Chapter Seventeen
Selena and Dr. Scott entered the drawing room to find Colonel Blackwood and Mrs. Hillman seated by the fire, playing a game of chess. Thankfully, they were alone.
“Clever move, ma’am,” the colonel was saying. “But then, I knew what I was getting into when I invited you to play.” He and Mrs. Hillman looked up as Selena and the doctor approached. “Miss Taylor! Dr. Scott. You have arrived just in time to see me on the brink of defeat by my worthy opponent.”
Mrs. Hillman grinned. “How many times did I beat you at the hotel that summer?”
“I stopped keeping count.” Colonel Blackwood chuckled.
Selena briefly returned their smiles. “I’m sorry to interrupt your game, but Dr. Scott and I would like to have a word with you both if we may.”
“By all means.” Mrs. Hillman gestured to a pair of velvet-tufted chairs opposite.
Once the pair was seated, the colonel sat back in his own chair and said, “What’s on your mind?”
Dr. Scott cleared his throat. “Ma’am. Colonel,” he said, his voice low and solemn, “What we’re about to impart, we share in the strictest confidence. It must not be repeated to anyone else in this house.”
“Oh, dear. You sound so serious.” Mrs. Hillman placed a hand over her heart. “What is it?”
“It relates to the unfortunate deaths of Mr. Clarke and Mrs. Whitlock,” Selena murmured in the same quiet tone, “as well as that of your mutual friend, Mrs. Goodwin.”
“Mrs. Goodwin?” Colonel Blackwood narrowed his eyes at them. “What has she got to do with anything?”
“As Mrs. Hillman mentioned,” Dr. Scott explained, “it is quite odd that three people you met at the Worthing Seaside Hotel that summer have died in such short succession.”
Mrs. Hillman’s eyebrows pulled together. “I wouldn’t say it’s odd, but rather a terrible coincidence. One which I would rather not think about just now.”
“I’m afraid we must think about it, Mrs. Hillman, and without delay,” Selena replied. “What we’re going to say is important.”
“When you brought up the Clive Webster case, it got us to thinking.” The doctor folded his hands in his lap. “And we have formed a theory.”
The colonel’s brows drew together. “What kind of theory?”
Selena checked again to make sure there was no one else in the room. “Mrs. Hillman, you said you believed that Clive Webster might have been innocent of the thefts of which he was convicted?”
The older woman gave a long sigh, but her expression seemed to signal her reluctant acquiescence to discuss the matter.
“He was such a nice young man. To steal valuables from the guest rooms—to me, it didn’t fit with his character.
I felt certain that someone else must have done it.
I tried to voice my opinion, but no one listened. ”
“You may have been right.” Selena leaned forward in her chair. “You know your iris brooch that went missing?”
“Yes?”
Selena knew this wasn’t going to be easy for Mrs. Hillman to hear. But for her to truly accept Clive Webster’s probable innocence, she felt it necessary to tell her. “It pains me to report this but, after we found Mrs. Whitlock this morning … I discovered your brooch hidden inside her coat.”
Mrs. Hillman’s eyes widened. “What?” She sounded aghast. “What are you saying? That Mrs. Whitlock stole my iris brooch?”
“I’m afraid so.” The doctor gave her a grim nod.
“And you’re certain it was my brooch you found?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Selena had retrieved the brooch from her room and withdrew it now from her skirt pocket.
Mrs. Hillman took the brooch and held it to her chest. “Oh, thank goodness! I’m so glad to have it back.” Then her face crumpled. “But this is too awful. How could Opal have done such a thing? She kept insisting that I had misplaced it.”
Colonel Blackwood shook his head. “The woman had her eye on that brooch from the minute she first saw it. And she was forever commenting about jewels and such that summer at the hotel.”
“Given that Mrs. Whitlock was so fond of jewelry,” Dr. Scott stated calmly, “and that she apparently wasn’t shy about stealing something she wanted, we can’t help wondering if she has done it before.
In short, we believe it may have been Mrs. Whitlock, and not Clive Webster, who stole the guests’ jewelry at the hotel. ”
Mrs. Hillman’s hand went to her mouth. “Do you really think so? Oh! If it’s true, my heart breaks for that poor, innocent boy.”
“So does mine.” Selena had never met the young man in question, but the unfairness of it all deeply rankled.
“Which brings us to the real point of this discussion—and the most delicate part.” Dr. Scott raised his hands, palms upward.
“You mentioned, Mrs. Hillman, that Clive Webster was very close to his brother and sister. If they believed Mr. Webster was unfairly convicted, we think it possible that after he died in prison, either Joe or Maisie Webster, or both of them, decided to seek revenge for their brother’s death. ”
“‘Revenge’?” repeated the colonel, scratching his head.
“They may have decided to come after the people responsible for Mr. Webster’s conviction,” Selena explained, “and make them pay with their lives.”
Mrs. Hillman tilted her head to one side. “What people responsible?”
“The ones who had reported him to the police,” Dr. Scott answered. “It would explain why three of you have died in such quick succession—first Mrs. Goodwin, and now Mr. Clarke and Mrs. Whitlock.”
“Don’t be absurd. Those were accidents,” Mrs. Hillman insisted.
“Perhaps,” Dr. Scott replied. “Or perhaps they were made to look like accidents.”
The colonel’s eyes widened. “Dear lord. I spoke to the police about Clive Webster. They asked about my missing diamond stickpin.”
“We know,” Selena put in. “What did you tell the police, Colonel? Did you believe the boy was culpable?”
“Yes, and I told them so,” the colonel admitted.
“What about you, Mrs. Hillman?” Dr. Scott asked. “You said you spoke in Clive Webster’s defense?”
“I did.” Mrs. Hillman’s eyes narrowed. “But what are you all on about? I don’t understand.”
“I think I do.” Colonel Blackwood nodded slowly. “You think Clarke didn’t fall down those stairs. You think he might have been pushed—by Joe or Maisie Webster, as an act of revenge. And you think one of them might have poisoned Mrs. Goodwin and Mrs. Whitlock with lethal doses of laudanum.”
“What? That’s ridiculous!” cried Mrs. Hillman. “And impossible. Maisie and Joe Webster aren’t even here.”
“How can we be sure of that, ma’am?” Dr. Scott gave her an earnest glance. “Do you know what either of them looks like?”
Mrs. Hillman went quiet for a moment. “Well, no, I suppose not,” she replied falteringly. “But they can’t be here,” she said again. “I know every single person at Darkmoor Park.”
“Do you?” Selena countered quietly. “You never met Miss Goodwin, Mr. Davis, nor Miss Thompson until they arrived here. And we have two new servants, Sam and Gladys.”
Mrs. Hillman listened in stunned silence as Selena went on to explain their suspicions about the five people in question. Dr. Scott threw in a few comments of his own. When they had finished speaking, the colonel appeared to be deep in thought, but Mrs. Hillman’s face was tarnished by a deep frown.
“I don’t believe a word of that.” The older woman gave a great sniff.
“I understand that a woman I thought was my dear friend has stolen from me, and perhaps, perhaps, she was the thief at the Worthing Seaside Hotel—but you have no proof of that whatsoever. And as for this business about Mr. Webster’s brother and sister coming for revenge, I think you two are quite mad. ”
Colonel Blackwood was staring at the carpet with a worried frown. “I, on the other hand, can see the point that Dr. Scott and Miss Taylor have made. There are three people at this house party whom none of us has ever met. And how much do you know about those two new servants, ma’am?”
“I have no doubts that the Misses Goodwin and Thompson, and the enchanting Mr. Davis, are exactly who they say they are,” Mrs. Hillman declared.
“And Mrs. Middleton and Wells assured me, before hiring them, that Gladys and Sam are the salt of the earth. They couldn’t possibly be here posing as someone else.
” She wagged a finger at Selena. “I know where this is coming from, my dear. It’s that mother of yours!
She put ideas into your head, and the heads of your sisters.
It’s put you on the lookout for danger, deceit, and duplicity.
I know what Diana went through at Pendowar Hall, and what you and Athena had to deal with two years ago at Thorndale Manor—and with that horrible fire!
But I assure you, nothing of the kind is going on here today at Darkmoor Park. ”
“I don’t know,” the colonel persisted. “It does seem fishy that three of us who were at the hotel that summer have died in circumstances that can be explained away as accidents. Not to mention that two of them died in the exact same way. Killers often repeat their actions.” He raised his gaze, worry haunting his eyes.
“If this is all true, do you think the villain—or villains—are finished?”
“They may not be, Colonel,” the doctor said quietly.
“That’s why we wanted to warn you,” Selena added. “You might be next on their list.”
“Oh, piffle!” Mrs. Hillman flapped a hand with disdain. “Please desist with all these morbid suspicions about revenge and murder. I repeat—you are all three out of your minds.”
“Even if you don’t agree with us, Mrs. Hillman,” Dr. Scott cautioned, “it would be prudent for Colonel Blackwood to lock his bedroom door at night.”
Selena turned to the doctor. “That isn’t possible, I’m afraid. None of the bedchambers at Darkmoor Park have locks on their doors.”
Dr. Scott’s jaw visibly tightened. “Don’t they? I didn’t notice. That’s too bad.”
“I suppose no one worried about madmen entering their chambers when those knobs were installed in the seventeenth century.” Mrs. Hillman rolled her eyes heavenward.