A Vicious Cycle

by Eliza Brookes

  “Christopher said you wanted to talk to me?” Allegra asked cautiously, sitting down across from the older woman.

  “Yes, I think you need to know a little bit about our family before you start this investigation.”

  “That would be helpful,” Allegra agreed. She didn’t say that she preferred to find things out on her own because people tended to lie and withhold information. That particular gem never made her any friends, so she settled in to hear what the woman had to say.

  “Where do I begin?” Sarah mused. “My grandfather moved the whole family here after the Great War.”

  “You mean World War I?” Allegra asked, looking slightly surprised.

  “Yes, before that my family lived in England. Lovely country. In any case, we have factories all over the world and my grandfather fell in love with the English countryside. After that, we’ve lived here. My poor father didn’t have any sons and I was the only one who could inherit the estate.”

  “Did you take over his businesses?” Allegra asked.

  “Oh, heavens no, I let my husband do that and afterwards Christopher took over. I’ve been in charge of taking care of the family ever since my dear mother passed away when I was young.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Allegra said sincerely. “It couldn’t have been easy.”

  “Losing my mother wasn’t easy,” Sarah agreed, “but I always enjoyed taking care of my family. It’s so important, don’t you think? Family is the most important thing in the world. I like to think I’ve done a good job. Our reputation is spotless.”

  “That’s true,” Allegra said with a small smile, “everyone knows that you are good people. And a close family.”

  “What do you believe is the most important thing in the world, Allegra?”

  “Wow,” Allegra said with a nervous chuckle, “just one thing, huh?” Sarah nodded expectantly, and her smile faded. “I suppose you want me to say family.”

  “It’s what I believe,” Sarah said seriously, “but I don’t think you’re going to.” Allegra shook her head, much to Sarah’s chagrin. “Alright then, what is it?”

  “Truth,” Allegra told her, looking her straight in the eyes. “I believe that the truth is the most important thing in the world.”

  “That’s fair,” Sarah shrugged, sitting back in her chair.

  “Excuse me?” Crane asked, stepping into the room.

  “Crane?” Allegra said in surprise, “I didn’t know you were still here.”

  “We had to wait for forensics to get the… uh…”

  “Body,” Sarah supplied looking stern.

  “Yeah,” he coughed uncomfortably.

  “Well?” Sarah asked, “Do you have everything you need?”

  “Not quite,” Crane said, scratching the back of his head nervously.

  “What is it, man?” Sarah asked in annoyance.

  “The thing is that we found another one.”

  “Another what?”

  “We found another body.”

  Chapter Four

  “Hold on,” Allegra said in astonishment, “two people were buried on the property?”

  “Yes,” Crane said impatiently, “we found two people in that grave.”

  “How is that possible?” Allegra asked him, “Was someone else missing too?”

  “That’s the thing,” he said, focusing on Sarah despite the fact that Allegra asked the question, “the second body was in there for much longer. We don’t believe that the two were killed at the same time. The pathologist says that the second body is also female, but that she was buried more than twenty years ago, at least.”

  “That makes no sense,” Allegra huffed.

  Crane shook his head at her and she followed his gaze to where Sarah was sitting. To her surprise, the older woman had paled significantly, and her hands were trembling. Sarah must have noticed the sudden silence because she looked up and caught them staring at her intently.

  “Is there something you’d like to ask me?” she addressed Crane. He raised his hands in surrender and looked toward Allegra, once again signaling that he did not want to get involved with the case.

  “Yes,” Allegra answered, shooting Crane a glare. “Do you know who the second person might be?”

  “I think you’ll find that she’s my sister, Ruby.”

  “You have a sister?” Crane asked in shock, his eyes bulging out of the sockets. Allegra cleared her throat and he apologized for his interruption, but he didn’t look very contrite. In fact, he looked as though he regretted not bringing popcorn with him. She briefly considered lodging a complaint with his supervisor. There had to be someone who could put him in his place.

  “I had a sister,” Sarah snapped, “weren’t you listening?”

  Allegra wanted to applaud the older woman. When Crane hurriedly excused himself, she realized that she didn’t need to speak to his supervisor. This woman would be enough to put him in his rightful place.

  “I think it’s time you gave me a more detailed family history,” Allegra suggested carefully, unsure how Sarah would react.

  “Yes,” Sarah sighed, ringing a little hand bell that was sitting next to her on the little corner table. “I suppose it is.”

  The door opened as a timid young woman walked in. She wore a neat uniform and cap over her head. It was obvious from her submissive demeanor that she was a maid or servant. The estate seemed like the type of place that had a bunch of servants scurrying about.

  “Would you like some tea, Mrs. Kinsleigh?”

  The woman spoke so softly that Allegra had to strain to hear what she was saying. The servant unsettled her. Mostly because she was morally opposed to the idea of servants, and quiet people unnerved her. You forget that they’re there, and then you end up saying something that they will hear and judge. Quiet people had the most ruthless judgements.

  “No,” Sarah sighed, “bring me the drinks cart.”

  “The drinks cart?” the servant echoed incredulously, the judgement clear in her tone. Allegra didn’t realize she had nodded until Sarah gave her an odd look. She stopped nodding immediately.

  “Did I stutter?” Sarah quipped. The poor girl squeaked and scurried away.

  “It’s so hard to find good servants these days,” Sarah sighed. “you can’t do anything without being threatened by a union or being dragged to court over something you did or said.” Allegra nodded knowledgably, as if being taken to court by your servants was a common occurrence.

  A few seconds later, the quiet and judgmental servant pulled in an impressive drinks cart that looked more like a fully stocked bar than anything else. Sarah quickly assembled a clear drink and then waved the girl away, not offering anything to Allegra in the process. This action signified what Sarah thought of her. Allegra was not a guest in the large and stately home. She would not be treated like an equal. Allegra would be treated as an employee, and if there was one thing that Sarah was good at, it was reminding her employees where they stood.

  “Who was Ruby? And why didn’t you mention her before?” Allegra asked bluntly as Sarah sipped on her gin and tonic.

  “Could you just give me a moment?” Sarah snapped, “I just found out my sister died.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss, but considering no one knew she existed until this point, I don’t believe that it was that much of a shock.”

  “You’re not one for mincing words, are you?” Sarah said sullenly, leaning back in her chair.

  “That’s not what you’re paying me for,” Allegra said pleasantly.

  “No one knew she existed, because I always thought she ran away. We all did.”

  “Why would she run away from all this?” Allegra asked, gesturing around her.

  “Being an Allerton is not easy,” Sarah admitted, swirling her drink around in the glass as she stared at a particular spot on the carpet in front of them. Her eyes were glassy, as if she was remembering something from the past.

  “It doesn’t look like it,” Allegra agreed, “with a
ll these bodies turning up, it must be a nightmare.”

  “I’d appreciate a little sympathy,” Sarah snapped. “I’m so tired of everyone being so prejudiced. Poor people are so bitter. Yes, we have money, but that means that we have certain obligations too. Some people just can’t handle it.”

  “You mean like Ruby?” she asked, not wanting to let Sarah change the subject.

  “My dear girl, please keep up,” Sarah spat poisonously.

  “Alright, I’ve had enough of this,” Allegra decided. She stood up and made her way to the door. This house and its occupants held more secrets than she originally thought. Trying to find the truth was going to be like trying to break open a cactus without gloves. Prickly, unnecessarily difficult and incredibly pointless.

  “Sit down,” Sarah sighed, “I’ll tell you what you need to know.”

  “Is that a promise?” Allegra asked sarcastically. “No offense, lady, but I don’t need to deal with this. I’m not desperate for your money. In fact, it feels like I’m doing you a favor.”

  “I know,” Sarah said meekly, surprising Allegra, “please understand that this is a difficult time. I’ve lost my granddaughter and sister. All in one day.”

  With one sentence, all Allegra’s righteous indignation was swept away. It was easy to get riled up when you thought you were the one being hurt. The Kinsleigh family might be strange and more than a little cryptic, but they were going through incredible loss. She sat down, unfolding her arms and feeling like she had just overreacted.

  “I’m sorry,” she muttered, feeling ashamed.

  “I suppose that I better start from the beginning,” Sarah said thoughtfully, ignoring Allegra’s muttered apology. “As I told you before, my grandfather came to this country with his wife and two children.”

  “Hold on,” Allegra said in confusion, “what does this have to do with Ruby?”

  “If you’d let me finish,” Sarah snapped, glaring at Allegra who shrank back, “you’ll understand that everything starts there.”

  “I’m sorry,” Allegra said again.

  Sarah was the type of person who could make you apologize when she bumped into your car. There was just something about the woman that made you feel ashamed about your existence.

  “My grandfather relocated everyone because my aunt Margaret, ran away with a soldier she met during the war. The story goes that she met him while working as a nurse. My grandfather couldn’t handle the shame, so he thought that it would be better if everyone got a new start in America.”

  “That seems like a bit of an overreaction,” Allegra pointed out thoughtfully.

  “Not at all,” Sarah sniffed in offense, “he did the right thing. He had to think about the family’s reputation. He still had to get my mother married, and who would marry her when her own sister ran off with some lowlife? Things work differently in our circles, my dear.”

  “Of course,” Allegra said, trying to hide her disapproval, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “My uncle was always sickly and didn’t survive the relocation. He died soon afterwards, and my mother inherited everything after my grandfather died. She married a nice, respectable man. She knew how important our reputation is. My sister and I were very happy with our lives. She wanted to become a lawyer and I took an interest in the family business. Even though she was older, my parents agreed to let me take over the business with my husband one day and let her go to law school. We had such big plans.”

  Sarah stopped talking as her voice became thick with emotion. Once again. Allegra felt all the negative emotions aimed at the woman disappear. It was a strange phenomenon. One second, she was annoyed by the imperious woman, and the next she felt guilty about her annoyance. Although she had only known Sarah for one day, she felt acutely aware of how the rest of the family might have been affected by living under Sarah’s rule.

  “The two of you were close?” Allegra asked, trying to think of a way to comfort the woman without being too obvious. Sarah was not the type of person who would take to being comforted by a stranger.

  “Incredibly,” Sarah sighed, looking away to blink away the tears that were forming in her eyes. “I don’t know who I would have been if I didn’t have Ruby as a sister. She was my hero. I always tried to imitate her.”

  “What happened?” Allegra asked gently.

  “Like I said, we were a happy family, but some people can’t handle the pressure of being a part of this life. Ruby felt suffocated by it all. She fell in with a bad crowd from school. I was so young at the time. I had just finished high school and was looking forward to going to the university with her. I was accepted into the same school and we were going to rent an apartment together. Ruby finished a year before me and decided to wait so we could go together. She was such a good sister.”

  “Sounds like it,” Allegra agreed with a soft smile. “She must have thought the world of you. How lovely to have a sister like that. Someone who wanted to share their life with you.”

  “It was. Although, I do think that she was afraid. As I got older, I realized that Ruby was not the hero I always thought she was. Ruby was a very soft person, she was such a sweet girl. During her year waiting for me, she made some bad friends. There was this one boy, he was always sniffing around. Of course, no sister of mine would even think about going off with some mechanic.”

  “Someone was interested in her?” Allegra asked quickly, making a mental note of possible suspects.

  There was a strange connection between the murders that made her uneasy. It seemed like too much of a coincidence that two girls who were roughly the same age and belonged to the same family were murdered and buried in the same spot on the massive estate.

  “Yes, Ruby and I were very attractive young women, you know.”

  “I don’t doubt that,” Allegra smiled sweetly.

  “Ruby said no, but the brute couldn’t understand that. We can’t mix with common folk like that, but he couldn’t get it through his thick skull.”

  “When was the last time you saw your sister, Sarah?” Allegra asked gently, trying to keep the conversation on track.

  “The night before we were supposed to leave for school. We were so excited, we stayed up talking until midnight. The last thing I remember was a lot of screaming, there was a fire in her room. We tried to put it out but there was so much smoke. I remember being terrified that Ruby was trapped in the fire, but by the time they put it out, there was no sign of her.”

  “There was a fire?” Allegra gasped.

  “I was in my room, across the hall,” Sarah sniffed mournfully, “I burnt my hand trying to save her.”

  Sarah rolled up her sleeve to show a vicious scar that marred her forearm. Allegra winced in sympathy, she never had any siblings, so she could not imagine a love so strong you’d be willing to burn for it.

  “Did you think this man set the fire?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Sarah sneered.

  “What did your family do when they found out that Ruby was missing?”

  “We hired private investigators, organized search parties, everything. She never turned up. They even arrested that man, but they never found her body, so they had to let him go.”

  “What happened after that?”

  “The pain was too much for us. It killed my mother, and my father was never the same. I knew that something bad must have happened to her because our Ruby would never leave me. She loved me too much. I tried to forget, this is the first time in years that I’ve spoken about her. My dear, sometimes it is easier to pretend someone never existed so that you can escape the pain for a little while. It is my greatest regret, you know.”

  “Not talking about Ruby?”

  “No, trying to forget about her.”

  Chapter Five

  “So, let me get this straight,” Greta grumbled as Allegra sifted through the contents of the box in front of her. “She never told you about this big family mystery until they found the sister’s body?”
<
br />   “That’s what happened,” Allegra hummed, struggling to see in the dim light of the attic.

  “I hate to say this, but that’s very shady,” Ashlee piped up from the other side of the screen.

  Allegra smiled softly to herself. Less than a year ago, she and Ashlee had been bitter enemies. They grew up disliking each other intensely. When Allegra rolled into town and disrupted the flow of things by investigating her great-aunt’s murder, Ashlee had started a petition to get her arrested for disturbing the peace. It wasn’t until they worked together on a case that the ice started melting. They weren’t best friends, but they didn’t feel the strong urge to start a brawl whenever they had to spend time together. Ashlee was also useful working on a murder case. She was blunt, thought outside the box, and tended to be a little more diplomatic than Allegra.

  “What do you guys know about this mystery?” Allegra asked them.

  “They did a good job of covering that one up,” Ashlee admitted begrudgingly, “I’ve never heard of it.”

  “Wow,” Greta commented, “if Ashlee didn’t hear it, did it really happen?”

  “That’s one of life’s big philosophical questions,” Allegra mused out loud.

  “Hey,” Ashlee snapped at the pair of them, “I am not ashamed of my nosiness. It has come in very handy. Where would the pair of you be without my gossiping tongue?”

  “On a beach somewhere nice, sipping mimosas,” Greta said wistfully.

  Allegra shook her head at the two of them but smiled in amusement when she heard Ashlee smack Greta’s arm playfully.

  “In all seriousness, this is something I should have heard about. I am going to talk to my granny and see if she remembers Ruby Kinsleigh.”

  “Hold on, she was Ruby Allerton. Sarah’s husband’s surname was Kinsleigh. The company is still called Allerton Incorporated,” Allegra reminded her, struggling to cover a sneeze.

  “Wait, didn’t Sarah’s mother inherit the company? Why is it called Allerton Incorporated if that wasn’t their original surname?”

  “It turns out that the granddaddy who started all of this was too ashamed to use his surname. He named the company after his partner. Sarah’s mother married his partner’s son. This joined the two partners and unified the company under one owner.”