He hadn’t exactly answered the inheritance question, and I now wanted to know if the mysterious spy woman was real. He hadn’t met my eyes when he answered the question. That’s the first time I felt he was lying.
* * * * *
Jake’s prison cell in the wine cellar was comfy, not at all what I imagined. He sat on a loveseat with end tables and lamps. A pint sized frig hummed in a kitchenette. He was surrounded with, and I’m not kidding, thousands of bottles of wine, arranged neatly around the walls of the room. The air was chilly, resulting from the automatically controlled room temperature that fine wines appreciate.
“Hi, Jake,” I said.
He looked from me to Hudson. “I see you found the easy way in.”
I smiled. “Taste any fine wines?”
“I’ll take whiskey any day.”
Hudson said, “If you will excuse me, I have the kitchen to clean and breakfast to arrange. Might there be anything else?”
It was clear Hudson did not want to involve himself anymore than necessary. I couldn’t blame him. The cottage in Cornwall beckoned.
“Thank you, Hudson. We appreciate your help,” I said. “By the way, when will your service end?”
“In two weeks. I have given notice. You’ll excuse me.” He removed himself from the room with his usual studied dignity.
“What now,” I said to Jake, “that I won your freedom?”
He scrubbed his face with both hands. “I need a shower and a decent meal. Wine just doesn’t do it for me. I need steak and eggs.”
“Right. Do you think the wine keeper hides out here?”
“Somebody must. The frig is stocked with chocolate and cheese.”
“Maybe that’s what they eat with wine tastings. This is a crazy house.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Let’s explore the underground while we’re here.”
“What for? I’m not working private investigation anymore.”
“No? Did Opal fire you?”
“Nope, gave my notice. That’s probably why she locked me up.”
“Have you noticed Opal is doing some strange stuff?”
“Yup. In my opinion, she needs to be institutionalized, sorry to say.”
“Agreed. Let’s look around. Aren’t you even curious?”
He shook his head. “I know too much about this family already.”
“Okay, then who inherited the money and the house?”
“Fiona, I can’t put a straight story together. I’ve followed lead after lead, and they all come to the same dead end. Albert died a natural death as far as I’m concerned. I’m headed back to Oregon.”
“What about Albert’s spy bimbo doing him in, and Opal wants us to exact revenge? Do you know who the bimbo is?”
“No. Opal’s story is the first I heard of her which leads me to believe it’s just a story.”
“I wonder,” I said, and let it go at that. What I really wondered was how I could find this woman. I put that on my to-do list. “We should look around. It won’t hurt.”
“I thought you resigned?”
“I’m just curious.”
He rose from the chair. “I’m not. I just want to get out of this place.”
The underground was byzantine. Brick arches framed the doors of the storage rooms. Everything was brick from walls to floors. The architecture was medieval English dungeon and didn’t go with the rest of the house. The storage doors were locked.
“Jake, don’t you think this is strange?” I said, after I had tried yet another locked door.
“Fits with the family.”
“What do you think they store in these rooms?”
“Brandy smuggled from France? Gold doubloons?”
I looked at him under the light of an iron trimmed lamp. “Jake, what if Albert was involved in smuggling?”
“Fiona, to tell you the truth I don’t know what Albert was involved in. If he was a spy, if he travelled a lot, he could have had any kind of weirdo worldwide connections. Who knows what he could have gotten himself into? And you know what? I don’t want to know.”
“What if there is a dead body behind one of these doors?”
“It would stink.”
“True. We need to find a key to these rooms.”
“Hudson has them.”
“Maybe there are extras. Did you ever store an extra key above the door ledge?”
“I never owned anything that needed to be locked up.”
I walked to the last locked door I tried and felt along the top of the arch. My fingers contacted cold metal.
“See, a key.” I slipped the antique key into the metal lock that looked like it came from The Man in the Iron Mask movie. The key turned smoothly in the lock. I pushed the door. It creaked. An odor reminiscent of oil and wood escaped the room. I pushed the door open further. All lay in darkness. I felt inside for a switch. Something with feet ran across my foot. I gave an unfeminine screech.
“What was that?” I said as I watched the little beast scurry down the hallway. My appetite for adventure went sour. Rodents were not in my romanticized version of a dungeon.
Jake craned his neck for a look. “A very large rat.”
“Yesh.” I shivered and pulled the sweater coat tighter. “You find the light switch.”
“This was your idea.”
“I know, but you’re the fearless cowboy.”
“I bet there’s bats in here, too,” he said with a grin.
I surveyed the dark ceiling above me like the little critters would be hanging from the bricks. “Don’t you find all this brick work unusual?”
“Never saw anything like it. Someone must be into dungeons and dragons.”
“Where do they use brick in cellars anymore?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care.” He was busy fingering the doorjamb. “Here it is.” A flood of light spilled over the room from a bare light bulb. The room was full of crates all the same size, long and narrow.
I cast a glance up and down the hall once more and then followed Jake into the room. I did not have a good feeling about those boxes. They were stacked against one wall, floor to ceiling.
Jake stood studying the stamps on the outside. “Don’t need to open these to know what they are. Says right here.” He pointed to the stenciled numbers on one case.
They meant nothing to me. “What are they?”
“Rifles. Looks like Albert traffics in weapons.”
Chapter 8
“Weapons trafficking?” I said, trying to get my mind around that concept. Jake and I stared at the boxes. Then I said, “This is quite a twist. If Albert traffics in weapons, he must have an accomplice. He wouldn’t be able to move this stuff in and out of here by himself.”
“Right and Hudson would be the likely culprit,” Jake said. “Then again, it could be anybody. Albert knew so many people.”
“The arrow keeps pointing back to Hudson, doesn’t it? I hope that’s not the case. Who would suspect an upstanding citizen like Albert of weapons trafficking?”
“Lots of places in the world use these kinds of rifles.”
“I’ve a feeling we shouldn’t be here.”
“I’ve a feeling you’re right, and this was your idea.”
Footsteps echoed in the corridor. Jake flipped off the light and pushed the door quietly shut.
“Why’d you do that?” I whispered.
“Because we shouldn’t be here. We shouldn’t know about these boxes.”
“You’re right.”
The footsteps stopped outside the door.
“Hello?” said a voice.
We made no sound. The key rattled in the lock.
I stifled a croak. “I left the key in the lock.”
“Yes, you did.”
“How was I to know someone was going to lock us in?”
“Locked in small rooms is getting to be a habit.”
The footsteps had not retreated. We waited. The key rattled in the lock again. The door swung in. The hall light outlined Cody’s slim cowboy figure.