Page 59 of Air Of Mystery
Camilla had impulsively volunteered to escort George and Larry to the museum room to give them a private mini tour after she finished her interview. Which was great as it allowed Larry to film the amethysts and ask questions about the other items of note that were being displayed in the museum.
George’s rule of no information about a location was out the window this time. Everyone local knew the story of the missing bride and the lost and then found dowry. But neither he nor Larry knew about Jacques or the newly revealed passage.
Before he’d left on his tour, Larry had switched the camera around so that it faced me, and we’d added another chair for Gabriella to sit beside her son—where they would remain off camera.
As soon as they sat down, Archer pulled a piece of folded paper from his jeans pocket. “Here, Skye,” he said, handing it to me. “I drew this for you, so you would know what Jacques looks like.”
I accepted the paper and unfolded it. Archer had drawn a picture of a boy with a pencil and colored it in with crayon. While it was a child’s drawing, there were a few things noticeable right away.
First, Jacques had been depicted with brown hair. Secondly his pants were short, coming to right below the knee—likely breeches—and they were striped. Thirdly, the drawing of Jacques showed him holding something in his hand.
“What’s he holding?” I asked Archer, being careful not to use his name on camera.
“It’s a scope,” Archer said.
I held the drawing up for the camera to capture. “This is great. And very helpful for our investigation.”
Archer began to smile.
“Can you tell me about the times that you saw Jacques here at the mansion?” I asked him.
“Sure,” Archer said. And then he forgot about the camera and simply talked to me.
I kept the interview brief. As soon as we were finished, I stood up and walked over to the camera. “Archer, you were amazing!”
He smiled. “You think I did okay?”
I went back and gave him a hug. “You were one of the best interviews I’ve ever done.”
“Danielle was mad thatshewasn’t going to get to talk to you about the ghosts,” he confided.
That made me grin. “Well, it was important for me to talk to you. Since he showed you the secret passage first.”
“Yeah.” Archer nodded. “And I heard Zoe crying first too. But Danielle said she’d take her back to the wedding, ‘cuz we figured people might be looking for her.”
“I’m sure your parents were very proud of all of you for helping the flower girl who was lost.”
“We are,” Gabriella said. “We’ve put new cameras in that passageway; and the panel that was in the main ballroom has been sealed up—we nailed it shut. So no one, or no child will ever accidentally be able to get stuck inside of there again.”
“So the entrance in Charlie’s office is still accessible?” I asked.
Gabriella nodded. “It is. And the others we’ve found in the family wing are, but we’ve got cameras with motion detectors on them now.”
“That’s smart,” I told her, and while I clicked off my camera, I made a mental note to put an additional video camera in Charlie’s office tomorrow night when we investigated.
While I wasn’t a psychic like George, I had a hunch we’d catch something if we did.
CHAPTER TEN
Once we wrapped everything up with the interviews and Larry got the shots of the museum and the interiors of the mansion, the three of us met back up in the lobby at ten ‘til six. Together we exited out the side and cut through the gardens, walking over to the carriage house to have dinner with Charlie.
I had offered to come over early and help him with the meal prep, but he told me that he was ready to go. So, as I walked through the gardens with Larry and George, we chatted along the way.
“These gardens,” Larry began. “They could be in a magazine photo shoot. They’re amazing.”
“They are, aren’t they?” I agreed. “Now you understand why Cordelia was married in these very gardens this spring.”
George pointed toward the back of the gardens where they led into a rolling lawn that ultimately gave way to the woods. “That’s where Brynn’s wedding ceremony will be held, right?”
