Devil's Breath
Page 26
“So on the night of the murder, he—having full access via Delphine to every drug going on that ship—doctored Addy’s drink. Margot, already three sheets to the wind, scooped up the glass and knocked back the contents, to his initial horror. That was not how this was supposed to go down. He followed Margot out onto the deck, where she had collapsed into a deck chair. ‘Dead to the world,’ as he told us. The combination of so much alcohol with the drugs was deadly. He decided he had to hide the body with its telltale stomach contents, and the time-honored method was at hand: to send her overboard. Making sure she was dead first.
“He probably could have managed everything himself but his wife came along just then, and together they made short work of things. It’s rather chilling, when you think about it. With no more thought than a sort of, ‘Oh, dear, we’ve killed the wrong one,’ they got rid of the body and swanned off to think again how to get rid of Addy. But then poor Maurice had to be dealt with first. Maurice, who knew too much.”
“Of course,” put in Cotton, “Addy remained the primary threat. He knew everything or was well on his way to uncovering everything. He just didn’t recognize the significance of what he was turning up. But worse, as far as Axelrod was concerned, he was writing about what he knew—always scribbling in his Moleskine or banging away on his laptop, as his wife told Max. Addy may not have been motivated by greed—probably he was not. There was money to be made by his tale, but he had money. The fact he was a real-live baron—that may have been too good to keep to himself, American or no. He certainly could not write his book without mentioning who he was, who his father was, and the whole story of his parents’ meeting and secret marriage. Addy had to be silenced, and as soon as the police let everyone go, that is what would have happened. A little accident, a car driven off a cliff into the ocean when the brakes failed, whatever could be arranged. Within a week or so, a month or so—before he finished his book, Addy had to be eliminated. More breath of the devil.”
“He confessed—the fake baron, I mean? Axelrod?”
“As good as. Once his wife learned that he’d tossed her into it—we never would have known of her help that night without his telling us—she became most helpful. Just an unstoppable flow of information. It is likely we will look the other way when it comes to a thorough review of her role in the scheme. Just so long as she continues to tell us every detail, she’ll get off lightly in this.”
“Oh, my God,” said Patrice.
“Yes, it’s distressing, but it’s for the best. In the interests of justice, we—”
“I don’t mean that. I mean ‘Oh, my God, the baby’s on the way.’ Call the midwife, will you?”
* * *
In fact two midwifes from the local catchment area arrived, both young women bristling with a starchy, calm efficiency, like nurses from the Crimean War. With their takeover of the scene, there was nothing more for Max to do. He gave Patrice’s hand a squeeze and took himself off to notify Addy of the danger having passed. Then he put in a call to Awena. As usual, she had been right, about the eggs and a few other things. Right in her rather sideways, amorphous, piercing-the-veil way, but right nonetheless. How he missed her. He would be home the next day, he promised. Just a few loose ends.
Patrice? Oh, Patrice was fine. Baby on the way now. All was well. Cotton was staying at her side for moral support.
“Cotton?”
“Yes. I’ll explain later.”
Max looked back on the sort of comfortable, collegial familiarity Cotton and Patrice seemed to have established early in the investigation, before Max himself came on board, and found he was not surprised at the way events had unfolded.
Cotton had in fact insisted on staying with Patrice, a choice that would have astonished anyone but Max, who had taken a moment to savor the comic beauty of Cotton’s helpless panic. He had stood literally wringing his hands, hoping someone would ask him to boil water or wrap bandages or find a clean newspaper or do something useful. But there he stood, seemingly rooted to the spot—a reaction that spoke volumes, a reaction familiar to Max from the day his son Owen had been born. That churning fear had something—everything—to do with love.
The midwives, finally understanding that Cotton was not the father, tried to shoo him from the room, particularly as he was, for all intents and purposes, useless. He countered by holding up his warrant card, only to be told he held no sway in these matters. They did not care that he was a DCI. He was a civilian and in the way as far as they were concerned.
It was Patrice who finally intervened and persuaded the women to relent.
“Let him stay,” she said. “There’s no one on earth I’d rather have with me now.”
Chapter 35
IT’S A WRAP
If this were the close of one of his films, Romero Farnier might tack on a series of photos before rolling the end credits, so audiences could learn what happened next in the lives of the key players. This he found to be a particularly useful story-telling device in the case of historical dramas, to show viewers what fate had in store for the real-life principals.
Romero himself went on to be an auteur, and to make the sort of art-house film he had always longed to create: films with subtitles produced in snowy places like Sweden and Iceland. These efforts are generally panned by the critics, who have dubbed Romero the Woody Allen of Scandinavia, but Romero shrugs that aside, for he is content. Whenever he needs extra cash to fund his experimental films, he spends a year directing the sort of spectacle that made him famous. He sold the Calypso Facto to fund his most recent effort, the title of which can be translated as A Long Story of Nothing. He recently gave his daughter’s hand in marriage to a film grip. Romero never learned the truth of Frances’s origins.
A frequent collaborator on films with Romero is Addy Phelps, now a world-renowned Academy Award–winning screenwriter. He spends most of each year living in a French farmhouse in Provence. He seldom uses his title except to get better reservations in London restaurants.
Sometimes appearing in Romero’s films is Jake Larsson, originally cast because of his Swedish last name and because he was willing to dye his hair blond for the role. But because of his scene-stealing role in Attilius Jake developed a large Twitter following, and finds himself in demand for the sort of toga dramas Romero now eschews.
Tina Calvert likewise enjoyed a brush with fame after appearing in an interstellar film shot in Australia, a role Romero had found for her. She played Talisman Dragol of Planet Minerva 6 and she is currently married to a stunt double (Chad Briggs/Lurgo Zalzebana) from that film. Her publicist has announced her next role will be to star in a biopic of Margot Browne, for which Addy Phelps declined to write the screenplay.
Maurice Brandon’s partner, Frank, moved to a vineyard north of San Francisco, where he sells wine from an award-winning vineyard, and is collaborating on a new varietal with Francis Ford Coppola. Margot’s body was laid to rest near Maurice’s on a sunny hilltop overlooking the vineyard. Romero, Frances, and Addy attended the services.
Captain Smith continues to ply the waters of the English Channel and the North Sea as a captain-for-hire of private yachts. He has no fixed abode and has often expressed the wish to be buried at sea.
Former sous-chef Angel Torres owns a restaurant and bakery in New York City called Angelcake. He is happily married to an immigration attorney, and has sworn he will never again board a ship.
Of course a sad fate was reserved for Axelrod, formerly known as Baron Sieben-Kuchen-Bäcker. While Great Britain has no death penalty, it does offer a life sentence to murderers, and many of Axelrod’s former acquaintances felt he would have preferred the death penalty to a life spent among what he always referred to as lowlifes. For a short while he shared a prison yard with Zaki Zafour, awaiting trial for his role in conveying and dealing Class A drugs. Sadly, or not, Zaki was the victim of a prison riot not long after Axelrod was transferred to a larger but safer prison near London.
The fate of Axelrod’s wife,
Emma, no longer allowed to style herself the Baroness Sieben-Kuchen-Bäcker, is nearly as tragic as her husband’s, for once Emma’s role in disposing of the body of Margot Browne became known, as well as the cover-up to the crime that followed, her life on the royal circuit came to an abrupt end. Penniless, she became a buyer for a women’s fashion boutique in London, and spends her days being condescended to by society women as they select their frocks and accessories for evening wear. She divorced her husband, whom she never visited in prison, anyway.
Delphine could have told the pseudo-baroness that what goes round comes round. After being sentenced to prison for her role in drug smuggling, Delphine turned to religion, eventually becoming an ordained priest of the Anglican church and an advocate for prison reform. She has made many converts to the faith.
Hazel and Beatrice, former employees of the Grand Imperial Hotel, pooled their resources and opened a fish-and-chips shop in Monkslip-super-Mare. It is called the Sign of the Whale and is frequently mentioned in travel guides as a locals’ favorite.
DCI Cotton and Patrice Logan share a home in Monkslip-super-Mare with their daughter, Alexis, whom Cotton has officially adopted. They are frequent customers of the Whale, where a great fuss is made over Alexis and her extravagant ringlets.
Max Tudor has resumed his rightful place in the village of Nether Monkslip, with Awena and Owen at his side. But before long he will become embroiled in solving a case of murder at nearby Wooton Priory. Max and his bishop wonder where it all will end.
ALSO BY G. M. MALLIET
The Haunted Season
A Demon Summer
Pagan Spring
A Fatal Winter
Wicked Autumn
Death at the Alma Mater
Death and the Lit Chick
Death of a Cozy Writer
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
G. M. Malliet’s Death of a Cozy Writer received the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and was named one of the best books of 2008 by Kirkus Reviews. It went on to earn Anthony and Macavity nominations. The first books in the Max Tudor series—Wicked Autumn, A Fatal Winter, Pagan Spring, and A Demon Summer—also were nominated for the Agatha Award. She and her husband live in the Washington, D.C., area and travel frequently to the UK, the setting for her books. Visit her at GMMalliet.com, or sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Map
Author’s Note
Cast of Characters
Epigraph
PART I: ALL AT SEA
Chapter 1. An Actor’s Life
Chapter 2. Everything’s Jake
Chapter 3. Take Two
Chapter 4. Tiny Dancer
Chapter 5. Warrior Pose
Chapter 6. Maurice
Chapter 7. Noblesse Oblige
Chapter 8. In So Many Words
PART II: ASHORE
Chapter 9. Fame
Chapter 10. Max Tudor, Front and Center
Chapter 11. George Greenhouse
Chapter 12. Team Players
Chapter 13. Drowning
Chapter 14. Pirates
Chapter 15. Maurice, Act II
Chapter 16. Romero
Chapter 17. Jake, Act II
Chapter 18. The Baron and the Baroness
Chapter 19. Tina and Co.
Chapter 20. O Captain!
Chapter 21. A Room of One’s Own
Chapter 22. No Angel
Chapter 23. Lyre, Lyre
Chapter 24. Suspicion
Chapter 25. There’s No Business like Show Business
Chapter 26. Delphine
Chapter 27. A Poor Player
Chapter 28. Devil’s Breath
Chapter 29. We Are Family
Chapter 30. Clarice
Chapter 31. House of Horrors
Chapter 32. Water Everywhere
Chapter 33. Holloway
Chapter 34. Denouement
Chapter 35. It’s a Wrap
Also By G. M. Malliet
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
A THOMAS DUNNE BOOK FOR MINOTAUR BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.
DEVIL’S BREATH. Copyright © 2017 by G. M. Malliet. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
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Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein
Cover photographs: rocky sea © Evelina Kremsdorf/Arcangel; house © CapeScape/Shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-09278-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-09279-3 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781250092793
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First Edition: April 2017