Heavenly Highland Inn 05 - Suffocating the Sunflowers by Cindy Bell Read Free Book Online Page A

covered in white powder.
    “ Oh, Vicky, did you slip?” Ida asked quickly when she saw Vicky's blank look. “Are you hurt?”
    “ I slipped,” Vicky nodded with a smile of relief. “But I'm okay. I landed on the bag of flour, luckily,” she added.
    “ How very lucky,” Barry replied through gritted teeth. Vicky could tell that he wasn't buying any of it. But there was no way he could prove what she had done, especially since the entire kitchen had been thoroughly washed by the sprinklers. Unfortunately, that also meant that any clues Vicky might have been able to find about who really killed Sandy Holstead were washed away as well.
    “ Where is your sister?” Barry asked as he settled his gaze on her.
    “ She's at the front desk,” Vicky replied with a mild shrug. “I'm sure she's waiting to talk with you.”
    “ I'm sure you've already told her I'm here,” Barry replied with a grim smile. Vicky allowed Barry to get a few steps ahead of her. Then she decided to follow after him. She wanted to see how Sarah reacted to his presence. Vicky followed close behind Barry but did her best to keep her footsteps muffled. She heard him as he walked up to the front desk.
    “ Hello, I need to speak with Sarah,” he said calmly as he stood in front of the desk.
    “ I'm Sarah,” she replied and Vicky could hear the smile in her voice.
    “ Is there somewhere we could speak in private?” he suggested after introducing himself.
    “ Sure,” Sarah agreed. Vicky knew she would lead Barry into her office which was just behind the front desk. As much as she wanted to hear what Barry asked, she knew that Sarah could handle the questions. She also wanted to change, but she didn’t want to miss the opportunity to get to Sandy’s room. This was her best chance to get up to Sandy's room and have another look around before Barry began his investigation. The police still considered Sandy's death to be accidental, now that Vicky was certain it had been intentional, she was hoping there would be some clues in her room.
    When Vicky reached the Holsteads' room she found it in disarray. It looked as if someone had tossed every piece of clothing from their suitcases around the room. The bedding was stripped and tossed on the floor. She wondered if she was too late and if Barry had already been inside. As she picked through the clothing in an attempt to find some clues, she found a fork on the floor. It was a fork from the kitchen. Vicky used one of the pillow cases that had been tossed on the floor to pick it up. She looked at i t closely. She could see a sheen of oil on it.
    Not far from the fork was the bottle of wine that Sandy had asked to be sent up to her. When Vicky picked it up she found something stuck underneath it. It was a receipt stuck to the bottom by the condensation on the bottle. It was a receipt from the local diner. It showed a total of just over ten dollars and it appeared to be for a meal for only one person. Why would there be a receipt from the local diner if on their first meal at the inn they had room service for lunch? She tucked it into her pocket and started to turn around to leave the room, when a shadow fell across the carpet. She looked up slowly to discover Henry standing just outside the door.
    “ Vicky, I just, I had to see the room…” he said quietly, his words cut off by a strangled gasp.
    “ Henry,” Vicky said his name sharply in an attempt to snap him out of the dazed state he was in. “This was not your fault,” she said with determination as she looked into his eyes. “Whoever is responsible for Sandy's death did it intentionally, this was no accident.”
    “ But the bottle…” he began to say.
    “ Henry, I'm telling you right now, say nothing more until we can figure out exactly what has happened, understand?” she searched his gaze hoping that her words had reached him through the shock that he was obviously experiencing.
    “ I want nothing more to do with this,” he stated