Lethal Legend (23 page)

Diana blinked slowly. “Of course. I will do as you say, Mr. Palmer.” Meekly—too meekly—she thanked him for his help and bade him a polite good night.

Ben watched Palmer stride off until his departing figure was swallowed up by the shadows of a hedgerow. What had just happened?

Diana, her face reflecting the same bemusement Ben felt, started to speak, then fell silent.

“Did he just hypnotize you?”

 
“I ... I don’t know. The last few minutes are a trifle ... blurred.”

Hypnosis was a subject about which Ben knew very little ... except that a truly skilled practitioner could sometimes cure patients of their fears by planting suggestions in their minds while they were in a trance.

“I do want to warn Serena,” Diana whispered, “but is that my own idea, or his?” Her voice rose to a panic pitch on the last two words.

Ben wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a reassuring squeeze. When he felt a shudder run through her, he decided it was past time they went inside.

“Hypnosis is just a stage trick,” Diana said after a moment’s walking. She sounded as if she was trying to convince herself it was true. “Success requires only a powerful personality and sometimes a conspirator planted in the audience.”

“I bow to your greater knowledge of theatrical performances, but there may also be practical, scientific uses for the ability. I’ve heard that some dentists use the technique to keep their patients from feeling pain.” Of their own volition, his fingers reached up to massage his jaw.

“Nonsense. If hypnosis were possible, that would mean Justus Palmer could make you or I or anyone else he chose do anything he wanted us to, even if it went against our natures. The man is simply charismatic, as you are yourself.”

The more she talked, the steadier she became. Ben decided not to disabuse her of her conviction. “Do you want to return to Keep Island?”

“
Someone
should warn Serena that an old enemy has surfaced nearby.”

Ben glanced from side to side as they strode along the walkway at a rapid clip. Palmer had vanished with as much stealth as he’d appeared. Or had he? Might he still be lurking somewhere, watching and listening?

Annoyed with himself for allowing the other man to get under his skin, Ben was nevertheless resolved to find out more about the private detective. Why, he wondered, did
Palmer
want them to go to Keep Island? That talking to Graham and Serena fell in well with Ben’s own inclination was neither here nor there. He was suspicious of the detective’s motives.

Back in their room, Diana not at once return to bed. Her expression troubled, she waited for Ben to take a clean nightshirt out of a drawer, then blurted out news that stunned him: “Palmer was here Tuesday night. Maggie told me about it on Wednesday morning, but I didn’t believe her.”

Ben froze in the act of placing his pocket watch on the dresser. “Here?”

“They met in the garden. She ... she said he bit her on the neck.”

Surprised into a laugh, Ben felt himself relax. “Let me get this straight—you don’t believe in hypnosis but you do believe in vampires?”

* * * *

Since Graham Somener did not know about Ben and Diana’s visit to Islesborough, he welcomed them with open arms. Unfortunately, and against Diana’s advice, Ben immediately confessed everything they’d tried to do.

“You damned—”

Ben caught Somener’s raised fist before it could land.

“You’ve got some nerve showing your face here after spreading lies about my wife!”

“Now, Graham—”

Diana started to step between them. After all, a similar effort had worked to stop a fight with Palmer. “Ben had the best of intentions. He—”

Somener knocked her outstretched hand aside with a stinging blow. “Be quiet. Both of you. I do not want to hear another word. How you dare to come here when you believe—”

Ben grabbed his old friend by the shoulders and shook him. “I’ll atone for my mistakes later, Graham. Right now we have more information you need to hear. Justus Palmer was hired by Professor Lucien Winthrop. Winthrop is the source of the rumors about criminal activities on Keep Island.”

“Professor ... who? I’ve never heard of the man.”

“Serena has.”

“Where is Serena?” Diana interrupted.

“In the library.” But when Diana turned in that direction, Graham Somener bellowed at her. “Leave her be!” He started after her, fists raised. “I want you off my island. Both of you. Now!”

Ben moved to block his way.”You’ll have to throw us off bodily, starting with me.”

“With pleasure.” The gleam of anticipation in Somener’s eyes was reflected in Ben’s as they raised their fists in the classic bare-knuckle boxing pose.

Horrified, Diana tried again to intervene.

“Stay back,” Ben ordered.

“You’re going to fight?” She could not stem the alarm in her voice. The last time Ben had resorted to fisticuffs, he had not come out of the match unscathed.

“Just a friendly little bout.” Neither Ben’s grin nor his tone of voice were convincing. “Don’t worry about us, Diana. Go and find Serena.”

Without warning, Somener attacked. Ben deflected the fist with one arm, gave a whoop of exhilaration, and tried to strike his opponent in return. Blows fell fast and hard after that, but none of them seemed to inflict much damage. Diana stared at them in disbelief. They actually seemed to
enjoy
throwing punches at each other.

At first blood, spurting copiously from Graham Somener’s nose, Diana beat a hasty retreat. She couldn’t tell any more if they were truly angry with one another or not but she had no desire to watch them work out their differences with their fists.

She found Serena just where Graham had said she’d be, so engrossed in reading that she did not even look up when Diana entered the room.

“Good day to you, Serena.” She wondered if the other woman would rescind the invitation to use her first name when she learned what Ben and Diana had tried to do.

“Diana! I did not expect to see you so soon.” Serena rose hastily from an overstuffed chair to cross the room and tuck the old book she’d been perusing into a drawer in Graham Somener’s big partner’s desk.

“I’ve come to apologize,” Diana said, “and to ask questions. Let me start with this: did you know that Lucien Winthrop lives in Belfast?”

The flicker of surprise in Serena’s eyes answered before she spoke. Moving with a stiffness that denoted wariness, she faced Diana. “Winthrop is here? In Maine?”

“And has been for some time. He knows you’re here, too.”

Softly but colorfully, Serena cursed. Diana let the tirade wind down before she attempted to ask any more questions. It was plain enough how Serena felt about the professor.

“If we are to accomplish anything,” Diana said when the other woman seemed to have calmed down enough to listen, “we must be honest with each other. Let me say first that Ben and I made a mistake, but you are yourself to blame, at least in part.”

“What are you talking about?” Serena gestured toward a chair and settled into its mate herself, sprawling in an unladylike manner that nevertheless struck Diana as looking extremely comfortable, especially as Serena was once again dressed in her men’s clothing.

Wondering if the other woman would attempt to punch her in the face when she’d finished, Diana plunged into her own confession, ending with the misguided attempt to stop Serena’s wedding. By then Serena’s face was set hard as stone and she was sitting bolt upright.

“You thought I was a confidence woman?” she asked through gritted teeth.

“Or a fortune hunter.” She’d left out the speculation that involved smuggling and piracy. “Consider what we saw, Serena. You were excessively secretive about what you were doing here, you lied at the inquest—” She held a hand up to stop the other woman’s protest. “At the least you changed your story. And that one night when you drank to excess you were muttering about ruined plans. You were obviously overwrought about something. Add in the condemnation of a known authority on matters archaeological and what else could we think but that you were up to no good?”

“I drank too much and lied at the inquest for the same reason—to protect Graham.” Too restless to remain seated, she leapt from the chair and began to prowl the confines of the library.

“You’re telling me you thought Graham killed Frank Ennis?”

“I thought it was possible. It wasn’t until after everyone left that we were able to talk things through. He’s not a murderer and neither am I, but we came to two decisions that night. The first was to discourage the investigation into Frank’s death. Graham had enough bad publicity to last him a lifetime over that business with the building collapse. The second decision was to wed. We went the very next day to Islesborough to file our marriage intentions.”

“Not to Belfast?”

“No. In fact, I’ve never been to Belfast. I’ve always traveled here by way of Bucksport on the
Miss Min
.”

“Someone sent a telegram to me from Belfast on that same Monday afternoon. It warned me to stop meddling.”

“I didn’t send it. Nor did Graham.” She flung herself into the chair behind the desk and plucked up a penknife to fiddle with.

“What about Paul Carstairs?”

“What about him?”

“Is he here on the island?”

She nodded. “As far as I know, he hasn’t left since we first set up camp, except to go to Ellsworth for Frank’s funeral.”

“In that you are wrong. He made at least one trip to Belfast, by way of Islesborough, on Friday. I wonder now if he was also there on that Monday. Since you and Graham were on Islesborough, you wouldn’t know he stayed here or not.”

“Why would Paul threaten you?”

“A good question. I might be able to answer it better if you’d tell me first about your relationship with Professor Winthrop.”

“He was my mentor at the Peabody Museum.” Her restless movements stilled. “You say he now lives in Belfast?”

“Yes.”

She looked up and met Diana’s eyes. “I didn’t know. I swear it.”

“Carstairs told us that Winthrop sent for him. Was he also one of Winthrop’s pupils?”

“Yes. We all were. Paul and Frank and I. At first I thought it a great honor to work with him. He is quite famous in his field.”

Diana’s eyebrows lifted at the bitterness in Serena’s voice.

“That was before I realized that he was a charlatan and a thief!” With a sudden, violent gesture, she drove the penknife into the blotter.

Diana left the safety of her chair to stand on the opposite side of the big desk. “I thought he was the one who accused you of deceit?”

“Oh, he did ... once he realized I was on to him. He is unscrupulous, Diana. Over and over again he encouraged promising students to share their research with him, then appropriated their discoveries as his own. I was lucky. I had developed a theory on another subject, one much less important than the matter of settlers on Keep Island. When Winthrop stole that first idea, I realized I had to keep secret the details of any new discoveries.”

Serena sprang out of the chair and once more began to pace. There was no doubting her sincerity. If it had been the professor who’d been murdered, Diana would have looked no further for the killer.

“It infuriated Winthrop to realize I was on the trail of something big. Once I’d convinced him he would never have enough information to claim the discovery as his own, he set out to ruin me. He was very thorough. He convinced everyone that my theories on the subject of early European settlers were absurd. Then he made it seem as if I had set out to trick them. No one would believe me when I accused
him
of underhanded tactics. If it had not been for two old friends, I would not even have been able to field a professional crew for this expedition.”

“Ah, yes. Old friends. I’m afraid that was another point that made you seem suspicious. Mr. Ennis apparently claimed that you and he had been married.”

“Never married!” Serena’s eyes snapped with renewed fury.

“What, then?”

Quickly regaining control of herself, she shrugged. “We’d
talked
about marriage, but that was before Winthrop’s accusation that I had deliberately perpetrated a fraud. His lies resulted in a polite request that I leave the Peabody. Frank had his own career to think about. He stayed on at Harvard.”

“And yet he agreed to help you this summer.”

“As a personal favor. Unfortunately, it turned out that he expected personal favors in return.”

“And Carstairs? Why did he join you?” Serena’s circling had begun to make Diana dizzy. She seated herself and stopped trying to watch the other woman pace.

“Paul was very ill earlier this year. He said that spending his summer on an island off the coast of Maine was just what he needed to recover his strength.” She frowned. “It’s also possible no one else would hire him. Raw good health is a necessity for an archaeologist.”

“When Ben and I talked to Professor Winthrop, he claimed he had never met you and had never heard of Ennis or Carstairs.”

“Well, those are outright lies. I was a private student at the Peabody Museum. Paul and Frank were graduate students. Winthrop is an assistant there.”

“Was. Professor Putnam
did
believe you, Serena. In time, he found evidence enough against Winthrop to force him into retirement.”

“But not enough, apparently, to ruin his reputation or restore mine!”

Diana understood her bitterness, but there were other things that still puzzled her. “Faced with expulsion, you failed to provide proof of your theory. Do you
have
any?”

Serena hesitated, but Diana’s quiet determination seemed to sway her. “It was complicated. I wasn’t well acquainted with Graham then, but I knew what he had gone through after the building collapse. I could not in good conscience reveal the location of this island without talking to him first, and he was holed up here, seeing no one.”

“Your research wasn’t enough?”

“Not when the great Lucien Winthrop took a stand against me!” She led Diana to the corner of Graham’s library she’d staked out as her own. “This is what I had. First, a rare copy of a book published in 1558.” Extracting it from a shelf, she offered it to Diana. “I taught myself Italian in order to be able to read it.”