“What?” asked Payne. Gemma tilted to the side to peek around him at Mina.
“Is she okay?”
He nodded. “She’s fine. Let me ask you. The night your uncle died, do you remember seeing Mina come downstairs to find her phone?”
Both girls nodded.
“Do you remember what she said?”
“She said she needed her phone and that Uncle Kimber had fallen,” said Gemma.
“And that was it?”
“Yes.”
Payne glared at her sister. “No, it wasn’t.”
Carter scowled. “Which is it?”
Payne continued to glare at Gemma. “You left. I talked to Mina longer.”
Gemma shrugged. “Then I don’t know anything about that part.”
“What did you talk about?” asked Carter.
“She asked if I’d seen Lyndsey.”
“Had you?”
“No. I asked what was wrong with Uncle Kimber. Like, how he was hurt.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she thought he’d hit his head.”
“Where were you during all of this?” asked Carter, turning his attention to Gemma.
“I went back to my room.”
“You didn’t go upstairs to see what happened while the others were talking?”
“No. We’re not allowed upstairs.”
Carter turned and looked at the house. “Is there any way upstairs other than the main staircase?”
Gemma crossed her arms over her chest. “No.”
“Well, there is,” said Payne, again, seemingly disappointed in her sister.
Gemma’s cheeks colored. “Oh, right. The maid stairs.”
Carter glanced at Mina. “What are the maid stairs?”
Mina lifted her face from where she had it buried in her hands. “What?”
“The maid stairs. Where are they?”
“There’s a door in the hall behind the kitchen across from Gemma’s room.”
“What are they for?”
“They used to be for getting the hired help to the second floor without them traipsing up the grand stairs, but we haven’t used them in years. I don’t even fit in there.”
“We used to play on them all the time. It was like a secret passage,” said Payne, her eyes lighting at the memory.
Gemma nodded. “That was when we were little. I forgot about those.”
Carter motioned to them. “All of you come with me. Take me to the stairs.”
Payne led the way, with Gemma and Mina trailing. She led Carter through the kitchen and around the corner into the hall, where she opened a door on the left. Inside rose a narrow set of stairs. The door at the top was closed, making it too dark to see to the end. Carter pulled a small flashlight from his belt and shone it to the top. Something low and squat sat at the top of the uppermost stair.
“What’s that?” he asked, shining his light on it.
Mina leaned in to see. “I don’t know.”
Carter looked at the girls. They shrugged.
Carter sighed and eyed the steps. “People in the old days must have hired tiny maids,” he muttered, before mounting the stairs as best he could. He turned his feet sideways to fit on the steps and crabbed to the top.
With his light he studied the object at the top of the stairs. It looked like a rabbit. He knocked on it with his knuckle to find it was made of iron. A dark, thick substance covered the hind-end of the statue.
“Can one of you throw me up a kitchen towel or something?”
Carter waited and a moment later Payne tossed him up a kitchen towel. He used it to turn the knob at the top of the stairs and open the door. Peering through, he found himself looking at the hallway outside Miller’s bedroom. He shut the door again and used the towel to pick up the rabbit and bring it back down. It was heavier than he’d imagined.
Downstairs in the hall near the back door, it was easier to tell the rabbit was made of iron. He took a better look at the rust-colored stain on the cottontail end. A few hairs trapped in the substance caught his attention.
Mina gasped. “That’s Kimber’s doorstop.”
“It may be what killed him,” said Carter, setting it on the kitchen counter. He pulled the radio from his shoulder and called for another car.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to need to bring you all in.”
“What?” screeched Payne. “I have things to do.”
Mina’s eyes widened and she glared at Gemma. “You disappeared.”
“What?”
“Where did you go when I came down to find the phone?”
“I told you, I went back to my room.”
“The room right across from this door?”
Gemma’s eyes flashed with what looked like fear and anger. “You’re crazy. You’re the one who was with him. Don’t blame this on me.”
“I was talking to Mina the whole time so I didn’t do it,” said Payne, whose initial annoyance had shifted to haughtiness as she watched the suspicion shift to her sister.
If a glare could kill, Gemma struck her sister dead. “Thanks for the backup.”
Payne shrugged. “It is what it is.”
“But I know I didn’t do it,” said Mina, turning to Carter. “I know.”
Carter pulled the cuffs from his belt. “Mina, you have the right to remain silent.”
Mina began to wail. Payne released one loud bark of laughter and then covered her mouth when Carter turned to look at her.
“Sorry,” she said. “This is just like on television.”
“It’s not funny, idiot. We’re next,” said Gemma.
Payne winked at Carter and held out her hands. “Ooh. Cuff me.”
Carter felt his cheeks flush.
Chapter Eighteen
Charlotte answered her door to find Sheriff Carter standing on her doorstep. She glanced at her fit watch. It had just turned ten.
“Sheriff Carter, what brings you to FrankLand?”
Carter took off his hat and held it at his waist. “Good morning, Miss Charlotte. I’m sorry to bother you but things are getting interesting over at the Miller Estate and I think you’re about to be involved.”
Charlotte took a step back, using
