“Yes, it did,” Henry Howard said a bit sheepishly. “I tried it out a couple of times, going into the room and moving things, and nobody caught on. The maids and Mary Turner all assumed that it was a spirit, because the door and the windows are always kept locked.”
“Couldn’t you have done the same thing by going through the door or one of the windows?” An’gel asked.
Henry Howard shrugged. “I guess, but it might have been more noticeable. If I went in to use the bathroom, no one would think twice about it if they saw me going in or coming out. I always ran water in the sink and flushed the toilet before I came out of the bathroom.”
“Do you think anyone else knows about this secret panel?” An’gel asked.
“I don’t think so,” Henry Howard said. “I think Mary Turner’s father might have known, but if he did, he never told her about it.”
“Did you tell her earlier when you confessed to being the ghost?” An’gel asked.
“I didn’t get the chance,” Henry Howard said. “She blew up at me before I could tell her, and then you and Miss Dickce came into the kitchen.”
“I see.” An’gel would definitely ask Mary Turner about it. She had one more question for Henry Howard now.
“Did you enter the French room through the secret panel last night in order to murder Nathan Gamble?”
CHAPTER 31
An’gel watched Henry Howard carefully to gauge his reaction to her question.
“No, I most certainly did not kill Nathan Gamble,” Henry Howard said, immediately and firmly. He stared An’gel straight in the eye when he said it, and she believed him.
She told him so, and he looked relieved. “But you did sneak into the room through the secret panel last night.” She deliberately made it a statement rather than a question.
“How did you know?” Henry Howard said. “Are you sure you’re not the psychic?” he added in a jocular tone.
“I’m no psychic,” An’gel said, “but I do have a good memory. For example, I remember this morning you asked me how I had slept. When I told you that I had slept fine, you seemed a bit taken aback. That seemed an odd reaction, but I didn’t think much about it at the time. Once I knew about your ghostly activities, I remembered it and reevaluated it.”
“You’re right,” Henry Howard said. “I did sneak in there last night with the intent to frighten you a little. I had a small flashlight with a weak beam, but I couldn’t see well because I had a mask on. I didn’t realize it wasn’t you in the bed.”
“Did you get any kind of reaction from whatever your little performance entailed?” An’gel asked.
Henry Howard frowned. “I’m not really sure. I thought I heard a moan or two, but I’m not even sure that it came from the person on the bed. I didn’t get real close to the bed, you see. I stayed close to the wardrobe in case I needed to make a fast exit.”
“That’s, what, maybe four feet away from the bed?” An’gel asked.
“About that, yes,” Henry Howard replied.
“Did you see any movement on the bed?” An’gel wondered whether Nathan Gamble was alive or dead when Henry Howard was in the room.
Henry Howard thought about that for a moment. “No, I don’t think so. Does this mean you think he was already dead when I went in?”
“It’s entirely possible,” An’gel said. “What time was it?”
“A few minutes past midnight,” Henry Howard said. “I came home a little before eleven, and Mary Turner was sound asleep in our room. I looked in on her and then went to the library to wait until midnight. I actually read for a while. Then I came back upstairs to do my ghost bit.”
“Did you see anybody else when you arrived home last night?” An’gel said. “Notice anyone’s lights on, anything that might indicate someone else was up?”
“For an alibi, you mean?” Henry Howard asked.
“Partly,” An’gel said.
Henry Howard frowned while he thought about it. “I remember seeing light under a bedroom door when I went up to check on my wife. From Primrose Pace’s room, or whatever her real name is.”
“Alesha Jackson,” An’gel said. “Was the light on both ways? That is, when you went to the room and then when you went downstairs?”
“When I went to the room, I’m sure it was,” Henry Howard said. “But I can’t remember whether it was on the way back.”
“Of course, having a light on in the room doesn’t mean she was in there,” An’gel said, more to herself than to Henry Howard.
“No, guests go out all the time and leave lights burning,” Henry Howard said.
“While you were in the library, could you hear anyone moving about the house?”
“No,” Henry Howard said. “I closed the door to keep the light from shining into the hall, and that cuts off a lot of sound.”
“What bedroom is over the library?” An’gel said. “Isn’t it the room Alesha Jackson is in?”
“Yes, you’re right,” Henry Howard said. “So I guess you want to know if I heard anything overhead.”
An’gel nodded.
He shook his head. “Not that I recall.”
An’gel couldn’t think of another question for him. Now came the hard part—persuading him to tell his story to Lieutenant Steinberg.
“Lieutenant Steinberg needs to hear all this,” An’gel said. “He doesn’t know about the secret panel, and he will want his people to examine it. You say no one else knows about it, but you can’t be completely certain. If someone else did use it to get into the French room to murder Nathan Gamble, then there could be evidence, as long as you didn’t destroy it when you went through the panel, that is.”
Henry Howard appeared dazed by the flood of words. Then his face cleared. “I know you’re right, but I don’t look forward to telling him. What if he thinks I killed Nathan Gamble?” Now he started to look panicky.
“There’s a possibility he could think you’re the killer,” An’gel said. “But my impression of him is that he’s tough and a stickler for doing things right. That includes arresting the right person. Dickce and I will stand behind you, and I’m sure Mary Turner will, too.”
“Thank you,” Henry Howard said. “I hope you’re right about my wife. When she gets as angry as she did when I told her what I’d done, it can take her a long time to cool down, and she’s not always reasonable again until she does.”
“She’ll come around,” An’gel said. “Don’t you worry.” Because I’ll see that she does, she added silently.
“I guess I’d better get in touch with the lieutenant,” Henry Howard said.
“Yes, but before you do, I thought of one more question,” An’gel said with a quick smile. “Just to satisfy my curiosity. What kind of mask were you wearing? I want to know what you thought may frighten me.”
“It wasn’t anything horrible, like a demon or a monster,” Henry Howard said. “It’s a woman’s face that is made up to look like an otherworldly spirit. With a little light shining on it, it’s creepy looking, I think.”
“That might have spooked me a little,” An’gel said. “But it would never have been enough to achieve your purpose.”
“I realize that now,” Henry Howard said. “I hope you’ll forgive me, Miss An’gel.”
“I already have,” she said. “Now go make that phone call.”
Henry Howard rose. “I will, but will you talk to Mary Turner for me?”
“Yes,” An’gel said. “I’ll go look for her now.” She sat for a moment longer, until Henry Howard had left the room. She wasn’t sure exactly what she was going to say to Mary Turner in defense of Henry Howard. Perhaps the best strategy was simply to let Mary Turner talk to her, encourage her to let go of everything. She got to her feet. The kitchen was the first place to look, she decided, and she headed there.
Only Marcelline was in the kitchen, An’gel discovered. Upon being questioned about Mary Turner’s whereabouts, Marcelline shook her head. “I’m not sure, Miss An’gel. I know she was planning to talk to Serenity, but that was before she found out about Mr. Henry acting like he was a ghost. She was so upset, she might have gone somewhere to cool off.”