The Corpse Wore Tartan (A Liss MacCrimmon Mystery)

The Corpse Wore Tartan (A Liss MacCrimmon Mystery)

During the annual celebration of Scotland's beloved poet Robert Burns, Liss MacCrimmon, proprietor of Moosetookalook, Maine's only Scottish emporium, is trapped inside The Spruces hotel with the quarrelsome Scottish Heritage Appreciation Society--and a killer. KAITLYN DUNNETT first caught the Scottish heritage bug when her husband learned to play the bagpipes. Many Scottish festivals and parades later, and after a brief stint as bass drummer with a bagpipe band, she decided to combine her love of things Scottish with her love of writing. The Liss MacCrimmon mysteries are the result. Kaitlyn lives in the mountains of western Maine and can be reached through her website at www.kaitlyndunnett.com. THE CORPSE WORE TARTAN By KAITLYN DUNNETT KENSINGTON BOOKS Copyright © 2010 Kathy Lynn Emerson All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-7582-3879-5 Chapter One "Sure are a lot of kilts in town," Sadie LeBlanc said to her two companions. Her housekeeping cart rolled silently ahead of her along the second-floor hallway of The Spruces. Six months earlier, the stately, historic hotel in rural Moosetookalook, Maine, had reopened its newly renovated doors to the public, providing employment for a good many of the tiny village's residents. "Long as they got money to spend in them sporran things, I don't care how silly their clothes are." Rhonda Snipes pushed her own well-maintained cart over thick carpeting that still had a trace of new-rug smell to it. She was short and squat, with no bosom to speak of. "Sporran? You mean that leather pouch that looks like a purse?" Sadie sniggered. In contrast to Rhonda, Sadie was a beanpole, one of those painfully thin women who always look as if they'd blow away in a good wind. "It is a purse," Rhonda said. "Though why they'd want the thing banging against them at crotch level is beyond me." Like Sadie, Rhonda had been hired to clean guest rooms and, on special occasions, to help out the small waitstaff. Neither job paid all that well, but sometimes there were tips. She rubbed the back of her neck as she headed for the service elevator. It was the end of the shift, but all three of them would be back in only a couple of hours to help serve drinks and canaps at the cocktail party that preceded the Burns Night Supper. "Disgraceful, I call it." Dilys Marcotte's voice was rife with disapproval. "I hear some of them don't wear a blessed thing under their kilts. Take a peek and you'd see bare skin all the way up." "Who told you such foolishness?" Sadie demanded. "Stands to reason it's too cold in January not to wear something underneath." Two bright flags of color stained Dilys's plump cheeks. "Never you mind. I know what I know." She appeared to be a little older than the other two and was of middling stature. The elevator doors slid open with a quiet whoosh and the three women hauled their housekeeping carts inside for the ride down to the basement. The carts would be stored there overnight and restocked with towels and other supplies in the morning. Liss MacCrimmon, a tall, slender brunette in her late twenties, waited another minute to be certain the coast was clear before she stepped out from behind a potted palm. Her face wore a broad grin. She'd had to struggle not to laugh out loud during the conversation she'd just overheard. Eavesdropping on members of the housekeeping staff had been accidental, but once she'd realized what they were talking about, she hadn't wanted to embarrass them by revealing her presence. After all, she was the one who'd asked the three local women to put in overtime that evening. Dilys had it wrong, of course. Would she be disappointed, Liss wondered, to know that most men preserved their modesty by wearing cutoffs or swim trunks under their kilts? The more daring made do with regular underwear. That modern Scotsmen wore nothing at all under their kilts was just another of those ridiculous things that "everyone knew" was true. In other words-nonsense. Liss was confident she was right. Even though she'd only visited Scotland once, as a teenager with her parents, she was very familiar with the Scottish-American community. She'd grown up competing in Scottish dance competitions at Scottish Festivals and Highland Games. Then she'd performed for nearly eight years with a Scottish dance troupe, until her knee gave out and ended that career. Now she was half owner and sole employee of Moosetookalook Scottish Emporium, a small shop in the village that sold Scottish imports and other items with a Scottish theme. She was in the process of buying out her aunt, Margaret MacCrimmon Boyd, just as Aunt Margaret had bought out Liss's father when he retired and went to live in Arizona. These days, the Emporium relied heavily on online and mail-order sales to stay in the black, but the brick-and-mortar store was in no danger of closing. Furthermore, Liss's aunt would continue to be her landlady even after she sold Liss her share of th