himself.
“I pay my honest debts,” Aaron insisted, opening his wallet.
“Whatever you say, Aaron.”
“But I’m afraid I’ll have to write you a check,” he apologized, beating a hasty retreat. “I don’t have nearly that much cash on me.”
Over at the bar, Teddy let out a mocking laugh.
“Have you got something on your mind, Teddy?” Aaron demanded.
“Hardly ever,” Teddy replied, sipping his Scotch. “And when I do it usually turns out to be a dreadful idea.”
“Therein lies the secret to your success, or lack thereof,” Aaron said unpleasantly. “How about one more game, Mitch? Double or nothing?”
“Rack ’em up.” Mitch moseyed over to the bar, where Isabella lay on her back with her paws in the air, yearning for a belly rub. Mitch complied, missing Clemmie and Quirt.
Over by the window, Jase continued to stare anxiously out at the dozens of trees that had come down. Which was all he’d been doing ever since Mitch had dragged him back in, per Des’s orders. Jase hadn’t wanted to come back in. There was much work to be done, and he’d been thrilled to be out there, doing some of it. Mitch had never seen anyone have quite so much fun plowing a parking lot before. But standing there now in his wool checked shirt, stocking cap pulled low over his eyebrows, Jase seemed caged and agitated. His right knee was jiggling.
“Your break, Mitch.” Aaron had finished racking the balls.
“Blue sky,” Jase said suddenly, hunched there at the window.
Mitch went and joined him for a look. In the western sky out beyond the Connecticut River, he could make out breaks in the clouds and actual patches of blue. At long last, the storm was passing. “We did it,” he exclaimed. “We survived.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” exulted Carly. “Maybe we can actually get out of this awful place. I want to be home”
“I’d settle for a hot shower,” Hannah said, shivering.
“What’s that?” Carly snapped at her. “What did you just say?”
“I’ve never been so cold in my whole life,” Hannah answered sharply. “I feel like every bone in my body is about to shatter. I will never be this cold again, I swear. As far as I’m concerned, this settles it.”
“Settles what?” asked Aaron, arching an eyebrow at her.
“I’m moving back to Los Angeles.”
“Oh, are you now?” Carly said, well aware that they were talking about something more than Hannah’s weather preferences.
“This is rather sudden, is it not?” Aaron was caught off guard, and flustered.
“I’m making the move.” Hannah’s voice was filled with resolve. “I’m packing my bags as fast as I can, gassing up my clunker and going.”
“What will you do for work out there?” Aaron’s own voice had taken on a rather unappealing whiny tone.
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Hannah replied. “I’ll sling beers at a bowling alley in Pacoima if I have to. Just as long as I’m warm. Anything is better than this.”
“Your mind’s objectively made up?” Aaron pressed her, as Carly glared right at him.
“All made up,” said Hannah, effectively slamming the door shut on whatever it was that the two of them had together.
“Hannah, I hope you won’t give up on your dream to make a film about Ada,” Mitch said. “You’ve got so much talent, and she’s such a great subject.”
“She’s also dead,” Hannah pointed out. “I needed on-camera face time with her, Mitch. She was the last of her generation. Her contemporaries are all dead and buried. With her gone, I have no one to put on film. Where’s my documentary?”
“Who says it has to be a documentary?”
Hannah widened her eyes at him. “I should write her life story as a bio-pic, is that what you’re saying?”
“Why not? She led one hell of a life, and it’s a great part for the right actress.”
“It’s an Oscar part, are you kidding me?” Hannah said excitedly. “Nicole Kidman could play the hell out of her, or Cate Blanchett or, God, Streep. There’s Ada young, Ada old. There’s triumph, tragedy… Wow, Mitch, you’ve really given me something to think about on my long drive west. Thanks.”
“No problem. And if all else fails, you’d make a great nurse.”
“Not a chance. I hate hospitals.”
“I’m staying right here,” Spence announced emphatically. “Not here as in Astrid’s Castle,” he explained, on their blank stares. “Here in New York.”
“What about your promotion to the Coast?” Hannah asked him.
“I’m turning it down.”
“Spence, what are you talking about?” she demanded. “That job is everything you’ve been working toward for years. You’re about to become a heavy hitter. What are you, crazy?”
“No, totally sane,” Spence said, grinning at her. “It just so happens my priorities have come into acute focus over the past twenty-four hours, and Panorama Studios isn’t one of them. But, listen, I’ll put in a good word for you before my name turns to total poop. If you decide to pitch them that idea about Ada, I mean.”
“That would be awfully nice of you, Spence,” she said gratefully.
“No problem. Friends help friends out.”
Mitch went back over to the pool table and broke, thinking about how bizarre this all seemed-Hannah and Spence sitting there chatting about their futures as if nothing unusual had just happened. As if no one had been murdered. As if no one’s future plans actually consisted of life in prison without chance of parole. Because somebody in this castle, in this very room, was a killer.
But who?
Mitch sank the nine ball with his break and went to work on the table as Teddy sat there at the bar, sipping his Scotch, lost in his thoughts.
Aaron was caught up in some thoughts of his own. “Spence, what were you and Des talking about upstairs?”
“Personal things.”
“What sort of personal things?”
“The sort that are none of your damned business,” Spence said to him abruptly. “That’s what makes them personal.”
Jase turned away from the window to look at Spence curiously. Actually, they were all looking at Spence curiously. Except for Isabella, who had fallen asleep.
“Spence, it so happens that this is my business,” Aaron informed him loftily. “It’s my family that’s dying here. It’s my castle.”
“Well, I’m not yours,” Spence shot back. “So shut the hell up before I take a swing at you, you pompous boob.”
“I’ve got twenty bucks on the blond guy,” Teddy jumped in eagerly.
“Teddy, you are not helping,” Carly chided him. “And neither are you, Acky. Calm down, and kindly lose your new lord-of-the-manor act before I take a swing at you myself.”
“You’re right, you’re right.” Aaron immediately backed down, chastened. “I apologize, Spence. I’m merely upset. I want to know what’s going on.”
“We all do, kiddo,” Teddy said.
“Nobody knows,” Carly said, swallowing. “Except for the person who did this, that is.”
“A condition which I find completely unacceptable,” Aaron said.
“It’s strictly a temporary condition,” Mitch assured him, dropping the eleven ball in a corner pocket. He still hadn’t yielded the shot to Aaron yet. If nothing else, this was turning into a very profitable winter storm. “Des will get to the bottom of this soon enough.”
“You sound awfully confident,” Aaron said.
“I am. I believe in her.”
“How will Des get to the bottom of this?” Teddy wondered.
