Page 18

The first gray tinge of dawn rises in the sky when the police return. Only two cars this time. Two of the four police officers talk to Julian, while two more talk to Luann. At her request, Nathan goes with her. Sean and I wait in the living room. For the time being, Victoria is allowed to remain upstairs, but the police make it clear to Julian that they'll need to speak to her, too.

Grant and Beatrice are in the great room with the servants. The police will want to take statements from them as well. Now that there’s evidence to implicate Robert Cartwright, the police will seek to gather any more evidence as they can.

“Are you all right?” Sean asks me after a few minutes.

I can only shake my head in reply.

He puts his arm around my shoulder and kisses my cheek. “You did the right thing. We did the right thing. This is painful, but it’s a lot less painful than Robert deciding he’s had enough and sending some thug with a gun.”

That sparks a thought in me. “Do you think he hired someone to do this?”

“I think so. I can’t imagine he’s so bloody foolish as to get his own hands dirty. Be a bit easier on all of us if he did, but that doesn’t seem likely.”

“I’ve been thinking about what Victoria said. Do you think it could be one of their employees?”

“I’m still leaning toward one of the staff,” Sean replies.

“I thought you said you’d investigated them.”

“I found that they had no reason to betray their employers, but plenty of people do things without good reason.”

“The police searched the house, though.”

“The tools wouldn’t be here.”

“But there would be trace evidence, wouldn’t there? ANFO is hard to clean up, isn’t it?”

“Not especially. Not more than any other explosive. I don’t know, it might not be a servant. Robert’s a man of means. He could afford to pay someone an exorbitant amount to do this. It could be anyone. I just feel like a member of the staff is more likely to have convenient access to the home.”

Guilt stabs me again. “I could have stopped this. If I had paid more attention, I could have noticed the servants behaving unusually. I could have gotten to know them and determined who would be likely to hurt the Bellamys this way.”

“You shouldn’t be too hard on yourself. You’re a good detective sometimes, but you’re also a governess. You’re not meant to solve everyone’s problems. Grant and Beatrice would have been more likely to know if someone was behaving strangely, and neither of them said anything.”

His words fail to comfort me, but that’s not his fault. I am a good detective sometimes, but this isn't one of those times. My past has caught up to my present and blinded me to what's happening around me. In past mysteries, I would have gotten to the bottom of this long before. The moment Luann told me about her secret meetings with Kevin, I would have made the connection between the two of them and the sabotage and pulled at that thread until I discovered the extent of Robert's hatred. I wouldn't have given up so easily getting to the bottom of the feud between Robert and Julian. I would have seen those diaries as more than just a salacious novel.

I’ve been a very poor detective indeed and not a better governess. I could stand on the technicality that I’m a tutor and not a babysitter in this case, but that’s a poor excuse. I should have done better.

The door opens, and Julian enters, followed by two police officers. He smiles thinly at me. “You’re up.”

“Miss Mary Wilcox?” the senior officer asks. “I’m Detective Jaleel. Will you please come with me?”

I stand. Sean squeezes my hand, and I manage a smile for him before following the officers into the hallway. They lead me to the library. That feels ironic, though I can’t say exactly why. It’s not as though the diaries have anything directly to do with the sabotage.

Except they do. Victoria’s affair with Robert is motive. If he resents her for breaking off their affair, then that might prompt him to these extremes. But should I tell the police what I know, or should I leave that to Victoria?

“Have a seat, Miss Wilcox.”

I take the offered seat—one of the two easy chairs in the room—and Detective Jaleel takes the other. The other officer remains standing off to the side with his hands clasped behind his back.

Detective Jaleel leans forward with his forearms on his thighs and folds his hands in front of his knees. “Why didn’t you tell us about the meetings between Luann Bellamy and Kevin Cartwright?”

I hesitate for a moment. The question doesn’t exactly surprise me, but I didn’t expect to get so quickly to the point. “I… I’m sorry.”

“I appreciate that, Miss Wilcox, but that doesn’t answer my question.”

I sigh heavily. “Luann asked me to keep that secret in confidence.”

“Did she volunteer this information, or did you catch the two of them together?”

“I caught Luann sneaking home late one night. She told me she was meeting Kevin secretly because their fathers wouldn’t approve of their relationship. She asked me not to tell anyone, and I agreed on the condition that she stop sneaking out of the house at night.”

“Were you aware that Mr. Cartwright has allegedly been sneaking out of his own house to visit Miss Bellamy here?”

“Not until earlier tonight, no.”

“So when we first talked, you weren’t aware that Mr. Cartwright had been here as recently as yesterday evening?”

“No.”

He nods and leans back, folding his arms across his chest. He regards me for a moment, then says, “What other secrets have you kept on Miss Bellamy’s behalf?”

“That’s the only one.”

“So you didn’t tell Mr. Bellamy that his daughter claims that Kevin Cartwright overheard his father threatening to take unspecified drastic measures to resolve the alleged feud between himself and Mr. Bellamy?”

“I did, but I didn’t keep that secret. I told Julian and Victoria Bellamy right away and then called the police. Well, Julian called the police after…”

I stop myself, but too late. The officer lifts an eyebrow. “After?”

I sigh. “After… There was a confrontation between Victoria and Luann after we told the two elder Bellamys what Luann told me. She was very upset that Luann was still meeting with Kevin.”

“Victoria was upset?”

“Yes.”

“Can you describe this confrontation?”

I hesitated again. I don’t want Victoria to be charged with abuse over an isolated incident caused by extreme emotional distress.

“Miss Wilcox, it’s crucial that you be honest with us right now. I’ll be honest. It looks very bad that you and Miss Luann conspired to withhold information that is turning out to be critical to this investigation.”

I frown. “But I didn’t withhold that information. I told the Bellamys right away, and you were called within minutes. As for Luann, she’s a child. She can’t be expected to have the same maturity as an adult.”

“But you can. And you didn’t tell us about the meetings between Miss Bellamy and Mr. Cartwright until after she revealed the likelihood that the elder Mr. Cartwright was involved in the attack on the Bellamy residence.”

“I was protecting a young woman who doesn’t deserve to be embroiled in a conflict between two adults,” I protest. “I saw no reason to expose her to the police when she’d done nothing wrong.”

Detective Jaleel takes a deep breath. His tone is mildly irritated when he continues. “Because you withheld this information, you allowed Mr. Cartwright additional time to dispose of evidence that might link him to this crime. I’m not going to charge you with obstructing a police investigation yet, but I must emphasize that yet is the operative word here, Miss Wilcox. Luann might be a minor, but she can also be charged with obstructing. I appreciate that you sympathize with Luann, but your choice to protect her feelings could have put her life in danger. Do you understand that?”

My heart breaks. He’s right. I’ve told Luann more than once that her safety is more important than her feelings, but I haven’t practiced what I’ve preached.

I lower my head and nod. Detective Jaleel’s partner shuffles his feet and sniffs. The sound seems to reverberate loudly in the room.

Jaleel sighs. “Anything else we need to know, Miss Wilcox?”

I swallow. “There have been other incidents of sabotage.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Other than the attack on the Continental Vineyard last month and the attack last night?”

“Yes. There was an attack three weeks ago. Someone chopped down some of Victoria’s Chardonnay vines. And there was a recent instance… I suppose this hasn’t been confirmed, but several barrels of the Pinot Noir harvested from this estate were found to be contaminated with Listeria . Well, that part’s been confirmed, but we don’t know for sure that it was sabotage.”

“Do you have reason to suspect that it is?”

“I don’t know,” I reply. “I mean, Robert Cartwright has a reason to sabotage the Bellamys, but I don’t know how someone would introduce Listeria into wine barrels.”

“There are ways to do it that are very low-tech,” Jaleel says, half to himself. “Manure, contaminated samples from other harvests, untreated soil… but it would be next to impossible to prove unless there were fingerprints on the barrel, and we haven’t found fingerprints anywhere else.” He looks back at me. “Let’s go back to the statement you made about Robert Cartwright. What reason does he have to sabotage the Bellamys.”

I blink. “Well… they’re rivals.”

“And that’s the only reason?”

My lower lip trembles. I am ordinarily not so bad at keeping things to myself, but I’ve lost much of my self-control since finding my sister’s letters. It appears that I’ll have to betray yet another confidence. This one is all the worse since I’m not supposed to know what I’m about to say.

I take a deep breath and lower my eyes. “Victoria had an affair with Robert over forty years ago. It… It’s possible that they still harbor some resentment over that affair.”

“How did you hear about this affair?”

“Her diary. I found it in the safe right there.”

I point to the safe. Detective Jaleel looks at his partner, who says softly, “We can get the code from the homeowner.”

Detective Jaleel nods. “We’ll bring her in next.” He turns to me. “Miss Wilcox, you’re free to go for the moment. I appreciate your honesty. In the future, please be honest from the beginning. We’re not here to make any more trouble for this family than we need to, but information like this is critical, especially in the early stages of an investigation.”

I nod, unable to meet his eyes. I was only trying to help everyone, and instead, I’ve made everything worse.

I return to Sean, and when I see that we’re alone in the room, I bury my head in his shoulder and weep.