Inside the bedroom, Darcy seemingly lay sleeping on her bed. He turned on a lantern, and a spark of life bloomed inside the room, allowing him to see much of the surrounding space, from the large, gaudy bed, to the pieces of decorative furniture surrounding it.
As he approached Darcy, his heart nearly leaped out of his chest. Her lower half was wrapped up in a blanket, and her nightgown had been cut open down the middle. Her young breasts were exposed, so he quickly covered her top with a blanket.
Fearing what he might find, he reluctantly grabbed hold of the thick blanket covering her lower torso. Swiftly, he uncovered her bottom half. The nightgown was cut all the way through, and he saw small patches of dried blood on the gown, spilling onto the bed sheets.
He noticed that her torso was swollen and bruised and that a caesarian section had been performed on her. There was a large cut across her belly that had been cleaned and stitched up. Seeing enough, he placed the gown back over her lower half and covered her with a blanket. Her skin felt warm.
Knowing that the mortality rate for that type of procedure was quite high, he feared the worst as he hovered over her chest, inching up to her bosom, wanting to see some type of undulation. In the dim light he couldn’t tell if her chest was moving, so he put his hand over her lips to feel if there was any air escaping her mouth.
“Darcy?”
No response. He sat up and sighed.
“ARGH!” Darcy screamed as she shot up and grabbed hold of Silas’s neck with both hands. She had a strong grip, possessing incredible strength, and she shook him raw.
“Darcy! Let go!” He struggled with her, grabbing her wrists but not wanting to put too much pressure on them; he didn’t want to hurt Darcy in any way. So he tried talking to her instead. “I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe now. I’m with the police. The person who did this to you is gone. Let go!”
Just then, Lucy burst into the room, moments after arriving home with her family.
“Darcy!” Lucy dove in to help Silas get control of her sister. “Darcy, let go of him! What’s the matter?” She squeezed herself between the two and put her arms around Darcy. Hugging her tightly, she began to rub her back using long, slow strokes. “It’s okay. He’s not going to hurt you. You’re safe. Let go of him.”
At last Darcy pulled back her arms, letting go of Silas as he stepped back, almost falling to the floor. He sat down on a chair next to a night desk, catching his breath, relieved to see her alive.
“Where’s my baby? My baby boy! Don’t take my baby!”
Lucy looked at Silas with a worried look, and he just lowered his gaze. Lucy glanced down at her sister’s lower half, finally realizing what Darcy had just gone through. “What happened to her?”
“Your sister was attacked, I think by the same person who attacked Miss Decamps. We were on our way over here because we had a hunch that Darcy was in danger. Unfortunately, we were too late. Like Miss Decamps, the killer took the life of the baby. There’s a place by the lake where I believe the baby’s body is resting, but that’s all I can say right now.” Silas could tell by looking into Lucy’s eyes that she had many more questions for him, questions that he certainly wouldn’t be able to answer. And he himself was eager to know why she reacted to him in such a strange way earlier during the funeral. But that was neither the time nor place to bring up those concerns.
Lucy hugged her sister tighter and began to cry with her. Silas stood up and walked out of the room, finding Posy at the end of the hall, making her way towards him.
As she approached the room, Posy grabbed him by the arm. “The baby and the housekeeper are both dead.”
“I figured as much. I need to get a good sense of the crime scene before all the commotion starts. If this investigation is anything like it was at the Decampses’, we better get what we can as soon as possible.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going back to the lake. If you can, keep the Reillys at bay. Hold them here until the officers arrive. That’ll give Belloc and I enough time to scour the scene down there. Darcy’s parents will want to head down to the lake after they start asking questions. Don’t let them break through.”
“Fine,” Posy said reluctantly. She didn’t like getting orders from a rookie.
“Thanks.”
“Just go and do what you have to do.”
“Oh, and if you can, try to get Darcy to describe the attacker. Hopefully she saw something that could point us in the right direction.”
“Got it. Just hurry. I hear the parents coming up the stairs. Try to pass them without saying anything. I want to see their initial reaction when they come into the room.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I’ll explain later. Go now, and don’t look them in the eyes.”
“I won’t have to.” Silas tapped his boots on the floor, making sure they were secure. “There’s a better way of doing this.” He went back inside the room, passing Darcy and Lucy as they sat together. Lucy gave Silas a cold stare, piercing his soul, forcing him to wince a little. He reached the window, and, turning back, gave Posy a smile.
“Oh, of course.” Posy crossed her arms.
Silas grabbed hold of the windowsill and jumped through the opening. Scaling down the brick wall, he managed to get low enough to jump down onto the soft snow. As he hit the ground, he couldn’t help but notice the pair of footprints next to his. He crouched down in order to inspect them.
“So you left out the window, but why? There was no one home. You could’ve left out the front door, unless...” He looked back up towards Darcy’s bedroom window. “We surprised you. You were just here, weren’t you? Just like back at the Decampses’. You like to linger around.” He noticed how the footprints led down towards the lake. Belloc.
Worried for his friend, Silas took off running. Once he reached the lake, he spotted Belloc sitting next to the bodies near the western part of the lake’s bank. He searched the lake for any sign of the killer, but sighed as he realized he’d lost the killer’s strange floral scent. Confidently, he made his way across the frozen water, keeping his steps light and short, like he was trained to do, until he reached Belloc, who sat marveling at the young man who’d appeared out of nowhere like a wintry ghost.
“Silas?” Belloc said. “How did you—well, never mind that. What happened up there? What did you find?”
“Darcy Reilly is somehow alive. That is one lucky girl. She could’ve easily been dead after what he did to her, but she survived. She’s bruised and swollen, but quite distraught, as you can imagine. The Reillys are home. Lucy is with Darcy, and when I left, Posy was about to speak with the parents. Once they put out a call to the department, the rest of the officers will be on their way.” Silas looked him over, noticing that Belloc was a bit disheveled. “Are you all right, Inspector?”
Belloc glanced at his hands covered in blood. “I’m okay now. Seeing the baby covered in all this blood, something came over me. I shouldn’t have contaminated the scene like this.”
“I understand. Nothing can prepare you for something this horrific. Let me help you up.” He grabbed Belloc by the elbow and raised him to his feet. “Here’s your cane.”
“Thank you.”
“What happened here?”
“The housekeeper must’ve gone out to find the dog and then found herself in the killer’s path. She must’ve seen what he did to Darcy and her baby. She tried to stop him, but ultimately failed.”
“What about the dog?” Silas turned towards Dominic.
“I think he’s sedated. He must’ve been given something.”
“Sedated?”
“It appears so. But tell me, Silas, what can you sense about the scene?”
“I can’t sense much more than has already been revealed. The scene speaks for itself. Darcy was accosted on the lake. But wait a second.”
“What’s wrong?”
“She wasn’t attacked here. If you see, there’s a trail of ice on the
floor that’s a bit raised and newly formed. That tells me that it was made recently by water being splashed on the frozen surface. That means Darcy was dragged to this place. She was wet. She must’ve fallen into the lake.”
Silas looked around and spotted a large hole to the east. “There! That’s where she fell and then was dragged over here. And it seems that he dried her off quickly to keep her from getting hypothermia. He did all of this before performing the procedure on her. He took great care in keeping her safe. But why? Why kill the baby and worry about the mother?”
“He did the same thing with Miss Decamps.”
“Why does he care about these girls?” He paused as he had a revelation. “Or maybe…he doesn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean he couldn’t care less about these two girls. No, it seems that someone else cares about them, the very same person who probably asked him to do this. There’s someone out there, some unnamed entity who wants these babies dead without the girls being harmed.”
“But the Decamps girl is dead. If he wasn’t supposed to harm her, he would’ve stopped her from committing suicide.”
“Well, actually, she killed herself, and he just let it happen.”
“I see your point.”
Silas circled the bodies. “The housekeeper came in. He slashed her heel, forcing the housekeeper to fall to her knees. But then he finished it. Like I said: he cares about nothing. He didn’t hesitate to kill her. Why leave a witness?”
“Hey!” Posy said from the edge of the bank, making her way towards them.
“There’s no need to step back on the ice,” Belloc yelled. “We can take care of it.”
“Since when do I ever listen to you? Plus, I think I got the hang of it now.”
“How did it go up there?” Silas asked.
“Pretty much as expected. There was a lot of wailing and tears. It was all a bit tense. Then the officers came.”
“They certainly responded pretty quickly,” Belloc commented.
“Yes, I thought that strange myself.”
“Interesting that they reacted so fast,” Silas added.
“Yes, interesting indeed,” Belloc said. “Were you able to gauge the Reillys’ reactions?”
“I was, and their reactions were sort of mixed.”
“What do you mean?”
“When the father came in, he was beside himself, inconsolable. The mother, on the other hand, was quite calm. It was weird. Her face showed no emotion. Her movements were robotic, sort of detached.”
“I’ve never known her to act like that.” Belloc scratched his head. “I have a suspicion that these people, these parents, know far more than we do about this whole situation. And, as it turns out, they’re the ones that we have little access to. It’s amazing what status and money can buy you these days.” He chuckled to himself, ending with a small scowl. “What else did you find, Posy? Tell me about Darcy. Did she see the man who did this to her?”
“Guys,” Silas whispered, alarmed. “Keep quiet and stay low.” He crouched down.
“What’s the matter?” Posy asked.
“I just picked up a scent, one I thought had come and gone.”
“What scent?”
“It’s hard to explain, but it reminds me of flowers. I picked up the same scent back at the Decampses’ manor, and it lingers with us tonight. The killer’s watching us from afar. I can feel it.”
Then Silas spotted something in the distance, a form moving within a group of darkened trees. Focused, his eyes locked in on the shadowy mass. “There’s someone over there, a man wandering about in those woods.” He turned to them. “Stay with the bodies. I’ll be back.” He took off towards the black forest.
“No, wait!” Belloc said as he reached out. “Don’t go by yourself. You don’t know what’s out there.”
“Isn’t that what we have him for?” Posy asked.
“Yes, but God only knows what he’s going after. I know he likes to go off on his own, but we stick together. Follow him. Make sure he’s all right, and please be careful.”
“Aren’t I always?” Posy said with a sly grin.
“Hand me your notes.” Posy gave him her journal. “And here’s this.” He gave her a handful of extra ammo. “Just in case.”
“Just in case,” Posy said as she broke away from Belloc, steadily making her way off the ice and running after Silas, who had already reached the lake’s bank.
Past the large strip of woods, Silas saw the neighbors’ mansion in the distance. The lamps were still on inside one of the rooms on the lower level. He searched the outer trees and caught a glimpse of the man he pursued, seemingly making his way towards the neighbors’ mansion. Silas followed, tracking the wandering man as he ran away from him.
Seconds later, Posy reached the lake’s bank, running up the hill and stopping at the borders of the woods. Squinting, she could see Silas running through the forest. “Hey!” she screamed as she ran after him. “Wait!”
The mysterious man ran through the dark patches of trees, expertly weaving in and out of them as if it were some obstacle course he’d ran and conquered a number of times. Silas didn’t waver either; he was as agile and competent as the man he pursued, but the fact that the man was giving Silas a run for his money forced him to become wary of his prey.
The chase went on for a couple of minutes, the man zigzagging through the trees, intent on confusing Silas yet failing at his attempt to do so, until finally he stopped about fifty feet from Silas, his dark silhouette gleaming against the silver horizon. The man turned to look at him, and all Silas saw was a darkened face and a pair of luminous eyes. After a tense moment, the man turned around and darted towards the forest’s border, escaping into the shadows.
Silas ran after the man after seeing him burst out of the woods and make a beeline for the neighbors’ mansion, possibly in order to take refuge. Knowing that these neighbors would soon be in peril, he increased his pace, and just before the man was able to reach the mansion’s outer door, Silas dove in, reaching out for the man’s foot and successfully tackling him to the ground.
Silas was the first to get up. Instinctively, he took up a strange fighting stance. The man squirmed on the ground in front of him.
“Stand up and tell me your name,” Silas demanded.
“Don’t hurt me.”
“I can’t make any promises.”
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
“So you say.”
“I was just worried about my neighbor.”
“Come again?” Silas replied with a bit of shock.
“I was only trying to see if everyone was all right.”
Silas loosened up his stance and approached the man on the ground. “Just who are you?”
“Me?” The man revealed his face. “I’m David Grant. I live here. This is my house, and my family is inside.”
Silas took a closer look and saw that Mr. Grant was a wiry middle-aged man with deep brown eyes and a bushy beard. “You’re not him.”
“Not who?”
Silas sighed, searching the surrounding trees. “I could have sworn it was you. I smelled you. I saw your eyes.”
“Whom are you talking about, Officer?”
“No need to worry.” Silas offered up his hand to Mr. Grant. “I thought you were someone else.” He raised him up. “Tell me, what exactly were you doing snooping around the Reillys’ mansion?”
“No, no, I was just...concerned,” Mr. Grant said as he dusted himself off.
“Why are you so concerned about the Reillys? What do you know of what happened there?”
Mr. Grant paused in order to down a large gulp. “I know more than you probably know.”
“Is that so?”
“I...I’ve seen things.”
“What sort of things?”
“It’s best if we go inside.” Mr. Grant gestured for Silas to follow him. They stepped across the courtyard in order to access the mud and coat room.
“Can I take your coat?”
“Sure,” Silas replied as he handed Mr. Grant his coat and hat.
Mr. Grant placed them on a large, wooden coat tree standing next to the entrance. He shut the door to the coatroom. “Let’s go inside my study.” He gestured for Silas to proceed forward into the main foyer. “Please do be a bit quiet. My family is asleep.”
“I understand.” Silas passed the entrance to the mansion’s foyer, but not before wiping his feet on the large welcome mat.
Mr. Grant followed, but just as he was about to shut the door behind him, he noticed something odd. “Hmm, I thought I closed that.” The outside door to the mud and coat room was mysteriously left ajar. Mr. Grant doubled back and reached the door, shutting it tightly and looking outside the small windows for anything out of the ordinary. All was clear.
“I hope I haven’t finally lost my wits,” he mumbled to himself as he turned and made his way back to the main foyer, failing to notice that Silas’s coat and hat had been taken from the coat tree. He closed the door behind him.
Outside, near the entrance to the mud and coat room, an exasperated Posy came darting out into the moonlight. Frantically, she searched her surroundings. Damn, where did that fool go?
She stared at the peaceful mansion in front of her, not knowing that Silas and Mr. Grant had gone inside to have a little chat. She stepped up closer to the house, feeling an urge to ring the bell and ask to see if anyone had seen Silas running by, but alas, her intentions were interrupted when she caught a glimpse of a form moving to her left. Quickly, she placed her hand on her gun and narrowed her eyes to get a better sense of what was moving in front of her. When her eyes became acclimated with the darkness, she saw a man fidgeting with his police-issued overcoat.
The Valentine Circle Page 11