'Can I get you some juice? Coffee?' he asked, as they settled into comfortable chairs.
'Not now, thanks. What you can do for me is give me some information about a guest. Or rather, a non- guest.'
'Can't do it, Quill.' He shook his head, 'HQ would send small fierce people down with large weapons to kill me.'
Quill pulled her lip. 'You've got a sales convention here?'
'It's listed right outside on the welcome board. AmaTex Textiles, out of Buffalo...'
'Do you have a list of convention attendees?'
'As a matter of fact, I do. You can pick one up in any of the meeting rooms they're using, and I just stuck one in my file. Hang on a second.' He reached one long arm out to a filing cabinet, and within a few seconds, pulled a manila folder out of the drawer. 'Here it is.'
The names were listed alphabetically. Quill scanned the B's. There was no Keith Baumer listed.
'Are all the convention-goers listed, Sean, including the ones that don't have rooms here?'
'I believe so. But we were able to accommodate everyone that came in from out of town.'
'Are you at capacity?'
'About seventy-five per cent. Good for us this time of year.'
The address and phone number of AmaTex headquarters was listed at the top of the page. 'Can I use your phone to make a call to AmaTex?'
'Of course.' He eased himself out of his chair. 'Tell you what, I'll go get us some Coke.'
Quill waited until his office door swung silently shut behind him. She dialed the 716 area code for Buffalo, hesitated briefly, then the rest of the number.
'AmaTex Textiles,' said a young voice. 'Could I speak to Personnel, please?'
'Human Resources, Compensation and Benefits, Pension Funding, or Training Department?' the voice asked.
'Urn. I'm checking out a resume. I wanted to confirm a prospective employee's background.'
'One moment, please.' Canned music blared onto the line: Tom Jones singing 'The Green Green Grass of Home.' Quill held the phone away from her ear.
'Department of Human Resources. This is Miss Shirley, may I help you?'
'Miss Shirley, this is Sarah Quilliam. I have an application for employment from a gentleman who lists AmaTex Textiles as a reference.' Quill felt a modicum of remorse. If word circulated among Baumer's employers that he was job hunting, he'd probably lose his current job for certain.
'And?' said the insistent voice of Miss Shirley.
'I'm sorry. His name is Keith Baumer. I asked him for a resume.' Quill said hastily, 'I wouldn't want you to think he was actively job hunting or anything.'
'How do you spell that last name?'
Quill spelled it, waited the requested one moment for Miss Shirley to come back on the line, and smiled at Sean as he came back into the room bearing a tray.
'We have no record of a Mr. Keith Baumer ever being employed by AmaTex Textiles,' said Miss Shirley.
'Are you certain?' said Quill. 'How far back do your records go?'
Miss Shirley chose to take Quill's question as an affront to the efficiency of AmaTex Textiles' record-keeping. 'Our files go back fifteen years. They're computerized. And who is this calling again?'
Quill apologized for the inconvenience, thanked her, and hung up. She turned to Sean. 'Have you had any other sales conventions here in the past couple of weeks?'
'Nope. Not a one. What's up?'
'I don't know, Sean. This just doesn't make any sense.'
-14-
Driving back into town, Quill tried to make sense of Baumer's lie, and couldn't. Had Mavis summoned him to Hemlock Falls to increase the blackmail payment? Was the sales convention a cover for involvement in the spoiled-meat scam? Were he and Mavis partners? Quill worked through this possibility. Baumer and Mavis could have made a practice of bilking inns and hotels of insurance monies. Quill got dizzy at the prospect of a litigious Baumer. She grasped the steering wheel firmly, and forged ahead. If so, there was likely to be a record through the cross-index maintained by insurance companies to track fraud. The person who would know about that would be Edward Lancashire.
If Baumer had made phone calls canceling the Inn business, it was out of malice. Assuming that Baumer and Mavis were partners, why would Baumer murder her? Could Baumer have found out about Mavis' separate deal with Tom and murdered her to keep Mavis from running off with the loot collected from the insurance scams?
This, Quill thought to herself, was pure supposition. Myles was right. What she needed were facts. Who placed the bolt and the Seconal in John's room? Who fed Mavis those mint juleps?
She parked at the Inn's back door, and went to find one of the people who could give her the answers.
Edward Lancashire was sitting at a table in the bar, feet propped up on a neighboring chair, contemplating a painting she'd finished shortly after the Inn had opened. It was an iris, a miniature Dutch variety spread across the canvas in a tidal wave of purple and sun-yellow.
