A Forgotten Murder

by Jude Deveraux

  As for Sara, she needed time to be quiet. As a true introvert, people took energy away from her. Kate received energy from them, and Jack... Well, he just wanted the people he cared about to be near him.

  Right now, Sara needed time away from them all. The newspaper article and Bella’s wrath had been a blow. Sara had few true friends and she couldn’t afford to lose any. She was feeling guilty. All she’d meant to do was come to England, see her friend and do a little research into what she’d thought was an old mystery. And she’d wanted an excuse to give Jack and Kate time alone. She’d meant to send them off to Scotland together. Maybe if they didn’t always have a third person around, they’d...

  She stopped. Forty-plus years of writing romance novels was making her plan everyone’s future. But the idea of the two people she loved most in the world getting together and... Heavens! How she’d like a baby to hold and spoil.

  She made herself stop thinking in those terms. Thirty minutes later, she got a ride into the village in a truck with one of the workmen. He let her off by the pub. Across the road was a shop that sold English clothes: well-made and beautiful.

  An hour later, she’d visited four shops and bought gifts for everyone at home. Jack’s mother was going to love the teapot and cups. And his sister would like the crafts. Sara knew she should buy Kate’s mother something but all the woman ever wanted was cash—something Kate knew nothing about.

  The first text came from Jack.

  Byon is frantic. His agent has someone who wants to hear his new music. He needs to leave asap.

  Sara wrote back:

  Police said he can’t leave. If he resists, hint that he might be considered for Mr. H’s murder.

  Jack replied:

  Devil is your bestie?

  Sara started to answer, but a text came from Kate:

  Clive says a billionaire is in London and wants to meet him. He’s frantic to leave.

  Sara stared at the phone. “Two frantics. How interesting.” There was a packaging store nearby and she went to it, wrote out the addresses and turned the gifts—and a check to Kate’s mother—over to them to send.

  When Kate texted that Nadine had been invited to a party at Lord Hazeldean’s so she really, really wanted to leave, Sara knew that something wasn’t right. She needed to find out what was going on.

  She sat down on a bench and began to send emails asking people she knew a lot of questions.

  * * *

  As soon as Sara saw Kate and Jack, she knew they had something to tell. They looked like they were ready to explode if they didn’t release their information immediately.

  They went inside the pub. It was awash in polished horse brasses, with a huge fireplace along one wall. The Floridians were sorry it wasn’t alight. They took a table in the corner by a window that looked out to the street, then ordered great heaps of fish and chips.

  “And tomato sauce,” the waitress said. This was English for ketchup.

  “No!” they said. “Malt vinegar.”

  The waitress gave a little smile and went away.

  “So?” Sara said as soon as they were alone.

  Jack motioned for Kate to go first.

  “I want to say that asking for ‘something no one else knew’ worked. Clive was very pleased to be asked that.” Kate paused. “Remember how Mr. Howland said Diana wanted to breed horses?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Clive thinks Sean was stealing semen from some big-time racehorses and selling it.”

  The visions that conjured made Sara say, “Ewww.”

  Jack laughed in a dirty kind of way. “Bet when he showed up, the horses came running.”

  “It was illegal,” Kate said.

  “That’s what he was doing in the cemetery with those men,” Sara said. “Selling it to them.”

  “Probably,” Jack agreed.

  “I bet it was for Nadine,” Kate said. “I wonder if he did know she was pregnant? He worked with animals so he probably knew the signs.”

  “Poor guy,” Jack said. “In love, about to be a father and no way to support a woman who was used to great wealth. Her daddy had even remodeled a room for a place she just visited. How could he compete with that?”

  “That gives Mr. Howland a motive for murder,” Sara said. “He didn’t want his daughter running off with some low-class nobody. He was an extremely ambitious man, and this handsome stable lad was destroying his life plan.”

  Kate was looking at her hands. “Maybe returning to Oxley made him remember what he’d done. Maybe he did take his own life.”

  Their platters of divine English fish and chips arrived. “Keto be damned,” Sara mumbled as she shook the malt vinegar onto the fat “chips.” In the US, they’d be called home fries.

  The waitress left and they were alone again.

  “What about you?” Sara asked Jack. “Find out anything interesting?”

  Jack smiled. “Just a little.”

  “Out with it,” Kate said, her mouth full. Their drinks were lukewarm.

  “Byon said he didn’t believe Diana actually liked men.”

  “Hated them or liked women better?” Sara asked.

  “Sex,” Jack said. “Liked women for sex.”

  “Proof that she and Sean weren’t a couple,” Sara said. “Damn! But I’d like to know what happened to her. What else?”

  “Byon said that after that night, Nicky changed.”

  Sara closed her eyes for a moment. “I sometimes forget how good carbs taste. Anyway, how did he change? From what I gather, Nicky didn’t have many friends, so after everyone left, he was alone with his father. He must have been depressed.”

  “Byon said that for the first year, he used to drive up from London every weekend, but Nicky was always angry and drunk. Byon stopped coming. Oh! And he said they missed Clive.”

  “But then, they were united in their hatred of him,” Kate said. “It’s a kind of bonding. Too bad. Clive seems like a nice guy.”

  “Asked you out yet?” Jack asked.

  “Repeatedly.”

  “If he—”

  Sara cut him off. “What about Nadine?”

  “We had a nice heart-to-heart. She said this place is making her remember the truth,” Jack said. “She told me about Sean and her.”

  Kate and Sara leaned forward, ready to listen.

  “Tell us every word,” Sarah said. “In detail.”

  Sixteen

  “Sean was a great lover,” Nadine said. “All those years of currying horses...” She raised her hands and moved them in a sensuous way. “He took his time. I’ve never...” She sighed. “No one since, if you know what I mean.”

  Jack nodded. “Losing him... I can’t imagine how it hurt.”

  Nadine took her time before replying. “At the time I thought I’d die. To have it all taken away in an instant... I didn’t know how to go on living. Willa had everyone’s attention because Clive had dumped her, so I was alone. They didn’t know about Sean and me.”

  “It’s hard for me to see how you kept that a secret.”

  Nadine shook her head. “It wasn’t easy. Damned Puck was everywhere. Sneaking here and there. But thanks to me, no one went to the cemetery house. Bertram was too cheap to hire a caretaker or to repair it. But that was good because it gave us a place to meet in secret. I came up with the idea of making people believe the house was haunted. Sean and I laughed as we set up the ghost equipment. We used the bathtub to—” She drifted away in memory of those days of the two of them together. Hands and soap and hot water.

  Jack interrupted. “Puck found your hiding place.”

  Nadine came back to the present. “She did. She seemed to have fallen through a door. Knocked it over. Sean was very upset. We met in the woods after that.”

  “And in the chapel.”

  She looked startled. “Ho
w do you know about that?”

  “Just a guess. And you were going to have a baby,” he said softly.

  She sighed. “I had been looking forward to telling Sean. Now that I’m older I see my stupidity, but back then, all I thought was ‘Now Sean can’t leave me.’”

  “Did you believe he wanted to?”

  “Yes and no. He’d said he couldn’t see how it would work between us. We were pretty sure that when we told my father he’d disown me. He used to be...” She looked away as tears came to her eyes. “This afternoon I have to choose his coffin.”

  Jack put his hand over hers. “I’m sorry for all this. I liked the man.”

  “Even though he tried to kill you?”

  “Especially because he tried to kill me.”

  For a moment, they smiled at each other in memory.

  “It wouldn’t have worked,” Nadine said. “Sean and me. I can see that now. We wouldn’t have lasted more than a few years—if that. Marriage is serious business. All he and I had was wonderful, fabulous sex. We looked at each other and clothes came off.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Jack said.

  Nadine didn’t smile. “When I was with him, I couldn’t see reality. He had a very quick temper. And he hated all of us.”

  “Except you.”

  “Have you ever loved someone and hated them too?”

  “My father,” Jack said.

  “Then you understand. Sean and I didn’t dare talk or the hate would have come out. My life was dealing with my father’s ambition. He worked his way into upscale events—and he wanted me next to him.”

  “You were part of his showroom.”

  “I was. Some of my gowns cost more than Sean made in a year.”

  “And he stank of horses—which you hate.”

  “Exactly,” Nadine said. “By the end, we were seeing our differences. No! We were seeing how alike we were. When I got angry, Sean got more angry. He had a truly vicious temper.”

  “When did you tell your father? And how did he take it?”

  “It was weeks before I could admit to myself that Sean was actually gone. I kept thinking that he’d return. I soothed myself by planning my anger. I’d throw things at him, then he’d...” She held up her hand as though to stop that memory. “Finally, I had to tell my father about the baby—and I expected rage. I was sure he’d go crazy with anger. But he didn’t. He suggested a solution.”

  “Your husband.”

  “Yes. A nice, quiet man to whom I’d never paid any attention. But then, with the fire of Sean around me, I couldn’t see anyone else. So I married him. It surprised me that it was good. When I got angry, he held me and told me everything would be all right. I never would have married him if Sean had stayed. Sex causes us to do things that make no sense.”

  Jack said, “I’d like to hear your version of what happened the night of the party.”

  “I don’t know what actually happened. Sean and I were going to leave together. I know he’d packed a suitcase. I saw it. But I went to the stables and he wasn’t there. His suitcase was gone and the place was empty.”

  “And Diana was missing, too,” Jack said.

  “Yes, she was.” For a moment, Nadine’s hands clenched into fists. “Everything changed after that night. I left Oxley Manor and I never went back. I didn’t see Clive or Willa again until yesterday.”

  “What about the others?”

  “I saw some of Byon’s plays but not him. I never even told anyone that I knew him. I never heard anything about Willa or Clive.”

  “And Nicky?”

  “I went to his funeral, but I didn’t go to the house.”

  “Didn’t Bertram say something there?”

  “He said we killed Nicky, which I’m sure was true. When we left, Nicky had no one but his father. It was one of my father’s cars that he crashed.”

  “Why did your father say that he’d killed Sean?”

  Nadine’s mouth tightened. “I... This is hard to say. I think maybe my father paid Sean to leave me.”

  “And he took the money?” Jack sounded shocked.

  When she looked at him, there was such hate in her eyes that Jack pulled back. “Looks like he did, doesn’t it?” For all of her talk of having a better life without him, it didn’t look like she’d forgiven him.

  Seventeen

  “Her phone rang and that was the end,” Jack said.

  “What if... ?” Kate said slowly.

  “I know,” Sara said, “what if Sean told her that he’d rather have her father’s money than her?”

  “She would have killed him,” Jack said.

  “And Daddy would have disposed of the body,” Sara said.

  “One thing is certain,” Kate said. “They all had to show up here. No one could say, ‘I don’t need to go because I know who killed Sean. Me.’”

  “Too true,” Sara said, then looked at Jack. “You did a good job with Nadine. So what about Teddy?”

  “No time to talk to her. I barely made it here on time.”

  “Too bad,” Kate mumbled in a way that made Jack smile.

  “So what’s this about the frantics?” Sara asked.

  They looked at her in question.

  “Both of you used that word. Everyone is now frantic. They must return to wherever.”

  “To their lives,” Jack said.

  “Don’t we all want that.” Sara looked down at her empty plate. “Anyone up for some English custard?”

  “Not me,” Kate said.

  “You’ll regret this in the morning,” Jack said. “Sugar and carbs?”

  “I already regret it, but I need time to tell about the sleuthing I did on my own.” Sara looked extraordinarily pleased with herself.

  “The spotlight is on you,” Jack said. “So spill.”

  “Well...” Sara drew it out. “It seemed an odd coincidence that every person here suddenly got an urgent message to leave.” She smiled. “So I made some calls. In spite of what that hate-filled little tabloid said, some people have heard of me and do want—” She broke off at Jack’s look of impatience. “Lord Hazeldean’s office said there is no upcoming party. He’s in Saint Lucia and won’t be back for weeks.”

  “But Nadine said...”

  “Right,” Sara said. “Someone lied to her.”

  “What about Clive?” Jack asked.

  “He works for Coutts.” Jack and Kate looked blank. “It’s where the Queen keeps her money and I happen to have a pound or two in that bank.”

  “You have a personal banker?” Jack asked.

  “Oh yeah. He wears a tailcoat. Anyway, he made a few calls and found out some things. It seems that Clive isn’t one of those rich money people who gets a percentage of his deals. He gets a salary. It’s good but nothing to brag about. His boss told my banker that Clive is so hungry for acknowledgment, for praise, that if he asks for an increase in pay, they just let him have lunch with some big shot and Clive is happy for another two years.”

  “They did that to him.” They knew Kate meant the Pack.

  “Byon?” Jack asked. “What about him?”

  Sara knew how much Jack admired the man, so she wanted to soften the blow. “His agent only talked to me because I said Byon wanted to put one of my books to music. It seems that Byon hasn’t written anything in years. He’s broke. He plays piano in a bar and lives—”

  Jack threw up his hands. “Don’t tell me any more.”

  “I wonder if Willa received an urgent call from her company?” Kate asked.

  “From her husband?” Jack was frowning. “A man of Byon’s talent should be living in luxury. He should—”

  “You’re only as good as your last book,” Sara said. “And they remember the old stuff as perfect and wonderful. Anything new and they say you should retire, that your b
ooks have lost their magic. They say—” She cut off at their looks. “Sorry. I found out for sure that Willa has never been married and has no children.”

  “A great, whopping lie,” Jack said.

  “But I’m sure all the others are telling the truth,” Sara said, and they almost laughed.

  “Fake calls, made-up parties,” Jack said.

  “Don’t forget the note left in Aunt Sara’s camera bag,” Kate said.

  “Someone wants us out of here,” Sara said.

  “You think?” Jack said.

  “We—” Sara began.

  “Look!” Kate said.

  They turned to the window. Across the road, a woman was standing outside a Victorian house that had been converted into offices. She was staring at the entry stairs as though trying to decide whether or not to enter.

  “Isn’t that...?” Kate said.

  “That is Meena,” Sara said. “Owner of Renewal. Successful to the extreme—aka Willa without her disguise.”

  “She shouldn’t cover that body up,” Jack added.

  “I’m going to talk to her.” Kate left before they could protest. She crossed the street quickly, but she still had time to work up anger. “You lied about having a husband and children.”

  “So what?” Willa said. “Did you want me to admit that I’m a failure as a woman? That’s how they made me feel. And they still do.”

  “It was your choice to dress like a ragbag lady. You could have arrived in a limo and...” Even as she said it, Kate knew that a successful Willa would have taken the focus off Sean and Diana. Clive might even latch onto her. She sighed. “Okay, so what have you learned?”

  “That’s he’s divorced and has two daughters.”

  “What? Who?”

  Willa nodded toward the building, and Kate saw a sign for an attorney. “Is he the guy you liked?”

  “Yeah. I saw Nadine go in there!”

  “She’s not after a village lawyer,” Kate said. “She needs money. If she knew the truth about your business, she might propose to you.”

  “Then I’d have to support that daughter of hers. No thanks.” Willa kept glancing at the door.