Hide Yourself Away (34 page)

She heard them calling her name.

Lucy peeked over the third-floor balustrade into the lamplit darkness, looking down at people scattered around the edges of the property. The search party was busily peering behind bushes along the fence that edged the lawn.

“Lucy. Lucy.” She recognized her father’s voice calling out to her.

Man, she was going to be in big trouble now. She had just wanted to see what this mansion was like. She’d found the tunnel first, and then it had been fun to climb the stairs and poke her head in the big rooms, pretending that the home was her own, that she was a daughter with rich parents and lots of servants to make her bed, pick up her room, and anything else she told them to do.

She never thought this would happen.

Her mother was going to be really ticked off. She had told her to stay with her father and Lucy had disobeyed. Maybe, if she just kept out of sight a little longer, her mother would be so relieved to see her that she wouldn’t be mad when she finally came out.

Lucy crouched down behind the balustrade to wait it out awhile.

  CHAPTER  
134

The dark-clad figure kept close to the wall, careful to maintain a safe distance, following Grace into the house. Inside the kitchen, the caterer’s carving knives rested on the counter, available for the picking.

Grace walked through the spacious laundry area, her heels clicking across the hard floor. She clutched her purse, hoping to hear her beeper go off, signaling that Lucy had been found. As she reached the end of the long space, she paused at the top of the stairs to the boiler room. Sensing movement behind her, she looked back over her shoulder. She saw nothing.

The new sandals were killing her. Blisters had formed where the straps rubbed against the sides of her feet. Grace slipped the shoes off, climbed down the stairs, and went directly to the mouth of the coal tunnel. The coal truck stood right where it
had when she’d been there with Professor Cox yesterday morning. Electric lights, affixed to the brick walls, dimly illuminated the dark passageway.

“Lucy. Lucy,” she called. When she heard no response, Grace’s heart sank. She had been hoping to find her daughter here.

Dear God, let Lucy be all right.

With desperation, Grace turned around to continue her search. She was met by a figure looming at the top of the stairs, blocking her way out.

Frank was finally getting worried now. He didn’t want to think about what his life would be like if something had happened to his daughter.

It was worth a shot. Maybe Lucy had gone out to the car in the parking lot. Maybe she was sound asleep in the backseat.

He jogged across the crushed gravel, noticing, with no particular interest, the vanity plate on a dark sedan.

SEANNA.

“Oh. Detective Manzorella. You scared me.” Grace put her hand over her chest.

“Find anything?” he asked as he started downward.

Grace watched as the long legs navigated the stairs. The detective held his left arm behind him, gripping the railing with his right hand.

“No. She’s not here,” Grace answered.

Why was he continuing down the steps? He should turn around. They had to keep looking for Lucy.

“I need that photograph, Grace.”

“Sure. Of course, I’ll give it to you. But let’s not stop for that now. We have to find Lucy first. Then I’ll tell you everything I suspect.” Where the hell were his priorities? Didn’t he see she couldn’t focus on anything else until she was certain her daughter was safe?

“Give it to me, Grace. Now.”

She was taken aback by the fury she saw in his dark eyes.

Lucy had to face them sometime.

She got up from her hiding place, went back inside the mansion, walked slowly down the flights of stairs, came out at the service entrance, and braced herself.

“I guess you never called for that police backup,” Grace said softly as she saw Manzorella switch the knife from his left hand to his right.

As Manzorella took another step closer, she backed up against the coal truck and tried to scream. Instantly, his one hand was upon her mouth, the other holding the knife to her neck.

“You should have stayed out of this, Grace.”

His palm blocked her answer. He had to find out what she knew so he could ascertain whether there was any danger of being found out after he killed her.

“I’ll take my hand down, but if you try to scream again, this blade slits your throat.”

Grace nodded, her eyes bulging.

“Now, tell me what you know.”

If she told him everything, he would surely kill her. If she refused, he would kill her as well. Grace knew she had to buy time.

“I know about the sundial earrings. I know that the police found one in Charlotte’s gown.” Even now she wasn’t going to tell about the other one that Rusty had. She wasn’t going to drag him into this.

“Fine. That’s no big deal,” Manzorella muttered. “What else?”

“And I know about Charlotte’s diary. I’ve read the entry from the night she died.”

Manzorella was impressed. “Where did you get that?”

“Someone gave it to me.”

“Who?”

“The same person who gave me the photograph. So you see, I’m not the only one who could piece this together, Detective. You’d be better off letting me go and turning yourself in.”

“Nice try, but don’t make me laugh.” Manzorella sneered. “So Izzie O’Malley finally turned over the picture. She and her husband held on to that damned thing for all these years, terrified that the wallet he left in the playhouse would make them look guilty. No problem. I can take care of Izzie. As for the diary, that doesn’t worry me either. I’ve read it again and again. Charlotte wrote her last diary entry before I came to Shepherd’s Point to see her that night. There’s nothing in the diary that points to me as her killer.”

“But, why
did
you kill Charlotte?” Grace asked point-blank.

Manzorella had to admire the woman for having the moxie to put the question directly to him. Grace was brave and she was smart, too smart for her own good. But he could tell her now, since she wasn’t going to have a chance to tell anyone else.

“I didn’t mean to kill Charlotte, I really didn’t. I loved her. I knew we could have been happy together in a world where it didn’t matter what your social or economic status was.”

“That’s not this world, Detective.”

“Charlotte agreed with you. That was the problem. She wouldn’t consider leaving that cheating husband of hers, even when the evidence of his infidelity was right in front of her in that photograph. I had noticed the same thing myself at the country club that night. Oliver was all over Elsa Gravell, whenever they thought Charlotte couldn’t see them.

“But I was glad. It meant there was hope for me with Charlotte. When no one answered at Seaview, I called Shepherd’s Point and went there after I got off duty. I had to tell Charlotte that I still loved her, would always love her. I begged her to leave Oliver and be with me. She spurned me and I snapped. It’s as simple as that.”

Manzorella’s eyes welled up.

Grace felt the cool steel blade pressed against her neck and prayed that he wouldn’t snap again.

“But why kill Madeleine?”

“I heard the two of you talking at the Vickerses’ house. Madeleine was getting too close. I couldn’t take the chance that she would remember seeing me at the gate at Shepherd’s Point that night.”

“And when Sam was advertised as an eyewitness to Madeleine’s murder,” Grace reasoned aloud, “you had to get rid of him.”

“Yep. And that Quigley woman happened to run by as I was leaving the scene. She had to go, too. It was just as you said, Grace. Dominoes.”

“And the
S-E-A
license tag?” Grace asked.

“Only Zoe, you, and I know about that. I never did anything with the information you gave me on that, never ordered the DMV to do a search.”

Grace knew where this was going. Manzorella was making sure there wasn’t some bit of incriminating evidence floating out there that he didn’t know about. After he had pumped her for everything she knew, he was going to kill her.