Wait Until Midnight Read Online Free Page B

threats"
    He gave her a considering look. "Did you, by any chance, ever pursue a career on the stage, Mrs. Fordyce? You seem to have a distinct flair for melodrama."
    "Oddly enough, I find a dramatic reaction entirely appropriate in this situation," she said through her teeth.
    He studied her for a long moment. She got the impression that he was recalculating some secret scheme.
    "Breathe deeply, madam, and compose yourself," he said finally. "I have no intention of having you or your aunts taken up on a charge of murder."
    "Why should I believe you?"
    He rubbed his temples. "You must trust me when I tell you that justice is not my chief concern here. I am content to leave that problem for the police, although I doubt that they will be successful. They are reasonably efficient when it comes to catching ordinary murderers, but this was not an ordinary killing."
    She sensed that he was telling the truth. Nevertheless, she did not release her grip on the chair. "If you did not come here seeking justice for Elizabeth Delmont, what do you want, Mr. Grove?"
    He watched her with cool speculation. "My only goal in this affair is to recover the diary."
    She did not try to hide her confusion. "What diary?" "The one that was stolen from Elizabeth Delmont's house last night"
    She puzzled that out as best she could. "You seek Mrs. Delmont's diary? Well, I assure you, I know nothing of it and neither do my aunts. Furthermore, I can tell you with absolute certainty that I did not notice any diary in the room at the séance last night."
    He contemplated her for another moment and then shook his head, as though he had reluctantly accepted defeat.
    "Do you know, I believe you may be telling me the truth, Mrs. Fordyce. Indeed, it appears that I was wrong about you. ,
    She allowed herself to relax ever so slightly. "Wrong, sir?"
    "I came here this morning in hopes of surprising you into admitting that you had taken the damned diary. At the very least I thought you might be able to give me some notion of what had happened to it."
    "Why is this particular diary so important to you?"
    His smile was as sharp and deadly as a knife. "Suffice it to say that Mrs. Delmont presumed to think that she could use it to blackmail me "
    Mrs. Delmont had evidently allowed greed to overwhelm caution and good sense, Caroline thought. No sane, sensible person would take the risk of trying to extort money from this man.
    "What made you think that I might know something concerning its whereabouts?" she demanded.
    He widened his stance and clasped his hands behind his back. "You and the other sitters at the séance were the last people to see Elizabeth Delmont alive, aside from the killer, of course. I learned from one of Delmont's neighbors that the housekeeper was given the night off."
    "Yes, that's true. Mrs. Delmont herself opened the door to us. She said she always gave her housekeeper the night off on séance evenings because she could not go into a proper trance if there was anyone other than the sitters present. Indeed, the comment made me wonder if perhaps—"
    "Yes?" he prompted. "What did it cause you to wonder about, Mrs. Fordyce?"
    "Well, if you must know, it occurred to me that perhaps Mrs. Delmont did not like to have her housekeeper present while she conducted a séance because she was afraid that the woman would become wise to her tricks and perhaps expose her in exchange for a bribe. Psychical investigators have been known to pay the servants who work for mediums to spy on their employers, you see."
    "A clever notion, Mrs. Fordyce" Adam looked approving of her logic. "I suspect that you are right. Mediums are notoriously secretive."
    "How did you learn my name and address?"
    "When I discovered the body, I also found a list of the sitters who had attended the final séance. The addresses had been put down alongside the names."
    "I see"
    Her imagination conjured up a disturbing image of Adam Grove methodically searching Mrs. Delmont's parlor while the