Part 41 (2/2)
Striding for the main hall, she came to an abrupt halt before she could turn for the stairs.
Thayer was standing in the doorway, looking dazed, wild. Like a madman. Blood covered his forehead and caked his hair. His s.h.i.+rt was ripped; he was filthy. The handcuffs he'd been wearing dangled from his one wrist.
”Thayer?” she said.
”There was an accident,” he said.
”An accident?” she said carefully. What she had seen below was still so vivid in her mind, that she realized she didn't trust anyone. An hour ago she had been defending him so staunchly. But now, the way he looked...
”What happened?” she asked thickly.
”Hit...the constable...b.a.s.t.a.r.d...hit me. I hit him back.”
”Where? Where is the constable?” she asked.
He shook his head. ”I crawled out. I...Toni!” He started walking toward her. Panic seized her. She'd been too trusting. He'd been up in the rafters, smoking dope, when they'd all been in a precarious situation. Can't hang a man for that! she chided herself. But the way that he was staring at her...
He grinned suddenly, but it seemed lopsided and eerie. ”Toni, you look as if you've seen a ghost. Been prowling around in the castle graveyard, eh?”
That did it. Screw the phone. She was getting the h.e.l.l out. When he walked toward her, she pushed him. Hard. He staggered back, falling. ”Toni!”
Ignoring him, she raced toward the stables, thinking to get Wallace. But she came to a dead halt. Eban was coining from the stables. He had an oilcloth in one hand and a sword in the other. He was just cleaning the sword! she told herself.
”Miss Fraser!” he said. ”Coomin' to the stables, are ye? Aye, and good. Y'can see to old Wallace, good old lad!”
She shook her head, trying to appear nonchalant. Wallace! Good old Wallace. Was the horse dead this time? Had Eban poisoned him?
”I'm off for a bit of a walk, Eban!” she said, and waved jauntily, hoping Thayer wouldn't appear behind her right then. But.. .maybe it would be best if he did. Both men couldn't be guilty of heinous things....
Or could they?
She quickened her pace, grateful that she was going downhill. A walk at first, a trot, a lope.. .and then she was running.
”Toni!”
She looked back. Thayer, menacing in his stagger and tone, was coming after her.
It was a long, long way to the village.
She paused, looking back, taking a deep breath. He might not have moved quickly enough when Jonathan was coming after him, but he was cutting some speed now.
She happened to glance to the other side of the slope and saw the constable's car, overturned, down below.
There was no other choice.
She turned for the forest, tearing into its dark shadows as quickly as she could.
Bruce rode back to find the stables empty, the cars gone and his front door open. Striding into the great hall, he shouted, ”Toni? Gina...David! Anyone?”
A sense of emptiness was his only reply. Still, he strode through the second hall, thinking someone might be in the kitchen. But he never made it there. The door to the tombs was standing open.
His heart thundered in his chest. d.a.m.n her! Had she gone down, fallen.. .scared herself into a state of catatonia?
He took the spiral stairs at a dangerous speed.
”Toni?” There was no answer, but he knew the route she would have traveled. He strode swiftly toward the great laird's tomb.
He frowned at first, seeing only that the slab was s.h.i.+fted over. Then he got a whiff of the sickening smell just as he looked in.
He didn't reel; didn't fall back.
He'd been wrong, dead wrong. They weren't going to find Annie O'Hara in the forest. She was here. How? his mind shrieked.
At the moment, how didn't matter. Toni was nowhere to be seen, and his sense of panic was growing.
He bolted back up the spiral stairs, feeling an urgency to find her unlike any premonition he'd ever experienced before.
Premonition. Aye! For that's what it was. That picture of Toni, blond hair trailing.. .facedown in the water.
The trees s.h.i.+elded her from the first second she moved into the cool green darkness. She tore across the brook, heedless of the fact that she soaked her shoes and jeans up to her knees. The cold didn't mean anything, not at this moment. Then, finding the thick trunk of an ancient oak, she leaned against it, getting her breath, trying to think rationally.
She was certain that, this time, she had found the remains of a recent victim, those of Annie O'Hara. It actually made sense; it was logical. The other bodies had been dumped here, in the forest. And now a body was actually discarded, right in the castle. Bruce's castle! That should make Bruce appear guilty. Except that.. .it couldn't be!
She heard thras.h.i.+ng, and she turned around.
”Miss Fraser!”
It was Eban's voice, Eban calling her.
Why? Why had he chased her in here? And where was Thayer? He had been far ahead of Eban when she had looked back. In fact, she hadn't even realized that Eban had followed her.
”La.s.s! Tis dangerous in here!” Eban called with dismay. ”The laird doesn't want ye in here, y'know!”
Flat against the tree, she remained perfectly still until she heard his footsteps moving on. She started to move out from around the tree. But as she did so, she was stunned to see Thayer, frozen, dead still, standing directly in front of her.
”Toni!” he said softly. ”Ah, Toni, here y'are! Luv, I've been lookin' for you. Ah, Toni! I'm sorry, really, truly sorry!”
They nearly crashed into one another. If Kevin hadn't shouted, David never would have stopped the car in time.
Ryan braked to a halt and leaped out his side of the car just as Gina came out of hers. They both rushed at the minivan.
”Something's wrong! Really wrong,” Ryan said.
”Yeah! You can't drive!” David accused, but Ryan's look silenced him.
”What? What?” Kevin demanded.
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