by Beth Byers
“How did he die?” Rita asked. “Does anyone know yet?”
Victor glanced at the girls. “There is blood on his chest and a very small wound.”
Vi frowned. “A small wound? Like from a derringer?”
Victor shook his head and then scrunched his nose. “More as in something that doesn’t make sense. No bigger than a nail.”
“What?” Vi demanded. She couldn’t help but picture someone thrusting a nail into his chest and Vi shuddered, gagging lightly. Her twin knew her well enough to follow her thoughts even though she hadn’t voiced them.
“Don’t think of it,” Victor told her quickly. “Remember: Find the good. Be a helper. Be grateful.”
Vi shot him a dark look when he refused to give her the freedom to think her grey thoughts. “The good is that our bonds and relationships link us together,” he reminded her. “Rita isn’t alone in this. Mr. Russell isn’t alone. Mrs. Forman isn’t alone. Even in the hard times, families rise up.”
Vi nodded and while she did Izzy whispered to Ginny, “What is he talking about?”
Ginny shook her head and the rest of them ignored the girl. Victor told Vi, “You’re being a helper. We all are. We’ll help Mrs. Forman and mankind by finding the real killer.”
“And be grateful.” Denny smiled at her. “For me.”
Vi rolled her eyes.
“Me,” Denny added cheerfully. “Really, I’m something of a joy to the world. I think we can all agree upon that.”
Victor drained Violet’s coffee cup and refilled it. “We have more than enough. We can use it to help others. Jack is on the way to finding a new and better option for him. Ham and Rita found their way to each other and will marry soon. Ginny is here. Lily is here. The twins are getting so big, and they love you more than anyone but Kate. When you go to sleep tonight, Jack will hold you close. Our friends are here.”
Violet paused and then said, “We need to know how he died.”
Victor stared at Violet while Denny’s giggle rang out.
“It’s too weird,” Violet told them all. “A nail? Or whatever it was? It’s far too weird. If we can figure out what killed that man, we’ll probably be able to guess who killed him.”
Izzy went from barely holding in her words to spewing them out. “I am going to help. I’ll be like you and we’ll find out who killed Mr. Brantley, and then whoever it was can go straight to hell.”
“Woah,” Victor said. “Wait—”
“Ginny told me all about you,” Izzy said to the whole group. Her words were a rush as though she needed to get them all out with one breath. “Rita and Ham and Jack and Violet and their friends. The ones who help solve crimes and protect the innocent. I’m going to be just like you. I knew I was lost when I got here. I thought at first I would find work singing and acting. I am pretty enough for it, I think. And I have a good voice. Mother says I’m very good.”
Violet closed her eyes against what was going to come.
“But now, it’s all so clear. I’m going to solve crimes.”
Denny choked. It was probably on another of those hyena giggles, but Vi was grateful not to hear it again.
Chapter 13
Jack didn’t come back to the house, let alone to dinner, until long after midnight. Vi wished he could have found her sleeping, but he didn’t. He found her reclined in bed, playing with her wedding ring with one hand while the other was scratching her dogs’ bellies.
“Why are you awake?”
“Why are you late?”
His sheepish grin paused Violet. “I might have helped the local police.”
“They stop working long before”--Vi glanced towards the clock, squinting through the darkness and trying to read it by the light of the bath--“um…2:00 a.m.”
“I might also have worked with Smith some.” There was an energy in Jack’s tone, and she pushed up until she was sitting leaning back on her hands.
“What did you do?”
Jack crossed to Violet and pressed a kiss against her forehead. “I helped search for the weapon. I went to the police station. I talked to the doctor. I talked to Mr. Russell for a long time about what he knew of the Brantleys. I came home, read the chalkboards.”
“You were busy,” Violet said. Her tone was unamused. “What else did you do?”
“I let myself into the local police station and talked with Mrs. Forman. I joined Smith in letting myself into the inn. Smith had to do most of the work there. They know me personally, and according to Smith, I am uselessly large.”
“Ham, however…”
Jack grinned. “He’s not uselessly large.”
“You two were upstanding men only a week ago.”
Jack ’s laugh warmed Violet’s heart. “So much can happen in a week.”
“You were busy too, sweet Vi. Telling the girl about her mother’s affair with Brantley.” Jack cupped her face and leaned down to her, pressing a kiss on the end of her nose. “I saw what you discovered.”
“Izzy knew.”
Jack’s face froze and he muttered, “The mother doesn’t know her daughter was aware. She begged me to keep it secret. That was what Brantley was holding over Lavinia.”
Violet sighed, hurting for Lavinia. There was no question that a relationship with Benedict Brantley had been a terrible choice. Violet, however, didn’t hold it over the woman. What terrible choices would Vi make if she lost Jack? She couldn’t imagine being with another man in that way. The sheer idea made her physically ill, but she could very easily imagine hating everyone and everything. She could imagine a pain so deep and so abiding that other things ceased to matter.
“We should do what we can to hide the truth from Lavinia. She doesn’t need to know that Izzy knows the truth about her mistakes. We don’t need to add to her pain.”
“The truth would have saved all of this mess, Vi. I understand why she didn’t want her daughter to know. But Izzy does know. Hiding that fact is just an intended kindness that is anything but. If Lavinia had known about what her daughter knew, Rita’s father would have thrown Brantley from our association, and whoever killed Brantley wouldn’t have been able to pin it on Lavinia.”
Violet groaned and leaned back. “I’m worried about Izzy, Jack. She wants to meddle.”
Jack’s burst of laughter paused Violet and she demanded, “What?”
“Meddle?” Jack laughed even harder. “You’re meddling, Violet. You have no business diving into this. For that matter, I have no business diving in. Karmically, however, Violet Wakefield—this is all your fault.”
Vi gasped, but it wasn’t as though she hadn’t thought that before he returned. She decided it would be better to just avoid the subject than admit the truth. “What happened? Did anyone see anything?”
“People saw a lot,” Jack said, letting her sidestep. They both knew, however, he was letting her slide away. “They saw that Mr. Brantley fought with nearly every member of his party, Mrs. Forman, Rita’s father, Ham.” Jack paused, his gaze searching her face as he added, “You.”
Vi laughed as her dog, Rouge, whined and Vi went back to work on rubbing her dog’s belly. “I have an alibi. Smith. He’s an upstanding fellow that any police officer would be wise to believe.”
Jack snorted. “He’ll be a lot less valuable given I left him deciding to read the notes from the local man. Smith wants to know what he really believes. Told me that we couldn’t trust any coppers.”
Violet rolled her eyes, but it was probably too dark in their room for Jack to see it. He toed off his shoes. “Ham is still on the list? He saw it.”
Vi hardly felt bad for him on that one. “No one knew where he was.” She wasn’t going to apologize. A lot of people had been on her suspect lists before. All of her siblings, Jack, herself even. Nearly every friend. She’d crossed out people she’d hated and added those she loved. The key was to put the whole picture together.
Jack dropped his tie and jacket and collapsed onto the bed next to her. “I’m tired. I th
ought we’d be out of murders if I were out of Scotland Yard. We didn’t even get a week of it.”
“You know we’ve been cursed by the gods or something like that,” Violet told him. She laid back down and then curled onto her side to face the shadow of the man she loved. He had folded his hands on his chest, and she reached out, stealing one of them. “What was Ham doing?”
“He was talking to the carpenter about the house Philip was buying. Do you know it has ruins back to Roman times?” Jack’s voice was absentminded, so Violet didn’t bother to answer. Instead she waited for him to focus upon her again.
“Do you have an idea of who did it?”
“I don’t think it was Lavinia Forman,” Jack murmured. “Maybe I just don’t want it to be. Ham will suffer if Rita suffers. Rita will suffer if her father suffers, and from what I saw today, he truly loves Lavinia Forman.”
“Did Mr. Russell know that Lavinia used to be the mistress of Mr. Brantley?”
Jack nodded. His expression, however, winced for Mr. Russell. “I can’t imagine trying to be friends with someone who had touched you that way, Vi.”
“Yes, well, you are a caveman,” Violet teased. “Unlike myself who is the epitome of grace and understanding.”
Jack snorted, and Violet tried an innocent expression. It was too dark to see it, but she guessed he knew her well enough to see her expression. She knew he’d read her teasing when he said, “A woman more valuable than rubies.”
“Indeed,” Vi said and then laughed into his shoulder. She pressed up, so she could see his face. It wasn’t clear and his eyes were deep shadows of darkness. “Are you all right?”
“I want to take over,” Jack admitted. “The only person I’ve never minded working with is Ham. Suddenly not being employed by Scotland Yard, and I’m tiptoeing around the ego of a man who barely investigates anything more nefarious than stolen apples.”
Violet curled into his side, laying her head on his shoulder. “What if you didn’t bother with him at all?”
Jack huffed, but she could tell he was considering it. Before he answered, his breathing and his body relaxed, and she knew he was sleeping. She, however, had just enough sleep to not be able to slip back easily. She rose, putting on her kimono and clucking to her dogs.
Violet took them out to the back garden for a few moments and then returned to the library. She didn’t turn on the light immediately and when a chair squeaked, Vi gasped. She spun to face whomever was there and found first the light of cigar. Only Ham and Jack regularly smoked those, so she relaxed.
“You’ve terrified me.”
Ham didn’t reply more than to lean forward and turn on the light.
Vi grinned at him and then left him for the bar. She made herself a simple G&T and a second for Ham. “Are you all right?”
“I’m concerned that leaving the Yard has left Rita’s father at risk, and I hate that.”
Violet nibbled on her bottom lip, handed him the drink, and said, “I am not myself yet fully, Ham. From what happened around Valentine’s and being hunted. I lost my normal feelings about life in all of that.”
Ham sipped his G&T. “Not to be callous, Vi love, but what does that have to do with this?”
“You’re still finding your new balance,” Violet told him. “None of this is your fault, but your mind and your skills still exist.”
Ham paused. “Are we being melodramatic because it’s so late?”
Vi laughed. “It’s because it’s so late. Certainly, we’re not ridiculous all of the time. We’re not like Izzy with her zesty singing in the morning and her fierce need to find the killer and free her mother.”
Ham cursed and then muttered. “Really? That could end badly.”
Violet didn’t disagree with that at all. What would she have done, however, if Aunt Agatha had been suspected of murder? Violet had interfered with stranger cases. She’d have done whatever it took for the woman who had raised her.
“Yes,” Violet winced. “That’s going to be trouble.”
“And Rita will feel badly if we don’t keep the girl safe. She’ll take it all upon herself.”
Vi rose and crossed to the chalkboard, reading it again. “My vote is Junior, but I just really dislike him because of Rita.”
“He’s my vote as well,” Ham said. “I’ve been sitting here, wondering if I am fixated on him because of how much Rita hates him. Rita—I wonder if she didn’t tell me all the reasons why she disliked him. That thought keeps coming back to me.”
Violet considered that. “Nearly every member of that family was attacked by Brantley during the fête. It was like he was lashing out at whoever was nearest. It could really be any of them. Who was pushed over the edge?”
Violet sipped her drink again and then heard something in the hall. Violet crossed to the door of the library and called, “Hullo there.”
No one replied. For a moment, a bolt of old fear stabbed her, but Vi shrugged it off, reminded herself that she was no longer being hunted and that her family was around her. She returned to the chalkboard to look it over. “I could see Neve killing her husband. Being dragged to torture the former mistress could easily have been the catalyst that pushed Mrs. Brantley to beyond enough.”
“Perhaps,” Ham said. “The local doctor cannot figure out how he died. A very long, very slim weapon.”
Vi frowned and turned to the chalkboard. “They never found it, of course. So the weapon would be the compelling and damning piece of evidence.”
“Yes,” Ham agreed. “If we could find the weapon and link it to someone on that board, I think we could free Lavinia.”
Violet frowned a moment later. “Do you hear that?”
Ham nodded, standing as he crossed to Vi. “Is that…”
“It’s an auto,” Violet said. “But…”
Denny and Lila were too lazy for middle of the night sleuthing. Jack was sleeping. Rita wouldn’t go without Ham or Vi. Victor and Kate had returned to their house and their daughter.
“Could be Smith,” Ham said.
Vi, however, had a different guess, and it made her heart skip a beat. “Could be Izzy.”
Ham’s curse was the only reply.
Chapter 14
Izzy and Ginny were gone. Violet leaned over, placing her hands on her knees. Lavinia wasn’t the murderer, so the two girls were approaching a person who had already murdered before. Assuming of course, they’d realized who the killer was.
“What do they know that we don’t?” Rita demanded.
“That girl!” Violet hissed. “She had to be running it through her mind. She knows them so much better than we do.”
“Izzy is bright,” Mr. Russell said. “She isn’t foolhardy, I don’t think.”
Smith snorted. “You’re giving her the gloss of a daughter. She’s not your daughter, and she’s not a doll or a sweet young thing.”
“Here now,” Mr. Russell snapped. “Who are you to say such things to me?”
“The man who read her hidden journal,” Smith said. “From the horse’s mouth so-to-speak. She has been laughing about the look on Denny’s face after she wakes you singing.”
“That devil!” Denny snapped, his gaze horrified. “I’m going to wring her neck.”
“Where did she go?”
Smith shook his head. “Her journal is gone.” He read the board over and he asked slowly, “Why don’t you have more on the sister-in-law and the niece?”
“What motive do they have?” Ham asked.
“They’re rich as Croesus. Brantley was embezzling from their fortune and keeping them begging for their own money. The fool of a father left the money in the wrong hands. Though, to be fair, Mina Brantley is an idiot and maybe would have been as bad.”
Mr. Russell stared. “How do you know that?”
“Journals, letters, check stubs, all of it.” Smith shook his head. “The problem is that these fellows”--Smith jerked his thumb towards Ham and Jack--“wouldn’t let themselves into a hotel room. It rea
lly moves things along. Surely you knew that Mina woman was under the thumb of Brantley.”
“She has no common sense,” Mr. Russell countered.
“Her brother-in-law is a fiend who was blackmailing your ladylove,” Smith shot back. “How desperate must the woman have been? She couldn’t afford to escape Brantley. He had all her money, and he wanted her daughter to marry one of those snakes he calls a son. They’re both cruel, entitled bastards.”
“Oh Hades,” Rita said, sitting down suddenly.
“The catalyst,” Violet agreed.
“What are you talking about?” Mr. Russell asked.
“We thought it could have been a mother protecting her daughter,” Rita said. “Lavinia was willing to lose you rather than have Izzy realize the truth. Lavinia let herself be tormented to protect her daughter. I would murder to protect a child of mind from someone like Mitchell or Benedict Junior.”
Violet rubbed the back of her neck. “Benedict Junior seemed confident of Delilah at the fête. He took her hand and it was only when the mother stole her daughter away that Delilah was freed. Does Delilah or Mina know what Benedict did to you?”
Rita started. “What do you mean?”
Vi shot Rita a look that told her to quit playing around and Rita sent back her own dark look.
“He tried a Theodophilus Smythe-Hill on me. I wasn’t saved by Beatrice like you were. I was saved by Mina. Though, I would have saved myself given the time.”
“What now?” Smith asked, his gaze moving to the silent Beatrice. She shook her head.
Vi shuddered, feeling the grip of those hands again. She took a deep breath in as Ham and Mr. Russell shot questions at Rita. Violet had little doubt that Rita had handled the matter on her own, and her friend didn’t look haunted. But how had such an interaction affected Mina? Rita was no Delilah, and Mina Brantley may not have common sense, but she had a mother’s sense. A grasping cruel man, a quiet clever daughter? It was a recipe for life-long misery.
“I don’t think the girls are in trouble from Mrs. Brantley.” Vi stood. “We have an idea of where they may be. Let’s go get them.”
