But someone was out there. Judith’s logical mind told her
it couldn’t be the killer. The lodge had been locked up the
entire weekend. The blizzard had cut off access to all but the
highest windows. Yet nothing was impossible, not to
someone with murder in mind.
With a sudden jarring tremor, Judith wondered if they had
been looking for the killer in the wrong place.
FIFTEEN
“WHO ELSE WAS in the corridor last night?” Judith asked
Renie some two hours later after the cousins had done their
laundry and retired to their room. “Did you catch the part
about Max seeing someone when he tried to talk to Andrea
last night?”
Renie nodded. “You, of course, never saw him or anyone
else, you big fibber. Are you thinking Max may have seen
the mysterious stranger?”
“I’m not sure who—or what—Max saw,” Judith replied.
“Andrea’s room is at the far end of the hall. The lighting’s
pretty dim. Max seemed uncertain. I got the impression that
maybe he sensed rather than saw someone. It might have
been anyone, including the alleged outsider.”
“It could be done,” Renie asserted. “If someone climbed
up the side of the lodge, they could get in through one of
the second-or third-floor windows. A ladder, snowshoes,
ropes—whatever. If someone was determined to get in, they
could probably do it.”
Judith was sitting on the bed, chin on fists. “What’s the
risk factor? If seen inside the lodge, a stranger would automatically become the prime suspect.”
“But no one’s seen this phantom,” Renie pointed out. “This
is a big place, and for the most part, we’ve all
tended to congregate together in two or three rooms. Look,”
Renie continued, perched on the edge of her twin bed, “Leon
and Andrea were probably killed within a couple of hours
of each other last night. Ward was murdered this afternoon.
Why couldn’t the killer have come in late last night, hidden
on the third floor or in the basement, and committed all
three murders before heading out again? The first time we
saw the light was early evening yesterday. We all heard the
laugh this afternoon, after Ward was killed. Now, midevening, we see another light, but not in the same place.
During the time the murders were committed, nobody—that
we know of—heard or saw anything outside. What does that
suggest?”
“I see your point,” Judith agreed. “Which is reassuring in
that it means the murderer may have finished his—or
her—grisly business. However,” she added on a heavy sigh,
“it also means that if the killer is an outsider, you and I don’t
have the foggiest notion of who it might be.”
