by Raven Snow
“They are. Sit.” Ms. Comfrey pointed again to the sofa.
Lady felt something in her chest twitch, something like resentment. Ms. Comfrey wasn’t her boss. Why should she listen to her? She sat down on the sofa anyway. Dom was already seated. She had already come all the way into the house. It would be weird to simply turn and leave now.
“The car doesn’t have any impact on the water,” Dom said plainly, as Lady was still seating herself. “You’ve been using water transported by a car for ages now. I doubt it’s made any difference.”
Lady wanted to scream at Dom to shut up, but it was too late at that point. She really should have known better. She should have never climbed into his car.
“How long has this been going on?” asked Ms. Comfrey, her wrinkled brow furrowing.
If Lady had any talent for telepathy, it would have manifested then and there. She was willing Dom to keep his mouth shut as hard as she could. Didn’t he see that the more he talked, the deeper a hole he was digging for both Lady and Crispin? Eventually, she would realize Crispin had been in on this too.
“Lady does it a lot,” Dom said bluntly, proving that Lady was not, in fact, a telepath. “Before her, Otsuya would get rides all the time.”
So Otsuya was the one who had done this particular chore before her. Lady had wondered about that. Not that it mattered much now. She was glad Dom kept Crispin’s name out of things. No use dragging him down with them. Not that it would take Ms. Comfrey long to put two and two together. If she didn’t, Ms. Poole certainly would.
Ms. Comfrey exhaled slowly, tapping her fingers on the arms of her chair. “It saddens me to know you all lied to me for so long.”
“I don’t think anyone lied,” Lady offered, before she really had a chance to think about what it was she was saying. “People just… kept you in the dark.”
“A lie of omission,” Dom corrected. Lady moved her knee to bump hard against his. She didn’t need him helping her. She could dig her own grave plenty deep, thank you very much.
“Look…” Lady trailed off, searching for the right words. She didn’t want to be in trouble, but it was almost certainly too late to remedy that. At this point all she could hope to do was get rid of some of this guilt suddenly coming over her. “We’re sorry, Ms—”
“I’m not sorry,” interrupted Dom. “The transportation really doesn’t make a difference.”
“We heard you the first time.” Lady continued, doing her best to pretend he hadn’t spoken in the first place. “I’m sorry, Ms. Comfrey. I shouldn’t have—”
“Al.” It was Ms. Comfrey who interrupted Lady that time.
“I’m sorry?”
“Al,” she repeated. “I told you to call me by my first name back the first time we met. I meant that. I can’t stand being called Ms. Comfrey.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“And stop apologizing. What’s done is done.” Al gave one last sigh. “Though, I am disappointed. I suppose I won’t mention this to Millie. Goodness knows that old bird would take this poorly.”
A weight fell from Lady’s chest. She hadn’t realized until that moment just how nervous she had been. “Thank you,” she said passionately and meant it.
“Why did you ask us in here?” asked Dom. Lady was puzzled by the question until she realized he had a point. Surely Al hadn’t brought them inside only to forgive them immediately.
Al shifted a little in the chair where she sat. She folded her hands in her lap and gave Dom a solemn look. “I was sorry to hear about your grandmother’s passing, Dom.” She was referring to Dom by his preferred nickname, but that didn’t keep him from responding with a derisive snort.
“No you’re not,” Dom told her, bluntly.
Al inclined her head left and then right as if weighing out what to say next. “Fine. You’re right. I’m not. I feel like I should be, but I couldn’t stand that old witch.”
“You and most everyone else who met her.” Dom shrugged as if to ask, ‘What else is new?’
“I just don’t feel right celebrating anyone’s death,” said Al, lowering her gaze to the floor. “My own abilities come from life, after all. I was a nurse most of my life, for crying out loud. Being glad about someone’s sudden passing doesn’t sit well with me… But I want it to.”
Lady nearly choked on the air that she was breathing. “Pardon?”
“I heard from my son that you were looking into Lucette’s death,” said Al, getting to the point.
“I’m not,” Dom assured her. “I don’t have any stake in this. I don’t care. I really don’t. I don’t know why that seems so hard for people to believe.”
“Having known the woman, I suppose it isn’t,” Al conceded. “What about the money?”
“What about the money?” Dom stressed each word differently, implying he could not physically care less.
“I imagine you could find a better use for it than the rest of your family could.”
Dom shrugged, though Crispin and his library were undoubtedly on his mind. “What’s your point?”
“My point is that maybe it’s a spot of luck you came by here today.” There was a smile on Al’s face. It probably didn’t say anything good about what she must have in mind. “I was going to ask Lady there to join me, but you would probably be the better choice.”
Dom’s eyes were narrow; his tone was careful. “A better choice for what?”
“I’m about to swing by the old Antonie place,” Al announced. She was smiling like that in and of itself was an accomplishment. “I’ve been invited. Something happened last night.”
Lady leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “What happened?”
“I don’t know for sure. Shannon didn’t want to explain things to me over the phone. I have ideas of my own…” Al trailed off. If it was possible for a person to puff up in pride, she did. “I probably shouldn’t mention those here.” She stuck her chest out a little further.
“Sounds like you’ve got a handle on things,” said Dom. There was disinterest in his tone, but it sounded forced. Lady could feel the way he was shifting on the love seat beside her, suddenly uncomfortable. “Why do you need me to come along?”
“I’ll go,” Lady jumped in quickly. “You were going to ask me to come along initially, right? I don’t mind. I’ll go.”
“I thought you might be busy doing work for Millie,” Al said, which was the truth. Not that Lady felt like mentioning that at the moment. “Bringing Dom along could open a lot more doors for me.”
“Or close them,” Dom pointed out. “My extended family isn’t crazy about me, you know.
“And I’m not crazy about your family either.” Al said like it shouldn’t be something Dom needed reminding of. Lady wanted to ask about Al’s past with the Antonie family, but it didn’t feel like the right time given the way she and Dom were staring each other down. “If they called me, they must be desperate.”
“Well, they didn’t call me, so they can’t be all that desperate.” Dom glanced down at the pocket where the outline of his phone was. “Of course… I guess it’s not like I ever gave them my number.”
Al clapped her hands together. It was a sudden sound that made Lady jump. “Well, that settles it.”
“Does it?” Dom glanced at Lady, like maybe she had heard something he hadn’t.
“You’ll come with me to see your family.” Al said all of this very matter-of-factly, like he hadn’t just refused her request moments ago. “I’m sure they’ve been trying to get in touch with you.”
“I’ll go,” Lady volunteered again, speaking louder this time. “Seriously. I don’t mind. Take me.”
“Why did they call you anyway?” asked Dom, ignoring the fact that Lady had said anything at all. “My grandmother never liked you, and you hate my family. Why would they call you over?”
Al held up a finger. “Ah, see. That’s just it, isn’t it? Come along with me, and maybe you’ll find out.”
“No, thanks.” Dom began
to stand.
“All right, fine.” Al threw her hands up. “There was someone skulking around outside that mansion of theirs last night.”
At least that caught Dom’s attention. He sank back down onto the love seat. “Who was it?”
“I would have said if I knew.”
“Did they call the police?”
That got a smile from Al. “They did not. At least, if they did I haven’t heard anything about it from my son. They did ask that I not mention anything to him—which I have not done.”
“You mentioned plenty to us,” Dom pointed out.
“Yes, well, they didn’t say anything about that.” Al moved on like that was completely unimportant. “Now, are you joining me or not?”
Lady elbowed Dom gently. “Come on,” she hissed at him. “This could break the case wide open. It could really help Crispin out, you know.”
“I’m trying to help him out now. I have other errands to do.”
“Well, what would help Crispin out more? You can run his errands or you can solve a case that will allow him to not have to worry about that library for the foreseeable future.”
Lady expected Dom to insist yet again that Lucette had not been murdered. Instead, he only sort of groaned. “Fine,” he relented. “I’ll go.”
“I’ll go too,” Lady added quickly, just in case they had forgotten the first two times she had volunteered. “When do we leave?”
Chapter Nine
They left for the Antonie mansion almost immediately. Lady rode with Dom. He didn’t say a lot during the drive. Lady wondered if he was angry at her, not that she was too worried about it. Truth be told, she was more worried about what Ms. Poole might say. She was supposed to come right back after delivering Ms. Comfrey’s rain water. Already, Lady was trying to formulate an excuse. Ms. Comfrey had asked her to accompany her to the Antonie residence. How could she refuse her without being incredibly rude to Ms. Poole’s clientele? That was mostly true, right? It would make for a decent excuse, wouldn’t it?
The rational side of Lady’s brain told her that she needed to get in contact with Ms. Poole in some way. If the old woman had a cell, she could leave a message. Unfortunately, the only way she could think to get in touch with her was through the front desk. It was seldom that the phone at the front desk of the Fisherman’s Inn went on ringing. Lady sincerely doubted that she could make a call to Ms. Poole without talking to her directly. If that happened, chances were she would be told to come back immediately, never mind what Al had told her to do.
Lady turned her phone off and opted not to make the call. She would pretend her phone went dead once she got back. That probably wouldn’t get her out of trouble, but Lady was unwilling to give up on that slim chance of becoming wealthy. Going to the mansion again was a good opportunity. If she didn’t go now, she would always be kicking herself over what might have been.
The gate had been left open. Lady admired the dense landscape of trees as they drove uphill. She gave a low whistle as the mansion itself came into view. It was a proper old Victorian mansion. Without the crowd from the funeral it somehow looked even more impressive. “Looks haunted,” Lady commented, propping her head in her hand as she took it all in. “Man, I’d give anything to live here.”
“I’d advise against it.” Dom’s voice was void of most emotion. If anything, he sounded weary. There was a glazed look in his eyes as he slowed to park alongside Al. He’d seen this place before. It no longer impressed him, if it ever had.
“A place like this then,” Lady recanted, assuming Dom could relate easier if she spoke in those terms. “I know you have bad memories here.”
Dom shook his head. “It’s not just that,” he insisted. “This kind of place wasn’t built for just a few people to live in. You’ve never been inside when it’s not crowded. It’s a lot of empty space, real lonely. It’s a lot to keep up, too. That means a lot of rooms boarded off because it would cost too much to keep them up. It’s a waste.”
“I can see that, I guess.” Lady still longed to live in such a mansion one day, but it wasn’t anything worth debating over. Dom undoubtedly knew more about it anyway. “It was probably better suited as a school, huh?”
Dom cut the engine. “Probably. Obviously, I wasn’t around for that. This place’s school days were well before my time.”
“I bet it was a cool place to go to school.” Lady had long thought she wouldn’t have minded attending a boarding school growing up. Could it have been much different than foster care? At least at boarding school, she would have felt like she had more in common with her fellow classmates. Of course, that was only if she didn’t get kicked out for bad behavior.
“Wouldn’t know,” Dom reiterated. “Though, a few of the old rooms are boarded up.”
“The old school rooms?”
Dom nodded. “A couple of classrooms and the hall where the girls slept.” He opened the driver’s side door. “Don’t quote me on that, though. It was that way the last time I was here. That’s been a while, though. Things might have changed since then.” Lady got out of the car and looked across the roof to find Dom standing very still, eyes fixed on the mansion as if taking it in. “Things probably have changed,” he amended. It was difficult to gauge how he felt about that.
“Everything all right, Dear?” Al came up beside Dom and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe it was a bad idea to invite you along.”
“No,” Dom said immediately, walking toward the door with a sudden purpose. “I’m fine. Let’s get this over with.” He picked up the heavy iron knocker and slammed it down against the door a few times.
Al and Lady both moved to flank him. They waited in silence for a few seconds before Lady looked to Al. “They do know we’re coming, right? Did you call ahead?”
“They asked me to come down if I had a moment,” Al said, like that answered the question.
“So, no?”
“This is when I had a moment.”
Dom knocked again and then a third time, before the sound from the second knock had a chance to fade. He looked around after that, searching. There was a button beside the door. Dom pressed on that more than a few times. A muffled buzzing was audible through the door.
“Are you sure they’re even home?” Lady asked Al.
“I don’t imagine they would have left their front gates open if they weren’t.” Al gave a little huff. “I didn’t come all the way out here willy nilly, you know.”
Lady wasn’t so sure about that, but she didn’t say as much. It was about time she got on better terms with Al again. She was mostly a nice woman. Flighty and without common sense, but nice.
“I hear you! I’m coming! Stop it!” screamed a woman’s voice.
Dom lay on the buzzer one last time, eliciting a final frustrated shriek from within. There were a lot of thuds and clanks from the other side of the door. It sounded like the Antonie family was thorough with the locks. Most families with as much money as they had probably were.
“What do you want?” asked a voice as the door cracked open. It sounded younger than Shannon’s voice, ruder too. It was probably one of her daughters.
“We were invited,” Al explained as Dom pushed the door open the rest of the way. His cousin tried to hold it shut, but she wasn’t nearly strong enough.
“Excuse you!” It was definitely one of Shannon’s girls. Lady wasn’t sure which. She had on a silk nightgown and plush robe. Her hair was pulled back in a scarf, exposing a splotchy, makeup-free face. It grew pale as she realized how many people were coming inside. “You woke me up and I haven’t had a chance to get ready for the day yet,” She said all in one breath.
Lady didn’t care what Dom’s cousin looked like. Well, maybe that wasn’t entirely true. Seeing her like the plain-faced, splotchy mess she was was more than a little humanizing.
“Where’s your mom?” asked Dom, cutting to the chase.
His cousin shrugged. “I dunno. You woke me up, remember?” She curled her lip in a
sneer that certainly wasn’t doing her looks any favors. “Outside, probably. If she didn’t hear you banging on the door, she’s gotta be out back. I don’t know how else she would have missed all that noise you were making.”
Dom didn’t thank her. Instead, he cut a straight line through the house. He seemed to still know his way around well enough to get them to the back door. It led out into an expansive backyard, if you could even call it that. Lady had always thought of backyards as a finite space you could see from your back porch. She’d never had one growing up, but she knew people who did.
The Antonie’s “backyard” was more like a continuation on the house, the outdoor portion of the house. There was a second building that was larger than the Fisherman’s Inn. It was a guest house or garage, maybe. There was a wooden pavilion with picnic seating and a couple grills. There was a trestle of vines that led into a garden that rivaled Al’s. A maze, perhaps? Lady even saw one of those giant outdoor chess sets she’d only ever known to be in movies. People actually owned stuff like that? Crazy. How expensive must it have been?
“Do you see Shannon?” asked Lady. She saw a lot of stuff, sure, but she had yet to see the person they were there to visit.
“She might be at the pool,” said Dom.
“There’s a pool?” Lady wasn’t sure why she could hear disbelief in her own voice when she said that. Given all she had seen of the mansion already, why would it be a surprise that the Antonie family had a pool?
“I can smell it,” said Dom, leading the way diagonally across the lawn.
Now that Dom mentioned it, she could smell pool chemicals in the air as well. She could also hear the gentle lapping and splashing of water, though she wouldn’t be surprised if that was coming from a fountain. A place like this had to have a fountain somewhere. It was probably law.
