A Masked Murderer: A Violet Carlyle Historical Mystery Read online

  “I don’t know, Vi,” Jack said. He slumped into the chair across from her and picked up the fish with an aggrieved air. He seemed to almost hold his irritation against the fish as he bit into it, and Vi had to laugh at the look on his face when he glanced at her. It was a rather excellent piece of fish and the chips were thick and crisp. Even with all that had happened, it was good to be home.

  Chapter 4

  “Vi?” Victor asked the next morning as she walked her dogs in the park.

  “Victor?” Vi said and then winked at him. He had the air of a man who objected to her walking alone in the park as though it weren’t across from her house, filled with people she knew, in the middle of the morning, and with Hargreaves—Vi was sure—hovering at the window.

  Her brother frowned at her tone and then shook his head. He should have known better, and she could almost hear him scold himself as if he were doing it in his mind rather than aloud.

  “Something Algie said last night. Swung over this morning before he’d had his morning cuppa and asked him about it.”

  “And?” Vi asked.

  “His house was searched too.”

  “But yours wasn’t.”

  “Mine wasn’t,” Victor agreed. “But it wasn’t empty either. One of the maids didn’t want to leave her beau for the seaside, and our butler isn’t one for gallivanting about the countryside.”

  Vi was grateful they’d swapped butlers when the good, but frustrating man, was clearly uncomfortable with Vi and her modern ways. She gave her brother an expectant expression. “So there was no chance to search your home?”

  “Nothing,” Victor agreed. “I believe he spent every day reading. He told me that his time off had been most educational.”

  “Lovely,” Vi said. “Do you think it has something to do with Aunt Agatha?”

  Victor shook his head. “Algie said John Davies was in town. I thought I’d visit him and see if he’s had anything odd happen.”

  “Do you think we should visit Meredith?” The cousin who had killed their aunt was in a home for the insane and Vi couldn’t think of anything she wanted less than to see her again. Except—having someone going through one’s knickers and sending the fellows onto high protective alert was enough to make the most horrible of sacrifices.

  “No,” Victor said immediately. “She can’t have done anything.”

  “Maybe it’s another lost treasure. Something Aunt Agatha or her husband acquired unknowingly,” Vi suggested with a laugh. The last treasure hunt, however, hadn't been so bright or happy. It had been a delving into families that were a constant affliction on each other.

  “I should hope not,” Victor said with the same disgust Vi was remembering.

  “So, did Algie have anything taken?”

  Victor shook his head. “The costume party is tonight. We’ll talk to him more about it then. I’ll let you know if I find out anything.”

  Violet nodded and sighed. “Lady Eleanor has left a note. They’re in London and she’d like to have dinner in November.”

  “Weren’t we planning to go to the country soon?” Victor joked.

  They eyed each other and shuddered. It was better now, Violet thought, than it had been back when they’d been dependent on their father and had to toe the line with their stepmother. The power had certainly adjusted since those days, but Vi wasn’t sure she was in the mood for her stepmother.

  Surely, they could just deal until Christmas, then have an awkward and unhappy dinner and later meet her father at some restaurant without his wife? Vi knew that was a fairy dream, so she kissed her brother’s cheek and took his arm, turning the conversation to their newest book and what she’d written the night before.

  “Our house was searched too,” Lila said as she got into the black cab. “Or at least, Denny thinks it was. We didn’t have anything put away, so to speak, so who knows? It was a mess before; it is a mess now. Denny swears that he has an order to the mess that works and it was mussed.”

  “Mussed?” Vi laughed. They had swiftly reached the little shop where they’d ordered their costumes and were hurrying inside through the drizzle. “I call foul.”

  “It is odd,” Rita said.

  They all looked at her and she shook her head. “Nothing seems to have been disturbed at our house.”

  “Assuming that Denny’s story of a mussed desk is accurate, why would anyone try my house, Algie’s, and yours and Denny’s?” Vi asked. “It makes no sense.”

  “What do you have in common?” Rita asked.

  They all stared at each other and then Vi said, “Well, Algie and I are related of course, but he’s not part of our usual party.”

  Lila sighed. “Denny, Algie, and Victor went to the same school. But, Vi and I didn’t.”

  “We were at the sister school,” Vi pointed out.

  Rita added, “And, searching your house is rather like searching Victor’s. You two are in each other’s pocket so much, half of his business papers must be with you.”

  “Especially since she and Beatrice manage all of our investments,” Lila added.

  “There’s that,” Rita said. “That makes more sense than anything else. Some school thing means nothing, but—”

  “But I don’t touch Algie’s money. It’s all his father-in-law’s. He and Clara just get a massive allowance. He said it’s so much that as ‘dumb as he is’ he can’t spend it all.”

  Lila grunted and muttered something about monetary injustices.

  Violet rubbed her brow and then found herself spinning her wedding ring around on her finger as they waited to be put into their dresses. Vi was soon standing in front of trifold mirrors in a devil costume while Rita stole the show as Aphrodite. Lila had chosen a cat costume and Kate had refused.

  “Don’t you want to go?” Lila asked. “It’s not too late.”

  Kate scrunched her nose and let her hand land on the baby growing in her womb. “I want nothing more than my feet up, cocoa, and a good book. Perhaps something on birds.”

  Lila groaned, caught the sad look on Rita’s face, and then said, “Well, I suppose the rest of us will dance twice as much for you.”

  Violet stepped in with a question about her and Victor’s latest plot issue, and they turned the conversation.

  “Where are we going?” Jack asked, as he carefully shaved his jaw. He glanced at Vi and grinned before carefully tilting his head to run his straight razor up his neck. The previous evening had been the costume party, and now they were onto the second and final of their All Hallow’s celebrations.

  “I don’t know,” Vi said. “Denny had the details, said we needed masks and there would be chocolate and champagne. Have you learned anything else about our interlopers?”

  Jack’s furious answer wasn’t so much a word as a growl, and Vi laughed at him. She smoothed her black stockings up her legs and then rose to straighten her dress. It was dark green and dark purple, with lighter teal accents. She examined herself and then added her favorite spider ring for the occasion. It wasn’t a full costume, which left her a little frustrated, but they had attended the costume party the night previous. She glanced into her closet and wished to wear the devil costume again. She had liked how the wings glittered with black sequins.

  Instead, she added her black pearls to her dress and put on her red lipstick. She slid her deep purple gloves up her arms and then added her black mask that had been made to match her dress. She stood and turned to face Jack. He had put a simple black domino mask on and then reached out to tug a lock of hair.

  “Really? You don’t know?”

  “Denny saw we got invitations and declared we were going. They’re going to have a chocolate buffet and a mystery, and he said it would be just the thing to complete All Hallow’s as we should.”

  “Odd,” Jack muttered, but his tone said he didn’t care. It was probably one of the friends from their wider group. Given school years, university, palling around the country together, and connections through family, they had a r
ather wide range of acquaintances. “I hope it isn’t the woman with the hyena laugh.”

  “Denny knows better,” Vi suggested, but she thought he could drag them into anything for the right chocolate arrangement. “The black cab will be here soon.”

  Jack kissed the top of her head before he said, “It won’t be me who makes us late, darling Vi.”

  The look she shot him made him laugh, and she beat him down to the front hall out of sheer spite. Hargreaves was helping her slip into her fur coat when Jack appeared, casually smoking one of the Cuban cigars—as if to say he had been so fast he could smoke—while Vi shot him a look that declared the cigar had barely been lit and she was in the hall before him, which was all that mattered.

  His eyes glinted with humor, but Violet ignored his impervious face to check her lipstick and then lead the way down the stairs. She handed the invitation to the cabbie and tucked herself into Jack’s side.

  “I might come home with chocolate fingers and a chocolate mustache.”

  “I think I can handle that,” Jack told her.

  They both paused when the auto stopped.

  “Is this the right place?” Vi asked.

  “It’s what’s on the invite, ma’am,” the cabbie replied.

  She and Jack stared and then Jack jerked his head. There, walking up the street from another cab, was her father with her stepmother on his arm. He, like Jack, wore a simple black domino. Lady Eleanor, to Violet’s disgust, wore a mask that matched her dress. They were both dressed in shades of green and purple and Vi muttered, “Quick! Let’s go before they see us.”

  The door to her side of the auto opened and Denny leaned in, his jester mask ending just below his nose. He’d blackened his lips, so that the mask still felt like a costume despite the request to come masked. The costume effect was intensified with Denny’s suit. It was too bright of a blue and the mustard yellow shirt made him seem a clown, especially given the mask and lips.

  Denny preened under Vi’s examination and then told her flatly, “There’s chocolate which I intend to hoard. I might even tuck some for later into my pockets. Also, your stepmother has seen you.”

  “They haven’t!” Vi snapped back.

  “They have. Your stepmother elbowed your father and probably said something nasty,” Lila drawled. Of that couple, she was the one in a domino, but hers was a pretty blue that made her eyes seem even bluer—especially with the blue shadow on her lids and the lashes thickened with mascara. “I care little if we just leave. We don’t have to go to your family dinners, so it won’t affect us if you offend your father and his wife.”

  Vi cursed to Denny’s crow of delight, and she let him hand her out of the auto.

  “How is it that Father is here? We don’t travel in the same circles.”

  “Maybe one of his old friends invited us,” Denny said.

  “What does the invite say?” Jack demanded.

  “Nothing,” Denny countered. “Bit of a mystery really.”

  “What do you mean?” Jack took the invitation from the cabbie and read, “You’re invited to a spooky Halloween dinner among friends with a chocolate buffet, cocktails, and a mystery to solve.”

  “Sounds fun,” Denny said.

  “It sounds aimed,” Ham said from behind them. “I was just looking it over when I didn’t recognize the house.”

  “Aimed?” Denny demanded. “What does that mean?”

  “At you,” Jack agreed. He took Denny’s invitation and glanced it over. “Look, yours even has a postmark of a few days earlier than ours. You’d have already received your invitation and wanted to go by the time that we received ours.”

  “That seems unlikely,” Denny replied and Vi had to agree. Why would anyone invite them like this? It was probably someone who knew her father, and the rest of them had been mad enough to let Denny decide where they were going. Except, who sent out invitations without a name?

  Violet met her father’s gaze and then heard Ham say, “Jack—”

  There was an unspoken message and Vi turned her gaze to find what Ham was warning Jack about. Before she found the object of Ham’s warning, Denny crowed. “This night keeps getting better and better.”

  Violet winced at the mischievous joy in Denny’s tone before she found the object of everyone’s attention: Miss Emily Allen. Her mask only made her somehow more identifiable. It was lace and thin with every feature accentuated. She somehow seemed more herself than she had previously.

  Jack’s one-time betrothed stood scowling at them on the arm of a rather tall and distinguished man. His hair was free and flowing in the wind, artfully messy despite the current style of slicked back hair. Her partner's domino mask matched every man there but Denny, and did nothing to hide his face effectively. If anything, it just accented his cold blue eyes. Vi hadn’t realized how much effect a well-chosen mask could have on your eyes. But perhaps it was more that the mask hid all the other features, so one’s eyes were a lodestone for those looking in your direction.

  Vi met Miss Allen’s gaze and one the two of them scowled. Miss Allen might not have recognized Vi, but Jack was unmistakable with his massive shoulders and square jaw, especially given they both loved him. Or at least Vi did. Perhaps Emily had moved beyond that.

  “And thus it begins—” Denny intoned gleefully.

  Chapter 5

  “I suppose we must go in at this point,” Violet muttered. “Where is Victor when I need to throw him at Lady Eleanor to blunt the attention?”

  Her gaze was drawn by the house, which was oversized to the point of being something that a duke or marquess would have owned. Only, this oversized monstrosity of a mansion was tucked away in a rather obscure little neighborhood with smaller houses all around. It felt almost like a joke upon the neighborhood, making the otherwise reasonable houses seem like leprechaun homes. Even their cabbie had questioned them a few times before he’d realized where they were headed.

  There were lights in all of the windows of the big, dark house. The images through the panes wavered as though the glass was very, very old. The house was set quite a bit back from the street and the neighborhood seemed to have somehow been missed by whoever decided where street lamps should be placed.

  “With any luck we won’t be seated near your father and his wife.” Jack’s gaze kept moving to Emily Allen, and Vi had to wonder if she should be jealous. Except that she knew, of course, that she had no reason to be jealous. Why was he so fixated on her?

  “Since when do I have that luck?” Vi asked, even though her attention was on him and where his attention lay. No, it wasn’t Miss Allen that held him. It was the man with her. Now, Vi wondered, why was he so riveted on the fellow? Did Jack know him? Was he jealous? She doubted it. It wasn’t like Miss Allen hadn’t cheated on Jack when they were engaged. Now, years later, he must know she’d had more lovers. Besides, Violet was sure of his love for her and had no reason to be jealous.

  “Who is that man?” Vi asked in a low voice so only Jack could hear her. It was a reasonable question given the mask, but somehow he seemed familiar even with the mask.

  He glanced down, his sharp gaze moving over her face. His eyes glinted mildly with a smile that only reflected in that one small way. “I am uncertain. He seems familiar.”

  “What is happening?” Vi muttered. “Who could possibly have invited my father and—”

  “Vi, my favorite devil,” Algie told her cheerily. “I didn’t know you knew Pierce Brooks.”

  Algie’s mask was gold, ivory, and red and had a nose that Pinocchio would have gasped to see. His suit, like Denny’s, was no normal evening suit. It was gold as well, and had been embroidered along the seams of his pants with red feathers that matched his mask. With his ivory shirt, red vest and tie, he was as flamboyant as a bird of paradise.

  “You look ridiculous,” she told Algie with a pat on the cheek. “I don’t know Pierce Brooks.” She turned her smile to his wife only to find her Uncle Kingsley Allyn. “Oh! Hello, Uncle.”
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  “Your excitement,” he said dryly, “warms my heart.” Then he laughed at her and leaned down and kissed the air near her face. “Jack, old boy, good to see you.”

  Violet tensed. She wasn’t a huge fan of her cousin’s father, and she had avoided him as best she could, so she ignored his retribution and glanced around once again.

  “Pierce Brooks?” Jack asked. “Who is that?”

  “Friend from Father’s old days. Father asked me to come with him, and when I heard there were cocktails and chocolate—and my lovely wife had decided to abandon me for some lady’s function—I decided, why not?” Algie laughed and then hugged Denny. “My friend, my friend.”

  Denny chuckled and the two of them burst into laughter for no reason. Or, maybe their reasons were their masks and suits.

  “They’re men of the same nature,” Lila mused. “I might need to look up Clara and see how she manages being married to a child.”

  It wasn’t a bad plan, Vi thought. None of them had even had a drink, yet Denny and Algie seemed halfway zozzled.

  Vi shook her head and turned away only to see Ham frowning and looking at the gathering of the masked men and women. There seemed to be some delay at the door, so they were queuing up outside the house. Vi pulled her coat closer around her body and mused over the delay while she and Jack made their way to her parents.

  “Violet dear,” Lady Eleanor said from the top of the steps just as the door to the house was opened. Vi smiled a lie at her and grabbed more firmly at Jack’s arm. She would have told herself to contain her reactions, but she wasn’t able to lecture herself with an audience that included so many people that had come into her life time and again and that would have been glad to firmly limit their contact.

  “I never expected All Hallows to be quite such a nightmare,” Vi said, again so low that only Jack could hear.

  “Come now,” Jack muttered, “at least this is happening on All Hallows and it fits the date, and you got to have your costume party.”