Eventually, Aidan came back in. “Ron, Phil, you two are free to go. Grace, I’ll follow you to your house. Mo, come with me,” Aidan told her. “We’ll get Grace home first.”
She nodded, feeling numb. When she left, she hoped she’d never have to come back here.
They stayed close behind Grace but Mo wondered if it even mattered.
The sun was already coming up. She didn’t know if it was because she was so shocked that she had nothing to say—or because she was just so worn-out.
When they reached Grace’s home, Aidan got out of the car and went to the door with her. Grace had an alarm system; Aidan waited for her to key in the numbers and lock herself in.
When he came back to the car, he spoke to her a little sharply. “Mo.”
“Yes?”
“Are you all right?”
She nodded. “Was it...was it Sondra?” she asked.
“It was. I’m sorry.” His voice was as sincere, as sorrowful, as it had been when he’d said those words earlier.
“Me, too.” She took a deep breath. “Aidan, does this mean there’s some kind of psychopath on the loose? Sondra... I doubt she even knew Richard Highsmith or Wendy Appleby. This can’t be connected to them.”
He was quiet. Then he told her, “The Appleby house was broken into tonight—and trashed.”
“Thieves who knew she was dead and that the house was empty?”
“Thieves take things. The only thing missing was Wendy Appleby’s computer,” he said.
“What are you thinking?”
“The Krewe’s working on it now, but...I don’t think Wendy Appleby had a husband who was killed in an automobile accident. I think that was just her story.”
“What do you mean? And, anyway, why would that matter, whether she’d had a husband or not?” Mo asked. “Do you think she and Richard were having an affair? Is that what you’re saying?”
“I don’t know if they were having an affair now, but I think they did nine years ago. I think Richard was J.J.’s father.”
“What...what led you to that conclusion?”
“I could be way off, but it’s a theory worth exploring. We found the Woman in White—who had an affair with Major Andre. And then a daughter, who married a Highsmith. As for Lizzie grave—there was a picture at the Appleby house with Wendy and J.J. at the cemetery. It looked like a school outing. And on the back of it she’d written, ‘Lizzie’s grave.’ It’s too much of a coincidence that they both wrote those exact words. They might have met there—or planned to meet there. To discuss J.J. or the future? Maybe she’d hidden the truth from Richard all these years.”
“And maybe you’re wrong. Maybe they were both history buffs. Or else Wendy did know Richard, discovered the grave and just wanted to tell him about it. Wendy wasn’t from here, you know.”
“Yes, I know. Wendy Appleby was dancing on the Broadway stage nine years ago—and Richard always loved theater.”
Mo shook her head. “From everything I hear, they were both decent people. Why wouldn’t Wendy have told Richard? Why wouldn’t they have at least let their child know the truth?”
“People have reasons—bad ones, sometimes—for doing things. It’s possible that, at the time, Wendy didn’t want to trap him into marriage but didn’t want to give up her baby, either.”
“That’s just conjecture,” she said.
“Yes,” he agreed, but before he could continue, his hands-free phone rang. Mo heard his part of the conversation and wasn’t surprised when he told her, “There’s no Mr. Appleby. No father listed on J.J.’s birth certificate.”
She nodded. “I could tell from what you were saying. But why kill people for that? And why kill Sondra? Like I said, I don’t believe she knew either of them.”
“Could be smoke and mirrors,” Aidan said.
“Pardon?”
“Make sure someone else dies in the same gruesome manner. To create a diversion, send us in the wrong direction,” he explained. When they reached her house, he got out of the car and walked her to the door. “Mo, I’m sorry to ask, but can you get Rollo and can we keep going tonight?”
“Keep going?”
“We have another head to find,” he said. “And I’m sure you know the location of just about every headless horseman in the city.”
Her heart sank.
She didn’t want to find Sondra’s head. She hadn’t known Sondra the way Phil and Ron and Grace had. But she’d met her through the years—and Sondra had been wonderful to Mo for the few days she’d worked there.
But she also didn’t want to think of Sondra’s head set up as a ghoulish mockery to be discovered by someone else, a child, perhaps.
“I’ll get Rollo,” she said.
13
“Where should we go?” Aidan asked Mo as she returned to the car with Rollo.
“There’s the large metal headless horseman by the bridge,” Mo said. “But that one’s huge. You’d need several people to get a head on top of it. And there’s one at the entrance to the village set up specifically for Halloween. Other than that...at this time of year, they’re everywhere.”