Bones of a Feather - Carolyn Haines [46]
“I promised Tinkie I’d keep an eye on you. I took a vacation leave.”
Cece’s holidays were valuable. Giving one up was a supreme sacrifice for friendship. “Thanks. Let’s make the day count, then. We need to track down Marty Diamond, but first we have to stop by Langley Insurance and see when Eleanor can expect her settlement.”
Cece pushed back from the table. Her gaze swept the room, and I wondered if she scanned for Barclay. He was nowhere in evidence. Which made me relieved but also worried. He could be up to anything nefarious.
I’d signed the check when my phone rang. It was a number I didn’t know. I answered as Cece and I walked through the wonderful old lobby toward the parking lot. I instantly recognized the soft burr of the Leverts’ gardener’s voice and I touched Cece’s arm to halt her.
“Miss Delaney, it’s Jerome Lolly. We had an intruder out here at Briarcliff last night.”
“Did you call the police?”
“I haven’t told anyone. Miss Eleanor is so … agitated already, what with the necklace stolen and Miss Monica taking off without a word to anyone. I spooked the intruder and he left, so I waited until morning to call you.”
“Can you identify the intruder?” I felt a shiver of apprehension. Had the kidnapper come back? Was he after Eleanor, too, or was he merely trying to intimidate her?
Jerome cleared his throat. “I don’t want to sound like a kook, but it was a man wearing some kind of goggles, hiding in the bushes, watching the house.”
“Did you recognize him?” The kidnapper knew every step Eleanor took, so it was logical he was watching Briarcliff—and her. But to do so on the property was bold. No wonder he knew when the house was empty and vulnerable. Jerome had given me the best lead.
“I couldn’t get close enough. I caught a glimpse of his face, with the goggles, in the moonlight. I tried to sneak up on him, but he must have heard me coming. Or seen me. He was gone by the time I got there.”
“Night-vision goggles,” I said.
“Very likely. This is a rogue at work. The police should be called in.”
I had to stall him until Eleanor agreed. “I’ll meet you at Briarcliff and you can show me where the intruder was.” I put my phone away. “Time to get hopping. Jerome found an intruder spying on the house last night.”
“Oh, goody,” Cece said, pretending to clap her hands. “This case has everything, Sarah Booth. Stolen jewelry, a family of thieves and killers, a secret baby, a kidnapping, sexual misconduct, and now a spy. It just doesn’t get any better than this.”
* * *
While I drove to Briarcliff, Cece rode shotgun and chatted on her cell phone with a colleague at the Natchez newspaper. I’d left a message for Mr. Nesbitt at Langley Insurance to get back with me. He wouldn’t be in until eleven.
Cece closed her phone and high fived me. “I got Marty Diamond’s address. Folks who want to be singing stars give up a lot of their privacy. My friend at the Natchez paper knew all about him.”
“Did she say anything interesting?” Reporters often knew more than they ever printed.
“He got in some trouble when he was a teenager, fist fighting, that kind of thing. Jassine said it was normal kid stuff. When he found he could sing, he left the fighting behind. His one goal has been to hit it big as a country star. Jassine said he was ‘walking ambition.’”
“Did she say anything about Kissie?”
“Jassine likes Kissie and Marty. She says they’re going places in the music world, but they need each other. Her take is Marty could never find better, more original material than what Kissie writes. And Kissie won’t find a singer who delivers better than Marty.”
“A match made in heaven. Or hell.”
“Marty has a cabin on the edge of the national forest.” She tapped her notebook. “Directions.”
A perfect place to hold a hostage. “Great. Let’s tend to the goggle-eyed snooper first and then head out to talk with Marty.”
We pulled up in front of Briarcliff. Cece studied the house. A storm was building to the west, and with the morning sun coming up behind the mansion, the whole place was cast in a peculiar, disconcerting light.
“Was the