Black Moonlight by Amy Patricia Meade Page A

There, in one of the empty stalls, lay the twisted body of the spiritualist. Splatters of deep crimson stained her stark white dress and matted the black hair of her chignon. A few feet from her body, in a small mound of hay, rested a steel horseshoe hammer, the head of which was covered in blood.
    Jackson kicked the stall divider. “Two people bludgeoned to death, and one of them right under our bloody noses! How did this happen? And how, Mr. Ashcroft, were you able to locate her so quickly?”
    “I had seen Cassandra outside when I went to check on Selina. She was wandering along the path behind the house; when I passed her, she mumbled something about needing fresh air in order to get in touch with her spirit guide, or something to that effect. When I came back to the house, I overheard Nettles asking Miller and George if they knew where Cassandra was. I assumed she was still outdoors communicating with the great beyond, so I looked in the most obvious places … and found her.”
    “When did you leave for Selina’s cottage?” Jackson asked.
    “Immediately after Nettles took Pru in for questioning. Why?”
    “Shortly after Nettles brought Pru to the study, she was taken to the hospital,” Marjorie explained.
    “Good lord,” Creighton exclaimed. “Is she ill?”
    “She may have accidentally overdosed on Seconal and Benzedrine.”
    “Seconal? That’s a sleeping pill isn’t it?”
    “She’s been on it for two years now, courtesy of your father and brother,” Marjorie replied.
    “Sounds just like them: if you can’t beat ’em, drug ’em into submission,” Creighton smirked. “And the Benzedrine?”
    “Meant to treat respiratory problems, but some women have been known to take them for their slenderizing effects.”
    “She got them from Griselda,” Creighton inferred.
    Marjorie nodded.
    “I hope she’s going to be all right.”
    “I suspect she’ll be fine,” Jackson opined.
    “Why do you say it like that?” Marjorie inquired.
    “Prudence Ashcroft’s departure to the hospital provided the killer with just the distraction he or she needed to strike again. The only evidence we have of the alleged overdose are a couple of pill bottles in her dress pocket.”
    “Are you implying Prudence faked the scene?”
    “I’m saying that Mrs. Ashcroft is a very impressionable young woman. It is not outside the realm of possibility for our killer to have planted the idea in her mind.”
    “But why kill Cassandra?” Nettles asked.
    “It’s apparent she knew something about the murder. The killer didn’t want her to talk.”
    “Given her background,” Creighton added, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she were using the information for blackmail.”
    “That would have required Cassandra to have been alone with the killer,” Jackson pointed out. “Tell me, how is Selina feeling?”
    “I don’t know,” Creighton answered. “That sedative your doctor gave her knocked her out cold. She was sound asleep the entire time I was there. Well, at least I think she was, I—”
    “Sound asleep, eh? Then Selina wouldn’t have noticed if you happened to sneak out and visit the stables,” Jackson posed.
    Marjorie’ eyes grew wide. This was the moment she had been dreading since the discovery of her father-in-law’s body.
    “Wait one minute, you think that I—?” Creighton couldn’t bring himself to say the words.
    “What I think is that you and I should go to headquarters,” Jackson stated firmly. “There’s a rumor that you stood to inherit your father’s estate.”
    Creighton looked away.
    “Ah, you knew about that? Well, I’m going to make a few phone calls to confirm the rumor and then afterwards, we’re going to have a long conversation regarding your actions last night and this morning.”
    “But you haven’t finished questioning everyone,” Marjorie pointed out. “There’s still George. And … and Selina when she wakes up.”
    “Nettles can handle those two on his own as well as