The dough is safely tucked away in the slightly heated oven under a damp towel when my phone rings again. I glance at the screen and smile at Sam’s name.
“No need to prepare ways to tease me at the game tonight,” I say by way of greeting. “I’ve got the game on lock. Bellamy already told me it was Ms. Scarlet in the lounge with the candlestick.”
“Actually, it seems it was Ms. Zara in the bedroom with the rope,” Sam mutters lowly. Seriously.
I pause as I tuck the bag of flour back into place in the pantry.
“What version are you playing? I don’t remember that character. And I distinctly don’t remember a bedroom. That’s one of the issues I have with the mansion. No bedroom,” I say.
“Unfortunately, I’m not playing anything. It’s more serious than that,” he tells me.
“What’s going on?” I ask, the good feelings at him calling me draining away at the tightness in his voice.
“We just got a call from the housekeeper at the Blair Manor in Gracey Estates. She found Everly Zara’s body about an hour ago. It looks like she killed herself.”
My chest tightens. “That’s horrible. Wait… Everly Zara. That name sounds familiar.”
“It should. I’m already investigating the death of her fiancé’s son.”
Chapter Five
“Oh, god,” I gasp as I remember the news reports over the last nearly three weeks.
“Yeah. So far, nobody has been able to get ahold of Michael Blair to notify him. The housekeeper screaming got the attention of his brother, but he’s not answering his phone.”
“His brother?” I ask. “Oh. That’s right. He lives in the in-law suite.”
“He does. And word is he isn’t exactly crying rivers over his future sister-in-law’s death. But at least he’s there for Maggie. She’s apparently really shaken up,” Sam says.
“I can imagine. That’s an awful thing for her to find. So, I’m guessing you aren’t going to be at game night this evening?” I ask.
“I don’t know. I’m heading up there now to look at the scene and do some initial interviews. I need to try to get in touch with Blair so I can notify him before the media gets ahold of this. He’s been through enough. The last thing he needs right now is to find out his fiancée is dead over a breaking news story.”
“I can’t even imagine how hard this is going to be for him.”
“Neither can I. He hasn’t been coping with his son’s death well, and I know he and Everly weren’t doing well since. He hasn’t been back to the manor. This is going to hit him hard,” he tells me.
“This is going to complicate the boy’s investigation.”
He lets out a deep sigh. “Yes, it is. Without her to give statements about what happened that night, there’s not much to go on. That’s another thing I’m going to have to talk to Michael Blair about when I finally find him.”
“I’m sorry you’re having to face that today,” I say. “I’ll miss you.”
“Me too. What are you doing today?” he asks.
“Right now, I’m baking cinnamon rolls.” He groans, and I can’t help but laugh. “Then I have to go up to the management office.”
“Management office?” he asks.
“For the house. The people who take care of it and oversee the rentals.”
“Why do you need to go there? If there are things that need to be fixed, I can do it for you.”
I smile as I wipe off the table. “I know you can. And I will probably take you up on that with a couple of things. But that’s not it. They actually called me yesterday and left a message saying they needed to talk to me. They asked if I’d come up to the office today,” I explain.
“After I do everything else, I’m going to have a mountain of paperwork to do. But when that’s done, I’ll come by if it’s not too late,” he offers.
“It won’t be too late. Just come over when you can.”
I feel terrible for Sam as we get off the phone. His day is likely to be miserable, and the chances of them getting better over the next couple of weeks probably aren’t good. I haven’t been involved in the investigation into the death of the young boy, so there are details he hasn’t shared with me. From what I know, this suicide is only going to make it more complicated.
Turning on the TV in my bedroom as I get dressed only confirms it. A shaky image of a sprawling estate on a manicured hill seems to come from a news helicopter. It shows emergency vehicles dotting the long driveway and blocking the end, so media vehicles can’t get closer. Police roam the grass and come in and out of the house. Sam isn’t there yet, but I know when he gets there, he’ll be furious to see the media. He hates how they descend on scenes like vultures, picking for the scraps of anything they can exploit. It’s especially bad in situations like this when all the details aren’t known, and there hasn’t been proper notification.
But as long as they don’t say her name, they aren’t technically doing anything wrong. It could be anyone dead in the exquisite manor owned by Michael Blair, the wealthiest man in Sherwood and probably quite a distance beyond. But it isn’t just anyone. It’s Everly Zara, the beautiful young woman Blair got engaged to less than three months ago. Very little is known about her. She doesn’t come from any of the highly publicized socialite families or have any links to wealth and power the way people would expect in the future wife of someone like Blair.
Instead, she comes from a modest immigrant family. Came. She came from a modest immigrant family. Just that slight shift of the word makes so much of an impact. I stop and look at the screen again. The footage is live, showing the chaos surrounding the house. She’s still in there. It all happened so quickly that her body still hasn’t been taken out by the coroner. Sam mentioned a rope, which means she hanged herself. I’ve seen several instances when the body is not cut down immediately but left in place for sometimes hours after discovery to ensure the proper pictures and notes are taken. Considering Sam hasn’t arrived on the scene yet, that is likely the case today.
It’s eerie to look at the screen knowing that. I wonder which of the windows across the top of the house is the bedroom and hope it’s been covered. I’ve been with law enforcement long enough to know people will stop at nothing to get an exclusive picture or detail in a case like this. The more shocking and grisly the better. Now that the news of a body in the manor is out, I wouldn’t put it past any of the media to try to sneak a shot of her.
The image on the screen mercifully changes over to a photo of Everly Zara and Michael Blair the night of their engagement. Smiling as she displayed her new ring with her hand rested on her Blair’s chest, Everly looked every inch the gorgeous socialite wife. Thick, glossy dark hair swept up at the back of her head, showed off her graceful neck and her glittering silver dress. Blair wore a meticulously tailored dark suit and a look of sheer love and adoration as he gazed at Everly. They looked happy and content in a way that makes it unfathomable how much everything would change in just a few short weeks.
As the image shifts up into the top corner of the screen and the rest returns to the stream of the house, the voice-over reminds viewers of the rest of the woman’s sad story. Only weeks after celebrating their engagement with hundreds of people at a lavish party Blair planned for her, he had to leave town for a short business trip. Usually his young son Peter would go to his mother’s house and Everly would travel with Michael, but this time Kimberly wasn’t able to take the three-year-old. Everly agreed to watch the little boy, and because she always got along wonderfully with his son, Michael agreed.
Just four hours after Blair left the house, emergency responders got a frantic call from Everly. She said Peter wasn’t breathing. He hit his head while playing and wouldn’t wake up. They found him on the floor and brought him to the hospital where he lay in critical condition for several long, painful days before finally dying. There was heavy suggestion of the circumstances being suspicious and continuous innuendo since the day he was hurt, but nothing has come of it. Sam tells me things look strange, and he can’t fully sign off on it being an accident, but also has no concrete evidence of it being anything else. He was preparing for another interview with Everly in the coming week.