Read Devil May Care Online

Authors: Elizabeth Peters

Tags: #American fiction, #Fiction, #Detective, #Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths, #Mystery Fiction, #Virginia, #Mystery & Detective, #Romance, #Fiction - Mystery, #Suspense, #Women Sleuths, #Mystery, #Psychological, #Witches, #General

Devil May Care (7 page)

BOOK: Devil May Care
12.14Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

"Nothing heroic about it." Ted followed her toward the kitchen, pushing cats out of his way with the ease of long practice. The animals, especially the nocturnal varieties, were assembling from all parts of the house. "Either you were having another hallucination, in which case there was no danger to me--or else your visitors were supernatural, in which case my curiosity is strong enough to override my naturally timid disposition. Good Lord, girl, I'd walk miles to see a genuine, honesi-to-God ghost. I'm only disappointed that I didn't."

"You and Kate are disgusting," Ellie said sternly.

" '' isn't the word for you; you're plain nosy.

Even about the hereafter!"

"At my age, curiosity concerning that particular region takes on a poignantly personal edge," Ted said. He settled himself at the table.

"I don't believe in ghosts," Ellie said.

DEVIL-MAY-CARE 51

"Why didn't the dogs bark?" Ted asked.

"Maybe they did and I didn't hear them."

"Possible, but unlikely. They do bark at intruders, you know; the}-' aren't the useless, spoiled hulks they appear."

"They're supposed to bark at ghosts as well as burglars," Ellie said stubbornly.

"Not bark. They cower, whining abjectly." Ted was smiling. But Ellie fell a shiver go through her, as she remembered the Peke's soft, disturbed whine.

"This is a sillv discussion," she said. "What should I do, Ted?"

"You could call the police. Or Kate. I doubt that you'll get much sense out of either. Or you can just sit tight, see what happens next."

"I hope nothing happens next," Ellie muttered.

"If you'd like me to move in temporarily--"

"No. What good would that do? No insult intended, Ted."

"I know," Ted said soothingly. "I've always wondered, myself, why the presence of a single man in the house is supposed to deter malefactors. Or why wives in cartoons are always waking up their paunchy, flabby, middle-aged husbands and sending them downstairs to confront burglars who are presumably desperate, possibly armed, and probably high on something or other."

Ellie brought the coffee to the table and sat down.

They drank in silence for a time, both thinking their own thoughts.

"You do think it was supernatural, don't you?" Ellie asked, at last.

"It makes such a lovely story," Ted said dreamily.

"First the couple--man and woman--gliding across the lawn, obviously in haste. Then the man in pursuit --dark, menacing--the outraged husband? A hundred years ago there was a road to the West. A carriage might wait there, for someone who wanted

82 Elizabeth Peters to make a getaway from one of these houses, through the woods ... "

Ellie put her cup down with a clatter.

"There's a story," she exclaimed. "Out with it, Ted."

"It's more than a story, it's fact. One of those escapades I mentioned last evening, when we were talking about the hypocritical residents of the county. He--the young man--was the brother of one of my ancestors. The woman was the wife of his neighbor, Jeremiah Mcgrath--one of those selfrighteous, prim-lipped, Bible-reading town dignitaries, a sanctimonious swine any woman--or man--would want to escape from. He had three wives after her; killed all three of them with overbreeding and mental torture."

"Good Lord," Ellie said, genuinely shocked. "But how could he marry again if she--" "Oh, she never made it," Ted said gently. "She and her lover were found the following spring--what was left of them. Only bones, and enough fragments of clothing to identify them. The conclusion was that they had been set on by animals--wolves, bears--in the woods."

"There weren't any bears in this part of the country a hundred years ago," Eliie said.

"Very true." Ted sipped his coffee. "But there were juries open to bribery."

"Are you implying that her husband--"

"He claimed he didn't realize she had left him until he discovered her note the following day," Ted said. "But suppose he found out earlier--in time to pursue them? What you saw tonight suggests--"

"Ted, stop it!" "I'm not trying to frighten you," Ted said. "Don't you see, Ellie, if this is true, you simply saw a replay of an event that happened a century ago--shadow figures, as unaware of you as they were conscious of DEVIL-MAY-CARE 53

their own paradoxical survival. Nothing threatening about that, is there?" "Oh, I don't know," Ellie said wearily. "I'm too tired to think. You must be exhausted, Ted. Go home to bed--unless you want to sleep here for the rest of the night. Don't do it on my account, though. It's near dawn, and I'm not at all nervous."

"Okay. Don't hesitate to call. I'm absolutely fascinated, Ellie--or I would be if you weren't worried about it."

"That's what is so funny," Ellie said. "I'm not. And I wonder if I shouldn't be."

Ill Tired as she was, the sun awakened her next day before noon. The air coming in through the open window was balmily warm. When she sat up Ellie was confronted with a row of expectant, waiting forms. The cats looked like a row of schoolchildren, trained to await the ringing of a certain bell. Blue eyes, green eyes, and eyes of all shades of yellow, from amber to citrine, were fixed unwinkingiy on her face. Ellie laughed and swung her legs out of bed, and the cats broke formation, bouncing ahead of her down the stairs and bunching up near the door. The sun had returned, and they were anxious to greet it.

Eilie let them out and then went to the kitchen.

Last night's coffee cups still stood on the table. Apparently the Beaseleys were not due until later. They might not come at all that day; their schedule was one that even Kate had never tried to figure out.

As Ellie stood waiting for the water to boil she considered the Beaseleys as suspects. In spite of Ted's theories she was determined to regard what she had seen as a trick, designed and carried out by

54 Elizabeth Peters human agents. Were the Beaseleys capable of such a trick, intellectually and emotionally?

The tricks had been engineered with some degree of cleverness, especially the first one. She had to concede that, since she had no idea how it had been done. That sounded conceited--and it was conceited.

All the same, she was unwilling to admit that the Beaseleys, singly oren masse, were that much smarter than she was.

The Beaseleys seemed equally improbable suspects on the grounds of motive. They had no reason to want to frighten her; and indeed, if the aim of the trickster was to scare her, he was not being very thorough about it. The apparitions had not been particularly terrifying.

After she had washed the dishes she went upstairs to get dressed. She could sympathize with the cats.

The sun was calling her too, and she lost no time in getting outside.

She released the dogs, bracing herself to withstand their tumultuous greetings, and then filled their water dishes. It took a good half hour to feed the various fauna Kate had accumulated, including the wild birds and the squirrels. Kate had the most obscenely fat squirrels in the county.

When her chores were finished she dragged a deck chair out onto the flagstoned patio and stretched out.

The sun felt divine. Her own favorite among the dogs, Toby the bloodhound, had stretched out beside her, his long, mournful muzzle resting on his front paws, and the beautiful thoughtful eyes that are characteristic of the breed fixed on Ellie's face. His name, derived from that of the fabulous mongrel in "The Sign of the Four," who had so often assisted Sherlock Holmes in his cases, was another example of wishful thinking on Kate's part. Toby had something wrong with his sense of smell; he didn't even recognize his friends by nose, but barked at them until they were close enough to be identified. He had DEVIL-MAY-CARE 55

an angelic personality, however, and his very appearance was imposing enough to scare off strangers.

Ellie put her hand on the dog's head, and felt him respond with a wriggle of pleasure. Once again she wondered about the strange behavior of the dogs in the night. What was it Dr. Watson had said? " The dog did nothing in the night-time.' ' was the curious incident,' remarked Sherlock Holmes."

Franklin had not barked at the first pair of "ghosts." Did that suggest that they were people he knew? Or that the old folk superstition, that animals were aware of the presence of the supernatural, was false? Maybe dogs didn't bark at ghosts. Maybe they only barked at unfamiliar ghosts. Kate's dogs might be as wildly unpredictable as their mistress ... Before her thoughts could wander farther away from sense, Ellie fell asleep.

She awoke with a start,, having dreamed that someone was standing over her, to find that it was not a dream. The first thing she saw was an earthstained trowel, held in a tanned brown hand, and two jean-clad knees, stained with stripes of green and brown. Her eyes traveled up the man's body-- flat stomach and narrow hips, a bared torso in tanned Indian-brown, where the ribs stood out with unhealthy distinctness--till they reached the face.

Ellie gasped; and the dog, whose head had been quiescent under her trailing fingers, stiffened alertly as her shock communicated itself. The costume was not the same, but the face was the face of the young man who had smiled at her from the upper hall. Feature by feature identically the same, even to the small sickle-shaped scar on the chin.

CHAPTER FOUR.

Slowly and ponderously the bloodhound got to its feet. Ellie was unable to remove her fascinated stare from the face she knew so well, but out of the corner of her eye she saw that Toby was not registering hostility.

His tail was moving from side to side and his big brown eyes were bewildered as he looked from her to the newcomer, whom he obviously knew and trusted.

"Who are you?" Ellie inquired.

"Donald Gold. I'm your yardman. Or do you prefer yardboy?"

He grinned broadly at her. The transformation resulting from a simple smile was amazing; Ellie thought of leprechauns, the Cheshire Cat, and a very young boy cousin whose cherubic face looked particularly innocent just before he reached the punch line of a dirty joke. The newcomer had one of those faces that are pure India rubber, capable of unlimited mimicry. The sort of face that is a tremendous asset to an actor, or a spy.

However, it was also unmistakably the face of her first ghost. There were some differences. This man was darker-skinned--which might have been simply a matter of suntan--and thinner. His cheekbones stood out too sharply, like his ribs. His eyes were DEVIL-MAY-CARE 57

hazel flecked with brown; green in some lights, dark in others.

As Ellie continued to study him, her fixed stare began to bother the newcomer. His smile faded, and he shifted uneasily from one sneakered foot to the other.

"You must have seen uglier people," he said. "Or has my nose turned bright green or something?"

Ellie was groggy from heat and sleep, or she probably would not have spoken so unguardedly.

"You look just like my ghost," she said.

Donald sat down, in one smooth movement, his legs crossed and his feet tucked in.

"You're the first person I've ever met who had a personal ghost. Since you're a relative of Kate's, I'm not surprised. But I am interested. Tell me more."

Ellie sat up, pushing the damp hair back from her face. She was wearing shorts and a skimpy T-shirt, and Donald's eyes followed her movements with candid appreciation.

"No, you tell me more," she said firmly. "Who you are, for instance, and why you were hovering over me like Count Dracula."

Donald's upper lip lifted when she mentioned the classic vampire; she could have sworn, for a moment, that his canine teeth elongated. Then his face relaxed.

"I was admiring your figure," he explained.

"You must be the neighbor Kate told me about," Ellie said. "She said you'd be coming to mow the lawn, but I didn't visualize--" "You thought of a Beaseley," Donald interrupted.

Ellie could not have explained how he did it, but his face was suddenly pure Beaseley--long jaw, jutting nose ... "No such luck," Donald went on, letting his features slip back into their normal shape. "My dad is the local doctor. We live over there." He waved

58 Elizabeth Peters vaguely at the row of spruces that loomed up beyond the herb garden.

"Oh," Ellie said grudgingly. "I guess I have heard of you. Why didn't I ever meet you?"

"I guess you were never here when I was home from boarding school and college. I know about you, though. Kate brags about you a lot."

"And what are you doing now--besides cutting lawns?"

"Nothing." Donald smiled. "Absolutely nothing."

"Oh, really. How old are you?"

"None of your business."

"Twenty-six?" Ellie guessed. "You mean you haven't got a permanent job?"

"Listen, taking care of Kate's grounds is a full-time job for four men," Donald said indignantly. "I work like a dog. Not like one of Kate's dogs," he added, with a disparaging glance at Toby, who had fallen asleep and was snoring lustily.

Ellie refused to be distracted.

"Cutting grass is a ridiculous way for a man like you to earn a living. You let your father put you through college so you could cut grass? You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

"You're cute when you get mad," Donald said. He added, "I suppose that's why you've developed such filthy rude manners. Blondes always think they can get away with things that would earn anybody else a punch in the nose. Now why don't you get down off your soapbox and tell me about your ghost?"

If it had not been so warm and pleasant in the sun, if Donald's smile had not been so ingratiating, and if Ellie had been a little less worried, she might have sent him about his business. But she did not analyze these motives until much later. She simply talked.

Donald was fascinated. A flicker of emotion that might have been embarrassment crossed his face when Ellie mentioned his startling resemblance to the first apparition, but as she went on he forgot his DEVIL-MAY-CARE 59

self-consciousness and listened raptly. Cats came and went, Toby awoke and wandered off, and a goat began eating the roses that lined the patio.

Donald shied a pebble at the goat, which looked outraged but moved away, and Ellie went on with her story. When she had finished, Donald's first comment told her a great deal about the way his mind worked.

BOOK: Devil May Care
12.14Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Team Human by Justine Larbalestier
Rebellion by J. A. Souders
Paris Nocturne by Patrick Modiano
Full Black by Brad Thor
Trauma Plan by Candace Calvert
Pleasure in the Rain by Cooper, Inglath