Death Takes a Holiday (24 page)

“He doesn’t strik
e me as a reader,” she said, pausing at the door to the observation car.

“I offered to go with him
, but that just seemed to make him angry. He finally went over to the corner to sulk.” He chuckled. “I think poor Sara was ready to kill everyone. She told me no one slept during her shift. Parker spent half an hour trying to convince her that he would be fine in his room. Same with Felicity, except she was apparently more inventive with her excuses. Poor Tracy spent the entire time in the bathroom crying. Wellington just sat at the window staring at nothing—Sara said that she felt like shaking him to make sure he was still alive. You and Meredith were whispering to each other like you were at a slumber party and Lucas and I were just pretending to be asleep. According to her, the only person trying to get any actual sleep was Steve and she had to keep shaking him awake.”

Grace opened the door and entered the
next car. She looked over at Steve who was sound asleep on the floor next to the bookcases. “How is Steve, by the way?”

“
I think he’s going to be fine. Mr. Wellington finally was able to get through to a doctor this morning who said it sounded like Steve had just a mild concussion. They’ll have someone waiting to check him as soon as we arrive, which hopefully, will be soon.”

“Have you seen
Sara this morning?”

“
She’s outside looking for tracks,” he said, reaching around her for the door handle.

They both froze at the sound of something slamming against the side of the train. Exchanging a worried
glance, they walked over to the window as another bang reverberated throughout the train.

Then another.

And another.

Tracy, half-eaten cheese sandwich in her hand, rushed through the door. “What is doing that?”

Grace pressed her face against the glass. She pointed off to the left. “I think I see Sara out there,” she said as the train was struck again.

Kyle turned toward the door.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to check it out. Want to come?”

Tracy looked at them with a mixture of horror and disbelief. “You’re both crazy. You don’t even know what’s out there.”

Grace pointed toward the
engineers and Sara walking through the snow. “They’re not running away, so it can’t be too scary. Besides it’s stopped now.” She glanced at Kyle and his thin black sweater and beige pants. “We can’t go out there like this, we’ll freeze.”

She watched his face fall. “Oh, all right
, but let’s hurry before we miss everything.”

She nodded
, eagerly following him to the sleeping car. They parted ways at his room as he rushed in to get his coat and gloves. She hurried to her own room. Taking out her key, she unlocked her door and pushed it open. A gust of cold air greeted her. She looked around in surprise at the shattered glass lying over the beds and the floor. A racquetball lay in the center of her bed.

Chapter
twenty

“Did you see
me do it?” Lucas asked calmly.

Grace angrily pushed a strand of hair back off her face.
“No, but I watched you carry a racquetball out of Robert’s room not more than an hour ago.”

Lucas reached into his pocket and pulled out the
racquetball. “You mean this one?”

Grace felt the righteous indignation that she had built up within her slowly begin to drain away. “You could have gone back and got
ten another one.”

“Anyone could have
taken a racquetball out of that bag,” he countered. “Robert loved the game. Played it wherever he could. He had several in his bag.”

Grace crossed her arms and looked at Sara. “Did you see anything?”

“No,” Sara said, “I was too far away. Whoever it was dashed around the back of the train and disappeared before I could catch up with them.”

Wellington
, who had been sitting at the far end of the observation car, slowly swiveled around and faced them. “Who had access to your room, Tracy?”

Tracy, who had been glaring at her brother-in-law, shook her head. “It wasn’t locked, so I guess anyone.”

“Hmm,” Wellington said, tipping his head back. “Interesting.”

They waited for him to say something else. After a minute of uncomfortable silence, they gave up and started to chatter amongst themselves. Kyle stood off to the side, glaring at the detective.

Wondering what Kyle was thinking, Grace pulled him to the back of the car. “What’s wrong?”

“N
othing,” he said with a frown. “I just think we could get more help out of a cucumber than with our resident detective.”

“You can’t expect him to announce what he’s thinking to a room full of suspects.”

“I’m not sure he’s thinking—” He stopped and pursed his lips as Steve and Sara walked up to them.

Grace jumped in surprise
at Steve’s appearance. His bright white turtleneck and the four inch thick gauze wrapped around his forehead and neck, sort of gave him a mummified look. The dark circles under his eyes didn’t help, either. “How do you feel?”

“Hi Grace
,” he said loud enough to cause them all to wince.

Sara lightly tapped him on the arm, before giving him a signal to lower his voice.

“Oh, sorry, was I too loud?” He moved some of the gauze back away from his ears.

Sara looked at Grace
with concern. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Why?”

“I think Lucas may have been trying to tell you something. Give you a warning.” Sara glanced over her shoulder at Lucas who was staring out the window. “If I were you, I would stay away from him. He’s dangerous, Grace.”

“Mere
dith stays in that room, as well,” Grace pointed out. “Lucas may have been trying to intimidate
her
.”

Kyle brushed his shoulder against Grace. “Yeah, but Meredith wasn’t questioning him
this morning,” he said gently.

“No, but Lucas does have a point
,” Grace argued. “Someone else could have broken the window.”

Sara shook her head. “I think you may be asking too many questions. You really should leave this to the professionals before you get hurt.”

Grace held up her hands in supplication. “Hey, fine by me. You any closer to solving this case?”

“We’re getting
there,” Sara said evasively.

Grace traded a doubtful look with Kyle. “Have they said when w
e’ll be on our way?”

“I just spoke to the
engineer,” Sara said. “There wasn’t any serious damage to the coupling, so we should be able to leave any moment now.”

Kyle smiled
in relief. “Good.”

“Mr.
Wellington’s going to make an announcement in a few minutes.” She glanced over her shoulder “I should probably check in with him.” She gently patted Steve on the arm. “I’ll be right back, sweetie.”

Steve grinned back at her. He kept his eyes on her as she walked across the car. “I wonder why she needed to
check in with Mr. Wellington.”

Realizing that Steve still didn’t know who Sara was, Grace
asked. “Steve, do you remember Sara Michaels?”

“Who?”

“Sara Michaels.”

Frowning, Steve tried to mo
ve more gauze back away from his ears. “Who?”

“Sara.”

Steve smiled happily. “She’s great, isn’t she? You know she’s really smart, too. Mr. Wellington must think so, as well. He’s always talking to her. You know, I bet she’d make a great detective.” He snapped his fingers and looked at Kyle. “Maybe she could work for us. I could train her, just like I’m training you.”

Kyle closed his eyes and shook his head.

Feeling a headache starting, Grace decided to change the subject. She looked over her shoulder at Felicity Gray who was seated on one of the chairs in the corner. She had one hand pressed against Parker’s leg, while the other ran through his hair. She leaned closer to Steve and asked, “Do you know why Felicity is called the black widow of novelists?”

“The black widow?” h
e asked a touch too loudly.

Kyle
and Grace immediately made shushing noises. Grace was about to glance over her shoulder to see if Felicity heard when she caught a glimpse of Kyle’s face. His expression told her everything she needed to know. “Oh, I doubt there are any spiders on the train, Steve. I’m sure we’re fine,” she said in a desperate attempt to cover. She grimaced when she felt a tap at her shoulder. Turning around she came face to face with the alleged black widow herself.

“It appear
s I have another burgeoning fan,” Felicity said cheerfully.

“Oh, no . . . I mean, yes but . . .
,” Grace stammered.

“Now, don’t be embarrassed.” Felicity linked her arm through Grace’s and pulled her toward the
sleeping car. Grace grabbed hold of Kyle’s arm and pulled him along with her. “Everyone is curious about me. I’m a bit legendary, you know.”

“No, I didn’t know that.”
Grace glanced over her shoulder, a bit disturbed to see Parker trailing behind them.

“I get asked about my life so often. I’m seriously thinking of writing an a
utobiography.” She unlocked her door and led Grace inside. Grace stopped at the threshold. Clothes, books and files, along with an assortment of weapons, were scattered haphazardly around the room. Grace took a few careful steps in, dragging Kyle with her when he began to back away from the door.

Felicity picked up a handful of books off of the double bed and gracefully sat down on the edge. Parker pushed
against Kyle’s back, forcing Grace and Kyle further in the room.

Felicity motioned to the two chairs in the corner of the room. “Now what would you like to know?”

Grace and Kyle exchanged looks before walking over to the two chairs. Grace picked up the books lying on the chair and sat them down at her feet. Kyle sat down in the chair next to her. He picked up the book nearest his feet and handed it to Grace.

The Handbook of Poisons
was embossed in gold on its cover.

“Resear
ch,” Felicity said fiddling with her necklace. “Now you two, don’t be shy. I know you’re curious. Everyone is.”

“All right,”
Grace said. She glanced at Kyle who was busy flipping through the book in his lap. She glanced down, but quickly turned away, when she realized she was looking at someone’s autopsy photo. Clearing her throat, she said, “Okay, how was your relationship with Robert?”

“Excellent.
Couldn’t have been better.”

Grace felt her eyebrows rise. “That wasn’t the impression I got at dinner.”

Felicity waved her hand dismissively. “All families fight with one another. Dinner seems to bring out the worst in people sometimes. What else would you like to know?”

“
Tell me about the death threats you’ve been receiving?”

Felicity’s face lit up. She
stood up and walked over to the dresser. Pushing around a stack of books, she said, “I know it was here earlier.” One by one, she began tossing books onto the bed.

Parker who had been leaning against the door, walked over to the dresser, opened up a drawer and handed her a pink folder.

“Ah. Thank you. You are a life saver,” she said beaming up at him. Shaking his head, Parker leaned back against the bathroom door and stared down at his feet.

“
There are twelve in all.” Felicity eagerly handed the folder to Grace. “I’ve received one a month since Victor died.”

Grace pulled
out the threats. They were all basically the same, she thought, running her thumb over the letters. It appeared that each one of the letters had been cut out of a magazine. From the look of the paper, it seemed like it was the same magazine.

Kyle looked over at one of the threats in Grace’s hand. His eyebrow raised a fraction of an inch as he read, “You’ll make a beautiful corpse.”

Felicity nodded seriously. “Personally, that’s my favorite.”

Kyle’s eyebrows rose up his forehead, but he didn’t make any comment
.

“Have you sent these
to the police?” Grace asked.

Felicity snatched the letters out of
Grace’s hand. “Oh no, not yet. Soon.”

“What are you waiting for?”
Grace asked.

“Well,
I doubt they’re going to do anything about this,” Felicity said, shaking the letters angrily. “I got bashed on the head Christmas Eve, and they didn’t do anything about that.” She shoved the threats back into the folder before throwing the folder onto the bed. “Let’s talk about something else
. Something far more interesting. Who do you think killed Robert?” she asked with a gleeful smile.

“At this poin
t our guess is as good as yours,” Grace said.

Felicity’s smile fell. “You don’t know? You must have a guess?”

“Jack seems like our most likely suspect,” Kyle said slowly.

Felicity clucked her tongue and looked at him in disappointment.

Grace said, “Last night, you said you had met Jack on the train. What time did you two meet?”

Felicity’s
ringlet curls bounced around her face as she shook her head. “No, I said I was
going
to meet him in the dining car around midnight, but then Robert was killed . . .”

“
But you saw him before that,” Kyle insisted. “You told everyone you had spoken to him on the train.”

Felicity made a small little noise. “Not exactly.”

“What do you mean not exactly?” Kyle asked.

Felicity
sank down onto the edge of the bed. “Well, I didn’t actually see him. He called me on my cell phone right before dinner.”

“What did he want?” Kyle asked.

Felicity frowned. “I could barely understand him. Poor boy. He was crying so hard.”

“What was he crying about?” Grace asked.

“He said that Robert had broken his nose and that he was scared of him.” She crossed her arms. “Robert was becoming more and more like Victor every day. I was so angry. That’s why I was a little hard on Robert during dinner.” She shook her head sadly. “I just remember the sound of Jack’s voice. He was crying so hard, he could barely speak.”

Kyle looked at Grace. “One more reason to suspect Jack’s our killer.”

Felicity glanced up sharply. “I knew I shouldn’t have said anything. I should have just kept my mouth shut. No wonder he and Henry ran off. Jack probably knew he’d be the first one suspected.”

“Of course, he’s the natural suspect,” Grace said softly. “But if it helps, I don’t think he
killed Robert.”

“No?” Felicity asked. “Everyone else is convinced
, why aren’t you?”

Grace ignored the question and asked one of her own. “
Was that the first time you two had spoken since Victor’s death?”

“
No,” Felicity admitted hesitantly. “We’ve kept in touch over the past year.”

“Did you know what he was planning?” Kyle asked.

“Not all of it,” she hedged. “Look, Jack did not set that fire. Someone planted that evidence and he wanted to find out who did it.”

“Which gives h
im a perfect motive for revenge,” Grace pointed out.

“He just wanted the truth
,” Felicity said.

“Wh
o saw Robert the night of the fire?” Kyle asked.

Felicity turned her head slightly. Her eyes flashed from Parker to Kyle. “I guess it doesn’t really matter now.”
She leaned forward. “Jack saw him.”

“Jack,” Kyle said doubtfully. “That’s your eyewitness?”

“Yes! He’s a perfectly good witness and I know he was telling the truth.”

“How?” Grace asked suspiciously.