Wait Until Midnight

FOUR

When Caroline walked into the study later that afternoon, she found her aunts waiting for her. They were seated in front of the hearth, drinking tea. They looked at her expectantly.

"Well?" Milly demanded with her usual enthusiasm.

`There is no question about it. The mysterious gentle-man who called on me early this morning did, indeed, tell the truth." Caroline sat down behind her desk. "Elizabeth Delmont was murdered last night after the séance. So much for the possibility that Mr. Grove, or whatever his name may be, is either mad or a mischief-making trickster."

It had been a weak hope but she had clung to it.

"What did you see when you went to Delmont's ad-dress?" Emma asked, looking, as usual, as though she was braced for the worst possible news.

Caroline propped her elbows on the desk and rested her chin on the heels of her hands. "There was a constable standing at the door and a crowd of curious neighbors and some gentlemen of the press gathered in the street."

"You were careful not to be seen, I trust?" Emma said anxiously.

"Of course." Caroline wrinkled her nose. "Not that any-one would have recognized me. in any event."

"Nevertheless, one cannot he too cautious in a matter such as this," Emma reminded her. "The murder will be a great sensation in the papers soon. It would not do to have your name linked to it in any way, especially in light of that unfortunate article concerning your demonstration of psychical powers at Harriet Hughes's tea"

"Don't remind me," Caroline muttered. "What a mistake that was. I don't know why I let you and Aunt Emma talk me into it.»

`"Now, now, it was very entertaining," Milly said lightly. "Harriet and her friends were all quite thrilled."

Emma frowned. "But who knows what the press might make of such a connection if Caroline were seen at the house where a medium was murdered? It could prove disastrous. We can only pray that it does not get out that she was among the sitters at Delmont's last séance"

"Mr. Grove led me to believe that he has no intention of giving the list of sitters to the police," Caroline said. But what if he changed his mind?

Emma echoed her thoughts. "Who knows what the man will do? He sounds quite eccentric, to say the least. Imagine setting out to find a killer on his own."

"It is certainly not the sort of behavior one expects from a gentleman who moves in elevated circles," Milly agreed. "I wonder what is in that missing diary that concerns him.

And then there's that business of a false name." She made a tut-tutting sound.

So many questions, Caroline thought. She had not been able to write a single line after the man who had called him-self Adam Grove had departed. He was gone but he had left his shadow behind. It hovered over the entire household.

She looked at the two people she loved most in the world. Anxiety gripped her. It was her fault that their lives had been turned upside down three years ago. She could not allow such a thing to happen again. She had a responsibility to protect them from another great scandal—or worse.

Emma and Milly had raised her from the age of two. They had taken her into their home after her mother had expired from an overdose of laudanum. She had called each woman «aunt» since she had learned to talk, but in truth Emma, her mother's sister, was the only one of the pair who was related to her by blood.

They were both women of a certain age. They had been something more than very good friends for years, sharing not only a home and the responsibility of raising a child, but a seemingly endless variety of enthusiasms and interests.

The pair made a striking contrast in both looks and temperament. Emma was tall, handsome in a severe manner and inclined to a dour view of the world. She was not entirely devoid of a sense of humor but laughter did not come easily to her.

Milly, on the other hand, was short, plump and so light of heart that those who did not know her well often concluded that she was a bit frivolous. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. Milly was as intelligent and well-educated as Emma but there was a strong streak of the romantic in her.

Caroline had long ago concluded that her aunts' tastes in gowns paralleled their temperaments. Emma favored dark, subdued dresses with a minimum of ribbons and flounces. She went about looking as though she were in perpetual mourning, a style that happened to be very much in fashion.

But there was another, equally popular direction in fashion these days. It emphasized a riotous jumble of colors, patterns, trims and designs, and it suited Milly perfectly. The dress she wore this afternoon was an excellent case in point. It was a mix of red and gold stripes and black and white checks. Fringe swayed from the madras plaid sleeves and neckline. A ruffled red petticoat peeked out from beneath the hem.

Emma poured tea for Caroline. "The entire affair is extremely disturbing. Do you suppose the killer was watching from the shadows last night when we left Mrs. Delmont's house? Waiting for his opportunity, as it were?"

"What a chilling thought." Milly sounded more thrilled than chilled. "1 must admit, I thought the séance last night was quite exciting. I particularly liked the business of the ghostly hand rising up beside the table. Very effective. I feared that Mr. McDaniel would faint dead away when the fingers reached out to touch his sleeve."

"Elizabeth Delmont was a complete fraud, of course," Caroline said thoughtfully, "but I cannot help but admire her for pursuing such an interesting career. There are so few profitable professions open to ladies."

"Very true," Emma agreed. "Did you learn anything else of note this afternoon?"

"I noticed a young maid standing by herself, watching the commotion around Mrs. Delmont's house," Caroline said. "I requested the driver to stop the carriage so that I could talk to her. I thought it quite safe because I knew that she could not possibly have the faintest notion of my identity. She was delighted to tell me about the rumors that were going through the crowd."

"What did she say?" Milly asked.

"She told me that everyone was talking about how all of the furniture in the séance room had been overturned by supernatural forces."

Emma sighed. "I suppose that sort of gossip was inevitable, given that it was a medium who was murdered."

"Yes" Caroline picked up her teacup. "She said that there was also a great deal of talk about a broken pocket watch."

Milly looked curious. "What was remarkable about the watch?"

"Evidently it was found next to the body. The police think that it was smashed in the course of the murder." She took a sip of tea and lowered the cup. "The hands on the face of the watch were stopped at midnight."

Milly shuddered. "How very melodramatic."

Emma's lips thinned. "The watch will no doubt feature heavily in the newspaper accounts of the murder."

"I suppose it's possible that a disgruntled sitter decided to take revenge against Mrs. Delmont," Milly said. "Communicating with the Other Side can be an extremely emotional business for people who take that sort of nonsense seriously."

"Perhaps," Caroline said slowly. "But I have been giving the matter a great deal of thought and I have come up with another possibility."

"What is that?" Emma asked.

"The gentleman who called here this morning is convinced that whoever murdered Mrs. Delmont did so in order to obtain a certain diary. But as you know, I have spent a great deal of time lately at the headquarters of the Society for Psychical Investigations, and it is no secret there that Mrs. Delmont did have one very jealous rival, a medium named Irene Toller."

"You did say that there is a considerable amount of professional jealousy among mediums," Milly remarked.

Emma stirred her tea. "We can only hope that the police will arrest the villain quickly and put an end to the matter."

But what if the police did not find the killer? Caroline thought. Would they eventually turn up on her doorstep just as Adam Grove had? And what of the mysterious Mr. Grove himself? If he did not locate the diary, would he re-turn to plague her with more questions and not-so-veiled accusations? Would he eventually decide to give the police the list of sitters at Delmont's last séance?

She knew better than most that men from his world could not be trusted.

Emma looked grim. "If only you had not taken a notion to use a medium as a character in your next novel, Caroline. You would never have gone to Wintersett House to study psychical research and we would never have at-tended Elizabeth Delmont's last séance"

But she had made those choices, Caroline thought glumly. And now she and her aunts faced the possibility of being dragged through the muck of another dreadful scandal, one that could well destroy her new career upon which they all depended financially.

She could not just sit here, waiting for disaster to crash down upon them like an avalanche. She must take action. There was too much at stake.