Murder Games (21 page)
Authors: Elisabeth Crabtree
Grace
felt her mouth drop open, as Kyle described in excruciating detail the intricacies of not only locating a fence, but how to negotiate with one successfully, and what needed to be done to set up an offshore bank account, as well.
Catching her expression, Kyle cleared his throat. “But r
eally, it’s much harder than you think. I’d go for the reward. Much safer.”
“
Right. We’ll consider it,” Jerry said as he flipped open Lucinda’s diary. It hadn’t taken them very long to find it when they searched Kyle’s coat pockets. He raised the diary over his head when Laura made a lunge for it. “We’ll look at it together. Agreed?”
She reluctantly nodded before giving
Kyle a dirty look. “I can’t believe he had the diary on him the whole time.” She shook her head as she followed the others out of the room.
Only Ivy and Rupert hung back.
“What should we do?” Ivy asked.
Rupert
propped the rifle against his shoulder. “I’m not staying down here. We need to be up there watching them.”
She looked worriedly at Grace and Kyle.
“They’ll be fine down here by themselves.”
Sighing, Ivy picked up a couple of blankets and wrapped them around Kyle and Grace’s shoulders before leaning down and checking the small portable heater in the corner.
“Come on.” Irritated, Rupert took her arm and led her out of the room. The door slammed shut behind them.
Grace grimaced.
“Just relax as much as possible,” Kyle said. “Struggling won’t help. It’ll just tire you out.”
“
Uh huh. That was very helpful of you, by the way.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Helpful to them. How do you even know that stuff about fences and off shore accounts?”
“I
went to college,” he said defensively. “I studied.”
“
Just what kind of classes did you take?” She looked at his smiling face. “Why are you smiling?”
“I’m just happy we’re back together.”
* * *
“What’s taking so long, Houdini?”
Grace lifted her head off the dirt floor and looked over her shoulder. Kyle was a few feet away rolling around on the floor. He had managed to free his legs soon after the others left, but was straining to release his hands, which were still tied to the back of his chair. “I thought you’d have us out of these ropes before they got upstairs.”
“Just relax,” he
said as his fingertips grazed the edge of his heel. “We’re almost as good as free.”
“What are you trying to reach?”
When Kyle didn’t answer, she repeated her question.
“I don’t want to tell you.”
“Kyle,” she said with a long suffering sigh, “I’ve been tied up for a good couple of hours now. There are things I need to do and I’m running out of time.”
“I
read Lucinda’s diary front to back. I sincerely doubt they’re any closer to finding the treasure than they were an hour ago.”
“I’m not talking about that
. . . I have to use the restroom,” she finally admitted.
“Oh
.”
“Would you please hurry
up?”
Kyle sighed.
“Fine, I have a tiny hacksaw hidden in the heel of my shoe.”
Grace
, still attached to her chair, wiggled closer to him.
Rolling over, he scooted up,
until he could feel her fingertips on his ankle. “There’s a little groove at the heel.”
“I feel it.” Using her fingernails, she slid the heel to the side being careful not to drop the hacksaw onto the floor. Once she had it in her
hands, he scooted back down until their hands were aligned. She pressed the hacksaw into his hand.
A few seconds later
, Kyle sat up and rubbed his wrists. “Ta da. And you doubted me.”
She raise
d an eyebrow.
“You’re not impressed?”
She shrugged. “I know you used a hacksaw.”
“See, t
his is why magicians don’t reveal their secrets.” He cut the ropes around her wrists and then reached for her ankles just as the lights went out. “Someone forgot to pay the electric company.”
Grace kicked her feet free and stretched. “Well, I don’t hear anyone screaming up there, so hopefully
, it’s just a short and nothing more sinister.”
They
stood up and inched to the door. With no windows and no lights, they stumbled around trying to find the latch that would open the door to the secret room.
Grace ran her ha
nds along the wall as Kyle explained how he found Lucinda Graves’ diary. When he paused, she asked, “Did you happen to notice anyone’s phone ringing while you were outside?”
“No, why?”
Grace filled him in on her discovery in the attic. “Did anyone take out their phone for any reason?”
“I really wasn’t paying that much attention to the others. I spent most of my time talking to Ivy who was out in front.”
Grace sighed in disappointment. “What did Lucinda’s diary say about the ruby?”
“The ruby actually belonged to her sister
, Annalise, who Lucinda absolutely despised. One day when Annalise wasn’t looking, Lucinda swiped the ruby.”
“Did she say what she did with it?”
Kyle found the latch and pulled. The door swung open. “She gave it to Timmy.”
Dropping her voice to a whisper, she reached for his hand.
“Who’s Timmy?”
“
I’m not sure.”
“What else did it say?”
“That was basically it. The diary wasn’t that long. It just covered a span of about five years ending on April 2nd, 1898. Lucinda didn’t keep up with it very well. She tended to skip days at a time.”
“
She did better than me,” Grace said. “Mine lasted a month before it got tossed into my closet.”
Kyle felt along t
he wall until his fingers grazed the bannister. “We’re at the stairs.”
She nodded reflexively despite the fact he couldn’t see her. Holding on to his
belt, she followed him up the stairs. They paused at the doorway. Moonlight from the sunroom windows provided just enough light for them to see without bumping into anything. They could hear Sabrina and Laura’s voices coming from the kitchen. Being careful not to make a sound, they snuck past and dashed into the billiard room. They carefully made their way in the dark toward the old-fashioned wall phone behind the bar.
“Oh, no,” she said with a groan
, “something’s wrong.”
“What?”
Kyle asked.
“
The phones aren’t working,” Laura said from behind them.
* * *
Laura pulled Grace into the dining room and shoved her down into one of the chairs. Butcher knife in hand, Sabrina motioned for Kyle to follow.
Ivy lit a match and lighted the candles in the candelabra. She brought it closer to where Rupert,
Jerry, and Caroline were sitting before turning to throw another log into the dining room fireplace
Rupert looked up from Lucinda Graves’ diary.
“What are they doing up here?” he asked.
“We escaped,” Kyle said proudly.
Jerry looked from Sabrina’s butcher knife to Kyle and smiled. “Are you sure?”
Laura tossed the phone down onto the table. “We caught them in the
billiard room trying to call out.”
“Did you have to destroy it?”
Ivy asked, pointing to the frayed phone line.
“We didn’t do that,”
Sabrina said. “Someone cut the wires to all the phones in the house.”
Caroline brought hers out of her pocket. “I still have
my cell phone.”
Sabrina lifted hers out of her pocket. “So, do I.” She glanced toward Grace and Kyle.
“Maybe they cut the lines.”
“
Why would they do that?” Laura asked.
Rupert
narrowed his eyes at the two sisters. “Just where have you two been?”
“
Upstairs,” Sabrina said simply.
“You
both were gone an awful long time,” Caroline said.
“Yeah, she’s right.” Ivy looked at Rupert. “Didn’t the power go off just after they both disappeared
?”
Rupert nodded. “No more than five minutes after they left.”
Eyes flashing, Laura said, “We had nothing to do with that. It could have been any of you. What about you, Ivy? You’re always running upstairs to your room. What have you been doing up there?”
Everyone began talking at once
, until Kyle banged his hand on the table startling them into silence. “Look at all of you. You’re going crazy. It’s no wonder you haven’t found the ruby, yet. You’re too busy watching each other to focus on searching the house.”
Grace leaned forward.
“This doesn’t seem a tad bit worrisome to you all?” She looked around the table in disbelief. “Two women have been murdered— that we know of— and we just found out that someone has knocked out the power and cut the phone lines. I think it’s time to be a little concerned. Is this ruby worth that much to you all?”
“Yes!” they all shouted at once.
She glanced over at Kyle who was nodding his head along with the others. Catching her horrified expression, he immediately shook his head.
“Kyle and Grace are right,” Caroline said
, “we need to trust one another.”
“That wasn’t what I was saying,” Grace pointed out.
“We should work as one,” Caroline continued. “We’ll go through each floor together. There will be more than enough money in the end for all of us to live comfortably.”
Laura nodded toward Grace and Kyle. “What are we going to do with them?”
Ivy looked pleadingly at Grace. “Join us. Help us search. What choice do you have?”
“Sh
e’s right,” Laura said. “You can either help, or stayed tied up all night.”
“People,” Ky
le said with affected weariness, “do I really have to prove my skills again? You know what I can do. Tying me up won’t work.”
“Then we’ll just keep tying you up
,” Laura said.
With a bit too much glee and enthusiasm in Grace’s opinion, Kyle said, “Go ahead.
I’ll keep escaping.”
Realizing the futility of arguing with a group of people with dollar signs in their eyes and not relishing the idea of spending the night trussed up like
the girl from the
Perils of Pauline
, Grace reluctantly admitted defeat. “Fine, we’ll help you search.”
His eyes light
ing up, Kyle smiled at her. Grace wondered what pleased him more: the prospect of escaping in front of everyone again, or continuing to search for the ruby. “I do have some conditions,” she said. “One of which, is that as soon as the sun comes up, we are leaving, with or without the ruby.”
CHAPTER nineteen
Grace lifted Erica’s purse out of the desk drawer.
Ivy wasn’t kidding when she said they had turned the purse inside out. They had even gone so far as to rip out the lining. The purse couldn’t really be qualified as a purse anymore. It was now just some scraps of leather hung together by a bit of thread. She dropped what was left of the purse onto the desk and reached back into the drawer. “Is everything still here?”
Ivy
set the candelabra down on the desk and nodded. “The only thing we were looking for was the ruby. We didn’t care about the rest.” Shivering, she glanced toward the fireplace. “The fire is dying.”
They looked up as Kyle and Jerry helped an unsteady
Austin walk into the room.
Ivy
lifted one candle out of its holder and walked out of the library. “I’ll go get the coffee.”
Sabrina
hopped onto the end of the desk. “Why did you want him awake?”
“Because he knows mor
e about the ruby than any of us,” Grace said.
Sabrina
crossed her legs. “So? It hasn’t helped him find it, has it?”
Grace didn’t bother to explain.
“Where’s Molly?”
Kyle led
Austin to the sofa. “Laura took her into the kitchen.” Once Austin was sitting up, Kyle and Jerry walked over to the desk.
Grace
, still rummaging through the drawer, pushed aside Erica’s compact, her small makeup bag, her phone, a plane ticket, a dozen or so Murder Manor brochures, and several maps of the maze until she finally found Erica’s wallet. She unzipped one of the compartments. “I saw this when I was upstairs in the attic.” She pulled out a folded piece of paper and laid it out on the desk. “Do you still have that note you found in the cellar?”
Kyle reached into his pocket and laid the note next to the one Grace found
in the wallet as Grace read the other letter out loud.
Erica,
I have everything set up. I’ve found
a dealer that will pay us exactly what we want. In a few short days, we’ll be richer than you could ever imagine. But don’t be stupid. People would kill for that ruby and have for centuries. Just remember, I can get you a much better deal than
anyone
else.
I think we may have a
small problem, though. I don’t think we should trust Drew any longer. We’ll meet at the glass gazebo on New Year’s Eve at a quarter after eleven just like we planned, but
don’t
bring the ruby with you at that time. Just put it back in its hiding place. It stayed hidden for over a century there so we can be relatively certain that the professor won’t find it before you can get back to it. I really wish you would tell me where you found it. If you can, drop a note letting me know where it is but be careful. We don’t want Drew to find it and take off with the ruby. But if you’re still worried then don’t bother. I trust you!
When you get to the gazebo, p
lay it cool. Tell Drew that the hotel found out about the jewel and took it away from you. Act real upset. Make it convincing. Once we leave, go back to the manor. I’ll ditch Drew at the hotel as soon as I can and meet you back there. We’ll grab the ruby and then make a run for it.
Be careful!
!!
Belinda.
“Hmm,” Jerry said, “
sounds like Belinda was planning on double crossing someone named Drew.”
Sabrina
wrapped her sweater coat tighter around her body. “I guess that explains why they found her at the bottom of the pond.” She looked around at the others. “Come on, we’re all thinking it. It’s obvious that this Drew person killed Belinda when he discovered she was about to betray him and threw her body into the pond.”
“Then Drew probably came b
ack here and finished Erica off,” Grace said.
Jerry shook his head. “Not necessarily. It could have been the other way around. Erica could have been the one in the pond and Belinda may have been the one you saw being dragged down the stairs.”
Sabrina tossed her long hair over her shoulder. “What difference does it make?”
“I bet it made a difference to them,” Kyle said.
“You could be right. We don’t think Erica left this one,” he said pointing to the note he found in the cellar.
Grace picked up the note, unfolded
it, and laid it down next to the other.
I’ll wait for you down in the cellar. Ditch Laura and meet me down there in ten minutes. I won’t wait for you forever.
Erica
They each compared the two notes. “It’s definitely the
same handwriting.” Sabrina made a face. “Well, then who are these notes from . . . Belinda or Erica?”
“And who
was she waiting for in the cellar?” Jerry asked.
A tired “me” drifted up from the sofa
. Austin sat up and looked over the back of the sofa at them. “Someone shoved that note underneath the study door while Laura and I were searching the first floor.”
“Why would Erica want to meet you in the
cellar?” Grace asked.
“I had arranged to buy the ruby from Erica. We were supposed to complete the transaction a few days ago
, but she said she wanted more money. Money I could not give her. I came here to try to reason with her and to impress upon her the historical significance of the ruby. When I saw the note, I thought maybe she had a change of heart.” He waved his hand toward the notes. “Obviously, she had a better offer.”
“What happened when you went down
to the cellar?” Jerry asked.
“I fell.”
“I realize that,” Jerry said, “was Erica down there?”
Austin
rubbed his hands over his face. “I never saw her. Last time I saw her was on New Year’s Eve.”
Grace
raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.
Ivy opened the library door. Holding out a cup, she made a
beeline for Austin. “Here you go. Some nice, hot coffee to wake you up.”
Austin
raised his hands. “No thank you. I think I’ve had enough of your hospitality.”
“Now, come on,” she chided
, “It’s perfectly okay. Look here.” She took a sip and smacked her lips. “See, there’s nothing in it, but coffee, a little cream and a couple of spoonfuls of sugar.”
He pushed the cup away. “No
, thank you.”
Ivy clucked her tongue disapprovingly.
“I need some coffee.” Molly stood in the doorway, blinking heavily. Caroline and Laura stood on either side of her, holding her steady. They led her to the sofa where she collapsed next to Austin. She eagerly reached for the cup in Ivy’s hand and took two gulps before setting it down on the end table, curling up into a ball and falling asleep.
Austin
reached over and stroked Molly’s hair. “What did you give her?”
Ivy shrugged slightly.
“Just one of her sleeping pills.”
“Yeah, and just what did you give me last night?”
Ivy shook her head. “I didn’t give you anything.”
Sabrina
hopped off the desk. “Sorry, that was me. I ran across some pain medication in the kitchen and thought you could probably use it after your fall. I guess I gave you a little too much,” she said with a laugh.
Austin
’s eyes widened.
“Oh, t
hat was probably my medicine,” Ivy said. “I threw my back out a few months ago. I think I slept through all of September and October.”
Rupert closed the library door and walked o
ver to the fireplace. He threw another log onto the fire. “It’s freezing in here,” he said, rubbing his hands together. He nodded to Austin. “All right, the professor is up. Now how is he supposed to help us find the ruby?”
Grace sat down in the wingback chair
closest to the fire. “I don’t know. Tell us about Lucinda and Annalise. Who were they? How did they come to have a Prussian princess’ ruby?”
Austin
rubbed a tired hand over his eyes. “I guess it really started in 1888. The ruby had passed through several hands after being stolen from the Prussians.”
“Was it cursed?”
Sabrina asked excitedly. “I bet it was cursed. All self-respecting jewels of any repute are cursed.”
Kyle walked over to where Grace was sitting and sat down on the armrest next to her.
“That’s what the legend says,” Austin said. “Anyway, in the late 1880s it ended up in Colorado around the neck of a European aristocrat who was accompanying her husband on some type of business in the west. They were traveling on the railways—right here through these mountains—when they were held up by the Happy Baker gang.”
Jerry shook his head. “What kind of name is that for a gang?”
Grace leaned forward. “Whose gang did you say?”
“Happy Baker,”
Austin said. He narrowed his eyes. “Why, is that important?”
Grace shook her head quickly. “No, no, no. Go on.”
She felt Kyle shift next to her. He looked at her with a quizzical expression, but she just shrugged.
“Anyway,
Sabrina was right. This particular jewel does have a reputation of being cursed. Everyone who has ever come into contact with this ruby has met nothing but misfortune, including the train robbers. Shortly after they liberated the ruby, they each began dying one by one.” He gestured to the windows. “Their bodies littered the mountain around us. The authorities didn’t find them until spring. There was one survivor.”
Grace shifted
uneasily in her chair.
“John Baker
, the leader of the gang,” Austin continued.
“They caught up to him about a month later, forty miles from here. He was barely alive. John blamed a new member of the gang. Called him a red-headed idiot—”
Grace grimaced.
Kyle’s hand fell to her shoulder and squeezed. “What was this idiot’s name?”
“That doesn’t matter,” Grace said quickly
, “go on, what happened then.”
“Well
, this idiot apparently took off with not only everything the gang stole, but their horses, clothes, and the ruby. John Baker said that he shot him as he was running away, but no one ever found his body or the ruby.”
Kyle leaned forward and looked at Grace. “I wonder if
the idiot’s descendants know anything about it.”
“I doubt it.” She pushed Kyle back. “Well, obviously it must have ended up
here.”
“Obviously,”
Austin said.
“What can you tell us about Annalise and Lucinda Graves?”
she asked.
“They were sisters. The Graves had a total of
eight children. Seven girls and one son. Annalise and Lucinda were the youngest and only Annalise survived into the twentieth century. All the others died before 1898.”
“When did Lucinda die
?” Grace asked.
“April 1898,” Austin said
, “she was just seventeen years old. Her parents died a few months later, leaving this house and the surrounding property to the only child left. Annalise. A few weeks later, she married a rather wealthy young man named Howard Kaplin. And a few weeks after that, they started construction on the Crystal Palace Hotel.”
“Busy year,” Jerry said with a chuckle.
Austin nodded. “They had one child who they named James. He was born at the end of the year in December. Their happiness was short lived, however. Howard and then James died after the turn of the century during an influenza outbreak that swept through the area. Annalise never remarried. She lived here until she died in 1970 at the ripe old age of ninety. The property passed onto a distant cousin in Kentucky. By that time, the house and the hotel had fallen into disrepair. It sat vacant until the Montgomery Family bought the entire place lock, stock, and barrel a few years ago. They renovated the hotel and the grounds and got everything running again.”
“They did a wonderful job,” Ivy said. “
I still can’t believe the new owners want to tear this place down. It’s like a time capsule. It should be preserved, but they have to make way for progress.”
Caroline suddenly laughed. Everyone turned to her to see what was so funny. She sat at the end of the sofa with Lucinda’s diary perched on her lap. She glanced up.
“I didn’t know ladies used such bad language back then. She seems very, um, passionate.”
“What did she say?”
Sabrina asked eagerly.
Caroline
flipped the page and cleared her throat. “I’ll read this passage since it seems rather pertinent. ‘I want to wear the red dress with the ruby necklace. Mother insists that since Annalise is the oldest that she gets the privilege of wearing the jewelry. It’s not fair that Annalise gets it all. She’ll get Howard, too. Well, I will not stand for it. It belongs to me more than they do her.’” She turned the page. “Here’s the next entry. ‘I took the ruby when she wasn’t looking. They’re with Timmy now. I’ll die before she gets her hands on them again.’ Next entry. ‘Annalise’s furious. Good!’”