Page 19

Chapter Nineteen

At the same time metal hit the floor below me, the door to the dungeon shook again. My knee gave out, and I fell back onto the stairs. I’d be a sitting duck if whoever was on the other side made it through the door.

“Who’s in here?” I half screamed. Then I held my cane as a weapon.

“The saints, you scared me,” Abigail said at the bottom of the stairs. “What are you doing up there? Why are you yelling?”

“Someone followed me from Caleb’s room, and I don’t think it was to have a friendly chat.”

The door behind me had stopped banging, but I had no desire to check whether my assailant was gone.

“We must be getting close, aye?”

“Possibly.” As I followed her to our makeshift autopsy room, I told her about the confession.

“Even if Caleb was the one who pushed the gargoyle—and he didn’t admit to that—who just followed me down the hall? More importantly, who poisoned Caleb?”

“His partner,” she said.

“There’s no way around it. I think Robbie had second thoughts and didn’t want to go through with the plan. The partner killed him and then tried to take out Angie. Mara’s poisoning was probably accidental.”

“But why try to kill you?”

The body had been moved back into the freezer, but Abigail had equipment going on every table. Not that we had much of it.

“Sit,” she ordered.

I sat on a stool in the middle of the room. As soon as my butt hit the chair, I relaxed. My legs ached, though.

“I think I talked to the wrong—or in this case, the right person. They think I’m on to them. But why then risk everything by trying to kill Caleb? If he isn’t in on it, what do they think he saw?”

“Fair warning: Ewan is determined to arrest Caleb because he was there when Robbie died,” Abigail said.

“I spoke to him. We have some time to figure things out, as he’ll be in the hospital a fair bit. Did you find anything in his bloodwork that is different from what we took earlier?”

“I only found traces of the ethylene glycol, which means his body had probably processed a great deal of it already. The fact that you were pushing fluids through his body saved his life.”

“He is not safe yet. Any chance of checking his liver and kidney function?”

She shook her head. “I don’t have the right equipment. Other than that his urine was high in ketones and bacteria, I can’t tell you much more. I don’t even have the right equipment to grow the bacteria to see what it is.”

I nodded. “It’s enough to know he’s fighting an infection. We’ll add an antibiotic to his IV, a general one.”

She chewed on her lip. “We don’t have a lot of supplies left. We weren’t counting on something like this.”

“Hey, don’t worry. If you hadn’t made me such a wonderful kit, we wouldn’t even have had what we needed to save our friends’ lives. I’m in awe of your talent, Abigail. You don’t give yourself enough credit.

Abigail smiled.

“Will you go up with me to administer the IV? I think we should travel in pairs until the wedding is over.” I had no desire to climb all those stairs again, but none of us was moving around this castle alone.

“Agreed.”

The next morning came way too soon. We had a wedding breakfast with Angie and her side of the family. The groom would dine in another part of the castle. Mara and I didn’t even speak as we readied ourselves. We were exhausted.

After I told her what had happened, she’d stayed up half the night listening for the door to open.

I, on the other hand, had slept quite well for a whole four hours, and I needed coffee to be congenial.

When I opened our door, I ran smack into Ewan, who grabbed me to keep me from falling.

“Ugh,” I said as my face hit his hard chest.

He wore a peacoat over a cable-knit sweater, and a tweed flat cap that matched his navy outerwear. The man should have been on billboards of why women should move to Scotland.

“Sorry, Doc.”

“What’s up?”

“The helicopter left with Caleb, as we had to wait for the winds to die down a wee bit more. His mum left with him.”

I frowned. “I should have gone with him.”

He shook his head. “A doctor from the hospital came with the flight crew. Abigail gave him all the notes you made and the list of drugs used. We didn’t want to wake you.”

“I—thank you.” I’d been about to argue, but Abigail was quite a capable medical professional. I wasn’t worried.

His eyebrows had lifted, as if he’d readied for a fight.

“Anything else?”

“Aye, Abigail wanted you to know his fever was gone, and he was lucid this morning.”

“That’s a miracle,” Mara said from behind me. I’d forgotten she was there.

“Aye,” Ewan said. “Thanks to the doc, he’ll have a chance—though he’ll be spending time in jail.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ewan, he’s not your killer.”

“So, you found some evidence?”

“Not exactly. But why would he poison himself? Someone tried to hurt him.”

“Or he was looking for some kind of high and did it to himself.”

“After he was in a coma from drug withdrawal? I don’t think so.”

“He admitted to me he was there with Robbie,” he said. “His fingerprints are all over the place in the tower. And he’s strong enough to have pushed that gargoyle onto ya.”

If I were going to make him understand, I needed proof. Ewan dealt in facts, not hunches. That was one of the first lessons I’d learned from the constable.

“Right. I still think someone else is in play.”

He shook his head. “Then don’t go running off by yourself. Stick to her,” he said to Mara. Then he was off.

We were nearly blinded when we walked into the front dining area. The sun shone brightly through the windows bouncing light off high drifts of snow surrounding the house.

I wanted to scream bright light, cross my fingers like Frankenstein’s monster, but I didn’t think anyone here would get the joke.

Tables dressed in purple tulle had been spaced throughout the room. Giant bows in orange tulle were tied on the chairs. Beautiful flower arrangements adorned all the tables, which were set with china, gold, and crystal.

“I never understood how these colors would work, but they do,” Mara whispered.

She was right. Instead of being garish, which was what I’d expected, it was quite elegant and beautiful.

“I guess the roads are clear. I don’t recognize half of these people,” Jasper said beside us.

“We know Lulu,” I said.

She was dressed in sixties chic today, with her hair piled on top of her head and trademark blue eyeshadow that never seemed out of place on her face.

One would never know the bride had been poisoned and conked on the head, a few days ago. Angie was most definitely back to her old self as she flitted from table to table.

She wore a black lace dress that fit snugly against her curves. Only she could get away with wearing black on her wedding day.

“Hello, sweet friends,” she said. Then she sat down with us.

“Shouldn’t you be with your family?” Jasper said.

She rolled her eyes. “Except for Lulu, who will be joining us after she says hello to Mom and the steps, they are all driving me nuts.”

“Wicked people,” Lulu said as she sat down next to her niece. “After everything you’ve been through with this weather, you deserve the wedding of your dreams, luv.” She held up her champagne glass.

“Here, here,” Jasper said.

We clinked glasses.

A full Scottish breakfast was served by the waitstaff, many of whom I didn’t recognize.

“I guess Ewan was able to get everything cleared out earlier than we thought,” I said.

“They’ve been working since last night,” Lulu said. “Everything from Sea Isle to here was clear as can be. It’s good, since half the town will be here for the wedding.

“Anything exciting happen the last few days? What did I miss?” Lulu asked.

Mara sputtered and we laughed.

Lulu looked at us like we were crazy.

Angie gave her a rundown, though she didn’t know much about Caleb or my trek down the hallway the night before.

Mara filled them in, and Angie’s fist hit the table.

“When we find out who did this, I’m going to murder them,” she said through gritted teeth. “And you lot will help because that’s what friends do.”

She was right. Friends backed each other up, and it didn’t seem like the time to bring up my Hippocratic oath.

After a full Scottish breakfast, it was time for the bride and her wedding party to get ready for the big event. Mara, Jasper, and I wished her well and headed back to our respective rooms.

“I still want to check the garages,” I said.

“It’s going to be a mess out there.” Mara yawned. “And you aren’t going anywhere without backup. I need a nap if I’m going to make it through the day. And you need to rest your legs.”

I sighed. She wasn’t wrong.

“Fine.”

While she climbed back into bed, I sat on the small sofa by the fire. I opened my notebook. My phone dinged beside me. Loads of messages pinged, one after another.

Most were from patients wondering when the practice would be open again. Since I’d taken over the office, this was the longest we’d been closed. When I’d agreed to be moral support at the wedding for Angie, I hadn’t realized we’d be cut off from the rest of the world for so long.

I’d never given out my cell number to patients, but I’d used it for follow-up calls, and someone in town had shared it.

None of the messages were emergencies. I’d send out an email to everyone when we were back in town. But I needed a vacation from what was supposed to have been our vacation.

The messages meant I had access to the outside world.

I opened my notebook and focused on one of the first names on my list. I did a search for Caleb on my phone.

The man had pages of scandal in tabloids, stories about dating starlets and arrests. He was in his early twenties, so he must have started on his wayward path when he was quite young. The headlines were shameless, and I couldn’t imagine living a life in the public eye like that.

It was as if his every move was followed by cameras.

While I understood the Carthages had incredible wealth, I hadn’t realized they were such an A-list family.

The stories about his brother were focused on charity events and business. There couldn’t be two more different people. A few articles and the announcement about his engagement to Angie surfaced, but nothing untoward in any of them.

Angie was shown in pictures with him, both wearing designer clothes whose labels I didn’t even know, and looking every bit the perfect match—even with her pink, purple, or platinum hair.

They were like Scottish royalty.

There were several online business articles about Mr. Carthage. Nothing personal, though. Mrs. Carthage sat on the boards of several charities. The couple was shown at several art and charity events—he with his permanent scowl; she, perfectly coiffed and always wearing Chanel or some other top designer.

I couldn’t imagine living with a man like that. My husband had been duplicitous, but he had been kind. That’s part of what had made his death so difficult. In his own way, he’d loved me. Of that, I had been certain.

I moved on to Angie’s side of the family. It dawned on me, her father hadn’t been at the breakfast, but no one seemed to be worried about his absence. I had to remember to ask Angie about it.

I started with her mom, but there wasn’t much in the way of news about her.

The second stepmom was an artist and had recently had a gallery showing. I remembered Angie telling me about her. There were photos of that night, and the other stepmothers were in attendance, except for one—Dara.

I didn’t find much of anything on the others, and nothing on Dara, the current stepmom. As in no presence online at all.

That wasn’t unusual in Scotland. The Scots weren’t as into social media as most Americans. I’d never had time for it, though I’d acquiesced when I moved here, in order to keep up with some of my friends in Seattle.

Odd. I no longer considered the States home. Sea Isle was the place where I was always meant to be.

I searched deeper for Dara. It was odd that a search pulled up nothing. Not even a marriage announcement could be found.

Her room had been much the same. Nothing personal out, and everything had been tidied and cleaned up.

She had no reason to stop the wedding, and I couldn’t imagine her hurting Angie. She’d appeared to care about her stepdaughter. Still, there was something about her that bothered me.

The way she’d said I’d better watch out when we worked on the flowers had stuck with me. Her tone had been threatening.

But why would she hurt Angie, whom she seemingly adored?

Caleb, the bad boy of the Carthages, had a history and loads of motive. Not the least of which was destroying his near-perfect brother’s heart by killing his beloved Angie.

While his mind had been drug addled, that didn’t mean he wasn’t clever enough to think of a defense for himself. There was someone else in the picture, but that didn’t mean Caleb hadn’t murdered Robbie.

I didn’t want to admit it, but maybe Ewan was right.

It might have been Caleb all along.