Page 39 of Ghost in the Garden
“It isn’t, ma’am,” Solomon said. “And we have to report it to the police.”
“I don’t believe you,” Angela said calmly.
“We’ll show you,” Constance said. “If you’re up to it,” she added, for the woman had turned very white.
“Of course I’m up to it,” Angela snapped.
She swung away, took a couple of rapid paces, then turned back and strode past them to the door. “Wait here. Give me a few minutes to clear the way, then you can take me there.”
“Clear what way?” Solomon said, already grasping the door handle.
“She doesn’t want Lambert or his bodyguards to know. She’s afraid. Wouldn’t you be?” Constance asked.
“She doesn’t look afraid to me.”
“Neither do I.”
“Are you?”
“Not at this moment. I understand her, that’s all.”
Solomon said nothing, but she could sense his impatience, his frustration. She walked to the window and pulled back the curtains, peering out into the fog. Seeing nothing, she let the curtain fall back.
“This will hit her hard,” she said. “She is a good woman, doing her best… She really thought he was leaving the criminal life behind. I think that’s the real reason she hired us to find who the ghost is before Lambert caught him and returned to his old ways. I don’t believe he ever left them.”
“Neither do I.”
“Women fool themselves all the time.”
Again, he said nothing.
Constance paced some more. The clock ticked loudly on the mantelpiece.
Abruptly, she halted. “What is shedoing?” She met Solomon’s gaze, saw the suspicion there, and felt it seep into her too.
“We need to—”
The parlor door flew open, and they swung together to face it.
Not Lambert, but Angela stood there. “Show me.”
There was no sound now in the hallway. Angela led them directly to the baize door and downstairs without even pausing at the wine cellar door. She knew it was locked. She led them downstairs to the empty kitchen. Not even Ida sat there now, and Duggin was nowhere in sight.
Angela unlocked the back door, swiped up a lantern, and sailed out into the dank fog without even a coat on. Solomon strode past her to the cellar door, opened it, and waited until she shined the lantern inside before he bent and walked in. Angela followed, with Constance bringing up the rear. Again, she checked behind her, but she could not see nor hear anything in the dense mist.
She hurried after the others to the left-hand door, which lay open as they’d left it. But as they walked in, Angela’s lantern clearly showed them an empty room. No carpet, no body. No bloody axe in the corner.
*
For an instant,Solomon met Constance’s bewildered gaze.
“There’s nothing here,” Angela said flatly. “Why do you waste my time?”
Before Solomon could speak, Constance did. “You told him, didn’t you? He’s already taken the body away.”
“I don’t know what you mean. The police will not thank you to be called out for nothing.”
Solomon regarded her, trying to see her through Constance’s eyes. He did not trust Angela, certainly not after what she had just done. But wherever Lambert and his minions had taken the body, they could not be far away. They hadn’t had long.
