AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Maybe,” she murmured. “The mist blurs everything, but the man I had an appointment with just before I came out here, Nathan MacDonald—he had a camera. The hair and the build are right. I gave him a tour. He was particularly interested in Eleanor’s portrait. He’d said that he’d seen the photo in the Times article and he’d love to see the real thing.”
“You showed it to him,” Cam said.
“Sure. It’s not in the regular tour I give, but many people ask to see it.”
“How about the other man?”
Even as Cam asked the question, the two men started up the path into the woods. For as long as she could she studied the back of the taller one who brought up the rear. Something seemed familiar, but she couldn’t place it.
“No. I don’t know.”
Cam turned her around so that they were kneeling on the floor of the cave facing each other. “This Nathan MacDonald could have decided to come back and take his own private tour of the rest of the estate. But that doesn’t explain the other man.”
“He mentioned bringing his fiancée back. But I didn’t get the idea it would be today. And he didn’t mention that his fiancé was a man.”
“But their visit could still be legit. He might want to get the fiancé’s reaction before filling you in on all the details.”
“Yes. And what we saw was just a little lovers’ spat?”
“Maybe.” The presence of the two men could be perfectly legitimate. But he had the same feeling he’d had earlier when he’d been driving back from Glen Loch, that sense that he should get back to the castle.
“Okay,” Adair said, “we’ve established a semiplausible reason for Nathan MacDonald and his companion to be here with a camera and being a little secretive about checking out the estate. But you’re still worried.”
“Because we can’t be sure how many people know about the earring yet. Vi mentioned to your dad that Alba barked at someone or something in the hills behind the stone arch right after you and she opened the leather pouch.”
He filled her in on the stranger at the library who’d been so interested in Eleanor’s missing dowry. “And I think that someone may have been breaking into the castle at night for the past six months or so—ever since your Aunt Vi started waking up in the middle of the night.”
Adair frowned at him. “But how? We activate the security system every night. And nothing is missing. We would have noticed.”
“I’ve been thinking about that. There are times during the day when you deactivate it because you and Vi are home. You’re seeing clients. She’s in the kitchen and wants to enjoy the breeze from the lake. Depending on their motivation someone could sneak in late in the day. Or if they have the skill they could bypass the system just as I did. And maybe whoever it is just needs access to the castle for a specific reason. Your aunt’s rooms are over the library. She and the dog are waking up and you’re not.”
“You think someone’s looking for something in the library?”
“My mom spent a whole summer there doing research. And the Times article renewed interest in Eleanor’s sapphires. I went to the library in Glen Loch first thing this morning to look them up and to check out what’s available to the public. If I were looking for some jewels that could be traced back to Mary Stuart, I’d gather data. And the castle’s private library would be at the top of my list to find more. But I’m just theorizing, posing possible explanations.”
Like the one he’d just posed for the two arguing men, which seemed less and less plausible by the minute. “At any rate, I’d like you and your aunt Vi to look at the library. Let me know what you see. Let’s get dressed.”
“Easy for you to say,” she muttered. “My clothes are out there where I dropped them, and you destroyed my bikini. Not that I didn’t enjoy that part. But there’s always a price to pay.”
“I could promise to make it up to you later.”
She grinned at him. “I’ll hold you to that.”
* * *
VI WAS WAITING for them in Adair’s office when they got back. Alba lay at her feet. “Someone broke in here while you were out,” she said.
Cam mentally cursed himself as he glanced around the room. He’d noticed the obvious flaws in the security and hadn’t acted quickly enough to prevent this. And he’d been so focused on going after Adair that he couldn’t recall whether or not he’d even closed the terrace doors.
Adair crossed to her aunt. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” She glanced at the two of them. “What happened to the two of you?”
“We took an unexpected tumble into the pond,” Cam said. “Did you see who broke in?”
Vi shook her head. “I was putting the last touches on the groom’s cake when Alba started to bark and then she ran out of the kitchen. By the time I caught up with her she was scratching on the door to Adair’s office. The doors to the terrace were open, and the second I let her in she bolted out through them and just barked for a while. I heard a car start up, but even the dust had settled by the time I circled around to the front.”
The driveway had been empty when they’d stepped out of the woods. There’d been no sign of Nathan MacDonald or the man he’d been arguing with.
Vi gestured to the patch of sunlight Alba had stretched out in. “Now I can’t get her to leave this room.”
“Take a look around, Adair,” Cam said as he secured the terrace doors. He’d already taken a quick scan of the room. The metal box was now on her desk and the contents had been overturned. Colored papers littered the floor. As she crossed to her desk, he said, “Is anything else out of place that you can see?”
She turned then and looked around the room, the first time quickly and the second time more slowly. He did the same but he didn’t notice anything else that looked disturbed.
“Everything looks fine.” Adair gathered up the papers that were scattered across her desk and on the floor and put them into one of the drawers. It didn’t look as if any of them had been unfolded. Then, because her knees felt weak, she sank into the chair behind her desk.
“Someone was in here,” she said. “And it’s not too big a leap to think they were looking for that earring.”
She shifted her gaze to Cam. “Someone could have seen you and me this morning when I pulled out the box. I put on quite a show, clutching it and running into the castle with it when my appointment showed up. Nathan MacDonald could have seen me dash for the house with it, and it was right here on my desk the whole time I talked to him. Even if he didn’t know about the earring Alba dug up, he might have been curious about the box. That could be the reason he came back.”
“Who’s MacDonald?” Vi asked.
Adair filled her in on the man’s earlier appointment and about the two men they’d seen arguing at the falls.
“If they were the two who did this, it was a crime of opportunity and not very well planned,” Cam said. “Let’s see if they searched anywhere else.” He led the way through the French doors into the main parlor. The portrait of Eleanor Campbell MacPherson hung in place, but the door to the secret cupboard beneath it stood wide open. “Looks like they did.”
“The earring—” Adair couldn’t finish the thought.
Cam put a hand on her arm. “Sorry. I forgot to tell you earlier. I took it out of there last night as soon as I got here. Angus’s hidey-hole was mentioned in the Times article, and with the way that news and rumors can be counted on to go viral in this community I didn’t want to take the chance of leaving it there.”
Adair whirled on him, not sure whether to hug him or hit him. She compromised by shaking off his hand. “You lied last night.”
“I told you the earring was safe.” He lifted his pant leg and Adair saw the slight bulge beneath the flesh-colored tape he’d wrapped around his ankle. Tapping his fingers against it, he said, “Special waterproof CIA issue tape. Until we get the security updated around here and lay down some ground rules, the sapphire earring’s bonded to me. I promise you I’ll keep it safe.”
In her imagination Adair pictured armed guards at the wedding. “What exactly do you have in mind?”
“What I’m suggesting for now is that we all be more careful about shutting and locking the outside doors to the terraces during the day, and that we activate the security system whenever someone is alone here, like Vi was earlier. I’ll call Sheriff Skinner in Glen Loch and let him know what’s happened.” Cam punched a number into his cell.
Adair began to pace back and forth in front of the portrait. As he relayed the information to the sheriff, Cam watched her. Whatever blow she’d taken when she’d seen her metal box upended or when she’d initially thought the earring might have been stolen, she’d bounced back and now she was totally focused on the problem at hand.
