Chapter 5

Betty pulled her sedan into the lot of the Cornerstone bed and breakfast and was pleased to see that there were a few cars in the parking lot. She was excited to see that the business wasn’t vacant. She knew though that with that sparse of a guest list though, some changes did need to be made. After all, this was tourist season, and she knew that for some reason, guests were opting to say at Microtel’s or other resorts rather than the quaint, historic landmark. She decided that in her meeting tomorrow, she would definitely make that a topic of interest, getting details on the competition and figuring out what was causing the lack of guests. She keyed herself into the front door, since it was well past the lobby’s closing time and was disturbed to find a lone desk clerk on duty, but dozing at the front desk in an office chair.

Walking up to the clear, she loudly cleared her throat several times. He merely twitched in his sleep, and his eyelids flickered still deep in slumber. Without any other warning, she slammed the palm of her hand on the bell several times, making the loud ringing echo throughout the lobby. He jerked awake and exclaimed out of fright and shock. “Stay right there, don’t make another move, I’ll call the police!”

“Haha. No, I don’t think you will.”

As the clerk reached for the phone at the desk, she calmly placed her hand on top of his. “It’s me, Stephen. I talked to you on the phone earlier. It’s Betty Cornish.”

“Who?! Betty…”

“Cornish. The new owner. That means your new boss, remember me now.”

“Oh, goodness! Miss Cornish. My, you did indeed give me a shock—quite a fright. Wait until I tell the boys about your wicked sense of humor. They’ll love it. What are you doing here so late?"

“I had to go further down to the next town to pick up a few things I forgot to pack, so I thought I’d stop in and check to see if things were in order for tomorrow.”

“Ah. You couldn’t sleep, either, could you?”

She held back a chuckle at Stephen’s statement, knowing she caught him red-handed sleeping on the job. The older man was a fixture at bed and breakfast though with many years of service, so she knew even with this infraction, she would keep him on board, as well as most of the established staff. “I can sleep just fine, thank you very much. I just wanted to make sure that my prized possession was in good operating order.”

“Mhm. Say what you will, but I can smell first-day jitters a mile away. It’s quite alright, Miss Cornish; we all get them from time to time.”

She sighed in exasperation and reiterated, “I’m not nervous. I just… never mind…will you be so kind as to key me in the office, I just want to check my meeting notes really quickly.”

“Sure thing, Miss Cornish.”

“Please, Stephen, call me Betty. My days of pure professionalism are over. I want my staff to be relaxed around me. Tell the others also, please. I’m Betty, and that will suffice for a title.”

“Sure thing, Betty.” The older clerk led Betty around the side of the desk to a room labeled ‘private,’ he then pulled out a large keychain with multiple keys on it. He tried several before he found the one for the office. “Ah, there we go. You know how these older locks can jam sometime.” Once more, Betty bit back a smile at his ineptness and gladly accepted entry into the room. She looked around the office and grimaced. She made it point to immediately make changing the décor of the room a priority. She certainly respected the history of the place, but she wasn’t going to spend the majority of her day sitting at her desk underneath a giant moose head hanging on the wall. She pulled a legal pad out of the desk, which had a faxed stack of papers on top of it. Her meeting notes were intact, and she began jotting down some additional facts at the top of the letterhead before she forgot. She wrote up top in bold, “Call me, Betty.” She also then made an addendum at the bottom of the page, “Remove moose.” She then rummaged through her pockets and found the business card that Tyler had given her in the store. She chuckled to herself at the good fortune of finding an interior decorator without knowing his services would be needed. She placed the business card by the telephone in the office as a reminder to call him and schedule not only her meet and greet, but an appointment for his services as well. Before she left the office, she did want to check the daily figures to see if indeed they had made a profit for the day. “Stephen, would you care to hand me the guest book for a moment?”

“Sure thing, Miss, er Betty.”

He handed her the faded leather binder, which held the check-in notes for the business day. She made a few notes on her typed pages and sighed. It seemed they wouldn’t have made a profit for the day, but it wasn’t a total loss either. It appeared from a glance with operations costs, they would have basically broke even. She knew that she wanted to keep as many jobs at bed and breakfast as possible, so their first order of business would be rebranding and the acquisition of new customers. “Okay, Stephen. I’ve seen all I’ve needed to for tonight. I’ll try to arrive early tomorrow, possibly around 11 am to catch both shifts before they either leave or begin their workday.”

“Sounds good, Betty.”

Betty shut the door behind her and watched as Stephen locked it back. She then returned the ledger to its spot on the desk and walked to the door to exit. “Goodnight, Betty, have a safe trip home.”

“Thank you, Stephen, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Before she had the opportunity to walk to her car, she turned and saw an object shining in the shrubbery beside the entrance. Unable to just walk past the object, dismissing it, she found herself drawn to it. Her mouth fell open in horror as she saw the light had caught the reflection of a young woman’s cell phone as her body lay sprawled out beside it motionless. “Oh, my God! Stephen! Stephen! Call the police!”

Hearing Betty’s cries, Stephen ran outside and was also horrified to see the young woman motionless in the shrubs. “What happened, Betty?!”

“I don’t know… I just walked out and saw something shiny… it was her phone. Go! Call the police immediately and take cover if you can until they arrive. I can’t move from this spot until they arrive. It looks like this is now a crime scene.”

She could hear Stephen chattering excitedly on the telephone in the lobby. She knew that it wouldn’t take long for the police to show up at bed and breakfast, based on their location in the town. She only hoped that none of the guests would be disturbed until the morning. She looked down grimly at the young woman’s face. The woman was certainly beautiful. She also appeared to have been caught off guard as her eyes were still open, frozen in shock. She felt a sickening feeling rising in her gut, and she hoped that officers would arrive quickly before she vomited up her dinner on their crime scene. While she didn’t necessarily pursue her study in criminal law, she had heard colleagues in the past disputing the validity of certain evidence-based entirely on the chain of command for items or the pollution of a crime scene. She also knew that many cases were lost based on a simple mistake that contaminated DNA or a misplaced item, which defiled the chain of command, therefore making crucial evidence inadmissible. She could tell just by glancing at the woman that she was in top physical form, so the possibility of death by natural causes could more than likely be ruled out. She also appeared to still have her purse and all her possessions located on her person, so it didn’t appear as if there was an attempted robbery or mugging. The young woman seemed well-kempt and wore a pink dress that was high cut. Her nails were polished and pristine, and her makeup was fresh as well. The dress was designer. Betty wasn’t a fashionista, but she recognized the designer based on what some of the ladies in her office wore.

Betty caught a glimpse of red and blue lights out of the corner of her eye and breathed a sigh of relief. She turned only to find a gun pointed at her chest. “Stop right there, Miss! Put your hands up!’

“What?! I told Stephen to call you... I’m—"

“I don’t care who you are! Put your hands up now!”

Sighed and rolling her eyes, Betty begrudgingly complied with the officer’s commands. Before the deputies could proceed in placing handcuffs on her, Stephen came running out of bed and breakfast, frantic. “No, Johnny! Don’t arrest her! She’s the one who found the body! This is Betty; she’s the new Cornerstone owner.”

“My apologies Miss—"

“Just call me Betty. No apologies necessary. I understand you’re just doing your job, and I’m grateful. “

“So what happened here tonight, Betty?”

“I was in the office taking care of some paperwork for my meetings tomorrow. When I left, I saw something shiny in the light. I walked over and found this young lady. Her cell phone was reflecting the light.”

“I see.”

“Do you know who she is?”

“Yes…sadly, I do. This is Hanna Davis. She’s one of our fair town’s elite. There’s going to be a lot of scrutiny around this one. Sigh. I was about to retire… why couldn’t I just have traffic stops until they, huh Betty…would that be too much to ask for?!”

Betty just shook her head slightly flabbergasted at the Sheriff’s reaction. “So that’s all you know? You didn’t hear anything peculiar or see anything?”

“No. I just walked out here, and that was it.”

“It’s sad, isn’t it…someone so young.”

“Yes, of course, it is.”

“We’ll do a thorough investigation and get to the bottom of it; you can rest well in those facts, Betty. I’m just sorry you had to see something like this your first night in town. You didn’t touch anything here, did you?”

“No. I stood in the same spot until you arrived.”

The sheriff, who had taken off his wide-brimmed hat out of respect for the dead, placed it back on his head and narrowed his eyes at Betty. “Say… how did you know how to do that? My gut is telling me to I need to go ahead and haul you into the station just to be certain you’re not hiding anything, Miss. In fact, if we come across even the slightest clue you’ve hidden from us, you’ll be spending quite a few years behind bars for obstruction of justice.”

“Oh my God…this is ridiculous. Do it. Arrest me, and I’ll sue you and this entire department for wrongful arrest. I knew not to move because I’m a lawyer.” Betty took a business card from her wallet and handed it to the Sheriff, whose eyes widened at her credentials. “I’m sorry once again, Betty…it’s just that…we don’t see crime like this here. We’re all tense.”

“Oh, I assure you I understand, sheriff. Now, if you excuse me, it’s been a long night. I think I’ll go home if it’s all the same to you.”

“Yes, of course.”

Betty trusted Stephen to lock up the Cornerstone after the police officers had left. She sat in the driver’s seat and started her sedan, wanting nothing more than to cuddle with Beaux Jacques and relax. It seemed though, she now had more on her plate to worry about than a moose head hanging over her desk.