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interrupted. “I got caught unprepared. My fault.” The smile was long gone. “And I’m going to need your help.”
    “Of course.”
    “As the detectives clear my team for duty, I want to put them to work up here and in other key areas of the residence. We’re going to need all the eyes and ears we can get. I can only work with a skeleton crew at the moment; security personnel I can vouch for myself, but as soon as I get relief for them, I’m going to take it.”
    “What about the local police? Aren’t they willing to help out?”
    Carr frowned. “Their resources are limited, too.”
    “I thought they were bringing in a task force.”
    He started walking again, gesturing me to follow. “Did you see the news last night?”
    “Part of it.”
    “You heard about the bank robbery in Springfield?”
    “No . . .”
    “Five people shot.” His face was grim. “And the guy got away with less than ten thousand dollars. What a waste.” He shook his head. “Any task force we might have hoped for has been pulled away to handle that. We’re stuck with what we have. Between you and me, a little hamlet like Emberstowne doesn’t have the kind of police force you’d find in a big city because we don’t usually get big-city crime. The detectives assigned to us have probably never even investigated a murder before. Couple of robberies, some assaults, but nothing as big as this.”
    “Well, just let me know what you need,” I said.
    “Thanks.”
    We stopped outside Bennett’s study, which was cordoned off with bright yellow crime scene tape. There were two uniformed officers standing guard at the door; inside the restricted area, two evidence technicians were cataloging samples and taking pictures.
    “I thought this was supposed to be done last night.”
    Carr gave me an I-told-you-so shrug. “Yeah, but it took this long for them to get here from the state crime lab.”
    Two plainclothes armed men were down the hall, talking with another security guard. “Where’s the detective from last night?”
    “Which one?”
    “I didn’t get his name,” I said. “Fifty-ish maybe? Average height. Maybe a little paunch?”
    “You’ve just described half the people in here yesterday.” He grimaced. The long hours were obviously taking their toll on Carr. “Some of them are still here. Some of them went back to the station to sweat out that fat guy, Percy. You see what I mean? I haven’t been able to establish any sort of structure here. I don’t have any control over who’s coming or going.”
    “We’ve got a lot of priceless antiques here.”
    “Tell me something I don’t know.”
    I knew Carr would do his utmost to protect the mansion, its people, and its treasures so I decided to change the subject. “Did they find the letter yet?”
    “What letter?”
    Surprised the police hadn’t bothered to share this crucial piece of information with our head of security, I brought Carr up to date with regard to the threatening letters Marshfield had received. “I didn’t know anything about them until the most recent one arrived,” I said. “I opened it and took it to Abe. That’s when he told me he’d received several others before that one. He was taking the newest threat to show Bennett when he was killed.”
    Carr swore under his breath. “No,” he said, his disgust evident. “I don’t believe any letters were found on Abe’s body. But I will look into this.”
    “That’s the main reason I came up here this morning,” I said. “The detective I talked with said he had to wait until the evidence technicians cleared out.”
    Carr’s brow tightened. “Hmph.”
    I tilted my head toward the two plainclothes fellows down the hall. “I should probably go talk to them.”
    Cubbie called to Carr.
    “In a minute,” Carr said. Then to me: “You’re right. The local cops and the task force will need to talk with the entire staff. Even people who weren’t on-site yesterday. You’re going to have to make