“When he didn’t turn up all evening, I became very angry and frightened. I thought of calling the police that night, but I was told it was too early. And I was sure he’d call. I was sure he must have had a good reason—” She broke off and put her handkerchief to her mouth. Then she controlled herself again. “In the morning I had Michael and some of the young people who work here search the grounds, in case something had happened to him, but they found nothing.”
“But you didn’t think of looking in those caves?” Watkins turned to Michael.
“No. It never crossed my mind. Actually, I’d forgotten all about them. N-nobody ever goes near them. We advise people to use only the beach directly in front of the swimming pool, because it’s so easy to be cut off by the tides and those caves are under water half the time. I’m surprised Randy even knew they existed. You can’t see them from the beachfront.”
“Lady Annabel mentioned that he used to meditate in the caves, I believe,” Evan said.
Annabel nodded. “He said he picked up amazing vibrations.”
“Let’s back up,” Watkins said. “Let’s go back to the day he didn’t show up for cocktails. When was the last time he was seen?”
“We had lunch together,” Annabel said. “After lunch I usually take a little rest. I don’t know where Randy went after that. You’d have to ask the staff.”
“How many staff work here?” Watkins asked.
Lady Annabel fluttered her hands again. “We have a full-time masseur, and a team of experts in the healing arts on call, so the number would vary from day to day. Sometimes it’s the Reiki therapist, sometimes the acupuncturist or the bio energy balancer … .”
“And then there’s the domestic staff. I’m not exactly sure how many of those we have at the moment. You’d have to ask Mrs. Roberts. She’s the housekeeper.”
“Let’s see,” Mrs. Roberts said. “At the moment there’s the chef and the two kitchen helpers. Bethan helps me with the housekeeping. Then we have the maintenance man and the two grounds-keepers and security. That would be it. Oh, and the new girl, Betsy here.”
Watkins looked at Betsy with interest. “You were the one who dreamed where Mr. Wunderlich was?”
Betsy nodded.
“Have you worked here long?”
“No, I just started a couple of days ago. The day before Randy—Mr. Wunderlich—was missing.”
“Did you now?”
Evan noticed the glance that passed between Watkins and Glynis. He was just beginning to realize that the sequence of events must look suspicious.
“Well, yes,” Betsy said, blushing bright red. “Miss Court, the American lady here, she brought me down to the Sacred Grove center so that Mr. Wunderlich could test my psychic abilities and Harry, my old boss at the pub, wouldn’t give me time off, miserable old sod that he is, so Miss Court said she’d ask if they could give me a job at the center so I could be right on the spot when Mr. Wunderlich wanted to work with me.”
“I see,” Watkins looked at her for a long moment, then turned back to Lady Annabel.
“Could we have the staff assembled so that we could question them about Mr. Wunderlich’s whereabouts after lunch that day?”
“The staff don’t sleep on the property,” Mrs. Roberts said. “The first of them will be coming on duty at eight. I’ll send word to the gatekeeper that they’re to report in here first.”
“So do we have any idea at what time Mr. Wunderlich was last seen?” Watkins asked. “Did he have appointments that afternoon?”
“He was supposed to be meeting with me at four,” Betsy said. “But he didn’t turn up. I waited in his office but he never came.”
“Did any of you have contact with him after lunch?” Watkins asked, looking around the room. His gaze fell on Emmy, who had been sitting silent and withdrawn.
“Me? I wasn’t here,” Emmy said. “I’m not attached to this place. I’m a grad student, doing research work, and I brought Betsy here because I’d heard about Randy Wunderlich and the advanced methods he had developed for testing psychic ability.”
“And I wasn’t here,” Michael said. “I went into town after lunch to run some errands for my mother.”
“I saw Mr. Wunderlich after lunch,” Betsy said. “I was asked to take him down a cup of coffee—around two- thirty, that would have been. I took it down and he was on the phone and he said, ‘Thank you. Leave it there.’”
“You took his coffee?”
Betsy nodded. “And the empty coffee cup was still there on his desk when I went into his office at four. I was planning to take it away and wash it up, but I forgot.”
“Rhiannon might know something,” Lady Annabel said. “We should have her here.”
“Rhiannon?” Watkins asked.
“Our resident Druid priestess,” Lady Annabel said. “She runs our meditation center and directs our Celtic spirituality classes. She might well have seen Randy that afternoon—his office is in the same building.”
“And where can we find her now?”
“She lives in one of the cottages, right behind the meditation center,” Annabel said. “I can send Michael to find her for you.”
