Murder at Coventry Hill Inn Read online

  Murder at Coventry Hill Inn

  A Molly Ryan Mystery

  Jane T. O’Brien

  This book is fiction. All characters, events, and organizations portrayed in this novel are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons –living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright 2017 by Jane T. O’Brien

  All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  ISBN: 978-154698746

  Books by Jane T. O’Brien

  Bristol Falls

  Glenwood Hills

  Cumberland Heights

  Murder in Forest Glen

  The Mystery at Shelby Lake

  The Mystery of Waverly Island

  Murder in Pinewood Bluff

  Camden Corners Collection

  Camden Corners Book One

  Camden Corners Book Two

  Camden Corners Book Three

  Samantha Degan Series

  Murder in Stonehill Manor

  Murder in Lancashire

  Murder in Ashville

  Murder at Seabrook Shores

  Molly Ryan Series

  Murder in Hillsboro

  Murder in Kincaid Towers

  Murder in Evergreen

  Murder at Coventry Hill Inn

  (Introducing Cassandra Cross)

  Cassandra Cross Series

  Murder on The Isabella

  Murder at Channel Two

  Murder in Newcastle

  Murder at Cranberry Creek

  Rebecca Snow Series

  Murder in Oakwood Park

  Murder on Bradbury Hill

  Murder on Applewood Circle

  Finian Frog Children’s Series

  Fabulous Finian Frog

  Finian Frog Falls in Love

  Finian Frog and Farley’s Wishes

  Finian Frog and Froglet Freddy

  Hennessey Hound Tales Children’s Series

  Happy Hennessey Hound

  Hennessey Hound and the Bully

  Cast of Characters

  Molly Ryan Sullivan: Florist and amateur sleuth. Owner of Buds and Blooms Emporiums. Molly is married to bestselling author, Luke Sullivan.

  Joanna Garretson: College student and part-time employee of Buds and Blooms. In a relationship with Detective Dylan Roth. Joanna and Molly joined forces to solve the mystery of Joanna’s favorite teacher.

  Laura Abbott Danforth: Thirty-something fifth-grade school teacher. Laura never imagined she would be reunited with the love of her life. Thanks to Joanna and Molly, she is a newlywed today.

  Alec Danforth: Artist and owner of the Danforth Art Gallery. For years Alec anguished over the tragic death of his parents. He and Laura were married in the gardens of Coventry Hill Inn.

  Nelson Fisher: Principal of Carter Elementary school in Pineridge. Accompanies Laura Abbott to Evergreen and discovers more than he bargained for.

  Brooke Hartley Kincaid: Molly’s good friend and neighbor. Married to the millionaire, Travis Kincaid. The Kincaid’s are the parents of Lucy and Ryan.

  Stephanie Anderson Sloan: Molly Ryan’s twin sister, married to Doctor Adam Sloan.

  Prologue

  On a beautiful early fall day in the village of Evergreen, Coventry Hill Inn was the scene of the marriage of Laura Abbott and Alec Danforth.

  Shortly after the ceremony, the skies clouded over and raindrops began to fall softly. The guests were ushered through the doors to the restaurant for an extraordinary meal prepared by Chef Greg Cromwell, co-owner of the inn along with his wife, Jenny.

  Six-year-old Lucy Kincaid, remembers she left her flower girl basket in the garden and runs outside to retrieve it. While there she comes across a man sleeping on one of the chairs. She tries to wake him and fearing he will be hungry if he doesn’t eat, calls her father, Travis, to help her wake the man.

  Travis realizes immediately something is terribly wrong, he asks his wife, Brooke to take Lucy inside and to send Detective Dylan Roth to the garden.

  Dylan is attending the wedding celebration with his girlfriend, Joanna Garretson and quickly joins Travis. The detective calls for an ambulance although he knows it is too late for the man slumped over in a chair.

  Molly Ryan and her husband Luke Sullivan along with Jenny Cromwell follow Dylan to the garden.

  “Alec, something has happened out there, I hope it’s not one of our guests,” cried Laura.

  They could hear a siren in the distance as most of the wedding guests watched the commotion from the large window overlooking the gardens.

  Alec held Laura’s arm as they walked to the man. Laura stopped abruptly covering her mouth with her hand when she saw the man’s face.

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  “That’s my father,” she exclaimed.

  Chapter One

  Clinton Abbott was pensive as he watched the wedding ceremony from behind the hedge surrounding the gardens of the Coventry Hill Inn.

  It should be my arm she is clinging to as she walks to her young man. She found herself a Danforth, that’s pretty good for the illegitimate daughter of a cocktail waitress. I couldn’t have made a better choice for her myself. The Danforth family has always held a prominent position in the social register. I haven’t heard much about them in several years. Maybe they are dying off.

  I should have been more of a father to the girl. If only she looked like Glenda instead of that young punk.

  Clinton remained out of sight until the raindrops began to fall and everyone gathered in the inn’s restaurant. He sat on one of the chairs near the arbor and thought of the day Laura was born. He was anxious because Glenda had gone into labor two months early and he knew the baby might be too small to survive. He was surprised when the nurse told him the child weighed eight pounds four ounces. He didn’t know much about babies but knew the weight meant Glenda was pregnant when she insisted he marry her. They’d had one night together and were married two weeks later. Clinton’s love for his wife outweighed the torture he felt knowing she’d deceived him. Nevertheless, he couldn’t get over the resentment he felt for the innocent child who he knew wasn’t his flesh and blood.

  Clinton Abbott was the sole heir to the Beau Visage Cosmetic Company founded by his great-grandfather over one hundred years before. Clinton never had an interest in his family’s company and sold it when he was in his twenties. He thought the money from the sale would keep him in comfort for the rest of his life. He and his wife, Glenda traveled and partied and enjoyed their life as jet-setters.

  The arrival of Laura, more than thirty years before didn’t dampen their fondness for traveling and socializing with the rich and famous. From the time Laura was an infant, she was left in the care of servants while her parents were away. Laura never knew what it was like to be a close family and found her happiness in the novels she read.

  On Laura’s college graduation day, one of the few occasions her parents were home, Laura announced she’d accepted a job as a school teacher.

  “No Abbott has ever been a public servant,” roared Clinton. “I will not allow it!”

  “Father,” replied Laura, “I will be teaching in the city of Hillsboro, far away from our home and your acquaintances. I don’t want to embarrass you; however, I am trained to be a teacher and it’s what I intend to do.”

  Laura had never challenged her father before but she was determined to be a teacher and nothing was going to stop her. Laura had been given a generous allowance through the years. H
er only interest was in books and studying. Her expenses were limited and she saved enough to live on her own. Because her parents had seldom played an active role in her life, the home she’d lived in held little significance to her.

  Laura lived in the Barkley Boarding House when she first moved to Hillsboro. Emma Barkley and her husband raised their children in the home. After Mr. Barkley’s death, Emma had the house converted and rented to young, single women who came to Hillsboro to work.

  Emma was the closest thing Laura had to a mother. Still shy, she did reveal some of the most intimate details of her life. Emma kept journals on all her tenants. The entries regarding Laura Abbott helped Molly Ryan and Joanna Garretson discover the reason the girl abruptly left town several years before.

  Laura’s sheltered life didn’t provide her with the social skills most young college graduates had acquired. She did, however, feel comfortable and on a level with the young people in her fifth-grade class. She enjoyed watching their eyes brighten when they discovered the solution to a math problem or successfully completed a science experiment.

  On a field trip to Danforth Art Gallery with her fifth-grade class, she met and fell in love with Alec Danforth. Through misunderstandings and scheming, the two were driven apart. Laura moved to a town across the state and resumed her teaching career far away from Alec.

  Joanna Garretson was one of the students in the fifth grade. She and Ms. Abbott had a special bond. Joanna, fearing Mr. Danforth had harmed her favorite teacher, looked to Molly Ryan for help in finding her.

  Laura hadn’t seen or talked with her family since the day she left for college. It was a shock to see her father again and even more shocking to learn he died in the garden of Coventry Hill Inn on her wedding day.

  The paramedics wasted no time in examining the body of Clinton Abbott.

  The EMT called Detective Dylan Roth aside, “This man has a bullet wound in his chest.”

  “He’s the bride’s father,” cried Dylan. “You’re telling me someone shot him?”

  Jenny Cromwell was concerned for the well-being of the gentleman being placed on the gurney and raised into the ambulance. However, in the back of her mind, she knew this incident couldn’t be good for business.

  “Alec, I think I should go with him, he is my father, after all,” said Laura.

  “You go ahead, I’ll follow in my car.”

  “Let me drive you, son,” said Alec’s father, Nelson Fisher.

  Laura, Alec, and Nelson waited while the body was taken to the morgue for examination. Molly and Luke arrived along with Joanna Garretson. Dylan Roth was there in his official capacity as a detective.

  Laura, still in her wedding dress, was puzzled. “I don’t understand what my father was doing here. How could he have known I was getting married today? Where is my mother? Why isn’t she with Father? Could she be the one who shot him?”

  The coroner’s assistant approached Laura. “Hello, Mrs. Danforth, I’m sorry for your loss. Your father died of a gunshot wound to his chest. The bullet lodged in his heart. Dr. Plunkett is finishing his report for the police and your father’s body will be released to you in a couple of hours. It will give you time to make burial arrangements. Mr. Abbott’s personal belongings are in this envelope. The police have examined its contents and have released it to you.”

  “Thank you,” Laura whispered. “Alec, I don’t know what to do? I can’t bury my father without my mother knowing he’s dead.”

  “Laura,” said Molly, “the funeral home will tend to your father while we look for your mother. Luke will be happy to help you find a funeral director. In the meantime, we will help you locate your mother.”

  “Thank you, Molly, I don’t think I can handle this alone.”

  “You needn’t handle anything alone, darling, you have me,” Alec reassured her.

  “You have us, Laura. Your friends are here for you,” said Joanna.

  Friends thought Laura, I do have friends. I never realized how wonderful it is to have them.

  Laura opened the envelope, it contained her father’s wallet and a set of keys from a car rental.

  “That is helpful, we will find the car and return it. There will be a time on the paperwork telling us when your father rented the car. The paperwork will show where the agency shuttle picked him up. We will check with the airlines to see if he flew alone or if your mother was with him,” said Molly.

  “His driver’s license still shows the house in Westbury where I lived.”

  Laura looked through the wallet. There was only one credit card and a business card for a nursing facility in Westbury. Laura’s heart sank, why would her father carry this card unless someone he knew was there. In another compartment were three one-hundred-dollar bills and a small key.

  “The first thing we will do is call your home, if your mother isn’t there, the servants will tell us where we can reach her.” Molly noticed the look of fear on Laura’s face and knew she was worried her mother was a resident of the facility.

  Laura remembered her old telephone number and called it. The recording said the number was disconnected or no longer in use. After ten years, it didn’t come as a surprise to Laura the number was not valid, after all, almost everyone relied on cell-phones exclusively these days.

  Dylan Roth checked sources through the police department. Daniel and Elise Masters own the home on Camilla Drive in Westbury.

  Laura’s voice was shaking when Dylan gave her the telephone number to the people who lived in her home.

  “Molly, would you mind calling them? I don’t think I can get through a phone call without sounding like a crazy person.”

  “Yes, Laura,” replied Molly.

  “Master’s residence,” came a proper but pleasant voice.

  “Hello, my name is Molly Ryan, I’m a friend of Laura Abbott, a former resident of the Masters’ home. Is it possible to speak with either Mr. or Mrs. Masters?”

  “One moment, please,” the voice on the other end replied.

  After a brief pause, Molly heard a woman’s voice on the other end. “Hello, Ms. Ryan, I understand you are a friend of the former owner of my home.”

  “Yes, Mrs. Masters, Laura Abbott the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Abbott is here with me. Do you mind if I put you on speaker phone?”

  “I don’t mind but I wasn’t aware the Abbott’s had any children. You sound like a nice person, Ms. Ryan but you can never be too sure these days.”

  “Mrs. Masters, this is Laura Abbott, I apologize for the intrusion. My parents and I have been estranged for several years. My father died suddenly and I am trying to locate my mother. I don’t know where to start in finding her.”

  “Oh, my dear, I’m sorry to give you the sad news. My husband and I bought this house from your father over three years ago. Your mother was involved in an automobile accident and received a devastating head injury. At the time, she was residing in a nursing home here in town. I can’t tell you too much more except your father did confide he needed to sell this house to pay his wife’s medical bills. I wish I had better news for you.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Masters, you have been helpful.”

  “Laura, I’m so sorry,” said Molly. “First your father’s death and now the news about your mother. I know you weren’t close to them but it still must hurt.”

  “I don’t feel anything, Molly. I’m sorry two people suffered and are suffering but they are strangers to me. I must be a horrible person to feel that way.”

  “No, you are not horrible,” said Joanna. “You are a wonderful person who has brought joy and knowledge to her students. I can’t understand why your parents treated you the way they did. They are the ones who missed knowing you.”

  “I agree,” said Alec. “You have turned my life around, we both had questionable upbringings but we have survived and now we have each other, Mrs. Danforth.”

  “Alec, I can’t believe how this day has turned out. We should be on an airplane flying to our honeymoon.”

&
nbsp; “We will have our honeymoon soon, for now, let’s find out why your father died and inquire about your mother’s condition.”

  Chapter Two

  “Greg,” said Jenny Cromwell the next morning, “I know I sound heartless but I wish Mr. Abbott had been somewhere else when he was shot.

  Did you see the article in the paper? It mentions the inn as the murder scene; we could lose business.”

  “People do forget, maybe it will work in our favor. Remember when we stayed at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado? The movie The Shining made the hotel famous.”

  “That was fiction, this is a real murder. Guests are due to arrive soon. I’ll tell them about what happened here yesterday before they read it in the paper. I wouldn’t blame them if they found a motel down the highway.”

  Cassandra and Michael arrived at the hotel after making a reservation the day before. They met for the first time earlier that morning. Cassie took an instant dislike to the arrogant Michael Callahan and Mike knew Cassandra Cross’s type and dismissed her as a novice who was going to cramp his style. Their assignment was to pose as a married couple, check into the Coventry Hill Inn and quietly investigate a suspected jewelry thief named Clinton Abbott.

  “Hello,” said Mike in a soft voice, “you must be Jenny Cromwell. I called for a room yesterday. We are the Williamsons,” the name they chose as their aliases.

  Jenny noticed Mrs. Williamson flinched slightly when Mike put his hand on his wife’s shoulder.

  “Welcome to Coventry Hill Inn, we are happy to have you here. I must reveal we had an incident yesterday. A man was shot outside in the garden. Unfortunately, he died of his injury. The police have a few leads; however, they haven’t found the person responsible for the shooting. I understand if you feel uncomfortable staying here.”