Curse of Black Tor (21 page)

“She's alive.” Jules's voice was grim.

Martha looked frantically about and saw Josephine lying in back of her. Holding her left arm across her body, Martha slid herself over next to the unconscious girl.

Josephine's pulse was weak but steady.

“Have you called Dr. Hansen, an ambulance?” Martha asked.

Jules crouched on the other side of Josephine. “The ambulance should be here any moment. Will Hansen's already at St. Joseph's and will meet the ambulance there.” He touched Josephine's face awkwardly, pushing back a strand of hair. “Can you tell how badly hurt she is?” he asked.

Martha shook her head. “Don't move her,” she said.

“What happened?” someone asked.

Martha glanced up and saw Natalie. Matthew stood beside her. Charn was in the foyer, too, and Cathleen. Francis hovered near the shattered bulk of the orca, as though waiting for orders to clean up the mess.

Suddenly everyone began to speak.

“I heard Louella call out,” Cathleen said. “Then a scream—”

“And the thud—I knew what had happened before I ran in,” Charn said.

“I can't imagine how the whale came to fall,” Matthew said. “Were you fooling with the pedestal?”

“A note,” Martha said. “There was an envelope taped to the tail with Josephine's name written in green. She…” Her words trailed off. No point in mentioning Diego.

“Are you saying Josephine pulled the whale over on the two of you?” Natalie asked. “Impossible.”

“It fell,” Martha said. “Louella called out to warn us, but I couldn't get Josephine out of the way.”

The note. Had Josephine pulled it free of the tail? Was it under the debris now?

“Who was the letter from?” Jules asked, as if reading her mind.

“I don’t know, Josephine might have been able to free the envelope before--”

“An odd place to put a message,” Matthew said.

Martha stared down at Josephine's white face. The pulse remained steady under her fingers, but the girl showed no signs of regaining consciousness.

“The whale shouldn't have fallen,” Jules stated. “The fastenings are checked every month or so.”

“Exactly what I said,” Natalie put in. “That's what we get for taking an adventuress into the house. I said a young woman with her looks was up to no good applying for a job like this. I told you—”

“Aunt Natalie,” Jules said, “please be quiet. Martha is in no way responsible for this accident.”

“That museum fellow,” Charn said. “The one you said was interested in the whale. Could he have done something?”

Bran? Martha wondered. Surely he had nothing to do with this. And yet he had been fascinated by the killer whale. Could he have inadvertently loosened a fastening?

“I doubt it was Lowrey,” Jules said. He glanced at Martha, then at Josephine.

At that moment the ambulance arrived, and Martha rode to the hospital with Josephine.

At St. Joseph's, an X ray revealed that Martha's collarbone was broken, and after a wait Dr. Hansen put her arm in a sling.

“Have you found how badly Josephine's injured?” Martha asked him. “Is she conscious?”

“No skull fracture, though I suspect a concussion. She's responding quite well. Fracture of the fourth and fifth ribs, right side, but the lung's not involved. A few days here in the hospital should have her feeling well enough to go home. As for you—”Dr. Hansen paused and looked at her for a long moment. “I can keep you here overnight if you like. You've a few bruises besides the fractured clavicle.”

“But I don't really need to stay at the hospital,” Martha said.

“No.” He still watched her. “Not unless you want to.”

She looked back at him uncertainly.

“An odd accident after the whale sat there all these years,” Dr. Hansen said. “Will you be staying long at Black Tor?” Did he suspect she was responsible? Or was he warning her? But of what?

“I'll stay until Josephine no longer needs me,” she said. “May I see her?”

“Yes, of course. For a few minutes. I've assigned a nurse to her for tonight—you won't be allowed to remain in her room. Come back and visit her tomorrow by all means.”

Jules drove Martha back to the house. They rode through the night in silence until he turned the car into the private road leading to Black Tor. “I’m glad your injury isn’t too serious,” he said.
“
I want you to stay until you feel well enough to travel. This has been…” He hesitated. “I’m sorry about everything,” he went on. “I wish…” Again he stopped, and this time said nothing more.

What shall I tell him? Martha wondered. That I won't go if Josephine needs me? And what does he wish? That I had never been Marty Collier? I wish it, too. But I was, I am, and the fact can't be changed. She was very conscious of Jules next to her in the small car, wanting him to touch her and yet afraid he would.

“You should be safe,” Jules said. “With Josephine in the hospital
--”

“Safe?”

“Stay in your room except for meals. Tedious, I know, but....”

“Then you believe me about the accidents—you realize someone's trying to kill Josephine! You—”

“Martha, don't put words in my mouth. I don't want anything more to happen to you. Let's leave it at that.”

“But Josephine—

“She's certainly safe at St. Joseph's Hospital.”

“Yes, but—”

“I plan to have my father's safety-deposit box opened as soon as possible,” Jules said. “He hid things from me—he always has. I’ve given up trying to understand why. This mystery about Josephine, for example. The years she was gone. He must know—he brought her back. And yet he would tell no one, not even Louis Marston.”

“Or Dr. Hansen?” Martha asked. “Hasn't he ever taken care of Josephine before? Dr. Marston's a psychiatrist.”

Jules sighed. “I know. But Louis has been Josephine's only doctor. When she took the pills those two times, he came to the house and treated her there.”

“That's—unusual,” Martha said.

“And when she fell over the cliff, my father wouldn't let him keep her at the hospital. When the X rays showed no fractures, he insisted she come home.”

“I wonder why,” Martha said.

“And there's Sarah. Father told me nothing of her origins. Obviously she's an illegitimate Garrard.”

Martha said nothing.

“No, she's not my child!” Jules spoke vehemently. “I know half the town believes she is, and I've often felt my father chose to have them think so. God knows why.”

“There's been some suggestion that your grandfather Abel had illegitimate children,” Martha said tentatively.

Jules sighed again. “Yes. But why wouldn't my father let me know that that was where Sarah's Garrard blood came from? And why bring her to Black Tor to begin with? He was never interested himself in his father's by-blows or their descendents before.”

The lights of the house were before them, and Jules pulled up by the front door. Martha had a sudden reluctance to get out of the car and go into the house. She turned toward Jules. He leaned over and touched her face, then kissed her gently. After a moment she pulled away, afraid to prolong the embrace.

He hesitated, then got out and came around to open her door. “I'll send Ruth to your room,” he told her. “You'll have trouble managing with your arm in that sling”

“Thank you.”

He opened the front door.

Charn stood in the foyer, his face tense, all the laugh lines gone. “I'm glad you're back, Jules,” he said. “Sarah's disappeared.”

“What do you mean, 'disappeared'?”

Charn shrugged. “We can't find Sarah. Cousin Louella started nattering away about the kid right after you left, and at first none of us paid any attention. Then—”

“Oh, thank heaven you're here, Jules!” said Natalie, coming out of the library and crossing to the foyer where they stood. “Little Sarah is gone. We can't find her anywhere.”

“You've searched the house?” Jules asked. “The tower, too?”

“Cathleen went up there herself,” Natalie said. “Francis, Ruth, Henry—we've all been looking. Sarah's not in the house. Henry even went outside and called her, but with no results.”

“Who saw her last?” Jules demanded. “And when?”

“Louella claims I took her,” Natalie said. “What actually happened was Sarah ran off from Louella and she won't admit it. I found the child in Josephine's room—” Natalie paused and shook her head. “I don't seem able to absorb all that's happened today. Simon's death and then Norman.” She dabbed at her eyes with a lace-edged handkerchief.

“Where did you take Sarah?” Jules asked.

“To her own room, of course. I felt she needed to rest away from the excitement—the ambulance and the police. She gets very worked up.”

“Then what?”

“Why I left her in her room with instructions to rest on her bed with the door closed until dinner.”

“You didn’t go back to check on her?” Martha asked. Natalie shot her a venomous glance. “With all the commotion, I had no chance to see Sarah again until Louella asked about her.” Natalie spoke directly to Jules, ignoring Martha as much as possible.

“When did you realize Sarah was gone?” Jules said.

“Louella insisted she wasn’t in her room, so I went to look--this was after the ambulance had left. The child wasn’t there. Louella became positively hysterical, demanding we find Sarah immediately. I confess I wasn’t worried at the time. You know what a gamine Sarah is, constantly evading rules.”

Cathleen came down the staircase. “I rechecked the rooms in the south wing,” she said, “I even looked inside the storage space under the window seats in the tower.”

Jules shut his eyes briefly and took a deep breath. “I’ll notify the police.”

“Oh, Jules, do you think that wise? Sarah could just be hiding somewhere.”

“She’s only six years old,
”
he said. “It’s almost midnight.”
He strode into the library.

Martha hurried after him. Sarah had been left in her own bedroom. Where might she have gone? She trusted Josephine, so she might have gone up to the tower where she knew Josephine might be to talk to her? If so, then Josephine may have some idea of what Sarah had been up to.

Jules was already talking on the phone when Martha came into the library so she waited until he was finished to tell him Josephine had been in the tower. “Sarah often visited her up there. We need to find out if she did.”

“That’s mere conjecture. In the morning we’ll ask Josephine, but I don’t count on anything.” He rubbed his face. “Do you think Sarah could have gone outside?”

“I just don't know, Jules. She isn't a fearful girl. She might have.”

“Would she have spoken to strangers? Gotten into a car?”

“Wouldn't any strange car here at Black Tor have been remarked on?”

“At night? Look here—you don't think your friend Lowrey actually did engineer that accident with the whale and then waylay Sarah, do you?”

“Bran?” Martha was incredulous
.

“Well, Sarah knew him. She'd have gone off with him, wouldn't she?”

“Yes, but I don't believe that Bran—oh, Jules, that's ridiculous.”

“What do you actually know of the man?”

“I told you—I met him on the ferry from Seattle.”

“Yes, that's what you've said.”

“It's the truth!”

“Then he could have Sarah, for all you know.”

She glared at Jules. “I don't know Bran well, but I can't believe he'd kidnap a child! He's not a—a child molester!”

“How can you be sure?”

“I've met a few in my psychiatric training,” Martha snapped. “Bran doesn't fit the profile.”

“Why are you protecting him?”

“I’m not. But you have no evidence—only your own dislike--
”

“You're in love with him.”

“No!” Martha's voice rose. “What's the matter with you, Jules?” She wanted to shake him. To scream at him that if she was in love with any man it was with Jules Garrard.

He sat in the chair behind the desk with his head in his hands. Martha waited, but he said nothing more. She resisted an impulse to go to him and smooth his hair, cradle his head against her.
              “You’ve had a bad day,” he said at last. “Better get some rest.”

“How can I rest with Sarah missing?”

“I’ll take you to your room. You can’t do anything more tonight. In the morning we’ll go to the hospital and talk to Josephine. In the meantime you must get some sleep.”

“But I--”

He slammed his fist on the desk. “Damn it! Must you always argue with me?”

Chapter Twenty-One

Martha had taken two of the pain pills Dr. Hansen had given her for the fractured collarbone; otherwise she was sure she wouldn't have been able to sleep at all.

In the morning, after Jules had phoned the hospital to check on Josephine's condition, he asked Henry to take Martha to St. Joseph's.