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  Cadence’s eyes narrowed. She gave a grunt and slumped down in her seat, focusing her attention back on me. “Okay then. If we’re talking about suspects, what about Henry?” Her expression softened and she frowned, bottom lip puckering out. “I know he’s your friend, but I think it’s only fair that we include everyone, don’t you?”

  “No, no, of course,” I nodded with enthusiasm, relief buoying my mood. “But I should say that I don’t really see Henry as the murdering type.”

  “You know him better than I do; but humans can do strange things under the influence of certain stimuli. He was very upset about the Negrescu Necklace.”

  “Henry was put-out about the necklace, but I think he’d steal it before killing for it. Of course,” I rubbed my bruised jaw, wincing, “he did mention he was worried his father was going to be fired from Halcyon Enterprises.”

  “Ah ha!”

  I stifled a laugh. No one I’d known had ever said ‘Ah ha’ aloud before, let alone in the impassioned way Cadence let loose the exclamation. She jabbed her finger into the air. “Perhaps he was trying to protect his father’s career!”

  “Perhaps,” I swung my feet off the table, shaking my head. “Though Henry’s never been overly concerned with his father’s career or their family’s social standing. If anyone was going to kill Dad for that, it would be Solomon Davers himself; or even Minerva.”

  Cadence’s brow furrowed, her mouth missing her straw. “I understand why Solomon would want your father out of the way. And he’s clever; he could figure out how to get away with it. But Minerva. She seems a very calm, level-headed sort of person – sickly also.”

  “I love Minerva to pieces,” I shifted in my seat, biting my lower lip and clasping my hands together, “and she’s treated me like her own son since I was a child. But she loves fiercely. She’d move heaven and earth for Solomon if she thought it would make him happy.”

  “You know,” Cadence smirked, bringing her fingers up to her lips as if uncomfortable with this unplanned display, “for someone who is entirely self-centered, you have a real talent for reading people, Chance.”

  Flattered, despite her reference to my less than positive quality, I responded with a shy half-smile of my own. “Thanks, Cay.”

  “I like that name; no one’s ever called me that before!” Her smile wavered under the influence of self-consciousness. “I’d have one for you, but we’re not very good at nicknames. They’re difficult to process.”

  “Oh, that’s alright! ‘Chance’ doesn’t really shorten to anything anyway.” I reached out and touched her hand. “I’m glad you like it.”

  Cadence’s smile widened and she tucked her hair back behind her ear. “Very much so.”

  After a moment of silence, she cleared her throat, an action I was certain had no physical benefit for her and must therefore be a pre-programmed response. To help her recover from unease?

  I stared at her, grinning like an idiot child. Heat rushed into my cheeks.

  I blushed.

  I spun away, desperate to cover the pinkish glow she must have already seen. Hard pressed to remember the last time I had been relaxed enough to blush in front of anyone, I took a moment to marvel at the situation that had made me react in such a way.

  “Watching you two gabbing on, one would think you were old friends.” Victoria’s voice rang out clear and strong, like steel striking steel. Long practice allowed me to hide my wince as I looked up to see her observing us from her bed of grass, sunglasses perched on top of her head.

  “It’s so sad you’ll be leaving, Cadence, once this whole mess is cleared up,” Victoria rose from her spot of repose and walked towards us. “But I’m sure you have better things to do then hang around a house of sorrow like this.” Crossing behind me, Victoria placed her hands on my shoulders. “What were you two talking about?”

  I was at a loss for how to answer, but Cadence was, as always, light years ahead of me, sucking down the last of her drink before replying, “We were trying to figure out which one of us is most likely to be the murderer. We haven’t gotten to you yet.”

  I had to talk to Cadence about her unfortunate habit of telling the truth. Victoria squeezed my shoulders tight. “You know, dear, your humor is very unbecoming.” Her voice was as cold and bitter as a blizzard, tinged with a reproach I recognized all too well.

  Cadence blinked at her, one side of her mouth sliding upward. “Yes. I’m beginning to realize that.”

  Victoria sighed and moved around me, running her hand through my hair. “Join me for a swim, Chance?”

  “Not today, love.” I brought her hand to my lips, placing a light kiss in the center of her palm. “I’m not really feeling up to it.”

  “Oh, you poor, poor dear,” Victoria pressed hard kisses onto the top of my head. “I wish there was something I could do to help.” She crouched down, pulling me round to face her, fingers stroking my cheeks. “Just know that no matter how long you’re in prison, I’ll wait for you, Chance. I love you that much.”

  I grabbed her wrists and yanked her hands off my face, her nails scratching me on the way down. “For god’s sake, Victoria, I didn’t kill my father!”

  “I know that!” She bounced to her feet, eyes wide with shock, but her lips a thin, angry line. “But it’s not looking very good for you, is it?”

  “Well, thank you so very much for the vote of confidence!”

  From the forgotten space to my left, there came a long crackling noise, like someone chewing gravel. Victoria and I turned to find Cadence sucking at the last few pools of lemonade at the bottom of her cup, determined to taste every drop.

  Looking up, she smiled. “This was really good.” She shook the empty glass, straw rattling from side to side. “May I have another?”

  Victoria pounced on her without hesitation, arms akimbo, and eyes blazing like wildfire. “I have to say, Miss Turing, I think it’s shameful the way you’re taking advantage of Chance. If he wasn’t such a big-hearted idiot,” she shot an incensed glower in my direction, “you’d be left to sell yourself on a corner in Römer somewhere – a job you’ve shown a real flair for in the last few days.”

  “You’ll have to tell me where the best corner is, Victoria. I always listen to the voice of experience.”

  A loud bark of laughter burst from me like water from a dam. The sound surprised me into immediate silence, and even Victoria had been struck dumb, her mouth agape, breath coming out in sharp sputters.

  I stumbled to my feet, forcing myself to laugh once more. “Cay’s a real card, isn’t she, Vicky?” I patted my gasping lover on the back. “I think I’ll head back to the house, sun’s a bit much for me, what about you, Cadence?”

  Cadence reclined in her chair, gaze shifting from the enraged Victoria to me and back again. “What about me?”

  I drew a hand down my face, frustrated that subtext seemed to be one of the few things beyond Cadence’s considerable grasp. “Didn’t you have something to do back at the house, pet?”

  “No. I–”

  I adopted a look of panicked desperation that proved much easier to read. Cadence’s face cleared and she turned back to Victoria, nodding. “Sinc, yes. I’d forgotten. Belinda was going to show me the crystals in the garden.” She flashed a smile before resuming her unflappable calm, and stood, striding with purpose back towards the house.

  I watched her go, slipping my hands into my pockets. Then, because I am a man who will never burn a bridge that leads back to a willing woman, I stole a kiss from Victoria and hurried away.

  13

  Chapter 13

  “I think I would like to kiss you again,” I said, out of breath from my jog across the yard. Grasping Cadence’s arm, I steered her to the right. “Not that way, m’dear, this way.”

  “Why do you want to kiss me?” Cadence stopped short and I stumbled over my own feet. “And I thought you said we were going back to the house?”

  I slid my hand into hers, holding it tight. “No one has ev
er told Vicky off like that. Ever. It was sensational and I loved it.” I kissed the back of her hand with a cartoonish smack. “And I told Vicky we were going back to the house because that way, if she wanted to look for us, she’d have a place to start. We are, in fact, going to the garden, over here.”

  I tugged her again and she allowed herself to be pulled, falling in step beside me. “Oh! You lied.”

  I cast a glance over my shoulder. “Not very convincingly, I’m afraid.”

  “I think it was very good.” Cadence sighed. “I could never lie like that.”

  “Really?”

  She nodded, bending down to pluck a white wildflower as we walked. “Animanecrons have some difficulty with lying. I understand what it is,” her long fingers stroked each petal in turn, “but we generally don’t see the point.”

  “Are you saying that animanecrons don’t lie?” I scoffed at the assertion, flinging my hand back towards the pool. “But you told me you were from Paraesepe! And just now, you told Vicky that–”

  “It wasn’t a lie.” Cadence spun the curled stem between her fingers. “Belinda really does want to show me the crystals.” The stalk pin wheeled to the ground. She sighed again. “I can lie, if I have to. I just don’t like to.” The edges of her lips curled into a small smile. “I mean, even humans don’t enjoy lying, right?”

  I stared at the top of my shoes. “No, we don’t enjoy lying.”

  Cadence and I soon arrived at the small gardens, which were, as I understood it, my mother’s only addition to Hale Manor. They had been kept up in her absence, and in those heady days of summer the tall shrubs that lined the cobbled pathways were blooming and the small, thin trees reclaimed their green coats.

  Cadence gestured towards the side of one of the paths with her hat, staring at the shimmering colored stones nestled between the flowers. “Are those Belinda’s crystals?”

  “Yes; Aunt Be helped design this place. Those are from her personal collection; crystals are her specialty, you know.”

  At the center of the garden, stone benches and fountains were strewn about as if tossed by a playful giant. Reclining on one of these granite seats, Cadence balanced her hat on the far edge and smiled up at me. “Should we keep going?”

  I squeezed into the corner of the bench, anxious to prove to her that further physical advances from me would be made only when appropriate.

  Cadence looked at me and, without a word, scooted closer until our feet touched. “Who do we have left?”

  “Well,” I extended my arm behind her, careful to confine it to the bench’s back, “I think we’ve run through everyone who was really close to my father, except Belinda.”

  “And Desdemona.”

  I snorted. Cadence slid down in her seat, crossing her arms over her belly. “She was going to marry him; I’d say that makes them pretty close.”

  “Please,” I sneered. “It was a passing infatuation, a bizarre manifestation of his first mid-life crisis. Even if he had gone through with it, he would’ve divorced her within the year, I’m certain of it.”

  Cadence shrugged. “Maybe she thought she would be in his will already. Or perhaps she found out she wasn’t going to be, and she was angry.”

  My face lit up with a triumphant grin as I snapped my fingers. “That would explain why it’s missing!”

  “What?” Cadence stopped pushing her flat shoes off her feet, jerking to attention. “Your father’s will is missing?”

  “Brisbois thinks the murderer must have destroyed it for some reason.” I held a finger to my lips. “Henry and I overheard Solomon and my father talking about it earlier that day; my father was completely rewriting the will. Perhaps Desdemona killed him because she thought he had already changed it in her favor!”

  “Then why would she destroy it?”

  My mouth hung open. “Ah. I see your point.” I huffed and rolled my shoulders back. “She still could have killed him though.”

  Cadence ignored my final words, chewing on her bottom lip. “Belinda’s a bit of a problem too.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Well, from the limited number of interactions I’ve had with her, I’d definitely say she’s the murdering type.”

  I paused halfway through shrugging off my jacket, a grimace pulling my lips taut. “That’s an awful thing to say, Cadence!”

  “Killing someone’s an awful thing to do, Chance!” She pushed herself up, her brow furrowed and lips pursed. “Anno, it’s not as if I’m saying she’s a bad person.”

  Draping my jacket over my knees, I shook my head, sneering. “Murderers are generally not good people, Cay.”

  She opened her mouth as if to disagree, but, after a moment, she shut it again, teeth snapping together. Swallowing and blinking, her body relaxed back into the crook of my arm. “I didn’t say she was a murderer. That’s the problem, you see? I think she’s capable of it, but I can’t fathom any reason in the world why she’d want to kill your father.”

  “Good. Belinda’s been a part of the family since before I was born.” I shifted under her, unable to decide where to put my hand before tossing propriety to the wind and curling my arm around her shoulders. “She and my mother grew up together and she’s always been there for Dad and me.”

  “We’re left with Dr. Merton and Victoria then.” Cadence nuzzled against me, her elbow digging into my spleen. “Would you consider Merton a friend of the family as well?”

  “Not really.” I leaned into her, trying to dislodge her joints from the more vulnerable areas of my body. “It’s hard to become a part of people’s lives when you only see them when they’re ill. Not the best memories, you understand?”

  “Any reason he’d want to kill your father?”

  “No.” Staring down at her, breath shallowing as the heat of her warmed me, I found the sensation so fascinating that it was hard to focus on the conversation at hand. “I can’t see mumbling Merty murdering anyone anyway; he’s a cowardly little man.”

  Cadence grunted, fingers tugging at the lock of hair tucked behind her ear. “And fear has never driven humans to kill?”

  Her optric flashed before my eyes. The universe would be hard pressed to find someone more unqualified than me to judge whether Cadence had a soul, but there had been a certain brightness in her eyes in the optric that, while not gone, was now dull – tarnished.

  I cleared my throat. “I suppose you’re right, though. Merton doesn’t seem a very likely murderer, leaving us with Victoria.”

  “Do you think she could kill someone?”

  “I must admit, it’s all too easy to imagine her as a murderer,” I squeezed Cadence’s shoulder. “But she doesn’t have any kind of motive, however blood thirsty she may be, so we’ll have to mark her off the list as well.”

  Cadence smiled. “I beg to differ. You told me yourself: Victoria can assume that she will soon be your wife.”

  I nibbled at the inside of my cheek, shivering in the sun. “I don’t know about soon.” Pulling her closer, I brushed some hair from the corner of her eye. “But yes, I suppose so. What does that have to do with anything?”

  Cadence rested her head on my shoulder. “I just wonder if Victoria might have been a little overanxious to be the wife of the head of Halcyon Enterprises.”

  “You mean she wanted to marry my father too?”

  Cadence looked up at me wide eyed, a small smile stretching her lips. She patted my knee. “Your father is dead, Chance.”

  I bristled under her obvious mockery. “I hadn’t forgotten, Cadence, I – oh. That’s a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?” Pulling away, I rubbed my bottom lip, squinting. “Do you really think Vicky would kill my father just to make sure I inherited?”

  Sighing, Cadence slid back to her side of the bench, grabbing her discarded hat. “You’d know better than I.” She cast a cool glance in my direction, slumping in her seat and dropping the hat over her face. “You’re the one who’s going to marry her after all.”

  Shoo
ting her a useless glare, I stood, sulking as I stretched out my cramped muscles. “You’re not honestly going to nap again, are you? When there’s a killer on the loose?”

  Cadence lifted the straw hat from her face, shrugging and shaking her head. “None of us are going anywhere, are we?” She reclined, hat descending once more. “Trust me, no investigation was ever hurt by the detective taking a nap. Who knows, maybe the answer will come to me in my sleep.”

  “Detective,” I gave a snort and prodded her leg with the toe of my shoe. “Getting a bit ahead of yourself, aren’t you? You haven’t done any actual detecting yet.”

  But Cadence would not be baited. I shoved my hands into my pockets, scowling. “Shouldn’t we go interrogate someone? Or maybe you could distract everyone while I search the bedrooms for some damning evidence.”

  “Chance, sit down and be quiet or go away and be noisy elsewhere.”

  With a loud humph, I stalked off towards the house, feeling as piqued as I dared. Cadence could nap if she wanted to; I might not have possessed her crime solving expertise, but I knew that every investigation started with asking questions, and that’s what I resolved to do.

  An opportunity presented itself as soon as I walked through the front door, the sounds of an argument floating around the entryway. I followed the tendrils of sound to their source like a starving man to a fragrant plate of food. The voices came from the sitting room, its door shut tight. Like an old biddy at a keyhole, I leaned against the wood, straining to hear inside.

  “I tell you I’m fine!” Desdemona’s voice played along the top of her register, the door doing little to muffle its cracking. “I don’t need that stuff anymore!”

  I was surprised to hear Dr. Merton’s voice answer her, soft and plaintive. “I know you don’t need it, Dezzie, but I think it might help–”

  “I said no, Douglas!”

  I jumped back from the door as it swung open, screeching on its hinges. Desdemona’s pale hair hung around her face, her eyes bloodshot as she stormed out of the room, squeezing her temples. “Please, can’t you just leave me alone? Can’t everyone just leave me alone?” She ran down the hall, turning and stumbling up the stairs. The door to her room crashed shut.