4 impression of bones, p.11
4 Impression of Bones, page 11
part #1 of Miss Henry Mysteries Series
Juliet moved toward the dining room and the buffet laid out there though she didn’t really want anything to eat. Esteban and Raphael joined Juliet as soon as Sandra had moved away enough for them not to be overheard. Esteban and Raphael instantly improved the scenery. It was wonderful not to be alone.
“Bella, you look worried,” Esteban said.
“I’m feeling fey. The killer is probably here somewhere, doing heaven only knows what, but I haven’t seen a single sign. I hope Manoogin has posted someone in the wine cellar. The door is locked but she may have a key. Or another hanger.” She didn’t mention a name. Esteban, Raphael, and Manoogin knew the murderer’s identity and were waiting for the chance to make an arrest. Hopefully out of sight of the TV cameras that had filmed everything, even the tower room, though the tapestry covered the outline of Cornelia’s bricked-up body.
Juliet didn’t want to see the capture. As far as she was concerned her job had ended with solving the crime and imparting the facts to the police. She had walked them to the starting gate and they should be able to run the race without her. But she also knew that the snowball the killer had sent tumbling down on them was gaining size and speed. Rage and ego had fueled the killings and there was always a chance that it wasn’t over. A woman scorned was a frightening thing. An artist swindled of fame was even worse. And when it was both, and the killer-victim was an egomaniac, there was no knowing who else might be caught in the storm before it all finally ended.
“Have you been in the kitchens?” Raphael asked.
“Not since the caterers got here.” They were using the wood-fire oven for making artisanal breads which they weren’t actually serving. The air conditioning had not yet been installed and the room was like a cookhouse in hell.
“There she is,” Juliet said before Raphael answered, staring at the crowded hallway that led past the kitchen and to the courtyard. “She came in the back way. I didn’t really think she would come at all, though staying away would have called attention her way.”
“I shall tell Manoogin. Best to get this over with,” Esteban said, easing through the crowds in the opposite direction.
“Go,” Raphael said when Juliet hesitated. It was difficult for him to move easily through the noshing throngs. “Keep her in sight. But Juliet—”
“I know. I don’t plan on getting that close.”
Juliet had to push her way through the crowd in the great hall which seemed to be growing by the hour. Someone had tried to decorate the austere stairs of the tower by setting up an elephant-foot umbrella stand—ceramic, not real—filled with a clump of pampas grass. The children had been liberating the stalks all day to use as makeshift wings, so little of it remained in the vase. Juliet had a good view of her quarry disappearing up the circling stairs.
She was filled with foreboding, though it was unlikely that there would be anyone else in the tower, and in a way it was the perfect place for Manoogin to make his arrest. And she could remain safely at the base of the stairs and wait for her prey to come back down.
Only why was she going up there? What could be in the tower to attract a killer? Could there be some other secret passage built into the four-foot-thick walls that Juliet hadn’t found which the killer wanted to use? Or, worse, could she have made some kind of assignation with another victim who was already up there and waiting?
Where was Dolph’s fiancée? She had been in the great hall ten minutes before.
“Damn it,” Juliet said, kicking off her heels and setting them on the first step where they listed to one side. They could end up stolen, she realized as she mounted the twisting stairs, but she needed to leave some kind of breadcrumb for Manoogin and Esteban to follow. She would stay well back from the killer, stay quiet. She would only intervene if there was someone in physical danger.
It was the longest climb Juliet had ever completed. Dread had sapped her strength and made her feet leaden. Juliet felt a moment of relief when she realized that the killer was bypassing her meditation room and heading for the roof garden. There wasn’t another hidden chamber in the tower room. No secret stairs. Only a rusted fire escape which only a suicidal person would use.
A sort of fatalism settled over her as she realized what the killer planned to do. She didn’t hurry any longer. If she missed the next part, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. There was a faster way out of the tower than using the rusting fire escape.
The trapdoor was open letting in a brutal shaft of light. Juliet emerged cautiously. She doubted that the killer was waiting to bash her head in since she had had nothing to do with Dolph’s philandering or project mismanagement, but doubt was not certainty. She had promised Raphael that she would be careful.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Juliet asked softly as she saw the woman standing between two crenellations and leaning slightly outward. She knew it was a pointless question since things had gone past prayers and entreaties, anger counseling and the advice of friends.
“The police know about me. I think it was because of the watch. They are asking questions now. It’s only a matter of time before they know. Before everyone knows.”
The watch and the sawdust from the wine racks. It was the only redwood being used in the castle. Julia had cleaned up the old morgue until it could be used as a surgical arena, but she had neglected to shake out her work clothes and traces had been left on Dolph’s body when she dragged him onto the dining room table.
“They are looking for me downstairs and….” She turned her head and considered the sun. Juliet suspected that she had been waiting for a witness, so she didn’t look away. “You know, I thought we’d get married—have children. I would open a small studio. It could have been perfect….” Julia Mannering whispered, not answering Juliet’s question of intent directly. The wind carried her soft words to Juliet, otherwise she wouldn’t have heard them. “She did it on purpose. Stephanie knew he was with me but she seduced him anyway. Friends aren’t supposed to do that.”
“No, they’re not.”
“He wouldn’t let me finish the wine cellar the way we had planned. He gave the money to Stephanie for marble in her bathroom. He said there wasn’t any more.” And it was human nature to believe that it was being cheated rather than that the trough had really run dry.
Juliet had a moment of compassion but also exasperation that people had died all because Julia Mannering hadn’t been bright enough to see that men like Dolph never viewed themselves in such a domestic way. There was no room in their hearts and lives for another selfish being that would distract a woman’s care and attention from themselves.
And her monstrous ego had demanded revenge of the harshest kind.
Behind her, she heard someone coming up the stair.
“Are you sure that you don’t want to think this over? A jury might understand.” Juliet felt compelled to say this though she knew it was useless and didn’t really think much of the idea anyway. Julia had a much better solution.
“No, I’m sure.”
And with that Julia Mannering stepped off the tower wall.
Chapter 12
“Are you alright?” Raphael asked her. They were gathered in his bungalow surrounded by cartons of Chinese take-out.
“Yes.” And she was.
Their dinner had been delayed several hours as the law had worked its infinitely slow way through the mechanics of after-death clean-up.
The rubberneckers had gotten more than they bargained for. Julia’s body almost crushed a small party from San Jose as she hit the pavers at the front of the castle. The press had had a field day with the latest tragedy though they had been asked not to show the most graphic photos until the next of kin was notified. Juliet suspected that there was no way that the castle could avoid a reputation of being cursed. And perhaps that was for the best. After all, it sure seemed to be soaked with blood and unhappiness. Whoever bought the place needed to know what they were getting into.
“Have some wine, bella. You aren’t driving and I think you could use it.”
“Okay.” She smiled at Esteban. Her face felt tired, pulled by worry and a low-simmering anger, but the smile was sincere.
Neither of her friends had asked her if she could have prevented Julia’s suicide or suggested that she should have tried. Their practicality made Juliet feel less of a freak. Manoogin had seemed to understand, and even said that she was wise to stay back from the younger and clearly violent woman balancing on the castle wall, though he clearly would have preferred to have taken Julia alive and had her stand trial.
“Have you been able to find Cornelia Barton’s hometown?” she asked Esteban. “Manoogin says they are ready to release her bones.”
“Yes, her family lived—still lives—in Jamestown. It’s about an hour from Yosemite in the gold country.”
“Good. We won’t have to worry about transporting remains across state lines.”
“The family also has a plot in the old cemetery where she can be interred with her parents and a sibling. The family is glad to know what happened to her and is grateful that she is coming home.”
This made Juliet feel a little better though it was pretty meager reparation for what had happened to Cornelia and her unborn child.
Romantic love. Juliet shook her head at how much suffering it had caused.
“Shall we have a toast?” Raphael asked.
They picked up their glasses and waited.
“Here is to us, the pragmatists—”
“The creators,” Juliet added.
“—and friends,” Esteban finished.
They touched crystal to crystal and then drank the sweet wine.
About the Author
Melanie Jackson is the author of over 70 novels. If you enjoyed this story, please visit Melanie’s author web site at www.melaniejackson.com.
eBooks by Melanie Jackson:
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Pieces of Hate
Miss Henry Mystery Series
Portrait of a Gossip
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Requiem at Christmas
Impression of Bones
Death in a High Place
Wildside Series
Outsiders
Courier
Still Life
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Melanie Jackson, 4 Impression of Bones
