by B. J Daniels
“They all could be working together,” Marshall said.
Alexa didn’t want to believe that, since it would be harder for Landon not to be a part of it and she refused to think he knew anything about what was going on.
She led the way upstairs, and using the skeleton key from her room, began opening doors along the second floor. In each of the rooms, they could see places in the plaster-and-lath walls had been repaired.
“Are you thinking what I am?” Marshall asked.
“Someone has been looking in the walls, then repairing them when they haven’t found what they were looking for?”
He nodded.
They found the same types of patch jobs in all the rooms and along the hallway. On the third floor, they wandered through the furniture and boxes. Everywhere behind them were places where someone had been searching, no doubt for the millions J. A. Wellington had stolen.
“It looks like they have run out of places to search,” Marshall said after they’d found more patch jobs throughout the first floor as well.
“Except for the basement.”
The door to the basement, they found, was padlocked. Marshall shot her a look. “Why would they padlock this door but no others?”
“Because they haven’t finished searching down there. Can you open it?”
“Not without someone knowing we did.”
She didn’t care. “Open it.”
From the tool bucket he found in a corner in the kitchen, he pulled out a hacksaw and went to work on the lock. A few moments later, she heard the lock snap open.
The door swung in to expose a dark stairway to an even darker basement.
Marshall handed her one of the flashlights he’d taken from the tool bucket, then pulled out the one he’d brought from home before leading the way down the stairs.
“I HAD TO MEET AGGIE AND put an end to this,” Emma said, tired of all the questions and recriminations. “I made a decision. Maybe it was wrong—”
“Maybe?” Hoyt snapped. He had taken off his Stetson and now raked both hands through his hair in exasperation. Across the kitchen table, Sheriff McCall Crawford looked just as upset.
“I had to see what Aggie had found,” Emma said as she motioned to the contents of the envelope that had been dumped out on her kitchen table.
“I saw your expression when you looked at the photographs,” she said to her husband. “There’s a chance the woman Aggie found is Laura, isn’t there?”
He glared at her from across the table.
“You should have told me about the note and your plan to meet Aggie,” the sheriff said.
“Aggie couldn’t bring this to you,” Emma replied to McCall. “She was afraid you wouldn’t listen to her.”
“What was the plan after she gave you this information?” McCall asked.
Emma made a point of not looking at her husband as she said, “Aggie and I were going to confront her.”
Hoyt made a furious sound, shoved himself to his feet and walked out of the room for a few moments.
“Aggie was afraid that if this woman—”
“Sharon Jones.”
“Right, if she thought law enforcement was on to her, she would disappear and then Aggie couldn’t prove that she wasn’t crazy—and I wouldn’t know when Laura was going to strike.”
“Laura is dead,” Hoyt snapped as he came back into the room.
Emma shot him a look. “Is she? Can you definitely say that this woman is not Laura?”
“Yes. Because I saw her drown.”
“You said the boating trip was Laura’s idea,” Emma said patiently. “Why would a woman who allegedly hated water and couldn’t swim well want to go on a boat trip on Fort Peck Reservoir, especially when she was planning to divorce you?”
“I have no idea but she did.”
“Exactly. And you said yourself that she was horribly jealous. If you even looked at another woman—”
“Emma,” he said, dropping down in front of her and taking her hands in his. “Honey, you have to stop this. You are getting as nuts as that damned insurance investigator.”
The memory of Aggie’s cry after the shot was fired and her fall into the river sent a stab of pain through Emma.
“I believe Aggie.” She looked to the sheriff. “Have your deputies found her yet?”
McCall shook her head. “We’re dragging the river now.”
Emma nodded, wondering if they would find her body. Laura Chisholm’s body had never been found in Fort Peck Reservoir.
“What about Sharon Jones?” she asked the sheriff.
“I’ve contacted the Billings police. They’re going to pick her up for questioning.”
“Can you get DNA or fingerprints or something to prove who she is?” Emma asked.
“We’ll take it one step at a time once she is picked up,” McCall said.
Emma nodded, hoping Aggie wasn’t right about what would happen.
THE BASEMENT DOOR OPENED on a room with a low ceiling crisscrossed with plumbing pipes.
Marshall shone the flashlight beam around the room, found a switch and several overhead bulbs blinked on.
The basement smelled musty and damp. Alexa hugged herself, trying to ignore the cold as well as whatever else had been down here. Impressions of dark events rushed over her. She closed her eyes for a moment, fighting off the house’s past.
“Are you all right?” Marshall asked.
She nodded and opened her eyes.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I do.”
He gave her an encouraging smile. “Then let’s see what’s here.”
As he shone the flashlight down one corridor after another, it reminded her of a subway tunnel. The chill, the smells, the clank of the old pipes.
“Which way?” Marshall asked.
“Look at the floor,” Alexa said, after remembering the third floor and the trail through the dust. It wasn’t as dusty down here, but there were scuff marks on the concrete—and mud. They followed them down one of the corridors.
Alexa had never been claustrophobic—until now. The low-hanging, large, corroded pipes seemed to press down on her. The basement was a maze of narrow aisles that ran between whatever machinery had originally provided heat and possibly electricity to the mansion. She found herself ducking her head even though, as tall as Marshall was, he didn’t need to duck.
The trail ended in a dead end. Alexa knelt down to pick up a piece of dried mud from a boot sole. It had been dropped just inches from where the wall ended.
“This wall isn’t concrete like the others,” Marshall noted.
“There’s a way through here,” she said and began to search for a panel or switch that would open the wall.
Marshall found it, a small handle that looked as if it turned off water to the plumbing overhead. Instead, when he pulled it, a panel slid back into the wall with a groan.
He shot her a look as he shone his flashlight beam into the darkness beyond the wall.
Alexa saw another long corridor, this a tunnel, narrow and cramped. The smell coming out of it turned her stomach. The last place she wanted to go was down there.
“Why don’t you stay here,” Marshall suggested, no doubt seeing her revulsion.
It was tempting. But the option was waiting here for him. “Let’s go,” she said, happy to let him lead the way.
Marshall blocked the door open with an old, heavy gear wheel he found in the corner and they started down the tunnel.
Alexa could hear what sounded like mice scurrying ahead of them. But it was what else she felt that had her trembling. Something horrible had happened down here. Her skin crawled, rippling with gooseflesh, as she fought to keep out the images that flashed inside her head.
They hadn’t gone far when they came to something that brought Marshall up short. She heard him let out a curse, then turn to try to shield her from it.
But she’d already felt the horror and leaned past him to look. Even knowing wha
t it was, she hadn’t been prepared for the cage.
It had been built back into the earth like a root cellar, only this small hole had been fitted with bars to keep something inside.
Or someone. She shuddered and turned away. Marshall put his arm around her and pulled her into his chest. Like her, he must be thinking about the great-great-grandmother who’d gone crazy after the death of her daughter and granddaughter. Dave had said the basement was where the granddaughter’s body had been found.
“It was the screaming,” Alexa said. “He put her down here so he didn’t have to hear it.” She felt Marshall shudder, but he didn’t pull away. Instead he drew her closer, smoothing her hair with his hand. “Have you seen enough?”
She shook her head. “We have to know what is at the end of this tunnel. If they’ve found the money.”
“I would imagine that if they had, they would be long gone,” Marshall said.
Maybe. Or maybe they would hide the money again until they could leave without causing any suspicion, Alex thought, thinking of Jayden, who’d already announced he would be leaving soon now that summer was almost over.
Marshall let go of her to shine the flashlight beam down the tunnel. The mud trail continued into the darkness ahead, the tunnel growing narrower, the air colder and danker.
Alexa saw him glance at his watch. They had to move quickly now. Time was running out. She didn’t dare think about what could happen if they were caught down here.
Chapter Twelve
Marshall led the way as the tunnel grew more cramped. He’d never minded small places but this tunnel gave him the creeps. He kept seeing that cage back there in the wall. Alexa had known what it was for. He didn’t even want to consider how she’d known.
Whatever was going on in this house, someone wanted to keep it a secret. Bad enough to kill?
He didn’t want to find out.
Alexa was scared. He could see it in her face, but as he’d learned about her, she was strong and determined. That strength wouldn’t let her turn back. Not yet.
“Let’s move a little faster,” he said, not wanting to alarm her and yet at the same time growing more anxious with each step.
They moved quickly down the tunnel until they reached a spot where someone had been digging in the wall. Bricks had been removed and stacked to one side. The hole was large—and empty.
“Is it a large enough hole to hold millions of dollars?” Alexa asked as her flashlight beam bore into the empty space.
“Depends on what he’d put the money in before he hid it,” Marshall said and noted other holes in the brick walls. “It’s hard to say if they found something of interest or not.”
“But was it the same person who’s been searching the rest of the house? Or someone else?” Alexa sighed. “I wonder what they did with the loot if they found it?”
“Squirreled it away somewhere until they can make their exit.”
She nodded. “Let’s get out of here.”
Marshall shone his flashlight to where the tunnel ended just yards away in a set of stairs. “An exit?”
Stepping to the stairs, he looked up at what appeared to be a door. He shot Alexa a look, then tried the handle.
THE DOOR OPENED ONTO another set of stairs. Alexa could smell fresh air and bolted up the steps, but quickly stopped when she saw that the exit was covered with what appeared to be a heavy wooden gate.
“Let me,” Marshall said, stepping past her. He handed her his flashlight and pushed on the gate. She’d expected it to be heavy, but the gate swung open with relative ease, exposing starlight in the dark canopy overhead and the feathery dark leaves of a cottonwood branch etched against the night sky.
She smelled the water at the pond even before she saw the moonlight glimmering off the smooth surface.
“It’s a secret way in and out of the house,” she said, stating the obvious. Is this how the lovers she’d seen the first time had been coming and going?
The gate was hidden behind some large rocks and bushes. She wondered who knew about this.
“We should retrace our steps and cover our tracks as best we can,” Marshall said. But even as he spoke, Alexa saw car lights top the nearby hill and head this way.
“It’s too late,” she said. “We can’t possibly get back before they enter the house and there is only one way up out of the basement—at least that we know of. They’re going to find the broken padlock anyway.”
Marshall let out a curse under his breath. “It’s one thing for them to know that you were down in the basement. I left the tunnel open.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Alexa said as the cars turned into the drive, the headlights sweeping toward them. “It’s time I tell my brother everything.”
They ducked down behind the rocks and bushes as the two vehicles came down the lane, stopping in front of the mansion.
They stayed like that until the others had gone inside.
“What if your brother already knows?”
She shot Marshall a shocked look.
“I don’t want to upset you, but what if he got you here not to chase away the ghosts, but use your…instincts to tell him where the money was hidden? Or who already found it.”
Alexa couldn’t help her anger or her disappointment. “You don’t know my brother.”
“No, I don’t. But I hate to see you get hurt. I’m afraid of what will happen when you tell him what you know.”
ALEXA WALKED UP THROUGH the trees from the pond, taking her time in case she was being watched from one of the many windows.
She was furious with Marshall for even suggesting that her brother could be after the stolen money and even more furious with herself because she hadn’t gone to her brother with the truth sooner.
Her excuse had been that she hated the thought of breaking her brother’s heart. But the truth was, she was afraid. Afraid of his reaction. She feared Sierra might be right. If push came to shove, Landon would side with his wife—no matter how much evidence there was against Sierra.
Cursing her own doubts about her brother, she still feared for his safety. Whoever had found the money might decide to step up his or her timeline. If Sierra was involved, Alexa feared that the ultimate plan was to get rid of Landon—and her as well, now that she’d become embroiled in this.
What if she couldn’t convince her brother to leave this house—and Sierra?
As she opened the front door, Gigi turned from the fire. Archer was throwing more wood on the blaze, the two of them complaining about the cold Montana summer night.
Just then, Devlin came out of the kitchen, carrying a tray with a bottle of wine and a half-dozen glasses.
“Oh, good, there you are,” Landon said, appearing right behind her. “We were just about to have a nightcap. I was hoping you would join us.”
Alexa felt her stomach knot. After being drugged once she wasn’t about to consume anything in this house that she didn’t see someone else drink first.
She looked into her brother’s face. This was the most relaxed she’d seen him since she arrived. She felt herself weaken. No way did Landon know what was going on in this house. And yet how could he not suspect?
As she let her gaze travel around the living room, her eyes rested on Jayden. Who better than to sneak down to the basement at night than the single man? The man who insisted on staying in the servants’ quarters of the house on the main floor instead of in one of the grander rooms upstairs.
Her heart began to pound. What about the woman he’d met down by the pond? She suspected they had used the tunnel exit to meet. So at least one other person in this house had to know about the digging in the tunnel walls. Sierra? Or one of the other women?
“Join us,” Sierra said. She appeared to have already had more than a little something to drink.
Alexa had no choice. “Thank you,” she said as she watched Devlin pour the wine. Alexa took the glass she was offered, but simply held it between her hands as she moved over to the fire.
&n
bsp; As she pretended to study the wine in the firelight, she secretly watched each of the people in the room, waiting for someone to take the first drink of the wine.
“None for me,” Jayden said as Devlin tried to hand him a glass.
Alexa noticed that Devlin didn’t take any either.
“To the future,” Landon said, coming over to the fire to join Alexa. He lightly touched his wine glass to hers and raised his to his lips, stopping when she didn’t do the same.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
“No.” She smiled, her heart hammering in her chest. How could she suspect her brother of anything, let alone drugging her? She raised her glass to her lips.
The glass slipped from her fingers, crashed on the fireplace hearth and shattered, sending red wine into the air to land like blood splatters on the floor.
Sierra let out a cry. “My great-great-grandmother’s crystal!”
“I’m so sorry,” Alexa said as she quickly hurried into the kitchen to get something to clean up the mess.
“It’s no big deal,” Landon said to her retreating back.
“What do you mean, ‘no big deal’?” Sierra demanded. “Do you have any idea how much that glass was worth?”
“I’ll buy you one that costs twice as much,” Landon snapped.
The living room fell into a heavy, tense silence.
“I’m going to call it a night,” Jayden said. The others agreed.
By the time Alexa returned to the living room, only Landon and Sierra remained. Landon had picked up the larger pieces of glass.
Sierra was standing with her back to the room, and from the way she was standing, she was clearly still furious. “You really know how to ruin a party,” she said to Alexa.
“Sierra,” Landon hissed under his breath.
“Well, she does.”
“It was an accident,” Landon said. “There is no harm done.”
Sierra pouted but said nothing as Alexa and Landon cleaned up the mess.
“I’ll be happy to replace the glass,” Alexa said to her sister-in-law.