Driven by instinct, Jesse was on her feet and charging toward the distracted woman before conscious thought had a chance to form. Her hand closed around the wrist that held the gun as she used her height advantage to drive her shoulder under Nettie’s chin.
Common sense caught up with Jesse as her momentum carried them backward toward the bedroom door. Remembering the hidden strength in the other woman’s stocky body, Jesse drove them both into the heavy door, then let her weight carry them down.
Just behind her, she felt the presence of someone else, but couldn’t turn her head to see. She twisted away from the side where Lady had been clinging, hoping the little dog had let go before they hit the door.
Before their attacker had a chance to gather her wits, Jesse lifted herself enough to flip Nettie onto her stomach and overlap of her hands at the small of her back. There was no gun in either hand.
Startled, Jesse looked up to see a pair of pantyhose dangling in front of her. Putting aside the puzzle of the gun, she took the hose and looped them around Nettie’s wrists in a figure eight, then tied the ends in a series of knots that only a knife could undo.
When Jesse looked up again, she saw that Vivian had one foot firmly on the missing gun while cuddling a contented-looking Lady Jane Grey in her arms.
The little dog closed her eyes and snuggled into the hand that scratched her under the chin while Vivian cooed to her in baby talk. “You’s a good doggie, aren’t you? Yes, you are. You’re such a good doggie.”
Celeste appeared behind Vivian with a second pair of pantyhose and held them out to Jesse. “Here, you’ll need something to tie her feet. I’m still not going to believe Treena’s okay until I see her up and around with my own eyes.”
“Damn you all to hell,” Nettie mumbled into the floor. “You don’t deserve this house. None of you do. And that old biddy was crazy if she thinks this is going to be a bed and breakfast. It’ll never happen. He’ll see to that.”
Jesse set to work carefully tying Nettie’s ankles with just enough play in the nylons to allow very short steps.
“Who is this he you keep talking about?” Vivian asked.
Lady lifted her head and growled low in her throat.
“You’ll see. Someday you’ll all see.” Agitated, Nettie tried to move her feet, and Jesse looped the nylons around one more time.
“Is he alive?” Jesse asked, more to keep the woman distracted than to get a serious answer. “Or is this house haunted?”
“Shut up!” Nettie hissed. Her body bucked, twisted and then lay still. “You don’t talk about that, you hear me? You just shut up now. I’m not saying anything more.”
And she didn’t. Not another word, not even when Jesse and Celeste got her to her feet and shuffled her out into the hallway.
Jesse retrieved an armchair from Amanda’s bedroom and put it in the middle of the corridor halfway down the hall while Celeste gathered more nylons. Then they bound their suspect to the chair.
Watching them while soothing their hero dog, Vivian said, “I want to explore that secret passage Nettie came out of. We need to untie Bethany, anyway, so I want to go through that passage.”
“Me, too,” Jesse agreed. “Since this house apparently has secrets, I think that’s a good place to start.” She glanced toward Nettie, who turned her face away and stared down the corridor in sullen silence.
“Do you think you could keep an eye on her?” Jesse asked Celeste, who had not volunteered to explore the hidden passage.
“Yes, sure. I’ll stay right here. After you take care of Bethany, can we go check on Treena?” This time, Celeste glanced toward Nettie, who seemed to have become deaf for all the reaction she gave.
Leaving Celeste to guard their prisoner, Jesse and Vivian returned to Amanda’s bedroom and entered the open panel in the wall.
“Note to self,” Vivian murmured. “Buy a tiny flashlight and keep it near.”
Jesse squinted into the dim interior, waiting for her eyes to adjust. “Good idea,” she agreed. “Or I could get a flashlight app on the cell phone I never carry on me.”
She looked up and saw that the wall just inches beyond her nose ended a few feet above her head where a railing began. Looking to the right, a patch of light illuminated the dark corridor, making it easier to see detail. At that end, the railing was clearly connected to a staircase that climbed to the third floor. The top of the stairway was hidden in deep shadow.
“Not just a passage between rooms.” Jesse pointed upward. “It’s also a staircase to the third floor.”
Vivian squeezed by her and peered upward. “A servant’s passageway definitely. You have to wonder if Amanda even knew this was here.”
“Gordon might know,” Jesse said. “Since I have a feeling he’s been using one like this to access Bethany’s room.”
Shuffling sideways through the narrow space between the staircase wall and the bedroom wall, Vivian led the way toward the opening at the other end, being careful of the dog she still held in her arms.
As they neared the open panel, Jesse felt her heartbeat quickening with dread. There was no indication that Nettie had done serious damage to anyone since Amanda, but Jesse’s priority on this trip was the safety of Bethany and the heir to the estate, Lady Jane Grey. At the moment, she had only done half of her job.
Vivian stepped through the opening and out of sight. In the next instant, Jesse’s worse fears were confirmed by Vivian’s alarmed outcry. Shoving her way through the narrow opening, Jesse caught her hip on the side of the dresser and her toe on the bottom corner. With a screech that was far less ladylike than Vivian’s had been, Jesse went tripping several feet into the room.
“Darned dog.” Vivian rubbed the same place on her hip that Jesse was trying to ignore. “She went flying out of my arms like a circus acrobat as soon as we reached that opening.”
Jesse looked toward the bed and saw the little spaniel clambering happily over the top of a bound and gagged Bethany, who had squirmed her way to the edge of the bed and appeared to be in danger of sliding off upside down and head first. She lay completely motionless while her wide-open eyes stared at Jesse with a plea for help.
“Oh, you poor dear,” Vivian said and started toward the bed while Jesse fell into step behind her.
Together, they got Bethany scooted to a safer position and sitting upright. Jesse worked on the knots binding her wrists while Vivian slowly loosened the rope around her ankles. Lady bounded from one person to the next joyously licking anyone she could reach and only slowing them a little.
“That woman is insane!” Bethany cried when Jesse finally removed the gag from her mouth.
“Yes, we’re noticing that.”
“Oh, my God.” Bethany reached for Lady and gathered her into her arms. “Thank goodness she’s all right.” She buried her face against the dog’s neck. “Where did you find her?” she asked without lifting her face from the bundle of cinnamon-and-white fur.
“The little dickens came hurtling out of the opening to the passageway and attacked Nettie,” Vivian said, smiling with pride. “Didn’t growl or bark or anything. She just attacked.”
“Oh, my poor baby!” Bethany hugged Lady tighter. “That woman put her somewhere after she hit me over the head. When I came to, I was tied up and gagged, and I couldn’t see Lady anywhere.” She nuzzled the dog while tears dribbled down her cheeks. “You silly girl, you’re too little to be attacking people.”
“She actually does a rather good job of it,” Vivian said. “I have a feeling she’s been wanting to sink her teeth into that particular person.”
“Did she actually bite Mrs. Shoemacher?” Bethany asked in alarm.
“No,” Jesse answered, examining the wall on the other side of the room for another hidden panel. If Gordon had been coming and going secretly, there had to be one. “Her mouth’s too small, and Nettie’s pants were too baggy. But Lady grabbed the pants and held on, which startled the heck out of Nettie.”
“And allow
ed Jesselyn to overpower her,” Vivian bragged. “I helped, but only slightly. It was mainly Lady and Jesselyn we have to thank for wrestling that maniac to the ground.”
“Well, I suppose we should go locate Treena,” Jesse said. “Apparently, she’s been drugged, and Celeste is worried about her.”
The three of them opened the bedroom door and trooped out into the hallway. Nettie sat slumped in her chair, seemingly defeated. Jesse wished she had several more things to tie the woman to, just in case.
Celeste sprang to attention. “Treena?” she asked.
Jesse pointed toward the room they had just exited. “There’s a set of stairs through there that lead to the third floor. That’s a lot closer than the stairway at the other end of the hall.”
“I vote for the secret staircase,” Vivian said. “I can’t wait to see where it comes out.”
Nettie lifted her head and gave them a malevolent glare, which ended any question of which set of stairs Jesse was taking.
“It’s kind of musty,” she warned, “but I couldn’t see any cobwebs. It appears to have been used recently.” When Celeste glanced longingly in the opposite direction, Jesse quickly added, “You can go up the other stairs if you want, and we’ll meet you on the third floor.”
Lady growled deep in her throat again and barked. Drawn by the sound, Jesse saw that Bethany had both arms wrapped around the little dog who was staring down at Nettie, still growling a warning.
“Should someone stay here and watch her?” Bethany asked with a nod of her head toward the woman who appeared to be going nowhere any time soon.
“Do you have something to hit her with if she moves?” No matter how helpless the other woman looked, something about her still made Jesse nervous.
“Good grief, Jesselyn,” Vivian protested. “She’s not Houdini. She can barely wiggle, much less escape.”
Lady growled again, and Bethany said, “I have a small desk chair I can bring out here to sit in. If Nettie tries anything, I can hit her over the head with the chair.”
“Sounds good to me.” Jesse turned back into the bedroom with Vivian on her heels. Bethany followed them as far as the desk, where she lifted the lightweight chair and started back into the hallway.
“Wait for me,” Celeste called, hurrying to catch up with them. “I guess I should come with you. If I’m going to be living here, I need to know where these things are.”
“Do you mean that, even with all this, you’re thinking of staying?” Vivian asked as they went back through the closet and into the dark, narrow corridor between the walls of Amanda’s master bedroom and the room Bethany occupied.
“Yes,” Celeste said, bringing up the rear. “I, at least, have to give it a chance for Amanda’s sake. And, who knows? Maybe it’ll grow on me.”
“Leave those doors open,” Jesse cautioned from above them. “If there’s a light fixture in here, we haven’t found it yet. But I think there’s enough light coming through the openings in the walls to find our way up the stairs.”
“I must say, Jesselyn,” Vivian said, following her up the steps, “I haven’t missed my high heels once since we got here. We’ll have to remember that for our advertising, Celeste. This island has plenty of fresh air and an active lifestyle.”
Celeste laughed as she started up the steep, narrow steps behind Vivian. “We can only hope there won’t be quite so much excitement once guests start to arrive. Although we might try to arrange one of those Murder Mystery weekends I’ve seen other places like this advertise.”
“Oh, that sounds like such fun!” Vivian agreed.
“Just try to make it a little less realistic than this one has been,” Jesse called down from the small landing at the top of the stairs. “Well, would you look at this? There’s an actual door up here.” She twisted the doorknob, and the door swung outward. Jesse stepped through into the corridor of the third floor.
“I imagine this was designed for the servants to use.” Vivian shook herself as she exited the tight stairwell into a hallway that was half the width of the one below. “So I guess the hidden panels downstairs are for discretion more than for secrecy.”
“This house was built over a hundred years ago.” Celeste joined them and pulled the door closed behind her. “Children were supposed to be seen and not heard, and I don’t think the hired help was even supposed to be seen.” Glancing over her shoulder at the small doorway, she conceded, “I suppose it’s pretty convenient actually.”
“Kind of convenient. Kind of creepy,” Jesse said. “Which room is Treena’s?”
“This way.” Celeste hurried toward the other end of the corridor, then stopped midway and pushed open a door.
The sound of retching greeted them when they entered the room. It was followed by a loud groan.
“Oh, dear God, help me,” a voice cried just above a whisper. “Is there anyone there?” There was a pause, then a plaintive, “Help…me.”
The last word faded away to nothing as Celeste rushed toward the open doorway opposite the rumpled bed. Following close on her heels, Jesse and Vivian piled up behind her in the doorway almost colliding with Celeste when she stopped abruptly.
Just inside, Treena sat cross-legged on the floor, hunched over with her arms wrapped around the toilet seat and her head hanging over the bowl. Another groan was followed immediately by more retching. When it was over, she clung limply to the toilet, moaning.
“Well, good then,” Vivian announced. “She is definitely not dead.”
Celeste looked over her shoulder to Jesse. “What do we do?”
“A wet cloth, maybe. She might like to wash her face about now.” Jesse looked to Vivian, who shrugged.
“I need a doctor,” Treena gasped. “I think I’m dying.”
Celeste hastily wet a washcloth and held it out to the girl who was resting her cheek on the porcelain rim of the toilet and staring up at them through a tangle of strawberry hair.
“Help me,” she whispered. “I need a hospital.”
Vivian stepped closer. “Actually, dear, if you’re conscious and throwing up, then you’re probably past the dangerous part. Nettie admitted that she drugged you to keep you out of the way, but she assured us that you would be all right.”
“I hate her.” Treena shoved herself off the toilet rim. “I hate this place.” She glared at Vivian while snatching the wet cloth out of Celeste’s hand. Still slumped on the bathroom floor, Treena scrubbed at her face muttering, “I hate this island and everybody on it. I want off this godforsaken place, and I’m never coming back.”
“Can you remember what happened just before you passed out?” Jesse asked. “Can you think of anything that might have set off Nettie?”
“Who cares?” Treena snapped. “I’m practically dying, and all you can do is talk about her? I didn’t cause this!”
Jesse suppressed a groan and dropped down into a squat that put her at eye level with the girl. Bloodshot eyes stared back at her resentfully from a dead white face. Jesse cautioned herself to be patient and understanding, two things she was not particularly good at.
“We’re trying to prove that Amanda was murdered, Treena. And a little evidence would really help. We think that you may have heard or seen something that Nettie didn’t want you passing on.”
Treena’s eyes narrowed. “You said she wasn’t trying to kill me.”
“She said she wasn’t trying to kill you,” Jesse corrected. “I think she didn’t care much one way or the other. She hit Bethany over the head and left her tied up and unconscious. She dragged me off into the ocean and left me there. She pulled a gun on Vivian and me, and who knows what she had planned for you. Now can you remember anything you heard?”
Treena sucked in her breath in a gasp. “She did what!? How long have I been out?”
“Nettie’s been a busy woman while you were asleep,” Jesse said.
“But we still don’t know exactly what she did to Amanda, or why,” Vivian said.
“Right,” Jesse
agreed. “And if we can’t get a confession, we need some evidence. Now, for the last time, can you remember anything or not?”
With a heavy sigh and obvious reluctance, Treena stopped arguing and began to talk. “All I know is, we were passing through the foyer downstairs, and we heard Mr. Hardy talking on his phone. Mrs. Shoemacher stopped to listen, but she told me to use the stairs off the kitchen and come on up here. I could tell she didn’t want me to hear what he was saying, so I took my time leaving. I heard him tell his secretary to go out to Amanda’s house and find her computer and whatever backup files she could. He said he couldn’t find a computer here, and he was afraid someone had taken it.”
“And Nettie knew that you overheard him?” Jesse asked.
“Who knows?” Treena shrugged. “I never looked back. But she was upset when she came upstairs. She fixed herself a big glass of the sherry she has every evening and insisted that I have one with her. Then we went into my bedroom, and she told me that I’d be sharing my room with Trisha, and that I needed to clear out some closet space. Then I got really lightheaded, and Mrs. Shoemacher helped me over to the bed. That’s all I remember until I woke up puking my guts out.”
“Tell me,” Vivian said, looking from Treena to Celeste, “can either of you remember Amanda having a meeting alone with Nettie?”
Treena shook her head no, but Celeste said, “As we were all heading up to bed the night we got here, I saw Amanda pull Nettie aside and gesture toward the office Amanda used when she was here.”
“The one at the base of the stairs?” Jesse asked. “Did Nettie ever use that office?”
“That’s the one,” Celeste said with a nod. “And, no, Nettie worked out of her room.”
“Mrs. Shoemacher has a set of rooms on this floor,” Treena added. “She’s got a bedroom with a sitting room and desk where she does what she calls her office work. Like she runs the estate or something.”
“Is that where you had your drink of sherry?” Jesse felt her heart rate accelerate and her senses sharpen.
“Yeah.” Treena frowned. “Why?”
“Did anything else happen while you were in there?”
Murder on a Silver Sea (Myrtle Grove Garden Club Mystery Book 3) Page 23