Page 12

Barry Shandy

Tony Bernard

None of those names meant anything to him. But the last name on the list,thatwas a name he recognized.

Eudora Page

Ellery raised his head and met Vera’s bright gaze.

“Eudora Page. My aunt Eudora?”

Vera blew out a stream of blue smoke. “Eudora and Vernon were sweet on each other. I don’t suppose anyone told you that.”

“No.”

“It’s the truth. They grew up together, and Eudora, well, no one knew more about this island and its history than Eudora. Especially when it came to our secrets. She could tell you about every ship that went down off this coast. The two of them used to dive together.”

“My aunt Eudora used to godivingwith Vernon Shandy?”

“Why not?”

“Well, but…” Ellery trailed off. Why not indeed? In 1963, Eudora would have been… Actually, he had no idea. He knew virtually nothing about his benefactress.

It seemed Vera read his discomfiture correctly. She burst out with another of thosehar-har-harlaughs, waking the parrot, who squawked, “Ahoy there! Ye scurvy swab!”

“Your auntie wasn’t born an old woman! She was thirty years old in 1963. Two years younger than Vernon. We were at school together. Hell, yes, she used to dive. When they were kids, she and Vernon spent all their spare time hunting for theBlood Red Rose.”

It was startling to realize that until that very moment—and despite the fact that he was driving around in her vintage blue VW and living in her decrepit mansion—Ellery had never felt more than an occasional flicker of curiosity about Eudora Page. In fact, this was the first time it had dawned on him that she had not always been an elderly, eccentric hoarder who, for reasons known only to herself, had left all her worldly goods to an unknown, distant nephew instead of a hospital for stray cats.

“Why is she a suspect?”

Vera’s expression hardened infinitesimally. “Things were different between them after he joined the navy. She changed. Vernon changed too. He was colder. Not mean, but not… He was always restless. He started drinking more. And there were other women. Women could never resist him.” Her smile was odd. “I don’t know if that change was the navy or Eudora. He went to fight a war Eudora didn’t approve of.”

Ellery nodded, but the truth was, he didn’t know what to make of that. With every new piece of information, Eudora became more real—and more of a stranger.

“Okay, they grew apart. So, again, why wouldshehave been a suspect?”

“She had as much motive as anyone. More, given that that treasure probably should have been half hers.”

Full circle. Back to the gold doubloons and the lost treasure of theBlood Red Rose. It was like working with a broken compass.

“Did Vernontellyou he’d found theBlood Red Rose?”

She hesitated. “No.”

“No. So there’s no proof there was ever more than a handful of doubloons. Let alone that there was a motive for my aunt to have murdered her old friend. Why would she? How would that get her the treasure? For God’s sake. There’s no way.”

“You never met her. How do you know?”

“I just know.”

Vera shrugged. “Then prove her innocent.Someonekilled him. That I know. Vernon didn’t desert. He didn’t fall into a well. He didn’t jump off a cliff.”

“Maybe someone did kill him, but it wasn’t my aunt Eudora.”

“That’s an awful lot of faith in a woman you never met. Especially when, as far as I could ever discover, Eudora was the last person to see Vernon alive.”

Ellery opened his mouth, but Mortimer the parrot shrieked again, “Ahoy there! Ye scurvy swab!”