Page 39 of Cloaked in Deception (Spencer & Reid Mysteries #4)

“ Aunt ,” she almost wailed, with a pleading look.

Esther would have known, of course, that Martha had not borne a child shortly before sending all three children away to the orphanage.

“You offered to take the children in rather than let your sister send them to the orphanage,” Leo said to Esther. “But Martha denied you. Was it because she knew Felix was the boy’s father?”

Leo wasn’t as certain about this deduction as she had been about Paula being Edward’s mother. However, it would answer why Esther and Felix had been willing to go to such dire lengths to get Edward back now.

The older woman’s body, which was draped in a sensible ulster coat, an item usually only worn while traveling, went rigid. The barest flare of her nostrils indicated Leo had touched a nerve.

“Did Martha hold you responsible for her daughter’s condition? Maybe she wanted to punish you, or Felix, by withholding Edward from you,” Leo suggested.

Paula avoided Leo’s eyes, giving a distinct impression of guilt. Seduced by her own, much older cousin.

“That is why you cut your sister from your life, isn’t it?” Leo continued when neither of the other women spoke. “Because she denied you your own grandchild. A grandchild you were told died in the orphanage’s care. And now, all these years later, you learned the truth just as Paula did. Felix too.”

And here they were, preparing to set out with George in tow. Paula would leave her husband, and Felix his theatre, and they would be the family they ought to have been. Grandmother, included.

“Where is Felix now?” Leo asked, a small twinge of worry creeping in. Esther’s reluctance to shoot her in front of Edward had buffered her from harm. From what Leo had experienced of Felix, however, he would not be so restrained.

“I’d like to get some air,” George muttered, again trying to get to his feet. This time, he gripped the arm of the sofa and balanced himself with a helping hand from Paula. She hushed him, telling him they would go outside soon.

Leo focused on her. “You warned Gavin not to go to the dinner. You said he’d be a traitor if he went, but it was really because you knew what Felix had planned, isn’t that correct?”

Paula bit her bottom lip, still unable to look at Leo.

“You didn’t want your brother to come to harm, just like you don’t want George to come to harm. I can see you care about the boy. You love him.”

“Of course she loves him,” Esther hissed. “She is his mother. A mother will do anything for her child.”

Esther had proven that to be true. She was just as complicit in the killing of Martha Seabright as her son. Not only had the three of them planned to take Edward back from the family he’d gone to, but they also wanted revenge. And not just on Martha.

“Nurse Radcliff arranged the adoption?—”

“That woman stole our Edward. She knew Paula was the babe’s mother, and yet she allowed my sister to accept that wretched man’s money in exchange for a child she had no right to sell!”

In all truth, Esther wasn’t wrong. Her fury was warranted, as was Paula’s.

Martha had done a horrible thing by taking her daughter’s baby and giving him away.

She’d profited for years off that adoption, blackmailing Stanley Hayes.

And she had deprived her daughter the chance to be a mother to the boy, as she had promised when Paula entered the orphanage.

Martha Seabright had been a despicable sister and an even worse mother. But by murdering her, Esther, Paula, and Felix had lowered themselves to that same level of deplorability. Not to mention what they had planned for Nurse Radcliff.

“Felix went to Twickenham, didn’t he?” Leo asked next. “Nurse Radcliff was found dead yesterday. Murdered, in fact. However, what Felix didn’t know—couldn’t have known—was that the woman he killed was not the Nurse Radcliff who had given Edward away to Stanley Hayes.”

Paula’s dark brows pulled taut in confusion.

“The woman he killed was Nurse Radcliff’s elderly aunt, the former Matron Radcliff. Surely, you remember her, Paula?”

By the instant blanching of her skin, she did.

“The current matron at the orphanage, Caroline Westover, née Radcliff, handled the adoption. Imagine her shock when she found her aunt, an innocent old woman, murdered in cold blood.”

Paula raised a tremulous hand to her lips. “ That is where he went? To Twickenham? My God. I knew he’d gone somewhere, and I knew Felix was still so angry, but I never thought?—”

Esther hissed between her teeth. “Quiet! Paula, take Edward?—”

“I’ve told you, my name is George,” the boy said, somewhat more lucid now.

His pupils were larger, too. “I’m not sure about this any longer.

You said I was stolen, and I guessed that I wasn’t a Hayes by blood.

I look nothing like my parents and sister.

But… you didn’t tell me anyone had been killed. ”

“Miss Spencer has upset you,” Esther soothed, her tone changing to something more indulgent.

“I’ve merely told him the truth,” Leo cut in. “George, do you wish to go back home to your mother and father?”

Paula made a soft wailing sound. George looked at her, his eyes swamped with doubt and guilt. It was obvious that he didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

“He isn’t going anywhere with you,” Esther barked, her left hand beginning to shake as she visibly restrained herself from raising the gun. “ Paula . Do as I say.”

“You don’t want to hurt him,” Leo said swiftly to Paula, who’d hesitated again at her aunt’s order.

“Of course, I don’t,” she said, tears brimming in her eyes.

“Taking the boy away from the only family he has ever known would be cruel,” Leo said. “Your mother betrayed you, Paula. She broke your heart. But what you’re doing isn’t right. This isn’t how you mend what has been done to you.”

Having endured enough, Esther ripped open the office door. “Take the bags and the boy and wait in the alley for me.”

But her niece had not yet complied with that order, and now, as tears rolled freely down her cheeks, Paula shook her head.

“Aunt, this has gone too far. Did you know Felix had traveled to the orphanage? And what he meant to do to Nurse Radcliff?”

Esther made no reply, her lips pursed tight with fury.

“I’m not sorry my mother is dead,” Paula continued. “But an old woman who had nothing to do with Edward being taken away from us? And now you plan to be rid of this lady detective too? No. I cannot do it. This isn’t what I wanted.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Esther’s voice rose. “You cannot take Edward back to that family. He is your son. My grandson!”

“You aren’t thinking about what is best for George, Mrs. Goodwin,” Leo said.

“My only thoughts have been for him!” Esther raised the gun at last, leveling it at her. George staggered forward, out of his mother’s grip, and put himself in front of Leo.

“You cannot shoot her,” he yelled, even as Leo and Paula pushed him back.

“Stay behind me, George,” Leo urged him. “Paula, I will vouch for you with the detective inspector. He will listen to me when I tell him you’ve done what is best for your son. Come, help me bring George to safety.”

Esther still blocked the door. “You are not going anywhere.”

Though her insides quivered, Leo tucked her chin and walked directly toward the older woman. George stood close behind her, his hand clutching the back of her arm. Paula joined them.

“Aunt Esther, move aside,” she said with more assertiveness than she’d yet shown. “You’ve lost control. So has Felix. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I…” Her confidence floundered. “I didn’t think it would be like this.”

Esther bared her teeth at her niece, as if in disgust. “Felix suspected you would be too weak to see this through. He thought you might go to your brother and confess our plan, or even to your heartless mother to warn her. He kept eyes on them both for weeks to make sure you didn’t.”

Paula gaped. “Felix didn’t trust me?”

“No, and now I can see he was right not to!” Her aunt’s hand shook, her throat working hard as she no doubt was panicking.

The distant sound of high-pitched whistling coming from another part of the theatre broke the stalemate.

“It’s Felix,” Paula said, gasping with fear.

Doubt only stilled Leo’s legs for a second. She streamed forward, straight toward Esther. She couldn’t shoot, not without the risk of striking George and Paula too. Leo shoved her aside, and the older woman growled with frustration as she staggered and fell.

“Felix!” she screamed from where she’d landed on the floor.

The whistling stopped, and Leo’s heart lurched. She turned to Paula. “Is he coming from the alley or the front of the theatre?”

“The alley,” she answered, her eyes like saucers.

That would bring him across the stage, directly here.

“Can we go out the front?” Leo asked, thinking of the curtains blocking the view of the house floor. But Paula shook her head.

“The front entrance is locked from the inside. I don’t have the key.”

The pounding of feet came across the hollow-bottomed stage.

“Hurry!” Paula said, then rushed forward to the spiral stairs leading below the stage. Leo moved George in front of her and followed them, as they descended the curling steps to the low-ceilinged space beneath the stage.

It was dark and musty there, with only the barest light filtering through grates set into the apron of the stage above their heads.

Outlines of props, wooden backdrops, and some ropes and pulleys were visible, though not much else.

As Leo tried to keep pace with the darkened shapes of Paula and George moving through the cavernous space, she tripped on objects in her path.

“Where does this lead?” she asked, her heart hammering in her chest. The memory of another dark, cluttered place barreled forward in her consciousness: the attic of her old home on Red Lion Street.

“To another set of steps leading up to a rear door,” Paula replied.

Felix would know this, and he would double back and be there to meet them when they ascended from below the stage.

“Stop,” Leo said. “Let me by, and you two return the way we came. Go out the alley door and find a police constable.”

“No, miss!” George said, his voice pitched high with fright.

“I insist. Felix will go to the rear door of the theatre, thinking we’ll emerge there. I’ll make noise and let him believe we are doing just that. Paula, take George to safety. Go .”

Paula hesitated but must have seen the wisdom in separating, for she and George scooted past her. As Paula passed, she clutched Leo’s arm.

“The staircase is to your left up ahead, past the sleigh. Be careful,” she said, then she and George were quietly heading back the way they’d come.

Leo continued onward, her eyes peeled in the dim light for any sign of a sleigh.

She pushed a wooden crate as she passed it, knocking it over and causing a ruckus, then did the same to a tall, wooden backdrop.

Overhead, she heard the pounding of a pair of feet as someone crossed the stage. Felix had taken the bait.

The curved railing of a small sleigh came into view in the meager light, and then ahead, a muted gleam of iron—the set of cast iron spiral steps leading up to the rear door.

Felix would be waiting there at the top.

Leo paused at the base of the stairs. There was no chance Paula would have made it to the street yet to flag down a constable.

Climbing the stairs would only guarantee Leo coming face-to-face with Felix Goodwin.

She was trapped. The same way she had been trapped in the attic of her old home.

Like then, she needed a place to hide. Leo hesitated on the bottom step, looking behind her for where she might conceal herself.

Then, light cascaded down the twisting iron steps as above, the rear door opened.