The Lady Has a Past (Burning Cove #5) - Amanda Quick Page 0,88

at the law firm of Enright and Enright. When the owner and his son both died, I moved to Burning Cove. I truly believed that my past was three thousand miles behind me.”

“But deep down you were always afraid that your husband might someday show up,” Lyra said.

Raina sighed. “The news that he had died in a fall at his home in Boston appeared in the papers, of course. The family was prominent socially. But I didn’t dare to believe it. I knew him too well, you see. I knew what an accomplished liar he was.”

“Irene Ward told me that the rumor in Boston was that the family had him committed to a private asylum for the insane,” Luther said. “That’s where he died. Suicide.”

“Eventually I heard that rumor, too,” Raina said. “It made more sense than the fall down the stairs, but I’ve always been afraid to believe he’s really dead.”

“So you kept your new identity and pursued your new career,” Lyra said. “And you wound up in Burning Cove.”

“Yes. But the other morning I got a phone call.”

Luther went dangerously still. “From Whitlock?”

“No. The call was from the Ghost Lady, or at least I believed it was her. It was just a low whisper on the phone. I could tell it was a woman, but that was all.”

“You didn’t question the identity of the caller?” Simon asked.

Raina hesitated and then shook her head. “I was too terrified by her message to ask questions.”

“Of course,” Lyra said. “You had no reason to suspect that someone would pose as the Ghost Lady.”

“There are rules in the investigation business,” Luther said. “One of them is question everything.”

Lyra glared at him. “That advice is not particularly helpful at this moment.”

Luther blinked.

Raina almost smiled. She saw a flash of amusement in Simon’s eyes and knew that they were both thinking the same thing: It required considerable nerve to take a stern tone with Luther Pell.

“You’re right,” Luther said. “I’ll save it for later.”

“That won’t be necessary, believe me,” Raina said. She cleared her throat, determined to finish her story. “I was surprised the Ghost Lady had managed to track me down in Burning Cove, but I wasn’t suspicious. After all, it’s not as if I changed my name when I moved to California. So, no, I never questioned the identity of the caller.”

“What did she say in the phone call that sent you to Labyrinth Springs?” Simon asked.

“She told me that Malcolm Whitlock was alive, that he had escaped the asylum and was looking for me. She said he had vowed to murder everyone around me and make me realize that my new friends were dying because of me. In the end he would kill me, too. She said she knew where to find him. She would send someone to meet me in Labyrinth Springs, one of her messengers. The woman would have the information I needed to locate Whitlock before he started murdering my friends.”

“And after you got here you were booked into room two twenty-one, given a schedule of treatments for the afternoon, and instructed to request Janet Frampton for your facial,” Lyra said.

“Yes. When Frampton gave me the facial treatment, she said I would receive a visit from the Ghost Lady’s messenger in my room that night. I was told to order room service. I didn’t eat much, but later a tea tray was delivered. I did drink the tea. Not long afterward I began feeling dizzy and disoriented. Then I started hallucinating. I didn’t know what was happening. I was terrified, but I couldn’t even call for help. I collapsed on the bed.”

“You were poisoned,” Lyra said.

“I was never completely unconscious. When those two men came for me I tried to fight, but in the end I was overwhelmed.”

“Not so overwhelmed that you couldn’t leave us a clue when you were taken to the cabin,” Simon said. “That reminds me.” He reached down, opened his briefcase, and took out a notebook. “I believe this belongs to you. We got the message that Guppy was involved.”

Raina took the notebook. “I didn’t know what was going on but I was certain she had to be part of it. Frampton wasn’t in a position to run a sophisticated kidnapping operation out of a famous spa.”

“Guppy and Billingsley were obviously partners,” Luther said. “They were definitely running a kidnapping ring, but it was the usual ransom-and-extortion scheme until you. Taking you broke the pattern. We still don’t know why. The people who could