The Sound of Secrets

by Irene Brand

  A creepy sensation crawled up Rissa’s spine and she knew instinctively that someone was standing behind her. She whirled and came face-to-face with the same masked, black-robed figure that she’d seen in the library on the night her mother had been murdered.

  Stunned, she backed up, stopping suddenly when she realized how close she was to the precipice. She sidled away from the abyss and started to run. The masked person jumped toward her, lifted her in strong arms and hurled her over the yawning cliff. Her body hung suspended in space for a moment, then Rissa screamed as her body hurtled downward.

  Drew heard Rissa’s scream as he ground his cruiser to a sudden halt along the highway below the bluffs. He jumped from the car, and as he ran upward, he dialed Mick’s number.

  When Mick answered, he shouted breathlessly, “Backup! Backup needed. Rissa is in trouble. Come to the bluffs.”

  He dropped his phone into his pocket as he approached the precipice. He heard someone crashing through the trees and underbrush toward the coast, but he didn’t follow. Rissa had been on the bluffs when she had screamed, and he surveyed the area in the faint light emanating from the lighthouse. A chilly black silence surrounded him and he couldn’t control his rising panic. She wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

  Spurred on by his concern, he ran to the brink and looked over.

  “Rissa. Rissa,” he called. He listened and called again. Had he heard an answer?

  “Rissa, do you hear me? Where are you?” Heedless of his own safety, he dropped to his knees and peered over.

  The revolving light flickered over the cliff again just as he heard a faint “Here.”

  His relief was so great that he almost lost his balance and pitched headlong over the steep drop. He slid back a few inches. He was sure that he’d seen something white several feet below him. He groaned when he turned his flashlight in that direction. About six feet from the precipice, Rissa lay across the roots of two spindly evergreen trees. How could he save her before the trees bent under her weight and she plunged to a horrible death? There was a rope in the squad car, but he couldn’t take time to get it.

  “Stay put, sweetheart,” he called. “I’ll save you.”

  Throwing aside his jacket, Drew removed his belt, which was heavy enough to hold her, but too short to reach the ledge. He scanned the wall to the left and right of Rissa. On the right, a narrow trail provided access to a substantial ledge that was only a few feet from where she had landed.

  A siren rose and fell, and he knew Mick was on his way, but Rissa’s situation seemed precarious to him. Her legs hung over the abyss. Although Drew hadn’t been on praying terms with God for a long time, he hadn’t forgotten where to go when he needed help.

  God, I’ve been a disobedient follower, and I don’t expect You to do anything for me, but I pray for Rissa. She doesn’t deserve the treatment she’s received at the hand of this unknown predator. I can’t do anything unless You help me.

  Using his flashlight, he followed the narrow, rocky trail that led gradually downward, which brought him within a foot of the place Rissa had lodged.

  “Can you move at all?” he said.

  “Yes, but I’m afraid to.” Her voice sounded steady in spite of the danger she faced.

  Quickly unbuttoning his shirt and shrugging out of it, he said, “If you can sit up and move toward me, I’ll throw my shirt to you and help you walk across to me. The ledge is too narrow for you to crawl on, but if you hold on to the shirt, I can pull you to safety if you slip.”

  “Drew,” Mick’s voice shouted, and Drew heard a sigh of relief.

  “Down here,” he called. “Rissa is caught in the trees, and I think I can save her on my own. But since you’re here, can you get a rope?”

  Mick’s face peered down from above. “I’ll get the rope and a harness and be back as soon as possible. Don’t take any foolish risks.”

  Rissa was sitting up now, and Drew said, “Since Mick is bringing a rope, I’ll cross to your side to help you put on the harness and he can pull you up.”

  “Don’t do it! That ledge is too narrow for you to cross and this overhang is hardly big enough to hold me.”

  “I’ll make it,” he said. The wind was picking up now and Drew remembered that eddies sometimes developed into whirlwinds and blew up from the cove. He also knew that one false step could hurtle him to his death, but he felt an overpowering need to be close to the woman he loved.

  And he did love her! He hadn’t realized how much until he’d thought she had plunged to her death. As he hugged the cliff and edged toward Rissa, who watched him in wide-eyed horror, Drew suddenly realized that all of the situations that he had thought kept Rissa and him apart didn’t really amount to anything.

  “Lord, if we come out of this,” he started to pray, but the ledge beneath his feet crumbled, and he took a flying leap toward the wider bench where Rissa sat. As he landed on his stomach beside her, he thanked God that she hadn’t been on that ledge. He crawled to her and gathered her close. His pulse was pounding, and he felt her heartbeat mix with his. God willing, they’d never be separated again. As the beacon plunged the ledge into darkness, he claimed her lips and crushed her to him. He didn’t know how much time passed before Mick called, “I’m back.”

  Drew released Rissa reluctantly.

  “I’m on the ledge with Rissa now,” he shouted.

  “When the beacon passes this way again, I’ll drop the rope and the harness. You be ready to catch it.”

  “I’ll send Rissa up first. Do you have anyone with you?”

  “Yes, a state cop.”

  “Then the two of you should be able to lift her.”

  There was barely room for both of them to stand, but putting his back against one of the spindly evergreens, Drew secured the harness around Rissa’s shoulders and waist and assured himself that the hook was fastened securely.

  Conscious of her trembling body, he held her snugly and kissed the top of her head. “You’ll be all right now. She’s ready, Mick.”

  The rope tightened and slowly Rissa was pulled upward. Her body swayed back and forth, twisted, and occasionally grazed the cliff. Ten minutes later Drew was also lifted to safety, and he hurried to where Rissa lay on the rough ground.

  “I’ve already called 9–1–1,” Mick said.

  “Are you hurt?” Drew asked, pulling her robe around her shoulders and fastening the buttons.

  “My knees hurt where I banged them against the bluffs while they were pulling me up. And I landed on my back when I was thrown over the cliff. It hurts, but I can move, so I must not have broken anything.”

  “When you were thrown over?” Drew said, his investigative mind suddenly alert. “Who did it?”

  “Maybe she shouldn’t try to talk,” Mick suggested.

  The wail of an ambulance approaching rapidly pierced the night air, and Drew said, “When they get here, we won’t have a chance to question her.” He lifted Rissa slightly, and let her lean against him. “Do you feel like talking?”

  “There’s not too much to tell. I couldn’t sleep and I went downstairs to get something to eat. At the back door, I heard two people talking, and I’m sure they were talking about me. One person…”

  “Men or women?” Drew interrupted her.

  “I couldn’t tell for sure. It may have been a man and a woman. One muttered, ‘Are you sure she didn’t recognize you?’ and the other said, ‘I had my mask on and it was dark in the room.’ I opened the door, and they must have heard me, for they stopped talking.”

  “But why didn’t you stay in the house or go and notify the guard in the hall?” Drew demanded, irritated because she had risked her life.

  “I didn’t even think about the cop on duty. I was so scared I couldn’t think. I didn’t intend to leave the house, but when I went back to my room, I saw someone wearing a black robe leaving the grounds and heading this way. I thought it was our chance to find out who’s causing all of our trouble. I must have passed by whomever it was
because when I got up here, no one was here.”

  She swallowed with difficulty and her voice trembled. With a gentle hand, Drew smoothed her windblown hair away from her face.

  “Then someone slipped up behind me wearing the same kind of mask the person I saw in the library was wearing when my mother was killed. I tried to get away, but I was picked up and pitched over the bluffs.”

  Mick whistled. “It would have had to be a man to pick you up.”

  “Or a big woman who knows how to handle people,” Drew countered speculatively.

  “One last question before the EMTs arrive. Do you have any suspicion at all as to who attacked you?”

  She shook her head.

  “Rissa, you’ve got to tell, even if you suspect someone in your family,” Drew said sternly. “There’s a killer running loose, and we have to find him.”

  Tears seeped from her eyes. “I don’t know who it was.”

  Drew knew he had to leave it at that.

  “One of us will have to notify the family,” Mick said.

  “You do it. I’m staying with her,” Drew said.

  Mick gave him a surprised look.

  Drew cuffed Mick on the shoulder. “Thanks, partner. I was sure happy to see that homely mug of yours looking over the cliff.”

  “Anytime, buddy. Anytime!”

  “I’ll call for a couple of men to search the area, but whoever it was has had plenty of time to get away by now.”

  “Unless they live in Blanchard Manor,” Mick said meaningfully.

  “I’ll follow the ambulance to the hospital.”

  It seemed to Drew that it took hours for the EMTs to check Rissa’s vitals and lift her onto the gurney. He and Mick took hold of one side of the gurney and helped the other two men carry Rissa downhill to the ambulance that was parked by the paved road with lights flashing. As they prepared to secure Rissa inside, Mick asked her, “Who’s in the house tonight?”

  “Juliet came this afternoon, so that means three of my sisters are at home, plus Aunt Winnie and Father. And of course Grandfather and his nurse are there, as well as the household staff.”

  “The same ones there when Trudy was killed…except for Juliet,” Drew answered, cringing inwardly with the knowledge that if Rissa hadn’t warned him she was going to the bluffs, there would be one less Blanchard now.

  “I’ll hurry down and rouse the house,” Mick said. “I hope the cop on duty or the one patrolling the grounds saw something.”

  “Does it occur to you that we’re dealing with a cunning killer or somebody who’s a mental case?” Drew asked.

  “I’ll vote for the last possibility. A screw must be loose somewhere.”

  “And I wonder if we aren’t overlooking the possibility of somebody other than the family who’s hiding in that house,” Drew said.

  “Could be! I’ve heard that the house has enough underground passages, turrets and rooms to hide a small army. A lot of these big mansions along the coast used to be hideouts for smugglers, although I don’t know that Blanchard Manor has that kind of history.”

  Rissa was still being checked out by the E.R. doctor when Portia, Winnie and Ronald rushed into the waiting room where Drew sat. A green-eyed blond girl followed, and Drew assumed she was Juliet.

  Portia rushed to Drew, her brown eyes wide with alarm. “What have you learned?

  “Nothing official. But as far as I know, she’s all right.”

  “According to Campbell, you know more about this than anybody else,” Ronald said, his voice seething with anger.

  Drew had been debating how much to tell Rissa’s family. “I don’t know a whole lot. She called me around ten o’clock and told me that she’d gone downstairs to get something to eat and overheard voices outside the back door. She returned to her room and saw someone leaving the property, wearing the same kind of clothes the person who killed Trudy Blanchard had worn. This unknown person headed up the trail to the bluffs. Rissa decided to follow. I tried to discourage her but she hung up on me. I took off right away, but didn’t get there in time.”

  “Why would she be dumb enough to do that?” Ronald muttered, as if he didn’t believe Drew. “Why didn’t she tell me? I was just down the hall a few feet away.”

  Drew wondered what Ronald would say if he suggested that Rissa might have suspected he was the one she was following.

  “I don’t know,” he answered instead.

  “Why didn’t you tell her to stay in the house?”

  “I just told you—I did. But she hung up on me.”

  “Mick said that Rissa was thrown over the cliff and that you saved her,” Winnie said.

  “I can’t take all the credit, but I helped get her to safety.”

  Winnie crossed to firmly grasp Drew’s hand. “You have my thanks,” she said with tears of relief welling in her eyes.

  A nurse came into the waiting room. “I need a member of the family to sign some papers. I also need insurance information, as well as a list of medications. Mr. Lancaster didn’t have that information.”

  “I’ll sign the papers,” Ronald said, and apparently the nurse knew who he was because she didn’t question his right to assume responsibility for Rissa.

  “I brought her purse,” Portia said. She withdrew a small case and handed several cards to the nurse. “She doesn’t take any medication, except an aspirin sometimes.”

  Drew felt sure that if anyone in the family knew that Rissa was taking the antidepressant, it would be Portia. However, Rissa had said that he was the only one who knew that she was being treated for clinical depression. If the medical team didn’t know what she was taking, they might give her something that could harm her. Although he was betraying Rissa’s confidence, he had to tell them about her medication.

  “She was taking medicine,” he said.

  Rissa’s family turned to stare at him.

  “How do you know?” Ronald demanded.

  “She told me. Portia, check her purse—she may have kept it in there.”

  The purse was large, and Portia sat down and started riffling through the contents. She finally extracted a cosmetic bag, unzipped it and pulled out a small plastic bottle. She read the label aloud.

  “Why, that’s an antidepressant!” Juliet exclaimed.

  “Here’s another bottle—the same prescription, filled in Stoneley, the day we met you and Mick for lunch,” Portia said. “And the doctor’s name is on the label—a well-known woman psychiatrist in New York.”

  “Why would my daughter need to see a psychiatrist?” Ronald protested.

  Although he was concerned about Rissa, Drew stifled his laughter. Living in a zoo like Blanchard Manor could drive anybody up the wall. Portia handed the bottles to the nurse. In the loud, heated discussion of why Rissa was taking an antidepressant and why she hadn’t told anyone, Drew slipped unnoticed out of the waiting room, flashed his badge and drifted down the hallway. He hoped for a chance to talk to Rissa before her family was admitted.

  THIRTEEN

  Rissa believed they must have given her a sedative of some kind because she went to sleep while she was still in the exam room on a bed that felt as hard and cold as a slab of marble. She roused when she was wheeled into a curtained alcove along a long hallway. The nurse covered her with a warm blanket.

  “I’ll bring your family in now,” she said. “The doctor will want to talk to them.”

  From his vantage point near the E.R. exam room, Drew saw where they took Rissa and he hurried to the room. He had been in E.R. often enough that the nurse recognized him, and she knew he was the one who’d brought Rissa in.

  “Delay the others just a few minutes,” he said.

  This wasn’t an unusual request, for often the authorities needed to talk to a victim before the family came in. “I’ll give you ten minutes,” the nurse agreed.

  Drew walked inside the alcove and pulled the curtain. He moved a chair close to Rissa’s bed and lifted the hand that didn’t have an IV.

  “
How do you feel?”

  “Lousy. How do I look?” she countered with a tired expression in her eyes.

  “Beautiful.”

  Her lips curved into a wan smile. “Did I dream what happened on the ledge or was that real?”

  He didn’t know if she meant her fall or the moment they had shared before she’d been pulled to safety. “You weren’t dreaming,” he said. He stood, leaned over and kissed her lips softly. “And you aren’t dreaming now.”

  She took his left hand and held it against her face.

  “Your family will be here soon, and I want to talk to you about something else before they come in. The nurse asked about medication and Portia said you didn’t take anything, but no one knew that.”

  “Except you. I didn’t want my family to know.”

  “Well, they know now. I had to tell them.”

  She gasped and dropped his hand. “Why did you do that?”

  “Don’t be mad at me, but the hospital staff had to know. If they’d given you something that counteracted with the antidepressant, it could have killed you. I couldn’t risk that. Please tell me that you understand.”

  “It’s all right,” she said wearily. “I would have told them eventually, but with everything that’s been going on the past three months, I didn’t want to give them anything else to worry about.”

  The nurse tapped on the wooden panel beside the curtain. “Time’s up, Detective Lancaster.”

  Drew was standing several feet away from the bed when the nurse drew back the curtain. Ronald shot a hostile glance toward him as he stalked inside, dominating the small room with his overbearing personality and intimidating stature.

  “Why did you do such a stupid thing?” he demanded, advancing angrily toward Rissa. Drew clenched his fists. If the man wasn’t so many years older than he was, and Rissa’s father, he might have decked the guy. Rissa didn’t need a tongue-lashing!

  She didn’t answer as she was diverted by her sisters and Winnie crowding around her bed. They drew back when the doctor, wearing his green scrubs and cap, stepped inside and spoke to Ronald.