Busted Gulch vol. 16

As Easy As Child's Play (ARCase)

As Easy As Child's Play

It was almost too easy really, to gain entry, into that maid's room, thought Sallie.

All the staff were running around in a tizzy. The rumor mill already alive and well.

A body found in the hotel! Oh, the horror, do tell?

"I heard it was a bloody mess, a knife to the chest", said one man with a top hat.

His wife nearly fainted at that, while nearby another busybody whispered the guest had taken her own life, the widow could no longer deal with all the grief and strife. The woman clutched her chest tight.

"How tragic indeed", Sallie had agreed.

"It was over a man", claimed Mrs. Steed from room 403, "a woman scorned. In the family way too, from what I hear."

Mrs. Crocket's look of sympathy soon turned to a sneer. Already soiling the name of Mary Sue Chastain. That hadn't taken long at all. More rumors were bounced off the walls, in both whispers and raised voices alike, carrying down the halls.

Good, let them talk, let them spit on that witch's name, to Sallie it was all the same. That tramp had gotten what was coming to her, as far as she was concerned. In the course of a morning, Mary Sue's reputation had turned, from a grieving, kind widow, to a loose woman spurned. Most seemed to believe she'd died by her own hand. Few thought she'd been killed in a lover's rage by a man.

Those sheep had been easy enough to convince, but Sallie knew the law in this town wouldn't be so quite on the fence. She had never been naïve enough to believe, the sheriff would so easily conceive, the notion, all neat and tidy, that Mary Sue had taken her own leave of this world. Sallie had prepared for that reality.

A backup plan had she. One the imbeciles in this town were making far too easy. By the way, they congregated and lingered around, making it easy as pie, for her to slip off without a sound. Up to the employee's quarters, she made her way, passing no souls that time of day. The staff was helping keep the guests at bay downstairs, and offering assistance in any way, to help the law get their investigation underway.

Sallie removed two hat pins nestled in her hair and slipped them into the lock on the door. She listened intently, a few clicks were all it took, no more. She kept checking the hall just to be sure, she remained alone. Inside no one was home. She slipped inside quick and quiet like, the room nice and bright, from the curtains drawn open. She knew Ann would be busy this time of day, even if one of the hotel guests hadn't passed away. She would be down in the kitchens, helping to clean up from the evening meal. Sallie knew her schedule well.

She glanced around the small, but tidy room, looking for the perfect spot that would spell Ann's doom. A small box on the vanity, soon caught her eye. Just the right place to tuck that vial inside. Under the few prized possessions, the maid owned. Cheap little trinket's not worth much at all, but the necklace Sallie also added to the box, had been much more, than a maid could ever afford. A pretty gold locket on a chain, inscribed, To my only love Mary Sue Chastain, then signed with the initials E.C.

Sallie figured it to be, a gift from that harlot's dead husband. An anniversary gift perhaps, something very special to Mary Sue, because Sallie had taken it from her room, not long before Mary met her end. After that tramp had spent the night with Jake, Sallie had scouted her room, as that witch took her tea down in the dining hall around noon.

Sallie had entered the room unnoticed like a thief in the night, had a look around, took the necklace and a letter, then crept back out without a sound. Once back in her room, she'd gotten to work, practicing writing in Mary's hand, before Sallie penned a letter and signed it as Mary Sue. She knew she had more work to do.

The next part of her plan had gone without a hitch. She'd purchased a tart, and convinced Ann to hand deliver it to that witch. A token of peace, an invitation for the two ladies to meet, by way of one helpful maid right into Mary Sue's hands. Little mouse too stupid to see, how easily she was led to a trap, how that tart had an extra special ingredient at that. It would come down to Ann's word against Sallie's, and who would believe that maid, after such damming evidence indeed had been laid? Mary Sue's locket, and the poison, in her trinket box, and an angry letter from the dead woman tucked in a drawer with Ann's socks? Sallie had no worries at all, little mouse would hang, and Jake would learn, the consequences of his soon to be wife being spurned.

She smiled and patted her belly, as the child kicked, soon the little dear would be here. Jake would make an honest woman out of her, they'd settle down in a nice little house in town. That brat Josie would be married off within a year or two, out of her hair, so Jake would give all his attention to the baby and Sallie instead. If he had any other notions, in that head of his, Sallie would be sure to stamp them out real quick.

Sallie was getting everything she ever wanted, it had been as easy as child's play, and nothing would stand in her way...