The Lady Has a Past (Burning Cove #5) - Amanda Quick Page 0,98

was his son. They were also very good at pretending to be normal, upright citizens. It took me several months to realize I was working for a couple of cold-blooded killers. What made you conclude I was the one who took the file?”

“You were not at the top of my list of suspects, not at first,” Marcella said. “You were, after all, just the secretary. It didn’t occur to me that you would have had the guts to poison Enright and steal the file. But after I checked out all the other possibilities I finally realized you were the only one who could have taken it. Then I had to find you. That wasn’t easy. You left no forwarding address, Miss Kirk. You just disappeared.”

“Apparently I didn’t do a very good job of vanishing,” Raina said.

“Don’t blame yourself. My skills may be a bit rusty, but I am a professional.”

“And the Ghost Lady?” Raina asked. “How did you find that connection?”

“I owe Graham Enright for that bit of information. He researched you very thoroughly before he hired you. He discussed the matter with me. He always made certain his secretaries had no immediate family, no one who would notice if they suddenly went missing.”

“Because eventually Enright’s secretaries always went missing,” Raina said.

Marcella shrugged. “Eventually they learned too much about Enright’s business affairs. Where is the file? Hand it over and I won’t have any reason to kill you and Miss Brazier.”

Lyra looked at Raina. “We both know she’s lying. She plans to kill us once she has the file.”

“Now, why would I do that?” Marcella said. “I told you, I’m a professional. I prefer not to leave dead bodies around. They attract far too much attention.”

“One more question,” Raina said. “How did you persuade your old partner to help you?”

“Guppy understood that if that file ever fell into the wrong hands she would be in as much danger as me,” Marcella said.

“Too bad she got involved with Billingsley,” Raina said.

“The man was unstable. I warned her she would regret using him to finance her spa and carry out the extortion schemes. She insisted she could manage him.”

“Your husband was also mentally unstable,” Raina pointed out. “What made you think you could manipulate Charles Adlington?”

“My plan would have worked just fine if you had shown up that day,” Marcella said. “Instead Lyra was the one who came through that gate and killed Charles.”

“You know how it is,” Lyra said. “My first real case. I wanted to show initiative.”

Raina cleared her throat. “About your file, Marcella.”

That got Marcella’s attention. “Where is it?”

“It’s in this briefcase. That’s what you really want. You can have it if you let Lyra go.”

“Show me the file,” Marcella said.

“Let Lyra go.”

“Not until I have the file.”

“If you insist,” Raina said.

She looked as if she was about to set the briefcase on the floor. But she stopped when a fist-sized metal ball flew across the room and landed on the floor.

Marcella stared at the ball. Shock flashed across her face. It was followed by panic. “Grenade.”

She turned to run but stopped short when she saw the figure moving into the room from the conservatory.

“Put the gun down,” Simon ordered.

“No.” Marcella raised the pistol.

Lyra grabbed the silver corkscrew off the shelf of the liquor cabinet. She swung around and stabbed with all of her strength. She did not have time to aim. The tip of the steel screw speared through the fabric of Marcella’s blouse and into the soft flesh of her upper shoulder.

Marcella yelled and staggered back a couple of frantic steps. Lyra kept her grip on the handle of the corkscrew, pulling it free of Marcella’s shoulder. Blood flowed, saturating the blouse.

“The grenade,” Marcella gasped, wild-eyed. “The grenade.”

“Isn’t live,” Simon said. He snapped the gun out of Marcella’s slackened grasp. “I find it useful as a distraction from time to time. It’s amazing how people panic when a grenade lands in front of them.”

Luther emerged from the foyer. “Especially those who were in the war.”

Irene and Oliver Ward followed Luther into the living room. Irene yanked a notebook and a pencil out of her handbag.

Marcella looked at Lyra. “You stupid amateur. You ruined everything.”

“Beginner’s luck,” Lyra said.

Chapter 48

Raina put the phone down and looked at Lyra. “That was the doctor. He said that, barring serious infection, Marcella Adlington will be fine.”

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that,” Lyra said.

They were in the office of Kirk Investigations, just the two of them. Simon was