A lethal legacy, p.24
A Lethal Legacy, page 24
“Well...I assumed,” Margie said. “Well, really, I don’t know. But even if they weren’t...um, sleeping together, they were close.”
“Yes, of course,” Egan said.
“I’m sure that John Smith cared about Annie very much. She was a really nice and interesting person,” Danny said.
“You liked her,” Margie said.
“Of course,” Danny told her. “Didn’t you?”
“Yes, but...never mind,” Margie said. “I wish I’d stayed asleep!” she cried suddenly. “I’m telling you, this island is cursed.”
“Maybe it is,” Finn whispered. “Maybe my father is right—he doesn’t believe that I can make something good out of it.”
“That’s exactly what you still need to do,” Kieran said.
“How? How in the hell do I do that, after all this?” Finn asked bleakly.
“You let us do our work,” Egan said. “And we catch a killer—and put an end to what’s apparently been going on here for a very long time.”
Finn swallowed, looked down, and shook his head.
Everyone in the room fell silent.
They couldn’t play at conversation.
They just waited.
* * *
Elayne Anderson was incredibly difficult to read. She was pretending to be strong—or pretending to be pretending to be strong.
She was excitable, tears stinging her eyes as she spoke, her limbs visibly shaking.
“Okay,” Brice said. He had been doing the majority of the questioning; Craig had been observing. “Okay, Elayne. I think I understand... Craig and his group had been out exploring. You figured you wouldn’t fall because you didn’t intend to go anywhere near the top of the cliff. Furthermore, you hadn’t really believed that Frank was murdered. I can see that. There might be incredible finds here on the island, hidden in those cliffs. So, you wanted to be a heroine...make the great discovery. I understand that, but...you went into the cave alone?”
“I didn’t think that I’d ever do anything like that. I mean, I hate bugs! Especially spiders, and I knew there might be spiders. But I had a good flashlight. I just kept thinking how cool it would be if I found something, and everyone would say, ‘Elayne? Elayne? Wow!’ And when I got to the cave, it was bright daylight outside. When I slipped in, my light was so good I didn’t feel afraid. I saw all of Special Agent Silverheels’s equipment—I knew they’d be along soon. I thought I’d be standing there nonchalantly when they came down! Instead, I wandered in and walked over to the wall... I was down. And I cracked my light and it worked for a minute, and I saw... I saw... Oh!” She took a shuddering breath.
“What did you do after you saw the body?” Brice prompted.
“I stumbled away, and I screamed and no one heard me. I tried to climb back up to the hole, and I dropped my light and it broke and then I was desperately trying to find a way out in the dark when I heard someone... Kieran. I’d been down there in the darkness, knowing I was with a dead woman!”
“What time did you head out to the caves?”
“I’m not sure. I guess after breakfast. Margie was in a mood and didn’t want to lie by the pool. She went back to her bedroom. It’s just a week since Frank went out...a sad anniversary for her, and now...this. And Finn...he headed into his office. I guess I went out then.”
If that was true, Craig reflected, she had left right before he and Mike and Danny left the house to meet up with Kieran and Bracken.
But Kieran had been combing the bushes.
And Bracken had already been in the caves. She had to have gotten there before Bracken and Kieran.
“You’re sure it was right when Finn headed to his office?” Craig asked.
“I guess. I mean, I went out right after breakfast. You all weren’t down yet.”
Either she wasn’t sure, or she realized she might have put herself in a trap.
“Elayne,” he asked. “What happened to your fiancé—years ago?”
“What?” She knit her brow in a frown.
“You were engaged. Years ago,” Brice said quietly.
“How do you know that?” she demanded.
“I am with the NYPD,” Brice said.
“FBI, here,” Craig said lightly.
“You—you pried...into my past?” Elayne demanded. “Oh, that’s just cruel. My fiancé died—it was tragic and heartbreaking. We were young. He’d been with friends...they’d been drinking too much. How can you bring that up now—that’s just too cruel!” She stared at them both, and then turned her anger on Craig. “You don’t think I’m good enough! You looked up my whole past, and you don’t think I’m good enough for your rich cousin. Well, Mr. Special Agent, I have news for you. I’m as good as anyone else. I know how to work, how to learn and most of all, I make Finn happy, and he makes me happy, and no one is better than anyone else!”
“We certainly didn’t mean to imply that, Elayne. You did work hard. You got your degree. If you and Finn are happy, more power to you both,” Craig said.
“Oh, oh!” she said, ignoring him. “You want to arrest me. You want to degrade me in front of Finn.”
“Miss Anderson,” Brice said, “that’s hardly the case. You were, after all, in the caves—with a dead woman.”
“I fell!” Elayne said.
“What did you hear, when you fell?” Craig asked.
“Hear?”
“Could you hear anything from above? Bracken or Kieran or the others above you? Rats scurrying around? Anything?” Brice asked.
Elayne shook her head. “I heard my heart pounding. I was terrified.”
“You saw no one else down there, heard no one down there?” Craig asked.
“I was terrified!”
“Did you sense that anyone was down there with you? Were there any smells or odors?”
“Blood!” Elayne said. “I smelled the blood. And all I could hear was my own breathing—so, so loud, when I was afraid that the murderer might still be there. And my heart. And I’d screamed—and no one heard me. Then I thought that I needed to be quiet—and I was terrified that I’d already been heard, that someone might have been down there with me... Oh, it was terrible!”
Craig and Detective Brice were both silent. She stared at them.
“Should I have Finn get a lawyer for me? This is ridiculous...did you see her? How the hell can you possibly think that I could have done that?”
“We didn’t accuse you,” Craig said calmly.
“Oh, you didn’t point at me and say, ‘You! You, Elayne Anderson! You killed Annie Green.’ No, you didn’t do that. You hauled me in here. This is an interrogation. Well, guess what? I’m not an idiot. The point is, you have nothing on me. No evidence—because I didn’t do anything. I fell, and I was terrified and that’s it!”
Again, silence for a moment. Then Craig said, “Thank you, Elayne.”
“That’s it?” she asked.
“Of course,” Brice said. “We were just hoping that you did know something, that you could help us.”
“That’s...it?” she repeated.
“Yes, that’s it,” Craig said. He smiled. “That’s it. Thank you. When you head back in to be with Finn, will you ask Kieran to come in here?”
“Kieran?” she said.
“Yes,” Brice said patiently. “We need to hope that she might have seen or heard something, had a sense of something. Because, of course, we know that someone besides the two of you had to have been down there. Although they were most probably gone before you got there—and that’s why you are alive.”
Elayne stood, shaking.
“I’ll send Kieran in,” she said.
When she was gone, Brice turned to Craig.
“What do you think?”
“Hard to tell,” Craig said. “She got pretty defensive there. And the timing for when she went down in the cave is questionable. Her story might be true.”
“What about the dead fiancé?”
“According to police reports, she wasn’t with him at the time of his death.”
“Convenient,” Brice said.
“Well, there’s this, too,” Craig said. “We both saw the crime scene. There were a hell of a lot of boulders there. Heavy stones. I looked at her hands while she was speaking. Her hands are clean and nails weren’t broken—she has a nice manicure.”
“So,” Brice murmured. “She might not have lifted all those stones.”
“You’re thinking she might have instructed someone else to do it?”
“Anything is possible,” Brice said.
“Well, not anything,” Craig murmured. “But there’s still far too much that might be.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“YOU’RE THE PSYCHOLOGIST,” Craig said, staring at Kieran.
She stared back at him.
Glared, really, her gaze a question. He knew better. But he was frustrated.
“I’m a psychologist—not a mind reader. If you’re asking me, yes, Elayne appeared to be absolutely hysterical. She was genuinely afraid.”
“That’s what I thought,” Brice told Craig.
“Then again, she might have been really afraid—afraid that she was going to be caught.”
Both men were quiet for a minute.
“Okay, so, we’ll really question you,” Craig said. “Tell us what happened from the beginning.”
“I was waiting for you to keep exploring—you had gone outside to talk to Egan. Bracken, Danny and Mike were talking, and I thought I saw something on the wall. I moved toward it—and wham. I fell down a crevasse.”
“And then?” Brice asked.
“I heard everyone coming, Danny calling out to me. I saw all the archways, and I went to one and went in and...tripped over Annie Green. I screamed—really screamed, raced back, stopped screaming—and heard a scream that wasn’t me, but was Elayne. Next thing I knew, Craig, you were down, with me, and Elayne had thrown herself at you. And then you know what happened from there.”
“Exactly where did Elayne come from?” Craig asked.
“The dark,” Kieran said.
“Which archway?” Craig asked.
“I don’t know... I think there were six. Six branches of the cave, going off into different directions.”
Craig shook his head and dug into his pocket. He had Danny’s maps. Rising, he spread them out on Finn’s desk. Studying each, he said, “The first two show the aboveground caves. The third, this satellite image, shows a pattern of darkness beneath those. I thought it was just earth...now we know that there is a whole system beneath the main system. And the answers lie down there somewhere.”
“So we’ll start exploring again tomorrow,” Kieran said. “We’ve got more manpower now—it may take a few days, but we should find what we’re looking for—maybe not a treasure, but something.”
“Should work that way,” Brice muttered. “But we still don’t know about those caves.”
“Bracken knows what he’s doing. He can’t prevent a sudden cave-in, but when he’s in the lead, we’ll be fine,” Craig said. “Although maybe Kieran should stay back,” he added, turning to look at her. “I’m not sure that spelunking is your thing.”
She just glared at Craig.
“Maybe we should bring Elayne in to the precinct,” Brice said. “Hold her for twenty-four hours.”
“I don’t think that will work,” Craig said.
“We have the authority—”
“Yes, but it would be a big mistake. Finn loves her, right or wrong. And he’s a nice guy, but sharp as a tack. He’ll have a million lawyers out in minutes flat. With the bodies, he can’t prevent us from searching the island, but his lawyers could put all kinds of limitations on a search. I say we keep close watch on her for now—along with everyone else.”
Brice sighed. “It’s gotten late. How do we play this?”
“There are, what—six NYPD officers on the island now? And Egan has called in a few recruits. We need men at the entrances to the tunnels, and watching the house. The people in the house. We’ll use our respective agencies, guarding through the night. Tomorrow, we start our search again,” Craig said.
“I have another idea,” Kieran said.
“What’s that?”
“Watch those on the mainland. Get someone following John Smith and Jay Harding—and looking more deeply into the Believers.”
“You’re right. We’ll get someone on it right away,” Brice agreed.
Kieran stood up.
“What are you doing now?” Craig asked her.
“I’m going to go and help Evie. It is late, and no one has had anything to eat.” She grimaced. “We can’t call out for pizza.”
“Good point,” Craig said. “Dinner would be great.”
Brice stood as well. “I want to stay on the island. I’m imagining Egan will want to do so as well. I can crash on a sofa.”
“You don’t need to—there’s enough room. And we can all get a decent night’s sleep, since we’ll have officers watching, and a new crew in the morning,” Craig said.
“There goes our budget,” Brice said. “I don’t know how many men I can get the brass to commandeer for how long. Sometimes, we can’t even summon the manpower to watch over witnesses before a big trial.”
“Talk to Egan. See what the two of you can work out,” Craig suggested. “I’ll help with dinner.”
“Please—don’t,” Kieran said. “I want to bond with Evie.”
She left the office and headed back through the great hall to the White Room. As she passed by the stairway, she noticed Margie standing at the landing on the second floor, looking down at her.
“Are you all right?” Kieran asked her.
Margie shrugged. “As good as I can be. Two people—murdered. I suppose people are murdered every day. It’s just that... Frank, and now that girl Annie.”
“Yes, it’s hard, and it’s frightening,” Kieran said. “I’m going to go see Evie, try to whip up something for the cops and us and everyone to eat. Would you like to help me?”
Margie just stared at her.
“Margie?”
“I’m not...um, Evie doesn’t like me.”
“I don’t think she’s fond of Elayne.”
“No, but she doesn’t like me. She tolerates you. You’re with Craig. Besides, I’m sleepy, very sleepy.”
“Okay, well, we’ll have something thrown together for dinner, if you want to come back down in a bit.”
“All right. I may just...sleep,” Margie said. “I may take something and just sleep.”
“Margie, you have to be careful—”
“I’m not going to overdose on sleeping pills,” Margie said dryly. “But... I’d like to go to sleep, and stay asleep, for a good night.”
“Okay. Please, be careful.”
“I promise.” Margie half-heartedly smiled, turned and headed to her room.
Kieran turned and saw the young officer standing at the door.
“I’d really love some dinner,” he told her.
She smiled. “I’ll do my best!”
She went into the White Room. Finn was still there, protectively holding Elayne. Danny was gone; Mike was standing by the door, talking quietly with Egan.
“I’m going to help Evie, get something going for dinner,” she told them.
Just then, the housekeeper came through from the dining room. “I’ve already started a pot of stew,” she said. “The meat is browning, but you may start chopping vegetables for me.”
“Sure,” Kieran said.
She followed Evie through the dining room and into the kitchen.
A massive pot was on the stove. Kieran hadn’t thought herself hungry, but the smell of the meat keyed something inside of her.
The vegetables were already in a massive pile. Tons of potatoes, celery, onions and carrots.
Kieran set to the task, peeling and chopping. Evie stirred her meat mixture, and then turned to Kieran.
“I told you that woman was no good. I just wish that Finn would see it!”
“Evie, we don’t know that she did anything,” Kieran said.
“She was there, right? With a dead woman. Why else would she be there?”
“The medical examiner said that Annie Green had been dead several hours,” Kieran said gently. “Elayne’s story might well be true.”
Evie sniffed. “The girl is trailer trash!”
Kieran kept working; she wasn’t going to change Evie’s mind.
When the vegetables were done and in the pot, she left Evie to stir her concoction and watch over it. Returning to the White Room, she discovered that Finn and Elayne were gone. Only Mike remained in the room. He’d found a chessboard and was playing a game against himself.
He looked up at her. “Egan is with Detective Brice and Craig, working out logistics for surveillance on the island.” He shrugged. “Even murder doesn’t change city budgets. But on the bright side, a lot of patrol officers are always looking for overtime.”
“Danny went up to his room?”
“Some time back. He wanted to make sure that he called in and let Declan and Kevin know that you two are all right—surrounded by cops.”
“I’m glad he thought of it.”
“I’m sure you would have started getting phone calls,” he said.
She nodded. “Dinner in about an hour,” she told him.
“Great,” Mike said. “Call me cold, but...I am hungry. Then again...”
“This is what you do,” she said. “Can’t do your best work on an empty stomach. Mike, do you mind if I go up to my room? I want to play around on my computer for the hour.”
“Go ahead,” he said.
Upstairs, she pulled out her computer, still wondering if anyone else had managed to go through it when she’d been out of the house.
She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but she started by searching Evie’s name.
