A Forgotten Murder

by Jude Deveraux

  “How many studios did you own by then?” Sara asked.

  “About a dozen, I think.”

  “Were they impressed?” Kate asked.

  “They didn’t know,” Meena said. “With the name change, they didn’t realize I was the owner. Oh! I wanted to arrive in a limo. I wanted to smash their faces in my success. But before that, I went to see a couple who’d worked there for years. I didn’t want them to think I’d turned into a snob, so I stopped at their house to say hello. And truthfully, I was scared to see my siblings.”

  “Afraid they’d turn you back into the old Willa?” Sara asked.

  “Yes, I was, but the couple couldn’t get over how I’d changed. They said I wasn’t the same person. They hadn’t heard that I ran a business. I asked how their children were.” She looked at Kate. “Their daughter had become an estate agent.”

  “Good choice,” Kate said.

  “In my case, very good. The man let it slip that he knew our family home was to go on the market the day after the funeral.”

  “Without your consent?” Kate asked. “Is that allowed under English law?”

  “No, it isn’t. It was assumed that I’d agree.” Meena was smiling in a secret way. “In a flash, I came up with a plan. They called their daughter, she came over, and I made a low cash offer for the house and property. Then I told her what I had in mind. When it was all in place, I went shopping for clothes, and I bought some cheap hair dye.”

  “Back to Willa the Unwanted,” Sara said.

  “Yes. It was hard to slump in that position of I Hate the World but I managed it. I rented a cheap car and drove to the family home.”

  “And how were your siblings?” Sara asked.

  “Eight years of hard living had taken a toll on them. They looked bad and they were frantic to sell the house. Beatrice started out by threatening me and I obligingly looked scared.” Meena’s smile was getting wider by the second.

  “They were desperate to get me to agree because the agent had told them they already had a cash offer on the house. But they had only twenty-four hours to say yes or no. When they were told the company that wanted the house was Renewal, my siblings said that such a rich company could afford to pay more. They wanted to counter for a lot more money.”

  Meena picked up a chocolate brownie off the table and ate it. “I said they weren’t being fair, that the house was falling down.”

  “I love this,” Kate said. “My kind of espionage. Was the agent there?”

  “Oh yes. She looked at me to nod yes or no at every question. Three times she stepped into the hall to fake a telephone call, but really she was looking at me. I made thumbs-up or -down behind the huge dress I was wearing.”

  “This is my fantasy deal,” Kate said in envy.

  “How much did you end at?” Sara asked.

  “For my low offer,” Meena said in pride.

  Kate leaned back on the couch and sighed in satisfaction. “Less commission for the agent, but cash and a quick sale made it up to her.”

  “Everything was done quickly,” Meena said. “I’d written a check and papers were signed.”

  “When did you tell them?” Sara asked.

  “Late the next morning. I let them awake to champagne to celebrate. They needed it because the will had been read. Our father had left us each a pittance. He’d spent everything on the upkeep of the house.”

  “So you got a house that had been renovated.” Kate was smiling in wonder. “And it was repaired with the money your siblings would have inherited.”

  Meena nodded. “I kept up the charade until the agent called to say that the sale had been finalized. At 2:00 p.m., Katrina arrived with three cars full of my officers.” She looked at Jack. “They are a rather attractive lot.”

  “Understatement,” Jack said.

  “I got out of my disguise, put on something very expensive, then went downstairs to meet them. My sibs were there, smiling in triumph. They thought their money problems were over forever. My brothers were hitting on my officers.” Meena was smiling in pleasure at the memory.

  “I guess they were shocked when they found out the truth,” Sara said.

  “I’ll never forget Beatrice saying, ‘You own Renewal? You?’”

  They were silent for a moment as they imagined the scene.

  “What’s happened since then?” Sara asked.

  “My siblings had spent everything, and one by one they came to me asking for jobs. But they believed they should be given all because their sister owned the company.”

  “Entitlement!” Sara sounded bitter. “One of the things I hate most in the world. ‘You have to give it to me because I’m me.’” She grimaced. “Hope you rejected them.”

  “I did. However, remember obnoxious little Martin, my nephew? He came to me right after he graduated from uni and asked for a job. I gave him one but made him work his way up. He’s an executive now, and I dearly love him.”

  “What about you?” Kate asked. “Your personal life?”

  “Fifteen years ago, I married the son of the lawyer who handled all our deals. We have two children, a boy and a girl, and David handles all business for me.”

  “You are loved,” Sara said softly.

  “I am.”

  “And your brothers and sister?” Jack asked.

  Meena shrugged. “They get by. Martin helps his father. The others...? I don’t really keep up with them.”

  “Still have the ring?” Sara asked.

  “I do. I wear it often.”

  For a few moments, they sat in silence.

  “What now?” Sara asked. “Will you go back to Oxley Manor with us? This time you can arrive in a limo.”

  Meena leaned back. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about those days when I practically lived with those people. I was so young and naive, so lonely, that I looked at them in awe. But the truth is that we were all misfits.”

  “We’ve seen that,” Sara said. “Nadine...”

  “Lower-class origins, upper-class education. Her accent was like the Queen’s while her father’s was barely intelligible. Nadine didn’t fit in anywhere.”

  “And Byon,” Kate said.

  “Talented, probably from a poor background—we never knew for sure. We have no idea how he afforded school. Nicky was the saddest of us all. Disliked by his father, burdened with a rotting house that he’d been told he had to hold on to no matter what.”

  “Do you think he loved Diana?” Kate asked.

  “Lord, no! They weren’t even friends. But they both wanted Oxley Manor and were willing to do whatever was needed to obtain it. And Nicky would have done anything to get his father’s approval.”

  “Murder?” Sara asked.

  “Oh yes,” Meena said. “But not Diana. He needed her.”

  “What about Sean?” Jack asked.

  “He hated us all. I can’t imagine why he stayed there. Even I knew he had job offers. Byon used to joke and say, ‘He actually loves us.’ But of course we knew he didn’t.”

  “What do you think actually happened to them?” Sara asked.

  “I have no idea,” Meena said, “but I don’t think Sean and Diana left together, not as a couple. They didn’t match. Sean liked women who did their hair and makeup. Put together. Diana was pretty but in a natural way. Sean always treated her like she was his younger brother. We laughed about it.”

  “Did he—?” Sara began, but a knock on the door stopped her.

  A young woman came in carrying half a dozen heavily loaded shopping bags. She looked only at Meena. “I hate these things! I had to go to Oxfam for half of this. The shoes need to be disinfected. You’re going to swelter with this padding on, and—”

  “This is my stylist, Felicity,” Meena said loudly.

  “Sorry, I didn’t see anyone else here. Can you ta
lk her out of this?”

  Sara was smiling. “If it’s what I think it’s for, I encourage her.”

  “I’m going back to being the Willa they remember.”

  It was time to leave. The three stood up and went to the door. Sara turned back. “So how do we treat you? Have we met you or not?”

  “Not,” Meena said firmly. “That way I can tell you my new story.”

  “The one they expect of you?” Kate asked.

  “Cheated out of your inheritance by your family, now living in a third floor walk-up, working at Sainsbury’s, no friends.” Sara was smiling.

  “You should have written it for me,” Meena said.

  “Send me your text number and I will,” Sara said.

  Jack said, “You’re assuming someone will ask. No one’s asked me what I do for a living.”

  “Good point,” Meena said. “I’ll just be Poorwilla and that will be enough.”

  Jack opened the door.

  “What about Clive?” Kate asked. “Puck said that at that time, you were quite, uh, taken with him. I know from experience that the past can sometimes swallow a person.”

  Meena pulled a huge ugly dress from a bag. “Along with Nicky’s last words to me, I remember Clive’s. ‘Of all the things I want in life, you are at the bottom.’” When she looked at them, her eyes were scary with anger and hatred.

  Kate and Sara swallowed. They nodded goodbyes, left the room and started down the hall.

  Jack spoke first. “I’m surprised he isn’t dead.”

  “Think she’s capable of murder?” Sara asked.

  “Oh yes,” Kate said.

  “Hundred percent,” Jack said. “In fact, I’m going to lock my bedroom door.” He looked at Kate. “You better stay with me tonight.”

  “Hold your breath if you think—”

  “What about me?” Sara said. “I’m all alone on a floor below. I need protection.”

  “I pity anyone who tries to tangle with you,” Jack said. “Last week your right cross nearly tore my shoulder out of its socket.” As he held the front door open for her, he looked at Kate over Sara’s head. He didn’t have to say anything. Protect Sara was between them.

  Thirteen

  Jack was driving them back from the inn.

  “Wow,” Kate said. “Just plain wow. I am very glad I never joined a club when I was in school. They seem to eat you alive.”

  From the back, Sara said, “You didn’t join anything because your mother made you go home every weekend.” Sara and Kate’s mother were not friends. “There wasn’t time for anything else.”

  “Then I guess she saved me,” Kate said.

  Jack looked at Sara in the rearview mirror. “Round One to young Medlar.”

  “But—” Sara began.

  Jack raised his voice. “If a ladder falls in a stable and no one hears it, does it make a sound?”

  “Explain,” Sara said.

  “I climbed up the ladder to the loft, but when I went to go down, the ladder was on the floor. I didn’t hear it fall.”

  “So who did it?” Sara asked.

  “Wasn’t this when you met Nadine?” Kate asked. “Maybe she moved it.”

  “I can’t see an elegant lady like her lifting a ladder. You need to balance it. Doubt if she has the experience.”

  “Ladies can do lots of things,” Kate said. “She could have—”

  “Who left the gate open?” Sara cut them off. “Kate, you said the gate was open.”

  She turned in the seat. “I didn’t tell you.”

  “I did,” Jack said cheerfully. “Had lots of time while you were chasing after the banker.”

  Sara was looking at her phone. “There’s no mention on the company website that the owner of Renewal has a husband and children.”

  “Could have left that out for privacy,” Kate said. “English papers blur the faces of celebrity kids.”

  “Any David in charge of finances?” Jack asked.

  “Yes, but there’s nothing about him personally.”

  “Think she’s telling a fib?” Kate asked. “Running a business takes a lot of time.”

  “With her anger-driven ambition, maybe she didn’t have time for a family,” Jack said.

  “Maybe she’s here for revenge,” Sara said. “Or she needs to see the past. She can’t release what happened to her until she fully remembers it.”

  Jack said, “Like you when you moved back to where you’d grown up? Girl from the wrong side of the tracks makes good? Rubs their noses in it?”

  “Jack!” Kate said.

  Sara was laughing. “Exactly like that. Whatever their reasons, they all seem to be full of anger.”

  “Except Byon.” He caught eyes with Sara. “And no, I’m not giving in to your idea that prison is a haven for writers.” He drove through the gate to Oxley Manor. “So what do we have so far? Ladder, gate—”

  “Skeleton,” Kate said.

  “And enough hate to set off bombs,” Sara said. “I don’t believe your Puck is as innocent as she seems. She’s spent her lifetime hiding from her hideous mother. That kind of rage builds up.”

  “Like a teakettle,” Kate said.

  “And soon it begins to whistle,” Sara added.

  Jack groaned. “You two! We could still turn this over to the police. I’d tell them I was trespassing in the forbidden zone, fell through the hole, then—”

  “Got the rope ladder and investigated,” Kate said.

  “Then no one would ever know who killed Sean. I’m growing rather fond of him.”

  “You like him because he looks like pretty boy here,” Kate said.

  “Thank you.” Jack smiled at her.

  “I didn’t mean it as a compliment. What you’ve done to poor Nadine is rotten. She thinks you—”

  “Look!” Sara said loudly.

  There was a very nice dark green car parked in front of the house. Standing by it was Nadine and a young woman who looked enough like her for them to know she was the daughter, Teddy. They were both frowning. Beside them was a large man, smiling fondly at them. The women had his jawline and they were set hard.

  “Now we know why the English chose a bulldog to represent them,” Sara muttered.

  “Jag,” Jack said. “If anyone wants to know. Eighty grand at least. I do admire that family’s taste in cars.”

  “Looks like you’re going to get to talk to the dad all about it.” Sara waved, and the man smiled back. The two women didn’t look away from each other.

  “She won’t win,” Kate said under her breath. “Mothers always win.”

  “Not always,” Sara snapped. “Sometimes—”

  Jack’s look cut her off. “One war at a time.”

  They got out of the car and started toward the group, but the young woman stormed inside, Nadine close behind her.

  That left the man alone. He was staring up at the house.

  Jack and Kate stayed in the background while Sara went to him. “Lovely, isn’t it?”

  “Not like I remember it. I was afraid it was going to fall down on my daughter’s head.” His colloquial English accent was very heavy.

  “You must have some fond memories of your time here.”

  He chuckled. “Thelma Thompson and I broke the glass elephant right here in this house.”

  Behind them, Jack wiggled his eyebrows at Kate, and she elbowed him to behave.

  “Don’t believe I know her,” Sara said. “Did she live here?”

  “Who?”

  “Miss Thompson.”

  The man stopped smiling. “Who are you?” he demanded.

  “Sara Medlar. I’m staying at the hotel.”

  “Then you oughta go back to it.” He stepped toward her in a menacing way. “This is private property.”

&
nbsp; Kate put her hand on Jack’s arm to keep him from stepping between them.

  “This place belongs to the Renlows. Nicky will—”

  After a few blinks, Sara said, “I’m here to sell Bertie a horse. Fastest one I’ve ever seen.”

  The man’s face changed to a smile. “He’ll buy it then.” He tilted his head toward her and winked. “And I’ll lend him the money, like I always do. One day, I’m gonna collect, then Oxley Manor will be mine. I’ll give it to my daughter as a wedding present.”

  “Who is she marrying?”

  “Nicky, of course. She’s gonna be a lady. I’m hungry.” He walked into the house.

  Jack and Kate went to Sara.

  “Now we know who paid Bertie’s bills,” Jack said.

  Kate said, “He seems to think his granddaughter is his daughter and that Nicky is still alive.”

  Sara gave a smile of satisfaction. “His mind is like having a living video of the past. Come on, let’s go find him and ask a lot of questions.”

  “And encourage that poor man’s mental problems?” Kate had slipped into what Jack called her “school marm mode.”

  “I prefer to think of it as letting him live in a world where he was happiest,” Sara said. “He had wealth and power, and hope that the future for him and his beloved daughter was going to be nothing but happiness. It was a time before death and disappointment shattered everything he’d worked for and dreamed of. A place where—”

  Kate put her hands over her ears. “Okay. You win.”

  “She always does,” Jack muttered.

  “So let’s go.” Sara ran into the house.

  Kate looked at Jack. “You coming?”

  “I’m going to take in the luggage.”

  “Don’t you need a key to get into the car?”

  “Puh-lease.”

  “Didn’t mean to insult your criminal abilities. See you later.” She ran after her aunt.

  * * *

  Jack didn’t say that he’d noticed the young woman hadn’t locked her car. He opened the trunk and pulled out the cases. The misery on the young woman’s face bothered him. Nadine had a look of “please forgive me” but it was Teddy who appeared to be in pain. He thought it would be better if she weren’t left alone. He hadn’t said anything to Kate and Sara because he didn’t want to be accused of playing “rescuing hero.”