The Other Lady Vanishes (Burning Cove #2)(57)

“Good point. Which is why bigamy is a surprisingly common crime. It usually comes to light only when someone dies and another spouse steps forward to claim an inheritance.”

“But I wasn’t dead. I had been declared mentally ill. There was no reason that the New York bankers who handle my father’s estate would question Conrad’s claim that he had married me. I told you, he’s the descendant of a very distinguished family. Why would they doubt his word?”

Jake nodded, thinking about it. “It was a risk, but one Massey and Gill were willing to take. And you haven’t dared to contact the people handling the estate, have you?”

“I’ve practiced all sorts of ways to try to explain what happened to me, but I’m terrified that they’ll think I really am crazy.”

“Even if a marriage license does exist, it’s entirely possible that it was forged,” Jake said. “It would be a fairly simple thing to do. I think you’re right; the most likely explanation is that there never was a marriage.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Because none of them—not Gill or Massey or Ormsby—have let on that you escaped.”

“Gill and Conrad have kept quiet about it,” Adelaide said. “There never was a risk that Ormsby would tell anyone about my escape. He’s dead.”

“How?”

“I saw him the night I left Rushbrook. Someone used the drug on him. He was hallucinating wildly. The killer deliberately frightened him so badly that he jumped out one of the windows in the laboratory at Rushbrook.”

“You saw the murderer?”

“I saw him twice that night,” Adelaide said. “The first time was when he chased Ormsby through the lab and again in the hallway a short time later. But I didn’t get a good look at him either time because he wore a surgical mask and a doctor’s coat and cap.”

Jake reached for his coffee mug. “You saw Ormsby go out that window?”

“Actually, I heard him go out the window. I was in his office in the lab at the time. I wanted to get my patient file before I left. I was afraid that Gill and the others could use it to convince a judge to send me back to Rushbrook.”

“Did you find the file?”

“No, because the killer chased Ormsby into the lab just as I was searching for the key to the file cabinet. After the murderer left, I dared not take the chance that he might come back. I ran.”

“You said you saw the man in the surgical mask again that night?”

“The second time I saw him he was just leaving the hallway where my room was located,” Adelaide said. “He had a syringe in his hand. I was the only patient housed in that particular corridor. I think he intended to kill me.”

“Sounds like it. No wonder you were so shaken by Madam Zolanda’s death. It looked too much like Dr. Ormsby’s death, didn’t it?”

Adelaide put her mug aside and folded her arms on the table. “It’s not just the fact that both appear to have been suicides. Remember that cut crystal perfume bottle stopper that you found under the liquor cabinet?”

“You know something about that, don’t you?”

“I told you that, in addition to Daydream, Ormsby and Gill were brewing up some illicit drugs in their laboratory. I’m not sure of the purpose of the drugs but I am certain that they were not legitimate medicines. Every couple of weeks Ormsby complained because he had to take time off from perfecting Daydream in order to make up a batch of the other drugs. He bottled the stuff in crystal perfume bottles that he stored in a velvet jewelry case. Usually, Gill stopped by the lab to pick up the bottles. But on the night I escaped, the killer, not Gill, took the drugs.”

“You’re sure the killer was not Gill?”

“Positive,” Adelaide said. “Gill is a short man. The killer in the surgical mask was tall.”

“You saw him take the perfume bottles?”

“Yes. I was hiding behind Ormsby’s desk at the time. I was terrified that he would find me. I had a couple of jars of chemicals that I planned to throw into his eyes if necessary.”

Jake swallowed the last of the coffee and put the mug down.

“That,” he said, “is one hell of a story.”

Adelaide closed her eyes as if absorbing a physical blow. When she raised her lashes and looked at him, he could see the fear she was struggling to control.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” she whispered. “I was afraid you wouldn’t. I’ve been lying low, living under a new name here in Burning Cove while I try to figure out what to do. I haven’t dared to go to the police because I’ve been afraid they would find out that I was an escapee from a lunatic asylum. The first thing they would do is contact my so-called husband.”

“Who would then call the head of the Rushbrook Sanitarium.”

“Yes.”

He got to his feet and rounded the end of the big table. Reaching down, he grasped Adelaide’s arms and hauled her gently out of the chair.

“One thing we need to get straight before we discuss anything else,” he said. “No one is going to take you away. No one is going to send you back to Rushbrook. No one is going to lock you up again. I will not allow it.”

“But what if Conrad really is my husband?”

“Then you and I will go to Reno and we will stay there for the necessary six weeks until you can file for divorce. Trust me, Conrad Massey won’t be a problem. A nuisance, maybe, but not a serious problem. Do we understand each other now?”