Wait Until Midnight (3 page)

"I am curious about your list of errands, madam." He scanned the page quickly, his expression turning colder by the second.
"Dark gray jacket and trousers? Fierce features?
What the devil is going on here?"

"I do not see that my notes are of any importance to you, sir.
^"

"I just told you that I insist that this matter be held in confidence. There is a potential for scandal here. I have a strict rule about that sort of thing."

She frowned. "You have a rule regarding scandals? What is it?"

"I prefer to avoid them."

"Doesn't everyone?" Unable to get hold of the paper, she took refuge in an air of haughty aplomb. "Trust me, sir, I, too, have no wish to become embroiled in a scandal. I certainly have no intention of discussing your investigation outside this house."

"Then why did you find it necessary to write down these comments?"

Righteous indignation welled up inside her. "I was merely organizing my thoughts"

He surveyed what she had written. "Am I correct in assuming that some of these scribblings relate to my attire and the color of my eyes, Mrs. Fordyce?"

"Well—"

"I demand to know why you put your observations on paper. Damnation, woman, if you think to make me a subject of your private journal—"

"I assure you, I have no intention of putting you into my personal journal." She was able to make the statement with perfect sincerity because it was nothing less than the exact truth.

"Then I must conclude that you are indeed deeply involved in this affair of the murdered medium," he drawled in tones of silky menace.

She was horrified. "That is not true."

"There is no other logical reason for you to be taking such personal notes. If you are not making a record of our conversation for your journal, then I can only conclude that you are doing so in order to prepare a report for your accomplice."

"Accomplice."
She shot to her feet, disoriented and badly frightened now. "That is outrageous, sir. How dare you insinuate that I might be involved in a matter of murder?"

He snapped the paper in front of her face. "How else can you explain the need to record this interview?"

She fought to pull herself together and to think clearly. "I owe you no explanations, Mr. Grove. Quite the reverse. I would remind you that you are the one who barged into this house today."

That accusation clearly irritated him. "You make it sound as though I forced my way inside. That was not the case. You instructed your housekeeper to admit me."

"Only because you told her that you had come upon business that was of grave importance to both of us" She drew herself up. "But the truth is that Mrs. Delmont's untimely death appears to be gravely important only to you, Mr. Grove"

"You are wrong on that account, Mrs. Fordyce." "Nonsense," she declared in ringing accents, confident

of her position. "I have no interest whatsoever in the circumstances surrounding the murder of Elizabeth Delmont." Adam raised his brows. He said nothing.

Two or three seconds of tense silence gripped the room.

"Other than a perfectly natural curiosity and the quite normal concern that are only to be expected from a person who has just learned of a ghastly crime, of course," she amended smoothly.

"On the contrary, Mrs. Fordyce, I am convinced that your interest in this affair goes a good deal deeper than mere curiosity and casual concern"

"How is that possible?" she demanded. "I met the woman

only last night. I had no intention of ever seeing her again. I would also remind you that I and my aunts were not the only people who attended Delmont's last séance. There were two other sitters present. I believe their names were Mrs. Howell and Mr. McDaniel."

He went to stand by the window, looking out into the gar-den. In spite of the veil of fatigue that drifted about him, his strong, sleek shoulders were set in stem, unrelenting lines.

"Both of whom are quite elderly and frail," he said flatly. "I do not believe that either of them possesses the strength or determination necessary to crush the skull of a younger, stronger person with a
poker,
let alone overturn a heavy table and a number of chairs."

She hesitated. "You spoke with them?"

"There was no need to interview them personally. I made some discreet observations and inquiries in the streets where they live. I am convinced that neither of them is involved in this business."

"Well, I suppose it is rather unlikely," she admitted. "Tell me what occurred in the course of the séance," he said quietly.

"There is not much to tell." She widened her hands. "Just the usual sort of rappings and tappings. One or two manifestations. Some financial advice from the spirit world"

"Financial advice?" he asked with
unexpected
sharpness.

"Yes, Mr. McDaniel was told that he would soon be offered an excellent investment opportunity. It was nothing out of the ordinary. Sitters are often informed by the spirits that they may be in line for an unexpected inheritance or that they will receive money from some unanticipated source."

"I
see." He turned around slowly and looked at her with an expression that would not have been out of place on the face of the devil himself. "So the subject of money arose, did it?
^"

She clenched the chair back so tightly that the blood
\v
as squeezed out of
her knuckles. She
could scarcely breathe. Was he going to go to the police to lodge a charge of murder against her and her aunts?

She knew now that the three of them were in grave danger. They were all innocent, but she did not doubt for a moment that if a gentleman of Adam Grove's obvious power And position accused them of murder, they would be in desperate straits.

They had no choice but to flee
London immediately, she decided, thinking quickly. Their only hope was to disappear again, just as they had three years ago. She tried to re-call how much money was on hand in the house. As soon as Adam Grove departed, she would send Mrs. Plummer out to obtain a train schedule. How quickly could they pack?

Adam's black brows came together in a heavy line. "Are you all right, Mrs. Fordyce? You look as if you are going to faint
^"

Rage spiked through her, briefly suppressing her panic. "You have threatened my life, sir, and the lives of my aunts. How did you expect me to react?"

He frowned. "What are you talking about? I have made
no
threats, madam"

"You have as much as accused one or all of us of murder. If you take your suspicions to the police, we will be arrested and thrown into prison. We will
hang."

"Mrs. Fordyce, you are allowing your imagination to run away with your powers of reason and logic. I may harbor some suspicions but there remains the little matter of evidence."

"Bah. None of the three of us can prove that she did not

return after the séance to murder the medium. It would be our word against yours, sir, and we are both well aware that three ladies in our modest circumstances who lack social connections would not stand a chance if a man of your rank and wealth chose to point the finger of blame at us."

"Get hold of yourself, woman. I am in no mood to deal with a case of hysteria."

Her fury gave her strength. "How dare you tell me not to succumb to hysteria? My aunts and I are facing the gallows because of you, sir."

"Not quite," he growled.

"Yes, quite."

"Hell and damnation. I have had enough of these theatrics." He took a step toward her.

"Stop." She gripped the back of the chair with both hands and swung it around so that it formed a barrier between them. "Do not come any closer. I will scream bloody murder if you take one more step. Mrs. Plummer and the neighbors will hear me, I promise you."

He halted, exhaling heavily. "Kindly calm yourself, Mrs. Fordyce. This is all very wearying, not to mention a waste of everyone's time."

"It is impossible for me to be calm in the face of such dire threats"

He gave her a considering look. "Did you, by any chance, ever pursue a career on the stage, Mrs. Fordyce? You seem to have a distinct flair for melodrama."

"Oddly enough, I find a dramatic reaction entirely appropriate in this situation," she said through her teeth.

He studied her for a long moment. She got the impression that he was recalculating some secret scheme.

"Breathe deeply, madam, and compose yourself," he said finally. "I have no intention of having you or your aunts taken up on a charge of murder."

"Why should I believe you?"

He rubbed his temples. "You must trust me when I tell you that justice is not my chief concern here. I am content to leave that problem for the police, although I doubt that they will be successful. They are reasonably efficient when it comes to catching ordinary murderers, but this was not an ordinary killing."

She sensed that he was telling the truth. Nevertheless, she did not release her grip on the chair. "If you did not come here seeking justice for Elizabeth Delmont, what do you want, Mr. Grove?"

He watched her with cool speculation. "My only goal in this affair is to recover the diary."

She did not try to hide her confusion. "What diary?" "The one that was stolen from Elizabeth Delmont's house last night"

She puzzled that out as best she could. "You seek Mrs. Delmont's diary? Well, I assure you, I know nothing of it and neither do my aunts. Furthermore, I can tell you with absolute certainty that I did not notice any diary in the room at the séance last night."

He contemplated her for another moment and then shook his head, as though he had reluctantly accepted defeat.

"Do you know, I believe you may be telling me the truth, Mrs. Fordyce. Indeed, it appears that I was wrong about you.
^,

She allowed herself to relax ever so slightly. "Wrong, sir?"

"I came here this morning in hopes of surprising you into admitting that you had taken the damned diary. At the very least I thought you might be able to give me some notion of what had happened to it."

"Why is this particular diary so important to you?"

His smile was as sharp and deadly as a knife. "Suffice it to say that Mrs. Delmont presumed to think that she could use it to blackmail me "

Mrs. Delmont had evidently allowed greed to overwhelm caution and good sense, Caroline thought. No sane, sensible person would take the risk of trying to extort money from this man.

"What made you think that I might know something concerning its whereabouts?" she demanded.

He widened his stance and clasped his hands behind his back. "You and the other sitters at the séance were the last people to see Elizabeth Delmont alive, aside from the killer, of course. I learned from one of Delmont's neighbors that the housekeeper was given the night off."

"Yes, that's true. Mrs. Delmont herself opened the door to us. She said she always gave her housekeeper the night off on séance evenings because she could not go into a proper trance if there was anyone other than the sitters present. Indeed, the comment made me wonder if perhaps—"

"Yes?" he prompted. "What did it cause you to wonder about, Mrs. Fordyce?"

"Well, if you must know, it occurred to me that perhaps Mrs. Delmont did not like to have her housekeeper present while she conducted a séance because she was afraid that the woman would become wise to her tricks and perhaps expose her in exchange for a bribe. Psychical investigators have been known to
pay
the servants who work for mediums to spy on their employers, you see."

"A clever notion, Mrs. Fordyce" Adam looked approving of her logic. "I suspect that you are right. Mediums are notoriously secretive."

"How did you learn my name and address?"

"When I discovered the body, I also found a list of the sitters who had attended the final séance. The addresses had been put down alongside the names."

"I see"

Her imagination conjured up a disturbing image of Adam Grove methodically searching Mrs. Delmont's parlor while the body of the murdered woman lay crumpled on the floor. It was a chilling vision, one that said a great deal about Grove's nerve. She swallowed hard.

"I spent the remainder of the night and the early hours of this morning talking to servants, carriage drivers and ..." He hesitated, as though choosing his words carefully. ".. . others who make their living on the streets near Delmont's house. Among other things I was able to verify Mrs. Delmont's housekeeper was busy attending her daughter, who was in the process of giving birth last night. Her alibi is unshakable. That left me with your name, Mrs. Fordyce."

"No wonder you look so weary," she said quietly. "You have been up all night."

He absently rubbed his stubbled jaw and grimaced. "My apologies for my appearance."

"It is hardly a matter of importance, given the circumstances." She hesitated. "So you came here today with the intention of confronting me in this alarming manner. Your goal was to frighten me and thereby trick me into revealing some dreadful conspiracy, wasn't it?"

He shoved a hand through his short, dark hair, showing no sign of remorse. "That was more or less my plan, yes" Uneasily aware that he might not have abandoned the

notion entirely, she searched her brain for other possible suspects.

"Perhaps Mrs. Delmont was the victim of a burglar who attacked her after he broke into the house," she suggested.

"I searched the place from top to bottom. There was no evidence that the doors or windows had been forced. It appeared that she had let the killer in "

The offhand manner in which he delivered that information deepened her sense of unease. "You certainly made a number of close observations last night, Mr. Grove. One would have thought that the proximity of a savagely murdered woman would have made it difficult to think and act so methodically and logically."

"Unfortunately, it appears that I did not make any especially useful observations," he said. He went toward the door with a purposeful stride. "I have wasted your time and my own. I would take it as a great favor if you would refrain from discussing this conversation with anyone else."