Chapter 2 #2
“I walked outside about five minutes after I heard the shot and saw Kim on the trail that goes to Eleanor’s cabin,” Gertie said.
“She looked perturbed, so I asked her if anything was wrong. I guess she hadn’t seen me because I startled her.
Then she said the blender was on the blink and Eleanor wasn’t answering her phone and people were going to be there soon.
So I told her that I’d run get Eleanor and for her to go back to hosting. ”
“You’d ‘run’?” Ida Belle asked.
Gertie gave her the finger.
“Anyway, when I got to her cabin, no one answered the door. There’s only one entrance and it was locked.
I yelled and banged some more and looked in the windows, but I couldn’t see anything.
I figured she’d already left so I called Kim, but that’s when I saw a red light in the back window.
It was the light on the sauna door—the one that indicates it’s occupied. ”
“Is the sauna soundproof?”
“No. And most people don’t bring electronics in there because they can be damaged. Eleanor always said the sauna should be used for cleansing the body and the mind, so it was essential for there to be no noise.”
“So she would have heard you banging and yelling.”
“Probably. I mean, it’s down a hallway toward the back of the cabin, but it’s not like the place is huge. Which is why I started to worry and told Kim something wasn’t right. She said she’d turn around and head back as she had the key.”
“How long did it take her?”
“At least five minutes or better.”
“How long is the walk to the cabin?”
“From the office, about ten. From where I left Kim, I made it in probably three at a reasonable walk. But Kim does not work out. She trudges everywhere. It’s been sort of a joke among the attendees that someone who is clearly averse to exercise is working at a yoga retreat.”
I made a note. “Okay, so we’re roughly thirteen minutes out from when you heard the shot. What happened then?”
“Kim showed up with the key, but it didn’t do any good as the door was dead-bolted from the inside. By this time, Kim was freaking out and I was certain there was a problem, so I shot the dead bolt off the door.”
“Of course you did,” Ida Belle mumbled.
Ronald stared. “You’ve been walking around with a gun on you the entire retreat?”
“No. Just to eat and meditation. You can’t do yoga when you’re strapped. The weight throws your balance off.”
“Why do you need a gun to meditate?”
“I feel safe with my gun. Can’t relax if you don’t feel safe.”
He pursed his lips. “But where do you keep it?”
“Don’t ask!”
Ida Belle and I both spoke at once.
Gertie rolled her eyes. “Anyway, Kim and I ran down the hall to the sauna room and saw Eleanor through the window on the door, slumped against the wall in the corner. I figured she’d passed out from the heat at best or had a stroke at worst, but then I realized her red leotard was leaking onto the floor. ”
“She was bleeding.”
Gertie nodded. “I hurried over but I could tell she was already gone before I even lifted her head and saw the hole in her chest. Kim started screaming at me to do CPR, but no one could have saved her. She was already gone.”
I nodded. If I assumed a range of fifteen to twenty minutes from the time Gertie heard the shot until she got to Eleanor, a shot through the heart would have long since done its work.
“Anyway,” Gertie continued, “I slapped Kim across the face to get her to calm down and told her to call 911 and tell them we had a gunshot victim. Then darn if she didn’t pass out right there in the middle of the sauna.
Took me down with her when she dropped. I was still trying to dig myself out from under that fool when Dorothy arrived.
She jumped straight into bossy mode and ordered me and Kim out.
I said I’d be happy to leave if she would drag Kim off me.
“That heifer goes to tugging on Kim, and when she got off-balance, I gave Kim a good shove and Dorothy fell out into the hallway. So I took the opportunity to pull out my phone and take a picture.”
I perked up. “You took a picture of the body?”
Gertie gave me a smug nod. “And the gun. I hadn’t seen it at first because I was too busy concentrating on Eleanor, but it was there on the bench right next to her. Unfortunately, I only had time for one before Dorothy got up and started yelling again.”
She accessed the picture and passed me her phone. Ronald covered his entire head with a dish towel, apparently wanting no part of the viewing.
Eleanor was slumped over in a corner just as Gertie had described and even though her leotard was red, the giant stain in the middle of her chest and running down onto the bench and dripping onto the floor was darker.
Her right arm was extended out on the bench, trapped between her body and the wall, and I could see the pistol underneath her hand.
To her left sat a sweating plastic water bottle with a hand towel beside it.
I texted the picture to my phone and Ida Belle’s and yanked the towel off Ronald’s head.
“You’re safe,” I said and turned back to Gertie. “So Dorothy started yelling again and then what?”
“By then, Kim was starting to stir, so we got her outside and closed up the cabin—best we could anyway. I said I’d wait there for the police, but Dorothy was having none of it.
Then Silvia, Lucy, and Ronald came running up as they’d heard Kim screaming when they were on the walking path.
We told them what happened and we all headed back to the main building. ”
“Where was Mildred?” Ida Belle asked.
“In her office doing paperwork,” Gertie said.
“She came out to see what all the fuss was about, and poor Kim almost passed out again trying to tell her. I finally had to explain. I’ve never seen a woman go from flushed to pale that quickly, and for a minute, I thought she was going to hit the floor like Kim had.
But Silvia shoved a chair behind her and she dropped onto it. She was shaking all over.”
“Poor thing has lost her entire family,” Ronald said. “I think there’s some extended family of sorts off in other states, but that’s not the same.”
“No, it’s not,” Ida Belle agreed. “I wonder, does she have someone to stay with her for a while?”
“Kim lives in Mudbug and said she’d stay with her,” Gertie said. “Mildred has serious mobility issues because of her spine. Can’t bend or lift all that well either. She was strictly office staff.”
I nodded, processing the scene in my mind. “So the cabin only has one entrance. What about the windows?”
“None were open,” Gertie said. “And I tried every one of them when I was waiting on Kim to get there with the key, but they were all locked.”
“And the door was dead-bolted from the inside. So why do you think this looks suspicious?”
Gertie frowned. “I’m not sure exactly. I mean, Eleanor was always pretty impressed with herself, and that’s usually not the sort of people who lend themselves to this kind of thing.
I know none of us knows what goes on in another person’s mind, but it doesn’t fit what I know about her.
Quite frankly, the whole retreat felt off. ”
Ida Belle put her hands in the air. “It was yoga and Zen…not exactly your day-to-day.”
“I know that but…” She sighed. “I just can’t explain it.”
“She’s right,” Ronald said. “I’ve been to a bunch of these venues, and there was something off about the whole thing. But it’s hard to put a finger on.”
“Try,” I said. “Just tell me what you felt.”
“I felt undercurrents,” he said. “Like all the meditation and exercise were just masking some very real problems.”
“I thought you went to these things because you had problems and were looking for solutions,” I said. “So wouldn’t that make sense?”
He shook his head. “The undercurrents weren’t from the attendees. They were from Eleanor. Something was just off about all of it. I ignored it because the fees weren’t exactly small or refundable, but Gertie’s right. I felt it too.”
I leaned back in my chair and blew out a breath. “Well, unless there’s another way in that cabin that you didn’t know about, I don’t see how this is anything other than what it looks like.”
“But you’ll look into it,” Gertie said.
I had no idea what I could possibly do about it or what there even was for me to investigate, but Gertie and Ronald were clearly troubled so I couldn’t really refuse.
“Of course.”
Ronald left after our debriefing, then Gertie decided she was going to head home as well. And even though I offered to run her home, she opted to walk instead, claiming she needed to clear her head. I told her I’d drop her stuff off later when I took Ida Belle home.
Ida Belle waited until the front door closed behind her before turning to me and raising one eyebrow. “So?”
I shook my head. “I got nothing. I didn’t want to say to them that maybe they’ve gotten this one wrong, but the evidence is going to settle it one way or another. I guess I’m wondering why this seems to bother Gertie so much, especially given everything we’ve seen.”
“Suicide is different than murder. Homicide victims don’t have an option and the reality is our chances of being murdered are extremely low. But suicide is a deliberate choice, and someone’s chances of some form of mental break…”
“Yeah. I guess so. Then I suppose we need to figure out what Eleanor had going on that might have driven her to this action. Maybe knowing that will be enough for them to put it to rest.”
“Maybe. But digging into someone’s private thoughts is never easy. Mildred had only been back for a few months and even if she knows anything, her own mental state is questionable now as well. I’m not sure how far we can push her.”
I nodded. “But that’s where we have to start. We do the casserole thing anyway. That will give us an opportunity to draw her into conversation. And since Gertie is the one who found Eleanor, Mildred might be drawn to talk more to her than she would to others.”
“Shared tragedy. It’s possible. But Calahan is an obstacle we don’t need. If this gets ruled a homicide and you get caught in the middle of it, that reflects poorly on Carter. If it gets ruled a suicide and you somehow prove otherwise, that might be worse.”
I blew out a breath. “I know. I’ll make it work.”
I just had no idea how.
Carter didn’t get home until late that night.
With forensics and taking statements from Kim and Mildred, all with Calahan breathing down his neck, I didn’t expect anything else.
Nor was I surprised by the fact that he looked tired and irritated when he dropped onto the couch.
I had seen him pull up and had already grabbed him a beer.
“Are you hungry?” I asked as I passed him the bottle.
He took a long swig and shook his head. “Myrtle got us some sandwiches from the café.”
“Us? I take it you had to come home to shake Calahan?”
“I’m pretty sure he would have come home with me if I hadn’t told him straight out I was going home for the night, and he needed to leave as well. I could tell he was itching to stay behind and have a go at Myrtle.”
I snorted. “Like he would have gotten anything out of her.”
“No. But he’d have gotten more worked up. She wouldn’t have hesitated to tell him exactly how she felt about Celia and him. He’s already got an axe to grind. I don’t need Myrtle throwing fuel on the fire.”
“Why does he have an axe to grind? Do you have some sort of past I need to know about?”
“Not at all, but I know the type. He’s bucking for a big promotion.”
“And he thinks taking you down can get it for him.”
Carter shrugged but I could tell he was unhappy about the entire situation, and I couldn’t blame him. His relationship with me had put a target on his back in ways I hadn’t anticipated.
“So I guess it’s useless to ask about the case?” I asked.
“Ha. I think you already know the answer to that. When forensics is back, I’ll make a determination and an official statement. Until then, I need you to stay out of it.”
I nodded. “Of course, but you know I’ll be going with Ida Belle and Gertie over to Mildred’s tomorrow. That’s a Baptist thing, not a PI thing.”
He sighed. “It would probably look stranger if you didn’t, but don’t stir up anything. My guess is this is all going to turn out like it looks.”
“You know Gertie saw the body, right? And the gun?”
“Dorothy said as much. Apparently, when Gertie shot the dead bolt off the door, that was two gunshots too many for Dorothy and she went to see what was wrong.”
“Ah, and then Kim started screaming and that brought her running.”
“Yep. She had a lot to say about how Gertie was always causing trouble. I told her I didn’t see how, this time anyway, as Gertie was the one who managed to get the door opened so she and Kim could see if Eleanor needed help.
It was hardly her fault that it was too late to render aid.
Hell, it would have been too late if they’d broken in a second later. ”
I nodded. I’d seen the picture. And even without seeing the wound, a direct shot into the heart at close range was the kind of injury there was no coming back from, especially that far from a hospital.
Carter downed the rest of his beer and rose from the couch. “I’m going to hit the shower and then bed. Tomorrow is going to be another long one and probably no less irritating than today.”
I waited until he was out of the room to frown. I hated that I was the reason things were so hard on Carter. If I’d never come to Sinful, Celia would have been a problem, sure, but her grievances with me were the reason she’d made it her life’s work to take him down.
Maybe Gertie and Ronald were wrong. Maybe they were just in their feelings because the woman they’d taken a yoga class from an hour before was dead.
But I had my doubts.