“No problem. And if all else fails, you’d make a great nurse.”
“Not a chance. I hate hospitals.”
“I’m staying right here,” Spence announced emphatically. “Not here as in Astrid’s Castle,” he explained, on their blank stares. “Here in New York.”
“What about your promotion to the Coast?” Hannah asked him.
“I’m turning it down.”
“Spence, what are you talking about?” she demanded. “That job is everything you’ve been working toward for years. You’re about to become a heavy hitter. What are you, crazy?”
“No, totally sane,” Spence said, grinning at her. “It just so happens my priorities have come into acute focus over the past twenty-four hours, and Panorama Studios isn’t one of them. But, listen, I’ll put in a good word for you before my name turns to total poop. If you decide to pitch them that idea about Ada, I mean.”
“That would be awfully nice of you, Spence,” she said gratefully.
“No problem. Friends help friends out.”
Mitch went back over to the pool table and broke, thinking about how bizarre this all seemed-Hannah and Spence sitting there chatting about their futures as if nothing unusual had just happened. As if no one had been murdered. As if no one’s future plans actually consisted of life in prison without chance of parole. Because somebody in this castle, in this very room, was a killer.
But who?
Mitch sank the nine ball with his break and went to work on the table as Teddy sat there at the bar, sipping his Scotch, lost in his thoughts.
Aaron was caught up in some thoughts of his own. “Spence, what were you and Des talking about upstairs?”
“Personal things.”
“What sort of personal things?”
“The sort that are none of your damned business,” Spence said to him abruptly. “That’s what makes them personal.”
Jase turned away from the window to look at Spence curiously. Actually, they were all looking at Spence curiously. Except for Isabella, who had fallen asleep.
“Spence, it so happens that this is my business,” Aaron informed him loftily. “It’s my family that’s dying here. It’s my castle.”
“Well, I’m not yours,” Spence shot back. “So shut the hell up before I take a swing at you, you pompous boob.”
“I’ve got twenty bucks on the blond guy,” Teddy jumped in eagerly.
“Teddy, you are not helping,” Carly chided him. “And neither are you, Acky. Calm down, and kindly lose your new lord-of-the-manor act before I take a swing at you myself.”
“You’re right, you’re right.” Aaron immediately backed down, chastened. “I apologize, Spence. I’m merely upset. I want to know what’s going on.”
“We all do, kiddo,” Teddy said.
“Nobody knows,” Carly said, swallowing. “Except for the person who did this, that is.”
“A condition which I find completely unacceptable,” Aaron said.
“It’s strictly a temporary condition,” Mitch assured him, dropping the eleven ball in a corner pocket. He still hadn’t yielded the shot to Aaron yet. If nothing else, this was turning into a very profitable winter storm. “Des will get to the bottom of this soon enough.”
“You sound awfully confident,” Aaron said.
“I am. I believe in her.”
“How will Des get to the bottom of this?” Teddy wondered.
“By being smarter than the average bear, that’s how,” Mitch replied. “She’ll lick this. And her reinforcements from the Major Crime Squad will be landing here before you know it. If they have to, they’ll analyze every single hair and fiber of clothing in Ada’s room until they find what they need. Which they will. Whoever did this can’t go anywhere. So just try to relax. Let the professionals handle it.”
“Mitch is totally right,” Spence said. “And speaking for myself, I am totally starved. I may have to eat my shoe if Jory doesn’t get in here soon with those sandwiches.”
“She should be back by now,” Jase said fretfully. “What’s taking her so long?”
“She’s talking to Des,” Mitch reminded him. “She’s okay, Jase.”
“What if she’s not?” Jase had started pacing around the taproom, scratching furiously at his beard.
“As long as she’s with Des, she’ll be perfectly safe,” Mitch said.
“No, she won’t!” Jase moaned. He was over by the fireplace now, wringing his hands, breathing heavily.
And they were all studying him in guarded silence.
“Why not, Jase?” Mitch asked.
Jase didn’t answer. Just paced in anxious silence, scratching at his beard so hard it was almost as if he wanted to tear it from his face.
“Jase, is there something you want to tell us?” Mitch pressed him gently. “Do you know something?”
“She knows.” He was over behind the bar now. “Des knows.”
“Knows what, Jase? What does Des know?”
“That… that…” Jase let out a strangled sob, then lunged suddenly for something that was stashed under the bar.
It was a handgun.
And he was pointing it at them, his eyes bright and wild.
“Oh, I don’t believe this,” Carly groaned.
“Y-You just shut up!” he stammered, aiming the gun right at her. “I know all about w-what you think of me. And you can just shut up. I… I run things now!”
“Sure, you do, Jase.” Mitch could feel his heart begin to race. And his mouth was very dry. “Just take it easy. We’re all friends here.”
“Bullshit!” Jase cried out. “We are not friends!”
“Is that thing loaded?” Aaron inquired. “Do we know for an actual fact that it’s loaded?”
“It sure is,” Teddy said. “No point in keeping it there if it’s not.”
Mitch frowned at Teddy. “You knew it was there?”
“Les bought it last year after he was held up in here by a pair of drunken louts from Rhode Island. It’s a Smith and Wesson, I believe he said. A thirty-eight.”
“You knew it was there?” Mitch repeated in disbelief. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“It’s no use, Mitch,” Teddy replied with a vague wave of his hand. “I’m no good at the responsibility thing.”
“And that’s supposed to make it okay?” Aaron roared at him. “The fact that you’re a nitwit?”
“Why are you yelling at me?” Teddy protested. “He’s the one with the gun.”
“God, shut up, shut up, shut up!” Jase screamed at them. “All of you just… shut… up!”
They went silent, all eyes on the emotionally fragile young caretaker who was standing there behind the bar with the loaded thirty-eight.
“What’s going on, Jase?” Mitch asked him, trying to keep his voice calm.
“I’m the boss of you now, that’s what,” Jase said toughly as he edged his way out from behind the bar, waving the gun at them as if it were something alive, something he could barely restrain. “And I’m tired of being pushed around.”
“Nobody’s pushing you, man,” Spence said. “Just chill out and put down the gun.”
“He’s right, Jase,” Mitch agreed. “Let’s not lose our cool here.”
“I’m not losing anything,” Jase argued. “Mitch, put your hands behind your head right now. Go on, do it.”
Mitch obliged him, making no sudden moves. He did not want to stampede him into firing that gun.
“Now take me to Jory,” Jase ordered him. “Jory needs me.”
“I can definitely do that, Jase,” Mitch said. “But are you absolutely sure this is what you want to do? Because once we walk out of this room together, there’s no going back.”
“Hell, yeah, I’m sure.” Jase gave him a hard shove toward the taproom doorway, jabbing him in the back with the nose of the thirty-eight. “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life. Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 16
“Wwhat Digoxin?” Jory gazed across the kitchen table at Des, mystified. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that a colleague of mine just hooked up by cell phone with Tom Maynard, our friendly home-town pharmacist.”
“Sure, I know Tom,” Jory said easily. “I went through school with his oldest girl, Tabitha. She got married last summer to Casey Earle. Casey’s major dull, but his dad owns Tri-County Paving so who cares, right?” She paused, shaking her head at Des. “What about Tom?”