The story was short and all too familiar. Louisa had come from money, but had fallen in love with a man of science and put both money and artistic talents to work in his service.
Eventually, though, Halder’s bitterness was too much even for Louisa, and she fell in love with another man. “Saul, his name was. Saul Gregor. Bit of a drifter, but he’d come into town a year or so earlier, and took one look at Louisa and she took one look at him and they were in love like a storybook. I’m not saying she did anything wrong,” Jackson said. “Don’t think that for a moment. She was a real good woman and a friend of Rose’s, and Halder’s… well, you know Halder. All she really wanted was somebody who’d love her back, and here Saul thought she’d hung the moon and the stars.”
“So she ran away with him?”
“Tried to.” Jackson shook his head again. I could sense genuine regret behind the words. “She snuck out one night, without much more than the clothes on her back, and met up with Saul. They’d planned to run, of course. Only somebody tipped Halder off and Halder was waiting for ’em both with a rifle. I don’t say he meant to use it, but Saul got between the two of ’em and Halder fired on him. Saul took a bullet and yelled at Louisa to run, he’d catch up, so she did. Only he didn’t ever catch up.” He sighed. “Rose saw the whole damn thing. That’s why she doesn’t want to talk about it.”
I swallowed. This was more of a tragedy than I’d expected. Halder’s rages had alarmed me, but it had never occurred to me that he might be a killer. “And he didn’t get into any trouble with the law? No one arrested him?”
Jackson snorted. “Feeling ’mongst a lot of people in these parts was that Halder’d been within his rights to shoot a manrunning off with his wife. So the law was real careful not to ask any questions that would lead to answers they didn’t want to hear. Saul never even got a headstone in the churchyard.”
“What happened to Louisa?”
“She was brokenhearted and wanted to go back to find Saul, but I’m given to understand that some cooler heads among the womenfolk convinced her that would be a very bad idea.” Jackson wouldn’t meet my eyes, and I suspected that he knew more than he was saying. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a possum to burn.”
I let him pass. I had wrung as much information from him as I was going to get. Much more and I’d be going up against Rose Kent, which was the last thing I wanted to do.
Was it true? I didn’t think Jackson would lie to me, but he’d certainly felt no qualms in spinning me a tale about blood thieves. I wouldn’t put it past him to have embroidered a few details here and there, but which ones?
I ran a finger slowly over a page of the sketchbook, one with the unnamed man’s face on it. Saul, the doomed lover. Though if he was dead and Louisa was still alive, I wondered, why did the studio feel so much like she was haunting it?
CHAPTER 11
“Dr. Halder?”
I was pleased with how light and calm my voice was. It was smooth and professional and there was no way that he could guess the questions that beat against the walls of my skull.Did you really get away with murder?
There was no answer for that question, but I had another, more immediate one. One that Halder was uniquely equipped to answer.
“Eh? Oh, it’s you, Wilson.” Halder sat back in his chair. Smiley slid past my ankles and circled the desk, clearly plotting what stack of paper to knock over first.
“I had a question, Doctor. A possum tried to get into my room last night.”
“What?” He turned toward me, his eyebrows drawing low. “A possum? What are you talking about?”
“It was trying to break through the glass,” I said. “I know that it sounds bizarre. It was very strange behavior for a possum. But this morning, when Jackson collected the body, he found three…” I took a deep breath. “… three deflated warbles. From botflies.”
“It happens,” he said gruffly, swinging back to his papers.
“I know it does. What I wanted to know was if it was possible that having two botflies like that on its head might have affected its behavior. Driven it to madness, like rabies.”
This time Halder stared at me for quite a long time. My gut began to clench tighter as the seconds ticked by. Had I somehowoffended him? He was so protective of his notes, had I somehow guessed at something that he thought was a secret?
“I don’t…” he began, and then stopped. “That would certainly be unusual.” He pinched the bridge of his nose tightly. “Describe its behavior to me again. Describe itexactly.”
I obeyed. When I reached the part about it leaping at the doorknob, he muttered something to himself, then cut me off. “Where is the body now?”
“Err… Jackson was going to burn it.”
For a moment I thought there might be another eruption of temper. His face flushed dark red that would have required multiple layers of crimson to capture. But instead of yelling, he leapt to his feet and sprinted out the door at a speed I would never have guessed him capable of, shouting for Jackson.
I followed, more than a little surprised. It had been an odd question, but that odd? I truly hadn’t expected him to do anything but dismiss me out of hand.
Halder flung open the door and charged into the garden. “Jackson! Jackson, where are you?!”
We ran the man to earth at the far end of the vegetable garden. He had been building a fire of brush in the burn pit, and looked up in surprise at our shout. “Sir?”
“Give me that!” Halder shouted.
