Tippy looked concerned. “But Mommy wuvved you, she told me she did. I told her I wuv you, too.”
“Thank you, sweetie,” Lance said. “I love you, too.” He cut a sideways glance at Benjy. “I was going to be Tippy’s father.”
“You can still be my daddy, Wance.” Tippy let go of Peanut to lean over and give Lance a kiss on the cheek.
Benjy thought it was about time to change the subject. He felt increasingly uncomfortable. He believed that Lance really did love Tippy. He was like a big kid himself, but with Sondra gone, Lance really had no role in Tippy’s life other than as a family friend.
“Tell me about your fashion show,” Benjy said.
“Wance can do that,” Tippy said. “I have to potty.” She walked around Lance and headed for the door.
Benjy followed her into the hallway and watched until she closed the bathroom door behind her. He kept an eye toward the bathroom, but he wanted to question Lance.
“You said you thought Sondra had changed her mind and was interested in another man,” he said. “Do you have any idea who it was?”
“No,” Lance said. “Sondra wouldn’t tell me. I think he was a lot older than her, though.” He frowned. “I don’t know why she’d want to marry an old guy. We really could have had a lot of fun together.”
Benjy kept his eye on the bathroom door. He decided to risk a question. “Aren’t you gay?”
Lance didn’t appear offended at the question. “What does that have to do with anything? Sondra knew, and it didn’t bother her. She told me she didn’t like, well, you know, having sex.” He blushed.
Benjy couldn’t resist rolling his eyes at that, but he was glad Lance couldn’t see him doing it. “So you were going to marry her, and the two of you were just going to have fun together?”
“Sondra wanted to get married so she could have her money from her daddy,” Lance said. “And she promised to take me to New York so I could be discovered and be a famous model. But I wasn’t supposed to tell anybody.” He frowned, as if considering that.
The bathroom door opened, and Tippy emerged. She trotted back to Benjy and slipped past him into the room. Benjy sighed and closed the door. He leaned against it for a moment, thinking. He had a lot to tell Miss An’gel and Miss Dickce, but for now he was going watch the big kid give the little kid a fashion show.
Dickce awoke to the noise of sirens sounding from somewhere close by. She also awoke with a cat curled up on the spare pillow next to her. “Endora, what on earth is going on?” Dickce sat up on the side of the bed and tried to gain her bearings. She had been sound asleep and felt groggy.
The sirens persisted, and now they sounded like they were right outside her window. Slowly she got up from the bed and went to peer out the window overlooking the rear of the house. She blinked in surprise at the sight of an ambulance and a police car pulled up in front of the servants’ quarters. Her heart sank. She was afraid Jackson had collapsed, the strain of Mireille’s loss too much for him to bear.
Now completely awake, she slipped on her shoes and opened the bedroom door. She cast a glance back at the cat. Endora seemed perfectly content to remain where she was, so Dickce left her in the room. Benjy was already on the stairs, his head and shoulders disappearing as she reached the top of the flight.
She called out to him, and he stopped to look back. Dickce hurried down a few steps until she was two above him. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”
“No, ma’am,” he said. “I was on my way to find out.”
“What about Tippy?” she asked. “Perhaps I should stay with her and let you go on.”
“It’s okay,” Benjy said. “Lance is with her.”
“Lance?” Dickce cast a doubtful glance up the stairs in the direction of Tippy’s room.
“She’ll be fine with him,” Benjy said. “He’s really good with her. Come on, let’s go find out what the sirens are all about.”
Dickce followed him down, but at a slower pace. By the time she reached the foot of the stairs, Benjy was entering the kitchen. Dickce wondered where An’gel was. Probably smack-dab in the middle of the action. She hurried to the kitchen.
Dickce was thrilled to see Jackson when she walked out the back door. He stood with Benjy a few feet away. They were watching the scene unfold at the servants’ quarters, but from a safe distance. Dickce joined them.
The ambulance and the police car blocked the view of the far end of the building. Dickce thought Estelle’s apartment was on that end. Jackson’s, she remembered, was the one closest to the house.
“What’s going on, Jackson?” Dickce asked.
Jackson turned to her with a frown. “I’m not rightly sure, Miss Dickce. Miss An’gel went over to Estelle’s a little while ago, and the next thing I know, sirens are screaming, and they come tearing around the side of the house.” He nodded in the direction of the ambulance and the police car.
“Is An’gel still over there?” Dickce wished her sister would turn up.
“I believe so,” Jackson said.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Benjy said. “Look, here she comes.”
An’gel, escorted by Officer Sanford, was indeed walking toward the house. Dickce hurried forward to meet them. She wanted to assure herself that An’gel was all right.
An’gel looked okay, Dickce decided when she was five feet away. But she was holding on to the young policeman’s arm like a lifeline.
“Sister, what happened?” Dickce said. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” An’gel said. “A bit shaken up, but I’ll do.” She released her grip on Sanford’s arm. “Thank you, young man. I’ll go on to the house with my sister. When you need me, you can find me in the kitchen.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Sanford ducked his head, then turned and walked back to the action.
Dickce took her sister’s arm and led her toward the house.
“Tell me what happened,” she said. “Is something wrong with Estelle?”
“There sure is,” An’gel said grimly. “She’s dead.”
“Oh dear,” Dickce said. “Did she have a heart attack?”
“No,” An’gel replied. “She was poisoned, and I believe I saw her killer.”
CHAPTER 30
An’gel thanked her sister for the cup of hot tea. After she had a few sips, she said, “I’ve never seen someone die like that, and I hope I never do again.”
“Do you feel up to talking about it?” Dickce asked.
An’gel shuddered. “It’s probably better if I do.” She looked at her sister across the kitchen table, then at Jackson and Benjy on either side.
“I went there to ask her some questions,” An’gel said. “I was determined that she was finally going to talk to me. I wanted to know about the antique wedding gown.” She recounted her finding of the scrap that led her to search for the intact gown and its discovery in Mireille’s bedroom. “Estelle knew that the gown Sondra destroyed was a fake. I asked her if she put Sondra up to destroying it as a joke, and she said she didn’t.”
“Did she know who did?” Dickce asked. “That is, if anyone did put the idea in Sondra’s head.”
“I think she did know,” An’gel said. “She told me once before there were things she knew that others weren’t aware of, and I got the impression from that conversation that she expected to use that knowledge to her advantage.”
“She was nosy,” Jackson said. “Always poking her nose into everything. I told her once, she kept doing that, somebody was going to bite her nose off.”
“Somebody did, so to speak,” An’gel said grimly. “While we were talking, she poured herself some whiskey, several fingers in fact, then she knocked it all back at one go.” She paused as the mental image of Estelle’s death rictus flashed through her brain. “Then she started shaking and grabbing at her throat like she couldn’t breathe. Next thing I knew she was on the floor, dead.”