A Real Pickle

by Jessica Beck

  “I understand that,” Jeffrey said. “It can be tough always being at someone else’s beck and call all of the time.”

  “You shouldn’t have that problem anymore,” Moose said.

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Jeffrey replied.

  “What’s going on? Has something happened that we’re not aware of?” I asked him.

  Renee answered for him. “Jeffrey is afraid that Charlotte and her minions will find a way to nullify the most recent will.”

  “Tell me it hasn’t crossed your mind,” Jeffrey said. “I keep thinking that this is all too good to be true, and I could be right.”

  “That’s why Starnes is coming by with a copy tomorrow morning,” she said reassuringly. “I haven’t met the man, but I know his reputation, and if he tells you that this will is unimpeachable, then you can take it to the bank.”

  “I’ll believe it when I see it,” Jeffrey said. “In the meantime, we’ve still got a big job ahead of us.” He turned to my grandfather and me as he added, “Would you two excuse us? I’m hoping to get things much more settled by tonight, but that means that Renee and I are going to have to work hard to do it.”

  “We’ll leave you to it,” I said. I stood, and my grandfather joined me.

  After we were out in the hall, I heard some noises coming from the dining room, and I figured that Charlotte, Tristan, and Sarah were having their own lunch. As we headed toward the staircase, I was pleased to see that the door to the dining room was closed. At least we wouldn’t have to parade by them.

  “Jeffrey’s really coming into his own, isn’t he?” Moose asked me as we headed toward my room.

  “He does seem more confident than he ever did before,” I said. “Then again, inheriting a few millions from your late boss could do that for you.”

  “Don’t forget what Crane said, Victoria,” Moose said. “It’s more like a hundred million.”

  I stopped in my tracks. “How does someone amass that kind of fortune?”

  “You’d be surprised. Curtis made his share of the family fortune grow, from what I’ve heard.”

  “No wonder Charlotte wasn’t all that eager for him to get rid of it.”

  “It’s enough to give her a motive for murder,” Moose said.

  “From the sound of it, it gives all of them motives, including Jeffrey.”

  “I still have a hard time seeing him as a cold-blooded killer,” my grandfather said.

  “It’s a possibility that we have to consider,” I said as we got to my room. I opened the door, and I could swear that I felt a chill on my neck as I did so. I didn’t believe in ghosts or haunted houses, at least I didn’t think I did, but that place really gave me the heebie-jeebies. “Just let me grab my phone and we can go,” I said as I leaned down to pull the charger out of the socket.

  The only problem was that my cellphone wasn’t on the other end of it.

  “It’s gone,” I said as I searched the floor around where I’d put my phone.

  “Are you sure?” Moose asked me as he got down on his hands and knees and helped me look. “I can’t believe that someone would just steal it like that.”

  “Why not? Do you honestly think that they’d draw the line at theft after they committed murder?”

  “It doesn’t make sense. My own phone doesn’t work here half the time. Who are they trying to keep you from calling?”

  “I wish I knew,” I said. “This is aggravating.”

  “Let’s ask Humphries,” Moose suggested. “He might know something about it.”

  “How could he possibly know that?” I was irritated, but I knew that it wasn’t Moose’s fault. So, why was I taking it out on him? “I’m sorry that I snapped at you.”

  “Please, you’ll have to do a lot better than that to offend me,” my grandfather said. “Now, let’s go find that butler and see if he can help.”

  We walked out of the room, but instead of heading downstairs, I decided to go back to the hall where that secret passageway ended. I wanted to see if I could find the release from the outside; otherwise, it didn’t make any sense. After all, I doubted that someone would sneak into my room before I got there, slip into the passageway, and then wait for me to fall asleep. That thought really unnerved me, and if I could find some kind of release mechanism in the hallway, I’d feel much better than I did at the moment.

  As I started pressing panels at random, Moose asked, “Victoria, what are you doing?”

  “I’m looking for a catch,” I said as I kept probing.

  “A catch?”

  “You know, a release, a switch. Whoever was in my room had to get in there somehow.”

  Moose looked relieved to learn that I hadn’t lost my mind entirely, and he started helping me look. After five minutes, though, we’d both come up empty.

  “This is pointless,” I said as I stood up.

  “We can’t give up yet,” Moose said. “It’s bound to be here somewhere.”

  “What we need to do is open the door from the inside,” I said. “Maybe that will give us a clue about where the release might be.”

  “It’s worth a try,” Moose said, “but we don’t want anyone to know that we found the passageway, do we? It could be our trump card before this is all over.”

  “You’re right. I’d still like to get a better look inside, though.”

  “We could always check it out,” Moose said. “Candlelight isn’t perfect, but it’s going to have to do.”

  “If I had my phone, I could use the app I’ve got that lights up like a spotlight,” I said.

  “You can do that?”

  “I can,” I said.

  “Then let’s go look for Humphries downstairs. That’s what we were planning to do anyway when you got distracted, remember?”

  “Fine. Let’s go look for him.”

  The butler was downstairs in his office, a small space that barely looked big enough to turn around in. “Humphries, do you have a second?” I asked as I tapped on the door.

  “Of course,” he said as he stood automatically. “But first, I may have something that belongs to you.” He reached into the top drawer of his small desk and pulled something out. “I believe this is yours.”

  “How did you get it?” I asked him as I grabbed the cellphone and opened it. It had one partial battery icon showing on the display, a charging amount that should last me a few hours before it died completely.

  “One of the staff found it in the hallway,” Humphries said.

  “But I left it charging in my room,” I protested. “Why would anyone move it?”

  “Perhaps you accidently kicked it into the hallway yourself,” Humphries said.

  I didn’t believe that was a remote possibility for one second, and I was about to say as much, when Moose grabbed my arm.

  “That’s probably exactly what happened,” my grandfather said as he applied a little pressure.

  “Thanks for finding it for me,” I said as I tucked it into my pocket.

  I was nearly out the door when he spoke again. “What was it that you wished to speak with me about?” he asked.

  “I just wanted to thank you for setting up our private lunch today,” I said. It was the first thing that I thought of, and I’d decided to go with it.

  “It was my pleasure,” he said automatically.

  “We’ll leave you to it, then,” I said, and Moose and I walked out of the room.

  “What was that for?” I asked him once we were back in the hall alone.

  My grandfather just pressed a finger to his lips, and then he pointed toward my room.

  Once we were there, I asked him again to explain himself.

  “Victoria, something’s going on here, that much is obvious, but the more questions we ask about certain subjects, the more suspicious people are going to be of us. It’s the same principle as the missing box that was supposed to hold our discoveries from Curtis’s room. Have you noticed that no one has pressed us about that, lately? It’s kind of odd, don’t you thin
k?”

  “I do, now that you mention it,” I said. “Why do you think that is?”

  “I’m guessing that whoever killed Curtis wants us all to forget about it. The longer we go without saying something, the more chance they think that they might get away with murder.”

  “That’s wishful thinking on their part, if you ask me,” I said.

  “Me, too, but why give them any reason not to be complacent right now?”

  “I can see that,” I said. “Well, at least we can check out that secret passageway.”

  “Are you willing to give up the last of your precious battery charge to do it?” Moose asked with a slight grin.

  “I’ll sacrifice it gladly,” I said as I opened the door to my room again. “Let’s start exploring.”

  “After you,” he said, and ninety seconds later I was down on my hands and knees tapping out the odd combination on the outlet that freed the panel from its release.

  Ten seconds later, I had my cellphone’s torch app on, and Moose and I stepped into the secret passageway, hoping to find something, anything, that might lead us to Curtis’s killer.

  Chapter 22

  “Who goes to the trouble and expense to build something like this?” Moose asked as we stepped into the narrow passageway together. The app on my phone allowed me to adjust the brightness of the light, so I dialed it way back. For one thing, we didn’t need that much light, and for another, I wasn’t at all sure how much of a charge I had left on the battery.

  “When you have that much money, do you think it matters all that much anymore?” I asked. “If it hadn’t been recently used against me, I would have loved a space like this once upon a time.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “Hey, what’s that over there?”

  The door was closed behind us, and the darkness was pretty complete outside of my light. “I don’t see anything,” I said as I scanned the walls.

  “Look back at the door we just came through,” he said.

  I shined my light back where Moose was pointing, and I saw a board the size of a loaf of bread that didn’t quite match its surroundings. As I got closer to it, I saw that it was attached at a single pivot point by a shiny nail that reflected light back at me in the surrounding gloom. There was a faint scent of something in the air, as though it had been recently lubricated with something that smelled industrial to me. As I played the light over the board, I noticed that there was a bent nail holding the whole thing in place, and after I moved it slightly, the board swung down, and I could see that there was a peephole that opened directly into my room. I’d been right after all.

  Someone had been spying on me.

  “Let me see,” Moose said, and I stepped aside so he could look for himself.

  He pulled away quickly. “That’s just not right, Victoria.”

  “How do you think I feel?” I asked. “Moose, this is getting more personal by the second. I really want to catch this killer.”

  “We’re assuming that the peeper and the murderer are one in the same, aren’t we?”

  “I hate to think that there are two creeps running around this place,” I said. “Let’s keep looking.” I slid the board back into place and latched it back with the bent nail.

  The passage led to the hall, just as I’d found earlier.

  “You’re right. It’s a dead end,” Moose said.

  “Not quite,” I said as I showed him the hidden exit. “This leads to the hallway where we all congregated last night before we went to bed. Look, if you stand right here, you can see what’s going on out there.”

  Moose did as I asked, and after a moment, he said, “The coast is clear. Should we sneak out this way and look around?”

  “I’m not finished searching this passageway yet,” I said. “But I would like to find the release switch from the inside.”

  “Let me try something,” Moose said as he gently pushed on the center of the wall.

  The door swung open silently, and I smelled something again, a fresh acidic aroma.

  My grandfather looked pleased as he turned to me. “There’s no reason to disguise it in here, but I’d love to know how they accessed it from the outside.”

  “I’m not even sure that it matters a whole lot at this point,” I said as I reached out and pulled the door closed again.

  “Why did you do that?” Moose asked. “I could finally see in here.”

  “I didn’t think that it was prudent to let anyone know that we found the secret passageway,” I said.

  “Good thinking. Do you mind if I borrow your light on the way back?”

  “Be my guest,” I said as I handed it to him. Before I let it go, though, I looked at the battery. “I’m not sure how much time you’ve got, though. The charge is nearly gone.”

  “I’ll be quick,” Moose said. He took the cellphone and held it closer to the wall where we’d just passed by. He walked a ways, and then he turned quickly and walked back. Running his hands against the exposed plaster and lath, I could see that he was searching for something.

  “What are you looking for?” I asked him.

  “Give me one second,” he said. “There it is,” my grandfather exclaimed a moment later. “I knew that it had to be here.”

  “What did you find?”

  Instead of replying, Moose pushed on a piece of plaster that looked segmented, and part of it slid to one side. “You’re not the only one being watched from here,” he said. “There’s a peephole in my room, too, and if there’s a way to watch, I’m guessing that there’s a way to get in as well.” He kept pushing different parts of the wall, and suddenly a section of it opened up.

  Moose poked his head out, nodded, and then he pulled the door shut again.

  “They were watching both of us?” I asked.

  “I don’t know if they were, but they could have been.” He held a hand up, and then he took in a deep breath. “Do you smell anything?” Moose asked me.

  I took a deep breath myself, but other than the mustiness of the passageway, I couldn’t smell a thing out of the ordinary. “No, whatever it is, it’s too subtle for me to pick up.”

  “Exactly,” Moose said. “This door wasn’t lubricated like the other two were.”

  “So, whoever did it meant to spy on me all along,” I said.

  “It appears that way,” Moose said. “I’m not exactly sure why that is, though.”

  “Just pile it on top of all the other things we don’t know,” I said. “Let’s keep looking for another access door.”

  We searched until my battery died completely. There wasn’t much space left that we hadn’t covered, so I was pretty confident that we’d found all that there was to see in this particular passageway.

  “Maybe the killer didn’t even know about the peephole into my room,” Moose said. “That could explain why it wasn’t lubricated.”

  “I’m not sure what good that knowledge is going to do us,” I said.

  “Hey, it’s just a little more information than we had before, and knowledge can’t be a bad thing to have.”

  “No, but I wish we’d get something a little more directly relevant to the case.”

  “All we can do is try,” Moose said as he secured the secret door to my room behind him.

  I grabbed my charger and plugged in my cellphone again. My grandfather noticed what I was doing, and he asked, “Aren’t you afraid that the killer might steal it again?”

  “No, I have a hunch that he or she is done with it. Why else make it so obvious to find?”

  “I can see that,” Moose said.

  There was a tap at the door, and I opened it to find Humphries standing there.

  “Yes?” I asked him.

  He looked troubled. “I knocked earlier, but I didn’t get a reply.”

  “We were too busy talking to answer it then,” I said. How else could I explain that the reason Moose and I hadn’t answered his earlier summons was because we’d been exploring a secret passageway?

  “Very good,”
he said. “Ms. Trane would like to see you.”

  “I’m sure she would,” Moose answered. “The question is, do we want to see her?”

  “I believe so,” Humphries said with a slight nod.

  “Then lead on,” Moose said.

  “What do you think this is about?” I whispered to my grandfather.

  “I don’t have a clue,” he said with a grin.

  “That’s true in more ways than one, isn’t it?” I asked.

  He laughed slightly. “Don’t be impertinent. You’re in the same boat that I am.”

  “I never denied it,” I answered with a grin.

  It faded quickly away when I saw Charlotte Trane’s expression. She looked as though she’d just swallowed something bitter, and it wasn’t going to go away anytime soon.

  “I’ve been told that I need to be more forthright with the two of you,” she said. “I would like the opportunity to do that now.”

  “It would make for a nice change of pace,” my grandfather answered.

  “Let’s hear what she has to say, Moose,” I said.

  He looked at me, and then he turned back to Charlotte. “My apologies.”

  “There’s no need,” Charlotte said. “This situation has put all of us under a great deal of stress. I know that I haven’t been all that welcoming to you. I mean to correct that right now.”

  “That sounds good to me,” I said. “Did someone say something to you?”

  She looked even more uncomfortable now. “Let’s just say that I’ve been shown the error of my ways and leave it at that. Now, how may I help you?”

  It suddenly occurred to me that in our questioning, we’d never asked Charlotte directly where she’d been when Curtis had been killed. “Would you mind telling us where you were when your brother was murdered?” I asked.

  I glanced over at Moose, who looked absolutely thunderstruck. He had to have just realized that he hadn’t been aware of our mistake, either. At least one of us had caught it.

  “I was in conference with my niece and one of our attorneys,” she said. “Why do you ask?”

  “I hate to pry, but what was it about? And would you give the attorney permission to speak with us about it?” I asked. “I know that you’re not comfortable doing this, but it’s important.”