by Vakey, Jenn
“It’s very nice to meet you,” they said in tandem. Charlie’s eyes were still fixed on Rilynne. Unlike his tiny stature, his eyes seemed to belong to a much older man. Whereas his sister was just looking up at her, he was studying her. It was the same way she examined a suspect when she interrogated them.
He didn’t take his eyes off of her until Sydney reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder. “Your mother is expecting you,” she said as she took them both firmly by the hand. “You know she has a party tonight, so you need to say your goodnights now.”
She smiled kindly at Rilynne before leading the children toward their mother’s room on the north wing. Not wanting to raise suspicion by being seen lingering at the top of the stairs, Rilynne picked up her caddy and followed them down the hall.
Though she had the eight guest bedrooms on the north wing to clean, it didn’t take her long at all to work her way through them. Like the majority of the restrooms, it looked as if no one had stepped foot in them since they were last cleaned. Mrs. Lewis had noted that the bedding was only to be changed at the beginning of the month, so all Rilynne needed to do was dust the furniture and vacuum. If she hadn’t spent a good deal of time rummaging through the rooms in search of the item used to strike the victim, it would have taken her almost no time at all to get the rooms finished.
“Hey.” Danny rushed up behind her when she made her way back to the top of the stairs. She couldn’t help but notice a flicker of excitement in his eyes. “The party is about to start, so we have the rest of the night off. It would be a shame to waste such a beautiful night like tonight. Why don’t we go for a walk and I can show you around?”
“I…” she hesitated, feeling a sudden twinge of conflict. While a one-on-one with Danny could provide her with some valuable information, she was unlikely to have another chance to search the manor while everyone else was distracted. “I would really love to, but I still have work I need to finish. Spending all of that time cleaning off the paint today left me a little behind. I want to catch up before Mrs. Lewis notices. Rain check?”
She could see the disappointment on his face, though he tried to hide it. “Sure. If you need any help, let me know.”
She smiled warmly at him. “Thanks.” She watched him walk down the stairs and through the entrance to the west wing before she found the closest supply closet and dropped off her caddy. Unfortunately, she had only made it a few steps down the east hall before she spotted Nancy heading her way.
“It’s almost show time,” she said, hurrying toward her. “The balcony is the safest place to stand. Mrs. Lewis can’t see us up there.”
Rilynne wanted to ask what she was talking about, but instead just followed her back out of the hall and onto the balcony. The moment she stepped out onto it, she realized what she had meant. The balcony reached out above the front entrance and provided the perfect vantage point to see what was going on below.
“Come on,” Nancy said, excitement flowing through her voice.
Rilynne let out a resigned sigh as she succumbed to the fact it would be impossible to get a look around the house until Nancy was thoroughly distracted.
She leaned against the rail and watched the guests arriving. She was surprised at how many of them she actually recognized. One of the first cars to pull up held the chief of police. The next several cars belonged to the mayor, chief of surgery and his wife, and… Ben.
Chapter Six
She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. More shocking than the fact that he was at the Lewis’ fundraiser was what he was wearing. She had never seen him in anything more formal than khakis and a button up, but as she looked down at him, she could see he was in a full tuxedo.
“Wow,” she gasped. After the initial shock from his appearance, she was overcome with confusion as to why he was there. She understood the other guests, because they were prominent figures in the community, but Ben was-Ben.
“What?” Nancy asked as she walked up next to her. “Not used to seeing so many important people? Oh, that one’s cute,” she said excitedly as she looked down at Ben. “Maybe I should head down there and make myself visible. I was hoping to hang out with Danny, but he seems to have disappeared. Besides, a girl’s got to keep her options open. How great would it be to catch a guy like that?”
The moment Nancy turned away, Ben looked up and gave her a quick wink. She looked down at him curiously, but he just grinned and walked inside. As much as she wanted to go downstairs to try and get a moment alone with him, she knew this might be her only opportunity to get a good look at the underground tunnels.
Luckily, Rilynne didn’t meet anyone before reaching the conservatory at the end of the east wing. She had only seen the tunnel entrance in the kitchen, but she knew it would be nearly impossible to slip in undetected. She considered going in through the west wing entrance, but she was more likely to be spotted by a member of the staff while she searched for the door.
It only took her a few minutes to find the door hidden behind a curtain on the back wall and slip through it. The lights in the tunnel were motion activated, so as soon as she stepped onto the staircase, it lit up brightly.
She examined the stairs carefully as she made her way down, but quickly decided they couldn’t have been the stairs the victim fell down. These stairs were carpeted and would have been left with visible stains if any blood had fallen on them. Though there was the possibility the carpet could have just been replaced since the incident, she found it unlikely as there were distinctive wear patterns from what appeared to be years of use.
The hallway itself was nothing like the dark, dank tunnel she’d imagined. If she hadn’t known better, she would have thought it was just another hall in the house. Faux windows had been installed, which depicted the property surrounding the manor. There were also fake doors put in every twenty feet, making it look almost comfortable.
She moved slowly down the long hall, pulling everything she could find in an attempt to find a hidden panel. She was almost disappointed when she reached the other end without finding anything. Not because she hoped to find where Brittney could have been removed, but because she had always wanted to find a secret passageway in a house.
It took an hour for her to completely examine the hall and immerge in the linen closet near the staff bedrooms. Instead of going straight to her room, she decided to take a detour to the ballroom to see if she could find Ben.
When she walked in, she found Nancy lingering behind the potted bamboo palms just inside the door.
“Decided to scope out the market too, I see,” Nancy said. Though she had a smile on her face, her tone said she wasn’t thrilled to see Rilynne.
“No,” she replied smoothly. “I’m not really shopping around for a man right now. I just thought I would check out the party. What’s it for anyway?”
“No clue. They’re probably raising money for under privileged kids or something. Mrs. Lewis hosts one every couple of months for some organization or another. Usually they don’t have any creatures as cute as that one, though. He came alone; I wonder if he’s single,” she stated with a longing expression.
Rilynne followed her gaze across the room. Standing just under the large chandelier in the middle, she saw Ben talking to the mayor and the chief of police. He had always been very sociable and that evening was no exception. He was so deep in conversation that it took several minutes for him to spot her. When he finally did, she could see him struggling to keep the grin off of his face.
“Boy, is he cute,” she heard Nancy mumble. She had to agree. Ben looked incredibly sharp in his tuxedo, though she was amused that his hair still had its usual messy look.
She was just thinking of ways she might be able to get him away from the crowd when a shrill voice came from just behind them.
“Out,” Cyndi Lewis said as she pointed to the door. “Our guests don’t need to be leered at by the help.” She turned without another word and walked toward the stage.
Nancy groane
d as she stepped behind Rilynne and out the door. Rilynne rolled her eyes and shrugged to Ben before following. Since she wouldn’t be able to sneak in a moment with him, she decided to use the rest of the evening examining the rest of the staircases in the manor. Her plans were quickly derailed, though, when she realized Nancy was waiting for her outside the doors.
“You’d think she would actually enjoy showing off how many people she has working for her,” Nancy said out of frustration. “It’s not like we were harassing anyone. I think she just likes to complain. She used to actually be very pleasant, if you could believe that.”
“Really?” Rilynne asked in disbelief. “What happened to her?”
Nancy shrugged. “If I had to guess, I think having money just went to her head. It doesn’t help that Mr. Lewis has lost his mind entirely. She’s not nearly as bad now as she was when Brittney first went missing, though. It settled down after it turned up that she was dead, and she hadn’t just skipped out. I think she was worried she might have stolen stuff and split.”
“You would think she’d be more stressed about a member of her staff being killed when they were supposed to be on duty,” Rilynne said. She quickly gave up on the notion of being able to slip away to search the manor and followed Nancy down the north wing.
Nancy shrugged again. “Lisa should have dinner ready by now. She always tries to do a little something extra whenever there’s a party. She says it’s just because she doesn’t have to cook for the family, but I think she really wants us to eat as good as the guests. She’s good like that.”
They were the last to arrive in the kitchen. The table was covered in ten large plates, each filled with something different. Rilynne grabbed a little from each dish before sitting down between Sydney and Danny. “This looks like the same food they’re serving in the hall,” she said as she picked up a roll and examined it.
“The caterer sent the menu for Mrs. Lewis to approve last week, so I decided to use it as our menu as well,” she said, motioning toward a small binder sitting on the island.
Danny placed his fork back down and stood up. “Let’s see who we have this time,” he said, grabbing the binder and returning to his seat. Rilynne looked over as he flipped to a copy of the guest list. From the number of scratch-outs and names added to the bottom, she could see the list had been revised several times. The thing that really surprised her was that Ben’s name was on the original list. Judging by the date printed on the bottom of the page, the list had been created a full month before Brittney Price had been killed. She wondered to herself why he hadn’t told her about it when they were discussing the case.
“The only names I know are the mayor and a few of the Lewis’ wealthier friends,” Danny said. He handed the book across the table to Cole.
“Let’s see,” Cole said, running his finger down the page. “There’s the chief of police, which is a first, and the head of the school board. I guess that makes sense since this is a fundraiser for education.”
Nancy grabbed the binder out of his hand. “Who do you think that cute guy is?” she asked. Rilynne caught her eyes flick toward Danny for a brief moment before returning to the page. If she hadn’t expected it, she would have thought it nothing more than her own eyes playing tricks on her. “I’m sure I would have remember him if he had been here before.”
Rilynne struggled to keep the smile off of her face as her cheeks began to warm. “I recognized one of the men as the chief of surgery,” she quickly said, trying to change the subject.
“Was he with someone?” Nancy asked, eyes still trained on the list.
“Yeah, he arrived with a woman,” she replied. “From the looks of it, I would say his wife.”
Nancy’s face twisted with contemplation. “Well, if I had to guess, I would say the handsome stranger is Ben Davis. He’s one of the few people listed without a plus one, and I’m pretty sure I can put faces to the other names.”
“What’s the point of trying to find out who he is?” Sydney asked. Unlike the others, she didn’t even bother to act like she enjoyed Nancy’s company. “What are you going to do, track him down on one of your days off?” She paused and started to grin. “Second thought, don’t answer that. I can see it all in my head. You ‘accidentally’ bump into him on the street and start up a conversation. You go out for coffee, then fall in love and live happily ever after. Is that about right?”
Rilynne looked up at Nancy only to find a large grin sitting on her face. “He’s single; otherwise he would have brought someone with him. It would be almost criminal if I didn’t do what I could to rectify that depressing situation,” she stated. As she said it, Rilynne couldn’t help but wonder why Ben hadn’t invited her to join him. “Besides,” Nancy said, pulling her attention back to the conversation, “don’t act like you don’t already have an attractive, rich man in your sights. I bet the one I chose isn’t nuts.”
Sydney’s face tightened as she glared at Nancy. “Like I have time to even think about finding a man,” she said. Despite her firm tone, the look on her face said a very different story. She seemed angry and betrayed. Rilynne wouldn’t have put it past her to reach out and slap Nancy right there in front of everyone.
Nancy appeared to have realized she said too much, because she quickly changed the subject. “So I wonder what this Ben Davis does. Maybe he’s a rich oil tycoon. I could definitely live with that.”
“Or maybe he’s a teacher who’s taking a personal interest in the welfare of his students,” Danny said, apparently bored with the conversation. “Just because he came to one of these events doesn’t mean he actually has any money. Besides, I’m sure if he were actually wealthy, he wouldn’t still be single. Even if he were, he wouldn’t have had trouble finding someone to bring to a big party.”
There was a glint of hope in her eye, as if Danny was upset that she was talking about another man. Rilynne could tell by the look on his face that it couldn’t have been further from the truth. He showed no signs of being troubled or jealous by the conversation. He was just annoyed.
“So where’s a good place to run in the morning?” Rilynne asked to ease the tension that filled the room.
“If you go out through the north wing exit, head straight for the tree line and you’ll find a path,” Lisa said. “It weaves around a bit, so it’ll give you a decent run. Just stay away from the driveway or Mrs. Lewis might flay you alive. Brittney was running on a path that ran parallel to it once, but she was still visible to cars driving in. Mrs. Lewis saw her and I thought for sure she was going to get fired.”
“She may have been good at her job, but she wasn’t exactly known for making the best decisions,” Casey said dryly. Sydney laughed in agreement, but neither said anything further.
“So I guess she wasn’t as well liked as I thought,” Rilynne said with a playful grin. The expressions on the faces around the table ranged from guilt to amusement, but no one seemed to know what to say. “I’m actually relieved. Replacing someone who was held in such high regard by everyone else is a little intimidating.”
Casey grinned and leaned back in his seat. “Trust me; you don’t have anything to worry about. Brittney was far from perfect.”
She looked around hoping someone would elaborate, but no one did. Instead, they started getting up to carry the empty dishes to the sink.
“Well, I’m going to head back to my room and see if I can dig up anything on this Ben Davis guy,” Nancy said as she made her way toward the door. Rilynne considered hanging around to try to get more out of the others, but decided that she had probed enough for one night. She followed Nancy out of the kitchen and back toward their rooms.
“See you tomorrow,” Nancy said shortly when they neared the end of the west wing. Before Rilynne could say goodnight, Nancy stepped into her room and shut the door. Rilynne shook her head and walked to her own room, checking for anyone coming down the hall before closing the door behind her.
After pulling off her uniform, she grabbed her phone a
nd dropped into her corner chair.
“Do you have any idea why Ben would be attending the event at the manor tonight?” she asked when Matthews answered.
“I-” he hesitated. “I think you’ll probably need to ask him that one. What did the guest list look like?”
She sighed and sank down in the seat. “I saw the chief of police and the mayor. Oh, and your friend, Ryan Carnes. There were close to fifty people here tonight, all dressed up and important looking. The party did allow me a little time to take a look around. I went through the underground tunnels, but the only exits lead back into the house. I also checked all three stair cases within the tunnel, but they’re all clean.”
“Were you able to look around the rest of the manor?” he asked.
“I tried, but I kept getting interrupted. I’ll have to do the majority of that while I’m working, or it could raise too much suspicion,” she explained. “I’ve made a list of several possibilities for the item used to strike her, and I’ll start examining the ones I can tomorrow. I would have started today, but I got stuck cleaning up a monstrous mess Jared Lewis made. He really is as eccentric as everyone said.”
“We tried to warn you,” he said with a small chuckle.
“I did get the impression that there might have been something going on between him and Brittney,” she said.
“Like an affair?”
“I’m not sure,” she said hesitantly. “I know he was always pulling her away from her duties for special tasks, but I didn’t get more information than that. The chauffeur insists that it wasn’t anything salacious, but it’s certainly worth looking into.”
“He definitely wouldn’t be the first wealthy man to have an affair with a member of the household staff,” he said. “Affairs are always a good motive for murder. Either he could have killed her to prevent his wife from finding out, or the wife could have found out and killed her. I’ll see if I can find anything on my end.”
Matthews had a point. She had worked several cases where someone had been killed due to an affair, although usually the spouse was killed. Either the affair was discovered, resulting in the betrayed taking vengeance, or the guilty party killed their spouse to be with his or her lover. She knew this case would be different, though, because it would have drawn too much attention if either spouse had been murdered.