CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

I chafe the entire weekend with this new information in my hand. I want desperately to find answers now, but with nine young children under my care, I simply don't have time. In my previous positions, I have dealt with one really young child, the eight-year-old Samuel Ashford. However, he is a relatively calm child, and I have his older brother and sister to help me.

The children on the Greenwood estate are not calm, and the oldest among them are both eight, so, unfortunately, I am forced to do my actual job Friday, Saturday and Sunday and leave the sleuthing for the week.

I don't mind the job, of course. The children are sweet, and I enjoy playing with them and caring for them. It's just hard to be patient when I have such a solid lead.

The positive side of this is that I have time to think about how I can approach this mystery. I can't very well ask the elder Greenwoods directly. I'd be making the same mistake Lila did. I can't risk harming the trust I have with Annabelle now, so I can't press her for more information. She might not even have any for me. It's perfectly reasonable to assume that the Greenwoods didn't want to involve their seventeen-year-old daughter in the murder of her governess, so she may have given me all the information she has.

I don't think approaching Christopher would be wise either. He didn't seem happy with my interest in his mother's secret geranium garden. I can't imagine he'd be happy with me prying into the circumstances of Lila's departure. Violet is not an option for obvious reasons. Nathaniel knows something, I am sure, but he is far too afraid of the Greenwoods to help me.

The answer lies in the garden. I am sure of it. I have to visit that garden and find the secrets it holds.

I'll have to visit sometime when the family is all out of the house, though. That means waiting until Monday after breakfast. They all work, and it seems the servants never visit the gardens. The groundskeepers do, of course, but they seem to avoid the area near the geranium garden as much as they can, so I should be able to get in and out without being seen.

I'll have to be careful with the plants. I can't leave the garden torn up, or suspicion will undoubtedly fall on me. If I need to dig, I'll need to dig the plants carefully without slicing through their roots and replace them one at a time.

That will be painstaking work. I may even have to split it up over several days if I don't find anything right away.

But it will pay off in the end. I am sure of it. Everything leads back to Elizabeth and James, and Elizabeth leads back to the garden. I am quite sure that Lila never left this estate, and if she or any proof of her fate is here, it must be there.

Monday finally arrives. I experience a moment of frustration when it occurs to me that there are no gardening tools in the house, but I improvise by taking an aluminum stirring spoon from the kitchen. It won't be as helpful as an actual trowel, but it'll do well enough.

I hide it inside of my sleeve as I make my way to the garden. My heart pounds in my chest, and each noise I hear on my journey causes me to jump. What I'm about to do might put me in mortal danger.

But I have to do it. The voice of Lila's blood cries to me from the ground. I carry enough guilt. If I add to it the guilt of leaving Lila's murder unsolved, I will be driven mad.

Don't you mean mad again?

I shake that thought away and approach the wrought iron gate. I lift my hand to the handle and pause for only a moment before turning it and walking inside.

I take three steps when Elizabeth's voice speaks clearly, "If you don't tell me where it is, we'll be ruined. Please. I know you can help me. For my children's sake, if not for mine, please tell me where I can find it. Tell me before he finds it."

Why is she here? Why isn't she at work? I was supposed to be alone. Damn it, what do I do?

I start to back away, careful to make as little noise as—

A branch snaps under my foot, and Elizabeth stops abruptly. The blood drains from my face, and I wonder if I should flee or act like I haven't heard anything.

Too late. Elizabeth rounds the corner, and when she sees me, she sighs and presses her hands to her face. Sweat beads on my forehead, and my mind scrambles desperately for something to say that can rescue me from this predicament.

Finally, she looks at me and says, "You can't tell anyone. Please. You can't tell anyone you heard me. They'll think I'm crazy."

I swallow. "I don't think you're crazy."

She nods and brings a hand to her mouth. She bites her nails absently, and her eyes dart back and forth. She is absolutely crazy.

"I know it's strange," she says. She laughs, a shrill, brittle sound like a wineglass shattering. "Maybe I am crazy."

"I'm so sorry to intrude," I say. "I'll leave you alone."

"I'm talking to the Secret Keeper."

She blurts that out so suddenly that I'm stunned into silence. She sees my face and gives another shrill laugh. "You do think I'm crazy."

"No, I don't. I don't think you're crazy at all."

Elizabeth doesn't seem to hear me.

"You can't tell anyone!" Elizabeth cries.

I stiffen and say, "No, ma'am. Of course not, ma'am."

"I mean it. Please don't tell anyone I told you this!"

Her eyes are wild and crazy, and my heart begins to pound again. "I won't. I swear it."

She takes a deep breath and releases it in a heavy sigh. "Thank you." She smiles at me, then says something that is somehow more chilling than anything I've witnessed so far. "You're a good woman, Mary. Please be safe."

"Safe? What do you mean?"

Elizabeth's lip trembles. Then she smiles at me much the same way she did when I asked about Violet over dinner. "Nothing. Never mind." She releases another brittle laugh. "I'm just flustered that you caught my little secret. Just…" she flips her hand. "Forget about it. And don't worry about your pay, James' company handles that. Our money troubles don't affect… anything really. It's just my own little problem. I'll see you later, Mary."

She stares at me, and I take the hint. "Right. I'll see you later, ma'am."

It's all I can do not to break into a run when I leave the garden.

***

An hour later, the family leaves to enjoy a picnic lunch in the park by the river. They take Violet with them, so I am alone in the house save for the servants. They're all working, and the housekeeping falls to me today, so I can count on being left to my own devices for the next several hours.

I head immediately to the Greenwood's bedroom. In past houses, the room of the master and mistress of the house held clues that ultimately led to the solving of the mysteries those families concealed. Perhaps I'll come across something equally revealing here.

Elizabeth's mental state seems tenuous, but I believe there's a reason for it. I don't think she's delusional; I think she's desperate. I hope to discover why.

I start in the closet, but I find nothing there besides clothing and shoes. I look next in the drawers of the two dressers in the room, then in the cabinets of the desk. I find nothing in the dressers, and at first, I find nothing in the desk.

But the bottom right cabinet is locked. Locks are typically used to protect valuable things, but they're often used to hide things that the owners wish to remain hidden. Things such as secrets.

I head to the bathroom and collect the tools I need, a bobby pin and a nail file. I return to the desk and kneel in front of the cabinet. I've only done this once before, but that was with a door lock, not a cabinet lock. I imagine this will be easier to defeat.

And thankfully, I am correct. The lock contains only three tumblers, and after a few minutes of work, I am able to defeat it and slide open the cabinet.

It contains several unlabeled manila folders. With no label to guide my search, I start with the most recent documents and scan them, looking for anything that might shed light on Elizabeth's fear and what, if anything, it has to do with Lila's disappearance.

I don't find anything related to Lila at first, but what I find is telling.

The Greenwoods are not rich. In fact, they are in debt. It's not crippling yet, but the trends these files reveal are not encouraging. I know little of finance, so I don't know how long it will be before these trends become irreversible, but I can't imagine it will be long.

Debt is a common motive for murder, but why Lila's murder? And what is Elizabeth looking for that she is so desperate to find? Does she believe that there's something here that can rescue her family from debt?

I find the answer to that question in the very last document in the cabinet. It's an appraisal from an auction house that specializes in the sale of antiques. It concerns a surrender document rumored to be on the Greenwood Estate.

Since the document is only rumored to be here and the auction house didn't have the genuine article to review, the value of the document ranges widely. At its lowest valuation, it's worth sixty thousand dollars. At its highest, it's worth well over two hundred thousand.

I recall the note I find from Lila that implicates Christopher. He may know, too. Could it be that he knows about this document? Perhaps not. At the moment, I don't find that likely.

But Elizabeth?

She knows. And she's been visiting her garden to ask the ghost of Lila Benson where it is.

I put the document back and close the cabinet. There is still much more I must learn before I can become certain of exactly what happened to Lila, but I am certain of one thing now.

She was murdered, and her murder was almost certainly committed by someone who knows of this document.