Sneaky Pete hissed right back at her. “It’s called leverage. I’m sure the Pinkertons would rather take a man like Loughlin MacSherry into custody over the two of us, as we’re only guilty of breaking into a castle, scaring a few people, and looking through some papers, as well as trying to find a copy of a treasure map. None of which are exactly crimes we’d spend much time for in jail.”
“Why were you interested in finding a copy of that map?” Drusilla asked.
Fenna shot a look of clear warning to Pete before smiling Drusilla’s way a second later. “We weren’t actually looking for the map. I’m sure Pete simply meant to say we were trying to find more of Ottilie’s journals.”
“Sure enough that’s what I meant to say,” Pete said with a bob of his head. “And just so everyone knows, it wasn’t a crime for my sister to help herself to Ottilie’s journals since Ottilie had already given her a few of them to use for research.”
Fenna settled another glare on Pete. “We weren’t going to let anyone know we’re brother and sister.”
“It’s not a crime for us to be related,” Pete shot back. “Nor was it much of a crime for us to continue to haunt the castle in the hopes that, when Ottilie was declared dead, whoever her heirs were would hear about the hauntings and not hesitate to take Loughlin MacSherry’s money and head directly out oftown. Questionable behavior like that is known as criminal mischief, and given all the concerning crimes that happen in Chicago these days, criminal mischief doesn’t get a person more than a slap on the wrist.”
“Unless that criminal mischief might lead to a felony offense if something you and your sister did led to the death of my aunt,” Drusilla said as she narrowed her eyes on Fenna. “I’m now wondering why you and your brother seemed so certain Ottilie was dead, which might have been exactly why you started asking Mr. Baumgartner questions and perhaps also had you searching for a copy of that treasure map. If I’m guessing correctly, you might have wanted to start looking for that treasure on your own—especially if you had reason to believe Ottilie was no longer capable of looking for it herself.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Fenna snapped. “Ottilie was always running off chasing treasure, but she never found anything.”
“But I doubt she’d ever been sent treasure maps that had been the property of a pirate before, something you mentioned while you and I were speaking at the church.”
Drusilla turned her attention to Agent Pearson. “Do you think there might be enough circumstantial evidence to take Fenna and Sneaky Pete in to question them further about their part in my aunt’s disappearance?”
Agent Pearson inclined his head. “Given that they’ve admitted they were working for this Loughlin MacSherry, it’s not a stretch to think he would have asked them to make arrangements to have your aunt disappear once she left on her trip. The question of the hour would be exactly how they made that happen.”
“That almost sounds as if you’re accusing Pete and me of Ottilie’s ... murder,” Fenna all but sputtered.
“Since you and your brother obviously had some malicious intent in mind toward Ottilie Merriweather, and she has, unfortunately, disappeared, I can guarantee a judge will agree tohave you held for attempted murder until we can get to the bottom of exactly what happened to Ottilie,” Agent Pearson said.
“There is absolutely no reason to hold me or my brother as I have no qualms telling you that, if you want answers, all you need to do is track down Captain Harvey’s men,” Fenna rushed to say, obviously not as reluctant to provide some answers now that she might be facing a murder charge. “If anyone knows what happened to Ottilie, they do because MacSherry paid them a very handsome fee to take care of his Ottilie problem, although ...” She shot a glance to Pete, paired with the barest hint of a nod. “Know that Pete and I don’t know any of the details, nor did we have anything to do with her disappearance.”
Agent Pearson blinked before he cleared his throat. “You can be certain we’ll be tracking Captain Harvey’s crew down, but know this, if Ottilie Merriweatherisdead, you and your brother will be considered accomplices in her death and will, of course, be charged accordingly.”
Forty-One
Rhenick knew it was certainly safe to say that the two days that had passed since Sanford, Fenna, and Sneaky Pete had been taken into custody, had been on the exceptionally busy side.
After everyone had returned to Chicago, and then taken well-deserved naps as sleep had been in short supply ever since Sneaky Pete had been discovered strolling about in his suit of armor, there’d been absolutely no opportunity to speak with Drusilla in private.
In all honesty, Rhenick wasn’t exactly certain how to broach what he wanted to speak with her about as she had been rather adamant regarding her aversion to the topic of matrimony. However, given that they’d shared a kiss, and she hadn’t seemed opposed to his kiss, it seemed as if some sort of private talk needed to be held between them.
The question of the hour was how he was going to approach the talk because his sisters all had differing opinions on the subject.
Tilda believed he should just be direct and ask Drusilla if her opinion of matrimony had changed since they’d kissed, while Grace and Coraline thought he should completely startfrom scratch and take to properly courting Drusilla before even uttering the wordmarriagein her presence.
Eloise, on the other hand, believed he should simply drop to one knee at his earliest convenience, proclaim himself madly in love with Drusilla, and hope for the best, which, frankly, he thought was the suggestion that might have the most potential.
Blinking out of his thoughts when he realized Sweet Pea had stopped moving, undoubtedly because they’d reached their destination, Rhenick stepped from the two-person buggy he’d chosen to bring out today and handed the reins to a groom waiting outside the Palmer House.
After the groom assured him that Sweet Pea would be more than adequately attended to, Rhenick walked into the hotel, taking a second to appreciate the grand lobby that sported numerous crystal chandeliers and fresco paintings on the ceiling before he headed across the marble floor and toward the dining room.
A smile curved his lips as he walked into that room and his gaze immediately settled on Drusilla, who was sitting at a table with not only Irma, Annaliese, and Seraphina, but his mother and four sisters, as well.
He strode across the room, nodding to Mrs. Marshall Field and Mrs. Potter Palmer, before he set his sights on his mother, who was dressed almost exactly like Mrs. Palmer, which left him wondering if Irma had been helping his mother with her wardrobe selections of late.
After reaching his mother’s side, he bent over and kissed her cheek, sent his sisters a smile, nodded to Seraphina, Annaliese, and Irma, then moved to stand beside where Drusilla was sitting, his smile widening when she held out her hand to him, which he dutifully took hold of and kissed.
It was rather encouraging when her cheeks turned a little pink.
“We were thinking you might have decided not to join us,” she said as he sat down in the chair beside her, unable to help but wonder if Drusilla had been responsible for where he was sitting, and if so, if that might mean he really should consider Eloise’s option of simply declaring his intentions and seeing what happened. If she wasn’t opposed to sitting beside him, perhaps she wouldn’t be completely opposed to the idea of marriage to him, or at the very least, opposed to a formal courtship where they could really get down to becoming well-acquainted with each other.
“May I assume something troubling has happened again since your brow is furrowing in a rather telling fashion?” she asked.
