Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Put the purse on top of the sarcophagus and step away.”
Colonel Blackwood’s eyes blazed and his voice was as cold as the stone floor beneath Selena’s feet. He took two more steps into the crypt, his pistol trained on her.
Selena felt as though her heart had stopped.
She had wondered if he was following her, and yet she had been so thrilled to find the hidden money that she had let her guard down.
Where did he get a gun? she wondered. Then she remembered: he was a retired colonel from the Royal army; he must have brought it with him.
She thought about the weapon she had brought, which lay hidden in her skirt pocket. It was the letter opener that she’d received for Christmas, which was as deadly as any knife. She had hoped it would be her protector. But what good was a knife in a gunfight?
“Do it!” the colonel demanded sharply. “Put the purse down and step away with your hands where I can see them.”
Selena did as he commanded. He strode forward, grabbed the purse, stuffed it in his coat pocket, and stopped a yard away from her, his gun still aimed straight at her chest. Panic shot through her.
She had faced death before—she’d been trapped in a burning building and an icehouse, and she had survived an attempt to smother her and to kill her in these very catacombs—but she had never been held at gunpoint.
Colonel Blackwood stood between her and the door—her only means of escape—but she had no hope of darting past him.
Buy yourself some time, she silently commanded.
“Colonel. I know why you’re doing this. It’s perfectly understandable.
You need that cash to save your house.” She remembered him talking about it on his first night at Darkmoor Park—the ancestral home that had been in his family for centuries and was in desperate need of repair.
And she recalled what he had said about his mother, who spent money like water and was driving him to the poorhouse.
“Figured that out, did you? It took you long enough.”
“Take the money,” she said, struggling to keep the fear from her voice. “You’re welcome to it. Just allow me to leave.”
His lips curled. “Do you take me for a fool? I can’t let you go.
I’ve seen the way you operate. You and that doctor friend of yours, who’s been passing himself off by the name of Scott.
You’ve been on the prowl for that money since the day Clarke died.
I know you want to return it to the hospital foundation.
You’d never let me walk away with it. I’d always be looking over my shoulder, waiting for the authorities to pounce. ”
“I won’t tell anyone, I swear.” But Selena could see from his expression that he wasn’t accepting that.
“I’ve had a devil of time dispatching the two of you.
” His eyes glinted like steel. “Now that the doctor has left with his tail between his legs, I just have to get rid of you. Thank you for announcing your intentions just now. I had followed you down here once without a lantern and knew I could do it again. You’ve made my job easy.
You’ve not only led me to the money, but to the ideal location for your death. ”
Every muscle in Selena’s body seemed to be strained to the breaking point. How long before he pulled the trigger? There must be some way she could save herself. “It’s been you all along, hasn’t it?” she demanded. “You killed Mr. Clarke.”
Colonel Blackwood scowled. “That was an accident. I only meant to frighten him into telling me where he’d hidden the money.”
“You knew about the money because you’d read that letter in The London Times on the train on your way up here, didn’t you?” It was the colonel’s newspaper, after all, that the doctor had stolen.
He nodded. “I knew at once that it was a scheme to steal from philanthropists and frame someone else for the crime. I’ve always known Clarke was a scoundrel, but I told myself it wasn’t my business to interfere. Until it hit too close to home.”
Selena had worked that out. The colonel had said his mother’s name was Evelyn.
And the letter Selena had found in Mr. Clarke’s dresser had been from an Evelyn Stout.
“Your mother remarried and was widowed a second time, wasn’t she, thus why she has a different surname?
And when you discovered that she had invested a hundred and fifty pounds in Mr. Clarke’s hospital fund, you were furious. ”
His lips tensed and his face flushed. “When Mother told me about the charming Mr. Clarke, and the money she had sent him, I wanted to murder him. But she hadn’t kept a record of his London address.
When I got to Darkmoor Park, I was astonished to find Clarke here.
I figured he would have left the country, never to be seen again.
Which I presume he would have done, after he repaid Mrs. Hillman—if he hadn’t met such an early demise.
And you, my dear, are going to follow in his footsteps. ”
Selena swallowed hard. She couldn’t die, not here, like this. There must be a way out. Keep him talking. “So, before dawn on the morning after you arrived, you confronted Mr. Clarke and threatened to turn him in to the police if he didn’t reveal where he’d hidden the money?”
The colonel uttered a sound of disgust. “I told Clarke if they found the money at Darkmoor Park, they’d know he had stolen it, not his business partner.
Clarke refused to comply. He said he’d hidden it where no one would ever find it.
He shoved me. I shoved him back. Before I knew it, he was tumbling backwards down the stairs. I thought he was dead.”
“You panicked and ran.” Selena eyed her lantern, wishing she could use it as a weapon, but it was out of reach.
The colonel frowned fiercely. “The secret to the money’s hiding place died with him.
But I was determined to find it. Then I overheard you and the doctor talking and saw you searching inside the chapel.
I knew you were looking for the money, too.
Ever since, I’ve been watching you two like a hawk.
” He nodded towards the sarcophagus. “How did you know to look here?”
Selena held that information smugly to her chest. “I’ll tell you if you let me go.”
He smirked. “I’m afraid it’s too late for that. I did warn you and the doctor several times to back off, you know.”
She understood his reference. “We thought at first that it was Mrs. Whitlock who wrote the threatening notes. How did you imitate her handwriting?”
“I found a draft of a letter she’d been writing in the rubbish basket in her room.”
Clever, Selena thought with annoyance. She hadn’t considered that possibility.
“That woman was a nasty piece of goods,” he went on.
“Bullied and abused her companion. And you said yourself she stole Mrs. Hillman’s brooch and was probably the thief all those years ago at the Worthing Seaside Hotel.
” His mouth twisted. “I’d kill her again in a heartbeat. Just like I’m going to kill you.”
Selena swallowed her fear. “You admit it—you poisoned Mrs. Whitlock? Why? Did she have the same idea, to get up at the crack of dawn to persuade or threaten Mr. Clarke into giving her the cash? Did she see you push Mr. Clarke and try to blackmail you?”
He blew out another annoyed breath. “Blasted woman, she came at me the next day and claimed she’d seen everything from the shadows. Said if I didn’t give her five thousand pounds, she’d tell everyone I had killed Clarke. I had to get rid of her. She won’t be missed.”
“And having learned that Mrs. Goodwin had died from an accidental overdose of laudanum, you copied that method?”
“Like I said, killers often repeat their actions. It was an excellent red herring. And it was quick and easy to disguise as an accident.”
The man was a fiend. Selena felt lightheaded again. Do not faint, she warned herself. You must not faint. “Joe and Maisie Webster never had anything to do with this, did they?” That entire plot had been a figment of her imagination.
He shrugged his shoulders. “That theory of yours was a convenient way to divert your attention from the money and me. I may have … helped once or twice to further the illusion that the Websters were here.”
“The toasted cheese sandwich?” An idea occurred to Selena—it might not work, but it was worth a try. She slowly reached one hand into her skirt pocket. “You poisoned it yourself to throw us off the scent and just pretended to be sick?”
“After taking a bite, I sprinkled enough rat poison on it to kill a man. Or a mouse, as it turns out.” He grinned, clearly pleased with himself. “Yesterday, that statue would have killed you if you hadn’t moved. Enough questions now—”
“Wait! Did you try to smother me in my bed?” Selena demanded as, with hidden fingers, she unscrewed the cap from the bottle she’d stashed in her pocket. “And lock us in the icehouse?”
Colonel Blackwood gave another shrug. “A shame you woke up. As for the icehouse, that would have worked, if that fool Billy hadn’t snuck in after you.
I overheard the footmen talking about it and I had to let you all out.
I couldn’t have it on my conscience to kill a thirteen-year-old boy. I’m not a monster.”
“That’s debatable,” Selena said coldly. Which was a mistake.
The colonel’s eyes lit like twin flames.
He moved closer, his gun still leveled at her heart.
“After I kill you, you may lie here for days before you’re found.
And your precious doctor? Andrew Dalton?
That sad fellow will be on the hook for fifty-two-hundred pounds.
He’ll end up in debtors’ prison for the rest of his natural life.
” He bared his teeth in a smile. “While I’ll be safe at home, with my house paid off and enough money to live comfortably for the rest of time. ”