Page 82 of Night Falls on Predicament Avenue
Effie stared at him with disbelief. “You could have killed me.”
“Actually, your sister was the primary reason for the intrusion.”
Effie tasted bile in her throat. A fierce defensiveness of Polly rose within her breast, pushing aside her reticence to confront him. “You would have murdered a dying woman?”
“Dying?” Patrick reared back. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea!” His sympathy was disingenuous. “But if your sister had not gone onto the porch—like you who chose to keep a proper distance—and if she had not peered through the windows, she wouldn’t have been traumatized by Isabelle’s untimely end.”
“Where is Isabelle?” Effie asked. Then she dared to inquire about what was truly haunting her. “Where is baby Cora?”
Patrick’s expression turned cynical. Touched with annoyance. He pushed away from the bedroom door and approached Effie. She backed away until she hit the wall behind her.
“Baby Cora. You know of her?” he sneered and released a short bark of laughter. “The reason for it all. The mess and thedelight and the labor of a plan long in the making. You know, Isabelle was very helpful—until she wasn’t.”
“It was you who took Cora?” Effie struggled to put the pieces together. The jigsaw puzzle of it all was overwhelming and perplexing.
“No!” Patrick waved her off. “Of course not! That was Isabelle.” He pondered something for a moment and then stepped even closer to Effie, his body threatening to push against hers, squeezing her between him and the wall. “That music box Bethany and I gifted you this afternoon?” He didn’t wait for Effie to acknowledge. “It was Isabelle’s. I met her while I was in England.” He nodded at Effie’s look of surprise. “Yes, I was in England last year. My father sent me abroad, and it was my time to make something of myself. My family might be known here in Shepherd, but I’ve debts. Monetary debts. Wooing an employee of an English lord? There were several ideas in the making. Isabelle called little Cora ‘the songbird,’ and she found the music box to be sentimental. In fact, I was quite pleased to get it back recently.” He chuckled. “It made a fine gift for Bethany, who in turn was sokindas to pass it along to you. What irony!”
“Isabelle cared for Cora?” Effie eyed the door behind Patrick. But reaching it would be almost impossible with him standing so close to her.
“Of course she did. Cora was like her own. She was more than compliant when I recommended that she leave with the baby. That the child needed her more, and that together we could be a family here in the States.”
“But you had no intention of that.” Effie was beginning to understand. To see the deviousness of his plan. Good Christian man? It was all a horrible façade.
“Of course not. I already had my sights on Bethany Todd. She is the most eligible young woman in Shepherd, and I’ve long admired her. However, that would never happen—not with the debts I’ve acquired. I need money, and I’m not going to myfather for it. Lord Mooring has plenty of money, however, and I was certain he would part with it in exchange for his daughter.”
“He’s never received a ransom request.” Effie glared as meanly as she could.
Patrick nodded. “Ah, I know. You see, it’s difficult to demand ransom for a child when you don’t actually have possession of it.” He gritted his teeth, and Effie felt the dotting of his saliva on her cheek as he spat out his next words.“Isabelle and her conscience. She was here in the house for a day when I met her here. Then she admitted she’d written weeks before to the child’s father. Lord Mooring was coming? Here? It was such a sad mess.”
“Where is Cora?” Effie blinked back angry tears. They would only give Patrick Charlemagne more satisfaction with his power over her.
“The better question is, where is Floyd?”
“What do you mean?”
“There were more than just you and Polly here that night.” Patrick reached out and ran his finger down Effie’s cheek, digging into her skin so she felt his fingernail leaving a mark. “And 322 Predicament Avenue is a place no one visits. So why? Why that night? The one night I’m here to meet Isabelle, to rid myself ofthatbit of traitorous baggage, the two of you showed up on the back porch, and Floyd Opperman came out of nowhere.”
“Floyd stopped you?” Effie pulled back in stunned surprise.
Patrick snarled. “No. Isabelle is dead. You yourself found the evidence of that.”
“And Cora?”
Patrick glowered, curling his upper lip in disdain. “This is what I would like to know. It would solve so many problems.”
30
NORAH
Present Day
THEWOMANCRAWLEDfrom the hole in the floor and scurried to Norah’s side. “Shhhh!” She looked frantically over her shoulder. “He’ll hear you!”
Norah’s throat and eyes burned with the realization. It couldn’t be Otto’s shed. The place no one ever went. His “man cave.” Why would he have a woman here? Why—?
“How long have you been here?” Norah whispered.
The woman shook her head. “I don’t know. Months maybe. I didn’t want to hurt Otto—don’t tell anyone.” Her frantic words made no sense. If Otto had held her here, why would she want to protect him and at the same time beg for help to get away? “Please don’t get Otto in trouble. He’s just an old man.”
