Jamie left the squad car at Gus’s, and we walked out of the back harbor and up the hill toward Snuggles Inn. The day was overcast, and a fierce wind cut through my coat. Jamie was a good deal taller than my paltry five-foot-two, and I had to push to keep up. Nothing was very far from anything else in Busman’s Harbor proper, and soon we were on the Snuggles’ front porch. Jamie rang the bell, and a deep bong echoed inside.
“Coming!” Viola Snugg, called Vee, opened the front door. At seventy-five years of age and slightly after 7 AM, Vee cut an elegant figure. Her luxurious snow-white hair was swept up in a perfect coif, and she was wearing, as always, a tailored dress, hose, and high heels. As I’d predicted, her eyes took in Jamie in his uniform and she immediately stepped backward, clutching her hand to her ample bosom. “Oh my. How can I help you?”
“May we come in?” Jamie asked.
“Of course, Jamie, er, Officer Dawes. And Julia.” She threw me a quizzical look.
The Snuggles was, as always, tidy and inviting. Vee directed us to the front parlor. “You’re here about our guest,” she said to Jamie before we sat down.
“Why do you say that?” Jamie asked.
“He didn’t come back last night.” We all settled into our seats—Jamie and I on the Victorian settee the Snugg sisters had inherited from their grandparents, Vee in the straight-backed, upholstered chair opposite. I had the feeling Jamie sat down only because he didn’t want Vee to think she had to remain standing.
“How did you discover he didn’t return to his room?” Jamie asked.
“He arrived a little after five last evening. He had a reservation for two nights. Fee and I greeted him and suggested he might like to have his evening meal at Gus’s Too.” Not a hard recommendation to make, considering we were the only place open on weeknights during the off season, except for Hole in the Wall Pizza, about which the less said, the better.
“He went off about six o’clock. Fee and I watched a little TV. At ten, I went up to bed. Fee stayed up to let him in.”
Like most B&Bs in town, the Snuggles gave their guests keys to their rooms but not to the outside door. Since Vee got up early to make the guests the full English breakfasts for which the inn was renowned, it was her sister, Fiona, called Fee, who stayed up late to let in any stray guests.
“I found Fee sound asleep in her easy chair at six o’clock this morning,” Vee said. “I woke her up and sent her to bed. She said our guest never came home.”
“Which room is his?” Jamie asked.
“Four,” Vee said. “I’ll get you the key.” She disappeared through a swinging door and reappeared before it had stopped moving. I knew she’d grabbed the key off a board in the kitchen that held spares for all the rooms.
Jamie stood. “I’m going to look at his room. Alone.” He threw me a look that told me to stay put. “Miss Snugg, can you come upstairs with me and wake your sister? Tell her I need to speak with her as soon as I’m done.”
They bustled out of the room. Vee raised an eyebrow in my direction, forming a silent question, as she followed Jamie up the winding stairway.
I stayed in my seat and looked around the room. It was high Victorian and should have been heavy, dark, and uncomfortable, but it was one of my happiest places. I was suffering from a lack of sleep and normally the warm room would have made me woozy, but my nerves were wound up tight from the events of the morning.
Jamie must have finished searching at the same time Vee got the rousted Fee out of her room. All three trooped down the stairs. Fee was covered from head to toe in a high-necked, plaid flannel gown, a matching flannel robe, and slipper socks. Behind her thick glasses, she blinked at the interruption to her sleep.
“Now, Jamie Dawes, you tell us what this is about,” she demanded. I rose and met the three of them in the foyer.
Jamie glanced at me and inhaled deeply. “Your guest passed away last night. At Gus’s restaurant.”
Both sisters’ mouths dropped open. “How terrible,” Fee said. “Julia, were you there when it happened?”
I didn’t answer. I undoubtedly had been, if being behind the restaurant bar or upstairs in ignorant slumber counted. I noticed Jamie hadn’t given any of the details. Like that the body hadn’t been found until this morning. Or its location.
“We heard the sirens last night,” Fee added.
Again, Jamie didn’t contradict or clarify, so I stayed mum. The sirens had been about something else entirely.
“Right now, what we really need is your guest’s identity,” Jamie said. “I didn’t see anything in his room to help me. Just a clean shirt and underwear on the bed. No wallet or phone. Not even a suitcase.”