Bones of a Feather - Carolyn Haines [80]
“Apparently Hightower and Millicent were working together to spy on Briarcliff. They came over last night, and Hightower simply abandoned her after he was attacked.” Tinkie added up the facts quickly.
“This is an awful turn of events. Poor Millicent. I never liked her, but I didn’t wish harm to her.” Eleanor sank into a kitchen chair and rested her forehead on her fist. “Why was she working for the awful writer?”
Eleanor’s color was awful, a grayish paste. I worried her heart might give her trouble. Or maybe I just felt a little more compassion for her knowing the secret of her engagement. “Millicent was single. Is romantic involvement a possibility?” I asked.
“John Hightower wasn’t Millicent’s type of man. She liked her men forceful and brawny. Cowboys or cops. Uniforms and jeans,” Eleanor continued, almost reminiscing. “Hightower is too … wormy for her taste. So why would Millicent spy on us to get material for his dreadful book? It doesn’t make sense.”
“That’s something Hightower is going to have to answer. Eleanor, you must call the police,” I said it as gently as I could. “Millicent’s body is somewhere on the grounds of Briarcliff. We have to—”
“No!” Eleanor shot out of her chair. “No police. I’m sorry about Millicent, but she is dead. Monica is still alive. She has a chance. But she will die if we don’t do exactly as we’ve been told. We have fifteen hours until time to drop the ransom money. Millicent can wait until then. After Monica is home, the police can set up a substation here if they want to.”
“Eleanor…” Tinkie was as stunned as I was by the outburst.
“Monica’s blood will be on your head if you call the police.” She was almost panting. “We’re so close. Let’s just get the money. Please.” She started to cry. “Please, she’s my sister. I can’t let her die. I can’t. Don’t you see? Someone killed Millicent. He won’t hesitate to do the same to Monica if we do anything to upset him.”
Tinkie blew out her breath. She gave me a “What should we do?” look, and I gave her a glare. We couldn’t pretend that there wasn’t a dead body on the premises.
“Let’s find the body,” Tinkie said. “While we’re searching, Eleanor can go back to the bank and arrange for the money. The initial work has been done and Eleanor can handle the rest of it by herself. Maybe this whole Millicent thing is a hoax. It looks real, but photos are pretty easy to stage. We don’t want to jump the gun and call in Gunny until we’re sure something actually happened to Millicent.”
She was buying more time for Eleanor, and while I knew what she was doing, I couldn’t help but agree. If we couldn’t find Millicent’s body … maybe the whole thing was a fake and I was overreacting. John Hightower lusted for revenge against the Leverts. He was capable of anything. I picked up the camera again and studied the photo. It looked real. Still, it could be staged. What if Gunny and his forces arrived and found nothing and the kidnappers killed Monica?
“Okay,” I said. “But if we find the body, I’m calling the cops instantly.”
“Thank you.” Eleanor picked up her keys. “I’ll hurry as quickly as I can. Mr. Richmond has helped arrange a transfer of funds so the local Natchez bank can cash the check. I hope to be back within the hour.” She was out the door in a flash and headed back to town.
“Where should we start looking?” Tinkie asked.
“Hold up.” I caught her elbow and told her about Helena Banks Gorenflo’s revelations.
“Can this family get more tragic?” she asked. “Eleanor loved this artist guy and then Jerome, and she couldn’t marry either one. It’s no wonder Monica hates Helena, though. She knows what that old bitch tried to do.”
“I feel like a dark cloud hangs over the Levert family,” I said. “Perhaps John Hightower is right. Maybe the family is cursed by the evil of old Barthelme.”
“You never struck me as the superstitious type,” Tinkie said with a straight face. She knew me well