Миранда Джеймс - Fixing To Die

An’gel felt bad for him. He was obviously in severe distress, and if Mary Turner persisted in her devotion to the house, An’gel didn’t have much hope for the marriage. At some point Henry Howard would have had enough and simply walk away, she feared. Was that what Mary Turner really wanted?

“So it was you who came into the room while I was there and moved my dress and my nightgown?” An’gel asked.

Henry Howard had the grace to look embarrassed now, she noted. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I’m sorry if I frightened you.”

“You didn’t really frighten me,” An’gel said, “though it was quite disconcerting. I’m not really comfortable with the idea of someone sneaking into my room while I’m sleeping and moving things around. I’m relieved that it wasn’t a ghost, however.”

“I’m really, really sorry,” Henry Howard said. “I guess I thought if I managed to get you spooked enough, you’d talk to Mary Turner. She thinks a lot of you, you know.”

“I’m flattered to hear that,” An’gel said. “But I have to say, I don’t think I would have advised her to sell the house because of your prank.”

Henry Howard nodded. “I see that now.”

“I’m not angry with you,” An’gel said. “I do want to know how you got in and out of the room without anyone seeing or suspecting.”

“Through the bathroom next door,” Henry Howard said.

An’gel blinked in surprise. She had pretty well given up on the idea of a secret door between the two rooms. “I knew it, I just knew it,” she muttered.

Henry Howard frowned. “I’m sorry, what did you say? I couldn’t quite catch it.”

“Doesn’t matter,” An’gel said. “Where is this door? I suspected there might be another way into that room.”

“I found it by a fluke, I guess you’d call it, about eight months ago when I was repainting the bathroom,” Henry Howard said. “You remember where that tall wardrobe is in the French room?” After An’gel nodded, he continued. “Well, that wardrobe is attached to the wall, although you might not realize it. When I was painting the bathroom, I noticed cracks in the paint. The room hadn’t been painted in years, you see. I kept thinking the cracks looked like a door, and I was right.

“It isn’t a full-sized door.” Henry Howard sketched a form in the air with his hands. “Just enough to squeeze through if you stoop a little. Anyway, I got curious and kept poking around it, and I hit something and suddenly the panel swung out. At first I thought it was only some kind of hidden cabinet, but when I got a flashlight, I could see a similar-sized set of cracks in what I thought was part of the wall. Plus there was a small latch. When I slid the panel back, I realized it opened into the wardrobe.”

“I’m sure you climbed through it into the French room,” An’gel said. She certainly would have.

“I did,” Henry Howard said. “I felt like one of the Hardy Boys. I used to read those when I was a kid, and there was even a book in the series called The Secret Panel . So there I was, in the French room, and I realized that I could go back and forth between the rooms without anybody knowing about it.”

“You didn’t tell Mary Turner about your discovery?”

“No, I didn’t,” Henry Howard said. “I know I should have, but she had never said anything to me about a secret panel. I figured she didn’t know about it, and I guess it tickled me that I knew something about the house that she didn’t.”

“I suppose finding the door gave you the idea to play ghost,” An’gel said. She could understand the temptation, though she certainly never would have yielded to it.

“Yes, it did,” Henry Howard said a bit sheepishly. “I tried it out a couple of times, going into the room and moving things, and nobody caught on. The maids and Mary Turner all assumed that it was a spirit, because the door and the windows are always kept locked.”

“Couldn’t you have done the same thing by going through the door or one of the windows?” An’gel asked.

Henry Howard shrugged. “I guess, but it might have been more noticeable. If I went in to use the bathroom, no one would think twice about it if they saw me going in or coming out. I always ran water in the sink and flushed the toilet before I came out of the bathroom.”

“Do you think anyone else knows about this secret panel?” An’gel asked.

“I don’t think so,” Henry Howard said. “I think Mary Turner’s father might have known, but if he did, he never told her about it.”

“Did you tell her earlier when you confessed to being the ghost?” An’gel asked.

“I didn’t get the chance,” Henry Howard said. “She blew up at me before I could tell her, and then you and Miss Dickce came into the kitchen.”

“I see.” An’gel would definitely ask Mary Turner about it. She had one more question for Henry Howard now.

“Did you enter the French room through the secret panel last night in order to murder Nathan Gamble?”

CHAPTER 31

An’gel watched Henry Howard carefully to gauge his reaction to her question.

“No, I most certainly did not kill Nathan Gamble,” Henry Howard said, immediately and firmly. He stared An’gel straight in the eye when he said it, and she believed him.

She told him so, and he looked relieved. “But you did sneak into the room through the secret panel last night.” She deliberately made it a statement rather than a question.

“How did you know?” Henry Howard said. “Are you sure you’re not the psychic?” he added in a jocular tone.

“I’m no psychic,” An’gel said, “but I do have a good memory. For example, I remember this morning you asked me how I had slept. When I told you that I had slept fine, you seemed a bit taken aback. That seemed an odd reaction, but I didn’t think much about it at the time. Once I knew about your ghostly activities, I remembered it and reevaluated it.”

“You’re right,” Henry Howard said. “I did sneak in there last night with the intent to frighten you a little. I had a small flashlight with a weak beam, but I couldn’t see well because I had a mask on. I didn’t realize it wasn’t you in the bed.”

“Did you get any kind of reaction from whatever your little performance entailed?” An’gel asked.

Henry Howard frowned. “I’m not really sure. I thought I heard a moan or two, but I’m not even sure that it came from the person on the bed. I didn’t get real close to the bed, you see. I stayed close to the wardrobe in case I needed to make a fast exit.”

“That’s, what, maybe four feet away from the bed?” An’gel asked.

“About that, yes,” Henry Howard replied.

“Did you see any movement on the bed?” An’gel wondered whether Nathan Gamble was alive or dead when Henry Howard was in the room.

Henry Howard thought about that for a moment. “No, I don’t think so. Does this mean you think he was already dead when I went in?”

“It’s entirely possible,” An’gel said. “What time was it?”

“A few minutes past midnight,” Henry Howard said. “I came home a little before eleven, and Mary Turner was sound asleep in our room. I looked in on her and then went to the library to wait until midnight. I actually read for a while. Then I came back upstairs to do my ghost bit.”

“Did you see anybody else when you arrived home last night?” An’gel said. “Notice anyone’s lights on, anything that might indicate someone else was up?”

“For an alibi, you mean?” Henry Howard asked.

“Partly,” An’gel said.

Henry Howard frowned while he thought about it. “I remember seeing light under a bedroom door when I went up to check on my wife. From Primrose Pace’s room, or whatever her real name is.”