Dark Homecoming

by William Patterson

Genres: Thrillers; Psychological Thrillers; Suspense

Synopsis

William Patterson weaves a chilling novel of gothic suspense about the terror lurking within a beautiful mansion—and the consequences for a newcomer who dares to call it home… Liz Huntington met her husband David, scion of one of Palm Beach’s wealthiest families, just weeks ago. Their honeymoon was idyllic and Liz is blissfully happy—at first. But she feels increasingly uneasy in her lavish new home. Huntington House and its staff still seem to be in the thrall of David’s first wife. In fact, the housekeeper, Mrs. Hoffman, has made it clear that Liz can never measure up to the stunning, sophisticated, deceased, Dominique. Though Dominique drowned in a yachting accident, Liz still senses her spirit in the house. She hears unexplained noises…sees shadowy figures vanishing down the long corridors. The scent of Dominique’s favorite flowers fills the air. But Liz’s fears are more than insecurity. Two young women connected to Huntington House have already met terrible deaths. More will die—and soon. Because behind the house’s polished façade is an unimaginable secret and a love turned to twisted, unnatural obsession… Praise for William Patterson’s The Inn " The Conjuring meets The Shining in William Patterson's deliciously creepy thriller.  Fast-paced, horror-filled, clever and impossible-to-predict, this heart-pounding tale will leave you breathless." --Kevin O’Brien, New York Times bestselling author

Release date: January 26, 2016

Publisher: Pinnacle

Print pages: 528

Sample

Mrs. Hoffman had a face like a hockey mask. Hard, white, and plastic. She’d had so much cosmetic surgery that her eyes looked feline and her mouth had trouble making “O” sounds. Her cheeks were unnaturally round and shiny and her eyebrows never moved. Liz felt as if she were meeting a wax statue.

Only the eyeballs were animated. “Welcome to Huntington House,” Mrs. Hoffman said, looking Liz up and down like a Disney automaton.

Liz glanced away from the middle-aged housekeeper, murmuring a soft, polite, “Thank you.” She let her eyes take in the place she now called home, the fabled Huntington House. The floor was marble and the ceilings were very high, dripping with sparkling crystal chandeliers. A fireplace nearly the size of a garage stood at the far end of the room, and on the walls hung gilt-framed portraits of somber-looking forebears. Liz hoped that her own children, if she had any, would not inherit such dour genes from their father.

“Mr. Huntington wrote and told us all about you,” said Mrs. Hoffman. “We were all so very eager to meet his new bride.”

Liz turned her gaze to the assembly of chambermaids, housemen, cooks, and chauffeurs who had lined against the far wall of the drawing room for her inspection. For some reason they reminded her of the living deck of cards that Alice met in Wonderland. They all seemed flat and faceless, just a collection of spindly arms and legs. Liz offered a smile in their direction. She detected none coming from them in return.

“And where is Mr. Huntington?” Mrs. Hoffman inquired.

“He’s at the stables,” Liz replied. “When the car dropped us off out front, he told me to head up to the house while he went down to see his horses.”

“Of course,” Mrs. Hoffman said, showing slightly more teeth than before, which Liz assumed was the best she could manage for a smile. “How Mr. Huntington loves his horses. He always visits them first thing after a long trip away from home. He and his late wife rode every morning and every evening. Have you brought your jodhpurs?”

“I . . . I don’t ride,” Liz told her.

Mrs. Hoffman gave her a look that suggested that if she could have raised her eyebrows, they would have reached her hairline. “You don’t ride?” the housekeeper asked.

“No. David has promised to teach me.”

Mrs. Hoffman said nothing. She just stood there staring at her.

“I’d like to freshen up,” Liz said after several moments of uncomfortable silence. “Perhaps one of you would show me to my room.”

“Oh, but of course,” Mrs. Hoffman said. “You must be exhausted from your long trip.” She clapped her hands. “Jamison!”

A tall, reedy boy with freckles and wispy strawberry blond hair, dressed in a cream-colored shirt and matching trousers, stepped forward.

“Take Mrs. Huntington’s bags to her room,” the housekeeper instructed.

Jamison nodded and lifted the two small pieces of luggage that Liz had carried into the house. Mrs. Hoffman gestured to Liz to follow her up the stairs.

“I’ve prepared your suite, but since I wasn’t sure of your favorite flowers, I filled it with daisies,” the housekeeper told her as they began their climb, a few steps behind Jamison. “I trust they will be satisfactory.”

“Well, of course,” Liz said. “How very kind of you.”

“Daisies were Mrs. Huntington’s favorite.”

Liz thought she should remind the housekeeper that she was Mrs. Huntington now, but thought better of the idea. She was sure it was just an old habit. Mrs. Hoffman had served David’s late wife for many years. Liz was certain she didn’t mean any disrespect.

As she climbed the stairs, she still couldn’t fully believe she was here. Had it been just a month ago she’d met David? A month and a handful of days. He’d been sitting out there in the audience in the theater of the cruise ship, and their eyes had met across the footlights. In her sequined dancer’s costume, Liz had spotted him looking at her. At least, it seemed as if he was. As she’d tapped and shuffled her way through the carefully choreographed routine, Liz had kept glancing out at the tables, and sure enough, the man at the front table, seated alone, never took his eyes off her. Surely it was her imagination, Liz had told herself. But when David had introduced himself to her after the show, she’d realized her instincts had been right.

Two weeks later, at the end of the cruise, after several romantic dinners and long swims in crystalline blue waters, the captain of the ship had married them. Liz’s family, when she called with the news, was stunned. Her mother was still angry she’d been denied the chance to give Liz a big traditional wedding. But Liz didn’t want that. She just wanted David.

Their cruise-ship idyll had been followed by an even more idyllic honeymoon, hopping from Rio to Cancún to Miami Beach in David’s private jet. Liz had never imagined what being in love would feel like. She had thought she’d been in love before, but what she’d felt for that weasel Peter Mather, her college boyfriend, didn’t come close to what she felt for David. Certainly nothing had prepared her for a man like David Huntington growing up in her working-class neighborhood in Trenton, New Jersey. David was thirteen years older than she was, thirty-five to her twenty-two. It was true, as her mother kept telling her, that there were still many things she didn’t know about her new husband. But from the moment Liz had felt his gaze on her from the audience, it had seemed that she had known David all her life.

She looked up as she reached the landing of the staircase. There, in front of her, gazing down the stairs, was an enormous portrait in a magnificent gilt frame of a beautiful, dark-haired woman dressed all in white.

The portrait was so large, so majestic, that for the slightest of moments it took Liz’s breath away.

Beside her, Mrs. Hoffman was smiling that strange, limited, plastic smile of hers. “Yes,” she said, looking up at the woman in white. “She was beautiful, wasn’t she?”

“That’s Mrs. Huntington?” Liz asked, aware that she’d just called her predecessor by the name she now rightly bore.

“Indeed. She was born Dominique DuBois. Even the name is lyrically beautiful, don’t you think?”

“Yes,” Liz said in a small voice, forcibly moving her eyes away from the portrait.

“Come along, dear,” Mrs. Hoffman said, gently nudging her to resume walking. “Your room is right down the hall.”

Liz noticed the glance Jamison gave to the housekeeper.

At the end of the hall, they turned in to a large, airy room looking out over the gardens. The windows were open and a soft spring breeze was tickling the sheer white curtains. The walls were painted a soft cream color and the wooden floor was polished to a high gloss. Comfortable chairs surrounded a sleek modern coffee table and a gigantic flat-screen television. A daybed was strewn with colorful pillows. Tall black vases filled with crisp white daisies stood on every table.

“How very lovely,” Liz said.

“The bathroom is off here,” Mrs. Hoffman said, opening a door at one end of the room and revealing the sparkling white tiles within. “And over here,” she continued, walking now across the room, her low-heeled black shoes making a hard tapping sound on the wooden floor, “is the bedroom.”

Liz followed her inside. A large bed on a white platform, draped in white satin from an enormous canopy, sat in the center of the room. Enormous windows allowed in a flood of light. And as in the outer room, black vases filled with daisies were everywhere.

“I’ll let you get settled and freshened up,” Mrs. Hoffman said. “Welcome once again to Huntington House.”

“Thank you so much,” Liz said, standing in the middle of the room, feeling a little out of place in such grandeur.

“Jamison,” the housekeeper called over to the young man. “Just place Mrs. Huntington’s bag there and then go back downstairs and bring up any other luggage that Mr. Huntington has brought. And don’t dawdle! I am sure they are both exhausted.”

With that, Liz was left alone in her room.

It was like a dream.

She gazed around at all the magnificence. This was her room. It boggled the imagination. It had all happened so fast—and such impetuousness wasn’t like Liz. Everyone who knew her had been stunned. Her mother was furious that she’d never get to host a reception for her at the local VFW hall. Liz’s best friend, Nicki, another dancer on the cruise ship, had questioned her sanity for marrying a man she’d known for just two weeks. But when Nicki had learned how rich David was—that he was the scion of the wealthy Huntington family of New York and Palm Beach, Florida—she’d changed her tune. “What a life he can give you, girlfriend,” Nicki had said, all wide eyes and excitement.

But it hadn’t been David’s wealth that had impressed Liz. For the first week she’d had no clue that he had any money. He was a widower, he told her. He was taking a cruise by himself to heal. At first Liz worried that she was a rebound lover, that David was fixating on her only because he was heartbroken over the loss of his wife. But he’d assured her that was not the case, that he loved Liz for herself, and that she was, in fact, very different from Dominique—precisely the reason he loved her, he said.

Liz stood at the window looking down at the gardens, the well-tended topiary and sparkling fountains. Very different from Dominique. Having now seen how beautiful, how glamorous, David’s late wife was, Liz wasn’t sure that was much of a compliment.

She stole a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She was pretty, but her hair was a light, indistinct brown compared to the luxurious ebony tresses cascading over Dominique’s shoulders in her portrait. Liz had a trim, lean, dancer’s body, with shapely legs, but her small breasts and hips could hardly match the voluptuous curves of David’s first wife. How could a wren compare to a raven?

“But he told me I was beautiful,” Liz whispered to herself, her eyes still on her reflection. “He told me I was exactly what he wanted in a relationship.”

David never spoke much about Dominique. He would say only that they had been happy once. Her death had been sudden and tragic—a boating accident, a terrible, unexpected event. Dominique had drowned. No one was to blame. A sudden storm had come up, and Dominique, out on the yacht on her own, without a captain, had been unable to steer the boat to safety. But whenever Liz asked for more details, her husband would grow silent. He told her he preferred not to talk about the past. He wanted to concentrate on the future. Their future.

Looking around the room, Liz imagined that their future would be quite bright. This house was big. Liz wasn’t used to having servants. It would all take some adjustment. She wasn’t sure she could ever get used to ordering people around.

But there was one request she’d make of the staff: the removal of the portrait of Dominique from the stairway landing.

Liz wouldn’t ask right away. It might sound crass. But really, how could they start their marriage walking past the towering presence of David’s dead wife every day?

Suddenly the room was suffused with the most glorious fragrance. Liz couldn’t determine what it was at first, but then it struck her. Gardenias. That’s what it was. Liz inhaled deeply. There must be gardenias growing in the garden below. How wonderful to wake up every morning smelling gardenias! She thought she’d enjoy living at Huntington House very much.

Liz looked over as Jamison and another young man, in an identical cream-colored uniform, entered the room carrying the luggage Liz and David had brought back from their honeymoon. Mrs. Hoffman followed, observing their actions with a keen eye. She looked up and spotted Liz.

“I’m sorry if we disturbed you, Mrs. Huntington,” the housekeeper said.

“Not at all. I was just admiring the beautiful gardens.”

Mrs. Hoffman’s hard mask shifted ever so slightly—her approximation of a smile. “Yes, they are magnificent, aren’t they?” She took a few steps toward Liz. “Do you have a green thumb?”

“I’m afraid not,” Liz admitted. “I can barely keep a houseplant alive.”

“I see.” Mrs. Hoffman’s face returned to its former hardness. “Well, we have a very talented groundskeeper. He keeps the gardens full of color all year long.”

“Well, the gardenias smell so lovely,” Liz said. “I can hardly wait to see them. I was just standing here and caught a whiff and it was just unbelievably beautiful.”

Mrs. Hoffman looked at her. “Oh, it wouldn’t have been gardenias that you smelled, ma’am.”

“No? But I was sure—”

“At one time, we did indeed have many beautiful gardenia shrubs lining the house. But you see, Mr. Huntington had them all pulled out by their roots.”

“Why would he do that?”

Mrs. Hoffman offered her a tight smile. “Well, it was just that . . . gardenia was Mrs. Huntington’s signature scent. She always wore it. And I suppose the fragrance of the shrubs reminded Mr. Huntington of his wife, and so, in his grief, he had them all torn out.”

Liz just looked at her, completely at a loss for what to say.

“Are you finished with the bags?” Mrs. Hoffman was asking, moving away from Liz to speak to Jamison.

“Just one more downstairs,” the young man replied. “I’ll go get it.”

“Well, be quick about it. We need to stop disturbing Mrs. Huntington. I’m sure she wants to rest after her flight.”

Jamison hurried out of the room with his companion.

The housekeeper turned to look back at Liz, who was still in the doorway, still unable to speak.

“I saw Mr. Huntington in the yard and he said to tell you he’d be up momentarily.”

“Thank you,” Liz managed to say.

“Good day, Mrs. Huntington,” Mrs. Hoffman said, giving Liz a quick nod and then striding out the door, her heels clicking against the wood as she departed.

It must have been something else that I smelled.

Liz turned and looked back out the window.

The fragrance was gone.

Gardenia was Mrs. Huntington’s signature scent. I suppose the fragrance of the shrubs reminded Mr. Huntington of his wife, and so, in his grief, he had them all torn out.

Liz wished David would get here quickly. She realized that these few minutes in the house had been the only time so far in their sixteen-day marriage that they’d been out of each other’s sight. She certainly didn’t want to become too dependent on her husband. But all of a sudden Liz was feeling very much alone, and very, very much out of place. And she knew the moment that David came bounding through the door all those feelings would evaporate.

She heard a sound and turned in anticipation.

“David?”

But it was just Jamison, with the last of the bags.

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” he said. “Only me.” Liz noticed he had a very thick Southern accent, probably from Georgia or South Carolina.

“Thank you, Jamison. Did you see my husband downstairs?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the servant told her. “He’s speaking with Mrs. Hoffman.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Liz turned to start unpacking when she realized that Jamison was still standing there. She looked back at him. What was he waiting for? Ridiculously, she thought he might be waiting for a tip—like the bellboys who carried luggage up the staterooms on the cruise ship. But one didn’t tip one’s own staff.

“Is there something else, Jamison?” Liz asked.

“Ma’am . . .” The young man’s voice was tremulous. “I feel I need to . . .”

Liz realized he couldn’t get the words out.

“What’s the matter?” she asked him, reaching out and placing a hand on his shoulder. “Is everything all right?”

Still he struggled to speak.

“Go ahead,” Liz told him. “You can speak freely to me.”

“I need to warn you!” Jamison finally blurted out. “I couldn’t sleep if I didn’t!”

“What is it, Jamison?”

“She won’t tell you,” he said, “but I gotta.”

“Who’s she? Mrs. Hoffman?”

Jamison didn’t reply, just went on with a rush of words that seemed to surge up from his gut and tumble out of his mouth. “A girl was killed! And it was because she came in this room!”

“What are you talking about? What girl? Killed—how?”

Jamison seemed near tears. “She was a pretty girl, like you, Mrs. Huntington. Young and pretty! And she killed her!”

“Who killed her?”

“Mrs. Huntington!”

Liz didn’t understand what he was trying to say.

“Dominique killed her!” Jamison cried, and Liz saw the utter terror that filled the young man’s eyes.

“But Dominique is dead,” Liz said, her own voice sounding miles away to her ears.

“Yes, she is,” Jamison acknowledged. “But she’s still here. And she’ll kill you, too, Mrs. Huntington, just like she killed that poor girl!”

“Welcome home, Mr. Huntington,” the young housemaid said.

The master of the house paused on his way up the stairs. He looked around at the young woman standing off to the side, her cream-colored maid’s uniform crisp and pressed.

“Well, hello, Rita,” Mr. Huntington replied, and then he smiled.

Rita melted. That smile of his had a way of erasing all the pain and the anger. David was so handsome. So tall and broad-shouldered. And that smile of his . . . with his bright white teeth and full lips and dimples in his cheeks . . . Rita wanted to cry.

“I’m glad you’ve come back,” she managed to say, her throat tight with emotion.

Mr. Huntington took a step closer to her. “Are you, Rita? Are you truly?”

She nodded, dropping her eyes to the floor. She couldn’t meet his gaze.

“I’m glad to hear that,” he told her. “I hope we can be good friends.”

“Of course,” Rita told him.

David lifted her chin with his hand so that she had to look at him.

“You were very special to me at a very difficult time, Rita,” he told her. “I hope you realize how special you were, and how I’ll always treasure our times together.”

She nodded.

“But you do understand that now things will have to be different,” David said.

“Of course,” Rita answered.

“My wife . . . she’s, well, she’s not used to all the fuss we make around here. You know, with the dinner parties and the horse shows and the servants in and out of her room. She didn’t grow up with a staff of people in her house. So she’ll need friends here, friends who can help her get used to the way we live.” He paused. “I hope you’ll be a friend to her, Rita.”

“Of course,” she told him.

“Thank you, Rita.” He smiled again and moved away from here.

But she was lying.

She wasn’t going to be a friend to his wife.

Rita hated the new Mrs. Huntington. Just as she’d hated the old Mrs. Huntington.

She watched David climb the stairs. Pulling her eyes away from him, Rita headed back toward the kitchen. Mrs. Hoffman was probably lurking around as usual, ready to reprimand her. Mrs. Hoffman didn’t like the staff fraternizing with Mr. Huntington.

If she only knew.

Rita figured that the domineering head housekeeper probably suspected that she’d had an affair with David. Very little ever got past Mrs. Hoffman.

He loves me still, Rita thought. He couldn’t say it, but I could see it in his eyes.

Once again she felt his rough hands on her breasts, his hot lips on her neck . . .

Lost in her memories, Rita wandered into the kitchen. The place was a vast cavern of shiny chrome and marble, with three ovens and five sinks and a refrigerator large enough to store rations for an army. Rita didn’t notice the tall black woman standing at the marble countertop and staring at her from across the room.

“I saw you talking to him again.”

Rita looked up. The tall woman spoke in a heavy Haitian accent, and the sound of her lyrical voice startled Rita out of her reverie.

“So what?” Rita snapped. “I just welcomed him home.”

The Haitian woman folded her arms across her chest. “You can’t fool Variola. I know what went on between you two.”

Rita smiled. “Oh, that’s right. I forgot that you’re a witch.”

The Haitian woman shook her head. “I can see things. And that way is not safe for you, Margarita Cansino.”

“I appreciate the warning, Variola,” Rita told her, gathering the dishes to set the table for dinner. “But I think I can take care of myself.”

“Audra thought that, too.”

Rita just laughed. “What does Audra have to do with any of this?’

“She was one of his favorites as well.”

Rita spun at her, nearly dropping the dishes from her hands. “That’s a lie! That’s ridiculous gossip spread by people who don’t know what they’re talking about! David barely knew who Audra was!”

Variola just shrugged. She returned to what she had been doing when Rita came into the room, chopping green peppers. “Just heed my advice,” she told Rita again. “I don’t like to see trouble in this house.”

The young housemaid made no further reply. No one was going to tell her what to do. Not Variola. Not Mrs. Hoffman. And certainly not that silly little wife David had just brought home.

Rita carried the dishes out to the dining room.

Friends! David wanted her to be friends with his wife! Rita laughed.

She’d show the new Mrs. Huntington just how good a friend she could be.

Liz was staring out the window into the garden, watching the way the fronds of the palm trees that lined the estate swayed gently in the breeze, when she heard the door close behind her. She spun around.

“David!” she cried, as if she hadn’t seen her husband for weeks instead of a matter of minutes.

“Darling,” he said, flashing her that smile of his, the one that had first ensnared her while he’d sat out in the audience, watching her dance. “How do you like the house?”

“It’s more than I could possibly have imagined,” Liz replied, rushing to him, putting her arms around him and resting her head on his chest.

David stroked her hair. “Did Mrs. Hoffman show you around at all?”

“No, she just brought me here.” Liz looked up at him. She tried to hide the unease she was feeling, but David seemed to spot something in her eyes. Her husband’s smile disappeared.

“Is it satisfactory?” he asked. “If not, we can always take a different room . . .”

Jamison’s words were still resounding in her mind. She was unsure how much she should say to David right away. So she just asked, “Is there anything that should disqualify this room?”

“This is the most beautiful room in the house. I mean, look at the view of the gardens! It’s got the largest closets and the largest sitting area, and of course the bathroom is pretty luxurious.”

“Yes,” Liz agreed. “Two sunken tubs.” She pressed further. “But—there’s nothing here that disturbs you?”

“Do you mean the fact that it was my first wife’s room?”

Liz nodded, watching his eyes.

“It’s your room now, Liz,” he said, embracing her. “Our room.”

Liz remembered something that David had said to her while they were still on the cruise ship. He didn’t do well with people who complained. It was the part about being a boss that bothered him the most—putting up with people who constantly bitched and moaned. She knew she’d eventually have to tell David about what Jamison had just told her, but she couldn’t do it yet, not at this moment. He had been so anxious for Liz to see the house—and to love it—that she couldn’t start blathering right off the bat about what some servant boy had told her.

She tightened her arms around her husband. “So long as I’m with you,” she said, “I’m satisfied.”

David leaned down toward her. They kissed. Her husband’s kiss still had the power to make Liz feel dizzy.

Gently he broke their embrace. “Well, you must see the rest of the house. It’s quite the place, really. Built in the 1920s, during Prohibition. There are still all sorts of sliding panels all over the house where my great-grandfather hid his liquor.”

“Sounds as if there’s a lot of history here.”

“There sure is. And a lot of staff. Did you meet them?”

Liz laughed, trying to appear merrier than she felt. “Mrs. Hoffman had them all lined up at attention waiting for me when I came in,” she told him. “It was as if I were Queen Elizabeth reviewing the troops.”

The smile bloomed on David’s face again. “In this house, you are a queen.”

“Oh, David, I’m not used to all of this. I mean, the idea that some maid is going to come in and make my bed every day . . .”

“It will free you up to do other things,” David told her.

“Like what, David?” Liz frowned. “I mean, all I know how to do is dance . . .”

This was one of the things that had worried Liz. Would she be happy being a stay-at-home wife? She was giving up her dream of being a dancer by marrying David. She hadn’t even given her career a chance to take off: her gig on the cruise ship had been her first job out of college. Liz had jumped at the opportunity to see the world, but also knew the experience would look good on her résumé. She’d expected that when she finished the cruise she’d be auditioning in New York, or, failing that, in Orlando for a gig at Disney World. She was young. She had plenty of time to get to the top. Liz’s dream, ever since she was a kid, was to sing and dance in a Broadway musical.

Now she was a Palm Beach society lady. At twenty-two! Would she be happy?

She was sure she’d be happy as David’s wife—she loved him more than she ever thought it was possible for a woman to love a man—but would she get bored when he was off on business trips or overseeing his various projects? David’s family ran a vast number of businesses, mostly in the financial sector, all over the globe. David’s father was president of Huntington Enterprises, and more and more he was handing David control, grooming him for eventually taking over the business from him. Liz wasn’t quite sure what David actually did, even though he’d tried explaining it to her; she’d never understood numbers and money very well. All she knew was that his work would take David away from home for chunks of time, sometimes for up to three weeks at a time.

And when he was gone, was she going to be bored wandering around this big, glamorous, sparkling clean house?

David seemed to be reading her mind. “You know, babe, I’ve been giving this some thought. There’s no reason you need to give up dancing just because you’re my wife.”

“You want me to audition for a show?”

“No. I want you to audition other people.”

Liz didn’t follow.

David smiled. “Why not open your own dancing school? Believe me, some of the snooty Palm Beach ladies would love to send their children to be instructed by a gen-u-wine high-stepper with a college degree.”

“I’m not sure how impressed they’ll be by the College of New Jersey.”

“It’s a great school.”

“Yes, it is, but—I mean, me, teach dance to kids?’

“And some of those ladies might be interested in an adult class as well.”

Liz didn’t know what to say. It hadn’t been so long ago that she was the student in a dance class. She didn’t think she had enough experience yet to teach . . .

“I . . . I don’t know,” she said.

“Well, think about it, sweetheart. We could get you a studio in town.”

He moved into the bathroom, turning on the faucet at the sink and lathering up his hands with soap. He continued talking with Liz as he did so, telling her about his horses and what the stable hands had reported and what horse shows were coming up . . .

But, in fact, Liz wasn’t listening. She had gone back to ruminating over what Jamison had told her.

A girl was killed! And it was because she came in this room!

And Dominique had killed her.

She’s still here. And she’ll kill you, too!

That was absolute craziness.

The boy must be mentally ill. That was the only explanation Liz could think of. Or deliberately trying to scare her for some reason. Why would he say such a thing? That a dead woman—her husband’s dead first wife—would kill her?

Liz was glad she hadn’t blurted out what had the boy had told her the moment David walked into the room. She would have looked hysterical. But she couldn’t stay quiet much longer. If this Jamison kid was unbalanced, or deliberately trying to cause trouble for a reason, Liz had an obligation to let David know.

He was coming out of the bathroom now, drying his hands.

“David,” Liz said, trying to appear nonchalant, “there was one thing about this room I wanted to mention . . .”

“What’s that?” David asked.

“Well, it’s ridiculous, I’m sure, but . . .”

David’s face had grown serious. “Tell me, Liz.”

“It’s just that one of the boys who brought up our bags seemed a little . . . unusual. Do you know him? His name is Jamison?”

“I might, sweetheart. Probably by face, I would. I don’t remember all the staff’s names.” He smiled, a little uncomfortably. “Mrs. Hoffman and Dominique always handled the hiring and supervision of staff. And if I did know his name once, I no doubt have forgotten it now.” He looked out the window in a sort of wistful gaze. “I was away from this house an awfully long time, you know.”

Liz did know. Soon after his wife’s death, David had left Palm Beach. That was a little over a year ago now. He had thrown himself into his work, traveling the world on behalf of t