Chapter Forty
Tobias strode back into the ballroom, after having settled a still-unconscious Miss Brunham in one of the guest bedrooms, with the doctor staying to monitor her. He immediately saw Jack up on the stage staring at Iain, who was there with her. “Ah, good, you’re both here.”
He came to a halt below the stage and immediately felt the tension in the room.
“Is everything all right?” Tobias asked them, to which they both quickly nodded, and he got the distinct impression they’d been discussing something they didn’t want him privy to.
“The men have finished conducting a sweep of the house,” Iain said. “They found nothing unusual. And your parents have also finished verifying the identities of their guests.”
“Good,” Tobias replied. “The guests can be released and then meet us in my father’s study. We’ll head there now to see what Dodd has to say for himself.”
Iain nodded, and with an odd look at Jack, he turned on his heel and strode down the stage and back through to the small ballroom doorway.
“Are you sure everything’s all right?” he asked Jack.
“Everything’s fine,” she said, coming down the stage to where he stood. “Didn’t you say we needed to talk to Caleb?”
He stared at her for a moment, sure he could see something in her eyes, but he merely nodded.
“Yes, let’s go.” Leading the way from the ballroom, he walked briskly down the corridor, with Jack following alongside him.
“Here. This fell from Miss Brunham’s skirt pocket as I was laying her on the bed. ”
Tobias pulled out a Jack of Hearts and handed it to Jack.
She took it and shook her head. “Wonderful. Four of six, it says. Do you think he’ll be annoyed she wasn’t killed?”
“I’d say he’d be furious,” Tobias agreed, turning down the hallway that led to his father’s study.
“That’s what I’m worried about. Especially about what he might do in retaliation.”
It was something Tobias was thinking too. “This was also in her pocket; it might be hers, but it’s strange that it was left with the card.” He pulled out a small, gold cross on a gold chain and held it in front of Jack as they continued walking to the study.
Jack suddenly stopped and Tobias halted too, turning back towards her. “Jack? What’s wrong?”
Her face had gone pale as she held up the chain towards the gas lights lining the hallway. “It’s Mrs. Thompson’s cross.”
“Your housekeeper?”
Jack glanced over to him, her eyes desperately searching his. “Oh, my God, he’s got Mrs. Thompson. I have to go.”
She turned to run back towards the entrance, but Tobias quickly grabbed a hold of her shoulder. “Wait a second, Jack. That cross and chain could be anyone’s.”
“I’ve seen it every day since I hired Mrs. Thompson. It’s hers—I know it. Thomas Clorren has taken her and is taunting me by leaving her cross on what was to be the body of another of his murder victims. I have to go back to my house.”
“All right, I believe you, and I’ll come with you. Just give me one minute to tell Iain what’s happening and arrange things. Okay?”
“I can’t let him kill her, I can’t! It would be my fault.”
“We’ll find her, I promise you. Go wait in the entry, which is just down that hall.” He pointed to the right of where the hallway ended. “I’ll be only a moment, and then I’ll meet you there.”
“Fine.” She nodded in agreement.
Tobias quickly returned her nod and then raced back down to the smaller ballroom.
If the Conjurer had taken Mrs. Thompson and then found out his fourth victim hadn’t died as he’d intended, it didn’t bode well for Jack’s housekeeper and probably meant that the time was counting down, far quicker than they’d planned.
*
Jack waited barely a second after Tobias had raced away, and then she bolted for the hallway that led to the entrance hall. Though she’d told him she’d wait, there was no time to wait for anything. She wouldn’t let this monster take anyone else she held dear, and every second was going to count.
But what if she was too late? She felt like screaming and crying as she rushed towards the building’s front entrance doors.
“I’m sorry, miss. I can’t let anyone in or out.” A constable was standing in front of the doors, blocking her.
Not on her watch. Jack skidded to a halt.
“Sorry, Officer.” Then she gasped and looked over to the far right, and just as expected, the officer did too.
Jack used his momentary distraction to swiftly slide her hands underneath the shoulders of his jacket before he even knew what she was about, then she pulled his jacket over the back of his shoulders and down his back, trapping his arms behind his waist in his very own jacket sleeves.
“I am sorry.” She pushed him to the side, where he fell onto the floor while she wrenched open the entrance door and rushed out onto the street.
She hailed a hackney, giving the driver her address before twisting open the door to the carriage and bounding inside. Tobias would be furious, of course, but she couldn’t let the Conjurer take somebody else she cared for. That, she wouldn’t allow.
If he’d dared to touch so much as a hair on Mrs. Thompson’s head, Jack would stab him herself directly in his black heart and send him to hell, where he belonged.
The fifteen-minute carriage ride was the longest she’d taken in her life. She bolted out of the carriage and threw up some money to the driver before racing up her entrance steps two at a time. She fumbled with the lock, which was unlike her, before finally getting the door open and racing inside.
“Mrs. Thompson!” Jack yelled, racing past the sitting room, where from the corner of her eyes, she saw Sera in her ballgown talking with Cordy in her nightgown.
Jack ran down the hallway to Mrs. Thompson’s room at the back of the house, her voice echoing around the space sounding desperate even to her own ears. “Mrs. Thompson!”
She prayed that it hadn’t been the lady’s cross, but in her heart, she was sure it had been. Without bothering to knock, Jack wrenched open the woman’s bedroom door and her heart fell when she saw the bed was empty, still made from earlier in the day. Oh, God, she must have been taken.
“Jack, what’s wrong?” Cordy asked from the doorway behind her, Sera rushing in behind her.
“Where’s Mrs. Thompson?” Jack asked them both.
“She’s not here?” Cordy replied, peering around Jack and then frowning. “Why isn’t she in bed?”
“What happened after I left the ball, Jack?” Sera asked, her whole body braced.
“Yes, what’s going on?” Cordy added. “Sera filled me in about the ball, but what’s going on with Mrs. Thompson?”
Quickly, Jack explained about the necklace being found in the pocket of the Conjurer’s latest near victim.
“Oh, no,” Cordy gasped. “Surely, he hasn’t taken Mrs. Thompson. Why would he do that? Maybe the necklace isn’t hers? There could be hundreds of women who wear the same gold cross. Perhaps it’s Miss Brunham’s?”
“Mrs. Thompson should be sound asleep in her bed and she’s not,” Jack replied, striding from the room and into the kitchen, which was next to Mrs. Thompson’s room.
She banged her fist on the kitchen table, which did nothing to alleviate her frustration, just caused a ringing in her hand.
“Damn it! Where would he have taken her? And when did he even take her? Was she here for dinner?”
Cordy squinted up her face in thought. “Yes, she served me dinner at seven, and then said she would head to bed early on account of having a headache—and well, then, I assumed she went to bed, I suppose…”
“Given she’s not in bed, and with the necklace being found on what was supposed to be the Conjurer’s next victim, I think we have to assume the Conjurer has Mrs. Thompson,” Sera said, folding her hands in front of her chest, the line of her mouth firm.
“It’s the most logical explanation, given she’s not in her bed.
” Jack took in a deep breath and closed her eyes tightly for a moment before she reluctantly opened them and faced her friends, their eyes reflecting the worry she knew was in her own gaze.
“He took her because he is after me and wants my undivided attention.”
The doorbell rang and they all jumped slightly.
“Maybe that’s her and she went for a late-night walk?” Cordy said, though she frowned when Jack and Sera both looked at her like she’d lost her marbles. “I’m an optimist, all right!”
Jack strode past her two friends, down the hallway to the entrance. Quickly, she checked through the glass of the window and wrenched open the door.
“You couldn’t even wait one minute, woman!”
It was Tobias and he was furious.
“No, I couldn’t!” she yelled back, aware that Cordy and Sera had followed her to the entrance, Cordy quickly grabbing a cloak from the hat stand to drape over her nightgown, before she too joined Sera, standing there and watching the exchange with interest.
“Did you ever think it could have been a trap?” Tobias roared, slamming the door shut behind him. “That maybe the killer had left that necklace at the scene on purpose to get you to flee without me?”
“Well, as you can see, I’m perfectly safe!” she roared back at him, turning on her heel and resuming her pacing. She had so much excess frustration and energy for a situation she had no control over; it was beyond maddening.
“Is your housekeeper here?” he asked.
“No, she’s not.” Jack paused and took in a deep breath. She had to calm down and think for a moment. “She apparently retired early after seven. However, her bed’s not even slept in, and there’s no sign of a struggle in the kitchen area.”
“Would she have gone out for a walk?”
“That’s exactly what I suggested!” Cordy said.
“At midnight?” Jack replied, pausing to turn around and fist her hands on her hips to glare at them both. “No, she would not do that!”
“I do sometimes, so perhaps she might too,” Cordy added. “In any event, we should check, shouldn’t we? Perhaps one of your officers could do a walk around?”
“Inspector?” a man’s voice yelled from the other side of the front door. “This boy was trying to deliver a letter.”
Tobias turned and opened the door. A constable stood there, holding a young boy by his arm. The boy was not happy about it, if the scowl on his face was any indication, but was clutching a letter in his hand.
“I deliver here all the time,” the boy said belligerently.
“He does,” Jack confirmed. “Though not normally at this hour. Robbie, what’s going on?”
“I was paid to make sure this got delivered at midnight exactly and was told I had to ring the bell until someone woke up and took it from me.”
Tobias took the letter from Robbie’s hand. “Who gave this to you?”
“Another delivery boy from Mayfair, earlier today,” Robbie answered. Tobias raised a brow, and the boy reluctantly continued. “I think his name is Fred.”
“And what does Fred look like?” Tobias ground out.
Robbie shrugged. “He has brown hair, about my size, and he looks just like any other delivery boy in the area, Gov. Isn’t nothing special about him. He said some chap paid him to get me to deliver this, which is what I’m doing. Honestly, that’s all I know.”
Tobias glanced over to the officer still holding the boy. “Release him and send some officers to walk around the neighborhood to see if they can find the ladies’ housekeeper, Mrs. Thompson.”
“Yes, sir,” the officer replied, letting go of Robbie, who scampered off, before the officer turned and strode down the steps to do as instructed.
Turning back to Jack, Tobias held out the envelope to her. “It’s addressed to you.”
She strode over and snatched it from his hand, her anger at him unwarranted but still very much in existence. Glancing down at the envelope, Jack felt her heart drop. It was the same penmanship that had been on the note and the card she’d received from the Conjurer.
“It’s from him?” Tobias guessed.
She nodded. “Yes, it’s the same handwriting.
” With a sense of trepidation, she turned over the envelope and saw the black waxed seal, which had a skull embedded upon it.
She flicked her finger under the seal and opened the envelope.
Inside was a folded-up note. Jack removed it and opened it.
With each word she read, her dread grew.
“He does have Mrs. Thompson.” Her words were like a death knell echoing in the room. “And she’s to be his latest victim, it seems.”
Taking in a deep breath. “It reads: ‘My apologies, my dear Jack of Hearts, but Mrs. Thompson is no longer going to be of service to you. She is to serve a far greater role in my plans for my fifth performance. Plans that will not only mark my resurrection but will allow my father to finally rest in peace, once your father’s illusions and legacy are destroyed for good. And we’re so close now too, moving into the final performances.
Though don’t worry over anything, my dear Jack, Mrs. Thompson will perform her cameo, but you will be the star of the show.
My Burning Lady. I hope you are ready to take to the stage once again. ’”