English Trifle (4 page)

Sadie nodded, turning away from the idea that making their flight was even a possibility. Together they went to the door and Sadie pulled it open slowly, listening for the discussion between Liam and Mrs. Land that she expected to hear. When she didn’t hear any voices, Sadie poked her head around the door frame. The room was empty.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Breanna said, glancing behind them as they entered the room. They both stood just inside the doorway for a few seconds, trying to accept what they had found—or not found. In the two days they’d been at Southgate, the staff was constantly around. The feeling that they were never alone was now contrasted with the fact that they seemed to be the only people here. The butler, footmen, and maids that seemed to be hovering everywhere had now disappeared completely.

In tandem their eyes traveled toward the back of the room, but the glass-fronted china cabinet that had hidden John Henry from them during their tea still obscured their view. Sadie reached for Breanna’s hand and carefully headed for the back of the room if for no other reason than to verify what they had seen. When the curtain finally came into view, they stopped in their tracks.

“No shoes,” she muttered as Breanna sucked in a breath. Sadie dropped Breanna’s hand and, in eight quick steps, she reached the curtain that now hung in pleats against the wall like all the other curtain panels in the room. Sadie took a breath and pulled back the fabric—just as she had the first time—but this time all that greeted them was the textured wallpaper. No body, no blood.

A missing chunk of plaster was the only indication that John Henry had been there at all.

~ ~ ~

Silence.

Sadie couldn’t believe it and blinked several times to make sure the scene in front of her didn’t change. It was as shocking to not see the body this time as it had been to see the body the first time she’d pulled back the curtains.

“Mom?” Breanna said with a question in her voice, reminding Sadie she wasn’t alone. She turned to look at her daughter, whose eyes were wide as she too stared at the hole in the plaster. “Where did he go?”

A battle waged itself in Sadie’s mind as she looked from her daughter to the missing plaster. Her first thought had been to start searching for the body, Mrs. Land, Liam, and Grant, but seeing Breanna’s pale face made her next thoughts much more practical. There was little chance that John Henry had accidentally skewered himself with a fireplace poker behind a curtain panel in the sitting room or that he had simply walked away on his own. Therefore, Sadie could conclude that there had definitely been a murder, which meant there was definitely a murderer—and now a body snatcher as well.

“Let’s go,” she said, taking Breanna’s hand and heading out of the sitting room, frantically trying to beat her curiosity into submission by flogging it with the reality of the situation and her abilities to accomplish anything by staying. This is dangerous—it’s not safe—I’m not a real detective—we’ll miss our flight—Breanna doesn’t need this—anyone willing to move a body is seriously disturbed and not someone with whom we should stay in the same house.

“Go?” Breanna repeated from behind her as she took hurried steps.

“Grant said the car was ready,” Sadie said. “They already packed our bags and we’ve got a flight to catch.” She was the mother here, the older and wiser individual, and she needed to make a sensible decision for the two of them.

They were nearly to the front doors when Breanna stopped and pulled her hand from Sadie’s grip. “Mom,” she said, already shaking her head. “We can’t leave.”

“But we certainly can’t stay,” Sadie said, turning to look at her. “It’s not safe.”

“We can’t leave without Liam,” Breanna said.

“Liam can catch another flight.”

“Someone has to call the police.”

“Couldn’t we just leave a note?” Sadie offered. “Or call the police on our way to London?”

Breanna gave her a look that said a note wasn’t going to cut it. “Mom,” she reprimanded, “you know we can’t do that.”

Sadie raised one hand to her forehead and put the other one on her hip as she let out a breath. “Well, I don’t know!” she said in frustration. “We most certainly did not put this on our list of things to do while in England and I’m afraid I have no idea what we do now.”

“Okay,” Breanna said, taking the role of reasonable adult for the moment since Sadie had so efficiently relinquished her right to play the part by throwing a tantrum and admitting she didn’t know what to do. “What would we do if we were at home?”

“And found a dead man in the sitting room who then disappeared along with the rest of the staff and your boyfriend?” Those kinds of things didn’t happen at home. Well, actually her neighbor had been found dead in her backyard a few months ago, but it still felt very different from this, and by the time Sadie showed up on that scene the police were already investigating. Her eyes met Breanna’s. “I guess I would call the police,” Sadie said.

Breanna patted her mother’s arm. “Good answer. I’d do the same thing, so, since we agree, that’s where we should start. We did see a body and someone has to report it.” She fished her phone out of her pocket and stared at the numbers. “Does 911 work in England?”

“No, it’s 999 in the UK,” Sadie said, looking toward the door of the sitting room, wondering if she dared leave the room. When she looked back, Breanna was staring at her.

“How do you know that?” Breanna asked, her thumbs poised above the numbers of her phone.

“Everyone knows that 999 was the first emergency phone number system and that it was started in London back in 1937,” she paused, squinting one eye as she tried to recall the information. “Or was it 1938? I can’t remember.”

Breanna continued to stare at her.

“What?” Sadie asked, then looked at the phone. “Aren’t you going to call?”

“Oh, right,” Breanna said, shaking herself slightly. She punched in the numbers and put the phone to her ear. “I can’t believe you know all that.”

“Don’t you ever watch the Discovery Channel other than for Shark Week?” Sadie asked.

Breanna opened her mouth to answer, then put up a finger and looked away from her mother. “Yes,” she said. “My name is Breanna Hoffmiller. I’m visiting at Southgate estate and we found a dead body. . . . His name is John Henry. . . . It was in the sitting room, but it’s gone now. . . . Well, I agree it’s strange.” She looked up at her mother and rolled her eyes. “No, we don’t know who moved it
. . . . I’m with my mother. . . . Southgate estate—I don’t know the address—it belongs to the Earl of Garnett. . . . Um, about twenty miles out of Exeter. Can you just send someone . . . What?” She paused for several seconds. “I swear to you this is not a prank call. My mother and I found the body almost ten minutes ago. . . . We didn’t call before because we thought the cook was going to take care of it but now we can’t find her either. Look, can you just send someone?” She started tapping her foot and Sadie slowly crossed to the back of the room, looking at the now empty portion of wall that had once held John Henry. Her eyes were drawn to the thick rug set in the middle of the hardwood floor. Breanna continued to argue with the dispatcher while Sadie took a step back, toward the edge of the room. There were drag marks on the carpet, which meant—

“Unbelievable,” Breanna huffed. Sadie looked over her shoulder to see that Breanna had hung up the phone. “They think I’m some college kid from America on holiday making a prank call.”

“Well, other than the prank call, they’re right—you are a college kid from America on holiday.” She didn’t wait for Breanna to answer before putting her hand up in a stopping motion. “Don’t come any closer.” Sadie pointed at the carpet. “Drag marks,” she said. “We already messed them up a little bit.”

Breanna had followed her finger and was now inspecting the carpet. “Are you sure they’re drag marks?” she asked, squinting toward them and leaning forward.

“Carpet never lies.” Sadie motioned Breanna to come toward her using the very edges of the room. Once Breanna reached her, they both squatted down to get a better angle.

“I think you’re right,” Breanna breathed as she looked at the two parallel curving lines heading for the door—heel marks. She immediately lifted her phone.

Sadie was about to ask her what she was doing when she realized Breanna was taking a picture. She leaned toward her daughter, her quads burning from the squatting position she was in, and waited until the picture showed up on the screen of Breanna’s phone. “It’s hard to see them in the picture,” Sadie said, looking between the carpet and the phone.

“I’ll take a few more,” Breanna said, turning the phone and holding it closer to the carpet. “They’re sending an inspector out,” she continued in an annoyed tone while snapping another photo. She looked at it, then held it toward Sadie. “This one’s better, don’t you think?”

Sadie nodded—the drag lines were a lot more distinct. “Did they say how long until the inspector arrives?”

Breanna shook her head and finally stood. She made it look so easy. Sadie nearly groaned out loud as she righted herself. Phew. She wasn’t used to being so close to the ground and had become so busy with Christmas stuff that she’d missed a few of her weekly yoga classes. She made a note not to miss any more in the future—she could definitely feel the difference.

“We need to find Liam,” Breanna said as they made their way toward the door. But she came to a stop when they reached the sitting area set up across from the fireplace. Sadie followed her eyes, and they both stared at the wrought-iron fireplace stand. Even from this distance Sadie could see that the handles of the hearth tools didn’t match the handle of the poker they’d seen protruding from John Henry’s heart—these were a filigree design, black. She took a couple steps forward to confirm that the poker for the set was still there. “Whoever killed John Henry came into this room armed.”

Breanna nodded. “We need to find Liam—now.”

They held each other’s eyes and Sadie understood Breanna’s urgency—they hadn’t seen anyone but Mrs. Land and the runaway cook since their initial discovery of the body. What if there was something even bigger going on? What if the reason they hadn’t heard from Liam was because he was unable to communicate?

Thoughts of terrorists, chain saw murderers, and bank robbers filled Sadie’s mind and her heart rate increased accordingly. “You’re right,” she said, heading for the door. When they reached the doorway, they shared a nervous glance. Sadie felt safer here—well, now that the body was gone. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the doorknob and began turning it, just as someone did the same thing on the other side of the door.

With a sharp intake of breath, she let go, startling Breanna as the door whooshed open, nearly knocking Sadie over in the process.

~ ~ ~

Liam!” Breanna said in surprise as Sadie stumbled backward. Liam stood rooted in place, as if not expecting to see them there.

“Bre,” he said, looking at Breanna. “Sadie,” he continued, taking her in as well. His already longish, sandy blond hair was a little more wild than usual as he looked back and forth between the two of them. “Are you okay?”

Sadie and Breanna shared a look as if waiting for the other person to start, then they both took a breath and began talking at once.

“John Henry—”

“A fireplace poker—”

“Told Mrs. Land—”

“The body is gone—”

“I texted you four times!”

“What?” Liam said, interrupting them and looking sufficiently confused.

Breanna hurried to tell him a very abbreviated version of how the events had played out. Liam listened, his expression becoming more and more troubled the further into the story she went. When she finished, Liam blinked at them.

“Why didn’t you return my calls?” Breanna asked.

“I, uh, had my phone turned off,” he said, looking past her into the room with trepidation. “The body’s gone?”

They both nodded like a pair of bobbleheads. “See for yourself,” Breanna said, leading the way toward the back window, pointing out the drag marks. Sadie held the curtain back while Liam inspected the missing chunk of plaster. He reached toward it as if to feel the plaster, but Sadie grabbed his hand. “We already called the police,” she said. “We better not touch anything else.”

“You called the police?” Liam said, looking at Breanna.

“Of course,” she said. “I tried calling you; we didn’t know what else to do.”

“Did you see anyone?”

They shook their heads. “We were waiting for Mrs. Land to come back to the kitchen,” Breanna said.

“But you didn’t see anything or hear anything?”

“No,” Breanna replied, but she sounded annoyed by the fact that he kept repeating himself.

Liam nodded, staring at the wall for a few more seconds. Sadie was just about to ask him if he was okay when he reached out and grabbed Breanna’s wrist. She startled, as did Sadie.

“I want you both to go back up to your room,” he said. He turned and began pulling Breanna toward the door.

“Wait a minute,” she said, trying to twist her arm free of his grasp. He didn’t let her go and Sadie had no choice but to follow. “Liam,” Breanna continued, “you’re hurting me!”

He let go of her then, but he didn’t apologize and he didn’t slow his steps. “Right now,” he said. “Go up there, lock the door and wait for me.”

“But,” Breanna said, “we—”

“Bre,” he cut her off. “Please, upstairs now.”

Sadie watched the exchange, too shocked by Liam’s reaction to be of much help in either side of the battle. Liam was always so soft-spoken and meek, to see him jump into action was . . . impressive, but a little unnerving as well. Breanna opened her mouth to protest again, but Liam took a step toward her, bringing himself intimately close to her face. “Please, Breanna,” he said in a fierce whisper, almost a growl. “I’ll call you when it’s safe, but until we figure this out, I want to make sure you’re safe.”

Breanna looked like she wanted to argue, but she didn’t. “Come on, Mom,” she said, heading for the stairs. Sadie paused, looking between a retreating Breanna and Liam who stood in front of the sitting room door, watching Breanna. The last place Sadie wanted to be right now was in her room, twiddling her thumbs. There was a body to find, a murderer to pin it on, and clues to sniff out in order for those two ends to be realized; and she was going to wait around in her room? She’d already assisted in the capture of one murderer. Liam should probably go to his room and let Sadie take charge.