Secret Reflection

by Jennifer Brassel

  ‘It is a bicycle pump, Ms Reid, although it wasn’t found near the back door. From preliminary tests we believe this to be the murder weapon. It was found at the other end of the passage where Deanna Montgomery’s body was discovered, some twenty feet away. Forensics has found traces of blood and a clear set of fingerprints.’

  Kelly felt her stomach clench. While she knew she was innocent, if it was the same pump she’d picked up, then those prints could easily be hers.

  This time he pinned her with a stare that made her whole body quake. ‘And these?’

  He held up a plastic bag that contained what appeared to be runes like the ones she’d collected from her windowsill. They were covered in reddish brown stains, which she could only assume was blood.

  ‘I— they … there were some similar stones in my room the other day … but they disappeared,’ she finished weakly. If they were the same, her fingerprints would be on them, too. It all seemed so damning.

  ‘I would like you to come to the station at Oxford tomorrow to have your prints taken. Constable Ward will accompany you.’

  ‘Surely you don’t think that I—’

  He cut her off. ‘At this stage I cannot say what I think, Ms Reid.’ His mobile phone interrupted again allowing Kelly to release a pent-up breath.

  ‘What am I going to do?’ she whispered once he’d left the room.

  Nancy reached over and hugged her. ‘Don’t worry, kiddo, we won’t let him pin this on you. We know you’re innocent.’

  ‘Indeed, she is,’ John said in a low voice. ‘If you will let me speak to this police person, I can verify your story.’

  ‘I wish you could, John, I really do, but if it took me a week to believe in you and I can actually see you, how long do you think the hard-nosed inspector will take?’

  He frowned at her but did not say more.

  The inspector stuck his head back around the door and said, ‘I’ll be back in a few hours for that walk-through, Ms Reid. The autopsy results are back on the body so I’ll be heading up to Oxford. Needless to say, don’t leave the precinct.’

  Kelly nodded.

  ‘An odious man,’ John commented in an offended voice once the inspector had gone.

  The disembodied remark made Tom chuckle. It was obvious from the look on his face that he still hadn’t quite come to terms with John’s invisible presence.

  ‘Though we might not like it, he’s just doing his job,’ Kelly explained with a deep sigh.

  ‘Perhaps,’ John crossed his arms with righteous indignation, ‘but he showed little respect for your person. In my day women were treated with more courtesy.’

  ‘Things are very different nowadays,’ Nancy responded ruefully.

  ‘So I have come to learn during this past week.’ He looked at Kelly with a sad smile. ‘Is there nothing I can do to help clear you of this unjust accusation?’

  ‘Well, he hasn’t actually accused me of anything yet. He says I am a suspect but for all we know there could be others he hasn’t mentioned.’

  Nancy agreed. ‘Yes – they only tell you as much as they want you to know. We could all be suspects,’ she turned towards the mirror, ‘except for you.’

  Kelly couldn’t help but grin. ‘One thing we could do is get that stored mirror put up in a place that will allow you to watch what is going on.’ She explained to Nancy and Tom about the five mirrors. ‘Now that the hand mirror had been taken into evidence, that really only leaves three that John could use. Another would increase the odds of him seeing something useful. But where to put it is the question,’ Kelly mused.

  ‘Perhaps the library would be the best location,’ John offered. ‘Is that not the room where the police have spent most of their time since the passage was opened up?’

  ‘We’ll have to wait until the coast is clear before we can take anything in there. The room has been cordoned off and there’s a man on guard outside most of the time,’ Tom said.

  Nancy stood and began to pace. ‘What about the hall opposite the door then? John could keep watch for who comes and goes, and when the door is open then he’d be able to see much of what happens. The bookcase you moved is almost directly in that line of sight.’

  Tom didn’t wait for further discussion. ‘Let me go down and check things out. If I can put it up straight away, I will. Inspector Mathieson did say that we could keep working towards our opening date … well … he can’t object if we put our furnishings back where they belong, can he?’

  Nancy giggled after he left. ‘Such a resourceful man. I’m so glad I married him.’

  Heat rose from Richard’s sweat-slicked body. While he adored Sonia most days, sometimes, no matter what he did, she just wouldn’t come! When it happened she always said that she couldn’t help it, but he suspected it was ploy to make him feel inadequate as a lover. Or get her way about something.

  Not long after he’d arrived she complained that the flat had no air-conditioning, and that if the current London heatwave proved any indication of the coming summer, she’d refuse to put up with it.

  Her whining had taken the gloss off their first bout of sex, so after a short break so he could recover himself he’d put on one of his dirtiest porn DVDs to get her in the mood. Right now they were watching a buxom black girl being done by two men – usually Sonia’s favourite scenario – yet she still seemed bored and unresponsive.

  To hell with it, he thought. There was no way he was going to pay for an expensive air-con unit and that was that. He didn’t have the spare cash even if he’d wanted to, so he pumped harder, pushing her face-down into the couch, till he found his own pleasure. Once the shuddering stopped, he withdrew and walked away to leave her kneeling on the couch with her backside in the air. As far as he was concerned, she’d had her chance … she could bloody well masturbate if she wanted satisfaction.

  Disposing of the condom in the bathroom he strolled naked into the kitchen and set the kettle on the stove. He wrinkled his nose in disgust when he turned on his mobile phone to check his voice messages. There were three: one from Denny reminding him that he had six days left, and two from an Oxford number which, he suspected, was that damned police inspector asking him to call and set time aside for an interview. He didn’t bother to respond. He’d contact Kelly first thing in the morning, just to be certain she would confirm his alibi for Friday evening … then he’d talk to the inspector. He just wished he could be certain that Will didn’t have anything concrete about him and Deanna. Maybe he’d call in at Will’s house on his way back to the coach house just to make sure.

  Sonia sidled up to him all sweet and contrite just as the kettle began to squeal. Her hand wandered down his belly until it found him and began stroking in just the way he liked. Over her shoulder he could see that a new scene had begun on the porn flick, this time two women playing with a massive sex aid: Sonia’s second favourite scenario, he remembered. He stiffened in her hand.

  ‘What are you up to, missy?’ he asked playfully; after all, he could never be angry with Sonia for long. ‘Are you going for some kind of record?’

  Her full lips broke into a glowing smile. ‘Four more times for that,’ she said cheekily, ‘but I’m game if you want to try …?’ She raised one of her delicately sculpted brows then minced back to the couch and arranged herself so that he had the perfect view of all her luscious assets. He glanced at the teacup he’d pulled out of the cupboard, then the large screen television, and finally back at her. It was no contest.

  Kelly stared at John for a long moment after Nancy had gone to see what had happened with Tom and the fourth mirror. Something about him made her go all soft inside.

  ‘I need to ask you something.’

  ‘Anything.’

  ‘Please don’t be angry when I ask this, but I really need to know. What I am beginning to feel …’ she faltered. Asking such a thing was difficult and despite her mental decision to forgive him no matter what, she didn’t know what she would do if the truth proved him a cheat and a lia
r.

  ‘Ask your question. I guarantee that I shall answer with perfect honesty.’

  She took a big gulp of air and looked into his sapphire eyes. Her heart fluttered slightly and she felt like she was falling into them, so warm and compelling was his gaze.

  ‘For once and for all … please … if you are an actor playing a role, I promise I’ll understand … but I need to know …’

  The smile he gave her in response was one of kindly indulgence, the type of smile reserved only for a loved one. ‘Your question is not unexpected, Kelly. I know I have presented no sound proof of my identity beyond the ability to move between the mirrors. But I cannot lie to you. You have stolen my heart and my soul. I’m sure you already know this, as such an emotion can never be hidden. If I could have stepped into your life as I real man I would have done so days ago but truly, I cannot.

  ‘Everything I have told you is the truth. I would go to my Maker a happy man if I were to be permitted to touch your skin or place a soft kiss upon your lips, just once, before I die. In the days I have come to know you, I have begun to understand what drove Edward to the extreme of madness. His love for Elizabeth, his anguish at his loss of her, surpassed his ability to remain sane. I just pray that if you cannot release me from this prison, that insanity claims me quickly.’

  Futility filled his eyes and she felt her heart begin to shatter.

  ‘I so wished—’ she began, but no words seemed to fill the space inside her. For just a minute she’d really hoped that he would walk in the door, take her in his arms and tell her it was all a trick, that if she’d let him explain …

  In that instant before he spoke she’d played it all out in her mind’s eye and there would be the happily-ever-after that she never expected. But now her choice was simple. She could condemn the man she had come to love to a future trapped in a place where she could never venture. Or she could see him die.

  A hollow ache filled her chest and she found it hard to breathe. Could there be no other answer? Surely to God, there must be.

  A quiet tap on the door preceded the appearance of Nancy’s blonde head. ‘Sorry to disturb again, but Inspector Mathieson has just arrived for that walk-through he wanted. I told him I’d come up and get you.’ She glanced over at the mirror, ‘Oh, and Tom managed to get that mirror into the library without much fuss, so if John wants to come down and join us?’

  Swallowing down all the emotions that she didn’t want to feel, Kelly faced her friend. ‘Thanks, Nance. Just ask the inspector to give me minute and I’ll be down.’

  ‘I will adjourn to the library and keep watch,’ John said and promptly disappeared.

  It was almost with a sense of relief that she went to the bathroom to tie her hair back so she could crawl through the passage with Inspector Mathieson. Being near John, but unable to touch him, made her feel completely bereft.

  When Kelly entered the passage for the second time, it amazed her how brightly lit it now was. The police technicians had installed lights through the whole network of passages so it no longer had that creepy, gothic atmosphere.

  After placing the flashlight down by the entrance door, she showed Mathieson how she crept along the passage, the mirror in one hand and the candle in the other. John appeared in the hand mirror as soon as she mounted the inner staircase. Eyes widening momentarily, she nearly lost her footing with the suddenness of seeing him there and she had to suppress the urge to yell at him for frightening her.

  Yet, as her spurt of shock subsided, she was thankful for his presence. Mathieson seemed to take umbrage that Tom insisted on accompanying her throughout the investigation and barred him from joining in their little excursion, instead ordering that both he and Nancy wait within the library until they were done.

  Once she’d led Mathieson past the window embrasure, she saw how the brick hidey-holes had crumbled when Tom had pushed out the bookcases. It was a good thing she’d found John’s journal when she did … if she hadn’t, she would never have learned about the true man, nor would she have allowed herself to acknowledge the feelings growing inside her. Her one regret was that any other treasures to be found amongst the rubble would now, no doubt, be in the hands of the police.

  ‘I don’t suppose your constables found any books or journals amongst that lot?’ she asked, gesturing at the scattered pile of broken bricks.

  ‘Not as far as I am aware, Ms Reid,’ he said, turning to look closely at her face. ‘I do wonder why this journal is so important to you, though.’

  ‘That is just it, Inspector, I don’t know if it is important or not. All I know is that it is missing and could shed light on the disappearance of one of the manor’s owners during the Victorian era.’

  His eyes narrowed speculatively but he didn’t comment.

  ‘So what happened once you reached this spot, Ms Reid?’

  With a swallow, she described how she’d placed the candle and mirror down beside her so she could prise away some of the bricks to search inside the cavities. ‘Then a gust of wind blew out the candle. As I was trying to light another, I heard the noise from down that way,’ she pointed to the far end of the passage. ‘By the time I got the match to strike, whoever hit me had come up beside me. I didn’t actually see who it was but when I finally got the candle lit, all I saw was a black object coming straight at my head.’ Raising her hand to her bruised forehead, she winced at the memory. ‘After that it is all a blank. That’s all I can tell you, Inspector Mathieson.’

  The frown that had accompanied the inspector since he’d returned to the manor furrowed his brow more deeply. ‘And you say you did not see Deanna Montgomery at all on Friday?’

  ‘No, Inspector. Apart from Tom and Nancy, the only person I saw all day was Richard Ditchley.’

  Watching the inspector’s passing expressions, she would have said that for the most part, he believed her story. But he also seemed to sense that she hadn’t told him everything. But then she knew he hid things too. She had desperately wanted to ask about Deanna’s autopsy, hoping something in it might steer the inspector away from suspecting her. So far he hadn’t said a word and the journalist in her seethed with questions.

  ‘The bicycle pump was found over there,’ he said, indicating the same area she said the first sound came from.

  ‘I’m sorry, but I didn’t see it there. It was very dark and I couldn’t see the end of the passage. I just heard a sound. If it is the same pump I picked up outside earlier—’

  ‘About what time was that?’ he asked, cutting her off.

  She shrugged slightly. ‘I’m not really sure … around nine maybe?’ she replied. The uncertainty of her answer echoed in her voice.

  ‘That was quite early if you were on a dinner date, wasn’t it, Ms Reid? From what Tom Wentworth tells me, you didn’t leave here till well after seven.’

  Kelly nodded. ‘We had a pleasant dinner, and that was that.’

  ‘Didn’t the viscount receive a visitor during that time?’

  Kelly’s eyes darted up in surprise. He must have spoken to Richard already. ‘Someone came to the door and he and Richard had what you might call “a heated exhange”. I don’t know the other man’s identity. Richard said he was just a local who’d had too much to drink.’

  ‘That man came forward this afternoon, Ms Reid, and made some nasty accusations about Richard Ditchley.’

  ‘Oh?’ Her journalistic antenna suddenly jumped to high alert.

  ‘Nothing I can discuss at this point, Ms Reid. We are investigating the allegations. However, if you can recall any details of the argument that night?’

  She shook her head. ‘I didn’t hear anything of what they said.’

  The sideways look the inspector threw her suggested that he didn’t believe her but she couldn’t do a thing about that. In this instance she was telling him the whole truth.

  He motioned that she precede him into the library where Tom and Nancy sat, both wearing slightly nervous expressions. She tried to give both a reassurin
g smile but her own uncertainty made it feel more like a grimace. John materialised in the larger mirror just as she stepped from the tunnel into the room. The inspector followed close behind her and gave the hand mirror, matchbox and candle to a constable who returned the items to their respective plastic bags and set them aside.

  ‘What happens now, Inspector Mathieson?’ Tom asked, rising from the chair with a reassuring pat on his wife’s hand.

  The inspector looked away a second then muttered a few words to another officer before facing them.

  ‘For now, we have about all the evidence we need here, Mr Wentworth. The boys will begin clearing up soon and you should be able to start setting everything to rights by this evening. I will be keeping a man on the gates and outside the house.’ He turned to Kelly, a look of warning on his face. ‘Ms Reid, while you are not under arrest, I would advise that you do not leave the house until all this is cleared up. Tomorrow, I’ll expect you to come to CID headquarters in Oxford at ten to have your fingerprints taken and a formal statement recorded. An officer will escort you. If you have no objection, we’d like a DNA sample as well.’ His black caterpillar brows lifted in question.

  Kelly nodded. ‘I have nothing to hide.’

  ‘Thank you, Ms Reid.’

  By the time the inspector finally dismissed her, Kelly could have sworn she’d run a marathon. Never in her life had she been so tired. Even the emotional exhaustion she felt after the final day in court where her marriage had been officially dissolved, paled alongside this. Why, she didn’t quite know. Perhaps it was the strain of keeping part of the story a secret. Yet she knew in her heart that any mention of John would only make matters ten times worse. Nancy and Tom believed in him, she knew that for a certainty, but she was just as certain nobody else would without more solid evidence than a voice that emanated from a mirror.

  ‘You appear fatigued, Kelly,’ John’s deep voice was gentle and filled with compassion. ‘Should you not rest?’

  Their eyes met and held fast. ‘That was the plan.’