41 #2
“Well, I didn’t know that. I didn’t know you, and Belinda had a way of sounding very convincing.” Miranda took a breath. “Everything seemed fine until she found out that you were going to marry Kate—not her.”
“How would she even know that?” Conor asked.
“She stalked you both,” Miranda said. “Especially Kate. She put Maeve to work at the gallery, so she had an inside source.”
“Put Maeve to work?” Conor asked. “How would she be able to do that?”
“Kate had advertised for a gallery assistant. And trust me, Belinda could get anyone to do what she wanted. She had BPD—borderline personality disorder. She was very manipulative.”
“What if Kate hadn’t hired Maeve?” Conor asked.
“Then Belinda would have sent Suzanne on an interview. Or any number of the others. But she didn’t have to—Kate hired Maeve. And every wedding plan Kate made, Maeve was in on. Maeve reported everything to Belinda.”
“And Lincoln was involved too?”
Miranda nodded.
“Conor,” Mike said. “This is where I come in.”
“You’ve known about this all along?” Conor asked.
“Yes and no,” Mike said.
“What does that mean?”
“Years ago, I had this young lady in my courtroom,” Mike said, gesturing at Miranda.
“Her father was doing a play in Waterford, Connecticut, and Miranda had come to Rhode Island to see her cousin Belinda. The two of them were at a club in Providence, and Miranda was arrested for possession of drugs. I think you know that I’ve always taken an interest in young offenders, tried to get them into a mentorship program that would help them stay straight. ”
“He got me a lawyer,” Miranda said. “Leo Kennedy.”
“As you know, I admire—admired—Leo as an attorney and as a human being,” Mike said. “I thought he would be a good influence, help Miranda. That was the end of my involvement—until today.”
“Leo was good to me at first,” Miranda said.
“He was wonderful to talk to. He’d listen, let me go on for hours.
The opposite of my dad. My father’s an actor, and he always acts like he’s onstage—it’s always about him.
And even though Leo’s a big-time lawyer and does important cases, gets up in front of a courtroom and talks to the jury, he would rather hear about other people’s lives than talk about his own. Such a good, caring person.”
“But he’s obviously involved with 1740 if he knows it’s coming apart. So how good can he be?” Conor asked.
“He hid that from me,” Miranda said. “I introduced him to Belinda. Or I thought I did. She was already a widow—she had been forced to grow up very fast. She just wanted to cut loose—have fun, party, go to clubs. At first, I thought Leo was helping her the way he was helping me.”
“But it was quite different,” Mike said solemnly.
“Yes,” Miranda said. “I was still living in New York in the winter, Connecticut in the summer, and I only came to Rhode Island once or twice a year. Belinda was living here at the hospital—they had a special cottage for her and her daughter, and they let them stay—she was special to everyone at Maynard-King, considering how much they all loved her husband. Her daughter was growing up, everyone seemed happy and healthy.”
“But she wasn’t,” Mike said. “Was she?”
“No. Everything Jonathan did wrong convinced Belinda that Conor could do it better. He could make her happier, take better care of her and her daughter . . .”
Conor took all that in, feeling overwhelmed by all that Miranda was telling him about Belinda. How was it possible that she had carried those feelings for him all this time? They had been destructive not only to Belinda and her daughter, but ultimately—disastrously—to Kate.
“After Jonathan’s death, Belinda began acting out even worse. 1740 was already in action—there were plenty of members—Leo was one of them.”
“I thought you said you introduced Belinda to Leo,” Conor said.
“I thought that too. But Belinda had her reasons for hiding the truth from me, that they had known each other a long time.”
Conor looked at Mike, to see how he was taking this, to gauge whether he was involved. But he saw disgust on Mike’s face and a type of defeat.
“Today, Leo asked me to come on the boat with him and Randy,” Miranda said. “With Belinda dead, Leo had lost his special way into 1740. Crispin and the others never really trusted him and his law friends.”
“Crispin Adams,” Conor said. “Lincoln’s father.”
“Yes. He’s the president of the 1740 society,” Miranda said.
“Leo told me the group has been in existence for over a hundred and fifty years, and it started right here, on Maynard-King property. The land has always belonged to Crispin’s family.
It still does, even though Leo set up the Leprince de Beaumont Associates LLC to hide the true ownership. ”
“I thought Leo was one of the Old Detectives,” Tom said. “Helping to uncover 1740.”
“We thought so too,” Mike said. “You know how much I trusted him? I asked him to represent you, Conor. I thought his character was impeccable. How wrong I was.”
“Anyway,” Miranda said. “Crispin and the rest of the group were afraid that Leo might have been setting them up—working with the police to infiltrate them so he could bring them down. They’re afraid that 1740 is coming apart.”
“If it has lasted a hundred years, why is it coming apart now?” Conor asked.
“Ever since Belinda’s murder, everything has been toppling.
You’d found Psyche, the mansion on the island, the note at Dr. Tyler’s grave.
The woman who trains the girls is getting nervous and wants to leave.
It became a nightmare when they decided to lure Kate to Fernando Harris’s studio.
And as of today, Leo told me he wanted me to be his new Belinda. ”
“And do what?” Conor asked.
“Line up women for him—take over from the trainer. Find Belles he could dominate,” Miranda said.
“They had that poor girl on Rosebud. They made me look at her body, said that I was part of the murder now, and that if they were ever caught, I would be arrested. Leo said he would protect me, but only if I work with the organization.”
“And what did you say?” Conor asked.
“I said yes, just to reassure them, so they wouldn’t kill me too. And then, when they went out on deck to throw the body overboard, I picked up Leo’s phone to look for Mike’s number, so I could call him. But it was password protected.”
“How did you get in?” Tom asked.
“I guessed the password. 1740,” Miranda said.
“And that’s when she called me,” Mike said. “I should have told you right away.”
“I’m sure you hoped to keep her from being involved in all this,” Conor said. This was more of the Uncle Mike he knew. A great judge other than his soft heart, sometimes willing to bend the rules if he thought he could help someone in a less orthodox way.
“Yes,” Mike said.
“Are we any closer to finding Kate?” Tom asked.
“I think she is somewhere on the property,” Miranda said.
“Why do you think that?” Conor asked.
“I overheard Leo and Randy talking. They’re angry that Kate was taken—it wasn’t their idea.”
“Why did they lure her to Fernando’s studio, anyway? What good would that do?” Tom asked. “Why target Kate?”
Miranda hung her head for a moment, then looked up. “Someone blames her for the terrible life she had.”
“This is crazy,” Conor said. “Who?”
“We’re dealing with a murderer,” Tom said. “I’m assuming that person is Leo or Randy, since the woman was killed on Leo’s boat.”
“I didn’t see the murder, so I am not sure,” Miranda said. “I was only brought on after she was dead. But it’s possible.”
“Did one of them also kill Belinda?” Tom asked.
“Oh, no,” Miranda said. “Not at all.”
“Then who did?”
“The same person who killed Dr. Tyler,” Miranda said. “Belinda’s daughter.”
Tuesday, July 6; 6:00 p.m.
Sam couldn’t speak for a while. She sat there in silence, thinking of Dorothy, imagining how it had been for her.
She thought about the start of 1740. She pictured Crispin, a man she had met through Kate and whom she had liked.
And Lincoln—her friend—the latest descendant of Cantwell Adams. Sam glanced at Jennifer, wondering how she had lived through it all.
“You okay?” Jennifer asked.
“I’m not sure,” Sam said. “Are you?”
“I’ve had more time to get used to this than you have.”
Sam nodded. But she wasn’t; she felt so shaken.
“What’s our plan?” Jennifer asked after a few minutes. “It seems as if we’re safe here for now, but we can’t stay forever. One of the members is bound to show up at some point. Or the security guard will come through on patrol, looking for us.”
“We should stay till dark,” Sam said, looking out the window.
“Then get out to the main road and find a phone.” She remembered driving through farmland and open space on the way here with Lincoln.
They had passed through a small town and gone by a shopping center, but how far away was it?
“Are you sure we can’t use the one here? ” she asked.
“We could use it, but a button would light up at the hospital, and they’d come running,” Jennifer said. She looked upset, the way Sam felt.
“Well, we might as well have something to eat,” Jennifer said after a minute. “It’s probably been a while since you had a meal, right?”
Sam shook her head. “I’m not hungry.”
“Well, I’m going to feed you,” Jennifer said, beckoning Sam and heading down a corridor.
Sam hung back, really not interested in food. But then she sighed and followed her down the hall. She noticed the walls were covered with framed photos that looked like headshots. There were also pictures of people at formal events.
“Who are they?” Sam asked, pointing.
“Oh,” Jennifer said, stopping to see what she was looking at. “These photos are here to make the place seem more respectable. The hospital director, board members, donors, doctors.”
“Are they all 1740?” Sam asked.
“Absolutely not,” Jennifer said. “They have to mix it up with regular people, to make them seem legit.”