jumped his bones.”
“Why did you do that?”
Jory hesitated, shifting uneasily in her chair. “Look, I’m not very proud of this…”
“Girl, you’re saying that to me like you’re proud of any of it.”
“Good point,” Jory conceded, coloring. “I needed to be with someone at that moment. I didn’t want to be alone, knowing what I’d just done. Knowing that Norma was going to die there in her bed in the next few minutes. Knowing that Les was going to be right next to her in that bed, watching her die, letting her die. Can you even get your mind around the horror of that?”
“Les didn’t sleep through it. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“Of course he didn’t. And just the thought of it made me shudder. I… I needed to obliterate it from my mind. Spence was there, so I figured why not. It wasn’t as if he’d kick me out on a cold winter night. Also, I was concerned about what Ada might or might not know. Spence could vouch for me, if necessary.”
“Vouch for you how?”
“Well, think about it, Des. I acted like I was really concerned about waking up Norma. I tiptoed up the third floor, sneaked in and out through his trapdoor. If I’d known she was dead, I wouldn’t have bothered to do that, would I?”
“I guess you have a point there,” said Des, who suddenly felt very sick inside. It was the careful, calculated evil of it all. A murder of passion she could understand. A woman walking in on her man in bed with another woman, blowing his brains out-that was human. This here, this wasn’t human.
“You were right about Spence and me,” Jory went on. “There was never anything more than sex between us. I could never love a man like Spence. He’s way too involved in himself. It sure made a nice fairy tale, though, didn’t it?”
“If you believe in fairy tales.”
“I never have, actually,” Jory said, smiling faintly. “Not even when I was a little girl. I knew there was no Santa Claus. And for sure that there was no Prince Charming. I’ve always known that.”
“And yet you claim you fell for Les’s promises.”
“I did. I wanted to believe them. I wanted to believe him. That was my one big mistake.”
“Girl, you made a whole lot more than one,” Des told her. “Let’s move ahead a few hours. It’s dawn now. Les has just pretended to wake up and find Norma dead in bed beside him. I’m there in the bedroom with him when Ada comes in to say good-bye to Norma. Before she leaves, Ada tells me she has to speak to me about something. That’s when she wrote her own death sentence, didn’t she? Because Les had to figure that the urgency in Ada’s voice meant trouble-she was on to what you two had done to Norma’s cocoa.”
“He came and found me right away,” Jory said, nodding. “He was really upset. Said we had to shut Ada up, and fast. I was against the whole idea, honestly. My view? Hey, she’s ninety-something years old, grief-stricken, distraught. Somebody like you would just figure she was raving. But Les wasn’t buying it. He was absolutely insistent that we could not let her sit down with you. He didn’t let her out of his sight after that, just to make sure she didn’t. And when she went upstairs to dress for breakfast, he grabbed me in the kitchen and said, ‘This is it-we have to make our move.’ And so, well, we did.”
“It was not a brilliant move,” Des informed her. “In fact, I’d go so far as to say it was lame-assed. From that moment on, Norma’s death was bound to look suspicious. Didn’t you folks realize that?”
“We couldn’t afford the luxury of worrying about it. We simply had to make the best of a bad situation. That’s what Les kept saying. He panicked. We both did, I guess.”
“Who strangled that fine old woman?”
Jory started snuffling again. “I don’t w-want to sit here talking about this anymore.”
“Hey, I don’t want to be sitting here talking about it either,” Des said to her roughly. “I’d much rather be sitting at home in a nice hot bubble bath, sipping fine cognac. But I’m not. I’m getting frostbite at Astrid’s Castle instead. So keep talking, before I lose my sweet disposition. I repeat: Who strangled her?”
“I sure couldn’t do it,” Jory said weakly. “And Les was way too chicken.”
“So you made Jase do it, didn’t you?” Des demanded, scowling at her.
“I did,” Jory admitted. “He was in the mudroom, tidying himself up when I went in there and laid it on the line. I told him, ‘Look, Ada somehow thinks I’ve killed Norma, and if we don’t head her off right away, she’s going to send me off to to jail.’ You see-” She broke off, her chest rising and falling. “There’s this one thing that Jase totally can’t cope with, and that’s being separated from me. As long as we’re together, he’s fine. But he needs me in his life. Otherwise, he’s lost.”
“So you pushed his hot button, is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes.”
“And he murdered Ada for you.”
“Faced with the prospect of losing me, Jase will do anything I ask him to do,” Jory stated matter-of- factly.
“You have an awesome amount of power over him, don’t you?”
Jory didn’t respond. Just sat there examining the crumbs on the cutting board.
“What’s really behind that, Jory?” Des asked, studying her closely. “Is it chemical?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sure you do. Those tranks you give him-is he addicted to them? Is that it?”
“Not really,” Jory replied, swallowing.
“Then what is it? How do you explain this power you have over him?”
“I just told you.” Jory’s voice rose defensively. “He can’t get along without me. The poor thing is just so fragile and innocent. He may seem like an adult to you, but in many ways he’s still a child.”
“Was he hip to the fact that you and Les had killed Norma?”
Jory shook her head. “I hadn’t dared tell him.”
“You just told him to kill Ada.”
“I did,” she acknowledged, turning woeful. “I shouldn’t have. I know that. Jase’s loyalty to me is something I’ve never, ever abused. But I did abuse it this morning. He… took the staff stairs. I told him to make it quick and quiet. And make sure no one saw him.”
“Did he wear gloves?”
“He did. Why?”
“He didn’t have any scratches on his hands, that’s why. Jory, let’s talk some more about Les, okay? There’s something I’m a bit confused about. You found out this morning that he’d lied to you about inheriting the castle, correct?”
“Correct,” Jory replied. “I heard him talking to Aaron about it in the taproom before breakfast. That’s when I realized that I’d been totally had.”
“And yet you didn’t let on to Les about it. Instead, you conspired with him to eliminate Ada. If you were already aware that Les had double-crossed you, how do you explain this?”
“One task at a time,” Jory answered simply.
“You just said what to me?”
“You can’t tackle every job at once. If you do that, you’ll get overwhelmed. That’s one of the secrets to running a successful inn. Norma taught it to me, actually. My immediate priority was Ada. Our immediate priority was Ada. So I let Les think I was still the stupid little slut he thought I was, and we took care of her.”
“Jase took care of her.”
Jory swallowed, her eyes filling with tears. “Yes.”
“And when that odious chore was disposed of, who took care of Les? Jase again?”
“When you banished all of us to solitary confinement, you put Jase and me in adjoining rooms. The bathroom vents connect. We could whisper to each other through them.”
“That’s when you told him to kill Les?”
“I didn’t have to. I just had to tell him how Les had used me. And how, given half a chance, he’d pin both murders on us. Les could, would put us away for life. I had no doubt. I made that clear to Jase.”
“This sounds a whole lot like you pushing his hot button again.”
“I did,” Jory admitted. “But this was something that absolutely needed doing. We couldn’t let Les destroy us. Jase knew this. Jase felt comfortable with this. Besides, he wanted to teach that disgusting old man a lesson. He
