As they went down the road — the solitude of the path through the woods wasn't at all appealing with a murderer around — Jane said, "I don't want the kids out of our sight again until we leave. Mel's with the little boys, but I want to know where Katie and Denise are."
"We'll hang out at the lodge watching for the shuttle. It drops people right at the door. We'll grab them as they get off. And Mike has to come back that way as well."
"It's really too expensive to go home now?"
"Jane, a last-minute ticket would probably cost six or seven hundred dollars. Each."
"No! Aren't there exceptions?"
"Sure, but running away from a murder scene, especially when you've found two of the bodies, isn't one of them."
"So nice of you to remind me," Jane said wryly. "Damn! That sheriff, Bumblefoot or whoever he is, would dearly love to pin this on me, I'll bet. I'm a nice, handy outsider."
"Don't worry. Nobody could seriously imagine that you had anything to do with either one. And Mel may know a whole lot more next time we talk to him."
"We need to know a whole lot more. Especially about Bill's death."
"In what way?"
"Where he died, for one thing," Jane said. "If he was killed someplace else, it obviously means it had to have been a strong man, or maybe even two people, who moved him to the side of the bunny slope. But if he was killed right there, it could have been anyone. All the killer had to do was prop him up where he fell and put the snow around him."
"True. And we're assuming it was Pete because he's the first one who occurred to us. Yet it could have been almost anyone."
"Yes, but the obvious person is usually the guilty one."
"But we don't know these people very well," Shelley pointed out. "And from what little we saw of Bill Smith, he wasn't exactly a bundle of charm. In fact, he was a downright unpleasant person. Who knows who else he might have offended?"
"But people don't kill somebody because they're offended. It takes a lot more than that. A real threat to their well-being, or a long hatred that finally comes to a head, or even raging greed."
"How do we know Bill wasn't surrounded by people with all of those motives, and maybe others as well? And it's entirely possible that his death had nothing to do with this whole silly Tsar thing. Maybe it had to do with selling the resort for that matter. There might be somebody local who's really upset about that. Somebody in the tribe. They're the ones who were demonstrating against him, after all."
A couple was approaching them from the other direction. They smiled and nodded as they passed, and were quiet until they were out of hearing range.
"But that demonstration was all so peaceful," Jane objected. "Almost downright friendly. And the protest was aimed as much at the potential investors as it was at Bill Smith. If they were murderous, would they have staged something so orderly and then done something so violent?"
"I don't mean the whole tribe, Jane. But one individual might really dislike him. He had a long history with them. And maybe somebody in the tribe or another neighbor thought he was about to sell the resort and move away for good, and it was their last chance to get at him."
Jane pondered this. "Murder is such an unthinkable way to solve problems that it's hard to imagine what could be in the mind of a person who would resort to it."
As they came to the front door of the lodge, a shuttle was arriving. They waited to see if any of their children got off it, and when they didn't, the women went inside. The lobby was strangely quiet. Tenny, of all people, was just coming out from behind the front desk.
"Tenny!" Jane exclaimed. "You're not working today. Surely—"
"Just came in to sort out a brawl," Tenny said angrily.
"A brawl?"
"Yes. Pete just had a fight with HawkHunter. Bloodied his nose and knocked some of his teeth out."
Chapter 14
"Tenny, for heaven's sake, come sit down," Shelley said firmly as she took her elbow.
Tenny seemed to almost collapse against Shelley for a second, then got a grip on herself and straightened up. "Maybe I'd better. Thanks."
"Have you eaten anything this afternoon?" Jane asked as they led her toward the more casual of the two dining rooms.
"No, but I'm not—"
"You must eat something. Really. You'll feel much better," Jane insisted. She'd been waiting most of her life for somebody to say that to her. So far, nobody ever had.
The room was nearly empty. Even the latest lunchers had gone and the earliest dinner customers hadn't started arriving. The hostess seated them well away from the few other eaters after expressing condolences to Tenny, who received the remarks with preoccupied courtesy.
"Just ask a waiter to bring us coffee and something Tenny likes for her to nibble on," Jane said quietly.
"Tenny, we're so sorry about your uncle," Shelley said when they were seated.
"Thanks. He was dying, I guess you should know."
"Oh?" Shelley said.
Tenny repeated pretty much what Linda Moose foot had told them about Bill Smith's poor health, but they didn't let on that they had heard it before. "But nothing could have prepared us for the idea that someone might kill him. My God! It's unbelievable!" she said.
"Who do you think did it?" Jane asked bluntly.
"I have no idea. None! I can still hardly take in the fact that it happened."
"How's your aunt Joanna taking it?" Shelley asked.
"Oh, extraordinarily well. She's quite an amazing woman. She's really observing Uncle Bill's wishes."
"Which were?" Jane asked.
"That his death be ignored as much as possible," Tenny said with a wry smile.
"Ignored?"
"He insisted that there be absolutely no fuss when he went. No funeral service or anything. He and Joanna had talked it all out. He'll be cremated, his ashes scattered by Joanna alone wherever and whenever she chooses. He said, rather contemptuously, I must say — that if we felt we just had to have some kind of memorial service, it could be with the tribe, and not any sooner than a month after his death. This is all written out and in a notebook with his will and trust documents."
"Oh, good. He did have that all set up," Shelley said.
"Of course," Tenny said. "It was his way. Very businesslike."
"I hate to be tactless," Jane said, "but could his arrangements have anything to do with his death? I mean, perhaps he was leaving some bequest to someone who felt they couldn't wait."
"I have no idea what the terms are," Tenny said. "I'm certain, though, that virtually everything must go directly to Joanna. And there's probably some bank or lawyer or someone designated to oversee the financial aspects of it all. Joanna's not stupid by any means, but she just hasn't the interest in the business details that he had. I'm positive he'll have made sure she doesn't have to be bothered with keeping track of every penny. I've tried not to pry. In fact, Aunt Joanna's meeting with the lawyer right now, which is why I'm sort of at loose ends instead of sitting with her. Not that she'd probably let me anyway. Claims she's going to her bridge club meeting Monday just as if nothing's happened."
"He wouldn't leave those details to Pete? Make him cotrustee or something?" Shelley asked.
"Oh, God! Never!" Tenny thought for a minute. "I hadn't thought about that yet. Pete considers himself to be a financial whiz — he's a failed stockbroker— and is probably going to be pissed as hell to realize he's out of the loop. At least I assume he's out of the loop. I really can't imagine Uncle Bill trusting him with any decision-making powers. He wouldn't even give him the authority to order the chemicals for the swimming pools unless he countersigned the order form."
"What do you suppose happens to the estate after your aunt is gone?" Jane asked.