The Inn at Holiday Bay: Clue in the Clam, Kathi Daley [early reader chapter books TXT] 📗

murder mystery had been played out as everyone enjoyed appetizers and complimentary drinks, and now I could hear the organizers calling everyone to find their seats for the dinner portion of the evening. The same little plastic clams that had been found on the murder victims were being used to deliver the clues, which caused me to feel just a bit queasy, but overall, it seemed that everyone was having a wonderful time.

I noticed a boat pull up just as the group was gathering for the meal. Colt, Lacy, and Lonnie had all arrived. They were too late to join in on the mystery, but just in time to enjoy the food Georgia and Jeremy had prepared.

“I’m so glad you guys could make it.” I hugged both Lonnie and Lacy.

“I couldn’t believe it when Noah not only offered us his and Christy’s tickets but volunteered to babysit as well,” Lacy said, grinning.

“It was very nice of both of them, and I’m sure they’ll enjoy hanging out with your kids.”

Lonnie laughed. “I’m not sure about that, but I wasn’t going to say no. Right now, I hear that rum punch Jeremy told me about calling my name.”

Both Lonnie and Lacy went in search of a drink while I greeted Colt.

“So, how was your day?” I asked. “Did you wrap things up?”

“Yes, I think things are wrapped up quite nicely.”

“Did Barnaby say why he killed four men?”

“Actually, he did. It turns out that his only real target was Oliver Halifax. As Lacy indicated that day in the kitchen when you stopped to speak to her, Barnaby was very much against the proposed project. He honestly felt that if the project was approved, the way of life he loved and greatly valued would forever be destroyed. Barnaby told me that he wasn’t too worried about it at first. He figured the town council would never approve such a monstrosity, but then the developer somehow managed to get William Covington on board. He still wasn’t worried since the vote would be four to one, but then Ellington Simpleton changed sides, and then it was two to three. Still, three votes against would be enough to send the developer packing, but then Oliver entered the election at the last minute and actually managed to beat Dennis Painter, who was against the project. It was at this point that Barnaby began to understand that the town was really in trouble. When he found out that Oliver not only planned to vote to support that project but that it was very likely he’d cheated to win the seat in the first place, he went a bit crazy. I guess at that point, he began obsessing over the situation, and at some point, he came to the conclusion that Oliver Halifax needed to die.”

“So why not just kill him? Why kill the others?”

“Barnaby is the sort to really think things through. He’s analytical to a fault. Once the decision was made that Oliver had to die, Barnaby began to plan instead of just killing him. He went through every scenario in his mind time and time again, and at some point, he came to the realization that if he killed Oliver and only Oliver, then all roads would lead back to him. He figured he needed to remove the spotlight from the proposed development as a motive, so he came up with the seven sins thing. I guess he somehow knew that Oliver had attended the weeklong sinners’ retreats, and he used that knowledge to come up with a complex plan to get me focused on that week as the motive and not the development.”

“Which is exactly what happened,” I pointed out.

“Yes, that’s exactly what happened.”

“Okay, so Barnaby came up with the idea for the note in the clam. But how did that lead to three additional deaths?” I asked.

“Barnaby figured that with just one murder the motive was a moving target, and he didn’t want the resort to come into it, so he killed Henry, who he also somehow knew had been to the weeklong men’s retreats, and gave him a clam with a similar message. By the time Stan’s body showed up, talk about the proposed development as a motive had all but dried up, and everyone was focusing in on the sins these men committed and the company who ran the weeklong retreats.”

“I guess his logic did help him come up with a way to get the focus off the development, but why did he kill Kurt? By the time he killed Kurt, everyone was focused on the retreats.”

“Barnaby told me that he hadn’t planned to kill Kurt, but unfortunately, I managed to catch up with Kurt after I spoke to you last evening. I told him what was going on, hoping that he would use that information to get out of town the way Travis, Don, and Lance had. Of course, Kurt is a hothead, so what he actually did when I left the bar where I’d found him was to go and confront Barnaby. I still don’t know how Kurt made the connection between what was going on and Barnaby, but he did. He threatened Barnaby, and Barnaby killed him, and then he left the body with a clam so it would look like his death was simply part of the pattern.”

“Wow. I can’t believe four men are dead because one man couldn’t accept the changes that, while unwelcome by many, still seem inevitable.”

“Yeah,” Colt sighed. “I really hate to see that project get approved, and now that Oliver is gone, it may not be. Even if Barnaby was ultimately able to stop this great evil as he perceived it to be, he’s behind bars and unable to enjoy the town he killed to protect.”

I glanced back toward the rows of tables that had been laid out to serve the meal. The