Death in an Elegant City: Book Four in the Murder on Location Series

by Sara Rosett

  She put a gentle pressure on his shoulder then applied more pressure until his body moved an inch or so. The upper body moved as a unit, like a toppled mannequin.

  She released her pressure on his shoulder, letting the body settle back into the position it had been in when I’d found it. She stood, pulled a phone from her pocket, and tapped a few numbers. “There’s nothing I can do.”

  She looked up at the line of people hanging over the railing. She pointed to a man near the end of the line. “You there. Go back to the entrance desk where you bought your ticket and let them know a man has died in the cold plunge room.” He nodded and left as the rest of the group around him broke into excited chatter.

  She turned back to me. “I’m sorry. Did you know him?”

  “Yes. I met him for the first time today.”

  “So you spoke to him this morning?”

  “Yes,” I said, but she held up a finger and spoke into the phone, giving the details of the situation efficiently.

  “Yes. Right. I’ll wait.” She put her phone away and turned back to me. “What time, exactly, did you last see him?”

  I had been looking at Cyrus, but glanced at her because of her tone. Her face had an intense curiosity.

  “Umm, it would have been about seven, I think.”

  Her gaze flicked to Cyrus’s body, and I couldn’t see her expression, but her tone sounded thoughtful. “Hmm. And the Baths are quite cool today,” she murmured to herself.

  “Why do you ask?”

  She hesitated.

  “Obviously, it matters,” I said. “I can see by your face that it’s important.”

  “It may matter, or it may not. Rigor is incredibly variable.”

  “Rigor. You mean rigor mortis?”

  “Yes. It’s already set in, at least in his arms and chest and somewhat in the legs, which indicates that he may have been dead for several hours.”

  “Kate,” a female voice called out sharply from above me on the viewing platform. “What are you doing down there?”

  I briefly closed my eyes. I knew that imperious tone. I turned around and spotted Elise leaning over the railing.

  “Surely you know this area is too dark to interest us,” she said. “Why are you wasting time here?”

  “What are you doing here, Elise?” I asked. “I thought we were meeting in the Pump Room.” I glanced at my watch. Even with all that had happened, I wasn’t late.

  “Paul and I finished our meetings early so we nipped in here for a quick tour, but we should move along to the Pump Room.” She made a shooing motion with her hand, indicating I should come up to the platform.

  “I’m afraid there’s been, well—I’m not sure what’s happened, but Cyrus is dead.”

  “Cyrus? Are you sure?” she asked in a mildly surprised tone.

  “Yes, it’s Cyrus Blakely. No doubt about it,” I said.

  “What happened? An accident? Or was it his heart? That was it, wasn’t it? He was just the sort—you know, too intense. Type A and all that.”

  “No, it was nothing like that. Either it was an accident or…” I trailed off.

  “What are you talking about?” Elise said, her tone incredulous. Accidents were not part of her plan, thus there could not be an accident. She wouldn’t allow it.

  I looked toward his body, which was mostly hidden behind the pillar from this angle. “I’m sorry, I don’t know—” I broke off because Elise had leaned over the railing to get a better look. She froze for half a second, then surged over the railing, her cape flapping about her like the wings of a huge bird as she descended. I tried to catch her arm. “Elise, don’t—"

  She shook off my hand and shoved by me. The little ledge was getting pretty crowded. I had no desire to take a plunge into the cold pool, so I stepped back, giving her room to pass. She powered around the doctor as well, and fell on Cyrus’s body.

  Chapter 4

  THE DOCTOR BENT OVER ELISE and convinced her to move back, and then several employees arrived. Elise, the doctor, and I were helped back over the railing. The rest of the tourists were escorted from the area, and I saw Paul’s form, easily identifiable because of the pencil behind his ear, towering above the group as they left.

  The police arrived shortly after that. I learned the doctor’s name was Carol Attenbury. She was a general practitioner from London on holiday.

  I told the responding officer how I had found Cyrus’s body, even showing him the image on my camera. He wanted to take the camera into evidence, but I protested, and Elise backed me up. “Let me email the photos to you,” I said. “Surely that will be enough, at this point. I must have the camera. It’s my livelihood.”

  The young police officer frowned. “I suppose that may work, but the inspector will have to approve it. So you’re saying you spotted the body, even though no one else had?” His tone was doubtful. “The Baths had been open for two hours.”

  “Yes, but if you look at the circular pool from the raised platform near the Sacred Spring, that area is extremely dark, and the pillar partially blocked him from view.”

  Dr. Attenbury, who was standing beside me nodded. “I didn’t see him either until she pointed it out.

  “And once you go down the platform and go around to the other side,” I said, “the area is in darkness as well. His dark clothes blended in. And since his face and lighter hair were hidden by the pillar and the rocks it was difficult to see. I only saw the sock because of the light of the flash. If I hadn’t taken that picture, I wouldn’t have seen him either.”

  The officer looked at Dr. Attenbury. “And you arrived next?”

  “Yes. I confirmed he was dead and sent for help.”

  Her straightforward statement cheered the officer, and he jotted it down before turning to Elise. “And you were third, ma’am?”

  “Yes. We worked together, Cyrus Blakely and I,” she said, her tone indicating she didn’t like the situation.

  “And you also entered the area below the platform?”

  “Yes. I couldn’t believe it.”

  Elise had been standing quietly on my other side, her arms crossed and her gaze focused on the officials moving around the circular pool as they cordoned off the area and set up lights. They hadn’t moved the body. In fact, only a few people had gone near it so far. I was sure that would change, but I hoped we would be gone by then. Elise was quiet, her face pale and strained. “I still can’t believe it, actually,” she added. “I had to see for myself, that’s why I went down.”

  Something about her tone caught my attention. After the discord between her and Cyrus this morning, I hadn’t expected her to show grief or even sorrow, but the way she spoke struck me as odd. There was an eagerness to her words as if she couldn’t wait to explain herself. And now that I was focused on her, instead of watching the police, I realized she had an almost edgy or nervous aura. She constantly moved her hands, flexing her fingers or wrapping the fringe that edged her cape around her fingers then unwinding it. “You don’t need us here any longer, do you, Officer?” she asked. “I’d rather not be here…when…well, I’d rather not be here any longer.”

  “You’ll have to stay until the inspector speaks to you. I’ll see if he’s ready to talk to you now.”

  “This is absurd,” Elise said, making an abrupt movement toward the exit. “There’s no need for us to stay here. They have all our information.”

  I caught her arm and drew her back. “Elise, it’s a police investigation. Don’t you think that takes priority over everything—even the scouting trip?” Elise was one of the most focused people I knew, and I wasn’t surprised that she considered everything else insignificant compared to her interests, even a police investigation.

  “Maintaining our schedule is the least of my worries, believe me.”

  I let my hand drop away, stung at the sharpness of her tone. “What’s wrong?”

  She opened her mouth to answer, but her gaze shifted over my shoulder, and she snapped her mouth closed.


  A compact man in his thirties with short cropped brown hair joined us. “Hello, I’m Detective Inspector Byron. I understand you found the body, Ms. Sharp?” He adjusted his pair of frameless rectangular glasses as he asked the question.

  “Yes, I did.” I described how the photograph had shown something wasn’t right in the area around the pillars. “So I went to make sure. I didn’t want to call for help and have it turn out to be nothing.”

  “Quite.”

  “I’d be happy to send you copies of the photos, but I’d like to keep my camera. It’s what I do for a living.”

  “You’re part of a location scouting trip. We’ll come back to that. Emails of the photos will be fine at this point.” He didn’t consult a notebook or his phone for notes as he switched his attention to the doctor. “You confirmed the death, I understand, Dr. Attenbury?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Clearly deceased, but I checked for a pulse then sent for help.”

  “Very good. And your opinion as to cause of death?”

  Dr. Attenbury blinked. “That’s not my territory. The police surgeon or medical examiner can make a better estimate than I can.”

  “Nevertheless, I’d like to hear your opinion. I’m always interested in all the data I can gather.”

  “In that case,” Dr. Attenbury said slowly, “it appears he died from a blow to the back of his head, but I only had a cursory look.”

  “Thank you. We’ll be in touch if we need anything further.”

  Dr. Attenbury seemed to be on the verge of saying something else, but appeared to check herself. After a second she said, “I’ll be here in Bath for two more days then I return to London.”

  Dr. Attenbury left, and Byron turned back to Elise and me, his hands clasped together in front of him. “Now. Tell me about your visit to Bath, Ms. DuPont. I gather you are in charge of the expedition, and the victim was part of it.”

  Elise frowned at him. “Shouldn’t you be writing this down?”

  I repressed a sigh. Trust Elise to get off on the wrong foot with a police detective.

  The corners of Byron’s mouth turned up slightly. “I have an excellent memory.”

  He said it pleasantly enough, but there was a firmness in his tone that even Elise recognized. Her chin went down an inch, and her bossy manner faded.

  “About this trip,” Byron said. “Who accompanied you to Bath?”

  “Kate,” Elise said with a glance my way. “Cyrus Blakely, of course, along with Paul Alexander, our First A.D.—that stands for assistant director. Felix Carrick, our cinematographer. And Alex Norcutt, another location scout.”

  “What time did you arrive?”

  “A little after six-thirty.”

  Byron raised his eyebrows. “In the morning?”

  “Yes. Location scouting trips require light and our budget is not excessive. We have to do as much as we can in as short an amount of time as possible. We were on the road this morning by three.”

  “I see,” Byron said, faintly. “And your movements, once you arrived?”

  “We stopped at the hotel, Bath Spa Hotel. I gave the other…police person…the details. Cyrus insisted we stay there. Dominic and Annie Bell, the owners, are—I mean were—old friends of his.”

  “You didn’t like them?”

  Elise had been rolling on in her monologue, but she stopped abruptly. “I never said that.”

  “I can tell from the timbre of your voice. Either you don’t like the hotel, or you don’t like the owners.”

  Elise hesitated for a second then said quickly, “I have nothing against either the hotel or the Bells. I did not like the fact that Cyrus took over the travel arrangements. He wanted approval and control of everything.”

  “But he was the director,” Byron said, a slight look of puzzlement crossing his face for the first time.

  “And I am the producer,” Elise said sharply. She paused and drew in a breath. More calmly, she added, “I might as well tell you now. It’s no secret that Cyrus and I didn’t get along. I knew him years ago. I did not want him brought on as the director. We had a few differences of opinion.”

  Before I could help it, I breathed out a little breath through my nose, a miniature snort. Byron looked my way for a second, and I could almost feel him mentally filing away the nonverbal communication for later. He turned back to Elise. “How significant were these differences of opinion?”

  “They were power plays on his part,” she said in a dismissive tone. “Like the insistence we use the Bath Spa Hotel, which required a complete change of plans. They were efforts to throw his weight around.”

  “He got his way, in that case, it seems. Did he also get his way in other cases?”

  Elise’s lips compressed into a thin line. “A few times.”

  “And when did you see him last?”

  “This morning at the hotel. It would have been around seven or seven-thirty or so. It took much longer that it should have to get everyone sorted into rooms and the day’s assignments made. Cyrus was in a room full of people when I left,” she said, her voice triumphant. “So I know you won’t need to speak to me again.”

  “Oh, this is just a preliminary interview. I’m sure we’ll chat again. And where did you go when you left the hotel?”

  “Paul, the A.D., accompanied me to a meeting with the mayor and several city officials. When it ended, I sent Paul to make phone calls. I had some email to take care of, so I stopped off for a coffee at a little bakery for a while to work on it. Once I finished, I came here. Paul and I met up at the entrance to the Baths. Our group was to meet at noon at the Pump Room, but we arrived early so we decided we’d take a quick tour of the Baths themselves.”

  “What time did you arrive here?”

  “I don’t know. Eleven, maybe? Ask Paul. He’ll know.”

  “But it was definitely before eleven thirty?”

  “Yes, of course. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have toured the Baths.”

  “And what portion of the Baths were you in?”

  “The Great Bath.”

  “Mr. Alexander was with you?”

  “No,” she replied reluctantly. “He answered a phone call then went off to see the museum portion while I went to look at the Great Bath.”

  “Thank you, Ms. DuPont. We’ll be in touch.” Byron removed a business card from his pocket. “Please contact me if you remember anything else.”

  Elise took a few steps away. Byron turned my way and was on the verge of asking me a question when Elise realized I wasn’t with her. She stopped and jerked her head toward the exit. “Kate, let’s go. We can leave.”

  “I don’t think so,” I said.

  “You’re free to go, Ms. DuPont,” Byron said. “I have a few more questions for Ms. Sharp. She’ll be along shortly.”

  Elise’s face was a picture of unease. She didn’t want to leave me with Byron, but she’d clearly been dismissed. She finally settled for sending me a squinty warning look before she left.

  I refocused on Byron, deciding that while his manner was unassuming and quiet, not much got by him. He asked, “I gather you agree that Ms. DuPont and the victim didn’t get on?”

  “No, they didn’t.” I didn’t see the use in trying to protect Elise. She’d obviously been trying to convey caution and discretion with the warning look she’d sent me, but I didn’t see how the inspector could not discover the tension between Cyrus and Elise. It had been obvious to everyone on the scouting trip as well as everyone at the hotel. It wasn’t something that could be covered up.

  “What did they argue about?”

  “Let’s see. On the drive here they argued about the best route to take as well as details about the production. That was when they both got very upset.”

  “What were the specifics?”

  “Whether Pride and Prejudice should be included in the set of episodes we’re working on now.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

  “This is the second set of three episodes
of a documentary about Jane Austen, her books, and her life. We covered Pride and Prejudice as well as Sense and Sensibility pretty extensively in the first three episodes. Mr. Blakely wanted to include some more details about them in the next episodes, for ratings. Everyone is crazy about those books, especially about Mr. Darcy. Elise wanted to move on to new territory, the books and parts of Jane Austen’s life that we hadn’t explored yet. I know it sounds rather absurd, arguing about books written over a hundred years ago, but they were both adamant.”

  “Nothing surprises me, Ms. Sharp. Any other conflicts?”

  “Well, yes. Elise wanted Mr. Blakely to go to the meeting today, but he said he needed to…um… ‘Absorb the atmosphere of the city.’ He said it was part of his process.”

  “And why was he the director? Why would he be put on the project if there were issues between him and Ms. DuPont?”

  “I don’t know. I assume publicity had something to do with it. He’s quite well-known. It would be another way to promote the documentary. Look, I have to add that Elise doesn’t come off well, but Mr. Blakely was difficult.”

  “In what way?”

  I looked toward the dim ceiling. “It was like he wanted to irritate people. I’m not sure how much of the things he brought up he truly cared about or if he was just doing it to annoy her. He did it to everyone, actually, me included.”

  “And what did he do to irritate you?”

  I saw, too late, that I’d walked into that one. But I had nothing to hide. “He suggested my mother had relapsed back into a pain medicine addiction and that’s why I traveled back to California a few months ago. It wasn’t true. He had bad information, and I told him so.”

  Behind his glasses, Byron’s eyes, studied me intently. “That’s interesting. Thank you for telling me and not holding that back.”