Craig made ushering movements with his hands. “We’re all done here,” he told us. “Time for you to go.” We moved in a bunch toward the bedroom door, except for Anton.
“Hold on a moment, Mr. Brady,” Anton said. “I’d like to talk to you.”
Frowning, Craig threw a glance toward the bedroom doorway. He sighed. “Will it take long? I really need to follow my aunt to the hospital.”
“I’ll be finished by the time she’s loaded in the ambulance and ready to go,” Anton said. We’d been lingering in the room but when the chief directed raised brows at us, we hurried out into the hallway, dismissed.
“I’m so glad you suggested coming over here,” I said to Grammie as we moved toward the staircase. I looked over my shoulder at the hallway carpet where Eleanor had collapsed. What if she’d lain there all night? My stomach clenched. Or what if she had tumbled headlong down this long flight of stairs? The fall might have been fatal.
The front door opened and Lukas walked in. “What’s going on?” he asked, seeing the three of us coming down the stairs. “I saw Eleanor being loaded into an ambulance.” He took off a rain slicker and hung it on a peg near the door, then raked his fingers through his damp hair, smoothing it into place. “They wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“Eleanor isn’t feeling well,” Grammie said. “But hopefully it’s nothing serious. They’re being cautious and taking her in for some tests.”
“Whew,” Lukas said, his expression lightening. “That’s a relief. I’ve grown really fond of her.”
“So have we,” I said. “And guess what? We found out that Claudia left Belgium before her father died.” I knew he’d want to hear this update. “So she didn’t kill him or steal the diamonds from the open safe.”
“Whew again,” he said. “I’m really glad to hear that.”
“That’s why we’re here so late,” Madison added. “We wanted to tell Eleanor the good news as soon as we found out. But so far, we haven’t had a chance.” Voices sounded on the upstairs landing, which meant Anton and Craig were coming. Madison hunched her shoulders and put a finger to her lips. “Shh.”
Lukas seemed to catch on. He pasted a pleasant and neutral smile on his lips as Craig clomped down the stairs ahead of Anton, hand clutching the banister. “I’m so sorry to hear about your aunt’s illness, Craig. Please extend my wishes for a speedy recovery.”
Instead of thanking Lukas, Craig curled his lip in response. “You might want to seek other accommodations, de Wilde. I’m going to strongly suggest that my aunt stop taking in guests.” The word “guests” sounded like an epithet.
The smile on Lukas’s face wavered only briefly. “I’ll wait until I talk to Eleanor, if you don’t mind. We paid for the summer in advance, so should she change her mind, we’ll be owed a substantial refund.”
Craig’s response was to mutter something intelligible, and I had the feeling he was disconcerted by the thought of having to give money back. Without saying anything else, not even good night, he stalked across the hall, picked up his umbrella, and stormed out the front door. We heard a shout as he addressed the EMTs, who were still parked in the driveway.
“Nice fellow,” Lukas said under his breath. “Poor Eleanor, having to deal with him.”
Poor Eleanor, indeed. I prayed that she would recover fully and be able to carry out her plan to prevent Craig from taking over her finances. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he learned that he had been cut out of the will.
“I’m heading over to the hospital,” Anton told us. “I can keep you posted, if you want.” He patted his pocket, where Eleanor’s medications must be. “We’ll be taking a close look at everything.”
“We would love to get an update when you have time,” Grammie said. “As long as it’s within bounds of confidentiality.”
“I can do that.” Anton smiled around the circle, his eyes resting on Madison for a long moment. It was as if magnets were pulling the pair together. “I’ll see you all later. And good job calling it in, Iris. You can’t be too careful with someone Eleanor’s age.” He touched his hat brim and left, closing the door softly.
The strobing lights faded from view as the ambulance and cruiser started up the drive, followed by Craig’s taillights. Neither emergency vehicle put on its siren, which meant they weren’t treating Eleanor’s condition as an emergency. That was a huge relief. She must not be in any immediate medical danger.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Lukas said, “I’m going to head up to my room.”
Grammie looked at us. “The excitement seems to be over for the moment. We should get going.”
We said good night to Lukas, but as he started up the stairs, I thought of something. “What happened with the police?” I asked. “When you went in for questioning.”
He paused on the stairs, turning to face us while gripping the banister. “They asked me again about my movements the morning Hailey was killed. According to them, a witness saw me on the cliffs near where she was found.” His blue eyes blazed. “It’s a total lie. Yes, I was in the state park, but I didn’t even see Hailey, let alone talk to her or hurt her.”
“So the witness lied, then.” Was it Patrick, trying to cover his own tracks, or someone else entirely? I’d thought Patrick, due to timing, but maybe I had jumped to conclusions. “Who was it, did they say?”
Lukas made a scoffing sound. “They wouldn’t tell me,” he said, his words terse. “Probably afraid I would go after the person.”
A chilling thought struck me. What if Lukas was lying? The case was stacking up against him—first the ripped jacket, now a witness coming forward. Uncomfortable with even toying with these thoughts, I shifted on my feet, so glad he couldn’t read my mind. I’d believed Lukas was innocent all along, but now the waters were good and muddy.
“If that’s all…” Lukas began climbing the stairs again. “Please let me know if you get news about Eleanor.”
“We will,” Grammie called in a cheerful voice. She obviously wasn’t tormented with doubts about the professor. “Have a good night.”
Outside, the rain had dwindled to occasional big drops landing with splats. We hurried across the drive to the Jeep and climbed in. I was suddenly exhausted, all the adrenaline sparked by the emergency draining away. And my brain was worn out from all the theorizing and speculating. Time to take a break.
Grammie started the Jeep, the engine catching with a throaty roar. “I’m ready for bed now, that’s for sure.”
“Me too,” Madison said from the back seat. “This visit didn’t go the way I thought it would.”
“But I’m so glad we were here,” I said. Despite my resolution to shut off my brain, another terrible thought chimed in my mind. Why had Craig come over tonight? Unless he had a police scanner, there was no way he would know his aunt had a medical emergency. Had he been worried about her due to the storm? Maybe, but the less-than-charitable side of me doubted it. I didn’t like or trust Craig.
As if reading my mind, Grammie said, “I’m glad Craig doesn’t know about Claudia’s jewelry. I don’t trust him an inch.” In the dim light from the dashboard, I saw that her expression was sour. “I know plenty of older people who have been ripped off by family or even caregivers. Things just happen to disappear.”
“I’ll never let that happen to you, Grammie,” I said, angered on behalf of her friends. “I promise.”
She threw me a smile. “Not that we have many valuables worth stealing.” Then we said together, “Except Quincy.” We all laughed.
The three of us lapsed into silence as we rode through the warm, wet night. Overhead, the clouds dissolved, revealing a sky spangled with stars. The storm was over.
We had almost reached the farmhouse when my phone and Madison’s went off in unison. “I wonder if there’s news already,” I said, heart in my throat. What if Eleanor had taken a turn for the worse? I picked up my cell phone and scrolled.
The text message wasn’t about Eleanor, and for few seconds, I couldn’t make sense of it. Then I realized it was from Jamaica. Her name wasn’t in my contacts, only her number. Alarm went off. Someone is trying to break in.
“Did you just get a message from Jamaica?” Madison asked.
“I sure did.” I swiveled in my seat. “Grammie, how do you feel about taking a detour? Someone is trying to get into Jamaica’s lab.”
In answer, she put her foot on the gas and the Jeep took off like a rocket, speeding past our house. I idly wondered if Quincy was watching out the window and what he would think when we kept going. He definitely knew the sound of our cars. I’d seen him go to the door before Grammie even turned up the driveway. She said he did the same when he heard Beverly’s engine approaching.
Grammie took a detour around downtown, where the speed limit dipped to a frustrating twenty-five miles per hour. Instead we raced over the back roads circling town and then headed down toward the water again, to the street where the old mill building was located. Grammie had lived in Blueberry Cove all her life, and she knew every nook and cranny and shortcut.
Another text came in. Where r u? Be there in five. Huh. I’d expected Jamaica to get here first, since she lived closer than us. But maybe she hadn’t been home when the alarm went off.
“I thought Jamaica would be here,” Madison said. “Where is she?”
“I have no idea,” I said. Almost there, I wrote back to Jamaica. Grammie slowed to pull into the entrance of the complex. We made it, I added.
Call 911 if you see anyone. Which meant she hadn’t called already, perhaps preferring to check out the situation first rather than raise a false alarm.
Or were we walking into a trap of some sort? With a sick feeling, I recalled the lurker in the alley. The sabotage to the cardboard boat. The unknown assailant who attacked Theo.
I put a hand to my aching head. My thoughts were spiraling out of control and I was seeing danger everywhere. But what if my fears were justified? Maybe I’d been guilty of tunnel vision, eliminating suspects because I liked them. Lukas, the prime suspect. And Jamaica. Something had been off about her claim that she was in her apartment the morning Hailey died. I was pretty sure she was lying. But why? Being at home alone wasn’t much of an alibi.
Grammie drove through the empty parking lot toward the building, aiming her headlights onto the front entrance. The place looked deserted, with only a safety light shining in the entrance hall. Nothing moved as we pulled to a halt.
“Let me check the front door,” Madison said, slipping out of the car before I could stop her. In the glare of the headlights, she ran to the entrance and tugged at the handle. The door didn’t budge. Maybe the person was gone, or if they were still inside, they had secured the door for safety reasons. It was hard to tell either way, since the labs were located in the back of the building. Along the front, the windows were dark and blank. I didn’t even know who used these rooms. I hadn’t paid attention to the signs during the tour.
Another thing. The locked front door must mean the intruder had a key to the building. That narrowed the possibilities to another tenant or the seaweed project team. Or, I realized, someone who worked for the college, which now owned the building.
But what if Jamaica was lying? What if there hadn’t been an intruder?
Madison put her hands to the glass and peered inside. Stepping back, she shook her head at us then hurried back to the Jeep. “The place is locked up tight,” she said, climbing in. “And I didn’t see any signs of life in there. No lights except the one in the entranceway.”
Grammie tapped her fingers on the wheel. “The person is probably long gone. Do you still want to wait for Jamaica?”
I turned around and studied the street. No headlights were approaching from either direction. This was the perfect opportunity to evade possible trouble. But instead of telling Grammie to leave, I found myself saying, “Why don’t we circle the building? Maybe they’re around back.” I pressed the lock button. “Lock your doors, okay?”
“Okay, oh paranoid one,” Madison muttered. But I heard the click that meant she had obeyed.
Grammie backed up then drove slowly around the near side of the long building. The drive was wide on this end, probably to allow trucks to make deliveries or pick up goods at the loading docks at the rear of the mill. While we ambled along, I tried to remember exactly where the labs were.
We skirted the loading area, a bulky shed-like structure protruding from the rear, and kept going. Now we were behind the wing where the labs were housed.
Something moved and I spotted a hooded figure at one of the windows. The figure turned, putting up a hand against the bright lights shining in his face. But not before I recognized that head of curly blond hair.
Theo.