“Who strangled that fine old woman?”
Jory started snuffling again. “I don’t w-want to sit here talking about this anymore.”
“Hey, I don’t want to be sitting here talking about it either,” Des said to her roughly. “I’d much rather be sitting at home in a nice hot bubble bath, sipping fine cognac. But I’m not. I’m getting frostbite at Astrid’s Castle instead. So keep talking, before I lose my sweet disposition. I repeat: Who strangled her?”
“I sure couldn’t do it,” Jory said weakly. “And Les was way too chicken.”
“So you made Jase do it, didn’t you?” Des demanded, scowling at her.
“I did,” Jory admitted. “He was in the mudroom, tidying himself up when I went in there and laid it on the line. I told him, ‘Look, Ada somehow thinks I’ve killed Norma, and if we don’t head her off right away, she’s going to send me off to to jail.’ You see-” She broke off, her chest rising and falling. “There’s this one thing that Jase totally can’t cope with, and that’s being separated from me. As long as we’re together, he’s fine. But he needs me in his life. Otherwise, he’s lost.”
“So you pushed his hot button, is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes.”
“And he murdered Ada for you.”
“Faced with the prospect of losing me, Jase will do anything I ask him to do,” Jory stated matter-of-factly.
“You have an awesome amount of power over him, don’t you?”
Jory didn’t respond. Just sat there examining the crumbs on the cutting board.
“What’s really behind that, Jory?” Des asked, studying her closely. “Is it chemical?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sure you do. Those tranks you give him-is he addicted to them? Is that it?”
“Not really,” Jory replied, swallowing.
“Then what is it? How do you explain this power you have over him?”
“I just told you.” Jory’s voice rose defensively. “He can’t get along without me. The poor thing is just so fragile and innocent. He may seem like an adult to you, but in many ways he’s still a child.”
“Was he hip to the fact that you and Les had killed Norma?”
Jory shook her head. “I hadn’t dared tell him.”
“You just told him to kill Ada.”
“I did,” she acknowledged, turning woeful. “I shouldn’t have. I know that. Jase’s loyalty to me is something I’ve never, ever abused. But I did abuse it this morning. He… took the staff stairs. I told him to make it quick and quiet. And make sure no one saw him.”
“Did he wear gloves?”
“He did. Why?”
“He didn’t have any scratches on his hands, that’s why. Jory, let’s talk some more about Les, okay? There’s something I’m a bit confused about. You found out this morning that he’d lied to you about inheriting the castle, correct?”
“Correct,” Jory replied. “I heard him talking to Aaron about it in the taproom before breakfast. That’s when I realized that I’d been totally had.”
“And yet you didn’t let on to Les about it. Instead, you conspired with him to eliminate Ada. If you were already aware that Les had double-crossed you, how do you explain this?”
“One task at a time,” Jory answered simply.
“You just said what to me?”
“You can’t tackle every job at once. If you do that, you’ll get overwhelmed. That’s one of the secrets to running a successful inn. Norma taught it to me, actually. My immediate priority was Ada. Our immediate priority was Ada. So I let Les think I was still the stupid little slut he thought I was, and we took care of her.”
“Jase took care of her.”
Jory swallowed, her eyes filling with tears. “Yes.”
“And when that odious chore was disposed of, who took care of Les? Jase again?”
“When you banished all of us to solitary confinement, you put Jase and me in adjoining rooms. The bathroom vents connect. We could whisper to each other through them.”
“That’s when you told him to kill Les?”
“I didn’t have to. I just had to tell him how Les had used me. And how, given half a chance, he’d pin both murders on us. Les could, would put us away for life. I had no doubt. I made that clear to Jase.”
“This sounds a whole lot like you pushing his hot button again.”
“I did,” Jory admitted. “But this was something that absolutely needed doing. We couldn’t let Les destroy us. Jase knew this. Jase felt comfortable with this. Besides, he wanted to teach that disgusting old man a lesson. He was really upset about Les taking advantage of me physically.”
“You were with me in the hallway when I decided to let Les go downstairs for firewood with Mitch and Teddy,” Des recalled.
“I was, that’s right. As soon as you sent me back to my room, I told Jase that now was his chance. He went up to the third floor through his trapdoor and down the staff stairs. When they headed out to the woodshed, he followed them and killed Les.”
“Why didn’t he kill Mitch, too?”
“He likes Mitch. Mitch has been nice to him.”
“That’s my doughboy. Where are Jase’s wet things? His work boots, pants?”
“In the big freezer,” Jory said, glancing over at the walk-in commercial freezer in the new part of the kitchen. “Along with the gloves he had on when he killed Ada. He always keeps an extra pair of jeans and boots in the mudroom in case he needs them. I buy him the same brand of everything-four pairs of jeans at a time whenever they’re on sale, two pairs of boots. He jumped right into identical dry things and went back up to the third floor lickety-split. Finished drying off in Izzy’s bathroom and dropped back down into his room.”
“And now here we are.” Des continued to point her gun at Jory under the table.
“Here we are,” Jory acknowledged, puffing out her cheeks. “It’s too bad, really.”
“What is, Jory?”
“I’m thinking about those damned pills of Norma’s. Les shouldn’t have stolen them when he did. He should have waited until this week, when everyone else was here. If he had, you would never have figured this out.”
“Trust me, you would not have gotten away with this. No chance.”
Jory gazed at her curiously. “Really, why not?”
“Eventually, we would have brought Jase in for routine questioning, and there’s no way he would have held up. Not given how attached he is to you. If we’d played him even a tiny bit, told him that you’d confessed to the whole thing, he’d have caved in a heartbeat.”
Jory said nothing to that, just sat back in her chair with her arms crossed, watching Des.
“Jory, I’m curious about your state of mind right now,” Des said, studying her. “Because I’m getting such a strange vibe off of you. Are you at all sorry? Do you regret any of this?”
“Not one bit.” Jory sounded defiant now. “You try living in my skin for a few days. You’d have no regrets either. You can’t imagine with it’s like being saddled with him, Des. Having to watch over him every single minute of every single day. That boy can’t make up his mind about anything without my help. He’s a total baby. And ever since I was a teenager, he’s been the story of my life twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. No holidays. No vacations. No relief. No life. Not one boy in town would ever go out with me,” she complained, her voice rising. “Not if he was a decent, hardworking boy, a boy who was looking to build a life with somebody. Who’d want to take on me and that skulky, needy brother of mine? The only ones who’ll even look at me are the Spence Sibleys, who figure I’m so lonely and desperate that I’ll give it up, no effort required. So I’ve watched as one after another of those nice boys have hooked up with my girlfriends, gotten serious with them, married them-even though not a one of those girls is as good-looking as I am. I’m a pretty girl, Des. I have a terrific figure, a head on my shoulders, a warm and caring heart. Good things are supposed to happen to a girl like me. I’m supposed to be happy. I deserve to be happy! Do you have any idea what it’s like to wake up one morning and realize that you’re nowhere? Every single friend I’ve ever had is married now except for me. God, how I despise going to the market. I always run into one of them and she always wants to talk about her wonderful baby and the wonderful addition they’re building on to their wonderful house and how they’re going skiing this year in the wonderful White Mountains and… It’s over for me, Des! I don’t get a life. Not Jory. Not me. Uh-uh. I don’t get any of that. You know what I do get? I get to share that dingy cottage with my stupid little brother until the day I die. And I am so sick of it. So sick of sitting up here in this damned castle watching my life just…” She came up for air, her eyes burning at Des across the table. “My life was passing me right on by. That’s what I woke up one day and realized. So when that one chance came along, a chance to make something happen, I reached for it and I grabbed hold, even if it did seem a little wrong. It’s not like Norma had very long to live, you know. She was genuinely sick. We were just helping her along. That’s how I look at it, anyway. Besides, she was a mean old bitch. Treated Jase and me like her personal slaves. Always so patronizing and condescending.”