“Obviously, she fell down the stairs and broke her neck,” the manservant said.
“We have to call the police,” Jane said suddenly.
Gabriel looked up, their eyes locking. Jane’s face was pale, her huge brown eyes shimmering with unshed tears. Even though he knew she had probably survived some messed up situations at her job, this was too much to bear. He had to get her away from here before she unraveled. Best to get them all away from the scene.
He got up and moved over to Jane, placing his hands on her shoulders, doing his level best to steady her. It was the first time he had touched her outside of a friendly handshake. He could feel the heat of her body even through the thick layers of clothes she had on. The sensation of her warmth against his palm seemed to chase away his own shock. Jane trembled. She was so small and fragile that he feared he’d break her with that single touch. Gabriel loosened his hold on her slightly.
“You’re right. Local emergency contacts are listed on my phone. Think you can handle calling while I deal with the others?” he asked.
Maybe giving her a task would help keep her away from the horrific scene in front of them. In spite of the hostility between them, right now he’d give anything to make her pain go away. Anything.
“Yes, I can do that,” she forced out on a shaky breath.
Reluctantly, he released his grip on her and retrieved his cell phone. He waved the manservant over. “Emmerich, why don’t you help Jane call the police? She’ll need you since she doesn’t speak German.”
The manservant took the phone with a nod and led Jane back into the main hall.
His gut churning, Gabriel walked around the body of the poor maid and approached the remaining servants. “Do either of you need anything? I can escort you to the kitchen if you need something to drink.”
The housekeeper, Agnes, shook her head. “I do not want to leave her alone just now. Someone should be with her until the police arrive to collect her.”
He nodded. “I understand. Will either of you be in good shape to talk to the police? I don’t want them badgering you or causing you distress.”
The housekeeper sighed. “It is Berta, the cook, that can answer. She is the one who saw Heidi fall down the stairs.”
Gabriel focused his attention on the cook. Her face was streaked with tears and her shaking hands repeatedly smoothed down her apron. “Is that true, Berta? You saw what happened?”
“Berta doesn’t speak much English, so I can translate,” the housekeeper offered before turning to Berta and posing the question in German.
Berta wiped at her eyes and replied in German, her voice trembling.
Agnes turned to him and sighed. “Berta was in the great hall on her way to sleep for the night, when she heard a terrible crash followed by a loud cry of pain. She ran to the staircase to investigate and discovered Heidi’s body lying at the foot of the stairs. Berta was in a great deal of shock, so she began to shout for help. I ran to see what was the matter and…”
“This must be hard for you,” Gabriel said. “You don’t have to go on if it’s too painful to talk about.”
The housekeeper’s lower lip trembled and she inhaled sharply. “Heidi was young, so she had not worked here as long as the rest of us, but she was a good girl. Hardworking. Followed orders well. She would read to the master of the house when he was on his deathbed. Read and hold his hand. Now she, too, is dead.” Agnes suddenly burst into tears and the two women held on to each other as they cried.
Their grief was gut-wrenching. Especially because Gabriel knew what the shock of a sudden death was like. There was no accepting it. No getting over it. For years he had tried to make his own peace with it, but there wasn’t any peace to be made.
This particular shock was so profound even he—practically a stranger—was having a hard time dealing with it. Less than an hour ago Heidi had been serving dinner. Now she was gone.
The manservant reappeared in the corridor. “We have tried calling the police, but they are unreachable. Cell phone services appear to be down.”
“Thanks for trying,” Gabriel said, taking the cell phone. “There’s got to be another way to get in touch with them. The castle has a landline, right?”
“I have already tried calling with the landline,” a booming voice said from what sounded like the top of the stairs.
Gabriel looked up and found the bespectacled castle solicitor, Otto Kramer, and another castle guest, Timothy O’Brien, slowly walking down the stairs. Timothy crossed himself, seemingly murmuring a prayer as he moved.
When they got to the bottom of the stairs both men walked carefully around the body, Timothy’s head still bowed in prayer.
“I tried calling, to no avail,” Otto said as he walked up to Gabriel. The solicitor was large and burly, a rosy-cheeked man in his early sixties with sharp eyes and a larger-than-life personality. Gabriel had liked him instantly when he’d met him the day before, but he also knew that beneath Otto’s easy smile and ruddy cheeks was a man he didn’t want to mess with. “The nearest police station is closed.”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “Closed?”
“We are, as you Americans say, in the middle of nowhere, Mr. Ross,” Otto said. “It is rare to have an emergency, much less one so late at night. There is only a handful of police officers in the immediate surroundings.”
“What about emergency services a little farther away?” Gabriel asked. “This might not be
