It was Sarah coming out of the woods. She was alone and looked like h.e.l.l. The early-morning fog lingered around her feet and her hair, usually pulled back and neat as a pin, was completely disheveled. I crept further behind the boulder, pulling Maggie with me.
Sarah was frantically looking at the ground, searching for something. I was petrified. I stupidly remembered two years ago when I was nearly in the same predicament in Wyoming , but back then there had been a wolf standing in Sarah"s place. While I got a great shot, the wolf almost got me. This could be the same thing.
She was about thirty feet from us. G.o.d, please don"t let her come this way.
She stood running both hands through her hair as if she was trying to pull it out. She looked like she was retracing her steps. She moved to the edge of the woods, walking closer to us.
Although it was cold, I was sweating profusely. I heard her mumbling; that scared me. People who mumble to themselves always bothered me. I know I talk to my dog, but I don"t mumble. What in the h.e.l.l was she doing?
As she came closer, Maggie had her hand on my shoulder, her nails digging into my flesh.
We heard Sarah say in a furiously low raspy voice, "G.o.dd.a.m.ned little b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Where is it?"
There was a rustling in the woods; it had to be a squirrel or chipmunk.
"Who"s there?" she hissed in a low guttural voice.
I couldn"t move even if I wanted to, I was so petrified. Sarah started walking our way until she was almost directly in front of us. The sweat was pouring down my back and I prayed to every saint that came to mind. Maggie held my arm in a vice grip.
Sarah looked around. "You don"t scare me. You never did," she said defiantly, as though she was talking to the woods themselves.
Maggie and I looked at each other. Who in the h.e.l.l was she talking to? A shiver ran down my spine as I realized who it was. We heard the rustling of the leaves and I slowly peeked out from behind the boulder.
Sarah took off like a bat out of h.e.l.l and ran down the rugged path that led to her house. Oddly, the commercial Coo-Coo for Cocoa Puffs ran through my mind. I watched Sarah in stunned amazement, as she ran down the path and out of sight.
"You want to tell me what the h.e.l.l that was?" Maggie asked.
I stared at the path. "I have no idea, but let"s get the h.e.l.l out of here."
As we started walking around the lake, I looked back every now and then. Maggie stumbled on the path and I grabbed her elbow. We continued, not talking but walking faster and faster. We got to the clearing and saw Maggie"s house.
"Sanctuary," I said and we broke into a dead run, petrified to look back as we ran up to the porch, completely out of breath.
Mac and Teri were in the kitchen; both jumped when we made our entrance. I couldn"t talk I was breathing so hard.
"What in the h.e.l.l!" Teri ran over to me. "What happened to you two?"
I opened my mouth but nothing but a deep wheeze came out. I sounded like I had swallowed a harmonica.
"Come into the kitchen," Teri said frantically.
My legs were burning from running as I sat down. Teri took my camera case. Maggie sat across from me. She was in far better shape than I. She could talk. She took a deep breath and explained. Mac sat there amazed, looking from me to Maggie.
"You two are freezing," Teri said and put two cups of coffee down.
"Sarah?" Mac questioned. I nodded.
Hannah came into the kitchen. "Well, good morn-" she stopped abruptly as she looked from me to Maggie. "What in the world happened now?" she exclaimed.
I repeated the whole story. Hannah looked shocked but not as much as I thought she should, given the fact her sister-in-law had been running around as mad as a March hare. I looked at Teri. I could tell she agreed. I glanced at Maggie, who was had a curious look on her face as well.
"Christ, Kate, what the h.e.l.l does this mean?" Teri asked.
It means Aunt Sarah"s done a loop the loop. She"s flying without a net and gone around the bend. In short, she"s nuts! That"s what it means. However, I graciously kept this to myself.
Maggie started again. "Well, it appeared she was looking for something."
"Okay, let"s look at this logically," I said.
"After what we saw? Logic? Please," Maggie said sarcastically.
"I would have to say your aunt was looking for something that was not found by Chance. I think she knew what was buried out there." I finished and got up to get another cup of coffee.
Hannah and Maggie watched me. I looked at Teri, who gave me a sad kind of acknowledgment.
I hated what I was about to say, but I took a deep breath and continued slowly, "I think your Aunt Sarah knows something and is somehow, however obscurely, involved in this mess." I couldn"t look at either Hannah or Maggie.
Hannah shifted uncomfortably in her chair. I didn"t say anything about it, but Teri apparently noticed it, too.
"Given what I believe happened between Uncle Nathan and my mother I can see where her involvement would be logical," Maggie said.
"Well, she totally interrupted what Maggie and I started to do," I said and explained our conversation about Bedford and looking at his apartment.
Hannah shook her head. "What is happening to our family?" she asked sadly, as Maggie put her arm around her.
The Winfield family was unraveling before our eyes.
Chapter Twenty.
We took the steps up to the back entrance of the garage apartment, which was anything but small. It ran the length of the four-car garage. It was huge.
As Maggie put the key in, I was stunned to see the door was not locked.
"That"s odd," Hannah said. "Bedford was very private and particular about his belongings. He had a thing about being neat. A place for everything and everything in its place. He would never have left this door unlocked."
I cautiously pushed the door opened and walked in.
"What are we looking for?" Hannah asked.
I glanced around and walked to the bedroom. "I"m not sure. I"m hoping Bedford wrote down whatever he knew, or left something else to give us a clue as to what he knew," I said and looked into his bedroom. "Bedford wasn"t as neat as you thought, Hannah. Come and look at this."
Hannah and Maggie followed me into the room. The dresser drawers were slightly open with a few articles of clothing strewn about. I glanced at the small desk in the corner and again, the drawers were open.
"Either Bedford got dressed in a hurry, or somebody was looking for something, just as we are," I said.
"Kate, look at this," Maggie said. She was standing by the small desk looking at the floor.
There was a gold b.u.t.ton lying on the floor. I picked up it and examined it. Maggie took it from me so she and Hannah could more closely examine it.
"It looks like a man"s jacket b.u.t.ton," Hannah said.
I opened the closet and saw no sports jackets or dinner jackets there, but he did have a nice selection of flannels. "Well, it"s not from anything Bedford owns." I closed the closet door and took the b.u.t.ton from Maggie.
"It has to be from someone," Maggie said and I agreed.
"Well, let"s keep looking. I have a feeling there"s something here," I said and held up the gold b.u.t.ton. "And I have a feeling someone was already looking."
After going through every drawer, under the bed, through the closets and in every cabinet, we came up empty. "c.r.a.p," I said and flopped into the corner of the couch and sat back. I glanced to my right and saw a small bookcase holding about fifteen books. "Bedford read poetry?" I asked and reached for one of the books on the shelf.
As I took the book out, something fell into my lap. I looked down. It was a small composition book that looked very old. Like those we used to buy for English cla.s.s. My heart raced as I cautiously opened the notebook.
"Uh, ladies, can you come over here please?" I asked.
Both were quickly at my side. "What is it?" Maggie asked.
"Some sort of notebook."
"Where did you find it?" Hannah asked.
"It, um, sort of fell in my lap," I said with a shrug. I nervously glanced around the room. Maggie and Hannah did the same. "You don"t smell hyacinth, do you?" I asked. Both women shook their heads.
"Well, what"s in it?" Maggie asked eagerly.
I opened the cover and leafed through the lined pages. "Well, let"s start from the beginning. It says here: New job seems good. Old man Alexander is an a.s.shole. Not much money, but I get this place for nothing. When did Bedford start working for you, Hannah?" I asked.
"Good heavens, I was a young woman, so it was nearly thirty years, as I said."
There was more scribbling, which looked like he was adding figures, probably his paychecks. I leafed through and stopped when I saw the name Sarah.
Settling into my job and getting to know the family. Old man Alexander still an a.s.shole. Jonathon is a.s.shole junior. I like Hannah, though. The youngest, Nathan, is a quiet guy married to the snake, Sarah.
"I don"t think Bedford liked Alexander or Jonathon. Or Sarah for that matter," I said and read more pages of nonsense that contained nothing pertaining to family.
When I"d about given it up as being all about grocery lists and paychecks, I came upon an interesting pa.s.sage that I read aloud.
Jonathon brought home a wife. What a beauty! Miranda is nice. What she"s doing in this family?
I looked up at Hannah who sported an indignant look.
"But he liked you," I rea.s.sured her and Maggie laughed.
"Bedford liked horseracing," I said, leafing through the pages. "He scribbled about his bets. He mentioned Maggie being born-called you a cute kid. Called Charlie a bully."
"It"s not like a journal. It"s more like he"s just writing down what he finds interesting," Maggie said. I had to agree.
"Hmm... listen to this. Here"s a corker-cleaning the limo, I found a pair of diamond earrings in the back seat. The old a.s.shole took aem and guess what? Snaky b.i.t.c.h Sarah had them on that night at a party at the house. Ohhh, Alexander... Well, that might coincide with what I heard at the stable," I said. "I can"t imagine Bedford talking about all this and not mentioning Miranda, though. It"s got to be here."
I leafed through old, worn pages hoping to find something and I did. "Okay, here we go...Big mess. Miranda found by the lake this morning. Somebody robbed and killed her. What a shame, nice lady. Little Maggie is so young, poor kid. Now she"s left with an a.s.shole father. I"ll keep an eye out."
"The writing in this next pa.s.sage looks shaky to me," I said and examined the handwriting. "It"s not as neat as the earlier handwriting. However, listen to this: Heard Jonathon and Sarah yelling-he"s selling his old man"s clinic. Nearly laughed my a.s.s off-Sarah sounded like some crazy b.i.t.c.h ranting and raving. There goes her meal ticket!"
"Here"s the last entry. The handwriting is the same: Can"t wait to tell Maggie Sarah took off in her car this afternoon. Maggie"s going to be p.i.s.sed-can"t wait to see the fireworks. Bet the old b.i.t.c.h is headed into the city with her cronies for some margaritas-it"s Cinco de Mayo, ya know. What a b.i.t.c.h."
I leafed through the remaining pages. They were blank. Hannah reached out for it and I handed it to her. She carefully leafed through it, stopping to read from time to time. "All these years, Bedford kept this notebook. I can"t believe it."
"I can"t believe it literally dropped into my lap," I said as Maggie took the notebook and read it. "Let"s get back to the house and call Steve. He might want to have a look at this and the b.u.t.ton we found."
Mac and Teri were, of course, amazed at what we"d found in Bedford"s apartment.
"I suppose there"s still nothing we can do about the lost jewelry and glove," Teri said.
I thought about this for a moment. "Okay, with all that has happened, it can"t be overlooked that Sarah and, possibly, Nathan are deeply involved with this mess. Now, we know someone took those baggies last night. Someone unlocked the door to the cellar. Someone tried to get in through the cellar last night, why? Let"s retrace the evening. We were in the library with the evidence. Hannah came in to tell us Lily was looking for Tom and Steve. We all decided to talk later. We all left, but forget the bags-but do I remember Tom closing the door to the library. When we came out, Allison took Maggie for a walk. I, um, we got worried and left to look for Maggie."
"And you got really upset," Mac chimed in.
I grinned in spite of myself and looked over at Maggie, who was blushing horribly. "Yes, and I got really upset."
"So, what does this have to do with the evidence?" Mac looked confused.
"Okay, I hope my train doesn"t derail here. What if taking Maggie out was a diversion to get us out of the house? Then whoever it was went into the library and took the evidence? Maybe they couldn"t get it out of the house, though I haven"t figured out why yet. So they slipped into the kitchen and down to the cellar and hid it there. Perhaps under the guise of getting more wine. Then they unlocked the cellar door and waited until after midnight to come back and take the bags. That is the only reason I can think of as to why there was someone trying to get back in last night."
"But Sarah and Doc checked the cellar last night," Maggie said.
"It"s only a hunch," I said. "But let"s go and check the cellar one more time to be sure."
Even in broad daylight, the cellar was dark, cold and damp. I hated cellars. I think I mentioned that.
"Okay, let"s each take a section and see what we find," I said.
We all split up and looked under every box, chair, and old bicycle. Mac crawled behind any place he could get to and came up filthy. We checked behind the staircase. We opened boxes and checked every one. We even pulled out and checked behind every wine bottle. We all stood looking around the cellar, dusty and full of cobwebs.
"Well, at least the cellar is a little cleaner," Hannah said.
"c.r.a.p. I was sure," I said in a dejected tone. Maggie patted my shoulder.
"It was a good hunch."
I looked around and then I looked up. No rafters or any place to hide something up there. I looked at the wine rack and saw that the top almost reached the ceiling. Almost.
As I walked over to it, I noticed the stepladder. "Hey, guys," I said slowly.
I showed them the stepladder. There were footprints on the rungs and on the top of the ladder, covered with dust "Geez, Kate," Teri said as her eyes widened.