“It’s terrible that this would get dragged up again, but I suppose it’s inevitable, given the circumstances.” Nora grimaced. “Amory Bloodworth, Marguerite’s first husband—Julian’s father—was quite a bit older than she.”
Pirates. Incest. Madness. Murder.
“Bloodworth?”
“Yes. He was a distant cousin. Very distant. As well as being nearly twenty years her senior—”
“Twenty years!”
Nora repeated firmly, “As well as being nearly twenty years her senior, Amory was very wealthy. By that time, the island Bloodworths had suffered a decline in fortunes, and there were those who believed that Marguerite married Amory for his money. In fact, the rumor was her father auctioned her off to the highest bidder.”
“What?”
“It’s complete nonsense,” Nora comforted. “But you know how people talk.”
Oh yes. Ellery did for sure know that.
“You had only to see them together to know they were deeply in love. Amory adored her, and he was able to provide the stability and security she’d never known. Sadly, seven years after they were married, Amory became terminally ill.”
“That is sad.”
“Yes.”
Ellery said slowly, “And the rumor is Marguerite hurried him out the door and into the family mausoleum?”
“Very good.” Nora smiled approvingly. “Yes. Nothing was ever proven. I don’t recall there even being an official investigation. If she did have a hand in shortening Amory’s suffering, it would have been out of love, not greed.”
Ellery smiled. “You’re a romantic, Nora.”
“No, not at all.” Nora seemed surprised at the idea. “But when people truly care for each other, you can see it. It shows in little ways and big ways.”
Having spent much of his film career convincing audiences he was desperately in love with a series of very buxom and very doomed girlfriends, Ellery refrained from comment.
Nora said, “You can see how people might jump to connect dots that aren’t necessarily dots.”
“If they’re not dots, what are they?”
“I’m sure Marguerite thought some of them were stars. The years with Brett? Those would have been dots.”
Ellery snorted. “How did Marguerite wind up with Brett? Just in the little I saw of them, they didn’t look like two people who belonged together.”
“No. That marriage was a mistake from the first.” Nora’s sigh was pensive. “I imagine she finally just got tired of waking up alone and going to bed at night alone…”
Ellery remembered that Nora’s husband had died a few years earlier. He wasn’t quite sure what to say.
As though reading his thoughts, Nora said briskly, “However, Brett must have had some good points because Marguerite had plenty of opportunity to divorce him.”
“Maybe there was a prenuptial agreement.”
Nora threw him a look of surprise. “Maybe. Still, I’ve always thought Marguerite was a coolheaded, pragmatic woman. It’s hard to believe she’d come up with such a convoluted, melodramatic means of getting rid of an unwanted spouse. Would she really shoot him with her own gun?”
Ellery stared. “Where did you hear that?”
“It came out at the bail hearing.”
This was not good news. If Brett had been shot with Marguerite’s gun, it was one more strike against Julian. No one would believe he hadn’t had access to the weapon.
“A hard shove down the stairs, a balcony railing giving way,” Nora was saying dreamily. “That’s how you do it.”
“Sometimes you scare me,” Ellery remarked. “And speaking of things to be scared of, what did Jack have to say when he stopped by?”
Nora stopped daydreaming perfect crimes. “Not much. He said he would get hold of you later.”
“He can try.”
Nora neatly balled up her sandwich wrapper. “Poor Chief Carson. He looked so tired. I think this case is weighing on him. And, as if he didn’t have enough on his plate with another homicide, there were two burglaries last night.”
“Two? You’re not serious.”
“I’m afraid I am. These thieves are growing more brazen by the day. Both the Lyman and Dunmore houses were hit. Chief Carson said the thieves made off with quite a haul because Mrs. Lyman had left her jewelry case out on her nightstand.”
“When you think about it, with half the island gathered at the Marauder’s Masquerade, last night was the perfect setup.”
“Yes. Exactly. And there are people who blame Chief Carson for not anticipating that.”
Ellery said indignantly, “What’s Jack supposed to do? He can’t post an officer at every house on the island, even if he did have more than a handful of officers. It’s not his fault so many of these vacation houses don’t have security systems. Heck, most of them don’t even have decent window locks.”
His own included.
Nora’s sigh was mournful. “True. But he’s taking it very much to heart. I’ve never seen shadows beneath his eyes like I did today.”
Ellery tilted his head, studied Nora. “Now you’re laying it on too thick.”
She lifted a shoulder in acknowledgment. “He is worried, though. I can tell.”
“That I believe.” Jack was nothing if not conscientious.
“He could use a friend.”
Ellery scowled. “He has a friend. And he knows it. So can we stop talking about Jack?”
“Of course, dearie. After all, you’re the one who brought up—” She stopped at Ellery’s look.
The bell on the front door chimed in welcome as two middle-aged men carrying what were clearly their wives’ shopping bags came in. Nora rose to greet them, asking about their trip on the ferry and deftly determining their reading preferences.
Ellery listened absently. His headache, which had faded earlier, was back with a vengeance. And no wonder, considering everything he’d learned over lunch, particularly the very bad news that the gun used to kill Brett had come from the Bloodworth house. Locke Lombard had been right. The case against Julian was almost entirely circumstantial, but the circumstances were piling up fast.
When the customers had departed with their purchases, he joined Nora at the counter.
“If you’re okay here on your own, I think I’m going to head home and get some sleep. I’m still feeling a little…”
“Seedy?” Nora supplied. “Drunkover?
“I was going to say under the weather.”
“Don’t you worry.” Nora beamed at him. “Everything is under control here. Tonight the Silver Sleuths will meet and go over what you’ve learned today. There’s plenty to sift through. And tomorrow we can start fresh. This crime is all but solved.”
“Are you being ironic?”
Nora winked. “Have a nice, quiet evening, dearie.”
A nice, quiet evening was exactly what Ellery had in mind.
That didn’t mean he couldn’t do a little research as well. Great-great-great-aunt Eudora’s warehouse of miscellaneous books, i.e., her “library,” had turned out to be a treasure trove for research.