Death Takes a Holiday (15 page)

Offended, Meredith crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I did
not
put that glass in the fish.”

Oscar ignored her. “I’m going to my room after I serve this,” he said
, holding up the tray. “Try not to destroy my kitchen while I’m gone.”

Meredith clamped her teeth together until the chef was safely out of earshot. “He has
the worst personality of anyone I’ve ever met.” She glanced up at Lucas standing in the doorway. “Second worse personality. Get out.”

Lucas looked at her sadly. “Merry, please, talk to me.”

“No,” Meredith said, turning her back.

Lucas slid into the small booth in the corner. “I’m not leaving until you talk to me.”

Kyle walked over to the pot on the stove. He grabbed a bowl and filled it up.

Grace
walked over to the door and stepped behind the bar. She looked up as Oscar passed by, muttering to himself about quitting and moving to the Caribbean. A few seconds later, Felicity passed by carrying a bowl of pudding. Yawning, Parker trailed behind her. She noticed Grace and smiled.

“Leaving the party so soon?” Grace asked
, scooping up a spoonful of nuts and dropping them into her hand.

Felicity nodded. “It’s boring. Everyone’s falling asleep in there,
so we decided to take the party to my room. It’s only nine thirty,” she said in exasperation as Parker yawned loudly. She turned back to Grace. “You and your friend are welcome to come join us,” Felicity said hopefully.

“Perhaps later,” Grace said politely.

Taking Parker’s hand, Felicity smiled brightly as she led him toward the sleeping cars. They moved to the side to make room for Oscar who had just walked back into the car.

Grace grinned
. “Back on the job all ready?”

Oscar didn’t answer her. With a curious expression on his face, he strode passed her and toward the lounge car.

Grace, expecting to hear the door open and the tell-tale sound of the train wheels clicking along the track, walked around the bar when she heard nothing, but silence. Oscar stood at the door staring through the window into the vestibule.

“Everything okay?” Grace asked.

He jumped at the sound of her voice. “No, everything’s not fine! No one has touched my carrot cake.” He pivoted back
around. “If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my room,” he said, striding past her and heading toward the opposite end of the car.

Shaking her head, Grace walked back into the kitchen.
As Grace passed by Meredith, she leaned in and whispered, “How well do you know Tracy Kirby, Meredith?”

“Not well. Why?”

“I was just wondering why her husband didn’t seem too concerned about her when she screamed,” she whispered.

Meredith shrugged.
“He doesn’t trust her.”

“Why?”

“I heard she likes to have affairs,” Meredith said, raising her voice as she pushed open the door. “Ask Lucas, he knows all about that.”

“She seems pleasant,” Kyle said as soon as Meredith disappeared.

“She’s not usually like that,” Lucas said sadly. “She’s upset because I’m here. We used to date.” He glanced at the door. “She’ll be coming back in here, won’t she?”

Nodding,
Grace sat next to Kyle. She poured the nuts in her hand on top of the pudding and picked up a spoon.

“Do you mind if I just sit here for a little while?”

Kyle sat opposite the other man. “I don’t think she wants to talk to you,” he said gently.

Grace opened her mouth to respond
, but was interrupted by the door flying open and Meredith rushing back in. She balled her fists on her hips. “They’re all dead.”

Grace and Kyle exchanged baffled looks.

“Come again?” Kyle asked.

“I’m getting out of here,” Meredith said, running from the room.

Lucas jumped to his feet and ran after her. Grace and Kyle quickly followed.

Meredith was already opening the connecting door to the observation car and dashing through it when they burst
through the kitchen door.

Lucas hesitated for a moment before turning and running in the opposite direction toward the lounge car.
Grace and Kyle quickly ran after him.

No one was moving or making a sound. Tracy was closest to the door. She
lay slumped over the edge of her chair. An empty cup lay at her feet.

Robert Kirby and Asa Wellington were still sitting at the game table.
Wellington hadn’t moved since Grace last saw him. He was still sitting in his chair with his chin resting on his chest, not moving. Robert Kirby, on the other hand, sat in the opposite chair with his head resting in a bowl of pudding, also not moving.

Lucas ran to his brother. He bent over him, gently lifting his head out of the
bowl.

Grace grabbed Kyle’s arm and pointed to the love seat in the corner of the
car. Steve was slumped over the end of the sofa. Sara lay next to him with her head propped up against his back.

Kyle ran over to the sofa and gently picked up one of Steve’s arms. He pressed his fingers against Steve’s wrist and breathed a sigh of relief. “His heart is still beating.” He pulled Steve’s
eyelid back. “I think he’s been drugged.”

Just then Sara lifted her head. She muttered something unintelligible and looked sleepily around before dropping her head back down on Steve’s back.

Hearing a s
trangled cry from behind them, they turned to see Lucas dropped Robert’s head and back away from his brother. He pressed his hand to his mouth.

“Lucas?”
Kyle asked.

Lucas shook his head and ran from the car.

Grace exchanged a concerned glance with Kyle. They quickly walked up to the game table. Grace laid a hand against Robert’s head, lifting it back out of the pudding, while Kyle grabbed Robert’s shoulders and pulled him back. “Is he still breathing?” Grace asked, wiping the chocolate off his face.

Kyle grabbed her hand. “Don’t bother,” he said
, pointing to Robert Kirby’s chest.

Grace sucked in a breath. A knife was embedded in the man’s chest.
A piece of paper was pinned under the knife. It appeared to be a nursery rhyme. “
What Killed Cock Robin
?” Grace read out loud. “I never heard of that rhyme.”

“Sure you have. It was the sparrow with a bow and arrow.” Kyle gently laid the man back across the table.

Grace looked over at Wellington. Another nursery rhyme lay in front of him. “
Little Boy Blue
,” she read out loud. “Blood’s covering the rest of the rhyme. That’s about a drummer, isn’t it?”

Kyle looked at her curiously. “It’s about a sleeping shepherd.” He reached out and shook the older man gently.

Asa Wellington snorted suddenly. He raised his head and sleepily looked around. “Game over?”

CHAPTER
twelve

Henry leaned
closer
to Wellington. Quietly, he whispered, “Oscar won’t come out. He’s afraid.”

Nodding,
Wellington looked around the room. “We’re missing someone else. Where’s Meredith Mallory?”

“She’s refusing to leave her room, too.”
Wellington lifted an eyebrow and stared at Henry until the conductor held up his hands. “I’ll talk to them,” he said before walking out of the observation car.

Wellington walked to the other end of the car and turned around. Every eye followed him. They sat at the edges of their seat and waited patiently for the detective to
begin his investigation. So far, Wellington had not disappointed them.

When he had finally been roused, Wellington had quickly taken command of the situation. In fact, there had been no question of who was in charge. No discussion. Not even a debate.
After all, Wellington was a professional with years of experience behind him. It was decided by all that if anyone could figure out what was going on, he could.

Within minutes of awakening, Wellington had ordered all the passengers and staff into the observation car, while he notified the local authorities and locked the lounge car down. He now stood at one end of the observation car with his hands tightly clasped behind his back. His back ridged, he stared down at everyone seated in one of the chairs or the leather sofas.

No, there was no question about who was in charge. It only made sense.

Placing her hands behind her, Grace gripped the railing in front of the windows and leaned back. She rolled her shoulders, trying to release some of the tension that had been building in her body since finding the death threat earlier in the day
. She had to admit she had been slightly worried about the detective. He seemed more like a kindly absent-minded professor than a tough as nails private eye. Of course that could have been an act. He didn’t look very absent-minded now. Now, he appeared strong and in control. He appeared to be in his element, Grace thought, as he looked at each person with a gleam in his eye.

Wellington
held his hands up and addressed everyone in the car. His voice, which had been relatively quiet and monotone when ordering soup before dinner, now loudly reverberated off the glass windows of the car. “We’ll be at the station in less than twelve hours. I need everyone’s cooperation until then.”

Steve
unsteadily jumped up from his seat and stood at attention. “Absolutely, Mr. Wellington,” he slurred slightly, obviously still feeling the affects of the drug. “Can I just say it’s an honor to be working with you again?”

Wellington
waved Steve’s gushing enthusiasm away. “Yes, of course.” He patted Steve on the shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Grace smiled at Steve’s beaming face
. She had never seen the man look so happy before or Kyle look so annoyed, she thought, watching Kyle’s normally handsome features twist into a scowl.

Wellington
looked down at Kyle seated in one of the observation car’s comfortable recliners. He held out a hand. “And you’re—”

“
My apprentice,” Steve interrupted proudly. “I’m teaching him everything I know.”

Kyle’s scowl deepened.

Steve looked down at his feet embarrassed. “That is, everything I learned from you, Mr. Wellington.”

“Ah, excellent,”
Wellington said. “Excellent. You two will be a great help.”

“Absolutely,” Steve said enthusiastically.

“Wonderful,” Kyle said a little less enthusiastically.

Felicity
held Tracy in her arms, gently rocking her back and forth. Parker sat on Tracy’s other side on the sofa, staring out the window. The racking sobs had finally subsided and Tracy now appeared numb. She just stared straight ahead with her head perched on Felicity’s shoulder. “We need to take Robert’s body into the other room,” she said softly. “We can’t leave him like that.”

Wellington
leaned forward. He gently took Tracy’s hand in his own. “That’s not a good idea, right now.”

Tracy snapped her head up. “What happened
, Asa? You were right there. Why didn’t you stop this?”

Wellington
shook his head slightly. “I was unconscious the same as everyone else. I’m still feeling the affects of the drug even as we speak, but never mind that now, we need to investigate. Someone murdered your husband and—”

Lucas
stopped pacing and whirled around. “We all know who killed Robbie!” All eyes turned to him. “Jack!” he said in exasperation.

Tracy rubbed her eyes. Lifting her
head off of Felicity’s shoulder, she stood and looked toward the sleeping car. “Where is he? Why hasn’t anyone found him yet?” she asked slightly swaying.

Wellington
took her elbow and led her to a chair. “We will.”

“We don’t know that it was Jack,”
Felicity pointed out.

Lucas
looked at her in disbelief. He pointed toward the lounge car. “Those rhymes prove it was Jack. Who knows how long he’s been planning to trap us here.”

With difficulty,
Sara sat up. “He must be hiding. We need to search the train,” she said before slowly sinking back down in her chair and closing her eyes.

Feeling an overwhelming need to be near Kyle,
Grace pushed herself away from the window and sat down on the armrest of his chair. She felt his hand curve around her waist. “Why would this Jack Horner want to kill Robert? And what’s with the nursery rhymes?”

The old detective placed his hands behind his back.
“Jack Horner is a disturbed young man,” he said in his scholarly voice. “Pathological.”

“He almost killed Tracy
last year,” Lucas added.

“It was a
n accident, Lucas,” Tracy said numbly.

Lucas snorted. “
Yeah, he accidentally knocked over a candle on the drapes that had accidentally been doused with gasoline.”

Tracy pursed her lips together
, but didn’t deny Lucas’ statement.

“Was Jack arrested?” Kyle asked.

“No, Victor didn’t want anyone to know,” Wellington said with a shake of his head. “Family pride.”

Lucas rolled his eyes. “He had no trouble calling the police on me that time I stole his precious truck.”

Turning back to Grace, Wellington said, “Victor Kirby decided it was time to petition the courts for guardianship and have Jack committed. He had just started putting things in motion when he died. With Victor gone, it was up to Robert to look after Jack. Robert managed to have him committed three weeks later.”

“That seems awfully quick,” Grace said.

“Robbie went to college with the judge. He owed Robbie a favor,” Lucas explained. He fell into the nearest chair, swinging his legs up and over the armrest. “Jack went wild. He told Robbie that he would get him for this.”

“And the nursery rhymes?” Grace asked.

“He’s obsessed with nursery rhymes. It didn’t use to be so bad, but now . . . ,” Lucas said with a slight shiver.

Kyle leaned
over and whispered in her ear. “It’s probably because of his name,” he explained. “You know,
Little Jack Horner
. He sat in a corner eating Christmas pie.”

“Wh
at?” Grace looked at Kyle in confusion.

“
Didn’t your parents read any nursery rhymes to you when you were little?”

“I’m sorry
, but the TV was responsible for my education,” she whispered back. She turned to address Wellington. “Did Jack admit to setting the fire?”

“
After a detailed investigation,” he said, glancing over at Steve, “we determined it was Mr. Horner. Several witnesses had seen him running from the building at the time. We also found some evidence of the crime in his room.”

Grace caught Steve softly shaking his head. She waited for him to say something, surprised when he didn’t.

“Oh, nonsense,” Felicity said with a sniff. “Jack didn’t set that fire. He absolutely adores me. He would never do anything to hurt me.”

“Is this the same fire that almost killed Tracy?”
Kyle asked.

Nodding, Tracy pulled her sleeve down self-consciously.

Grace asked. “How many people were in the guest house at the time?”

“I wasn’t there,” Lucas said quickly.
“I was sleeping.”

Tracy looked at him in annoyance. “Just me. I couldn’t sleep in the main house, so I went over to the guest house. I was just climbing into one of the beds when the smoke alarm went off.”

Lucas nodded. “I could hear the alarm from my room and by the time I ran downstairs and out to the guest house the whole thing was on fire.” He looked over at Tracy. “I could hear Tracy screaming, so I ran inside and that’s when I ran into Jack.”

“
But you think the fire was set to kill you?” Grace asked Felicity.

“
No one knew Tracy was in there,” Felicity said. “It was definitely me they were after.”

“Where you staying in the guest house?” Grace asked.

Felicity shook her head. “I was in the main house trying to sleep when I heard a noise coming from downstairs. I thought it was Parker so I went downstairs to talk to him, but when I got to the kitchen, I found the back door wide open. That’s when I saw smoke coming from the guest house, but before I could react, someone hit me on the head. Next thing I knew I was in the guest house and there were flames everywhere.” Felicity
shuddered. “I’m telling you, it couldn’t have been Jack. Jack loves me.”

“I
saw him run away, Felicity,” Lucas said.

Felicity’s
sour expression telegraphed her thoughts on that matter quite clearly. “Anyway, I pulled myself up and crawled to the back door. Luckily, Parker found me and carried me out.”

“I’m not the only one
who saw Jack,” Lucas said petulantly. “Father saw him run away, too.”

“Oh, well it must be true then,” Felicity said sarcastically.

Lucas pointed to Steve. “He saw him, too.”

Surprised, Grace and Kyle turned to Steve. “You were there that night?” Grace asked.

Steve nodded reluctantly. “I woke up and looked out the window just as Jack ran out of the guest house. We found several gas cans in his room the next day.”

“I don’t care what you found.” Felicity
looked at Parker. “What do you think?”

“How
should I know?” Parker asked in annoyance. “I was freezing to death trying to dig a shallow grave in sub-zero temperatures that night.”

Grace leaned forward wondering if she had heard correctly. She glanced around at everyone’s faces. Only Kyle looked as shocked as she felt.

Felicity simply rolled her eyes. “Anyway, Jack isn’t a danger to anyone.” She nervously played with her bracelets. “Poor thing is probably scared to death.” She turned to Parker. “He’s probably hiding back there somewhere. Go find him.”

Looking like he’d rather do anything else, Parker rose slowly.

Wellington held out his hand. “That—”

Parker quickly sat back down.

“—won’t be necessary,” Wellington finished lamely. He cleared his throat. “Let’s wait until the conductor returns.”

“I’m sorry,” Grace interrupted,
unable to let Parker’s statement go so easily. “Could we go back to the shallow grave part?”

“Research for a book, s
weetie,” Felicity said innocently. “I wanted to know if my killer could dig a grave in that kind of weather without losing a toe to frostbite or something.” She turned to glare at her assistant. “I never found out whether he could or not.”

Lucas who had begun frantic
ly pacing again suddenly turned around. “Why are we all standing here talking? We should be searching the train.”

“We will, Mr. Kirby. But there is no hurry. Un
til this train stops there’s nowhere Mr. Horner can go,” Wellington said. “But rest assured, we will find him.” Wellington looked up as Henry entered the observation car. Meredith trailed behind him. She sat in the nearest chair and swiveled it around until she was no longer facing the others.

“Well?”
Wellington asked.

Henry shook his head. “Jack Horner is not on this train.
I’ve looked everywhere, there’s no sign of him.”

Wellington
raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment. “What about the chef?” he asked Henry. “Did you convince him to come out of his room?”

“He wouldn’t answer his door.”

“You didn’t search his room?” Grace asked.

Henry
rubbed a hand across his mustache. “I’m sure if this Jack Horner was in Oscar’s room, Oscar would let us know.”

Wellington
stared at Henry for an excruciatingly long time. Clearly uncomfortable under Wellington’s scrutiny, Henry turned away. “I don’t understand why everyone is so certain this Jack Horner is on this train. He certainly wasn’t on my passenger list.”