Treacherous Toys (30 page)

“We’ll have to make do without him then, my lady. I would be honored to share my bed with you. No need for you to sleep in a hammock below deck. A woman of your cunning and beauty deserves special attention.”

I really wanted to help the children, but if it meant
spending the night in Rafe’s bed, we’d have to find another way. I hoped I could circumvent that problem, but it might not be possible.

“I appreciate the offer, King Rafe.” I got up and put my wineglass on the table. “But I can’t leave the kids alone. Imagine what they’re going through after their father’s murder and finding their mother poisoned. They need me with them.”

I thought for one long moment that he would lose his cool and forget his compassion. To his credit, he did neither. He bowed handsomely to me and smiled. “Then I wish you well, Lady Jessie. Sleep sweet. I shall see you on the morrow.”

I curtsied deeply. “We are in your debt. Good night.”

Rafe stayed in his cabin while I crossed the deck to the stairs that led below. I breathed a sigh of relief. That problem was narrowly averted. I was surprised how much he’d matured since becoming king.

The night was crystal clear with a small crescent moon hanging above us in the dark sky. The Village slept in holiday splendor while the castle rose stately behind us.

As I started down the stairs into the interior of the ship, I glanced toward the manor houses at Squire’s Lane, wishing I’d brought the note I’d found on the refrigerator with me. If I hadn’t been so worried about the kids and Christine, I would’ve remembered it. I wasn’t going down there this late. It was just going to have to wait until morning.

The light caught on a dark figure gliding between the shops and attractions. It seemed the black widow was on the prowl again.

W
as she checking to see if Christine was at the manor house so she could finish the job she’d started? I wished I’d thought about it sooner. I could’ve set myself up, pretended to be Christine, and caught her in the act. Obviously she hadn’t been able to replace her gun, so she’d resorted to poison. I’d be safe taking her on. Too bad the time had passed for that deception.

I watched her as she slid up the stairs to the manor house where Christine and the kids were staying. It made my blood run cold to think we could have all been asleep in there, waiting for her to come and do her worst. What kind of person hurt kids anyway? Hurting her ex-husband—I might be able to understand that even though they’d been divorced twenty years. Even Christine. Of course, I had no hard proof that she wanted to hurt the kids—

Enough!
No more speculation. It was time to end this. No one was going to distract me from catching Alice.

I looked at my cell phone in the torchlight. There was no point in bothering to put it on silent mode. The battery was dead. Chase wasn’t going to be able to get in touch with me.

I didn’t need it, or him, for this anyway. All I had to do was follow her long enough to see where she went to roost. After that, I could call in the police from someone else’s phone.

For a brief moment, I considered that I could be wrong. This might be some innocent resident of the Village who had been happier with Halloween than Christmas. But if that was the case, I’d just end up feeling stupid. No harm, no foul.

I managed to get off of the ship without being caught by the watch. I still felt safe leaving the kids, even though their security wasn’t as good as I’d thought, since I’d managed to sneak out. There were still a lot of pirates to get through if anyone tried to get onboard and mess with them. Besides, I knew the
Queen’s Revenge
well. It was doubtful that Alice had spent time there, too.

I tried not to worry about the kids and focused on the black widow. If I lost her again, it might be for the last time.

I sneaked past Eve’s Garden and the bright lights the maintenance crew had on to clean out the fountain near Our Lady’s Gemstones. I didn’t want her to see me and get spooked again.

I moved stealthily past the privies and around the Treasure Trove and Leather and Lace. There was no sign of my quarry.
She could still be inside the manor house.

I decided to wait near the first aid station. It was only a hunch that she’d want to avoid the bright lights illuminating the King’s Highway, too. She had kept away from the residents there when I’d tracked her earlier.

That meant she would have to backtrack, going toward the Main Gate and back up to the castle.

Of course, that would mean she was going to the castle,
as it had appeared when I’d followed her the first time. If she had other ideas, she could come out of Squire’s Lane and head down toward the Field of Honor. If that happened, I’d lose her. But I stuck with my hunch and waited where I was.

I listened to the sound of sweet harp music, probably coming from the Merry Mynstrel’s Stage where Susan Halifax was practicing. Beyond that, I heard the trumpeting of a restless elephant at the other end of the Village. Though very few lights were on in the shops and resident housing, the Village certainly wasn’t quiet.

I was getting restless and bored, wishing something would happen. I didn’t exactly relish the thought of spending the night below deck in a hammock with a bunch of snoring pirates, but standing out here waiting wasn’t a picnic either.

Maybe I was kidding myself that I had any idea at all about who’d killed Chris or how it had happened, or who had hurt Christine. For all I knew, she had taken too many sleeping pills—maybe she just couldn’t deal with everything anymore. Not everyone could face what she was facing.

I was just about to talk myself out of waiting any longer when the Lady in Black glided right by me on the cobblestones. If I’d sneezed, she would’ve been close enough to bless me.

I held my breath and didn’t move. My heart was pounding so hard, I was afraid she’d hear it.

Her veil was so heavy that I couldn’t possibly guess whose face was under it, even that close. I had a feeling that she’d be hidden by it even in daylight.

I waited after she passed, counting to one hundred (something I saw a private detective do once in a movie), then stepped carefully out of my hiding place.

I felt the thrill of excitement tinged with fear when I saw
that my hunch was correct. She was making her way toward the castle, slipping to the side of the climbing wall and up close to Mirror Lake.

I held back and caught my breath as she slowed down close to where the
Queen’s Revenge
was rocking gently at anchor. It wasn’t possible that she already knew where the kids were staying. Even if she did, she was one woman against a large troupe of crazy pirates. They’d protect the kids. Everything would be okay.

The pep talk worked and I started breathing again as she edged up along the lake, past the Lady of the Lake Tavern and the Feathered Shaft.

I was right behind her, hugging the shadows, almost scared to move, my gaze glued on her.

I was surprised when she bypassed the castle gate.
Where is she going?
There was nothing on the far side of the castle except for trees and shrubs. Chase had told me once that the only addition the Village had made to this wilderness area was holly bushes. The spiky leaf bushes would deter most visitors from straying here. The wall that surrounded the Village continued behind the castle, but it was reinforced with barbed wire.

There was nothing back there. I’d gone that way once with Chase when he was looking for a missing child. The back of the castle was a solid concrete wall with no entrances. I wasn’t sure if there was even a window.

But the lady I followed was on her own path. She didn’t seem to mind the holly bushes and kept going. I had to bite my tongue a few times to keep from swearing when the prickly leaves got me. I didn’t remember the bushes being so tall last time. They got me in the neck, face, and shoulders as well as the arms and hands. I hoped they weren’t poisonous. Chase hadn’t said anything about that.

I continued to follow along the broad base of the old airport control tower turned castle. I couldn’t figure out where she was going. I could see the lights from the parking lot beyond the wall and the trees that shielded the castle.

Suddenly I knew where she was going. Though the castle was mostly self-sustaining—the castle staff did all the cooking and laundry—the operation still required deliveries. The trucks pulled in to drop off food and other supplies at the opposite end of the castle entrance. The delivery area was separated from the Village and the cobblestone attractions by a high wall so that visitors never had to lose their illusion about the castle.

I knew there were at least two doors at this end. One was the big loading-dock door. The other was a metal door. Both of them were kept locked, day and night, for fear someone would wander in from the Village and get hurt.

The keys were closely guarded—which was why I hadn’t thought about her coming this way. Only a few castle residents had copies of them. One of them was Rita. Gus had one. And so did Esmeralda.

I didn’t want to think that any of those three people I knew so well were involved in killing Chris, but it was beginning to seem that way.

The black figure before me didn’t have to pause and open anything—the smaller metal door that delivery men used to come in and have their paperwork signed was open. She closed it behind her. I hoped she didn’t lock it. I’d come too far and gone through too much pain from the holly bushes to lose her.

I waited, counting to ten this time. I didn’t have the patience left to count to one hundred. If she had locked the door, I was dead in the water. It might be possible to search the castle and find the black gown, veil, and gloves, but that
wasn’t proof of anything. There might be ten costumes like it in the Village, even though it wasn’t Renaissance garb. I had to catch the woman in the dress to confront her.

I put my hand on the doorknob and hoped it was regularly maintained so that it didn’t squeak. I closed my eyes, said a little prayer, and slowly turned it.

To my surprise, the door swung open easily. Thinking back on it, that should have given me a clue right there.

Quickly, before anyone could spot me sneaking in, I closed the door behind me. With my back against it, I faced the castle supply area.

Every grocery or toiletry that was used in the castle started out here. There were giant-sized boxes of detergent, bales of toilet paper, freezers of frozen meat, and huge burlap bags of fresh vegetables.

It was like a storehouse of necessities that made castle life good for royalty and servants alike. This area was closely monitored to protect against thievery. Even so, there were always missing items that couldn’t be accounted for. When I’d worked at the castle, scullery maids and kitchen wenches were frequently accused of stealing everything from food to toiletries.

The bad thing was—the Lady in Black could be anywhere.

There was only the barest lighting in this section. I knew there were brighter lights on the ceiling, but I didn’t know where to find the switch. With all the cans and boxes stacked around me, I was an easy target—she could be behind any of them. Or maybe she’d already left the area and gone back to her own room. I was completely convinced now that she lived in the castle.

Fat lot of good it did me. With no proof of having seen her, what could I say to Detective Almond? I knew Chase
believed that I’d seen her earlier in the Village, but he couldn’t do anything to help either.

I was about to go back outside when I noticed that there were two sets of dewy footprints on the dry concrete floor. Mine were clearly the big ones. They walked all over the smaller prints—but only until I’d reached the huge boxes of macaroni and cheese. Clearly someone in the castle was a fan of that particular side dish.

I stepped back to see where the small footprints led and then followed them, walking behind them this time, carefully preserving them as a trail. They led around the dry goods and the refrigerators. They circled the large cans of chicken broth and finally stopped at a door.

It looked like a closet door or maybe the entrance to another pantry. I carefully opened it (pushing my luck, I know) and found a stairway. It was dusty and full of cobwebs, as though it hadn’t been used in many years. But the damp footprints led up the stairs, leaving a trail in the thick dust.

I thought a minute about following the Lady in Black up the stairs. I had no idea where she was going and no way to let anyone know where I was. I considered writing a note in the inch-thick dust, just in case, but that seemed a little extreme. So far she’d stayed one step ahead of me. I probably wouldn’t catch her now. She probably knew some secret passage back to the main living quarters.

I was probably safe. I knew she didn’t have a gun—we’d found that—although she could have a knife. Obviously I wasn’t going to eat or drink anything she might offer me. If it came down to it, I could always tackle her. I was bigger, probably stronger, and younger, if it was Alice. I could take her.

With that cleared up, I crept up the stairs. They were made of wood, so they creaked and groaned with every
step. If she was at the top of the stairs, she’d have to know I was coming. But there was no other way up.