Page 93 of The Bride Wore White

Yes, please tell Mr.Wingate that it’s urgent,” Prudence said. “I’m on my way back to the Burning Cove Hotel. He can reach me there.”

She dropped the phone into the cradle, opened the door of the booth, and stepped out onto the palm-shaded sidewalk. She looked at the busy street and realized it might take a while to find a cruising cab.

She did not notice the woman in the black suit and wide-brimmed veiled hat coming up quickly behind her until Ella Dover moved alongside. She had an expensive fur coat draped over her arm. The garment concealed one hand.

“Keep walking,” Ella said. “The parking lot. I have a pistol with a silencer under my coat. I really can’t miss at this range.”

“You own a silencer? I thought only the mob used them.”

“It belonged to my father. He bought it for target practice so as not to annoy the neighbors. Then he used it on himself. He probably didn’t want to awaken the household.”

“Are you going to shoot me down in broad daylight in a parking lot?” Prudence said. “Doesn’t that strike you as somewhat risky?”

“You’ll notice there isn’t anyone else around at the moment. I can kill you and leave your body between a couple of parked cars. By the time someone finds you, I will have disappeared. But I don’t think it will come to that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not here to kill you, Miss Ryland. I want to talk to you.” Ella stopped near a nondescript Ford. “Get in on the passenger side and then slide behind the wheel. You’re driving. I will be right beside you with the gun pointed at you.”

No, you’re here to murder me,Prudence thought.

“And if I don’t go along with this plan?” she said.

“Then I really will have to take the chance of shooting you here in the parking lot. But there’s no need for that sort of drama. Get into the car.”

Prudence opened the passenger side door and scooted across the bench seat to slip behind the wheel. Ella got in beside her and closed the door. She tossed the coat aside, revealing the pistol with its bulky-looking attachment.

“Drive,” she said.

“Where am I going?” Prudence asked.

“I gave that a lot of thought before I decided to talk to you today. We need a location where we won’t be disturbed. The ruins of Mr.Wingate’s house will do nicely.”

Prudence got the engine going, put the Ford in gear, and drove out of the parking lot.

Chapter 49

Room two-twenty-three, please,” Jack said. “Yes, I’ll hold.”

He tightened his grip on the clubhouse phone and checked the time again. According to the golf club manager, Prudence had left the message twenty-five minutes earlier. That was not a long period of time, but the invisible chimes that had convinced him to end the game on the eighth hole were clashing wildly now. When he thought about the time it had taken to walk back to the clubhouse, he wanted to smash the nearest available object. Such an act would, of course, be utterly pointless. He had to focus.

Shit.

“I’m sorry, Mr.Wingate, there’s no answer,” the hotel operator said. “Can I take a message?”

Twenty-five minutes. Maybe Prudence hadn’t had time to get back to the hotel. She might have decided to do some shopping before she returned to the room, or maybe she’d had trouble catching a cab. But given the urgency of her message and the wildly clashing chimes, neither of those possibilities felt right.

“Transfer me to the front desk, please,” he said.

“One moment.”

Another voice came on the line. “Front desk, how may I assist you, Mr.Wingate?”

“I’m looking for Miss Ryland. She should have returned to the hotel by now, but she’s not in the room. Please page her.”

“That won’t be necessary, sir,” the clerk said. “I can assure you that Miss Ryland isn’t on the premises. Both keys for room two-twenty-three are still in the box here at the front desk. She hasn’t returned from the library.”

“Are you sure that’s where she went?”

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