Read Decked with Folly for Free Online Page B

Madeline. “You must stay here with me, Madeline, until your husband has disposed of the body. I can’t have you traveling with such grisly cargo.”
    Madeline’s tinkling laugh rang out. “I assure you, dear Cecily, I have ridden with many a strange companion in my past, and compared to them, a dead body would be a decided improvement.”
    Cecily glanced at the doctor, who eyed his wife with faint disapproval. In all the years she had known Madeline, her friend had rarely spoken of her past and Cecily was under the impression she was the only one who knew the extent of it. She wondered if Madeline had shared all her secrets with her husband. Knowing Kevin as well as she did, she could imagine he would not have enjoyed learning the truth about his wife’s early years.
    “Cecily is right,” Kevin said sharply. “I would rather take care of this matter without your company.”
    Madeline bowed her head, though a flash of defiance lit up her face. “As you wish. I shall enjoy visiting with Cecily. As she says, it has been much too long.”
    “Then it’s settled.” Kevin pulled a pocket watch from his vest pocket and peered at it. “I shall return for my wife as soon as possible.”
    “Wait, Kevin.” Cecily raised a hand. “You haven’t yet told us your conclusions concerning Ian’s death.”
    “Ah . . . well, it seems quite obvious the man had consumed a vast amount of spirits. He reeked of it. I suspect his lungs are filled with water, but I’ll know more after my examination at the morgue. It appears, however, that he lost his way and stumbled into the pond, hitting his head in the fall. Unfortunately for him, he fell in head first, otherwise he would probably have survived.”
    “So it was an accidental drowning, then?”
    Kevin nodded. “That’s what I’m expecting to put in my report.”
    Cecily let out her breath. She hadn’t realized how worried she’d been until the doctor had settled her mind. It was a vast relief to know that for once she didn’t have to worry about a fiendish murderer lurking in the halls of the Pennyfoot at Christmastime.
    Kevin had barely reached the door when Madeline spoke, her voice strangely soft and low. “You might do well to examine more carefully the wound on the dead man’s head, my love.”
    Kevin paused, and without turning his head asked, “You know something, perhaps, that has escaped me?”
    Madeline smiled. “Perhaps.”
    Kevin appeared to think about it, then gave a brief shake of his head, and left the room.
    Madeline was silent until the door had closed behind both her husband and Baxter, then murmured, “For a doctor and a man of science, my husband can be remarkably obtuse.”
    Unsettled by the odd exchange between man and wife, Cecily felt concern once more niggling at her. “Why should he examine the wound? What exactly do you mean by that?”
    “I mean that all is not as it seems.”
    Alarmed now, Cecily watched as her friend’s face took on a look she knew well. Madeline’s eyes seemed to glaze over, and her features grew slack and void of expression. In a voice low and husky, she muttered, “Dark nights invite dark deeds. I see danger lurking above a house of carcasses. You must beware the hand you cannot see.”
    Cecily had seen many of Madeline’s trances, but rarely had she seen such apprehension in her friend’s face as she regained her senses.
    “Madeline! What is it that concerns you so?” Cecily rose and hurried over to her. “Tell me, what did you see?”
    Madeline blinked up at her. “I don’t know.” Her voice shook and her cheeks seemed to pale. “Blood. Everywhere. Dead bodies. Many of them.”
    Cecily put an arm about her friend’s shoulders. “It was just a vision, Madeline. You have had such visions before and nothing has come of them.”
    “They are a warning, Cecily. We should always heed the warning.”
    “Warning of what?”
    Madeline sighed, and shook her head so that her hair swung about her shoulders.