Back in the main part of the house, Amity curled up in an overstuffed chair with her arms wrapped around her bent knees, while I paced, my mind racing in several directions at once. I knew what we had seen. It had been there, and then it wasn’t. But how …?
A thought hit me, one I didn’t have any intention of sharing with my daughter. Did whoever was in the false basement room hear us when we told Jane about what we had seen? Was he in the passageways spying on us when we were here in the living room?
I looked at my daughter, who suddenly seemed very much a child, curled up as she was, and I felt a sense of utter vulnerability, a barrage of questions running through my mind. Why would someone hole up in our basement? How did whomever it was learn of the existence of the passageways? And, worse, how long had he been there? With access to those passageways, he had access to the house and very easily might have entered our rooms while we were sleeping. That thought made me shudder.
“I’m calling the police,” I announced, crossing the room to the telephone sitting on one of the end tables.
“Are you sure that’s wise?” Jane asked, smoothing her apron and slightly shaking her head. “I didn’t see—”
“I know you didn’t, but we did,” I interrupted, irritated by this household’s age-old tendency to close ranks. As I held the receiver in my hand, I continued: “The fact that the evidence disappeared so quickly is even more troubling, frankly. That tells me someone not only was here but is here, and heard what we were saying.”
“He could be watching us right now,” Amity added, wrapping her arms tighter around her knees.
That did it. “Jane, ring for Mr. Jameson and the lads. I want all the secret doors in this house locked from the inside, every one of them. And all the peepholes need to be covered, too. It has to be done right now. If anyone is or has been in the passageways, I don’t want him getting into the interior of the house or spying on us.”
And just as quick as that, the indecision and paralysis I’d been feeling since I’d been back at Alban House vanished. I was the head of the household, like it or not, and as uncomfortable as I had been in that role since I arrived, it now seemed to slip over me like a second skin. It was up to me to make sure this house and the people in it were safe and secure.
Jane gave a quick nod and rushed off into the kitchen, where the somewhat complicated buzzer system was located. Each room in the house and the buildings on the grounds had been wired with a buzzer, which would ring in the kitchen, illuminating the location on a map grid. That way, family could summon staff from wherever they were in the house. And it worked both ways; the kitchen could buzz the rest of the house as well. It was revolutionary technology more than a century ago when the house was built, and it still functioned today.
As Jane was ringing for her husband, I dialed the police station. But before blurting out the nature of my call to just any officer who answered the phone, a bit of Jane’s—and this household’s—tradition of privacy and discretion seeped into my thinking.
“Chief Bellamy, please,” I heard myself saying. “This is Grace Alban.”
A moment later, my mother’s old, dear friend was on the line.
“Gracie!” he said, his mellow, fluid voice erasing the years since I had last heard it. “It’s so good to talk to you. I’m sorry it isn’t under more pleasant circumstances.”
“It’s good to talk to you, Chief.”
“I suppose you’re calling to go over security for the funeral,” he said. “It’s a damned shame, Gracie. A damned shame.”
“Thank you,” I said, clearing my throat. “Actually, we probably will need security for the funeral, but that isn’t what I’m calling about.”
“Oh?” he said, the concern reverberating from his end of the line to mine.
And I told him the whole story, how we had seen evidence of someone staying in the basement (I didn’t say “false basement”) and how, when we went back a few moments later, it was gone.
I heard Chief Bellamy let out a long sigh. “For God’s sake, Grace, that’s the last thing you need. Now of all times. I told your mother last year I didn’t think it was a good idea to open the house for those goddamned tours. But she didn’t listen to me. She never did.” I could hear the slight chuckle in his voice as he remembered his old friend.
I hesitated a moment before responding. But then I thought I might as well say it. “Chief, this might not mean anything, but there’s something else you should know.”
He waited for me to continue, and I said it all quickly, in one long stream. “My mother died on the very day she was going to talk to a reporter who was planning to write a book about my family. I know she died of natural causes—it was a heart attack—but now with this happening, I thought I should mention it.”
He was silent for a moment and then said: “Don’t worry, Grace. Just as you said, it’s probably nothing, and I don’t want you to make too much out of this, but I’m going to send a squad over immediately. They’ll check the whole place out.”
I wondered how effective that would be. If someone was lurking here, the place was big enough to get lost in. Especially since the intruder knew about the secret passageways, he could stay one, or several, steps ahead of whoever was looking. Hide and seek was an impossible game within these walls, I knew. Those hiding would always win. Still, I’d feel safer if I knew the police had secured the house. Their very presence might be enough to scare whomever it was away.
“Thank you,” I said, and then, thinking out loud, continued. “And what I’d also like is for a squad to patrol the grounds tonight. I’m worried that, if we do indeed have an intruder, he has found a way to come and go.”
“Oh?”
The words I was about to say to the chief caught in my throat. Spilling secrets just wasn’t done in my family, but I knew I had no choice. My daughter’s welfare was more important to me than the almighty Alban traditions.
“I’m sure you’re not aware of this,” I began, “but this house is filled with passageways behind the walls, and some lead to the outside. I think the intruder might have been in those passageways.”
“Passageways?” the chief said, a slight lilt in his voice. “Why am I not surprised? You Albans have always had a flair for the dramatic.”
He had no idea how right he was. “The doors to the outside can be locked, of course, but I’d feel better with a police presence. My daughter’s safety is my main concern.”
“Consider it done,” he said. “Twenty-four-hour guard, until further notice. Grace, your mother—” His words stopped in midair. I heard him clearing his throat.
“I know, Chief. She loved you, too. The service is Friday morning. I look forward to seeing you there.”
“Anything you need, Grace. Anything. The entire force is at your disposal.”
“Thanks, Chief Bellamy. It means a lot, it really does.” I intended to hang up then, but a thought crept in. “I do have one more thing to ask of you, if I may.”
“What’s that?”
“Your discretion and that of your officers. I don’t want it getting out that there was an intruder at Alban House. You know what a field day the press would have with that.”
“Of course.”
I put the phone down and turned to see Mr. Jameson and his two young men coming out of the kitchen through the swinging doors.
“We’re on the job, Miss Grace,” he called to me over his shoulder as the three of them began to ascend the stairs. “All the doors and those infernal peepholes will be secured in a jiffy. Don’t you worry now.”
“Wait a second,” I said, hurrying toward the bottom of the staircase. “Cody, you and—” I looked at the second young man. “What’s your name?”
“Jason, ma’am.”
“Cody and Jason. You two are living in the groundskeeper’s quarters for the summer, isn’t that right?”
They nodded, exchanging a quick glance. That was the usual practice, the outdoor help stayed in a small two-bedroom cottage located between the gardens and the lake, which had originally been intended for the head of the groundskeeping staff. But Mr. Jameson, of course, lived with his wife in her large suite of rooms off the kitchen, so the cottage was vacant unless he hired outdoor staff.
“I’d like you both to move into the main house, effective immediately,” I said. “I’m sorry about this and I know it’s a bit of an upheaval for you, but I’d really feel better with you guys in the house. Is that all right? You’ll have the west wing on the second floor all to yourselves. There are bedrooms and bathrooms, a library, a media room, and even a small kitchen. I think you’ll find it much larger than the groundskeeper’s cottage. Come and go as you wish, and don’t worry about using the back stairs. You’re perfectly welcome to use this main staircase.”
It was strength in numbers I was going for. If there was an intruder and he was still here, I felt a bit safer knowing that two strapping young men were going to be in the house with us overnight rather than just me, Amity, and an elderly couple.
Cody and Jason exchanged a quick glance and tried to hide their smiles. “Sure, Miss Alban,” Cody said. “Anything you want.”
“Okay, then,” I said, turning to Jane. “Will you make up rooms for these boys?”
“I’ll also make up the master suite for you and Amity,” Jane said, nodding her head toward my daughter. “There’s a big daybed in the study that she can use.”
That hadn’t occurred to me, but of course she was right. Mr. Jameson had hired these kids and I trusted his judgment completely, but how much did we really know about them? I might have spoken too soon by inviting them to stay in the house. Best to have Amity safe with me, behind my locked door.
And the master suite was the only one on the second floor with its own exit to the outdoors. I liked the idea that we could get out quickly if necessary. To my great surprise, Amity didn’t balk at the suggestion.
Jane had started up the stairs with the men and Amity and I were headed back into the living room, but all of us stopped dead when we heard a knock at the front door. The police? Already here with information? I exhaled in the hopes that they had found whomever it was and we could all go back to normal.
But it wasn’t the police. Jane opened the door to reveal the minister, Matthew Parker, standing there, holding a bottle of wine.
Our stunned expressions must’ve been rather overt, because he said: “We said six o’clock, right?”