"Oh, really? I was under the impression you knew him rather well." Elizabeth paused, then added deliberately, "You did go to his room at the Tudor Arms with him, didn"t you?"
Fiona"s face flamed, and she took a moment to answer. "May I ask how you know that?"
"You were seen and heard. The point is, you didn"t mention that you knew Brian Sutcliffe when the constable talked to you at the wedding. I can"t help wondering why."
Fiona shifted uncomfortably on her seat. "I couldn"t say anything in front of Malcolm. He"d have gone berserk. He doesn"t often lose his temper, but when he does, he can be quite nasty."
"He didn"t know you"d gone to Mr. Sutcliffe"s room?"
"No, he didn"t. We"d been arguing about getting married that night. He"s been bothering me about it a lot lately. I keep telling him I"m not ready to get married again yet, but he won"t take no for an answer. He acts as if he owns me and it"s my duty to marry him. I had enough of that with my first husband. So that night when Brian started flirting with me, just to show Malcolm I wasn"t under his thumb, I flirted back."
"I imagine Malcolm didn"t like that at all."
Fiona shrugged. "Malcolm started drinking too much and acting like he didn"t care. Then Brian suggested having a drink in his room, so I went with him. Just to teach Malcolm a lesson. That"s all."
"I see. Malcolm didn"t see you leave?"
"No, he didn"t. Which made me mad. It was all for nothing."
"How do you know he didn"t see you leave with Mr. Sutcliffe?"
"Because the next morning at the church he asked me where I went. The last thing he remembered was looking around for me and I wasn"t there. I told him I got disgusted with him and came back here. I didn"t want him making a scene at the wedding."
Elizabeth nodded. "I can understand that. So you went up to Mr. Sutcliffe"s room."
Fiona paused, looking down at her hands. "Yes. I regretted it the minute he closed the door behind us. In spite of how Malcolm is, I really love him, and I knew I"d made a big mistake. I told Brian that, and tried to leave, but he got nasty and told me it was too late to change my mind. He grabbed hold of me but I managed to get away and got out the door. He followed me but I told him if he didn"t leave me alone Malcolm woulda"" She broke off and stared at Elizabeth. "Malcolm never knew about Brian," she added finally. "I never told him. When I found out Brian was dead, there was no need to tell him."
"Did you speak to Mr. Sutcliffe at the wedding?"
Fiona shuddered. "No, I didn"t. I stayed as far away from him as I could get."
"And Malcolm didn"t speak to him?"
"I don"t think Malcolm knew who he was. At least, he didn"t seem to recognize him at the wedding." Fiona met Elizabeth"s gaze. "If you"re thinking that Malcolm might have had something to do with Brian"s murder, then you"re looking at the wrong person. Malcolm"s not a killer. I"d stake my life on it."
Elizabeth rose to her feet. "I certainly hope you"re right." She thanked the woman and left, still not wholly convinced by what she had heard. She couldn"t help thinking there was something she was missing, but she still couldn"t put her finger on it. It annoyed her greatly when that happened.
To her dismay, when she started back to the manor, large drops of rain splattered on her hat. Huge flashes of lightning lit up the sky over the ocean, and the ominous roll of thunder promised a nasty storm on the way.
Elizabeth zoomed up the hill, anxious now to speak with Earl again. Since the musketeers had apparently stolen two Jeeps, perhaps he could spare some men to help search for the culprits and hopefully find the missing women.
Polly was in the office when she went in and looked up with an expression of relief. "We was getting worried about you, m"m. Violet was really put out when you didn"t turn up for lunch."
Elizabeth smiled. "Don"t worry about Violet, Polly. I"ve had a word with her and she"s forgiven me. Especially when she heard the news about the kidnapping."
Polly frowned. "You mean about Nellie? But I thought she already knew about that."
"I"m talking about Florrie Evans." Elizabeth sat down at her desk and started sorting through the post that Polly had left for her. "She was helping in the search this morning and now she"s missing as well."
Polly let out a shocked cry. "What"s happening to everyone? Is it the musketeers?"
"We"re not really certain about that." Elizabeth did her best to rea.s.sure the frightened girl. "I"m going to call the American base and ask for help in searching for them. I"m quite sure they"ll be found safe and sound before too long."
Polly"s eyes were wide and scared. "What if them blokes killed them and buried them somewhere? We might never find them. What if the musketeers are going around killing all the women? None of us will be safe!"
"That"s nonsense," Elizabeth said firmly. "I"m sure there is a simple explanation for Florrie"s disappearance."
"But they did take Nellie," Polly insisted. "Sadie said the Housewives League saw them."
"Well, yes, but I"m sure they meant no real harm. They"ve never hurt anyone before."
"There"s always a first time." Polly sat hugging herself as if she were cold. "I"m scared, m"m. I"m really scared."
Elizabeth abandoned the bills for the moment. "Polly, why don"t you just go home and be with your mother. It"s almost time to leave anyway, and there"s a bad storm on the way. You"ll feel safer once you are home. I"m sure by the morning we"ll have some news and all this will be over." She was sure of no such thing, but it felt good to say the words.
Polly looked somewhat relieved. "Oh, can I? I would feel better, I know."
"Of course. Just leave what you"re doing. It can wait until tomorrow."
She waited for Polly to leave the room, then reached for the telephone. She badly needed to talk to Earl. Not only to ask for his help, but just to hear his voice. His quiet strength always seemed to steady her in times of turbulence, and she needed him now as she never had before.
She had to wait for some time before the ringing was answered at the base. The stern voice that spoke to her informed her that Major Monroe was unavailable. With a deepening feeling of dread, she replaced the receiver. How she hated those words and what they conveyed. Now she had to suffer another night of torment before she knew he was safe again. What"s more, at least another night would pa.s.s before she could ask for his help in finding Florrie and Nellie. She could only hope it wouldn"t be too late.
Polly ran down the steps and hurried around the corner to the stables where she had left her bicycle. She wasn"t going to feel safe until she was in her own bedroom, surrounded by all her pictures of her favorite film stars on the walls. How she wished Marlene would come home. She missed her sister more than she ever thought she would.
A voice called out behind her, making her jump. "Where are you going in such a blinking hurry?"
"Sadie!" She swung around, trying hard not to burst into tears. "Have you heard the news? Florrie Evans has disappeared."
"Blimey." Sadie shifted the bulging shopping bag she carried to the other hand. "Who"s going to be next?"
"That"s what I"d like to know." Polly wheeled her bicycle out under the black sky. The rain was pattering down steadily now. She was going to be soaked by the time she got home.
Sadie frowned at her. "Is anyone looking for her? They never found Nellie, did they?"
"No, they didn"t. I don"t think they"re going to find Florrie, neither. Lady Elizabeth said she was going to ask the base if they could send some of their boys to look for them both."
Sadie frowned. "I"m going to help look for them, too. The more people looking for them, the more likely we"ll find them."
Polly swallowed. Sadie was awfully brave. She wished she were as brave as that. "Where will you look?"
Sadie put the shopping bag on the ground and rubbed her arms. "Well, I"d start with the old windmill. That"d be a good place to hide someone."
"But you saw the Jeep go into the woods. That"s miles from the old windmill."
"A Jeep can go miles, silly, can"t it?"
Polly"s stomach quivered. "What if you did find them there? They"d get you, too."
"Not if they didn"t see me. Once I knew they were there I"d go back and get the bobbies, wouldn"t I. I"m not daft."
"You"re not going alone, are you?"
Sadie smiled. "Think about it. All those women tramping about in groups, talking and carrying on? That lot never did know how to keep quiet. Of course they didn"t find no one. They heard them coming, didn"t they. Now if there"s only one person out there . . ." She looked hopefully at Polly. "Or maybe two."
Polly"s stomach took a nosedive. "If you think I"m going with you out there you can blinking think again. I hate going out in a thunderstorm."
"It"ll be over in a little while. We can go when it moves off."
"It"s dangerous out there with them musketeers running around kidnapping everyone. I"m going home. Where it"s safe." She pushed her bicycle past Sadie and swung her leg across the saddle.
"Nellie would be out looking for you if you was missing," Sadie called out after her.
No she wouldn"t, Polly thought fiercely. Nellie was only interested in meeting GIs. She pedaled furiously down the drive in the rain, more angry at herself than at anyone else. The truth was, she felt ashamed of being such a sissy. Sadie was going to be out there all by herself. What if something happened to her? Polly caught her bottom lip between her teeth. It would be all her fault. She"d never forgive herself.
Polly let the bicycle freewheel while she fought her conscience. It was no good. She couldn"t let Sadie go out there on her own. She"d worry herself sick about her. Although the fluttering in her stomach got worse at the thought of what she was about to do, she deliberately swung the front wheel of her bicycle around and pedaled slowly back to the manor.
CHAPTER 12.
Nellie broke off a piece of the pork pie she was holding and held it out to Florrie. "Here, eat this. You"ll feel better."
Florrie shook her head, her arms hugging her stomach. "I couldn"t eat a thing. If I do I"ll bring my breakfast up. I don"t know how you can eat anything with death staring us in the face." Her lips trembled and silent tears rolled down her ashen face.
Nellie shoved the piece of pork pie in her mouth and chewed with relish. "If you were as hungry as I am you"d eat it," she said when she"d swallowed it down. "I haven"t eaten anything since supper last night. And I ate that early because of Rita"s stupid invasion watch. If it hadn"t been for her and her b.l.o.o.d.y Germans we wouldn"t be here now."
Florrie moaned. "She"ll be so devastated to have our deaths on her conscience."
Nellie opened a bottle of lemonade and offered it to Florrie, who shook her head with a shudder. "We"re not going to die, silly. They"re just a bunch of soppy schoolkids. They"re not going to kill us."
Florrie stared at her. "I thought they was the musketeers."
Nellie laughed. "Don"t let the musketeers hear you say that. They"d be really insulted."
"But they kidnapped us."
"Yeah, "cos they didn"t know what else to do. They got in a panic, that"s all."
"They"re not going to just let us go."
"I think they will once they do what they came to do."
Florrie looked really scared. "And what"s that?"
"I don"t know. All I know is they want to get on the base. I said I"d help them if they brought me something to eat and drink."
"You"re not going to help them, are you!?"
Nellie almost laughed at Florrie"s shocked expression. "Nah, silly. I"m just going to pretend to help them. I"ll tell them how to get onto the base without being seen, but I"ll really be sending them right into the arms of the MPs."
"How"re you going to do that?"
Nellie swallowed more pork pie. "I haven"t exactly worked that out yet."
Florrie looked fearfully over the ledge. "Where do you think they"ve gone?"
Nellie shrugged. "Don"t know. I just hope they stay away until I"ve come up with a good plan. They"re really stupid; It shouldn"t be hard to get them caught."
"They were clever enough to steal two Jeeps from under the noses of the Americans," Florrie reminded her.
"Yeah, I don"t know how they did that. Someone must have left them outside the base." Nellie tipped the lemonade bottle to her lips and took several gulps. "They were stupid enough to go off and leave us alone up here, though, weren"t they."
"They know we can"t jump down there." Florrie pointed to the ground below. "We"d break our necks."
"Per"aps." Nellie finished the pork pie, then brushed the crumbs from her fingers. She got to her feet, wincing as her muscles reminded her of the hours she"d spent lying on the hard floor.
She studied the drop below. It had to be at least twenty feet. Maybe she could lower Florrie closer to the ground. Nah. Even if she hung by her feet, which would be quite a trick, and held Florrie"s hands, there"d still be too much of a drop.
There wasn"t even a rope or anything to use to climb down. She"d searched every inch of the loft. No, the boys knew what they were doing when they"d made them climb up there. She"d just have to find another way to outwit them.
"I wonder if they"re still looking for you," Florrie said. "I bet they don"t even know I"m missing."
"They must know by now." Nellie could tell by the way the sunlight crept down the cracks in the walls that it was late afternoon. "I wish I had a watch. I hate not knowing what time it is."
"Well, it"s not going to make any difference to us soon, is it."
Nellie"s patience finally gave out. "Shut up whining, Florrie! They"re not going to kill us, so there. The worst they"ll do is leave us here to rot after they"ve done what they came to do on the base."
Just as she said it a crackle of thunder made them both jump.
Florrie uttered a little shriek. "Oh, my, oh, my!"
"Don"t worry. I"m not going to let that happen," Nellie said firmly. "I"ll find a way to get us out of here. Just let me think about it for a while." She sat down, trying not to let on how scared she felt inside. Right then she couldn"t see any way to escape. Even if she could come up with a plan to get the boys caught, there was no guarantee it would work. Or even if it did, there was no way of knowing if the boys would let on about where she and Florrie were. Things weren"t looking too bright at all.
It wasn"t until late that evening that Elizabeth remembered the proofs still tucked into her handbag. She"d meant to leave them at Priscilla"s flat with Fiona, but the news of Florrie"s disappearance had thrust it from her mind.
Annoyed with herself for her befuddled state of late, she took out the photographs and eagerly looked through them. She found what she was looking for almost at once. A shot of her and Earl, standing side by side, toasting each other with gla.s.ses of champagne in their hands.
They were smiling at each other, a private moment that had been caught by d.i.c.kie Muggins"s shrewd eyes and recorded for posterity. Feeling more than a little guilty, Elizabeth slipped the proof into her desk drawer. Priscilla would not miss that one, she rea.s.sured herself. Neither she nor Wally were in the picture.
Quickly she thumbed through the rest of them. Both she and Earl were in several of the candid shots of the guests, but at a distance, and not noticeable at all. Perhaps later on she would ask d.i.c.kie to print an enlargement from the proof she"d kept, and she would have it framed as a gift for Earl.
She studied a picture of guests, helping themselves to food from the long table with the wedding cake in the background. There was Malcolm and Fiona, laughing together, and on the other side of the table was Rodney saying something in his wife"s ear. Daphne didn"t appear too happy with what he had to say. A fierce frown marred her face, and her hunched shoulders suggested she was agitated about something. Remembering Rodney"s mention of Daphne"s headache that evening, she wondered again if they"d been arguing.