A Forgotten Murder

by Jude Deveraux

Diana took a seat. “I haven’t seen the photos and I don’t want to. Sean...” Tears came to her eyes. “It was all because of me. But he told me to go. I begged him to leave with me but he said he couldn’t. He gave me his suitcase and I—”

  “Wait!” Sara said. “Don’t tell us now. Byon and I are going to write it all down.”

  “For the newspapers?” Diana sounded shocked.

  “No,” Sara said. “Tonight we’re going to make a play about that night and act it out so we can find the answers. Unless you know everything and can tell us.”

  “No.” Diana shook her head. “I know Sean had the gun and—” She broke off at Sara’s look. “I don’t know it all. If Sean was...murdered, I don’t know who did it.”

  “What about hiding his body in the old well?” Kate asked.

  “What well?”

  “In the conservation area.”

  “You mean that old fenced-off acreage in the north? Bertie said there were fox holes there. He was afraid one of the horses would be hurt.”

  “Afraid one would fall down the hole and never be seen again. By the way, I’m Jack and this is Kate.”

  Diana smiled. “Puck hasn’t stopped talking about you three.” She looked at Sara. “Sorry about what my country’s paper said about you. From what I read online, you’ve had enough success for a dozen lifetimes. Sure is better than trying to run a horse farm.”

  “Thank you,” Sara said. “So that’s where you’ve been all these years?”

  “Yes. I guess I should have contacted them and told them where I was, but...” Her hands went into fists, her teeth clenched.

  “But you never wanted to see them again,” Sara said. “I can understand that.”

  “So how does this play thing work?”

  “Today, one by one, everyone who was there that night is going to tell Byon and me what they did and what they saw. Then we’re going to write individual plays for each person. No one will know what the others do.”

  “Just like that night,” Diana said. “We didn’t know where anyone was or what they were doing. Puck told me about Nadine and Sean. I guess she was why he wouldn’t leave with me.”

  “How did you leave?” Jack asked.

  Diana smiled. “On one of Bertie’s pregnant mares.”

  “Impregnated by stolen semen,” Jack said.

  Diana nodded. “Right, but Sean and I figured that part was payback. Bertie was ripped off by every horseman in three counties. They owed him.”

  “Maybe I’m being presumptuous,” Sara said, “but you don’t seem like one of the Pack.”

  “That is a great compliment. Thank you,” Diana said. “Nicky thought the world owed him, Byon gloried in his ability to use words and Nadine was obsessed with how good she looked.”

  “What about Clive and Willa?” Sara asked.

  Diana gave a snort of laughter. “Talk about love-hate. Those two! Her family ancestry was all ol’ Clive had ever dreamed about. He’d been tossed around by his own family, then here came Bertie. Offered him a ratty little room in the house in exchange for eternal servitude.”

  “And Willa?”

  “Pathetic. She just wanted to belong. To anyone.”

  “If your own family doesn’t want you,” Sara said softly, “you hunger after being part of any semblance of a family that you can find.”

  Kate put her hand over her aunt’s. “Tell us how you met them. I assume it’s a happy story and we need some happy.”

  “I can tell it the way Byon told it to all of us. He expanded it, embellished it and made us laugh. He didn’t like me much at first, but I eventually won him over.”

  The four of them leaned back in their chairs as they prepared to listen.

  Twenty-One

  Byon and Nicky were on their way back from university to spend the weekend at Oxley Manor. They were dreading it. Bertram would be there, ready to tell his son he was a wastrel. Clive was at school, but he was so eager to please he would arrive hours before the others did. To add to the horror, lately, Bertram had been asking Nicky when he was going to get a wife. “At least get something from your years at that school.”

  “We could go somewhere else,” Byon said. “Maybe to...” He had no words to finish the sentence. Nicky’s image at school was of a young earl-to-be who had responsibilities at his Great House. He couldn’t just go drinking all weekend—or heaven forbid—study.

  Besides, Nicky only liked a few people in the world—and the feeling was mutual.

  When the old car slowed down, then stopped completely, they didn’t know whether to be glad or terrified. They were on a country road with nothing around them but trees. They got out.

  “What the hell do we do now?” Nicky asked.

  Byon looked around. “Find someone to ask for help?”

  “Are you going to walk?” When things weren’t going his way, Nicky attacked whomever was nearest. Usually, that was Clive. “The income-sucker,” Nicky called him. “Taking what isn’t his.”

  They were leaning against the boot of the car, both smoking Spanish cigarettes, when out of the trees came a woman on a big horse.

  When she saw the car in her direct path, she yelled, “Bloody hell!” then reined in. The horse, angry, confused and torn between obeying and fighting, reared up. The young woman gripped with strong thighs and iron fists.

  It took minutes but she brought the animal under control and halted in front of the car. She dismounted, soothed the frightened animal, then tied the reins to a tree branch.

  Nicky and Byon were in exactly the spot they’d been in. They prided themselves on being cool, on being “men of the world.”

  “What the hell are you doing?” she shouted at them. “You could have killed Raven.”

  “Is that your horse’s name?” Byon asked blandly.

  “Mare,” she snapped.

  “Forgot to look.” Byon bent over, his head low as he looked toward the underside of the horse. “No dangly bits so you might be right.” He straightened his shoulders and smiled at her.

  She took a few seconds to decide on keeping her anger or not. She let it go. “I see you two at school.” She glared at their cigarettes. “Do you ever stop smoking those filthy things?”

  Byon took a long, deep puff, but Nicky dropped his cigarette to the road and crushed it with the toe of his custom-made Lobb shoe.

  She looked at Nicky. “Oxley Manor, right?”

  He nodded.

  Byon was looking from one to the other, and he didn’t like what he was seeing. Nicky was his.

  “What’s wrong with your car?” she asked.

  “How would we possibly know that?” Byon snapped.

  She gave him a look up and down that was pure dismissal. He wasn’t worth her time.

  Nicky got out of his slouch and walked to the front of the car. “It quit running.”

  To Byon’s astonishiment, Nicky’s voice was deeper, more melodious than usual.

  She looked at the old car, then deftly opened the hood. “Carburetor,” she mumbled. She moved a few things around, then said, “Try it now.”

  Nicky got into the car and it started right away.

  As she closed the bonnet, Byon got into the passenger’s seat. He wanted to get away as soon as possible.

  But Nicky got out and went to her. She was standing by her horse and he introduced himself with just his nickname. Usually, he gave his full name and title. “Best to start out by intimidating the enemy,” he liked to say. Nicky considered all but about six people his enemies.

  “Diana Beardsley,” she said.

  “How do you know how to repair cars?”

  Byon’s mouth dropped open. Nicky never asked anyone personal questions, mainly because he didn’t care. He’d certainly never asked Byon about his origins. But then, Byon would have lied.

&
nbsp; “My father is the chauffeur for Lord Haverley. We always helped keep the cars in repair but I loved the horses.”

  “How do you afford university?”

  Diana laughed. “Saved the old man’s life. He ran his best horse into a lake and the animal’s legs were trapped. His lordship refused to get off, rightly thinking that the horse would panic. I dove in, went under, and cut the horse’s legs loose.” She shrugged. “Unfortunately, I got tangled and almost died, but I did save both of them.”

  “And he rewarded you,” Nicky said.

  “He did. He said he’d give me anything I wanted, even to half of his estate. I told him I already took care of the whole place so I didn’t want it. I said I wanted to go to university. He laughed and agreed. So here I am.”

  With that, she mounted her mare and rode away.

  Byon sat in the car and waited for Nicky to get in, but he didn’t. He was staring at the road where the woman had disappeared. Byon went to stand next to Nicky.

  “She would be able to take care of Oxley.”

  Byon bristled. “Your father would never fire Clive. And he can’t afford two managers.”

  “I wouldn’t ask him to, but if I married that woman he could throw Clive out. What was her name again?”

  “Diana Beardsley.” Byon’s voice was full of horror.

  “Write that down and find out where she lives. I’ll send her a thank-you gift.”

  “Somehow, I don’t think she’s the flowers and candy type.”

  “What was that car part she mentioned?” Nicky asked.

  “A carburetor?”

  “Yes, that’s right. I’ve met Lord Haverley. He drives Jags. I’ll send her a carburetor from a Jaguar. Is there such a thing?”

  “I would imagine so.” Byon lit another cigarette.

  “Then let’s go somewhere we can buy one. Where do you think that is?”

  “I have no idea.” Byon’s lips were tight in disapproval. “Ask Thorpe. He’ll know.”

  “Good idea.” Nicky got back into the car. When Byon got in beside him, Nicky took the cigarette out of Byon’s mouth and threw it to the road. “No more of that. Diana doesn’t like it.”

  Twenty-Two

  “And that was it,” Diana said. “On Monday, Thorpe FedExed me a carburetor from an old Jag. He included a note saying that he’d had it power washed so Nicky wouldn’t get his hands dirty.”

  “That sounds like a put-down,” Kate said.

  “It was, but if you knew Thorpe... How do I explain? If Clive had said that, Nicky would have been furious, but Thorpe just made him laugh.” She looked at Jack. “I guess you know that you—”

  “Yeah, I know,” Jack said.

  “What happened next?” Kate asked.

  “I was invited to Oxley.” Diana paused. “I make fun of Willa, but when I look back on it, I wasn’t much better off than she was. I was a chauffeur’s daughter at a posh school. I didn’t belong with them.”

  “But you did fit in with the Pack?” Sara asked.

  “For a while, yes, I did. Bertie and I got on well. He knew nothing about horses but he was trying. He so desperately wanted to make enough money to repair Oxley Manor before it collapsed.”

  “He didn’t like his son.” Jack sounded belligerent.

  She gave him a sharp look. “Bertie spent his life trying to keep this place going, but he knew that Nicky would destroy it out of ineptitude and laziness.”

  “It sounds like you all needed each other,” Kate said.

  “Desperately.” Diana looked down at her hands for a moment. They were strong hands that had seen a lot of work. She looked at Sara. “I have a twenty-five-year-old son. He’ll be here soon.”

  Sara blinked for a moment as she took in this news, especially considering the boy’s age. “He can play Nicky. We need—”

  “No!” Diana shouted.

  Sara was looking at her intensely. “How about if you and I go sit on the couch and you tell me everything that happened that night?” She aimed a pointed look at Jack and Kate.

  He stood up. “Yeah, okay, we’re leaving.”

  Sara took a piece of paper out of her pocket, made a few marks on it, then folded it. Jack took it and put it in his shirt pocket.

  On the way out, Jack looked askance at Puck, and she nodded. He took two large bread rolls from a basket and some oranges, then he and Kate left the pretty little house and walked to the cemetery.

  “So Sean was illegally selling horse semen to get money to support the woman he loved.” Jack sat down on a concrete curb and used his pocketknife to start peeling the oranges.

  “And Diana was helping him.”

  “That must have been a fun date.”

  Kate tried to look stern but she couldn’t. “I feel sorry for Nadine. Diana said Sean gave her his suitcase, so when Nadine got there, everything was gone. She’s lived with that for years.”

  “Maybe,” Jack said.

  Kate didn’t reply but ate in silence. At last, she said, “So?”

  “What do you mean?” He tried, but couldn’t resist a smile.

  “Give me that!” She made a lunge for his shirt pocket, but he leaned away.

  Kate held out her hand. With a fake gesture of capitulation, Jack removed the paper Sara had given him, handed it to her, then leaned over her shoulder as she opened it.

  It was a list of characters in the play and who was to be whom.

  “I’m to be Diana,” Kate said. “Horsey girl. Like I know about horses. Let’s see, the head has the eyes, right?”

  “Who do you want to be?”

  “Nadine, of course. Glamorous, rich, beautiful.”

  “And you have the most dramatic scene of finding that the love of your life is gone.”

  “Well... I did do a bit of drama in school.”

  He picked up a handful of pebbles, got up and went to the house to toss them at a window. Puck opened it.

  “Tell Sara that Kate is going to play Nadine. Kate wants to be in love with me.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” Kate said. “I want the drama and the dress Nadine wore and—” Jack was smiling at her so smugly she stopped. “Maybe I’ll get to bash you over the head with a big rock.”

  “For you, Kate, it would be worth it.”

  She groaned and looked up at Puck, who was still waiting. “Tell Aunt Sara I’ll be Nadine. Teddy can be Diana. She knows how to ride a horse.”

  With a nod, Puck put the window down.

  Kate turned to Jack. “So what do we do now?”

  “Don’t you need to get dressed for tonight?”

  “Are you saying I’m so ugly that I need an entire day to put on makeup and a dress?”

  “No. I didn’t mean that. I thought you’d like—” He narrowed his eyes at her. “I’m not laughing.” He tossed the orange peels onto Puck’s compost pile, then started walking in the direction of the big house. “I bet there is some research you need to do. You’d help Bella if you straightened up the mess in the attic. Sara would appreciate that. Hey! You could help find clothes for the play and—”

  “I’m going with you.”

  “I thought I’d take a swim. And hit the weights. If I’m to play Sean, I better get in shape.”

  “I’m going with you,” Kate repeated.

  Jack stopped walking. “I need some alone time.”

  “What are you up to?”

  With a sigh, Jack admitted defeat. “It was Diana’s mention of a gun. I’m going to go back and look for a cause of death.”

  “To the skeleton, you mean?”

  He nodded.

  Kate held out her arms. “I’m ready. Lead the way.”

  In the end, Jack felt like he half won as he persuaded Kate not to go down in the hole with him. To be fair, he hadn’t had to say much.
She didn’t want to see the bones again.

  “It’s just that now I feel like I know him,” Kate said. “He was in love and about to become a father.”

  “Am I hearing sympathy for his child, for Teddy?”

  “After that dress she wore?” Kate sighed. “Okay, so maybe I am feeling bad for her.”

  “You grew up without a father, so—”

  “So what?” she said loudly. “You’re going to pity me?”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it.” He took a step back. “You want to go down or not?”

  “The more people who disturb the scene, the more...” She trailed off.

  “Got it. You better stay here and make sure no murderer comes by and cuts the ropes and leaves me down there forever. You think my bones will look like Thorpe’s?”

  “You are so not funny. Are you going to rummage around in there a lot?”

  “Not at all.” He had Sara’s camera bag and he withdrew four little black plastic cubes.

  “What are they?”

  “Lights. I’m going to use them and a stick to see what I can find.” He was standing at the head of the chain ladder they’d taken from the storage bin, and looking at the grass that had been eaten by the sheep. “Part of me wishes I hadn’t done that. I’d like to see who’s been here besides us.”

  “You think someone has?” Her eyes widened. “What if someone took him away?”

  “My thoughts exactly. I wonder if everyone stayed in their rooms last night or if someone went out and down the hole.”

  “Jack, that’s scary.”

  He grinned in a roguish way. “Guess I’ll have to take my chances. Watch the knot on the tree.” He climbed down the ladder.

  Kate stretched out on her stomach. English grass was so soft and fragrant. Florida saw grass wasn’t named that for no reason. It had to be strong enough to withstand the sun and a hurricane now and then. “Anything?” she called down to him.

  “Not yet.”

  She saw a light come on.

  “It’s here. Just as we left it.”

  Kate let out her breath.

  “I’m going to set up,” he said. “It’ll take a while.”

  Kate rolled over, did a sit-up, then let out a gasp of shock. There was a man sitting not three feet from her.