The Portrait of Doreene Gray (23 page)

Gigi appeared out of the gloom, walking oddly.

Suki squatted and saw that Gigi still wore the pink dress from earlier. She had apparently tried to paw it off, because the neckline now enclosed both her neck and one front leg.

Suki felt around the dog's belly until she located the Velcro fastening and pulled it apart.

Gigi ducked out of the dress and frisked around Suki, occasionally paddling the air with her front paws.

“Stupid Lyndsay.” Suki had nothing against dressing a dog, but you didn't leave clothes on them indefinitely, any more than you would send a toddler to bed in shoes.

She bent and rubbed Gigi's head, then tossed the dress on Doreene's bed. “At least you'll be able to sleep now.” She went to the door, only to hear Gigi run past her and down the hallway.

A faint whimper came from the darkness near the top of the stairs.

Suki took her phone out of her robe pocket and used it to light her way. She followed the clicking of Gigi's claws down the stairs and to the front door. Gigi stood in front of it, dancing on all four paws.

Suki waved her light around the foyer without much hope. “And still, there is no leash.” Muttering further imprecations against Lyndsay, she put her phone in her pocket and untied the sash of her robe.

Gigi stayed reasonably still while Suki tied the sash around her collar. Holding the edges of her robe and the sash's end in one hand, she unlocked and opened the door.

Cool, damp air raised goose bumps on her skin, and a brisk wind blew the bottom of her robe open, exposing one bare hip.

Gigi ran ahead of her, pulling the sash taut and sniffing the ground busily. Suki followed, the grass damp under her bare feet. She hoped she didn't step on a slug or dog poop.

“This is a
great
spot,” she whispered when they reached the corner of the house. “Wouldn't you love to go here?”

Gigi leaned against the leash, neck extended and nose working, clearly intent on making the most of her time outside.

Suki sighed and walked on.

Gigi darted this way and that. Finally she walked in a small circle, squatted, and did her business.

“Good girl,” Suki said through a yawn.

They were close to the side door that led into the conservatory. Gigi headed for the stairs.

“We can try, but it's probably locked,” Suki said. But when she went up the stairs and tried the door, it opened. They went in. Suki tried to lock the door behind her, but the wood had warped so that the dead bolt didn't line up with the lock plate anymore.

After the relative lightness of the conservatory, with its many windows, the kitchen was very dark. Suki picked up Gigi so she wouldn't step on her. She took out her phone and used its light to navigate her way through the house.

She was halfway back to the stairs when she heard low voices coming from somewhere to her right. Suki turned off her phone and tiptoed toward the voices. As she got closer, she realized it was Reynaldo and Lyndsay. She crept forward slowly, stroking Gigi's head to keep her quiet.

They were in the next room. Suki slowly peeked around the door frame.

A large couch sat in the middle of the room, facing several windows on the other side of the room. Two heads were visible over the back of the couch black blobs in the darkness. Lyndsay was speaking in a confidential tone.

“You should sell this house and travel. There's no reason for you to stay now.” She sighed. “Poor Aunt Doreene. She and I didn't get to spend much time together, but I always sensed a kinship with her.” Lyndsay's head tilted toward Reynaldo. “It's strange, but now that she's gone, I almost feel her presence more—as though she's with me somehow.”

“You are like her in so many ways,” Reynaldo murmured. “Your beauty, your fire…”

Oh, hell no,
Suki mouthed. She withdrew around the edge of the door and tiptoed quietly back toward the foyer. She turned on her phone when she judged that the light wouldn't be seen and picked up speed as she neared the foyer. Gigi's tail slapped against Suki's waist as she was bounced along.

Once Suki reached the safety of her room, she put Gigi on the bed. “Who's a good, quiet girl?” she murmured. “You are!” She untied the sash from Gigi's collar. “And who's going to pay for stealing my beret and being a terrible person in general? Lyndsay is!” She chucked Gigi under the chin. “Yes, she is!”

Gigi ran in a circle, then stuck her nose under the bedspread and rooted around playfully.

Suki tied her robe back together and pulled on her boots. Then she went into her bathroom, flicked on the light, and rooted through her makeup bag for the reddest lipstick she could find. She pocketed it and turned off the light.

Gigi jumped off the bed and followed her to the door. Suki stooped and put a palm up. “Stay.”

Gigi ignored that and put her nose to the door.

“No.” Suki moved Gigi away with one gentle foot and opened the door enough to slip through.

Once downstairs, she moved quickly and silently through the house to the conservatory. She opened the door to the outside and left it slightly open.

Suki walked around the side of the house, staying below the level of the windows. When she found what she thought was the correct room, she slowly raised her head and looked over the sill.

The dim light made it difficult to see much, but eventually she made out the shape of a couch and caught a hint of movement. Suki dropped below window level and took out the lipstick. She rubbed it across her left palm and fingers, then put it away one-handed.

Keeping the rest of her body below the window, she raised her hand and dragged her nails down the glass pane, gritting her teeth at the feel and sound. Then she groaned in what she hoped was a supernatural manner.

Alarmed voices came from inside the room, and a light switched on.

Suki raised her lipsticked hand and slapped it against the window glass, then pulled it slowly down, leaving a bloody-looking smear. She made sure to smudge her fingerprints on the dismount.

In the room, Lyndsay's scream was almost immediately drowned out by Reynaldo's.

Suki ran back to the conservatory door, holding her red hand away from her body so it wouldn't mark her robe. Once inside the house, she moved as quickly as she could toward her room.

She was halfway there when she saw light edge the doorway just ahead of her. She plastered herself against the wall.

A moment later, Michael and Angus ran through the doorway and past her. She darted through the doorway in the opposite direction.

Suki reached the foyer when she heard creaking on the staircase above. She hid in the shadow of a grandfather clock and watched as Lupita came downstairs in a terry cloth robe, holding the banister with one hand and crossing herself with the other.

Once Lupita's hurrying footsteps were inaudible, Suki ran upstairs to her room.

Gigi lay curled on the bed. She raised her head as Suki ran into the bathroom.

Suki dropped the lipstick in the toilet, then plucked it back out and took the lid off so it wouldn't float. She flushed both pieces out of sight.

Much of the lipstick from her hand was gone—left on the window—but there was still a fair amount left. She unspooled a couple of feet of toilet paper and scrubbed at it. “Thank goodness for moisture-drenched color,” she muttered as it came off. She flushed the paper. A generous application of shampoo cleaned the rest of the stain from her hand.

She took off her robe, in case it had lipstick on it, and put on jeans and a T-shirt. Then she picked up Gigi and ran down the stairs with her.

The sound of excited voices led her to the room where she had seen Reynaldo and Lyndsay. Lights blazed inside.

Reynaldo paced the floor in a pair of flannel pants, raking a hand through his hair and describing what had happened to Lupita. Lyndsay sat on the couch in a brief nightie, contributing the occasional angry or frightened comment. Michael examined the window, wearing jeans and nothing else.

Angus paced the floor in slacks and yesterday's wrinkled shirt. He put his cell phone away and came over when he saw Suki.

“What's going on?” she asked breathlessly.

“Where have you been?” Lyndsay demanded.

“Outside,” Suki said. “Something woke me up, and when I opened the door, Gigi was in the hallway doing a pee dance, so I put my clothes on and took her outside. Then I heard everyone making a racket and came in here.”

“You didn't see anyone out there, did you?” Michael asked, coming over.

Suki put Gigi on the floor. “Huh-uh. What happened?”

“Lyndsay and Reynaldo were in here talking when they heard a strange noise outside.”

“Not just a noise,” Reynaldo said, his voice shaky. “It was groaning, like a soul in torment.”

Angus nodded happily. “And then a bloody hand appeared at
that
window.” He pointed dramatically.

Suki looked at the red imprint of her hand on the glass. It had turned out well. “Cool.”

“The police are on their way,” Angus said.

Michael put his hands on his hips. “I went outside and looked around the house, but I didn't hear or see anything.”

Suki rested her hand on his bare shoulder. “You're very brave.”

“Um, uh.” Michael dropped his gaze to the floor. “I should get a shirt. It's cold in here.”

“Would anyone like coffee?” Angus asked.

Lupita shook her head vehemently. “I am not going anywhere by myself.”

“I'll go with you,” Suki offered. “Come on.”

They went to the kitchen, where Lupita got out coffee and filters.

Suki leaned against the counter. “Did you hear them scream?”

“I don't think so,” Lupita said. “I woke up when people were running down the stairs. It shook my bed.” She ran water in the coffeepot.

Suki's hands itched from being washed so aggressively. Rubbing at an itchy spot, she noticed a bit of red under two of her fingernails. She clasped her hands together, hiding the incriminating fingers. “Why aren't Maureene and Enrico here? I assume someone called the cottage, and that's what brought Lyndsay.”

“No.” Lupita scooped coffee into the machine with quick jerks of her wrist. “Lyndsay decided to sleep in the house tonight.”

“Ah…”
Suki said. “Where do you keep cups and saucers?”

Lupita pointed to a cupboard. “There.” She turned on the coffeemaker.

Suki opened the cupboard and took out cups. “I thought there wouldn't be any more weird stuff after Doreene died.”

“Spirits come back when they're betrayed.” Lupita shook her head. “I didn't like Miss Doreene, but maybe she had reason to be the way she was. First her—” She broke off.

Suki set a stack of saucers on the counter and turned. “First her what?”

“Her husband,” Lupita whispered. “Mr. Hank. And now this one.”

“You think Hank had an affair?”

“I
know
he did.”

“Did you walk in on them?” Suki asked. “Awkward.”

“No, but I have seen the evidence.” Lupita stared at the gurgling coffeemaker.

“What evidence?”

Lupita turned and focused on Suki as if realizing she was talking to someone other than herself. “Never mind.”

“Was the painting the evidence?” Suki pressed. “Was that what all those paper bits were about? Something about an affair?”

“Never mind.” Lupita pulled a tray from a lower cupboard and stacked the cups and saucers on it.

“At least Reynaldo waited until Doreene was dead,” Suki said. “Probably,” she amended.

Lupita put a ceramic coffeepot on the counter and bowed her head. “Marriage is sacred.”

“Uh-huh,” Suki said. “That must be why they make you sign a contract.”

Lupita pointed to the refrigerator. “Will you get the milk?”

“Sure.” Suki got out the milk and handed it to Lupita.

Lupita filled the pitcher, transferred the coffee to the ceramic pot, and put everything on a second tray, along with a sugar bowl.

Suki put a handful of spoons on the tray with the cups and saucers and picked it up. “I'll carry this one.”

They walked back to the other room and put the trays on a table in front of the couch. Michael had put on a T-shirt, socks, and shoes.

As the others murmured thanks for the coffee, Suki said, “Lupita, do you have any sweetener that's not sugar?”

Lupita handed a cup and saucer to Lyndsay. “There is a pink bottle in the refrigerator door.”

“Great.” Suki turned toward the kitchen.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Lupita called.

“Nah, I'm fine.”

Lyndsay called after her, “Bring it back with you!”

“You bet,” Suki said. At the sound of cars pulling up outside the house, she broke into a trot.

Once in the kitchen, she ignored the fridge and went straight to the cabinet under the sink, rooting through it until she found some scouring powder. There was a vegetable brush next to the sink, and she used that and the powder to clean the last traces of lipstick from under her nails. She rinsed her hand and studied the results. “So much for my cuticles.”

When she got back to the media room, carrying the pink bottle of sweetener, the room was full of cops.

*   *   *

In the wee hours of the morning, Detective Kroger looked even grayer than before. He took Reynaldo and Lyndsay away and questioned them separately. Now they were back in the room with everyone else, casting occasional glances at the handprint and looking exhausted.

Kroger was on his knees, measuring the handprint with a key chain tape measure, when a young officer approached him. He stood, grunting, and put the tape measure away. “Officer Madison.”

“Maureene Pinter and Enrico Russo are on their way over, sir,” Officer Madison said. “They say they didn't hear or see anything, but I told them you'd want to talk to them anyway.” He held up a small sheet of clear plastic. A red smear decorated it. “Here's a sample of the handprint coloring. I bagged an additional sample.”