Grave Misgivings (21 page)

“Cassidy?”

The still form on the floor caused Maddie’s heart to race. Cassidy’s long, auburn hair was spread out around her face like a halo, and her usually peaches and cream complexion was waxy and ashen. Her hands were bound behind her back, and she was scrunched up into the fetal position. She was filthy, her top ripped at the shoulder, and her chest didn’t appear to be moving.

“Cassidy?”

Maddie knelt down beside her. She was terrified to touch the woman, worried she would find death instead of life. She had no choice, though. When she pressed her fingers to Cassidy’s neck, the woman jolted, causing Maddie to fall back on the ground.

“Holy crap,” Maddie said, clutching at her heart. “You scared me.”

Cassidy shifted her face to Maddie, taking a second to focus. “Maddie?”

“It’s me,” Maddie said, gasping. “Are you okay?”

“Is this a dream?” Cassidy’s eyes were glassy and distant, and the red mark on her wrist tipped Maddie off that she’d been injected with something. “Do you know where you are?”

“I’m dead,” Cassidy said, slurring her words slightly.

“You’re not dead,” Maddie said, crawling back toward the confused woman. She tugged at the ropes holding her hands in place, but they wouldn’t budge. “I’m going to find something to cut you loose. Hold on.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Cassidy said. “You can’t make me leave here. I’m dead.”

“You’re stoned is what you are,” Maddie said, taking the opportunity to search the room. Rose was still standing in the doorway, her gaze fixed on Maddie. “Is there a knife around here or anything?”

Rose pointed toward a stack of boxes in the corner. Maddie scurried over and started searching through them, pausing as she realized there was more there than boxes. “What is all this?”

“The house has a past,” Rose said.

“I get that,” Maddie said. “Who is the woman in these photos?”

Rose floated over so she could see the photograph up close, frowning when the face swam into view. “That’s Rosario.”

“It is?”

Rose nodded.

“Why would these photos be down here?” Maddie asked.

“Maybe someone put them here after Rosario left.”

“Are you sure Rosario left of her own accord?” Maddie asked.

“I have no idea where she went.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Maddie said. “There’s a rumor that Rosario never left. Some people say Big Jim killed her to keep the pregnancy a secret.”

“Jim wouldn’t do that,” Rose said. “He didn’t like to get his hands dirty.”

“You said yourself that he didn’t like to pay people, though,” Maddie reminded her. “If Rosario was really pregnant, wouldn’t he have killed her rather than pay for child support?”

“Perhaps,” Rose said grudgingly. “I still don’t think he would kill her. I think it’s far more likely that he would pay to send her away. I didn’t know a lot about Jim on a personal level, but I do know that prison wasn’t something he would ever risk.”

That made sense. Still, there was a piece of the puzzle Maddie was missing. “Who would’ve put all this stuff in here? Who knew about these passageways besides Jim?”

“Everyone knew,” Rose said. “It’s not like it was a secret.”

Maddie rubbed her forehead, confused. “I just … we’re missing something.”

“Who are you talking to?” Cassidy asked, staring at the ceiling. “Are you talking to a ghost?”

Maddie stilled. “What do you mean?”

“People in town say you can talk to ghosts,” Cassidy said. “I thought they were blowing smoke up my … huh, that’s a weird saying. Who would blow smoke up there?”

“Hold on,” Maddie said, returning to the boxes and rummaging about until she found an X-ACTO knife. She moved back to Cassidy and hunkered down beside her. “Hold still. I don’t want to cut you.”

“Why not? You’ve already ripped out my heart and stomped all over it,” Cassidy said.

Maddie sighed, opting to remain quiet until she’d managed to saw through the cords binding Cassidy’s wrists. The second her hands sprang free, Cassidy brought them around to her front with a groan.

“Oh, that hurts.”

“Your circulation will come back in a few minutes,” Maddie said. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Nothing is ever going to be okay again,” Cassidy said. “It stopped being okay the second you came back to town and hypnotized Nick so you could steal him away from me.”

“Is that what you really think happened?” Maddie asked.

“Yes.”

Maddie opened her mouth to argue and then snapped it shut. There really was no reason to argue with the woman. She was confused and hurt. Now was not the time for this conversation. “How did you get here, Cassidy?”

“I was … I was going to go to bed,” Cassidy said, her mind traveling back to twenty-four hours before. “I was so tired. I was tired of it all. Marla made me go into those passageways upstairs. I didn’t want to, but I did it anyway. I just didn’t want to be alone.

“We were walking around, and Marla was complaining like she always does, and then we saw … .”

“I know what you saw,” Maddie said, fighting to rein in her temper. Given their current circumstances, getting in a fight about inappropriate spying seemed liked a bad idea. “Marla told us that you two were spying on us while we were … going to bed.”

“He never touched me that way,” Cassidy said, her tone wistful. “He never kissed me that way. He never looked at me that way. I didn’t want to see you two together, but I couldn’t stop looking. It was like I was finally seeing what everyone – well, everyone except for Marla – had been telling me for months. Nick loves you.”

“We love each other,” Maddie said. “Marla said you two left the passageway and went back to your rooms. We found your necklace in front of the window. Did you go back?”

“I couldn’t help myself,” Cassidy said. “I was going to go to bed. I swear I was. I knew it was wrong to watch the two of you and yet … I had to see. I had to be sure. I’ve been holding onto the idea of Nick begging me to give him another chance. I know it sounds pathetic, but there it is. I just needed to see you two together one more time. I needed you to shatter that illusion for me.”

“I guess I get that,” Maddie said. “It was still a violation. That was a private moment between him and me.”

“I know,” Cassidy said. “I just couldn’t stop myself. When I got back, though, someone else was already there watching you.”

“Who?”

“I thought it was Marla at first,” Cassidy said. “The light wasn’t very good in there. I had to drag her out the first time. She wanted to see Nick naked. It wasn’t Marla, though.”

“Who was it?”

“Me.”

Maddie swiveled quickly, the sound of the new voice causing tremors to wrack her body. Instead of the amiable smile and ready grin she’d grown accustomed to over the past few days, though, Max’s face was a mask of anger.

“Max.”

“It seems we’re finally going to get a chance to spend some time together after all, Maddie.”

NICK
was beyond frustrated. He’d found the passageway on the second floor without incident, but once inside he couldn’t find a way to go anywhere else but the area he’d already explored. It was like the passageway existed in a world all its own.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that Maddie was in trouble. Now that he’d landed on Max as a suspect, he knew he was on the right track. He still didn’t know why Max would take Cassidy, though. He didn’t even know if Cassidy was still alive. All he knew was that he had to find Maddie, and he had no idea where to look.

“I don’t know if you can hear me, Olivia, but you have to help me,” Nick said, hanging his head. “My Maddie needs me. I shouldn’t have left her downstairs. I should have piled her in my truck this morning and taken her home. No, I should’ve never brought her here in the first place. I know this is all on me. I need you, though.”

He waited for her to respond, but there was no answering whisper at the corners of his mind.

“She’s in trouble, Olivia. I know it. She’s in this house somewhere. You have to help me find her.”

Nick was just about to give up when he … felt … something.

“This way,” Olivia whispered.

“Where?” Nick asked. He couldn’t see her, but her voice was strong and clear.

“Over here,” Olivia said, her voice a little farther away.

Nick followed, confused, until he was in front of an old wardrobe. “Here?”

“Open it.”

Nick did as instructed, and when he peered inside he almost wept with relief. Instead of old clothes, or even an empty box, he found a set of spiral stairs leading down into the guts of the house.

“Thank you,” Nick said. “I promise I’ll find her.”

“Hurry,” Olivia said. “She’s not alone.”

Nick didn’t need to be told twice.

“WHAT’S
going on?” Maddie asked, leaving Cassidy on the floor and getting to her feet. She positioned herself between the vulnerable woman and Max as she considered what to do.

“Oh, don’t do that, Maddie,” Max said, his voice positively giddy. “You know very well what’s going on here.”

“No, I don’t,” Maddie said. “I just know I found Cassidy tied up in here. Did you do that?”

“Of course I did,” Max said. “How else would I know where to look if I wasn’t the one to bring her here?”

“I have no idea,” Maddie said. “I do know that you probably could’ve gotten away with it if you didn’t come down here now, though. Did you follow me?”

“I saw you leave the dining room,” Max said. “I just had to know where you were going. I mean, you promised Nick you would stay in the dining room and then you immediately turned around and snuck out. What’s that about?”

“I … I had to go to the bathroom.”

“In a secret passageway in the servants’ quarters? That’s an interesting lie.”

“What makes you think I’m lying?” Maddie asked, shuffling back and forth. Max looked relatively normal, and yet there was something deranged about the way he was carrying himself. She had no way of knowing what was going on, and yet something told her she was about to solve more than one mystery.

“I heard you, Maddie,” Max said, wagging his finger as if she was a naughty schoolgirl. “I was out in the hallway for quite some time before I came in. I heard you talking … and it wasn’t always to Cassidy. I’m dying to know who you were talking to.”

“I was talking to myself.”

“That’s a lie,” Max said. “Don’t do that. I don’t like it when people lie to me. I’ve had to live with it my whole life. I’m not going to put up with it now … not when we’re finally getting somewhere.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Maddie said, swallowing hard. “I was talking to myself. When I’m nervous, I do that.”

“There have been rumors about you for a long time, Maddie,” Max said, taking a step away from the door. “People say you can talk to ghosts. They say your mother could, too. Is that true?”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I think you’re just covering,” Max said. “I’m not an idiot. You saw something in the mausoleum yesterday, didn’t you? That’s why Nick was so worked up. That’s why you passed out. That’s why you went back down there today.”

“We were searching for Cassidy,” Maddie said. “We were worried she locked herself in like I did.”

“You’re such a bad liar,” Max said. “I don’t understand why you’re treating me like an idiot. I’m not one of those mindless morons downstairs. They might believe your falsehoods, but I don’t. I know that you were talking to someone inside of the mausoleum. Nick was acting weird, and it was almost as if he was relieved when I finally left.

“I guess that means he knows that you talk to ghosts,” Max mused. “Is that why you left after high school? Were you running away from what you can do? That’s it, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Maddie said, risking a glance at Cassidy. For her part, the confused woman was still sitting on the floor and taking everything in. “Why did you grab Cassidy?”

“We’re not done talking about you yet,” Max said. “I want you to admit you were talking to a ghost at the mausoleum.”

Maddie was caught. Max wasn’t going to let it go. She didn’t see where she had a lot of options. “Fine. I was talking to a ghost. Are you happy?”

“Who was it?”

“Rose Denton.”

Max stilled, surprised. “Is that why you were asking so many questions about Big Jim down at dinner?”

“Yes. Rose was murdered. She was smothered in her bed. I was trying to figure out who did it.”

“Isn’t the obvious answer that it was Big Jim?”

“Except it was a woman who killed her,” Maddie said, seeing no reason to lie. “Rose could smell her perfume while it was happening.”

“What woman?” Max asked, intrigued.

“It was a former maid here,” Maddie said. “Her name was Rosario Torres.”

While his face was relaxed before, almost as if he was toying with her, Max’s features took on an ugly quality after Maddie’s admission. “That’s a lie.”