Secrets of Hallstead House

by Amy M. Reade

  Stephan and Brandt, like Will, were dressed in suits. The conservative image Brandt portrayed contrasted starkly with Giselle’s very sexy appearance.

  Will poured a small glass of wine for Alex, then a scotch on the rocks for himself, leaving me to pour my own wine from the decanter on the bar. Alex walked to Stephan’s side and stood listening to his conversation with Brandt. They were discussing a river preservation project and Alex seemed very interested in the topic. I listened quietly, somewhat outside of the group. Giselle, who had placed her hand on Brandt’s arm, was talking and laughing quietly with Will, who was openly flirting with her. I imagined that a woman with Giselle’s obvious physical charms would be very attractive to a man like Will, and I found myself wondering what Brandt saw in Giselle, besides the obvious.

  It wasn’t long before Pete joined us. He arrived looking decidedly uncomfortable in crisp tan slacks and a sport coat. Bypassing the bar, he walked over to where I was standing, fingering the knot of his tie nervously. He noticed my necklace immediately and raised his eyebrows in surprise.

  “I recognize that,” he said by way of greeting, gesturing at the necklace. “Forrest and Alex gave that to Diana years ago.”

  “Yes. Alex wanted me to wear it tonight.” I chuckled. “I guess my neck must have looked naked without it.”

  Pete and I stood a little way off while the conversation about the river project grew more animated. I suspected that Pete had an opinion about it but didn’t care to share it with this group. Will had joined in, and Giselle was not speaking but was nodding in agreement whenever anyone spoke.

  Vali and Leland came in then, each bearing a beautiful silver tray of hors d’oeuvres. Alex had apparently decided not to have this dinner catered. Vali actually looked nice; she was dressed in a long, flowing, dark-gray skirt and a soft, light-gray silk blouse. Her limp hair was drawn up on the sides in tortoiseshell combs.

  Pete was explaining to me the controversy over the project that everyone else was discussing when Giselle walked by us to refill her wineglass. Her eyes drifted over my dress and settled for a second on my necklace. It was clear that she recognized it instantly. Her eyes met mine for a brief instant, flashing disbelief and malice.

  What was it about this necklace? Had Alex known that everyone would recognize it?

  Giselle poured her wine with an obviously unsteady hand, then started to place the crystal decanter back on the bar. As she did so, she knocked the side of the decanter against the bar’s marble top. A split second later, the decanter shattered into a thousand pieces on the floor and the wine sloshed down the side of the bar. Giselle jumped back in time to avoid getting any wine on her outfit.

  Brandt ran over to her immediately. “Are you all right?” he asked with concern.

  She looked at him with doe-like eyes and replied, “Yes, darling. I’m fine.”

  Brandt gently took Giselle by the elbow and held her to him for a second, whispering as he did so, “I think you’d better lay off the wine for a while, honey.” No one else was standing close enough to hear them, and I pretended not to hear, either.

  Giselle glanced at him, then turned to Alex, saying, “Alex, I’m so sorry.”

  “That’s perfectly all right, Giselle,” she answered kindly. She walked to the door of the kitchen and called for Vali, who appeared just a moment later. Alex explained quietly what was needed, Vali fetched a cloth and dustpan, and the glass and wine were wiped up in a matter of seconds.

  It wasn’t long before Vali announced that dinner would be served. As she turned to go back to the kitchen, she also noticed my necklace. She did a double take, making her interest obvious, but I ignored her and I didn’t know whether anyone else saw her. I was becoming uncomfortable wearing such a conspicuous piece of jewelry. If I had known how people were going to react to its presence around my neck, I would have refused Alex’s suggestion to wear it. I began to wonder whether she had asked me to wear the necklace purposely to get a reaction out of a particular partygoer, but if that was her intention, it didn’t seem to work. Everyone had recognized it and everyone had shown some sort of reaction to it. Everyone, that is, except for Stephan, who hadn’t noticed it yet. I could tell that he noticed it later during dinner but, true to his character, he gave no indication that he had seen it at all.

  Dinner was lively and Vali produced a masterpiece. Her leek soup had a delicate earthy flavor and was followed by a grapefruit sorbet. After that, she brought in a crown roast of pork, which was a work of art. I truly envied her ability to cook and wondered how a person with such a shockingly gruff manner could produce such excellent cuisine.

  During dinner Alex proposed a toast to Stephan and Will for closing the transaction that the three of them had worked so hard to complete. They both saluted her with their glasses and she accepted gracefully. Brandt raised his glass as well, and I noticed that Giselle raised a glass of water in salute, rolling her eyes as she did so. I also noticed that she never let go of Brandt’s hand throughout the entire meal. The two of them were like teenagers experiencing puppy love.

  Alex had requested that dessert be held for a short time. While we waited, the talk around the table ranged from the oil business to the weather to the move to Pine Island to local politics. Vali came in at one point to refill everyone’s wineglasses. With the wine flowing and people talking all at once, it seemed almost festive in the dining room. One could almost forget that Alex had an ulterior motive in bringing the members of this group together. And when Vali brought out a dacquoise for dessert, all talk turned immediately to her fine culinary skills. Vali was clearly proud of herself, and she rightly deserved all the praise she received. She moved quietly among the guests, filling coffee cups and topping them off with brandy or liqueur. Dinner and dessert lasted well into the evening. Alex seemed to enjoy herself, though nothing else of note had happened. It was getting late when she finally excused herself from the table, bidding us a good evening. She was tired, she said, and ready to go to bed. Pete and I accompanied her to her sitting room, where she bid us good night again. Before we left her, I unclasped the necklace and gave it back to her with a sense of relief. I was glad to have it off my neck. Then I walked with Pete to the front door. He kissed me tenderly.

  “You are beautiful,” he told me, his lips against my hair. But there was something else he wanted to say. “Listen, ignore all the looks you got about the necklace,” he advised, reaching for my hand. “Everyone in there knew that it belonged to Diana, and they hadn’t seen it since before she drowned. That’s why they were all so surprised.”

  I thanked him for the explanation, though I still wondered why Alex had lent me that particular necklace. She had to have known it would elicit some kind of reaction.

  I said good night to Pete, who was dying to get out of his stuffy and uncomfortable clothes, and went upstairs to my room. I could hear Stephan, Will, Brandt, and Giselle still talking in the dining room, but I had no desire to join them. I doubted that Brandt and Giselle would be taking a boat back to Cape Cartier tonight; they were probably staying in Summerplace or over at Vali and Leland’s cottage.

  I slept soundly that night but woke up very early the next morning. It was too early to check in on Alex, so I did something that I had wanted to do since the previous night. After I showered and dressed, I went downstairs to the living room. Faint light was just beginning to creep into the sky, and the room was still quite dark. I switched on a small lamp and turned toward the object I had come to see.

  CHAPTER 13

  It took a moment to sink in. I stood staring, astonished, at the grisly portrait before me. It was the portrait that Alex had painted of Diana on her eighteenth birthday, the one in which she wore the necklace that I’d worn the night before. But this was not the same portrait I had seen my first day here. There was no face in this picture. It had been cut out, a jagged gash where Diana’s smiling countenance had once been.

  And suddenly I was afraid.

  There was a distur
bing violence underlying the damage to the picture. At the party I had assumed that the necklace had affected everyone the same way; they were merely surprised. But now I knew differently. Now I knew with chilling certainty that someone had been compelled to commit this macabre act as a result of seeing Diana’s necklace encircling my throat.

  I fairly flew out of the living room now, taking the portrait with me. I didn’t want to run into anyone while I was alone, so I went up to my room until I heard people moving about downstairs. I left the portrait inside my armoire; I didn’t want Alex to see it.

  When I went downstairs, I found Brandt eating breakfast and reading a newspaper in the dining room. Stephan and Will had already left for New York for a few days, he said, and Giselle had gotten a ride with them to Cape Cartier so she wouldn’t be late for work.

  “Do you work today?” I asked him.

  “Yes, but I don’t go in for a little while,” he answered.

  I went into the kitchen to fix myself something to eat. Vali was in there, and her relatively good mood of the previous night had disappeared, at least toward me. She didn’t acknowledge me as I fixed a bowl of cereal, tea, and a grapefruit. I carried my food back into the dining room and sat down opposite Brandt.

  “Did you enjoy the dinner party?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Yes, I did. I was a little worried that Alex wasn’t up for it, but she seemed to hold up very well. The role of hostess agrees with her.”

  “You’re right.” He paused. “I noticed the necklace you were wearing last night. It used to belong to Diana.”

  “You weren’t the only one who noticed it,” I said ruefully. “Everyone seemed surprised to see it on me.”

  “Did Alex give it to you?”

  “No. She lent it to me to give some flair to my outfit. I wouldn’t have worn it if I had known it would cause such a stir.”

  “What kind of stir?”

  “Well, I saw more than surprise on some faces last night. I saw shock. I wasn’t prepared for it.”

  Brandt frowned but politely did not ask who had exhibited such a reaction to the necklace, and I did not volunteer the information. Instead, I changed the subject. I needed to ask him about the conversation he had had with Forrest before Forrest’s death.

  “Brandt, Pete tells me that you and Forrest had a rather unpleasant conversation shortly before Forrest died.”

  Brandt thought for a moment before answering. “Yes, actually, we did—”

  Alex appeared in the doorway to the dining room just then, looking as though she had just awoken. Her hair still hung down her back, and she was dressed in a nightgown and robe. Her eyes were moist from crying. I rose quickly and went to her.

  “Alex, what’s the matter?” I asked in alarm.

  “The necklace . . . it’s . . . it’s . . . gone,” she stammered.

  “What?!” Brandt and I cried out simultaneously.

  She nodded. “It’s gone. I’ve looked everywhere. I put it on top of my bureau last night. I was so tired, and I figured I would replace it in my jewel case this morning. But when I woke up, it wasn’t where I left it.” Tears rolled down her soft, wrinkled cheeks.

  Instinctively, I knew that Alex was right. The necklace was gone. But instead I said, “Maybe the necklace fell under the bureau. Would you like me to come look?”

  “You can look again, but I tried to look under it and I didn’t see anything. What do you think happened to it?”

  Brandt and I exchanged looks. “I don’t know,” I answered.

  “Would you like me to help?” he offered.

  “Thanks, Brandt. I’ll help her. That way you can get home and get ready for work,” I replied.

  I followed Alex through the living room and into her suite. Thankfully, she was so focused on the loss of the necklace that she didn’t seem to notice that her daughter’s portrait was missing from the living room. It helped that the room was still rather dark during the early morning.

  She led me into her bedroom and walked directly to the bureau.

  “This is where I put it when I went to sleep last night,” she stated. I got down on my hands and knees and peered under the dresser. Nothing. I slid my arm underneath it and felt around and back against the wall. Nothing. I stood up slowly.

  “Alex, you were exhausted when you went to bed last night. Is it possible that you put it somewhere else and just don’t remember?”

  She shook her head. “I know I put it right there on that bureau,” she insisted. “But we can look around if you think that would help.”

  “Why don’t we?” I suggested. “Maybe it’ll turn up. I’ll start looking while you dress and eat breakfast, if you’d like.”

  She shook her head again. “I can’t eat right now. I’m too upset. I’ll get dressed, though.”

  While Alex dressed, I looked for the necklace in her sitting room. Though I searched the entire room, under cushions and behind furniture and inside drawers, I didn’t find the necklace. After Alex was dressed, I did a methodical search of her bedroom while she started looking in her office. Neither of us had any luck. Finally, as I helped her look through her office, I asked, “Did you lock your doors from the inside after I left you last night?”

  I knew the answer before I asked the question.

  “No. I forgot. I was so tired . . .” Her voice trailed off; then she looked at me intently, her eyes wide. “Do you think it’s been stolen?”

  I nodded grimly. “I’m afraid it’s starting to look that way.”

  “But why would someone do that?”

  I had no answer for that. But I had another question.

  “Alex, what did you hope to learn from my wearing that necklace last night?”

  She sighed and sat down slowly at her desk. “You know why I had that dinner party, Macy. Of course I told everyone I wanted to celebrate the closing of our transaction, but that wasn’t the real reason. I wanted to flush out the person or people who killed Diana and Forrest.”

  She paused for a moment. “I thought that if you wore that necklace, it just might spook someone into revealing something.”

  “The only reaction was surprise, and everybody showed that,” I told her.

  She nodded ruefully. “I know. I feel like we’re back to square one. How are we going to figure out what happened to my husband and daughter?”

  “I honestly don’t know. But we’ll think of something.”

  She looked like she had aged overnight, and I knew she was tired and scared. I changed the subject. “Let’s concentrate on something else for now. First of all, we have to work on your exercises this morning. Second, it won’t be long before you move this household to Pine Island. Would you like me to do some more packing today?”

  Alex thought for a moment. “Why don’t you go down to the boathouse and find Pete? He and Leland can start taking my clothes and books and art supplies over today. They know where everything goes at Solstice. If you accompany them, they can tell you where to start putting things. That would be a big help. And we’ll exercise after you’ve found Pete.”

  “Okay.” I smiled.

  Minutes later, I was making my way through the trees to the boathouse. The brisk walk helped to clear my mind, and I wished that Alex could travel this path more easily, because she could use the same rejuvenation. I breathed deeply of the clean, crisp air perfumed by pine needles. I could hear the insistent honking of the ever-present geese, though they were invisible above the trees. Closer to me, there were birds chirping loudly in the woods. I hoped they would pack up and move soon too.

  When I got to the boathouse, Pete was already outside. He heard me coming and turned to wave to me.

  “What are you doing down here so early?”

  “Hi. Alex asked me to find you. She wants you and Leland to start taking some of her personal things over to Solstice today.”

  “Sounds good to me. It’s about time she started to move her things over there. It won’t be long before everyone has to move. Does she
want me to come up to the house?”

  “Yes.”

  “Coffee first?”

  “No, thanks. I’ve already had my caffeine this morning. But I’ll sit with you while you have yours.”

  We climbed the stairs to his kitchen, where there was a small pot of coffee already brewed. He poured himself a big mug. “I’m going to need this after that dinner last night. I’m not good at staying out that late.” He winked. “How’s Alex this morning?”

  “Not good. Diana’s necklace is gone.”

  He looked at me with surprise. “But you gave it to her when she went to bed last night.”

  “I know. But it was missing this morning. We’ve turned her rooms upside down looking for it, but it’s vanished.”

  “It has to be around somewhere.”

  “I’m not so sure. She didn’t lock her doors last night when she went to sleep. Anyone could have gone into her bedroom and taken it.”

  “Do you think that’s what happened?”

  “I’m sure of it. She was exhausted last night. If someone had gone in there in the middle of the night looking for the necklace, she would have slept right through it. The problem is that everyone was around last night, so it could have been anybody. Thank goodness she wasn’t harmed.”

  Pete shook his head. “Poor Alex. What else can go wrong?”

  “There is something else,” I said.

  He looked at me in surprise. “What?”

  “This morning I woke up earlier than usual. I got to thinking about that necklace and where I had seen it before. Diana was wearing it in a portrait that was in the living room.”

  “Yes. I’ve seen that portrait.”

  “I wanted to have a look at it, so I went down to the living room. No one else was around yet. When I found the portrait, someone had slashed out Diana’s face. It’s absolutely grotesque.”