Free Death of a Batty Genius (Stormy Day Mystery #3) by Angela Pepper

to battle me for that pan-seared tuna.”
    “We won’t die,” I whispered back. “I’ve got some Junior Mints in my purse.”
    She elbowed me teasingly. “I haven’t seen a single staff member, outside of the construction crew. In a place this size, there should be prep cooks in the kitchen all day. Dinner time’s coming, and I don’t see anybody trying to help Marie except for Jeffrey, and you and I both know that cat won’t even peel a potato.”
    “He’s not great with tools that require thumbs.”
    I looked around for signs of resort staff who might have been shy and staying out of sight, but found none. Jessica was right to be concerned. Three-and-a-half hours up the side of a mountain was well outside the delivery range for Golden Wok.
    Marie delicately plated the tuna for Jeffrey and set it before him. He dove right in, which made her smile.
    Jessica cleared her throat and pushed up the three-quarter sleeves of her shirt. “Marie, did your staff call in sick? Let me help with something. I work in catering, and I take direction well.”
    Marie gasped. “No, no. You’re Butch’s guest. I couldn’t possibly let you help.”
    “Honestly, getting to work in a brand-new kitchen like this would be a privilege. And maybe I could put it on my resume.”
    Marie looked down at her red clogs. “I could use some help,” she said weakly.
    Jessica had already located an apron and pulled it on. She started washing her hands, right at home.
    The Fairchild cousins had wandered off, so I gathered up Jeffrey plus his food, and excused myself to take him back to the room.
    When I got to the room’s door, the construction foreman was dropping off a plastic litter pan. “Now, that’s just regular sand in there,” he said. “It won’t clump like the commercial litter, so I brought you an extra bag.”
    “Thanks! You’ve made us feel right at home.” I pulled out some cash and handed him a tip.
    The foreman seemed confused, but accepted the money and walked off.
    Once we were inside the room, I explained to Jeffrey, “I didn’t mean to insult the man. It’s just force of habit from all my business travels to tip the bellhop.”
    Jeffrey jumped into the litter pan and started rearranging the sand so it was more to his liking.
    “All the comforts of home,” I mused to myself as I took a second look around the room.
    A glass door led to the snow-blanketed patio. Beyond the perimeter were stone planters that would hold flowers in the summer, and beyond that was nothing but trees, a steep drop-off, and then the valley. Inside the room, the decoration matched the rustic setting, with walls the color of granite, and furnishings in every shade of bark, from the dark brown of pine branches to the silver-white of paper birch.
    I relocated Jeffrey and his sand castles to the washroom, then plugged in my laptop while commenting, “Let’s hope they paid the Wi-Fi bill before the start-up money ran out.”
    A minute later, I sighed. There was internet, but I needed a password.
    “Just as well,” I said, closing the laptop and reaching for my investigation manuals.
    I’d just settled on the bed with a book when someone knocked on the door. I opened it, and found nothing but an empty hallway. I looked left and right. Nobody was there. I rubbed the goosebumps on my forearms. The patterned carpet running up and down the hall reminded me of that horror movie, The Shining . I closed the door quickly, before scary ghost twins could appear.
    Someone knocked again, and that time I answered the interior door, the one connected to Christopher’s room.
    He had a map in one hand and a camping lantern in the other.
    “Let’s go check out the lava tubes,” he said.
    “You mean the caves? I don’t know. Dinner’s soon, and I was going to have a relaxing bath.”
    “You don’t take relaxing baths.”
    “And you don’t go spelunking. Where’d you get that map?”
    “It’s top secret, actually. Highly confidential. You’ve