He laughed, then quickly sobered. “What do you know?”
He didn’t ask how I knew, which I considered tactful. He wanted information. I gave him everything.
He wrote fast, then looked up with a grim face. “You’d think a man who’d threatened to expose a murderer might have been more cautious. Probably Phillips answered the door because he was foggy with sleep. From what you’ve said, he was a cocky little guy. He had planned to let his victim stew, get more and more nervous and worried, then make a move. The murderer didn’t give him that chance.”
I wasn’t surprised. Jack Hume posed a threat and he’d been pushed to his death. Kay Clark arrived, asked too many questions, and a vase crashed down where she waited.
I finished with the story of Walter, the cocker, shut in the workshop. “If only Walter could talk.”
The chief looked at me in surprise.
“If Walter was outside last night, wouldn’t that indicate the murderer came from outside the house?”
The chief shrugged. “Whether the dog was in or out, he had to be put where he couldn’t raise an alarm.”
I understood. Walter loved a frolic. Someone in the house walking in a hallway would attract the dog if he were inside. The answer: scoop him up, carry him outside, stroll to the workshop, shut the dog inside. Then the murderer would be free to slip back to the house and approach Laverne and Ronald’s suite.
If the murderer came from outside The Castle, either Alison Gregory or one of the Dunhams, it was also essential to prevent Walter from barking.
Chief Cobb was suddenly formal. “Thank you for your assistance, Ms. de Sales.”
When I was at the door, he called after me: “Should any other information come to your attention, please let us know.” He sounded bland, as if I were simply Kay’s assistant, but his eyes held mine for a moment.
He knew who I was.
I knew that he knew.
Neither of us intended to say more.
I smiled. “I will certainly keep you informed.” As I stepped into the hall, Detective Sergeant Price came around the corner.
Quickly, I yanked the sunglasses from my pocket, put them on.
He walked more swiftly. When he stopped and looked down at me, I was grateful for the dark lenses that hid my eyes.
“Ms. de Sales.”
I waited.
He cleared his throat. “Ask Kay Clark to come to the library.” He lingered only an instant too long, then stepped past me.
I walked swiftly to the drawing room. “Kay, they want you in the library.”
Evelyn Hume’s face folded in a disagreeable frown. “I fail to see why we are being held here and why you and Kay have been summoned before me.” Her sense of entitlement was powerful. After all, she was Evelyn Hume.
I was conciliatory. “Obviously, Kay and I aren’t important witnesses. I never met Mr. and Mrs. Phillips and Kay had only a brief acquaintance with them. I’m sure the chief wished to speak to us first so that he can concentrate on the people who matter, the ones who knew them quite well.”
I wasn’t surprised that my pleasant statement was not reassuring to the occupants of the drawing room. Evelyn’s lips folded into a tight, hard line. Diane broke into fresh sobs. Jimmy stopped pacing and jammed his hands into the pockets of his chinos, his expression grim. Margo looked wary. Shannon moved uneasily.
Kay and I turned away and walked down the hall. As we rounded the corner, the corridor to the library lay empty. I disappeared.
In a few quick questions, Chief Cobb made certain Kay could add nothing to the information I’d provided. “Mrs. Clark, please keep our conversation confidential as well as the murders. Nothing has been released to the news media. There are witnesses I wish to interview before the crime is publicly known.”
“I understand.” She rose, then looked at him somberly. “Did Ronald and Laverne Phillips die because of me?”
His rumbly voice was patient. “Did you advise Ronald to try blackmail?”
She shook her head, understanding his query was rhetorical. “If I hadn’t come back to Adelaide, he might not have realized Jack was murdered.” Her dark eyes mirrored her distress.
The chief lifted his bulky shoulders in a shrug. “Phillips could have contacted us. He chose another path. You came to The Castle because you suspected a crime. When we spoke at Lulu’s you admitted as much. If there had been a basis for me to investigate, I would have done so. There is an important distinction between your suspicions and Ronald Phillips’s knowledge. He knew something. It may have been nothing more than a glimpse of someone climbing the stairs to the third floor. If he had informed us, I could have taken that fact and investigated that person.”
Kay pushed back a strand of silky dark hair. “Person.” Her tone was puzzled. “You talk about a person. Last night at the seance, Laverne’s ramblings obviously referred to more than one person.”
Chief Cobb sketched a noose on his legal pad. “Phillips was an equal-opportunity blackmailer. People will pay to hide secrets, even though innocent of murder. But one of his listeners was a murderer. Phillips made a fatal error.”
