A lethal legacy, p.23
A Lethal Legacy, page 23
“Who’s dead?”
Next to Elayne’s hysteria, Kieran suddenly found herself in complete control. “It’s Annie Green,” she said quietly.
“And you’re certain she’s dead?” Craig asked.
“Yes,” Kieran said, her voice quiet, calm and definitive. “She’s dead. She’s been stoned to death.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE QUESTION OF when to get a team to the island became moot. Egan—and the police, including Brice—made it out in record time. Kieran and Elayne had been lifted out of the cave-within-the-cave. Craig and Bracken climbed back up using the ropes. Elayne had remained hysterical; despite that, she was sticking to her story.
Forensics had taken the clothing she had been wearing—as well as Kieran’s—and both women were at the house with Mike and Egan. They were keeping a close eye on Elayne. Kieran was being treated as a witness. It was obviously ridiculous to think that she could have gotten into the cave in time to stone a woman to death.
Large, bloody rocks were all around Annie Green.
Her death had not been an easily accomplished deed.
The body itself hadn’t been touched—other than Kieran tripping over it—until Hodges arrived.
“You don’t give me time to sew up one body before bringing me another!” Hodges told Craig as he squatted down to examine the crime scene.
“Did you conclude that the bank robbers were stoned to death?” Craig asked.
“A definite possibility. Now, they’ve been buried for years, but the way the bones are broken—and with what you’ve found here—I’m going to say that it’s a really sound possibility.” He sat back on his haunches. “This young lady has been dead about two hours. The caves down here are quite cool, but even allowing for that, I’m going to say two to three hours, tops. She most probably died from one of the blows to her head—from the indent here...”
He paused, and flashed his light at a bloody place on the skull. “I believe the actual cause of death will prove to be blunt force trauma, but I’ll know more when I perform the autopsy. Nothing about the body suggests how she got down here, but...”
His voice trailed. The stones used to kill her still lay around her. “I think you also have your murder weapon here,” he said somberly.
“What was she doing out here?” Brice piped up from his spot standing to the side of the forensic crew, who were busy taking photographs, marking the stones and marking the spray of blood spatter.
“She wasn’t staying on the island, was she?” Brice asked. “She was part of your dinner party?”
“She was,” Craig said. “But I watched her get on a boat. And I watched that boat motor away.”
“We’ll need to interview everyone—the dinner guests, Finn’s employees. Anyone at all who was on this island.”
“Yes,” Craig agreed.
“All right, I’m good to go,” Hodges said. He rose and turned to his assistant. “Let’s do our best to get her out of here easily.”
“Special Agent Silverheels has the rigging set,” Craig told them.
As the medical assistants and techs went to work, Brice turned to Craig.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Of course, it’s a joint investigation,” Craig told him.
“No, I mean, beyond that. When we were first called out here for the Landon case, I would have sworn that a rich brat just got too full of himself and his abilities—and went off a cliff. You didn’t accept that. We evidently have something far more sinister going on here.” He was quiet for a moment. “That poor girl. How did she wind up back on the island?”
“She headed back to the city with all the guests—her employer, John Smith, and the two Believers, Jay Harding and a friend of his, Ben Garcia. The dinner was oddly civilized.”
“You’d been hoping there might be fireworks?” Brice asked.
“I was hoping that one of them would say something that would trip them up.”
“Well, now we know that Frank Landon was murdered, and now this poor girl...” Brice shook his head. “One of them has to know something,” he added. “They all had to have gotten off the boat together in Brooklyn.”
“Yes. We have people bringing them into the offices now.”
“We’re not doing any good here,” Brice said. “Egan has Miss Anderson and your girlfriend up at the house, right?”
“He does.”
“I’m going to question Miss Finnegan myself, of course.”
“Feel free. But Kieran couldn’t have done it, and there is no emotion in that statement, Detective. She was only down here alone a minute or two. What was done...it would have taken more time.”
“And Miss Anderson?”
“I don’t know. I do know that if she wasn’t completely panicked and hysterical, she was damned good at pretending. She threw herself at me as if she’d been hurled out of a cannon. And the way that she was shaking...that kind of thing is hard to fake.”
“Still, what the hell was she doing down here?” Brice asked.
Craig shrugged. “She claims that she wanted to find something herself. That she found the entry—Bracken already had supplies on the outside, and, we believe, of course, that this is where Frank had been searching before he was killed. Who knows? Maybe he had told her something about his explorations.”
“Sounds like a fishy story to me.”
“And it may be. But trust me, Egan won’t let her hide anything.”
“I still think we should be there.”
The two carefully skirted around the techs who were still working the scene. Craig headed for the ropes, where the body was being hauled up.
As they waited, he looked around. So many caves. So many dark corridors.
So much that still needed to be searched. They would have more help now, with this second murder. Law enforcement agencies would see the need for manpower and taxpayer dollars spent.
So, why the hell would someone have killed Annie Green and left her body there to be discovered?
Had they been interrupted?
They had to have known that Craig and others were searching the caves.
There had to be more. Something he hadn’t discovered yet.
And there had to be a place, some kind of a hidden enclave within the vast system of tunnels and caves.
Something that might be in plain sight.
That they had already walked by, time and time again.
* * *
It was a miserable and tense situation.
Mike and Richard Egan were acting as watchdogs overseeing Kieran, Elayne and Danny. Danny didn’t have to be there; he’d been with the group, but he hadn’t been in the deeper cave. He sadly reminded them that a young woman—with whom they had all just enjoyed a pleasant dinner—was dead.
Kieran knew—though she would soon be giving her official statement—she wasn’t really suspected of anything. Not because Egan would overlook her, but because the time frame made it impossible for her to have done it.
Egan and Mike were being very pleasant. No real interrogation had started as yet, but Kieran gave her story to Egan. Finn, who had been in his office, was sitting with Elayne now.
There was going to be no problem getting her to talk.
She hadn’t shut up for a second.
“I just wanted to help! I just wanted to be the one who found something...the truth about poor Frank. Something...a Viking something. A pirate something... I just wanted to help. I thought I’d be fine. I thought everyone then would have to respect me, and understand what it was that you saw in me.”
Finn kept soothing her.
Kieran wasn’t sure what to think. Her mind kept slipping back to images of Annie Green, and she was shaken.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen a dead body before. It was just that she could remember the young woman’s enthusiasm, how cute she had been when she’d smiled and flirted with Danny.
But what the hell had she been doing down there? How had she slipped back to the island after leaving it? Had she come alone and been surprised? Or had she come with her killer?
Evie bustled in to the White Room with coffee and pastries. The housekeeper hadn’t shown at first, but when she had, she’d been in a dither—caught between the horror of a “fresh” body and police tramping through her house, not knowing whether to be in service mode, or escape mode.
Everyone gratefully took coffee from Evie, but no one felt like eating. Danny paced. Mike just sat—looking miserable.
Kieran found time to look at her phone; Craig had passed on the dossiers Egan had sent him.
She couldn’t help but wonder about Elayne’s dead fiancé, but was sure that it would be addressed when Elayne was questioned. And she couldn’t help but wonder about Evie’s treatment of Elayne; at the moment, when Evie made her sweeps through the room, offering more coffee, she almost shunned the petite woman.
Elayne didn’t notice. Busy trying to calm her, Finn didn’t, either.
Finally—thankfully!—Kieran heard the door opening, the cops talking briefly to new arrivals, and then Craig was back with Detective Teddy Brice.
She refrained from leaping up and into Craig’s arms—it was not the thing to do at the moment. But she stood when the men entered, as did everyone else in the room.
Craig looked her way, and she gave him a nod. He was the ultimate professional, but he was also the love of her life. She wouldn’t have him worried about her.
He spoke to Elayne and Finn. “I know that you’ve been speaking with my boss, Elayne, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to answer questions that Detective Brice and I will have.”
“Really, Craig?” Finn demanded, a protective arm around Elayne. “She’s so upset! We’ve been waiting, but I’m thinking I need a doctor, something to calm her...”
“Shot of whiskey—soon as she’s been questioned,” Brice said.
“Seriously? She’s been through hell,” Finn said.
“And she could be under arrest or hauled in to the precinct,” Brice said. “Miss Anderson, you were alone in a cave with a murdered woman.”
“And terrified I’d be murdered myself,” Elayne protested. She looked over at Kieran. “You were there! You were there, too!”
“Miss Finnegan will be questioned, too, I assure you,” Brice said.
“But, but...”
“Arrested! Taken in!” Finn said indignantly.
“Finn, we have to speak with Elayne,” Craig told him. “It’s procedure.”
Finn told him what he could do with procedure. The two officers looked as if they were about to move on him, but Craig walked over to his cousin and took him by the shoulders.
“A woman is dead, Finn. We have to question Elayne. She could help us. She could have seen or heard something. Please.”
Finn nodded. “I think I need to call my attorney.”
“You should do that,” Brice said.
“No, no, stop!” Elayne said. “I’m sorry. If we get the attorney, they’ll take me in. Please, Finn... I don’t want to go to jail. Not even for a night. Please.”
“I’d like to be with her,” Finn said.
“It’s all right, Finn, really. I have to—to cope,” Elayne said.
“It will be Brice and me,” Craig told Finn.
Finn didn’t protest, but he didn’t look happy.
“We’ll use your office,” Craig said.
The three left. Danny walked over to Finn. “It will be all right. Craig will be there.”
Finn let out a breath. “Yeah, I know. But...”
Evie popped back into the room. “Can I get you something? Other than coffee?”
Finn shook his head and sat. He seemed to realize that he’d been rude. “No, no thank you, Evie.”
Margie came into the room then; her face was pale. “I—I just woke up! I was resting...sleeping. I heard that...oh...so horrible,” she said, shaking her head. “You found Miss Green...that sweet girl, Annie. Found her—dead.”
“I’m afraid so,” Kieran said.
For a moment, Margie looked as if she was going to faint. Egan hurried over to her. “Come, take a chair,” he said.
Margie looked at him. “Thank you. And you are...?”
“Richard Egan, FBI,” he told her. He smiled. “Craig’s boss. You were with Frank Landon for years, right?”
Margie nodded, looking up at Egan. She had a wilted belle look about her that made Kieran think she was watching an audition for A Streetcar Named Desire.
Margie seemed to be relying on the kindness of strangers.
“You found Annie Green. So that would mean that Frank was...that Finn was right, that Frank was murdered!”
“Yes.”
“And Craig and Mike are in there—questioning Elayne?” She sounded incredulous.
“Elayne was in the tunnels when Kieran crashed down and found the body,” Egan explained.
Margie stared at Kieran. “They’re not questioning you?”
Kieran smiled reassuringly. “They will be.”
Margie turned to Finn then. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I doubted you.”
“It’s all right.”
“Elayne didn’t do it,” Margie whispered. “You know that, right?”
“To be honest, we don’t know anything,” Egan told her. “We’re hoping she can help us.”
“She can’t help you,” Finn said. “She was scared to death down there. She’s lucky she wasn’t hurt or killed!”
“The thing is, Finn,” Danny said, his tone gentle, “questioning isn’t always because law enforcement think that someone is guilty. It’s because, if they ask the right questions, that someone might realize that they did see something...or heard something, or even smelled something. Right, sir?” he asked Egan.
“That’s right,” Egan said.
He leaned forward, talking to Finn. “Mr. Douglas, trust me. If there were real signs that Elayne had murdered Miss Green, we wouldn’t be here. We’d be downtown, and she’d be facing arraignment. But we’re just trying to find out anything that we can.”
Kieran noted that he didn’t say that he believed Elayne wasn’t guilty.
He just said, basically, that they had no real evidence against her.
Kieran closed her eyes for a minute; she could still see, in her mind’s eye, the dead woman.
Slumped on the ground, blood everywhere, rocks of different sizes all around her.
Could one person have done all that?
Kieran’s phone rang; ridiculously, she jumped.
It was in her pocket, and she reached for it quickly, looking around apologetically. The ringer had been loud—intrusive—in the room.
“Excuse me,” she said, rising, to take the call out in the great hall. But she had barely said hello before she heard, “Oh, God! Is it true, is it true? Annie?”
It was John Smith. It sounded as if he was crying.
“Mr. Smith, I’m so sorry...”
How had he heard?
“I was just called by the police! They say that they needed me, that they knew Annie was working for me. How could this have happened? She was on the boat with me. I saw her get off the boat in Brooklyn. How the hell did she wind up back there? In a cave—in a hole. Dead. Murdered!”
“I don’t know, Mr. Smith. No one knows yet. But I’m so sorry. She was a beautiful and very sweet young woman. I have no idea—”
“You people caused this. She’s dead because of you people!”
“Mr. Smith, you’re the one who wanted to come out to the island,” she reminded him quietly.
“I want to know what happened. I want you to rip up that wretched island until you find out who did this. The police, the FBI...who the hell do we need? Why can’t anyone find anything? It’s a bloody island!”
“I’m so sorry. Both agencies will have a much larger presence here—they will get to the truth, John.” She hesitated. “Is there someone who can be with you...someone who can help you now?”
“There’s a million people I can be with. That doesn’t change the fact that she somehow wound up back on that island—and that she’s dead!”
“No, I’m afraid it doesn’t.”
“And now, they’re going to cut her all up. She’ll go to the wretched morgue, and they’ll slice and dice her and dissect her.”
“She’ll have to have an autopsy, yes,” Kieran said.
“The cops suck—the FBI is even worse.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you are!”
She didn’t get to say anything more; he hung up.
Kieran let out a long breath. There was no sense in trying to call the man back and get him to calm down. She wasn’t sure what she could say anyway; she wasn’t with him, and he was in no mood to talk to her.
But she didn’t want to walk back into the White Room. Frankly, she wanted to head up to her room and crawl beneath the covers and wish that the day had never been.
The officer by the front door was looking at her.
She knew that she had to return to the others. At least Danny, Mike and Egan were in there.
She gave the officer at the door a grim smile and walked back in.
Egan glanced over at her, a question in his eyes.
“That was John Smith,” she said.
“Oh?”
“Your office didn’t call him and tell him that...that Annie Green is dead?”
“No. The police must have done so,” he said.
“Imagine. So horrible, finding out from a phone call that a loved one is dead,” Margie said. “At least...at least, with me, it was Finn. And he kept me from falling and...held me.”
“Was Annie Green Mr. Smith’s girlfriend?” Egan asked.
