A Forgotten Murder

by Jude Deveraux

  Outside, it was quite cool, and their Florida-adapted bodies shivered.

  “Wool,” Kate said. “My new favorite word.”

  Sara was looking around. “She was here a minute ago.”

  Jack motioned for them to follow him as he led the way to a nearby clump of trees. With the sun not up yet, they could see very little. But Jack knew what he was looking for. He stopped at a big tree, reached up into the branches, and a hand magically appeared. Then a foot. Jack lifted his arms and swung Puck down with his hands on her waist.

  Once on the ground, she looked up at him with adoring eyes.

  “Really?” Kate’s voice sounded like a hiss.

  Sara was smiling. “Where to?”

  Puck didn’t speak but set out at a quick pace across dew-covered grass, always staying out of sight of the house. If someone looked out a window, they wouldn’t be seen.

  She led them to the back of an old stone building. There was a big wooden storage bin along the wall. When Jack lifted the bin lid, he couldn’t see what was inside.

  Kate turned her phone light onto the contents: tools, half-empty bags of fertilizer, ground stakes.

  Puck reached inside, moved a few things and lifted a piece of chain.

  Jack pulled it the rest of the way out. It was a chain ladder, what people in upper floor bedrooms used in case of fire.

  Puck looked at Jack, letting him know that they’d need that. He slung it over his shoulder.

  For a few minutes she disappeared into the building and returned with a new nylon rope, the kind used in rock climbing.

  Jack glanced at Kate and Sara. Their eyes were wide, but they said nothing.

  They followed Puck across the estate, staying close to the trees. If the place hadn’t been cleared of workers, they would have been seen, but it was eerily silent.

  They reached the fenced-off area with its signs warning of danger and forbidden entry. Conservation Zone, a big placard read. If the place had been full of ravenous wolves it couldn’t have been marked more clearly.

  There was a locked gate, but Puck walked past it.

  “Jack could open that for us,” Kate said. “He has a criminal history and can break into any lock.”

  Jack started to defend himself, but Puck gave her funny little laugh.

  Kate and Sara turned at the sound.

  Sara was the first to break into a grin. She could always be counted on to say what was on her mind. “I think I like you.”

  Puck blinked at the bluntness, but then smiled. She led them a few feet away to a place with a fence post at an angle. She climbed over it easily. Jack went next, then lifted Sara down. He offered to help Kate, but she got over by herself. They followed Puck as she led them on a wavering path through ferns and grasses.

  It was growing lighter, with the sun beginning to peep through the trees. As they went deep into the conservation area, they saw no signs of people. It was very quiet. Isolated.

  Abruptly, Puck halted and they stopped behind her. She turned to them. “I have something to show you,” she said. “It’s... It’s...”

  “It’s what?” Sara asked.

  Puck hesitated.

  “Whatever it is,” Jack said, “we’ve seen worse.”

  “I don’t think so,” Puck said.

  They looked at her, waiting.

  “It’s a body,” Puck said softly.

  The three of them didn’t flinch.

  “Does this have to do with what happened the night of the disappearance?” Sara asked.

  “Yes,” Puck said. “You’re sure you want to see this?”

  They nodded.

  “Maybe Diana and the groomsman didn’t run away together,” Kate said.

  “I know he didn’t.” Puck paused. “He couldn’t.”

  “Ah,” Sara said, and the others nodded. They had an idea whose body it was.

  Puck waved for them to go stand by a tree. They did, but when she started to drag branches across the ground, Jack dropped the ladder and hurried to help her.

  “No!” Puck cried, but not in time.

  Jack had stepped where there was nothing. His left leg disappeared to his knee. To balance, he threw himself backward, and landed on the ground on his back.

  Kate and Sara had seen him nearly fall, and they leaped to help.

  Puck was across from them, startled at the sight. Jack sat up as Kate and Sara stood over him as though in protection.

  “I’m okay,” he said. “That’s one serious hole. How deep is it?”

  Sara got her camera, attached a flash, then stretched out on the ground on her stomach and took some shots. When she got up, they gathered around to look at the screen. They saw the hole, wide and deep, stone on one side, dirt on the other.

  “It’s medieval, for sure,” Sara said. “Storage for something. My guess is it was for kegs of happy juice. Nothing like cold beer on a hot day.” She looked at Puck. “So where is he?”

  Puck nodded, liking the term “he” and not “it.” She pointed on the screen to where the shelf she’d found could barely be seen. It appeared to be a pile of rocks.

  Jack picked up the ladder and the rope. “I’m going down.”

  “Me too,” Kate said.

  “Like hell you are,” Jack snapped.

  “I’m the cameraperson,” Sara said, “and I’m the lightest. I’ll go.”

  No one dared say that she was also the oldest. Pointing out that Sara was a grandmother’s age would earn them her razor-sharp tongue.

  Kate spoke. “Jack can use a camera, and he knows all about the apps.”

  “Aperture,” he corrected, frowning. Kate was revealing something he’d confided in her.

  “I’ve always known.” Sara looked at Jack. “We’re wasting time. Tie that ladder to a tree, then go down there and shoot what you see.”

  As he made the knots, Sara instructed him about photography. “You can probably do point and shoot, but check the screen. If the photo is dark, you’re going to need to open it up as wide as it’ll go. That’s a one point eight lens so use it. And turn the ex comp. I’ll adjust the ISO. Try the flash but it may wash the photo out. If it does—”

  “Bounce the light off the wall,” Jack said. “I got it.” He was pulling on the rope to check its security.

  “And do a few slow shutters so you get all the details,” she said. “Damn! I wish I had my mini tripod. Set the camera on the ground and—”

  Jack kissed her forehead. “I’ll be fine. Stop worrying.” She handed him the tiny flashlight she always carried in her case.

  When the ladder was in place, Jack put the camera around his neck, then started down. With just his head showing, he looked at the three women. “Edmund Hillary didn’t have such a good send-off.”

  The women didn’t smile as he disappeared below the ground level.

  There was enough light from the top to see where he was. It was like an underground tower with a missing roof. He went down a few feet and there was the ledge that Puck had pointed out.

  His builder’s eye saw that the cutout wasn’t natural. It hadn’t been caused by fallen dirt but had purposefully been dug out. For what? If the place had been used to hold kegs of beer maybe workmen hid there while they drank. Whatever its original purpose, if someone looked down from the top, they’d see nothing, not even if people were there.

  As Jack swung his leg over, he hung on to the ladder until he got his balance. He glanced up to see three worried faces staring down at him. From their position, they had to be stretched out on their stomachs.

  When he was on the ledge, he didn’t look to the back into the deep darkness, but kept his eyes on the front. The rocks looked to have been piled up recently. At least long after the place was built. Did someone try to hide what had been put on the shelf?

  He took his
time as he removed the camera from around his neck and set it down—but he didn’t look back. He had an idea what he was going to see, and he wanted to be ready for it. No matter that he’d bragged that he’d seen it “all,” bodies upset him. No, he thought, murder infuriates me.

  To his left, he saw a pair of small shoes and guessed they were Puck’s. He thought of how they got there. She hadn’t said, but it was his guess that she’d fallen into the place, then thrown her shoes toward the top.

  He turned on Sara’s flashlight and looked at the bottom of the pit. Ferns, moss, rotten vines. Puck was light but if she had fallen, it was a wonder she didn’t break her bones.

  One by one, he picked up her shoes and tossed them up to the top.

  “Thank you,” she said down to him.

  There was so much relief in her voice that he realized how afraid she must have been. And rightfully so. If someone had come to check on the body, they’d know Puck had been there.

  With the shoes gone, Jack knew he must look at “him.”

  With the flashlight on high, he slowly turned to face the back of the ledge. He thought he was prepared, but he wasn’t. A skeleton. A human being who’d been left there to rot. Uncared for. Unmourned.

  “Are you okay?” Sara called down to him.

  Jack sniffed and swallowed. Cleared his throat. How his father would laugh at him for his sentimentality! “Yeah, fine,” he called up. “I just need to take photos.”

  “Of every inch,” Sara reminded him.

  “I will. I’ll—” He broke off because he heard the ladder against the wall. “What the hell?” he muttered, then leaned out to look up. Kate was coming down. “You can’t—” he began, but then reached out to get her, and pull her onto the ledge beside him. They were cramped close together. “You shouldn’t be here. You—”

  “Neither should you.” She took the flashlight from him and turned toward the length of the skeleton. “He’s—” Her voice broke.

  Jack put his arms around her, and she hid her face in his shoulder.

  “That poor man,” she said.

  “Right,” Jack whispered. He wanted to bawl her out for being there, but it felt so good to hold someone who was alive that he said nothing.

  Kate pulled away. “Okay, that’s it. Let’s get to work before someone comes looking for us. Do you actually know how to take pictures with a real camera?”

  Her sassiness almost made him smile. “Yeah. I know.”

  For the next twenty minutes they were quiet as they both took pictures, Kate with her cell phone and Jack with Sara’s mirrorless camera. Between the two of them, they recorded every inch of the skeleton and the surroundings.

  They tried to touch as little of the area as possible as the bones were loose and could be disturbed. All that held them together had rotted away.

  “Wonder how Puck knows who it is?” Kate whispered.

  Jack, camera to his face, shrugged. “No idea, but I plan to get every detail from her.” He halted. “I mean...” He didn’t need to finish his sentence. If they stayed.

  Minutes later, he held Kate about the waist as she leaned out to shoot the interior of the cavernous structure.

  “The sun’s coming up,” Sara called down to them. “We should go.”

  When Jack lowered the camera, Kate said, “Why is no one mentioning calling the police?”

  “Is that what you think we should do?”

  With a grimace, Kate said, “I don’t know what to do.” Her eyes were telling him that she didn’t know about staying or leaving, or about a murder.

  “Let’s go to Puck’s house and figure it out,” he said.

  Kate gave a last look at the place. “Do you think anyone’s been down here lately?”

  “No. I’ll look more closely but I think the vines on top were untouched.”

  “Except where you nearly fell in.” He steadied her as she leaned out to get on the ladder to climb up.

  “Jack?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you think that whoever did this is still here?”

  “If they aren’t here now, they’ve spent a lot of time in this place. You’d have to be very familiar with this property to know about this old pit. I want to find out who fenced this area off.”

  “I have questions too.” Kate started up the ladder, but paused. “How do we begin asking questions? Do we say we accidently found a body?”

  “Yes, definitely,” Jack said. “I’m sure that will make everyone feel at ease and tell us all they know.”

  With a grimace at his sarcasm, she climbed up the ladder.

  * * *

  Minutes later, they were in Puck’s house. Puck and Sara were at the big oak table with a laptop and looking at the photos taken in the pit.

  Jack and Kate were on the far side of the room, cups of strong, black tea in their hands. They’d seen all they wanted to and now needed time to calm down.

  “What do we do?” Kate asked.

  He knew what her real question was. Did they leave Sara there while they went on holiday? But everything was different now.

  “The Pack is coming,” Kate whispered as she glanced at Sara. “They’re going to guess that we have a reason for calling them together. And what else could it be but that we found the body?”

  “The irony is that we didn’t have a reason, just Sara snooping. But now all they have to do is look around the area. Flattened grass will show that people have been there lately.”

  “Since the hotel is almost empty, they’ll know it was us.”

  “And Puck,” Jack said.

  Kate nodded. “Her shoes were down there, but no one found them. Whoever hid the poor man probably hasn’t been here in a while.”

  “But now they’ve been invited here.” Jack ran his hand over his face. “All of this is done. If we called and canceled, they’d know something was up. Puck would be in danger.”

  “And us. Even if we go home, we might be in danger. We’ve seen a big secret. A deadly secret.” She got up and refilled their mugs with hot water and new tea bags. She sat back down beside Jack. “I guess Scotland is out.” There was a little sniff in her voice.

  “There’s no way Sara will leave, and I won’t leave her.” He looked at Kate. “And I have no hope that you will have sense enough to get the hell away from here.” He sounded so forlorn that she put her hand over his.

  “I really wanted to go,” she said.

  He squeezed her hand, then let go and sipped his tea. “Do we contact the police or not?”

  “You think they’ll take the time to dig into something that happened twenty years ago?”

  “I’m sure they’d love to hear about Nicky who loved Diana and—”

  “Bertie who didn’t love his son.”

  “And maybe Diana dumped Nicky and ran off with the stable lad.”

  “Not a ‘lad.’ He looked like you, so he was one virile stud,” Kate said.

  Jack nearly spit tea at that. “Thanks. You made my day. What the hell do we do?”

  “Lie,” Kate said. “Act dumb. Pretend we’re so in awe of Lady Nadine and Byon the Magnificent that we can hardly speak. We just listen and ask really stupid questions.”

  “So we act natural?”

  She smiled. “Above all, we protect Aunt Sara.”

  “And you too since you’re worse than she is. You cannot go anywhere by yourself. You understand me?”

  “Are we talking about showers or bathtubs?”

  He didn’t smile. “I want a promise.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “Not good enough.”

  “But it’s the best you’re going to get.” She was glaring at him.

  Jack was the first to look away. “I wish I could put us all on a plane for home,” he said softly so only Kate would hear.

&nb
sp; “Me too. When I asked if there was a mystery, I meant one where we’d research the history books. That man in there was real.”

  “Poor guy. He was blamed for everything but did nothing wrong,” Jack said.

  “Except whatever he did that got him killed. If he was playing around with the emotions of women, maybe he deserved—” At Jack’s look she took a drink of her tea. They had an unwritten rule not to blame the victim—until they found out that he or she deserved it. “Okay, it’s too early for that. But there was something going on that he alone knew about.”

  “How do you figure that? No. Got it. Kill him and the secret dies. Think he was blackmailing someone?”

  “Don’t—” Kate began.

  Jack cut her off. “Right. Don’t blame the victim.”

  “I wonder who put his body in the pit?”

  “Not a clue,” Jack said. “I wonder exactly how he died?”

  “We could call the police and get an autopsy done.”

  Jack didn’t answer. He looked at Sara and Puck, their heads together. “If we dig deep enough, it’s all going to be exposed. Not just here but to the world.”

  They were quiet for a moment as they thought about that. They’d had a lot of experience with the turmoil the press could create.

  Kate spoke first. “I think it’s time your girlfriend told us what she knows.”

  “She’s not—” Jack began, then stopped. “She’s the love of my life. We’ll be married here. Will you be my best man?”

  “Only if I get to wear a Tom Ford tux.” Kate saw Sara signal them to come over and they went to sit at the table. Puck’s supplies for her wreaths had been moved to the top of an antique chest.

  “So what have you two decided?” Sara asked. She nodded at the pictures on the screen of the computer. “By the way, good job both of you. The photos are excellent.”

  “This is my finest hour,” Jack said solemnly. “Praise for picture takin’. This is an historical moment.” He was trying to lighten the mood but no one smiled. “Puck, you have any eggs I could scramble? I think this will take a while. We need sustenance while we make a plan.”