Shroud for a sinner, p.1
The Body in the Kayak (Sunset Lodge Mysteries Book 11), page 1
The Body in the Kayak
A SUNSET LODGE MYSTERY
BOOK ELEVEN
DIANA XARISSA
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
The Body in the Laboratory
A sneak peek at The Body in the Laboratory
Also by Diana Xarissa
About the Author
Copyright © 2025 by DX Dunn, LLC
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, contact diana@dianaxarissa.com
The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
Cover Copyright © 2025 Tell-Tale Book Covers
1st edition 2025
Formatted with Vellum
Chapter One
“This is just about perfect,” Mandy Clark said as she leaned back in her padded, reclining sun chair.
“It’s pretty close,” her sister Abigail agreed. She looked out across Foxglove Lake and sighed. “These chairs are too comfortable. I never want to move again.”
“I love them,” Scott Wright said. “I have some in my backyard, too.”
“But your backyard isn’t as wonderful as this sandy beach,” Mandy said.
“I’ve been thinking about doing something in the backyard, actually,” Scott said. “I was thinking about adding a fountain and more trees and maybe an outdoor kitchen and a pool. I’d like to make it a space I’ll use rather than just a backyard with a few chairs scattered around the place.”
“But you’re a workaholic,” Mandy said. “You never go out in your backyard. Getting you here today was a struggle.”
Scott chuckled. “I’m trying hard to fight against my workaholic tendencies. Building my business took a great deal of effort.”
“And now you own at least half of Nightshade and a quarter of the surrounding area,” Mandy said. “Surely that’s enough?”
“It’s more than enough,” Scott agreed. “Which is why I’m trying to slow down. Except I’m mostly trying to slow down so that I can spend more time with you.”
Mandy grinned at him. “That’s good to hear.”
Abigail smiled. When she’d met Scott, he’d had a reputation as a player, but he and Mandy had been dating for months now and they both seemed very happy together. She was still worried that the wealthy man might break her sister’s heart, but every time she saw them together, she found herself worrying less.
“Are you having fun?” Mark Cooper asked Abigail from his chair next to hers.
She smiled at the man she’d been dating almost since her arrival in Nightshade. “It’s lovely here. I don’t often spend a day just lying around on the beach, but it’s a wonderfully relaxing thing to do once in a while.”
“Speaking of workaholics,” Mandy muttered.
Abigail laughed. “I don’t think I’m a workaholic. I do work very hard, but I think that’s a given when you own your own business. And I’m trying to work a bit less, too, but that’s really difficult during our busiest season of the year.”
“It was a good thing that Billy moved to Nightshade,” Mandy said.
“It was,” Abigail agreed.
“Who’s Billy?” Scott asked.
Both women laughed.
“He never listens to me,” Mandy said.
Scott frowned. “Did you tell me about Billy?”
Mandy shrugged. “Probably not, actually. We always have so many other things to talk about.”
“Billy is Billy Winters,” Abigail said. “He’s the new assistant manager at Sunset Lodge.”
“You hired an assistant manager?” Scott looked surprised. “Someone who recently moved to Nightshade?”
Abigail nodded. “He walked into the lodge about three weeks ago and asked if we were hiring. It was one of those days when we had several guests checking out and one of our new arrivals had already turned up wanting a room even though it was only ten o’clock in the morning. I didn’t want to start cleaning rooms while the lobby was full of people, but I needed to get them done so I could welcome our new guests. I also needed to clean the rooms for the guests who were continuing to stay with us.”
“I should have been there,” Mandy said. “Sunset Lodge is our business, not just yours. We bought it together because we were both going to work there together, and I’ve let you down.”
Abigail shook her head. “You have a job you love. I don’t want you to quit your job to help with the lodge, not unless you’re certain that you want to give up designing sets for Broadway and move to Nightshade to clean guest bathrooms all day.”
Mandy laughed. “You make it sound so glamorous. If I hadn’t just been assigned to an actual on-Broadway set design project, I would have given my notice last month. As it is, I’m not planning on staying in New York City once the show opens and I can tell everyone that I helped design the set.”
“It would be nice if you were living here,” Scott said, giving Mandy a warm smile.
She flushed. “It will be nice, once it happens. This project is going to take about six months. I should be ready to move to Nightshade early next year.”
“I should just be happy that you got an entire week off before you start working on the project,” Scott said. “It’s been great having you here for more than a few days at a time.”
“And it’s wonderful relaxing on the beach on a random Wednesday,” Mandy said. “But Abigail was telling you about Billy.”
Scott laughed. “We have wandered off the subject, haven’t we? So Billy walked into the lodge while you were crazy busy and asked if you were hiring,” he said to Abigail.
She nodded. “I didn’t really have the time to talk to him, but I asked him if he had a resume. I was just going to shove it into a drawer, but I glanced at it first, and I saw that he used to work at one of the hotels in New York City where I used to work. We had a quick chat about the hotel and the owner, a lovely man who I still consider a friend.”
“I hope you called him to confirm that Billy really did work there,” Scott said.
“I did, although it was obvious that he’d truly worked there, because he knew every detail about the place. When I called the owner, he confirmed that Billy had been the assistant manager there for two years and that my friend had been sad to see him go.”
“Why did Billy leave the job? And what brought him to Nightshade?”
“He left that particular hotel because he was offered a job at a larger property elsewhere in the city. That was all that my friend, the hotel owner, knew. Billy had left that job about three years ago. According to Billy, when he started his new job, he very quickly discovered that he didn’t really like larger properties. He moved from that job to another smaller hotel less than a year later. And then, eighteen months or so after that, his aunt died and left him a house in Nightshade.”
“Billy is Magdalene Martin’s nephew?” Scott asked.
Abigail laughed. “You know you live in a small town when…”
Everyone laughed.
“But in answer to your question, yes, Billy is Magdalene Martin’s nephew. I don’t know much about her, just what Billy has told me, but he doesn’t know much, either. Apparently, she and Billy’s father, her brother, had a falling-out before Billy was even born. He didn’t even know he had an Aunt Magdalene until he got a letter from a lawyer about her estate.”
“Why doesn’t anything like that ever happen to me?” Mandy asked, pouting.
Everyone laughed again.
“I can tell you a bit about Magdalene,” Scott said.
“Really?” Mark asked. “Abigail asked me about her, and I had to admit that I couldn’t remember ever speaking to the woman. She kept to herself and lived very quietly. I rarely, if ever, heard anything about her.”
“Surely you were her doctor,” Mandy said. “You’re the only doctor in Nightshade.”
“I was not her doctor. She went to a family practice in Saunders and saw them for all of her medical needs,” Mark replied.
Mandy frowned. “How very annoying of her.”
Mark laughed. “I didn’t mind in the slightest. She moved to Nightshade many years before I started my practice here. Quite a lot of the town’s older residents decided to continue seeing doctors elsewhere rather than move to my practice. I’ve always been more than busy enough, regardless.”
“What can you tell me about Magdalene, then?” Abigail asked Scott. “And can I share what you tell me with Billy?”
“You can share whatever you want with Billy,” Scott told her. “Magdalene was friends with my mother. They served on several different volunteer committees together. I know that Magdalene moved to Nightshade after ending her engagement to a ve
ry wealthy man. I believe there was some sort of scandal, maybe another woman, that led to her wanting to leave Boston, which is where she’d been born and raised.”
“When did all of this happen?” Mandy asked.
“Back in the seventies, when people couldn’t just jump on the internet and find out everything about everyone,” Scott replied.
Mandy sighed. “So we’ll probably never know the whole story.”
“Probably not,” Scott agreed. “I can tell you that whatever happened, Magdalene moved to Nightshade with enough money to buy herself a little house and live out the rest of her life without having to work.”
“She lived here for fifty-odd years and never had to work?” Mandy asked.
Scott nodded. “She was in her early seventies when she died last year. Her housekeeper found her.”
“She had a housekeeper?” Mandy asked.
“That’s probably the wrong word,” Scott said. “Molly cleans houses for several of the town’s residents. Magdalene was just one of her customers.”
“So either Magdalene came from a lot of money, or somebody gave her a lot of money when her engagement ended,” Mandy said thoughtfully.
“I want to know more,” Abigail said.
Mandy nodded. “Billy should be able to tell you whether or not there was family money.”
“I don’t know that there is any polite way to ask him that question,” Abigail said with a small laugh. “But I am going to share everything Scott is telling us with him.”
“You said that Billy inherited Magdalene’s house,” Scott said. “I’m surprised he didn’t just sell it and stay in New York City.”
“Apparently there was a clause in the will that says he needs to live in the house for a year before the title transfers to him. Billy’s lawyer didn’t think the clause would hold up in court if Billy wanted to fight it, but Billy decided that it was probably easier to just move to Nightshade for a year.”
“Easier and definitely cheaper,” Scott said. “Lawyers are the only ones who benefit when people decide to take things like that to court.”
Abigail nodded. “Apparently there is more to the estate than just the house, and while Billy is living here, he’s been given access to a monthly allowance that more than covers his living expenses. He came to ask me about a job because he’s bored more than anything else.”
“How lovely for him,” Mandy said with a small sigh.
“You would hate just sitting around all day, every day, with nothing to do,” Abigail told her.
Mandy nodded. “Eventually, yes, but not for the first month or two.”
“And Billy moved to Nightshade three months ago,” Abigail said. “When he came to see me, he told me that he was looking for something part-time with daytime hours and lots of flexibility. That suited my needs exactly.”
“So he’s at the Lodge, managing things, while you’re here, about to enjoy a picnic,” Scott said.
Abigail nodded. “He’s been working about twenty hours each week since he started. I usually have him sit behind the reception desk while I clean the guest rooms, but lately he’s been working a few extra hours one or two days each week so that I can actually have some time off.”
“And I’ve been doing everything I can to take the same time off so we can spend some time together,” Mark said, squeezing Abigail’s hand.
“He’s another workaholic,” Scott said, nodding at Mark.
Mark grinned. “I was, certainly, but I’m a reformed workaholic now. I’ve expanded my practice, but hired half a dozen more people to help keep things running smoothly. And here I am, on a random Wednesday, enjoying a day at the beach with my girlfriend and some friends. Two years ago, I would never have even considered doing such a thing.”
“We should open the champagne,” Scott said.
“I’m driving,” Abigail said.
“It’s nonalcoholic,” Scott told her. “I’m driving as well so I brought some very good nonalcoholic champagne for us to enjoy.”
He got up from his reclining chair and crossed to the large picnic table a few feet away along the sandy beach. There were several picnic baskets on the table. Scott opened one and pulled out a bottle. Then he removed four glasses from the basket.
“Does everyone want champagne?” he asked.
“If you’re certain it’s alcohol-free, then yes,” Abigail said.
“I’ll have some,” Mark said. “And some water if we have that, too.”
“There’s a cooler full of water and sodas right next to you,” Scott told him.
Mark laughed. “I’ve been sitting next to it for over an hour and never realized it was there.”
He opened the cooler and pulled out a bottle of water. After taking a large drink, he offered the bottle to Abigail. She drank some of the deliciously ice-cold water before passing the bottle back to Mark.
“Darling, do you want champagne?” Scott asked Mandy.
She grinned. “Always.”
Scott opened the bottle and poured. Then he handed around the glasses full of the bubbly liquid.
“This tastes like the real thing,” Mandy said after a sip.
“It’s really good,” Abigail said. “Are you sure you didn’t open the wrong bottle?” she asked Scott.
He laughed. “Feel free to check for yourself. In fact, I’d like you to check, because it does taste awfully good.”
Abigail walked to the table and picked up the bottle. She read the label and then shook her head.
“I don’t know how they do it,” she said as she walked back to her chair. “This is some of the nicest champagne I’ve ever tasted.”
“We should think about eating,” Scott said a few minutes later. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m getting hungry.”
“I could eat,” Mandy said.
“You could help,” Scott suggested as he got back to his feet.
Mandy laughed. “I’m happy to help,” she said as she jumped out of her chair. “Where do we start?”
“The baskets are labeled,” Scott told her. “One is appetizers, one is main course, and the third is desserts.”
“There are four baskets,” Mandy said.
“The fourth is the one that had the champagne in it,” Scott said. “There’s another bottle if we need it, too.”
Mandy opened one of the baskets. “Appetizers. There’s a veggie tray,” she said, lifting it out of the basket and putting it on the table. “And a fruit tray. And dips for both.”
Mark and Abigail got up and walked to the table. Scott was busy unpacking plates and silverware from a small box. He handed them each a plate.
“Help yourselves,” he said, waving at the food that Mandy was still unpacking. “I told my chef that I needed a picnic for four hungry people. He’s going to expect the baskets to come back empty.”
Abigail stared at the large platters full of raw fruits and vegetables.
“Even if this was the only course, we’d never eat it all,” she said. “And there are two more baskets full of food yet to open.”
“Maybe we should see what else we have before we all fill up on veggies and fruit,” Mandy suggested.
“Maybe we should see what’s in the second box, but not the third,” Abigail said. “I can only imagine what wonderful desserts are in the basket. If I actually see them, I’m not going to want to eat anything but dessert.”
Mandy opened the second box. “Sandwiches and salads,” she said. “Fancy sandwiches and gorgeous salads, I should say.”
Abigail frowned. “I’d be hungrier if it wasn’t so hot out here.”
“Give me a minute,” Scott said. “I can’t make it cooler, but I can make it shadier.”
Abigail nibbled her way through a few raw carrot sticks and some raw broccoli while Scott opened several large umbrellas around them. When he was finished, the entire picnic table and the area around it were nicely shaded.
“That feels better already,” Mark said.
Abigail nodded. “I’m still not going to be able to try everything that looks good, though.”
After everyone had enjoyed some of the fruit and vegetable platters, Mandy and Scott unpacked the second basket.
“Potato salad, macaroni salad, and coleslaw,” Mandy said as she pulled out the containers. “And couscous salad.”
“Turkey sandwiches on herb focaccia with rosemary and thyme aioli,” Scott said as he removed small, wrapped parcels from the box. “Ham sandwiches on pretzel rolls with spicy honey mustard. Or roast beef with horseradish sauce on herbed sourdough.”
