“Emmy Court. It has to be. Her name wasn’t Emmy. It’s M. E. Short for Mary Elizabeth.”
“Oh my goodness. You’re right.”
“I’ve been wondering about her all along,” Evan said. “It always struck me that something didn’t add up about her. Let’s look her up on your computer.”
Evan watched in admiration as Glynis’s skillful fingers tapped in information. The only time Emmy’s name appeared was in conjunction with Randy Wunderlich’s.
“She’s a pretty good actress,” Evan said. “Pretending not to know him. Why did she come here, I wonder?”
“Obvious,” Glynis said. “He married someone else, didn’t he? I can’t imagine she’d be Randy Wunderlich’s partner without being romantically involved with him. She expected him to marry her, but he was broke and he latched onto someone with money.”
“He probably thought Lady Annabel had money, but she didn’t,” Evan said.
“Even so, she had the property. Once the center got going, I’d imagine it would have been very lucrative—and safely far away from his former enemies.”
“So you think Emmy came here to kill him because he ran out on her?” Evan asked.
“It makes sense, doesn’t it? And it’s the most compelling motive we’ve had so far, especially if he left her behind in the States to face the music.”
Evan nodded. “Do you want me to go and bring her in?”
Glynis looked up at him. “Just make sure she doesn’t go anywhere in a hurry, while I alert the airlines, just in case she’s already done a bunk on us.”
Betsy found it strange going to work at the Sacred Grove that day just as if nothing had happened. She wasn’t even sure she was still employed there now that Randy was gone and Emmy Court was planning to go too. When Lady Annabel passed her just as she was taking off her jacket in the staff cloakroom, she fully expected to be asked what she was doing there and to be sent packing. But Lady Annabel drifted by like a ghost and hardly seemed to notice her.
All in all, Betsy hoped she could stay. For one thing the work was so easy and, for another, it was like living in a fantasy world, with all those fountains and pools and the beautiful view across the estuary. It was sad that Randy was gone, but she hoped that Rhiannon might be able to help her with her newfound psychic powers. Rhiannon had already told her that the ancient Druids were also seers. They had all kinds of ways of looking into the future. She often saw the future herself. It was just a question of harnessing the power of the universe. In a way Rhiannon scared Betsy. She was so intense, as if there were a fire burning inside her. But she was also being very kind at the moment, taking time to answer Betsy’s questions. “We’ll make a Druid of you yet,” she had said when they last spoke. “You’re going to be a great help to me at the coming ceremony. I’m relying on you.”
Betsy helped clear away breakfast then went down to the meditation center to bring up any dirty crockery waiting to be washed. As she went in, she heard a low humming sound coming from the main meditation room and wondered what it could be, until the door opened and she saw that it was Bethan, with a vacuum cleaner.
“Hello, Betsy,” Bethan called cheerily. “How are you then? I’ve been thinking about you, having that dreadful dream and seeing poor Randy lying there and then actually finding him just like you’d dreamed. It must have been a terrible shock for you.”
“It was,” Betsy said. “I couldn’t stop shaking all day.”
“Did you really dream the whole thing?” Bethan asked. “They’re saying he was murdered now. Did you see the murderer in your dream?”
“No, just Randy lying there.”
“Perhaps you’ll have another dream and see the murderer,” Bethan said excitedly.
“I hope not. It was horrible.” Betsy hugged her arms to herself. “It’s funny, but it already seems as if it wasn’t real. I know it happened, but it’s like something I saw on TV, you know.”
Bethan nodded. “It’s funny how life has gone back to normal, isn’t it? Lady Annabel is the only one who looks upset. She doesn’t seem herself at all, poor thing. She wasn’t even wearing makeup today and I’ve never seen her without her makeup on before. They say people can die of a broken heart, don’t they?”
“She’s a bit old for a broken heart, isn’t she?” Betsy moved closer to Bethan as the latter maneuvered the heavy vacuum cleaner out of the room and into the passage. “I mean she’s got a grown-up son. Middle-aged people don’t die of broken hearts, surely?”
“Oh, I think she was gaga for him.” Bethan moved closer to Betsy. “You should have heard her shouting and crying when she found out he’d been paying attention to another woman. ‘I trusted you and you let me down,’ she was yelling. I was up making the beds and I was embarrassed to be caught up there with them yelling outside the door. ‘I thought I was the only woman in your life,’ she said. ‘And now I find out about
Betsy nodded.
Bethan coiled up the vacuum lead and started to wheel it down the hall. “You know, I never expected to find him dead, did you? When I heard he was missing, I thought to myself, well, here we go again.”
“What do you mean?” Betsy asked.
“Well, he was the second person who’s been missing here, isn’t it? And both Americans too. They say there’s been no sign of that American girl Rebecca since she left here. I often wonder what happened to her. I was just getting friendly with her, you know, when she went. And you know what was so strange? It was her coat. I often wondered about that coat, I mean—”
A door opened on their left and Rhiannon appeared. “Will you girls stop gossiping and get back to work?” she snapped. “Bethan, put that thing away and get about your duties. Betsy, would you come into my office? I’m going to need you to help me prepare for the ceremony.”
Betsy spent the next hour helping Rhiannon assemble a collection of objects she needed for the ceremony. They included robes and tools—a cauldron, a dagger, a pentacle, a large stone that Rhiannon said was sacred. “And now,” she said, “you are going to help me to build a very large basket.”
