Ghost in Trouble (2010)

after we went to bed. Nor did I.”

Chief Cobb looked skeptical. “How can you be certain?”

“I sleep with my bedroom door open. I would have heard her door. I slept very poorly last night.” Fear glimmered in her eyes. “I heard Walter barking. I looked at the time. It was almost two o’clock. I was surprised. Usually he doesn’t bark unless he wants to play with someone. Then the barking stopped.”

“You didn’t get up to see?”

“No. You see”—and her voice was barely audible—“I thought someone from the house couldn’t sleep either and had gone out for a walk and Walter wanted to play.”

The instant of silence between them held a vision of a dog bounding up to someone he knew, someone who moved purposefully through the night to The Castle after placing Walter in the workshop.

The chief once again glanced at his notes. “You’ve worked here for a good many years.”

Margo waited, her face still and wary.

“Were you aware of the forty-five kept in the upstairs office?”

“I knew there was a gun there at one time.”

“When did you last see it?”

She turned her hands over. “I don’t know exactly. Several years ago Evelyn decided that the floor in the study needed to be replaced. There had been a water leak. Alison advised her on how to obtain flooring from that era. Evelyn instructed me to empty the desk drawers and pack the contents. After the floor was repaired and the desk back in place, I returned the proper items to the drawers. That would have been the last time I saw the gun.”

“How many people knew there was a gun in the drawer?”

“I have no idea. Actually, a lot of people may have known. Evelyn was very proud of her father. Several times, in order to raise money for charity, small groups have been taken on a tour of the family rooms. That included the study. Evelyn led the tours and she always showed her father’s gun. It was a World War Two relic.”

I studied Margo with interest. She had managed to imply that all of the outsiders at last night’s seance could easily have known about the gun.

The chief’s gaze was stern. “Was the gun loaded?”

Something flickered in her eyes. Was she trying to decide which answer best served her? She paused for a fraction too long, then said smoothly, “I don’t know.”

Cobb straightened his notebook. “Who had reason to murder Jack Hume?”

She looked at him with a blank face. “I have no idea.”

“Was there dissension between Mr. Hume and those living in the house?”

“He didn’t approve of Laverne and Ronald.” Her voice was carefully neutral.

Chief Cobb was sharp. “Clearly Mr. and Mrs. Phillips were not involved in Hume’s death. I want to know his relations with his sister, his sister-in-law, his nephew, and your daughter.”

She was equally sharp in her response. “Ask them.”

He asked brusquely, “You have no opinion?”

“No.” She sat quite still, her face carefully expressionless.

The chief leafed through his notepad, paused as if reading notes. He tapped the pad. “Your daughter was furious with Hume because he dropped her.”

Margo’s eyes glinted with anger. “Possibly he hurt her feelings. She’s very young. Her interest in him was a passing thing, an infatuation. That is scarcely a reason for murder.”

He looked sardonic. “So you do have an opinion.”

She made no response.

Cobb spoke without emphasis. “Years ago, Jack Hume dropped you for another woman.”

Margo’s smile was cold, her tone disdainful. “Are you suggesting that I waited until he came back to Adelaide twenty years later and revenged myself by pushing him down the balcony steps? That’s absurd. If you’re quite finished, I have work to do.”

Shannon Taylor burst into the library. She hurried to the table, skidded to a stop. She looked very young and very pretty, blue eyes blazing, heart-shaped face cupped by thick brown hair. “You are seeing everybody else first. It’s like I don’t count, like I’m some kind of kid. But you need to listen to me. Last night I was upset. People have told you about last night, haven’t they?” Shannon didn’t pause for an answer. “Laverne antagonized everybody. That’s why she was killed, and him, too. Laverne knew that somebody pushed Jack. I know who killed him. You have to talk to Gwen Dunham. She lives next door. I heard her quarrel with Jack in the gazebo and she told him she wished he was dead and then he died.”

“Sit down, Miss Taylor.” The chief’s tone was calm. “Your accusations against Mrs. Dunham are interesting. Last night you accused Jimmy Hume of his uncle’s murder. To be precise”—he glanced at his notes—“you said to Jimmy, ‘I heard you say you were going to hurt him. Did you?’ In fact, Miss Taylor, isn’t that what you said?”

Shannon looked stricken. “I didn’t mean it.”

Cobb was stern. “That was your first thought, wasn’t it? You accused Jimmy Hume, not Mrs. Dunham.” He pointed at the chair. “Sit down.”

She slipped into the chair, stared at him with anxious eyes. “Jimmy might have had a fight with Jack, but he would never shoot people. Never in a million years. The minute I heard about Ronald and Laverne, I knew Jimmy didn’t have anything to do with it.”