A Golden Cage

by Shelley Freydont

  There was a tap at the door.

  Elspeth and Deanna exchanged looks. Elspeth went to answer it.

  Gran Gwen stepped into the room. She looked very imperious to Deanna, who got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She stood.

  Gwen walked over and sat in the chair Deanna had just left. “Don’t leave, Elspeth.”

  Elspeth, who had tiptoed halfway to the dressing room, stopped and reluctantly came back to stand before her.

  “Now, sit down and tell me what you can, and we’ll try to get us all out of this mess. Beginning with Noreen. Was that outburst real or feigned?”

  Deanna told Gran Gwen what she had told Elspeth.

  “Good actors,” Gwen said, “can tap into those places of reality; that’s what makes them great, and next to impossible to live with. She’ll have a good career with a little luck. I wasn’t sure.”

  “What about Will and Joe?”

  “Oh, men, they never get these things, especially when they’re handled by someone as accomplished as Noreen. Unfortunately, Will is under a lot of pressure.”

  “But it’s only been a few days. He’s good at what he does.”

  “And that’s half the problem. He only proceeds on evidence or what can be deducted from the evidence. Facts. His superiors must tread a fine line between law and politics. Sometimes facts and evidence are the last things they are concerned with.”

  “And Mr. Edgerton is forcing them to arrest somebody?”

  “Possibly. Why do you say that?”

  “Because he threatened me at the Chepstow party.”

  “Threatened you? Surely you misunderstood him.”

  “I hope so. It was very uncomfortable.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I’d just tried to say something nice to his wife, to make her feel better after what those women said.”

  Gwen let out a guffaw of laughter, and Deanna felt the heat flood her cheeks.

  “What on earth did you say?”

  “That nobody listened to that kind of gossip and I thought their fete was lovely. She told me that I knew nothing about it. And then later Mr. Edgerton came up and told me to stay out of his family’s business or he would make life rough for all of you. I’ve brought disgrace on us all.” She just heard Elspeth’s snort of derision before she burst into tears.

  “Now, dear, you’ve haven’t done a thing wrong. You’re just learning how to live in society. Trust me, you are navigating it very well, and you’re just beginning to develop the tough skin every lady needs, but won’t admit to having, in order to stay on top of the game.”

  Deanna lifted her head just enough to see Gran Gwen’s face.

  “I insulted the Judge’s daughter, failed to send out even one lure to a potential husband. I’ve ridden my bicycle against express orders from my mother, and I’ve lied to the police. Will will probably send me to jail, and then I will be a disgrace.”

  “I doubt if he will go that far. But I think you must deal with this. So first thing in the morning, we will go to wherever this silly child has been hiding and tell her we’re turning her over to the police for her own protection. Then we’ll tell Will. He is being pressured by the powers that be and you don’t want to see him demoted because of something you didn’t do.”

  Deanna shook her head.

  “Good, then after breakfast, we’ll take the carriage and go rendezvous with Amabelle Deeks. Now, don’t give it another thought. Everything will turn out as it should. Will has left, Joe’s working on his drawings, and there’s nothing more we can do until tomorrow. Good night, dear. Elspeth.”

  Elspeth hurried to open the door for her. As soon as she closed it she said, “That Drusilla sounds like a right piece. Not very nice, they say.”

  “She’s unhappy,” Deanna said thoughtfully. “And who wouldn’t be between her mother and father and her husband. I know I wouldn’t want Walter Edgerton for a husband, though I shouldn’t say so.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t treat her right.”

  “He’s very upright.” Deanna turned around for Elspeth to undo her dress.

  “Humph. Those kind are the ones that take a little on the side.”

  Deanna stepped out of the dress. “To listen to you, one would think that no husbands are faithful to their wives.”

  Elspeth gave her a look before she slipped a white lace–trimmed nightgown over Deanna’s head. While Elspeth carried her gown to the dressing room to hang it up, Deanna sat down at the vanity and scrutinized herself in the mirror. She wondered what people thought when they saw her. What men thought.

  Elspeth came out, crossed to the table, and began unpinning Deanna’s hair. “I’m not saying this one does. But my ma says when a wife is so sour, her husband looks elsewhere for something sweet.” Elspeth raised her eyebrows comically. “Like an actress, maybe.”

  Deanna raised her eyebrows back at her.

  “Well, they’re known for their loose morals.”

  “I know that’s what people think,” Deanna asked. “But do you think it’s true?”

  “Strutting about in all sorts of costumes, eating dinner in public restaurants at all hours, walking in the street alone at night; just a step above a professional streetwalker.”

  “Noreen said they aren’t like that. That most are just hardworking people like everyone else. And Noreen certainly isn’t like that. Is she?”

  “She goes gallivanting around the country and leaves her baby with her mother? Does that sound natural to you?”

  “I think it sounds like a necessity of her trade. Besides, they should have been home by now. If Will could just find the killer.” Deanna reached for her sketching notebook. “Though I suppose I’m the one—what do they call it?—obstructing the investigation.”

  She turned the page to the sketch she made of Charlie, lying beneath the palm trees on the marble floor of the conservatory. She’d drawn it just as she had seen it, though she had to admit she left the broken skull a little vague. She even added the clods of dirt and grass on the heels of his shoes.

  Her art teacher had told her mother that she had talent and she should send her to Paris to study. Her mother had nixed that, and her teacher had never mentioned it again. But Deanna knew she could reproduce images even after they were gone.

  “Belle said she had planned to meet Charlie outside with whatever she could steal. She went out but he didn’t come.” She turned the page and quickly sketched a girl standing on the grass.

  “Where was he? Was he really late or had he decided not to come at all? No, that doesn’t work. He was found in the house. Was he waiting in the trees—afraid to come out?”

  She quickly sketched a standing male figure, drew a sweeping line for a tree, and hurriedly shaded the insides so that it hid most of the figure. “Why wouldn’t he come out?”

  “Chicken?” Elspeth guessed. She finished pulling the pins out of Deanna’s hair and placed them in the pin case on the table. She picked up the silver-backed brush and began to brush out the carefully curled tresses.

  “Maybe. Maybe he saw someone moving about in the house and decided it was too dangerous. But why not get her attention and have her come to him? Psst, Belle, over here!” Deanna said in an urgent whisper. “Why didn’t he go to her?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Will said that the theory is, someone dragged him across the lawn to the conservatory. Charlie is a pretty tall guy. Belle wouldn’t be able to drag him across the lawn, over the stone patio, and into the conservatory.

  “There must have been another person there.” She flipped back to the sketch she’d just made, and added a shadowy figure on the other side of the page. “Maybe he couldn’t go to her or get her to come to him because he knew he was being watched.”

  Elspeth sat down and tapped the brush to her chin. “Could have bee
n that Rollie fella they already got in jail.”

  “But that’s only because of the anonymous note. They don’t have any proof.”

  “That we know of,” Elspeth said.

  Deanna gave her an exasperated look. “Besides, Rollie’s half the size of Charlie. If you’re going to kill somebody, why not do it in a convenient spot where it’s easy to get rid of the body? Not drag it into someone’s house and carefully arrange it on the floor of their conservatory. Why would someone do that?”

  Elspeth shook her head. “Just plain crazy, I guess.” She put the brush away and began braiding Deanna’s hair.

  “Maybe to leave a message.”

  “What kind of message, miss?”

  “Something the killer left for Belle to see. But why?”

  “If you ask me, that’s specu—just plain guessing.”

  “Seems like that’s all we have.” Deanna picked up the copy of Loveday Brooke, put it down again. “I know one thing. First thing tomorrow we’re going to convince Belle to give herself up.”

  * * *

  In spite of her resolution, Deanna spent a restless night. Her conscience was bothering her. She knew she was wrong not to confide in Will, and around daybreak her guilt turned into fear as her imagination took off, and she wondered if Belle was in danger or if she would be dead by the time Deanna got to her.

  She could hardly wait to make it through breakfast so she could return to the Deeks house and tell Belle her time was up, that she was going to the police to tell them where she was.

  But she knew things would not go as planned the moment she stepped into the breakfast room and found Laurette and her husband sitting at the table. Laurette was explaining something to Gwen, but she broke off when Deanna entered the room.

  Deanna forced a smile. “I didn’t think to see you before tomorrow.”

  “We just got off the ferry. I couldn’t wait another minute to come home. I made Lionel come with me for a long weekend. I had to bribe him.” She looked mischievously at her husband, who merely lifted his eyebrows and drank his coffee.

  “And, by the way, thank you for . . .” Laurette lifted Gran Gwen’s handkerchief holding the diamond earrings, just enough for Deanna to see them.

  “Mama says we had to wait for you before we discussed this ghastly situation. Joe was here but his head is filled with cogs and electricity this morning. We sent him to work.”

  Well, that was one good thing, Deanna thought philosophically. At least she wouldn’t have Joe glowering across the table at her and demanding she tell him where Belle was hiding. Still, she was anxious to get away.

  “Any news to report?”

  Deanna looked at Gwen.

  “Things are progressing slowly,” Gwen said.

  “I heard that from the Judge himself.”

  “Oh?” Gwen put down her fork. “When did you see him?”

  “As luck would have it, he was on the same ferry as us. He evidently had meant to return the day before, but work interfered and he ended up with us.”

  “Again,” added her husband.

  “Poor Lionel was forced to endure two ferry rides in one week with him. But we couldn’t very well cut him.”

  “We read about his sentence in the newspaper,” Gwen said. “Imprisonment for a poor half-wit. He didn’t hurt anyone.”

  “So the defense lawyer said, according to the Judge. But the jury brought back a guilty verdict and he had no choice but to abide by it, also according to the Judge.”

  “With twelve years’ imprisonment or the insane asylum,” Gwen said. “That’s criminal.”

  Deanna forced bits of her breakfast down. She felt bad for the poor man, but wanted to get started. Unfortunately, she had already committed too many sins against etiquette as it was, to be rude this morning.

  “If you ask me,” Lionel said, “these reformists push their zeal into a kind of perversion.”

  “The Judge is bad enough, but that son-in-law . . .” Gwen said.

  “Well, Edgerton knows what side his bread is buttered on. Though I’m not sure he practices all he preaches. But it’s a difficult position, hanging on to someone else’s coattails. So much so that he comes across as being even more moralistic than Grantham.”

  “Well,” said Laurette, “I did find out something that probably has no bearing on the murder, but it does help explain the bad feelings between Rosalie and her daughter.”

  “Because she became an actress,” Deanna said.

  “Not at all. It’s because she was not content to work hard and live within her means as an actress. Miss Amabelle Deeks took a lover and evidently a fairly rich one.”

  “Charlie?” Deanna said. “He can’t be making that much more than she is.”

  “Well, it could be, I suppose, if he also happens to be independently wealthy. Whoever it is has set her up in an apartment on Fifth Avenue. It isn’t public knowledge. Rosalie is mortified, of course. Her husband was furious. Is that any help to your investigation, Dee?”

  “Mine? I’m not—” But she was.

  “Well, someone should. We had a late supper with the Judge last night on the ferry. He is not happy with the way things are going. He’s planning on going to the chief of police today and . . .” She lowered her voice. “He wants that girl found.

  “He feels it besmirches his character to have his name associated with murder. And when I pointed out to him the murder actually took place at Bonheur, he had the gall to say, ‘Thank God.’

  “I told him we would call on Maude and Drusilla this morning, Mama. I hope you don’t mind, but he’s going to be putting a flea in the police department’s ear all morning. And he’s worried about her nerves.”

  Gwen snorted and put her napkin down. “Deanna and I had plans this morning. But perhaps we should divide and conquer.”

  Deanna frowned but said, “Certainly.”

  “I’m going to the reading room,” Lionel announced, “where I will be the only one actually reading the papers, since I didn’t get to read for the last two days because someone got to them before I did and made a complete mess of them.” He smiled at his wife. “And where I won’t be bothered until I come home in time for tea, a brief nap with my wife before dinner, and the Rensselaer ball.”

  Deanna had forgotten the ball. And she was already as tired as a post. If she wanted to get a nap in before dressing tonight, she’d better get a move on.

  “I have a few errands I have to run,” she said, looking directly at Gran Gwen.

  Gwen didn’t miss a beat. “Then take Elspeth with you. I’ll have Carlisle bring the carriage around.”

  Deanna had wanted to take her bicycle because it was easier, faster, and she didn’t have to worry about what the driver might think, but she needed Elspeth.

  “I’ve been thinking about teaching Elspeth to ride a bicycle,” Deanna said as she got up from the table. “Do you think that would be too avant-garde?”

  “Certainly not,” Laurette said. “Just think how much freedom you would have, and you could take your maid as chaperone. You could set a new trend.”

  “And send her mother into a spasm,” Gwen reminded them.

  “Exactly,” Laurette said, and took a bite of toast.

  Chapter

  19

  By the time the carriage came for Deanna and Elspeth twenty minutes later, Deanna was wild with worry. She dismissed the coachman at the corner of Mrs. Deeks’s street, though he tried to convince her to let him wait at the door.

  They compromised by promising to meet him back at the corner in a half an hour.

  They strolled down the opposite side of the street with Elspeth carrying a large shopping bag with a change of clothes from Deanna’s wardrobe, some bread and cheese, and an old copy of Beadle’s.

  Elspeth kept reminding Deanna to look like a lady out taking the air,
until Deanna wanted to pinch her. But finally they passed the house. A quick look around to make sure no one was about, and they quickly crossed the street and ducked past the shrubbery to the kitchen door.

  Elspeth peered in the window next to the door and shook her head. She turned the doorknob and the door wouldn’t open. They walked around to the back, but the windows were too high to see in. Fortunately a milk box was sitting on the back stoop. Elspeth and Deanna dragged it over to the window.

  They both straightened up and looked at each other across the milk box.

  “Maybe it took two people to drag poor Charlie to the conservatory,” Deanna said.

  “That’s what I was thinking.” Elspeth climbed on the box, cupped her hands, and looked in. Jumped down and shook her head. “I don’t see anybody. What if Lilbeth isn’t here?”

  “We have to get in that attic. I can’t stand it any longer. I’m already in so much trouble.”

  Elspeth nodded and climbed back onto the milk box. She pushed at the window but it didn’t budge; jumped down, and they dragged the box back to the porch.

  “Now what?” Elspeth asked.

  “I’m thinking.”

  “Well, think fast.”

  “We’ll have to knock on the front door and hope she lets us in.”

  “And say what? Sorry, but we need to search your attic for your niece, who we think might be a murderer? It’d give the old girl a heart attack.”

  “No, I’ll say I’ve come for a visit, and while I’m distracting her, you sneak past me and unlock the kitchen door. I’ll meet you there as soon as I can get away.”

  “Oh, miss, you might give me the heart attack.”

  They walked around to the front door.

  And froze when a carriage rattled past.

  Elspeth tugged at Deanna’s elbow. “Act natural.”

  Deanna nodded. They were virtually breaking into someone’s house to abet a wanted person, and she was supposed to act natural. The mind boggled. “Let’s get this over with.”

  She walked up the steps, motioned Elspeth to stand to the side out of sight, then rang the bell.

  She was greeted with total silence. She tried again.