Free Heavenly Highland Inn 05 - Suffocating the Sunflowers by Cindy Bell Page A

walked right out of Sarah's office.
    “ Aunt Ida,” Vicky moaned and followed after her. “Mitchell was just trying to protect you.”
    “ If everyone would stop trying to protect me, you all might just figure out that I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself,” Ida flipped the collar of her jacket up and stalked off towards her room.
    Once Ida was closed off in her room, and Sarah had gone home to get a break from the tension at the inn, Vicky stepped out onto the porch. A part of her hoped that Mitchell would stop by to join her, but she knew he was working. As she looked up at the stars that speckled the sky she thought about the events that had unfolded. She was so convinced that Henry was innocent, but she simply couldn't piece together how the peanut oil had ended up on the food. She closed her eyes and tried to go back through the day. She was sure that she must have forgotten about something.
    Suddenly , Vicky recalled the shed door being open when she walked past it after she had cleaned up the pool area. She knew that was where all the peanut oil had been stored. Had Peter gone back out to the shed after all of the oil was put away? He was fairly new to the inn so he might not have known to shove the door shut.
    Vicky swung slowly back and forth on the porch swing. It creaked quietly through the darkness that surrounded her. As she sorted through her thoughts she tried to recall everything about the day that had struck her as strange. It seemed so clear that Peter had been the one to put the peanut oil on the food. But she still had no way of proving it. As she closed her eyes she had to wonder, was Gerald involved? Did he play a bigger part in all of this than anyone realized?
    Vicky knew that they had all agreed not to do anything else until morning, but she was impatient. She didn't want to give Gerald and Carolyn time to create cover stories or plant even more evidence to frame Henry or the inn. The inn was quiet with most of the guests having finished dinner and already settled into their rooms. It was a good time for Vicky to check in with Gerald. She knew he was still staying at the inn in a different room but she hadn't seen him since Sandy's death. As she walked back into the inn she caught sight of a figure near the corner of the porch. She turned to look, but didn't see anything more than the shadow of an old rocking chair. Shaking her head with annoyance she closed the door behind her.

Chapter Seven
     
     
    When Vicky arrived at the room Gerald was staying in, she paused just outside it. She listened for a moment, hoping to be able to tell if Gerald was inside or not. While she was waiting for him to make some kind of noise she thought she heard footsteps. She turned around in search of the source of the sound. She didn't want other guests to catch her eavesdropping. But when she looked up and down the hallway there was no one to be seen. She drew a deep breath and reminded herself to be calm. She still hadn't heard a sound from inside the room. She lifted her hand to knock, but then she felt a little awkward. She didn't know how to broach the conversation with Gerald. It would seem odd for her to just show up at his room in the middle of the evening.
    What if he was on the phone with Barry Baker? She decided she needed an excuse to speak to him. She walked down to the end of the hall where one of the maids’ carts was sitting near a storage closet. She looked through it in search of something that would give her a good excuse to knock on his door. Then she found it. It was a fresh pile of towels. A guest could never have enough fresh towels. As she picked them up from the cart and began walking back towards Gerald's room she thought she heard a door click shut. But she didn't see anyone stepping out into the hallway. She paused in front of Gerald's door and then knocked on it sharply.
    “ Mr. Holstead?” she called out in what she hoped was a casual tone. She heard a scuffing sound, and