Two down - By Nero Blanc Page 0,85

suspicious again. “But how does this cabin fit in? Unless they’re hiding under the floorboards, I haven’t seen anyone other than me using the place.”

“That’s what I’m trying to discover. I was informed that an ‘old lady’ had paid to have crossword puzzles sent to me—each of which contained clues concerning the women’s disappearance.”

“Uh-huh,” the woman said. “Let me get this straight . . . You thought you’d find this old broad sitting here, and she’d up and spill the beans? Is that it?” The icy eyes narrowed and the smile froze. “I gotta tell ya, sister. That is one sorry tale.”

“It’s the truth,” Belle said.

“Yeah, and I’m Dolly Parton . . . You got a husband?”

Belle was so surprised by the question that she blurted out a hurried: “I did. Yes. A former husband.”

“What happened? He catch you sleeping around—or vice versa?”

“Neither, in actual fact.”

The woman snorted. “Right.”

While Belle responded with an increasingly prim, “We didn’t have that kind of relationship.”

“The sex kind, you mean, honey?” She laughed heartily. “You know, Snow White, men will deceive you every chance they get.”

Again, Belle had an eerie sense of déjà vu. “Men were deceivers ever”—the quotation that had appeared in the first crossword puzzle. Was it possible this woman was indeed Ricky’s “old lady”?

“There’s a line from a play that has a similar message,” Belle said.

“Oh yeah?” The woman seemed disinterested, although Belle sensed the attitude was a sham.

“The verse begins: ‘Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more / Men were deceivers ever / One foot in sea, and one on shore . . .’ ”

The woman’s head jerked up, and her eyes darkened with an expression Belle couldn’t read. “How do you know this stuff?”

“I told you. I construct crossword puzzles.”

“That doesn’t mean you can quote all of Shakespeare.”

“How did you know it was Shakespeare?” was Belle’s response.

“Lucky guess . . . I mean, who else spouts stuff like that?” The woman stared at Belle. After a moment her voice continued with a level: “We had to read that junk in high school.”

“You must have a photographic memory.”

“I was good with poems . . . You memorize something when you’re young . . .”

Belle returned the woman’s inscrutable gaze. “You wouldn’t happen to remember the line that begins ‘Bait the hook well: this fish will bite . . . ’?”

The woman opened her mouth to speak, then seemed to reconsider the response. “Can’t say I do.”

“Both quotations are found in Much Ado About Nothing, and they appeared in a crossword I received in connection with this case—also sent from this mysterious ‘old lady.’ ”

The woman turned her back. “Well, doll, you’d better find her, then.”

“I’m guessing I already have,” Belle answered easily. “I’m thinking that a sixteen-year-old might consider a woman past forty to be ‘old.’ ”

The woman spun around, her face contorted in rage. “Do I look like an old hag to you? Do I look as if I’m over the hill?”

“What can you tell me about Jamaica and Genie’s disappearance?”

“Not a damned thing!”

“Then why did you send those crosswords?”

A rustling in the tangled woods behind the cabins made them both turn toward the sound.

“Damn you!” the woman spat out. “You’re not going to ruin this again!” In a single, fluid motion, she grabbed Belle, pulled a snub-nosed .38 from inside one of her tall boots, and buried the muzzle between Belle’s shoulder blades. “Walk!” the woman ordered.

31

The gun barrel felt warm against Belle’s back, a fact she found surprising. Metal, she told herself, is usually cold. Cutlery is chilly; the band of my wristwatch is cool when I strap it on each morning. Then she remembered that the gun had been hidden within the woman’s boot. It had been prewarmed to body temperature. This process of deduction filled the space of two strides toward the woods and the person hiding there. The next step and a half Belle devoted to queries such as: What did the woman mean by “ruin this again”? If she knows me, why don’t I remember her? What roles do Ricky and his boss play? If I break free, will they help me? Or are these three people working together?

It’s amazing how fear elongates time, and how it crystallizes reason.

“Dammit! I know you’re out there!” the woman shouted as she impelled Belle toward the screen of trees. “I’m going to shoot this one if you don’t make an appearance. You wouldn’t like that, would you? Little Miss Manners.”

Belle remained mute. She studied the thick