5 Murder by Syllabub (6 page)

“It means he could have gone through the east wing passageway to the staircase.” Cora Lee sounded
triumphant, as if she’d solved the mystery.

“Gone through the house? Which house? What staircase? ”

“The main house. We know he was there, whoever poisoned Monty. What we don’t know is how he got out. The passageway between the main house and the east house has a staircase in the middle. It was put there so the servants could come up from the kitchen and the laundry below. If he left that way, all he’d have to do is go down the stairs and he’d be gone.”

Cora Lee sounded proud of herself. I didn’t think she’d solved anything. That might be how the prowler—murderer—escaped, but a whole lot of
other questions remained unanswered. Like, who was “he”? Why did he kill Monty, and what were they doing in Elizabeth’s dining room? The biggest question of all, at least in my mind, was who was Monty?

“Good theory, but there’s one thing wrong with it.” Elizabeth put both hands on the table and leaned forward, with the tiniest trace of a smile.

Cora Lee raised one carefully plucked eyebrow and uttered a quizzical, “Oh?”

“The door that leads into that passageway from the main house is locked. So is the door leading into the east house. Our prowler may have tried to get into the passageway from the main house but, unless he has a key, he didn’t.”

“How do you know that?” Cora Lee sounded indignant. A perfectly good theory shot down before she ever got it off the ground.

“William and I locked both doors. We were exploring both houses not too long before he had his stroke, trying to decide what we wanted to do, and he locked the doors as we left. I remember specifically because we both laughed. We had no idea who we were locking out, but William said it was an old habit.” She paused and a single tear
rolled down her cheek.

Aunt Mary reached over and patted her hand.

Elizabeth smiled at her and brushed the tear away. “Anyway, he locked them, and since I have the only key I know about, they’re still locked.”

“So, how did the intruder get in? Or out?” I was getting more confused by the moment. Ghosts in the upstairs hall, dead men in the dining room, people coming and going through locked doors. None of this made sense.

“I don’t know.” Elizabeth’s brow furrowed into a scowl. “I don’t know how Monty got in, or why he came, and I don’t know how the other person got out.”

“Well, dear
...” Cora Lee shifted slightly in her chair and frowned. The frown was replaced quickly by a sly smile. “I think one thing is certain. What he drank was syllabub. What was in it, and who put it there, I don’t know, but I’m sure that’s what it was.”

Elizabeth turned white. Now what?

Aunt Mary was quickly at her side. “Elizabeth, I think you need to sit down.”

“Yes. Maybe I do. This has been quite a shock.” Elizabeth left the French doors and headed for a square table that sat in the middle of the room. She pulled out a chair and sank onto it.
“You really think it was syllabub in that glass?”

“I’d bet real money on it.” Cora Lee bypassed the table and went directly to a
n elegant buffet that sat against the same wall that held the French doors. A wine rack and a set of delicate crystal balloon wineglasses sat on top. She opened a drawer, fumbled around for a minute and pulled out a corkscrew. It took only a minute to open the bottle she selected and pour a generous amount of wine into four glasses. She picked up two and headed for the table. “Mary? Ellen?” She nodded her head at the other glasses as she settled into another chair and lifted hers.

Aunt Mary picked up the other two glasses, nodded at me
, and joined them at the table. So did I. There was nothing to see outside, anyway. I took a sip. Nice. I tried another then set the glass down. “I have a few questions.” I was getting tired of Wonderland.

“So do I.” Aunt Mary’s tone left no doubt she expected answers.

“Such as?” Cora Lee swirled her wine. The corners of her mouth curved with the tiniest of smiles.

“Such as, what
is syllabub?”

Elizabeth and Cora Lee looked at each other, then at me as if I’d just come from outer space. Or California.

“It’s a drink, a sweet dessert drink. The colonials loved it.”

“So does Elizabeth.” Much to my surprise, the smile Cora Lee gave Elizabeth spoke of fondness, but it immediately gave way to one of the sarcastic little digs Cora Lee seemed to favor. “We gave her one the first time she came here and told her how it was made. Just as soon as she figured out she didn’t have to catch the cow, she decided she loved it.”

Wonderland was back. “Catch what cow?” Aunt Mary and I looked at each other in complete bewilderment.

“Cora Lee, will you stop it?” Elizabeth didn’t sound irritated so much as tired. She set her glass down, barely touched, and turned to Mary. “It’s a dessert drink
composed of lemon juice, white wine and cream. You can also thicken it and eat it with a tiny spoon. It’s said that when the colonials made it, they milked the cow directly into the wine and lemon juice to make it frothy. I’m not in the least sure if that’s true; now it’s made with whipped cream. It’s really good.”

There was something familiar about th
e word, syllabub. Of course. “Didn’t you say something about it to Noah? Right as we left the airport?”

Any trace of amusement disappeared from Elizabeth’s face. “I did. I always make it when we have company. I love it, and it seems so fitting to have a colonial drink in this colonial house. I made a bowl of it and it’s in the refrigerator right now.”

“In this kitchen?”

Elizabeth nodded.

The “oh” that Aunt Mary let out was long and slow. Mine was quieter. The implications were just beginning to sink in when the front door opened. Noah was back. He walked over to the table. Max’s head popped up and he bounded over. Noah pushed him out of the way, pulled a chair from against the wall over to the table and sat down.

“There’s no one in the house. We’ve looked everywhere, including the attic.” He paused, studied Elizabeth
’s face and then stared intently at Cora Lee. “However, someone’s been in there.”

“How do you know that?” There should have been surprise in Cora Lee’s voice. There wasn’t.

“A couple of the upstairs chests of drawers look as if they’ve been searched. Drawers not quite put back, a closet door standing open. If someone didn’t know the house, they’d never notice, but no one around here would ever leave a drawer open.”

“I knew it!” Elizabeth sat
a little straighter. There was a steely look in her eyes and her jaw clenched. “Didn’t I tell you? I didn’t imagine that damned ghost, or the person who tipped that crate almost on top of me. Someone’s been all over this place.”

Noah got very still. “What ghost? What crate? Just exactly what has been going on around here you haven’t bothered to tell me?”

Elizabeth squirmed. She dropped her eyes down to her glass, picked it up and swirled it a little, buying time. For what? Framing the words so her story made sense? It was pretty bizarre, or had been until we found the murdered man. After she finished, Noah threw himself back in his chair and stared at her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I did. The first time it happened, only no one was there. When the ghost appeared in the hallway, it seemed impossible. There was no way he could get in, and no way out.” Her voice was faint, her eyes still on the wine she
swirled in her glass. “I was beginning to think I was losing my mind.”

“So you called Mary. What did you think she could do?” He let his eyes rest on Aunt Mary. Up
until now, she had simply been Elizabeth’s old lady friend, come to visit. Now, he was wondering … what?

“Make me sane again. That’s what she always does.”
I was glad to hear a little tartness back in Elizabeth’s voice. However, her reasons for calling Aunt Mary didn’t cover why she hadn’t told Noah or Cora Lee what was going on. I needed to get Elizabeth alone with Aunt Mary, and soon. There were a whole lot of questions floating around and not nearly enough answers.

“Did you know about this before you came?”

Aunt Mary’s face flushed. It wasn’t embarrassment. I knew the signs. It was anger. She’d done nothing but come visit a friend, one who recently lost her husband. Hardly a crime. If Elizabeth happened to mention she needed help with other things, well, that was between the two of them. And, of course, me.

“Elizabeth needed some company from an old friend. It hasn’t been all that long since William died. I was glad to come.”

Noah stared at her for a moment then transferred his attention back to Elizabeth. “Did it ever occur to you that whoever was roaming around upstairs was dangerous? That’s what the police are for. To protect you. I want to protect you too. I can’t believe all this.”

Cora Lee said,
“If it’s any consolation, Noah, she didn’t tell me, either.”

The opening of the front door kept Noah from answering.

“Noah? They’re ready. Lieutenant wants you.”

“Thanks. Be right there.” He glared at Elizabeth and pushed his chair back. “I’ve got to get out there. They’re ready to remove the body, and they’ll be taking the rug and the glass Monty drank from as well. That’s what I came to tell you. The fingerprint people are going over everything, so you won’t be able to go in there for a while. They’re going to need all of your prints as well. I’ll let you know.” He held onto the back of the chair for a moment then shook his head in disbelief. “I’ll be back, and I want to know about this ghost you saw and especially about the crate.”
It was clear he meant to have answers.

I
wanted to sit in on that conversation. A few answers would be welcome.

“What’s all this about taking the carpet?” Cora Lee sat rigid in her chair, hands clasped around her cane, the very picture of a displeased Victorian Grande dame.

“It’s going to the lab. The stuff on the carpet is what was in the glass and in Monty’s stomach.”

Cora Lee’s knuckles turned white as she tightened her grasp on the cane. “They can’t do that.”

“Can’t do what?”

“Take the rug. That’s a real Aubusson and it’s old.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Cora Lee. They’ll give it back. Won’t they, Noah?” Elizabeth scowled at Cora Lee before she turned toward Noah.

“They can’t have it.” Cora Lee wasn’t acting rational.

“They have to take it. They need to find out what the poison was and, since the entire contents of the man’s stomach are on it, they don’t have much choice.”

Cora Lee looked at me as if my sentence had been replete with four letter words. “That’s disgusting.”

I wasn’t sure if she meant the contents of Monty’s stomach or murder was disgusting. If she meant murder, she was right. As for the rug, it was evidence. Didn’t the woman watch
CSI
? Everyone else in the western hemisphere did.

“Mrs. Dunham’s right.”

“It’s Ellen.”

Noah paused for a moment then smiled. “Ellen.” He turned back to Cora Lee. “They have to test what’s on the rug. See what was in the drink, then match that against what’s in Monty’s stomach.”

Cora Lee looked even whiter, if that was possible.

“Anyway, we’ll get it back to you as soon as we can. Tell you what. I’ll make sure it goes to Heritage Cleaners. They’re the ones who do the historic district work, so they know about old rugs. All right?” Noah leaned down toward Cora Lee and rested his hand on top of hers. “It’s going to be fine. Really.”

Noah was, in my opinion, a little too conciliatory to Cora Lee. It wasn’t going to be fine. Not one bit. Oh, the rug might be. As for the rest of it, someone had murdered that man, Monty, who everyone seemed to know but no one seemed to mourn. That wasn’t fine.

Noah gave Cora Lee’s hand another squeeze. “I’ve got to go. You all stay here. I’ll be back.”

No one said anything. Cora Lee’s eyes burned holes in Elizabeth, who was seemingly lost in thought and didn’t notice. Aunt Mary seemed to be fading fast. I could hardly blame her. I felt much the same. The few sips I’d taken of the wine hit my empty stomach with a bang and I was thinking about a bath and bed. It had been a confusing and, frankly, exhausting day. We’d both had a lot to do before we climbed onto our first plane earlier, much earlier, this morning. We’d changed planes three times—in itself nerve-racking—before arriving in Newport News where Elizabeth regaled us with impossible to believe stories of ghosts and attempted murder. Then came real murder. I glanced at my watch. It was only six on the west coast. Dan should be home by now. I needed to call him. He’d have a fit if I told him we had found a body and would want to take the first plane east. I couldn’t see how that would help, at least not right now. However, I’d promised to call to let him know we’d arrived in one piece, and I could hardly keep this from him. Besides, I wanted to talk it over. I needed a little time to figure this one out. I raised my glass and took what I hoped was a restorative drink.

“Elizabeth.” Aunt Mary twisted in her chair a little so she could see her friend better. “Didn’t you tell me the person you saw upstairs was dressed in a period costume?”