“You know something about that, don’t you?”
“I told you that, in addition to Daydream, Ormsby and Gill were brewing up some illicit drugs in their laboratory. I’m not sure of the purpose of the drugs but I am certain that they were not legitimate medicines. Every couple of weeks Ormsby complained because he had to take time off from perfecting Daydream in order to make up a batch of the other drugs. He bottled the stuff in crystal perfume bottles that he stored in a velvet jewelry case. Usually, Gill stopped by the lab to pick up the bottles. But on the night I escaped, the killer, not Gill, took the drugs.”
“You’re sure the killer was not Gill?”
“Positive,” Adelaide said. “Gill is a short man. The killer in the surgical mask was tall.”
“You saw him take the perfume bottles?”
“Yes. I was hiding behind Ormsby’s desk at the time. I was terrified that he would find me. I had a couple of jars of chemicals that I planned to throw into his eyes if necessary.”
Jake swallowed the last of the coffee and put the mug down.
“That,” he said, “is one hell of a story.”
Adelaide closed her eyes as if absorbing a physical blow. When she raised her lashes and looked at him, he could see the fear she was struggling to control.
“You don’t believe me, do you?” she whispered. “I was afraid you wouldn’t. I’ve been lying low, living under a new name here in Burning Cove while I try to figure out what to do. I haven’t dared to go to the police because I’ve been afraid they would find out that I was an escapee from a lunatic asylum. The first thing they would do is contact my so-called husband.”
“Who would then call the head of the Rushbrook Sanitarium.”
“Yes.”
He got to his feet and rounded the end of the big table. Reaching down, he grasped Adelaide’s arms and hauled her gently out of the chair.
“One thing we need to get straight before we discuss anything else,” he said. “No one is going to take you away. No one is going to send you back to Rushbrook. No one is going to lock you up again. I will not allow it.”
“But what if Conrad really is my husband?”
“Then you and I will go to Reno and we will stay there for the necessary six weeks until you can file for divorce. Trust me, Conrad Massey won’t be a problem. A nuisance, maybe, but not a serious problem. Do we understand each other now?”
She watched him with her shadow-filled eyes for what seemed like an eternity. And then she threw her arms around him, rested her head on his chest, and held him as if he had just saved her from drowning. He folded her close.
“Thank you,” she mumbled into his shirt. “I’m so sorry I dragged you into this situation.”
“You didn’t drag me into it. I came to Burning Cove to look for Madam Zolanda. Now she’s dead and that perfume bottle stopper we found at her villa indicates she may have had a connection to the bastards at the Rushbrook Sanitarium. If that’s true, it’s all tied up together and we might finally be able to figure out what is going on here.”
Adelaide sniffed a couple of times and raised her head with obvious reluctance. There were tears running down her cheeks. She stepped back and used the hem of her apron to dab at her eyes.
“I knew that, sooner or later, I was going to have to find a way out of this mess, but I figured as long as Gill and Conrad were pretending that I was still a patient, I was safe. But last night everything changed.”
“Yes,” he said. “Until now you’ve been worried that someone would drag you back to Rushbrook. But it looks like we’ve got an even bigger problem.”
“I know. Someone tried to kill you.”
“And you, as well. Whoever drugged me last night had to know there was an excellent chance that I would drive straight off Cliff Road into the ocean. If that had happened, we would probably both be dead. The original plan may have been to kidnap you and take you back to Rushbrook, but obviously that has changed. Whoever is after you is evidently willing to murder you.”
“But I’m no good to Conrad unless I’m alive. Under the terms of my father’s estate, if I die with no offspring, my inheritance goes to some very distant relatives.”
“Massey might want you alive but it doesn’t look like the others do. I think they’ve decided that if they can’t grab you, they have to try to silence you.”
“But who would believe my story?” Adelaide said.
“I believe it. Trust me, that’s enough to create serious problems for Gill and Massey and the guy in the surgical mask. I’ve got one more question.”
“What is it?”
“What made you pick that particular night—the same night that a killer was prowling the halls of Rushbrook—to try to escape the sanitarium?”
Adelaide smiled a watery smile. “The Duchess warned me that something terrible was going to happen that night. She said that if I didn’t leave, I would not survive until morning. She said I would become the next ghost.”
Chapter 33
Adelaide was washing teacups in the big sink in the tearoom kitchen when the phone rang. She wiped her hands on her apron and crossed the pea green linoleum floor to pick up the receiver.
“Refresh Tearoom,” she said.
“Adelaide, it’s Raina. I have a possible location for Thelma Leggett.”
“That’s great.”
“No guarantees but here’s what I’ve got. I located the property that Leggett inherited. I made a phone call to a local real estate firm and pretended that I was looking for a place to rent for a week. I mentioned that I had seen an empty cabin the last time I drove through the town. I gave them the address of the property that Leggett owns. The secretary who took my call said that the place has had a For Sale sign in the window for about two years but the day before yesterday a woman moved in. Her car is still sitting in the driveway.”
“Raina, you are absolutely brilliant.”
“It might be a huge coincidence that a woman moved into Leggett’s cabin a couple of days ago,” Raina warned.
“It must be Leggett.”
“That’s what I’m assuming. I checked a map. Looks like the town is about a two-hour drive from Burning Cove.”
Adelaide glanced at the wall clock. “It’s a little after ten. I’ve got to call Jake. He’s talking to Luther Pell. If we leave now, we can be there before one o’clock.”
“What about your job?”
“Flo will understand when I tell her I need the day off. She’ll probably assume that Jake and I are sneaking off for an afternoon tryst at some unnamed auto court.”
“When nothing could be further from the truth, right?”
“Right. Got to go, Raina. Thanks.”
“I’ll send my bill to Mr. Truett.”
“No, that wouldn’t be right. Send it to me.”
“You can’t afford me, pal. Drive carefully.”
Raina hung up the phone.
Chapter 34
The shot to the temple had done a lot of damage but there was enough left of Thelma Leggett’s face to identify her.
“Another suicide,” Jake said. “What an amazing coincidence. But this time the victim used a gun. Someone evidently decided to rewrite the script.”
Adelaide turned away from the sight of Thelma Leggett sprawled on the thin, blood-soaked bed. For a moment she was afraid that she would be sick.
“Are you all right?” Jake asked.
“Yes. No. But I’m not going to faint, if that’s what’s worrying you.”
Jake rounded the end of the cot and put an arm around her shoulders.
“Why don’t you wait outside?” he suggested, his voice gentling.
She shook her head and stepped away from the comfort he was offering. She forced herself to take another look at the cot. Thelma had evidently been sitting on the edge of the bed when she put the pistol to her temple and pulled the trigger. She had fallen backward across the quilt. Her fingers were still wrapped around the gun.
“What is going on here?” she said.
“It would be easy to assume that someone was after the stash of blackmail secrets. But now, given what happened to Zolanda and what you told me about Ormsby’s death, I’m wondering if we’re looking at something a lot more complicated.”