“I can’t imagine her hurt,” Kate said.
“I heard later that her fancy fiancé dropped her. If he wasn’t going to get to live in a fine house, he wanted nothing to do with her.”
“Poor Isabella,” Kate said.
“Did you see her later?” Jack asked.
Mrs. Thompson frowned. “I saw her at Nicky’s funeral. Oh but that was sad. Bertram had no one to leave the place to. He was broke and didn’t know what to do. I think he and Bella had been fightin
g again. She had...well, she’d had too much to drink and she was very angry. She said, ‘The wrong one drove the car. It was supposed to be Bertram.’ I guess she meant fate had made a mistake. She said she could have managed Nicky, but not Bertram.”
“Is that when she said she’d find some rich, gullible person to pay for it?” Jack’s anger was showing.
“Yes, it was.”
“What happened—?” Kate began, but stopped when the front door opened.
“I’m home. They had a sale on salmon so I got us some. Oh! We have company.”
“This is my daughter, Thelma.”
She was older but still pretty—but she didn’t look as friendly as her mother. “What’s going on here?”
Kate stood and introduced herself and Jack. “Mr. Howland died a few days ago and—”
Thelma gasped.
“I’m sorry,” Kate said. “He spoke very highly of you. Since you were on the way of our journey to Scotland, we thought we’d stop by and tell you in person.”
Kate and Jack held their breaths to see what the woman would say.
Her face softened as she put a bag on the table. “Mr. Howland. What a lovely man. He used to tease me that we should get married. He kept saying he’d buy Oxley Manor for me. After I left, I should have let him know where I was, but I was too afraid of her to give out that information.”
“Afraid of who?” Jack asked.
“Isabella, of course. She’s why I left. Mr. Howland and I heard her tell Mr. Bertie that he had to let her live there, that Oxley Manor was hers as much as his since they had the same mother. He shouted back that her mother was the maid and had nothing to do with him. He told her to get out and never come back. Then she said she’d own Oxley Manor no matter what she had to do to get it.
“When she left, she saw us standing there. Mr. Howland was laughing. He thought it was all a joke, especially since he was planning to buy Oxley. He said to Bella, ‘Maybe you can come clean for me. Like your mother did.’ Oh, but he could be arrogant! Very proud of himself, he was.”
“How did Bella react to that?” Kate asked.
Thelma’s face seemed to lose color. “In all my life I’ve never seen anyone look like that. Pure hatred. Made my hair stand on end. The next day I gave in my notice. I knew she would find a way to make my life hell so I got out. I couldn’t stand what went on there anyway.”
Jack said, “And you broke the elephant.”
Thelma didn’t seem to know what he was talking about. “Oh yes. There was an ornament in a case. I was so agitated that I knocked it to the ground and it broke. I used it as my excuse for leaving. I didn’t dare tell Mr. Howland the truth. I knew he’d laugh at me, and worse, he’d probably talk me into staying.” Suddenly, the memories seemed too much for her. “Mother and I have work to do.” It was a dismissal.
“Sure,” Jack said, and minutes later, he and Kate were in their rental car.
“She said she’d own Oxley Manor no matter what she had to do.”
“Think that includes killing her half brother? But Nicky got into the car instead?”
“At Nicky’s funeral, Bertram said one of them had killed his son, but he was drunk so no one paid any attention to him. Bella was there so he was probably including her in his accusation.”
“Whatever she had to do, she did buy it,” Jack said.
“With the money given to her by a woman who likes to help people,” Kate said. “Rich and gullible.”