Chapter Sixteen

Sixteen

T he day had stretched on endlessly. When they returned to the B he had returned to the restaurant dismayed and beside himself. He swore he and the owners were the only ones with keys. They were absentee owners, Leo and Ava Grandville, who lived the majority of the year in Cannes—where they had been for the last three months.

They were, of course, going to be horrified.

Difficulties did exist—the only prints on the bottle belonged to the sommelier, who swore that he had gotten it from the stock brought in from the House of Matisse.

The label that didn't belong to the House of Matisse had been printed on an ordinary printer—one owned by thousands of individuals and businesses in the area and beyond.

Naturally, Delphine Matisse herself had arrived, horrified and furious and, of course, pointing out the differences between her real labels and the one that had been stuck on the bottle.

Gervais attempted to calm her down.

And Jeannette was certain that guilty or not, Gervais's handling of the woman had been top-notch. She needed to believe that Delphine was above suspicion. They needed someone ready to help them—and give them access to places they might need to go.

Jules didn't mind voicing his contempt for Giselle, Tomas, Leticia and George, but Delphine, thinking what she might about their treatment of her son, kept up a decent relationship with her neighbors. There were occasions when cordial cooperation might be needed, for example for certain events, festivals... Who knew what might happen when?

Including torture and murder! Jeannette thought.

But finally, the day came to an end. While Daniel remained in the parlor area of the bed-and-breakfast, Jeannette headed in to find the book on Elizabeth Báthory. On guard duty, she sat next to Daniel on the couch and read, aware that he, with an arm around her, was reading over her shoulder.

"Bloody hell!" he murmured.

She turned to look at him. He frowned, looking at her. "Elizabeth herself never went to trial! A trial and an execution would have made the gentry look bad."

"And her cousin conducted all the interviews between 1610 and 1611," Jeannette said. "Gy?rgy Thurzó, count palatine of Hungary, was the one ordered by King Matthias to investigate and bring the guilty to trial. But you wouldn't want the gentry to look bad, right? He supposedly interviewed people in all the surrounding areas and came up with a number of six hundred victims. My question is if that many people knew she was torturing and killing people, how come no one said anything?" she asked.

"Fear?" he suggested.

"And yet they were all so willing to talk!"

"Well, here's the thing. If she wasn't guilty, what happened to all the victims?"

"I don't know!" Jeannette told him. "Where there's smoke, but...was her family trying to get her property and was it a debt that needed to be canceled?"

"According to what you're reading, it was after the murder of a noble girl in 1609 that the authorities staged a night raid. What they found was horrible—bodies, one still in the fireplace, half burned. Servants testified she burned young women, charring their entire bodies until they died. Her son-in-law brought dogs who discovered bodies buried everywhere around the grounds. What's true and what isn't is lost to history. Oh, look...according to one witness, Elizabeth Báthory kept a book in which she recorded her victims, and there were hundreds. What is true will never be known because records are scant," Daniel said, still staring down at the book.

"Yeah. You wouldn't want to make the nobility look bad," Jeannette said dryly.

"Or the vineyard owners," Daniel murmured. He frowned. "What do you think about the blood showing up in that bottle in the basement of the restaurant?"

"It would have helped if they'd had any kind of security cameras. And, of course..."

"The case of the missing Aristide Broussard?"

She nodded. "And on that, from what we learned from Menendez and it seemed Alphonse verified, he was extremely distraught. Frightened. I think he's purposely disappeared, hoping he won't be a victim himself."

"Or he is a victim, and we haven't discovered his remains yet."

Jeannette closed her eyes and leaned back against his shoulder. "I wonder if Elizabeth Báthory really kept a book of her victims, a journal or whatever to keep count herself. Another thought. If it's true that whoever is doing this is...in awe of—in love with?—the life of Elizabeth Báthory, maybe they're keeping a journal, too."

"And how do you think you're going to find it? We didn't even get far at the Matisse estate—as nice and helpful as Delphine claims she is."

"We need to get back into the house. And someone needs to keep them occupied while one of us gets into her private quarters."

"I'm not so sure that's legal."

"What?" Jeannette told him innocently. "I wandered, admiring the beauty of the place and found I got myself lost!"

"Let's sleep on it, huh?" Daniel asked her.

She laughed. "When it's our turn."

"Right, of course. We'll run it by the others in the morning."

"Of course, I'm sure Gervais has had a crew checking for traffic or other cameras in the area. We will see dozens of people going into the restaurant—"

"More like hundreds," Jeannette said.

"Okay, but still, we'll see what was happening around the place, and see if we recognize any of our possible suspects—"

"We will. They all go to the restaurant."

"But recently?" he asked.

She grimaced. "You're right. We'll see what we can see. I still think that if we can just get a warrant, get something..."

"And maybe we can," Daniel said. "We'll talk to Gervais. But..."

"But?"

"Just like in the past. Is a judge going to want to cast aspersions on people who are so wealthy, influential and important to the community? Because, of course, it's a wild shot," Daniel reminded her. "And I hate to say it, but that's pretty much the way it is all over the world. When you're going after someone with prestige, you must do it very carefully."

"Ah, but such prestigious people should want to help in the investigation!"

"One would think," Daniel agreed. He straightened, looking toward the hallway from the back bedrooms to the parlor. Luke was already heading their way.

Daniel rose, arching a brow at him.

Luke shrugged. "We're not that early. It's past one thirty. Couldn't sleep. You guys can go and try to get some yourselves."

"I'm not going to fight you," Daniel told him. "Thanks!"

Carly came out from the back to join them. "Morning!" she said cheerfully.

"No, no, no, you look far too awake and happy," Daniel told her.

Jeannette smiled. On the one hand, she was a wee bit jealous again. They'd all worked together before and their camaraderie was so easy. On the other, she was simply grateful to be part of their group, where solving horrible puzzles could be attempted in an atmosphere where honesty was so easy and in which you knew beyond a doubt that your back was covered at all times.

"We can't seem to help it. It's just impossible to tell if Delphine is really as wonderful as she seems, if she's being set up, if she's determined to make it look as if she's being set up... And Jules, is he for real? And then, of course, who is nastier? Leticia or Giselle, and does that mean anything? Or are they just spoiled brats who have been given everything all their lives?"

"We're all seeking the answers to that," Daniel told her.

"What do you have there?" Luke asked.

"The book on Elizabeth Báthory we found in the closet," Jeannette told him.

"Hand it over," Carly said.

Jeannette frowned but as she did so, Carly laughed. "You'll take it to bed. You'll make yourself insane. And you're our key player here, friends with Jules...friends with Alphonse. You need your sleep."

Jeannette grinned and handed her the book. "You're right—I'd take it to bed. Enjoy. Great reading on a dark night in a house where anyone may have a key."

"No one is breaking in tonight," Daniel said.

"Whoever is doing this knows there are six of us—armed—staying here," Luke said. "No one is coming tonight."

"But I also feel...we need to watch our backs very carefully. I'm not sure why—whoever is doing this is taunting us, blood in a wine glass, a fake label on the bottle. We were able to stop them from taking Jeannette's new young friends, and I think whoever is the key player behind this might be worried we are getting close. They're seeing it in two ways—one, the joy of making law enforcement run around like dogs trying to catch their tails. Then, two, when they're not busy enjoying the horror and desperation they're causing, they're worried we may be getting close."

"I agree," Luke told him, and he laughed. "Go to sleep! All four of us out here are getting us nowhere. Go!"

"As ordered!" Daniel told him.

He grinned and caught Jeannette's arm, drawing her away.

"Good night, sleep tight! Don't let the bed bugs bite!" Carly called.

Jeannette had to stop. "Bed bugs? In Delphine Matisse's bed-and-breakfast? Good heavens! She'd die on the spot!"

They all grinned as she and Daniel headed to their room.

"And we should get some sleep," he told her.

"Oh, I agree."

"Clear our heads..."

"Appease our bodies?"

He laughed, and she knew that laughter was good and necessary. Just as it was necessary to curl together, to feel the soaring heat of one another, to know that despite their chosen field or because of it, the wonders of the good in human emotion could remain.

And, of course...

Sensuality could be pretty amazing, too.

And...

Yeah. It was easier to sleep when they lay together. Easier to drift in sweet aftermath, and let sleep claim them slowly, sweetly, completely.

It was good...

Then, of course, the alarm rang. It was time to face what could be horrendously evil once again.

Daniel was the first into the kitchen the next morning, glad they'd set the coffeepot to brew the night before. Coffee.

Good stuff. And, of course, he loved tea as well. But first thing in the morning...

Coffee.

He'd barely poured a cup before there was a knock at the door. Answering it, he discovered that Gervais had arrived bright and early.

"There's been a minor break," Gervais told him. "I'm headed back into Paris. The van has been discovered abandoned. We believe it's the vehicle that Jeannette was being led to with her friends, the young women you met on the wine tour, because the description fits perfectly. It was abandoned in a parking garage near Notre Dame. We may find something. Forensics will be searching for fingerprints, anything. And I—"

"I'll come with you," Mason, who had been in the parlor, announced as he entered the kitchen. "We'll see what's going on with the van, and I'd like to stop and talk to Shelley and the others. They might remember something...anything else that might help us at all. Daniel—"

"We'll follow up with the restaurant," Daniel said. "I take it the techs have been collecting traffic cams and other footage."

Gervais nodded. "We know many people working the vineyards—the big ones along with the family ones—come into that restaurant. The other thing..."

"Is that we know others are working for the Báthory we're seeking," Daniel murmured.

"Pardon?" Gervais said.

Daniel told him more about Jeannette's theory—and how they had found the book.

"Báthory!" Gervais muttered, wincing. "How many bodies are out there? And when and where did this start? Sad to say, Paris has a huge homeless population. Being homeless still allows for hope. Being brutally murdered..."

"No one deserves such a fate. But, Gervais, we were all feeling last night that we are getting closer. This isn't on you—it's on the monster doing it all."

"And there will always be another monster," Mason reminded him.

"I try to tell myself that," Gervais told him. "But as the Americans say, the buck stops with me."

"And with us. But we're heading for the finish line, Gervais. I believe it," Daniel said.

"Let's all have hope in your instincts, mon ami !"

Jeannette made her way into the kitchen as well. She greeted Gervais and looked at Daniel and him, saying, "I'd like to get back out to the fields today. We found Jules's card there—maybe a setup just as the wine with the false label might have been a setup. I know police have been through the fields, but I was thinking about going farther west."

Daniel knew she was hoping they'd find their World War II spirit, Jake Clayton. Once again, Jake might have made a few discoveries that they hadn't.

"That's fine," Mason said. "I'll accompany Gervais along with Della, and we'll work at things from the Paris angle. Luke and Carly can work with the video we've gotten from the street. They can run a lot of facial recognition and find out if we've workers entering from all the houses—or if we see any of the elites themselves."

"When you've had your coffee, we'll get going," Gervais told Mason.

"Coffee travels," Mason said. "I'll get Della."

"Della is right here," she assured him, walking over to the coffeepot as well. "Right here and ready to roll," she added.

Luke and Carly arrived in the kitchen and Mason muttered, "Hey, hey, the gang's all here, and as we said, Gervais, Della and I will roll. Luke, you and Carly are getting to the restaurant to collect whatever video tech has managed to accumulate. Daniel and Jeannette are prowling the fields again. Jeannette, keep in touch with Jules during the day."

"Will do," Jeannette promised.

"And...at some point, we'll be back. I intend to talk to our legal people and find out about getting warrants. Delphine says we may explore anywhere, but...she hasn't really put the offer out there. I believe if she's holding with all innocence, I may just need to press it with her. As for the others...we will need legal assistance. I don't want anything thrown out of court if we find the people we're looking for. All right. Hit one on your phones to communicate with all," Mason reminded them.

Nods went around, then Mason and Della left with Gervais.

"Gervais still has officers at the restaurant," Luke told them. "Carly and I will get over there, get the footage we need to inspect and be back here. Obviously, we'll be close if you need us."

"Perfect," Daniel assured him. "Jeannette?"

She looked from him to Luke and Carly. "I may be...well, on another goose chase—"

"Ah, but you're looking for the American fighter ace Jake, right?"

Jeannette nodded. "He must have been an incredibly smart and giving man, loyal and honorable to the core. And he wants this...ended."

"When it is over, I want to get to the American Cemetery and Memorial," Daniel said. "Time goes by. We forget what the fighting forces of World War II went through and... Well, I'd like to honor our new friend, and so many others—Americans, Brits, all those who fought."

"A good plan," Carly assured him. "Luke?"

"Right, we're out, too," Luke said.

"And us," Daniel agreed. "Oh, wait! Remember, whoever comes back here first...take care. I would say that whoever our monster is, he or she knows we're staying here. We need to be careful coming in."

"Got it," Luke assured him. "And leave things—"

"So that we know if anyone touched them, of course," Carly said.

Daniel smiled and looked at Jeannette, and she nodded.

They'd been through this routine before.

Out the door, they started for the fields again, heading for the same place where they'd found the bodies before.

"The police have trampled and trampled these fields when they searched," Daniel reminded Jeannette.

"I know. But we'll go even farther back," she said.

"Right. Long walk."

She grinned at him. "Good thing you have long legs."

"And," he added, "that a ghost might see us coming."

She lowered her head, smiling.

They continued to walk. The sun was up, and it was a beautiful day with a blue sky and tiny puffs of snow-white clouds. No rain was forecast, and luckily it didn't appear that it had rained in many days.

For at least thirty minutes, they walked over land where the grass and brush had been flattened by the many, many officers walking over the land and searching.

But the land here stretched forever, going from that which was owned, that which was for sale, that which had been forgotten—and that owned by the family vineyards.

"Just ahead, finally," Daniel noted.

Jeannette paused, reaching into her bag for the map of the fields she carried.

"Ahead—property that belongs to Delphine Matisse," she said.

"That's why the police stopped there."

"But she—and Jules—have said over and over again we're welcome to tear apart anything that they have," Jeannette reminded him.

"But do they mean it? Because, thanks to the faulty label on that bottle, no matter what we find, Delphine can say she's being set up. And maybe she is and maybe she isn't. But she has said that we can look anywhere."

"Oh, I wasn't planning on stopping!" Jeannette told him.

As she spoke, she frowned, seeing someone emerge from a stretch of recently harvested land.

"And we found him!" Jeannette said, turning to Daniel with a satisfied smile.

He nodded and wondered that she could be so unusually prescient, such an amazing thing. Her instincts were right on.

And they were combined with her "gift" for seeing and speaking with the dead.

"Have I told you that you are amazing?" he asked her.

"You have and thank you."

"Am I improving any from just okay?" he teased.

She turned to look at him. "You are the best partner I have ever had," she said lightly, "in each and every way."

They both fell silent. The spirit of Jake Clayton was nearly with them. He appeared to be upset.

"There's another one," he told them.

"A victim...recent?" Daniel asked.

Jake shook his head. "I've made a point of staying here but the fields... I can't be everywhere. This body... It just showed up in the fields, the grapes were just harvested... Someone would have seen a body before, but this... Come. I'll show you."

They followed him through one long, long field and then into a small circle of trees. And there, at the base of one of the tall trees, sat a skeleton.

Almost a skeleton. Enough sinew and flesh remained to allow the skeleton to sit up. The scene had most obviously been planned and set up with a certain delight.

The skull was all but bare, the eye sockets empty. Slim branches had been set here and there as support to keep the barely connected head and spinal cord from falling.

Remnants of denim remained on the body, suggesting that at time of death the person had been wearing jeans and a jean jacket.

The arms were curled downward. The hands were folded in what remained of a lap.

"This is...a taunt!" Jake announced angrily. "And I didn't see anything. I didn't see it when this body was brought here, when it was displayed like this! The killer has to know that this body will be found. It was placed here so it would be found."

"I agree with that," Daniel told him. "But it is so obvious Delphine Matisse would never display it on her own property in this manner."

"Unless..." Jeannette said.

"Unless," Daniel agreed, "it's part of the plan to make it appear like someone is trying hard to make it look like she's obviously guilty."

Daniel looked at their ghost. "Jake, thank you."

"You would have found it without me," Jake told him.

"After hours of searching," Jeannette said. "We're going to let our team know what is going on," she said, drawing out her phone.

"And an ME and a forensic crew will be out," Daniel warned Jake.

Jake grimaced. "I'll make myself invisible. Oh, wait, I am invisible to most people!"

Daniel grimaced in turn. It was difficult to find real humor when the grotesque skeleton seemed to be staring at them from its seat beneath the tree.

"Got them all," Jeannette said. "Gervais and Mason are on their way back. They hadn't quite reached Paris. They turned right around, and Gervais doesn't want anything touched until he gets out here."

"That will be a bit," Daniel said.

"Right. But he's going to tell his people to give him time. They'll head out here—but they won't touch anything until he's arrived," Jeannette said.

"We'll have a wee bit of time to ourselves," Daniel murmured. "Jake—"

"I never saw whoever came and went. I don't know which way they came in... Matisse property borders Deauville property about half a mile in that direction. And, of course, there are trails for work vehicles through the whole of the fields at various places," Jake told them.

"Carefully in three directions?" Jeannette suggested. "I'll head toward Deauville land," she added.

"What about Montague land?" Daniel asked.

Jake pointed while Jeannette drew out her map.

"There's a road. Across the road, those fields are Montague," Jake pointed out.

"So, we're on Matisse property," Daniel said. "But someone could have come through the fields from either Deauville or Montague property to set this up. Or Delphine arranged it, and we're supposed to be looking at the others for trying to pin everything on her."

"I'm off in my direction," Jeannette told them.

"Likewise," Jake agreed.

Daniel nodded and moved straight forward, examining the ground every step of the way.

Dirt.

Grass.

Tangled vines.

More dirt, grass and tangled vines.

But then he stopped suddenly, looking downward. A tiny sliver of something white was glistening in the sun. Something...uprooted when the field had been worked?

He bent down, knowing before he reached for a glove to pick it up that he'd found a human finger bone.

He stared at it, shaking his head, looking at the ground around him.

Somewhere, perhaps far beneath the earth here, there was another victim. Perhaps a victim who had been buried in the field years and years ago...

Buried so deeply that even working the earth wouldn't bring it up.

He hesitated and then stood. Gervais was on his way out to the fields. When he arrived, he'd take the appropriate action.

Maybe there was no corpse beneath the earth. Maybe the disarticulated finger had been cast about by time and weather, and the person to whom it had once belonged was literally scattered here and there and everywhere.

He called Jeannette first.

"Nothing," she murmured to him. "Anything? An answer?"

"No answer, I'm afraid. Another piece of the puzzle."

"What did you find?"

"A finger bone."

"Just—"

"Just one finger bone. When Gervais gets here, I'll show him. I'm going to stay where I am right now. I don't know if he's going to want to dig up this ground, or if..."

"We'll let him get here. I'm going to come to you. Oh, wait, Gervais is calling through on the main line. Switch over."

They both did and Gervais's voice came through to them.

"Almost there with Mason and Della. But while it's still a little early... Jeannette, will you try to reach your friend Jules the magician?"

"Of course. But what do you want me to tell him?"

Mason came on the line, then. "I want you and Daniel to get him to take you to his mother's house. The estate. Now. One of you keep her busy. The other look around," Mason said. "See if there is anything—anything at all—that would suggest she's the real killer or that she is being set up. It's one thing to offer the house and know we'll take her up on it—when she has time—maybe with Jules—to create a disappearing act on anything that might be on display."

"I will try to reach him. Of course, I can't guarantee he'll be willing to take the time to come here when I believe he does have a performance tonight," Jeannette said. "But..."

Mason laughed softly on the phone. "Jeannette! I know you, and I've seen you in action. You just need to make sure he knows how upset you are about his mother being dragged into all this and being made to look like a monster. Then, that will keep you in good standing if someone does catch you snooping around. You're just in love with the beauty of the place and obviously you want to prove that a nice, lovely woman like Delphine is innocent. Frankly, you can do much more there than Gervais or any French officer who would truly put her on guard."

"No problem, then," Jeannette said. "But there's something else."

"Besides an old skeleton grotesquely set up in front of a tree?" Mason asked.

"A finger bone," Daniel said.

He heard Gervais groan.

"A bone—just one bone?"

"Aye, Gervais. I believe a body has been buried very, very deeply, or that time and the elements have shifted it. But these fields have been worked. If there's a body here, it's down deep. I don't know what action you want to take—"

"A dig," Gervais said. "But I'll see to that. Mon dieu! How many bodies are there?"

"We probably don't want to know," Jeannette said softly. "No, families deserve to know... Victims deserve to be buried where they choose, or at least..."

"Accorded a decent resting place," Daniel finished for her.

"Exactly," Gervais said. "Nearly there. Jeannette, please—"

"I will call Jules immediately," she promised.

Daniel waited where he was as Jeannette stepped away. In a few minutes, Jake Clayton came back as well, shaking his head and frowning as he studied Daniel.

Daniel explained his discovery.

"How many...just how many!" Jake said unhappily. "Though, of course..."

"Of course?"

"Back in my day, the enemy might have been anywhere. People were shot in the streets. War is hell, let no man ever doubt that. And still..."

He studied the bone Daniel held.

"The skeleton has completely disarticulated but looking at the bone... I don't believe that it's been around over seventy-five years."

As they spoke, Jeannette returned to him. She, too, looked at the bone and shook her head.

"I spoke with Jules," she told him.

"And?"

"He has a show tonight, but he says he has the drive down pat. He can be in here in—" she paused, looking at her watch "—in about an hour and a half from now. He'll meet us at his mother's B&B and drive us out to the estate, the mansion. He says he called her, and we are seeking her help again, and she's happy to have us in for café au lait . So we'll head back toward the road—"

"Can't leave this area. I need Gervais to see where I discovered the bone."

"I could wait," Jake said dryly. "But then, if he's with your friends, they're going to need to explain how they know this was where you were."

Jeannette smiled. "Aha, you see. I've solved that problem." She produced a roll of French crime scene tape.

"Where did you steal that?" Daniel asked.

"It was the only thing I did find besides dirt and grass. Hey, I haven't even come across a grape yet!"

"This is good. Help me. Let's create a marker here. We'll tie it to the empty vines."

She helped him as Jake watched, then frowned. "Excuse me. I'm heading for the house," he told them.

"The house?" Daniel asked.

"If you two are going to be there investigating, you may need some warning at times."

"You can just come with us—" Jeannette began.

"I might do a bit of investigating myself first!" he told them. He didn't leave room for argument. As Daniel and Jeannette looked at one another, he knew they were both thinking the same thing.

They didn't need to worry about his insistence that he go ahead, go alone.

There was no way anyone was going to hurt him.

Jake moved on and Daniel looked unhappily at Jeannette.

"What?" she asked him.

"I was thinking about the book we were reading last night. On Elizabeth Báthory. The part about investigators coming in and finding bodies here, there and everywhere. We must discover what is going on—and where it's going on. Our modern-day killer—or killers—might have once used much better methods of disposal for their victims, but..."

"But with the way they're now taunting the investigation..."

"There might be bodies hidden just as they were hidden hundreds of years ago. And there's only one way to find out."