Closing her antique shop precisely at five o’clock, Ellinore stopped to buy pompano fillets, crabmeat, mushrooms, and green onions before going home. Falkner was coming for dinner. She wanted to feed him well before she broke the news to him.
She didn’t have to tell him, of course. He would learn the upsetting truth when she died. But somehow it didn’t seem right to let her nephew go on thinking that he was going to be the heir to whatever she had left when she departed this world.
The Duchamps fortune was long gone, and Ellinore had supported herself for years now. Falkner could do the same. Still, she did feel a tad guilty that she wasn’t leaving him the house that had been built by the Duchamps family. But she’d been able to hold on to it only because she’d worked so hard. It was hers now, and she could do with it as she pleased. Ellinore wanted Sabrina to have it, almost as much as she would have wanted Ginnie to have the place if she’d lived.
Ellinore loved Sabrina like a daughter. She did not love Falkner. Nor had Falkner shown any real love for her. More important, he hadn’t shown any concern or compassion for Ginnie.
As she chopped the mushrooms and green onions and browned them in butter, Ellinore wondered how Falkner would take it. She doubted he would react with good grace. She hoped he wouldn’t lose his temper or get aggressive.
She mixed two tablespoons of flour into the vegetables, then added stock and seasoning and set it all to boil for a few minutes. Next came the white wine. Ellinore had to go downstairs to the basement to get a bottle.
The moment she opened the cellar door, Ellinore detected it. As she started down the basement steps, the unmistakable cigar smell grew stronger.
What was Nettie doing down here?
Ellinore started searching for clues. At first everything looked normal. Nettie’s little room at the north end of the cellar was neat as usual. It gave no hint that Nettie had been staying there, though Ellinore well knew she had.
Slowly, Ellinore got down on her hands and knees, pushed back the coverlet, and looked under the bed. She reached in and felt something hard and smooth. She pulled out a black candle, then another and another. Two dozen in all.
She rose to her feet, left the sleeping area, and continued to search. It dawned on Ellinore what she was dealing with when she spotted the smudged white cross on the dark cement floor.