Sloan looked at Logan, who’d been on guard duty. “What happened?”
“She was never on the second level to descend to the first,” Logan said, looking at them.
This time, it had been Scully Adair—dressed in one of Kelsey’s tailored work suits—who’d made the discovery when she walked down the stairs. Her scream had alerted the castle. Now, everyone was there, including Mr. Green.
Chef and Harry and Devon rushed in from the hall to the kitchen. Phoebe Martin had come running from the Great Hall and the two day maids, Sonia Anderson and Lila Adkins, hurried from the office. It was chaos, everyone asking each other if they’d seen Mrs. Avery.
“Whoa!” Sloan shouted. “Stop. All of you!”
They went silent.
Phoebe stared at Sloan with fear. Scully Adair seemed to be in shock. Harry and Devon just looked sick.
Chef shook his head. “I knew I should have taken that job out at the really haunted hotel in Colorado.”
Mr. Green just stood there, hat in hand, shaking his head. “Sorrowful end. The reverend? He was a good man. Mrs. Avery? Not so much. Still, a sorrowful end.”
“We’re going to have to call the police,” Jane said.
“Already dialing,” Logan told them.
“Let’s leave her as she lies for the M.E.,” Sloan said. “We’ll head into the Great Hall and wait for the police.”
They obeyed like sheep. Chef, Harry, and Devon drifted to one side of the table—team kitchen. Phoebe Martin, Sonia, and Lila to the other side. Emil Roth—appearing to be in total shock—walked to his place at the end.
Scully looked at the room uncertainly. At last, she walked to the wall and sank down against it and seemed to curl into herself.
“Did anyone see her this morning?” Logan asked.
“I did,” Mr. Green volunteered. “I saw her walking up to the castle from the guard house.”
“Did you speak with her?”
“No,” he said. Then, he added, “I only speak with her when I have to.”
“We saw her—the three of us,” Chef told them.
“Yeah,” Harry said. “She came in telling us that if we were all going to get so chummy with the guests, Chef needed to plan cheaper meals.”
“Nice,” Scully muttered.
“Did you see her?” Jane asked the maids.
The three of them shook their heads.
“Not until she was there. At the foot of the stairs. But, I knew. The minute I heard Scully screaming, I knew,” Phoebe said. She stared at Jane. “It’s the ghost. She’s angry. Elizabeth is angry. You tried to get married here when she couldn’t. I think she’s trying to kill you!”
Sloan cleared his throat. “I really don’t think that Jane and the reverend and Mrs. Avery resemble one another in any way. Nor do I think that a ghost is killing people.”
“So she just tripped?” Harry asked hopefully.
“Personally, I don’t think so,” Jane said matter-of-factly.
“But the reverend just fell yesterday!” Harry protested.
“And she fell today,” Kelsey said.
“So, if she didn’t just fall—” Harry began.
“Someone pushed her,” Devon finished.
“And who would want to kill that old battle-ax?” Chef demanded sarcastically.
The police didn’t knock, they burst right in. Detective Forester immediately looked at the FBI agents. “Four of you are still here—and another person is dead? What now?”
Everyone began to speak at once again.
Sloan assumed that Detective Forester was decent at his job. But he probably didn’t deal with situations like this often. And Detective Flick, at his heels, merely followed the path that his boss took.
“Hey!” Sloan shouted. “Tone it down. Let the detective get his questions out in an orderly fashion.”
They all went silent like errant school children.
“The ghost did it!” Phoebe said again. “The ghost did not want people getting married here. Maybe Elizabeth Roth didn’t even want to hurt the reverend. He was just there and she had to stop the wedding. And so, to stop killing other people, she had to kill Mrs. Avery, who kept letting people try to get married here.”
Forester stared at her as if she’d completely lost her mind.
“Who saw what happened?” Forester demanded.
“No one saw anything,” Sloan said. “My co-workers and I were on the second floor. Scully Adair came down the stairs and found her.”
“No one else was around?” Forester demanded of Scully.
Scully shook her head.
“Where were the rest of you?” Forester asked.
Mr. Green told him he’d never entered the house. Chef and cook said that they’d been in the kitchen, but that she had been in to see them just moments earlier.
“We had just gotten here,” Lila said.
“We rode in together,” Sonia said.
“I was still up in my room,” Phoebe said.
“So she just fell?” Forester said, bewildered. “Someone has to know something.” He spun on Mr. Green. “Who can vouch for you?”
Green just looked shocked. “I’m always outside.”