Murder Games (24 page)

“
Do you know where it is?” Ivy asked.

Laura pursed her lips together. “In good time.”

“Where is Austin now?” Grace asked wearily.

“I managed to get the jump on him
and knock him out cold while he was on all fours in the garden. He was so busy digging through the snow that he didn’t even hear me coming. I tied him up and dragged him into the shed.”

Smiling, Ivy rose to her feet. “
Well, at least it’s not Rupert. That’s a relief. I’ll just go let him out.”

Kyle held out a hand. “I think we should leave Rupert where he is for right now.”

Ivy sat back down with a sigh.

Laura walked over to Jerry. “What happened to him?”

“He was shot,” Ivy said.

Laura knelt down and pulled back his bandage. She lifted his arm and peered at the wound, causing him to stir slightly with a groan. “He’ll live,” she said, laying his arm gently across his chest.

Jerry’s eyelids fluttered for a moment. “Caroline?” He lifted his head, but dropped it back with a groan.

Molly stood up. She walked past the sisters and out of the library.

“Where are you going, Molly?” Laura asked quickly.

“I’m going to check on
Austin,” Molly said. “He’s probably freezing out there.”

“Don’t you mean Drew?”
Laura shrugged off her sister who was checking the cut on her head. “I’ll go with you. We wouldn’t want him to somehow get loose, would we,
Belinda
? Just who was that woman you two threw into the pond? An innocent bystander? Another confederate?”

Molly, in the act of shrugging on her coat, paused long enough to give Laura a withering look. “
It’s Molly. M–o–l–l–y.”

Sabrina
clutched at her sister’s arm. “I don’t want to stay here by myself.”

Laura grabbed
Sabrina’s hand and pulled her from the library. A few seconds later, the door slammed shut.

Ivy
rose to her feet. “I’m just going to go get the first aid kit for Jerry. You two watch over him for me.”

They nodded. As soon as she was out of sight, Grace reached into her pocket and pressed the ruby into Kyle’s hand.

“Why are you giving this to me?”

“Someone needs to go for help.”

“Then we’ll go together.”

“You’ll be able to go faster without me. I’d just slow you down. Besides, someone needs to keep an eye on things here before they all kill each other.
” At his worried expression, she added, “Don’t worry, everything will be fine. I’ll lock myself in with the others and won’t go down any dark hallways by myself.”

Kyle smiled. “I wouldn’t look in any closets or under any beds, either.”

“Don’t worry; I took very good notes during Horror Movie Watching 101. Just take the ruby—” She paused. She could have sworn she saw something out of the corner of her eye moving in the foyer. She walked out of the library and into the foyer just as the door to the dining room opened. Ivy stood there holding a first aid kit.

She held the kit up in the air and shook it. “Got it!” She passed by without stopping. Once in the library
, she turned around and closed the door behind her.

“Do you think she heard?” Kyle asked.

The library door opened. Jerry walked out, gripping his arm. He winced as he looked down at the bandage covering his bicep.

Ivy hovered behind him. “
Jerry, you need to lie down.”

Jerry shook his head. “I’
m fine.” He looked over at Kyle and Grace. “Where is Caroline?”

Ivy came to stand in front of Jerry. “Now, you don’t worry about her. You just worry about yourself.”

His eyes narrowed, suspiciously. “What are you not telling me?” He closed his eyes and groaned as he fell back against the doorjamb.

“Do you remember who shot you?” Grace asked.

Jerry shook his head. “I was looking for Caroline . . . I don’t know what happened. Why won’t you tell me where she is?” Tears sprang to his eyes as he looked at them. “She’s gone, isn’t she?”

Kyle nodded. “I’m sorry.”

Jerry sank down to the ground. “I heard Austin’s voice before the gunshot. I heard his voice,” he said softly. “He was talking to someone. Caroline was so afraid of him.” He lifted his hand to his face. “Where is he? Where is Austin?”

Ivy looked over her shoulder at Grace and Kyle. “Gone,” she lied. “The police are looking for him.”

“I should have listened to her. He must have been after the ruby but she didn’t have it. She would have told me if she had found it. Has anyone found the wretched thing yet?” he asked angrily. “Maybe we can use it as bait to trap him. Bring him out into the open.”

Ivy shook her head. “We haven’t found it yet.” Bending down, she helped him to his feet. “Come on, you need to rest.”

He swayed unsteadily on his feet.  “I’d give it up to have her back again. I just don’t understand. Why kill her?” Jerry painfully made his way up the staircase with Ivy’s help. “I just want to be left alone,” Jerry said dejectedly.

Ivy’s voice faded away as she led him to his room.

Grace opened the front door. “We need to hurry just in case.” Sighing, Kyle stepped out onto the porch.

The wind picked up in intensity and blew her hair into her face. She looked up at the sky in concern. The moon and most of the stars that had shown so brightly since they
arrived seemed to be now disappearing in the night sky. Clouds were blotting out most of the light and a heavy snow had begun to fall. She could barely make out the fountain much less the hedge maze in the distance. She wrapped her arms around herself tightly as she shivered in the bitter cold. “Maybe this is a mistake.”

Kyle reached into his pockets and pulled out his gloves.
“Have you ever been in Russia during the winter?”

“
You know I haven’t,” she said through chattering teeth.

“
Well, I have.” Smiling, he reached forward and buttoned her coat. “Don’t worry; I know how to layer my clothes.”

Grace smirked. “I didn’t realize when I got dressed this morning
that I’d be traipsing around outside tonight. She glanced back through the doorway as Ivy descended the staircase. The older woman started for the library but stopped. She looked at them curiously before changing direction and heading to the back of the manor.

“Do you remember the way?”
Grace asked, nervously.

“Grace,
I’ll be fine. As soon as I get to the hotel, I’ll call the police and talk to Deputy Rhodes,” Kyle said, before kissing her gently. “Trust me. Go back to the library and lock yourself in. I’ll be back with the cavalry before you know it.” With that, he stepped off the porch and into the darkness.

*  *  *

“Austin’s got a battery operated heater out there and a dozen blankets. He’ll be fine.” Laura leaned over the painting of Annalise Graves, which was lying on the dining room table. Her eyes focused once more on the ruby.

Ivy set her
teacup down. “I wouldn’t worry, Molly, we’ll keep checking on him throughout the night to make sure he’s okay. He looked snug as a bug last time we were out there. It’s Rupert that I’m worried about. That cellar is just so unpleasant and scary. It’s just not right to keep a human being locked up like that.” Catching the look Grace was giving her, she quickly added, “Of course, it’s also quiet and very clean. Perfectly safe. I had discussed turning that area into another guest room with management a few years ago.” She frowned. “I just don’t understand why we have to keep him locked up. Austin is the killer.”

“We don’t know that for certain,” Molly said.

Laura stuck her fingernail under the painting’s ornate frame. “Yes, we do,” she said softly.

Warily, Grace
sat down next to Laura. For the last hour, she had been watching the other woman closely, prepared to jump to the portrait’s rescue at a moment’s notice. She had already prevented the young woman from taking the portrait out of its frame, but she didn’t like the way Laura kept eyeing the knife laying on the buffet table. “Laura, I doubt the ruby’s hidden behind the painting.”

“You don’t know that,
” Laura said with a smirk.

Molly stood at the window and shook her head. “I don’t understand why we can’t bring
Austin in here.”

Laura
ran her hand over the front of the painting. “Because he’s a murderer,” she said softly.

Grace, resisting the urge to grab the painting from Laura, stood up and walked to the window. She took a detour around the table to pick up the knife and move it further away from Laura and the painting. Once at the window, she pulled the curtain to the side
, thankful that the snowfall had been fairly brief and the clouds were beginning to disperse. “What time is it?”

“Ten minutes since the last time you asked,” Laura said.

Grace bit her lip. “Kyle has been gone for over an hour. The police should be here by now.”

“Maybe he got lost,” Laura said cheerfully. “I don’t understand why he left like that without telling anyone. It would have been smarter just
to wait until the morning.”

“
I still don’t understand how he plans to get out of the maze. The gates are all locked,” Ivy protested. “I agree with Laura, he should have stayed here with the rest of us.”

“He had to go, Jerry is seriously wounded,” Molly said.

Laura snorted. “It’s a flesh wound.”

Ivy clucked her tongue in disapproval.

Angry, Molly strode from the window and faced Laura. “How could you be so callous?”

“I’m not being callous
,” Laura said “I’m just speaking the truth. The bullet went right through his arm. I doubt it even hit the bone. I’m sure he’ll be his old annoying self by morning.”

“You seem to be forgetting about Caroline,”
Ivy said. “He was pretty devastated when I broke the news to him.” She glanced toward the foyer. “I’m worried he might do something stupid.”

Molly
nodded. “So am I. You don’t think he’d hurt Austin, do you?”

Laura spared a second to look up. “If someone killed your spouse, wouldn’t you?”

“We don’t know for certain that Austin killed Caroline,” Grace pointed out.

“I told you what I saw,” Laura said.

“Yeah, I know,” Grace said, “you saw him digging through the snow around her body, but that doesn’t mean he killed her.”

They all fell quiet. Grace began to pace the length of the dining room. “Something’s wrong.” She glanced toward the foyer. “Where’s
Sabrina?”

“She’s upstairs changing clothes,” Laura said.

“It’s been forty minutes,” Grace said. “How long does it take her to change clothes?”

“Don’t get me started
.” Laura shook her head. “I had to live with her. We were always late for everything growing up. I doubt she’s even out of the bathroom, yet. We won’t see her for another twenty minutes.”

They all looked to the window as a loud bang rang out. Grace waited for a fir
ecracker to explode in the sky. When nothing happened, she walked out into the foyer and straight to the coat closet. “Ivy,” she called, “do you have a map of the maze?”

The
teacup clattered against its saucer. A few seconds later, Ivy walked out into the foyer. “You aren’t intending to go out, are you?”

Grace
reached into the coat closet and pulled out her coat and boots. “I most certainly am.”

“Why, you can’t,” Ivy said breathlessly
, “you’ll get lost and freeze to death.”

“I’m
going to go find Kyle.”

Seeing Grace’s determined expression, Ivy sighed. “There’s a
couple of extra maps in the desk drawer in the library.”

When Molly saw her at the bench pulling her boots on
, she asked, “Grace, I’m sure that was a firecracker.”

“
That’s the third one I’ve heard since he left. And each time I’ve looked up, expecting to see fireworks and there’s been nothing there. Besides, it’s not midnight, Molly. Isn’t that when the hotel sets off the fireworks?”

Ivy sh
rugged. “Usually but occasionally some of the kids in town get a little anxious and set off their own. I’m sure everything is all right.”

Grace stood up.
“Then why didn’t we see it?”

Ivy
gestured to the library. “The town is in that direction. You wouldn’t have been able to see it from the dining room.”

Another bang rang out suddenly. Molly rushed to the library window and pushed aside the drape. “There. See,” she said
, pointing toward a small white firework exploding in the distance.

Grace
closed her eyes as a feeling of relief rushed through her. She pushed her hair back away from her face. “Still, he’s been gone an awfully long time. I’m just afraid he may be lost and hurt. He doesn’t have a map. He could—” She stopped speaking as a sudden thought occurred to her. She raced to the library and opened the desk drawer. Finding the map, she folded it up and placed it in her pocket before reaching in and searching through the drawer. “Please, still be here,” she whispered dragging the drawer out and dumping the contents on top of the desk. She pushed aside Erica Powell’s plane ticket, the brochures, extra invitations, and maps until she finally uncovered the cell phone.