Gone Guest, page 3
Several eyes widened at that comment, but Seamus didn’t notice. “I’d keep searching, but I’d better bolt to the library and scribble down a backup speech, just in case.”
“There’s a library in the house?” said Missy, eyes popping again. “And a patio and a guest house. Forget Knives Out, now I feel like we’ve walked into a game of Cluedo! Next thing you’ll tell us there’s a conservatory and a ballroom, not to mention—”
“We’d love to help,” said Queenie. “Where should we start?”
Seamus was still smiling at Missy. “Actually, there’s an observatory, but he’s not in there. I’ve already checked. In fact, he’s nowhere in the house, so don’t bother looking inside. Maybe check around the property.”
“Have you tried calling him?” asked Lynette.
“Or sending him a telepathic signal?” added Missy, guffawing.
“Wouldn’t work, we’re rarely on the same wavelength.” Seamus laughed again. “As for this…” He held up his device, the latest model iPhone in silver. “No response. Although to be fair, the reception here is patchy. I’ll have another crack.” He pressed a few buttons, then waited a beat, frowned and said, “Hey bruz, me again. I’m serious about the speeches. Get back here. Fast!” Then he hung up.
“Okay then, let’s see if we can drag him back,” said Perry. “This place is massive. Can you narrow it down a bit for us?”
Seamus pointed a finger to the southern end of the patio. “The pool deck wraps right around the cliff edge, and there’s a cabana on the other side. He could be round there having a smoke, I suppose.” Then he turned and pointed to the opposite end of the house, back towards the forest. “Also try the guest house you drove past on your way in, although I can’t see why he’d be there, we’re sleeping upstairs tonight. Oh, and try the parking lot.”
“The parking lot?” echoed Claire.
He offered a sheepish grin. “We both have a soft spot for fast cars; he could be out there salivating.”
“Sounds like someone we know,” she said, nodding at Queenie.
“Just stick close. He can’t have gone too far. And I’d hate for you to miss the fireworks entirely.” Then he held his palms together and bowed. “Thank you. I can see why Ronnie adores you guys. If you find him, tell him to come straight to the library. I’ll be in there, stressed to my eyeballs.”
Then he turned and headed into the house.
The book club gave a universal sigh, then abandoned their flutes and split into groups of two. Missy and Lynette had opted to search the enormous patio around the pool and were making their way to the aforementioned cabana when the patio lights suddenly flickered off. A few seconds later, they heard a whistling sound before the sky split into a million colours, banging and crackling as it did so.
“Oh, it’s lovely!” said Missy, stopping and staring upwards. “If this doesn’t bring Sebastian running, nothing will. I mean, what kind of fool doesn’t come out and look at fireworks? Everybody loves fireworks, don’t they?”
“Depends if that fool is having some fireworks of his own,” Lynette countered, staring across to the dimly lit cabana. It was a modernised version of the house with the same arched windows but wide, sliding glass doors and a low, flat roof.
Missy looked at her blankly, and Lynette smiled. “You are so charmingly innocent, my dear.” Then they locked elbows and marched across the stone pavers. “Didn’t you hear Seamus say his girlfriend is also missing?”
“So?”
Lynette stepped up to the tinted glass doors and tried to peer through. “So maybe they’re missing together, nudge nudge, wink wink.”
“No,” gasped Missy. “You think they’re in there canoodling?”
“Canoodling?” Lynette laughed. “Who even says—”
Her words were swallowed up by a fresh burst of fireworks, but this time she was the one gasping as the explosion illuminated more than the night sky. The inside of the cabana also lit up, and for a brief moment, Lynette spotted a couple sitting close together on a couch.
They both glanced up, wide-eyed, like they’d been sprung pre-canoodle, before the room snapped back into darkness.
~
It came as no surprise that Queenie had volunteered to check out the guest car park even though it was on the wrong side of the house, and she would miss the fireworks, which were being launched out towards the ocean.
“Who needs fireworks when you have Porsches and Alfa Romeos?” she said to Claire as she wandered from luxury vehicle to luxury vehicle, the odd Subaru and Mazda bringing the collection down a peg or two.
There were about thirty cars in the vicinity, and as they peered in and around each one, it didn’t take long to deduce there was no one lurking between them, stroking the satin finishes.
“Such a waste of time,” said Claire, listening wistfully as the fireworks exploded unseen.
Queenie’s stiff bob was shaking now. “Not really. I’ve never seen the all-electric Jaguar up close.”
Claire rolled her catlike eyes and let her inspect the fancier vehicles again, then eventually called time out.
“What about the garage?” Queenie pointed back to the house where all six roller doors were sealed shut. “Should we see if we can access it from inside?”
Claire scoffed. “Sebastian is hardly going to be lurking inside a boring garage during a fireworks display.”
Queenie scoffed harder. “I bet there’s nothing boring about that garage, Claire.”
~
Like the guardhouse, the guest house was a miniature version of the main house and, from what Alicia and Perry could see, locked up tight. As the fireworks danced above them, they knocked loudly on the front door, trying to be heard over the din, then peered through the smaller bay windows.
“I wonder if this is where we’re staying,” said Alicia.
“Doubt it,” said Perry, nodding towards a blue cooler box he could see on a coffee table. “There’s an esky in there and some very gaudy wine goblets. Oh, and is that a bottle of Dom? Someone’s been preloading with the good stuff.” He stepped back. “But no signs of life, I’m afraid.”
Alicia strode around the guest house to the other side where the manicured lawn quickly turned into low shrubby forest through which a crushed limestone pathway vanished into the darkness.
“Look,” she said, “this path must lead back down to the tennis court.”
Perry pointed to a small wooden sign near her feet. “What gave it away? The picture of the tennis racquet or the bright yellow arrow?”
She smirked back. “They could be out there, playing a few rounds of love-all.”
“Honestly, Alicia,” he groaned. “For a journalist, you’re really bad at puns. Although you are perceptive, I’ll give you that. It does seem odd that Seamus’s twin and his girlfriend are missing at the same time.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time a man stole his brother’s woman.”
“You mean bruzes,” said Perry, snickering. “Come on, let’s see if Seamus has been superseded. Get it… seeded?”
Alicia was now groaning as they entered the path.
~
Ronnie would have groaned if Biddy wasn’t quite so adorable. They were seated together on “Her Lordship’s royal throne” (her friend Peg’s words as she offered her seat to Biddy, then scuttled off), but no amount of persuading could get the woman to look skyward.
“What time is it now?” Biddy kept asking, and Ronnie gently sighed.
“Time to look up, Biddy. Up! You’re missing the lovely fireworks.”
But all Biddy wanted to do was stare lovingly at Ronnie’s face (well, that, eat chocolate cake and play hide-and-seek, of course). It was something Biddy often did. Whenever Ronnie took her to a movie or a play, she would watch Ronnie instead, as if she were the only show in town. In the end, Ronnie let Biddy be and enjoyed the spectacle herself while also wondering where Peg had got to and why her book club friends had also scurried off at the start of the fireworks. They all seemed suddenly purposeful.
Good thing she wasn’t a suspicious beast, or Ronnie would suspect they were up to something…
Chapter 4 ~ The Search Continues
The couple canoodling in the cabana couldn’t possibly be Sebastian and the missing girlfriend—they were too old for that—and it took another flash of fireworks to see who it really was and to realise they weren’t quite canoodling.
At least, not yet.
Veronica’s bossy niece Bethany was seated on the couch, very close to a man in his late sixties with a head of white hair and a designer tuxedo. They had pewter goblets in hand and looked surprised to see the book club friends staring in at them.
Then their gazes shifted and the man’s surprise turned to something else entirely. He dropped his cup to the table and jumped up, holding out a hand and yelling something.
Lynette frowned, confused, then turned with a start, realising there was another woman standing behind them. She must have followed them from the party, across to the cabana. She was older than Bethany, dressed entirely in black, her white hair stiffly coiffed, her eyes fiery.
“Hannah,” the man said as he swept the cabana door open. “I was just—”
“How could you?” she spat out. “After everything.”
“What? No—”
“I came here in good faith. I thought this was behind us. And now Bethany?”
“What? No!” he said again, but she was no longer listening.
The older woman was charging across the patio and towards the house. The man turned to Bethany, held his palms out like he had no words, then offered Lynette and Missy a bewildered look and charged after her, leaving a waft of expensive aftershave in his wake.
And all the while the fireworks kept dancing like sparklers above their heads.
Bethany had remained seated through all this but smiled to herself as she picked up one goblet and got to her feet. Then she strode across the room and stopped at the doorway.
“I need to get this to the kitchen,” she told Lynette and Missy. “If you don’t mind.”
She waited for them to step back, then followed the man and his wife into the house. Because that had to be the man’s wife, Lynette decided. She recognised the look of chronic disappointment. Might have caused such expressions in her own time, if she were being brutally honest.
“That was a bit awkward,” said Missy. “What do you think that was about?”
“I think we caught a man about to cheat on his wife,” Lynette replied.
“Wasn’t he the bloke Ronnie saved earlier from Biddy? I think she called him Hugh.”
“He’ll be getting more colourful names than that right about now,” Lynette quipped before shaking her head and adding, “Come on, this is lame. Let’s see if we can snag some sushi.”
~
Finding their way into the garage was easier said than done, and it took Claire and Queenie some time to get their bearings when they returned inside the house. It didn’t help that the interior was dimly lit and that there were so many doors and corridors spreading out in all directions.
The first door they tried led into a mudroom, which had more crates of liquor stored in it than coats and boots, and they were just coming out of that when they ran into Bronson, who seemed lost in his thoughts.
“Oh, hello again,” he said, glancing down at the bottle of Sprite in his hand. “Haven’t seen Biddy have you? I was told to fetch some lolly water, and now I can’t find her.”
They shook their heads and explained their mission, which left him frowning.
“Why would Sebastian be in the garage?”
“A very good question,” said Claire. “Humour us, if you will.”
He shrugged and pointed his bottle towards the southwest corridor. “First door on the right. Knock yourselves out.”
And it did knock them for six. The space was brightly lit with polished concrete floors and ample room for its six luxury vehicles, which included a Rolls Royce, an Aston Martin and a glossy blue Lotus.
While Queenie’s face lit up, Claire’s began to mimic Bronson’s.
“Of course he’s not in here,” she said. “And listen… I think the fireworks are fizzling out. Oh dear. We’ve missed the whole show.”
“Soz,” said Queenie, not sounding sorry at all. “I guess that gives us time to check inside the cars, you know, in case he’s hiding behind a seat or something.” She was peering through the dark-tinted window of a silver Maserati.
Claire folded her arms across her Grace Kelly-style bodice. “If you’d like to explore the lavish interiors, please do so, Queenie, but make it snappy. I’d really rather get back to Ronnie.”
Queenie clapped her hands like she’d won the lottery, then pulled the car door open and slipped into the front seat while Claire glanced about. She was a fan of all things vintage, that was true, but she couldn’t understand why anyone, least of all Ronnie, needed so many fancy vehicles.
“I didn’t think she was the type,” she said. “Although they could be her late husband’s, I suppose.”
Queenie dragged her eyes from the exquisite Italian stitching on the leather-wrapped dashboard. “Didn’t Ronnie’s husband die years ago? This Maserati might look vintage, Claire, but it’s a recent model. And worth a pretty penny.”
“Well, whoever owns it, it’s a pity their budget didn’t extend to their luggage.”
Claire pointed to a fawn leather carryall resting on the back seat. The leather was cracking and splattered with something black and fuzzy.
“Urgh, that mould is going to wreck the upholstery.”
“Not our concern,” said Claire. “Come on, you’ve had your fix. Sebastian is clearly not hiding under the dashboard. Time to head back to the action.”
~
The activity in the sky was drawing to a close as Alicia and Perry followed the winding path to the tennis court, and they had only tiny solar lights now to guide the way.
“Is it just me or is there a nasty undercurrent at this party?” said Alicia as they walked. “I mean, it’s supposed to be a happy family celebration, and Ronnie looked happy enough, but her in-laws were a bit snarky. I know she can be schoolmarmish, but how can you not like Ronnie?”
“Bethany makes Ronnie look like a recalcitrant teenager,” said Perry. “They’re probably just jealous. Remember, Ronnie was a humble nurse when she met the great Bertram Westera. He took her away from all that, left her his massive fortune. Perhaps they wish she’d stuck with bedpans.”
“Oh, spare me the tears,” said Alicia. “They’re drinking Bollinger and watching fireworks courtesy of Ronnie. What have they got to whine about?”
“They’re rich, darling, there’s always something to whine about. Speaking of which, I’d like to whine about the lighting out here.” He stopped and stared ahead where they could now make out the dim silhouette of the tennis court through the shadowy acacias and lemon myrtles. There was a weird cooing sound and beyond that a suspicious rustling. “If we’re not careful, we’ll step on a tiger snake.”
Alicia began frantically flashing her mobile phone light about.
“Oops, sorry, sweetie, I keep forgetting how your brain works. It’s probably just a Tawny Frogmouth. Come on, I’ve got a better idea.”
Then he shined his torch to a fork in the path and another wooden sign, this one with the picture of a miniature gate. Rubbing his goatee, he said, “Okay, Miss Marple, I wonder if you can tell me where this leads.”
Alicia rolled her eyes. “You think Sebastian’s taken off?”
“Hope not, but I noticed cameras down at the guardhouse when we arrived. I bet there’s more around the place. Maybe door bitch is watching the wayward nephew fondle his brother’s girlfriend in a gazebo somewhere, having a little chuckle.”
Then he chuckled to himself as they detoured back towards the driveway.
Ten minutes later, Perry was no longer chuckling. “That’s my steps done for the day,” he said when they finally arrived at the gate.
They couldn’t see the security guard through the window and were about to call his name when Pete’s bald head popped out from behind the front door. He looked a little harried.
“Oh, hello there,” he said. “Choofing off already?” Then he squinted out to the dimly lit road beyond. “You waiting on a lift? D’ya call a cab?”
“Actually, we’re searching for Sebastian,” said Perry. “He’s Ronnie’s—”
“I know Sebastian. Why? What’s going on?”
“They need him at the house for speeches, and he’s gone walkabout. Just wondering if you’ve seen him on your CCTV somewhere.”
The guard blinked. “CCTV?” Then he followed Perry’s eyes to the camera that was pointing at them from a pole beside the gate. “Oh, yeah, nah, sorry. The cameras aren’t on.”
“Well, that was a waste of energy.”
“What’s the point of them then?” asked Alicia.
Pete puffed up. “I’m the eyes and ears of this property, miss. We use them when I’m off duty, but I’m here now, aren’t I? And I can assure you I haven’t seen Sebastian since he drove his Lamborghini in just after five this evening.”
“That’s his?” said Perry. Ronnie didn’t come from money, so he assumed her blood nephews wouldn’t have much either.
Pete shrugged like it was irrelevant and added, “There’ve been no car movements since you guys arrived.”
“Could he have scooted out another exit?” asked Alicia.
“Not unless he scaled the wall.” Pete pointed to the thick sandstone. “This runs right around the property, no other exits. Nah, I’m sure he’ll turn up. I’d help you look, but I can’t leave my post.”
“Fair enough,” said Perry. “But you know what would be really helpful? Perhaps you could pop the cameras on and they could do the work for us.” Pete seemed doubtful, so Perry added, “That way if you spot him you could let him know he’s required at the house for speeches. Then we can all get back to making the night perfect for Ronnie.”
