let Annette’s parents know what happened and help them make arrangements,” Brian said. “But the rest of you should feel free to leave—put this in the past before you start your new year.”
