Amanda Quick: Wait Until Midnight

"Documented nonsense." He moved one hand in a dismissive manner. "It is obvious to any logical person that those who claim to possess psychical powers are all charlatans and frauds"

"I daresay you are entitled to your opinion," she retorted. "But forgive me for pointing out that it does not imply anopen, inquiring mind."

He smiled humorlessly. "How open is your mind, Mrs. Fordyce? Do you really take the business of manifestations and spirit voices and table rappings seriously?"

She sat a little straighter in her chair. "As it happens, I have recently conducted some research of my own."

"And have you discovered any mediums you consider to be genuine? Mrs. Delmont, for instance?"

"No," she admitted, reluctant to concede him the ground. "As a matter of fact, I do not believe that it is possible to communicate with spirits"

"I am relieved to hear that. It renews my initial impression of your intelligence."

She glared at him. "May I remind you, sir, that the field of psychical research is expanding rapidly. Lately it has be-gun to encompass a wide variety of phenomena, not just the summoning of spirits. While I do not believe that mediums can communicate with ghosts and phantoms, I am not at all prepared to dismiss other types of psychical powers out of hand."

His green eyes tightened ever so slightly at the corners, sharpening his gaze in a dangerous manner. "If you do not believe that mediums can contact the spirit world, why did you attend the séance at Elizabeth Delmont's house last night?"

No doubt about it, he was most definitely conducting an interrogation. She glanced again at the bellpull.

"There is no need to call your housekeeper to rescue you," he said dryly. "I mean you no harm. But I do mean to get some answers"

She frowned. "You sound like a policeman, Mr. Grove." "Calm yourself, Mrs. Fordyce. I promise you that I have no connection to the police."

"Then why in heaven's name are you here, sir? What do you want?"

"Information," he said simply. "Why did you attend the séance?"

He was quite relentless, she thought.

"I told you, I have been conducting research into psychical phenomena," she said. "Your opinions to the contrary, it is considered a legitimate field of inquiry."

He shook his head in disgust. "Parlor tricks and games. Nothing more"

It was past time to ask a few questions of her own, she decided. She clasped her hands together on top of her desk and assumed what she hoped was a firm, authoritative manner.

"I am very sorry to learn that Mrs. Delmont was murdered," she said evenly. "But I'm afraid that I fail to comprehend why you are interested in the circumstances of her death. Indeed, if you and Mrs. Delmont were not, ah, intimately acquainted, why did you go to her house at two o'clock in the morning?"

"Suffice it to say that I had my reasons for calling on Elizabeth Delmont at that hour and that those reasons were extremely urgent. Now that she is dead, I am left with no choice but to discover the identity of her killer."

She was stunned. "You intend to hunt him down your-self?"

"Yes"

"Surely that is a job for the police, sir."

He shrugged. "They will make their inquiries, naturally, but I very much doubt that they will find the villain."

She unlocked her hands and seized her pen again. "This is very interesting, Mr. Grove. Indeed, it is riveting." She wrote Determined and relentless on the sheet of paper. "Let me see if I have got the facts in the correct order. You are conducting an inquiry into Mrs. Delmont's death, and you came here to ask me if I had any information concerning her murder."

He watched her swiftly moving pen. "That certainly sums up the situation."

Talk about a Startling Incident, she thought. Incidents did not come much more startling than this one.

"I shall be delighted to tell you everything I can remember, sir, if you will first explain your interest in the affair."

He studied her as though she were an unusual biological specimen that had turned up unexpectedly and was proving difficult to identify. The tall clock ticked in the silence.

After a long moment, he appeared to come to a conclusion.

"Very well," he said, "I will answer some of your questions. But in return I must insist that you keep what I am about to tell you in strictest confidence."

"Yes, of course" She jotted the word Secretive down on the paper.

He was out of the chair before she realized he had even moved.

"What on earth?" Startled by the suddenness of his actions, she gasped and dropped her pen.

He crossed the space between them in two strides, reached out and plucked the sheet of paper off the desk.

So much for his apparent weariness, she thought. And to think she had been feeling rather sorry for him.

"Sir." She tried to snatch the paper out of his hand. "Kindly give me that at once. What do you think you are doing?"

"I am curious about your list of errands, madam." He scanned the page quickly, his expression turning colder by the second. "Dark gray jacket and trousers? Fierce features? What the devil is going on here?"

"I do not see that my notes are of any importance to you, sir. "

"I just told you that I insist that this matter be held in confidence. There is a potential for scandal here. I have a strict rule about that sort of thing."

She frowned. "You have a rule regarding scandals? What is it?"

"I prefer to avoid them."

"Doesn't everyone?" Unable to get hold of the paper, she took refuge in an air of haughty aplomb. "Trust me, sir, I, too, have no wish to become embroiled in a scandal. I certainly have no intention of discussing your investigation outside this house."

"Then why did you find it necessary to write down these comments?"

Righteous indignation welled up inside her. "I was merely organizing my thoughts"

He surveyed what she had written. "Am I correct in assuming that some of these scribblings relate to my attire and the color of my eyes, Mrs. Fordyce?"

"Well—"

"I demand to know why you put your observations on paper. Damnation, woman, if you think to make me a subject of your private journal—"

"I assure you, I have no intention of putting you into my personal journal." She was able to make the statement with perfect sincerity because it was nothing less than the exact truth.

"Then I must conclude that you are indeed deeply involved in this affair of the murdered medium," he drawled in tones of silky menace.

She was horrified. "That is not true."

"There is no other logical reason for you to be taking such personal notes. If you are not making a record of our conversation for your journal, then I can only conclude that you are doing so in order to prepare a report for your accomplice."

"Accomplice." She shot to her feet, disoriented and badly frightened now. "That is outrageous, sir. How dare you insinuate that I might be involved in a matter of murder?"

He snapped the paper in front of her face. "How else can you explain the need to record this interview?"

She fought to pull herself together and to think clearly. "I owe you no explanations, Mr. Grove. Quite the reverse. I would remind you that you are the one who barged into this house today."

That accusation clearly irritated him. "You make it sound as though I forced my way inside. That was not the case. You instructed your housekeeper to admit me."

"Only because you told her that you had come upon business that was of grave importance to both of us" She drew herself up. "But the truth is that Mrs. Delmont's untimely death appears to be gravely important only to you, Mr. Grove"

"You are wrong on that account, Mrs. Fordyce." "Nonsense," she declared in ringing accents, confident