Walking Into Murder by Joan Dahr Lambert Read Free Book Online Page A

her mind. Perversely, Angelina drifted in instead. Laura saw her again, looking down at the body in the dim light of the green room and then touching the arm, feeling how cold it was….
    Laura’s eyes opened wide. Nigel had touched the arm, too, so had the Baroness. Both had seemed sure Lottie was dead. Only Lottie wasn’t dead; she was alive, and so was Cat, and that meant…That meant the woman they had all seen lying on the bed as Lottie might not have been Lottie at all, but someone else, first with her face covered with a Cat mask, then with a Lottie mask, but it had been the same arm, an arm without a pulse…Thomas had made sure…
    Laura jumped out of bed, grabbed her bathrobe and slipped quietly out of the room. She had to look at least.
    The door of the green room was closed. She eased it open and peered inside. It was very dark. Probably the curtains had been drawn. Wishing she had thought to pack a flashlight, she crept cautiously across the room toward the windows. If she could open the curtains, she might be able to see a little.
    Reaching out, she ran her hand along the heavy draperies, feeling for the opening so she could pull them apart. Just as her fingers found the crack, her wrist was grabbed in a steely clasp and twisted behind her. Another hand slapped across her mouth.

CHAPTER FIVE

    Laura’s stomach lurched with fear. “Let me go,” she sputtered, twisting away from the hand at her mouth. It disappeared, but the grip on her arm didn’t relax. She was dragged along while her captor felt for a light switch, and then she could see.
    “You!” Thomas said in disgust, releasing her arm with a jerk. “I thought I might have a murderer in my grasp.”
    Laura rubbed her aching wrist. “How do you know I’m not? You seem better qualified for the position of murderer than I am anyway,” she added tartly.
    Thomas didn’t answer. He had already turned on another light beside the bed and was leaning over the pillow, concentrating intensely.
    “Don’t you ever answer a question?” Laura asked in frustration.
    Taking advantage of his preoccupation, she went to the other side of the bed to see if the body was still there. It wasn’t. Then what was Thomas examining with such fascination? All she could see was a pale object, mostly hidden by the bedclothes.
    Thomas pulled the rest of the object out, using a handkerchief, and for the first time Laura saw what it was - the mask of Lottie. A tremor of fear ran through her. It looked pathetic now, like a discarded theatrical prop - which was exactly what it was, except that it was so incredibly life-like.
    “Remarkable young chap,” Thomas murmured thoughtfully. “So good he fooled himself.”
    “You mean he didn’t realize he was looking at his own mask, not at Lottie’s face,” Laura answered. She swallowed hard, struggling to digest the unwelcome fact that she had been right. There had been a body, a body with a Cat mask and then Lottie’s mask on its face, or else why was the second mask still there? Someone had taken the body away, only the person had forgotten the mask. How horrible to do that, as if the woman’s body was no more than a bundle of flesh, to be disposed of like…
    Thomas’s voice cut into these morbid ruminations. “Exactly. But on the other hand, Nigel doesn’t see very well at close range without his glasses, and as Sherlock Holmes, he couldn’t wear them.”
    “He had a monocle,” Laura pointed out. “And how do you know that about Nigel?”
    Thomas gave her a quick, admiring glance. “You’re a good observer. However, as you may also have noticed, Nigel didn’t use the monocle to look at Lottie. He put it in his pocket. And I know he needs glasses because he told me when he showed me his studio. He does very professional work, as you can see.”
    Laura nodded, intrigued despite the feeling of revulsion that came over her every time she looked at the pale object on the pillowcase.
    “I wonder how he makes the