A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed and followed this story. I am so excited to be over 100 reviews. I have tried to thank each and everyone of you individually but to all the guests and those who have PM disabled just know that I read all your reviews and love all of you.
So back to Aspen and a murder mystery...
I wish I owned these awesome characters...
Penny and Bernadette made their way back to their hotel rooms. The guys were in Penny and Leonard's room watching television.
"Hey how were your spa treatments?" Leonard asked when the girls entered the room.
"Extremely relaxing." Bernadette answered. "I haven't had a good massage in years."
"Hey I give you massages all the time." Howard protested.
"I said a good massage." She replied.
"Oh." He said.
"You will never guess what we overheard." Bernadette said changing the subject.
"I'm guessing it had something to do with the murder. Am I right?" Leonard asked.
"Yes and we wanted your opinion as to who we should tell." Penny said.
"Okay so what did you hear?" Howard asked.
"Well apparently this Adam guy was the boss of the company and Dawn was up for a promotion along with this other woman, Martha. The women we overheard said that Martha was sleeping with Adam and she was going to get the promotion. They think that Dawn invited Adam to her room to seduce him. And they think he knew this and was planning on sleeping with her." Bernadette said.
"Well only one of them believed that. The other women tended to believe Dawn invited him to kill him because he knew he was sleeping with this Martha." Penny added.
"Wow it sounds like a real soap opera." Leonard said.
"But what makes no sense to me," Howard said. "is why invite a man to your room to kill him. Why not go to his room?"
"Well that's just it." Bernadette started to answer. "He was staying with Martha. And these women think Dawn knew."
"Oh man this just looks really bad for Dawn." Leonard said.
"Yeah we know. They seemed like such nice ladies." Penny said.
"So who do you think we should tell?" Bernadette asked.
"I think we should talk to Detective Alvarez." Howard said. "Remember we don't want to get too involved in this case."
"Well we could mention the conversation to Carole and Jane." Penny said.
"They may already know. I agree with Howard on this on, I think we should see Detective Alvarez." Leonard said.
"Okay, where is his card?" Bernadette asked.
Howard handed her the card they were given and she made the call. He said he would be up to their room in 15 minutes. When he arrived the girls told him what they had overheard at the spa.
"Well then, I guess we now have our motive." Detective Alvarez said. "It looks like this is a case of jealousy."
"So does this mean the case is over and you will arrest Dawn?" Bernadette asked.
"It appears I have no choice. We have kept her in a separate room while the investigation continued but now I think we have enough evidence to make an arrest." He answered.
"Well I guess I can say I'm glad we could help." Bernadette said.
"Yes thank you. I am sure with what you overheard plus all the other evidence we can make quite a case against Dawn." He said to them. "Again thank you. I am going to go down and make a call to my supervisor."
"Well goodbye then. I can't say I feel great about this." Leonard said. "But at least the case is solved."
Detective Alvarez left the room and the couples looked at each other.
"Does anyone feel bad that we are sending a woman to prison for murder?" Penny asked.
"The evidence was all there. She had to have killed him." Howard said. "I think we helped justice be served."
"I guess. But I still feel a little bit guilty about not going to Carole and Jane with what we heard." Bernadette said.
"We did the right thing." Leonard said.
"I agree." Howard said.
"Well it's too late now anyway. What's done is done." Penny said.
"Yeah. So what time are we eating?" Bernadette asked.
"Well the dinner hours are from 5-9 tonight. We have a 7pm reservation." Howard answered.
"That is perfect. That gives us about an hour to get ready." Penny said.
Howard and Bernadette left the room and headed back to their room. Howard got into the shower first. Bernadette kept thinking about the murder that occurred. Something just didn't seem to fit. Why would Dawn ask her boss to come to her room just so she could kill him? It seemed to easy an answer. She just couldn't figure out the last piece to this puzzle. Howard came out 20 minutes later and Bernadette went into get ready. While she was in the shower it came to her. Dawn said she came out of the shower and someone was knocking on her door. She opened it to find a man bringing champagne. Carole had said Dawn told her she didn't order it and figured Adam had. She never saw Adam until the waiter pointed him out. She got out of the shower and rushed out.
"Howard I figured it out. Dawn did not murder Adam." She said to him.
"Bernie, yes she did. She was jealous that the other woman was getting the promotion over her. She killed him end of story."
"No Howard, listen to me. It came to me when I was in the shower that Carole said Dawn was in the shower when Adam came in to her room. She said when she got out there was someone knocking on her door. If she gave Adam a key why would he knock?"
"I'm listening. What else you got?"
"So here is my theory. Adam went to Dawn's room for a little rendezvous. He couldn't have her in his room because the women were right, he was staying with Martha. The women said he was that type of guy. Maybe he was stringing them both along. So this Martha sees Dawn give Adam her key and then slips a steak knife in her purse."
"Okay so you are now thinking Martha killed Adam?" Howard asked.
"Yes." She said. "She was upset at Adam thinking that maybe he was fooling around with both of them. She goes up to their room and hears him ordering the champagne and what room to which it was being sent. Then after he leaves the room she follows him. A few minutes later she knocks on Dawn's door. Adam thinks it is the champagne and opens it to find a very angry Martha. She accuses him of cheating on her and stabs him with the steak knife and then takes off before anyone sees her in the room."
"That sounds logical. Maybe we should go down and talk to Alvarez with this theory." Howard said.
"Let me call Penny." Bernadette said.
Bernadette called Penny and told her the new theory. Penny thinks it is logical and the couples make their way downstairs to the lobby. They see that Dawn is just about to be charged and rush in with their new theory.
"Wait!" Bernadette screams.
"What is it?" Alvarez asks.
"I don't think this woman murdered her boss." Bernadette answered him.
"But just an hour ago you called me and told me what you overheard these ladies here." He said pointing to the three ladies. He had spoken to them shortly after speaking with Bernadette and Penny. "were saying about Dawn, Martha and Adam."
"I did overhear their conversation but when I was getting ready for dinner, I remembered the conversation I had with Carole and Jane this morning. Dawn had just gotten out of the shower when she heard the knocking at the door. She had given Adam a key."
"So why would he knock?" Carole was beginning to pick up on what she was saying.
"When Dawn opened the door, the waiter was there with the champagne that Adam had ordered." Bernadette said again. "He is the one that discovered the body on her bed."
"Yes and they were the only ones with keys." The detective said.
"But who ordered the champagne?" Bernadette asked.
"Well that is easy to find out." Alvarez said. "Take a look at the restaurant records and see who ordered a bottle of champagne for that room last night." He said to the clerk at the front desk.
It took about 5 minutes to find out that Adam had placed the order from his room and had it delivered to Dawn's.
"Okay so if he ordered the champagne, he would have thought when there was a knock on Dawn's door that it was his order, correct?" Bernadette asked.
"Yes and he would have answered it without a thought." Carole added.
"So what if it wasn't the champagne but the real killer?" Bernadette asked.
"Okay, I understand where you are going with this but who here has a motive to want to kill him?"
"Martha." Both Carole and Bernadette answered at the same time.
"Me?" Martha screamed from across the room. The whole company had come down to the lobby to see what was going on with Dawn and this whole murder investigation. "Adam was my lover. He told me he was going to tell Dawn she wasn't getting the promotion."
"Or was he?" Bernadette asked. "I overheard these three ladies talking today and they basically said that Adam got around a lot."
"That is not true." She said. "He told me he loved me."
"Be that as it may, I think you saw Dawn give Adam the key and got jealous. I think you overheard him order the champagne while in your room and decided to follow him." Bernadette said. "When he opened the door of Dawn's room I think you were so jealous you stabbed him with the steak knife."
Martha was infuriated. She went into her purse and pulled out a gun.
"Oh my God!" Penny yelled.
"I have had enough of this. I thought I got away with the perfect murder. But no you and your little friend here had to go and ruin it." She said pointing the gun at Bernadette.
"Now let's not get too hasty here." Bernadette said.
Alvarez made his way behind Martha and grabbed her arm. The gun was pointed up but went off and hit the ceiling. Everyone yelled.
"Martha Johnson, I charge you with the murder of Adam Nesbitt."
"I don't think that will be necessary." A voice from behind the counter called out. "It seems I have recovered from my death."
Everyone turned to look at a very alive Adam Nesbitt.
"You're alive!" Dawn screamed.
"Yes. The hotel called the office about two weeks ago and asked if anyone would like to volunteer to be part of the mystery for this weekend. Martha and I were the only ones in the office and thought it would be quite fun."
"So this whole thing was just part of the game?" Dawn asked.
"Yes and we have you to thank for it. This was a perfect way to spend a weekend." Adam said.
"Wait a minute." Penny said. "So all this time, you have been alive and we have just been a part of one big game?" She asked.
"It seems that way." Adam answered her.
"Wow." She said. "That is messed up."
"I think it is kind of cool." Leonard said. "We didn't even know we were part of the game."
"So is there a prize for the winner?" Bernadette asked. "I mean after all I did figure out the whole thing."
"Actually there is." The clerk at the front desk said.
"Oh yeah, what did I win?" She asked.
"You get dinner tonight for free." He answered her. "Everything included."
"But we already have that. It was part of the package Penny got from work." Bernadette said.
"Actually I was wrong about that." Penny said. "The meals were the only thing not included in my bonus. I told Howard the other day."
"Oh well that changes everything then. Thank you." Bernadette said to him.
"And thank you." Dawn said to her.
"For what?" Bernadette asked her.
"For believing my friends when they told you I didn't commit this murder."
"I actually did think you did it for a while." She admitted.
"That's okay in the end you knew I didn't." Dawn said to her.
"So shall we go and eat." Howard suggested.
The couples made their way into the dining hall to enjoy a Valentine's Day feast. They picked the most expensive things on the menu and ordered more than one bottle of wine. They had an amazing night.
At the end of dinner the couples made their way back to the rooms.
"It looks like the snow has finally let up." Penny said as she peeked out the window. "Maybe we can finally hit the slopes tomorrow."
"I hope so." Bernadette said. "Although I have to admit, I had a pretty good time today."
"Me too." Penny said.
The couples split up when they got to their rooms. They said goodnight to each other and went into the rooms to have their own private Valentine's Day celebration.
Many of you were trying to decide if it was a real murder or not. I did use The Golden Girls as my inspiration for this part of the story and it did end just like this. For obvious reasons I did not use their names because they were in Miami and we are in Colorado.
I hope you enjoyed this part of the story and we will be back to Shamy and Rajily's Valentine's in chapter 11. I may come back here for a bit of skiing but I really want to get to the other storyline. I still have a jealous story to write in this one. And maybe some Shamy fun times.
Remember reviews help me write this faster. Thanks ahead of time.