1 Death Pays the Rose Rent (26 page)
Read 1 Death Pays the Rose Rent Online
Authors: Valerie Malmont
“And, she still had to worry about Rose’s appointment with the judge. She had seen the power nailer earlier and realized it could be a deadly weapon, so she swiped it from the ballroom and took a shortcut through the caves to the judge’s house. She waited, and just as she’d feared, Rose told the judge the truth about Rose Rent Day. Sylvia used the power nailer to keep him from talking.”
Michael asked, “What was the point of leaving a rose with the judge?”
“She left it as a warning to me,” Rose said, “knowing I would realize she had killed Benjamin and why. Tori, when you walked in on us in the library, just before the Mystery Dinner, she had just told me that if I exposed her, the third rose would be for Michael. She knew I would keep quiet to protect him.”
“Then why did she try to shoot you last night?” I asked.
“I can tell you about that,” Praxythea said, speaking for the first time. “When Sylvia invited me to come to lickin Creek to help her with her ‘special project,’ I was quite excited. I had no idea that she had acquired the invention illegally, and truthfully, I was fascinated by the idea of trying to get it to work. She and Richard made me promise not to mention it to anyone—so the news would be even more astounding when we finally broke it.
“Sylvia wanted to test the machine at once. She scheduled the seance to try to find a ghost in the castle to talk to—pretending to look for the necklace
was just an excuse. I was surprised when Richard didn’t show up, but I figured he and Sylvia had probably had another disagreement. They’d been arguing about the project ever since I became involved. Couldn’t agree on what they were trying to accomplish—or who should get credit for what. But I never dreamed she would kill him. Not even after his body turned up. After all, half the people in town hated him for one reason or another.
“Ever since I came to town, she’d been begging me to go down to the caves with her to test the spirit communicator. I wanted to wait until I felt the vibes were right and kept putting her off. When Tori came out of the caves on Saturday morning with the machine and said she’d been hit by someone and smelled my perfume, I was sure Sylvia had done it. My perfume had been missing since Thursday morning, and I began to smell it on Sylvia after that. It’s hard to accuse one’s hostess of stealing, so I hadn’t mentioned it.”
“Of course,” I said. “I was the one who pointed out to her how distinctive it was. That it was your trademark. She must have stolen it to sprinkle on the cat-threat letter she left at Alice-Ann’s house. She thought I’d blame you. And she was right. I did suspect you. In fact, I believed you were her accomplice, right up to the time of the Mystery Dinner.”
Praxythea smiled. “I understand. After she hurt you, and LaVonna’s body turned up, I realized she was the killer. I was terribly afraid of her. She sensed my nervousness and wouldn’t let me out of her sight. She even made me go to the clinic with her.
“She insisted we were going to test the box at the Historical Society Saturday night while everyone was involved with the celebration. She was acting terribly irrational, and I couldn’t get away from her to tell anyone. Once, at the dinner, I did slip away—remember, Tori?—I started to ask you where Garnet was, but she stopped me.”
“I remember,” I said. “And that was when I realized you weren’t wearing perfume. You were able to come up behind me without my knowing you were there. But I did smell it when Sylvia showed up, and it dawned on me that for the past few days I only smelled it when she was near. I knew then that it was she who had hit me and left the threatening note. That’s why I stopped suspecting you and realized you were probably going to be her next victim.”
“How could she have found her way through the caves the way she did?” Michael asked.
“Probably the same way she knew there was a body in the crystal cave. She found your old maps. You had a set, didn’t you?”
“Years ago. I haven’t seen them in ages. But when you live in a castle, you never throw anything out. She could have found them in my room.”
Rose started to cry. “She was so strange, all during dinner, wild-eyed, hands shaking. She told Praxythea it was time to go, and Praxythea tried to talk her out of it. She said she had Father’s gun in her purse and would kill anyone who tried to stop her. That’s when I jumped up and ran out to the hall, thinking I could yell for help. She followed me and shot me. My own sister shot me!”
“I’m so sorry,” I said. I was never going to tell Rose of Sylvia’s lifelong jealousy of her. There was no reason to cause her any more hurt.
Praxythea sighed. “If only I had tried to use my powers. I might at least have saved Judge Parker.”
“I don’t think anything could have stopped her at that point,” Rose said. “The time to stop her would have been after she killed our father, and I’m the one who should have done it. But I never imagined she would try to hurt anyone else.”
Garnet cleared his throat. “I think we can declare the case officially closed. Three of us heard her confession in the basement of the Historical Society. Her actions will be judged by a higher court than any we have. There’s still one thing that really puzzles me, though. As I was getting out of my truck outside of the Historical Society, I heard a sound, a high-pitched whine, that I couldn’t identify. Tori, do you know what it was?”
I nodded. “Remember what I told you about Edison trying to communicate with the dead? He believed he could use something like radio waves for reception. Probably the machine was picking up a whole bunch of radio signals at once. What do you think, Praxythea?”
“Could be,” she said noncommittally.
Garnet sank back into his pillows. “Well, even though it didn’t work, it was an instrument of evil. Because of it, four people are dead. I’m glad it was destroyed in the fire, so no one can ever again be tempted to fool around with it.”
I thought of the plans hidden in my underwear drawer. Anyone with a basic knowledge of electrical engineering could build another one, using the diagrams. “Yes, thank God it’s gone,” I murmured.
“Thank God,” Praxythea echoed, her green eyes boring holes into my skull.
She knows. Somehow, she knows.
We all started to push our chairs back, getting ready to leave, but Garnet reached out and took hold of my wrist. “Stay a bit, won’t you please? Any minute now my sister, Greta, will be marching in here with all my relatives in tow. I’d like to talk to you privately before they get here.”
When the room was empty, he said, “Following them down through those caves was a dumb thing to do.”
I didn’t say anything.
“And very brave. You could have been killed.”
“I really did try to call you all afternoon. I had to do something when I couldn’t get you. I couldn’t let Sylvia kill Praxythea, and I was sure she would to cover up all her other crimes.”
“You saved my life. There’s no way I can ever thank you for that.”
I blushed. “It was no big deal.”
“like hell, it wasn’t.” He twisted his fingers through mine. “Tori, there’s something I wanted to ask you last night,”
Oh-oh! Too soon, Garnet. It’s too soon.
I stiffened and pulled my hand away. “My burns …” I mumbled.
Much to my surprise, he laughed. “I wish I knew why you’ve built that wall around you. But I promise
you I’m not going to even make an attempt at breaking through it until you’re ready. What I was going to ask was if you’d like to go to the Hershey Theater with
me Friday
night. I’ve got two tickets for the road show
of
Les Miz.
I thought
we
could
have dinner first—at a real restaurant, maybe start getting to know each other a little better. But you’ll have to do the driving.”
I breathed a huge sigh of relief. New York, my second book, job hunting—they could all just wait a little longer. “I’d like that very much,” I said. “Very much.”
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