Krewe of Hunters: The Hidden Part 31

"Yes, where everyone is subject to the rule of law, which would be me. Let's take this from the beginning. I want to know who moved the statue of Nathan Kendall up the stairs at the museum the other morning," Diego said.

"What?" Trisha said.

"Someone was in the museum the morning after Candace and Larry Parker were killed. That someone carried the statue of Nathan Kendall up the stairs and set it at the foot of Scarlet's bed for reasons unknown, maybe hoping to give her a heart attack, or maybe to scare her into leaving. At the moment the why doesn't matter. I need to find out the who," Diego said.

"The museum is kept locked," Gwen said, s.h.i.+fting closer to her husband and taking his hand. "How could any of us-other than Ben and Trisha and Scarlet-have gotten in and done something so bizarre? Maybe they're in it together-Ben and Trisha and Scarlet. They could have moved that stupid statue just to make it look like someone else was behind everything."

"Until recently, the museum had no alarm system, and it wouldn't have been all that hard for someone to 'borrow' the key and make a copy," Diego said. "Someone has that key. So, please, your pockets and purses."

"Do you have a warrant?" Clark demanded.

Gray stepped forward before Diego had a chance to respond and said, "Since you're interested, I do, so," he said, reaching into his jacket, "I'll let you all know now that it includes the house and grounds, all buildings on the grounds, and all vehicles parked on the grounds. In other words, it covers pretty much everything here. You're all welcome to read it at your leisure."

"Let me see that," Gigi said, leaping to her feet.

Lieutenant Gray politely pa.s.sed her the warrant.

"Take care with that," Adam warned her quietly.

"I don't know why you're looking so hard for a suspect when you have several right in front of you, as Gwen has pointed out," Clark said. "Ben has both a key and the physical strength to move a mannequin. You don't even know that the incident with the statue is connected to the murders. Maybe it was Ben's idea of a joke. Or maybe Scarlet did it herself. Look at her history, excavating graves, for heaven's sake. Maybe all that death drove her crazy."

"Mr. Levin, trust me, I am not crazy," Scarlet said with quiet dignity.

Diego glanced over at her, trying not to smile. She was completely controlled. She really did have more inner strength than he'd ever expected when they first met.

"No, Scarlet is not crazy," he said, before turning back to the others. "We've already acknowledged that three people had the key legitimately. But copying a key is one of the easiest things in the world to do. In fact, Lieutenant Gray, perhaps in the morning you could check local hardware stores and find out if anyone in this room has been in recently to have a key duplicated. Now, for the last time, pockets and purses."

For a second there was silence. Then Clark stood in aggravation. "Look, here's me, emptying my pockets. I have keys to my house, my Lincoln back home and my room here. That's it. Pat me down, feel me up, search wherever you like."

"Here, my purse," his wife offered. She stood up from the antique sofa where she'd been sitting and dumped the contents of her little over-the-shoulder handbag onto the coffee table. A packet of tissue, a lipstick, reading gla.s.ses, and a little leather case that held ID and credit cards fell out.

"My pockets," Charles said, rising and pulling them out. Change fell onto the rug and rolled across the hardwood floor.

"My purse is upstairs," Gwen said.

"Since I live here, so is mine," Linda said.

"Then you won't care if we search your rooms, right?" Lieutenant Gray asked.

"Go ahead," Charles said, his tone furious. "Knock yourselves out. You want a strip search, too?"

Angus grinned and looked over at Jane. "You can strip-search me-as long as it's one of the pretty agents who does it."

Gigi made a disgusted noise and shuddered.

"Sure as h.e.l.l wouldn't want it be you, you old prune," Angus said.

"Enough!" Gwen said. "I'll go up and get my purse for you. I a.s.sume you'd like to send someone with me to make sure I don't take anything out of it first?"

"Thank you, Gwen," Diego said. "Jane will go with you." He addressed the room again. "People nearly died here tonight. I would think that anyone who's innocent would want us tearing the place apart."

"You go right ahead and tear our room apart," Gwen said. "Because Charles and I are leaving."

"Not before Gigi and I do," Clark said.

"You're not leaving until Lieutenant Gray says you're leaving," Diego said firmly.

"You're not leaving," Gray said.

"Arrest me, then," Clark said, daring him.

"All right," Gray said, "you're under arrest for murder."

"What?" Clark demanded.

"Let's just sit down and wait," Gigi begged him.

As if on cue, one of the crime-scene techs came in, his countenance grim. He walked straight over to Lieutenant Gray and whispered to him. Gray nodded toward Diego, who joined him for a quick sotto voce conference.

"Apparently," Diego said to the group, "they've found something in Mr. Ballantree's room."

Terry leaped to his feet. "I didn't put it there."

"You didn't put what there?" Diego asked.

"That key-that wretched key."

"What makes you think they've found the key?" Diego asked.

"Well, I-I... We were talking about the key, so of course I a.s.sumed-"

Diego smiled. "Well, Terry, they did in fact find the key in your room."

Terry exhaled in surrender. "Okay, I admit it. I did it. I moved the statue up the stairs and into Scarlet's bedroom. But, that's it! It was a joke, just a joke. I kind of had a thing for her, and I figured she'd freak out and maybe come to me for protection or something. But she didn't. And then you guys showed up and I realized it was pointless anyway, she was never going to look at me twice. But I didn't murder anyone. I was in town when the Parkers were killed, too, so I couldn't have done it."

"You will come down to the station, and we will talk further," Lieutenant Gray said quietly.

"But it was just a joke. I didn't mean any harm," Terry said, his voice high with fear and his face ashen.

"And I guess you didn't mean any harm tonight, either, right?" Linda demanded. "You might have killed all of us!"

"I had nothing to do with tonight. I swear it," Terry said. "For G.o.d's sake, I'm the only one who got hurt." He turned back to Diego and Gray. "And you don't understand. That key can't be in my room. It's impossible. I threw it in a stream. I'm not stupid. I got rid of the d.a.m.ned thing immediately. So if you found a key in my room, I'm telling you now, it's not the key I had made."

"Listen," Clark Levin said. "You've got your man, so for the love of everything holy, can the rest of us go?"

"Oh, good G.o.d!" Linda suddenly announced. "Trust me, Terry didn't kill the Parkers."

"And how do you know that?" Brett asked her.

"Because he was my date that night," Linda said, shaking her head.

"Why didn't you tell us that earlier?" Diego asked her.

Linda shrugged and glanced at Ben. "There's an unspoken rule here that we don't date guests. I was afraid of losing my job."

"I don't understand why you're wasting time with any of this," Gigi complained. "This is Ben's house. Obviously he's the one who b.o.o.by-trapped the moose."

"I'm afraid that's not obvious," Lieutenant Gray said.

"Why not?" Clark demanded, gruff as a bulldog, ready to defend his wife.

"Because we base our conclusions on evidence, not supposition. The forensic team and the techs back at the station will be able to tell us more about things like the way the trigger mechanism was set, and when. That information will help us home in on a suspect."

"But this is Ben's house," Gwen said. "I don't go into other people's houses and start excavating behind their walls."

"Most people don't," Diego agreed. "But most people don't commit murder, either."

Diego could see that they weren't getting anywhere. Accusations were flying. Lieutenant Gray arrested Terry Ballantree for stealing the key and breaking into the museum, but that wouldn't get them any closer to finding their killer.

For the moment, he had to pin his hopes on forensics. With luck he would get something useful from that sc.r.a.p of the burlap, as well as from tonight's search of the house and grounds. Additionally, with Gray's help in the manpower department, they had the ability to follow everyone here. Earlier they'd wanted to bring them all together to see how they reacted at the seance, now they needed to see who would do what once they were apart.

"With the exception of Mr. Ballantree, none of you is under arrest or even being held. Mr. and Mrs. Barton, Mr. and Mrs. Levin, you are free to check out and find another hotel, but I must ask you not to leave the immediate area. Terry, suggest you do the same once-or if-Lieutenant Gray releases you," Diego said.

"Instead of a hotel, you might want to check into the hospital for that arm, don't you think?" Gwen said derisively.

"All of you, out," Diego said, thoroughly sick of every single one of them by that point.

"We'll be escorting you into town to ensure you find room at a hotel of your choice," Jane said.

"Well, I, for one, am happy to be leaving this place," Clark said, rising and reaching a hand down to his wife.

"I'll escort you," Brett told them.

"Just remember," Lieutenant Gray said, "don't leave the area and be sure we have your contact information in case we need to get in touch with you."

"Our lives will be at your convenience," Gigi said, not even bothering to hide her contempt. "Clark, let's go."

"What about us?" Gwen asked. "Who'll go with us?"

"I will," Jane said.

"Great, we get seance lady," Charles muttered.

"I'm sure Lieutenant Gray has a uniformed officer who can a.s.sist you instead," Jane said.

Diego lowered his head to hide his smile. Jane was a master of holding her cool no matter what. All that mattered to her was getting the job done. He was going to like being part of the Krewe.

"I'd like to come back as soon as the police let me go. You're not going to close the place, are you, Ben?" Terry asked.

Ben just shook his head, looking sh.e.l.l-shocked. "Who knows what will happen?"

For a long moment everyone in the room just stood there silently.

"Freedom. We're out of here," Clark said, turning to Brett. "We'll be packed in ten minutes."

Terry and the Bartons followed quickly on the Levins' heels. Adam excused himself at that point, too, saying he wanted to do the paperwork on that night before the details started to fade.

"What now?" Trisha asked, looking at Diego.

"We'll see what the forensic crews turn up," he said. "The killer will make a mistake somewhere."

Scarlet walked over to him. "I know you have work to do here, but I should get back. Lara is still at the museum-alone," she said softly.

Brett heard her and walked over. "Lara is fine. Meg and Matt drove up just as I was running over here earlier, so they went up to hang out with her."

Scarlet smiled. "Still, I'd like to get back home."

"And there isn't much reason for me to be sitting here anymore," Angus said, evidently listening in. "Horses are much safer-and most of the time much nicer-than people."

"I'll walk Scarlet and Angus back to where they need to be, and then head back here to help Clark and Gigi find a hotel," Brett said.

Diego looked at Scarlet. She seemed surprisingly fine, considering she'd nearly been skewered earlier, but he could see the question in her eyes.

What happens now?

"I won't be long," he told her. "We'll get the guests out and situated, and I'll be back."

After she left with Brett and Angus. Lieutenant Gray came over to him and said, "I'll have men watching their movements. You can leave that to me."

"Thank you," Diego said. "Whatever the killer is after, he hasn't found it yet. Someone will be on the move."

Gray nodded in agreement.

Ben rose on shaky legs. "What do we do?" he asked. "I'm starting to wonder-should I leave, too? Burn the place to the ground?"

"For tonight, go to sleep," Diego told him.

"But will we be safe?" Ben asked.

"Meg, Matt, Jane and Adam will all be here," Diego said.

"Safer than leaving, then," Ben agreed. He looked up the stairs, where the last of his guests were gathering their things to leave. He s.h.i.+vered suddenly. "Much safer than leaving."

"Are you really okay?" Brett asked Scarlet.

They'd seen Angus safely to the stables. He'd a.s.sured them that he would be fine; he had his shotgun, and he was d.a.m.ned good at watching out for vermin.