“Miss Melville had this installed while her father was recovering in the hospital,” Mrs. Raskin explained as she slid open the metal gate and stepped into a car that was just big enough to accommodate a wheelchair and two other passengers. Robin followed.
The buttons for the elevator were in a row from top to bottom. Robin noticed that the buttons seemed lower on the panel than the buttons in most elevators. Mrs. Raskin saw where Robin was looking.
“Miss Melville had the buttons set lower than normal so Mr. Melville can reach them easily. The Stop/Alarm button is even with Mr. Melville’s eyes when he’s in his wheelchair so he canreach out and press it if there’s an emergency when he’s in the car.”
The button for the third floor was just under the Stop/Alarm button. Mrs. Raskin pushed it in and released it, but the elevator didn’t move. She looked at Robin.
“Please slide the gate closed or the elevator won’t start.”
Robin did as she was told, and the elevator rose slowly. The car had just passed the second floor when it jolted to an abrupt stop. Robin staggered backward and regained her balance just as the car started again.
“Sorry,” the housekeeper apologized. “The elevator does that between the second and third floor. I’ve kept after Mr. Melville to have it fixed, but he keeps putting it off. Someday the cables will snap, and the car will crash.”
The housekeeper had made her prediction in a matter-of-fact tone, and Robin vowed to take the stairs from now on.
Robin and the housekeeper got out on the third floor, and Mrs. Raskin led Robin down a carpeted hall. She opened a door three doors down from the staircase revealing a spacious bedroom with a four-poster bed and a large oak armoire.
“You’ll stay here, tonight. There’s an intercom you can use if you want anything. I’ll let Miss Nelly know you’ve arrived.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Raskin.”
As soon as the door closed behind the housekeeper, Robin walked over to a leaded glass window that looked out on the back of the estate. A flagstone patio separated the house from a lawn that ended at a sheer cliff. Robin knew that there was a valley beyond the cliff, but low-hanging clouds and sheets of rain hid it from view. A stiff wind was bowing the tops of the trees at the edge of the lawn. The sound it made reminded Robin of the callof a wolf, and she chided herself for having an overactive imagination.
Robin turned from the window and walked to the bed. She had worn a brown leather bomber jacket, jeans, and a sweater during the long ride. She opened her carry bag and laid a charcoal-gray business suit and white satin blouse on the bed before going into the bathroom.
Robin had just washed up and changed when there was a knock on her door. An attractive woman in her midthirties wearing jeans and a sky-blue, cable-knit sweater was standing in the hall. Her light red hair was cut short. She had green eyes, a turned-up nose, and a pale, freckled face. The woman was holding a tray with a sandwich and a cup of coffee, and she smiled at Robin.
“I’m Nelly Melville, Miss Lockwood. I thought you might like something to eat before you meet my father.”
“Please call me Robin, and that sandwich looks great.”
Nelly set down the tray on a table by the window, and Robin attacked the sandwich.
“How was your trip?” Nelly asked.
“Long, and I was scared to death driving up the mountain.”
Nelly laughed. “I doubt that someone who fought professionally would be scared of anything.”
Robin smiled. “So, you’ve been checking up on me.”
“Of course. You aren’t the only lawyer Dad asked me to vet, but you were certainly the most interesting. How did you fight on TV and go to law school at the same time? It sounds impossible.”
“The workload in law school did make it hard to train and spend time away in Vegas for the fights. Fortunately, I didn’t do both for long.”
“Oh, what happened?”
“During my first semester at Yale, there was a big pay-per-view card in Vegas. Mandy Kerrigan was supposed to fight Angelina Mendes in the co-main event. The winner was going to fight for the championship. Then, shortly before the fight, Mendes broke her ankle. Kerrigan was the number-two contender. I was ranked ninth in the weight class and I was on the card, so I was training. They asked me to step in so they wouldn’t have to cancel the fight. I was really excited, but my manager didn’t want me to go into the cage with Mandy. I wouldn’t listen.”
Robin smiled when she remembered what had happened once the bell rang.
“Kerrigan was way out of my league. She knocked me out in the first round and knocked some sense into me. I had a concussion and short-term memory loss, and I decided it was a lot less painful arguing with a professor who could beat your head in intellectually but wasn’t allowed to kick you in the head for real.”
Nelly laughed.
“Did you like studying at Oxford?” Robin asked.
“So, you checked me out too?”