“Paula told me to pick up the dress boxes anytime, so I’d like to go to Oakland now and get them,” said Charlotte when she got back in the car. “One more thing off the to-do list. But you’ve waited around for me long enough today, so why don’t you drop me off and I’ll make my own way home?”
“Okay,” said Aaron. “How did the visit go? Did you find out what you wanted to know?”
“She gave me a lot to think about. So much, I hardly know where to start.” They rode in silence, each lost in thought, until Aaron dropped her off at the now-familiar front door of Oakland. As he drove off, she walked to the side of the house and surveyed the garden. The tenting that had covered the spot where Hugh Hedley’s body had been found was gone, and a figure kneeled on the grass close to where it had been. Ned, she thought, restoring order to his garden now that the police have finished trampling all over it.
She returned to the front of the house and rang the doorbell.
After what seemed a longer wait than usual, the door opened slowly, and Phyllis peered cautiously out; seeing who it was, she opened the door wider and invited her in.
“Sorry to bother you, but I’ve just come to pick up the boxes I forgot to take home last time,” Charlotte said.
“If you wouldn’t mind just waiting in the hall here, I’ll get them for you. We’re having a very busy day, but I shouldn’t be long. I just have to deliver an urgent message to the kitchen.”
Charlotte crossed the black-and-white marble floor and admired an arrangement of showy roses on an inlaid round table. Something Phyllis had just said was ricocheting around in her brain. Message. What message?
Suddenly, a memory came to her. She struggled to retrieve it.
“He said to give you his apologies, but he had to leave just before the play ended.”
That’s what Phyllis had said to Paula as they’d made their way into the house after the play, but she must have been lying, because Joseph Lamb said Hugh did not return to his seat after the intermission, and the police hadn’t been able to find anyone, in that whole crowd, who had seen him during the second half of the play.
At the sound of approaching footsteps, she turned, and, expecting to see Phyllis with the garment boxes, was dismayed to see Alex, carrying a small cardboard box.
“What are you doing here?” Alex demanded. “Haven’t you caused enough trouble for us?” She set the box down and stood in front of Charlotte, arms folded and eyes blazing.
Charlotte’s mouth went dry. “I didn’t expect to see you here. I thought they’d have held you . . .”
“Why would they hold me? I’ve only been charged with theft,” Alex sneered.
“Look, I’m just here to pick up a couple of dresses, and then I’ll ring for a ride into town,” Charlotte said. “In fact, I’ll ring now. By the time he gets here . . .” Her voice trailed off as Phyllis arrived carrying the dress boxes. “Oh, good, here they are.” And then, instead of just walking away, she heard herself blurting out, “Phyllis, I just want to ask you something.”
“Ask me what?” said Phyllis in a flat, even tone. Charlotte scanned her face, and in her eyes she saw nothing. No interest, no concern, no hope.
“Did you tell the police you’d seen Hugh Hedley during the second half of the performance? Because you implied in your message to Mrs. Van Dusen that you had. And if you did see him, you need to tell the police.”
Phyllis’s eyes darted to her daughter, as if looking for an answer.
“She knows,” Alex hissed to her mother, reaching into her box and pulling out a roll of duct tape. “Look what I just happen to have. Today’s my lucky day, but it might not be yours.”
Charlotte ran toward the door, but Alex got there first, blocking it.
“Now it’s my turn to tie you up,” she snarled. “Hold out your hands and let’s see how you like it.” With her heart pounding and brain racing, Charlotte looked around wildly. “Give me your hands,” repeated Alex, grabbing them. Charlotte winced as Alex wound duct tape several times around her wrists and then used her thumb and forefinger to rip it off the roll. Satisfied that Charlotte was tightly bound, she ordered her mother to open the door.
“You don’t want to do this,” Charlotte protested as they pushed her out the front door. “It won’t work, and it won’t get you anywhere.”
“How much do you know? And when did you figure it out?”
Charlotte stopped and faced them. “Well, I’m not so stupid that I’d come here on my own to face two murderers,” she said, “but when you said ‘message’ just then, Phyllis, everything came together. I connected your message with what Joseph Lamb told me.”
Phyllis flinched at the mention of his name, but Charlotte continued.
“He said Hugh Hedley never returned after the intermission, but you told Mrs. Van Dusen that Hugh asked you to give her a message saying he had to leave just before the play ended. Yet nobody saw him for the second half of the play. And I think that’s because you and Alex had already killed him. I know that you’re June Middleton’s daughter. If Hugh was out of the way, you hoped you and Alex would inherit your mother’s house and estate. Which I imagine is quite sizeable.”
Alex and Phyllis exchanged glances.
“I think you lured Hugh away from the party on some pretext or other, killed him, then carried his body into the garden.” She turned to Alex. “It was you I saw running across the garden that night, wasn’t it Alex? You stole the donkey head and placed it on Hugh to humiliate him. And then you changed into your fairy costume and served the champagne as if nothing had happened.” She shifted her gaze to Phyllis. “Both of you. That must have taken nerves of steel.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she detected a small movement farther down the garden. Keep talking, she thought.
But Alex had other ideas. She grabbed Charlotte roughly by her arm and pulled her forward. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go.” With one woman on each side of her, they steered her to the edge of the house and around the corner into the garden.
Ned, who had been working his way up the flower bed, was much closer now and trundled toward them with his wheelbarrow.
Charlotte called his name.
Ned caught on and advanced toward the women, brandishing his shears. “Step away from her!” he shouted. Charlotte raised her hands above her head and, keeping her elbows together, swung them down below her hips as hard as she could. The duct tape ripped apart, freeing her hands.
“Oh, Ned, am I ever glad to see you!” she said. As Phyllis and Alex tried to run to the front of the building, Ray Nicholson appeared.
“What’s going on?” He grabbed Phyllis, and when he had her, Alex stopped running.
“How did the police get here so quickly?” Ned asked in amazement. “Holy moley, that’s good work.”
“Aaron happened to mention when he dropped off my key that Charlotte was picking up a couple of boxes here and needed a ride home, so I came to get her.”
“How did you get in?” Ned asked. “Who opened the gates?”
“I did,” said Paula Van Dusen, joining the group. “Would someone like to tell me what on earth’s going on?”
“Ray’s here to arrest Phyllis and Alex for the murder of Hugh Hedley,” said Charlotte. “And I just came to pick up those dress boxes.”
“Oh, dear God,” said Paula Van Dusen. “Is there no end to this?”
“Not yet,” said Ray. “There’ll be more police arriving for these two.”
*
Ray loaded the boxes into the back seat of the police car, and Charlotte climbed into the passenger side.
“Really,” he said, “tell me the truth. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “It was scary enough, but I didn’t think for a minute they were going to kill me.”
“Why not?”
“In broad daylight, with Paula Van Dusen likely to show up any minute? And I don’t think Phyllis has it in her. She’s so defeated. I don’t know what they were thinking. It was just the last desperate act of two women who never stood much of a chance.”
Ray looked at Charlotte’s wrists, still red from the duct tape. “Criminals love tying up victims with duct tape. It’s fast and easy, not to mention cheap. You’d be surprised how many dead bodies we find with duct tape on them. I don’t understand how you managed to get out of it.”
“Oh, it was just some self-defense video I saw online,” she grinned. “You hold your hands high above your head and swing them down, and the tape comes off.” She turned her hands palm up. “It works, apparently. I’ll show you when we get home. It might come in handy for you one day, too.”
*
Ray set the dress boxes on the bed and turned to Charlotte, taking her in his arms. “I’d never forgive myself if anything ever happened to you,” he said. She nodded into his chest, and a moment later, he released her.
“Drink?” he asked.
“Glass of wine, I think. But first, I’m going to take a shower.”
Half an hour later, wrapped in a terry robe and seated on the sofa, Charlotte took a grateful sip of wine.
“So you gave June Middleton the photograph?” Ray asked. “Why would you do that?”
“Because it was hers, and she wanted it,” Charlotte replied, licking her lips.
“Well, there goes our B&E case against you and Aaron,” said Ray.
“So I guess Bartucci and Adrian Archer are in the clear.”
“Their alibis were sketchy, to say the least. They were both trying to hide something. Archer did spend the night with another woman, and Bartucci was at a jewelry store, picking out a surprise for his wife’s birthday, which naturally he didn’t want her to know about.”
“I thought he said he was at an event.”
“He was. He slipped out for an hour or so. No one noticed except his wife, and she wasn’t going to say anything, was she? And anyway, he wasn’t gone nearly long enough to get up here, kill Hedley, then get back to the city. The state police have been investigating Bartucci pretty thoroughly, though, and although they’ve cleared him for this murder, they’ve turned up lots of interesting stuff about his business operations.”
“I can believe that. Manhattan real estate is a crazy world of insane amounts of money.” Charlotte finished her wine. “I’ll get dressed while you make dinner.”
*
Charlotte lifted the two dress boxes onto the bed and opened the first one. It contained the torn dress Belinda had worn to the after party. She fingered the light material, unsure what she could do with it but certain that she’d find a good use for it sooner or later.
And then she folded back the tissue paper on the second one and gasped. A compliments card, with Oakland engraved on the top, tucked inside read, “I know you loved this, and it would look beautiful on you. Belinda x.”
She gently lifted out the tea-length wedding dress she had fitted for Belinda. Smiling, she held it in front of herself and pirouetted in front of the mirror.
“Dinner will be ready in ten minutes,” Ray called.
Charlotte carefully folded the dress, tucked it back in the box, folded the tissue paper around it, and placed the box on the top shelf of her closet.