Murder at Blackwater Manor (3 page)

“I’m fair,” Sage said.

“Alright,” Prim sighed with relief. “I want you to play really badly tonight. Like, forget you’ve ever won a game.”

“Sure, Prim. I don’t care that much and if it means that much to you…”

“My sweet little sister,” Prim said and pinched Sage’s cheeks. “Now, let’s really freshen up and go.”

“Are you kidding me? I won’t pass the chance to use the facilities. This place is like in the movies.”

A few minutes later, just as the sisters were done fixing their make-up and hair, a sharp scream pierced the air.

They quickly came out of the bathroom with concerned looks on their faces and saw all the guests clamoring up the grand front staircase towards the second floor. They ran to catch up with them, wondering what could have happened in the few short moments they were gone.

Mrs. Blackwater was standing in front of an open door, a porcelain cup shattered to pieces in her feet and tea splattered all over the place. The woman’s hand was pressed against her mouth and her wide open eyes were filled with horror.

“Thea, what’s wrong? What happened?” James Blackwater said and hurried over to her.

“Ph-Phil-Philip,” she stuttered, “My husband! He’s dead.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Tea and a Roomful of Suspects

Anabelle Bluebird, the town’s librarian, had immediately jumped into action and taken Thea’s arm, leading her gently downstairs to sit down. Sage saw her shouting a few instructions to the maid, who was standing at the bottom of the staircase, and disappearing with the devastated widow into the game room.

“I can’t believe this,” Prim muttered as a shaken-looking James came out of Philip Blackwater’s study and nodded to confirm his brother’s death.

“Let’s all get downstairs,” Mr. Bluebird ushered the sisters with a grim voice. “Ladies, after you.”

“We need to call Ben,” James said.

“Why?” Prim said, confused. “What’s wrong?”

Ben was Primrose’s husband and Rosecliff’s sheriff. If there was a need for him to be called, she already knew what was in the room and her face contorted in horror.

“He didn’t just pass away,” James said. “He was brutally murdered.”

“But…” Prim tried to say.

“There is no use talking about this before we have Ben look at him,” Mr. Bluebird said, “I’m just as shocked as all of you are, but until we know something, it looks like we are all under suspicion for murder.”

That was exactly what was on Sage’s mind when she took her sister’s hand and led her down the stairs, followed closely by the two men.

“It’s just not possible,” Prim whispered to her, “Who would have the time to commit murder when we were all together?”

“No, we weren’t,” Sage whispered back. Her mind had already started working, placing everyone around the house and tracing their possible actions, “We were in the bathroom, Prim.”

“For what? Like two minutes?”

“Sometimes that’s all it takes. Plus, I think it was longer than that. More like twenty.”

“But it could have happened any time after dinner, couldn’t it?” Prim’s little hand started trembling inside her sister’s, “I can’t believe it! We are suspects in a murder!”

“Don’t worry,” Sage tried to reassure her, though she herself didn’t feel that confident at the moment, “We were together the whole time. This counts for something. Obviously, whoever did it must have sneaked out without the others noticing. We should really just wait for Ben to arrive.”

“You are right,” Prim sighed as they entered the game room, “It makes it no less terrifying though. We could be sitting in a room with a cold-blooded murderer.”

She shuddered.

Ben was a good-looking man. His athletic build, sandy blond hair, blue eyes and honest face only increased his authority in Rosecliff. Just looking at him, you could assume that he was someone you could trust and respect. His manner was also very calm and measured and he wasn’t one to give in to rash actions or decisions.

When the maid finally led him into the room, Prim rushed to greet him. The others also got to their feet, almost relieved that his arrival marked the end to the half-hour-long awkward silence, during which everyone was afraid to even utter a word. A few suspicious glances had been exchanged, but mostly, the guests had preferred to keep to their own thoughts.

The only sound that could be heard in the suddenly small and suffocating room, had been the quiet sobbing of Mrs. Blackwater and the soothing voice of Mrs. Bluebird, whose face was also streaked with tears now. The two sisters had sat right near the fireplace, holding each others’ hands and staring into the fire. No one had touched the thoughtful cups of tea the maid had hurried to prepare.

“Good evening, everyone,” Ben said and was met with a few saddened nods. After he’d stroked his wife’s strawberry blond hair to comfort her and whispered something to her, he went straight to kneel in front of Mrs. Blackwater. “I’m so sorry about Philip, Thea.”

“It… It’s alright,” she sobbed, “I’m just glad you are here.” She burst into tears once again and Ben gave her a few moments to get a hold of herself.

“I’m going to need you to all stay put for a while,” he said when he’d waited respectfully for the room to quiet down again. “I’ll need to examine the body and look around a bit. But first of all, I need to know who found Philip?”

“I did,” Thea sniffled, “I just went to see what was taking him so long, since the game was about to start and I.. I…”

“Did you touch anything? Has anyone been inside the room after?”

“I didn’t touch anything,” Thea said, “I just opened the door and saw him like that, and I just couldn’t… I didn’t even go in.”

“It’s okay, Thea,” Ben said gently, “That’s all I need to know for now.”

“I was in there last,” James said, standing up, “I needed to see if he was really dead, but I only touched him, nothing else.”

“Thank you Mr. Blackwater, James. I’ll be right back.”

Ben gave the maid a sign to escort him to the study and followed her outside. Sage couldn’t sit still anymore and hurried to the door to catch up with him.

“Ben?” she called after him and he turned halfway up the stairs.

“Sage, maybe it’s best for you to join the others for now. Go be with Prim. I think she’s pretty badly shaken up.”

“Ben, are the two of us under suspicion?”

“Technically, you are,” he sighed, “I’m sure we’ll get the chance to clear this whole mess up in just a short while.”

“Can I come with you?”

“No, Sage, it’s really best if you just go back and sit with the others. I need to do this alone.”

“But remember how I was able to help last time? Maybe I’ll notice something that you wouldn’t…”

“Sage!” Ben interrupted her, “Go sit with your sister. You’ll only make it worse.”

“You really think I could have done it? I didn’t even know the man!”

“I try not to think anything,” Ben said with a tired look on his face, “I’ll start drawing conclusions only after I’ve had the chance to look around.”

With that, he turned and climbed the rest of the stairs, disappearing down the brightly lit corridor. There was nothing left for Sage to do, but to return to the sombre atmosphere in the game room.

The next forty minutes stretched like eternity. People kept leaving the room to the small terrace to smoke a cigarette, but as an unspoken agreement, no one stepped through the door that led to the rest of the house. Little was said, since with every passing minute, the realization that they could be implicated in murder downed on everyone.

Probably following Ben’s instructions, the maid had also joined them and sat quietly on a chair in the corner. She was conspicuously uneasy to be sitting in the presence of her employer, but James Blackwater had assured her it was alright under the circumstances.

“Sage,” Prim said suddenly, as if waking up from a dream, “Let’s go outside. I can’t sit here another minute. I need some air.”

Sage agreed at once and both of them sneaked out to the terrace. Luckily, there was no one there right now. The ashtray that was set on a small metal garden table was overflowing with cigarette butts and Prim wrinkled her nose just at the sight of it.

“I wish we could go upstairs,” Sage said as she was leaning over the metal railing and looking ahead at the manicured lawn. “It looks like Ben thinks we are no less suspicious than the rest of them.”

“Come on, Sage,” Prim said, “He’s just doing his jobs. He knows we have neither the motive, nor the ability to kill. When he comes down and we know exactly
how
he was killed, it will become even more obvious it couldn’t have been us.”

“Who do you think did it? You know these people better than I do.”

“I don’t really. I know them from around town, but I know nothing of their personal relationships. I can’t think of a single reason to want to hurt old Mr. Blackwater. Except that he was rich, but so is everyone else in that room.”

“Except for the maid…”

“Right, except for the maid, but how exactly could she benefit from the murder?”

Suddenly, a shadow danced in the pool of light in the grass coming from the upper floor to their right. Sage looked up and realized it must be Ben and the room upstairs to the right must be Mr. Blackwater’s study. Right underneath the window, which was open, was a flower bed that hid in the shadow of the building. In the darkness, Sage couldn’t tell what kind of flowers these were exactly. She strained her eyes a bit.

Something glinted in the murky space amid the flowers.

“Sage, what are you doing?” Prim almost shouted as she watched her sister climb over the railing and jump into the soft grass underneath.

“I think I saw something. Wait here.”

“What is it?” Prim called nervously as she kept looking back at the door, fearing that someone might come out and wonder what they were up to.

“Oh, no, Prim,” Sage’s muffled voice came from the short distance. “You have to see this.”

“Sage, come back! Ben will be mad. Whatever it is, don’t touch it, okay? The last thing we want for you is to spend the rest of your life in jail.”

Prim was surprised that her stubborn sister actually listened to her for once and came back to the terrace like a well-trained puppy. She climbed back in and her eyes were big and round as if she’d just seen a ghost.

“What is it? What did you see?” Prim asked anxiously.

“It was a silver vase.”

“And?”

“And it was all covered in blood.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Midnight Casserole and Clues

By the time Primrose, Sage and Ben came in through the front door, no one felt like sleeping any more, though it was after 2 am. They went straight into the kitchen and Sage and Ben immediately slumped into the high stools, while Prim busied herself with the kettle.

“Is anyone hungry,” she asked as she kept opening and closing the cabinet doors and taking out a tea box, a jar of honey and three cups.

“It’s weird after all that food we shoved down our throats earlier, but yes, I could use a snack,” Sage said.

“Me too,” Ben said and rested his head in his palms. He looked exhausted.

“Let me see what the boys have left over.”

Prim opened the fridge and started taking out different sized plastic containers, opening the lids and sniffing their contents.

“Two-day old casserole, anyone?”

“I’ll have a bite,” Ben said and Sage nodded in agreement.

Prim couldn’t believe this was all she could offer. Normally, she would have a selection of baked goods, probably even a cake, and at least two choices of meals from earlier in the day. Now with the store opening and the unexpected visit to the Blackwaters’, her usually pristine kitchen looked abandoned and sad. The dirty dishes had piled up in the sink as her sons had left them there before going to bed. Half empty glasses of milk and orange juice were lined on the counter.

She thought she should seriously start teaching them to do some things for themselves now that she was going to be occupied at the flower shop almost daily. That could wait, but now she had to really struggle to make herself stop obsessing about the dirty kitchen. She promised herself she’ll do it all tomorrow as much as it went against her natural instincts.

Now, there were far more pressing issues than a few greasy dishes. When the kettle started whistling, she filled three cups of hot tea and carried them off to the island, where she joined the others. They needed to discuss what had happened though no one was eager to start.

“Good job on spotting that vase, Sage,” Ben said finally. “And good thing you didn’t touch it. You could have got yourself in a ton of trouble.”

“Do you think there will be fingerprints on it?” Sage asked.

“We’ll have to see. I’ll take it back to the station in a bit and send it off for tests.”