Deception at Dark Hall (The Briony Martin Mystery Series) (6 page)

They said goodbye with him promising to call upon her return to Wichita Monday evening.

When the front door opened, she heard a muffled whimper. Paige had returned with Amanda. Daniel entered from the back door simultaneously and stepped into the living room.

“How’s the baby?” Briony asked, moving forward to close the door and take Paige’s purse and diaper bag from her shoulder.

Paige sat the straw basket on the couch and removed the blanket from over Amanda’s head. “The doctor says there’s nothing to worry about. The fever has already gone down. I guess it was a false alarm. I panicked for no reason.” She smiled and kissed her baby’s forehead.

“I’m sure your doctor has seen new mothers concerned over far less,” Briony said. “Anyway, I’ve heard fever in a newborn is nothing to take lightly.”

“You did the right thing,” Daniel assured.

“Thanks, both of you. If you’ll excuse me, Amanda’s hungry. I’ll give her a bottle and then put her in her crib.”

After she’d gone upstairs, Daniel told Briony he’d unloaded all the chairs.

Knowing she should stay out of his business, she nonetheless felt compelled to warn him of the uneasiness that edged at her with regard to his date with Shelby Dark. “Are you sure you want to get involved with Shelby?” she blurted. “There’s something about that woman that troubles me. Besides, I thought you liked her sister.”

Daniel snorted. “You’re quite observant, Briony. I have taken a fancy to Sharlyn. I like her very much, but it’s not like we’re spoken for each other. We’ve spent some time alone at the mansion, but we haven’t even gone on a proper date outside of its gates. I don’t see how it’ll hurt to meet her twin for one drink. I might be able to garner information about Sharlyn from Shelby. Sharlyn’s a mysterious girl. She doesn’t talk about herself, and I want to know everything about her. She’s beautiful and has a heart of gold.”

Gathering information sounded like a good excuse. “But you’re also attracted to Shelby,” Briony pointed out. “And I suspect it has more to do with her behavior than her heart. I saw the way you stared at her.”

He smiled. “You don’t miss anything, do you, Briony? You caught me. The two women seem to be polar opposites, but I like them both in different ways.”

She understood the way in which Daniel meant. It was pure physical attraction and Shelby’s sassy attitude that enticed him. “They don’t seem to be close. Shelby admitted as much. I doubt you’ll get much information out of her about her sister. Her behavior bothered me. Didn’t you think she acted strangely?”

“Strange? In what way?”

Was he kidding? How was it possible for him not to have noticed the blatant way in which Shelby had flirted with her? Briony wrung her hands together and remembered the story her mother had once told her in passing about a great aunt who had lived with another woman for forty years.

At the great aunt’s funeral, the other woman had caused a scene by throwing herself upon the casket and sobbing for the loss of
her dearest and sweetest love
. The next day, she’d been arrested on suspicion of participating in a
demented
relationship. That was in the 1930s. As it turned out, she’d been able to hire a good lawyer and was able to avoid jail time. However, the poor woman had been run out of town on a rail, so the story went. No one in the family ever learned what had happened to her.

Briony wondered if Shelby Dark preferred women over men in the same way Mother’s great aunt had. If so, why ask Daniel over for a drink? He excused himself and disappeared into his room to leave her alone with the question unanswered.

~ * ~

Around eight o’clock that evening, Briony, Paige and Mark were enjoying lively conversation in the living room when the back door slammed open. Daniel stumbled into the room looking as white as a sheet. Mark bounded up from the couch.

“What’s wrong, man? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”

Daniel leaned against the wall, as if he might pass out. Mark rushed to him and grabbed his arm. Their hands touched, and when Mark slipped out of Daniel’s grasp, his palms were stained red.

“Good Lord, Daniel! Is that blood?”

The women jumped from their seats. Paige uttered a sharp cry. A cold chill washed over Briony when her gaze met Daniel’s. Grave lips and a troubled brow indicated something wicked had occurred at Shelby Dark’s tonight.

“Where have you been? What happened? Were you in an accident?” Mark demanded answers. He led Daniel to a cushioned chair and pushed down on his shoulder to lower him into the seat. Then Mark knelt on a knee in front of his brother.

“I’ll wet a wash cloth to clean his hands,” Paige said, running to the bathroom.

Briony stood at Daniel’s side. “Did something happen at Shelby’s house?” she asked.

A frightened expression glazed his eyes. He nodded.

“Who’s Shelby?” Mark asked.

“Sharlyn Dark’s twin sister.” She quickly explained how they’d met her today, and how she’d invited Daniel for a drink.

“Whose blood is on your hands, Daniel?” Mark asked.

Paige returned with the cloth. Daniel was in such a bewildered state, he didn’t move, so she wiped his hands. “We should phone the police. Shouldn’t we?” she asked Mark.

“Not yet.” Briony lowered to her knees and gazed into Daniel’s eyes. “Tell us what happened. Don’t leave any detail out.”

He took a few moments to compose himself and then began. “I arrived at the address Shelby had given me promptly at seven o’clock. The building was a brownstone downtown. I rang the doorbell and waited, but no one answered. I rang again. Still, no one came to the door. Feeling like I was being watched, I turned my head and saw someone next door duck quickly into the shadows. I guessed it was a nosy neighbor. Instead of ringing the bell a third time, I lifted the brass knocker on the door. That’s when I realized the door was ajar. I pushed it further open and called out hello. The foyer was dark. I stuck my head in a bit and could see there were no lights on inside, which I found odd, since Shelby was expecting me at seven. I called out her name. Still no response.” He paused and inhaled a deep breath through his nose.

“Go on,” Briony urged. “What did you do next?”

“A sense of dread and foreboding suddenly came over me. The air inside the brownstone was thick and stale, like the house had been closed up for a long time, and it smelled of something sweet. And then I heard it.”

“It?”

“A moan. It was the sound of a human, not an animal. Someone inside was hurt or sick. At least, that’s what I imagined. Naturally, I thought it was Shelby, so I barged through the door and followed the noise to the parlor. The room was deep in shadows, but I could see the shape of a body lying on the floor, face up.”

Paige covered her mouth with her hand.

“I rushed forward and had just bent to see that the person lying on the floor wasn’t Shelby at all, but a man, when I heard footsteps rush behind me. Before I could turn, I was hit in the head and rendered unconscious.” He touched his scalp and fresh blood coated his fingers.

“Good God!” Mark exclaimed.

Briony rose and gently examined the gash in the back of his skull. “The injury is deep. It’s going to need stitches.”

“It’ll wait,” Daniel said. “I want to finish my story. When I woke up, I had a God-awful headache and remembered being bashed with something. But what I was most concerned about was the body next to me.”

“Did you touch it?” Briony asked. “To check for a pulse?”

“No. The poor fellow was obviously dead. He wasn’t breathing, and there was dried blood on his mouth. Then I saw the hole in his shirt and more blood around the wound. He’d been shot. I panicked. There was no way to know if whoever had killed him and clocked me in the head was still in the house, so I gathered my wits and ran. I should have called the police, but I was afraid they’d think I was the perpetrator.”

“And you have no idea if Shelby was in the house?” Briony asked.

He shook his head. “For all I know, someone murdered her, too. I should have searched the house.” He hung his head in his hands. “I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

Mark patted his leg. He clenched his teeth and flashed a fearful look at Paige and Briony. “What do we do now?”

“We have to get him to the hospital,” Paige said. “Besides stitching that wound, he might have a concussion.”

“First, Daniel must call the police,” Briony said.

His head lifted. “No! The neighbor next door will tell them she saw me at Shelby’s door, and they’ll accuse
me
of the murder.”

Briony’s voice remained calm. “Not if you didn’t have a motive. Maybe the man committed suicide. Did you see a gun near the body?”

He thought a minute. “No.”

“No murder weapon found at the scene means your prints won’t be found on it either,” she reasoned logically. “From what you told us, your fingerprints will only be found on the doorknob and doorbell, and the knocker. That proves nothing except that you were at the house, and you were there by invitation of the owner. When you realized the door was open and you heard a noise inside, you went to investigate, thinking Shelby was injured or sick. The police will have no reason to suspect you of wrongdoing, especially if you have no connection to the victim.”

“You must have learned a thing or two from your boyfriend,” Paige said. “You’re thinking just like a private eye.”

“I hear a lot of testimony from cops in my job.” She smiled, proud of the clarity in which she perceived this situation. “Don’t you see, Daniel, you have to tell the police your side of the story? If you don’t and they discover you were there tonight, they’ll definitely think you have something to hide and you may end up a suspect despite the lack of physical evidence. Besides, don’t you want to know if Shelby is all right?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then the police need to be notified immediately so they can go search her brownstone for her and for clues.”

“What if they find her dead, too?”

An icy feeling slid up her arms. “What if they don’t? To me, that’s the more important question.”

Daniel’s head tilted. A flash of comprehension lit in his eyes. “Do you think she might have killed the man? Do you think she set me up?”

“I don’t know the woman,” Mark spoke up, “but if the police find no sign of forced entry, the victim was obviously let in by someone. Being the owner of the brownstone, this Shelby Dark person seems the likeliest suspect in his death.”

Paige worried her lip between her teeth. “Why did whoever shot the man have to hit Daniel in the head?”

“The crime had probably just been committed,” Mark stated. “Obviously, the killer was still in the house when Daniel arrived. He or she couldn’t leave behind a witness.” A muscle quivered in his jaw, and he squeezed his brother’s arm. “We’re lucky you have a hard head.” They shared weak smiles. “I agree with Briony,” he continued. “You need to phone the police. Then I’ll drive you to the emergency room.”

Daniel was a lucky man indeed, Briony thought. Something hinted a malevolent force had been at work tonight. She didn’t believe for a moment that he’d coincidentally walked in on a murder.

CHAPTER FIVE

Midday the following morning, Mark and Daniel sat at the kitchen table with Briony and Paige rehashing the events as they happened last night. After a visit to the emergency room where Daniel received ten stitches in his scalp, Mark had driven him to Chicago Police Department headquarters to give his statement. There, they learned the next-door neighbor had called the police after hearing a gunshot from inside Shelby’s brownstone.

A Sergeant Montague informed them that the victim’s name was Andrew Whealdon. “Do you know him?” the sergeant asked.

Daniel did not.

“Are you certain? Perhaps you and Mr. Whealdon were both involved with Miss Dark, found yourselves at her apartment at the same time, argued over her, and an argument got out of hand.”

“I don’t know the victim,” Daniel maintained. “I don’t even know Miss Dark, to be honest. I just met her today for the first time. Miss Martin will attest to that.”

The sergeant telephoned Briony at the Collier home, and she verified Daniel’s statement. After another forty minutes of questioning, Montague admitted there was no physical evidence linking Daniel to the crime, so he wasn’t placed under arrest. Since he wasn’t entirely cleared of suspicion, however, the sergeant asked him to be available in case there was need to question him further.

The sergeant also told Daniel and Mark that Shelby Dark had not been found in the brownstone. There had been no forced entry and nothing seemed to have been stolen. No furniture was out of place, which indicated there’d been no struggle. As of late last night, there had been no sign of her.

“I want to go to Dark Hall and speak to Sharlyn,” Daniel now said, rising from his chair. “Maybe Shelby is there, or Sharlyn’s heard from her.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Mark replied. “Let the cops handle this. The more distance you put between you and those two crazy women, the better, in my opinion.”

From the twist of his mouth, it was clear Daniel took offense to his brother’s statement. “Sharlyn’s not crazy. She’s a good person. If she doesn’t know her sister’s missing, I owe it to her to let her know.”

“I don’t see why you owe that witch anything,” Paige chimed in. “Mark and I knew she was trouble from the first time you met her, and apparently, her twin is worse than trouble. She may be a killer.”

“That’s not fair. You don’t know anything of the sort. Maybe Shelby was defending herself from an intruder. Anyway, it doesn’t matter what either of you think. I’m going to see Sharlyn.” Daniel stood up and wobbled a bit. His eyes squinted closed, and he winced. It was evident his head still hurt.

“If you’re determined to go,” Briony said, “I’ll go with you. You shouldn’t be driving.”

His face broadened into a grateful smile. “I’d appreciate that, Briony. At least you understand. I can’t sit around here doing nothing and wondering what’s happened to Shelby.”

“Maybe her sister the medium can summon her,” Mark said smugly, rising to refill his coffee cup.