Murder Games (5 page)

After much indecision,
Jerry eagerly reached forward and grabbed five. “When’s dinner?”

“
Any moment now,” Sabrina answered.

Kyle shook his head as she turned to him. “Having fun,
Sabrina?”

Dropping her fake French accent, she said,
“It’s actually more fun than I thought it would be.” She sucked in a breath and rubbed her stomach. “Although, I wish I had chosen something a bit more comfortable.”

Jerry, mouth full, shook his head vigorously.
He quickly swallowed. “That costume’s perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“Merci
beaucoup, Monsieur Thorne,” she said with a sly wink before sauntering toward the library. She suddenly backed up as a tall man, with Laura at his heels, hurried out of the library door.

“I really don’t know,” he said, “Ms—”

“Doctor,” Laura corrected quickly.

The man sighe
d as he opened the door to the sitting room.

“It’s a simple question, Hunter. Why did you and Ivy get married in such a hurry?”
Laura asked before closing the sitting room door behind them.

“Who’s he?” Kyle asked.

Frowning slightly, Jerry shrugged. “I have no idea. I thought we had met everyone involved in the game already. Well, all but Ivy.”

The sound of a door opening behind
them caused both men to turn suddenly. Rupert pushed open the double doors to the dining room. With great dignity, he bellowed, “Dinner is served.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“They s
ay it
was suicide, but I know the truth. It was murder.” Ivy Thorne Murdock Hunter nodded gravely at her own statement. She swept one bejeweled hand up to the bouquet hairpin in her carefully coiffed white-blonde hair, before turning steely gray eyes toward the others seated around the dinner table. “Murder most foul.”

S
abrina, standing against the wall next to Rupert giggled. She quickly pressed a hand to her mouth and turned away.

Ivy
paid no attention to her. “My late husband, Edward, was poisoned,” she continued in a deeply dramatic voice. She lifted up her hand and pointed up to the oil portrait of an elderly gentleman. “I know one of you did it.”

Laura
, seated at the far end of the table, leaned forward excitedly. “Who killed him?”

“
Oh, Doctor,” Ivy said, “these blood soaked walls could tell you all a thing or two.”

“And what exactly would they say?” Laura asked seriously.

“All in good time,” Ivy said, “my good Doctor. All in good time.”

Laura pursed her lips together. She leaned over toward
Caroline seated next to her at the opposite end of the table across from Ivy, and whispered something under her breath. Whatever she said caused Caroline to make a face, and lean over toward her husband. He shook his head and laughed.

“
I see my daughter Iris couldn’t make it tonight,” Ivy said to Rupert as an aside. She turned to her guests and raised her glass. “Oh, well, we will make do.”

“I’m surpr
ised you didn’t know Edward was poisoned, Doctor Nightshade,” Jerry said between slurps of his soup.

Laura dropped her spoon. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You were Edward’s doctor, were you not? Wouldn’t you know whether he was being poisoned?”

To everyone’s surprise
, Laura launched into a rather detailed lecture on poisons and their various symptoms. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except she tried her best to get Ivy to describe her fictional late husband’s fictional symptoms. Ivy held up as much as possible, but Laura’s relentless questioning finally had the actress begging off with a sudden weary, “Honestly, this whole conversation is very distressing. Rupert!” she shouted loudly. Grace, who was seated to her right, winced.

Rupert
quickly appeared at her side. “Yes, Madam?”

“I think it’s time to retire,” she said quietly
. “My sherry, if you please.”

Rupert frowned. He leaned closer to her and whispered, “Dinner’s not quite over.”

Exhaling, Ivy closed her eyes. “I don’t care.”

“Did Edward have any allergies?” Laura asked.

Ivy opened her eyes and gave Rupert a look. “My sherry, now.”

He nodded
and then quickly disappeared into the kitchen.

Grace felt Kyle lean into her. “I have a feeling act two is about to start a little early,” he whispered into her
ear. He leaned back. “So, Ivy…”

Ivy smiled. “Yes, Will, my darling?”

“I need to speak to you about that matter we discussed this morning.”

“What m
atter?” Laura asked sharply. “What were you two talking about?”

“Yeah,” Jerry said
as he leaned forward to get a better look at Ivy. “Why is your lawyer here, Sis?”

“Will’s been my trusted advisor for years. He’s also one of my dearest friends. Why wouldn’t I invite him, Cal?”
She glanced up as Rupert came back in carrying a silver tray with a single glass of Sherry. He passed the tray over to Sabrina and motioned for her to give the glass to Ivy. Sabrina looked startled for a moment, but recovered quickly. She took the tray, walked to the table, and set the drink down in front of Ivy, before turning and walking back toward Rupert.

Jerry grinned before leaning over to whisper in his wife’s ear. Caroline barely glanced up. She nodded imperceptibly before returning to her soup. Grace briefly wondered why she came. It was clear she wasn’t interested in playing. She hadn’t said more than two words since everyone sat down. Of course, Grace thought, looking across the table at the man seated to Ivy’s left, she wasn’t t
he only one. The newcomer hadn’t been very talkative, either; no matter how much Molly tried to engage him.

And try
Molly did. In fact, she hadn’t taken her eyes off of Fortune Hunter since they sat down. She had even gone so far as to switch Laura’s place setting with her own in order to sit next to him. Grace wondered if it was for game purposes, or some other reason. Every so often, Grace would catch Molly laying her hand on his forearm and smiling up at him. She seemed absolutely enchanted.

For his part, h
e was polite. He smiled at all the right times, laughed at her jokes, and seemed attentive, but Grace noticed that every so often, he would turn away and stare off to the side.

“
Hunter?” Molly asked, once again trying to capture his attention.

“Hmm?”

“Would you like some more tea?” she asked holding out the china teapot.

“Oh no, thank you, Rose.”

Molly’s face fell. “Daisy.”

“Right,” he said distractedly, “Daisy.” He turned his head back toward the wall behind Ivy.

Wondering what held his interest
Grace followed his gaze. Sabrina and Rupert stood next to the sideboard. Their heads were close together as they whispered to one another. Rupert lifted his serving tray and covered their faces, but Grace could hear Sabrina giggling. When he brought the tray down, she could see that they were both smiling.

“What are
you looking at?” Kyle whispered into her ear.

“
Sabrina and Rupert seem awfully close for two people who just met.”

“Maybe they’re acting. We’re all supposed to know each other, remember
,
Rose
?”

“I keep forgetting. So, what is it that you and
Ivy supposedly spoke about this morning?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know
? If you’re very good—”

A strangled cry from Ivy startled
those at table into silence. Every eye turned to Ivy, who was clutching her throat. She stood up suddenly, causing the glass of sherry to tip over and spill onto the table. With a strangled gasp, Ivy fell back into her chair and collapsed, her head lolling forward onto her chest, her hand twitching ever so slightly.

Jerry began to clap
, but stopped when it became apparent no one was going to join in.

Rupert reacted first. He ran up to
Ivy and laid his fingers across her neck.

Laura threw out her hand, knocking several glasses over in the process. “Don’t touch her!
”

Startled, Rupert dropped his hand. “I was just going to check for her pulse.”

While Jerry and Caroline hurried to mop up the spilled wine before any of it could reach the floor, Laura dropped her napkin onto the table and stood up. “I’m a doctor. I’ll do that.”

Rupert took a step back to let Laura
attend to Ivy. Laura knelt next to the chair. She checked Ivy’s pulse before standing and pulling back the woman’s eyelids. With a deep breath, she took a step back. She ran a shaking hand over her pale face. “She’s…dead,” she said slightly breathlessly. “I can’t believe it. She’s really dead.” She backed up until she was standing against the wall.

Worried at
the horrified expression on Laura’s face, Grace glanced at Kyle and back at Ivy. She leaned forward and lifted Ivy’s chin. She was just about to call for an ambulance, when she noticed the actress lift one eyelid before quickly closing it. Amused with herself for falling for Laura’s over the top reaction, Grace sat back and hid her smile with her hand. “Yep, she’s dead all right.”

Accusations began flying at once
, with Laura doing most of the accusing. So focused was everyone on trying to figure out who killed Ivy that they didn’t even notice when she disappeared from the room.

*  *  *

“You’ve got no proof.” Grace paced the length of the dining room. “Any one of you could have poisoned the sherry.”

Jerry pointed his finger at her.
“You were right next to her, Rosie.”

“Don’t call me Rosie. That
sherry could have been poisoned before it reached the table. The whole bottle could be poisoned for all we know.”

Laura turned in her seat. “No
, it couldn’t have. I tested each bottle.”

“Aha!” Grace said
, eliciting a smothered laugh from Kyle. “So, you admit you had access to the sherry. It would have been very easy for you to poison the bottle while you were
testing
it, wouldn’t it have, Doctor?”

Kyle leaned forward. “And just wh
y were you testing the bottles, Doctor?”

“I’ve suspected for quite some
time that one of you has been slowly poisoning Ivy,” Laura said.

“Likely story.”
Grace turned to Rupert. “If it was anyone, it was Rupert.”

Rupert’s mouth dropped open.
“Me, Miss Rose?”

“Don’t act all innocent. Mother told me she caught you stealing from her.”

“If that’s true, then why didn’t she fire me?” Rupert asked with a patronizing shake of his head.

Grace, unable to answer, began pacing again.

Caroline glanced up from her phone. “I know why.”

“Well?” Laura asked.

Caroline's phone suddenly began vibrating in her hand. She quickly pushed herself away from the table. “Sorry, I’ve got to take this.”

“Lies!
” Rupert shouted. “All lies! You’re just trying to point the blame on me. The sherry was fine. It had to have been poisoned at the table.”

“How do you know it was fine?” Kyle asked. “Did you drink any of it yourself?”

“I had some before everyone arrived and I’m still alive.”

“Why are we arguing about this?”
Sabrina asked. “There’s an easy way to know whether the bottle was poisoned or not.”

They all looked at her.

“We should find the bottle, no? Maybe we can find a clue.”

“She’s right
.” Jumping to his feet, Jerry raced toward the kitchen door with Laura, Sabrina, and Molly close on his heels. Grace was about to follow when she noticed Hunter standing in front of the sideboard. He was staring up in rapt fascination at an old oil painting of a beautiful young woman in an elegant red dress and stunning ruby necklace. With her long auburn hair piled on top of her head, the portrait brought to Grace’s mind pictures of the Gibson Girl from the turn of the century.

Kyle stood up.
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think it was you, Rose.”

“Thank you,
that’s very comforting, Mr. Cheatum. You still haven’t told me why you were meeting Ivy this morning.”

“The woman isn’t even cold yet
, and all you can think of is my meeting with your mother. Shameful.” Clucking his tongue, he turned to the kitchen door. When he realized she wasn’t following, he stopped and glanced over his shoulder. “Coming? We may be missing a vital clue.”

She nodded her head toward Hunter. “I think I’ll see if I can pick
up a clue in here.”

Kyle’s lips
quirked up. “Happy hunting.”

Once they were alone, s
he walked up behind Hunter and cleared her throat. He jumped slightly in surprise, before smiling down at her politely.

“Hello
, lover,” Grace said with a grin.

His eyes went wide. “I beg your pardon?”

Grace’s grin grew wider at his obvious confusion. “I’m Rose. Laura told me that your character and mine are old lovers. At least we were before you dropped me for my mother.”

Hunter
’s face suddenly lit up. “Oh, yes, of course. Sorry about that.” He looked back up at the portrait.

Grace leaned forward and read the
brass plaque embedded into the frame. “Annalise Victoria Graves.” She glanced back up at the painting. “She was certainly beautiful.”

“Yes, she was.”

“I wonder when this was painted,” Grace murmured, looking along the frame for any sort of date. “From the clothes, it appears to have been painted around the turn of the twentieth century.”

Hunter smiled. “Very good.
December of 1897, in fact. It was painted by a Dutch painter of some importance.” He turned back to the portrait and leaned closer. “You can see his mark in the corner. From all accounts, he was something of a character.” He placed his hands on the sideboard and leaned forward even more, his eyes narrowing. “Hmm. That’s interesting,” he said softly.

“What is?”

As if suddenly remembering she was there, he leaned back and waved his hand. “Oh, it’s nothing.”