Page 36 of One Last Night

Footsteps pound down the stairs, and a moment later, I hear Beatrice call out, “Luann? What happened?”

I look to the end of the hall and see Grant behind Beatrice, the rest of the staff crowded behind him. The audience does nothing to help poor Luann, who bursts into tears and buries her face into her brother’s shoulder.

I stand where I am, my cheek stinging, powerless to do anything but watch this family fall apart.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The first gray tinge of dawn rises in the sky when the police return. Only two cars this time. Two of the four police officers talk to Julian, while two more talk to Luann. At her request, Nathan goes with her. Sean and I wait in the living room. For the time being, Victoria is allowed to remain upstairs, but the police make it clear to Julian that they'll need to speak to her, too.

Grant and Beatrice are in the great room with the servants. The police will want to take statements from them as well. Now that there’s evidence to implicate Robert Cartwright, the police will seek to gather any more evidence as they can.

“Are you all right?” Sean asks me after a few minutes.

I can only shake my head in reply.

He puts his arm around my shoulder and kisses my cheek. “You did the right thing.Wedid the right thing. This is painful, but it’s a lot less painful than Robert deciding he’s had enough and sending some thug with a gun.”

That sparks a thought in me. “Do you think he hired someone to do this?”

“I think so. I can’t imagine he’s so bloody foolish as to get his own hands dirty. Be a bit easier on all of us if he did, but that doesn’t seem likely.”

“I’ve been thinking about what Victoria said. Do you think it could be one of their employees?”

“I’m still leaning toward one of the staff,” Sean replies.

“I thought you said you’d investigated them.”

“I found that they had no reason to betray their employers, but plenty of people do things without good reason.”

“The police searched the house, though.”

“The tools wouldn’t be here.”

“But there would be trace evidence, wouldn’t there? ANFO is hard to clean up, isn’t it?”

“Not especially. Not more than any other explosive. I don’t know, it might not be a servant. Robert’s a man of means. He could afford to pay someone an exorbitant amount to do this. It could be anyone. I just feel like a member of the staff is more likely to have convenient access to the home.”

Guilt stabs me again. “I could have stopped this. If I had paid more attention, I could have noticed the servants behaving unusually. I could have gotten to know them and determined who would be likely to hurt the Bellamys this way.”

“You shouldn’t be too hard on yourself. You’re a good detective sometimes, but you’re also a governess. You’re not meant to solve everyone’s problems. Grant and Beatrice would have been more likely to know if someone was behaving strangely, and neither of them said anything.”

His words fail to comfort me, but that’s not his fault. Iama good detective sometimes, but this isn't one of those times. My past has caught up to my present and blinded me to what's happening around me. In past mysteries, I would have gotten to the bottom of this long before. The moment Luann told me about her secret meetings with Kevin, I would have made the connection between the two of them and the sabotage and pulled at that thread until I discovered the extent of Robert's hatred. I wouldn't have given up so easily getting to the bottom of the feud between Robert and Julian. I would have seen those diaries as more than just a salacious novel.

I’ve been a very poor detective indeed and not a better governess. I could stand on the technicality that I’m a tutor and not a babysitter in this case, but that’s a poor excuse. I should have done better.

The door opens, and Julian enters, followed by two police officers. He smiles thinly at me. “You’re up.”

“Miss Mary Wilcox?” the senior officer asks. “I’m Detective Jaleel. Will you please come with me?”

I stand. Sean squeezes my hand, and I manage a smile for him before following the officers into the hallway. They lead me to the library. That feels ironic, though I can’t say exactly why. It’s not as though the diaries have anything directly to do with the sabotage.

Except they do. Victoria’s affair with Robert is motive. If he resents her for breaking off their affair, then that might prompt him to these extremes. But should I tell the police what I know, or should I leave that to Victoria?

“Have a seat, Miss Wilcox.”

I take the offered seat—one of the two easy chairs in the room—and Detective Jaleel takes the other. The other officer remains standing off to the side with his hands clasped behind his back.

Detective Jaleel leans forward with his forearms on his thighs and folds his hands in front of his knees. “Why didn’t you tell us about the meetings between Luann Bellamy and Kevin Cartwright?”

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